Little House on the Prairie Embodies Libertarian Spirit

When I was a child back in the Seventies, I used to watch "Little House on the Prairie" each week with my grandparents on NBC. I always looked forward to each episode, watching the adventures of the Ingalls family. In my kiddish mind, I wanted to be Charles, marry Mary, and torment Mrs. Oleson. It seems I've always had a fascination with life in the 1870's on the wild frontier. Even back then, I longed to be part of the beauty and danger of the wilderness, somehow always feeling like I was born in the wrong century.

I believe 1983 was the last time I have watched "Little House". It was the final episode when the citizens of Walnut Grove blew up their dwellings because an evil robber baron named Lassiter had stolen all their property out from under them. I guess I kind of forgot about it for a while, and had not even watched it until we moved into our new house a few months back. Our new (VERY basic) cable package came with the Hallmark channel, which shows "Little House" several times a day. Over the years, I have grown to despise television; I think most shows are intelligence-insulting garbage and a complete waste of time. But I must admit the Hallmark channel has brought back some of the decent shows that are actually worth watching, and "Little House" is one that my wife Luchrisa and I both enjoy.

The clarity with which I remember my favorite episodes astounded even me, driving my wife insane with my Howard Cosell-like play-by-play of each scene. I also discovered a few episodes I never even saw before. But I must say, it was seeing the show again, almost a quarter century later, through the eyes of a grown-up that gave me a new appreciation for this great show. I had always been a renegade with an independent spirit who wants only to be left alone to chart my own course through this life. That's probably why, all these years later, I see the true Libertarian spirit of the Ingalls family.

The Ingalls knew that life was basically a fight, a never-ending battle for those few extra dollars or that next crop. Charles worked in Lars Hansen's sawmill all day, and then came home to work his fields until sundown. Caroline helped her husband daily in the fields while still running the Ingalls household. Mary and Laura did their chores before and after school while maintaining their grades. They understood clearly that nobody else was going to do it for them.

Whenever the Ingalls family got into trouble, they knew the only way out was common sense and hard work. In "100 Mile Walk", a hailstorm ruins the Ingalls crops which they were hoping to sell as well as use for food. Charles walks for several days in worn out boots to find work to keep the family afloat. He ends up doing dangerous work in a quarry, involving explosives, but takes the job because it pays very well. Meanwhile, Caroline organizes the women of Walnut Grove to salvage what's left of the wheat crops; a hard, hot, dirty job. One of my favorite parts is when Caroline gets fed up with the incessant whining of one woman who clearly does not want to work. She ends up telling her that she's right, that they're never going to get the crops salvaged, if everyone had an attitude like hers!

In the two-part episode "To Live with Fear", Mary has an accident with a horse in the barn, and Doc Baker tells Charles and Carol that they need to take her to a specialist. When they get to the hospital, they are told that Mary needs an immediate operation. Of course, the hospital won't extend credit to Charles, so he sets off in search of work. Several failed attempts do not dissuade him, and he eventually finds work for the railroad blasting tunnels through solid rock. Caroline takes on work in the hospital as well, doing her part as always. Charles almost dies during a cave-in with his slave-driving boss, eventually being rescued by Isaiah Edwards and a band of Chinese laborers whose enmity they earned by pushing the labor to the dangerous point it had reached. Eventually, he and Caroline had earned enough money to save their eldest daughter's life.

"The Bully Boys" involved three rogue brothers who moved into town to try and take it over through force and intimidation. At the behest of Reverend Alden, they all try to do the Christian thing and turn the other cheek. But when Miss Beadle and Mary are assaulted at the schoolhouse by the youngest brother and Charles and Caroline are physically threatened by the older two, the townspeople come to realize that scum can only be reckoned with by dealing with them in the only language they understand! They eventually band together to take Walnut Grove back. The children all beat the snot out of the youngest brother at school, and the men escort the dirtbags out of town once and for all!

These are but a few of the great episodes that made me realize as an adult the wonderful Libertarian example the Ingalls and the community of Walnut Grove (Except, of course, for Harriet and Nellie Oleson) set for Americans who want a really free country. These people were brave, morally upright, rugged individuals who understood that true freedom is a constant struggle, and that nobody owed them anything. They weren't any where near perfect, but were willing to accept, own up to, and deal with their personal faults and shortcomings, and never lived in denial of them nor blamed anyone else for them. What a lesson that today's entitlement-seeking, finger-pointing couch potatoes could learn from this true American family!

I realize the series was fiction, but it was based on the memoirs of Laura Ingalls-Wilder. Her stories were about the real-life struggles and hardships about life on the 19th century frontier, a place where only the strong and tenacious survived and flourished. These were people who faced adversity instead of hiding from it. They solved their own problems instead of looking to government to solve them for them. They didn't make excuses for the evil deeds of scum, and dealt with them accordingly. They did not blame or punish the innocent majority for the sins of the guilty few. They did not demand, or feel entitled to, free medical care or any other government aid. They'd gladly take the danger and uncertainty that came with freedom rather than submit to a life of relative ease and servitude. Yes, frontier people knew that being free involved personal sacrifice, and were very willing to make those sacrifices to be the masters of their own fates.

How much has changed since then! Not too long ago, I went to an on-line forum that discussed "Little House", and this girl posted a blog about the show, declaring that the only reason she ever watched the show was "so I could laugh at their misery". Yes, I could picture her, smugly blogging away on her little pink designer PC in her cozy room full of Abercrombie and Fitch clothing, toys, gadgets, CD's and a mountain of stuffed animals, never having to worry about anything but whether she'll make the varsity cheerleading squad again this year. After all, her Daddy probably takes care of everything for her, and after she parties her way through college (which Daddy will also pay for), then it will be the taxpayer's turn to carry her sorry ass through life. It should come as no surprise that candidates who want to preserve the rights and responsibilities of the individual cannot seem to get elected. America is overrun with lazy, complacent do-nothings like this spoiled child, who will someday be spoiled adults who will gladly and willingly give up Constitutional rights to be taken care of from cradle to grave.