A year ago, I congratulated the LPR on its eleventh anniversary, comparing the party to an awkward teenager who is growing rapidly and trying to appear adult. At age 12, we see this teenager experiencing complete internal turmoil, hysterics, a loss of meaning in life, and suicidal thoughts (forgive me, I won’t get into specifics, the post isn’t about that). This is accompanied by public comments, such as Vitaliy Tizun’s recent post about why political parties are bad as such.

Regarding this, I find David Friedman’s rhetoric closer, which boils down to the assertion that product packaging should be produced even if its ultimate fate is to be thrown away. I can only expand on Friedman’s metaphor and point out that, nonetheless, one should not turn the packaging into a cargo cult; if you are ready to purchase a product without packaging, then there is no need to spend resources on it.

The task of the Libertarian Party is to implement libertarian ideas into the state regulatory framework using specialized state political interfaces. The task of the libertarian movement as a whole is to disseminate libertarian ideas throughout society. The party can also perform this secondary task, but it is not obligated to, as it is designed for something else. For the party, broadcasting ideas to society is simply a way to replenish its ranks. The Libertarian Party could dissolve itself tomorrow, and it would simply be the abandonment of one of the approaches to reducing the state, but by no means the end of libertarianism in Russia.

So, I congratulate everyone who is currently a member of the LPR and those who are preparing to join. You are doing what you believe to be important and useful; just please do not approach it with beastly seriousness, otherwise, it can be a little embarrassing for you.