Aliens Steal Carl Sagan's

November 1996 Vol. 10, No.2 $4.00 Brain!

C'Liberty is the mostjealous and exacting mistress. " -Clarence Darrow

o Job Opportunities in the Securities Industry Stock Brokerage Branch Manager Busy and growing North San Diego County based stock brokerage firm (NASD-SIPC) requires an in-house branch manager. Firm focuses on small cap and foreign equities, pri­ marily in natural resource industries. Successful applicant will have a spotless regulatory his­ tory, exceptional training and managerial skills, and a demonstrated commitment to ethical behavior. The challenge: to develop a 15-20 broker office to take advantage of 5,000-10,000 product specific leads per month. Remuneration commensurate with experience and perfor­ mance. Fax resume and correspondence to Ellen at 619-943-3938. Global Resource Investments is an equal opportunity employer. Corporate Counsel, Regulatory and Compliance Manager Busy and growing North San Diego based stock brokerage firm (NASD-SIPC) has an imme­ diate opening for corporate counsel. The firm focuses on small cap and foreign equities, pri­ marily in natural resource industries. The firm's client base is retail. The challenge is two­ fold: maintaining and improving the existing regulatory and compliance system established in house; and developing a fee-based advisory business selling blue sky and compliance ser­ vices to foreign issuers wishing to engage in secondary trading in the U.S. Fax resume and correspondence to Ellen at: 619-943-3938. Global Resource Investments is an equal opportu­ nityemployer. Stock Broker Trainee Global Resource Investment in North San Diego County, a busy, retail stock brokerage focusing on natural resource equities, has immediate openings for stock brokers and stock broker trainees. Successful candidates: intelligent, ethical, high energy, hard working with an educational and employment background in earth sciences or natural resources. Degreed, experienced geologists or engineers in mining or oil and gas are particularly encouraged to apply. Expect minimum salary during a three-month training period, then remuneration com­ mensurate with performance. Fax resume and correspondence to Ellen at 619-943-3938. Global Resource Inve~tments is an equal opportunity employer. MIS Officer, Securities Industry Creative MIS person needed to evaluate, update, develop and implement state-of-the-art information systems for busy and growing North San Diego stock brokerage firm. Knowledge of current securities accounting, portfolio and client management technologies a must. Internet capabilities (HTML) strongly desired. Must be able to integrate the objectives of accounting, research, marketing and brokerage departments through technology develop­ ment. Ongoing training and troubleshooting required. Should enjoy a fast-paced, energetic, team environment. Remuneration commensurate with experience. Please fax resume, letter with salary requirements to Ellen at Global Resource Investments 619-943-3938. Global Resource Investments is an equal opportunity employer. Broker's Assistant Specialist brokerage firm in North San Diego County has a position open for a broker's assistant. Extensive client contact, good communications and people skills are absolutely essential. Mustbe willing to learn technical issues related to natural resource equities. Series 7 and 63 required. Fax your resume and correspondence to Paul van Eeden at 619-943-3938. Global Resource Investments is an equal opportunity employer. ·d L·b t November 1996 InSl e 1 er YvolumelO,Number2

4 Letters Postcards from the edge - the cutting edge. 7 Reflections Liberty's editors discuss oral sex, Generation X, political crimes, paradigms, Peronistas, and Perotistas. Features 15 The Liberty Presidential Poll What are the prospects for Harry Browne's presidential campaign? And what are the prospects for libertarian ideas? Liberty polled Americans, and C.A. Arthur examines the data. 18 San Diego Diary Amidst elephants and clowns, Dole tosses his hat into the ring. Stephen Cox reports from the circus. 26 Health Markets or Health Maintenance? Be wary of HMOs and their defenders, counsel Ross Levatter and Jeffrey Singer. 29 A Splendid Little War The sun sets and rises, and we're bombing Iraq again. Jesse Walker tries to make sense of the senseless. 31 I Go to Kazakhstan Douglas Casey reports from the wild, wild east. 34 The Strawman State The end of Communism is just the beginning, argues Paul Piccone - next to go will be nationalism and the welfare state. 37 New Zealand's Free-Market Revolution In a decade and a half, New Zealand has radically freed its economy. Scott Sutton reports. 43 In Defense of Voting R. W. Bradford defends the ballot box. 46 A Killer's Right to Life George H. Smith draws and quarters the death penalty. 55 Other Lives The autobiographies of Richard Kostelanetz. Reviews 57 Insider Without a Clue Gary Aldrich must know some interesting things about the Clintons, but, Stephen Cox laments, he'd rather talk about himself. 59 Power, Lust, and Powerlust R. W. Bradford solves the mystery of Bill Clinton. 61 Highbrow People Richard Kostelanetz demolishes an effete corps of neoconservative snobs. 62 NOTA Chance Loren Lomasky makes the case against None of the Above. 64 The Truth Is Out There Sometimes, it's way out there. But Carl Sagan, notes Dominick T. Armentano, doesn't seem interested in it. 66 Booknotes on corporate bandits and Mexicans without badges. r "+:.. " 67 Classified Ads Who will buy this wonderful morning? 69 Notes on Contributors We take a bow. 70 Terra Incognita The most important page you'll read this year! November 1996

gressed he began taking more and more [ Letters ] medications, including AZT. Even though he eventually found out about the toxicity of AZT and the desirability The Fallacy of Epidemiology ill, and died from the lethal approved of not taking it, he couldn't bring him­ Had Nathan Crow ("The AIDS treatments: AZT and its clones. self to go against the wishes of his doc­ Heretic Who Won't Die," September William H. McIlhany tors. So he slowly withered away, and 1996) actually researched the literature Beverly Hills, Calif. died in 1993. on AIDS, he would know how thor­ The Ashe Case Richard M. Trostler oughly Peter Duesberg's position has Nathan Crow ridicules Duesberg's Claremont, Calif. been vindicated by all available evi­ assertion that recreational drugs and Stalinist Science dence, and especially by the remaining medical drugs such as AZT are the One issue that should concern every absence of any evidence proving - by greatest causes of AIDS. If Crow would libertarian, and which Nathan Crow causation, not the fallacy of correlation just refer to the December 1995 issue of touches upon, is free speech. We "AIDS - that the harmless retrovirus HIV the CDC's Trends in Reported AIDS dissidents" have received death threats; causes the syndrome of 30 or so old, Cases, he would find that during the 18­ we have lost grants; we have been ostra­ very different, and mostly noninfectious month period Ganuary 1993-June 1994), cized, physically assaulted, fired from illnesses, any combination of which the 47% of the AIDS cases were attributed jobs, and driven into bankruptcy. Our CDC defines as AIDS only if in the pres­ to homosexual men, 28% were attrib­ ideas have been systematically ence of a positive HIV antibody test. uted to people who inject drugs, and 5% excluded from the mainstream media. Yes, it's possible, but not easy, to were reported with homosexual men The censorship surrounding AIDS is transmit HIV from one person to who inject drugs. There are at least six what one would normally expect to find another. One's immune system creates studies that show that between 93% to in a totalitarian country in the midst of antibodies to it and within weeks, HIV 100% of homosexual AIDS patients war - akin to the Stalinist thought con­ is permanently out of business in the admit to using recreational drugs. trol that for decades supported the body, having done virtually nothing. Based on that, the CDC percentages crackpot ideas of Lysenko. That's the science of immunology and above show that 80% of the reported To understand the case against AZT vaccination, apparently unknown to AIDS cases were drug users, taken therapy, it is necessary to know that Crow, and there is no evidence to prove either orally or injected. And that 80% AZT was developed as cancer chemo­ the existence of any so-called "slow" figure does not include the AIDS cases therapy, designed to kill all growing virus. But there is no way anyone dying that result from the prophylactic use of cells through the termination of DNA with AIDS can transmit that syndrome the highly toxic drug AZT. Crow also syntheSis. It is necessary to know that to another person. ridicules Duesberg's assertion that the AZT has very serious toxicities and is a Anyone who has examined the evi­ pharmaceutical clotting Factor VIII known carcinogen. It is necessary to dence presented in Inventing the AIDS taken by hemophiliacs damages the know the flaws in AZT research, includ­ Virus and Duesberg's other book, immune system and often results in the ing the fact that the drug was approved Infectious AIDS, Have We Been Misled?, AIDS diseases. Apparently, Crow will not be confused by Crow. They will didn't read page 287 in Duesberg's for marketing on the basis of manifestly fraudulent research. also know that all those who have "died book carefully enough. If he had he John Lauritsen of AIDS" were either very promiscuous would have seen the sentence that says, Provincetown, Mass. male homosexuals who used multiple "However, when the clotting factor toxic drugs over years and died of [VIII] is highly purified, the immune 29% Right immune suppression caused by drugs system remains healthy." It goes on to Nathan Crow claims that HIV­ and malnutrition, or people who tested say, "Cost, unfortunately, bars many infected people suffer a steady immune­ HIV-positive, wouldnever have gotten hemophiliacs from using the purified system decline. However, he fails to Factor VITI. Hemophiliacs treated with explain why 10-17% of HIV-infected commercial Factor VIII consequently individuals will be AIDS-free 20 years Letters Policy develop some opportunistic infectious after infection. Certainly, they are not diseases in the long run, particularly suffering a steady immune system We invite readers to comment on articles pneumonia and yeast infections." And decline due to HIV. In other words, in that have appeared in the pages of Liberty. We 10-17% of HIV-infected people, HIV reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. HIV has nothing to do with it. All letters are assumed to be intended for publi­ Crow brings up the case of Arthur does not cause AIDS. At the very least, cation unless otherwise stated. Succinct, type­ Ashe, who was a non-drug using, non­ Peter Duesberg is 10-170/0 correct. written ·letters are preferred. Please include hemophiliac, HIV-positive AIDS Crow mentions that researchers at your phone number so that we can verify your identity. patient. The case of Arthur Ashe was the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have Send letters to: covered in detail in Duesberg's book on infected adult macques by placing SIV Liberty pp. 356-58. He details how his medical in their mouths. He fails to mention that P.O. Box 1181 problems started with a heart attack the researchers reported that 830 times Port Townsend, WA 98368 or e-mail us from our pages on the World Wide and howhe later picked up HIV from a more virus was required for oral infec­ Web, at http://www.LibertySoft.comlliberty/ blood transfusion. As his ailments pro- tion as compared to IV infection, 5,000 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 to 10,000 more was required for intra­ had blood treatments that have infected unable to adapt to the needs of stu­ vaginal infection as compared to IV them with HIV, or have had sexual con­ dents. I have been frustrated by this infection, and 5 x 106 more was required tact with an HIV-positive woman. bureaucracy as a student, as a teacher, for intrarectal infection as compared to If Trostler had read something on and as a parent. On the other hand, I IV infection. What if such large AIDS besides the works of Peter fully agree with Crow that teaching amounts of any virus were given to Duesberg, he would know that Arthur methods need to be empirically vali­ Crow? Does he think he would avoid Ashe was diagnosed with cytomegalo­ dated before Widespread adoption. He any ill effects? Neither SIV or HIV is as virus (an AIDS-defining disease) and also shows a much greater understand­ powerful as he portrays it. had extremely low T-cell counts before ing of what "direct instruction" is than Further, Crow mentions that two of he ever used AZT. I will leave it to does Harward, and is correct in his seven macques died of AIDS within 214 Duesberg's believers to explain why he description of direct instruction as a days, but fails to mention that two other neglects to mention this in his lengthy well-validated instructional approach. macques that had exhibited a pattern of account of Ashe's fatal illness. However, I think both have missed viremia were asymptomatic after 214 As for the"AIDS diseases" suppos­ an essential problem. Twenty-five per­ days. In other words, they were no edly suffered by Factor VIII patients, cent of students in public school pro­ longer ill. Why did they not develop they are confined to a small and rela­ grams drop out before graduating. Of AIDS from SIV? Because SIV did not tively innocuous group, and the data the remaining 75%, approximately half cause AIDS. Two out of seven is 29%. from Science cited in my article show go on to college. Only about half of So Duesberg is at least 29% correct that clearly that Factor VIII is relatively those actually graduate. Thus, out of a HIV does not cause AIDS. harmless. Duesberg's "assertions" random selection of 100 students enter­ Gerald Lindley about Factor VIn are just that. ing public school, only about 19 will Manchester, Conn. John Lauritsen believes that AZT graduate from college. Crow replies: William McIlhany insists causes AIDS. But then why are there no The traditional public school curricu­ that I have wrongly equated causation significant differences in death rates lum is a college preparatory curriculum. with correlation, then tries to back up his between AIDS patients treated with Thus, one has a situation in the public hypothesis by asserting that the disease AZT and those treated with a placebo? schools where the curriculum is oriented is universally correlated witheither The fact that AZT is virtually useless (by toward the needs of about 20% of the toxic drug use or AZT treatment. Like itself) as a treatment for AIDS says noth­ students and the needs of the other 80% Duesberg, he uses epidemiological argu­ ing about whether it causes the disease. are ignored or inadequately addressed. ments when they suit him, but attacks Gerald Lindley needs a course in Yes, the factory model needs to be them when they are used to support the logic. Justbecause HIV doesn't always replaced and teaching strategies need to HIV hypothesis. McIlhany has also for­ cause AIDS doesn't meanitisn't the be validated. However, public schools gotten Peter Duesberg's assertion that cause ofAIDS when the disease does also need a diversity of curricula to Factor VIII treatment (for hemophilia) strike. Noteveryone infected with a meet the varied needs of a very hetero­ causes AIDS, and appears to have some microbe comes downwith the disease geneous student population. An assem­ sort of mystic belief that being a "pro­ that itusually causes; there is almost bly-line, one-size-fits-all approach to miscuous male homosexual" will cause always a proportion of any population education simply can't get the job done, AIDS all by itself. With friends like that is immune. And the reasonI"fail to especially at the secondary level. McIlhany, Duesberg can't afford ene­ explain" why some people don't get Assuming that we want to maintain mies. And as far as the existence of slow AIDS despite HIV infection is thatI don't public schools as the primary source of viruses and the potency of antibodies know why. But neither does anyone else. education, which may nor may not be are concerned, McIlhany will have to Lindley also misunderstands the the wisest course, several changes are explain how a slow virus that doesn't nature of viruses, most of which are needed. First, we need to get rid of com­ exist (the maedi-visna virus) makes harmless. IfHIV were harmless, it pulsory attendance laws. No one sheep so sick, and how Duesberg's wouldn't matter how much of it you should be in school who doesn't want "harm,!~ss" SIV virus managed to kill all were given. to be there. Second, we need a variety of those nl'Onkeys withSIV antibodies. An Essential Problem curricula options, particularly at the sec­ Rich~ Trostler seems willing to I can agree with some of what was ondary level. A student should be free attribute AIDS to just "using recrea­ said by both Kathleen Harward and to switch between these options as long tional drugs," but does he really want Nathan Crow ("Disassembling Factory as he or she is willing to do whatever is to argue that smoking pot, taking Schools," September 1996). Certainly, needed to meet each option's prerequi­ amphetamines, or snorting cocaine will one of the major problems with public sites. Third, we need to put enough cause AIDS? Like William McIlhany education is the assembly-line approach power in the hands of consumers to (who jettisons Duesberg's own argu­ associated with the "factory mode!," make the monopolistic education ments and confines his fantasies to and Harward's criticism of the com­ bureaucracy a relic of the past. users of "multiple toxic drugs"), he can­ mand-and-control style of management David B. Center not explain why the millions of hetero­ that goes with the factory model is cer­ Conyers, Ga. sexuals who use "multiple toxic drugs tainly on target. This overmanagement The Taxes We Deserve over years" come down with AIDS only of the education process is conducted I was disappointed to read C.A. when they have used needle drugs or by a monopolistic bureaucracy that is Arthur's summation of Irwin Schiff's Liberty 5 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 income tax posture as "patent non­ enlighten the rest of us by telling us knows we must. We waive 47% of our sense" ("Liberty Comes to the something that Nobody knows rather property rights based on hearsay Beltway," September 1996). Mr. than what Everybody knows. What sec­ because we're too cowardly to even Arthur's blatant omission of supporting tion of USC Title 26 or what section of know the truth, let alone stand in its evidence to such defamation leads me the CFR establishes an income tax liabil­ defense. Shame on us. We have the gov­ to infer that he is relying on that old ity for the American citizen laboring in ernment (and taxes) we deserve! authority, Everybody. an unregulated occupation? Greg Nalder Ifyou ask Anybody in America why The oppressive government that we Nampa, Idaho he pays 470/0 of his wages to the IRS, have in this country is a manifestation Arthur responds: Schiff has argued that if he'll tell you that Everybody knows rather than the cause of America's one follows his advice regarding taxes, that you have to pay. Nobody, on the plight. The cause? Nobody values free­ one can avoid paying the governmentits other hand, is able to cite the statute or dom enough to standup for it. Rather "due" and avoid a stay at the Graybar code of law that establishes a legallia­ than telling the IRS, "You can have my Hotel. Schiff himself, however, hasbeen bility for most folks. That's why, property if you want it, but you're going unable to avoid incarceration. The sad according to Everybody, Nobody gets to have to wrestle it from me," we prefer butsimple fact is that if you publiciyflaunt away with avoiding the tax. to tuck our spineless tails between our u.s. tax laws, you will go to jail. Schiff's Mr. Arthur, perhaps you could legs and give them what Everybody belief to the contrary is nonsense. Whether I can identify whatsection of USC Title 26 or the CFR establishes a tax liability is notreally relevant. Nalder is right, of course, to observe that too few Americans are willing to stand up for their freedom. The ques­ The tion that each of us faces is when to do so, knowing that the price of standing up for our freedom (at least in the way Mr. Schiff advises us to do so) is the almost certain loss of the considerable Last freedom that we already possess. Clark, Browne, and JFK I enjoyed Chester Alan Arthur's report of the Libertarian Party national nominating convention, but felt the need to come out of hiding to correct a Demoerat misstatement of fact in his brief sum­ mary of the Ed Clark for President cam­ You know that Bill Clinton is the most blatantly corrupt president in years. But you may paign in 1980. (For the young or not know that he will probably be the last Democrat to be elected president for a long, forgetful, I was national coordinator for long time - maybe the last one ever. the Clark campaign.) Dismissing the conventional wisdom, R.W. Bradford predicts that Clinton is but the Arthur perpetuates the "Kennedy last, futile hope of the fraudulent dog'&a misnamed "liberalism": the insane idea that myth" - that the campaign consciously tried to compare Clark and his pro­ gram, for public consumption, to Jack Kennedy. The only conscious compari­ Why Bill Clinton Will Be son I recall was that Clark's proposed first-year tax and spending cuts would the Last Democrat have reduced the size of the federal budget to that of Kennedy's first year. Americans Elect President As for campaign literature showing a photo ofJFK: forget it, it never hap­ pened. (There was a campaign photo in government can rob everybody, payoff anybody, and leave us all richer in the process. which Clark coincidentally bore a very It's all here: the criminally fraudulent commodity trades - the endless lying about superficial resemblance to Kennedy, Whitewater - the ill-fated health care plan - the terribleJ!9locaust at Waco - the which was so noted by party activists at embarrassing bimbo eruptions - the endless taxes, regulations, and pork - and much, the time.) As for suggesting that Clark much more. restyled his hair to look like JFK: Since it The Last Democrat is simply the last word on Bill, Hillary, and their corrupt cronies was 1980, we encouraged him to aban­ and media sycophants. And it's available only from Liberty! To order call don his '50s-style pompadour. 1·800·854·6991 or send $14.95 (plus $2.00 s&h for the first book, $1.00 for each Comparisons of Ed Clark's additional book) to Liberty Book Club, Dept. BC9, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368. continued on page 30 The Stepford Rodham - I never thought I'd Was he there to implore Congess to repair the oversight hear myself saying this, but I miss Hillary Clinton. Not the that allowed individuals like himself to engage in such automaton who took the stage at the Democratic convention extremely risky behaviour, by mandating safety equipment, - didn't Philip K. Dick write a novel in which the country helmets and seat belts? No, he exhorted the American people was governed by a mechanical first lady? - but the arrogant to demand that Congress provide assistance for the relief of little shyster who stole from the Arkansas treasury and teed individuals like himself - that is, he refused responsibility off cookie-bakers everywhere. She was a statist crook, but she for his own actions, acting just the way advocates of seat-belt was a vivid character - arrogant, opinionated, a real human and helmet laws believe a person injured through his own being. fault ought to. Think back to 1992, to her rapid-fire voice proclaiming she What's curious is that, though most people apparently wasn't "some little woman standing by my man like Tammy think horse-riders, like motorists, should not have to bear the Wynette." Stupid and offensive, yes, but you knew that was cost of their risky behavior, no one seems to think that by the Hillary speaking. Now think of her performance at the same logic, the equestrian should be required to uphold the Chicago convention, from the impossibly bland music that same safety practices. One thing seems certain, though. The played as she took the stage to the measured monotone in wealthy Mr. Reeves has no reluctance to ask those of us which she spoke, to the dull cliches she imparted. Watching strapped into our cars to pay for his expensive hobby. And I her speech was like watching Malcolm McDowell in A didn't notice any victims of motorcycle accidents asking the Clockwork Orange: yes, she's evil, but for heaven's sake, give Democrats to insure that more taxes· be provided for their her back her soul! -JW relief. -RWB

A very Brady party - It used to be said that a Bill and me - Bill Clinton and I are remarkably alike "conservative is a liberal who's been mugged." Now, after in some ways. We're the same age; we both come from small­ James Brady's speech at the Democratic convention, I guess ish states considered cultural backwaters; we were both pro­ we can add a corollary: a Democrat is a Republican who's duced by dysfunctional families. Ethnically, he and I are suffered brain damage. - TWV indisputably rednecks, despite superficial mainstream behav­ iors we've learned. We're both the self-indulgent personality Call me irresponsible - When Congress type - we eat too much, etc. We were both bright kids in jammed through laws mandating seatbelt use by automobile school, apparently getting our sanction there. passengers and helmet use by motorcycle riders, a few reac­ There it ends. At some point, most likely during child­ tionaries bemoaned the further erosion of the notion of self­ hood, Clinton decided the world revolved around him, that responsibility. If a motorcyclist wants to risk splattering his there was nothing more important than his well-being - not brains on the pavement or a motorist wants to risk being pro­ honor, not morality, not ethics, not decency. And he decided jected through his windshield at 65 miles per hour, they said, that he would kiss-ass his way to greatness. And he did. I was what right have we to stop them from doing so? more conventional. I knew (somehow) that there were things No, no, no! the Safety Nazis responded. That brain-splattered you just didn't do. I knew it wasn't right to suck up, lie, cheat, biker and that projectile motorist are both taken to a public hospital, and advance myself by whatever means came handy. where the cost ofputting them back together is borne by the general Maybe the clearest incident to demonstrate the difference is public, through taxation. The obligation of the taxpayer to pay for that I joined the army in 1968, when he was doing everything the medical treatment of the risk-taker engenders a right to require possible to stay outof it. I remember how I felt about it. I wasn't him to minimize the risk that he faces. And so, nearly anywhere enthusiastic. I'm not the military type, not a joiner of any kind. I you drive a car or ride a motorcycle, you must be tied in or thought the war was wrongheaded. But I didn't want to clas­ must enshroud your head in a five-pound lump of plastic. sify myself with the kind of people who were avoiding military I thought of this whenI watched Christopher Reeve deliver service at the time. I thought they were scumbags. I knew sev­ his pathetic speech at the Democratic convention. Reeve, who eral of them. I wanted the brightest possible contrast between gained fame and earned millions of dollars portraying me and people like that. And now that I know Slick Willy, I Superman in a series of big-budget motion pictures, was, you treasure that contrast more than ever. -RFM are no doubt aware, paralyzed from the neck down after a horseback-riding accident. Horseback-riding is, of course, far How censorship works - On June 1, 1996, ABC more dangerous than either motorcycling or riding in an auto­ News ran a feature arguing that the Russian media have a mobile, and Reeve had neglected to wear a helmet or to tie pro-Yeltsin bias, and are doing things that are "anything but himself to his horse, let alone append to his horse the various democratic." The evidence: safety equipment required on motor vehicles. (1) the press follows the president wherever he goes and Liberty 7 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 reports whatever he does, however trivial; monopolies. Meanwhile, the income generated from privati­ (2) demonstrators opposing the president are rarely if ever zation is more often than not applied to maintaining an exces­ shown, no matter how many there are; sive bureaucracy, paying for electoral campaigns, and filling (3) the presidents' political opponents are grilled when the foreign bank accounts of the rulers, their families, and they are interviewed. their friends. This was described as "Soviet-style censorship," a rather In the past year, the Venezuelan government has silly thing to say when one considers that in the Soviet Union, unleashed a cynical political persecution against 400 "fugi­ dissidents were grilled literally. But more interesting is this: of tive" bankers, accused of causing the largest financial crisis in the three points in evidence, how many do not describe con­ the history of my country. There are some well-known gang­ ditions in the United States? -JSR sters among those that fled, but many of those facing arrest warrants are not guilty of gross misconduct. Some may have Hard time - When hardtimers compare notes about committed minor irregularities or simply made managerial why they're in Georgia state prison, David Moseley must win mistakes, but obviously they have no reason to trust the the gold: five years for the felony of committing oral sex with highly politicized and dishonest Venezuelan judiciary. They his wife. The State Parole and Pardons Board has ruled that are the victims of President Rafael Caldera's desperate search Moseley must serve at least two years of his sentence. His for scapegoats for Venezuela's economic debacle, following attorney - Clive Stafford-Smith of the Southern Prisoners his all-out campaign against "capitalism" and the economic Defense Committee - provides insight on the almost unprec­ reforms started by former president Carlos Andres Perez. edentedly stiff ruling: "1 suppose the recidivism rate is rather An old acquaintance - a high-ranking executive of a high." -WM multinational corporation in Buenos Aires who previously held a similar position in Caracas - recently told me that pri­ Justice, Latin-style - Many plagues have swept vate-sector corruption is much more widely spread in Latin America in recent times, but the most pernicious one Argentina than in Venezuela, since in order to close impor­ has been the growing politicization of its judicial systems. tant sales to other private companies large payments must be That, in turn, has led to widespread corruption. If there is no made under the table to purchasing managers. In other respect for the law, neither is there compliance, and soon words, the private sector has been contaminated by govern­ chaos follows. ment practices. Across Latin America, as our dictators and caudillos were displaced by democratically elected governments, the appoint­ The fundamental importance of the rule of law was ment of judges gradually became a function of party allegiance described by EW. Maitland more than a century ago: "The and the judge's political tendencies. Over time, as the law was exercise of power in ways which cannot be anticipated causes increasingly exposed to political manipulation, its prestige some of the greatest restraints, for restraint is most felt and receded. In countries such as Venezuela, rulings and decisions therefore is greatest when it is least anticipated. We feel our­ are sold to the highest bidder almost every day. The winners selves least free when we know that restraints may at any either have deeper pockets or the right political connections. moment be placed on any of our actions, and yet we cannot Another extraordinarily negative influence is that the anticipate these restraints. ... Known general laws, however wealthiest and most powerful multinationals now operating bad, interfere less with freedom than decisions based on not in the region are no longer the old United Fruit or Standard previously known rules." Oil, but rather the Colombian drug cartels. Thanks to When the law is interpreted according to political parti­ Washington's decision to make war on the foreign production sanship and expediency, political freedom becomes a sham, and transportation of drugs, the major battlefields of the and people begin to feel nostalgic for better times under some Drug War are in our countries, where the monthly salary of a past autocrat. Then, at least, everyone had a clear understand­ police officer or a judge is about what a street drug seller ing of what was allowed, and the circle of privilege was earns ona bad night in New York or Los Angeles. smaller than under the current"democratic" regime. And so Without the rule of law, investments and job creation can­ one sort of tyranny breeds another. not flourish. Mexico, Venezuela, and Argentina have partially -guest reflection by Carlos A. Ball opened their economies, but this has not brought general prosperity and high levels of Independunce Day - The most employment; instead, "privatization" has Liberty's Editors overblown, overrated, disappointing, popular, mainly benefited those close to the corridors Reflect and stupid movie of the year? The prize goes of power. That explains the lukewarm electo­ DB David Boaz to Independence Day., The movie is full of dumb ral support earned by the political parties RWB R.W. Bradford dialogue and even dumber technical errors. identified with economic reforms. Indeed, DC Douglas Casey The first job of a workof cinematic fiction is to often violent opposition has erupted against a NC Nathan Crow make the viewer suspend disbelief, to make mislabeled "neo-liberalism" - policies that MG MinaGreb you say to yourself, "Yes, I know it's just a tend to benefit mainly the political and busi­ BBG Bettina Bien Greaves story, but everything is the way it would be in ness elites, while the common people have to RPM RexF. May real life." I have no problem with an alien pay more for the goods and services they buy WM Wendy McElroy invasion; it's a far out, but not unbelievable, JSR James S. Robbins from the formerly state-owned companies prospect. The problem is things like fighter TWV Timothy Virkkala now turned into state-protected private pilot Wayans shucking and jiving over to a JW Jesse Walker 8 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 downed alien craft, lighting a cigar, and then simply punch­ enough to cajole Americans into allowing such reforms. ing the alien in the head (through its space suit) to knock it It's not as though current levels of government are out after it opens the hatch. Or the Earthlings attacking the necessary even by modern liberal standards. We do not live alien orbiters (each described as larger than Manhattan in a welfare state, in which wealth is redistributed from the Island) with conventional munitions. And a dozen more rich to the poor, or even from the upper-middle class to the things like that. lower-middle class. We live in what Anthony de Jasay calls a The movie reminded me of the brain-dead '70s TV series "churning state," where wealth is redistributed from the Battlestar Galactica. The film's only credible characterization is politically powerless to the politically powerful. the scumsucking secretary of defense, who reminded me of a Representative demo0facy has become little more than an cross between Robert MacNamara and Dick Cheney. elaborate con game to shuffle favors, with wealth and I can live with wasting seven bucks and a couple of hours. welfare usually diminishing with each iteration of state What really got me was how much - and why - Americans intervention. liked the movie. Especially the "why," which would seem to This makes the welfare state at least as idealized and be a celebration of everyone joining together to defeat a threat difficult-to-realize as the nightwatchman state (or anarchist from outside, resulting in the total destruction of an innately no-state) of libertarian dreams. Radicals like me want to evil and uncompromisingly aggressive enemy. The problem excise the welfare-state ideal along with the churning-state is that when people are looking for an enemy like that, they reality. Reasonable centrists should want to pare down the usually find him. churning state to a welfare-state minimum. But it looks like The film fits the mood set by the recent TWA explosion neither surgery will happen, at least not until some major and the Atlanta pipebombing. And that's an ugly mood. One catastrophe. Ross Perot sensibly suggests that Americans tipoff to the movie's abysmal quality is that America's second should make the necessary reforms before a catastrophe, but most dangerous politician, Bob Dole - a man who's previ­ even as he says it he seems cast in the role of Cassandra. ously reviewed movies he hasn't even seen - said Americans may now have a feel for what is (minimally) needed, but they are fearful of extending that suspicion into Independence Day is the type of movie Hollywood ought to be any realm as lofty as ideas, principles, or conviction. making. God help us. The man would be even worse as a Which is why Ross Perot's infomercials will gather more movie reviewer than as president. -DC viewers than voters. - TWV Plot twist - In the movie Independence Day, aliens destroy the White House - and then, lamentably, turn out to The case for Browne - I have an almost perfect record of never voting for a winning candidate. Even way back be hostile to earthlings. -WM in college, before I knew the political right from the political left, before I understood anything about free markets and the Al Gore is sooooo bitchin'! - The federal threat posed to them by government, I disagreed with the government has launched a campaign to convince kids that ideas of the majorities. And I'm not about to run the chance of smoking "isn't cool," and the PTA is running ads with the slo­ spoiling my record this year by voting for the Democratic gan, "Be Cool. Follow the Rules." Newsflash! If your parents Tweedledum or the Republican Tweedledee. say not to do it, if your teachers say not to do it, if the presi­ But I'm not opposed to voting. I look on it as a way to send dent says not to do it, it is extremely cool to do it. You can a message to politicians. If large numbers of disgruntled citi­ either be cool or follow the rules, not both. Got it? -JSR zens would go to the polls on Election Day and pull the levers without registering a vote for anyone - in effect, voting for Texarkansan Cassandra Unlike other "none of the above" - or if they would write in the name of a non-Republican/Democratic politicians, H. Ross Perot has friend or a defunct economist, politicians would begin to take gathered a rather large following. The reason isn't too hard to figure: he is charmingly forthright, hypercritical of both establishment politicians and establishment media, and he is f,!£YI ---- • # not a radical. He comes across as a "can-do" centrist ­ America's kind of messiah. WHtRfD Aside from Harry Browne, Perot appears to be the EvE](..,/ /30 DY presidential candidate with the best understanding of why 60 America's a mess. Of course, he descends into banal ? reformism rather easily - demanding regulations on the political elites to require the "highest ethical standards" ­ but that doesn't invalidate much of his other talk, or his general critique of "special interests." , \ And so I have a hard time dismissing him. The average -;:.- ~,==-\ American's suspicion that it shouldn't take a radical to -i ~I - \ \~. "solve" our nation's biggest problems seems, on the face of it, ; -'\ sensible. Balancing the budget would be a remarkably easy task, if people would only own up to their own complicity in D.I~·s the current mess. Ross Perot is almost honest and courageous !lab Liberty 9 Volume 10, Number 2 notice. Votes in the current campaign for Libertarian Harry Browne would not only send a message to politicians that there was dissatisfaction with both major Liberty Live parties, but would show the direction in • • • which the dissatisfied voters wanted gov­ ernment to move. Intellectual sparks flew in Tacoma at "Cultivating Liberty," In an election year, people are more Liberty's 1996 Editors' Conference. There, the best individualist willing to listen than they are at other minds ofour time met to debate the future ofliberty and society times to discussions about the economy - and to have a ton offun in the process. and the role of government. So libertari­ ans should not lose the opportunity elec­ Now you can witness the proceedings for yourself! A complete tions offer them to promote their views. set ofvideotapes costs only $390. A complete set ofaudiotapes is We could "win" without even placing just $150. Sessions can also be ordered individually: $19.50 per Browne in the White House. Remember that Socialist Norman Thomas ran for videotape, $5.95 per audiotape. president in every election from 1928 to So join in the excitement ofthe 1996 Liberty Editors' 1948. Although he never won political Conference. With these terrific tapes, you can experience it all office, he "won" a more important vic­ year! tory. The politicians of the New Deal years and later adopted most of Thomas' The Liberty Group. R.W. Bradford plays John McLaughlin for an all-libertarian ideas. In the process, the United States roundtable on the issues of the day, with Bill Kauffman, Jack Shafer, Douglas government was transformed into an Casey, and Durk Pearson. (Audio: A201; Video: V201) interventionist state with steep taxes, Should We Abolish Criminal Law? What if all law were civil law, and all prosecutions public housing, and government regula­ were privatized? David Friedman considers ways to introduce free markets into the tion of employer-employee relations, justice system. (Audio: A202; Video: V202) health care, etc. A strong vote for Harry Browne this year would help libertarians The Human Genome Project: What's Happening Now? Ross Overbeek offers words win a real victory, by showing that many from the genetic front. (Audio: A203; Video: V203) people want today's big-government pro­ Libertarianism As If(the Other 99% of) People Mattered. We know we're right and grams repealed. -BBG they're wrong - or do we? Loren Lomasky offers some advice about living in an unfree world. (Audio: A204; Video: V204) Three The great debate - New Advances in Free Speech. Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw describe their third-party candidates - the Libertarian ongoing battles with the FDA. Lively! (Audio: A205; Video: V205) Party's Harry Browne, the Green Party's Ralph Nader, and the Reform Party's The Unappreciated Politics ofLudwig von Mises. R.W. Bradford makes the Ross Perot - can reasonably claim the Misesian case for democracy. (Audio: A206; Video: V206) right to be included in the presidential Recollections ofMises' NYU Seminars. Bettina Bien Greaves takes you back to debates. Yet not one was invited. In a Ludwig von Mises' seminars at New York University, which she attended with sane world, the question facing debate several other libertarian notables-to-be. (Audio: A207; Video: V207) organizers would not have been wl1ether to let them in, but which establishment How I Found Slavery in a Free World. Douglas Casey is his usual witty self in this candidate should join them, Clinton or wide-ranging discussion of the state of the world today. (Audio: A208; Video: V208) Dole. One of them ought to be there, to America (Fifty) First. Bill Kauffman offers some thoughts on the new nationalism defend global military crusades, - how it might advance liberty, and how it might hinder it. (Audio: A209; Video: managed-trade agreements, and the V209) other bipartisan policies all three popu­ The Prostitutes' Rights Movement in America. Wendy McElroy vindicates the rights list contenders reject. But both of them? of whores. (Audio: A210; Video: V210) Whatever for? -JW The Fruit ofInfamy. Bettina Bien Greaves investigates the incompetence and snafus Just vote "".no - Each electIon that led to the Pearl Harbor debacle. (Audio: A211; Video: V21l) year, political scientists talk about The Rhetoric ofReform. Fred Smith tells how to sell freedom in an unfree world. "negative voting," by which they mean (Audio: A212; Video: V212) that some people will vote for a Why the Great Depression Lasted So Long. Robert Higgs explains how government, candidate for the sole purpose of casting not free markets, caused the Great Depression; how the New Deal prolonged it, a vote against that candidate's opponent. instead ofcuring it; and why World War II didn't bring the Depression to an end. Why not replace negative voting with (Audio: A213; Video: V213) a negative vote? This would mean that Radicalism vs. Pragmatism. Bruce Ramsey, R.W. Bradford, David Friedman, and voters could go straight to that hated Fred Smith debate which approach is better, the incrementalist or the abolitionist. politician and cast an "I don't want this (Audio: A214; Video: V214) 10 Liberty Share the Excitement!

