Inspired by Gaurav, who wrote his first libertarian post recently, here is one from me. To find out what is libertarianism, visit the CCS website where you will find loads of info.
For the uninitiated, as a first step, I will introduce the basic premise of libertarianism, in a very simple manner.


Consider that a man named Ram is left alone on an island, with no modern amenities.
Will he be governed by any rules?
Will he build a road and then walk only on the left side?
Will he hesitate before snatching a fruit off any tree?
I guess not.

He will live life completely on his own terms, but also with his own efforts. He will “have” to find out ways and means to improve his quality of life on the island. There will be no one else to do it for him. This man will be the most honest man ever, because his dishonesty will hurt only him, and no one else. His self-interest will stop him from being dishonest.

But what if another man, say Shyam, washes ashore. Now, the two of them will do one of the two things –

Option I:
They will fight each other for everything - food, shelter, land etc. One of them will win on the basis of his brute strength. The other person will either be killed, or he will accept the domination of the other person, and live a second rate life.

Option II:
If they are rational men, they will know that both of them can easily coexist on the island. They will then sit together, and decide some “minimim” rules which “both” of them should follow, in order to “coexist”. Everytime they will interact, it will be for “mutual benefit” and with “mutual consent”.
They will know that they are essentially free to do what they want, as long as they don’t infringe on the rights of the other person.

Now imagine that another person, say Ghanshyam, comes to the island. He will soon join the established system, and start living by the minimum rules.
After the passage of some time, the most industrous chap of them all, say Ghanshyam, will be living a very comfortable life, while the others may not be doing that well.
Seeing this disparity, the other two will strike up a plan to balance out things. They will convince Ghanshyam that they now need to work “together” for the benefit of “everyone”. So they will come out with another solution for coexisting:

Option III:
They will “elect” a leader by a “majority” vote, and now this leader will decide the rules of their existence on this island. They will now have an elected government, where the majority voice will be heard, and “equality” will be guaranteed.
The majority of Shyam and Ram will soon decide that “everyone” should give a “proportionate” part of his produce to the government so that “everyone” can live in happiness. Of course, Ram and Shyam will not be producing anything much, so the government will get all its revenues from Ghanshyam, and “everyone” will accrue “equal” benefits from these government revenues. And they will live happily ever after. Atleast Ram and Shyam will !!

Option I is your basic “might is right” system, prevalent in the animal world.
Option III, is India’s current socialistic democracy.
Option II, is what is essentially the core of “Libertarianism”.

I don’t think it is too difficult to see which one is the most “moral” system of them all. I hope we all choose the right system soon enough.