Most superheroes go around risking life and limb to save people they don't know from immense dangers. But does that singular defining trait among all superheroes make them all fall into one singular ideology? You've no doubt heard political pundits say things like "Obama's a socialist" or "He's really more of a Libertarian", but do you know what those ideologies mean? Do they apply to superheroes? Are all Superheroes Socialists? Or Maybe Liberals? Or maybe there's no single answer. After all, there are heroes who have significant nationalist ideologies as part of their beliefs. So in this series of articles I'm going to look into an ideology, summarizing it, and commenting on whether or not it applies to the idea of superheroes and maybe some specific superheroes, if I find any that apply. The ideologies I'll be looking at over the next few weeks are: Socialism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Libertarianism, Utilitarianism, and Authoritarianism.
In this article, are Superheroes Libertarians?
What is Libertarianism?
(Summarized from Wikipedia)
Libertarianism is a group of political philosophies that emphasize freedom, liberty and voluntary association without coercion, and often advocate a small to non-exist government. There is no consensus on a precise definition of libertarianism, ranging from the moral view that people own themselves and have moral powers to acquire property rights, to a philosophy that fundamentally doubts authority and advocates transforming society by reform or revolution, to "any political position that advocates a radical redistribution of power from the coercive state to voluntary association of free individuals", with voluntary association usually being in the form of a free market or communal co-operatives. The U.S. Libertarian Party defines libertarianism as the advocacy of a government that is funded voluntarily and limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence.
Within Libertarianism there are different degrees of how much the state should be reduced. The Anarchistic schools advocate complete elimination of the state. The Minarchism, or minimal statism, schools advocate a state which is limited to protecting its citizens from aggression, theft, breach of contract, and fraud. For ownership of land, resources and the means of production, some schools have varying degrees of support for private property rights while others have support for common ownership, creating a range of support from capitalism to socialism. In some areas Libertarianism is synonymous with left anarchism, while in the United States the term is commonly associated with economically conservative and socially liberal views.
Are Superheroes Libertarian?
To varying degrees, yes. The whole "taking the law into your own hands" is often seen as inherently libertarian, so several superheroes could definitely by classified as libertarian depending on their motivation and writer. A number of the "grittier" superheros and anti-heroes would be more Libertarian than the traditional heroes. Batman is sometimes called a libertarian, by people (and writers!) who forget about things like his business practices, general pro-government attitude, anti-gun and anti-drug views, although he does have a bit of a libertarian lean. Rorschach of the Watchmen is probably to most famous and best defined libertarian superhero, with some of his more famous lines like "Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon" being very libertarian. However Libertarians are generally optimists, which Batman is but Rorschach is not. The characters Rorschach is based upon, The Original Question and Mr. A, are very much Ann Ryad Objectivists, like their creator Steve Ditko, which is sometimes associated with Libertarianism but is a separate philosophy. The current Question, Renee Montoya, whose also apart of our American Superhero Team, is much less of an Objectivist.
(For those that wan to know, Objectivism's central tenets are that reality is independent of consciousness and that contact with reality is done through the senses, that object knowledge can be obtained with concept formation and inductive logic, that the moral purpose of life is the pursuit of one's own happiness (aka rational self-interest) and that the only social system consistent with this morality is full respect for individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism, and that the role of art is transform metaphysical ideas by selective reproduction of reality into a physical form that can be comprehended and to which one can respond emotionally.)
Also, any superheroes that classify themselves as Anarchists are by default Libertarian, of which the most iconic is V from V for Vendetta, an extremely violent anarchist libertarianism in a very traditional conservatism world whose able to do one of the major tenets of libertarianism, influence people to stand up and take back the liberty they deserve. Given the Occupy movement's libertarian leaning it's no wonder that the Guy Fawkes mask worn by V have become one of the movement's more iconic symbols.
So, yes, there are some heroes that are Libertarians or have Libertarian leanings.
Okay, interesting article, maybe I'll do a more in depth look at it in the future, what with the Occupy connection and it's rising influence. At any rate, join us Wednesday when we start talking about Equal Rights and Women's Healths.
~James
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