Education Rhetoric: Anatomy of a Pseudoscience. Nathan "new urbanism," new planning doctrines that could be Crow exposes the unsound teaching methods sweeping the threatening your town next. (Audio: A220; Video: V220) country - and how more sensible alternatives are being Religion and Liberty. What relationship - if any - is there suppressed. (Audio: A215; Video: V215) between religion and liberty? Is one good, bad, or irrelevant to Liberty and the Press. Working reporters Bruce Ramsey and the other? Jane S. Shaw, Timothy Virkkala, David Friedman, Jack Shafer join editor R.W. Bradford and former Richard Stroup, and R.W. Bradford debate all these issues in journalist Jane S. Shaw to figure out how and why the media this lively exchange. (Audio: A221; Video: V221) does - and doesn't - go wrong. (Audio: A216; Video: Technology ofTax Limitation. Scott Reid examines the means V216) we have at our disposal to limit taxes and spending, and how Inside the Browne Campaign. Jon Kalb gives an insider's governments have gotten around them over the years. (Audio: account ofHarry Browne's presidential campaign. (Audio: A222; Video: V222) A217; Video: V217) Market Incentives in Public Policy. Richard Stroup looks at the Civil Society Chic. Jesse Walker tries to figure out the recent recent trend towards "incentives" in environmental regulation and popularity of "civil society" rhetoric - and why most of the other public issues. Where are markets appropriate, and what do people deploying it seem so uncomfortable with actual they entail? (Audio: A223; Video: V223) existing civil society. (Audio: A218; Video: V218) Law as a Private Good. David Friedman gives an economic Is Greener Really Betterfor Business? Some say defense of anarchism. (Audio: A224; Video: V224) environmental regulations improve the business atmosphere; others say they eat away at profitability. Who's right? Richard Stroup, Jane S. Shaw, David Friedman, Ralph r -, Smead, and R.W. Bradford give their answers. (Audio: I ------Complete Set Video @ $390.00 = _ A219; Video: V219) ____ Complete Set Audio @ $150.00 = _ I Coming Soon to a City Near You. Randal O'Toole explores I Rand Set Video @ $105.00 = _ I the brave new world of "urban growth management" and the -.... I Rand Set Audio @ $ 35.00 = _ I I Individual sessions (list by number): I I I The also included a special I I series oftalks and panels about the late novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand. For I Total audiocassettes @ $ 5.95 = _ I only $105, you can have all six I Total videocassettes @ $19.95 =---- I videotapes in this series - or, for just Postage & Handling__ ($3 per order)* = _ I *foreign orders: ,$1.00 per audio, $2.50 per video I $35, all the same talks on audiotape! I Total: ---- The Problems and Challenges ofWriting Rand's Biography. I I DI enclose my check or money order (payable to Liberty) Featuring Barbara Branden. (Audio: A225; Video: V225) I Arguing with Ayn Rand. Featuring John Hospers. (Audio: o Charge my [J Visa C Mastercard Expires: _ A226; Video: V226) I Signature -+ I Ayn Rand's Ethics. Featuring Lester Hunt. (Audio: A227; Video: V227) I Account # ...... - I That Fountainhead Rape. Featuring Barbara Branden. I Name: _ I (Audio: A228; Video: V228) Ayn Rand and Libertarianism. Featuring R.W. Bradford. I Address: ------­ I (Audio: A229; Video: V229) I City, State, Zip: ------I What Is Living and What Is Dead in the Philosophy ofAyn Phone Number: Rand. Featuring Barbara Branden, John Hospers, Lester I I Hunt, and R.W. Bradford. (Audio: A230; Video: V230) I Call 1-800-854-6991, or write Liberty Book Club, I ..• Dept._------BC10, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368. ..I Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 idiot/bastard/kook in office" ballot. Sure, some people even (or especially) in dissolution, is indisputably more would just automatically cast negative votes for every important than most others. candidate but the one(s) they choose. But wouldn't it be Many heterosexuals seem oblivious to the practical impor­ wonderful to see a candidate win only because he or she got tance of marriage; they see it primarily as a symbol that the least negative votes? -MG homosexuals wish to invade merely to despoil. Not so. If one member of a same"'sex couple ends up in the hospital, his Crack newshounds - Who says the media ignore partner has no legal standing to advocate for him. He may high crimes· in high places? In August, the San Jose Mercury even be denied visiting rights. He generally cannot adopt his News published an illuminating series by Gary Webb about partner's children, inherit Social Security, or perform any of the U.S. government's involvement in cocaine-trafficking ­ the myriad of legal functions to which a spouse is entitled. in the 1980s. Better late than never, I suppose: I'm glad that For decades the American right has jeered at gays not some major newspapers (several have reprinted Webb's arti­ merely for performing forbidden sexual acts, but for perform­ cles) have put the hypocrisy (}f the Reagan years on the table ing them with too many people, for leading unstable and for future citizens to see. But this story was not unknown at lonely lives, for showing, in short, too many of the faults (if the time; those of us who were opposed to the contra war that is what they are) of single men. Now it's time for hetero­ were aware even then of reports that this was going on, and sexuals to put up or shut up. You cannot in good conscience tried to publicize the relevant evidence. Webb has done an lambaste a group of people for deviating from social norms excellent job of bringing a new facet of the story to light ­ and yet do everything possible to split them off from the apparently, crack first came to Los Angeles as part of a contra social support that would bring them into society. financing operation - but he's extending a story many other Libertarians who offer mere hand-waving assertions that the journalists have been working on for years. state has no role in marriage are tacitly supporting the One footnote: not long ago, Webb reveals, the feds Defense of Marriage [sic] Act, and giving aid and comfort to decided not to prosecute Danilo Blandon, one of the gentle­ ancient prejudices that have poisoned our lives. -NC men who raised funds for the contras by dealing dope, because he could be more useful as a DEA informer. 1984 AM - I heard Big Brother on the radio the other Moneymen for Third World thugs are apparently exempt day. Just as Orwell predicted, he was bland, calm, reassuring, from the Drug War - at least while there are still teenagers at and utterly authoritarian. His name is Reed Hundt, and he is rock concerts and poor black kids who have yet to be locked chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. How away. -JW does one get to be chairman of the FCC, with statutory power to make the nation's most powerful cultural influences do as The straight and narrow - As I write, the you say? Well, it doesn't hurt to know the right people. question of same-sex marriage is going before Hawaii's Hundt attended the exclusive St. Alban's School in Supreme Court. Technically, the outcome is in doubt, but Washington, D.C., with Al Gore, then met Bill Clinton and according to what I heard when I lived in O'ahu, a decision Hillary Rodham at Yale Law School. He's a quintessential mandating equal treatment is a foregone conclusion. After all, product of that baby-boomerIHarvard/Yale/Rhodes the state of Hawaii is basing its case on the argument that gay Scholar/Renaissance Weekend network, a group so inter­ marriage would be "bad for the children" of such marriages. twined that The New Republic was moved to call it "Clincest." This, of course, is obviously absurd. Can anyone really say Friends of Bill and Friends of Hillary, who share the First with, as it were, a straight face, that children (adoptive or bio­ Couple's heartwarming faith in their own ability to plan eve­ logical) of gay parents are better off in the relatively fragile ryone else's lives, are busily reconstructing\America. unmarried state? Or does the state believe that homosexuals Hundt's job is to make broadcasters serve the public inter­ not accorded marriage rights will have no children - an idea est - which, he pointed out on "public\{adio's Diane Rehm that goes beyond implausibility into fantasy? Show, cannot be defined as "what the puBlic wants to see." The typical libertarian position on this issue is that the Small children, for instance, are not a very big market, so gov­ state has no business regulating marriage, and should simply ernment must ensure that they get some programs that will butt out. It's an appealing but superficial view. For only the be good for them. Of course, since he had· just a few moments most radical libertarians - anarchists, properly - think that earlier talked about hundreds of channels, couldn't profit­ the state has no role in enforcing contracts. And the marriage seeking businesses serve even a very small market segment? contract is just that, a contract - one whose enforcement, And ~on't Nickelodeon and the Family Channel and the Cartoon Network do just that? I guess the problem is that those stations broadcast "what children want to see," not what Reed Hundt and Tipper Gore want them to. Hundt told every caller that he wanted what they wanted - broadcasters requirrd to do this, pr9hibited from doing that. Of course, the difference between him and them is that he has the guns to make the broadcasters do it. Through it all, he was genial and very progressive - he's going to use mod­ ern technology and market forces to get what he wants, unless, of course, he has simply to order people, as with .R.III requiring that every network broadcast three hours of gov- "Oh, red, [ gues~. What's your favorite color?" 12 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 ernment-approved children's programming every week. constituency to be won, and this old rhetoric has been forgot­ When one concerned listener asked what she could do when ten. How many articles, speeches, press releases, and Internet she heard something broadcast that she didn't like, Hundt rants have been devoted to this hobbyhorse, citing such unim­ replied, "We're setting up a nationwide phone number" ­ peachable sources as USA Today to convince young folks that and here, even on radio, you could actually see host Diane they must be individualists - after all, all their peers are? Rehm visibly brightening: "A toll-free number?" she raptur­ It's entirely possible, of course, that we of Generation X ously asked. "Yes," Hundt said, "1-800-CALL-FCC." I won­ tend to be more libertarian than our parents, and that the baby der what would happen if I called to say that I don't want to boomers tend to be more libertarian than the generation before hear Big Brother on the radio any more. -DB them. If so, what we're seeing isn't an antinomian generation, but a citizenry increasingly suspicious of state action. Why Left, right, and post-babyboom - Memo to not pursue that story, instead of spouting wild generational the movement: could we please have a moratorium on arti­ generalizations? -JW cles declaring that "Generation X" - millions of people with diverse interests and views - "is" "libertarian"? The latest The endearments ofterm limits - American offender is Auren Hoffman, a senior at Berkeley, who writes politics is shifting to a post-term limits paradigm. in the Summer 1996 Liberator that baby boomers "tended to The pre-term limits worldview is still held by many state be, in the 1960's and early 70's, ideologues that crusaded for and federal legislators. Unwilling to accept popular support their causes and made love, not war. Then the boomers sold for the reform, these lawmakers are trying to revise or over­ out their ideology for BMW's, stock portfolios, and cable TV. turn the limits voters have enacted. One of their favorite tac­ The liberal boomers soon became Reagan Democrats or fiscal tics is to equate term limits with special interests. Another is Republicans." (Thank you, Auren, for that Hollywood to maintain that the people did not understand what they Minute.) GenX, on the other hand, is "more libertarian": "We were doing (e.g., "They meant to impose term limits on tend to distrust government control of anything - we don't Congress, not the state legislature"). want the government meddling in our bedroom, our com­ The post-term limits paradigm is held by a handful of leg­ puter, or our income." We don't? You and I might not, Mr. islators and a large group of citizen-activists. This grassroots Hoffman, but I grew up with plenty of people who do. coalition intends to build on term limits by bringing further A decade ago, it was the boomers who were supposed to be reforms to Washington and state capitals. One of the move­ unusually libertarian, the first generation in recent history to ment's central themes is that politicians should live under the be fiscally conservative but socially liberal. Now there's a new same laws as the people. For example, if politicians' pensions Minds Are Receptive Now to the Libertarian Philosophy

Lackluster major candidates, an articulate and exciting Libertarian Party slate, and widespread disgust with "government as usual," make the election this year an unusual opportunity to establish greater acceptance ofour philosophy. Radio is a particularly effective medium - we are spreading the word through talk shows and effective advertising spots on the air. Efforts this season may have a greater impact than at any time in history. We need your help. $1,000 (the maximum allowed) buys a day ofadvertising in dozens ofmarkets; $250 buys an ad; every contribution helps. Please send a check to the address below today. This may be your last chance to make a difference in this century. Thanks for being a part ofour effort.

Radio Liberty PAC (561) 832-0016 P.O. Box 6621, West Palm Beach, FL 33405 Paid for by the Radio Liberty PAC. Federal law requires political committees to report the name, mailing address, occupation and name ofemployer for each individuals whose contributions aggregate in excess of$200 in a calendar year. Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 are tax-exempt, private pensions should be, too. Another ernment class at the expense of the American people. The theme is to extend competition into the political arena by post-term limits paradigm responds to independents by revising election laws. acknowledging their concerns as legitimate and attempting to Evidence of this paradigm shift is especially acute in areas expand the parameters of debate. where a large and growing bloc of independent voters has The contrast between the competing paradigms is illus­ emerged to challenge the two-party system. In thousands of trated by their contrasting positions: precincts, independent and third-party candidates received Pre-Term Limits: Post-Term Limits: double-digit vote totals in 1992 and 1994 - often enough to Oppose Term Limits Support Term Limits hold the balance of power. Tax-Free Pensions for Politicians Tax-Free Pensions for the People For the most part, these independents are neither the con­ Politicians Vote on Politicians' The People Vote on servative Reagan Democrats of the 1980s nor the populist Pay Raises Politicians' Pay Raises Middle American Radicals identified by political scientist Full-Time Legislature Part-Time Legislature Negative Campaigning None of the Above Ballot Option Donald Warren a generation ago. They are explicitly anti­ Restrictive Ballot Access Low Ballot Access political, and, as such, can be understood only within the con­ Laws for Independents Signature Requirements text of the post-term limits worldview. Establishment politi­ Restrictive Signature Require­ Lower Signature Require- cians who try to appeal to these voters with traditional issues ments for Citizen Initiatives ments for Citizen Initiatives are bound to fail, as they have many times already, because Exempt Politicians from Apply Freedom of Freedom of Information Act Information Act to Politicians their pre-term limits perspective cannot explain, let alone Exempt Party Caucuses from Apply Open Meetings Act interpret, this voting bloc. Open Meeting Act to Party Caucuses Typically, they try to explain the independents away by Exempt Lobbyists from Stricter Reporting Require- characterizing them as "confused." The old politicians dis­ Full Disclosure of Activities ments for Lobbyists Oppose Financial Support Financial miss the new independents' concerns as "illegitimate" and, as Disclosure for Politicians Disclosure For Politicians such, outside the permissible parameters of debate. (The Multiple Pensions for Ban Double-Dipping establishment generally prefers to debate itself.) Government Officials The new worldview, by contrast, interprets term limits as Indifference to independents' concerns has already led to a fundamental, anti-political response to the government term limits, the most important legislation to date in the class and its obscene system of perks and privileges. The 1990s. Further indifference will only lead to more sweeping reformers accuse political institutions of enriching the gov- grassroots initiatives. -guest reflection by Greg Kaza How would you like to work from your home in your sweats? You could if you were one of the 25 million Americans who are now working out of their homes. Americans are starting to understand they can no longer depend on the big corporations and government for their own security. They are starting to take responsibility for their own financial futures. Get the real scoop on the work-at-home market from two FREE cassette tapes recorded by George & Jeanie Douglass. They started a $50 million-a­ year business from the basement of their home and they have already helped men and women of all ages start their own home-based businesses. In these FREE cassette tapes George & Jeanie will tell you: • What equipment do you really need to • Who is most likely to be found working work from your home? A fax? A computer? from the home? Women? Men? White col,­ A modem? How much is all this going lar? Blue collar? Who? to cost? With more and more Americans jumping • What are the top businesses you could off the corporate ladder and into home­ operate from your home? How do you based careers of their own, now is the time Call toll free market yourself and your services and to explore the issue with George & Jeanie or products when you work from your home? Douglass, America's experts on working • Can you really earn a living working from the home. write: from your home? Computer Business For FREE cassette tapes and color literature Services, Inc. CBSI Plaza, Ste. 3387 Call1-800-343-8014,ext.3387 Sheridan, IN 46069 There is absolutely no obligation. © CBSI Analysis

The Liberty Presidential Poll by Chester Alan Arthur

What are the prospects for Harry Browne's presidential campaign?

On September 17, a national polling organization conducted a poll for Liberty, asking 1,000 likely voters to choose among five presidential candidates: Democrat Bill Clinton, Republican Bob Dole, the Reform Party's Ross Perot, Libertarian Harry Browne, and the Green Party's Ralph Nader. The results are not very encouraging to Libertarians: July 15, 1996: poll showed. They suggest that Browne Bill Clinton 47.4% Bill Clinton 47.7% would receive between 1.1 million and Bob Dole 40.6% Bob Dole 41.6% 2.3 million votes, if the election had Ross Perot 8.1 % Richard Lamm 4.9% been held at the time of the polls. Even Ralph Nader 1.2% Harry Browne 2.1 % th 1 f th f 1 1 '11' 0/ Undecl'ded 3 80/ e ower 0 ese Igures -. ml Ion Harry Browne .3 /0 . /0 . b . 11 h' h h h Undecided 2.4% votes -IS su stanha y Ig er t an t e September 3, 1996: best LP vote total ever. The survey suggests that Harry Bill Clinton 50 1°/c Th'" . B ld 1 b t Bob Dole . 0 IS raIses Important questions: rowne wou garner on y a ou 39.1% Wh th d'ff d' ? 330,000 votes lee.f th 1ect'Ion ha d been Ross Perot 6.3% Whoyareh 'f e 1 11erences. so r rama1 hc. held on that day ~ a figure substan- Harry Browne 1.50/0 lC , 1 any, po IS most re lab e? tially lower than the 1988 vote total of Undecided 3.1 % . Several factors may account for the Libertarian candidate Ron Paul, and In addition, a CNNjUSA Today dIfference. only slightly above the disastrous 1992 Poll conducted by the Gallup organi- Time: While the Liberty poll and campaign of Andre Marrou. zation did a poll similar to the Liberty the CNNj USA T~day poll were con- Further, it showed a much smaller poll on September 13-15, only a few ducted almost sImultaneously, the difference between Clinton and Dole days earlier. It asked voters to choose two surveys conducted for the Browne than many would expect. This also among seven candidates: the five can- campaign were done much earlier. has important implications for the didates listed in the Liberty poll, plus Historically, support for third-party Browne campaign. Because so many Taxpayers Party nominee Howard candidates tends to decline as Election voters fall prey to the "don't-waste- Phillips and Natural Law Party candi- Day nears. It is plausible that support your-vote" argument when consider- date John Hagelin. for Browne is slipping badly. ing casting their ballot for a third- Here are the results: Options offered voters: Both party candidate, such campaigns usu- Bill Clinton 49.00/0 Browne organization surveys were ally do best in races that are per- Bob Dole 33.0% limited to the major-party nominees, ceived to be routs. In tight races, Ross Perot 6.00/0 the Reform Party nominee, and people resist voting for "fringe" Ralph Nader 2.0% Browne himself. This probably ,candidates. Harry Browne 1.0% inflated the Browne total, since it Earlier this year, the B~rie-cam- Howard Phillips 1.0% made him the recipient of support paign commissioned two professional John Hagelin .5% from most voters who were hostile to polls. Although the campaign has not All these polls show much better all the major candidates. Further, the yet released the results to the press, results for Browne - three to seven first Browne campaign poll included copies have been leaked to me: times as much support as the Liberty Richard Lamm, \ rather than Ross Liberty 15 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

Perot, as the Reform Party candidate. reliable data. Of the 3,000 likely voters than is generally believed. Furthermore, Lamm is not nearly as popular or well­ surveyed, 39 stated a preference for all the data listed below represent large known as Perot, so this choice presum­ Harry Browne. In comparison to voters subpopulations, so this data should be ably increased the totals of the other in general, they were more likely to be quite reliable. (I grouped supporters of candidates. white, male, and young and less likely Perot, Browne, and Nader together with The CNN/USA Today poll, on the to live in the South or the Midwest. undecided voters in the category of other hand, included two candidates Here is Browne's support among "Other supporters" so that the category whose vote totals are likely to be various subpopulations: would be statistically significant.) swamped by Browne's. Presumably, Men 1.9% While Bob Dole has promised to this would further dilute Browne's sup­ Women .8% reduce income taxes, neither he nor any port from voters disgusted with the Age 18-24 1.6% other major-party nominee in recent major candidates, so it doesn't explain Age 35-54 1.4°/0 years has called for eliminating the its difference from the Liberty poll. Age 55+ 1.1% income tax. Only Harry Browne calls Poll subjects: The CNN/USA Today White 1.3% for such a program. If Browne can con­ survey didn't report the number of Black .3°10 vince even a tenth of those who agreed Northeasterners 3.1% respondents, though Gallup's surveys with this radical notion to vote for him, Southerners .4% typically report results of about 250 vot­ he would receive almost five million Midwesterners .8% votes - enough to move the LP from ers from each day and CNN/ USA Today Westerners 3.7°/0 % reported a sampling error of ±4 , which the fringe of American politics toward is consistent with a survey of about 750 Taxes vs. Benefitsl center stage and to change the subjects. The Liberty and Browne cam­ The news from the Liberty poll isn't American political agenda. paign surveys had 1,000 subjects, result­ all bad, however. The survey also Of course, that's a very big "if." The % fact is that to date, relatively few voters ing in a samplingerror of ±3.2 • asked likely voters another question: Statistical noise: The smaller the "Thinking about the federal budget for are familiar with Browne, and few of segment of any survey population, the a moment, would you give up all your those who have heard of him are likely less reliable the data. Opinion surveys favorite federal programs if that meant to cast their ballots for him. Few voters routinely contain a warning that con­ you would never again have to pay any know of Browne simply because the LP clusions from a subpopulation of fewer income tax for the rest of your life?" is a small organization and the Browne than 100 should be viewed with Here are the results: campaign has very limited financial extreme caution. The number of resources. Most Americans get their Browne responses in these surveys Yes, I'd give up the programs. 42.5°/0 political information from tele­ ranged from three to 21. This is cer­ No, I'd continue to pay income taxes. 46.3°/0 vision. There are two ways to tainly the biggest factor in explaining Not sure. 11.1 °/0 the variation among the polls. get television coverage: by pur- In sum, thanks to the statistical chasing advertisements, and by The fact that 42.5% of likely voters noise, none of the polls is very reliable, gaining sufficient popularity that televi­ except insofar as it indicates that the agree with this radical notion - and sion news organizahons provide free central theme of the Browne campaign Browne campaign is achieving signifi­ publicity. Television advertising costs - suggests that the electorate may be a cant numbers. money - a lot of money. Early this year, more fertile ground for libertarian ideas The biggest discrepancy among the Republican Steve Forbes invested over polls, of course, is the huge difference in support for Bob Dole between the "Would you give up all your favorite federal programs if that meant you CNN/USA Today survey (33%) and would never again have to pay any income tax for the rest of your life?" Liberty's (40.6%). Obviously, this differ­ Group No programs/taxes Continue programs/taxes Not sure ence cannot be accounted for by the Men 51.3% 39.5°/0 9.2% small size of the sub-population. I per­ Women 34.8% 52.2°/0 12.7% sonally don't have a clue why it's there; Age 18-34 45.2°/0 45.2% 9.7°10 the explanation I am offered by profes­ Age 35-54 47.0°/0 41.9°10 10.8°/0 sionals - and I'm not making this up Age 55+ 35.0°/0 52.3°/0 12.7°/0 - is that the Gallup poll generally Whites 43.0°/0 46.1°/0 10.9°/0 Blacks 41.7°10 skews towards Democrats. (Other 44.8°10 13.5°10 Democrats 33.2°/0 55.4°/0 11.4°/0 polls, incidentally, tend to have Dole Republicans 50.0°/0 36.8°/0 13.2°/0 numbers similar to the Liberty Poll's.) Independents 46.2°/0 46.6°/0 7.3°/0 Clinton supporters 31.0°10 59.9% 9.1 °/0 Who Supports Harry Brownel Dole supporters 52.0% 36.0% 12.1 °/0 Combining data from the two polls Other supporters 55.8% 27.5°10 16.7% conducted on behalf of the Browne Government employees 31.0°/0 55.0°/0 14.0% campaign and the Liberty poll - all of Non-government employees 50.0°/0 40.0°/0 10.0°/0 which were conducted by Grassroots Retired 57.0% 30.0°/0 13.0% Research - provides somewhat more Not in workforce 52.0°/0 36.0°/0 12.0% 16 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

$37 million in television advertising, of many libertarian activists, and for not a very enviable record, but far bet­ almost managing to capture the GOP good reason. Browne is the most articu­ ter than those of other party observers, nomination. Even Morry Taylor late presidential candidate the who have generally predicted totals (remember him?) spent almost $7 mil­ Libertarian Party has ever nominated, many times higher than the actual lion of his own money in a campaign and his campaign is the best-managed results. that netted him practically no votes. A to date. Browne has managed to get tre­ When I learned that Liberty was campaign like Browne's, a campaign mendous mileage from his guest commissioning its poll, I hoped that it that can raise only around $1,000,000 or appearances on talk radio. Given the would provide an important tool for so, simply cannotbreak into the big time paucity of its financial resources, the predicting the LP vote total in the by purchasing television advertising. Browne campaign seems to have maxi­ November election. For reasons already Television news organizations only mized its impact on the 1996 presiden­ discussed, however, the poll has lim­ cover candidates doing well in the tial election. ited predictive value. The number of polls, and it is difficult for a small Libertarians are more optimistic votes that Harry Browne will get party's candidate to spur enough pub­ about their candidate's prospects than depends on several factors: how well he lic interest to show in the polls. In the in any election since 1980, when the conducts his campaign, how the other past, candidates outside the major par­ party's nominee was able to purchase candidates conduct their campaigns, ties have gained public support either extensive television exposure, thanks to how the news unfolds, and how the by vying for a major party nomination the generosity of David Koch, its vice­ public perceives the horse race as (George Wallace, John Anderson) or by presidential candidate. Browne's cam­ Election Day approaches. being a genuine celebrity (Ross Perot). paign co-chair, Douglas Casey, has pre­ The Liberty poll demonstrates that a So the Browne campaign has had to dicted that Browne will receive very large minority of voters agree with find ways to get publicity and votes 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 votes this fall ­ Browne's radical proposal to dump all that don't cost millions of dollars. four to five times as big a vote-share as Harry Browne has made literally hun­ programs providing government bene­ the party's previous high-water mark fits in exchange for eliminating the dreds of appearances on talk radio, in 1980. often more than a half-dozen in a sin­ income tax. The problems Browne faces Of course, predictions of high vote are that few voters know of his propo­ gle day. Browne wrote Why totals are much easier to get than high sal and few consider him to be a credi­ Government Doesn't Work, a summary vote totals. Indeed, ever since the LP's ble candidate. Both these problems of his political program, which has first major national campaign in 1976, could be solved by a large influx of cash sold reasonably well. His staff has its candidates' totals have been well - an unlikely development. mounted a highly visible campaign in below its members' pre-election esti­ As it is, Browne plans to continue cyberspace, and thousands of LP acti­ mates. Such disappointments have his efforts on talk radio and to purchase vists have worked on his campaign at engendered criticism and outright ani­ a modest amount of television advertis­ the grassroots level. mosity toward candidates. The wide­ ing on CNN. Browne was not invited to If the Browne campaign had the $37 spread perception of failure has also participate in the presidential debates, million that Forbes poured into his own lead to "burnout" of party activists, campaign, or even the $7 million that but he will appear with other minor­ resulting in a massive turnover of party Taylor spent on his, it might have volunteers, leadership, and campaign party candidates on CNN's Larry King already had real impact. But the staff. Live following the debates and Ross Browne campaign does not have a So libertarians ought to try to get a Perot's half-hour appearance. He may multi-million-dollar war chest. It seems realistic feel for how well their candi­ appear on a few other television inter­ to be spending its limited resources date is being received, if only to avoid view programs, and will continue to get wisely, but the fact remains that it will the emotional shock of their candi­ some coverage from the daily press. probably not make a major break­ date's low vote. Unless at least one of the major can­ through. didates commits some terrible blunders Even so, the Browne campaign has The Prospects or some major world development radi­ already had considerable success. It has for November 7 cally changes the nature of the introduced libertarian ideas to a large Realistically, what are the prospects presidential race, Browne's vote total audience and energized the Libertarian for the Libertarian presidential cam­ will likely depend on how close the Party (whose membership now stands paign in 1996? Previous attempts to race appears as Election Day above the 20,000 level, nearly twice its predict LP vote totals have been guess­ approaches. size four years ago). Further, it has timates at best. The most accurate pro­ If it looks like a very close race, introduced an unprecedented level of jections for the past two elections were Brown might get as Iittle as 400,000 competence to the LP, which is now mine, and they were pretty much based votes. If it's a blowout and things break more likely to succeed in converting on extrapolation of recent vote totals, right for Brown, he could get a million election publicity into real organiza­ tional growth. my perception of the effectiveness of or so votes. If I had to pick a number, each campaign, and the size of the dif­ I'd say he'll get about 650,000 votes. Expectations ferences in voter support among major­ But as I write, there are 40 days to The presidential campaign of Harry party candidates. My predictions have go before the election, and a lot can still Browne has captured the imagination proved to be accurate within 10% - happen. 0 Liberty 17 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 Journal San Diego De-Scripted by Stephen Cox

August 1. A clear day, 75 degrees Fahrenheit. San Diego is is a disaster, and always will be a disaster. It's just an exhibi­ the only place in the country where weather forecasts are tion space. It's made for 10,000 people, and they need to cram regarded as a joke - not because they're never right, but 20,000 people into it. The place has a low ceiling. It has pillars! because they're never wrong. Bob Dole will be nominated for I can't imagine why these people decided to come here, of all president on the Republican ticket, and the temperature will places. I guess they never looked at the room." remain at 75 degrees for the duration of our lives. Those are This brings up the matter of balloons. Dole the two certainties we have in San Diego. wants balloons, thousands of balloons, to Right now, Republican functionaries are as scarce as descend on him when he's anointed. clouds, except.on welcome signs attached to buses. The signs According to my friend, the guys who are illustrate a jolly elephant in shades and baggies. The model trying to put the convention together was obviously not Bob Dole. can't convince the candidate's staff that "balloons don't look very festive when August 2. Natives are beginning to sense the they·fall two feet." impending competition for prime urban ter- ritory. A local Republican activist, August 4. Early this afternoon, whom I interviewed today about (/~ .:::::::=====:- CNN reports that Barry his party's electoral prospects //II~ J!r ~ ~/~~ ~__, Goldwater plans to vote ("Nil!"), complains that people ~////?/ '1/((1) #~ //'/"/' JI against Bob Dole "unless he's have been temporarily forbid- \~ I -0 0 JI the only person running." den to sail their yachts past the ,,\\ \~ ~ ~~ // According to "Goldwater, 87 Convention Center. "All this non- \, \~ ~ ~ ..:< ~/ years of age," President Clinton is sense about 'terrorism'! It's "A ~ \\\\ ~. ~ /~~ "a good man with a good wife." enough to make you move to El IJ-';".. \\~ . .(I (, ~~; Applied to anyone but Clinton, the Cajon!" El Cajon is a suburb of ~ ~., ~\.\\\ -1 ~ ,~~ compliment would seem utterly innocu- San Diego. San Diegans believe ~ ~.•~.:'. ~\...:,,- ous; applied to him, it's evidence that that Dante operated in three ) ~ , Goldwater's faculties are in a state of ter- venues: Paradise, Purgatory, ,,; minal decay. Even CNN, which Rush and El Cajon. But El Cajon is not a 1111111 fi Limbaugh accurately terms the Clinton bad place, really. If it were located \\ ~ News Network, feels the need to explain in New Jersey, it would be called \\\ ~ (( --!I#\ the. comment by associating it with the for- the New Jersey Riviera. ~ III mer senator's age. 'I l~. ~~ ~ Later in the day, the network seems August 3. San Diego news media, If ~ relieved to report that Goldwater says which are always skipping over to the ~GiU/ '. \) he was "only kidding." sunny side of the street, have been say- This episode leads me to wonder - ing that all the, uh, problems with the convention hall have yet again - why Dole thought it was politically smart now been solved. No, that's not exactly what they've been to advertise the celebration of his last birthday. Maybe he's saying; that might sound depressing. Let's put it this way: the actually a lot older than 73. convention hall, which was originally just right, has now been successfully "refigured." This declaration is San Diego's stab August 5. Today, Former Senator Dole unleashed the big at postmodernism. tax reform plan that he failed to unleash when he was merely A friend who is big in the local entertainment business Senator Dole: an incentive ($500 tax credit) for poor people to assures me that "the so-called convention hall was a disaster, produce children, and a general tax cut of 15%. Promising 18 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

these things, Dole says he believes that "America stands on advertisement, followed by its pompous announcement of the threshold of a breathtaking future." His voice trembles: "one vote for Mr. Ross Perot [groans], one vote for Governor why? He makes no flat tax proposal. Cathcart C. Cathcart [dutiful applause], one vote for Mr. The 30% of the population that retains its sense of smell Charles Barkley [frenzied cheers], and 14 and one-half votes may be convinced to vote for Dole simply because he is not, for Sen. Bob Dole, the next preSident of the United States! after all, either Bill or Hillary Clinton, but even these people [More dutiful applause.]" would like to see Dole come out with some specific reason With almost as much pomposity, subsidy-seeking scien­ why he should be president and not anyone else who doesn't tists announce today that they have discovered life on Mars. happen to be named Clinton. The flat tax would have worked; Well, maybe not on Mars; maybe just on a rock that came the 15% tax cut may work, but it has to struggle against the from Mars, maybe. And not quite life. Sort of something like impression that this is the kind of thing that politicians life. Sort of something like the stuff that hangs around places always promise. I discussed the issue with my August 5 focus group, which consisted of a Republican businessman and an inde­ I don't care if this makes me a social conser­ pendent businesswoman. The discussion indicated a heavy vative, but "I'm a Soul Man" isn't my idea ofa discount rate on the tax-cut promise. Female prospective voter: "Well, that's what we heard from Clinton." Male pros­ campaign anthem, even with an idiotic change pective voter: "Yes, that's what we heard from Clinton." to "I'm a Dole Man."

