September 1997 Vol. 11, No.1

"I must have liberty. "- William Shakespeare Libert Live1-· the Tenth Anniversary Collection

Over three years ofholding Liberty Editors' Conferences, we've accumulated a treasure trove oftapes featuring some ofthe most brilliant libertarian thinkers and writers. Now, as part ofour tenth anniversary celebration, we've selected some ofthe best-selling and most provocative ofour dozens ofscintillating talks. See and hear Bob Higgs on the GreatDepression, Doug Casey on finding liberty, David Friedman on anarchy and computers, J. arlin Grabbe on protecting your money, and much, much more. And for a limited time, you can order the entire Liberty Bestsellers Selection at a special bargain price! Why the Great Depression Lasted So Long • Are you Niederhoffer and Jim Rogers join investment advisors tired ofhearing people discourse on how Roosevelt and Douw.as Casey and Harry Browne, economists David big government "saved us" from the Depression? Now you Friedman and Leland Yeager, and Liberty publisher can hear brilliant economist Robert Higgs debunk this key R.W. Bradford on a voyage into the fascinating future! myth ofAmerican statism. Not to be missed! (audio: (audio: AI05; video: VI05) A213; video: V213) Investment Advice: Bonanza or BS? • Do investment The Nazification ofthe Money Supply. J. Orlin advisors have anything to offer their customers, or are Grabbe is the author ofthe standard reference on inter­ their newsletters just expensive hot air? Newsletter national financial markets. Here he eXflains how and authors Harry Browne, Douglas Casey, and R.W. why the government has seized contro ofthe banking Bradford debate David Friedman and multi­ system - and how you can foil their plans and get your millionaire speculator Victor Niederhoffer. privacy back. (audio: AI32; video: VI32) Provocative and valuable! (audio: AI43; video: VI43)

Searching for Liberty Around the World • Whether The Best - and Worst - Places to Invest and Live • you're fed up with encroachments on your liberty, or World traveler and wit Douglas Casey has scrambled just interested in the opportunities ranging from through Third World backwaters and chatted with dic­ Nicaragua (!) to Hong Kong to Zambia, this is the tape tators from Cuba to Central Asia. Here he recounts his for you. Hear Doug Casey, Investment Biker authorJim most recent adventures - and reveals valuable secrets Rogers, international journalist Bruce Ramsey, Scott for protecting your wealth. (audio: AI42; video: Reid, and Ron Lipp - the men who've been there. V142) Includes a special discussion ofthe problems ofescap­ ing the IRS. (audio: AI03; video: VI03) Searching for Liberty in Small Town America· Fed up with the impersonality, rootlessness, and intrusive The Economy ofthe Twenty-First Century· Sparks regulations ofthe big city, R.W. Bradford, novelist fly when world-famous commodity speculators Victor and critic Bill Kauffman, and life-extension scientists Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw escaped to small towns across America. Hear their thoughts on the blessings r------,,Pleasesend me the following selections from the Liberty and difficulties oflife in small towns from Tenth Anniversary Collection. 1YeS• Washington state to Nevada to New York. (audio: _Please send me all of the audio tapes offered for only AI02;video: VI02) I $57.95 - a savings of more than 17% ! 1 - Please send me all of the video tapes offered for only Anarchy via Encryption • Tired ofhaving government $164.95 - a savings of more than 17%! flunkies being able to snoop through your personal 1 - Please send me the just the following tapes for $6.95/ affairs? David Friedman discusses the practical work­ audio or $19.95 video. ings ofnew privacy technology - and speculates on its 1 - long-term consequences, both inspiring and frighten­ ing. (audio: A116; video: VII6) 1------$3.00 s&h per order How to Write Op-Eds· Ifyou're puzzled as to why 1 0 I enclose my check (payable to Liberty) your libertarian opinions aren't getting published in 1 0 Charge my: 0 VISA 0 MasterCard your local paper, or just want to be able to set down your thoughts accurately and concisely, get this tape name from professional journalist Jane Shaw on the nuts and I address _ bolts ofgetting your point across. (audio: A136; video: V136) I city, state, zip _

signature phone _ Libertarianism As If (the Other 99% of) People I Mattered· Loren Lomasky shows how to communi­ I account # expires __ cate effectively with the obstinately anti-freedom Call (800) 854-6991- or send to: Liberty, Dept. L61, population ofvirtually everywhere. (audio: A204; L. ---P.O. Box-1181,-.-Port Townsend,-----WA 98368 -- ..I video: v204) September 1997 Inside Liberty Volume II, Number 1

4 Letters Your two cents. 6 From the Editor What's in Liberty, and why. 7 Reflections Liberty's editors look at the world with unflinching eyes. Liberty's First Ten Years 19 The Standard Raised What Stephen Cox learned in a decade as Liberty's senior Senior Editor. 20 Why Liberty Liberty's founding editors tell what they were up to in Liberty's first and only editorial, reprinted from its first issue. 21 At Liberty It took ten years for Liberty to become what it is. Its editor remembers a few things that happened along the way. Features 27 Yes, Gambling is Productive and Rational The New Puritans, writes David Ramsay Steele, have launched a War on Gambling - but nothing about their latest jihad can withstand the truth. 35 Circus Taximus Michelle Malkin exposes public-private partners in crime. 37 A Rebel and a Drummer Scott Bullock talks with Rush lyricist Neil Peart about Ayn Rand, his left-wing critics, and the pleasures of not selling out. 40 The Pest of the Alternative Press The Utne Reader cooks up a smorgas­ bord of reflexive radicalism, goofy spiritualism, and an earnestness that leaves no room for wit or lively writing. Brian Doherty enjoys sampling their fare. 43 Tobacco's Show Trial The tobacco settlement, writes Robert Higgs, isn't just a looting unprecedented in scale - it's a scientifically bankrupt folly that reveals Americans' eagerness for the yoke. 45 Where There's Smoke There's Liars Loren Lomasky reflects on the similarities between smoking a pipe and making love. 47 The Weak Case for Government Schooling David friedman tries to make sense of the case for goverment schools. 55 Gun-Point Democracy in Africa George Ayittey finds solutions to Africa's problems in the continent's indigenous heritage of village markets, free enterprise, and free trade. 59 Pandering to a Dead Dynasty Who is Lew Rockwell, asks Tom G. Palmer, and why is he linking one of history's great libertarians to a reactionary empire? Reviews 61 Documenting Disaster Has the government made even one true statement about what happened at Waco? Gary Alexander reviews a new documentary about the massacre, and wonders. 64 The Economics of Real Life Richard Kostelanetz reads David Friedman's latest book, and finds luminous sentences - but thinks the best things in life are still free. 65 The China Demon Pundits are lining up to inflate the Chinese threat; Leon Hadar pops their bubble. 67 Margin for Error Ayn Rand's notes on the books she read, writes John Hospers, offer a mixture of scathing criticism and tendentious misinterpretation. 68 Booknotes John Bergstrom, Bruce Ramsey, and Harry Browne on the worst nightmares of liberals, communists, and San Francisco Democrats. 69 Classified Advertising 70 Notes on Contributors September 1997

notion was clearly born in the context of Letters religious rhetoric, as exemplified by the [ Declaration's phrase"endowed by their J Creator." And as Virkkala says ("The No Shelter from Criticism enzymes evolved. Behe knows all this, Stilted Logic of Natural Rights," July 1997), it was a convenient fiction in its Most women's shelter directors are but he never explains why a designed far too busy seeking funding and system would leave such a clear evolu­ day. Clearly, the rights to life, liberty, stretching scarce resources to spend tionary record, and he airily dismisses and property are entirely alienable, and energy on the kind of strident political well-understood genetic mechanisms in fact are alienated from us by the state statements Joy S. Taylor claims to have with absurd probability arguments that and other criminals. Obviously, if we heard ("No Shelter from the Storm," contradict elementary statistics. already had such rights, we would not July 1997). It's hard to explain how unconvinc­ have to advocate and fight for them. Certainly any agency providing ing this is to biologists, and it's hard to Byron Fraser money requires accurate accounting of say what evidence might persuade Behe Coquitlam, British Columbia their funds, but the examples she cites that blood clotting could have evolved, Finance and Freedom appear to this longtime volunteer and short of synthesizing all the recon­ To judge from Robert H. Nelson's board member to be due to misunder­ structed stages and showing that every review of Murray Rothbard's An standings during her training. Our step is functional, and every change an Austrian Perspective on the History of shelter receives much of its funding improvement. Economic Thought ("Rothbard's Final (slightly over half) from various state Unfortunately, Behe feels no need to Testament," March 1997), Rothbard and federal agencies. The remainder, provide any evidence for his own views, seems to lump Luther, Calvin, and from various non-government agencies, such as his speculation that blood clot­ other Protestants together. This explains requires the same careful accounting as ting genes may have existed in the first Rothbard's contradiction of most the former. cell, four billion years ago. If that were scholars who see the history of Because there are always more true, then we would expect to find Protestantism as democratic and clients than shelter beds, we must blood clotting genes in organisms that individualistic. Rothbard is looking at reserve space in our safe house for those don't have blood - but Behe gives no the Lutheran princes of Germany and without friends or family or motel evidence for this, because there isn't the Anglican monarchs of England, money; this does not imply any bias any. who were elitist, statist, and distrustful against educated women - it's just Knowing none of this, Jane Shaw fell of entrepreneurial capitalism. They reality, and help through counseling into the creationist trap. Behe has never freed themselves from Rome, but no and referrals for restraining orders and published a technical paper on these one freed their people from them. He is job training is never income- or ideas in any peer-reviewed scientific also looking at the Calvinists' tendency race-based. journal. Instead, he tries to persuade the to establish governments - albeit more Incidentally, our shelter, like many public that the major unifying theory of democratic ones - which forced others, will shelter battered men also. 20th-century biology has been arbitrary values on their citizenry. Elsa Pendleton overthrown. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Ridgecrest, Cal. It isn't true. The evidence for evolu­ Capitalism, Max Weber is careful to Facts of Life tion is much stronger now that biochem­ distinguish which Protestants he is Jane Shaw's credulous and unin­ istry has traced life's common descent talking about. Weber attributed the formed review of Michael Behe's with a precision that Darwin could Protestant ethic largely to the more Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical hardly have imagined. Behe's book is popular, non-liturgical sects which Challenge to Evolution ("Darwin Defied," persuasive only if you don't know the included Calvinists as well as dissenters July 1997) omits the information that facts. who rejected state-sanctioned has led every scientist I know to reject Douglas E. McNeil Protestantism and attracted voluntary intelligent design. Baltimore, Maryland members. Blood clotting is a case in point. Blatantly Theological The Protestant ethic opposed what Evolution selects for a long enzyme cas­ It is ironic that a leading advocate of would later be called conspicuous cade so that the clot forms all at once atheism (George Smith) should be so consumption. To Weber, this gave the and is not washed away by bleeding, hung up on a blatantly theological new ethic its modern, capitalist and we have excellent molecular family "fixed idea" like inalienable rights character because it mandated that trees that show how and when these ("Inalienable Rights?" July 1997). The wealth be accumulated and reinvested

We invite readers to comment on articles that have appeared in the pages of Liberty. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. All letters are assumed to be intended for publication unless otherwise stated. Succinct, typewrit­ ten letters are preferred. Please include your phone number so that we can verify your identity. Send letters to: Liberty, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA98368. Or e-mail us from our pages on the World Wide Web, at http://www.LibertySoft.com/liberty/ Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 rather than consumed self-indulgently. poor who immigrate to this country. He with these givens, what advice can you In contrast, Weber said, the wealthy further assumes that Americans cannot provide me for getting out of debt?" financiers of Italy spent their money on be counted on to support the poor Damon Falconi mansions and left the rest to the voluntarily. Roseville, Cal. Catholic church when they died, since Based upon these assumptions, it is they were too guilt-ridden to leave it to no coincidence that he does not Voluntary Solutions their offspring. On the other hand, specifically state what the problem is. John Hospers poses dilemmas many Protestant theologians wrung Hospers' conditions resemble those which, he appears to believe, must vex their hands as Protestant entrepreneurs asserted by a person who goes to a libertarian theory. But his reasoning began to buy bigger homes, nice financial advisor because he is in debt parallels the usual pattern for justifying furnishings, and clothes. Enforced and says, "I am not going to make any almost any act of state. He says: " Well, judgments were made by both religions more money than I do right now. And, what then? Let's not assume that about how a good Christian ought to I'm not going to spend any less. Now, continued on page 36 use wealth. Rothbard is looking at the side of Protestantism that did not acknowledge each individual's full autonomy in such matters. Most From the Editor ... historians would rather see the freedom This issue marks Liberty's tenth anniversary. We managed to resist the natural granted by Protestantism, but most impulse to extort congratulatory advertisements from other libertarian institutions, historians are not as libertarian as so the anniversary issue is much less tedious than it might have been. But we could Murray Rothbard. not resist the impulse to self-congratulation - or (to put this in a more self­ Miles Fowler congratulatory way) the impulse to reflect on our experience. Steve Cox takes a page Oakland, Cal. to explain why he's glad that he's been involved in this enterprise from the begin­ Send in the Hypotheticals ning. I take six pages to relate what my wife calls "all that creepy stuff' about I found John Hospers' article ("Send launching and editing Liberty. And, for the record, we reprint the only editorial that in the Clausewitzes," July 1997) to be Liberty has ever run: the statement ofour editorial ambition that appeared in our remarkably unconvincing. first issue. I hope you'll indulge us. The first part of the article asks two As for the rest ofthe issue ... different questions and ties them Bob Higgs and Loren Lomasky take on the War on Tobacco. Bob reports from together: first, "Should the U.S. have the smoke-unfilled rooms ofpoliticians and regulators in Washington, D.C. Loren entered the war without a Pearl reflects on the travails ofsmoking a pipe in Australia, where the war on cigarettes Harbor?" and second, "under the condi­ has been so successful that the battlefront has moved on. tions that did exist in 1941, should we The current issue ofMother Jones is devoted to a puritanical attack on the evils have gone to war to avoid the conse­ ofgambling. Not surprisingly, Liberty offers a different view. David Ramsay Steele quences of a Nazi victory?" Primarily, argues that gambling is a productive economic activity, beneficial both to those who these are questions of tactics, not ethics. gamble and to society at large. What was the situation after Pearl Scott Bullock offers a portrait ofRush - the quasi-Randian rock group, not the Harbor? Germany had just been handed obese windbag. Brian Doherty samples the goo that is served as intellectual fare by a strategic loss in the Battle of Britain, the Utne (rhymes with"chutney") Reader. Harry Browne and I exchange views in she had abandoned Operation Sealion the first installment in a discussion ofthe prospects for libertarian political change. to invade England, and was now faced Three voices appear in our pages for the first time: Michelle Malkin offers with massive losses in Operation insight into the strange phenomenon ofvoters' raising their taxes in order to give Barbarossa as her troops froze to death gifts to billionaires, George Ayittey laments Africa's rejection ofits indigenous insti­ before the walls of Moscow. So, no, I tutions in favor ofWestern-style guns and statism, and Tom G. Palmer pokes fun don't think it was necessary for us to go at the spectacle ofa self-described libertarian currying favor with a royal pretender. to war to prevent a Nazi victory! A Nazi Gary Alexander's review of Waco: The Rules ofEngagement marks the first time victory was not in the cards. A German ever, I think, that Liberty has published an opinion similar to the opinions pub­ war machine which could not cross the 25 miles of the English Channel had no lished in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The New Republic. Gary chance of crossing the Atlantic Ocean to brings unique insight into the documentary and the events it records, based on his invade the U.S. own experience with a religious minority similar in some respects to the Waco Hospers' article then pivots to immi­ group. gration, and welfare payments to immi­ Things around here remain as busy as ever. We finally got government approval grants, as issues "which tend to elicit to occupy our new offices (the pleasure ofliving under the nanny state!) and are some degree of discomfort" from liber­ beginning our physical relocation. We expect to have all the heavy lifting done and tarians. His article seems to allow real be ensconced in our new offices in time for our 10th anniversary celebration and discussion about open borders, but is conference, which will be held here in Port Townsend, Aug 22-24, the preparation precluded from doing so by his for which also occupies us. Meanwhile, we're at work on our next issue ... assumed conditions, which are: Americans will"continue welfare laws," and will continue to pay the way of the Available in Bookstores Now!

"America is a country full ofpeople who feel personal liberty and individual responsibility in their guts. This book puts those guts into words. America is also a country full ofpoliticians, academics, and self-professed elites who mistrust liberty and responsibility to the bottom of their souls. This book plants a kick in that fundament.~ -e J. O'Rourke

he case for liberty is far stronger than is generally realized. Libertarianism: APrimer brings together Thistol] philosophy; economics, and public policy in a comprehensive argument for freedom. It is an important work for libertarians or anyone interested in politics and justice.

Also available: The Libertarian RetUler Libertarianism:A Primer Classic and Contemporary +is a radical yet reasonable case for libertarianism that Readings from Lao-tzu to libertarians will want to give their family and friends Milton Friedman, edited by David + presents in one place the tradition and ideas of libertarianism Boaz + offers the best available intellectual history of libertarianism rom Locke, + stresses the interrelationship of individual rights, markets, and civil society FSmith, and Mill + previews the politics and economics of the Information Age to Rand, Hayek, + shows how libertarianism can solve today's problems and Friedman, The Libertarian "In an age in which the 'end of big government' is used by politicians Reader brings as a pretext for bigger, and worse, government, it is refreshing to find together for the a readable and informative account ofthe basic principles of first time the libertarian thought written by someone steeped in all aspects ofthe essential ideas of classical liberalism tradition. David Boaz's Primer unites history, philosophy, economics, and libertarianism. It shows the and law-spicedwith just the right anecdotes-to bring alive a vital historical development of libertarian tradition of American political thought that deserves to be honored themes-skepticism about power, today in deed as well as in word.~ individualism, civil society, individual -Richard A. Epstein rights, spontaneous order, free markets, and peace-and reveals Wf1Iese days, you can't understand politics-and why so many the deep roots libertarianism has in Americans are so unhappy with it-without knowing what our civilization. Aspecial bonus is libertarianism is all about. David Boaz's clear and often passionate the important and comprehensive book is the place to begin.~ bibliographical essay-a must for -:Jonathan Rauch any serious libertarian scholar or critic of libertarianism. 450 pp. $27.50 300 pp. $23.00 AFree Press Book. Available in Bookstores Now. IIFpII~ Have you hugged your Army today? - knowledge had previously pretty much explained away all When I was in Marine training in the mid-1980s, a great deal charges of wrongdoing by the Clintons, sagely opined that of emphasis was placed on America's Official Enemies, such he thought that maybe Hillary was at fault. Bill had never as the Soviet Union and its allies such as Cuba and Libya. It had much interest in money, he explained. And Hillary was was the mission of the U.S. military to respond to real and a young mother with a child when it all started and perhaps imagined threats from these countries. Of course, the USSR her husband (known for his roving eye) might not be around no longer exists, and its clients hardly seem menacing with­ too long. She might have to raise the child herself. His impli­ out a sponsor - so how does the defense establishment jus­ cation was pretty plain: if Bill ran off, she might need a lot of tify consuming a quarter of a trillion dollars a year? money to support her child as a single parent. A new Pentagon study entitled Army Vision 2010 There are at least two problems with this explanation. attempts to address this problem. It proclaims that "[i]n this First, Hillary is an honors graduate of Yale Law, one of the unstable and turbulent world, the Army will continually be most prestigious law schools in the U.S. Last I checked, very called upon to meet the Nation's needs: from responding to few top grads of Yale Law were going hungry, even if they hurricanes, forest fires and other disasters; to internal secur­ had a daughter to feed and educate - not to mention that ity matters at Olympic and inaugural events; to humanitar­ Hillary is the daughter of wealthy parents who are unlikely ian assistance; to shaping the future world environment to allow their only daughter to become a welfare mom if through continuous contacts around the world; to peace­ abandoned by her husband. keeping; to nation building; and to conflict resolution." Secondly, of course, it doesn't in any way justify what she In other words, the Army plans to become an armed ver­ (or she and her husband) is accused of doing: namely, assist­ sion of the Democratic party. -CS ing in the theft of millions of dollars from the public treasury. In late June, the aggrieved What's in a name? - The notion that Hillary was the instigator in the pattern families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman at last of larceny that has characterized the Clintons' public career appeared to be making some headway in collecting a $33.5 is old hat to readers of Liberty. I offered this same hypothesis million judgment against that chronic goiter on the more than three years ago. But it is interesting that a hitherto American consciousness, O.J. Simpson. partisan defender of the First Family is now advancing it. I It seems Mr. Simpson's truant Heisman Trophy, minus its wonder: What sort of opinions will Shields offer three years nameplate, mysteriously surfaced at the office of Ira Friedman, the Brown family's attorney. As weary rubber­ from now? -CAA neckers of this never-ending pileup will recall, the statue had is taken a hike a couple of months ago, supposedly while the Where never heard a veridical word -I recently read The Closing of the Public Domain by E. financially drained Juice was off roughing it in the Bahamas. Louise Peffer. The first thing I noticed is that this book, And at about the time that the Heisman wandered into published in 1951, does not question, but merely cites as fact, Friedman's office, Simpson's attorney failed to convince the the federal government's stated justification for nationalizing court that his client should be allowed to retain his six sets of golf clubs on the grounds that divot digging was an "essen­ huge portions of the West (as national parks and national tial" part of his client's life. Fully as essential as the forests) under Teddy Roosevelt. Peffer just accepts the feds' occasional daiquiri on a tropical beach in the Caribbean, I'm word that the unappropriated federal lands were in terrible sure. condition as a result of overuse, overgrazing, overmining, While these developments might appear to provide some and the like. modicum of salve for the families' wounds, they also lend a I started to question this idea when talking with my taste of irony. Indeed, for the Browns and Goldmans to get friend Wayne Hage, who is involved in a huge takings case full value for Simpson's Heisman, they must recover the ($28,000,000) against the feds, for seizing his vested water missing plate, engraved at a time when the initials O.J. sym­ rights (granted by an Act of Congress in 1872). The feds have bolized achievement and sportsmanship, rather than deceit claimed that the areas his cattle graze that are leased from and murder. And so, while Simpson grudgingly putts the feds are in terrible condition due to overuse, overgrazing, around with a single set of borrowed clubs, the Browns and etc. I went with Durk Pearson to inspect these lands and Goldmans are left the unpalatable task of recovering 0.J.'s discovered that it was all a lie. The grass was waist high and good name. A tough lie. They might want to take a stroke on lush. A local U.s. Forest Service employee himself said the this one. -SGS lands were in great condition, better than any other rangelands he'd seen. One of our apologists is missing - On his We did have one criticism. When we returned from the television program in July, Tom Snyder asked Mark Shields inspection, Durk told Wayne that there were too few cattle about his theory that Bill Clinton was not the party who on the range and that some of the grass was collapsing into instigated the Whitewater shenanigans. Shields, who to my thatch, which kept the sun from reaching undergrowth. Liberty 7 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

Wayne replied that he had a pretty good excuse: the feds had occupant of the White House, they credit Clinton with their seized his cattle at gunpoint. prosperity. The only thing wrong with the Clinton war room I wonder: why should anyone believe what the feds said slogan was that it didn't go far enough. It should have read: about the "terrible" range conditions in the 19th century, "It's the economy, stupid! And only the economy." Nothing when we know they are lying now? -55 else matters. It's tempting to say that only voters have the nutty idea Friends in high places - Does it seem to anyone that the state of the economy depends entirely on the presi­ else that the Libertarian Party is just a wee bit too excited to dent. Yes, government can do a great deal to mess up the have celebrities as sympathizers? Alongside the usual drum­ economy. But prosperity depends on a great many factors, beating in the party's dispatches from Washington, D.C., many of which have little to do with government. The fact is there are the celebrity confessions of faith or endorsements: that no one understands the necessary and sufficient condi­ actor-director Clint Eastwood. Newsface Hugh Downs. And tions for human prosperity, though some smarties think they TV actor John Larroquette. do. Conservatives and libertarians frequently make idiotic A mailer from the LP quotes this pronouncement from predictions about the consequences of this or that govern­ Larroquette: "I am a libertarian. ... Harry Browne was the ment measure, forgetting· the complexity of the system and Libertarian Party candidate in 1996." My guess is that he the indeterminacy of the future. For example, those who pre­ won't be making the jump from sitcoms to The McLaughlin dicted that the Clinton tax increase of 1994 would lead to Group any time soon. -BB recession are now eating their words. Since 1976, Americans have elected incumbents when A vital function - Apparently underwhelmed by they perceived the economy was going well, and challengers the intellectual prowess of Alec Baldwin, the Republican when they believed it was not. Presidential politics is becom­ Congress has just declined to renew funding for the National ing a very different game than it was in the past. Timing is Endowment for the Arts. Horreurs! Did they forget that the everything. To be elected, a candidate must gain his party's NEA served a vital function: keeping the senators' wives nomination either when the economy is booming (if his busy while the senators were out shagging waitresses? party is already in power) or when it is declining (if his party The panels that doled out grants were repositories of art is out of power). But it takes a year or more of careful plan­ faculty pinheads, aged New York party trash, and redundant ning and hard work to get the nomination - and even the Washington spouses. This is why I had hoped eventually best economists cannot predict with much accuracy the state someone would have thought to appoint a conservative to of the economy a year in advance. So politicians are pretty the board. Maybe I would have been appointed. That would much playing a lottery. have meant $10,000 to the guy who paints flames on the When Bill Clinton decided to pursue the 1992 Democratic hoods of old Chevies, $50,000 to whomever designed the nomination, the economy was booming and President Bush giant foam finger so popular at sporting events, and $100,000 was extremely popular. Clinton got the nomination in part to the most talented carver of ivory pistol grips. because his most formidable potential competitors decided I wonder how long it would have taken the Democrats to Bush was unbeatable; they planned to keep their powder dry abolish that agency. -JB for 1996. But people's perceptions of the economy changed, and Clinton was elected. And despite Clinton's tax increase, Money talks, bullshit gets elected - prosperity continued. So Clinton was easily re-elected, Recent polls show that Americans both (a) approve of Bill despite his obvious immorality. Clinton's performance as president; and (b) believe that he is I personally doubt that many voters actually believe that a bad person, one likely guilty of some if not most of the the state of the economy depends solely on who's in the charges of illegal fundraising, sexual harassment, theft from White House. Sure, some Americans believe that govern­ the public treasury, and perjury that have been leveled ment is overwhelmingly the most important influence on against him. every element of their lives, an institution so powerful that it Republicans are bedeviled by these controls their prosperity and even their per­ polls. They had figured that once Liberty's Editors sonal happiness. This nutty idea is as com­ Americans came to understand just what a mon among conservatives as it is among low-life inhabited the White House, they'd Reflect liberals. It got its greatest boost from Ronald turn on him - only to learn that the presi­ CAA Chester Alan Arthur Reagan, who in 1980 invited voters to vote dent widely recognized as the vilest swine BB Brien Bartels for Carter or himself on the basis of their to occupy the White House in a long time OB Oliver Becker answer to the question, "Are you better off also enjoys the highest approval ratings of JB John Bergstrom now than you were in 1976?" RWB R.W. Bradford any recent occupant. How can this be? HB Harry Browne But most voters who routinely vote for The answer can be found in the slogan NC Nathan Crow the incumbent when times are good, and for that the Clinton campaign had on the wall SC Stephen Cox the challenger when times are bad, probably of its war room: "It's the economy, stupid!" RK Richard Kostelanetz don't actually believe that their prosperity So long as people are well off, and getting RO'T Randal O'Toole depends entirely on the president. I suspect more well off every day, they are happy RR Ralph Raico that they vote based on prosperity more out SJR Scott J. Reid with their situation. And since Americans SS Sandy Shaw of default than anything else. Most voters have come to believe that the state of the CS Clark Stooksbury cannot decide between candidates on the economy depends almost solely on the SGS Scott G. Sutton basis of policy differences ....:.- for the simple 8 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

