veryone is given just one life to live. It seems to me that if there is anyone who would want to experience that one life as a free person, it is libertarians. 

And yet, so many older libertarians gave up on freedom decades ago, and many younger libertarians have already given up on freedom.

Why?

Let's look at one big example of this phenomenon. Let's consider, for example, the massive governmental apparatus of public schooling, which is the crown jewel of American socialism at the state and local level. The state governments and local governmental school boards provide education for children. Students are there by state mandate. The state sets the curriculum and selects the textbooks. The teachers and administrators are employees of the government. Funding is through the coercive apparatus of taxation. Indoctrination, regimentation, and deference to authority are the name of the game, just like in the military.