August 6. There is now a 22-foot rubber elephant on top of a downtown hotel. She is smiling, and her name is Miss Betty. where there might have been life, once. Hearing this, I am The local press demurely observes that Miss Betty is "just one irresistibly reminded of the Dole campaign. of oh-so-many elephants in town." The following sentence has nothing to do with the preced­ August 7. Nothing happened today, unless you want to ing. I talked today with a young journalist who is covering count the Republicans' agreeing not to fight about the abor­ the convention. He announced that reporters and editors tion part of the platform. This is good news for the party, "actually are all liberals. I believe it now, although I didn't use although I have yet to meet anyone who has ever read a polit­ to." What's news to me is that even one person in the country ical party platform. Anyone, that is, except members of the was ever in doubt. Libertarian Party. Libertarians always read every line of Meanwhile, fresh reports arrive from the architectural everything. front. The speakers' platform will not stand at the end of the convention hall but in the middle of one of the room's side August 8. Today's big buzz is that Dole has selected Jack walls. This bold move toward the literal as well as the meta­ Kemp as vice-presidential candidate. I pass this intelligence phorical center will put Dole and Co. almost eyeball-to­ along to someone working for the convention. "No! Really! eyeball with most of the television cameras, to be stationed Maybe we have a chance!" So much for confidence in the directly opposite. My sources say that "the networks are still head of the ticket. upset, claiming that they can't get the right angles." (Get it? Interviewed, Kemp quotes M.L. King: "I don't know what No right angles.) "But the people who ought to be upset are the future holds, but I know who holds the future." The the people in the audience, who are going to be huddled in a "who" is God, not Bob Dole, with whom Kemp has had cer­ corner, over there behind a pillar someplace. And quite a few tain well-publicized differences. I guess he hasn't had any of the party's dignitaries are going to be ushered into a 'spe­ major differences with God. I hope that the future holds a rad­ cial room,' which means a room where they can watch the ically revised Dole campaign, making more credible promises proceedings on TV." of reductions in taxes and government in general. Here's a weird rumor. In order to demonstrate their party's Clinton is now prowling around California, stopping technological hipness, which exceeds even the hipness of Vice rush-hour traffic and trying to grab as much media as he can. President Gore, the Republicans intend to give every delegate Democratic Party operatives whom I encounter believe that an Internet (or Intranet) account, which he or she can use to ... this is just the cleverest thing that their guy ever came up vote! The party thinks that this scheme is practicable because with. They may be right. - get this - 15 minutes have been allotted to the ballotting for the presidential nomination. Let's see: E =M what? Either eve­ August 9. My friend Paul picks me up in his truck and we ryone will vote at once, and it will be instantaneous, or people drive down to Anthony's Fish Grotto, where Bob Tyrrell, edi­ will line up at terminals, and it will take forever. But (so the tor of the Spectator, is plugging his new book, charmingly enti­ rumor goes) nobody has figured out just how this miracle of tled Boy Clinton. The affair is arranged by the county efficiency is going to be engineered, much less how to give Republicans, evidently with assistance from the Spectator's Miss Betty from Biloxi a crash course inhacking. mailing list. I put the average age of this crowd at 45 and the Dole's advisors, who live someplace where there aren't average income at $100,000. Casual dress predominates any people, may not realize that if you have a nominating despite a general sense, conveyed by the nice lady on the tele­ convention in which the nomination is uncontested, the only phone, that you might want to dress up, if only a little bit. thing that TV viewers look forward to is the ritual in which "Just please don't wear a tanktop." Well, in San Diego you each sovereign state is called to make its long self- never know. Liberty 19 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

While waiting for Tyrrell to come on, Paul and I have a train come in at seven o'clock. The eleven-car special from chance to stare at the speaker's platform. Paul observes the Northern California is rumored to have cost the party $75,000. absence of bulletproof plastic, which is strange, given Nevertheless, it's evident that the Republicans don't know Tyrrell's reputation for controversy. Paul jokes that "if he how to make the trains run on time. Seven o'clock turns to wants protection, all he needs to do is get Bob Dole up there eight o'clock, and the local orators are still taking up the slack. in front of him. No Democrat would want to hurt him then." They enjoy it. Other enjoyers include a little mob of counter­ Prayer, pledge ,of allegiance, announcement of a party at demonstrators. Some of them are pretending to be cigarettes Planet Hollywood. Sort of an odd assortment of symbols, but - an apparent, though unexplained, allusion to Dole's no one seems to notice. "It's a great day to be a Republican, reported failure to denounce smoking as inherently addictive. isn't it!" I cannot understand how anyone could possibly get a kick When Tyrrell gets up to speak, he says that he hopes his out of dressing up like a cigarette and going down to the train book will help "send Clinton back home - and then to a fed­ station (with his little kids!) to scream his head off at people eral penitentiary." Wild applause. The rest of the speech wan­ who couldn't give a good goddamn about anything he has to ders through the dark and twisted landscape of the Clintons' scream. There's one fat lady with frizzy hair who keeps power. What they imported from Arkansas was not a pretty way of doing business. As the crowd of nice Spectator subscribers filters out of I ask Forbes if he plans to run for president Anthony's Fish Grotto, I am struck by the eeriness of American politics. On the one hand, you have the again. "That depends," he says, "on whether Republicans of San Diego County going about their daily Dole runs for a second term." And he keeps on business, trying to get their friends to sign onto the party at smiling. Planet Hollywood and figuring out how they're going to get the old people down to the polls. On the other hand, you have the power of the Oval Office, a power that is none too sanely screeching, "Tell it to Jaaaaack! Tell it to Jaaaaack!" I guess she exercised at any time but that is quite capable of turning to means Jack Kemp. I don't know what she means by "it." sheer madness, madness with a worldwide reach. The various There is also a little group of artist types who show up parts of the system seem impossibly out of proportion, yet dressed like pigs, carrying cute little signs that supposedly they condition each other and can even, possibly, destroy mirror Republican positions, like "Women as Breeders, Not as each other. You can spend the rest of your life trying to under­ Leaders!" This I understand. It's just the typical stinking stand how this works. ignorance of people who think they know it all. The Republicans, many of whom are ostentatiously smok­ August 1o. The Kemp thing is now official. Universal ing cigarettes that they just rushed out to get, seem mildly to rejoicing among the Republican throngs now gathered. No enjoy the demonstrators. But I wonder what would happen if one, of any description, has a bad word to say about Kemp. I a bunch of Republicans showed up at a Democratic rally suppose that this is 50% because of Kemp's sincere and fer­ dressed like some kind of animal that is stereotypically asso­ vent advocacy of major tax reductions, and 50% because peo­ ciated with Democrats. I'll bet those people wouldn't last very ple think he's a real vote-getter. long. I'll also bet that this is one of the obscurely felt reasons Conference of the Claremont Institute, conservative intel­ why people vote Republican. lectual outfit, held at a classy hotel near the convention center. Finally (8:40 p.m.) Gingrich's train pulls in, and it really is Charles Kesler, one of the Institute's gurus, maintains that the a thrill, no matter what, to see a fine locomotive come down Republican Party is still trying to scrape off the mud once the tracks, flying a giant flag of the California Republic and a slung at it by FDR, according to whom it was virtually "un­ giant flag of the United States. But the Republicans couldn't American." Bill Kristol of the Standard regrets that Republican have made much money on this run. They wanted to attract leaders are still so chagrined about what happened at the paying guests, but fewer than 100 people get off the train, and national convention in Houston in 1992, where Pat Buchanan a lot of them look like press. held forth and reputedly alienated prospective voters, that Newt steps off with Jeanne Kirkpatrick, George Shultz, they have programmed this convention to avoid an "exposi­ and some other bigwigs, and first he has to talk to the press. tion of Republican principles." Unfortunately, "not being like He does that for about 15 minutes, then he comes up to the Houston is not an agenda for a party." The good news, accord­ platform and makes what is actually a very good speech. He ing to Kristol, is that "big government isn't over, but faith in has the fat man's advantage of getting authority into his ges­ big government is over." Bill Rusher ofNational Review regards tures, and he smiles a lot and looks healthy, which is hard for Kemp as good news, too. Kemp "gives a tremendous boost to a lot of fat people to do. He gives the audience to understand the ticket." Rusher.insists that victory requires economic con­ that they'll win the election if they'll just remember to tell eve­ servatives (by which he probably means libertarians) and rybody they meet that the good news is "one thousand, two social conservatives to work together: "If I get hit by a truck hundred, and seventy-two!" That's the number of dollars that walking out of here, remember: you must keep those two Dole's tax cut will save you ifyou're average in some respect. wings of the conservative movement together." At the end of Newt's speech, a fireworks display goes off -There's a lot of truth in all of this, and there's a swell down at the Bay. It's not connected with the speech. In fact, reception afterwards. Newt would have trouble holding even this devoted audience I walk over to the Santa Fe depot to see Newt Gingrich's of supporters and antagonists if he went on longer. But it's 20 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 the most wonderful fireworks display that I've ever seen. Protest Area, a fenced-in venue that is just outside the fenced­ in beachhead of the Dole campaign. In the OPA a minuscule August 11. Dole wanted to enter the city by train, but his throng is listening to a Democrat reciting (hold onto your hat) advisors thought the event would look better "if there was the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution: "The powers not water involved." I guess they were right; there's plenty of sea­ delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor pro­ water around here, and it ought to be used. But the hibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respec­ Republicans can't make the boats run on time, either. Dole is tively, or to the people." This man has certainly wandered scheduled to cross the Bay and land at the convention center into the wrong party. at eleven a.m. He gets there at 12:10. Speaking of parties, the best party in the world is thrown by That's not so bad. What's bad is the intervening "enter­ Steve Forbes at the San Diego Museum of Art, which is dis­ tainment." It's not patriotic songs, which presumably would playing Forbes' collection of political memorabilia. All good be liked very well indeed by any crowd that is willing to get stuff, too; not a bit of junk. Here's Washington's draft of his up on Sunday morning, drive downtown, find a parking first inaugural address, in which he expresses surprise that space a mile and a half away, line up and go through metal some people could be so bored with life as to seek public office. detectors, and wait in the sun, just to see Bob Dole. Instead, it's And here's a letter from FDR, dismissing the allegation that his live soul music, then recorded music by Van Halen, and all wife (like You-Know-Who) tunes in to the spirit world. incredibly loud. I don't care if this makes me a social conserva­ "It's fun to collect these things," Forbes tells me. He is the tive or not, but "I'm a Soul Man" isn't my idea of a campaign same smiling little nerdy guy you saw on television, and he's anthem, even with an idiotic change to "I'm a Dole Man." obviously having fun being a host as well as a collector. Obviously, however, somebody thinks that this sort of noise There's elaborate food and drink, good music (a lady with a will impress the admittedly impressionable 40-year-olds. violin), and an ice sculpture of Mount Rushmore, with Forbes' But here they come, Bob Dole and Jack Kemp, standing in head perched on top. Forbes deserves the elevation, if anybody does. If it the bow of an excursion boat, festooned by flags, accompanied weren't for him, Jack Kemp certainly wouldn't be on the by other excursion boats, mobbed by chanting followers, and ticket promising his "flatter tax." Forbes has hired about a followed by police boats, yachts, a spouting fireboat, and the million twentysomethings to turn up everywhere and pass tall ship Star ofIndia. Dole's big chartered aircraft makes a low out flat tax campaign paraphernalia, which everybody seems pass over the Bay, Secret Service men secure the beachhead, to love. I ask Forbes if he plans to run for president again. and the candidate steps ashore and up to the microphone. "That depends," he says, "on whether Dole runs for a second This is good campaigning, and the speech is surprisingly term." And he keeps on smiling. good, for Dole. "Tax cuts" are succeeded by "limited govern­ ment" and a declaration that "we're going to end the IRS as we know it." This works the crowd up pretty well. When he August 12. First day of the convention. The ceiling is low, makes that comment about the IRS, someone yells out, all right, and the pillars are mammoth. But it's not as bad as it "That's worth 20 points in the polls, right there!" The second might be. It's sort of quaint, in fact. The place looks like one of half of the speech is not so cool. There's a laundry list of those convention halls that you see in nineteenth-century gripes, including gripes about the Clinton administration's alleged failure at pursuing the drug war. Has Dole actually convinced himself that drug use is "up" because of anything The tube is now the tyrant. Nothing what­ that Clinton did or did not do? Luckily, this nonsense gets only mild applause. If Dole wants to get elected, he should ever is permitted to occur in this building that stick to his most libertarian themes. cannot serve as prime-time advertising. Kemp, who introduces his new boss with a short, strong speech, stirs up the crowd by advocating a "flatter tax" and declaring that the Dole administration will reanalyze the func­ illustrations. It looks like it's ready to entertain debate on the tions of the IRS, starting from square one. The Republicans Kansas-Nebraska plank. suddenly don't look so ancient, and "I'm a Dole Man" is not The convention floor maintains the traditional arrange­ the reason. If these people push the flat - all right, "flatter" ment: archipelagos of rocklike delegates who appear to have - tax, they'll have a chance. At this time in the 1988 and 1992 died in their seats, surrounded by ceaselessly frothing aisles. campaign seasons, polls showed Bush about as far behind the What's new is the program. After 50 years of television, it has Democrat as Dole is now, and Bush won in 1988 and could finally happened - the tube is now the tyrant. Nothing what­ have won in 1992. But the Republicans have to go for the tax ever is permitted to occur in this building that cannot serve as code's jugular. prime-time advertising. As for the famous "character" issue, it's well enough han­ Nobody will be allowed to announce that it is a distinct dled by Dole's new campaign slogan, which is plastered on honor and privilege for him to serve as the introducer of the every available surface: "A Better Man for a Better America." introducer of the temporary chairman, who will have the dis­ Not so good is the 10' x 20' replica of the White House behind tinct honor and privilege of introducing the next set of intro­ the speakers' platform. It's like the model of Stonehenge that ducers. What you hear is only a disembodied voice that you saw in Spinal Tap. I wonder what happened to the danc­ booms out, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mrs. Nancy Reagan!," ing dwarves. after which Mrs. Nancy Reagan strides to the microphone, I think I've located a few of them over in the Official speaks her piece, and is followed immediately by "Ladies and Liberty 21 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

Gentlemen, General Colin Powell." Nobody has occasion to stuff, even his well-phrased attack on "corporate welfare," in pound a mighty gavel and futilely command the sergeant-at­ which he calls for "reform of the entitlement state, not just the arms to clear the aisles. Who cares if the aisles are cleared? welfare state." When I get home, ABC informs me that his Who cares about anything except getting Bob Dole elected? remarks on that subject were greeted by "a deafening After all that controversy about the platform's abortion silence." But they weren't. plank, I cannot for the life of me discover when, if ever, the The networks seem to have missed the most dramatic platform will be submitted for adoption. Like the delegates, event of the evening, the arrival of Pat Buchanan. He's been anchored or ambient, whose eyes keep wandering from the holed up with supporters in San Diego's conservative North speakers themselves to the Citizen Kane-like projections that County hinterland, but tonight he entered the convention -loom up behind the speakers, the party's statement of princi­ hall. Aiming, perhaps ostentatiously, for one of the seats ples apparently just exists. Nobody needs to make a decision reserved for second-class guests and reporters like me, he about the platform, or anything else. never quite arrives. People jump from their seats and sur­ Tonight's special TV presentation is the Liberal's Home round him. Security people are knocked to the floor. One that Companion, featuring the governor of New Jersey (female, was left standing leaps onto a chair and yells, "Go back to pro-choice) and endless little segments about "Main Street your places! Go back to your places!" Your places? Who does Americans" who Fight Drugs or Have AIDS or Are Black or she think these people are, movie extras? Help Kids or otherwise Represent Something connected with After enough maneuvering by security guards, Pat and "diversity" or "inclusiveness." One pretty little girl steps for­ the throng that encircles him ("swarming like ants!," in the ward to read a poem that says, "I am the future and I have words of an anti-Buchanan lady) slowly subside onto the flat AIDS." This is shockingly exploitative, not to mention stupid. land next to the convention floor, but 20 feet outside it. And I don't know how many people take offence at it. Maybe there he stands, while President Ford hands out libertarian nobody. Maybe everybody. In any event, the rule is that when propaganda from the speaker's platform: "A government big a speaker stops for applause, everyone applauds, on the enough to give you everything you want is a government big assumption that this will help win the election. I realize how enough to take from you everything you have." Better late right Bill Kristol was about the party's desire for an intellectu­ than never, Jerry. Buchanan stands with hisback to the plat­ ally bland convention when a Republican operative tells me form, taking questions from the mob that continues to fill his that "this sure beats the hell out of Houston!" conquered quadrant of the hall. All the speeches take the same length of time and have Eventually, during President Bush's speech, Buchanan sits exactly the same syntax. They seem about as original as Mrs. down, walled off on three sides by beefy guards who are try­ Clinton's book. Even the speeches by former presidents ing to protect either him or the convention. No announce­ appear to have been written by the same committee. If you ment is ever made of the presence of the man who was once frontrunner in the primaries of 1996. But for a brief, startling moment, there was the sense that the convention might have Falwell's face alone is the size of a St. been halted by a great, hysterical stampede toward the party's prodigal son. Bernard, and it's the color and consistency ofa It's not that everybody loves Pat Buchanan. Most people badly whitewashed wall. who saw him enter sat stolidly, perhaps feigning indifference, perhaps simply feeling it. Not much more effort would have been needed, however, to disrupt· even this absurdly con­ were looking forward to some wOllderful Bushisms, as I was, trolled convention. We may not have seen the end of old­ you're in for a terrible disappointment. The last Republican fashioned anarchy, and I hope we haven't. The tendency of president is given absolutely no chance to denounce "drug the San Diego convention is to assimilate the bottom of the ping-pins" or make any of those sublinguistic utterances that political pyramid completely to the top, annulling the mys­ used to be so eloquent. tery of the great republic by assembling Mr. and Mrs. Main There are a few original touches in Nancy Reagan's speech Street so that they can very politely usher one of themselves about "Ronnie," which as you would expect is the sentimental into that nice Oval Office. It's sort of a lie, but it's also sort of favorite of the evening. And there is certainly one original the way things actually are at this convention. touch in General Powell's address. After claiming that he But Pat Buchanan, despite his ghastly follies - protection­ became a Republican because he favors "freedom, opportu­ ism, industrial policy, and all the rest of it - is a real person, nity, and limited government," he reiterates his support for and real people are mysterious and disruptive. When the ses­ affirmative action as well as abortion. I can see how a pro­ sion is over/Pat stands laughing and joking in the midst of his choice position could be consistent with "limited govern­ disciples. Someone holds up a baby, and he. stretches out his ment," but affirmative action has somewhat different associa­ arms for it. A man yells, "Pat'll make it smile!," and he does. tions. Of course, General Powell is oblivious to any of his own Behind him, the crowd ebbs away. Above, in one/of' the vast complications, and he is a surprisingly dynamic speaker. He illuminated command posts of the television networks, an has one genuinely good line, a line which carries that slight anchormanreclines inNeroniansplendpr while newmakeup is stiffness, that slight whiff of archaism, that suggests sincerity. applied. The speaker'splatformis empty. We can all go home. "Bob Dole," he says, "is a plain-spoken man." Powell's coming through for the party, all right. The dele­ August 13. Walking down to the convention hall, I pass a gates applaud everything he says, even the affirmative action guy carrying a sign that.reads, "Republicans Are Enemies of 22 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

All Living Things Except Rich White Males." He seems pleased little voice that you think she's auditioning for Ding Dong with himself, though perhaps somewhat lonely. The Official School. The best speech is delivered by J.C. Watts, the black Protest Area is equipped with loud loud loudspeakers, but representative from Oklahoma. He is handsome, articulate, there are never more than a hundred people in it. Last night thoroughly charismatic. If he doesn't want to be president, I when I passed by, about 20 gay people were hanging on the don't know what's wrong with him. inside of the fence, taunting passing delegates by screaming, During a momentary lull in the program, the audience is "Queer Rights Now!" This is also mysterious. Obviously entertained by horrible rap music about "families," broadcast they're not trying to convince anybody, and you can only guess at the decibel level of four jet engines. In front of me, a 90­ what additional rights (as distinguished from entitlements) year-old lady performs an impromptu disco dance, all by her­ they would like to have. They seem pretty free right now. self and beaming with pleasure. This is probably the first Across the street, a mariachi band puts on a muchbetter act. music she's been able to hear in about 25 years. I've been wondering why the seats in the convention hall The advertised high point of the evening is the keynote are never filled, and why nobody really needs to huddle address, delivered by Rep. Susan Molinari of New York, behind a pillar. Now I've found the answer. All the delegates another pro-choice woman. According to the media, many and their guests and the press and everybody else are busy pro-life delegates have decided to walk out rather than buying things. If you take the escalator upstairs you come to endure Molinari's remarks, but I see no signs of depopulation. The Emporium, which is the place where trinkets are sold. The room is packed, and it deserves to be, because it's so won­ derful. There are buttons and bumper stickers and stuff to I would like to vote Libertarian. I would also stick on your refrigerator and screwy spectacles that show like to see Clinton get the electoral crap knocked you "The World as Clinton Sees It." There are oh-so-many ele­ phants. There are American-flag golf balls. There are huge out of him. I am aware that my two desires are atrocious insta-oil portraits of Reagan, Buchanan, Dole, and not entirely consistent. people who are a little harder to identify. There's a presiden­ tial limousine from the Nixon Library and a sign that says that its windows could stop a .30 caliber rifle bullet and its I stand next to the South Carolina delegation, where there are wheels could make 50 m.p.h. even if all four tires were flat. a lot of people wearing white hats, regarded as protest hats, There's a guy dressed like Colonel Sanders. There are fanati­ that boldly advocate "The Life of the Party." These folks cal Republicans who sit at tables, drinking beers and applaud Molinari as much as you could expect anybody else denouncing the press: "They have destroyed Newt Gingrich to. The aisles are crammed with youth-for-Dole, who scream like they destroyed Dan Quayle." There's a store that sells whenever they are urged to do so by a guy with a communi­ buttons from the Willkie campaign. "No More Fireside cation device stuck in his ear. These kids are the manage­ Chats." "We Don't Want Eleanor, Either." In a place like this, ment's insurance policy. you have to hold on to your heart as well as your wallet. Curious to find out how all the inclusiveness is going Walking regretfully back to the auditorium, I encounter down with the pro-life crowd, I attend an after-session party someone who could only be described as Jerry Falwell. He's for Roman Catholic delegates. The Catholics in attendance are scheduled to deliver a benediction at eight p.m. tomorrow, decorous, soft-spoken people, and they don't seem upset but he seems to have arrived a little early. J.F. is the biggest about Molinari or anything else. Questioned, they mildly man I've ever seen, and one of the strangest. His face alone is regret that the convention is as thoroughly managed as it is. the size of a St. Bernard, and it's the color and consistency of a Sen. Santorum of Pennsylvania, who is almost as boyishly badly whitewashed wall. He is so strange-looking that I feel charismatic as J.e. Watts, shows up to talk about a bill that ashamed to notice it. I stare at him in open-mouthed amaze­ he's sponsoring on partial-birth abortions, a wedge issue. ment (which, come to think of it, probably doesn't make me Santorum expects enough votes in the House to override a look very attractive, either), and J.F. smiles faintly back, as if veto, but he needs to round up twelve more votes to veto­ his attention were wholly engrossed by the complicated pro­ proof the Senate. The policy of the church, he says, is to give cess of making all the parts of his vast body move in one moral support but insist that laypeople do the real work by direction. He executes a series of rolling motions and deposits themselves. On the welfare issue, however, "we've crossed himself behind the broadcast table of a radio station. You just swords with the bishops." can't keep a preacher away from a microphone. Nobody that I talk to in this group can enlighten me on When I regain the convention floor, it occurs to me that when, if ever, the all-important G.O.P. platform was officially another reason why people stay away from the auditorium is adopted. And everybody seems to take it for granted that that it's freezing down here. Maybe 50 degrees Fahrenheit is Dole may very well lose the election. That won't matter; good for crowd control; it certainly makes me want to keep they're in the party for the long haul. A man from the my mouth shut, if that will conserve some heat. The speakers, Republican National Committee tells me in an off-hand way however, are the kind of people who wouldn't mind selling that Pat Buchanan visited the convention again tonight but refrigerators to any bunch of Eskimos they found. didn't seem to have much impact. If Buchanan did come, he Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas now occupies the was invisible to me. platform. She is a tough political cookie, and she has been given the job of saying mean things about Clinton's "friends." August 14, the Day of Nomination. I am fighting for my The trouble is that she says them in such a sing-song, smiley life against the arctic cold of the convention hall. I don't care Liberty 23 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 who's speaking, I have to grab some coffee. from Idaho praises "world-famous potatoes - and mouth­ I beat it up to The Emporium, and who should be sitting watering onions, I might add." The Gentleman from Maine there for an interview by black radio personality Armstrong advertises "fine lobsters, and finer Republicans." The Williams but Strom Thurmond, former delegate to FOR's first Gentleman from Puerto Rico suggests that Puerto Rico be nominating convention, former governor of South Carolina, admitted to the union. (Thank God, there is practically no former presidential candidate (in case you don't remember, applause, even from Puerto Rico.) I wouldn't change any of he carried the South on the States Rights ticket in 1948), win­ this for the world, but I do notice that when the process is ner in 1954 of the only write-in campaign that ever elected a viewed up close and without any immediate prospect of an United States senator, and senator from South Carolina ever alcoholic drink, it is exquisitely boring. since then. At 94 years of age, he is campaigning for his eighth The television networks are making nasty comments term of office. I feel as if I had blundered into Queen Victoria. about how hard it is to "cover" a convention where nothing I must add, however, that Sen. Thurmond looks no older unpredictable is allowed to happen. (Query: When do they than 81. While Williams talks, Thurmond gazes placidly off "cover" anything?) Ted Koppel has even decided to leave into the middle distance, but when asked a question, he town early. I have to sympathize - but couldn't they find focuses sharply, speaks forcefully and coherently, and always something to report? 1 have. And I wonder if we'll hear the remembers to tum his comments into a plug for Dole. When same thing about the Democratic convention, which will there's a commercial break, Williams thanks the senator probably make the Republican convention look like the pri­ kindly for allowing himself to be interviewed, but meval Chaos, dark and rude. Thurmond's assistant says, "The senator [who is again gazing placidly into the middle distance] would like to do another August 15, the Day of the Speech. Here's something bitterly segment." Williams readily assents. During the wait, a 40­ unforeseen. The temperature (outside the hall) has soared! It year-old woman and her 20-year-old daughter bustle forward is 80 degrees, and the only explanation possible is that all the and ask to take pictures with the senator. The daughter wraps hot, humid air is leaving the convention and flowing into the her arm around Thurmond, and he suddenly flashes an enor­ streets. This turn of events disorders the brains and destroys mous, 50-year-old grin. Then placidity returns. "Sen.," the faith of all true San Diegans. Where are we?, they wonder. Williams asks, "what role has God played in your life?" "Ah What kind of world is this? Was Bob Dole really nominated wuz raised in a Christian fam'ly, and ah wuz taught that lahf yesterday? If so, could he actually have a chance to win? in this world is temp'ry." These thoughts bubble inside my overheated brain as I While consuming my emergency coffee, I meet the seller stagger down to the convention through streets filled with of atrocious portraits, an intelligent, smiling young man with happy visitors and miserable San Diegans. By the time I get a long ponytail. there, I think it's about time for a drink, so I ask Andrea, "How's business?" Liberty'S cub reporter, to enter the hall and locate some "Terrible! I've only sold two pictures." famous people. She spies Pat Buchanan walking into the gal­ "Well, these people have better taste than I thought." lery where Mrs. Dole and other V.I.P.s are wont to roost. Pat "No, they don't. They come by and say how nice the pic­ slaps J.C. on the back a few times and stands around grinning tures look, but they think my prices are too high." and chatting. Does this imply that he supports the ticket? I am so startled by this comment that I forget to write the I watch Kemp's acceptance speech amid the cheering mob prices down - but believe me, they are too high. In The in the Marriott bar. The speech is full of the new, entrepreneu­ Emporium, at least, economic conservatism seems to have tri­ rial Republicanism, the Republicanism of the computer age, umphed decisively over cultural conservatism. the Republicanism that could never have been born without Downstairs, three things happen. the libertarian ideas that infused and transformed the party First, Mrs. Dole gives her astonishing talk about her hus­ over the past 30 years, making it livelier, more open, and band's life. I'm not astonished by what she says, or by the vastly more acceptable to intelligent people than it had been tackiness of allowing the candidate's wife to pull this kind of for generations. stunt before he's even been decently nominated. What aston­ Earlier this afternoon, I saw an even plainer example of ishes me is Mrs. Dole's delivery. She is one of the great Republican quasi-libertarianism. It was a second great flat tax actresses of our time. During,her performance, she abandons party given by Steve Forbes, this time at Planet Hollywood, the TelePrompTer, goes down to the floor, walks around, the Rome to which all roads at this convention lead. Rep. Dick greets old friends, endures technical difficulties, and never, Armey started things off by observing that the Clintonians ever blows a line. There hasn't been anything like this since will happily take credit for the current modest rate of eco­ Edward G. Robinson's long, long take in the suicide-statistics nomic recovery, despite the fact that Washington's chief role scene of Double Indemnity. Bob ought to run a front-porch has been to block recovery by taxing productivity. The flat tax campaign, refuse to say anything but "glad-da meecha," and is opposed by the government, the universities, and every let his wife go out and crisscross the country. special-interest group or corporation that benefits from politi­ Second, Bob is nominated. I'm relieved to discover that the cal handouts. Only the continued, determined efforts of nor­ idea of voting by computer has bitten the dust. In every dele­ mal people can put it across. Please help! It's either us or gation, there's a little terminal perched on a little stilt, and it them. looks mighty lonely. Nobody wants to use it for anything When Forbes spoke, he gave the lie to everyone who por­ except to rest things on. Instead of electronic data transmis­ trayed him as an inept spokesman. He was witty, engaging, sion we have the good old-fashioned roll call. The Gentleman forceful, and as clear as crystal. He justified the flat tax eco- 24 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 nomically, morally, and socially. He showed that it would rad­ convention's most ideological speech. True, it foxes the immi­ ically reduce the power of government, rationalize the eco­ gration issue: legal immigration is declared to be wholly nomic system, give struggling families their chance in life. He good; illegal immigration is declared to be wholly bad. And destroyed all objections. He called the cheering audience to a about the abortion issue the speech is as silent as a hole in the great crusade, and he promised that we would meet again, in ground. But when Dole's text expresses an idea, as opposed victory. to a feeling left over from World War II, it's usually an idea While Kemp's speech is going on, I recur, for the millionth that emerged from somewhere in the tradition of American time, to the sad realization that the Republican Party is the liberty. only political agency that, as of today, can successfully cham­ So what can I tell you? There it is. When the speech is pion decent causes like the flat tax. I would like to vote over, the balloons come down - as predicted, not very far Libertarian. I would also like to see Clinton get the electoral down, but there are an awful lot of them. The depressing crap knocked out of him - because it is either Us or Them, thing is the reflection that Bob Dole has probably waited all and Clinton is Them. I am aware that my two desires are not his life to see those balloons descend for him. And if you entirely consistent. want to feel depressed, you can trust the convention manage­ Returning one last time to the convention hall, I reflect that ment, which is faithful, to the end, to its demented ideas of if it were up to people like me, people like Clinton would music. A country singer is introduced, and he drawls out a probably have a pretty easy ride. While we were worrying ballad about how America has lost her way. Then a senator about whether we could stand to sanction all the bad things tries to lead the crowd in singing "God Bless America." It has that are associated with any major-party candidate who hap­ the simplest melody in the world, and he manages, for some pens to stand for any good things, too, the people who are unaccountable reason, to murder every note. totally bad would fill up both houses of Congress, the presi­ We'll know by November ifanything that happened in San dency, the Supreme Court, and county drain commissions Diego turns out to be an apt symbol of the Republicans' way across the land. Bambi would be outlawed as racist literature, with American themes. I leave the auditorium while the signs smoking a cigarette would land you in prison, and Christmas of the delegations are being removed from their standards and trees would be replaced by festive images of Elizabeth Cady carried off through the streets. There, floating above the mass Stanton. of delegates, protesters, reporters, policemen, and people who Well then, here's the bad half of Dole's acceptance speech. have absolutely no idea of what they're doing, are the Get tough on drugs. Spend more money on the military. Save emblems of the sovereign states - tall, bright, mysteriously Medicare. Save Social Security (save it again; Dole claims he compelling icons leading ... where? 0 already saved it once). Think of America as a "family." Dole even appears to have succumbed to an idea that has been float­ ing around the corridors of this conven­ tion throughout the week, the notion that we should intervene militarily whenever any of the "family" falls vic­ tim to terrorists. The looniness of the Oval Office meets the looniness of Main Street, and it's sincere, as looniness always is. And here's the good half. A defense of free enterprise. A strong contrast between "individual accountability" and "collective excuse." An attack on ideo­ logical materialism (the premise behind the Democrats' every thought): "All things do not flow from wealth or pov­ erty." An attack on "the party of govern­ ment" and an argument for the inseparability of political and economic freedom: "The freedom of the market­ place is ... the guarantor of our rights." Dole's speech, with its eighteenth­ century turns of phrase ("the sometimes Order the CUBES Three Dimensional Reasoning Puzzle. Test your delicate unity of the people ... we will thinking skill solving three dimensional piece fitting problems. speak to every heart ...I will betray Different selection-s of the ten wooden pieces make a 3x3x3 cube, 2 nothing") was obviously written by 1/4 inches on a side, or specific problem shapes. Fifty puzzles in the someone not responsible for the other 16 page Puzzle Booklet. CUBE5 is $25 plus $5 SIH. (MA residents stuff that has been escaping into the con­ 5% sales tax.) Call 800-298-4947 or send a check. Receive a catalog vention hall. Curiously enough, given of our other puzzle systems with your order. Dole's unideological history, this is the Organized Thinking, 220 Boylston Street, Newton, MA 02167 lib Diagnosis

The HMO Illusion by Ross Levatter & Jeffrey A. Singer

Do we really want a privatized version of socialized medicine?

Dr. Jeffrey Singer was among the first surgeons in the Southwest to perform laparoscopic cholecystectomy, an innovative procedure that uses a tiny video camera to guide the surgeon's removal of the gall bladder. Because the operation doesn't require cutting the abdominal muscles, it is less invasive and yields better cosmetic results. Although Dr. Singer found that the operation lowered repair using a mesh implant. This HMO bureaucracies, new procedures costs for and improved the health of operation, which saves the patient mean new billing codes, new pre­ his fee-for-service (FFS) patients, time and money, decreases pain, and authorization instructions, more health-maintenance organizations lessens the recurrence rate, was paperwork. Just as many innovations (HMOs) rejected the procedure as invented in the late 1970s by Irwin in the industrial marketplace come "experimental." When Singer argued Lichtenstein, M.D., who worked in an from small operations rather than that the HMOs would save money by FFS, private-practice setting. The Fortune 500 companies, we should decreasing hospital stays for their operation gained increasing popular­ expect HMOs to lag behind private­ patients, they responded that length ity throughout the 1980s. As patients practice entrepreneurial physicians. of stay was not a relevant variable, from around the United States flocked And in fact, most recent medical since they paid a flat global rate per to Lichtenstein's southern California innovations have developed outside . patient. Even more disturbing, Tn cal­ office, competitive pressures drove the HMO/managed care sphere. culating the cost-effectiveness of their surgeons throughout the country to Driven by the desire for market share, policies, the HMOs did not include adopt the technique for their FFS private-practice physicians constantly the patient's cost in time or suffering. patients. seek innovations in efficiency and Maybe that's understandable from Meanwhile, HMOs' "managed procedures, something managed care a bottom-line perspective. But before care" patients were stuck with obso­ physicians - whose salaries are only the country rushes headlong into lete - and expensive - procedures. loosely connected with the number of endorsing HMOs as the solution to Despite obvious savings due to short­ patients they treat - have less inter­ spiraling medical costs, we.ought to ened hospital stays, the HMOs est in. HMOs generally lack research take a closer look - not just at the refused to reimburse surgeons for per­ and development arms, and have lit­ quality of the service they offer, but at forming such surgery. It was years tle interest in funding exploration of their cost. In the process, we should before they caught up to the FFS medical frontiers. Instead, they parasi­ be skeptical of HMO advocates' opti­ community. tize such innovations from the pri­ mistic claims. Many of the cost-saving Of course, doctors are constantly vate-practice marketplace. examples they cite actuallyoriginated developing new procedures and But these practical problems ·are in the FFS market, and were eventu­ methods, which take time to prove only the tip of the managed care ice­ ally endorsed by HMOs only at the themselves. Most turn out not to be berg. Lurking dangerously below the insistence of doctors and patients,.and helpful, and if we were HMO .stock­ surface are fundamental economic after lengthy delays. holders, we wouldn't want HMOs to obstacles that permeate managed care Consider an innovation in hernia leap on every new procedure. In large - obstacles that, in a free market, 26 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

would make it impossible for HMOs to Current managed care says, "If you can headache values treatment less than replace fee-for-service medicine. come up with the right complaints, someone whose headache prevents him we'll work it up and someone else will from working at all. Built-in Problems pay for it." As patients grow more Head CAT scans, for example, are Fee-for-service health care is not sophisticated about using the system, expensive, and in the large majority of chaotic, and all health care is in some the two paradigms merge. headache patients show nothing; but sense "managed care." The question Patients, of course, are spending occasionally they pick up something we have to ask is, "Managed by other people's money largely because important. Should an HMO perform a whom?" Is it managed by the patient, their employer-provided, tax-free, low­ CAT scan to determine or exclude pos­ who has the most to gain and lose, with deductible health insurance creates a sible causes of the patient's headache? the guidance of the physician or physi­ perverse economic incentive. As Jesse cians of his choice? Or is it managed by Hixson, the economist who originated a bureaucratic "expert" who has deter­ the Medical Savings Account (MSA) mined the "best" way to handle spe­ concept, recently pointed out, "man­ Managed care bureaucrats cific symptom complexes but has no aged care is a response to a fluke in the confuse the objective signs of knowledge of particular patients' inter­ tax code, a Band-Aid on a flawed eco­ an illness with the value people ests, prohibitions, risk aversions, and nomic structure." If those flaws are cor­ other personal concerns? rected, managed care will lose its place on treatment and cure. HMO advocates tout the cost­ purpose. effectiveness of their "decision plans." Writing in the June 1996 issue of But the major theoretical problem with Reason, Dave Jacobsen argued that Should they follow the same rule for managed care is that the more you HMOs control costs through a variety everyone with the same headache his­ streamline the central plan (if condition of mechanisms that improve rather tory? The "decision plan" is bound to A exists, then perform surgery B), the than detract from patient health. For say yes. But an airline pilot is, reason­ more incorrect it is in specific applica­ example, he mentions "frequent advi­ ably, more concerned about his head­ tions - and the more nuances you add sory audits" that help him and his ache than a professional wrestler is ­ to the central plan, the more unwieldy patients "sort out health care they need even though the wrestler has what it is to apply (if condition A exists, and from health care they want." What health statisticians call a higher pre-test the patient is under 50 years old, has no would he think of a restaurant chef probability of significant head injury. known cardiovascular and pulmonary pointing out to him that the steak he One cannot properly.calculate the contraindications, has a family commit­ wants is not really the meal he needs? value of medical services without ted to potential long-term follow-up The idea that such decisions can be accounting for such differences among care, does not practice a religion that made by outside observers for the con­ patients' subjective evaluations as well sumer is an example of what F.A. as the objective indicators they present. Hayek called "the fatal conceit." Yet no managed care system even rec­ The more you streamline the Many critics say the problem with ognizes this as a problem, let alone these "advisory audits" is that they are offers a solution. central plan, the more incorrect coercive - if physicians don't follow it is in speCifiC applications ­ the "advice," their contract won't be The Mirage of Satisfaction the more nuances you add, the renewed or their yearly bonus will You'd think patients prevented decrease. But as long as such incentives from obtaining the services they want more unwieldy it is to apply. are disclosed to patients, they seem rea­ (whether or not they are the services sonable enough. The problem with they need) would complain. Yet the "advisory audits" is more basic: they 1994 Federal Employee Health Benefits prohibits administering blood prod­ ignore cost subjectivity and look only at Program showed that 86% of HMO ucts, accepts a 5% failure risk, etc., then prices. members were satisfied with managed perform surgery B). But costs are not prices. Costs are care - a satisfaction rate higher than Although HMO advocates deny the most valued thing a person gives FFShas. that this adds up to a significant prob­ up to get what he wants. Since that To account for this, you have to lem, several studies indicate that next-most-valued thing varies from realize that most HMO members in any HMOs reap only a one-time, initial sav­ person to person, so does the cost. given year are not patients. Studies that ings. Their annual price inflation paral­ Managed care bureaucrats confuse survey all HMO members rather than lels FFS providers'. This should the objective signs of an illness with the only those who become patients are surprise no one. Patients in HMOs and value people place on treatment and biased toward satisfaction. in FFS face the same incentive not to cure. But different people with, for By way of analogy, imagine a com­ control costs: in both cases, they're example, a similar headache value parison between two health clubs. The spending other people's money. medical services differently. Even if first - the Health Club Maintenance Traditional, insurance-covered FFS both headaches have the same cause Organization - costs nothing up front, said to patients, "Whatever your con­ and cure, the hypochondriac values and claims everything is provided. The cerns or complaints, we'll work it up seeing a doctor more than the stoic, and second - a Fee-for-Service Health and someone else will pay for it." someone who functions well with a Club - requires you to pay a small Liberty 27 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