reason that policy differences are so few and so insignificant. congressman would ever lose an election. So how can they decide? "Well, I just got a raise, interest Less obvious is the benefit to special interests that comes rates aren't too bad, and the money I have tucked away in from campaign spending limits. When candidates are my 401-K plan is growing. So why rock the boat?" -RWB limited in what they can raise and spend, they must turn to special interests to do their campaigning for them. For Profiles in pretentiousness - At the start of example, a labor union will send out "informational" his reign, every American president is lauded as a great mailings to the public that, while not endorsing any reader. Key staff members accidentally leak the news of his candidate, will list the competing candidates' stands on biggest flaw: he cannot tear himself away from books. He various issues. Not surprisingly, labor's buddy will be on reads them at all hours - upstairs, downstairs, and in his the side of the angels on every issue - while his opponent ladies' chambers- to the sad detriment of all other business. will appear to be proposing the return of sweatshops and If the president be a Democrat, the press retails the news 60-hour weeks. of his bibliophilism with awe and reverence; after all, The same tactics are employed by the NEA, religious newspaper people do not read books, and they find it groups, gun-rights organizations, and other issue-oriented amazing that anybody else should do so. Of course, if the pressure groups. As the campaign spending limits get president be something other than a Democrat, the tighter, the politicians become more dependent upon these astonishing news is received as it generally ought to be groups for re-election. received: with silence, or with sneers. We should expect that the Senate investigation will lead to So far as I can tell, the only presidents since World War I new campaign restrictions. And the politicians will point with who have actually been noticeable readers were Truman and pride to these restrictions as "leveling the playing field" and Nixon. Most of the other big chiefs claimed to write books, reducing the impact of special interests. Politicians love to but that doesn't count. speak with irony - which is a euphemism for hypocrisy. Since Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar, I've always assumed -HB that he was one of the non-reading majority. But now I've found out otherwise. In his June 14 speech at the University Forum v. forum - One of the advantages of living of California, Clinton lapsed into one of those multi-ethnic in New York City is that one can participate in two very moments that have become habitual with him and avowed different anti-statist discussion groups. The "Junto," that his "life has been immeasurably enriched by the power generated by Victor Neiderhoffer, a sometime contributor to of the Torah, the beauty of the Koran, the piercing wisdom this magazine, descends from Ayn Rand and is patronized of the religions of East and South Asia." predominantly by traders, with a smattering of intellectuals. You're free to object, as I know you will, that religions The Libertarian Book Forum descends from Emma aren't books, and neither, really, is the Torah; it's one part of Goldman, mostly under-kempt bohemians. As an anarchist a book, the Bible. (I'm not sure that the president made that who has voted Libertarian as long as the party has appeared clear.) Still, there's plenty of reading involved! And the on the ballot here, I attend both groups. But as far as I can Koran, you must admit, is a real, whole book, and Clinton tell, only one and one-half other people attend both groups has obviously been reading it avidly. How else could his life -I say "one-half" because the second guy doesn't show up have been immeasurably enriched by its beauty? at either group very often. So now we know what this great intellectual does with The Junto has a conservative element that strikes me as his time. It's not every American statesman who has to be lamentably un-libertarian. The epitome of this to me was a dragged off screaming to staff meetings, fund-raisers, and guest speaker who identified himself as a Reader's Digest tours of European capitals because he'd rather keep soaking regular. He argued that American jails weren't as full as they up the beauties of Islamic literature. Not to mention hiding should be. Were not so many criminals "let off," he said, out in a comfy nook where he can be pierced by religious there would be and should be twice as many prisoners. Since wisdom. -SC remarkably few Junto regulars found this guy offensive, I refrained from asking the· obvious question: "When the Champagne campaigns on a beer budget - The latest Congressional farce is the Senate investigation into campaign financing. No one explains why the proper reaction to the politicians' violations of existing laws is to pass even more laws. Needless to say, any new laws will make it easier for incumbents to be re-elected. Every member of Congress has an enormous head start over his challengers before a single dollar is spent on a campaign. Congressmen get continuous free publicity in their districts, they get to sponsor bills that would bring pork to their constituents, and they get to mail taxpayer-subsidized advertisements to the voters. Thus any law that limits campaign financing in any way is more of a handicap to the challenger than to the If incumbent, and it provides a boost to the re-election rate. "The government doesn't need a budget cut - it needs all campaign contributions were prohibited, hardly any a Heimlich maneuver." Liberty 9 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 levels of incarceration reach those of Joe Stalin's Russia, do Scientologist Tom Cruise. you think America will finally be a success?" Given such an Why is the government whipping up this hysteria? It atmosphere, you can understand why one of my Junto claims to be concerned by harassment of ex-members by the colleagues walks out early now and then, muttering under church. And it worries that the church has invested in some his breath, "This place is full of freaking conservatives." important corporations that it is allegedly seeking to control. A recent meeting of the Libertarian Book Forum Both charges, however, are obvious rationalizations, since remembered the 70th anniversary of the deaths of Sacco and harassment of ex-members can prosecuted under the crimi­ Vanzetti. From the audience I remarked that it was an nal code, and the church's investment strategy is identical to example of the American sort of show trial which, with that of every large and prudent investor. enthusiastic cooperation from the mainstream press, was The real reasons for Germany's policy stem at least in designed to scare into quiescence a particular radical element part from the country's religious make-up. Germany has two in the population. In this respect, the state execution of state religions, Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism. The Italian anarchists such as Sacco and Vanzetti resembled the government supports them with tax money and allows prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg - Jewish church teachers to work in the public schools. Both churches Communists who were wannabe spies lacking any real have been losing members rapidly during the last years, secrets - and the recent conviction of Timothy McVeigh, some of them to fringe sects. The German government is led who had no apparent connection to the "right-wing militias" by the Christian Democrat party, which has close connec­ that the press find so fearsome. If only to be nonpartisan (or tions to the Catholic church. Harassing and arresting mem­ consistently anti-state), I purposely took one historic bers of a rapidly growing sect, they hope, might stop more example from the "Left" and another commonly classified as members from fleeing from the state churches - and help "Right." ensure further church support for the Christian Democrats. Finishing my point, I asked how many in this Underlying the whole sorry situation is the country's dis­ self-avowed "anarchist" audience thought MeVeigh was not astrous economic situation. With an unemployment rate of guilty? The sole hand to go up was mine. I thought to 11.2% in April, and anemic growth for years, there is nothing myself, "This place reeks of freaking liberals." -RK left of Germany's once admired "economic miracle." It there­ fore comes as no surprise that the leading anti-Scientology Bastiat rules! - Effective May 1, 1997, Mongolia demagogue is Norbert Blum, the Secretary for Labor and abolished all import duties, making it the only country in the Welfare. Lacking courage to attack the causes of Germany's world with genuinely free trade. What a delightful way to economic depression - regulations, high social security celebrate the international day of worker solidarity, now that taxes, and strong unions - he leads a crusade against a it is no longer under the thumb of Soviet Russia! -RWB scapegoat. In a desperate attempt to maintain support, he uses the rhetoric of 60 years ago, speaking of the tiny Cigarette papers - American rights are being lost Scientology sect as if it were a secret power able to under­ almost every day. The minimum age for purchasing tobacco mine German life. has long been set at eighteen. But on February 28, a new reg­ Maybe Marx was right. History does repeat itself - the ulation went into effect requiring that anyone selling cigar­ first time as tragedy, the second time as a farce. -OB ettes or chewing tobacco to a person 26 years of age or younger must verify the buyer's age by inspecting photo Simpler than you think - Reading Jane Shaw's identification papers that include date of birth. Thus any review of Michael Behe's Darwin's Black Box ("Darwin young adult who wants to engage in a perfectly legal action Defied," July 1997) got me to thinking about evolution. (the purchase of tobacco) must now acquire photo ID and be Critics of evolution sometimes argue that an organ as sure to take it with him when he goes to the corner store for complex as an eye could not have evolved - because, so a pack of cigarettes. And everyone waiting in line at the mar­ they say, an eye is worthless until it reaches a state of ket must wait a little bit longer while a clerk checks over the complex organization. But you don't need very much to papers of a prospective tobacco purchaser. All this on the have a primitive "eye." All that's required to get things basis of the preposterous theory that doing so will somehow going is a single molecule that is sensitive to light, and many reduce smoking among those 17 or younger. -RWB such molecules exist - chlorophyll, for example. Simple "eyes" of this kind are found in some one-celled organisms. New scapegoats for old - We have grown Behe offers the cascade of biochemical events involved in accustomed, in economically hard times, to the spectacle of blood clotting as an example of something so complex that it governments blaming an outsider for what's wrong. Thus couldn't have evolved a bit at a time. But the cascade itself is the German government blames an unpopular religious no evidence for intelligent design. In fact, it is what a group for its economic problems. This time, however, it's the computer programmer would call a "kluge," a mess of fixes Scientologists, not the Jews. Members of the sect are barred piled on fixes because no clear design was conceived at the from the civil service and the nation's major political parties. beginning. Far from providing evidence for "intelligent The "Verfassungsschutz," the German equivalent to the FBI, design," such a tortuous and jury-rigged process is a classic sees the Church of Scientology as a potential threat to the outcome of step-by-step adaptation over a long period. country's constitution. And in an eerie parallel to the Furthermore, the survival advantages offered by clotting "Germans don't buy from Jews" campaigns of the 1930s, the molecules needn't involve something as complex as a human youth organization of the country's ruling party has tried to blood clotting cascade. Like light-responding cells, "sticky" initiate a boycott of the movie Mission Impossible, starring molecules are involved in many simple processes that could 10 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

plausibly build, through millions of years of evolution, to the fragile ego. intricate cascade of Behe's description. Cell surface adhesion I was reminded of this graciousness the other day when I molecules, for example, allow bacteria to anchor themselves read about the launch of the "Highways or Dieways" cam­ to cells and tissues. paign, a national advertising blitzkrieg intended, in the The actual paths of evolution and the ways that changes words of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, to "scare led to different kinds of organisms are incredibly complex; people" and serve "as a wake-up call for all Americans to the studies of the fossil record and of molecular differences dangers at these [highwayI rail] intersections and on railroad between species' DNA and proteins have revealed as yet rights-of-way." To the chagrin of the secretary, we've appar­ only a small portion of the details. But the organisms that ently had the phone off the hook for some time: it turns out exist today are here at the end of a long chain of predecessor that Operation Lifesaver (OL), Highways or Dieways spon­ organisms stretching back over three billion years. The sor, has been publicizing this critical message through talks, environment"chooses" between the large storehouse of life's brochures, and videos since 1972. But rather than suggest genetic variations by eliminating the less well adapted. What that our careless ways might be to blame for continued acci­ is left (selected) keeps ongoing. Given a long enough period dents at crossings, the good people at OL have furnished us of time an awful lot can change. It's a simple formula, but with an excuse: we just don't know any better. As OL irresistible. -SS President Gerri Hall said, "the public does not see trains as especially dangerous or life threatening." The reign oferror - Ignorance of the law may not I shudder at the thought of my fellow citizens wandering be a valid excuse for you or me, but ignorance of a subject mindlessly into the paths of onrushing locomotives, blithely has never stopped congressmen from passing laws. They ignorant of the threat to life and limb. If we fail to educate will legislate on any topic in the universe. those ignorant of the basic laws of physics, will we soon see They usually don't read the bills they vote for or know shuffleboard courts cropping up on our interstates, and mac­ what's in them. They even use that as an excuse when the rame classes congregating on our airstrips? Clearly, OL new laws produce bad consequences. Today congressmen barely scratches the surface of the programs needed to avert tell us "I didn't know this would happen" when the such messy scenarios. Americans for Disabilities Act makes it impossible for Fortunately, aL has been on the job since 1972, and employers to fire drug addicts, or the 1994 crime bill turns proudly claims to have saved over 10,000 lives in that time. out to be more pork barrel than crime prevention. Between 1972 and 1982, fatalities at crossings were slashed in They won't speak the truth about what they're doing. half to 607, and have stabilized since that time. Sure, some They talk of "budget cuts" that aren't really cuts at all, but cranks will moan that the modest 2.8 billion tax dollars merely slowdowns in the speed at which they wish invested over that time in physical safety improvements had government programs would grow. The recent budget deal something to do with the reduction. Or they'll complain about they're so proud of - you know, the one with the "tough railroads improving their public relations and safety records budget cuts" - actually produces a government that's four at taxpayer expense. And they'll undoubtedly whine that aL percent larger than last year's budget. hasn't kept trespassing-related fatalities from climbing to all­ Most of the laws they pass are so poorly drafted they time highs in the 1990s. But, thanks to aL, a lot more people have to be amended, repealed, or replaced with newer laws know how dangerous trains can be than they did in 1972, and when it becomes apparent how much damage they do. The the number of lives saved just keeps adding up. Catastrophic Medical Insurance Act of 1988 was so Thankfully, aL isn't content to rest on the laurels of the misconceived that it had to be repealed six months after its success they've enjoyed, and they continue to refine their passage. And it was senior citizens, the supposed approach by researching the causes of accidents. For beneficiaries of the act, who complained the loudest ­ instance, one breakthrough project in 1995 revealed that the because of all the new burdens the law placed upon them. most common factors contributing to collisions at crossings Given these reasons - and many others - it's no are "driver inattention" (they didn't look both ways) and wonder that polls now show politicians to be less respected "flawed risk perception" (they thought they could make it). than hookers. So why in the world should we make them Perhaps now the Safety Crusaders at OL can peel offtheir guardians of our safety and well-being? -HB kid gloves and take us to task for our careless ways. In fact, a More powerful than a locomotive? ­ IIRs' Pity the beleaguered Safety Crusader! Since his earliest days toiling thanklessly as a chap-lipped crossing guard, he's accrued plenty of evidence of our bungling incompetence. Undeterred by our failure to heed his advice, he persists in his crusade, doomed to a lifetime of frustration. While some cynics don't appreciate the Crusader's heroic efforts, I think he deserves our full support. After all, when matching wits with my temperamental toaster oven, I've occasionally been in need of my own personal safety chape­ rone. And besides, rather than ridiculing my clumsy ways, the considerate Safety Crusader often shifts the blame for my "Sorry, but we're only allowing thirty billion dollars worth of medical bumblings to some other scapegoat, thereby sparing my deductions this year, and the guy ahead of you just used the last of them up." Liberty 11 Volume II, Number 1 September 1997 declaration of War on Carelessness is long overdue - and I, On Roosevelt's other great alleged achievement, his lead­ for one, am eager to do my part. We could whip that pesky ership on the world scene before and during the Second accident-scourge once and for all with truckloads of World War, don't.the editors of the Journal think that the _~Day.drea.nl--.and Die!" bumper stickers, and Fran Drescher­ well-founded thesis of the late Robert Nisbet should be con­ screeched PSA's to "scare" zoned-out drivers and admonish sidered - that FDR's infatuation with Josef Stalin as a fellow them to pay attention! progressive and future partner in shaping the new world On second thought, maybe I'll just have some toast. order produced disastrous consequences? If Roosevelt's -SGS leadership was as brilliantly successful as Rabinowitz claims, what prompted Winston Churchill to write, in 1945: "we still The fallacy of the excluded middle - The have not found Peace or Security, and ... we lie in the grip other day I heard two television news commentators discuss­ of even worse perils than those we have surmounted"? How ing Chelsea Clinton's desire to go to Stanford, rather than a much would you bet that Rabinowitz isn't even aware that school closer to her parents. "I think it was a very wise Churchill wrote that? choice," one said, explaining that he thought it was a good Finally, is there any doubt that FDR, more than any other idea for students from the east coast to attend universities on president, created the modern Leviathan state in America? the west coast and vice versa. The other sagely agreed, add­ But then why isn't that a problem, if not for a neo-con like ing that the broadening effect of living in such a disparate Rabinowitz, then at least for the editors of the Wall Street culture was bound to be beneficial. Journal? To anyone concerned with American liberties, the How nuts can you get? By "west coast," of course, they judgement of the head of the Cato Institute, that Roosevelt mean metropolitan Los Angeles and San Francisco, ·and by was "a lousy president," which Rabinowitz ignorantly "east coast" they mean the Boston-New York-Philadelphia­ mocks, is more than justified. -RR Washington megalopolis; i.e., the two centers of the American elite. The broadening effect of an easterner going Father forgive them, for they know not west for college, or vice versa, is about the same as a Yale what they say - Every collectivist movement student taking a year at Harvard. conducts a war against language. It has to do so. Language America is a huge country with almost innumerable cul­ capable of making distinctions, transmitting facts, tural and social variations. If a New York kid really wants to embodying beauty, expressing taste - performing, in short, broaden himself, he should go to college in Wyoming. If an the traditional functions of language - works directly L.A. kid wants to broaden himself, he should go to against the collectivist spirit. It gives individuals something Mississippi or Kentucky. In the first half of this century, the challenging to think about. nation's elite traveled by train from New York to Los If you want to turn individuals into one great collective Angeles, and the three days spent between those two cities whole, you must first turn their language into mush. Right might just as well have been spent in suspended animation . now, the greatest musher of language in America is the so far as most were concerned. The invention of jet travel movement known as "identity politics." Identity politics only made it cheaper and more convenient to skip from one attempts to assert the (alleged) collective identities of center of the American elite to another while treating most of oppressed people - women, blacks, homosexuals, disabled America as if it did not even exist. Gulf War veterans, cigarette smokers (no, just kidding about C'mon, guys. If you want to keep your kids inside the that) - and to assert them at all times and in all places, confines of the elite of wealth and power, that's fine. But claiming for them the attention formerly lavished on such don't claim you're broadening them. -RWB unimportant things as moderation, common sense, and respect for other people's rights and customs. A full measure of whitewash - When Since the purpose of such movements is to have their Dorothy Rabinowitz reviewed movies for the Wall Street way with everything, they begin at the beginning, which, Journal, her neo-con Hollywood-bashing was welcome if not according to the Bible, was the Word. And the Bible itself-has particularly original. Now she has, for some reason, been not been spared. added to the editorial staff. In that capacity, she contributed Reports from this front of the language war are received a column ("A Full Measure of FDR and His Enemies," May by my office daily. A woman withdraws her children from 5) that had no place in a paper that takes pride in its constitu­ Sunday school because she accidentally discovers that they tional and free market principles, as well as in a certain are being instructed to pray to "our Mother who art in degree of editorial sophistication. heaven." A gay man decides to leave his church because he Rabinowitz's simplistic thesis amounts to this: Roosevelt cannot stand to listen while every "sexist" word in scripture gave hope to the American people during the Depression, ("mankind," "father," "son," "Lord," "kingdom") is and he fought against Hitler. Criticism of FDR and his poli­ squished into something "inoffensive" - inoffensive, that is, cies, she claims, is possible only from enemies "maddened to people whose career is making themselves offensive: by hatred of him" - chutzpah on a grand scale in a writer whose childish ruminations would have disgraced the pages Thy dominion come, thy will be done. [Which dominion of Parade magazine. One wonders: Can the Journal's editors - Canada?] really believe that New Deal policies are invulnerable to The Creator judgeth no one, but hath committed all rational criticism? What is the opinion of free market econo­ judgment unto the Child. [Wasn't that sort of a risky mists like Milton Friedman and Robert Higgs on this issue? thing for Her to do?] Why publish Dorothy Rabinowitz's views and not theirs? And her name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the 12 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

Mighty God, the Everlasting Mother ... [What happens It begins with a commercial success. The NIV is next: "the Princess of Peace"?] America's favorite modern translation of the Bible. It is But why should people object to changes like these? Why especially favored by conservative and evangelical should their hearts be troubled? They don't picture God as a Christians, who like it for its historical accuracy, its male, any more than they picture the kingdom of God as simplicity, and (very likely) its blandness. The NIV is, the something even faintly like Sweden. Their own language is best and worst senses of the term, a reliable translation. It neither "sexist" nor "exclusionary." "He or she" is always on must make an awful lot of money. their lips. So why should they be irritated by people who And so, it seems, the NIV's sponsors got the idea of using want to make the Bible seem as "inclusionary" as they some of the money that rolls in from conservative readers to already believe it is? Well, what they resent is the imposition engineer the kind of reforms most favored by people on the of language whose only purpose is to advertise a political anti-conservative side of the aisle. They probably thought cause - language imposed by people who have as little this would put them right with the cultural in-group. (This is the way people tend to think, if you can call it thinking, in sense of the metaphorical functions of words as those America's conservative institutions.) They launched an nineteenth-century puritans who insisted on talking about elaborate new translation, although they must have known piano limbs instead of piano legs. Then, of course, there's the that the results would be grossly offensive to their most little matter of what the Bible actually says. The Bible does faithful customers. If they knew this, they presumably not call Jesus "the Child of Humanity." Maybe Shirley expected the customers to stay with them anyway. Those MacLaine does. customers are conservatives, after all. They're used to getting But relief is on the way. According to a recent story from used to things. the Associated Press, a major scripture-making factory has But that turned out to be wrong. The International Bible just gone bust. The International Bible society has cancelled Society found out that there are some goods that consumers its planned revision of the New International Version (NIV) will not consume. And when that happened, the cultural of the Bible, a seven-year effort that was supposed to end in picture began to change. It changed a lot. It changed because 1999. The reason: a flood of protests against plans to individuals made it known that they would no longer buy a substitute such expressions as "people" and "human beings" product they did not like. for the biblical words conventionally translated as "men." That's the end of the parable. Go thou and do likewise. Again, what could be so bad about a little change like -SC that? After all, "anthropoi" does mean "people." Yes, but it also means "men" - "men" as the word is understood PRI, RIP? - All the time that America was battling everywhere in the English-speaking world except the anti-democratic nations across the globe, our second-largest executive suites of gender-pressure groups, "men" as the trading partner was a one-party state just across the Rio word is understood by every English speaker who Grande. That changed July 8, when what could be Mexico's encounters Jesus' invitation to the humble fisherfolk: first honest election in living memory broke the Institutional "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Revolutionary Party's (PRJ) 68-year monopoly on governor­ No one, not even the most moronic disciple of a political ships and control of the congress. cause, has ever read those words as an invitation to become The conservative National Action Party (PAN) was the fishers of males. That's the sort of non-misunderstanding that primary beneficiary of the shakeup, winning about a quarter the Bible Society's translators apparently set themselves to of the seats in the lower house of Congress and one govern­ correct. orship. The leftist Democratic Revolutionary Party seized the According to a spokesman for the Bible society, they were mayorship of Mexico City (paging Mayor Marion Barry, "trying to bring about greater clarity." What they would please come to the sister city ceremony!) and one impover­ have achieved is the "clarity" one finds in the New Revised ished southern state's governorship. The voting blocs in the Standard Version, a translation that, regrettably, did get lower house are now more or less equal, when the minor left­ finished: "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." ist parties are counted. If Jesus had used language like that, very few people This should be an epochal event, the gracious ceding of would have left their nets and followed him. No? You can't see that? Then you shouldn't be translating the Bible. Somebody once told Isabel Paterson that a really "useful" Bible translation would be a version "in our own language." She replied that he was 'quite mistaken." Referring to the venerable (and still, by the way, very useful) King James version, she observed that the Bible was not translated into the language of King James or the average man; it was translated into the language of poets, scholars and thinkers. It cannot be truly UtranslatedU in any other terms. That's the literary lesson. Now to the economic and political lesson. The NIV episode is a parable of how things happen in America - and can happen. "Okay, two falls out of three, and no fair using perfume." Liberty 13 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997 power by a party which was, simply, the government itself Slouching towards secession - Canada's for three generations. But the impact seems to have been federal election on June 2 may have been its last. Another slight outside Mexico's borders; the American media gave referendum on Quebec secession is expected before the term much more play to the less momentous British election, for of the new Parliament ends, and this time it looks like the example. secessionists will win. This fact might seem make the 1997 When I think about this optimistically, I believe that election important. But the truth is, this has probably been maybe the election is a people's demand for a government one of the least important elections in Canadian history. subordinated to them, instead of a government that subor.; The 1988 federal election gave Brian Mulroney's dinates them, for the first time in their lives. Or maybe this Progressive Conservative (PC) Party a mandate to pursue is more evidence that free trade democratizes unfree· the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, and subse­ nations. But maybe the Mexicans have simply traded the quently to negotiate NAFTA. The 1993 election saw the staid and stolid one-party state for the spectacle of acrimo­ Conservatives reduced to two seats in the 295-seat House of nious gridlock. -BB Commons and the emergence of the Reform Party and the Asia Minor's major coup - On June 19, the Bloc Quebecois (BQ). fundamentalist Muslim Prime Minister of Turkey, By contrast, this election saw no significant issues Necmettin Erbakan, resigned after 11 months in power, resolved and no significant shift in the party standings. under pressure of the country's generals. For some in the The largest issue facing the new Parliament is the com­ western press, this was a defeat for democracy. "Turkey plete overhaul of Canada's pension system, which will be bends to the generals," lamented the Economist; the Wall financed by the largest tax increase in Canadian history. Street Journal whined about liThe Army's Fundamentalism." Also, plans had been announced prior to the election to As these and other journalists see things, the army had effectively destroy Canada's popular and highly successful bullied a democratically elected government for months, system of tax-sheltered, independently invested Registered and at the end acted against the will of the people. Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP's) by taxing back govern­ The reaction of these journalists demonstrates three mentpensions at punishingly high marginal rates for every things: dollar of RRSP income. Remarkably, neither of these issues 1) They understand nothing about Turkey; was discussed much during the campaign. 2) They are ignorant about democracy; Former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau forced the 3) They do not care whether freedom is destroyed, so issue of national unity to center stage by stating in mid­ long as it is destroyed by a democratic government. campaign that if his government had won the 1995 referen­ Although Erbakan has been moving slowly in order to dum on secession, he would have (illegally) declared minimize opposition, no Turkish person with whom I've Quebec independent within a few weeks. Prior to Parizeau's spoken has any doubts that in the long run he intends to dramatic declaration, Canada's three traditional parties erect a fundamentalist Muslim state. His first move was to (Liberal, PC, and the New Democratic Party, or NDP) had promote Islamic schools and to open the military academies avoided this issue at all costs, apparently in the belief that to fundamentalist Muslims. These two changes were once it had been raised, Quebecois would choose to vote for intended to undermine his strongest opponents: the the party most likely to be loyal to Quebec's interests (the Turkish military and the educated strata of society. BQ), while non-Quebecois would switch their votes to the No Islamist party has ever received the majority of party least likely to pander to Quebec (Reform). votes. In the last election in 1995, Erbakan's fundamentalist In fact, something like this did happen. Early in the cam­

