Emotive Libertarianism

Orin Kerr (via Puppy Blender) brings us an analysis of the emotional underpinnings of libertarianism from analyst Adrian Vermeule:

My central claim is that themechanisms underlying security panics have no necessary or inherent pro-securityvalence. The very same mechanisms are equally capable of producing libertarian panics: episodes in which aroused publics become irrationally convinced that justified securitymeasures represent unjustified attempts to curtail civil liberties. I will suggest that libertarian panics have been a regular occurrence in American history, and that we maybe living through one now, in the form of a widespread and thoroughly irrational, evenhysterical, reaction to small legal changes adopted after 9/11. Indeed, the tendency to diagnose the existence of a security panic can itself be symptomatic of a libertarian panic…

Social cascades may occur, such that a large number of individuals influence each other to hold exaggerated perceptions of security risks. Such cascades need not be the product of “panic” in any pejorative sense. Consider rational herding mechanisms, in which the early actions of a succession of individuals, each possessed of some private information, influence later individuals in the chain; even if all are rational, the whole chain may act erroneously if the first movers’ information was erroneous. Yet there are also irrational or quasi-rational mechanisms, such as “availability cascades” that spread highly salient, albeit misleading, anecdotes through social networks, producing biased and exaggerated perceptions of risk. Within decision making groups, mechanisms such as group polarization may skew risk perceptions even farther; highly salient or available fears will be amplified by group discussion…

It is not the author's main point, but libertarianism has long struck me as an emotive response -- often adopted in response to some ugly encounter with intrusive, thuggish government. Vermeule verifies this perspective. There are rational reasons for adopting libertarianism, but the root of the libertarian tree is fear. This fear is often justified (although Vermeule disputes this), but it is still an emotional response.