amount every time you attend, and more managed care patients than So the jury is still out on whether makes no grandiose claims. Now poll FFS patients said that their physi­ managed care is cheaper than fee-for­ the people in the two clubs, keeping in cians did not encourage screening service medicine. But even if it is, we mind that 95% of the members never tests, exercise, weight control, pre­ should keep in mind that the economic attend either club. Even if the 5% who natal care, immunization, and other goal is not to save money, but to maxi­ actually use the clubs prefer the Fee­ forms of preventive care. mize patient (consumer) satisfaction. for-Service club (because of the shorter This, in itself, is no reason to con­ That might be achieved with more wait to use its equipment, the larger demn HMOs. Remember what U.S. air­ money and better services. There's no supply of new equipment, and the lines were like under federal way to predict it in advance - that's greater ease in scheduling a visit with a regulation? Because the government what markets are for. trainer), their opinions will be drowned prohibited price competition, all air­ out by a poll of all I):\embers. lines charged the same to fly from, say, The Power of Responsibility Fortunately, \a better-designed Phoenix to Boston. Airlines competed In Patient Power, economists John study was released in July 1995, per­ instead on a non-price basis: who had Goodman and Robert Musgrave noted formed by Harvard's School of Public the best food, the best service, the pret­ that most debates about containing Health and Louis Harris Associates, tiest stewardesses. After airlines were medical costs can be viewed as compet­ and funded by the Robert Wood deregulated in the late 1970s, competi- ing answers to the following question: Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Pollsters "Who is allowed to decide how much interviewed patients who had actually money should be spent on someone's experienced either FFS or HMO set­ Sutton's law (UCo where the health care?" The current system cedes tings, and found that: this decision to government bureau­ • more than twice as many managed money is") applies in medicine crats, HMO administrators, or insu­ care patients felt that responses to as well as bank robbery. rance companies. their complaints had been "not Goodman and Musgrave argue that appropriate or correct." to remove the market distortions, the • more than twice as many under tion drove prices sharply downwards. decision must be restored to the managed care were "not able to get Service declined as well. But even patient. This cannot occur unless the [an] appointment without a long though people now complain more patient spends his own money. More waiting time." about poor airline service, they also fly than any other program under discus­ • for managed care, the delay in set­ about three times as much as they did sion today, MSAs - tax-free accounts ting up a doctor's appointment was before deregulation, demonstrating that are specifically allocated for 33% greater. with their dollars that they prefer lower present or future medical expenses ­ • managed care patients had to wait prices and less service to better service allow patients to take control of their more than 33% longer to see a at a higher price. own health care wants and needs. doctor. Health care today is in a similar MSAs work well with HMOs as well as • twice as many patients under man­ position. Because most medical costs fee-for-service arrangements. For exam­ aged care felt their physician did are not paid for out-of-pocket, patients ple, a person could purchase a catas­ not explain what he was doing. are more attuned to non-price aspects trophic health insurance policy through • 250% more managed care patients of competition: appointment time an HMO, then use an MSA to pay for felt that their doctor did not explain delays; waiting times to see the doctor; minor health care needs. when and how to take medicines at time the doctor spends with them; per­ In short, "HMO vs. FFS" is a false home. sonal interest in their situation; fre­ dichotomy. The real issue is: Who con­ • such disparities existed for special­ quency of consultations and requests trols health care decisions, patients or ists as well as general practitioners. for specialists. If they paid for all this third parties? • although managed care is supposed additional coverage on their own, they Sutton's law ("Go where the money to encourage preventive medicine, might find less is more. is") applies in medicine as well as bank The RWJF poll did find that robbery. If the federal government FFS patients spent, on average, reforms the tax code along the lines $1,735 in the last year, while suggested by Hixson, Goodman, managed care patients spent Musgrave, and others, patients will be $1,502. Unfortunately, the man­ empowered to spend their own money aged care patients were not on the level and quality of health care asked how much more they they choose. Some will prefer the effi­ would be willing to pay to ciency of HMOs; others will prefer the improve the service deficiencies extra attention and personalized care of they complained about. If the FFS. The crucial point is that each answer was more than $233 (less health care consumer will pay for what than $20 a month), that would he prefers, without involuntarily subsi­ constitute evidence that FFS pro­ dizing others. This, not the efficacy of vides greater value to the consu­ HMOs, should be the issue in the "You've got Gruenbaum's Syndrome, so I'm refer- mer than managed care. health care debate. 0 ring you to Dr. Gruenbaum." 28 Liberty Attack

A Splendid Little War by Jesse Walker

Clinton bombs, Iraqis bleed, Americans vote.

It is unlikely that the historians of the next century, or even the pundits of next week, will devote much discussion to the latest Little War with Iraq. No one seems entirely sure why it happened: Iraqi forces intervened on behalf of one group of Kurds (the Democratic Party of Kurdistan) against another (the Iran- backed Patriotic Union of Kurdistan), provoking the U.S. to bomb southern "strategically worse off," making the killed or left homeless - isn't this what Iraq, hundreds of miles away. It was intervention a success. According to the attacks were supposed to prevent? the sort of non-sequitur that used to more independent analysts, it was a Apparently not. A couple hundred pop up on Saturday Night Live's disaster: Saddam's position has been American CIA operatives were res­ "Weekend Update": "Iraqi troops cued from the northern killing fields; descended upon the Kurdish town of their Kurdish pawnswere left to die. Irbi! today, prompting George The Associated Press, in its bland Steinbrenner to fire manager Billy way, comments that "the latest U.S. Martin." Except in 1996, Billy Martin confrontation with Saddam, like pre­ is dead - and so is some number of vious showdowns, has produced Iraqis. inconclusive results. ... It seems What number of Iraqis? I don't almost inevitable that the cycle will know. I scour my local paper for a begin again." In plain English: casualty count, and the closest I can Nothing has been gained, a few more find is this: "Two rounds of strikes lives have been lost, and in against Iraq have destroyed or badly another year or so we'll kill damaged 15 of Saddam Hussein's air­ some more ragheads. defense missiles." The Middle East, I Speaking for guess, is inhabited by no one but myself, I think weapons - weapons and noble Iraqi policy Kurds. But not all Kurds are noble: towards the besides the bad ones who are siding Kurds is a with Hussein's central government, moral abomina­ there are those with the misfortune to tion. So is Russian be oppressed by ally Turkey rather policy towards the than enemy Iraq or enemy Iran. Or Chechens, Israeli policy something like that. Keeping up with towards the Palestinians, the demonology du jour is too tricky a strengthened, Arab anti-Americanism and Hutu policy towards the Tutsis. I game for me. has been reignited, and, not least, the do not see why the first abomination And what was achieved? attacks did not prevent the Iraqi army merits a military response from the According to President Clinton, from laying waste to Kurdistan. U.s. government, while the others do Saddam Hussein's forces are now Hundreds of thousands of Kurds not. Put another way, I do not see why Liberty 29 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

any of these atrocities deserves any Christopher is off to Western Europe to have no business in Kurdistan either, attention from the American state at all, drum up support from our allies; gub­ and Mr. Christopher has no business especially whenits response is so palpa­ ble gubble. The U.S. first intruded into in Europe. The fact that so many peo­ bly unrelated to the original injustice. I Iraqi internal affairs in ... in ... does it ple believe that what happens in do not understand why Bill Clinton northern Iraq is somehow the U.5. mil­ ordered some random number of Iraqis itary's concern says a lot about how killed; I do not understand why he banal empire has become, how inured I scour my local paper for a Americans have grown to the ugly picked these particular Iraqis in this casualty count, and the closest particular corner of the country to die; I details of global governance. Bob Dole has endorsed the presi­ do not understand why his spokes­ I can find is this: "Two rounds dent's bloody little adventure, people are calling the air strikes a suc­ of strikes against Iraq have commenting only that a Dole adminis­ cess. I do understand that we are in the destroyed or badly damaged 15 tration would be even tougher on middle of a "presidential campaign," a Saddam. Clinton's lead in the polls, quadrennial ritual that often requires of Saddam Hussein's air­ defense missiles." already substantial, has climbed in bat­ an incumbent executive to "demon­ tle's wake. So the great victims of this strate" "strength abroad." I hope Mr. election season are the people of Iraq, Clinton will now appear strong enough murdered from the air by a president to risk refraining from dropping bombs matter when or how or why? Sooner or anxious to demonstrate that he's every on people he doesn't know. later, these trees have to add up to a bit as manly as war hero Dole. We are 1 began this essay intending to forest, a thick and evil wilderness of all Paula Jones, forced to watch as the write a detailed analysis of the Iraqi imperial ambition. The U.S. would Arkansas traveler drops his pants and crisis. At this point, I don't see any rea­ have no business in Kurdistan even if demands we inspect his Ferocious son to bother. France and Russia are France and Russia embraced every fall­ Member. Well, come November, this perturbed; blah blah blah.: Warren ing bomb; indeed, France and Russia Paula isn't going to touch it. 0

Letters, continued from page 6

proposed tax cuts to Harry Browne's because some members didn't like Ed issued by the Clark for President don't take into account that the center Crane, or me, or various other people, Committee, and very widely distrib­ of debate was far more statist in 1980 but primarilybecause many members uted. (I personally distributed over a than it is in 1996. Witness the fact that couldn'tbecome comfortable with the thousand of them.) most of the Republican candidates this idea that a nominal political party year talked seriously about proposals, should engage in politics or that its can­ like flat taxes and privatizing Social didate should take discernible positions Security, that were unthinkable in even on real issues. Iftheir attitude is no remotely mainstream political dis­ longer prevalent, and if Harry Browne course 16 years ago. Clark's campaign can pick up where Clark's campaign staff believed that an LP candidate left off by supporting his impressive should have a specific program, aJld rhetoric with substance on the issues, we consciously tried to define the pro­ then the LP may still have a shot one gram so that it came as close to the day at the "third major political party" edge of acceptable policy as possible, target we tried so hard to reach in 1980. without falling off into loony-land. Christopher Hocker Does this mean we were trying to cater Redding, Conn. to the mainstream media pundits? Arthur replies: My comment that the Damn right we were. Hence the Clark campaign "emphasized Clark's weighty white papers, designed to similarity toJohn F. Kennedy rather demonstrate that the LP's candidate than focusing on policy or ideology" had actually thought about the posi­ was based on my memory of what I tions he advocated. The white papers heard as an volunteer in that campaign I hope this reproduces well enough were not responsible for Clark's vote and shortly thereafter. I am delighted to here so you can see that the photo total, but they were responsible for be corrected by Hocker, as well as other between candidate Clark and the gaining respectful attention from seri­ managers ofClark's campaign who microphones is of JFK. Clark's cam­ ous political commentators. Combined wrote to Liberty on the subject. paign manager Ed Crane told me that with TV ad exposure, this made a vote On one point, however, Hocker is the photo was taken at a news confer­ for Clark seem like something more mistaken. The photo above right is ence in Washington, and that the juxta­ than a frivolous exercise. reproduced at actual size from the position of the JFK photo with Clark The LP fell apart in 1983, partly front page of a campaign brochure was purely a coincidence. 30 Liberty Travel

I Go to Kazakhstan by Douglas Casey

Where all the gods have failed.

Kazakhstan is over a million square miles - the size of Western Europe - but contains only 17 million people. On its 2,OOO-mile eastern border with China, the Himalayas rise up out of the plains, but most of the country is a vast grassland. Two thirds of the people are Central Asians; one third are Russians. That's information you can get out of any world atlas, and it's not worth to live next door to each other. and are being frozen out politically. I much, since nothing that everyone The bad thing is that people in suspect there will always be a signifi­ knows is worth much. So last May, neighboring countries might see all cant Russian presence here, however, when I had a chance to visit those wide open spaces and decide for numerous reasons, ranging from Kazakhstan to evaluate the outlook for they'd like some. That's been the case the fact that the Russians have a 20­ mining there, I jumped at the chance in this part of the world since at least year lease on the Bainokur cosmo­ to see the country for myself. the times of Genghis Khan and drome (where most of their space Kazakhstan's Central Asians Tamerlane, and I can't see any reason shots take place) to the simple fact that belong to dozens of tribes and ethnic that's likely to change soon. With people tend to get along fine as indi­ groups, most of them ex-nomads some of the world's largest oil viduals, as long as politics doesn't speaking different languages. The reserves in the west, some of the stratify them along racial, national, or main things tying them together are a world's largest copper and gold religious lines. veneer of Soviet culture, the Russian depositS in the east, and huge fertile Unfortunately, politics is para­ language, and an ingrained dislike of plains for farming, there's every rea­ mount throughout the old Soviet Russians. These folks have just never son to believe it will one day become Empire. And although religion isn't learned to appreciate the Russians an area coveted by its populous much of a factor here at the moment, conquering them, purging them, tax­ neighbors. that appears to be changing. The ing them, destroying their indigenous For the moment, this is the most Russians generally pay lip service to cultures, and drafting them for their Russified of the Central Asian repub­ the Eastern Orthodox variant of the armies. They rather resent having lics, thanks to its proximity to the Hebrew god Yahweh, while the been used as pawns in what used to Motherland. The Russians endeavored Asiatics acknowledge the Arabian god be known as "The Great Game," to populate all their conquered lands, Allah. These gods don't play much which was largely played between the something else the original inhabitants role in people's lives these days; over Russians and the British in the nine­ rather resent. I found Kyrghyzstan the last several generations, Marxism teenth century. It's a part of the world more appealing (see "In has acted as a secular religion, giving where old antagonisms die hard, Kyrghyzstan," March 1995) because meaning, however perverted, to peo­ where grandmothers inculcate their more of its native culture was intact; ple's hardscrabble lives. Local priests hard luck stories into younger genera­ you see fewer Russians, and the coun­ and mullahs are viewed, justifiably, as tions at dinner each night. One good try is much more rural. corrupt, and their gods as ineffectual thing about this country's vast size Most of Kazakhstan's Russians are in the face of th~ Almighty' Marxist­ and small population is that people leaving the country. Those who Leninist State and \ts commissars. who don't like each other don't have remain are concentrated in the cities, But now that 'God the State has Liberty 31 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

been cast down as well, a vacuum has words, with the exception of a few questioned, because (1) forms like this formed. People have nothing to believe tourists with specialized "adventure go into the trash can the moment in. And with no television or sports to travel" outfits, people come here on they're collected, and (2) while you distract them, they have time to think business only. Any ordinary Kazak you should honor the truth above all, you about it. see back in coach is probably running should also recognize that you have no Hard-line mullahs from Iran and an informal import-export business obligation to give it (or money, or time, Afghanistan, eager to show lapsed specializing in Iuxury goods. or anything else) to someone just Muslims the error of their ways, have Distribution channels are still very inef­ because they ask. Especially if they been aggressively filling confused ficient, and the big corporations mov­ have no right to it and don't deserve it. Asiatic heads with thoughts of the ing in here have no interest in trying to Prophet. And many flavors of Western supply the consumer market; it's still Meet the Press too small and undeveloped. So entre­ On the last day of our visit, we held preneurs buy goods cheaply in a press conference with representatives One good thing about this Germany and Turkey, and sell them on from every newspaper and radio and the street at home. TV station in the country. Tony country's vast size and small In short, the trend is favorable, but Williams, chairman of KazMinCo (a population is that people who they have a long way to go. mining company) gave a very focused don't like each other don't have One reason there's no tourism - presentation on the prospects for busi­ and a lot less business travel than ness in the future, as did several others to live next door to each other. would otherwise be the case - is representing major European and Customs and Immigration formalities. Canadian investment banks. Everyone It took two hours for our group to get was acting in an official capacity, and fundamentalists, followers of the man through, a pointless waste of time. I've therefore had to sound "official." It was known as Saul (later Paul) of Tarsus, long questioned what useful purpose all well and good, but pretty dry stuff. are making huge inroads among the these; procedures serve anywhere, espe­ Some candor was needed. Since it's Russian ethnics, counseling them to rise cially in places that want to encourage long been my feeling that much of real­ up against unrighteousness. I met foreigners to come with their money. ity is only a construct of commonly several, and, like all new converts, "Formalities" are immensely expen­ held opinions, the first step in changing they're True Believers in the Eric Hoffer sive, time-consuming, and aggravating reality is to give voice to a different idiom. - and they're totally useless for pre­ opinion. That is, of course, something I My guess is that religion will venting real criminal activity. delight in. become a major cause of bloodshed Assuming they're needed at all (which My message to the workers and peasants was that they lived in a very here in the future. It will probably be at I don't), Switzerland should be the least ten or 20 years before a critical model, taking all of 30 seconds, with no mass is reached, but there's a certain forms to fill out at all. inexorability to what seems to be going In today's world, most formalities Hard-line mullahs from Iran on. exist only out of inertia. As a German (who else?) once said when I discussed and Afghanistan have been Economic Growth, the subject with him: "We must make aggressively filling confused Ritual Stupidity control, yes?" Well, actually, no. I sus­ Asiatic heads with thoughts of Privatization is proceeding in pect the actual purpose of these rituals Kazakhstan. The capital, Almaty, now is to get people used to asking for offi­ the Prophet. sports fledgling commodity and stock cial approval, being herded like cattle, exchanges, banking is opening to for­ and being arbitrarily told what they eigners, and the privatization of over mayor may not do. Most people are so poor country, but that it was poor 2,000 small-to-medium businesses is thoughtless, they consider the whole solely due to the nonsensical political being completed. That's the good news. procedure part of the cosmic landscape. and economic shackles they'd been in The bad news is that all the apparatchiki And even those who do object quickly for the last three generations. Sure, who ran the old government are run­ roll over like the whipped dogs they KazMinCo and companies like it were ning the new one, and they still think are. going to help. But their country was the government ought to run things ­ I wasn't about to create an interna­ going nowhere fast until they did a just not to the absolute degree that was tional incident at four a.m., but I hundred things ranging from the trivial the case a few years ago. couldn't resist a bit of guerrilla warfare. (such as getting rid of their annoying One clue to what's going on in this Where the form asked "reason for entrance formalities) to the fundamen­ part of the world can be found in the visit," I wrote, "confirmation of tal (such as privatizing the country's flights coming in. Business and first Kafkaesque suspicions"; for "occupa­ land - the most basic and essential of class are always overbooked. Economy, tion," I wrote, "sybaritic, capitalistic, reforms, and exactly the one they on the other hand, is less than half full, and creative contrarian." You can write weren't making). I told them that and then mainly with people who anything you want, as long as you're within the lifetimes of everyone in the couldn't get space up front. In other able to defend it with a straight face if room, they could be as rich as any 32 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

American, but they needed to take radi­ impolite, and stupid. This attitude per­ Unmistakable Russian influence. cal action: to abolish laws, taxes, regu­ vaded the country. Consider the large It's one thing for buildings to be lations, and bureaucracies, and not department store downtown. Despi~e poorly maintained, but aircraft are create new ones. I told them that life is the fact it was now given over to pn­ something else again. We flew from short, and that they'd better get the vate boutiques, run exclusively by Almaty to Karaganda to Kustenai and show on the road or the rest of the women, everyone still seemed to think back in a Tu 134 (which resembles a world \vauld see them as a quaint pet­ she was working for the state. Nobody DC9) kitted out as a private business ting zoo. It was, if I do say so myself, a knew how to smile, nobody tried to be jet. Like everything here, it begged for a stirring presentation, though I had to helpful. It was better than it used to be, thorough cleaning. But the cosmetics tone it down a bit. About a quarter of but still abysmal. didn't bother me as much as the bald the audience cheered and clapped To me, this raised the politically tires, or the exterior screws and rivets enthusiastically, a quarter seemed dour incorrect question of whether the randomly unflush with the plane's alu­ and disapproving, and the rest seemed Russians have been genetically altered minum skin. My guess is that Soviet confused, but vaguely favorable. over the last four generations. Or, for designers tended to design everything for massive strength and simplicity, A Sickness of the Russian Soul knowing that construction quality and Kazakhstan's macroeconomic prob­ We went to what may have maintenance were non-existent. lems, and their solution, are evident to The plane itself was a nice comple­ anyone with a lick of sense and a basic been the most happening" bar in ment to airport security, which can understanding of economics. But there Karaganda, and I can assure only be described as totally bizarre. are ingrained sociological problems you I won't go back unless I'm People walked through security ran­ that will plague this place, and all the domly, sometimes putting their bags old Soviet Bloc countries, for decades to really anxious to brawl with a through the X-ray machine, sometimes come. The problem is best illustrated drunk Russian. not. The guard just sat there and read with a couple of anecdotes. her newspaper, but it didn't make any The new hotel we stayed at in difference anyway, since there was Almaty had a simple but useful health another open door from the "secure" that matter, the last 40. These people area back into the general lobby. Both club in the basement. It was hot, and I have basically been serfs forever. opened some windows. A minute later, the airport and the economy are orga­ Perhaps there's been a culling of mave­ nized as if people were inadequately some stupid, frowning brute slammed ricks, entrepreneurs, libertarians, indi­ them shut while scolding me in programmed robots, or perhaps chil­ vidualists, and people who just don't dren bored with playing a game they Russian. If an employee felt the win­ like authority. Dogs can be bred for cer­ dows had to be closed in any Western didn't really understand in the first tain characteristics - why not human place. gym (and there was absolutely no logi­ beings? I know you're not supposed to cal reason for it), the action would be However bleak Almaty might be, think like that, but when you're consis­ compared to the boondocks, it's accompanied by profuse apologies. I let tently exposed to enough of it, you're the incident pass, but then, that night, I Beverly Hills. I visited Karaganda and forced to ask yourself, "What in hell is Kustenai, plunked in the middle of the wandered into the casino attached to the matter with these people?" the hotel. I was better-dressed than 90% endless plains and composed mainly of miles and miles of Cabrini-Green-style of the establishnlent's patrons, but the A Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish, bouncer at the door (muscular, cheap apartments. These unpleasant warrens and Short Slice of Life have few and tiny rooms, exposed suit, dark glasses, room temperature IQ Almaty is a potentially delightful - he looked like an FBI agent, except lighting and plumbing fixtures, and city, reminiscent of Denver. In most lots of broken windows mended with for his crew cut, a style favored by ways it resembles Moscow, though, Russian thugs) turned me away tape. Even if the residents had the with few storefronts but lots of babush­ money to fix them properly, there are because I was wearing a pair of soft­ kas sweeping streets at six a.m. Even no stores to buy supplies. soled black walking shoes. Maputo, after 20 years of civil war, has Everybody must work in the In both cases, people were intent on vastly more commerce. Everything gigantic steel mills and chemical facto­ mindlessly enforcing some real or ima­ looks great from a distance, what with ries that also rise out of totally open gined rule. This was especially disturb­ the broad, tree-lined boulevards and plains. The plants all looked like they ing because their jobs undoubtedly elegant old buildings. A closer exami­ were built in the '30s, and appeared paid a multiple of the prevailing wage, nation reveals 40-year-old buses, filled to be projects in industrial archaeol­ and the rnanagement had no doubt to overflowing with people, and horri­ ogy. I have no doubt they're COIn­ tried to pick the cream of the crop. Not ble Stalinist apartment blocks in about pletely uneconomic, despite the cheap only did they have no clue that their the same condition as East St. Louis' labor and government subsidies. The menial jobs depended on keeping the Pruitt-Igoe or Chicago's Cabrini-Green. lucky workers have dachas that they customer happy, but they (like most There's not a door in this city that can use in the summer. Don't get the people in Kazakhstan) seemed chroni­ hasn't scraped a groove into its floor. idea that a dacha is a delightful cally depressed, totally beaten down And unlike most other cities in the and defeated by life. And angry, and Third World, there's zero construction. continued on page 42 Liberty 33 Interpretation

The Strawman State by Paul Piccone

Post-Communism as post-Americanism.

Overthrown and disgraced only a short while ago, "Communists" today are regaining influence allover Eastern Europe and Russia. Yet to judge from the attention this has received from American politicians and press, it seems no more significant than another flood in Bangladesh or a measles epidemic in Central Africa. Such neglect is not just another instance of irresponsibility or incom­ country he has inherited had a mod­ taryassociation." petence. There are very good reasons ern technological infrastructure, had When all is said and done, what for not taking these "new and not been in Chapter 11 for the past makes it difficult to take Zyuganov improved Communists" seriously. couple of decades, was not burdened seriously is not so much his incoher­ This is an altogether different breed, by a large state-dependent citizenry ence, his reactionary views, or even having little in common with the origi­ unable to function on its own, and his clumsy self-presentation as nal Bolsheviks who made the October already enjoyed a viable political or another garden-variety unscrupulous Revolution, the manipulative legal framework to facilitate local ini­ politician, but the fact that he is con­ Realpolitiker functionaries who fol­ tiative and economic development. fronting a late-twentieth-century pre­ lowed them, or the cynical apparatchiki Like other Third World demagogues, dicament typical of all Western who managed the system's slow disin­ Zyuganov thinks he can pull this off societies, one that Russia is least pre­ tegration. Furthermore, they ... seem with the help of that old snake oil, pared to handle. While most American confused, uninformed, and mired in "American investments." Leaving neoconservatives originally bought insurmountable contradictions. In aside such minor details as his ada­ Reagan's self-serving line that the short, they are not qualitatively differ­ mant opposition to "neo-liberalism" "perestroikization" and later collapse ent from any other Russian politicians (the sine qua non for that kind of of the Soviet Union were the results of today. development strategy), he is blissfully his 1980s remilitarization, it is increas­ Consider the views of Gennady unaware of what the rest of Europe ingly clear that the real causes were Zyuganov, the new Russian has long since realized: that what libertarians had claimed all Communist leader. In a New York "American investments" for the past along would undo Communism: fun­ Times op-ed piece (February 1, 1996), half century have been the Trojan damentally irrational central planning, he presented himself as the leader of a horses of American imperialism and, counterproductive social engineering, "party of reform" or, more specifi­ therefore, of de facto capitulation to and an intrusive managerial/ cally, as a nationalist seeking to the "New World Order" Zyuganov therapeutic state pretending to control restore Russian traditions and abide otherwise claims to despise. Clearly, and regulate every feature of life. No by "universal moral principles." With coherence and foresight are not society can thrive for very long under Communists like this, who needs Zyuganov's strong suits. After all, this these conditions. "bourgeois reactionaries"? is the same person who, after support­ Far from legitimating "liberal Zyuganov claims that he wants ing the Chechnya fiasco, wrote with a democracies" as the end of history, as only to pull Russia out of its present straight face that the "restoration of Panglossian U.s. State Department "humiliating position" by restoring the union of the former Soviet peo­ ideologues immediately claimed, the the Cold War status quo ante, as if the ple" he seeks will be "based on volun- Soviet collapse reflects the terminally 34 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

contradictory character of all welfare the flat tax, are considered viable candi­ have anything to do with recycling the states - Western ones first and fore­ dates. Chirae did it, Clinton is promis­ old Cold War threat or with presenting most, which so far have managed to ing it, and all the Italian pols are a radically different, if not better, social avoid the Soviet fate only because they frantically trying to market packages of system. On the whole, today's Russia is have not disintegrated as fast and as the same fraudulent bill of goods. perceived as simply a potential nui­ thorough!y as the old USSR. This is Ultimately, the problem is the sance: yet another candidate for foreign why every American politician, from nature of the modern state. aid, another government being bribed Clinton to Buchanan, is now running Increasingly remote and anonymous, it to stop harming its people or its neigh­ for office promising to rein in "big gov­ now seems to enter directly into peo­ bors. Who needs a king-size Haiti? ernment" and continue providing all ple's lives primarily as an alien entity The threat of socialism in the U.S. the services the welfare state, no matter demanding an ever larger amount of has long ceased to have anything to do how inadequately, has been attempting diminishing resources, or as a nest of with either Russia or an alternative to furnish. irrationality that deserves to be looted So Zyuganov and the other Russian whenever possible. Corruption, in fact, demagogues are not the only ones has become its modus operandi. Success Even the left no longer calls wanting their cake and eating it too. has long ceased to be associated, as in But Western societies still have a con­ the old Horatio Alger mythology, with for any kind of "socialization" siderable reservoir of social institutions hard work and personal integrity; it is or "nationalization" but, at and community organizations that are now primarily a function of how little most, for additional state regu­ relatively independent of the central one manages to contribute to the public state. Such is not the case in Russia, sector and how much one is able to lations and controls. where "totalitarianism," if it ever take back from it, by whatever legal meant anything, had to do with the and paralegal means. Thus, today eradication of precisely this essential every Western country is confronted non-statist dimension of social life. social system. It is the problem of what with a fate equivalent to the Soviet American society has become since the Consequently, in the U.S., where histor­ Union's, if less speedy and spectacular. ical memory is very short and most New Deal - or, to go further back, the Within such a context, Communism Civil War. It is identified with big gov­ people have already forgotten what - understood as a doctrine having "really existing Communism" was ernment, loss of personal freedom, something to do with the collective crime, irresponsibility, and general about, all the ravings of the various ownership of the means of production, Zyuganovs, Zhirinovskys, and Yeltsin­ social disintegration. Even the left (or social equality (read: homogenization whatever remains of it), despite its come-Iatelies cannot avoid looking like and robotization), and formal rational­ mere "brand X" expressions of the growing obsession with globalization, ity - can no longer be associated with transnational centralization, and uni­ any kind of utopian future or social versal capitalist manipulation, no emancipation, but rather seems to cap­ longer calls for any kind of "socializa­ The Soviet collapse reflects ture all the evils of modernity. In the tion" or "nationalization" of anything the terminally contradictory U.S., where Communism never had but, at most, for additional state regula­ much of an impact even during its hey­ tions and controls, fully aware of their character of all welfare states day, no one even entertains it as a usual counterproductive consequences. Western ones first and potentially meaningful alternative any (After all, regulators have historically foremost. more. When discussed at all, it is only been people from the very industries in the negative sense of representing and enterprises to be regulated, so reg­ what the present system may be degen­ ulations have usually ended up making erating into. life easier for the industrial and eco­ same problems being confronted and Despite its still considerable nuclear nomic culprits, passing the consequent discussed in the West. The recent wave arsenal, Russia has become what costs onto consumers in the form of of strikes in France and the debate over Italians call a stato straccione ("straw­ higher prices.) middle-class entitlements in the U.S. man state") and has long ceased to be a The U.S. didn't come out of the are but the French and American ver­ threat to anyone. Afghanistan and Great Depression through the hydraulic sions of the same predicament. Chechnya destroyed whatever military finagling the New Dealers deployed, Everywhere - Russia, France, the credibility it may have had, while as a but by means of the high federal spend­ U.S., Italy - the most substantive society it is finally seen as what it ing required by WorId War II and then obstacle to escaping this dilemma is the always was: a quasi-Third World coun­ the Cold War. The pretense of confront­ electorate itself, which insists on having try desperately trying to catch up with ing the Soviet threat made it relatively it both ways: less government and and imitate what it mistakenly thinks easy to justify all sorts of emergency lower taxes, but no reduction in ser­ the U.S. is - all Communist and "military" programs that were only vices and entitlements. Only politicians nationalist rhetoric to the contrary not­ remotely related to military imperatives with enough savvy and charisma to withstanding. No wonder no one in (e.g., education, research, industrial convince voters they can pull off such a America seems to care. The question of subsidies) but constituted the func­ miraculous feat, with gimmicks such as "post-Communism" does not seem to tional equivalent of a central plan. In Liberty 35 Volume to, Number 2 November 1996

short, the Cold War legitimated the (with the notable exception of the neo­ policies have never been able to deal same kind of socialist steering mecha­ conservatives) is dead set on disman­ effectively with local needs, without the nisms that were regulating and fine­ tling most of it. As in the Russian case, prior homogenization of the popula­ tuning the Soviet economy into where the "Communists" are now the tion. Very few nations today are able to bankruptcy. real conservatives, or, better, reactionar­ meet such a criteria - even France is Thus, "post-Communism" in the ies desperately and quixotically increasingly threatened by cultural par­ u.S. has meant two crucial develop­ attempting to restore a mythologized ticularism and an unmanageable fiscal ments: the end of the de facto state of status quo ante, American "liberals" have crisis. emergency that legitimated unlimited also broken sharply with any kind of Consequently, structural reforms and unquestioned state intervention traditional liberalism: they now vigor­ are urgently needed in every country. and, as in the old USSR, the exhaustion ously resist any changes and long for The state must be made accountable to of the social and economic resources its citizens, who can thereby function as that financed those interventions. In the control mechanisms guaranteeing its first case, it is becoming difficult to Russian "Communists" and rationality and efficiency. This can be legitimate the old porkbarrel politics, done only by making the state more with practically every legislative alloca­ American "liberals" have the decentralized, limited, accessible, and tion now coming under intense con­ same constituency: the old, the transparent. In the age of the Internet gressional scrutiny; in the second, the pensioners, those least able to and cyberspace, the nation, the legiti­ questions of budget deficits and the mating myth for central state rule, is an national debt - two of the most hotly adapt to new social conditions. anachronism. It must give way to the debated political issues in the 1996 pres­ federation, a loose political entity deal- idential race - rule out any policy of ing with minimal tasks - money, "business as usual." defense, etc. - while leaving all other Post-Communism, therefore, entails the good old days of the Great Society, when no social program seemed unwor­ functions to local communities. the arrival of "post-Americanism": the The present crisis of the nation-state end of the American-style state inter­ thy of federal financing. Russian "Communists" and American "liberals" has yet to be fully felt, and most vention carried out since the New Deal. reforms today focus on simply rede­ The recent budget deadlock between a have the same constituency: the old, the pensioners, and in general those sectors signing it - especially since this alter­ president wanting to retain a version of native is the least disruptive to existing the old New Deal model and a Congress of society least able to adapt to new social conditions. The young, the edu­ relations of domination. Clearly, the old apparently seeking to impose fiscal lim­ political classes are not going to leave its reflects, rhetorically at least, a clash of cated, and the enterprising sectors instead opt for freedom and side with the scene without a major struggle. two fundamentally different models of Paradoxically, post-Communism and government: the older nightwatchman those parties imposing the least limita­ tions. Since both of these constituencies post-Americanism mean the end of model meant only to guarantee safety ahistorical, utopian models of social and contracts, and the newer manage­ are already fairly well committed to their respective positions, the real politi­ organization; present challenges would rial/therapeutic state out to remake best be confronted by recourse to cus­ society in its ideal self-image. cal contest today has tR do with winning middl~ tom. Those countries, such as' Russia, This is not simply a matter of left and the undecided classes, overbur­ that have attempted the systematic right, since the U.S. right traditionally dened by the interventionist state but destruction of their traditional patri­ favored a strong government, while the also afraid to give up whatever minimal mony, are therefore least able to deal left remained deeply suspicious of it. protection it still provides. with the twenty-first century, while Today whatever passes for the What is really at issue is what is to countries like Italy and the U.S., where American left wants to retain a strong become of the strong redistributive cen­ regional particularism and local com­ central government, while the right tral state when the nation has been ren­ dered obsolete by both global economic munities were never successfully oblit­ trends and local cultural needs. As has erated, are best-poised to reinvent Facing Divorce? been repeatedly pointed out, today the themselves. Get practical advice on money, kids, traditional nation-state is too large to Collectivism, New Deal liberalism, lawyers, and more. deal effectively with micro-problems and welfare states in general will cease HOW TO DUMP YOUR WIFE and too small to confront international to obstruct the necessary changes only by Lee Covington ones. It remains a wasteful and expen­ to the extent that the old political "The book is not to encourage families to break up, sive fifth wheel increasingly unable to classes and ideologies give way to fresh however, but is more ofa waming - or a combat provide the kind of social stability for approaches. As for Zyuganov's manual, ifyou will-on what to expect and prepare which it originally came into being or "national socialism," it will be able to for, legally, financially and otherwise." -TheSunday Oregonian to rationalize the society it rules. When succeed only to the extent that it man­ To order day or night toll-free call the gap between social needs and state ages to forget both "nationalism" and 1-800-444-2524 $14.95 policies becomes too wide, informal "socialism," and instead focus on what­ Fender Publishing Co 1111 E Madison corrective mechanisms are required to ever local Russian traditions remain Seattle WA 98122 [email protected] restore a viable balance. This often http://ttx.oomlbookzonellOOOO516.html uncontaminated by the bureaucratic takes the form of corruption. National centralism of the past seven decades. 0 Case Study New Zealand's Free-Market Revolution by Scott Sutton

New Zealand flirts with free markets. But will it be a lasting love?

