Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

I have been writing about Zagmuk for almost a decade, now. It is the mid-winter holiday, many thousands of years old, that celebrates the victory of the Babylonian god-king Marduk over the forces of Chaos, sort of the ultimate triumph of Reason. That’s him in the picture, with his pet dragon Mušḫuššu. (And no, I don’t know how to pronounce it.)

Looked at another way, there inevitably comes a point in the calendar of every temperate-zone culture—it probably started with our cousins the Neanderthals—where people finally exclaim, “I’m sick and tired of this cold, dark, wet, barren winter! It’s time for some color, light, and warmth! And to share what we labored all year to produce with those we care most about!” Overpaid pundits online, on television, and in newspapers today maunder endlessly over the “commercialization of Christmas” but it’s actually the perfect capitalist holiday.

Celebrating the triumph of Reason is a pretty good idea, too. What would a civilization be like, completely stripped of Reason? It would be the Democrat Party, that Stalinist institution where Marxist surrealism rules the day and the light of Reason—or of the Constitution, for that matter—is never permitted to shine. In fact, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Jerrold Nadler, Eric Swallwell, Maxine Waters, and countless other leftist politicians and TV hairspray-heads like Juan Williams and Chris Wallace, are exactly the kind of villains that Ayn Rand was ridiculed for creating.

Me, too.

From what they’re doing right now, from where they’re going, and from what they want, it’s only the tiniest step to carving people’s hearts out at the top of some stepped pyramid with an obsidian blade. Call it Medikill-for-all. I just wrote another article about a little 12-year-old girl who was arrested, handcuffed, and charged with a felony for pointing her finger like a gun. Is that crazy enough for you? Probably not for Adam, Nancy, Jerry, Eric, Maxine, Juan, and Chris.

Putting the best president that this poor, battered country has ever elected—a man who is deeply offensive to established power because he wants to end the eternal welfare-warfare state and return ownership and control of your life to you—through this atrocious and ridiculous impeachment farce is exactly like torturing and sacrificing John Galt. The hero of Atlas Shrigged probably didn’t stick his pinky-finger out when he drank tea, either.

The right wing has a few dim little corners that could use a bit of the light of Reason, too. Among the best of its spokesmen, Tucker Carlson, nevertheless constantly slanders libertarians and libertarianism, a movement that he very clearly doesn’t understand at all, which consists of nothing but individuals like you and me who simply want to be free and want others to be free, as well. Somebody who knows the guy should refer him to the concise definition of libertarianism—originally written by this 57-year veteran of the movement—that can be found near the top of every issue of this publication. It might just do the fool some good—at the very least, teach him to spot the phonies among us (I could name names)—if he hasn’t become too smug to learn something new.

So my 2019 Zagmuk wish for Tucker, and the Donald, and for everybody else, is that you enjoy the fruits of your labors, the freedom to use and share them as you will, and the Reason—your personal triumph against the forces of Chaos—that you earn every day. Please have the Merriest of Christmases, the Happiest of Chanukahs, and the best of every other winter holiday that you’ve ever had.