Week 3 post 2

  At face value, Libertarians have a unique disposition of the world. Some of the greatest allies to libertarianism prompted the fundamental values America bases its constitution and laws on. People such as John Locke and Thomas Jefferson created the nation many exist today. Though it is a democratic society, the founders of America held relatively libertarian ideals, raising the question of how libertarianism influenced America's foundation. Locke and Jefferson take a twist on libertarianism by placing sovereignty into the hands of the people. Their fundamental argument is that people are equal and invested with natural rights in the state of nature in which they live free from the governmental rule. In essence, they believe no person should have control over another and that any law created should render all people equal. However, They believed in the human right to property. When considering this, it is important to wonder if because Locke was an administrator of one of the 13 colonies, he might have been interested in justifying private property through enclosure without consent based on his objection to arbitrary rule. It seems that he respected individual rights at the surface level, but in a more well-rounded investigation, he was searching for a way to justify the enclosure and taking of land from natives. This focuses on a very eurocentric perception of land and rights and largely led to creating the America that exists today, and the genocide of native societies. 

 This brings us to the question of how the psychological disposition of Libertarians might modify their reasoning. Libertarian thinkers have historically been proud of their logical rather than emotional roots of ideology.  Libertarians are said to be those who think with logic.  Compared to self-identified liberals and conservatives, Libertarians showed more emphatic endorsement of individual liberty,  lower interdependence and social relatedness,  and a General opposition to forcing any particular moral code upon others.  However, these same people forced their moral code on Native Society, which completely contradicts their ideological beliefs of letting people exist as they desire. Due to this, libertarianism only seems to work in hypothetical. The whole of libertarianism is based on the fact that they are not emotional, but that is not necessarily good. Their moral-psychological profile endorses the principle of liberty, devalues many moral concerns that liberal or conservatives care for, which in the end leads to a dispositional lack of emotionality. However, what weight does their logic hold if it does not take into account emotional intelligence? This country was based around a traditionally male, libertarian, cognitive Style and has failed to assess society as a whole.  This primarily male cognitive Style does not consider the critical decision-making skills of emotional intelligence. It is no shock that because America was built by white men for white men, that it shows strong traces of male cognitive styles that dangerously lack empathy or consideration to society and people.  This means libertarianism is only applied in this country when it is convenient for white men in power. For this reason, it is dangerous to adhere to these ideals that only appeal to white men when America is so diverse.