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Liberty Magazine November 1989

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u.s. Imports Crilllinals to Fill Dom.estic Shortage November 1989 Vo13,No2 $4.00 (see,page 25) ( flr.L·6t er;' - Joseph .J2Lc{cfison ) PaulJohnSon Paul Johnson anatomizes 20 of them ­ their ideas, their fives, their mOl'Bk ft. ¥'"'* ......•..•.. · Johnson's intellectuals: "So full of life and energy and fascinating detail, and so right · how well do you for the moment, that anyone who picks it up will have a hard · know them? ·• Rousseau • Marx • Sartre • time putting it down.' I -NORMAN PODHORETZ, New York Post : Mailer. Shelley ~ Ibsen • : Hemingway· Waugh. Tolstoy • : Orwell. Brecht •• Fassbinder • : Chomsky • Cyril Connolly • Why Johnson's treatment is unique : Edmund Wilson. Kenneth Tynan * The essential ideas 0/20key intellectuals, and their importance. No need to :• Bertrand Russell • Victor wade through dozens ofoften boring books. The kernel is here. : Gollancz • Lillian Hellman • : James Baldwin * How intellectuals set the tone today. Most are liberals, and they fonn a caste : Johnson admires two, gives one who "follow certain regular patterns ofbehavior." : apassing grade, devastates the : other 17, * Vivid portraits. What was it like to marry one? (A horror.) How did they ...•.•.................. behave toward their peers? (Treacherously.) How did they treat their · followers? (Slavery lives.) Johnson shows that character and morals do "Should have a cleansing in­ affect their ideas ("the private lives and the public postures ... cannot be fluence on Western literature and separated"). culture for years to come ... lays out the dangerous political * Anall butperfect introduction/orthe intelligent general reader. Forthose of agendas of several modern the 20 you already know, Johnson deepens your understanding. For those cultural icons."-M. S. Forbes you don't know - well, after Johnson you do know them. Jr., Forbes Mag;!Zine "Mordantly witty."-National Review ---------------HOW to get this $22.50 bestseller FREE ----~~--------- How the Club Works Every 4 weeks (13 times a year) you get a tire copy of the Club Bulletin which offers you CONSERVATNE fll BOOK CWB the Featured Sela:tion plus a good choice of Alternates - aD of interest to conservatives. * If you want the Featured Sela:tion, do nothing, it wiD come automatically. * If you 15 OAKLAND AVENUE. HAAAISON, N.Y. 10528 don't want the Featured Selection, or you do want an Alternate, indicate your wishes on the handy ami enclosed with your Bulletin and re1Urn it by the deadline date. * The Please accept my membership in the Club and send FREE my majority of Club books wiD be offered at 20-50010 discounts, plus a charge for shipping copy ofPaul Johnson's $22.50 bestseller, Intellectuals. I agree to and handling. 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City State_.__Zip _ '-- .-.. ~ ,-*01l ·d L· b t November 1989 InSl e 1 er y Volume 3, Number 2 4 Letters Abortion on the block, Rothbard in the dock, the Reconstructionist flock, but not one mention of Albert Jay Nock ... 7 Reflections The editors comment on dead elephants, dead leftists, dead fetuses, dead ideas, dead revolutions, dead bunnies and other lively topics. 15 Media Notes Harvesting nonsense at Time; unreflective conservatives vs Armand Hammer. 17 Russell Means Speaks Liberty talks with the noted Indian activist about politics, environment, property, and the meaning of life. 21 The Lost War on Drugs Joseph Miranda explains how America could win the war on drugs-and why we wouldn't want to. 25 The U.S. Imports Criminals to Fill Domestic Shortage Adam Starchild reports from the front of America's war on drugs. 29 Loathing the Fear in New York Murray Rothbard explains the mayoral race in New York, New York, and the silver lining in the mud. 33 The Case Against a Capital Gains Tax Cut Michael S. Christian takes on the knee-jerk libertarian argument for using the tax code to distort the economy. 35 Avant-Garde Redux? William Oark and Richard Kostelanetz lock horns on the importance of the "avant-garde" in art and in politics. 37 The A Priori of Disagreement Hans-Hermann Hoppe defends his approach to ethics, but fails to convince Loren Lornasky. 40 The Philadelphia Story Chester Alan Arthur tells the inside-and the outside-story of the Libertarian Party Convention. 43 Goodbye, Galactic Empire J.R. Dunn sees the development of a libertarian school of science fiction, and finds hope for both literature and society. 