Welfare party, which received 21 % of the vote, was merely paign, experts had predicted that Reform would lose as one of several ineffective minority parties. Two many as half of its 50 seats. Instead, it won ten additional conservative parties formed the coalition government, in seats. During the first two weeks of the campaign, when which former prime minister Tansu Ciller's True Path Party unity was not an issue, the Bloc Quebecois had fallen to was the junior partner. third place in Quebec; by the end of the election, it had Ciller had promised that she would never form a moved into first place, and captured more than half the seats coalition with the fundamentalists. But when her coalition in the Province. partner revealed evidence of Ciller's .corruption and made Even after it was clear that a debate on unity could not noises about prosecuting her, she responded by joining be, the Liberals and Conservatives took no positions of sub­ forces with Welfare in exchange for its promise not to indict stance on the unity issue, apparently because they feared her. The government that they subsequently formed, and that doing so would alienate voters in Quebec (if their posi­ that the military has now deposed, was the product of an tion sympathized with secession) or everywhere else (if they agreement between people who steal money for private didn't). Prime Minister Jean Chretien merely repeated his purposes and people who steal it for religious purposes, long-standing contention that a super-majority is needed in with absolutely no popular mandate to do either. order for secession to occur, while refusing to specify how Its demise can scarcely be considered a tragedy. large a super-majority would have to be. Conservative Erbakan's party was trying to destroy freedom and leader Jean Charest was no better, referring to secession as a eradicate the separation of church and state in Turkey. It "black hole" and declaring that once in this black hole, had pushed relentlessly for the authority to compel women Canadians would find themselves without laws, rules, or to wear veils, to use public funds to erect giant mosques, precedents to guide them. The refusal of these leaders to and to suppress "sinful" businesses (e.g., those that sell engage in a serious debate of the critical issue of how to 14 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997 deal with a secession attempt ensured that the election of don't seem to be part of Canadian politicians' reality. 1997 would cast no light into this particular policy black The only thing new in the Canadian constitutional hole, or any other. debate is the tough line openly adopted bythe federal gov­ Under the best of circumstances, it would be a trial to ernment to fight secession. "The soft approach doesn't work draw out very much wisdom on future political trends anymore. Let's try to scare them now," they seem to say. from the entrails left by election '97. But these are not the The feds now say a simple majority in favor of secession is best of circumstances for this sort of prognostication. The not enough, but they refuse to specify how big a super­ breakup of the country would cause the party system to be majority would be "reasonable." They want another refe­ dragged through the partisan equivalent of an old­ rendum - this time with all Canadians, not just Quebecois, fashioned clothes wringer, rendering the current seat totals having their say. They want their Supreme Court judges and vote distributions irrelevant in the next election. both to define the rules of secession and to decide whether Canadian politics may soon become very interesting, but Quebecois secession is constitutional. The four federalist not because of anything that took place during the 1997 parties agree to this incoherent Plan B, as we call it. If the election campaign. -SJR carrot is no good anymore, let's try the stick. The new fashion in Canadian politics is that you vote Canada agonistes - On June 2, Canadians and according to. where you live. Each region has its own Quebecois participated in what may be the last federal elec­ party devoted to defending its regional interests; and it is tion of Canada as we know it. regionalism, not ideology, that divides Canadians. The All five major parties claimed they won: the Liberals, western provinces, particularly British Columbia and by getting reelected with a very thin majority of four Alberta, voted massively, for the second time, for the seats; the Reformers, by becoming her Majesty's Reform Party. Ontario stayed faithful to the Liberals (98 Official Opposition; the Quebecois members of parliament out of 99 in 1993, and 101 out of (Bloc Quebecois) by winning 60% of the 103 in 1997). The Francophones in Quebec again voted seats in Quebec; the socialists (the New strongly for the Bloc Quebecois. Only the Democratic Party or NDP), by winning Maritime provinces were divided among 21 seats, up from only nine in 1993; and the NDP, the Liberals, and the Tories. The the Progressive Conservatives, by com­ governing party got 65% of its victories ing back from their di~;astrousjlv from a single province. The Loyal low two seats in Election Opposition has no elected members 1993 to 20 in 1997. in the six provinces The only losers Results east of Manitoba, and were the taxpayers the third party is of and those citizens course only in Party 1993 1997 who value Quebec. individual Liberal 177 155 What can we expect responsibility. Refonn. 52 60 from such a Parliament? Nothing The latter cer­ Bloc Quebecois 54 44 tainly constitute a good for liberty. NDP 9 21 small minority, and The Tories will continue with the Canadian deficit PC 2 20 having a wishy-washy perennially out of control, few Independent 1 1 position on every issue ­ seem to care that all parties con­ except on those where it has two tinue promising to spend more wishy-washy positions, depending on and/or to cut taxes. whether it's presented in French or in But Canada's fiscal crisis was English, in the Maritimes, or in the not an issue in the election. No, the election turned West. The NDP is going to keep push- ing its socialist agenda, and could be very successful. The on "National Unity" - even though at the beginning, Bloc Quebecois will keep asking for more money from the not a single party planned to campaign on that issue. feds to give back to the provinces. The Reformers will try to After saying for years that they were fed up with show that they are not as radical and extremist as oppo­ "family feuds," the Reform Party brought up the con­ nents pretend - and that they too can manage a socialist stitutional issue as a means of distinguishing itself country. And, of course, the Liberals will continue to be from the older parties. Even more unbelievable, the three generous with our money, trying to outspend the provinces traditional parties (Liberals, Conservatives, and NDP) had in areas where provinces have constitutional responsibili­ nothing more to put on the table than the bromide that ties - education, health care, and welfare - after reducing they would recognize Quebec as a "distinct society." No the federal deficit by cutting their transfer payments to the matter that the failure of the Meech Lake Accord demon­ provinces. strates that Canadians reject the distinct society compro­ The only good news from the election is that the end of mise; and no matter that Canadians as well as Quebecois this federal circus is near. The up-coming referendurn on voted against it by rejecting the Charlottetown Agreement Quebecois secession may bring down the current system in 1992. Originality, new ideas, and learning of the past once and for all. -guest reflection by Eric Duhaime Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 alcohol). The Turkish people have resisted this nascent • In Laurelhurst, an historic southeast Portland neighbor­ religious tyranny: in Istanbul, for example, citizens have hood, people were outraged when they were told that, staged many protests against erection of an oversized since the neighborhood is within half a mile of a light tax-funded mosque. rail station, many of its fine old homes will be rezoned The majority of Turks have demonstrated that they do so that they can be torn down and replaced with row not want a fundamentalist government; they prefer that the houses. military preserve the secular state rather than allow a • Residents of Top '0 Scott, a young neighborhood in corrupt parliamentary government to flush freedom of Clackamas County, were appalled to find that a popu­ speech and religion down the toilet. Who are we to say that lar golf course that had supposedly been zoned open they should have an illiberal government imposed on them space "in perpetuity" is now slated by planners for for legalistic reasons? We should remind ourselves that development into 1,100 homes and 250,000 square feet democracy can never be more than a means to achieving of office space. greater freedom. Where it fails to achieve this end, it is right to do away with it. • In Multnomah, in southwest Portland, people have put Given the amply demonstrated ignorance of western up hundreds of lawn signs protesting plans to rezone journalists and politicians, perhaps they should stop much of their area for high-density housing. lecturing other people on how to govern themselves. Turkey, Local city officials have been squabbling so much over after all, has been a relatively free nation for 75 years now. the population targets that are driving these new zoning This is more than most western countries can say. -OB schemes that they hired a facilitator to settle disputes -only to see the "facilitated" meetings break up with more acri­ Crabgrass rebellion - Around Portland, Oregon, mony than ever before. And when a state agency recently neighborhood after neighborhood is turning against regional took testimony on its mandate that Oregon cities force resi­ land-use planning and the "New Urbanism" (the planning dents to reduce their per capita driving by 20 percent, they fad that calls for increasing urban population densities and found that people have continued to increase their driving, building rail transit instead of roads). as they have almost every year for more than 80 years. The

Strategy Debate

The 22% solution - In 1994 the Gallup Poll sur­ let through which American voters can channel their anti­ veyed Americans regarding their political views. The pollster government feelings. The RepUblican Party is merely a asked questions on a series of issues - each designed to find "moderate" clone of the Democrats, and few people have out whether the individual wanted more government or less even heard of the Libertarian Party - let alone know what it government on each issue. Gallup then sorted the respon­ stands for. dents into four groups - based on their attitudes toward Libertarians have endless numbers of ideas for ways to government control over the economy and government con­ change this and make a breakthrough - find a celebrity to trol over our social lives. run for President, channel all resources into a single Gallup labeled the largest group (30%) "conservative" ­ Congressional race, create some publicity stunt, alter the people who want the government to have less control over message, and so on. But in the final analysis there is only the economy but more control over our social lives. The one thing that will put the LP on the political map - a % smallest group (16 ) was "liberal" - those who want more much bigger membership. The party today has 22,000 government control of the economy but less of our social members. When it reaches 200,000, it will have the fund­ lives. The third largest group (20%) was considered "popu­ raising base that can support a $50 million presidential cam­ list" - those who want more government control in both paign; it will have the troops who can carry the message areas. But what was the second largest group? Gallup door-to-door if necessary; and it will have the resources to labeled it "libertarian" (22%) - people who want less gov­ run advertising that will let everyone know there's a candi­ ernment control in any area. date, a party, and a program that will get rid of the income To me, these results are monumental. They indicate an tax, free them from. the Social Security hoax, and restore enormous number of people who are receptive to libertarian safety to their neighborhood by ending the insane War on ideas. But the results aren't unique. Also in 1994, Luntz Drugs. Research found that 73% believe "the federal government is With a large membership, neither the media nor the pub­ much too large and has too much power"; Roper found that lic will be able to ignore the LP. Fortunately, the LP is now 67% believe "big government is the biggest threat to the focused on membership growth, budgeting $500,000 for country in the future"; the Times Mirror Center found that recruitment in 1997. LP activists are increasingly coming to 63% think "government regulation of business usually does understand that none of their golden dreams will be realized more harm than good"; and the New York Times found that until increased membership makes the party politically only 22% "trust the government in Washington to do what is competitive. right most of the time." But where can the new members come from? If this is what the American people think, why does gov­ Obviously, from the 22% of the American people who want ernment continue to get bigger and bigger? Why was Bill to see less government in both our economic lives and our Clinton reelected? Because there is no clear-cut political out- social lives. -HB 16 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 agency responded, naturally enough, by making the man­ should lead to their areas; and the construction industry, as date even more stringent. happy to build multi-billion dollar rail projects as multi­ Even as Portland's New Urban scheme falls apart, cities in billion dollar highway projects. other parts of the country are starting to emulate it. The The architects draw pretty pictures, the planners provide Maryland legislature recently adopted a law enforcing "smart purple prose, the environmentalists add fear of pollution and growth" - a euphemism for the New Urbanism. Minnesota famine (when all farms are supposedly paved over), and the passed a similar law that initially applies only to the Twin construction industry (along with numerous progressive Cities region, but eventually will cover the entire state. foundations) throws in money. All of which plays into the Even where cities aren't using draconian zoning laws to hands of the central city officials who want to extend their increase population densities, they are often imposing so­ power over and tax the citizens of the suburbs - who in most called "traffic calming" measures on major streets and high­ urban areas outnumber the central city residents. -RO'T ways. Such measures include curbs, "bump outs," and other concrete obstacles designed to slow and limit the flow of traf­ Democratic follies - The chorus of self­ fic. The ultimate goal is to increase congestion. Greater con­ congratulatory rhetoric that greeted the recent Mexican elec­ gestion, planners reason, will make people want to live in tions aptly expresses one of the more fatuous beliefs of our higher densities so that they can get to where they are going age: that "democracy" is inherently a promoter of prosperity, in a reasonable amount of time. freedom, and indeed all human virtues. Where are these crazy ideas coming from? Originally Yet consider what a little democracy has now brought thought up by architects (who think that because they can our neighbors: a Mexico City ruled by Cuauhtemoc draw a house, we should let them design our cities), they are Cardenas, who a few years ago split from the country's rul­ promoted by the planning profession (and what city does ing thugs (in the hilariously named Institutional not have a planning staff?). Support comes from several Revolutionary Party, or PRI) - because they weren't quite sources: anti-auto environmentalists; central city officials left-wing enough for him. True, Mexican "privatization" who think of the suburbs as parasites and "trash"; down­ may well be best characterized in Chomskyan terms, as town interests who think that all roads and light-rail lines "socialism for the rich, 'free markets' for everyone else"; and

Adding up the numbers - When Gallup means a general inclination to favor less government inter­ released a poll characterizing 22% of Americans as "libertar­ ference in the economy and in social life, or at least to oppose ian," the Libertarian Party followed with an enthusiastic greater government interference in those activities. The press release trumpeting this news, along with its usual pre­ Libertarian Party is the "Party of Principle," and its principle diction of a rosy future for the Libertarian Party. Now, after is that it is always wrong to use "the initiation of force as a three more years of disappointing election returns, Harry means of achieving political or social gains." This principle Browne sees in this datum evidence that if a new strategy­ leads pretty quickly to something very different from a ten­ massive recruitment of new members - is pursued, the LP dency to oppose increasing government's power and sup­ will at last succeed: "neither.the public nor the media will be port some reductions in its power. It leads to a program of able to ignore the LP." eliminating just about everything that government does. (If Leaving aside the whole question of whether the sort of you doubt this, see the LP Platform.) growth Harry envisions is possible, I have to wonder why This is a view thatis abhorrent to the overwhelming major­ the LP or Harry would try to make hay of such news in the ity of Americans - including, I believe, the overwhelming first place. majority ofthose whom Gallup identifies as "libertarians." If 22% of Americans are in some meaningful sense "liber­ Sure, 22% of Americans probably want lower taxes and tarian," why hasn't the LP's quarter-century campaign to less regulation in the economy and wish the government become a viable political party already shown some signs of would lighten up on the War on Drugs or allow more free­ success? If almost a quarter of Americans are libertarian, dom of speech. But that doesn't make them libertarians. And why is it that an extraordinarily articulate LP presidential I don't think very many in this 22% are fodder for the LP's candidate backed by the "fastest growing party in America" radical political program, let alone its political theory. cannot get more than one half of one percent of the vote? I said earlier that I'd leave aside the question of whether Especially in an election in which it was evident that the Harry's theory that, having increased its membership from incumbent would be re-elected by a landslide? Doesn't this around 10,000 in 1995 to around 22,000 at the time of the last suggest that the LP is doing an absolutely terrible job of mar­ election, the LP can increase its membership to 200,000 in keting its program? time for the beginning of the next presidential campaign. But If a survey showed that 22% of Americans preferred I can't let this go without at least a brief comment. Pepsi Cola to other soft drinks, but only one half of one per­ Historically, LP membership has tended to rise during presi­ cent of Americans actually drank Pepsi, one would rightly dential election campaigns and to fall between them. The conclude that Pepsi was doing a terrible job of marketing. notion that the rate of growth would accelerate from its elec­ Of course, the explanation is that the word "libertarian" tion-driven level of 48% per year during the campaign to the as used by Gallup and by those in the Libertarian Party 108% annual rate required to meet Harry's goal simply means two very different things. To Gallup, "libertarian" defies rationality. -RWB to be continued . .. Liberty 17 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

Cardenas' objections to Salinas' selling off the people's assets about the reason for firing her: her real offense was "making to his cronies were perhaps not entirely ill founded. But a false statement." But why was she asked whether she was Cardenas and his Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRO) having an affair with a married civilian? Whatever happened ultimately represent the worst kind of stupid Latin American to "don't ask, don't tell"? Couldn't the military authorities leftism - simultaneously embracing crackpot protectionism, understand how an inexperienced young woman might fall a monetary policy based on the notion that declines in the in love with a married man? Couldn't they sympathize with exchange rate constitute a challenge to one's macho, and a young woman who was aware that confessing to adultery smarmy adoration of puritanical demagogues like Fidel might jeopardize her career and, urged by her lover who has Castro. promised her that he'll deny it, might give in to the tempta­ Is the right wing National Action Party (PAN) any better tion to lie? Is punishing this mistake worth the $1,000,000 it than PRO? Not likely. PAN's honesty may be judged by the cost to train this young woman? Worth writing off the career fact that earlier this year its members walked out of a multi­ of so promising a flyer, whose career, the Air Force publicly party conclave discussing proposed reforms (initiated by PRJ) predicted, "may one day include becoming squadron com­ that would have limited the ability of the ruling party to con­ mander and a shuttle astronaut"? The Air Force's answer to trol Mexico's fantastically elaborate spoils system, over whose these questions is "yes." faint scent PAN members were already beginning to drool. Of course, that $1,000,000 won't go totally to waste. Flinn "Democracy" has been in place in quite a few Latin will likely take a high-paying job with a commercial airline American countries for decades, off and on. Although it's that takes advantage of her taxpayer-paid training. She's also true that it has sometimes lessened the brutality of the state, signed a book deal for big money, so she won't suffer too democracy has also been known to rain down total economic much from the disgrace of her less than honorable discharge destruction, with heroes of the common man like Juan Peron from the Air Force. and Alan Garcia inflating the currency, making life unbeara­ The case raises more interesting questions than the mili­ ble for entrepreneurs, and generally putting the squeeze on tary's rather old-fashioned stand on adultery and its willing­ capital- which responded by squirting out of their fingers ness to piss away taxpayer money. What about all the married like wet watermelon seeds, further impoverishing the peons. men in the military who have had affairs while away from Moreover, though it's true that the PRJ has badly governed home? Why are only a tiny fraction of these men investigated Mexico for generations, it's far from obvious that the and punished? Isn't there a double standard here? vaunted "free elections" we've heard so much about will The issue of sex in the military is an extremely proble­ bring any improvements, in the short or long run. Contrary matic one. The military has a chain of command. Each indi­ to the ejaculations of our historically challenged press, free vidual, except the Commander in Chief, is required to obey elections are scarcely unprecedented; and it's hard to say the orders of his superior, and failing to do so is a grave whether the dictator Diaz was better or worse than his more­ offense. Furthermore, those' higher in the chain of command or-less democratically elected predecessors. have the power to promote or punish those lower than them­ Finally, it's not altogether obvious that Mexico is a less selves. It is difficult to see how someone threatened with hor­ free country than its arrogant neighbor to the north. Mexico, rible punishments for refusal and substantial rewards for after all, has never been known to send its sons to die on the obedience can be meaningfully said to consent to sex. In this beaches of Italy, Korea, or Vietnam; Mexicans are free to pur­ context, there is good reason to regulate if not entirely pro­ chase whatever medical treatment they wish, and whatever hibit sexual relationships within the chain of command. This pharmaceuticals they wish without a permission slip from a was the logic behind the recent prosecution of a drill ser­ doctor; prosecutions of private sexual behavior are unheard geant for having sex with his female trainees. of. And though Mexico has lately instigated a desultory war Of course, none of this applies to the Flinn case. She on drugs (largely at the goading of Uncle Sam), it is almost didn't have sex with her commanding officer or a subordi­ certainly better to be busted for drugs south of the border nate, but with a civilian married to a military person. She than in the fanatical United States (at least if you have wouldn't even have been subject to punishment if her lover m.oney). There, you can usually buy your way out. Here, you had not been married. are likely to end up spending years in prison - where, But the military hasn't been particularly consistent about cruelly, you are not even allowed to vote. -NC enforcing rules against sex within the chain of command. By all accounts, it is far more widespread than the few prosecu­ Out like Flinn - A young woman falls in love with tions would indicate. a married man. Her employer disapproves of adulterous What's more, is sex within the chain of command always relationships among his employees, and questions her about wrong? What about the fictional relationship between Henry it. She denies all, at the urging of her lover, who has prom­ Blake and the unnamed nurse in the film M*A*S*H? Or the ised to do the same. But he confesses. Confronted with this relationship between Dwight David Eisenhower and Kay information, she admits that she has lied. Her employer Somersby during World War II? Should Ike have been forces her to resign. It sounds a little bit 19th century, but it's charged with rape and sentenced to 25 years hard time as the really a humdrum story, unless you happen to think that drill sergeant was? employers ought not be able to discriminate against adulter­ And what about Bill Clinton? He has been accused of sex­ ers. Or the employer happens to be the U.S. military. ual assault, a charge which he has denied under oath. Ifa court Of course, what I'm writing about is the discharge from finds that Paula Jones told the truth, or he admits as much by the Air Force of Kelly Flinn, the first woman in American his­ settling out of court, should he be threatened with jail and dis­ tory to qualify to fly B-52s. Oh, there was some hairsplitting charged from his position as Commander in Chief? -RWB 18 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 L b e t Y s F s t T e n Y e a s

Raising the Standard by Stephen Cox

Never underestimate the value of preaching to the converted.

I wonder if your life has been the same as mine, in distance at which mountains of a given height can be one respect at least: I've almost never done anything sighted from the ocean. that I expected to do. I could certainly never have There used to be an idea, and it had some truth in predicted that I would spend ten years of my life it, that libertarians have one-track minds. Somebody writing for the great intellectual journal of the said that when good Americans die, they go to Paris; libertarian movement. For one thing, I could never and it used to be thought that when good libertarians have predicted that I would become a libertarian. And die, they return to their regular table at Denny's and when I did become a libertarian, whatever that is, I continue arguing against wage and price controls. The could never have imagined that a journal like Liberty only improvement, it might be said, is that the table is would be created and sustained. Not in my lifetime, now at Starbuck's. anyway. But the founders of libertarianism, people who are The reason for this failure of imagination was my always very much on Liberty's mind, were men and inability, as an individualist, to give due credit to women of exceptionally varied origins and interests. other individualists. Once Liberty raised a standard to The individualist movement grew out of a broad which good writers could repair, everyone was able to culture and broad human experience; it continues to see how many thoughtful, learned, funny, cranky, be nourished by that soil. Liberty has tried to reflect the amusing people there are in the libertarian movement. many sides of individualism, to discuss politics and Don't get me wrong -I haven't agreed with any of public.policy without letting those concerns displace those people. Not for a minute. But the intellectual all others. quality of Liberty's list of contributors makes its In this respect, I think - no, I know - that Liberty success seem almost inevitable. has been helped by its intention not to become an

It wasn't, of course, and it isn't. Liberty could not IIoutreach" journal. Liberty does not exist to convert live for a minute without the energy of its creator and people to the individualist cause. If that happens, fine; constant guide, Bill Bradford. Some day, the but Liberty'S function is to allow individualists to write individualist movement will total up its intellectual about whatever subjects they find interesting and can debt to him, and find itself completely unable to pay. I get other people to find interesting also. know that I would be embarrassed if I had to pay my Liberty has certainly given me an opportunity to debt to him for all the fun that Liberty has given me. I write about a lot of the things that interest me. It's a couldn't pay what lowe for even one of those surprising and appalling fact, but there it is: I have late-night phone calls that begin with some remarks published something in everyone of Liberty's sixty about whether that new article looks too long, proceed issues, and I am profoundly grateful to have had the to a discussion of the natural rights controversy, move opportunity. What surprises me most, however, is that on to a review of the foreign policy of so few readers have written in to denounce me. I hope nineteenth-century Paraguay, and conclude with Bill's this does not mean that libertarians have grown polite. formula, created on the spot, for calculating the You will have to do better in the years to come. 0 Liberty 19 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 L b e t y s F s t T e n y e a s Editorial II II Why Liberty?