Almost two years into the "Republican Revolution," the GOP's promises to cut back the federal government remain unfulfilled. Despite the media-generated hype and hys­ teria, the federal leviathan continues to grow, piling $4 billion per week onto its already staggering debt. A decade earlier and half a globe away, a small island nation in the South Pacific confronted a similar survey of the world's economies. narrow selection of overpriced, low­ problem. New Zealand in 1984, like While voices left, right, and center quality goods. Consumers had to wait the United States in 1996, teetered on call for increased protectionism as the up to six months for a telephone and the edge of bankruptcy. Heavy pro­ remedy for America's fiscal woes, up to two years for a car. tectionism and regulation had para­ New Zealand's story provides a valu­ New Zealand's politicians believ­ lyzed productivity and stifled able lesson in the consequences of ed the key to development lay in pro­ economic growth. The budget deficit such a policy. tecting domestic industry from inter­ stood at an all-time high, while infla­ national competition. "Fortress New tion and interest rates averaged 16% Fortress New Zealand Zealand" relied heavily on agriculture and were rising. Net public debt for Following World War II, Kiwis (as and on its guaranteed markets within the 1984-85 fiscal year totaled $49 bil­ New Zealanders are nicknamed, after the British Commonwealth. The gov­ lion in real terms, or 70.550/0 of Gross the indigenous nocturnal, flightless ernment habitually propped up farm­ Domestic Product. Preparations were bird) were eager to wrap themselves ers and domestic industries with underway to turn supervision of the in a cocoon of comfort and security. import protection and subsidies. Such nation's economy over to the Having lost more young men per cap­ interventions carved out monopoly International Monetary Fund. ita in that conflict than any other positions for many businesses, gradu­ Today, New Zealand's economic country, most New Zealanders ally eroding the need to strive toward outlook is bright. The projections for wanted to create a safe and stable efficiency in order to compete. 1996 estimate economic growth of environment free from any distur­ The government subsidized busi­ 5--6% for the third consecutive year, bances. So the government embraced nesses so that they could provide % workforce growth of 4 , a govern­ the Keynesian economics and welfar­ goods at artificially low prices. Such ment surplus of 3% of GOP, inflation ism that were sweeping the western measures, supposedly enacted to con­ of 2%, and a 1% growth in real wages. world. trol inflation and help low-income By 1994-95, net public debt had been From 1944 to 1984, the govern­ consumers, inevitably backfired. reduced to 50.8% of GDP; current esti­ ment steadily tightened its grip on Underpriced goods led to increased mates project the debt will dip below New Zealanders' economic and social demand, which could be met only by 30% of GOP this fiscal year. Once the lives. Thanks to laws prohibiting increasing subsidies. Despite their most regulated and protected econ­ weekend trading, New Zealand greater efficiency, unprotected busi­ omy in the Organization for Economic became known as "the country that nesses would fail, unable to compete Cooperation and Development closes on weekends." Pubs closed at against their competitors' subsidized (DECD), New Zealand now ranks six p.m., and restaurants could not low prices. To finance the increasing third freest in the Fraser Institute's serve alcohol. Shops offered only a subsidies, the government borrowed Liberty 37 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

more, leading to increased interest by one of the most regulated labor ernment was more concerned about payments, which were in turn financed markets in the world. Each year, growth and unemployment or about by printing more money. Of course, as employer groups and unions would the balance-of-payments deficit and the money supply expanded, inflation negotiate "national aWflrds" dictating inflation. He habitually suppressed or escalated, hurting the low-income peo­ the wages and conditi9ns of every job simply ignored market signals. Sir ple whom the whole exercise had been in the economy, a feaf in which Stalin Robert pursued policies he thought intended to assist. would have taken pride. Not surpris­ would buy votes, such as job-creation Trade barriers - tariffs, import ingly, Kiwi industry was not known programs and income assistance to licenses, exchange controls - held for its flexibility and innovation. farmers, and accelerated borrowing in most foreign goods at bay. The govern­ All this had predictable effects on order to finance these schemes. ment routinely rejected applications to the private sector. Whenever business­ One of Muldoon's first objectives men found themselves having diffi­ was to stimulate and diversify New culty competing, their first impulse Zealand's sagging export sector. If Muldoon was acting like a was not to improve efficiency, but to New Zealand could just produce more run to Wellington to clamor for more lamb, mutton, and wool for the inter­ hapless passenger called to the protection, a new subsidy, or a new tax national market, he declared, profits cockpit to land the plane after break. would abound. So in 1976, the the crew has expired. Eventually, three events rocked National government introduced the New Zealand's economy. First, in 1966, Livestock Incentive Scheme, in which world wool prices began to plummet, the government paid farmers to double dropping almost by half over the next the existing number of sheep. Two import items that could be made in five years. Then, in 1971, Great Britain years later, the Rural Bank, a lending New Zealand. Even if a company were joined the European Economic agency owned and funded by the gov­ lucky enough to obtain a license, it Community. In opening her markets to ernment, gave farmers easier loan might be easily dissuaded by tariffs European goods, Britain greatly that often exceeded 100% of the cost of reduced New Zealand's guaranteed the goods. share of those markets. Finally, in 1973, It was a party traditionally The range of goods covered by OPEC hiked its oil prices, sparking the import licensing was nearly exhaus­ worldwide oil crisis. New Zealand's driven by socialist ideology tive. At one meeting in the late '70s, export sector found itself awash in that undertook a radical pro­ Prime Minister Robert Muldoon was unwanted sheep and wool, and hold­ gram ofprivatization and mar­ surprised to learn that the government ing a substantially increased bill for issued import licenses for jumbo jets. ket liberalization. getting its products to the few markets He turned to the secretary of trade that remained. The government des­ and industry, Harry Clark, and said, perately borrowed more to prop up its "But Mr. Clark, we don't have an failing export industries and expand its concessions and land-development industry that makes jumbo jets. safety net. schemes. Despite these measures, People don't bring jumbo jets into the farmers continued to call for additional country unless they have a need for aid. The government responded by set­ them. They're like elephants; ele­ The Muldoon Decade ting "supplementary minimum prices" phants don't compete with cow~, and Muldoon came to power in the for sheep. Thereafter, if farmers failed you don't see surplus elephants in midst of the anxiety-ridden 1970s. parking lots waiting for buyers. We During the 1975 campaign, he painted to get the minimum price in the mar­ don't have import licenses for ele­ his National Party as the party of ketplace, tax dollars would make up phants, do we?" To which Mr. Clark responsible economic management, the difference. From 1979 to 1984, the replied that he was sorry to have to promising to deregulate the economy cost of the assistance given pastoral tell him, but they did. and get state spending under control. farming came to $1,350 from every The absurdity didn't stop there. With a straight face, he also promised Kiwi. Once, for instance, a few businessmen New Zealanders "cradle-to-grave" In an attempt to diversify the were granted the exclusive right to security and introduced a massive export sector, the government adopted manufacture televisions. These "entre­ state pension scheme. a policy of "picking winners" .,- that preneurs" .arranged with bewildered Muldoon was generally considered is, pumping resources into industries it Japanese manufacturers to have com­ a "conservative." But when it came to thought would be most viable on the plete sets disassembled in Japan and economic issues, he was an incurable world stage. The most notorious of shipped to New Zealand for reassem­ interventionist. Once in office, he com­ these "winners" was "Think Big," an bly. This charade went on for years, pletely disregarded his campaign extraordinarily wasteful attempt to use just so the TVs could be "New Zealand promise to unleash New Zealand's the energy sector to industrialize the made." markets, and instead tried to expand or economy rapidly, thus alleviating New On top of this protectionism, New contract the economy from year to Zealand's balance-of-payments bind. Zealand's economy was encumbered year, depending on whether the gov- Masterminded by Muldoon and his 38 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

minister of energy, Bill Birch, Think Rather than speaking their minds, economic outlook did not allow for Big erected several state-operated economists and business leaders told any further utopian dreaming. industries, such as steel and synthetic the public that Muldoon's economic Foremost among this group was fuels, in order to capitalize on the sur­ policies would work while confiding Roger Douglas, the newly appointed plus energy to be generated by yet-to­ just the opposite in private. minister of finance. Three years earlier, be-built power plants and gas fields. Muldoon had come to power vow­ Douglas had written a book outlining Not surprisingly, rather than relieving ing to leave the country no worse than his plan to reform the Kiwi economy. the country's budgetary hemorrhag­ he had found it. Yet during his 1975­ Few voters had bothered to read it, ing, Think Big only hastened New 1984 reign, net public debt multiplied though, so his ambitious program took Zealand's charge down the path to six times over and the cost of servicing the public largely by surprise. Douglas bankruptcy. (By 1986, when the suc­ the debt grew from 6.5% to 19.5 % of was no laissez-faire capitalist, but he ceeding Labour government addressed realized that the state botched most of the Think Big projects, the total debt what it undertook, and he intended to came to $7.2 billion, or $2,400 per remove it from those activities in person.) Recognizing that his which it had abjectly failed. He also By 1978, unemployment had reforms were bound to provoke wanted to revise the tax system to give reached levels unseen since the Great much opposition, Roger people more of an incentive to work. Depression, and inflation had climbed His ultimate aim was not to scrap the to nearly 20%. As the strain on the Douglas vowed to ugive them welfare state, but to give it a more economy intensified, a few members of so many rnoving targets they efficient, streamlined packaging. His the National government began to won't know which one to shoot analysis drew on public choice, mana­ push for the economic liberalization " gerialism, and agency theory. that Muldoon had promised. Over the a.t Public choice theory assumes that next few years, the country took a few people are largely motivated by self­ small steps in that direction, including interest. Consequently, politicians act the legalization of Saturday shopping, total government spending. The coun­ to maximize their popular support the deregulation of road and air trans­ try's economic growth averaged only while government employees try to port, and a free trade agreement with 0.9% per annum, less than half the maximize their department budgets. Australia. DECD average, and unemployment The result - heavy spending and Despite these concessions, exploded from 5,000 to 132,000. The bureaucratic expansion - undermines Muldoon continued to increase his country had the ignominious distinc­ economic prosperity. Public choice the­ meddling in other areas of the econ­ tion of running the largest current orists therefore advocate curbing the omy. As the economy spiralled down­ account deficit in the DECD, as well as discretionary power of politicians and wards, he imposed a capital gains tax, having the fastest rate of debt accumu­ bureaucrats, limiting their ability to entangled the financial community in a lation. In fact, in all the years since the manipulate the economy, and separat­ web of unworkable controls, and, in a Second World War, New Zealand had ing government agencies' advisory, last desperate attempt to put the had the poorest performance among regulatory, and delivery functions, if brakes on the crashing economy, insti­ DECD countries in terms of productiv­ not privatizing them outright. tuted a draconian wage, price, and rent ity growth, growth in exports, and out­ "Managerialism," in this context, freeze. Muldoon was acting like a hap­ put per head. By the time Muldoon refers to a closely related set of ideas less passenger called to the cockpit to called for a "snap election" in July borrowed from the private sector and land the plane after the crew has 1984, New Zealand had reached its aimed at optimizing the performance expired. Once in the captain's seat, credit limit. If the country's economic of agency and department heads. For Muldoon flailed wildly at the controls, the Labour reformers, the most impor­ profligacy continued, it faced the pros­ trying to bring the economy out of its tant idea was that the government, pect of the International Monetary tailspin, with no idea as to what had rather than binding department heads Fund assuming stewardship of its caused its nosedive and no clue as to with rolls of red tape, should simply finances. how to bring her right. set goals and allow them flexibility in Muldoon was a fierce megaloma­ the means by which they pursue them. niac who ruled through intimidation, The Labour Revolution Managerialism also encourages depart­ cowing everyone around him into a In 1984,' the voters elected a Labour ments to adopt long-term plans, per­ doting obedience and thrashing critics government led by Prime Minister formance agreements, and mission unmercifully. In the late '70s, visiting David Lange. Ironically, it was a party statements. Australian Review editor Paddy traditionally driven by socialist ideol­ Like public choice theory, agency McGuinness referred to the prevailing ogy that undertook a radical program theory starts with the premise that peo­ conditions in New Zealand as "an of privatization and market liberaliza­ ple are driven primarily by self­ economy of fear" - business leaders tion. While some old party hacks advo­ interest. Agency theory views the pub­ were afraid to criticize for fear of retri­ cated the same tired Keynesian lic sector as a complex of contracts bution, economists were afraid to criti­ remedies, a handful of young, influen­ between taxpayers and government. cize for fear of public vilification. tial officials recognized that the grim Since individuals are opportunistic, the Liberty 39 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

interests of the contractees inevitably expenditure, around 39%. Douglas dis­ companies to strive continuously for conflict. A great deal of agency theory, missed tinkering with the system as increased efficiency and innovation. therefore, focuses on finding the most "shifting the chairs on the Titanic." According to the SOE Act, the state satisfactory way of negotiating, writ­ Instead, he introduced market forces will not bail out a struggling SOE, but ing, and monitoring contracts in order to the public sector by breaking many it seems unlikely that the government to minimize the possibility that oppor­ services away from the state and would endure the embarrassment of tunistic officials will violate them. The simultaneously deregulating them. allowing one of its enterprises to go public, therefore, should be able to After determining which services broke. Additionally, taxpayers tend to monitor the government's behavior, could be run as revenue earners, the demand less from their "investments" demand performance guarantees from government either sold them or set than do shareholders. government agencies, and infuse them up as State Owned Enterprises Douglas also took on the country's (SOEs). punitive tax rates, albeit with a less The SOE Act of 1986 initially estab­ libertarian approach. The old system Critics of "Rogernomics" lished nine industries as State Owned included marginal tax rates as high as Enterprises. The reformed industries 66% at just over twice the average charged that these reforms included telecommunications, postal income, and a sales tax code that were done to benefit big busi­ service, coal, electricity, forestry, and included 17 different rates. Douglas aviation. Although SOEs remained drastically reduced income tax rates, ness. In fact, they cost major slashing the top rate in half to 33%. At companies tens of millions of government-owned (obviously), they were now competing with the private the same time, he introduced a flat­ dollars. sector and had to be profitable. Like rate, value-added Goods and Services any private company, SOEs were to Tax set at 10%. By reducing the incen­ raise loans in the market, and were not tive to evade taxes and by closing public contracts with incentives and allowed to borrow money from the loopholes, Douglas considerably broadened the tax base. These changes sanctions. government. In addition, SOEs would subtly enhanced the government's abil­ Imbued with these theories, pay a dividend to their owner, the ity to fund its activities. From 1983-84 Douglas and his compatriots moved to Crown, and would pay taxes. The to 1995-96, these moves have enabled restructure the public sector, provide reformers hoped that these changes the government to increase its tax take incentives for improved performance, would lead to more efficient and con­ from 30.4% to 37.7% of GDP, or over $3 make government agencies accounta­ sumer-oriented operations. billion in real terms. ble, give greater attention to taxpayer And they were right. In fiscal year Finally, the State Sector Act put preferences, and clarify department 1984-85, New Zealand Railways lost department heads on five-year con­ objectives. Recognizing that his $20 million despite a $40 million sub­ tracts and stipulated that they must reforms were bound to provoke much sidy from taxpayers. Eight years later, run their departments efficiently, or opposition, Douglas vowed to "give as an SOE, it turned a profit of $36.3 their jobs would be the first on the line. them so many moving targets they million. Over that time, it cut its staff In the words of broadcast journalist won't know which one to shoot at." by 66% while dropping freight charges Lindsay Perigo, the act contributed to Almost immediately, Douglas by 50% in real terms. Similarly, in its "the gutting of the public service to a removed the freeze on prices, wages, first year as an SOE, New Zealand Post delightful degree and made it more and interest rates, and addressed New registered a before-tax profit of $141 efficient." Zealand's immediate foreign exchange million. In the same year, it carried In 1987, the Labour government crisis by floating the dollar and remov­ nine million more letters than the year was re-elected and, shortly thereafter, ing exchange controls. In a single before, with 20% fewer staff. Douglas and Lange announced their stroke, Douglas abolished most direct Although the SOEs have per­ intention to continue the reform pro­ assistance to exporters, including all formed admirably, the enterprises that gram. A flat tax and a streamlined wel­ farming subsidies. He also eliminated have been privatized have been even fare system were on tap, they told the price controls and import licensing, more successful. For instance, the press. But it was not to be. Unknown and drastically reduced tariffs. (Many national telecommunications industry, to the public, Lange was having an critics of "Rogernomics" charged that which became an SOE in 1987 and was affair with a leftist former university these reforms were done to benefit big privatized in 1990, increased net earn­ professor who vehemently opposed business. In fact, by eliminating subsi­ ings by 56% in the first two years after Douglas' policies. One month later, dies and trade barriers, Douglas cost privatization, and raised the return on while Douglas was overseas, Lange major companies tens of millions of shareholders' funds from 10.6% to cancelled the new package. The two dollars as they were forced to restruc­ 15.20/0. feuded bitterly behind the scenes for a ture their operations.) While the law requires SOEs to while. Finally, Lange called for a "tea Douglas then turned his attention behave like private businesses, the fact break" from the reforms and sacked to the public sector. At that time, pub­ remains that they are not. Unlike pri­ Douglas. lic-sector spending accounted for vate companies, SOEs do not face the A period of confusion and near­ almost 220/0 of GOP; government threat of bankruptcy that spurs private paralysis followed. Almost a year later, 40 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

Douglas was back in the cabinet, and a revealed that the deficit was expected unionism and set the labor market on a few days after that, the prime minister to grow from $3.7 billion in 1991-92 to basis of free contracting. himself resigned. These episodes crip­ $5.2 billion (6.3% of GDP) in 1993-94. By the election of 1993, popular pled the government's resolve to con­ Richardson resolved to initiate a long­ opinion had once again turned against front the problems that remained. overdue assault on spending by fur­ the reform program. The National gov­ Spending continued to skyrocket, as ther tightening fiscal discipline and ernment was re-elected by the narrow­ did the number of people dependent initiating welfare reform. In addition, est of margins. To recapture public on the state. Also, because the Labour she intended to deregulate the labor support, the prime minister sacked Party relied on financial and electoral market. Richardson and replaced her with Bill support from unions, serious labor Buoyed by the support of the min­ Birch of the "Think Big" disaster. market reform remained off-limits. ister of social welfare, Jenny Shipley, Reform ground to a virtual halt. As Nevertheless, the fractured Labour Richardson set out to restructure the one observer pointed out, "the appall­ government managed to finish a few of welfare system. First, the government ing irony here is that Bill Birch is now the initiatives Douglas had begun. It reduced the weekly rate for the dole so presiding over an economy that is at sold a few more Crown assets and fur­ that welfare recipients were no longer last enjoying the fruits of the Douglas/ ther cut import protection. Most signif­ receiving more than the minimum Richardson reforms." icantly, it passed the Reserve Bank Act wage. Second, Richardson broadened and the Public Finance Act. the conditions whereby people were Land of the Free? The Reserve Bank Act aimed to sta­ considered "voluntarily unemployed" While the success of the privatiza­ bilize prices by requiring the central and, therefore, ineligible for the dole. tion and deregulation program has bank to keep inflation between 0% and Under the new system, if welfare brought international accolades, New 2%. Thus, the government could no recipients failed to appear at a job Zealand still confronts a number of longer print more money before elec­ interview or turned down two job problems. tions to engineer a short-lived burst in offers, their benefits were cut. Since 1973-74, government spend­ economic growth. Although the Labour government ing has grown from 28% to 34.5% of The Public Finance Act spelled out had begun the practice of annually GDP, thanks to escalating spending on the criteria for monitoring departmen­ issuing three-year economic and fiscal education, health, welfare, and super­ tal performance. It requires that every forecasts, this procedure had not been annuation. To pay for these increases, government department and office passed into law. Richardson's taxation has gone up over the same submit annual financial statements, crowning achievement, the Fiscal period, from 26% to 38% of GDP. Until Responsibility Bill, requires the gov­ including projections for the following ••••••••••••••••••• ernment to issue these forecasts twice year, to its ministerial cabinet. From a year, publish an additional update these statements, the Treasury pro­ AYN RAND'S four to six weeks before any election, duces a consolidated balance sheet and produce an annual report on its Ethical 85 Political and operating statement, which are objectives for expenses, revenue, and Theory: made publicly available and are easily debt. The annual report must also A Critical Introduction understood. The Act enables taxpayers explain how the government intends by George H. Smith to compare how a department has to achieve its objectives, give an author of Atheism: performed over the previous year update on its progress to date, and The Case Aganist God with how it was expected to perform. offer projections for the next ten years. The department head must fully Finally, the bill squarely places respon­ 12-Cassette Seminar Series • explain any deviations from these sibility for the accuracy of the forecasts $90 plus slh projections. $5 (post) $7.50 (UPS) 0 with the Treasury Department. In com­ CA residents add 8.25 /0 sales tax bination with the Public Finance Act, Credit cards accepted The Opposition Goes To Bat the Fiscal Responsibility Bill has given In the election of 1990, the National New Zealand the most comprehensive A sympathetic but critical Party resoundingly bounced the lethar­ and accountable financial disclosure exploration and comparison to other philosophers gic and turmoil-plagued Labour gov­ system in the world. ernment from power. Assuming the On the labor front, Richardson To order or to request more influential post of minister of finance made a valiant attempt to abolish the information, contact: was Ruth Richardson, a diminutive minimum wage. Off the record, many • spitfire who had earned a reputation government officials admitted that the Resources for for opposing, often alone, some of minimum wage costs jobs and denies Independent Th inking Muldoon's more feather-brained meas­ workers the opportunity to acquire 484 Lake Park Ave., No. 24 ures. A market liberal, Richardson was marketable skills. But many members Oakland, CA 94610 determined to continue what Douglas of Parliament felt repeal would be Phone: 510/601-9450 had begun. politically risky, and Richardson's Fax: 510/547-7140 In its post-election briefing to the measure failed. Despite this setback, E-mail: [email protected] incoming government, Treasury she did manage to abolish compulsory ••••••••••••••••••• Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

three years ago, the tax take did not sexual orientation, or HIV status. And values of self-responsibility and indi­ cover spending. Although the sale of if a person deposits a large amount of vidual liberty, the reform program will state assets relieved part of the debt, cash into his bank account, the bank continue to stall, and the gains that much of the proceeds went to finance teller is required to report the "suspi­ have been made will be jeopardized. debt accumulated over the previous cious" transaction. Aware of this need, New Zealand's twelve years. As a result, the net public So while American libertarians handful of libertarians have begun debt now stands at 50% of GDP. New might envy the Kiwis' relative eco­ campaigning for such individualist Zealand's debt-to-GDP ratio is the nomic freedom, the reforms rest upon ideas. Over the last two years, they fourth highest in the OECD. a precarious foundation. Any funda­ have established a nationwide libertar­ New Zealand's reforms were mental shift in New Zealand toward a ian radio network (the late, lamented enacted in the name of those enduring general pro-freedom attitude remains a Radio Liberty), started the country's bromides, "the public welfare" and long way off. (In the words of Prime only libertarian journal (The Free "the common good." And as critics Minister Jim Bolger, "I don't want to Radical), and formed a political party shrieked at the "inhumanity" of the hear any of that Amy Rand stuff.") In (the LibertariaNZ). As a result, Kiwis reforms, Parliament passed a great some recent polls, the newly formed are for the first time being introduced deal of legislation openly inimical to Alliance Party is supported by over to the ideas·of freedom, and terms such individual liberty and property rights. 30% of the electorate. The Alliance calls as "individual rights" and "liberty" For instance, the Resource Manage­ for more protectionism, spending, and have begun to creep into parliamen­ ment Act forbids property owners taxation - the very policies that tary debates. With the continued suc­ from altering their property or chang­ brought New Zealand to its knees in cess of the economic reforms and the ing its use in any way without bureau­ 1984. And the 1996 elections may well comparative ease with which ideas cratic permission. Also, it is now illegal produce a Labour/Alliance coalition may be disseminated in a small coun­ for employers or landlords to discrimi­ government. try, that fundamental revolution in nate on the basis of race, creed, gender, Until Kiwis actually embrace the thinking may yet take place. CJ

Casey, "I Go To Kazakhstan," continued from page 33

summer place. They're homemade off a tragedy. The lead car in our beauty? I pondered the question shanties with no plumbing, electricity, caravan had a head-on crash with awhile, and came up with a possible or water, jammed together about six to another vehicle and a motorcycle. I answer. an acre. If you're lucky enough to have didn't see the impact, but I saw the Women in poor countries often a dacha, you don't go there to relax; you aftermath: utterly gruesome, the type of suffer from malnutrition, which take a bus there on the weekend for the accident seen only in the Third WorId, adversely affects their beauty. On the dry, hot, hard work of growing veggies, with six dead and several maimed. One other hand, they don't get a chance to so there's something to eat other than of the dead was a young Kazak, the overeat the way American women (in the canned food from State Factory #17. president of KazMinCo's local partner. particular) do. And they get a lot of That's in the summer. Winter is I had been toasting and getting to know exercise, having to walk almost something else again, when the place him only an hour before. He was the everywhere. country.~Then turns into Dr. Zhivago son of Kazakstan's last KGB chief. Russian women do get adequate you just sit in your cold, cramped, nutrition and dental and medical care dimly lit closet and ... do what? We URussian Women - but they don't get a surfeit of food, went to what may have been the most Want To Meet You!" partially because most of the food that happening bar in Karaganda, and I can One last thought. If you ever peruse assure you I won't go back unless I'm is available verges on the inedible. And really anxious to brawl with a drunk men's magazines, you've undoubtedly they do get plenty of exercise. Russian. seen the ads for Russian women who My guess is that as soon as they Don't get me wrong. If you have want to meet Western men. You might arrive stateside they'll eat and exercise money and connections, life can be have thought that the stunning photos like Americans. Which means that in a reasonably good here. Suburbs are were specially selected, or that the few years, they'll look like their starting to rise, with houses as nice as agencies' claims to have files of grandmothers, sans babushkas, flowered any in the U.s. But their inhabitants are thousands of women were bogus. I dresses, and. ~tick brooms. But the mostly the nomenklatura and mafia think not. One thing that impressed smart ones ~nt,to go West. If they stay figures. everybody was the incredible number in Kazakhstan, 'they know that after Of course we were treated pretty of good-looking women we saw marriage their husbands will get drunk much like nomenklatura during our stay. everywhere. and brutal, and they'll live in grinding For instance, wherever we drove, we It seemed statistically improbable poverty and crushing boredom. And, had a police escort, so all the traffic in that they would all be that pretty. Was for a bonus, they'll turn into their both directions pulled over. Unfor­ it something in the water? Had the gene grandmothers. tunately, that wasn't enough to ward pool also been selected for female Life can be a cruel joke. 0 42 Liberty Voting Is No Sin by R. W. Bradford

Voting no more legitimizes the state than scratching legitimizes an itch.

Over the past two years, a lot of Liberty's ink has been devoted to arguing that participation in the political process is immoral. First, in the March 1995 Liberty, John Pugsley offered an eight-page argument against voting in general and Harry Browne's presidential campaign in particu­ lar. In the very next issue, Wendy McElroy presented a more concise argument against voting, which she act of self-defense ... [It] attacks inno­ cion, and destruction the next admin­ emphatically restated in "Why I cent third parties who must endure istration will wreak on all Americans Would Not Vote Against Hitler" (May the consequences of the politician as well as on innocent people around

1996). IIAt the last Liberty Conference," [who has been] assisted into a position the world who fall victim to she writes, "a question was posed: 'If of power over their lives. Whoever American intervention. Every person you could have ... cast the deciding puts a man into a position of unjust in the lynch mob is as guilty as the vote against Hitler, would you have power - that is, a position of political person who pulls the rope. Since a done so?' I replied, 'No, but I would power - must share responsibility for voter appoints an agent and empow­ have no moral objection to putting a every right he violates thereafter." ers that agent to aggress against oth­ bulletthroughhis skull.'" For McElroy, if a candidate is ers, the act of voting is immoral. It is To date, these arguments have elected, all who have voted for him wrong." gone virtually unanswered in our become guilty of any crimes he might The notion that by taking a certain pages. As the person who posed the commit. This logic, it seems to me, action, one accepts responsibility for question to McElroy at the Liberty would lead in very strange directions all sorts of diffuse antecedent events, Conference, I reluctantly have if it were applied to a voluntary asso­ is fairly widespread. Hence the 1960s decided to take up the issue here. My ciation or corporation. By McElroy's boycott of inoffensive table grapes reluctance grows out of my admira­ argument, if she voted for someone to because they were harvested by non­ tion for McElroy and for Pugsley, be chair of, say, her local Association union labor, the 1950s boycott of both of whom have demonstrated a of VoluntCuba, South Africa, the onstrates her revolutionary zeal. But For Pugsley, the voter shares guilt Soviet Union, China, North Korea, her elaboration makes it clear that she for elected officials' crimes even if he etc. considers voting the kind of serious voted against them: "Those who vote Such actions mayor may not have sin that mere assassination, appar­ in the next presidential election will the intended moral effect. They cer­ ently, is not: A ballot can never be "an share responsibility for the theft, coer- tainly provide comfort both for the Liberty 43 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

well-meaning and the self-righteous. sent in one important matter." need not condemn rational, scientific But they are no substitute for the real The crux of McElroy's argument, I inquiry to deny legitimacy to the business of the world. If one must believe, is that the power of the state Marxist state, or condemn religious investigate the antecedents of every­ rests on its claim to legitimacy, and its belief to deny legitimacy to the medie­ thing one buys and verify that it was claim to legitimacy rests on its subjects' val state, so I see no need to condemn produced in accordance with one's eth­ participation in democratic elections; voting to deny legitimacy to the mod­ ical values, trade will halt and society so by refusing to participate in elec­ ern, democratic state. will cease to exist. tions, we can deny the state's legiti­ Casting about for a way to interpret McElroy even opposes going to the macy and reduce (or destroy) its McElroy's argument in a more plausible polls only to vote no on tax increases: power. Q.E.D. A nifty argument. But way, it occured to me that perhaps she "It seems like I should be saying that not, I believe, a valid one. fears that exercising my moral freedom The problem with this argument is to vote may lead other people to believe that it accepts as true a key proposition that the state is a morally legitimate When Chilean dictator of the modern statist: that voting con­ authority. fers legitimacy on the state. I can see no But allowing neighbors' interpreta­ Augusto Pinochet allowed more reason to accept this claim at face tions to determine your behavior is himself to be voted from office value than to accept many modern stat­ absurd. Suppose, for example, that in 1988, did "another of his ists' claims that a social"contract" binds McElroy's neighbor believes that walk­ us to obeythe law and that government ing upright is evidence that she agrees ilk" take power in two ownership of the means of production that all her property should be for­ seconds? renders them more productive, more feited to the state. Would McElroy just, and more humane than means of agree that it ought to be? production that areprivately owned. Or - to take a less absurd notion you should vote against things," There is a glimmer of truth to the - suppose that your use of public McElroy said in response to a question legitimacy argument. The power of streets leads your neighbors to believe at the conference. "But one of the big any state does depend on the opinions the state is morally legitimate. Must problems that you have in terms of of its subjects; if enough of them view you then stop using the roads? dealing with the state, and dealing it as good or inevitable or too powerful As a matter of fact, many people do with people who believe in the state, is to resist, the state achieves a certain believe that if you use the streets, or the state has legitimacy. And perhaps viability. Ultimately, power is in the sidewalks, or government schools, or the biggest thing that gives the state hands of individual human beings, postal service, or any other state-owned legitimacy is that it is considered a and the most powerful states are those or state-controlled entity, you confer democratic process in which we can all with the widest support. legitimacy on our massively coercive vote.... If in fact you deal with the Like all governments, the modern government. Yet few of those who political system and vote, even against democratic state rests on the support of oppose the omnipotent state try even to something, you're saying they have the its subjects. It seeks this (and asserts its reduce our use of such things. They authority, or you're participating in a legitimacy) by holding elections. The don't walk on the grass, or buy bottled system that says the state has the democratic state that gains widespread water, or stop driving. They're not authority." support by this method can become Her view is that all voting is wrong extremely powerful, able to command - which is what prompted my ques­ huge resources. McElroy removes voting tion about casting a deciding vote But elections are not the only means against Hitler. "Thou shalt not vote" is state~ have used to assert legitimacy. In from its social context - not a universal moral commandment that medieval Europe, states asserted a realizing that in the process she must be obeyed under any and all legitimacy that came from the is robbing it of its actual circumstances. Christian religion, and demonstrated But why is voting wrong? "Voting that legitimacy by sharing power with meanlng. is an act of implicit violence, because it the organized chulcp. Democratic elec­ Js an essential aspect of a system that tions played no p,rt in the process. In binds others to the will of the state. much of the Muslim world today, really worried about the bad example Moreover, voting provides the legiti­ states derive their legitimacy from they give their neighbors. I suspect macy upon which the state lives and Islam. In countries controlled by McElroy isn't either. Nor should shebe. breathes.... Just as totalitarian states Communists, states claimed legiti­ What McElroy misses is that when go through the charade of 'free elec­ macy from scientific, Marxist our neighbors interpret our behavior tions' to justify their rule, Western thought. as granting legitimacy to the state, they democratic states base their claim to I am no more willing to accept the are wrong. legitimacy upon consent via the ballot notion that voting confers legitimacy The simple fact is that people's box [because] most people ... accept on the democratic state than I am will­ motives for voting do matter. Just as we the notion that by 'participating in the ing to accept these other supposed treat the. little girl who trespasses on electoral process,' they have given con- sources of legitimacy. And just as I our property while chasing a butterfly 44 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

differently from the vandal who enters office in Poland? Or the Sandinistas in eliminated only when there is wide­ our property with intent to damage, so Nicaragua? spread conviction that it ought to be we must treat those who vote as a way I suppose someone might argue reduced or eliminated. The means by of gaining personal power or wealth that all the succeeding governments which such a change takes place may differently from those who vote in continued to collect taxes, regulate the be democratic (as in New Zealand over order to reduce the power of the state. economy, enact unjust laws, etc., and the past decade) or revolutionary (as in But for McElroy, the proposition are therefore of the saij.1e "ilk" as their the United States in late eighteenth that voting confers legitimacy on the predecessors. To this I respond: century), or somewhere in-between (as state is an established fact that cannot Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin in Poland in the 1980s). But the one be denied; neither a voter's motive nor were both statists, but Stalin was far undeniable precondition for such a the consequences of his act are relevant more destructive of human life, liberty, against the perfidy of his legitimizing and property, and the difference is the state. She removes voting from its very important. Suppose that your use of social context - not realizing that in My guess is that by characterizing the process she is robbing it of its my question as fantastic, McElroy public streets leads your neigh­ actual meaning. And so, off in this fan­ wanted to free herself from dealing bors to believe the state is tasy world where refusing to cast a bal­ with this sort of objection. Of course, I morally legitimate. Must you lot that would prevent Hitler from don't believe that the situation I speci­ taking power is an act of virtue and fied is likely to occur. All I suggested is then stop using the roads? voting against Hitler is evil, McElroy is that it is plausible that at some point a secure in her own heroism. person might have an opportunity to And ironically, she accuses voters of cast a ballot that would keep a very radical transformation is a change of removing their arguments from the bad person from political power. But opinion. real world. She asserts that my ques­ McElroy is arguing for a universal In our society, there are many tion about Hitler "postulated a fantasy moral imperative. The whole purpose world which canceled out one of the means of convincing our fellows to of such commandments is to tell you basic realities of existence: the constant change their opinions. We can try to what to do in extreme cases. So she presence of alternatives. In essence, the educate them. We can try to stimulate must deal with every plausible case, question became, 'If the fabric of real­ others to educate them. We can set not simply those likely to occur. ity were rewoven into a different pat­ good examples by trying to live exem­ Well, I don't live in Wendy tern, would you still take the same plary lives. We can organize debating McElroy's world. In my world, I don't societies. We can write books about claim to understand the inherent feminism, or publish magazines. We moral significance of voting, let alone can do research, or explore the frontiers For McElroy, "thou shalt accept the notion that it confers legiti­ of social thinking. And, if we choose, macy on aggressive force. And in my not vote" is a universal moral we can run for office, using our cam­ commandment that must be world, if I had an opportunity to cast the deciding vote against Hitler, I paign to spread the proposition that lib­ obeyed under any and all would do so. I would do so because erty is good. circumstances. Hitler was a very bad man who advo­ There are many roads that lead to a cated policies that would do a terrible freer world. Some of us prefer one over amount of harm to millions of people, another. Some of us progress further along some roads than we would by moral stand?' Since my morals are including, presumably, me. Even if I were somehow immune to the future following others. But it behooves us to derived from my views about reality, it remember that the road we choose is was not possible for me to answer this harm done by Hitler, I'd have jumped question ... I can address only the real­ at the chance to cast a deciding ballot not the only road. 0 ity in which I live and, in a world against him because I feel replete with alternatives, I would not benevolent toward my fel­ vote for or against Hitler ... Voting for low human beings and or against Hitler would only because the cost of voting strengthen the institutional framework against him is slight. that produced him - a framework So what action can one that would produce another of his ilk take to reduce the power of in two seconds." government and increase What reality is McElroy living in? human liberty? To answer When Chilean dictator Augusto that question, we must Pinochet allowed himself to be voted remember that government from office in 1988, did "another of his power rests on the opinions ilk" take power in two seconds? How of our fellow human ''I'm afraid the doctor's in Hawaii right now, but about when Jaruzelski was voted from beings. It will be reduced or he'll speak to you on the phone for $40." Liberty 45 Inquiry A Killer's Right to Life by George H. Smith

The death penalty has a renewed life. On its merits, it deserves to die a quiet death.

