Ayn Rand Would Be Turning Over In Her Grave at How Libertarians Are Acting During Covid-19

I was waiting at a CVS store in Manhattan last month when I noticed that a customer on an adjacent line was not wearing a mask. He caught me staring so I casually pointed my finger at my mask. He looked at me and said, nonchalantly: “I’m a libertarian.” On the tip of my tongue, I was about to say, “The liberty to swing your fist ends where my nose begins,” but why start something that could get out of hand. But I did know that my rejoinder would have been near and dear to the heart of any true libertarian. Yet, the irony is that many have betrayed their credo every day during the pandemic. While preening on their right to total autonomy and freedom of choice, libertarians routinely deny the same to others. Unmasked and unidentified as unvaccinated, they expose others to infection without affording them the freedom to decide how much risk they are willing to absorb.

I hold no particular grudge against libertarians but they are different from those unvaccinated folks who are misinformed or fearful or suspicious (e.g., people of color screwed over by our government). Libertarians are worthy of being singled out because their actions are ideologically based. I know from whence I speak. I used to be one of them: a card-carrying libertarian. I attended Ayn Rand’s lectures in the basement of the Empire State Building under the auspices of the Nathaniel Branden (her protégé) Institute, adulated John Galt and Howard Roark, and resisted any form of impingement on my personal freedom. I was always eager to wave the “Don’t Tread On Me Flag” as justification for my behavior. Despite her Objectivist philosophy being roundly trashed by critics, Ms. Rand would be appalled at how libertarians are perverting her fundamental concept of rational self-interest, a cardinal principle being that ONE PERSON’S FREEDOM CANNOT INVOLVE THE RIGHT TO SACRIFICE OTHERS. But that’s exactly what so-called libertarians are doing!

Many commentators on social media deride libertarians as selfish, oblivious to or merely unconcerned about the greater good. Perhaps a hangover from my libertarian days, but I am uncomfortable with how twisted and degraded the term selfish has become. Equating selfishness with a blatant if not reckless disregard for the welfare of others means that the only way we can describe humanistic behavior is to call it selfless. That doesn’t sit right with me — it’s a false dichotomy. But, if we add the word rational to selfish it starts to make more sense. What I would like to say to my former comrades is something along the lines of: Is it rationally selfish to go unvaccinated and unmasked when it contributes to the spread of Covid-19 and its variants, to cripple an economy by virtue of the necessary restrictions, and to risk the lives and health of loved ones?

I’ve had many (civil) conversations with libertarians most of whom pose a standard counterargument: If they don’t know whether they are infected or carrying the virus, how can they be violating someone else’s rights? That might hold water if every person that an unmasked and unvaccinated libertarian comes into contact with knew their story. So, how do libertarians respect their own beliefs while still being good citizens of the world? Sad to say, but the only ethical option is to limit physical contact to your fellow compatriots, totally segregating yourselves from society. If that seems harsh or impractical, what can I say? That’s the unavoidable price you pay for living by your principles. Being a true libertarian means affording others the right to remove their noses from your fist.