# Libertarianism seems to work only in a society made of intelligent and educated people.

- Link: https://www.andreidraganescu.info/2016/05/16/libertarianism-seems-to-work-only-in-a-society-made-of-intelligent-and-educated-people/
- Published: 2016-05-16T08:26:10+03:00
- Author: Andrei Draganescu

The reason most of the rule mazes exist is the same exact reason for which there
are [613 commandments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/613_commandments) in the old
testament: dumb uneducated hordes.

It might sound like shit to hear one thinking with sweeping generalizations about
society and call people dumb and uneducated. But, allow my transgression, for illustration
purposes, the truth is people in general do not think very far into the future. 
That is why rules start to appear on top of the existing rules, they bring the future(
a.k.a consequences) closer. For example, in case of driving under the influence,
it is easier to foresee that a random police will run a breath test on you, than
to foresee the complexity of your path home, or to calculate the probability of 
killing or hurting someone.

The less rules you have in place, the more people ought to be trusted with self 
governance. The problem is people in general are unreliable. Think of the overused
[Stanford prison experiment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment)
which, by all means, could mean nothing, but, if it does mean anything, it is that
people require enforced rules to function in structured groups, because the only
thing that allowed that violent path to unfold was _the clearly stated lack of repercussions
for anything that might occur in the experiment_.

Education is not enough in a society to allow for less laws. Education by itself
helps the individual only in part. Experience too is crucial, people make different
things of their education, according to their direct experience. That is why intelligence,
in the end is the key element: to transform your education and experience to the
best possible outcome, one requires intelligence. It appears that, indeed, less 
rules and simpler mazes are a good aim but assuming by default that billions of 
people are ready for a simple body of laws ignores human history and a million other
things.

Making “high tech” cities in the sky, “futuristic” ones on the sea or on “special”
pieces of land, and calling intelligent and educated people “refugees”, because 
they setup camp and create small societies to “test” laws, is the shitty future 
everyone envisioned, from Sci-Fi authors to political writers, there is nothing 
revolutionary about that: wiping off all debt towards humanity, just because we 
can, doesn’t make anyone a better human. It is quite funny how libertarianism can
so easily shift from a fight for freedom into a shape of social eugenics.