Does the world really need another libertarian magazine? We seek to publish uninhibited discussions of these issues, There already exists a variety of libertarian periodicals, without feeling any need to soft pedal libertarianism or to out­ ranging from local newsletters to national magazines, from line or defend the precepts of libertarianism (except for chal­ personal "zines" to scholarly journals. Given the limited lenges from within). resources of the libertarian movement, the number of libertar­ We seek a periodical that will discuss whatever interests ian publications is impressive, and the quality of most is the intelligent, thoughtful libertarian, without feeling any need remarkably good. to apologize for our beliefs or to placate non-libertarians. Yet it seems to us that nearly all libertarian periodicals fit We seek a periodical that does not soft-pedal libertarianism into one of three categories: outreach periodicals, house organs one whit. or scholarly journals. In efforts to gain influence or convince others of the correct­ Who We Are ness of their positions, a considerable amount of libertarian The editors of Liberty are a diverse lot. intellectual energy is aimed outside the movement via out­ Two of us (Rothbard and Cox) are professional academics; reach periodicals. While converting others may be an impor­ two of us (Bradford and Casey) are entrepreneurs and financial tant and worthwhile activity, outreach periodicals are advisory writers; one of us (Overbeek) is an academic­ sometimes rather boring to the intelligent libertarian. Who researcher, scientist-entrepreneur. needs another article on free market garbage collection? One of us (Rothbard) has long been intimately involved in Other libertarian periodicals attempt to expound a certain the Libertarian Party; two of us (Cox and Bradford) have sup­ vision of liberty to the exclusion of other libertarian visions. ported the LP since its inception but only recently joined the These house organs usually do a good job as standard bearers party; another (Overbeek) has refused to join the Party because of their particular faction, but they often suffer from their nar­ of his disagreement over its loyalty oath requirement; one of us row scope and perspective. They generally discuss only issues (Casey) eschews political activity altogether, refusing even to of particular interest to their faction; to the extent they discuss register to vote. other issues, they do so from a very narrow perspective. The bases of our libertarianisms vary as well: One of us Libertarian scholarly journals offer a wider scope and (Rothbard) is a leading advocate of Natural Rights philosophy, broader perspectives; they often explore the frontiers of liber­ three of us (Cox, Overbeek and Bradford) are Classical tarian thinking. But the strictures of scholarly writing limit Liberals more or less in the utilitarian tradition, and one of us their content both in scope and style. (Casey) is an anarchist in the neo-Objectivist tradition of the Neither outreach periodicals nor house organs nor schol­ Tannehills. arly journals can offer the kind of lively, provocative analysis We acknowledge our differences of experience, of orienta­ that the intelligent libertarian craves. tion~ of approach. In the pages of Liberty we expect we will often disagree, and sometimes disagree with vigor. The Nature of Liberty But all of us agree on two points: We propose to publish Liberty as a journal produced by 1) We believe that the role of government in people's lives libertarians for libertarians, a journal with the space and incli­ should be radically reduced or eliminated altogether (thus we nation to discuss issues that interest libertarians, written from are libertarians); an unapologetically libertarian perspective. 2) We believe that libertarians need an "inreach" journal-a We propose to publish lively discussions of these sorts of periodical in which to sort out their differences, share their issues: thinking, etc. • the intellectual and psychological roots of libertarianism That is why we publish Liberty. and of the hostility to liberty. R. W. Bradford • the sort of society that libertarianism entails. Douglas Casey • cultural, social and historical matters from a libertarian Stephen Cox perspective. Ross Overbeek • the tactics and strategies of those libertarians seeking to Murray Rothbard libertarianize the world, as well as the strategy and tactics of those who believe in allowing the world to go its own way. • the odgin and history of the libertarian movement. (Reprinted from Liberty, August 1987, page 4) 20 Liberty Volume II, Number 1 September 1997 L b e t y s F s t T e n y e a s

At Liberty by R. W. Bradford

On June 5, 1987, Timothy Virkkala took a Douglas Casey, Ross Overbeek, Timothy Virkkala, and fat envelope to the post office in Port yours truly - are still editors today. It featured cartoons Townsend, Washington. It was addressed to a by Rex F. May ("Baloo") and a collection of absurd news printer in Seattle, and it contained photo-ready mas- ("Terra Incognita"), both of which still brighten our pages. ters for the first issue of Liberty. During the previous six The 1987 issue has fewer pages, a larger logo on its less col- months, my wife Kathy, Tim, Steve Cox, and I had orful cover, and no "Reflections" at its front. But aside worked feverishly to reach that moment. We had devel- from these, few differences are readily observable. oped a business plan, conducted a Like any healthy newborn, direct mail campaign, recruited Liberty had its fastest growth dur- several excellent writers to contrib- ing its first year. By year's end, ute to our effort (including three - L1·bert what we had planned as a 24- to Doug Casey, Murray Rothbard, 48-page magazine with a circula- and Ross Overbeek - who had tion of 1,500 to 2,000 was a 72- to agreed to grace our masthead as 80-page magazine with a circula- editors), sold about 1,200 subscrip- tion of about 2,700. Sometime in tions, written and edited 40,000 the following year, I entertained words for publication in that issue, the notion of extending one issue designed a format, and laid out a The Films ofAyn Rand to 96 pages, only to be faced by a magazine. by Stephen Cox revolt of staff editors, proofread- Ten years is a long time. It's Ron Paul and His Critics ers, and layout people - and the long enough for a teenager to by Murray N. Rothbard fact that the most frequent reason become an adult, and if he's Bill people had told us they didn't Gates, to earn a sum equal to three The Mystery Man of the Libertarian Movement renew was that the magazine was articles by Benjamin Best, R. W. Bradford years' gross domestic product 0 f and Tom Marshall "too long." This complaint always Africa.! It's also long enough for strikes me as peculiar: after all, communism to transform itself Witch-Bashing, Book-Burning and Professor Harold reading Liberty is a voluntary from a grave threat to humanity to Hill's Lessons in Practical Politics activity; no one is punished for a dim memory of interest only to byButler D. Shaffer not reading every word. It seemed historians, and long enough for a Also: Reviews by Ida Walters, William P. Moulton, to me that the more you get for Ross Overbeek, and Timothy Virkkala; Democratic Congress to be replaced and a short story by Jo McIntyre your money, the happier you by a Republican one and for a should be, even if the press of Republican president to be replaced AUgust 1987 $4.00 Volume 1, Number 1 time makes you skip an item or by a Democratic one. And ten years two. Nonetheless, I was over- ~ilio~~~~~furLili~y~~~------~w~~~~t~ro~inili~cl launched, to develop a personality, and to find its place in staff and reader resistance, and the world. with one or two exceptions, we have limited issues to 72 Liberty'S first issue is easily recognized by anyone pages since. reading its September 1997 issue. Its masthead lists seven Our circulation is another matter. Despite the fact that editors, six of whom - Kathy Bradford, Stephen Cox, Liberty lacks the huge subsidies that finance most political Liberty 21 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 L b e t y s F s t T e n y e a s magazines, our circulation (both on the newsstand and by Perhaps our proudest moment was our analysis of the subscription) has grown at a fairly steady clip - at an aver­ BATF-FBI siege near Waco, Texas. 8 As it happened, we were age rate of 22% per year. It is especially gratifying that circu­ scheduled to go to press with our June 1993 issue on April lation increased even during periods when our limited 22, just three days after the FBI assault on the Branch financial resources precluded our doing direct mail Davidians resulted in the death of more than 80 people, marketing. including 23 children. While virtually all other American periodicals were expressing sympathy for the trauma suf­ The Best-Laid Plans ... fered by the FBI and outrage that the Davidians had brought Liberty was conceived as a magazine of good writing of this upon themselves, we published articles by Steve Cox particular interest to intelligent libertarians. Our original and myself, calling the press to account for its supine cowar­ plan called for a purely "in-reach" journal for libertarians dice and denouncing Attorney General Janet Reno as a self­ and·classical liberals; we didn't contemplate publishing confessed mass murderer, based on her statements and analyses of public policy or comments on current events. interviews the day of the conflagration. We headlined our (See "Why Liberty?", August 1987, p. 4 - and in this issue, coverage "Holocaust in Waco," a deliberately provocative p. 28). After our third issue had been published, we sur­ title and arguably an outrageous one. It was our best-selling veyed subscribers, asking them to evaluate our efforts. The issue ever on newsstands. most popular category was "analysis of current events." I am quite proud of the discussion and analysis we have Since we hadn't at this point published any analyses of cur­ presented of current issues and events like the preposterous rent events, this was disturbing. We figured it was evidence U.S. invasion of Panama to arrest its president,9 the Rodney of powerful demand from our readers, so we broke down King beating and subsequent trial and riots 10 and the Gulf and invited our contributors to provide commentary on cur- War.n Thanks to our very talented editors, we were able on short notice to devote a special section of the magazine to a variety of intelligent libertarian insights into these and other We've never lost focus on the point that major stories. Liberty is more than anything else a place where But we've never lost focus on the point that Liberty is we libertarians discuss among ourselves the more than anything else a place where we libertarians dis­ cuss among ourselves the world and our approach to it. world and our approach to it. Controversy has been the lifeblood of Liberty since its very beginning. The first major battle to be fought in our pages was the most fundamental question: Why should a person be a rent events. Our next issue featured an analysis of the ACLU libertarian? and the war in Nicaragua.2 And in the following issue, we began to gather our edi­ The First Major Controversy tors' shorter comments into "Reflections" at the start of each 3 The dispute began with a commentary on an interesting issue. This eclectic collection of commentary, spleen­ news event. Harvard philosopher Robert Nozick, who had venting, short essays, obnoxious comments, and diverse brought a new respectability to libertarianism with the pub­ libertarian opinion quickly became Liberty's most popular lication of his Anarchy, State, and Utopia, took advantage of feature. rent control laws in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to force his Breaking Stories landlord to lower his rent and refund a substantial portion of the rent he had earlier paid. The reaction from most liber­ We've broken our share of major stories. In 1989, we were one of the first publications to report the rising threat tarians was swift and indignant: the libertarian philosopher to free speech on the campuses of universities, 4 and we pub­ who had defended the morality of "capitalistic acts between lished a detailed analysis of "political correctness" before consenting adults" had "embarrass(ed) libertarians and most people had ever heard the term. 5 endanger(ed) the hard won progress libertarianism has made ..." In our September 1990 issue, Dr. Ron Paul reported in our pages that the "morning after" birth control pill had crit­ In Liberty's second issue,12 I used Nozick's act as a ical non-abortion uses and argued persuasively that, even springboard for a novel argument: from an anti-abortion perspective, it ought not be banned. 6 Consider a society identical in every way to current Three months later, the New Republic made this their cover American society, except that 200 years ago, every inhabi­ story. tant of the continent agreed to vest all ownership of real We scooped the New Republic again, this time by a wider estate in a corporate body, which would be governed according to the same rules that are encoded in U.S. law margin, in our July 1991 issue. I wrote a short piece reporting today. Nominal private ownership was allowed, subject to that, contrary to press reports, the northern spotted owl, periodic payment of fees (called "real estate taxes") and var­ whose listing as an endangered species had halted logging in ious other controls (called "laws and regulations") on the the Pacific Northwest, was not a species at all, but a separate behavior of those who might live on the corporately owned population of a species that inhabits North America from land. The original corporate agreement specified that the Mexico to Canada and is not in any way endangered. 7 It was taxes, laws and regulations might be changed according to three years before the New Republic published a much­ certain specific procedures. ballyhooed cover story making exactly the same point. I further supposed that this society subsequently devel- 22 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 L b e t y s F s t T e n y e a s oped in exactly the same way the United States developed, the argument I had posed. and that it was identical to contemporary America in every way except for that fateful day when every inhabitant had Heating Things Up agreed to vest ownership in the corporate body.* At the time, Liberty had the slowest printer in the world, If the historic origin of the laws was universal consent, one who took five weeks to print and mail an issue. So there Nozick was acting in a completely moral fashion according wasn't time for readers to respond in the next issue. But I to libertarian theory. But if the historic origin was less than sent a copy of my piece to Liberty's editors, hoping for a universal consent, then Nozick's action was criminal. If one response, and Murray Rothbard quickly penned a defense condemns Nozick for using an institution whose origin was coercive, then what about the fellow who uses roads or message delivery sys- tems that have their origin in coercion, or who Liberty's First Year accepts employment from a coercive institu­ August 1987, 48 pp., $4.00 tion? The same logic that forces condemnation • "The Films of Ayn Rand," by Stephen Cox • "Life or Death in of Nozick seems to force condemnation of any­ Seattle," by Murray N. Rothbard ."The Mystery Man of the one who uses any government services what­ Libertarian Movement," by Ben Best .Plus reviews and articles by ever - in other words, every person in Ross Overbeek, Butler Shaffer, Ida Walters, and others. America today. October 1987, 48 pp., $8.00 If, as most libertarians believe, "no man has • "The Sociology of Libertarians," by J.C. Green and J.L. Guth ·"The the right to initiate the use of physical force Apostasy of Robert Nozick," by Ethan O. Waters • "The Rise of the against others and coercion is universally State," by Murray N. Rothbard • Plus reviews and articles by Stephen opprobrious," I argued, then "the actual cus­ Cox, William P. Moulton, Mike Holmes, Jonathan Saville, and others. toms, laws and actions of a social arrangement December 1987, 56 pp., $3.00 are of relatively little import in evaluating its • "Libertarians in a State-Run World," by Murray N. Rothbard ."The morality: what really counts is whether the Most Unforgettable Libertarian I Ever Knew," by Karl Hess ."Easy social arrangement had its origin in voluntary Living in the Bahamas," by Mark Skousen ·Plus writing by Walter contract of all landowners." Block, Erika Holzer, Stephen Cox and others. I concluded by observing that there is a March 1988, 64 pp., $4.00 "second libertarianism," one that advocates lib­ • "Libertarians and Conservatives: Allies or Enemies?" by John erty "as the most expeditious and utilitarian Dentinger & Murray N. Rothbard • "Free Speech and the Future of arrangement for human interaction," and that Medicine," by Durk Pearson and SandyShaw • "The Majority vs the this sort of libertarianism has no problem with Majoritarian: Robert Bork on Trial," by Sheldon Richman • Plus reviews and articles by R.W. Bradford, William Cate, Stephen Cox, and .. I wrote the piece under the pseudonym of "Ethan O. others. Waters," concocted as an anagram of "Owen Hatteras," H. L. Mencken's favorite pseudonym. I May 1988, 64 pp., $6.00 used a pseudonym because I wanted to make sure ."Ayn Rand: Still Controversial After All These Years," by David that people didn't think that this heretical argument, Ramsay Steele & David Brown • "The ACLU: Suspicious Principles, coming from the editor and publisher of a young Salutary Effects," by William P. Moulton • "The Two Libertarianisms," magazine, was supposed to set ideological policy for by Ethan O. Waters • Plus reviews and articles by Gary Alexander, the magazine. Nathaniel Branden, Erika and Henry Mark Holzer, Jeffrey Rogers This episode developed for Waters a reputation Hummel, Sheldon Richman, Franklin Sanders, and others. for bombasticism if not downright obnoxiousness, and from time to time, I used the Waters pseudo­ July 1988, 80 pp., $4.00 nym for controversial writing, including one piece • "Confessions of an Intractable Individualist," by Jerome Tuccille .An co-written with Timothy Virkkala. As time went on, interview with L. Nieeil Smith • David Ramsey Steele on Robert Anton Liberty's reputation as an arena for intellectual con­ Wilson's critique of natural rights ."Rand-Bashing: Enough is troversy became well established, and it became Enough," by Ross Overbeek • Plus reviews and articles by Stephen clear that Liberty's agenda did not include promoting Cox, Tibor Machan, Bill Kelsey, and others. any sort of ideological doctrine, mine or anyone else's. So there was less and less reason to use the Please send me the items I have circled above. I have pseudonym, and I have written nothing under that included $2.00 postage and handling. name in six years. I kept the pseudonym secret from all but a few of o I enclose my check (payable to Liberty) Liberty's editors, and was greatly embarrassed to feel o Charge my: 0 VISA 0 MasterCard the need to deceive inquirers, including some friends. On one occasion, I flat-out denied being name _ Call (800) 854­ Waters, but otherwise I tried to mislead without address _ 6991 - or send actually lying. I quickly took to refusing to reveal to: Liberty, Dept. anything at all about Waters, including, when asked, city, state, zip _ L61, P.O. Box 1181, whether I was he. This of course increased the suspi­ signature phone _ Port Townsend, cion that I was Waters. 0 what tangled webs we WA98368 weave~ account # expires _ Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 L b e t y s F s t T e n y e a s of the mainline libertarian position. 13 The issue that fol­ same honor.21 I myself have supported every LP presidential lowed contained ten critical letters from readers, along with nominee, but among Liberty's other editors have been sup­ my responses.14 I followed up with an essay exploring the porters for every other major candidate in each election, and differences between "The Two Libertarianisms" ("moralistic in every election year they've made their case in Liberty's libertarianism" and "consequentialist libertarianism") in the pages. following issue, criticizing and defending each. 15 The discus­ Unlike any other periodical, Liberty takes the LP seri­ sion caught David Friedman's eye, and he forwarded three ously, without patronizing it, providing the same sort of chapters from the new edition of The Machinery of Freedom analysis and coverage that mainline periodicals provide for that addressed the same issues, which graced Liberty's pages the Republicans and Democrats. We've covered every during the coming year. 16 Libertarian national convention, rooting out stories unre­ And so began a controversy that has percolated into our ported by other media, and offering the kind of critical cov­ pages from time to time ever since. Our September 1988 erage not found elsewhere. We take seriously the debates issue trumpeted Hans-Hermann Hoppe's "The Ultimate within the party, and our editors and contributors usually Justification of the Private Property Ethic," which proposed have had a lot to say about LP politics. a radical alternative to the natural-rights-moralistic That is not to say that we've ignored the major parties. approach and the consequentialist-utilitarian approach. 17 When Patrick Buchanan made a bid for libertarian support Hoppe argued that "by being alive and formulating any for his right-wing crusade for the presidency, contributing proposition ... one demonstrates that any ethic except the editor Jim Robbins trekked to New Hampshire for a very libertarian ethic is invalid." Murray Rothbard was a great revealing interview. 22 We had reporters at the 1992 and 1996 enthusiast for Hoppe's argument and asked me to solicit GOP conventions,23 and were among the very first maga­ responses from prominent Randian philosophers, whom he zines to identify the defining characteristic of Bill Clinton: thought might share his enthusiasm. I decided to try to bal­ his naked, all-encompassing lust for power. 24 ance the responses by inviting some from individuals who From Murray Rothbard's delightfully vicious "Ronald would likely be more critical. We needn't have bothered. We Reagan: An Autopsy"25 to our continuing exposure of Bill were again inundated by responses and letters-to-the-editor. Clinton's moral turpitude, we've spared no American politi­ In the end, the only support Hoppe received, aside from cal leader. At our Editors' Conference in 1995, when Harry Murray's enthusiastic encomium ("dazzling breakthrough") Browne announced his campaign for the LP presidential was from Sheldon Richman. 18 nomination, I publicly endorsed his effort, but warned him High-powered debate over the fundamental principles of that in the virtually impossible event that he were elected libertarian thought has continued to percolate in Liberty's president, I'd withdraw my support and he could expect the same treatment that Reagan, Bush, and Clinton have From Murray Rothbard's delightfully vicious received in our pages. And I meant it. (Of course, Harry didn't win, though he did bring new credibility to the LP. "Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy" to our continu­ Since this February, he has been a Senior Editor of Liberty ­ ing exposure of Bill Clinton's moral turpitude, so instead of being a target of our barbs, he's slinging barbs we've spared no American political leader. of his own.) A Giant of Liberty In 1987, we surveyed subscribers to Liberty and delegates pages, most recently in the discussion of the death penalty 19 to the Libertarian Party's national convention about a wide by George Smith, Tim Virkkala, and John Goodman. But 26 there have been many other, less-philosophical controver­ range of subjects. We asked them to evaluate the influence sies in our pages as well. We have published challenges to of 27 libertarian thinkers and philosophers, living and dead, other aspects of libertarian doctrine - most notably, the on their intellectual development. It came as no surprise that notion that libertarianism requires an isolationist foreign the two most influential figures by a wide margin were Ayn policy. This time, the challengers were Steve Cox and Jim Rand and Murray Rothbard. And it comes as no surprise Robbins, who argued that the Soviet Union posed a great that Liberty has published a good deal about these two threat to liberty and ought to be opposed by the U.S. gov­ figures. ernment. Sheldon Richman vigorously defended the ortho­ Rand occupies a unique place in American intellectual dox non-interventionist position. I meekly suggested a third history. Though she was undoubtedly an intellectual, her position: that isolationism was not entailed by libertarian advocacy of radical libertarianism has led most conven­ thinking, but was virtually always prudent. 20 tional scholars to dismiss her from serious consideration. The stridency of her personality and her insistence that her LP Agonistes followers agree with every jot and tittle of her philosophy Perhaps the single topic of most controversy in Liberty's reduced much of her following to a hagiographic cult, pages has been the Libertarian Party. In our very first issue, unwilling to subject her to critical analysis. As a result, there we published a lengthy article endorsing Ron Paul's cam­ has been precious little serious scholarship regarding her paign for the LP presidential nomination, and a shorter life and work. essay delphically supporting Russell Means's quest for the So it was relatively easy for Liberty to become the pri- 24 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 L b e t y s F s t T e n y e a s

mary journal publishing studies of Ayn Rand. Our first "Would you be interested in writing a response to it?" I issue included Steve Cox's discussion and review of the asked. "Sure," he said. "But you'll have to send me another three films whose screenplays Rand had written. 27 Seven copy." He went on to explain that he had hated it so much issues later, I wrote an article about the 1943 Italian film ver­ that he had destroyed the copy I had sent him. sion of We The Living, which revealed that much of what Rand had said about it was false. 28 We have since published Exit, Stage Right John Hospers' detailed account of philosophical discussions As early as 1987, Murray had told me that he was think­ he had with Rand,29 Murray Rothbard's account of his split ing of abandoning libertarianism in favor of the political with Rand,3o Tibor Machan's memoir of his encounters with right. In the summer of 1989, after his candidate for Rand,31 and lengthy interviews with Rand's friend and biog- Libertarian Party chairman was defeated, he was ready to abandon his long-time ideological home. Along with his col­ league at the Mises Institute, Lew Rockwell, Murray While virtually all other American periodicals decided to join his erstwhile enemies, the conservatives, after first going through a transition phase as a "paleo­ were expressing sympathy for the trauma suf- libertarian." fered by the FBI and outrage that the Davidians Murray kept me apprised of his repositioning and his had brought this upon themselves, we denounced campaign to recruit other libertarians to join him on his ide­ ological odyssey. I resisted, of course, but our relationship Attorney General Janet Reno as a self-confessed remained cordial and he continued to contribute to each mass murderer. issue. In October 1989, Rockwell* sent us a manuscript titled "A Paleo-Libertarian Manifesto," which bellicosely outlined his and Rothbard's halfway house on their right­ rapher, Barbara Branden,32 and with libertarian raconteur ward voyage.35 I gladly published it in our January 1990 Roy Childs,33 not to mention vigorous reviews of virtually issue, and during the next month or two Murray made a all books about Rand published since 1986, as well as more concerted effort to recruit me. I continued to resist, detailed analyses of (and disputes about) her political and the March 1990 Liberty included a number of responses philosophy. to Rockwell's manifesto, some of them openly hostile. By Curiously, our interest in Rand has angered both Rand's this time, the fax machine was regularly printing out what hardcore fans and her harshest critics. The former find us our student intern took to calling "Rockwell's daily hate too critical, and the latter find us too appreciative. Personally, I think they're both nuts: Rand was not a god­ dess worthy only of veneration, but she was an important Our interest in Rand has angered both intellectual whose life and thought merits serious and exten­ Rand's hardcore fans and her harshest critics. sive exploration. Murray Rothbard got involved with Liberty in 1985, back The former finds us too critical, and the latter in the planning stage. My relationship with him was always too appreciative. cordial and friendly, and he never failed to support us in our enterprise. When we wanted a premium to offer to char­ ter subscribers, he generously donated his "The Sociology of fax." Plainly, my relationship with Rockwell had the Ayn Rand Cult," and he contributed to virtually every deteriorated. issue until he resigned in early 1990. During that time, I My relationship with Murray, however, remained cor­ spoke to him very frequently, often two or three times a dial even after I received a fax from Rockwell telling me that week. He was delightful to work with, even when we dif­ Murray had decided that he wouldn't be writing for Liberty fered on one thing or another. in the future, and would like to resign his position as Senior From the start, Murray understood that Liberty would be Editor. Between that day and his passing in January 1995, open to all libertarian opinions, and would make no attempt we spoke occasionally and affably. I heard from time to time to follow the well-hewn "Rothbardian" line. At my first that he had denounced me in the pages of his newsletter, meeting with him, I warned him of my djsagreement with but I never saw the denunciations, and I wouldn't have been much of his political theory and suggested that I might pub­ particularly upset if I had. Even before I first approached licly disagree with him from time to time. This he accepted Murray, I knew that he had a long and well-known history joyously. He always shared his pungent and powerful opin­ of breaking with his political associates, usually with denun­ ions, and cheerfully accepted the fact that sometimes his ciation and recrimination, and that it was almost inevitable advice was not followed. that my relationship would end this same way. I remember sending him a copy of a manuscript by John I prefer to remember him as the charming, brilliant, and Dentinger that criticized the LP for becoming too right­ joyous friend he had been in Liberty's formative years. He wing.34 When I spoke to him about it, he told me that he was the wittiest man I have ever met, the best man with thought it was loathsome. I sheepishly told him that in the * Rockwell had earlier applied for a position as Liberty's "Washing­ interim - he had put off reading it for a few days- I had ton Editor." I gently turned down his offer, on grounds that he lived circulated it to other editors and had decided to publish it. hundreds of miles from Washington. Liberty 25 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 L b e t y s F s t T e n y e a s whom to spend an evening in a bar that I ever knew. I miss impact. But he was right about one thi~g: Liberty .has fu~­ him enormously. filled its basic goal of producing a magazme where hbertan­ ans can discuss the world and our thinking without A Very Different Giant inhibition or apology. The fact that we sell thousands of cop­ I was thrilled when, after publication of our third issue, ies on newsstands to non-libertarians is entirely Karl Hess agreed to become an editor. Karl w~s the. OpP?s~te serendipitous. of Murray in many ways: while Murray was rat~onahst1c, Karl was intuitive; Murray was ideologicat Karl loathed Into the Future Liberty's first ten years have not come without disappoint­ ideology; Murray liked typewriters, classic jazz, and ec~­ ments. We've published precious little of two kinds of writ­ nomic theory; Karl liked computers, rock-and-roll, and SCI­ ence. They had been allies in the early 1970s, but M':lrray's ing that I'd hoped to see a lot ofin our pages. Aside from conventional politics of the LP or major parties, we've had lit­ insistence that movement 11cadre" accept the "correct, tle discussion of strategies for achieving liberty. While we've Rothbardian line" on every issue soon led to their split. By published a fair amount of excellent writing on ea~ly modern the time I knew them, Liberty was just about the only inter­ libertarians, including H. L. Mencken, Rose WIlder Lane, est they had in common. Albert Jay Nock, and Isabel Paterson, we've done little on the Karl had started as a political conservative, but became a origin and history of the libertarian .movement itself. ~ c~n­ radical libertarian during the 1960s. He put his enormous stantly worry that we're not improvIng or that our edItorIal vigor is declining. I wish we were publishing. an iss~e every month, instead of every two months, something we ve been Despite the fact that Liberty lacks the huge planning for some time butstill lack the resources to tackle. subsidies that finance most political magazines, Even so, I'm immensely proud of what we've done. our circulation has grown at afairly steady clip Launching Liberty and seeing it through its first decade h~s 22% involved a tremendous amount of work. For me, at least, It - an average rate of per year. has been an enormously satisfying adventure. In the maga­

zine trade, magazines are generally classified as 11circula­ tion-driven" or "advertising-driven" - that is, financed by talent as a writer to work on behalf of libertarianism, and is those who purchase them or by those who advertise in as responsible for the birth of the modern libertarian move­ them. Most political magazines, especially those with circu­ ment as anyone. His contributions to Liberty went far lation of less than 100,000, fit into a different category: beyond his writing: he was a constant source of encourage­ "donor-driven." Most are financed primarily by their ment to me, always there with a wise and temperate word donors, who are generally large wealthy foundations or when one was needed. He was the most lovable - and corporations. most loved - man I've ever known. His passing in 1994 Liberty is a unique publication, a political magazine was a dreadful loss for all of us. The celebration of Karl driven by its readers and·its editors. Virtually all of Liberty's Hess's life that I wrote for the July 1994 issue was the most writers have worked without compensation beyond the emotionally wrenching piece of writing I've ever 36 pleasure of seeing their writing in print. But our expenses undertaken. are virtually all met from our subscription and newsstand Of course, Liberty is more than philosophy, politics, and revenue, and we've put together ten years of a pretty good libertarian personalities. We've published some rather magazine and maintained our independence. exotic travel writing. I remember once at a Mont Pelerin And who knows? Maybe we'll be publishingmonthly in Society meeting, a federal judge took me aside and said, a year or so ... then bi-weekly ... then weekly ... "You've got a misprint on your cover," as he pointed to a Who knows where itall will all end? 0 title emblazoned on our September 1991 issue: "Stalking the Giant Testes of Ethiopia."37 "Actually," I explained, "that's Notes not a typo..." We've published some very fine short stories 1. This is an exaggeration. 20. March, May, July 1990 and even an occasional poem, to the apparent annoyance of 2. May 1988 21. August 1987 some of our readers. 3. July 1988 22. March 1992 In 1988, Murray Rothbard talked to an interviewer about 4. July 1989 23. November1992, November1996 5. July 1990 24. February 1993 Liberty: 6. September 1990 25. March 1989 The libertarian movement was beginning to crumble before 7. July 1991 26. July 1988 Liberty was founded. Everybody was so concerned with talk­ 8. June 1993 27. August 1987 ing to the outside, to Democrats or Republicans or whoever, 9. March 1990 28. November 1988 10. July 1992 29. July 1990; September 1990 that we forgot to develop our own thinking, our own ideol­ 11. May 1991 30. September 1989 ogy, our own point of view. 12. October 1987" 31. November 1989 Part of what the libertarian movement is about is develop­ 13. December 1987 32. January 1990 ing an attitude, finding out about the world and comment­ 14. March 1988 33. April 1993 ing on it from a libertarian perspective, and reacting to it 15. May 1988 34. March 1988 and trying to change it, so that libertarianism is not just an 16. July, September 1989 35. January 1990 abstract ideology somewhere in a vacuum. 17. September 1988 36. July 1994 18. November 1988 37. September 1991 Surely, in his enthusiasm, Murray exaggerated Liberty's 19. May 1997 and July 1997 26 Liberty Debunking Yes, Gambling is Productive and Rational by David Ramsay Steele