Doing political philosophy consists largely of deciding where we don't want to go and then figuring out a way to end up somewhere else. There is nothing wrong with this method, as long as we do not confuse motives with arguments. How and why we pursue a particular inquiry ­ what questions we ask, what we try to justify, and so forth - depend largely on subjective considerations. But hav­ Emotionally, I favored capital pun­ are inextricably linked to our reason ing embarked on the subjective quest ishment hands down, despite my paci­ and volition, which together constitute for understanding, we must thereafter fist inclinations. I felt no sorrow our moral agency. Since we literally be guided by objective considerations. whatever at the thought of executing a cannot alienate our moral agency ­ My motive for writing this article was brutal and sadistic killer - and, to be no one else can think for us, or will for to see whether I could build a convinc­ honest, I still don't. But there remained us, even if we want them to - this ing theoretical case against capital the nagging issues of inalienable rights means that we cannot alienate the punishment from a libertarian per­ and whether capital punishment is right to exercise moral agency. We spective. But an argument cares not at consistent with the libertarian theory have no choice in the matter. all for motives; it is concerned only of restitution. We can justify the death The concept of inalienable rights, with reasons. penalty only with a broader theory of as used by individualist thinkers, For many years, when asked about punishment that is consistent with our arose during the social contract my position on the death penalty, I theory of justice. I could justify restitu­ debates of the sevent.eenth and eight­ gave a reply that I have heard from tion, but nothing more. So if I were to eenth centuries. Social contract theory many other libertarians: "I am a,gainst embrace the death penalty, I would has many variations. In its early forms, giving the power of life and death to necessarily have to revise or reject my it was often used to justify absolute our present government, but I am views on punishment and, by implica­ sovereignty. Philosophers claimed that uncertain about its moral legitimacy in tion, the libertarian theory of inaliena­ the people had irrevocably transferred theory." My major concern revolved ble rights. all of their rights to government, so ~round the issue of certainty. It is inev­ Therefore, rather than assume that their rights could not be restored with­ itable, especially given our current capital punishment must somehow be out the government's consent. Since judicial system, tl\at innocent.people legitimate and work backwards from the social contract was an imaginary will be (and doubtless have be~n) exe­ there - which is, I believe, the proce­ construction, not a historical reality cuted; so it seems better to op;~ose all dure of some libertarians -I resolved (virtually all philosophers agreed on capital punishment rather than run the to begin with inalienable rights and this point), there was no way to decide risk of killing one innocent person. see if I could eliminate capital punish­ empirically which rights had been sur­ Of course, this position, however ment from the libertarian agenda. I rendered and under what conditions. justified, evades the broader moral believe that I have succeeded. Indeed, In their assault on absolutism, indi­ issue. Suppose we can have no doubt in retrospect the argument seems vidualist philosophers maintained that whatever about an accused serial remarkably straightforward. some rights can never be delegated to killer's guilt. Given our theory of jus­ government, because they are inaliena­ tice, what position should we take Inalienable Rights ble. Such rights are inherently linked when reasonable doubt is impossible Calling a right "inalienable" means to innate human characteristics that and where the crimes have been espe­ that it cannot be transferred, surren­ even consent cannot transfer, aban­ cially heinous? dered, or forfeited. Inalienable rights don, or forfeit. If a human faculty, 46 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

such as conscience, cannot be alienated, Second, the doctrine of inalienable duty could not apply to them - and so, then neither can the right to exercise rights arose during the debates over like myself, they too must possess that that faculty. As Spinoza put it, "no resistance, revolution, and tyrannicide. inalienable right. (As philosophers like man's mind can possibly lie wholly at The doctrine was not intended to to say, "ought" implies "can.") This is the disposition of another, for no one address the question of punishment the formal principle of universality. can willingly transfer his natural right and was rarely applied to the death Since a right has no meaning apart of free reason and judgment, or be com­ penalty. Indeed, tyrannicide was com­ from the moral duty it imposes on oth­ pelled so to do." monly seen as a form of capital punish­ ers, and since moral duty presupposes The upshot of this is that no govern­ ment, whereby the king, by abusing his moral agency (reason and volition), this ment can properly violate inalienable trust of power, had "unkinged" him­ implies that others have a right to act rights with the excuse that they were self, placed himself in a "state of war" according to the precepts of duty, which transferred in the social contract. Any against the people, and was thereby requires choice. In other words, others government that does so is necessarily liable to be killed for his must have the right to tyrannical. Inalienable rights thus crimes. Had early liber­ exercise their moral played a crucial role in the political con­ tarian thinkers employ­ agency, which I, in turn, troversies over resistance and revolu­ ed a theory of inaliena­ have a duty to respect. tion. They functioned as a bright line ble rights to oppose This is the formal princi­ which, when crossed by government, capital punishment, ple of reciprocity. constituted a public declaration of tyr­ they would have cut I am not merely anny, thereby activating the people's the ground from under claiming, as a matter of right of revolution. (This theory is their own defense of practical necessity, that clearly expressed in the Declaration of tyrannicide. I must concede the Independence.) Ideas, like actions, rights of others if I am Rights theory developed in the con­ have unintended conse­ to claim them for text of debates over political sove­ quences. And though myself. There is merit reignty. In 1576, the French philosopher the philosophy of inali­ in this claim, but my Jean Bodin, a champion of absolute enable rights was not point is logical, not monarchy, argued that the political intended to address the practical. It does not ruler has an "inalienable right" to his issue of punishment, it concern itself with who sovereignty, which precluded all rights has definite implica­ does or does not claim of resistance and revolution by the peo­ tions in that field. One to possess rights. It has ple. This and similar claims by absolu­ of these consequences, I to do with the internal tists led to the counter-claim by believe, is the total coherence of the con­ individualists (such as the Levellers) repudiation of capital cept itself. If I claim an that moral sovereignty properly punishment as inconsis­ exclusive monopoly on belongs to all people in virtue of their tent with the inaliena­ inalienable rights, then common humanity. (This doctrine ble right of self­ I am not merely incon­ owed much to the ancient Stoics.) sovereignty. As libertar­ sistent -I am incoher- Libertarian writers have used vari­ ians, we should oppose L-__~ -"",__~J(,,--, ent. It is akin to the ous names for the primary inalienable capital punishment, not claim that my quarter right, including self-proprietorship, because we wish to defend heinous and has only one side. A right and a duty property in one's person, self­ brutal killers, but because we wish to are two sides of the same coin. ownership, moral autonomy, the right defend our moral principles. In brief, either every person has to life, and self-sovereignty. This latter An inalienable right must be univer­ inalienable rights or the concept is term, popularized by the American sal and reciprocal if the concept is to sheer gibberish. Which brings us to the anarchist Josiah Warren, is the label I have meaning. A right entails a corre­ issue of capital punishment. prefer. "Sovereignty" refers to the ulti­ sponding obligation, or duty, for others I believe that every person - includ­ mate and absolute right of decision­ not to interfere with the free exercise of ing a wanton, brutal killer - has certain making. "Self-sovereignty" denotes the that right. This presupposes the exis­ inalienable rights in common with the individual's right to use and dispose of tence of other persons who, as moral rest of humankind, rights that cannot be his or her body, mind, and labor, and agents, are capable of understanding transferred, abandoned, or forfeited. I the fruits thereof. the concept of "ought" (which requires further maintain that the death penalty This historical context is important reason) and of acting accordingly is a clear violation of that inalienable for several reasons. First, it helps us (which requires volition). right known as self-sovereignty. understand the problems, both theoreti­ If I have an inalienable right in vir­ Since I cannot here defend a theory cal and practical, that generated mod­ tue of my moral agency, then others of natural rights (much less inalienable ern theories of rights and the questions must have the same right in virtue of rights) with any degree of thorough­ they were designed to answer. It is vir­ their moral agency. My right logically ness, I offer the follOWing dilemma as a tually impossible to appreciate a theory implies a corresponding duty in other focal point for some brief observations. fully unless we know something about persons. Those persons, therefore, must I suggest that libertarians must adopt its historical origins. be moral agents - or the concept of one of these two positions. Liberty 47 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

(1) If everyone has inalienable We cannot as libertarians choose tice of capital punishment. If I have the rights, then the wanton, brutal killer (let when we will and will not respect inali­ right to kill Murphy for his crime, then us call him Murphy) also has inaliena­ enable rights. They are the foundation surely I have the right to inflict lesser ble rights, and it would be unjust to for our theory of justice; as such, they punishments on him as well, including execute him, whatever the magnitude determine our choices and actions in a life of slavery. of his crimes. the realm of jurisprudence. If we say Consider the juridical implications (2) If capital punishment is just and that inalienable rights should be of capital punishment from a libertarian we decide to execute Murphy, then we respected, but only under certain condi­ perspective. (By "juridical," I mean can do so only on the assumption that tions, then this requires a standard by "pertaining to the administration of jus­ he does not possess inalienable rights. which to determine when those condi­ tice.") Rights, as we have seen, always But if Murphy does not have these tions are present and when they are entail corresponding duties. Therefore, rights, then no one does, and we must not. And this, in tum, requires that we to say that I have a right to kill Murphy abandon the theory altogether. demote inalienable rights to a subordi­ for his --Crimes must mean one of two Thus, we must either oppose capital nate position, where they can be judged things: punishment as unjust, owing to our the­ by a standard of evaluation that is more (1) Perhaps Murphy has the corre­ ory of inalienable rights, or we must jet­ fundamental. I should like to know sponding duty not to forcibly resist my tison that theory. This latter option, in what this standard is and who, or what, killing him, Le., he has the moral obliga­ my judgment, would be catastrophic, determines its applicability. To argue tion to die. This makes nonsense out of a for we cannot construct a libertarian libertarian theory of rights, which is theory of justice except on a foundation based on the fundamental right of self­ of inalienable rights. And without a the­ preservation. (Even an absolutist like ory of justice, we cannot have a valid We cannot develop a theory Thomas Hobbes believed that this right theory of punishment. And without a of punishment without taking could never be surrendered.) How can theory of punishment, we cannot rea­ into account the desire for the inalienable right of self-preservation sonably take any moral position on cap­ transform itself into the obligation to ital punishment, pro or con, because we revenge, any more than we can die? Maybe libertarian casuists can lack a systematic method of analysis understand economics without answer this question, but I cannot. and justification. taking into account the desire (2) Perhaps Murphy, owing to his As for my earlier contention that heinous crimes, has forfeited his funda­ inalienable rights and capital punish­ for profit. mental right to life. In this case, I, his ment cannot be reconciled, several exe~utioner, can dispose of Murphy as I objections immediately suggest would my own property. Here the cor­ themselves: for the conditional nature of inalienable responding duty not to intervene (1) Perhaps Murphy initially pos­ rights is, in effect, to destroy the episte- would pertain, not to Murphy (who is sessed inalienable rights (like everyone mological function o~,~h~o~se rights in the no longer regarded as a moral agent) else), but somehow forfeited these libertarian theory of j~e. but to other persons generally. For rights after committing his foul deed. example, when I claim a property right Reply: This argument evidently pro­ Slavery, Torture, in my car, I obviously do not mean that ceeds from a peculiar definition of inali­ and Capital Punishment the car has a duty to comply with my enable rights. Forfeiture, after all, is a Historically, the right to inflict capi­ wishes. Rather, I mean that other p~o­ mode of alienation. Let me be clear tal punishment was central to the pIe have a duty not to interfere with my about this: by "inalienable," I mean defense of slavery. According to Locke, rightful jurisdiction over my own prop­ "inalienable." when a man takes an action that erty. I can do whatever I wish with my (2) Perhaps the execution of deserves death and thereby forfeits his own car: drive it, disfigure it, damage Murphy is not a violation of his inalien­ own life, then whoever has a right to it, destroy it, etc. If this is what is able rights, owing to the need for reci­ inflict that punishment may "delay to entailed by my right to inflict capital procity. If Murphy has willfully and take it, and make use of him for his punishment on Murphy - and, in my maliciously violated the inalienable own Service, and he does him no injury opinion, this is the only interpretation rights of others, then we need not recip­ by it." After all, if the condemned per­ that is conceptually coherent - then rocate by respecting his rights, nor can son finds that the hardship of slavery Murphy is literally my property. I can he reasonably claim that we should. outweighs the value of living, then he kill him (Le., dispose of him), but I can Reply: It is true, as I explained pre­ can always resist the will of his master also enslave him, torture him, disfigure viously, that rights are reciprocal. The and cause himself to be killed, which is him, and the like. concept of a right necessarily entails the what he deserved in the first place. (We I have a right to dispose of some­ universal duty of reciprocity. Every might think that outright suicide would thing absolutely only if it is my prop­ moral agent has the duty to respect the be a better option, but Locke denies the erty. When analyzed juridically, capital equal rights of other moral agents. But right to kill oneself, since it violates punishment requires someone (usually this means that we must respect the God's absolute property in man, his the gove'rnment) to have an absolute inalienable rights of Murphy precisely creation.) property right in the criminal who is to because he is a moral agent and I don't see how we can avoid be executed. This, however, is the foun­ remains so, despite his foul deed. Locke's conclusion, if we accept the jus- dation of slavery. It was frequently 48 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

argued that first-generation slaves had me? As a slave, Murphy is my prop­ enslaved. Slaveowners could not have waged unjust wars against their erty, like my car or my dog. If Murphy their slaves and eat them, too. African neighbors, who then captured is not a moral agent with self­ I have argued that a criminal must their aggressors and, rather than inflict sovereignty, i.e., if Murphy does not first be enslaved before he can be killed, the just penalty of death, sold them to have rights, then he does not have for only then can we dispose of him as European slavetraders instead. moral duties either. Both presuppose property. This is the only conceptual Nineteenth-century abolitionists, moral agency, and both stand or fall scheme that makes sense from a liber­ such as William Lloyd Garrison, argued together. If my dog kills my neighbor, tarian standpoint. But if we divest the that slavery (or "manstealing") is then I am legally responsible. Likewise, condemned of all rights, we can do so always unjust, because it violates the if my slave Murphy kills my neighbor, onlY by stripping him of his moral inalienable right of self-ownership. We then it is I, and not my property, who agency, in which case we must also cannot have property in other persons, should be legally responsible. divest him of moral obligations. The because every person has an absolute Slaveowners, of course, refused to condemned, juridically speaking, is a property in himself. We cannot own accept personal liability for any crimes nonmoral being, without rights and others, because every person is a self­ committed by their slaves, holding without duties. This means that, after owner. This has long been the premise them responsible instead. Abolitionists being condemned, a murderer is no of radical libertarianism. Capital pun­ were quick to note the inconsistency in longer capable of committing unjust ishment demolishes that premise, this stance. Either the slave is property, acts. If he kills someone else, then he because it concedes that, in this case at or he is a person with full and equal cannot be held responsible. least, ownership of one person by rights. In the former case, the master This is a ludicrous position. But this another is possible and proper. should be responsible for any injurious is the kind of dilemma that follows There is another problem with slav­ activities by his slave, just as he would from any theoretical attempt to divest a ery, one that was often raised by aboli­ for his horses, cattle, and the like. If, person of inalienable rights. This tionist writers. Suppose Murphy, however, the slave is a responsible dilemma also underscores the meaning whom I have enslaved in lieu of killing moral agent, then he has duties and can and implications of "inalienable." him for his crimes, kills someone else. be held liable for his actions, but also Certain rights simply cannot be alien­ Who is legally responsible, Murphy or has rights and cannot, therefore, be ated because certain faculties, such as

Treason The New World Order by Gurudas

Comprehensive analysis of Patriot movement and New World Order Reference work with 833 footnotes

• Warnings from many of a coming corporate world government • End of U.S. Constitution and U.S. sovereignty • Threat of globalization ISBN-0-945946-14-7 • Out of control intelligence agencies $14.95 + $4.00 for shipping • Suppressed American history 320 pp. Paperback • Role of militias in U.S. history • Corporate treason in the 1930s and 1940s Cassandra Press, Inc. • Oklahoma bombing and the government cover-up po. Box 150868 San Rafael, CA 94915 • State sovereignty vs. federal control Available in local stores • Left and right working together • Murder as a political weapon in America Distributors include: B & T, Bookpeople, New Leaf, Weisers • Radiation/Biological experiments on people Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

moral agency, cannot be transferred, interest serves in economics. An impor­ and experience. We see this illustrated surrendered, or forfeited. tant implication of Smith's approach is in Smith's belief that "all civilized that we cannot develop a theory of pun­ nations" have punished murder with Revenge and Retaliation ishment without taking into account death, whereas in "barbarous nations To retaliate is to return evil for evil, the desire for revenge, any more than the punishment has generally been to pay back an injury in kind, to inflict we can understand economics without much slighter, as a pecuniary fine." upon a wrongdoer the same injury he taking into account the desire for profit. Early governments were too weak to has caused another. We find this Both are fundamental motives, com­ meddle in the affairs of individuals, so expressed in the Old Testament (and mon to all peoples and all ages. We they served as mediators to arbitrate Greek) law of retaliation (lex talionis): smile condescendingly at utopian disputes, urging the offended parties "thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, socialists who envision a world where (e.g., relatives of the murder victim) to tooth for tooth, burning for burning, the profit motive has been eradicated or wound for wound, stripe for stripe." tamed by our higher sentiments. Adam Smith, who regarded retalia­ Likewise, Smith would have smiled at tion as "a barbarous and inhuman cus­ utopian moralists who dream of a There is more to be learned tom," gave an illustration from humanity without resentment and about the psychology of pun­ contemporary Dutch law. An offender revenge. A theory of justice can never ishment from classical writers who had disfigured the face of another be implemented if it ignores human was required to measure his victim's passions. If people cannot satisfy their than from all the tedious tomes wound and then cut himself, inflicting thirst for vengeance through the legal ofmodern pseudo-empiricism. a wound of the same length, breadth, system, they will look elsewhere, and depth. thereby unleashing the destructive According to Smith, "The revenge forces of "anarchy." of the injured which prompts him to Smith, David Hume, and others saw settle for presents or monetary dam­ retaliate the injury on the offender is the development of legal systems as the ages from the offender or his kin. As the real source of the punishment of institutional sublimation of unruly and civilization advanced - Le., as govern­ crimes." Smith did not believe that pun­ potentially dangerous passions. These ment grew stronger - the "barbarous" ishment is grounded in considerations passions cannot be eliminated or effec­ custom of restitution was replaced by of public utility. Rather, the resentment tively suppressed, but they can be reo­ the "civilized" practice of capital pun­ of the injured party incites him to take riented in their course so as to produce ishment. In the case of murder, Smith vengeance upon the offender. This, socially beneficial outcomes, even if no insists, only the death penalty can ade­ however, leads to bloodshed, confu­ particular individual intends, foresees, quately satiate the natural desire for sion, and disorder ("anarchy"), so there or desires that result. This perspective, vengeance. evolved social customs and political when adapted by Edmund Burke, gen­ This argument, which may appear erated a powerful defense of estab­ bizarre to the modern reader, was con­ lished institutions as the supposed sistent with the Enlightenment theory Ultimately, in the case of repositories of accumulated wisdom of social progress. Virtually anything and experience from past generations. associated with medieval society ("the murder, there is no satisfactory This traditionalism rules out all radical Dark Ages") was regarded as supersti­ way to "balance" the scales of changes in political institutions, tion and barbarism; in particular, the justice. whether by violent or nonviolent pluralistic legal system of medieval means, and leaves room only for piece­ Europe was condemned as "feudal meal, gradual reforms. In the words of anarchy" by Smith, Edward Gibbon, Alexander Pope, "Whatever is, is and other enlightened minds, because it institutions to replace or regulate pri­ right." lacked the centralized sovereign of the vate retaliation. (Essentially the same As might be expected, this conserva­ modern nation-state. opinion was expressed by Oliver tive version of spontaneous order tends The medieval systems of restitutive Wendell Holmes: "the early forms of to cultivate a rather silly veneration for justice, which owed much to Germanic legal procedure were grounded in ven­ the status quo. (The radical version, in law, were remarkably detailed and spe­ geance." This is especially true of liabil­ contrast, focuses on the autonomous cific. The Anglo-Saxon "Laws ot ity, which has "its root in the passion of nature of social institutions that are able lEthelbert," promulgated around 600 revenge," from which it has evolved to sustain social order without the inter­ A.D., present a typical schedule, which into its present, more civilized form.) vention of government. Social order, as is summarized by Harold J. Berman in The desire for revenge and its exter­ Thomas Paine said, would continue to Law and Revolution: nal manifestation, retaliation, are the flourish even if "the formality of gov­ The four front teeth were worth six foundation of Smith's theory of natural ernment were abolished.") shillings each, the teeth next to them jurisprudence - "of all sciences by far This approach can also justify con­ four, the other teeth, one; thumbs, the most important, but hitherto, per­ temporary institutions as better (more thumbnails, forefingers, middle fin­ haps, the least cultivated." Retaliation just, more efficient) than earlier, more gers, ring fingers, little fingers, and serves the same kind of explanatory "primitive" institutions, since 'our civili­ their respective fingernails were all function in jurisprudence that self- zation is based on greater knowledge distinguished, and a separate price, 50 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

called a bot, was set for each. Similar overcome this self-centered and and psychological associations that distinctions were made among ears destructive passion: "Such a thing is have been externalized and objectified. whose hearing was destroyed, ears wickedness and cruelty, and cannot be In short, human beings can learn to sat­ cut off, ears pierced, and ears lacer­ ethically justified." We should not isfy their desire for vengeance in ways ated; among bones laid bare, bones inflict pain on others merely because other than capital punishment ­ damaged, bones broken, skulls they have inflicted pain on us: which, in Bentham's judgment, does broken, shoulders disabled, chins "Retaliation of evil for evil without any not further social utility (the greatest broken, collar bones broken, arms further purpose cannot be justified." happiness for the greatest number). broken, thighs broken, and ribs Jeremy Bentham, a classical liberal Many of these issues also concern a broken; and among bruises outside and grandfather of modern utilitarian­ theory known as retribution. the clothing, bruises under the cloth­ ism, distinguished two fundamental ing, and bruises which did not show passions in human nature, a desire for Retribution black. pleasure and an aversion to pain. Retribution, generally speaking, is Unlike Smith, Berman has kind Bentham refused to discriminate the idea that every crime deserves pay­ things to say about this approach: morally among various pleasures; all ment in the form of punishment. It is, in many respects, a very sensi­ pleasures are equally good, including Retribuhon may be viewed as a more ble system. The threat of heavy the pleasure we get from revenge. But sophisticated theory of retaliation. Both financial burdens upon the wrong­ there is no natural or necessary rela­ demand some kind of equality, or pro­ doer and his kin is probably a more tionship between a particular mode of portion/ in punishment, as reflected in effective deterrent of crime than the revenge (say, capital punishment) and the saying, "The punishment should fit threat of capital punishment or cor­ the desired pleasure. This is a learned the crime." But retaliation is often poreal mutilation (which succeeded response, which is caused by the framed in literal terms (an eye for an pecuniary sanctions in Europe in the repeated association of some ideas with eye), whereas retribution seeks an twelfth and thirteenth centuries), others. Men punish because they hate, equality in terms of rights (a right for a and at least equally as effective as and they hate certain crimes because right). the modem sanction of imprison­ they have been taught that they ought According to Immanuel Kant, the ment; and it is surely less expensive to hate them. Similarly, judicial authori­ pure theory of retribution is based "on for society. Moreover, in terms of ties who are accustomed to imposing the principle of equality, by which the retributive justice, not only is the penal sentences often assume that their pointer of the scale of justice is made to wrongdoer made to suffer, but in punishment has a natural connection to incline no more to the one side than the addition - in contrast to today's the offense - for example, that capital other. It may be rendered by saying more "civilized" penology - the punishment somehow equalizes the that the undeserved evil which anyone victim is thereby made whole. crime of murder, or that the murderer commits on another is to be regarded as If the advent of capital punishment "deserves" to be executed. But all this is perpetrated on himself." Thus, if I signaled an advance in civilization, mere fiction, a product of mental habits strike another person, I strike myself; if then England was a highly civilized country indeed. The death penalty was ..------. probably more common in England I . tl than anywhere else in Europe. In 1765, The bullet kl-Iled the black presl-dent-e ect Instan y England could boast of 160 capital fel- ...or did it? One thing was clear. That bullet onies, and even more by 1786. (Between February 1800 and April had blasted apart the U.S. like Bosnia. 1801, there were around 100 execu- Even as the cities burned, embittered blacks tions for forgery alone.) Adam Smith was by no means in Washington seceded. Now, Ginny Harrison unique in maintaining that revenge is must cross their new nation where her the psychological and historical foun- dation of legal punishment. This the- white skin could land her in an internment ory was widely discussed and debated camp ... or worse . throughout the eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries. According to Arthur Major rn IC\\ crs from Nc\\ england to Schopenhauer, when we are coerced Flonc!a proclaIm: "... a dandy oJ a novel we naturally experience a feeling of ... full of (ld"cntulc and (hills" ­ moral injury - a feeling that is dis­ "... alllighty (lash of ideals and hopes... " tinct from physical injury - which incites us to seek vengeance. The pur­ If I Die on theJersey Front pose of revenge is to console our suf­ A Story ofAmerica after the Split fering by causing others to suffer, By M. Collins, 283 gripping pages: thereby deriving pleasure from wit­ paperback ISBN 0-9645726-0-5 $4.99 nessing their pain. But it is a funda­ Mf» The Orchard Press, Cornwall, CT 06753-0020 mental purpose of morality to ~Mail/phone orders add $2.24 E-mail [email protected] tel. 800-301-7770 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

I rob from another person, I rob from Clearly, Kant and other retributi­ tarian viewpoint, capital punishment myself; if I kill another person, I kill vists mean more than this when they does not restore or balance anything. myself. It is only this conception of say that justice demands payment in (At most it provides a sense of emo­ equality that "can definitely assign both the form of punishment. If they are tional balance, if we feel vindicated by the quality and the quantity of a just merely calling attention to the role of revenge.) To kill Murphy because he penalty." All other standards are moral responsibility, then retribution has killed someone else does not negate "wavering and uncertain" and are differs not at all from other theories of or cancel out a negation; it simply adds inconsistent with "the sentence of pure punishment, except possibly utilitarian­ another killing to the list, which now and strict justice." (Kant upholds an ism. ("Woe to him," says Kant, "who adds up to two. It does not restore or individualistic theory of rights that is creeps through the serpent windings of equalize rights; it simply wipes out fundamentally consistent with libertari­ utilitarianism.") I agree that a criminal another set of rights. anism - his discussions of property "deserves" to be punished, according to It may be objected that this just and coercion, for example, are brilliant the ethical precept that a person is doesn't "feel" right, that it conflicts and suggestive - but he often fails to responsible for his actions. Every with our basic sense of fairness. This apply his own principles consistently, approach to punishment, including the may be true, but we should remember owing to a flawed notion of social libertarian theory of restitution, is that our theory of justice will influence contract.) based on this principle. But this moral our feelings about crime. If we sincerely According to Kant, retribution judgment does not tell us what kind or believe that capital punishment is entails not merely the right to punish, degree of punishment is appropriate; unjust, then our respect for principles but the duty to punish. The criminal for this we need a juridical theory of will gradually moderate our moral feel­ should be punished because he rights based on a general theory of ings and perceptions of fairness. For deserves it, and he deserves it because justice. centuries highly civilized people felt he has violated the rules of justice. According to Kant, the "equaliza­ that capital punishment was appropri­ It is impossible, within the space of tion of punishment with crime" ate for many crimes other than murder, this article, to give a fair and full treat­ demands the penalty of death for mur­ from blasphemy to treason to rape. ment of retribution as defended by der, lIaccording to the right of retalia­ Even today, many Christians do not Kant, Hegel, and other philosophers. I tion." Hegel agrees, and calls such feel discomfited by the thought that shall simply focus on what it means to punishment the "negation of a nega­ God will punish the unsaved with eter­ "deserve" punishment. tion." This means that the murderer has nal torment; they believe that God is To say that a criminal deserves to be negated his victim's right to life and just, and their emotions follow suit. punished pertains to his moral culpabil­ should have his right to life negated in Moral sentiments adapt themselves to ity. (It must be remembered that I use turn. This double-negation cancels out our perceptions of justice. the term "punishment" in a general the original crime and results in an We may seek personal revenge sense that includes even the libertarian equalization of rights; it balances the against a person who has treated us theory of restitution.) This is a moral scales of justice. unfairly and derive satisfaction from judgment, not a juridical one. The pur­ It is difficult to argue against a met­ our response. Yet if we later decide that pose of this moral judgment is to ascer­ aphor. I should note, however, that jus­ our action was too severe - that our tain whether a person is responsible for tice cannot IIdemand" anything, nor original complaint, however legitimate, a crime; if so, he is judged "guilty" and can society "demand" something in the did not justify our extreme response ­ we say that he "deserves" punishment. name of justice. Only the singular then our pleasure will turn to remorse. This is a moral assessment of human being can do this. We use the If our primary emotional connection is responsibility. principles of justice to determine when with the principles of justice, then as If we say, "Murphy deserves to be an individual's demands should be those principles go, so go our emotions. punished," we are 'making a compound enforced and when they should not. judgment. We are saying, first, that The victim has a right to demand jus­ Deterrence Murphy is resp'~nsible for committing tice, but not a duty. If I have been In legal theory, a "deterrent" is any­ an unjust act, and\~cond, that he ought robbed, then it is my right - which I thing that impedes or tends to prevent to be punished according to the rules of may exercise or not - to demand resti­ a crime. A deterrence theory maintains justice. tution from the thief, who has a moral that the primary function of punish­ If Murphy is adjudged to be men­ duty to comply. But to say that I have a ment should be to deter crime; in its tally incompetent, we might say that he juridical "duty" to seek restitution pure form, this theory contends that does not deserve to be punished, even if would mean that the thief has a corre­ deterrence should be the only function he committed the crime. "Deserves" sponding "right" to repay me, anti 1, fail of punishment. This latter is the posi­ pertains to Murphy's responsibility, or to grasp the meaning of this. tion of Thomas Hobbes, for whom pun­ lack of it, for his actions. Ifhe is mentally Ultimately, in the case of murder, ishment should insure that "the will of competent and responsible for a·crime, there is no satisfactory way to "bal­ men may thereby the better to be dis­ he "deserves" to be transferred from the ance" the scales of justice, whether we posed to obedience." Never one to class of "innocent" persons to the class employ retribution, restitution, or some mince words, Hobbes insists that. "the of-"guilty" persons. As a member of the other model of punishment; but I aim of punishment is not revenge, but latter class, he is now subject to just pun­ believe that the restitutive theory best terror." Punishment, unlike revenge, ishment; he will get his IIjust deserts." approximates this ideal. From a liber- looks to the future, not to the past. 52 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

Arthur Schopenhauer agrees that the speech to the Athenian assembly, in ting caught. This tendency increases sole object of law should be "to deter which he opposes executing the entire when we act in concert with others ­ from encroachment on the rights of adult male population of Mytilene, say, as part of a criminal gang - and it others." which had recently revolted against becomes even stronger when high Perhaps the most influential propo­ Athens. According to Diodotus, the stakes are involved. These subjective nent of a pure deterrence theory was problem at hand was political rather considerations, rather than the objective Bentham, who repudiated a theory of than legal, so he will discuss not probability of capital punishment, will natural justice and opted instead for his whether the death penalty is just, but determine how a criminal will act; they version of political utilitarianism, whether it is expedient, i.e., whether it instill in him "the irrational opinion whereby the wise legislator somehow will deter other Greek cities from that his own powers are greater than in calculates "the greatest happiness for undertaking similar revolts. Diodotus fact they are." Diodotus concludes: the greatest number." Bentham's ideas maintains that the death penalty is not In a word it is impossible (and only were transmitted through the influen­ an effective deterrent; his major points the most simple-minded will deny tial work of John Austin, the father of are as follows. this) for human nature, when once legal positivism. People will take risks when they feel seriously set upon a certain course, Bentham's opposition to the death sufficiently confident of success, to be prevented from follOWing that penalty was unusual in his day. regardless of the potential penalty. The course by the force of law or by any Ironically, he opposed it not because it "invisible factors" of desire and hope other means of intimidation was too severe, but because it was not are "more powerful than the terrors whatever. severe enough. According to Bentham's that are obvious to our eyes." Desire hedonic calculus, in which pleasures Obviously, the threat of punishment and pains are added and subtracted conceives the criminal enterprise, while may deter some people more than oth­ with mathematical precision, "punish­ hope convinces us that it will be suc­ ers, and others not at all. We can no ments frighten mankind less by their cessful. "Noone has ever yet risked more study these psychological factors momentary severity than by their dura­ committing a crime which he thought in isolation than we can study (say) the tion." Capital punishment, therefore, is he could not carry out successfully." In influence of particular religious beliefs less of a deterrent than perpetual addition, we tend to believe that for­ on moral behavior. However, if threat imprisonment. tune will be on our side (everyone has of punishment is as effective as some Today, deterrence is the most good luck from time to time), and this people seem to believe, then we must widely discussed aspect of capital pun­ creates a mood of overconfidence, caus­ wonder why those Christians who sin­ ishment. Social "scientists" fall over one ing us to underestimate the risk of get- cerely believe in hell ever commit another churning out empirical studies Freedom From Freedom Froms by Titus Stauffer that purport to show that capital pun­ Genetically engineered human and nonhuman beings and Conscious ishment does, or does not, reduce the Computers are coming our way. Are we ready? Will we allow them murder rate in America. Such studies, to vote, defend themselves, own property? Or will we simply say that of course, prove nothing and convince since they're not human, they have no rights? Slavery, Part /11 We'll face these and many other vexing problems, equipped with two no one, except those who cannot grasp main ideologies. Welfare Statists on the left, coercive busybody the fundamental difference between the moralists on the right. Socialists give us freedom from housing methods of natural science, where it is discrimination by punishing us for advertising our houses as havin possible to establish experimental con­ walk-in closets. By doing so, they say, we convey our intent to discriminate against those in wheelchairs! Witchburners give us ditions by controlling variables, and freedom from sin by protecting us from "lewd" Calvin Klein ads. social science, where no such experi­ Perhaps genuine freedom and broad-mindedness could provide mental control is possible. some solutions. Instead of sponsoring quarrels between the NAACP, Most of what we know (or think we NAAWP, NAACC, and so on, we'd be better off with the NAACB know) about the deterrent effects of (Nonexclusive Association for the Advancement of Conscious Beings). We need Freedom From Freedom Froms when the freedoms capital punishment comes entirely from that our leaders foist on us are false ones. Ifyou love real freedom, vicious introspection and from our everyday political satire, and science fiction, Freedom was written for you! experience with other people. We tend Direct Price $12.95, 53{) pg, ISBN ()9644R3513 to assume that others will respond to Bats in the Belfry, By Design by Titus Stauffer This hard science fiction thriller, a 1996 Prometheus Awar punishment as we are likely to respond. nominee, mixes deadly, frightful ideas with politically incorrect, In this, as in many other areas, there is disrespectful humor and adventure. It's a hoot and could also be more to be learned about the psychol­ warning! In the next 50 years, we'll spend billions of dollars ogy of punishment from classical writ­ developing new uses for genetic engineering. To what ends. Some have speculated that we'll build an amusement park featurin ers than from all the pretentious and dinosaurs. Remember the Manhattan Project?. We sure didn't spli tedious tomes of modern pseudo­ the atom because we wanted a place to play. We haven't learned, yet, empiricism. As an illustration, I offer that we can't expect to survive very long, if we keep on building eve "defensive" death-toy that new technology permits. the brief discussion of capital punish­ ______...e!r~t;i~~,.$~5~R~I§!.N1!2.6~5{)5 ment contained in The Peloponnesian Order Directly From: FreeVoice Publishing (713) 251-5226 P.O. Box 692IMI, Houston, TX 77269-216X War, written in the fifth century B.C. by Please send __ copies of Freedom From Freedom Froms @ $12.95 each. the Greek historian Thucydides. Please send __ copies of Bats in the Belfry, By Design @ $12.95 each. Add shipping and handling of $2.50 for the 1st book and $I.O{) for each additional book. Thucydides relates Diodotus' Allow 3 - 6 weeks delivery. Texas residenL~ add 7.25 Cj;, tax. Check or money order only. NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE-----Z-IP---- Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

crimes. Here we have a test case if ever spite of the death penalty, then it is flex­ (4) Similarly, suppose I commit there was one: the punishment, as ible enough to allow me to kill again to murder, but someone else is convicted Bentham might say, is infinite in inten­ avoid the death penalty. Deterrence, of the crime. If I am tempted to clear sity and duration - far beyond what therefore, is a knife that cuts two ways. the innocent party by confessing, I am human punishment can accomplish ­ (3) Suppose that, having committed far less likely to do so when confronted and there is zero possibility of escaping murder, I repent of my foul deed and with the death penalty. detection by God. Yet many true­ wish to make amends. If the fear of cap­ In the final analysis, deterrence is a believing Christians throughout history ital punishment is powerful enough to theory of policy and social engineering, have committed murder, apparently lessen the probability of violent crime, not a theory of punishment in the jurid­ undeterred by God's version of capital then it will also diminish the likelihood ical sense. Laws against murder and punishment. of voluntary surrender after the com­ other violent crimes ,~ay deter some In addition, if the likelihood of mission of a capital crime. continued on page 68 death is an effective deterrent, how can we explain the prevalence and popularity of wars throughout his­ tory? Surely the soldier in wartime has a higher probability of being killed than the civilian in peacetime, And the ideas behind American government yet there is rarely a shortage of sol­ today are corrupt and contradictory. Maybe diers who are willing to risk their that's why Bill Clinton and Bob Dole want the lives for some cause or other. If the American people to blindly assume that govern­ fear of death is supposed to deter ment is the solution rather than the problem. most people from committing acts of But Americans are - finally - beginning to violence, why have so many mil­ grasp that something is rotten. Sure, they've lions been so eager to rush headlong been told a thousand times by the party pols that into battle, willing to kill and be it's just a matter of a different party, a new pro­ killed? gram, one more tax increase. But year after year if Even we assume that capital crime gets worse, schools fall apart, and the net punishment does have a deterrent of regulations is drawn more tightly around your effect, this influence may not always life and property. work as expected. Consider, for Harry Browne, the Libertarian Party alterna­ example, the following points: (1) Many criminals commit more tive to Clinton and Dole, says enough! Here at than one crime. If we impose repara- ' last, presented so that any intelligent person can tions on a criminal, we can increase understand, are the critical libertarian solutions the penalty for each new crime. to the problems that beset us. Always eloquent, Therefore, if we wish to deter crime always convincing, Browne explains how to with the threat of punishment, rep­ clean up the mess that the state has left - the arations are more rational than the War on Drugs, Social Security, public "schools," death penalty, which can be welfare, you name it. Only voluntary action, imposed only once. Suppose I tnilr­ Browne argues, can make our country great again. der someone, knowing that I face Perhaps the most compelling part of the book is Browne's explanation of the the death penalty if apprehended. psychology that created and sustains big government - how the average What then will deter me from com­ American's dream of a better life so often hinges on fantasies about government mitting other crimes as well, such as that can never come true. This is the kind of book that produces the "ah-hah!" rape or robbery, since I already face response - the sudden realization of how things really work. the ultimate penalty? Publisher's price $19.95 - Liberty Book Club price $14.95.234 pp., hardcover. (2) Since the death penalty can be imposed only once, it loses its What America Needs - and What Americans Want power to deter after the first murder After a year of speaking with Americans, Harry Browne is more optimistic than an,d thereafter becomes an incentive ever about the prospects for freedom. From coast to coast, he has met with to commit additional murders as a everyday Americans angered by the continued erosion of their liberties. In this means to avoid punishment. illuminating talk, Browne recounts his political education on the campaign trail and Suppose I commit orie murder but outlines his agenda for a comprehensive dismantling of the federal government. have no desire or intention to kill Audio: $5.95; Video: $19.50. anyone else, unless in self-defense. If my crime is punishable with death, then I have an incentive to kill Call 1-800-854-6991 repeatedly ifby so doing I can avoid or write to Liberty Book Club, Dept. Be9, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA capture. If my conscience is flexible 98368. Add $3.00 s&h for single orders, $1.00 extra for each additional book or enough to allow me to kill once in every two additional tapes. (Foreign orders add $5.00 s&h for single orders, $1.00 extra for each additional book or every two additional tapes.) 54 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

