how about Don't Tread on Anyone: Confessions of a Radical Left-Libertarian

Essay, e-pamphlet (shareable PDF file) -- 19 pages, apx 4,300 words

This piece was adapted from an early draft of the preface for a novel-in-progress called The Rise and Fall of the Cielo Republic. Upon finishing it, I realized there was a message that was too pertinent and timely to wait for the long process of writing a novel, so I turned it into an essay to e-publish on its own.

Left-libertarianism represents a range of political philosophies that emphasize both individual liberty and egalitarian economic systems that promote a more equal distribution of opportunities. When compared to the other three quadrants on the biaxial social-economic political spectrum (authoritarian left, authoritarian right, and libertarian right), it is clear that the libertarian left, despite widespread public support for many of its positions, has by far the least amount of representation in the United States federal government. Mainstream Democrats prefer to play political football with its key issues over actual progressive leadership, while the mere inference of "socialism" is enough for Republicans to secure a mandate from their supporters to squash any populist momentum. After more than 40 years of neo-liberal economics and incremental retrogression on social issues driven by the MAGA constituency, "libertarian left" is so obscure that the phrase sounds like an oxymoron.

But did you know that the term "libertarian" was coined by a 19th-century anarcho-communist to describe his own philosophy? This usage persisted unopposed until the early 1970s in fact. There are still many individuals whose political views embody both freedom and economic justice, and the world needs more such people who can think of these two dimensions in tandem to organize into a more effectual collective voice.

Staying in the voice of Cielo narrator Cottleston Pierce, Don't Tread on Anyone is a very personal confession of Waldo's left-libertarian ideals and the spiritual perspective that informs them. Focusing on individual sovereignty rather than identity as the basis for our personhood and natural rights, it offers a heartfelt vision of another world that becomes possible when the individual's exclusive right to access one's inner sense of direction and momentum, as well as one's kinship with others, is held as sacrosanct. If anything can be a beacon leading away from the right-wing authoritarian trajectory of the world in 2025, this vision of its exact opposite could be it.

"Wherever there are groups of people pressing down on others in an identity-based inequality dynamic, you will find our people, comforting the afflicted and throwing monkey wrenches into the war machine. The actions are usually small, one person lifting up the dignity of another at a time, and though the goals are communitarian, it is a community we join by dissolving all ties to it, and pledging allegiance to no one but each other."

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