"You do not play then at whist, sir! Alas, what a sad old age you are preparing for yourself!" -Talleyrand

The War on Gambling is about to take its place alongside the War on Drugs as a crusade for decency which no ambitious politician may question. The present movement to legalize gambling, which got under way in the 1960s, is still making some gains, but has become increasingly unpopular. The momentum of legali- zation has been slowed, and will soon be reversed. Although some gambling voices to be heard in its defense? The about the future instead of working is now legal in all but two states reigning ideology tells us all that gam­ hard, or that gambling encourages (Hawaii and Utah), gambling prohibi­ bling is evil, for several reasons. crime at the expense of honest indus­ tionists are confidently predicting Gambling is selfish; it is addictive; it try. Aside from these alleged effects of absolute nationwide prohibition by provides "false hope"; it is a danger­ gambling, however, it is commonly early next century, and it's by no ous competitor to some forms of relig­ believed that gambling is intrinsically means self-evident that they are ion because it too offers the prospect unproductive - that in gambling, unlike farming or auto manufacture, wrong. of a greatly improved future life at rather long odds. nothing is produced. Government policy on gambling Yet possibly the single most Claims about the injurious effects has gone through successive cycles of influential reason for holding gam­ of gambling don't seem to be factually liberalization, backlash, and renewed bling to be evil is the belief that it is correct. Freedom to gamble encour­ prohibition. In the U.S., we are cur­ unproductive and therefore wasteful. ages hard work on the part of gam­ rently experiencing the third nation­ Today's hostility to gambling has blers, especially those with low wide backlash - the first was in the much in common with the old opposi­ incomes, just as, broadly speaking, middle of the nineteenth century, the tion to "usury" (charging interest on any enhanced opportunity to spend second during the 1940s. loans) and the current fear of "de­ one's earnings as one pleases The ease with which public opin­ industrialization" (replacement of increases the incentive effect of a ion can be mobilized against gam­ manufacturing by service jobs). given wage. And gambling by itself bling reflects a deep-rooted suspicion. Money-lending, hamburger-flipping, does not attract crime: it is the illegal­ Most people enjoy gambling in mod­ and playing the lottery have all been ity of some or all gambling which eration, and will gamble occasionally maligned as essentially sterile pur­ forces gambling to become a criminal if they can. Yet these same people suits whose expansion bodes ill for activity. 1 often oppose further liberalization of the health of the nation. Is gambling, then, intrinsically the gambling laws. G~mbling is one unproductive? One very popular of those things which are obviously Simply Sterile Transfers? view was promulgated by Paul harmless when you or I do them, but Is gambling unproductive? We Samuelson in his once-canonical text­ fraught with menace if millions of need to distinguish between the more book: gambling ~Jinvolves simply ster­ other people can do them too. or less remote effects of gambling and ile transfers of money or goods between Why is gambling, enjoyed by the its intrinsic nature. It is sometimes individuals, creating no new money vast majority of people, denounced claimed that gambling encourages or goods."2 A footnote informs the day in and day out, with hardly any people to dream impossible dreams reader that "in all professional Liberty 27 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

gambling arrangements, the partici­ spent in a restaurant. Perhaps that res­ have scored points by appealing to pants lose out on balance. The leakage taurant has to close because of reduced local advantage. They have claimed comes from the fact that the odds are business. Precisely the same would that the local economy (city, county, always rigged in favor of the 'house,' apply in reverse: if casinos were legal, state, or Indian reservation) would get so· that even an 'honest' house will win but restaurants prohibited, and then a shot in the arm from an increased in the long run." Notice the nasty restaurants were legalized, the newly inflow of visitors. In this case, the quotes around "honest," and the use of legal restaurants would attract consu­ money spent on local gambling is not the word "rigged" to represent the fact mers' dollars away from casinos, and withdrawn from some other local that these sneaky casino operators do some casinos might have to close. Anti­ industry; it is withdrawn from indus­ not provide their services as a charity, restaurant fanatics could then proclaim tries outside the locality. There is a net but require to be recompensed for their that restaurateurs were nothing more gain to business in the locality, at the than dastardly cannibals, gobbling up expense of reduced business legitimatebusinesses such as casinos. elsewhere. Freedom to gamble encour­ When a heretofore prohibited but But this only works if gambling widely desired activity is legalized, the continues to be considerably more ages hard work on the part of expansion of this activity will necessar­ restricted outside the locality than it is gamblers in the same way that ily curtail other activities, unless total within it. Las Vegas is now established any enhanced opportunity to output increases. This does not mean as an exciting vacation center which that the change is unimportant. The would easily survive the complete spend one's earnings as one fact that people pursue the newly legal legalization of all gambling in the U.S., pleases does. activity demonstrates that there is an but in its formative years Las Vegas unsatisfied appetite for that activity. would never have taken off if gam­ The people who desire to take part in bling had not been virtually illegal efforts, just like college professors or the prohibited activity, and are now across nearly all of the country. The writers of textbooks. free to do so, experience an improve­ more gambling is legalized generally, ment in their situation, in their own the less any locality can attract visitors The Cannibals Are Coming judgment. Their real incomes automat­ by legalization. Before we look at the claim that ically rise, even though this increase is There has recently been so much gambling involves nothing but sterile not captured in national income legalization in various parts of the U.S. transfers of money or goods, let's first statistics. that any locality which newly legalizes consider. a related charge levelled by There are two important qualifica­ gambling cannot thereby attract many anti-gambling propagandists. One of tions to what I have just stated. First, visitors.4 The bulk of the new gambling their leaders, Robert Goodman, con­ the legalization of a formerly prohib­ tends that gambling, when it is permit­ ited industry reduces the demand for ted after a period of prohibition, other industries below what it would is displaces or, as he picturesquely terms otherwise have been, not necessarily A lottery simply a way in it, "cannibalizes" other activities.3 below what it has actually been. If total which a lot of people each put Goodman continually reiterates this output rises - if there is economic in a small sum, and then afew charge, and doesn't seem to notice that growth - casinos may attract business it applies equally to any activity which from restaurants, and yet restaurants of those people picked at ran­ consumes scarce resources - any may keep the same business as before, dom get large sums. Nothing activity whatsoever. If pizza restau­ or even expand. Second, prohibition of in the world could possibly be rants were first prohibited and then gambling does not succeed in stopping legalized, the newly legal restaurants gambling. While prohibition reduces more harmless or more inno­ would attract some dollars away from the total amount of gambling, some cent than this. other businesses. Buildings, kitchen gambling goes on illicitly. A major part equipment, tables, delivery vehicles, of the expansion of legal gambling fol­ and employees would be bid away lowing legalization takes away busi­ business unleashed by a locallegaliza­ from other kinds of restaurants, and ness from formerly illegal gambling tion now comes from people who live perhaps some resources would be bid rather than from non-gambling nearby.s This has led to disappoint­ away from non-restaurant activities, to activities. ment at the results. of recent legaliza­ cater to the consumers' newly­ The assertion that gambling sub­ tions, disappointment which rabid liberated demand for pizzas. One tracts consumer dollars from other anti-gambling demagogues like might then observe that pizza provi­ industries is precisely as true of gam­ Goodman can cynically exploit. sion grows only by hurting other occu­ bling as of manufacturing refrigera­ The fundamental argument for pations - that pizzerias "cannibalize" tors, providing health care, or running legalizing gambling is not that it will other trades. a church. Why then do anti.;.gambling bring in business from elsewhere, but If, after being prohibited, a casino is zealots make such a fuss about canni­ rather that people are entitled to do permitted to open, this may well cause balization? There are two reasons. whatever they please with their own people to spend in the casino some First, in recent years politicians lives as long as they don't invade other money they would formerly have who favor legalization of gambling people's rights. More generally, it is 28 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

good for people to be free to do what letters of all kinds; players, buffoons, yield a stream of future want­ they want to do, so long as this does musicians, opera-singers, opera­ satisfactions to its wearer. If for some not impose on anyone else. dancers, &c." were unproductive.7 This reason the shirt cannot yield these The other reason why the Ucanni­ contention, and the sloppy argument want-satisfactions, whether because balization" argument is so often made of which it forms a part, provoked everyone undergoes a conversion to an is that many people start with the prej­ much debate over the next century. anti-shirt religion or because the shirt udice that gambling is a waste. If gam­ The attempt, by Smith and others, falls apart before it can be worn, then bling is unproductive, and if the to designate some occupations as the labor of producing it has turned growth of gambling subtracts from unproductive did not lead to convinc­ out to be unproductive, despite the fact some productive activity, then this ing conclusions. Those who based pro­ that a physical object was made. must, it seems, be bad. But if it is bad ductiveness on the making of a One way of describing want­ for gambling to cannibalize restau­ physical object were compelled to con- satisfaction is to talk about Uutility." rants, yet okay for bookstores to canni­ An activity is productive if it yields balize drycleaners or for churches to utility. According to the modern cannibalize bowling alleys, then view, which is no longer con­ cannibalization is not what is troversial among eco­ really being objected to. nomic theorists, We come back to the domestic ser­ inherent legitimacy of vants, enter­ gambling, and the tainers, dominant view priests, and of that is physicians are mightily • '- indeed produc­ influenced by " tive, because they the popular ~ produce services theory that gam- .. their customers bling is necessarily want; they enable unproductive. those customers to get additional utility. Production Means The same applies to Satisfaction of Wants clude, for instance, that activities in which people What does it mean to say that .~ the performance at a musical may engage either individu- some activity is unproductive? This ~"# concert would be unproductive, ally or collaboratively. It is pro- question was picked over quite thor­ whereas printing the tickets and pro­ ductive for a musician to give a recital, oughly by economists in the eighteenth grams for that same concert would be assuming that the audience likes it, but and nineteenth centuries. One early productive. it is also productive for a group of view was that only agriculture was After the end of the nineteenth cen­ friends to get together and perform productive. Manufacturing (then a tury, leading economists no longer paid music for their own enjoyment, or for small part of total employment) was much attention to the classification of an individual to perform alone for his looked upon as unproductive, since it activities as productive or unproduc­ own satisfaction. was obviously supported by agricul­ tive. The new theory of value based on uProductive" is not a value­ ture - the manufacturers had to eat. marginal utility shone a flood of light on judgment. If gambling turned out to be Another idea was that only products the question, and dearly exposed many productive, that would not show that which could be turned into gold and of the old arguments as fallacious. we would have to approve of it, but it silver were truly productive. Later The condusion of the new would show that if we disapproved of these two theories lost any serious fol­ approach was that uproduction" it, we would have to do so on grounds lowing,6 but two others remained pop­ means satisfaction of wants. It is pro­ other than its unproductiveness. ular for a while: that anything which ductive to make a physical object only Does gambling satisfy the wants of did not result in a new physical object insofar as that object enables someone its participants? Do gamblers enjoy was unproductive, and that what we to satisfy a desire. In satisfying desires, gambling? If they do, then gambling is would now call Uservice" jobs were the physical object (such as a shirt) productive, in much the same way that unproductive. (These two views are yields services. All production is ulti­ sports, religious services, or psycho­ not the same, and do not necessarily mately production of services desired therapy are productive. mesh together well, for a provider of by consumers. The musician giving a services, such as an architect, may live performance is being directly pro­ Gambling as Recreation assist in the creation of a new physical ductive in the only way in which it is The outstanding theorist of gam­ object, such as a house.) intelligible to be productive: he is satis­ bling, Reuven Brenner, points out that Adam Smith contended in 1776 that fying the wants of consumers, in this it comes in two types.8 There is gam­ the labor of domestic servants, govern­ case of listeners. The producer of a bling - call it urecreational" - which ment officials, the military, uchurch­ shirt is being productive more indi­ takes up a lot of the gambler's time, men, lawyers, physicians, men of rectly, by making an object which will and gambling which does not. Many Liberty 29 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

people derive considerable enjoyment - all group pastimes which people what he pays for. Is playing the lottery from recreational gambling. pursue because they enjoy them. inescapably irrational? If it is, then lot­ Recreational gamblers do not gamble Samuelson's mistake - a surprising tery playing may perhaps be consid­ primarily to gain financially, but to blunder coming from an economist­ ered unproductive ex post.n enjoy themselves by playing a game. lies in counting only the monetary Anti-gambling dogmatists usually The possibility of monetary gain or transactions. Of course gambling does hold a distinctive interpretation of the loss adds spice to the game. not create new physical goods; it motivation for gambling. They main­ Many forms of recreational gam­ directly yields utility to the players. tain that gambling occurs because indi­ bling involve some skill, and these viduals seek monetary gain, that this games are therefore not sharply differ­ Are Lotteries Productive? desire for monetary gain must be dis­ ent from games like golf or chess, Many people will readily agree that appointed in most cases, and that where there is some luck and people if a concert, a baseball match, or an therefore the persistence of gambling is pay to play competitively, the winners evening's conversation are considered . irrational - either stupid or involun­ receiving substantial prizes. In poker, productive, a poker game might also tary. It is often contended (or just the amount of luck per hand may be assumed) that a rational person would high, but this evens out with many never gamble. Gambling, on this inter­ hands, so that the element of skill will This willingness to pay for pretation, occurs only because gam­ tend to predominate in the course of a insurance more (sometimes blers fail to understand elementary few hours' play.9A serious chess game probability theory, or, understanding may easily take five or six hours; it is vastly more) than its "expected it, cannot bring themselves to act upon doubtful whether the outcome of five value" is lauded to the skies as it. The cliche that lotteries are "a volun­ hours' poker is any less governed by the epitome of responsible tary tax on the stupid" echoes Sir skill. Recreational gambling is no less William Petty (1623-1687), who argued productive than tenpin bowling, ball­ behavior. for state management of lotteries on room dancing, or barbershop singing the grounds that the state already had 1o the care of lunatics and idiots. be judged productive. But there is Gambling prohibitionists are another kind of gambling: playing the Ifyou want to answer the "liberals," including the always falling over themselves to liberalprofessors, you need lottery. Surely this can't be primarily "explain" (in the Lardnerian sense) GEORGE REISMAN'S program of an enjoyable way to pass the time. It that "gamblers must lose in the long SELF-EDUCATION IN THE DEFENSE OF seems to be done in hope of financial run," that "the odds are stacked CAPITALISM gain, but what if that hope is a product against the gambler," that "gamblers based on his new 1.096-page book of delusion? CAPfTAUSM: A TREArlSE ON ECONOMICS as a whole can only lose," and so forth. An activity may be anticipated to They pronounce these marvelous Learn about itat be productive, but found not to be pro­ insights as though they were gems of hltp:/home.sprynet.com/sprynet/tjs..,pep ductive after the fact. Drilling for oil wisdom which gamblers must have . Or write for free catalog to: may be unproductive if no oil is found. The Jefferson School. Dept. L overlooked. And perhaps a tiny minor­ PO Box 2934. Laguna Hills. CA 92654 Technical terms sometimes used for such a distinction are ex ante (looking ity of gamblers have indeed missed Send in this ad, and receive a $14.95 value free of forward before the outcome) and ex these earth-shaking. commonplaces ­ charge with any order of$50 or more. (OtTer good only after all, people have been known to whlle supplies last.) post (looking backward after the out­ come). The anti-gambling ideologue make silly mistakes in all departments may say: Granted that gambling is pro­ of life, from music to marriage, so ductive ex ante, it is most often unpro­ there's no reason why gambling ductive ex post. should be immune. But I can't see any The Last Delllocrat Normally we would expect a per­ evidence that the general run of gam­ son to learn from his mistakes, to give blers behave irrationally, or that they Bill Clinton will be the last up futile endeavors and turn his atten­ would stop gambling if they took a Democrat Americans send to the tion to more successful avenues. course in probability theory.12 Oval Office in a long time ­ Therefore, the mere fact that someone perhaps the last ever. So says R.W. Is Gambling Bradford in The Last Democrat, a persists with some activity strongly daring new book that blows the lid suggests that this activity is productive Unproductive Ex Post? off the Clinton regime. The Last for that person. It is claimed, however, On the most straightforward level Democrat also dissects Whitewater, that the gambler is unable to learn the lottery player gets precisely what Waco, and other Clinton fiascos, disasters, and holocausts. From from experience. He is like a driller for he pays for: an equal chance with other bimbo eruptions to the ballooning oil who keeps coming up dry, but players of netting a very large sum of national debt, we've got Clinton repeatedly pours money into an end­ money, of becoming rich. The anti­ covered. Don't miss it! less series of unsuccessful drills. gambling ideologue, however, will $14.95 plus $1.00 s&h Because of a flaw in his thinking, he is press the point: objectively, the lottery Uberty Foundation P.O. Box 1181 unable to learn from experience, player gets exactly what he pays for, Port Townsend, WA 98368 despite the fact that he doesn't get but he is unable to evaluate it correctly, Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

so he never gets what he believes he is commonly around 60 percent, value" of a lottery ticket (the prize pays for. He does not appreciate how though it is sometimes more than 70 money multiplied by the chance of slim are his chances of becoming rich. percent, and with some of the new winning). There are many cases where His intuitive notion of his chance of state lotteries is little more than 50 per­ it clearly ought not to do so (for exam­ winning is unrealistically high because cent.18 If lotteries were purely private ple, if the price of a ticket is one's of a peculiar mental defect. 13 and open to competition, this figure entire income for the next few weeks, How does the anti-gambling would immediately rise to well over 90 so that one will die of starvation unless preacher know that the lottery player percent19 (except where particular lot­ one wins the prize, it would not be sen­ over-rates his chances? Why don't we teries were openly allied with charita­ sible to enter with a one-in-a-million suppose that, on average, the player ble donation), but it could never reach chance of winning, even if the prize rates his chances exactly correctly?14 100 percent without the lottery's mak­ were so heavily subsidized that the Anti-gambling zealots reply that he ing a loss. Just suppose, however, that expected value of a ticket were a thou­ then would never play the lottery! This a lottery were subsidized, so that 105 sand times the ticket price). argument is fatally circular and there­ percent of the prize money were A rational person doesn't have to fore worthless. Although anti­ returned in prizes. Would it then value a one-in-a-million chance of get- gambling zealots often insinuate that become rational always to buy lottery rational people would not gamble, tickets, and irrational to fail to do so? If there exists no serious argument for so, how many tickets? How much of Lottery players seem to any such assumption. one's income would it be obligatory, if understand the odds quite well The claim that the gambler overesti­ one were rational, to allocate to lottery mates his chances is usually asserted as tickets? Suppose now that the lottery - unlike the anti-gambling a blind dogma, with no evidence were hugely subsidized, so that, say, lobbyists, who demonstrate offered. However, some anti-gambling five times the ticket revenues were their innumeracy every time propagandists mention, as though it returned in prizes (but most entrants were significant, the fact that the whole would still win nothing), what then? they open their mouths. class of lottery players must lose on At what point, as we increased the sub­ balance. In technical terms, playing the sidy to the lottery, would it become lottery is not a "fair" bet; the "expected incumbent upon any rational person to ting a million dollars at precisely one value" of a lottery ticket is below the buy a ticket? dollar. You may value such a chance at price of the ticket.15 There is no such point - though one cent or at five dollars - either way The expenses of organizing a lot­ there would empirically be a point (though this may. tell' us something tery have to be covered out of sales of where the majority of people, or the about your personality) there's nothing majority of people with math degrees, wrong with you.20 However, assume would judge that one would have to be for a moment that the "expected value" Lottery tickets are the jani­ a lunatic not to buy at least one ticket. theory of rational gambling were cor­ This kind of thing is a matter of per­ rect. Suppose that you paid a dollar for tor's cattle futures. To blame sonal preference, a matter of one's per­ a ticket giving you one chance in a mil­ him for playing the lottery is sonality and worldview. It is lion of winning $700,000, with $300,000 like reproaching him for not "subjective" in the sense that there is of ticket sales going to run the lottery no single demonstrably correct answer and payoff the state. The expected having the good taste to drive a for any rational agent. Such judgments value of your one-dollar ticket would Ferrari. can be influenced by miscalculations or be 70 cents. Only 30 cents would have other mistakes, but if all mistakes were to be explained by non-pecuniary ele­ eliminated, there would remain a ments (a sense of participation, giving tickets. Therefore, the amount returned diversity of preferences. Given these something to a good cause, and so in prizes is lower than the amount paid preferences, one's behavior is also forth, or, if we want to indulge in for tickets.16 A technically "fair" lottery affected by objective circumstances like flights of fancy, by "irrational compul­ would be one in which the total prize one's income. sion" or "enhanced daydreaming"). It money were equal to the total money A lottery player will usually prefer would follow that at least 70 cents out paid for tickets. In such a lottery, what a lottery which returns 90 percent of of each and every dollar spent on lot­ is called the "expected value" of a the ticket revenues to one which tery tickets would indisputably be ticket would be the same as the ticket returns only 80 percent. Therefore, rationally allocated. Is this better or price. It is an error to suppose that this some will be induced to play at 90 per­ worse than the dollars spent on furni­ offers a criterion of rationality: that it cent who would not play at 80 percent. ture or books? Casual discussion of the must be irrational to play the lottery But someone who plays the lottery rationality of buying a ticket often tac­ when the expected value is below the buys a chance of being in for a big win, itly assumes that "expected value" is ticket price. That any such supposition and there is no justification for the the rule, but then proceeds as though is faulty can be seen upon a moment's assumption that the individual's valua­ the entire sum spent on tickets would reflection.17 tion of this chance, the amount of util­ be shown to be irrationally spent, when The proportion of total ticket reve­ ity he derives from being aware of it, in fact (on the erroneous assumption nues returned in prizes from lotteries has to coincide with the "expected that expected value should fix the Liberty 31 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

buyer's valuation of a ticket) only as the epitome of responsible behavior. sively prattle on and on about problem something less than half of the ticket Failure to take this unfair bet is com­ gamblers, people who gamble away price would then, arguably, be spent monly considered thoroughly foolish their life savings and desert their fami­ irrationally. and even irrational. In the debate over lies for the gaming tables. Such cases The fact that a lottery is not techni­ Hillary Clinton's health care plan, it are a tiny proportion of gamblers, and cally "fair" follows automatically from was generally considered a self­ most of the people who behave like the fact that the costs of running the evident scandal that an appreciable this would behave just as badly if gam­ lottery have to be covered out of ticket number of young, fit, comparatively bling did not exist. Typically, and over­ sales, and is otherwise a complete red high-income people chose not to buy whelmingly, gamblers practice strict herring from which no conclusions health insurance, such a scandal that it self-discipline and moderation.26 If about the rationality of the players warranted their being compelled to buy they are on low incomes and play the may legitimately be drawn. It's a fea­ it - forced to make this extremely lottery regularly, ·they often spend less ture of any system for re-allocating "unfair" bet.22 than the price of a six-pack per week. existing endowments, such as a sub­ What goes for insurance goes also Any freedom of any sort affords the scription to the March of Dimes: orga­ for precautionary outlays of a non­ opportunity for foolish behavior by a nizing a subscription costs something, pecuniary kind, like wearing a car seat foolish minority, and that exceptional so the total paid to beneficiaries must belt or getting a polio shot. In a typical behavior can never justify clamping be less than the total contributed. This recent diatribe against gambling, iron shackles on the overwhelming is ineluctable, and in no way sinister. 21 totally bereft of any serious thought majority of people who are sensible A lottery is simply a way in which a lot and seething with the malignant com­ and self-disciplined. ofpeople each put in a small sum, and pulsion to control other people's lives, The allegation that gamblers are irrational can be tested.27 We can look then a few of those people picked at one Robyn Gearey blasts the New York at their behavior for signs of irrational­ random get large sums. Nothing in the state lottery because, inter alia, the odds ity. In all respects which I have seen world could possibly be more harmless of winning a big prize are less than the reported, the vast majority of lottery or more innocent than this. odds of being struck by lightning.23 Aside from the question of whether players behave as if they were rational. Is Insurance Irrational~ this is factually correct,24 Gearey evi­ They prefer games where the odds are better. (Everyone understands that, to Insurance is a negative lottery. In dently believes that being struck by maintain a viable state lottery, private buying insurance, we pay a small sum lightning is a negligibly unlikely event lotteries have to be outlawed.) They now to guard against the low probabil­ which shouldn't influence a rational bet only a small amount per week. ity of losing a large sum in the future, person's plans, yet my guess is that When they win a big prize and become just as, with a lottery, we pay a small Gearey does not inveigh with compar­ rich, they husband their winnings able enthusiasm against the installa­ sum now to engineer a low probability prudently.28 of winning a large sum in the future. tion of lightning rods.25 People play the lottery more if they Insurance is always an unfair bet ­ have few other options with lottery­ much less fair than a competitively Lottery Players Are Rational like qualities: the stock market, venture run lottery, because the costs of run­ Some months ago, a thousand­ capitalism, an exciting career, a song­ ning an insurance company greatly pound man was in the news. He had writing avocation.29 Young, talented exceed the costs of administering a lain on his bed for years; his main people with few commitments have lottery. physical exercise was calling the local many such options, and will respond Do the ideologues who berate gam­ deli to send round a few dozen sand­ rationally by playing the lottery rarely. blers for their irrational short­ wiches at a time. The medics had to A 55-year-old janitor with ten kids and sightedness also berate those who, for knock down a wall to get him out of no equity has hardly any options, and example, insure the contents of their his house and carry him to the will respond rationally by playing the houses against fire? Quite the contrary! hospital. lottery more frequently. This is just This willingness to pay for insurance It would not be sensible, in a dis­ what we observe; it fully corroborates more (sometimes vastly more) than its cussion of whether to let individuals the rationality of playing the lottery. "expected value" is lauded to the skies decide for themselves what to eat, to Lottery tickets are the janitor's cattle keep bringing up the case of futures. To blame him for playing the this thousand-pound monster. lottery is like reproaching him for not Similarly, it would not be having the good taste to drive a appropriate, in a discussion of Ferrari. whether to permit people to Lottery players seem to understand attend a church of their own the odds quite well (unlike the anti­ choosing, to endlessly pontifi­ gambling lobbyists, who demonstrate cate about the Heaven's Gate their innumeracy every time they open suicides. their mouths); the players certainly do Yet just such irrelevance is understand with perfect clarity that it 'B~/,o the normal practice with anti­ is far more likely than not that if they "I told you algebra wasn't something to eat." gambling bigots, who compul- play every week of their lives they will 32 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