Memoirs

Other Lives by Richard Kostelanetz

orn in New York in 1940, I went to Brown and abroad. Before long my relatives recognized that I University, where a recruiter from the CIA pleased them most when I accompanied them on their trips approached me about working for "the abroad, letting them introduce me to businessmen who are organization," as he called it. He reminded me that more appreciative of culture than comparable figures here, Ban earlier Brown man, E. Howard Hunt, who had graduated thus giving their business trips "a bit more class," as they the year I was born, was able to pursue his literary career, said, than they would otherwise have. I've always felt, albeit under a pseudonym, while working full-time at the perhaps out of vanity, that my relatives would dismiss me if CIA. (Indeed, my name first came to their attention through my connection to the family firm was not worth their while. poetry published in an adult literary magazine that was read by a recruiting boss who also went to Brown. The CIA, ·nee I began publishing in literary magazines that remember, is staffed with Ivy Leaguers.) Although my did not pay, I had to figure out another way of writing differs considerably from Hunt's slick fiction, the earning enough money to keep me independent. CIA has supported me while I've published countless essays Since I was sexually competent and not and reviews, experimental poems and audacious fictions, in Ounattractive, I made myself available to rich women literary magazines, both small and large, around the world. predisposed to think most men "beneath" whatever it was About my work at the CIA I am pledged to say nothing they deserved. Befriending one, I found myself other than that I need not show up at the office until five recommended to another, quickly learning that nothing p.m., the fact alone indicating to some that the CIA is not a makes you as attractive to a new woman, nothing gives you private business but a publicly funded scam. The as much cachet, as favorable responses from other well-to-do biographical note accompanying the publication of my women similarly situated. Before long, I settled on the writing customarily mentions "night-time word-processing, woman most predisposed to be my wife, who loved me thankfully not teaching." more than I loved her, thankfully, because once her last name became mine she supported my literary activities as y maternal grandfather founded a she would any other prestigious art, albeit at a lower rate of food-importing business which, as I grew up, annual pay than her contribution to the local symphony I always knew would have a place for me. orchestra. Although she required my presence most Although I attended a prestigious university, evenings of the week, for one or another silly function, Meven taking my degree with honors, I was unable to find showing me off as she would a prize horse (which she also any suitable employment elsewhere when I graduated from owned), my kind wife left me free every day, hiring full-time college and so started as a sales assistant, visiting the au pair girls to care for our children - in sum accounting for grocery stores selling our produce to ensure that it was how I was able to write all those poems and stories, essays "appropriately positioned on the shelves," as my uncle told and reviews, that have appeared in literary magazines both me. My next jobs included selling to these stores and large and small. All went well until she ran off with the first serving as my uncle's secretary. Once it became clear that I second violinist of the orchestra. Fortunately, her friends would not take over the firm, my cousins, who had by then could see from her responses (and testimony) that I must assumed command, recognized that I would function best have been a good husband. Before long, someone similar, with minimal responsibilities. This suited me fine, as most embarrassingly similar, became my second wife, pleased to of my days were now spent producing poems and fictions learn that I knew how to live domestically with someone in that appear in the most prominent literary magazines here her position, with her obligations and ambitions. Liberty 55 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

ou wouldn't know from looking at me, from likewise in decline approached me about invigorating their knowing about my career as a downtown acts, I decided I had enough money in the bank to support y avant-garde artist, that I really run an uptown my career as an independent avant-garde composer, gambling operation - what is customarily called a working apart from orchestras and universities and all the "numbers pool." I inherited it from my maternal uncle, who other pseudo-supports that my Juilliard composition recognized when I went to the best Jesuit high school that I classmates find necessary; and although I have not yet was a helluva lot smarter than not only my brothers but his created the masterpiece that knocks everyone's socks off, I own sons as well. As my uncle got ill with cancer, he knew proceed with the security of knowing that the only obstacle that our family of semi-competents needed this business as between me and realizing the greatest art is myself. an employer of last resort. Three years after he showed me how to run it as he did, he died, designating me "the next boss" in his will, thereby eliminating any fights among his ou wouldn't believe what good fortune I had, heirs. Besides, by the time he died, no one else knew how the being picked at the beginning of my literary career business was really run. Since most of the guys who collect by an older writer, female and established, who the bets from the local retailers are close relatives of mine, I y somehow got it into her head that she would teach can trust them until I see them at the end of the day. That me "everything I know," as she put it. It was an offer I could accounts for why I have my mornings free to paint large not refuse, having no other connections in the "writing biz," canvases with geometric shapes that my relatives never see, as I called it, and only a community college education. In and should never see, because such art is beyond their exchange for sexual favors (but no promises of fidelity), she understanding. Under another name I exhibit my abstract kept her end of the bargain, sending my manuscripts initially paintings at a SoHo gallery that is beginning to sell them for to magazine editors who actually published them, and then fairly healthy prices. Much as I'd like to get out of the to book publishers who, though they resisted at the numbers trade - which is, after all, officially illegal -I beginning, published me as well. ThoughJ have since know as well as my relatives that the business could not married another, I secretly keep in touch with my patron, survive without me, until I find a son or nephew smarter even taking her to the hospital when she gets seriously ill. than the others, who can do for me what I did for my uncle. She tells me that I am not only her literary executor but the principal beneficiary of her estate, which means that, since my own writing is nowhere near as successful as hers, she iven my talent for both words and music, the will have financed my experimental fiction from its guys who were forming a rock group in high beginnings to its very end. 0 school asked me to write songs for them, which I ,..------. ~idG t~e only on condition that I could *,...... -.,••# _ • ..- SIng them. SInce they wanted songs I~ 1111' ~II.'••"••"", that no other group had, they took me on. Once they fired the guy who A Starting Point for Liberty on the Internet they thought would be their solo singer, I became the group's star, in http://www.free-market.com/ spite of my lack of experience at All these services are free: performing and the fact that I could get away from my so-called serious International Directory The free-market.com Calendar composition studies only on Find people in your area! A world-wide Upcoming dates and events from all around weekends. As the group began to directory of local organizations and issues. the pro-freedom movement: radio and TV command large fees, I had no trouble appearances, lectures, conferences, paying the tuition at Juilliard, all the The Zychik Chronicle conventions, demonstrations, etc. way to a doctorate, while the other Individualist Joe Zychik reports and comments on the week's news every Monday. Freedom Home Page of the Week students scrambled for grubby part-time jobs. Though I could have Library of Liberty Links for Libertarians spent my life in popular music, I An index of books available completely on-line. Categorized and annotated links for really wanted to be a composer in the Find e-texts from Bastiat, Spooner, Paine, philosophy, economics, free thought & tradition of Stravinsky and Copland. Jefferson, Spencer and many more. skepticism, education, and much more. Just as I was finishing my graduate Search free-market.com Monthly Free Lottery degree, the rock group disintegrated, The fastest way to find free-market information. Valuable libertarian prizes given away­ the bassist running off with the Search the full-text of more than a dozen as much as $600 in prizes a month. second guitarist's longtime girlfriend, organizations' Web collections, including the suggesting that they had been Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Discussion Area sleeping together for many years Institute, the Future of Freedom Foundation Debate the issues, argue minutiae, or just and the Heartland Institute-all at once! before. (She had also secretly slept hang-out and chat with fellow libertarians. with me.) Although other groups Join this rapidly-expanding community oflibertarians on-line! 56 Liberty Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House, by Well, I don't think Hillary or Bill will Gary Aldrich. Regnery, 1996, 230 pp., $24.95. care very much about this. Maybe we can cancel it. I just don't think they

will want to do this /Iegg" thing. (97) Funny stuff, but not exactly damn- ing. In fact, none of the book's more or Insider Without less original revelations is as politically damaging as a brief summary of the Clintons' lives that Aldrich includes as anepilogue. This dryly humorous imita­ a Clue tion of an FBI report is almost the only really effective writing in the book, but it is all based on printed sources. Aldrich gives us to understand that investigative Stephen Cox appointments for interviews. Once files contain plenty of information that caught in an interview, they spend time reflects badly on the administration, but playing with paper clips and otherwise these files are, ofcourse, secret. Why books fail is often as interest­ emphasizing boredom and disrespect. Fair enough. But if that's all you ing as why they succeed. Interesting ­ This goes on and on. Aldrich worries have, what will you fill your book with? and perhaps mysterious. about it. He mulls it over, page after Aldrich is not puzzled by this ques­ Gary Aldrich's Unlimited Access page, chapter after chapter. At some tion, partly because he sees no objec­ seemed almost certain to succeed. point, he just gets tired of it! But at tion to filling his book with the daily Aldrich was an FBI agent assigned to some previous point, the reader has life and opinions of Gary Aldrich, and do security checks on people working gotten tired of him. partly because he has his own idea of in the White House. He had a front-row Aldrich's professional assumption what should be considered a damning seat for the Clinton administration's is that he, as an FBI agent, has keen revelation. He makes a big issue of the seemingly endless matinee of inepti­ intuitions into human nature. Yet he is fact that some of the Clintons' staffers tude and hypocrisy. He was well posi­ constantly shocked that anyone could tioned to absorb all the gossip about look forward to an FBI interview with the administration's more scandalous anything other than earnest anticipa­ characteristics. You might suppose that tion and a desire to help. He suspects Aldrich is constantly shock­ the only thing he needed to do was put that people who don't look resolutely ed that anyone could look for­ some of what he learned on paper. A forward in that way must have some­ ward to an FBI interview with few hours of spontaneous reminiscence thing to hide. Perhaps they do, but if would inevitably produce a richly so, Aldrich never finds it. At least he anything other than earnest entertaining book, and perhaps a book never finds anything interesting. anticipation. of real political importance. No, let me qualify that statement. Unfortunately, the inevitable did Aldrich does retail some not-very-juicy not occur. Somehow, incredibly, gossip about Mrs. Clinton's rudeness. are homosexual. Then there's drug use. Aldrich mistook his subject. Instead of He pungently evokes the "perpetual He's surprised that some of the people writing the story of the Clinton admin­ smirk" on the faces of the Clintons' he interviewed "were actually 'in your istration, he wrote the story of - guess friends. He works up a "composite" pic­ face' about it, using the FBI interview who? - himself. What resulted is a cat­ ture of a typical Clintonite who objects to try to debate me on the merits of alogue of Gary Aldrich's frustrations, to FBI questions because they are "so, making drugs legal" (112). It's a good not an accounting of the Clintons' sins. so, so kafkaesque!" (117). He tells a story thing he didn't encounter William F. Every day, so Aldrich's undoubt­ about a woman who was commissioned Buckley or any other conservative edly true story goes, he shows up at his to report to Mrs. Clinton on the func­ advocates of drug legalization. Aldrich office with pencils sharpened, prepared tions of the White House Visitor's Office might not have survived the shock. to investigate Clinton's staff. But, and who discovered, to her surprise, Almost as serious, from his perspec­ strange to say, the staff does not wish that the Office sponsored an annual tive, is evidence that some habitues of to be investigated. People neglect to Easter Egg Roll. (That's how much she the Executive Mansion are known to return Aldrich's phone calls. They miss knew!) The woman responded: "yell and swear." When someone kindly Liberty 57 November 1996

suggests to Aldrich that it's not the busi­ Power and arrogance are near of ness of the FBI to go after bad language, kin. Early on, Aldrich is informed that incidentally mentioning the fact that Clinton's people "don't like telling How to many presidents have used "uh, locker strangers about their personal business. roomjargon," Aldrich replies: They think it's too intrusive." So Subscribe It may be true that President Bush Aldrich blows up: swore, Idon'tknow. Ineverheardhim I couldn't care less how anybody feels swear, and Ineverheard anyone claim about this process. It's just too bad if to thathe did. Infact, PresidentBush was they don't like it. This is the only known for trying to avoid using coarse way we know to protect the presi­ language, reverting [sic] to "gosh" dent, the White House, and national II LibertYJI and "dam"and "heck" and the like. So security. We've been in the White I can't confirm that President Bush House since Johnson, and this pro­ ever used objectionable words, here, cess has been accepted by presidents in the White House. (30-31) and staffs since Eisenhower. It's also the law. It's the FBI's job to see to it Liberty! takes individual I just hope that President Bush never has to read these objectionably that these people are investigated, and I'm less concerned about hurting freedom, seriously ... and smarmy words. They might prompt a the status quo with more feelings. The White House has stan­ comment that went beyond "heck." dards of suitability. If these folks than one grain of salt! But what really, really irritates Mr. have that much to hide, they Aldrich is the idea that anybody could shouldn't be here. (59) Every issue of brings Liberty show up for work in the White House, If the job of investigating people is you news you can't miss, the White House, dressed in anything opinions you won't find so important, it would be better less than a suit and tie. If you are one of exercised, one might think, by someone anywhere else, and the best those strange creatures who could do libertarian writing in the world. who showed a minimal understanding that, Mr. Aldrich will grant you as little of people's emotions. One might also rhetorical mercy as he grants poor think that so fine a publishing house as You won't want to Rahm Emanuel: Regnery would be reluctant to let such miss a single issue! He was ... one of the president's sen­ naive self-revelations pass into print. ior advisors but could never be For me, one of the most unpleasant accused of knocking himself out in passages of this book was the one in Act~day! the appearance department. Today, a which Aldrich tells us that Mrs. Clinton Liberty offers ou the best in normal work day in the White ordered her Secret Service protectors to libertarian th· ing and writ­ House, he was wearing casual slacks, stay at least ten yards away from her, a polo shirt, no jacket, no tie. ing. So don't hesitate. You have reminding them that, after all, they're President Clinton was in Denver nothing to lose, and the fruits of supposed to obey her orders. Having meeting the Pope. (150) Liberty to gain! reported this, Aldrich proceeds to com­ All one can say is: Send me the Use the coupon below or call: pare the Clinton administration's way Pope, and I'll dress up, too. of "regard[ing] the Secret Service as the Aldrich is a true believer in the idea 'enemy'" to the "way that drug dealers 1-800-854-6991 that the FBI is the fount of all manners ~ are always on the lookout for 'narcs'" (Subscription orders only; no inquiries please.) and mores. He also figures that the (139). FBI's disapproval should echo defini­ This passage is unpleasant because I ,-=------,'YeS' Please enter my subscription tively in the highest reaches of govern­ greatly dislike Mrs. Clinton, and' I· to Liberty immediately! I ment. He sighs for the days when the Aldrich's attitude actually makes me o Six issues (One Full Year) $19.50 president's counsel, acting on the basis feel sympathy for her. After I read I 0 Twelve issues (Two Full Years) $39.00 I of such investigations as those of Aldrich's book, I found that my Aldrich, would simply I Add $5 per year for foreign subscriptions. I warmth of affection for the Clintons tell the president that "Joe Blow" had gone up about 200 degrees. It now wouldn't be joining the White House stands at absolute zero. 0 I I staff. If the president asked why, he would I I be told that there was I C I enclose my check (payable to Liberty) I a problem in the FBI C Charge my [J VISA 0 MasterCard investigation. Presi­ I I dent Bush would never have asked, I signature I "Can we ignore it, or - ....--...,.,­ get around it?" That account # expires I would have been I Send to: Liberty, Dept. L56, "Oh no - this guy is the homeless one - the other p.o. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368 • ridiculous. (93) guy has a mortgage, taxes, utilities, insurance..." L. ------.. ------Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America, by Roger Morris. world, he believes, is that the wealthy Henry Holt, 1996, 526 pp., $27.50. run the government, using their vast resources to prevent the fundamental changes (i.e., political control by guys like Morris) that would turn the earth into paradise. So time and time again, he explains Clinton's success in terms of the ability of the plutocracy to fool Power, Lust, the people. Indeed, whenever Morris stops chronicling Clinton's perfidy, he turns to whining about how rich corpo­ rations are bamboozling the American and Powerlust people into selling their birthright, how they hijacked the federal government so that they could destroy the environ­ ment and reduce Americans to wage­ slavery. Happily, most of this sniveling Roger Morris understands the R.W. Bradford is in self-contained chapters or sub­ depth of the squalor of Clinton's leader­ chapters, and thus is easy to skip. ship, the extent to which Clinton has As a conscientious reviewer, I read stolen from the public, the amplitude of The real mystery about Bill Clinton every dreary word of chapters 13, 15, his sexual predation, his utter lack of is not how a man so vile became presi­ and 17, in which Morris gives his morality - and he chronicles the whole dent, but how a man whose vileness is account of the Reagan years. In Chapter sordid story in Partners in Power. so manifest manages to remain 17, Morris tackles the question of why To paint such an intimate portrait, president. the press failed to inform the citizenry Morris had to rely on personal inter­ Consider: Gary Hart has an affair of the secret world of the oligarchy, with a young woman, is found out, and views with the Clintons' friends and known only to a /I few hundred insiders colleagues (and ex-friends and ex­ leaves the 1988 presidential race in dis­ ... officials, politicians, government colleagues). For reasons both of senti­ grace, his public career over. Bill agents": Clinton has affairs with hundreds of ment and practicality, they often Why was so much missed, at such women, ranging from staff members insisted on confidentiality. That's cost, by so many seemingly talented, understandable, but nevertheless the and lobbyists trying to advance their ambitious journalists? For one thing, careers to the spouses of friends and large number of source notes that the media themselves had, by the colleagues, to fans of his political include the words "confidential inter­ 1980s, became [sic] the chattel of con­ career, to pathetic women who lust view" leaves room to wonder about the centrated power. Most reporters after men who wield political power. book's reliability. Nor does it inspire worked out of some cubicle of a mon­ His wife stands by him, he denies all, confidence to see Morris identify Victor opoly and took their subsistence and and despite the overwhelming pile of Niederhoffer (whose analyses of pensions by its favor. Twenty-three evidence that he is lying, no one cares. Hillary Clinton's famous record as a corporations controlled most of the George Bush's son is peripherally commodities speculatrix appeared in nation's twenty-five thousand sizable involved in a Colorado savings-and­ Liberty and National Review) as "Victor outlets. Twenty-nine media conglom­ loan that goes bankrupt, and Bush's Niederhof." Nevertheless, as a journal­ erates were among the Fortune 500. Thus General Electric owned NBC; a reputation is besmirched. At the very ist who has covered Whitewater exten­ billionaire, CBS; another conglomer­ sively, I found Morris' account of that same time that Clinton denounces Bush ate, ABC; and behind them was a for the sins of his son, Clinton himself aspect of the Clintons' career to be web of shareholding and interlocking is looting $70 million from the public coherent and credible, aside from this ownership in which shadowy giants treasury on behalf of his buddies who minor glitch. Indeed, Partners in Power like Wells Fargo International Trust, control an Arkansas savings-and-Ioan, is the best comprehensive portrait of Fidelity Management and Research, in order to get a few thousand dollars the Clintons that I have read, replete Bankers Trust, and Capital Research for himself. When the news comes out, with illuminating detail and sensible and Management were among the no one but a handful of his political explanation. If you're looking for a controlling interests in all the net­ opponents care. detailed account of the lives and work parent corporations. Like the Bush goes back on his "no new careers of Bill and Hillary Clinton, pollsters and political consultants, taxes" promise and is kicked from Partners in Power is for you. they would be wed to the tyranny not only by shared values, but by office. Clinton promises a middle-class But if you want some understand­ millions from political advertising ... tax cut, then raises taxes on the middle ing of Clinton's extraordinary success, journalism was now far less a profes­ class - and is about to be re-elected by look elsewhere. Morris' politics sion or an art than a subsidiary of an a much larger margin than any obstruct his vision. He is a doctrinaire immense profit-worshipping clerk­ Democrat has enjoyed since the left-liberal of the humorless Ralph dom, carrying its innate curse of lad­ Goldwater debacle of 1964. Nader variety. What's wrong with the der-climbing bureaucrats, company Liberty 59 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

conformity, implicit and explicit gags tolerate a less leftist agenda, they've mance utterly convincing - and ignore on integrity. abandoned their integrity under pres­ the mountain of evidence of his To sum up, back when the press sure from the wealthy owners of their perfidy. was pursuing Morris' left-liberal presses and transmitters. He makes no And what of those bereft of faith in agenda, it was "a profession or an art," attempt to explain why, for example, so Clinton's faded left-liberal agenda? but now that the media have begun to much of the media in the 1930s sup­ Many are incensed by the sheer squalor ported the New Deal, despite the oli­ of the Clintons, of course. But others garchic ownership patterns of that have grown so cynical that they find the time. utter transparency of his prevarication Of course, this sort of idiocy is refreshing, even charming. Not that hardly unique to leftists like Morris. they are fooled for even a minute by his Change a few words here and there in performance - the evidence of its men­ the foregoing passage, and it could dacity is so overwhelming. When come straight from "a conservative Clinton maintained with a straight face screed about the press. Ideologues of all that he had never committed adultery, ::::::::::::: ..... stripes are inclined to see venal explana­ despite all the testimony, tape record­ »ii;,:;;::jI!;~;i;1,;~ii~~t tions behind every snub from the media • ,: ..:.P:;'';; . ings, and documentary evidence, it only or every vote cast for an opponent. Such increased their suspicion that other explanations provide comfort, I sup­ political leaders had better covered pose. After all, it's more comforting to their peeker tracks. His absolute devi­ attribute your fellow citizens' "errone­ ous" beliefs to conspiracies or venality ousness leaves him naked. His lust for than it is to accept your own inability to easy money, easy sex, and power over communicate or the inherent difficulty his fellow human beings is so obvious of the task you have chosen. that the danger of his taking advantage So why is Bill Clinton about to be of you is nil. The difference between Bill re-elected, despite the public's rejection Clinton and other politicians, for those of his plan to socialize medicine (the cynics, is that his motives are transpar­ big promise of his 1992 campaign), ent and understandable, while other despite his raising taxes after promis­ politicians' motives are lurking in the ing to cut them, despite his patently Tired of waiting two months obvious theft of public funds, despite for your next Liberty? Wait no his apparent amorality? It's more comforting to longer ... It is this last factor, I think, which holds the key to his success. Bill attribute your fellow citizens' Clinton is the perfect moral chameleon. "erroneous" beliefs to conspir­ Liberty is on At the same time that he was stealing acies or venality than it is to the public blind, selling out the needs the Web! of his constituents, and having sex with accept your own inability to every woman he can seduce or coerce communicate. From now 'til November, qur into the back seat of his car, he was per­ website, Liberty Unbound, fectly able to sing with the choir of his will be updated weekly. Stop Baptist church on Little Rock television mists of their surviving sense of moral­ by for ... every week. ity and decency. • up-to-the-minute cover­ There is not even an iota of falseness It is a mistake to think of Bill age of the election ... in Clinton's behavior. Falseness Clinton as corrupt, for corruption is a requires the existence of truth. For Bill process by which the morality or virtue • hot campaign commen­ Clinton, there is no truth. So we detect of an individual is subverted, and tary you can't find any­ none of the fatal signs of insincerity, there's no evidence that Clinton was where else... none of the facial ticks, the looks of ever a person of morality or virtue. Why wait until after the vague discomfort, the hints of embar­ From his childhood, Bill Clinton has elections to find out what the rassment. He is absolutely sincere in all been a person bereft of honesty, integ­ best libertarian minds have to his beliefs - when he utters them, he rity, courage, benevolence, and honor. say? Visit Liberty Unbound believes in them as passionately as a Scanning his life, the closest thing to an used car salesman believes that a jalopy today, and tell your friends to act of human decency not transparently was owned by a sweet old lady who motivated by a lust for power, food, or drop by, too! used it only to drive to the bank to cash sex was his decision to spend time with her Social Security check and to the his equally sociopathic stepfather, who http://www.LibertySoft. market to stock up on Ensure. Those was dying of cancer. Even here, we sus­ com/liberty/ with the will to believe find his perfor- pect that his motivation is a little sleazy Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

- a forlorn hope that one day he too money he looted from the public treas­ guys, the pianist Walter Gieseking and will find someone who will be nice to ury, to his miserable willingness to a familiar gallery of cultural conserva­ him, in his last few days on earth, as murder innocent civilians in Baghdad tives; among those in limbo, the poets the eternal damnation of a Baptist Hell in order to add a few percentage points A.E. Housman and C.P. Cavafy. The creeps up on him. to his huge lead in the polls - at every collective sensibility represented here At every other point in his pathetic other point it is impossible to find even reflects not subtle highbrow criticism life, from the first index card on which a trace of ordinary human decency. but comic books, making me think that Bill wrote the name of a contact who Morally and intellectually, Clinton is one theme of the The New Criterion could help his political career to the tabula rasa, a complete blank, able to might be blurring the difference hundreds of women to whom he pro­ believe anything that is expedient. This between high art and low, notwith­ vided "constituent services," to the is the key to his success. 0 standing its claim to support such tra­ ditional distinctions. One way that The New Criterion dif­ Against The Grain, edited by Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball. Ivan fers from similar journals is in its R. Dee, 1995, 463 pp., $16.95. acknowledgment of music alongside literature and visual arts. The problem is that its principal music critic, the late Samuel Lipman, doubled as the maga­ zine's publisher. I've read enough Lipman to think him the worst music critic ever in America - even worse Highbrow than Paul Rosenfeld and B.H. Haggin, who were both among the few writing about music for an earlier generation of American cultural magazines (e.g., The People Nation, Hudson Review, The Dial, Vanity Fair). It was not bad enough that Lipman's essays were generally wrong and often ignorant; his opinions, both large and small, were unpersuasive. Kooning, the political scientist Harold Richard Kostelanetz Consider the following canon of "mira­ Laski, the writers Mary McCarthy, Jean cle" (Le. classic) recordings: Genet, Vladimir Nabokov, Robert One thinks immediately of ... the Few magazines in America are as Graves, et ale Indeed, most of the indi­ tenor John McCormack singing pretentiously uppercrust as Hilton viduals featured in its pages were Mozart and Hugo Wolf, the soprano Kramer's The New Criterion. Taking its already famous before their names Kirsten Flagstad and the baritone title from T.S. Eliot's magazine Criterion appeared there, for The New Criterion Friedrich Schorr singing Wagner, the (1922-1939), The New Criterion (b. 1982) differs from most highbrow magazines violinist Fritz Kreisler playing claims to take the highest road in pub­ in its neglect of unknowns, "left" or Mendelssohn, the teenage violinist lishing criticism and poetry (but not fic­ "right," traditional or avant-garde. Yehudi Menuhin plaYing Bruch, the scarcely older violinist Josef Hassid tion). It declares itself opposed to fad, Even the few essays that lack individ­ plaYing numerous encore pieces, the opposed to vulgarity, opposed to the ual names in their titles are finally violinist Adolf Busch conducting "left-wing assault on culture and stan­ about individuals as well. Kimball's Bach, the pianist Artur Rubinstein "When Reason Sleeps: The Academy dards." Its latest anthology from itself plaYing Chopin, the pianist Vladimir - Against the Grain, coedited by vs. Science" is less a discussion of the Horowitz playing Rachmaninoff, the Kramer and his sidekick, Roger issues announced in the title than a pianist Alfred Cortot playing Liszt, Kimball- gives us an occasion, better rogues' gallery of academics whom the conductor Arturo Toscanini per­ than a single issue, to see what The New Kimball judges deviant (but apparently forming Beethoven, the conductor Criterion is really about. not famous enough to warrant individ­ Pierre Monteux performing all man­ The first thing to notice is that most ual demolition). ner of French and Russian music. of the essays in this book are not about By emphasizing individuals, this In my judgment, as the author of political developments, nor about cul­ book creates three pantheons - good more books on music than Lipman ever tural history; few offer sociological or guys, bad guys, and those in limbo. published, no one performs miracles economic analysis, issues in arts criti­ Among the bad guys are Genet, with "encore pieces," which are famil­ cism, or muckraking. No, most New Lawrence of Arabia, Laski, the British iar precisely because they are per­ Criterion essays are about individuals: culture critic Raymond Williams, the former-proof; Lazar Berman plays Liszt T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia), the econo­ literary scholar Gerald Graff, the (especially the more difficult Liszt) bet­ mist John Maynard Keynes, the paint­ French philosophers Michel Foucault ter than Cortot; Dinu Lipatti is more ers Anselm Kiefer and William de and Jean Baudrillard; among the good "miliaculous" than Rubinstein on Liberty 61 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

