Nah, just kidding. There is no easy quiz. The first rule of the libertarian club is to fight about the definition. I’ve taken tests many times and failed, but I remain an associate and attend their seminars every year. Some of the brightest and most courageous minds I have ever known are libertarians.
Libertarians fit in everywhere and nowhere. To them, a person on the far left and one on the far right are the same people. Each extreme regards libertarians as ‘the other side.’ The label covers a broad spectrum of philosophical and political opinions but is at least valuable as a word to put on the invite.
The conference is in Grahamstown this year. I’m driving down in my ’69 Impala and taking passengers. Nobody will be required to wear seatbelts. Libertarians disdain unnecessary government rules and regulations and believe that individuals should be free to make decisions regarding their own bodies. “My body, my risk.” So, if people don’t want to wear seatbelts, I will leave them alone. You won’t harm me by not wearing a seatbelt. It is your personal peril. Drunk driving is a different argument: my behaviour might directly damage your well-being, so it is not allowed. I expect everything on the trip to be a discussion in this vein. Integrity is critical: you must behave the way you speak and think; that’s the general guideline.
The debate about seat belts is a moot point really because the car doesn’t have seat belts. Chit-chat about whether the wipers and indicators work every time are equally non-sequiturs. Thus, auditions for people wanting a lift will include whether they can reach out of the window with a long squeegee to wipe the windscreen at a low altitude. No smoking inside the car, because it is my private property and I said so, finish and klaar. I might allow you to take a drag on those long stretches through the Karoo while sitting outside the passenger window with your body. You can clear the insects off the windscreen while you are there. For an individualist, life is about choice and consent. Individual liberties outrank safety, including safety in numbers.
Or yes? Or No? Let’s go.
Parking tickets
Every year someone or something makes me reflect deeply on how to navigate life more rationally, freely and with more authenticity.
A speaker at the Golden Gate conference changed my thoughts about traffic laws. He regarded traffic signs as “mere suggestions” of how we should behave and that one should view traffic cops the same way as sharks in the ocean – part of the risk while enjoying one’s swim. I thought he was mad, but I realised he was just free. People often confuse the two. Being able to withstand the pressure to conform is a rare attribute. When he was arrested after a traffic incident he welcomed it as an opportunity to engage the magistrate. He explained that he was unhappy about the government’s penchant to interfere in matters where no harm had been done to a person, never mind the enormous costs associated with such unnecessary regulatory infractions. The magistrate let him go.
Past speakers have included the first organiser of this event, Frances Kendall, who started the tradition in 1985. In addition, the podium has welcomed Nobel prize nominees, leading journalists, scientists, philosophers, archaeologists, and people with the audacity to argue with a magistrate about the constitutionality of a parking ticket.
Ivo Vegter also spoke last year. He argued that the government’s COVID measures, specifically mandatory vaccinations, were justifiable and a good idea. The previous day, the keynote speaker, a prominent anti-lockdown figure, proved perhaps more prescient in his assessment of the situation. He posited that the government measures were not only ineffective but harmful – with a particular caution against the vaccines. It is precisely this type of polemic which makes these conferences worthwhile. You can say whatever you want – if you are prepared to face the consequences.
Ivo’s speech was excellent, but early in, he appeared to veer off his ready presentation and launched a much more personal attack on the keynote speaker. It dominated his hour-long presentation. Ivo is very good at this particular style of confrontation; rancorous, barbed, and subjective. To an audience member, he is very entertaining, like a gifappeltjie in Liewe Heksie. During the question session, commentators from the floor challenged Ivo’s grasp of statistics and science, but where people thought him most lacking was in it that it might have been slightly better if the man had been present during the verbal hit-piece. He had, after all, given Ivo a lift to the venue just the day before, and Ivo might have mentioned something. At the dinner afterwards, we asked Ivo about it, and he explained that he thought the man would still be there. Fair enough. Learning for next time, perhaps, is that, when you see the guy is not there, stick to your original agenda topic, maybe? I don’t think there will be a next time for Ivo at these events though. He recently shrugged off the libertarian label in a rather clumsy public display. If he was attending this year, we would have asked him about that, too.
Face-to-face
These face-to-face talks can last long into the night. One picks up valuable stompies about people this way. After a few beers, someone bummed a cigarette and he smoked it eagerly. I didn’t mind that the fumes blew in my face. I support people’s right to smoke: their body, their choice. But someone else joked it would have been nice if this same courtesy had been extended to others regarding the vaccine. How we laughed. I had empathy for the addict. Just that morning, he proudly announced that he had stopped smoking. I got up and applauded as I knew how hard it can be to quit.
That is the question then, isn’t it? To inhale or to puff? Perchance to wait to see which way the wind blows to gather whatever ovation one can get?
Of all the bad habits, conformation bias seems the toughest one to shake. The allure of being popular or trendy can be just too overwhelming.
Ivo will always be welcome, though.
I wonder who will make me go “hmm” this year? There will be speakers covering topics such as racism, alcoholism, and pornography. Any of these can make you very uncomfortable– which is always a bonus.
I suspect the road trip down might be the most memorable, though. The V8 grumbles in a thought-provoking way when I decelerate quickly, so anything can happen. If I am cursed with the blessing of a thunderstorm in that section between Colesberg and Cradock, I am curious to see how the plan with the squeegee will work out.
[For more information about this year’s October conference, contact Dittmar on 082-575-9778]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR
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