never win a big prize. They still think Lottery players hold that it is better to misunderstanding. Gambling itself it is worth playing, and it is just ignor­ have played and lost than never to occupies the final stage of production: it's ance to imagine that this judgment of have played at all. Who is to say that a consumer activity, like watching TV or jogging. Manufacturing TV sets, jogging theirs must rest upon a miscalculation. they are wrong? 0 shoes, casinos, lottery tickets, or roulette wheels "adds value." Incidentally, gamblers watch less TV than non-gamblers, though they read more, go to the opera and museums more often, Notes: and are more sociable (Brenner, p. 38). 11. Alternatively, the proponent of the 1. For some of the evidence for these takes over the states' and cities' traditional irrationality of the lottery might agree that statements, see the summary in Reuven role of regulating gambling. playing is productive both ex ante and ex Brenner, with Gabrielle A. Brenner, 6. The first is now almost precisely reversed post, but insist that the ex post judgment is Gambling and Speculation: A Theory, A in the minds of many followers of Ross necessarily based on error. The refutation History, and a Future ofSome Human Perot and Patrick Buchanan: only the of this position is along similar lines. Decisions (Cambridge: Cambridge building of gadgets, preferably of metal, is 12. "Rationality" is a term with a range of University Press, 1990), pp. 37-42. The considered truly productive. "Hamburger senses. I do not use the term here in a current anti-gambling campaign has flipping" - providing meals for people­ sense so weak that any deliberate action, begotten a spate of bogus scholarly has become the very paradigm of "studies" purporting to show that however foolish, would count as rational, unproductiveness. nor in a sense so strong that any gambling has deleterious consequences 7. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes ofthe for the culture and economy. This intellectual mistake would suffice for Wealth ofNations, ed. Edwin Cannan literature consists largely of the same irrationality. My use of the term here (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, writers quoting each other's guesses about covers any demonstrable mistake which, 1976), p. 352. the evil effects of gambling, and passing once understood, would necessarily cause these off as data. When one tracks down 8. Brenner, pp. 20-21. Brenner's is the best the individual to stop gambling. the ultimate sources in these works, one book ever written on gambling. Although Gambling is like piloting airplanes: the finds that they are often anecdotal I agree with nearly all of Brenner's individuals involved may not always impressions, for example: the opinions of criticisms of orthodox opinion on compute everything to perfection, but the people like Gamblers Anonymous gambling, I reject the lynchpin of his own very pursuit of the activity in question is activists. The methodology of this theory: that non-recreational gambling not, I am claiming, typically dependent on literature precludes the turning up of any occurs only because people crave an error. findings other than those assumed at the increase specifically in their relative 13. The case of a lottery is unusual, because outset. No studies with any semblance of income, independent of their desire for an we cannot simply ask the individual what rigor have yet confirmed the horrific absolute increase in income. he thinks of the outcome after it has fantasies of the anti-gambling ideologues. 9. Where there is recreational gambling with appeared. The fact that the player has not some skill involved, a resourceful player won does not prove that he was wrong to 2. Paul A. Samuelson, Economics: An may win in the long run. There is no play (any more than the fact that a person Introductory Analysis. Seventh edition (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967), p. 409. reason why the "house" or the "bookie" wins proves that he was right to play): the player knew all along, of course, that he Samuelson's italics. would necessarily object to some players making consistent gains. The majority of very probably would not win. 3. The Luck Business: The Devastating recreational gamblers, whose interest in 14. In view of recent evidence that smokers Consequences and Broken Promises of winning is less predominant, or whose generally overestimate the health risks of (New York: America's Gambling Explosion skill is unremarkable, ultimately pay for smoking, we may suspect that lottery The Free Press, 1995), passim. The term the winnings of the prize-winners and the players underestimate their chances of "cannibalization" seems to have arisen in gains of the "house." This majority may winning. The smug, mindless propaganda business corporations, to denote new still be "ahead" in non-pecuniary terms, in of anti-smoking bigotry and products which might take business away the enjoyment they derive from playing. anti-gambling bigotry, spraying over us from a company's existing lines. Its In utility terms, which is all that matters, day after day from all the major media, application to gambling is unhappy; the everybody may be a net winner. An with no thought of "equal time" for word seems to have been picked up as a interesting case is that of blackjack, where dissidents, may well be reducing vacuous but ominous-sounding there is a sure-fire method of winning aggregate social utility by causing some instrument of abuse. consistently. Although the existence of people at the margins to misguidedly give 4. Gambling is still severely regulated this method is very widely known, most up smoking or gambling. The clout of the everywhere, so a state or city which blackjack players don't bother to learn it tobacco industry or the gambling simultaneously repealed all restrictions on (which takes a few weeks of intensive industry, which these bigots routinely private gambling would at once become a study), so casinos go on offering a game revile, is as gossamer compared with the shining beacon of affluence. But the which they are bound to lose in the long clout of the belligerent prohibitionist restrictive climate of opinion makes such a run to any customers who apply the lobby. bold move politically unfeasible. method. See the discussion of this in 15. "Fair bet" and"expected value" are 5. As the anti-gambling enthusiasts succeed Willem Albert Wagenaar, Paradoxes of technical terms. They have nothing to do in repealing local legalizations, the Gambling Behavior (Hove, England: with the vernacular sense of these words. process will go into reverse. Those Erlbaum, 1988), an interesting book An "unfair" bet may be entirely fair, or localities which are slow to re-impose which, however,like so many, never for a vice versa, while an "expected value" is prohibition will begin to see big gains moment questions the reigning dogma not what anybody expects. from visitors. The anti-gambling crusaders that gamblers' motivations must involve 16. Under free competition, the return to are keenly aware of this, hence their irrationality. investors in all industries, including strategy of going for a "national gambling 10. Some writers castigate gambling because gambling, will be roughly the same, on policy," in which the federal government there is no "value added." This displays a average, as the rate of interest. Liberty 33 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

17. Consider whether you would rather have that winners stop playing would be 1 in 606,945, or .000001648. Suppose a a dollar or a one-in-50,000 chance of explained by the fact that they can now lottery in which a ticket costs $1, each $50,000. The one thing you will not say is afford superior ways of being helpful to ticket is· entered for 1draw, exactly half that you can see no difference between others.) The altruistic theory of the lottery the ticket money is distributed in prizes, these options, that you are indifferent would explain why players who never and each prize is $250,000. The probability between them. But once a difference in the win rarely show any resentment against of one ticket's winning is then 1 in valuation of these two outcomes is winners, but rather evince sympathetic SOO,OOO,decidedly better than being acknowledged, it automatically follows delight. struck by lightning. Suppose instead that that it may be rational to give up one in 22. Some theorists have considered it every prize is $500,000; it follows that the exchange for the other. puzzling that many people both insure chance of winning must be 1 in a million. 18. Anti-gambling preachers frequently themselves against risks and play the Now you have to buy two tickets to make include in the"costs" of gambling all of lottery. Various solutions have been the probability of your winning a prize the money spent by gamblers, without offered to this supposed paradox. But better than the probability of being struck subtracting the distributed winnings, there is no paradox. It is consistent for a by lightning. If every prize is $5 million, which at a stroke multiplies the supposed person to pay a small amount to greatly you need to buy 17 tickets, and if every costs several-fold. This is not willful reduce the already small likelihood of a prize is $10 million, you need to buy 33 deceit, just the normal intellectual laziness big drop in income and simultaneously to tickets to improve upon your chance of of these anti-gambling tub-thumpers. pay a small amount to greatly increase the being struck by lightning. Of course, the 19. About 95 percent of the money wagered very small likelihood of a big rise in picture is complicated by a range of in Las Vegas casinos is returned as income. (It is sometimes claimed that the different prizes, and by other factors, but winnings. An appreciable chunk of the position I take here implies that the rich it's clear that anyone who buys several remaining five percent goes in taxes. would not"gamble," and that it is tickets a month for a year has much better prospects than someone who hopes to 20. If someone you loved desperately could therefore refuted by the fact that the rich collect the insurance on being struck by be saved from a painful and potentially do "gamble." But the rich do not play the lightning. fatal disease only by getting a million lottery, a fact of which socialist opponents dollars, and the only possible way to get a of the lottery as a devilish capitalist 25. The main thrust of Gearey's piece is that million dollars were to play the lottery, exploitation device remind us ad nauseam. the New York State Lottery is described wouldn't you play? Of course you would: The rich gamble recreationally; that's a misleadingly by its promoters, which is it would be contemptible not to do so. The different matter.) doubtless true - it is, after all, an arm of principle is not altered if the person you 23. "The Numbers Game," The New Republic, the government. Yet her very article is love so much is yourself, and the disease May 19th, 1997. filled with misrepresentations, beginning is not being rich. 24. The only way to defend this claim would with the line at the top of the first page: 21. A lottery is very much like a charitable be to suppose that Gearey was comparing, "The Lottery: Ticket to Poverty." One only subscription, and may partake of some of say, one's chance of being struck by has to.substitute some other item of its motivation. Begin with the benevolent lightning in a whole year with one's working-class expenditure ("Video idea that you would like someone on a chances of making a big win by the Rentals: Ticket to Poverty") to see the low income to become rich, add the purchase of one ticket. This would be utter mendacity of this phrase. Gearey random selection of that person, and you deceptive in light of Gearey's evident says people play because they believe the have a lottery which might take place reliance on the stereotype of someone who state's lies that playing the lottery might even under pure altruism. (The player plays the lottery habitually and heavily. A really lift them from poverty or drudgery" would have to make himself eligible for a quick exercise with a pocket calculator (p. 19). It's a fact well known to Gearey prize in order not to deny the other will give us some rough idea of the that the lottery not only might really lift participants their share of altruistic utility; comparison. One estimate of a U.S. players from poverty or drudgery but restricting the prizes to those who have resident's chance of being struck by regularly does so. Gearey is so entered would be justified by the lightning in one year is 606,944 to 1 emotionally disturbed by her irrational consideration that some minimal level of against (Heron House, The Odds on hatred of ordinary people spending their goodwill, some spark of human decency, Virtually Everything [New York: Putnam's, money as they choose to spend it that she would be necessary to qualify. The fact 1980], p. 181). This means a probability of does not balk even at the most ridiculous falsehoods. 26. Brenner, pp. 37-42 27. Abt and her colleagues summarize the research findings as follows: "Observations in a wide variety of times and places have shown that gamblers are "LEGAL TENDER? realistically aware of their chances of winning and conduct their wagering with deliberation and disciplined concentration" (Vicki Abt, et al., The sure, I'll take it... but I prefer Business ofRisk: Commercial Gambling in Mainstream America [Lawrence: University e-gold bnll of Kansas Press, 1985], p. 11). 28. Brenner, pp. 42-44 29. The government has effectively http://www.e-gold.com eliminated high-'risk, high-return opportunities for low-income people, such as the old "bucket shops," which enabled . people to speculate on price fluctuations with only a few dollars' outlay. 34 Liberty ~ports

Circus Taximus by Michelle Malkin

In Rome, the rich subsidized sports to keep the poor quiet. In Seattle, they've turned it around.

Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor who ordered construction of the Taj Mahal, shamelessly exploited his subjects in pursuit of private indulgence. At least he had an excuse. He was, as we modems now describe it, "working through his grief" over the death of his favorite wife. With public financing firmly in hand, the widower Jahan squandered 22 years, 20,000 workers, and 40 million rupees dium costs; taxpayers will foot the ground on a publicly-subsidized, to build his marble monument of eter­ rest of the bill. Actual users and fans $414 million retractable-roofed ball­ park. nallove. will pay a mere 16 percent of the pub­ Like all sports boosters, Allen's Three centuries later, Microsoft lic's portion of construction costs through stadium parking and admis­ cheerleading squad, a shadowy outfit mogul Paul Allen - with permission sions taxes. The rest will come from called Football Northwest, claimed from 51 percent of Washington state's diverting existing taxes, lottery prof­ there would be "real adverse impacts voters and backing from both the its, and .an increase in hotel-motel on the local economy" if the Democratic and the Republican politi­ taxes. Seahawks left the state. But the pom­ cal establishments - will ransack tax­ Taxpayers pay the lion's share of pom wavers neglected to mention the payers' pockets to fund his high-tech, the cost, but Allen will receive 80 per­ "substitution effect." It's simple: peo­ open-air $425 million football monu­ cent of the profits from the stadium, ple have only so much income that ment. Allen draped his unprece­ plus all revenues from personal seat they will spend on recreational activi­ dented special ballot campaign with licenses, luxury suite sales, television ties. If they go to a ballgame, it gener­ an egalitarian cloak. (It's "our" sta­ rights, and advertising. Taxpayers ally means that they are not spending dium. A palace for "future genera­ won't get a check in the mail - but the same dollars locally to go to the tions." An investment for the Public they will reap those intangible, theater, movies, skating rink, etc. Each Good.) But the billionaire Allen's immeasurable dividends of Civic dollar spent at the sports event usu­ naked tax grab is as exploitative and Pride, Team Spirit, and World-Class ally replaces the dollar spent else­ immoral as the emperor Jahan's. Bragging Rights. where in the local economy. The net Don't expect it to last as long, how­ Ah, the benefits of government­ spending impact is nil. ever: the stadium that will be torn coerced ownership. Baltimore's Oriole Park in do'\-\n for the new football-palace was This subsidized stadium madness Camden Yards is the most oft-cited erected less than three decades ago. has been sweeping the country. Since example of a successful public invest­ Taxpayers still haven't finished pay­ 1990, more than two dozen sports sta­ ment. The stadium has generated new ing for it. diums and arenas have been built in jobs - but at a cost to taxpayers of What exactly will participants in the United States and Canada. Five some $127,000 per job. Economist this "public-private partnership" get communities (Baltimore, Cincinnati, Bruce Hamilton of Johns Hopkins for their investment? Some partners, it Cleveland, St. Louis, and Nashville) University estimates the state will lose turns out, are more equal than others. have ponied up at least $250 million $11 million a year on the deal. Allen bought the Seattle Seahawks each for luxurious athletic venues. When the economic arguments fall and will chip in one-quarter of the sta- Earlier this spring, Seattle broke apart, the boosters start crowing Liberty 35 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

about civic spirit: save the [fill-in-the­ lions in subsidies through the financ­ preferences of the few. blanks]! They're losing money; they've ing of luxurious new stadiums. As Once upon a time, in less demo­ brought us immeasurable joy; a decent ABC's John Stossel summed it up in a cratic civilizations, an emperor's wish stadium is the least we could give televised confrontation earlier this year was an unquestioned entitlement. back. Alarmist cries of financial hemor­ with Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Nothing was more important than rhaging led legislators in Olympia to Chicago Bulls and White Sox: "You're what the ruler decreed was important save the Mariners with a half-billion­ a freeloader. You're taking money to him. Ignore thy hunger. Abandon dollar park. When a business gets a from poor taxpayers to make you, a thy children. The Taj Mahal must be new subsidy, its value skyrockets: rich guy, richer." built! between 1976 and 1992, the value of Here in Washington, Allen's obse­ Times change. Today, when an the Seattle baseball team increased quious poobahs accused critics of individual billionaire businessman some 1,300 percent. engaging in class warfare and wealth­ calls on taxpayers to subsidize his pri­ Capitalism is grand, but this frenzy bashing. Nonsense. I am all for the vate wishes, it is more than a romantic of sports corporate welfare giveaways kind of free-market competition that indulgence. It is a campaign for corpo­ should put any honest businessman to made Paul Allen a rich man in the rate welfare. And when such cam­ shame. The entrepreneurial spirit felt first place. What stinks is Allen's sup­ paigns across the country insist on by players and team owners would be port for a civic charade whose pri­ making absolutely false claims about praiseworthy if it weren't for the fact mary objective was to distort market who pays and who loses, impudent that less-well-off taxpayers are being forces and manipulate government voters must treat it for what it really is: continually asked to provide them mil- policy so that the many pay for the a royal fraud. 0

Letters, continued from page 5

enough people would voluntarily pro­ the cold shoulder." Ramsey's proposition that deflation vide all the disabled and unemployed Good for Reagan. But on December increases the risk of loan defaults fails with care and three meals a day - it 8, 1987, Armand Hammer was an hon­ the Lucas critique by assuming thatbor­ may be true, but we shouldn't take it ored guest at Reagan's White House rowers form an irrational expectation for granted." dinner for Gorbachev. Reagan, by then about the future: that loan payments of ButfollOWing the same reasoning, eVidently not informed about what was fixed nominal value will remain fixed in should we assume thatpeoplewill going on by the unprincipled accom­ real value. choose the right religions? Drugs? modationists managing his life, gave Similarly, it assumes that the lenders Prices? Spouses? Bedtimes? I canima­ Hammer a warm welcome. don't understand this either, for what gine peopleerring inall these responsi­ Sic transit gloria mundi. lender would originate a loan that he bilities. ButI will notjoin insuggesting John McClaughry expects to default? Presumably a lender that "we" have a problemhere. Kirby, Vt. with a given risk tolerance in an infla­ Unfortunately, the strongest bond tionary economy would have the same whichjoins libertarians seems to be neg­ Paper Tiger risk tolerance in a deflationary economy ative. We share a common complaint: It is interesting to examine Bruce and would act in such a way as to too much state. But I like to think that Ramsey's argument against the gold achieve that level of risk. we must share a positive bond as well: a standard ("1'11 Settle for Paper," July Ramsey's suggestion that it would belief in voluntary order. We canbet 1997) in light of another article in the "raise all kinds of hell" for employers to that people will invent voluntary ways same issue of Liberty, Watson and cut pay, or for tenants to demand lower and organizations to solve almost every Walters' report ("The Death of Central rents from time to time, suffers the same problem imaginable. Those voluntary Banking") on the new economics. way. Under our current system, itis ways are normally more complex and Under a system of fiat currency and almost a given that one's landlord will more difficult to imagine. But they per­ its inevitable inflation, lenders demand raise the rent every year, but the land­ form, in the long run, better than ways higher interest rates because they expect lord knows that ifhe raises it too far that rely upon coercion. their future dollars to be worth less, and above the equilibrium price his tenant Richard o. Hammer borrowers are willing to pay those rates will find a cheaper or better place and Hillsborough, N.C. for the same reason. Under a true gold move out. Under a gold standard with standard, a prospective borrower faces continual deflation, the landlord Alas, Poor Ronnie the reality that loanpayments fixed in expects rents to fall and knows, there­ Ralph Raico's July item on Al Gore nominal value actually rise in real fore, that his tenant will take a hike ifhe ("Tuition Bills of the Rich and value. He knows that a nominally fixed does not remain competitive. In either Murderous," July 1997) notes that payment actually costs him dearer over case, both landlord and tenant behave crypto-Bolshevik businessman time, and will adjust his plans accord­ according to their rational expectations, Armand Hammer was Gore's honored ingly. The market will fix interest rates and the same holds for employers and guest at Reagan's 1981 inauguration, according to that expectation, and inno­ employees. but that "Reagan, evidently informed vators as always will devise new ways Samuel McKee of what was going on, gave Hammer to structure loans to help it along. Yellow Springs, Ohio 36 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 Profi Ie

A Rebel and a Drummer by Scott Bullock

Rush's outspoken individualist drummer talks to Liberty's interviewer about Ayn Rand, his left-wing critics, and the pleasures of not selling out.

Mention that you like Rush to p libertarian nalled his interest in Rand in 1975's Fly by Night. In that or conservative between the ages of 25 and 40, and album's"Anthem," Peart writes: you might be surprised at the response. Rather than I know they always told you immediately assume you are talking about a tubby right-wing Selfishness was wrong radio commentator, the person will likely think you mean a But it was for me, not you hard rock power trio from Canada whose songs have vigor­ I came to write this song. ously defended individualism and technology for over 20 years. Rand's influence and philosophy is evident in numerous With no Top-40 or MTV exposure, Rush - guitarist Alex other Rush songs, including many that have become FM rock Lifeson, bass player and vocalist Geddy Lee, and drummer staples. Peart's lyric for "Free Will" neatly sums up the vic­ Neil Peart - has nevertheless built up an enormous fan tim mentality of many alternative rock bands (and fans): base. Its last 16 albums have gone gold or platinum, and the There are those who think that group is one of the most successful and enduring live acts. They've been dealt a losing hand ... Rush has a strong allegiance among young people tired of All pre-ordained the nearly monolithic leftward slant of rock groups. Even a A prisoner in chains cursory listen to Rush will explain its attraction. As Bill A victim of venomous fate. Banasiewicz said in Visions, his biography of Rush, the main Here Peart could have been writing about Billy Corgan of interest of the group throughout its career, in addition to Smashing Pumpkins, who screams "Despite all my rage/ I making great music, has been in promoting human freedom. am still just a rat in a cage." But the Rush song rejects this The band released its first album in 1974, chock-full of sense of helplessness, insisting that Led Zeppelin-like guitar riffing, vocal wailing, and pedes­ trian lyrics. Things got much better by the second album You can choose a ready guide with the addition of drummer Neil Peart. Not only did Peart In some celestial voice bring an exciting rhythmic influence to the band, he also If you choose not to decide became the group's lyricist. You still have made a choice Peart's lyrics were a surprising change of pace, and You can choose from phantom fears unique in the annals of rock. At that time most rock lyrics fit And kindness that can kill into one of three categories: collectivist, left-wing political I will choose a path that's clear songs, maudlin singer-songwriter fare, or macabre heavy­ I will choose free will. metal posing. While some of Peart's musings resembled the (from Permanent Waves [1980]) science fiction-fueled sagas popularized by Yes, Genesis, and In the early 1980s (and even today on album-oriented rock other progressive rock groups, Peart's main inspiration was stations), it was hard to escape Rush's best known song, "Tom novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand. Indeed, Rush's epic Sawyer," from 1981's Moving Pictures album. Transforming 1976 album, 2112, was inspired by Rand's novel Anthem, a Twain's young individualist into a "modern-day warrior," dystopian tale of one man's struggle to revive individualism the song celebrates maintaining one's independence and in a world so collectivist that even the word "I" is prohibited. inquisitive spirit in an increasingly collectivist world. The In the liner notes to the album, Peart sets forth his apprecia­ song contains perhaps the most Randian nugget in all Rush tion for "the genius of Ayn Rand." Peart had actually sig- songs: "His mind is not for rent/To any god or government." Liberty 37 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

Rush's response to their increasing fame was the majestic he was so entranced by The Fountainhead. As Peart com­ "Limelight," also from Moving Pictures. Rather than whine mented in an interview with me, speaking from his home in about how rough it is being a rock star, the song takes a Toronto, Howard Roark, the book's hero, affirms the princi­ clear-headed approach to dealing with the pressures and ples of integrity, individualism, and self-reliance by which temptations of stardom. While admitting that "living on a Peart was already seeking to fashion his own life. lighted stage approaches the unreal," one must nevertheless Howard Roark stood as a role model for me - as exactly the put aside alienation and all of the other bogus complaints of way I already was living. Even at that tender age [18] I rock stars, and "get on with the fascination" of making already felt that. And it was intuitive or instinctive or inbred music. (If only Kurt Cobain had listened.) Driving home the stubbornness or whatever; but 1 had already made those point, the song features a blazing guitar riff and an electrify­ choices and suffered for them. ing solo by Alex Lifeson. Shortly after Peart joined Rush, the group faced a crisis. All these songs represent the band's most successful Rush's first three records had sold fairly well, but the record period, 1980 to 1984, when they transformed their style company wanted more and pressured the group to change from sometimes meandering progressive rock suites to its style. Consultants were brought in,.· and Rush was on the catchier, more tightly crafted songs. Nowhere is this· new verge of "selling out" to make its music more marketable. approach more evident than in the first song from After much debate and tension within the band, and Permanent Waves, "The Spirit of Radio," which was also lit­ between the record company and Rush's management, the erally the first song released in the 1980s, on January 1, group members decided to stick to their artistic visions and reject the advice of their would-be handlers. The result was 2112, a very successful album that both increased Rush's rep­ Peart describes himself as a "left-wing liber­ utation and record sales, and vindicated Peart's artistic tarian," noting that he could never be a conser­ vision. So it isn't surprising that Peart expresses some hostil­ ity toward salesmen, marketers, or anyone else who would vative due to the right's support of censorship undermine artistic integrity. and intolerance. The dilemma faced by Rush in the mid-1970s reflects a certain tension in Rand's philosophy - between her insis­ tence on integrity and individualism on the one hand,· and 1980. Hearing it in the car, amidst late '70s disco dreck, was the demands of the marketplace on the other. After all, busi­ a welcome shock, and instantly made fans of many who nesses are in a certain sense slaves to the preferences and had overlooked the less radio-friendly Rush songs of the desires of others (a fact often overlooked by those on the '70s. The song has an insistent, muscular sound that fairly left). If the consumer does not like its products, a business leaps from a car stereo, and is itself a paean to radio, and to fails, no matter how principled the capitalist or excellent his the sheer exhilaration of driving a car with a great song offerings~ coming over the airwaves. Of course, Rand never claimed that making money (or The song represents another consistent theme of Rush ­ selling records) should be the ultimate aim of an entrepren­ an appreciation and defense of science and technology. eur (although certainly he is entitled to the money he While many rock songs bemoan progress and technological makes). Rather, a businessperson, artist, scientist, or musi­ advancement, Rush uniquely embraces science, space explo­ cian should realize his own dreams and ambitions by adher­ ration (most notably in "Countdown," from Signals), and, on ing to the highest standard possible. Hopefully, others will the band's latest album (albeit with some reservations), the appreciate quality and be willing to pay for it. Ifnot, then the Internet and global communication. individual still keeps his integrity. And Peart doesn't attack "The Spirit of Radio" also represents, however, a certain capitalism so much as he criticizes anyone, inside or outside ambivalence in Peart's philosophy. Although his/ lyrics the business world, who would try to stop an individual almost always affirm individualism, several reveal a degree from achieving his vision. of suspicion about a fundamental tenet of Rand's philosophy "Subdivisions" (1982) also seems to attack one of the of "Objectivism" - its belief in the morality of commerce. crowning achievements of modern capitalism, the suburbs. "The Spirit of Radio" glorifies the technology of radio, butit Long a target of leftist culture critics, suburbs are generally also rails againstthe corruption of this bright medium by, of defended by free marketeers as a place where the working all people, "salesmen!" (sung in one of Geddy Lee's patented class can gain a modicum of comfort and independence shrieks). In "Natural Science," from the same album, Peart unknown in pre-capitalist or socialist societies. Peart, how­ ever, sees the 'burbs quite differently: states his belief that ultimately "art as expression/not as market campaigns/will still capture our imaginations." Sprawling on the fringes of the city Peart, a thoughtful, self-educated man, was introduced to In geometric order Objectivism by reading The Fountainhead while a teenager. An insulated border When he was 18, Peart moved from Canada to England to In between the bright lights pursue a music career; but unlike most of his peers, he never And the far unlit unknown. viewed music as a "mercenary endeavor." Music, to Peart, is Growing up it all seems so one-sided pure expression, and to play only for a paycheckis "prostitu­ Opinions all provided tion" and "pretty evil." He worked a day job to support him­ The future pre-decided self, and played only music he loved. It's little wonder that Detached and subdivided 38 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