Chopin; Rachmaninoff playing himself as the editor of Arts, then as a New York tual history or critical issues. Why a transcends Horowitz; Nikolaus Times staffer, now at The New Criterion. journal whose title opportunistically Harnoncourt's luminous performances His prof~ssional survival, not to men­ echoes T.S. Eliot, one that theoretically of Monteverdi's longer masterpieces tion his! (prominence, blatantly illus­ cares not a whit about gross circulation, make Toscanini's Beethoven sound trates the decline of values and should want to appear so vulgar raises leaden. What to make of a list of per­ standards in American cuItural dis­ another question - who is kidding or formers that excludes the pianist Glenn course, especially at sponsoring institu­ conning whom? My hunch, having con­ Gould, the contralto Marian Anderson, tions. Like Karl Kraus' psychoanalyst, tributed to critical magazines for some or the violinist Paul Zukofsky (whose Kramer is the disease for which he pur­ three decades now, is that The New out-of-print recording of Paganini's ports to be the cure. Criterion is edited to please inastute Caprices will always be the standard in Why this concentration on celebri­ benefactors whose literacy barely tran­ my head)? What to make of a pur­ ties? The first possibility is that The New scends that of People, in a classic exam­ ported list of classic recordings that Criterion is really mocking T.5. Eliot's ple of "intellectuals" giving the money includes nothing more contemporary example, ridiculing a man who boys what they· want. Editorially, this than Rachmaninoff? Most of us would deplored any emphasis on personality pandering is the uniformity to which decide from this passage alone that this in both the creation of art and the criti­ New Criterion's contributors are "critic" was so insufficient that his cism of it. A second possibility is that required to conform, much as writers essays would never have appeared in a the editors have succumbed to the com­ for Stalinist magazines some decades "highbrow" journal's pages, let alone mon mass-magazine assumption that ago were required to flatter other its anthology from itself, did he not also "people" sell more copies than intellec- intrinsically unacceptable limitations. 0 have another job at the magazine. (My hunch is that now that Lipman is gone, coverage of music will disappear from None ofthe Above, by Sy Leon, second edition, Fox & Wilkes, 1996, 188 The New Criterion's pages. It will be +xiii pp., $12.95. hard to find anyone else so deficient.) In this emphasis upon personalities, rather than developments or general issues, The New Criterion very much reflects the critical "intelligence" of its senior editor, the veteran "art critic" Hilton Kramer, who has spent four dec­ ades elevating and (mostly) denigrating NOTA Chance individuals. Indeed, his "criticism" has been so person-centered that one senses his praise goes to people he knows per­ health of the body politic. These preda­ sonally, his damnation to individuals Loren E. Lomasky he doesn't know and often those asso­ tors confiscate our property, trample on ciated with them. For instance, I can't our liberties, and generate no benefits remember him ever liking any artist Five presidential elections have that are not better available through showing at the Leo Castelli Gallery, come and gone since Sy Leon's None of purely voluntary activity, all the while which has for nearly 40 years beeg the the Above first appeared in 1976. professing a public-spiritedness that principal.showcase of many artists"else­ Although the publisher describes the utterly fails to conceal their venality where acknowledged as major. One current release as revised, there is virtu­ and vainglory. reason for his apparent reluctance to ally nothing in the text that would not The book's tone is folksy; its genre, collect his essays into books may be have been equally timely 20 years ago cracker-barrel wisdom. Other practi­ that his opinions, when gathered - or will not be 20 years from now. tioners include Will Roger and Ross together, would reveal a lack of esthetic The author has little concern with Perot. Rope-twirling or multicolored sense. either contemporary political history or charts are useful accoutrements, but Indeed, Kramer's example has been philosophy. Psychology is more his even more crucial to success are wit so pernicious that I blame him for domain, and he treats the reader to a and shrewdness. Leon meets this stan­ younger art critics who similarly care grab-bag of reflections about the dard tolerably well, better than most more about people than principle, motives of the stock characters who after-dinner speakers I have endured among them Lucy R. Lippard and occupy various roles within the social while trying to digest rubbery chicken, Donald Kuspit, even though the latter drama. Taking repeated bows in these perhaps well enough to secure employ­ two advocate different individuals and pages are the Politician, the Lawyer, the ment as a motivational speaker. for have ostensibly different politics. Such Bureaucrat, and, of course, the Poor companies aiming to crack the ~ortune a failure has Kramer been as an art Schlemiel Citizen who is the unlucky 500. Compensating for narrowness of critic, not·to mention a bad influence, recipient of their ministrations. Leon's message is a commendable inclination that he· could never have survived ubiquitous moral is that the state and toward brevity. This is,Ijudge, a book without power-laden positions - first its functionaries do nothing but sap the worth giving to a teenage civics-class 62 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 refugee who enthusiastically antici­ presidential election and in off-year but that is silly. There are a great many pates "making a difference" by becom­ elections have amounted to an absolute reasons why people decide not to vote. ing a voter and perhaps someday majority. But because only votes and They may be more or less equally satis­ running for office. To save someone not non-votes are officially counted, fied by both of the major-party candi­ from a life of politics is not a negligible ballot-boycotters' antipathy to rule by dates. They may judge (correctly) that benefaction, so this book is not without elected officials goes unregistered and the probability of their vote making a value. Do not look here, though, for is thus rendered ineffectual. If, how­ difference is too minuscule to take seri­ discussions of feasible mechanisms for ever, those who reject all the listed can­ ously. They may not know who's run­ providing public goods without gov­ didates were able to throw their weight ning and care less. Or they may ernment coercion, upholding rights behind "None of the Above," this understand that a half-hour spent vot­ within anarchic society, or defending would wonderfully chasten the win­ ing is a half-hour not available for beer­ against external aggressors, or for the ners' propensity to claim a "mandate" drinking or hang-gliding, activities debate between no-state and minimal­ as the "people's choice." It having been they value more. None of these non­ state libertarians. (These and other unambiguously demonstrated that voters would be propelled to the polls issues are intelligently engaged in a most of the citizenry wants neither by an opportunity to cast a "None of fine new Rowman & Littlefield collec­ them nor any of their opponents, they the Above" ballot. tion, For and Against the State, edited by would while in office devote less effort Moreover, if there were a disgrun­ Jack Sanders and Jan Narveson.) to implementing their own idea of tled majority, its crystallization would While this book is better served by a what's good for the public and more not require such electoral innovation. quick read than an analysis in depth, effort to finding out what that public Individuals can, for example, rouse one of Leon's proposals enjoys consid­ genuinely wants. The nonvoting major­ themselves from their armchairs to vote erable support among libertarians and ity would finally be enfranchised and for a declared Libertarian Party candi­ for that reason deserves scrutiny here. thereby empowered. date. But only a fraction of 10/0 of eligi­ It is the reform indicated by the title: There may be good reasons for add­ ble voters have ever chosen to do so in adding to ballots a "None of the ing a "None of the Above" line to bal­ any presidential election. In fact, Leon's Above" option. Most citizens, Leon lots, but if so, they are not the ones nonvoting majority is a fantasy more maintains, are disaffected from politics. given here. Leon assumes that non­ preposterous by at least an order of Over the previous half-century, non­ voters represent a homogeneous bloc of magnitude than Nixon's "silent major­ voters have gained a plurality in every disenchantment with big government, ity" or Falwell's "moral majority." Each Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

pastes on itself a quantitative label for that he enjoys great public confidence. We face an abtmdance of subtle and which it is demonstrably unqualified. And on those rare occasions when complex problems. We need there­ Rejection of the state may be virtuous, "None of the Above" did attract large fore subtle and complex solutions. but, for better or for worse, it certainly numbers, I fear the hurrahs of libertari­ Since there is no deductive theory of isn't popular. ans would be thoroughly drowned out social organization, our only There is, then, no reason to suppose by the contrary voices of self­ recourse is scientific experiment ­ trying out sometimes on small scales that enhancing the ballot as Leon sug­ proclaimed tribunes of the people (community, city, state level, say) a gests would transform more than a whose post-election punditry would wide range of alternatives. (424) handful of nonvoters into voters. Nor proclaim the vote a mandate for really would it often diminish the perceived big government ala Ralph Nader/Jesse But the real problem with this legitimacy of those who win office. If, Jackson/Rosa Luxemburg. Dare one book is not its lack of focus or its as I believe would usually happen, suggest that the appropriate clientele grammar-school economics; it is the IINone of the Above" attracted only a for the "None of the Above" reform integrity of Sagan's arguments. Instead small total, the winning candidate turns out to be not the readers of Liberty of carefully reviewing and then chal­ could cite that as further confirmation but those of The Nation? 0 lenging the best evidence for the alleged phenomena under discussion, as an honest debunker would, Sagan The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by is often content to shoot down such Carl Sagan. Random House, 1996, 457 pp., $29.95. easy targets as silly stories in the Daily Mirror or Weekly World News. Far too often, significant controversies are sim­ ply dismissed by reference to some skeptical book (often written by a non­ scientist). Sagan cites the book and we The Truth Is are all to rest assured that the mystery has been solved. This is the scientific method? Sagan's very brief discussion of the Out There "face on Mars" controversy does little justice to the laborious imaging work done by Vincent DiPietro and Greg Molenaar, two legitimate computer sci­ Dominick T. Armentano their own lives -let alone about issues that affect national policy, such as entists. His "crop circles" discussion ozone depletion - if they are scientif­ (buried curiously in one of the UFO I'm at a loss to explain why The chapters) shows no familiarity with the ically illiterate? Presumably, if they ~e Demon-Haunted World was published. appreciated "science," they would particulars of the phenomena. All get are Sagan's knowing assura~ces Yes, Carl Sagan can be brilliant at agree with Sagan on ozone public pol­ that two self-professed hoaxers in explaining the wonders of science - on icy. Sagan's solution: a greater public England (and unknown copycats, pre­ television - but that's no reason to appreciation of the scientific method, sumably) must be responsible for the publish in hardcover whatever he free speech, and the Bill of Rights, and entire phenomenon. wants to pontificate at any moment. (without missing a beat) continued tax Worst of all is Sagan's discussion And make no mistake about it, Sagan is subsidies for public television, Head of the UFO controversy. Although he a pontificator extraordinaire. Start, and the federal Office of Tech­ once co-edited a reasonably serious Sagan's overall purpose seems legiti­ nology Assessment. mate enough. He is concerned about the inquiry on the subject (UFOs: A Sagan has bitten off far more than popular fascination with pseudoscience Scientific Debate, Cornell University any man can sensibly chew. He wants and the irrational and the growing num­ Press, 1972), what we have here is a to rejuvenate the scientific method in ber of people ready to accept claims quick and dirty toss-off. He implies the public mind, slay a thousand and about astrology, Bigfoot, dowsing, that there is nothing in this area that a Nostradamus, Atlantis, Ouija Boards, one New Age dragons, defend the true scientist can sink his teeth into: UFOs, telepathy, and other "paranor­ value of open discourse, attack The Bell "Essentially all the UFO cases [are] mal" phenomena. (Interestingly, Sagan Curve, renew his moralistic assault on anecdotes, something asserted" (69). never establishes that many people fellow scientist Edward Teller, and And indeed, much UFO "evidence" is really believe such outlandish ideas, ramble on about poverty, illiteracy, and simply reports of UFOs, and reports only that they are interested in them­ public subsidy. Much of this latter are not themselves hard evidence. Yet a major difference.) material is written at the Parade maga­ when the scientific community leaves Sagan is convinced that "scientific zine level (not surprising, since several unexamined hundreds of low-level illiteracy" is ultimately dangerous to a of Sagan's old Parade columns are recy­ multiple sightings of structured free and prosperous society. How can cled here) and much of it is embarrass­ objects with very unusual flight char­ people make intelligent decisions about ingly naive: acteristics, something appe\rs seri- 64 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 ously amiss.* tist, never extends to the outlandish cases was investigated in 1981 by Sagan assures us repeatedly that a rationales "debunkers" offer to GEPAN, an investigatory arm of the real scientist must be skeptical of "explain" complex UFO sightings? French space agency CNES. It found extraordinary claims and that he There are dozens of radar/ visual signs of unexplained ground heating should seek conventional explanations sightings (recently in Belgium) without (to 600 0 C) at the alleged landing site first. Correct. And most sightings of any apparent conventional explanation. and abnormally reduced chlorophyll things in the sky do have prosaic expla­ There are many dozens of reports of pigment in vegetation. Investigator Ted nations. But even the skeptical Condon automobiles that have failed to function Phillips has categorized many thou­ Report includes UFO cases that cannot normally in the vicinity of UFOs, sands of ground trace cases. Sagan has be easily explained - cases left unac­ although diesel-engine autos are rarely plenty of energy to ridicule alien knowledged by Sagan. Moreover, in affected. (For a review of several so­ abduction stories, but none to mention many instances, conventional explana­ called "electromagnetic" cases see important ground trace cases - some tions have been stretched to the break­ Richard Hall, Uninvited Guests: A dating back to 1954. ing point. (Compare the super-strained Documented History of UFO Sightings, Notice that none of this has anything explanations of some classic UFO cases Alien Encounters & Coverups, Aurora to do with disproving that UFOs are in Philip J. Klass, UFOs Explained, Press, 1988.) There are dozens of video alien spaceships from the Pleiades. We Vintage Books, 1974, to, say, the case clips (with multiple witnesses) of do not have to be told again that science analysis in J. Allen Hynek, The UFO UFOs, evidence that cries out to be cannot prove a negative. The issue, Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, Regnery, addressed. If Sagan's discussion were instead, is facing up to the overwhelm­ 1972.) How is it that skepticism, for at all "scientific," he would have ing circumstantial evidence that some­ Sagan the trademark of the true scien- explored some of these issues in depth. thing strange is going on, and But none are even mentioned. investigating it rigorously. Sagan claims It For impressive witness descriptions of low­ Sagan's claim that all UFOs are that one of the hallmarks of the good sci­ level, structured UFOs, see}. Allen Hynek, "something asserted" is also disingenu­ entist is "curiosity," yet most scientists Philip }. Imbrogno, and Bob Pratt, Night Siege: ous. There are strictly physical aspects remain profoundly uninterested in The Hudson Valley UFO Sightings, Ballantine Books, 1987. The conventional explanation of the phenomena, the most puzzling UFOs. As Richard Hall, a long-time that the sightings were ultra-light planes fly­ of which are physical trace effects left UFOlogist, put it: "Exactly why 40 years ing in formation blatantly ignores the content on the ground and on vegetation. One of impressive human testimony and of hundreds of independent witness reports. of the most impressive ground trace related instrumental and physical evi-

Seeking a Free Nation

After the elections in November, where will you look for hope?

Will we libertarians ever get what we want in a majority-rule democracy? Maybe. But we do not have to put all our eggs in that basket.

The Free Nation Foundation starts with a different assumption. We who want strictly limited government can build it, leasing it like a new Hong Kong if need be, if we will come together and work together. We have sufficient resources.

But too few ofus have confidence in the idea ofa "free nation." We do not need to persuade 51% ofour neighbors. We need to persuade ourselves.

First we need to build and articulate, among ourselves, a unifying'vision. We need to believe, for ourselves, that we can establish and maintain a safe society.

With a believable vision in place, nothing will stop us. After all, von Mises was right. We, not they, hold the key. Join us in building the vision.

Free Nation Foundation III West Corbin Street Hillsborough. NC 27278

Formulations: subscription $15 per year (four issues); single sample issue $4. Membership in FNF: $30 per year. (In addition to FormuJstioDS, members receive: Annual Reports, invitations to attend meetings of Board ofDirectors, use ofthe FNF library, more inclusion in the process.)

Forum: lbIsiDaIaiDaE1llcNation. Saturday, 19 October 1996, 10 AM - 5 PM. Oliver's Restaurant, Hillsborough, North Carolina. Call 919-732-8366 for details.

Incorporated 1993. IRS SOI(c)(3) tax-exempt educational foundation. Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 dence has essentially escaped the atten­ tery of major proportions." This book big businesses" and doesn't embrace "a tion of science constitutes a human mys- continues the mystery. 0 strong central government.") One of Korten's chief demons is a , group he calls the "corporate libertari­ ans." His chapter devoted to this sinis­ Booknotes ter force briefly mentions just one libertarian organization (the Cato Responsibility, Ltd. - We live and David Korten has risen to the task in Institute) and fails to mention that liber­ in a world dominated by big corpora­ When Corporations Rule the World tarians were split over NAFTA and tions. The broadcast media are con­ (Berrett-Koehler Publishers/Kumarian GATT, two issues his book focuses on. trolled by megacorps like GE and Press, 1995, 374 + x pp., $29.95). But When he assumes "corporate libertari­ Disney, farming has been replaced by problems with Korten's approach are ans" would defend the World Bank and

IIagribusiness," and commercialism per­ apparent from the beginning, when he the International Monetary Fund, it vades almost every facet of American tries to show the IIdepth" of his IIconser­ becomes evident that the term does not life. Libertarians often feel constrained vative roots" by pointing to his refer to libertarians as the word is usu­ from attacking business out of rever­ advanced business degrees from ally employed, but simply to those who ence for capitalism. But the very exis­ Stanford, former faculty position at would extend corporate privileges. tence of corporations undermines the Harvard Business School, and past jobs Korten's goals - greater local auton­ marketplace. A corporation is a fictional at the Ford Foundation and the Agency omy, less environmental destruction ­ IIperson" chartered by the state so that for International Development. I am are worthwhile, and many of his recom­ disparate people can own a share of a aware of the limitations of the left-right mendations (private local currencies, business without any meaningful spectrum, but this definition of "conser­ reforming patent laws, slashing corpo­ responsibility for it. A corporation can vative" would strip the word of what­ rate welfare) are solid. Eschewing both be held accountable up to the value of ever meaning it possesses. (A more communism and corporate capitalism, its assets, but, except for rare instances, convincing case for Korten's conserva­ Korten calls for"a market economy com­ not beyond that. The real-world effect is tism - in the better sense of the word ­ posed primarily, though not exclusively, that stockholders do not need to con­ has come from the political left. Writing of family enterprises, small-scale co-ops, sider the consequences of their com­ in The Nation, social democrat Gina Neff worker-owned firms, and neighborhood pany's actions the way a partner or sole has accused Korten of being "provin­ and municipal corporations." Unfor­ proprietor does. cial" and "conservative" because he tunately, his decentralist agenda is often The status quo is ripe for criticism, thinks "big governments are worse than obscured by his other suggestions. Korten is inordinately fond of the United Nations, an organization AYNRAND innately opposed to the local sove­ reignty and real community he wishes to bolster. And his desire to see tradi­ MILTON FRIEDMAN tional religion, which he dismisses as Interviewed on video by IIfundamentalist religious sects preach­ ing fear and intolerance," replaced by some vague "ecumenical movement"

PHIL DONAHUE~ based on the IIunity of life and con­ sciousness" also undermines his Volume 1: Two sizzling interviews: Rand vehemently broader goals. He should ask himself attacks the immorality ofgovernment and religion; Nobel who has shown greater resistance to the winner Friedman discusses best seller "Free to Choose." siren song of corporate commercialism: Orthodox Jews, traditional Catholics, and the Amish - or yuppie consumers Volume 2: A moving visit with the brilliant philosopher, shopping at the New Age spiritual perhaps the last video interview before her death; Friedman, supermarket? -ClarkStooksbury in layman's terms, decapitates "liberal" economics. South ofthe Border - To insular Each Volume Only white Christians like Pat Buchanan, Indicate how nlan}' ofeach volume Mexico is a warning, a neo-feudal bas­ $ 24.95 you want andsendpayment to: ket case, the Brown Peril. To bohemian misfits like William Burroughs, it's a (incl. shipping, handling, CA sales 24-hour whorehouse, a licentious ref­ tax - allo\v 4-5 "reeks for delivery) No Free Lunch Distributors uge, the ragged edge of paradise. 2219 W. Olive Ave. # 218 These self-indulgent fantasies are fed 10% DISCOUNT by Americans' sensational miseduca­ on orders of2 or more tapes! Burbank, CA 91506 tion, so strangely filtered and com- Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996

pressed: Cortez and Montezuma are Company, 1996, 367 pp., $25.95) is a noble Indian rebels stands as one of the followed quickly by Santa Ana, then welcome antidote: a lucid and engag­ great publicity fakes of the last two Zapata and Pancho Villa, then a long ing account of Mexico's fitful struggles decades. silence punctuated only by a few impu­ with the end of history, providing just Not that Oppenheimer is any friend dent threats to our national self-esteem, enough detail to let you grasp his intri­ of the regime. He amply documents the such as the Mexican Baseball League's cate tale of that nation's free fall into PRJ's insanely wasteful porkbarrel WWII-era "raid" on the North, and by depression and Marxist revolt. An old­ spending (building an $11 million opera those periodic monetary panics in style investigative reporter, Oppen­ house in the impoverished state of which U.S. taxpayers are prevailed heimer spent months in Mexico talking Chiapas), its bought rulers (a claque of upon to bail out Goldman, Sachs, et al. to, and digging up dirt on, the major wealthy businessmen pledged $750 mil­ Andres Oppenheimer's Bordering on players in the PRJ (Mexico's ruling lion to the PRJ in a single evening), its Chaos: Guerrillas, Stockbrokers, party) and the Zapatistas - university­ feckless mismanagement of the peso, Politicians, and Mexico's Road to trained insurgents from Mexico City and its comic-opera elections ("In La Prosperity (Little, Brown and whose romantic image in El Norte as Trinitaria ... the PRJ scored 18,114 votes,

Classified Advertising is available for 50¢ per word, with a ten-word minimum. 10% discount for six or more insertions. Payment must accompany order. Please suggest classification. Business/Employment Foundations of Morality, by Henry Hazlitt. Merchandise Stirring defense of individual freedom from the Are you ready to work hard for the next six author of the classic Economics in One Lesson. Harry Browne for President tee shirts. Top months to achieve lifetime financial freedom? $13.95 ($4.00 off publisher's price) plus $3.00 s&h. quality, red & blue on white; 8" x 10" picture on 1-800-995-0796, ext. 4752. Liberty Book Club, P.O. Box 1181, Port back Specify size. $16.95 postpaid (except XXL, Get government out of your pocket! Make Townsend, WA 98368. $18.95). Mesh back caps, $5.95. Bumper sticker, $5,000+ weekly teaching others to do the same. $1.00. Campaign button, $1.00. Mug with Freedom of Informed Choice: FDA Nutrient Not MLM. Recorded details: 800-995-0796, ext vs. Harry's photo, $5.50 postpaid. SPECIAL: Shirt, Supplements, by Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw. 0289. Intemetathttp://www.ve.net/liberty. cap, bumper sticker & button, $20.00. Check or "This splendid book puts us even more in money order to: W.H.M. 1706 Spout Spring Wealth Protection Services. David J. Whiting, Pearson & Shaw's debt ... makes great Investment PhilosophyConsultant. 912-236-7375. Road, Morristown, TN 37814. (All profits go to sense."-Milton Friedman. $6.95 postpaid. Browne campaign.) Health Liberty Book Club, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Miscellaneous AIDS Epidemic inTampa, Florida!!! Free Report: HPAF. P.O. Box 10088, Tampa, FL 33679. Freedom's Light: Quotations from History's The Problem Solver. Anything considered, ordi­ nary to extraordinary. Payby result. Confidential. The Secrets of Better Health Revealed.Free info. Champions of Freedom, by Alan Cook "It's a 912-236-7375. Connors, 325 Spur 40, Suite 8-362, St. Mary's, GA wonderful idea, and a great selection." ­ 31558. Llewellyn Rockwell. $7.50. Satori Press, 904 Silver Songwriter. Great Libertarian parodies of SpurRoad, #323, Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274. Literature Beatles, Dylan, Airplane, Sedaka, etc. More "bite" Individualist Feminism. Not all feminists are than Limbaugh's material. I need a publisher or Are you opposed to forced integration and "politically correct." Liberty and feminism go singerwho's game. 912-236-7375. forced segregation? Do you favor a rational life hand in hand. For information on individualist Periodicals of choice? Do you disagree with the propaganda feminist literature, send SASE to Association of of the news, entertainment, and political indus­ Libertarian Feminists, P.O. Box 20252, London Independent Thinking Review. Quarterly non­ tries, which say that you have but two choices: Terrace P.O., New York, NY 10011 or see ALF partisan newsletter exploring critical thinking you must either love blacks or you must hate Web page: http://www.alf.org. and independent points of view on issues such as them? Then read the booklet, Forced Racial free speech and censorship, the media, psycho­ Mixing: Early and Later Effects. You're not Letters of Ayn Rand, edited by Michael Berliner. therapy, religion. Regular contributors include wicked, as the propagandists would have you Take a look into the private and professional life George H. Smith, Sharon Presley. Sample issue, believe if you disagree with them. You're one of of Ayn Rand - in her own words. Fascinating! $1. Subscription $22/4 issues. Resources For the decent. This publication affirms that you are $24.95 ($10.00 off publisher's price) plus $3.00 Independent Thinking. 484 Lake Park Ave., No. and gives you the reasons, which you can use to s&h. Liberty Book Club, P.O. Box 1181, Port 24, Oakland, CA 94510. 510/601-9450. E-mail: assert your position. $5.00. Cardona, Box 331158, Townsend, WA 98368. rit®Well.com. Atlantic Beach, FL 32233. Quagmire: America in the Middle East, by Leon Living Free newsletter, practical methods for Being dragged into small claims court? Don't be Hadar. "A sweeping, provocative, and powerful increasing personal freedom, for libertarians, a victim, fight back and win! Please write: frontal assault on U.S. Middle East policy." $17.95 survivalists, anarchists, outlaws, since 1979. Academic Investigators, 11684 Ventura Blvd., postpaid while supplies last. Liberty Book Club, Lively, unique. $12.00 for 6 issues, sample $2.00. Suite 758-E, Studio city, CA 91604 to receive FREE P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Box 29-LB, Hiler Branch, Buffalo, NY 14223. INFORMATION. "The most thorough and scholarly work ever Now unreduced print in The (Libertarian) Better Government: Read Voter's Revenge. "... a done on Ayn Rand." Ayn Rand: TIle Russian Connection, open forum magazine since 1968. great piece of work" - Cato Institute. Voters Radical, by Chris Matthew Sciabarra. $21.95 Subscribers may insert two pages/issue free, $7.95 postpaid, guaranteed. Ph: 800-238-6823. Box ($23.00 off the publisher's price) plus $3.00 s&h. unedited. Lots of stimulating conversation. 394-Y, Youngtown, AZ 85363. voters@the Liberty Book Club, P.O. Box 1181, Port Eight issues (year) $20. 13107-BZ Autumn bookcom http://www.thebookcom/revenge/ Townsend,WA 98368. Woods Way, Fairfax VA 22022. Liberty 67 Volume 10, Number 2 November 1996 the opposition, 0"). And if he excoriates dicting the future as he is at uncovering the PRD, the emerging alternative is the feeble-minded gringo journalists for the recent past, Americans are being relatively pro-market PAN. And naively accepting Zapatista posturing, gravely misled by reports of spreading Mexican colleges - e.g., the National Oppenheimer is equally hard on Anglo "rebellion" south of the border. Autonomous University of Mexico coverage of the government's generally Mexicans, he finds, take little interest in (UNAM) - that train their students to phony reforms. The widely hailed the Zapatistas' socialist agenda; mostly, become "coffee-table ideologues," long "privatization" of Mexico's primitive they want to get ahead and see the U.S. on Marx and short on accounting, are telephone network, for instance, merely as the best model for doing so. As in the fast losing out to a burgeoning network transferred the state monopoly to PRJ U.S., many intellectuals have preserved of private colleges whose graduates are pet Carlos Slim, who raised rates 170% the leftist dogmas they sucked up at hired by companies that advertise, and did nothing to improve service. college in the '60s; but much to the cha­ "UNAM graduates, please abstain." If Oppenheimer is as good at pre- grin of the left-wing opposition party, -Nathan Crow

Smith, continued from page 54 people from committing those crimes, Briefly, Locke's theory goes like this: say, of some warped techno-nerds. but this is a by-product of punishment, I have a right to use violence in self­ Okay, so I actually talked to Murphy in not its purpose. If deterrence is severed defense, even if this results in the death person. But what if this was his twin from a theory ofjustice, there is no reason of the aggressor. The right of self­ brother or someone else in disguise? why we cannot punish innocent parties, defense is operative even when there Okay ... give me a break!) or even torture them, if by so doing we has not been an overt action or an Anyway, I am as certain as any mor­ mightinstill terror inpotential criminals. express threat to kill me. I may kill an tal can be that Murphy made the threat If punishment is a matter of social armed robber, for example, because I and that he intends to carry it out. Then, utility rather than justice, then we will may reasonably assume that "he, who sure enough, while walking down the be at the mercy of social calculators who would take away my Liberty, would not street on that fateful day, I run smack determine and dictate social efficiency. when he had me in his Power, take into Murphy. He stops, looks at me As Bakunin warned, this "reign of scien­ away every thing else." I need not wait menacingly, and then - well, then I tific intelligence" will be "the most aris­ until violence has been literally inflicted pull out my trusty revolver and shoot tocratic, despotic, arrogant and scornful upon me before I can defend myself. I Murphy dead. of all regimes. There will be a new class, may respond with violence to what I Was my action a legitimate act of a new hierarchy of real and pretended reasonably perceive to be a threat self-defense? Yes, I think it was. In scholars, and the world will be divided against my life. Locke's terms, Murphy had declared a into a minority that rules in the name of The key to Locke's theory of defen­ "state of war" against me and others, so science and a vast ignorant majority." sive violence is what he calls the "state all of us had the right to use defensive of war." This does not consist of particu­ violence against him. Restraint lar acts of aggression per se, but in "a Now, suppose that Murphy does not Some years ago during a summer sedate [and] settled Design upon explicitly advertise or announce his conference, Randy Barnett and I sat another man's life." A person, through intent to kill, but has openly confessed down to see whether we could manu­ his words and deeds, can declare an to murdering 30 people in cold blood. A facture a defense of capital punishment. intention to kill other men, in which strong case might be made that, as a The best we could come up with was case I "have a Right to destroy that result of his previous actions, Murphy the notion of a "standing threat." This is which threatens me with destruction." has displayed a "sedate and settled based on John Locke's treatment of rep­ Randy and I adapted Locke's argu­ design" against the lives of innocent aration and restraint, which "are the ment as follows: suppose Murphy (our people everywhere. He has a strong dis­ only reasons, why one Man may law­ paradigmatic villain) places a full-page position to murder; it is part of his char­ fully do harm to another, which is that ad in my local paper, where he acter, as revealed by his past crimes. He we call punishment." Reparation corre­ announces, in no uncertain terms, that is, in other words, a "standing threat" to sponds to what libertarians call "restitu­ he will initiate a killing spree the follow­ society in general. tion." For years Randy has brilliantly ing day. He will shoot anyone he feels If it is legitimate to use defensive elaborated on the pure theory of restitu­ like without warning and will continue violence against Murphy in the first tion as the only acceptable model of to do so until someone stops him. (Of case, would it not be equally justified to libertarian punishment, and he recog­ course, examples like this are always use defensive violence against him in nizes that the death penalty cannot be vulnerable to the slings and arrows of the second case? Can anyone who incorporated within this model. Locke's the. nitpicky. Even if the ad has encounters Murphy shoot him dead and notion of restraint, however, has inter­ Murphy's picture, how do I know that then plead self-defense? It seems to me esting possibilities for those in search of he actually placed it? Perhaps it is the that a reasonable argument might be a rationale for the death penalty ­ work of someone else who wants to made for this, but - to repeat - such though this approach treats capital pun­ cause problems for poor Murphy. Okay, an argument would have nothing to do ishment as a form of defensive violence so I saw Murphy interviewed on televi­ with punishment as such, which deals and so, strictly speaking, removes it sion. But what if this was a computer with past actions; rather, it would be a from the realm of punishment. generated hoax? - the demonic work, form of self-defense. 68 Liberty Volume 10, Number 2

The anarchist William Godwin dis­ cusses this issue inAn Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793), where he rejects "restraint" as a rationale for punishment. To punish people, even criminals, from Dominick T. Armentano is author of legislature. fear of some future action "is the very Antitrust and Monopoly (Indepen­ Richard Kostelanetz has written argument which has been employed to dent Institute). many books, most recently Crimes justify the most execrable tyrannies." Chester Alan Arthur is Liberty's ofCulture (Autonomedia) and According to Godwin, "There is not more political correspondent. Radio Writings (Leggiere). reason, in many cases at least, to appre­ hend that the man who has once commit­ Carlos A. Ball is editor and pub­ Ross Levatter is a radiologist in pri­ ted robbery, will commit it again." To lisher of AIPE, a Spanish­ vate practice in Phoenix. deliberately harm someone for the sake language news organization serv­ Loren E. Lomasky is author of of restraint is "abhorrent to reason, and ing 15 countries. Persons, Rights, and the Moral arbitrary inits application." "Baloo" is the alter ego of cartoon­ Community (Oxford). Godwin may be right. To kill some­ ist Rex F. May. one as a "standing threat" in the name Wendy McElroy is author of Sexual of self-defense may amount to little John Bergs trom is a Californian car­ Correctness (McFarland). more than a surreptitious effort to toonist and animator. Paul Piccone is editor of Telos. smuggle capital punishment in through David Boaz's primer and reader on the back door of libertarian theory, hav­ James S. Robbins is a foreign policy libertarianism will both be pub­ analyst in Massachusetts. ing denied it entrance through the front. lished by the Free Press in Moreover, it is difficult to conceive how January. Jeffrey A. Singer, a Phoenix sur­ the "standing threat" justification could geon, played a major role in the be implemented in a libertarian legal R. W. Bradford is editor of Liberty. fight to make MSAs tax­ system, unless we suppose that a lone Douglas Casey is editor of Crisis deductible on Arizona's state individual can take it upon himself to Investing. income tax. execute the "standing threat" and then plead self-defense in a court of law ­ Stephen Cox is Professor of George H. Smith is author of which, peopled with a libertarian jury, Literature at UC-San Diego and Atheisn1, Ayn Rand, and Other will refuse to convict him. Objective author of the biographical intro­ Heresies (Prometheus). standards and procedures seem proble­ duction to Isabel Paterson's The Clark Stooksbury is assistant pub­ matic in this case, to say the least. God ofthe Machine (Transaction). lisher of Liberty. (Perhaps I am lacking in imagination; if Nathan Crow is an associate editor Scott Sutton, a journalist, recently so, I have little doubt that more imagi­ of Liberty. native libertarians will come to my aid returned from New Zealand to with ingenious solutions.) James Gill is Liberty's staff artist. the United States. In conclusion, I agree with Locke Mina Greb is editorial assistant at Timothy Virkkala is managing that reparation (restitution) and Liberty. editor of Liberty. restraint (self-defense) are the only justi­ fied uses of violence in a free society. Greg Kaza represents the 42nd Jesse Walker is an associate editor How we can apply restitutive principles District in Michigan's state of Liberty. to willful murder is, I concede, a trou­ blesome issue, but this model certainly cannot justify capital punishment. And I remain doubtful whether the restraint model can do the job either. Given our theory of justice, therefore, we cannot execute Murphy. Granted, Murphy is a revolting slimebucket, a sorry excuse for a humanbeing, a degen­ erate sadist, a violent moron - yes, Murphy is all of this, and more. But he is still a moral agent and, as such, is pos­ sessed with inalienable rights. We should have no respect whatever for Murphy, but we must have respect for his rights. We should vigorously defend not the person but the principle, for this is the foundation of everything we liber­ tarians hold dear. 0 Liberty 69 California Stuart, Fla. Economics in one lesson, as reported in Insight: Separation of church and state, as described in Quill: The Association of Community Organizations for Reform The Palm Beach County Anti-Defamation League wants to Now (ACORN) has campaigned for increases in the mini­ remove from a city park a six-foot-tall mahogany pole mum wage in California, Missouri, Montana, and Colorado. inscribed with "May peace on Earth prevail" in English, Now it's filed a request that it be exempted from having to Gaelic, Arabic, American Sign Language, and Braille, con­ pay its own employees California's minimum wage, on the tending that it is a religious display. Seventy-nine residents grounds that "the more ACORN must pay each individual have signed a petition saying that it is an offensive, pagan outreach worker ... the fewer outreach workers it will be symbol. able to hire." San Francisco Las Vegas Serving and protecting, as recounted in the San Update on alien abductions, reported in Skeptic: Francisco Examiner: Barry A. Briskman, age 59, was sentenced to 20 years in In an attempt to apprehend a driver who had run a red state prison for molesting two 13-year-old girls. Briskman light, police officer William Henry Wohler, Jr. engaged in a had claimed to be an alien from the planet Cabell, here to high-speed car chase that ended in a crash at a busy intersec­ recruit beautiful and intelligent girls for a female-dominated tion, totaling his car and injuring six people. Wohler testified utopian society led by Queen Hibernia, currently residing at he could not recall any department policy or regulation the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. against risky pursuits for minor violations.

Cambridge, Mass. Rockford, Illinois An Ivy League dilemma, reported in The New Yorker: Alarming development, discovered by Thomas Sinedu Tadesse, a junior at Harvard, stabbed her room­ Fleming and reported in Chronicles: A Magazine ofAmerican mate of two years, Trang Ho, 45 times while Trang lay Culture: sleeping in her bed. After the murder, a fierce debate erupted "Militant homosexuals, particularly those who have over whether Harvard should establish a scholarship in the received the anti-grace of AIDS, have become the heroes and name of both girls or only in Trang's. martyrs of our culture, celebrated even by heterosexual Long Island intellectuals." Propaganda tactics in the war against drugs, report­ Massapequa, N. Y: ed in The New Yorker: The crucial impact of the philosophy of Ayn Rand, as Visiting Phoenix House, a c4'ug rehabilitation center, described in a letter from Richard Savadel to The Drug Czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey complimented a group of J. recovering addicts, but added that he wasn't surprised by Libertarian Party News: their poise: "The kind of people who get into drugs are sort "Ayn Rand taught us to remember that words have an of with it and daring." exact meaning." Florida The World ofIdeas Larry Fuchs, Florida's head tax collector, explains his Contribution to political philosophy, offered by Eric job to the Tampa Tribune-Times: Dennis and published by the Objectivism Home Page on the "We're not in the business of collecting taxes. We're in World Wide Web: the business of establishing and modifying behavior." "To determine the right form of political organization is a conceptual task. Anarchism defaults on this task, denying the Denver, Col. existence of a proper method for it. Epistemology is the The environmentalism of Albert Gore, as reported in branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of man's con­ the Washington Post: ceptual consciousness. It identifies the general method of which political philosophy is a particular application. Thus When Al Gore delivered a speech about river conserva­ anarchism is the negation of the mere attempt to apply episte­ tion beside the South Platte River, local officials released an mology to the problem of political organization." additional 96 million gallons to increase the river's flow. "When you have the river being showcased, you want it to look good," explained one official. (Readers are invited to forward newsc1ippings or other items for publication in Terra Incognita.) 70 Liberty and

011 1(OU'l h1all ··· Chris Whitten's elegant line drawing of Ayn Rand as she appeared at the height of her powers, in the 1940s, after she had finished The Fountainhead and had begun work on Atlas Shrugged. Professionally matted, framed behind glass, this print is a bold statement, with these words of Rand's printed below her picture: "Ifyou ask me what is greatness? - I will answer, it is the capacity to live by the three fundamental values ofJohn Galt: reason, purpose, self-esteem. " $19.00, plus $5.00 shipping & handling "This Ayn Rand print really conveys her heroic sense of life." -Jay McNeill

011 1(OU'l chest ··· The portrait of Ayn Rand appears on the front of the shirt, while the back has the famous question from Atlas: "Who is John Galt?" The printing is done in dramatic black on a high quality pre-shrunk 100% cotton white Hanes "Beefy-T" - a high quality t-shirt. This is a I handsome, durable shirt you can wear with _ Ayn Rand T-shirt pride. I circle one: L XL @ 11.95 ea. = "I can't think of anyone I'd rather have on a shirt of I special o~~e'l: buy lm1h for $4.00 off! mine. And the back says it all! 'Who is John Galt?' I'd wear it anywhere." -Sheldon Richman I_ Ayn Rand T-shirt & print $11.95, plus $2.00 shipping & handling circle one: L XL @ $26.95 = __ I al1d J1Jhile supplies last: .911 1(OU'l head. ··· I _ Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical Chris Sciabarra's fascinating reinterpretation of I @ $21.95 ea. = -- Ayn Rand's philosophical origins has challenged thousands of readers. We offerAyn I- Letters of Ayn Rand Rand: The Russian Radical, in its hardcover @ $24.95 ea. = edition, while supplies last for only $21.95! 477 I shipping & handling*: __ engrossing pages. ($2.00 s&h) I "The most thorough and scholarly work ever done total: on Ayn Rand." -John Hospers I ;Also: Letters ofAyn Rand, edited by Michael Berliner. We offer this hardcover edition for I Charge my =Visa =Mastercard Expires __ $24.95 - $10.00 off the publisher's price! 681 I Account# _ pages of fascinating reading. ($2.00 s&h) "It is almost eerie to hear her inimitable voice again, I Signature ------_ so many years after her death, but this book is Ayn I Name _ Rand, exactly as I knew her." -Leonard Peikoff Address _ 1-800-8 54-6991 I City,State,Zip _ ...._-.....------..• Send----to: Liberty Foundation,-P.O.----Box 1181, Port Townsend,-WA-98368...• The Institute for Humane Studies is proud to announce the fourteenth annual

HUMANE STUDIES FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM

Up to $18,500

in tuition and stipend will be awarded to undergraduate and graduate students for the 1997-98 academic year

APPLICATION DEADLINE: DECEMBER 31, 1996

0 Fellowships are for students in the social sciences, humanities, law, journalism, and related fields, who are studying in the U.S. or abroad

0 Graduate students and undergraduates who will bejuniors For an application form, or seniors are eligible to apply I please contact: HSF Secretary 0 Awards are based on academic and/or p~ofessional perfor- Institute for Humane Studies mance, intent to pursue a career in academe or another George Mason University career in ideas, and potential to advance a free society 4084 University Drive Suite 101 Fairfax, VA 22030-6812 0 All applicants will be considered without regard to race, Tel: (703) 934-6920 creed, color, sex, national or ethnic origin, or handicap .Fax: (703) 352-7535 [email protected] http://osf1.gmu.edu/--ihs