49 Ayn Rand and I Tibor Machan recalls his adventures as an Objectivist philosopher trying to communicate with the One Great Objectivist. 55 A Rustic in New York R. W. Bradford survives a nice place to visit. 59 Capitalism and the Transformation of Poland Krysztof Ostaszewski wonders how long it will take. 61 Beyond Philosophy Loren Lomasky examines Robert Nozick's retreat from libertarianism and discovers something even stranger: Nozick has retreated from philosophy as well. 64 The College Teaching Scam Richard Kostelanetz exposes the institution of tenure. \ 6 Right, Wrong, and Constitutional James S. Robbins tells what is really wrong with New Right jurisprudence. 69 Notes on Contributors 70 Terra Incognita Excerpts from the real world. be grounded in an Aristotelian-Thomist defense of free will." Do you have to be a rocket scientist to know that this did not [ L etters ] come from Mises? And then we are told that Murray took detailed notes of ~==============================='Barbara's master's essay. Nowhere in his Rand the Second-Hander Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel (the article does he deny getting his ideas from Rand, and he admits that his foot­ Rothbard's discussion of the Objectivist Antichrist) Kant for an argu­ notes were added after the fact. Where Objectivists' reluctance to acknowledge ment against determinism that Nathaniel did you get your ideas, Murray? Not their borrowings ("My Break With Branden used in print as early as 1962 from Mises and not from the sources you Branden and the Rand Cult," September, and as recently as 1983; this presumably quoted. Did you channel them? 1989) is the nearest I've seen in print to a is what Schoeck refers to in the letter I cannot imagine anybody who thinks full-length treatment of a subject that Rothbard quotes. that Rand was given proper credit. To well deserves it. Let me add to his The Sentence Completion Test, a this day Rothbard uses Rand's philoso­ examples: standard diagnostic tool for some 40 phy without giving her proper credit (cf. Aristotle's Metaphysics, Book 10, years and a mainstay of Branden's liter­ The Ethics of Liberty). (lota), and portions of Parts of Animals, ary career for about half that time. Insults abound in Rothbard's article. for the insights on units and "measure­ On other counts I found Rothbard's Branden is called a "pompous ass," a ment-omission" in Rand's Introduction to article pretty trashy. What both he and "creep," a "potz," etc. So we may ask Objectivist Epistemology. Branden have yet to learn is that catty ourselves what Rothbard said to Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, Book vindictiveness makes one's case less per­ Branden's face when he had the chance. 1, for a derivation ofvalue from the con­ suasive, not more. Nothing! Every time he had a chance to cept oflife and for one ofthe most notori­ Peter Reidy Pasadena, Calif. say what he thought-Casper Rothbard ous fallacies in philosophical literature; in wimped out! "Many of us in the Circle both the and cases, Metaphysics Ethics Rothbard the Channeler Bastiat would fantasize about the taunts Rand's borrowing comes not only unac­ While reading Rothbard's memoir we would hurl at the Randians as w,e knowledged but on the heels ofan explic­ about Branden, I felt myself undergoing' were being kicked out the door ..." it denial that Aristotle had anything to the same process that occurred when I Walter Mitty still lives! offer on these particular topics. The argu­ read Branden's Judgment Day. Before And I would say that to Rothbard's ment that true self-interest dwells, con­ reading Branden's book, I had reserved face. trary to vulgar belief, in a life of virtue judgment on the behavior of Rand and PhiliP'Baltimore goes back further still, to Plato's Gorgias. her circle. As I read Judgment Day (trying Philadelphia, Pa. Hayek's The Counter-Revolution of to focus my attention on the facts; ignor­ Death to Trespassers! Science, published in journal form in the ing Branden's self-serving justifications), R. W. Bradford's ("Abortion Without early 1940s and as a book in 1955; in the I soon changed to the view that Branden Absurdity," September 1989) cavalier first part we find the what-if that grew was a professional flatterer and schemer dismissal of libertarian attempts to re­ into Atlas Shrugged (Hayek reports that and that Rand was entirely justified in solve conflicts between the competing the question had first been posed by ending their relationship. rights of mother and unborn child is ab­ Henri de Saint-Simon, a proto-socialist of The same thing happened with surd.
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