RE: Religion Never Went Away - It's Just One Part of a Larger Mechanism
Yep. When given the opportunity, people will be religious about, well, just about anything. Most are believers by nature, and prefer to believe and adopt opinions rather than think or make up their own models of the world.
This applies to all economic theory in all camps, because economic theory is an unscientific free-for-all where data from the real world have long ceased to influence said theories. I think this is even worse in ancap and libertarian circles than in the more left-wing camp, but that's just me, at least, on Steemit, that's just me.
If I may quote myself:
'I noticed there is a clan of people on Steemit who like to refer to other parts of the general population as "sheep" or "sheeple". This Steemit clan is quite large, and its members all say the exact same things, in unison and total agreement. I find this very confusing, as they behave more like sheep than the general population I am aware of. So I wondered: who are the real sheep?'
I mean, I agree. I consider myself an ancap due to the fact that when observing civilizations that have gone through changes from regulated markets to a free market, and vice versa, it seems to be evident that the free - or at least freer - markets have created more prosperity.
That said, a lot of libertarians themselves are, like you said, sheep, unable to question their own beliefs. And it annoys me because libertarians rarely offer anything intellectually stimulating to me these days.
I've said it before and I'll say it again that a lot of libertarians follow their charismatic leaders just like the collectivists they mock. They repeat catchphrases like taxation is theft without putting thought into what the statement actually means.
It's always good to question your beliefs and realize one's fallibility as a human being.
But being someone who is Finnish, I've seen first hand the problems that socialism and government regulations create.
A free market, by itself, wouldn't offer anything perfect - despite what a lot of ancaps say - since the free market also requires a culture to support it. This is something that a lot of people in all camps seem to be missing.
I always try to underscore the importance of culture in determining human behavior. We never exist in a vacuum.