In the mass production zone. excited by Woodstock. There is in fact no division there. In both cases you're talking about the things that people make Nowhere is the dreamer and do. So I didn't see any division, but of course Rand did, Or the misfit so alone. in seeing us all as the unwashed Bohemian hordes. Subdivisions - Although Peart is now inclined to write off Rand's hostil­ In the high school halls ity toward the Woodstock kids as a "generational thing," it In the shopping malls was her essay on Woodstock and rock music which forced Conform or be cast out ... him to realize that he did not agree with Rand on every issue. Any escape might help to smooth That was when I started to not become a Randroid, and The unattractive truth started to part from being a true believer. I realized that But the suburbs have no charms to soothe there were certain elements of her thinking and work that The restless dreams of youth. were affirming for me, and others that weren't. That's an (from Signals) important thing for any young idealist to discover - that you are still your own person. To Peart, the suburbs can crush individuality. But is this a repudiation of Objectivism? Most Objectivists and libertari­ Over the years, Peart has made fewer direct references to ans, and even some conservatives, share Peart's thoughtful Rand, and he admits that one cause of the decline has been skepticism toward mass culture. We may defend suburbs, strip malls, and a Boston Market on every block, but we truly glorify the upstart entrepreneur, the non-conforming artist, "So I didn't see any division between the and others who challenge conventional wisdom and powerful Apollo moonshot and Woodstock, but of course institutions (many ofwhich are dominated todayby the left). Furthermore, though he loathes the suburbs, Peart writes Rand did, in seeing us all as the unwashed tributes to cities: Bohemian hordes. II The buildings are lost In their limitless rise My feet catch the pulse and the purposeful the intense hostility such sentiments have evoked among stride rock critics, especially in Britain: I feel the sense of possibilities There was a remarkable backlash, especially from the I feel the wrench of hard realities English press - this being the late seventies, when collecti­ The focus is sharp in the city. vism was still in style, especially among journalists. They ("The Camera Eye" from Moving were calling us "junior fascists" and "Hitler lovers." It was a Pictures [1981]) total shock to me. Rand would probably not have objected to Peart's con­ Flip through any Rush review from the '70s and early '80s, trast between subdivisions and cities. She lived in and glori­ and you're likely to find a reference to the supposedly fascist fied Manhattan, not Westchester County. overtones in Rush lyrics - invariably in reaction to Peart's For long-time observers of Rush, it is clear that Peart has admiration for Rand. Peart says he was "shocked, stunned, drifted from his more obvious attachments to Objectivism. and wounded" that people could equate adherence to indi­ The more overtly Randian references in Peart's lyrics have vidualism, self-reliance,and liberty with fascism or dictator­ dwindled. Power Windows (1985) even contains a song called ship. This savage reaction awakened Peart to a "polarity" "Mystic Rhythms," in which Peart takes an almost worship­ between Rand's philosophy and that of critics. ful, animistic view of nature. On Rush's latest album, he For me, religion is life, and nothing else is worth living or seems to attack the West for supposedly causing Third dYiJlg for - or killing other people for. But a large part of World poverty: the world is convinced otherwise, so you tend to just allude to it in writing, but shut up about it when you're in an intol­ Half the world cares erant group. You know, the Salman Rushdie lesson. While half the world is wasting the day Half the world shares Convinced that he should stop sending up "flares" by While half the world is stealing away. directly referencing Rand, Peart worked to incorporate her ("Half the World," from Test for Echo ideas in a more subtle manner. The Randian elements in such [1996]) songs as "Tom Sawyer," "Free Will," and the more recent "Mission" (from 1987's Hold Your Fire) are far more effective But Peart says that he has few problems with Rand's phi­ than the heavy-handed style of "Anthem" and 2112. This losophy, citing only two specific areas of disagreement. movement away from hard-core Randianism paralleled Contrary to Rand's rejection of any form of government wel­ Peart's rejection of involvementin the organized movement: fare, Peart supports a safety net for those in need. Although he would prefer that welfare be funded voluntarily, he is not In the late seventies I subscribed to the Objectivist Forum for awhile. And it could be such a beautiful thing, it could be convinced that private charity alone could support the truly like a breath of fresh air coming in the mailbox. But it needy. Also, Peart was turned off by Rand's attacks on became petty and divisive and also factionalized.... I tend hippies and Woodstock: to stay away from it [now]. It's in the nature of the individu­ I always loved machines, and I always loved the workings alist ethos that you don't want to be co-opted. of mankind in making things. I stayed up all night to watch [Also], the ones most devoted to the cause are the ones the Apollo moon landing, and at the same time I was just as continued on page 46 Liberty 39 Perusal The Pest of the Alternative Press by Brian Doherty

The Reader's Digest of the left is hard to digest.

In times when thoughtful and informative left-wing magazines find it hard to ~op the 100,OOO-circulation mark, one unabashedly leftist magazine thrives. The Utne Reader claIms a circulation of 300,000, three times that of the Nation. Utne is largely a reprint magazine, and proudly calls itself the "best of the alternative press." It offers the implicit promise of being since become an annual rite, complete the one lens through which its reader­ American economy (driven by con­ with reader suggestions.) What could ship need view the world, a Reader's sumption, expanSion, and a myth change your life, Utne-style? of corporate progress) and still live Digest for self-styled progressives. Uninformed, mushy, credulous new up to the ideals we teach our chil­ Utne is named for its founder, Eric ageism, pick your brand. dren and claim as our own (hon­ Utne, who avoids directly stating the Utne asked its 1995 visionaries esty, fairness, responsibility, magazine's ideology, claiming only what they were "thinking and obsess­ accountability)?" that his magazine endorses activism ing about these days," and invited "Should I give in and have just a lit­ and eschews dogmatism. But like readers to respond in kind. (My job tle bit of plastic surgery on my next most who loudly declare their resis­ similarly requires me to read a politi­ vacation?" tance to dogmatism, Utne's stance on cal/cultural magazine's mail, and I "I'm 44 years old. No mate; no kids; most matters is both obvious and know it's not fair to judge a magazine I sleep with my dog. What predictable. by a random cross section of the mail happened?" From its first issue in 1983, the people throw its way. But Utne chose Those quotes, horrifyingly, are a magazine has focused largely on the to print these responses.) The readers' fair representation of Utne's tone and green movement and on personal responses are alternately disturbing, concerns: reflexive radicalism, goofy growth issues appealing to an aging depressing, and pathetic: spiritualism, a yuppie's worried con­ progressive bourgeoisie. Thus, though science, and an earnestness that leaves the magazine rarely writes about food "Is there any evidence that my meditations on world peace are little room for wit or lively writing. per se, it has a special circulation having any effect?" I don't mean to mock the obvi­ emphasis on health food stores. This ously deep pain these people are suf­ should tell you much of what you "Is an affair worth it? Resolved: No! or, maybe yes. Probably. Wait ..." fering, pain too deep for them to need to know about its intended make sense of. I do mean to question readership. "The one thing I can't get away from is feeling lonely all the time." the intellectual value of turning a magazine that sells itself as the best of The Utne Visionaries "I would say the biggest problem in the alternative press into a place for my mind ... [is] how I'm going to In 1995, Utne inaugurated a new helpless mewling, merely for the destroy patriarchy." design with a feature it was especially dubious therapeutic value of letting proud of: a list of "lOa Visionaties "If men bled, would tampons be people mew!. And mewling is, unfor­ Who Could Change Your Life." (The free?" tunately, a dominant tone in much of feature was so popular that it has "Is it possible to participate in the Utne, from tales of people so sensitive 40 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

to their environment that they can't thousands of copies. An egregious level of conceptual rigor). Utne touch ink, to dozens of pages of pain­ example is Andrew Harvey, a "spiri­ explains that "Proteans can laugh with fully self-absorbed chin-scratching tual" writer whose claim to visionary­ David Letterman's cynical humor one about whether we, in the world of hood is having worshipped a string of moment, and invoke divine guidance Utne, are really grown-up yet. different gurus over the years. And from elves and fairies the next." You'd Consider in this regard a selection Utne's non-superstitious contributors best go out for a doughnut at that of cover story topics from the past are, if anything, even more removed point. year: in September 1996, the maga­ from American reality than their nou­ When Utne gets its bevy of brilliant zine's cover advised readers to "Just veaux-spiritual comrades-in-ink: they visionary minds together to ask them Quit!"; by March 1997, that must have are hip-hop journalists, cultural libera­ probing, important questions, what it appeared too drastic, and readers were tionists, performance artists, Spike Lee comes up with is: "Where is the dark­ advised merely to "Slow Down" with - undifferentiated gasbags of all sorts. ness? Where is the light?" (JulyI the help of a guide to "Finding Your Among Utne visionaries, there's hardly August 1995).This sort of fustian isn't Natural Rhythm in a Speed-Crazed anyone who does anything other than designed to provoke pithy or useful World." In between, in February 1997, writing or talking, and almost no one responses, and indeed it doesn't. Utne had a cover story on "Therapy: who thinks or writes about a discipline Answering the question, activist Terry Healing our Culture, Healing that requires much beyond nebulous Tempest Williams urges us to "dare to Ourselves" - a curiously explicit blather. extend our notion of community to focus on the magazine's constant underlying reality, as if National God and Man at Utne Review were to run a cover story head­ Curiously, Utne turns a blind eye to It's hard to be polite about lined "Why the Republicans Are Better mainline American religion. Christ­ Than the Democrats." ianity offers almost everything a non­ the Utne Reader's biggest prob­ When the magazine broke tone prejudiced reader might assume is lem. Its terribly earnest fea­ from sensitivity to make room for a involved in the ideal Utne social vision. tures are very often, well, bone­ zesty and hilarious piece from the It can provide its adherents a thriving indie rock-zine Motorbooty, mocking and caring community, based in dumb. the literary efforts of rock stars, a ancient spiritual values, and it rejects reader huffed into the letter page, re­ materialism as the primary aim of life. establishing the Utne order. The let- But rather than respecting, or even include all life forms: plants, animals, acknowledging, Christianity's power rocks, rivers, and human beings." or influence as a force for Utneish The 1996 visionaries (MarchiApril change in American life (last time I 1996) offer Iittle better. We need to Among Utne VIsIonaries, checked there were still more self­ develop a science of ecstasy, they say, there's hardly anyone who does identified Christians than pagans in as well as a science of sacred invitation, anything other than writing or the United States), Utne reprinted in and to listen; we need both reference MayIIune 1995 an article by Marc and anxiety; we need a transformed talking, and almost no one who Cooper from the Nation, mongering capitalism, during an age of implemen­ thinks or writes about a disci­ fear of a fundamentalist takeover in tation. We need a lot of abstract nouns pline that requires much Colorado Springs. Perhaps Christianity that could mean everything or nothing. demands too rigorous a discipline for Most of all, according to visionary Bo beyond nebulous blather. the Utne mind, or maybe it's just too Lozoff, who teaches prisoners to medi­ old-fashioned, too much the religion of tate, "We are suffering terribly from ... last generation's bourgeoisie. Thus, not leaving time in our day for being ter's author, from Bowling Green State though the magazine often expresses deep, reflective people who appreciate University, accused the writers of this love for old things (urban designs, the sun coming up and going down." obviously humorous piece of "not hav­ technologies, economic structures), it Amen, brother. ing sought the facts about how and rejects the entire social milieu in which why these works were written." they were created. Humpmunch and Holdmeal Utne's visionaries often make their It's hard to be polite about the Utne Perhaps my favorite Utne moment living exhorting about ecology, psy­ Reader's biggest problem. Its terribly was its brief foray into another success­ chology, sociology, or "gender issues." earnest features are very often, well, ful modern charlatanism, "Futurism." But most frequently they market bone-dumb. In his JulyI August 1995 The magazine reprinted a section from superstitions of the Eastern, or quasi­ "Editor's Note," Eric Utne himself dis­ the Futurist's "10 most thought­ Eastern, varieties. They are spiritual­ cusses the ideas of one of their Top 100 provoking forecasts of 1994 by leading ists, theologians, Buddhist visionaries. visionaries, psychologist Robert Jay scientists, researchers, business experts, In a different time and place, they Lifton, whose brilliance lies in his con­ and scholars" (MarchiApril 1995). The would be mulcting rich widows with cept of the "protean self": a self, what­ chosen revelations included such gems bogus messages from their dead hus­ ever that means, that is "fluid and as: "Few people in the future will eat bands. Nowadays, their speculations flexible" yet "struggles for authentic­ the traditional three square meals a are written up in books that sell tens of ity" (this is a typical example of Utne's day. Instead, they will have five Liberty 41 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

snacks: 'daystart,' 'pulsebreak,' 'hump­ precisely explaining the bill of particu­ cle on "27 Ways to Live a Spiritual Life munch,' 'holdmeal,' and 'evesnack.'" Is lars against the Body Shop, Utne con­ Everyday" (JulyI August 1994), which this a joke? If so, the context ruins it; vened a roundtable of breast beating includes information about how to it's surrounded by Sunday op-ed in which most participants (excepting make eating pie and popcorn deeply banalities such as smart cards for Jon Entine, the journalist who first spiritual acts. Hell, it might not smash money transactions, terrorists using broke the story of the Body Shop's the patriarchy in your lifetime. But ah, biological weapons, smarter comput­ alleged failures) granted that, to quote like those soaps and that ice cream, ers, and an end to lifetime jobs. If this one of them, "Whatever the Body and unlike grappling seriously with is the best our culture's futurist vision­ Shop's flaws, it has championed goals politics or ideas, it'll sure make you aries can come up with, give me mold­ that are vitally important." Mr. Utne feel good. ing issues of Amazing Stories. himself opined that regardless of the Maybe there's nothing wrong with The intellectual limits of the maga­ reality of the chain's behavior, all that that. As one libertarian told me when zine's approach can be detected in mattered was that it had "raised the we discussed this article's topic, we goals and expectations for the conduct have no reason to discourage leftists to of business." Utne became all goo-goo abandon detailed plans for social con­ Utne is a soothing wet­ eyed over the fact that the editor of trol in favor of navel-gazing for per­ nurse offering bland advice to Business Ethics (which published sonal growth. So maybe Utne really is a Entine's report) and Body Shop found­ force for positive social change. If not, people who feel guilty about ers Anita and Gordon Roddick got it's probably nothing to worry about. living in a post-communist together with Top 100 Visionary Ram And isn't it cause for celebration that world where their vaguely Dass, and "a tearful healing process most hardcore environmentalists are began." forced into hypocrisy rather than take socialist, environmentalist aspir­ That's classic Utne: caring, journa­ their ideology to its logical conclusion? ations demand sacrifices they listically unrigorous, and determined Sure - but it would be even better if aren't willing make. to make wealthy "progressive" people to feel better about their lives when con­ fronted with the political and socially Why should someone inter­ progressive attitudes they profess but some subtle context clues: instead of find too difficult to act on. Why should ested in Buddhism or neo­ ads for new books from university someone interested in Buddhism or Luddism even need products presses, as might be seen in the Nation, neo-Luddism, two favorite Utne like fruity soaps and Ben & the ads are overwhelmingly for boring causes, even need products like fruity music appealing to middle-aged sensi­ soaps and Ben & Jerry's ice cream? Jerry's ice cream? tivos (Shawn Colvin, Acoustic Well, these things may not feed the Alchemy, J.J. Cale), organic food treats poor, house the homeless, destroy like frozen yogurt, and handcrafted patriarchy, or achieve world peace, but they openly and honestly acknowl­ gewgaws like prayer rugs and Amish they are perfect analogues to the Utne edged that their ideologies can't fit apple snitzers. Reader: self-pampering and self­ with life as they actually want and Utne's dedication to "socially indulgent, slick and gooey, they appeal need to live it. responsible" businesses, their biggest to yuppie elites who are deeply con­ Surely Utne is not the "best of the advertisers, was put to the test a cerned with such things as "cyber­ alternative press." Utne offends anyone couple of years back in a controversy neighborhoods" and obsession with who loves thoughtful political and cul­ over whether the Body Shop, a chain coffee (both subjects of Utne cover tural magazines. But as the elite of a of soap stores run by entrepreneurs stories). political movement, Utne and its read­ who place the entire weight of their ers are enemies anyone would love to market differentiation on being The Secret Life of Popcorn have. They aren't exactly well-armed socially and ecologically conscious, Perhaps Utne presages the eventual for intellectual battle. indeed lived up to its P.R. Without fate of the left in America: to be a In the end, it is precisely Utne's lack soothing wetnurse of substance that makes it so difficult to offering bland grapple with - its contentless, intro,.. ,..------advice to people spective whining is too slippery, prof­ who feel guilty fering nothing to grab on to and about living in a wrestle with. Utne reader Barbara post-communist Alward put it best, asking in a letter to ::.---- world where their Utne (March-April 1995), "How much vaguely socialist, trouble can you get into when you If\] twET REAL " environmentalist claim that humans are not using their aspirations demand full potential?" sacrifices they aren't No trouble at all, but lots of ad 'g;)/,. willing to make. revenue from progressive dessert Witness Utne's arti- treats. 0 42 Liberty Excoriation Victimology Unbound by Robert Higgs

The tobacco settlement isn't just a looting unprecedented in scale - it's a scientifically bankrupt folly that reveals the bovine willingness of Americans to be enslaved.

This nation was founded by tobacco farmers, tobacco merchants, and habitual tobacco users - conceived, so it was said, in liberty. Two centuries later, tobacco foes are howling to suppress liberty on a wide front, as demonstrated by the so-called tobacco settlement reached in June. In the annals of piracy, nothing can compare with it in pecuniary magnitude or sheer audacity. In This last proviso, along with many verse. In nearly every detail, the rea­ exchange for immunity from future others in the agreement, probably will sons advanced by the anti-tobacco class-action suits and punitive dam­ not survive the subsequent politick­ parties strike me as divorced from ing. Which reminds us that the settle­ ages for past conduct, Big Tobacco reality. Still, everyone involved in the ment was not really a settlement at all. would pony up $368.5 billion over the proceedings appears to have accepted In reality, it was nothing more than an next 25 years, then $15 billion a year the appropriateness of playing along opening bid for Congress, the Clinton indefinitely. Shamelessly claiming full with the pretense because, though the administration, and various interested credit for this gargantuan predation, allegations may be airy, the punish­ parties to use as a point of departure politicians would divvy up the loot ments are quite solid. for more horse-trading. Obviously, for such worthy causes as health care The make-believe began several this process represents a bonanza for for uninsured children, stop-smoking years ago when the FDA began members of Congress, who stand to maneuvering to gain jurisdiction over treatments for smokers, reimburse­ collect fabulous sums as the bidding ment to states for Medicaid costs, and tobacco products by asserting that nic­ war proceeds on a variety of fronts. otine is a drug. Everyone knew that anti-smoking propaganda. Of course Having followed the unfolding Congress never intended the Food, the lawyers representing the looters in story of tobacco regulation over the Drug, and Cosmetic Act to give the the settlement would get rewards past several years, I have an eerie feel­ FDA such jurisdiction. Prior to David beyond the wildest dreams of avarice. ing akin to what I imagine the defen­ Kessler's tenure as Commissioner of TheFood and DrugAdministration dants at Stalin's show trials must have Food and Drugs, the agency itself had would receive authority to regulate felt. Certain outcomes seem quite con­ repeatedly affirmed its lack of juris­ nicotine as a drug but could not ban it crete. The Code of Federal diction. Yet under Kessler the agency from cigarettes before 2009. Smokers Regulations shows that the FDA has proceeded along the most preposte­ are thereby put on notice to drag made rules to restrict the marketing of rously legalistic lines, citing the law's deeply and often for the next twelve cigarettes. Federal court reports show definition of a drug as a substance years. Before requiring reductions in that a district court in Greensboro, "intended to affect the structure or the nicotine yield, however, the FDA North Carolina, has upheld the FDA's any function of the body of man." In would have to prove that doing so authority to regulate nicotine as a 1980, the U.S. Court of Appeals (D.C. would cause "a significant overall drug and cigarettes as a drug-delivery Circuit) declared, "Surely, the legisla­ reduction of health risks," would be device by imposing "access restric­ tors did not mean to be as all­ technically feasible, and would not tions and labeling requirements on inclusive as a literal interpretation of give rise to a significant black market tobacco products." Yet I cannot shake this clause would compel us to be." for more potentcigarettes. the sense of inhabiting a parallel uni- But sure enough, not only did the Liberty 43 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

public swallow this power-grabbing lic opInIon had turned decisively people with major cardiovascular dis­ jesuitism, but Judge William L. Osteen against the merchants of smoky death. eases die several years earlier than in Greensboro did, too. New payoffs blipped on the politi­ those without. Often they just drop The next item of make-believe per­ cians' rip-off radar screens. As the say­ dead, and the only pecuniary cost is tained to the claims that cigarettes are ing has it, you can't buy politicians, but that of dragging their bodies off to the "addictive" (gasp!) and that the tobacco you can rent them. morgue. Despite what the anti-tobacco companies had deceived consumers by "Saving the children" camouflaged crusaders seem to believe, even in a concealing evidence of the harm caused the entire undertaking. The FDA world devoid of tobacco, people would by smoking. Commentators discussed claimed that its new.regulations were -I know this is hard to grasp - still these matters in dead earnest, display­ aimed exclusively at curbing underage die sooner or later. As a rule, the lin­ ing utter shock at disclosures that the smoking; hence the silly rules such as gering deaths from causes such as no cigarette billboards within 1,000 feet Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or liver dis­ of schools and no cartoon characters in ease occasion more pecuniary costs In view of their strong the ads. In playing the kiddie card, the than the deaths of smokers typically authorities all agreed to release their do, as research by Harvard's Kip desire for enslavement, Ameri­ grip on reality. Do they really believe Viscusi and other scholars has estab­ cans do not deserve our that these blatantly unconstitutional lished. The attorneys general are seek­ sympathy. violations of the First Amendment will ing reimbursement for extra costs that affect whether kids take up smoking? were never actually borne. They ought In Norway, where all tobacco advertis­ to send the survivors of smokers a ing has been banned since 1975, the thank-you note. companies had known all along that smoking rate exceeds that of the United The foregoing comments identify their reassurances were false. On this States by about a third and has only a few of the many elements of issue, I can speak with personal author­ remained stable for two decades. make-believe that compose the founda­ ity. I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s as Canada's 1989 ban on tobacco ads has tion of the June settlement and no a member of one of the most densely had no significant effect on its smoking doubt will continue to undergird the ignorant strata of American society, yet rate, which also exceeds the U.S. rate. politicking that proceeds from that even there cigarettes were commonly Clearly, the authors of the ad restric­ provisional agreement. So long as the called cancer sticks, and no one ever tions have never been kids, nor do they foundations are so lacking in sub­ doubted their harmful effects on the know any now; otherwise, they would stance, we can be sure that the ultimate health of smokers. If we knew, every­ understand why their regulations one knew. Indeed, no one could have undoubtedly will fail to attain the missed the wink that accompanied the ostensible objective. companies' denials all those years. The forty state attorneys general­ After decades of collecting What else could they say? governor wannabes - claimed to be millions in paYOffS from Big Then came the FDA's make-believe seeking reimbursement of their states Tobacco, politicians perceived definition of cigarettes as a "drug­ for Medicaid costs of treating patients delivery device," again to bring them with "smoking-related" diseases. Two that public opinion had turned under its existing statutory authority kinds of sham infused this claim. First, decisively against the mer­ - more casuistry, more legalistic despite the specious precision of the chants of smoky death. New mumbo jumbo, all gulped down with­ numbers that journalists toss around, out gagging by regulators, politicians, nobody knows how many deaths have paYOffs blipped on their rip-off and the public. been caused by smoking. Cause of radar screens. For the politicians, obviously, the death is not such a simple concept, but winds had shifted. After decades of even if it were, no one has taken a cen­ collecting millions in payoffs from Big sus of autopsies or other evidence to structure erected on them will consist Tobacco, they now perceived that pub- arrive at the 1,145 Americans alleged of little more than capricious plunder. to die daily from "smok­ But clearly the country has commit­ ing-related" causes. ted itself to an ideology of victimology Second, even if some­ without bounds. With the tobacco deal body did know how we slide much farther down the slip­ many deaths smoking pery slope into complete surrender to causes, the fact is that Big Nanny and the nitwit Left. these deaths diminish Manifestly, the powers that be in this rather than increase country have abandoned all belief in pecuniary health-care individual responsibility. In view of costs. Smoking hastens their strong desire for enslavement, the onset of major cardio­ Americans do not deserve our sympa­ vascular diseases, the thy. They deserve exactly what they "I have to work up the courage to go home, Joe­ leading cause of death in are clamoring for, and they are well on bring me a hero sandwich." this country. On average, the way to getting it good and hard. 0 44 Liberty Essay

Where There's Smoke There's Liars by Loren E. Lomasky

The anti-smoking crusade goes south.

