Libertarianism is not merely anti-state, it is anti-social. It denies the reality that humans are by nature social beings: we live together in groups. We always have and presumably we always will. The absurd notion that in ‘turning to’ a social existence we ‘surrendered’ some state of absolute liberty that was being enjoyed by people living utterly independent existences really needs to be recognized as the surreal fantasy it is and abandoned completely.

At the same time, liberty is a valid social value. It turns out that the value of equality of itself provides for the maximum liberty that coexisting people can share. That’s because equality implies an ethic of mutual respect of a basic kind — taking one another into account. In Lockean terms, all are required to refrain from “subjecting” any other person to one’s own “arbitrary will.”