Lately I've been trying to help my father who is on dialysis. Despite explicit instructions from the doctors, he refuses to follow their advice and causes himself harm on a daily basis. At first we tried everything we could to get him to do the "right" thing. But he would rather do his thing than the "right" thing. So be it.
We are currently living in a welfare state mostly as a result of the accumulation of bad choices by large numbers of American citizens. Large numbers of American citizens vote for Democrats, put themselves into situations where they depend on government programs such as Social Security, ignore the daily assaults on the Constitution, worship the memory of politicians such as FDR & LBJ, etc.
I would like to be able to just be a rugged individual and deal with this wave of stupidity and dependency, but I cannot do it myself. I must depend on others, and it helps if we have a common set of principles. And it helps if there are positive elements such as support for traditional morality and ethics, rather than just the "negative" injunction of "Don't tread on me and I won't tread on you."
The mob is already treading all over me, while simultaneously proclaiming that they are in the process of saving me from myself!
My belief is that we don't see anarchies around because those who chose to break up into smaller groups in the past got beaten into submission by the larger groups. We need to fight fire with fire. We need to create a large group linked by a common set of principles and values willing to go toe-to-toe with the socialists and statists.
A bunch of rugged individuals a la Jeremiah Johnson building their own cabins and catching their own fish in the forest, is just not going to cut it.
We have to take the risk of becoming the new mob in order to fight against the current mob running this country into the ground. This doesn't mean that we have to use the federal government to ratify and execute our program. But we do need to use some institution such as an invigorated fraternal order or such to combine our efforts in an effective way.
If the fascists at MADD can create a tidal wave of anti-constitutional legislation from the ripple of anger at the death of a loved one from a drunk driver, then we can certainly try to do likewise.
Whatever form that institution takes, it would be well for those who form it to look at the Libertarian Party as a good counter example! ;-)
As to what you say here, I've already responded to that in my post #4. But I'll repeat myself. Libertarianism is not about rugged individualism (although many libertarians are). It is not about selfishness being a virtue (although Ayn Rand's disgusting creed has far too many followers among libertarianism).
The Founding Fathers understood that the most important organizing principle of society is liberty. It is why the entire Constitution was about defending people from encrouchments on their liberty.
Liberty is about treating men as men. It is about working together voluntarily instead of under coercion.
Are you really so insecure about the values of your community and family as to believe that they would not prosper if subjected to testing in the marketplace?