Somebody else made Progressive Libertarianism happen
I’m sure you’ve heard Obama’s recent remark that everyone is going crazy about “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” You can also be sure that once I come across a good image poking fun at it, I’ll be running it on our Facebook page. For now though, I’d like to talk about this train of thought concerning Progressive Libertarianism.
Originally this organization began as a Facebook group back in early 2009 and has since progressed to become a website that puts out original progressive libertarian oriented content as well as a Facebook page used for the bulk of our discussions sitting at just over 8,200 “Likes” and steadily going up by the day. The organization brings in zero revenue, all hosting expenses are paid out of my pocket, and that is the way it is intended. While it isn’t a business, it is an organization that is designed to deliver and provoke thoughts and ideas that aren’t being presented by others while fostering a rich discussion on a wide variety of political and societal topics in general.
I’m not really sure what Obama was trying to get at with his speech, probably that he wanted people who have been successful to give to the less-successful and contribute back to the society that they thrived in. It is fair to say that he believes that without government, there’s a lot in life that we wouldn’t have, and while we agree that governments can give us stability and provide things in a way that would be difficult otherwise, there are many things the government does that society could and would do better at without its involvement. He also likely thinks that no one person attains anything on their own. To be fair that’s partially true. So, I’d like to share with you all my thoughts on the issue, as it relates to my “founding” and building of Progressive Libertarianism.
I definitely do not own the ideology, the words or phrase, and didn’t originally come up with the term, though to be fair when I did come up with the term, I did not know it had already been coined or who originally coined it. I simple saw that no one was making any use of it and decided to build it. This is typically the way any business gets its start.
Would what we have today exist without my efforts? Hard to say, but I doubt it. Without my effort, ability, and dedication, Progressive Libertarianism as we know it would not exist. I made it what it is today, and I am very proud of that. However, I’d be foolish to think that it all exists because of me. Had I not taken on a second administrator over a year ago, the organization might not be as well off, and definitely would not have had the different content and perspective which provides much needed diversity. But even just the two of us and the work we put into this doesn’t add up to a whole.
Without the people who took a gamble by liking our page, sticking around for what we had to say, participating in the discussions, and giving us a chance through all of our mishaps, we would not be where we are today. Heck, without Facebook and the internet it surely would not be where it is today. That’s not to say that other people couldn’t have created things similarly or exactly to these two technologies. Indeed, there are many parts to this machine and all of them are vital. So while I and no one else did originally build this organization, in the grand scheme of things I was only but a part of it all, and it takes all the parts to make a whole. I think this is what Obama was trying to emphasize, though I do believe he is misguided in believing that without government’s ever increasing activities, that we’d be in a heap of trouble.
Much thanks to everyone who helps continue to make this a success every day and we hope that our contributions inspire you to greater heights of thinking.