Propelled by a vigorous jet stream and Liberty magazine's open-ended expense account, your Faithful Correspondent has once again launched himself in an antipodean direction to take the measure of the prospects for human freedom. My investigations began in the Sydney air­ port's duty-free shop, where, with a bottle of Frangelico under one arm (I am, despite appearances, possessed of contempt. I take smoking tobacco seri­ with sincere regard for legitimate religious sentiments), I traipsed over ously - liberty and truth even more public goods. But with these warn­ to the tobacco shelves. I love cigar­ so. In one fell swoop, the government ings, the facade has entirely fallen ettes but haven't indulged for several of Australia had impugned all three. away, and the allegedly dutiful nanny years. And I'm partial to a good cigar, But upon reflection, the egregiousness is revealed as a brazen, lying but now that they have been taken up of this added piece of paternalism harridan. by the likes of Congressional staffers afforded a curious sort of reverse Smoking harms others? Maybe if and Unitarian ministers I have shied comfort - a boomerang response, one is rolling skunk weed in pages away from too public an association. you might say. Aussies are among the ripped from the Congressional So it was to the pipe tobacco I gravi­ easiest-going of people. So too, of Record. But my briars usually contain tated. It took up no more than one course, are pipe smokers; that's 90% an English blend of Virginia, Turkish, corner of the bottom shelf, the variety of the practice's point. Each will suffer and Latikian tobaccos, a genteel was negligible, the prices inflated, the slings and arrows of ordinary, gar­ knock-off of Balkan Sobranie. It is and none of it was as smokable as the den-variety indignities with barely a soothing to the senses and a delight to murmur. Put them together and you stash I had stuck in a shoe in my suit­ the soul. Over the years, numerous have a creature with the placidity of a men and women who have never case. So I bought none. The non­ wombat on Valium. If it's potential put match to leaf have told purchase didn't come easy. All my themselves revolutionaries that are wanted to me how much they enjoy the aroma. political instincts were shouting, storm the parapets of the oppressive Only those poltroons who make the "Buy! Buy!" For slapped onto every state, you had best look elsewhere. exorcism of demon tobacco an article pouch and can was a series of health But here was a slap in the face so of ideological purity have suggested warnings in 24 point type, each more abrupt and uncalled for that it could otherwise, and even they have a cer­ lurid than the preceding. There were, wake even the habitually somnolent. tain guilty ambivalence. Does it harm by my count, seven different ones, It's not merely that the government is others to bathe them in gentle positive including "Smoking Is Addictive," intruding into the properly self­ externalities? Pipe smokers know bet­ "Smoking Harms Others," "Smoking regarding conduct of individuals; that ter. Even in Australia. Causes Heart Disease," "Smoking has been a staple of Australian life What of the charge that smoking is When Pregnant Harms Your Baby." since the first convict ship pulled into addictive? That may possibly be true j (Readers are invited to enter a contest pestilential Botany Bay. No Aussie of cigarette consumption, although I to guess which others the nicophobes gives ordinary nagging a second look; am uncomfortable with the imperial saw fit to include. Send all entries to this is, after all, a people who, without expansion of the concept of "addic­ Liberty magazine, c/o The Honorable a hint of irony, still refer to state tion" to cover almost every activity to .John Howard; Prime Minister, bureaucrats as "public servants." If which human beings might accustom Australia.) they don't actually love their war­ themselves. But the idea that pipe My first reaction was simmering dens, then at least they credit them smoking could be addictive is palpa- Liberty 45 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

bly preposterous. Consider what is and sets it back in the rack to cool and It would be over-kill to augment the required to enjoy a single smoke. First await its next occasion for service. preceding harangue with sarcastic com­ a pipe must be selected, then tobacco Then, with a new pipe and restocking ments about the multitudes of pregnant added pinch by pinch - gently at first, of tobacco, the process is begun again. pipe smokers swarming Sydney's and then tamped down with increas­ To a non-smoker this will sound streets, so I'll say no more. Except to ing firmness as one nears the top of the like more bother than any basic pleas­ inform the readers of Liberty of one bowl. It is then lit, a couple of puffs ure can be worth, but that is what cheering development. Even when taken, the tobacco then tamped back young children think when they first inflamed, pipe smokers only smolder down. This requires a relighting, and hear about the mechanics of sexual gently; that is their wont. But Aussie with luck and a smooth-burning blend, intercourse. Lovers of the leaf know cigarette smokers, who have for years one is then good for ten or more min­ better, and we judge the result good been the·primary targets of this oblo­ utes of uninterrupted delight. But value for the time, money, energy, and quy,are beginning to stir. Along with before reaching the bottom of the bowl, concentration expended. There is, how­ the familiar brands, there is now several repeated episodes of further ever, no way in which so intricate and another seeking counter space, tamping and relighting will be involved a process - one that incorpo­ "Freedom Cigarettes." It comes in a required. As moisture accumulates and rates foresight, long-term time hori­ striking black pack with a red stylized gurgling sounds are heard, a pipe zons, and dedication - can possibly be letter "F" in the shape of a dagger on the cleaner will be inserted in the stem and thought of as addictive. Might as well front. The back contains all the warn­ deftly run down to the bowl. call star-charting, Hale-Bopp-plotting ings listed seriatim. Directly below is a Eventually there's no more smoke to astronomers addicts! If this is what the quotation from Thomas Jefferson: "A be had, and with a brisk but gentle tap­ health crusaders believe, then they are little rebellion now and then is a good ping one dislodges the ashen detritus, ignoramuses. Pipe smokers know bet­ thing." Aussie bureaucrats and pols, gives the pipe a thorough cleaning, ter. Even in Australia. put that in your pipe and smoke it! 0

Bullock, 1/A Rebel and a Drummer," continued from page 39

with least of a life. A friend of mine who was involved in law "forbidding smoking in any bar, restaurant, coffee the Ayn Rand estate and the initial institutes and so on shop, doughnut shop, anywhere." Thus, though he believes noticed thatall of the coteries surroundingher didn't do any­ that economic freedom is generally increasing, Peart also thing.... The whole philosophy is about doing things ... observes that "socially it seems to be the opposite - there with an eye towards excellence and beauty. And that was the is actually more oppression." one thing that waslacking in any of the coteries surrounding Apart from the unique lyrics and world view, another her. So that's another reason people stay away from [the offi­ aspect of Rush that makes the group so appealing, espe­ cial Objectivist movement], saying, uWell, I have a life and cially to hard-core music aficionados, is that all three mem­ I'm living the philosophy - so why do I want to stop and bers are virtuoso musicians. Each one of their albums talk about it with other people who aren't doing it?" demonstrates a refinement of their musical skills. The mem­ Peart acknowledges that other thinkers besides Rand bers take music seriously and constantly explore new musi­ have influenced his philosophy. Jungian psychology, for cal ideas. Neil Peart is one of the most admired instance, provides themes for a number of songs, and Peart percussionists in any genre of music, a sort of drumming also cites John Dos Passos as an influence on his thinking. iibermensch whose extraordinary technique dazzles and Still, the Objectivist influences persist. Encapsulating the delights musicians and non-musicians alike. Objectivist cultural critique, Peart remarks that in too much Last year, Rush released its 20th album, Test for Echo, of popular culture today, only the "poor and dumb" are glo­ and will tour again this summer to sold-out venues. rified, never the "rich and smart." And his "Heresy" (1991) is Whether the band will break up after this tour is discussed perhaps the only "fall of communism" song that recognizes passionately among fans over the Internet. Whatever the the essential linkbetween personal and economic freedom: future of Rush, libertarians and Objectivists can delight in a All around that dull gray world band whose music they can enjoy without having to ignore From Moscow to Berlin or cringe at the lyrics. Some of Peart's lyrics can be strident People storm the barricades or contradictory, but most are eloquent and desperately Walls go tumbling in needed defenses of individualism in a collectivist age: The counter revolution I'm not giving in At the counter of a store To security under pressure People smiling through their tears. I'm not missing out (from Roll the Bones) On the promise of adventure Politically, Peart describes himself as a "left-wing liber­ I'm not giving up tarian," noting that he could never be a conservative due to On implausible dreams ­ the right's intolerance and support of censorship. Moreover, Experience to extremes the rise of religious fundamentalism in America and Experience to extremes. throughout the globe "terrifies" him. But he also sees rising ("The Enemy Within," from Grace intolerance coming from the left, exemplified by a Toronto Under Pressure) 0 46 Liberty Analysis The Weak Case for Government Schools by David Friedman

Make sense of the case for government schools. Go ahead, we dare you.

It is often said that Adam Smith, despite his general belief in laissez-faire, made an exception for education. That is not entirely true. In the course of a lengthy and interesting discussion, Smith argues both that education is a legitimate government function, at least in some societies, and that it is a function which govern­ ments perform very badly. His con­ externalities, that by schooling my wealth of my society, but most (in the clusion is that while it is legitimate for children I greatly benefit society as a limit of perfect competition, all) of the government to subsidize education, it whole, and that it is therefore inap­ increase goes to the investors whose may be more prudent to leave educa­ propriate to leave either the decision capital paid for the factory. If I use a tion entirely private.! Smith's conjec­ of how to school them or the cost of car instead of a bus to commute, the ture was correct. While government doing so entirely to me. On further savings in time is added either to my schooling,2 free and compulsory, is at analysis, this claim divides into three leisure or my income. If education present nearly universal in developed variants, one wrong and two dubious. makes me a more productive worker, societies, the case for it is unconvinc­ The simplest version is the one my income will be higher as a result. ing. There are arguments for govern­ that is wrong. It is said that, since edu­ That is why top law schools are able ment provision of schooling, just as cation increases human productivity, to sell schooling to willing customers there are arguments for government by educating my child I increase the at a price of about $20,000 dollars a provision of any good or service. But wealth of the whole society, making year. the arguments in favor are weaker, all of us better off. One obvious prob­ Schooling - like a new car - pro­ and the arguments against stronger, lem with this argument is that, if cor­ duces non-market benefits as well. than the corresponding arguments for rect, it applies to a lot of things other But these too go mostly to the student, other goods and services that we rou­ than education. Physical capital also enabled by education to appreciate tinely leave to the private market. increases productivity; does it follow more of the riches of his culture. that all investments ought to be subsi­ There may be effects on other people The Arguments In Favor of dized? Better transportation allows as well, but they are typically small Government Schooling workers to spend more time working compared to the benefits to the stu­ The arguments in favor of govern­ and less time commuting; should we dent, and whether those effects are ment involvement in schooling can be subsidize the production of cars? The positive is not always clear. When my roughly divided into four groups: argument suggests that everything child becomes an expert in externality arguments, information worth doing ought to be subsidized Shakespeare and quantum mechanics, arguments, capital market failure -leaving us with the puzzle of what one result may be to enlighten and arguments, and egalitarian argu­ we are to tax in order to raise the entertain her friends, but another may ments. money for the subsidies. be to make them feel stupid. In just What is wrong with this argument the same way, the beauty of my new Externality Arguments is that it misses the way in which the car may produce the pleasures of aes­ The most common arguments for price system already allocates "social thetic appreciation or the pains of government schooling involve the benefits" to those who produce them. envy in those who watch me drive it claim that it produces large positive Building a factory may increase the down the street. To base the design of Liberty 47 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

our institutions for schooling on their which is to say, to teach them utilitari­ channel." To put the argument in more uncertain effect on such third parties anism. A form of this argument which modern language, government school­ rather than their direct effect on the still remains popular holds that unedu­ ing does indeed provide the state with schooled makes no more sense than to cated people are particularly likely to an opportunity to indoctrinate children base the design of cars on their value become criminals, justifying govern­ - but there is no good reason to to everyone except the owner. ment schooling as a form of crime con-' believe that it will be in the interest of There is, however, at least one trol. While I have not yet heard anyone the state to indoctrinate them in beliefs important respect in which my invest­ argue that government schooling is that it is in the interest of the rest of us ment in education - or a factory ­ needed to make the public ecologically for them to hold. Many modern socie­ does benefit others. Even if my income responsible, to properly train the crew ties have strong legal rules designed to fully reflects my productivity, as it will of spaceship earth, it seems the obvi­ keep the state from controlling what ous next step in the evolution of the people believe - the First Amendment argument - considering what is actu­ to the u.s. Constitution being a notable In a private system, children ally being taught to elementary school example. It seems odd to combine' students in the more up-to-date gov­ them with a set of institutions justified will be taught what their par­ ernment schools. as doing the precise opposite. ents want them to know. In a The thesis has two versions - edu­ In an interesting article,4 John Lott government system, children cation and indoctrination. The first explores the question of why schooling assumes that crime and sin are the is controlled by the state in modern will be taught what the state result of ignorance rather than rational societies. His conclusion is that govern­ wants them to know. choice. The evidence for this claim is ment schooling is a mechanism by far from clear. As a general rule, crimi­ which the state lowers the cost of con­ nals seem to exhibit rational behavior trolling the population. Part of his evi­ tend to do in a market economy, not all in their crimes - little old ladies, for dence is the organization of modern of my income goes to me. Some of it example, get mugged a lot more often government school systems - in par­ goes to the tax collector. It follows that than football players. Criminals who ticular the almost complete absence of some investments, in factories or in have been caught and imprisoned fre­ systems where parents choose the people, may not get made even though quently return to a life of crime ­ school and funding is proportional to they are worth making, because the although that experience surely the number of students, an arrange­ share of the benefit that goes to the teaches them more about the conse­ ment which would put pressure on the investor is not enough to pay the cost quences of their actions than they are school to teach what the parents, rather of the investment. This inefficient fail­ likely to learn in any school. And, of than the state, wanted. Part is a statisti­ ure to make some worthwhile invest­ course, even if ignorance is one source cal analysis of data for a large number ments is one form of what economists of crime, the argument depends on the of nations, designed to explore the rela­ call "excess burden" - the cost of taxa­ assumption that government schools tion between government schooling tion above and beyond the amount are better at dissipating ignorance than collected. private ones. As we will see, both the­ There is a problem in trying to ory and history provide reasons to Ignorance may perhaps pro­ solve this particular inefficiency by doubt that. duce crime - but education subsidizing investments. In order to The indoctrination version of the pay a subsidy one must collect a tax ­ argument may make somewhat more produces more competent and the additional tax increases excess sense. In a private system, children criminals. burden at the same time that the sub­ will be taught what their parents want sidy reduces it. Excess burden is an them to know. In a government sys­ argument against taxation, not for tem, children will be taught what the and other characteristics of govern­ subsidy. state wants them to know. So the gov­ ment. Another version of the externality ernment system provides an opportu­ One final version of the externality argument locates the external benefit nity for the state to indoctrinate argument is the claim that my educa­ not in the increased productivity of children in beliefs that it is not in their tion provides benefits to others because educated people, but in their increased interest, or their parents' interest, to it makes me a more rational voter. 5 virtue. Both religious and utilitarian hold. Insofar as some virtues require While the argument is logically correct, variants of this justification for govern­ one to act against one's own interest ­ its implications are limited. It is per­ ment schooling were popular in the for instance, by not stealing something haps best understood as an argument nineteenth century. Conservatives even when nobody is watching - state for subsidy, not control. It is in my pri­ wanted to use publicly controlled edu­ schooling offers an opportunity to vate interest to have a correct under­ cation to teach the masses religious vir­ indoctrinate children in virtue.3 standing of the world around me, and tue. Many utilitarians, including One good reply to this argument such an understanding will make me Bentham himself, believed that while was made by William Godwin, who, in more able to evaluate government pol­ freedom was a good thing in most con­ 1796, expressed his hope "that man­ icy as well as more able to make pri­ texts, it was necessary first to teach kind will never have to learn so impor­ vate decisions. The only argument for people how to use their freedom - tant a lesson through so corrupt a government control is that it can force 48 .Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

me to learn more about issues relevant because it is used in the competitive A further problem with the argu­ to voting, instead of issues relevant to pursuit of status.6 Physical goods and ment is that most of what the govern­ private choice. The problem with this services are not the only thing that ment schools actually teach - or, too is that the agency that does the control­ individuals care about. If one reason I often, fail to teach - is well within the ling has its own interest with regard to wish more schooling for myself or my comprehension of virtually all parents. how I vote - which brings us back to children is so that I or they will have Insofar as the main business of the the indoctrination argument. more income or more degrees than my schools is to teach children the basic A second problem with the argu­ neighbor or his children, and if my skills needed to function in our society, ment is that it implicitly assumes that neighbor has similar tastes, then the the children's parents are usually com­ different voters have the same interest, gains of each come at the other's petent to judge how good a job is being so that my rational vote benefits you expense. done. Even a parent who cannot read as well as me. For some issues this is I conclude that externality argu­ can still tell whether his child can. no doubt true. But other issues ­ ments provide little independent sup- And, while a few educational issues many of them in a modern state ­ may go beyond the parents' compe­ involve attempts by one group to ben­ tence to judge, parents qua parents, like efit itself at the expense of others. In Government schools teach parents qua taxpayers, have the option such situations, your rational vote may of making use of other people's expert well make me worse off. Subsidizing what the state wants children opinion. The crucial difference education in how to use the political to learn instead of what their between the two roles is that a parent system in one's own interest becomes parents want them to learnt deciding what school his child shall go the political equivalent of subsidizing to has a far stronger incentive to form an arms race, and equally unpro­ but advocates view that as an an accurate opinion than does a parent ductive. advantage of the government deciding how to vote. A final problem is that the argu­ system. Parents have one other advantage ment works only if government-run or over educational administrators - a government-subsidized schools actu­ flood of detailed free information. By ally educate better than private port for government schooling. At observing their children, and by listen­ schools. If the costs of government con­ most they suggest that private school­ ing to them, parents can learn a great trol more than cancel the benefits of ing ought to receive some subsidy ­ deal about how well they are being government subsidy, the advantages of and even that conclusion is an uncer­ schooled. As E.G. West put it, describ­ educating students well provide no tain one, given both the weaknesses of ing the situation in England in the 19th argument for having the state educate the arguments for the existence of net century, "Parents were their own them badly. positive externalities and the difficulty inspectors and, compared with official Externality arguments, not only for of separating subsidy from control. ones, they were not only much more government schooling but for many numerous but exercised continuous other issues as well, often make the Information Arguments rather than periodic check."7 mistake of adding up only externalities Another argument is that govern­ Parents' preferences have often with one sign - positive in the case of ment schooling is necessary because clashed with "expert educational opin­ schooling, negative in discussions of parents, being themselves inade­ ion," but it has not always been the population or global warming - while quately educated, are incompetent to parents who turned out to be in the ignoring externalities with the opposite choose schooling for their children. As wrong. Thus in Scotland, around 1800, sign. The result may be misleading, John Stuart Mill put it, "The unculti­ parents "Increasingly resisted tradi­ since it is the net externality - that is, vated cannot be competent judges of tional parochial school emphasis on the net benefit to others - that pro­ cultivation." This argument concedes classical languages and Religion .... vides an argument for government that government schools will teach Parents complained that their children involvement. If my action benefits one what the state wants children to learn did not get their due in the school/By 8 person by a dollar and injures someone instead of what their parents want not having been teached writing.II' else by two dollars, that is an argument them to learn, but views that as an Modern examples might include the against subsidy, not for it. advantage of the government system. controversies associated with the shift What negative externalities might This argument seems to justify at away from phonics and towards the result from schooling? One I have just most one generation of government look-say approach to teaching reading, mentioned - you may use your schooling. Once we educate the first and the introduction of the "new improved education to more effec­ generation, they should then be com­ math" somewhat later - both argua­ tively pressure the government to ben­ petent to choose an education for their bly among the causes of the massive efit you at my expense. A similar children. The U.s. and Britain have decline in the output of the American possibility exists for private transfers. now had universal government school­ school system from 1960 to 1980. Ignorance may perhaps produce crime ing for at least five or six generations. Parents have to live with the results of - but education produces more com­ If it has done a good job of educating educational experiments; the educators petent criminals. students it should now be unnecessary, can always go on to a new generation Another possibility is that school­ and if it has done a bad job perhaps we of experimental subjects. As Adam ing may produce negative externalities should try something else. Smith put it: Liberty 49 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

Were there no public institutions for offer the factory as collateral. If I wish does a very bad job of educating just education, no system, no science to make a profitable investment in my those people who would have the would be taught for which there was own education, I have no similar hardest time educating themselves, not some demand; or which the cir­ option. Under the present legal rules of which casts some doubt on the. idea cumstances of the times did not ren­ the U.S. and most advanced countries, that it is, for them, an improvement on der it either necessary, or I can acquire the education and then a purely private system. The third is convenient, or at least fashionable, to wipe out the debt by declaring bank­ that the evidence of the nineteenth cen­ learn. A private teacher could never ruptcy. So profitable investments in tury suggests that even quite poor peo­ find his account in teaching, either human capital may fail to be made if ple are able to provide their children at an exploded and antiquated system of a science acknowledged to be use­ the human in question cannot finance least a minimal education. British ful, or a science universally believed them himself. workers of the early nineteenth cen­ to be a mere useless and pedantic How important this argument is tury were very much poorer than the heap of sophistry and nonsense. depends on whether the unit of analy­ inhabitants of America's inner cities at Such systems, such sciences, can sis is the individual or the family. If it present. Yet the evidence suggests that subsist no where, but in those incor­ most were able, without government porated societies for education help, to buy enough education for their whose prosperity and revenue are in The U.S. and Britain have children to provide at least minimal lit­ a great measure independent of their eracy - more than many inner-city reputation, and altogether indepen­ now had universal government children get now. dent of their industry.9 schooling for at least five or six Additional issues arise if we con­ In a striking passage, E.G. West generations. If it has done a sider the problem from the standpoint hints that much of the support for good job of educating students of the child rather than the family. teaching children what they ought to Most families can afford to pay for know instead of what their parents it should now be unnecessary, schooling their children, but very few want them to know, in the past and and ifit has done a.bad job per­ children can afford to pay for school­ presumably today, depends on each haps we should try something ing themselves. A private system expert assuming that it is his version of depends, for almost all children, on what children ought to know that will else. parents caring enough about the wel­ win out: fare of their children to be willing to The French Physiocrats wanted a pay the cost of their education. national system of education is the family, then the argument Most parents, in most societies, do because they could use it to propa­ applies to only a small fraction of the care for the welfare of their children. In gate their new found knowledge of population. Most families can pay the part this may be explained by altruism, the "secrets" of the workings of the cost of schooling their children out· of itself explainable on evolutionary economy .... For the nineteenth current income. Indeed, most families grounds, and in part by the desire of century cleric, the "ignorance" do pay the cost of schooling their chil­ parents to have children capable of which led to crime was primarily the dren out of current income - in the supporting them in their old age. ignorance of the teaching of his par­ form of taxes to .support government These incentives are not perfect ­ ticular church. For the utilitarian the schools. In a private system, such there are parents who sacrifice the wel­ crucial issue was ignorance of the expenditures might be harder for those fare of their children to their own wel­ laws of the state or in other words with large families and low incomes fare. But the alternative to allowing the want of knowledge and effective than they are now, and easier for those parents to make decisions for their chil­ warning of the pain that would inev­ with small families and high incomes. dren is not, as a general rule, having itably follow from certain actions. On the other hand, there is evidence the decisions made by the children ­ For Malthus it was the ignorance of his population principle which mat­ that private schools provide a given five-year-olds lack not only .income, tered most. Public education for him level of education at a considerably but information and political power as was needed to suppress the 'sophis­ lower cost than government schools. If well. The alternative to having a child's tries' of persons such as Condorcet. so, most· parents would face a lower parents make decisions for him is hav­ The latter happened to be the suc­ burden under a completely private sys­ ing other adults - school administra­ cessful instigator of French state tem. The market failure argument tors, politicians, voters - make those education, and undoubtedly would then apply only to a small frac­ decisions. Parents may not always be intended it to instruct according to tion of families at the bottom of the altruistic towards their children, but a his conception of truth. 10 income distribution. child's parents are, of all adults, the So far as that part of the population ones most likely to be. The argument Capital Market Failure is concerned,.several points are worth against letting the parents make the The special problems of investing noting. The first is that it makes very decision is an even stronger argument in human capital are sometimes little sense to construct a government against letting anyone else make it offered as an argument for government school system for everyone in order to instead. intervention in schooling. If I wish to subsidize investments in human capi­ Here again, the empirical evidence borrow money to pay for a profitable tal for a tiny part of the population. is striking. Under circumstances of investment in building a factory, I can The second· is that the present system poverty difficult for most of us to ima- 50 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

gine, British parents of the early 19th ernment schools varies enormously need than rich children of things they century managed to send almost all of and non-randomly from place to place. cannot get from their parents, might their children to school - not for as One reason is that high-income sub­ well benefit more from a general long as our children go to school, but urbs, on average, can and do spend improvement in the schools. for long enough to acquire at least min­ more on their schools than low-income imal skills. In this country a century inner cities, although in the U.S. this History later, immigrant parents routinely sac­ difference has probably decreased in In many areas of human activity rificed themselves to promote the edu­ recent years as a result of legal pres­ there are two histories - the popular cation of their children. We have yet to sures. A second reason is that the chil­ history, mostly mythological, and the see any similar level of altruism on the dren of affluent and well-educated real history. In education, quite a lot of part of those who control the govern­ parents are, on the whole, easier to the real history has been provided by ment schools - say a teacher strike educate and to be educated with than aimed at lowering teacher wages in the children of the inner city poor. A order to leave more money to pay for third may well be that affluent subur­ Parents have to live with the books. banites are better than the inner-city poor at getting political institutions to results of educational experi­ The Egalitarian Argument act in their interest. ments; the educators can A final, and powerful, argument The first two effects would still always go on to a new genera­ against an entirely private system of exist in an entirely private system, but schooling is that it promotes and per­ several factors might reduce the ine­ tion of experimental subjects. petuates inequality. Wealthier parents quality they now produce. A private will spend more on their children, system would be less rigidly geo­ 12 making those children in turn better graphical than the present government E. G. West. In examining the history educated, more successful, and wealth­ system. Poor parents with bright chil­ of the rise of government schooling in ier. This effect is increased by the fact dren who were willing to sacrifice for Britain and the U.S., he has established that family background is itself a them, as many have been in the past, several important points which go far strong predictor of school perfor­ would have the option of sending to refute the popular idea that mass mance, even with equal levels of them to better schools instead of being education can exist only through the expenditure. In order to give a child limited to the school district where intervention of the state. They are: from a poor and badly educated family they happened to live. Such arrange­ 1. Schooling expenditure in Britain as good an education as a child from a ments are technically possible in a represented about the same fraction rich and well educated family, it government system as well, and occa­ of national income prior to govern­ sionally permitted, but not often ­ ment intervention and compulsory perhaps because they transfer power schooling laws as it did after both from the schooling bureaucracy to were introduced. A parent deciding what parents. 2. Prior to government involvement, school his child shall go to has a Another advantage of the private almost all British children were far stronger incentive to form system, from the standpoint of poor going to school. The opposite claim, an accurate opinion than does a parents, is that parents could control widely made in Britain by the sup­ what they got without having to porters of government involve­ parent deciding how to vote. acquire political power - which poor ment, was based on fairly simple people, as a rule, have very little of. statistical errors. The most common Subject to the limits of their income, was to calculate how many children would, on average, be necessary to poor people have the same economic should be in school by picking an spend substantially more on the power as anyone else - the ability to arbitrary and unrealistic number of former. 11 choose whom they buy from. years of schooling and using it to There are at least two possible A final advantage is that a private calculate how many children replies to that argument. One is that system might actually provide poor would be in school if all children our objective ought to be education, children with some education. Under went to school for that number of not equality. If shifting to an entirely our present system, the largest deter­ years. The ratio of the number of private system improves the education minant of educational output is family children actually in school to the of the bottom half of the income distri­ background. One explanation of that is calculated number was then treated bution a little and the education of the that parents are a major part of their as if it were the fraction of children top half a lot, both groups are better children's environment and thus a who went to school. In practice, as off. A second reply is that, while a major source of their education. But a West shows, more direct evidence completely private system would second explanation may be that our suggests that almost all children in indeed result in unequal educational schools do not do a very good job of the period just before the beginning accomplishment, so does our present teaching, making children more depen­ of government involvement (c. government system - and it is far dent than they need be on the educa­ 1830) went to school for at least a from obvious which leads to more ine­ tion they get from those around them. few years. The discrepancy quality. At present, the quality of gov- If so, poor children, who are in more between actual and calculated Liberty 51 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

attendance mainly reflected actual replace, not to supplement, the pre­ will buy the same amount of schooling school attendance for fewer years existing private system. with a voucher as with private school­ than assumed in the calculation. ing.l5 If there are substantial net posi­ A particularly striking example of The Voucher Alternative tive externalities, that amount will be this fallacy was an unfavorable I have been considering two alter­ inefficiently low. Parents who would comparison of the British private natives - government and private have spent less than the amount of the system to the Prussian state sys­ schooling. Another alternative, in some voucher will now spend the full tem, made by the Manchester ways intermediate between the two, is amount - which might buy more or Statistical Society in 1834. The for the state to provide a fixed amount less than the efficient amount of authors assumed that British stu­ of money per pupil per year, which schooling. A better way of dealing dents attended school for ten years, may be used to buy schooling from with such externalities would be for used that assumption to calculate any of a var,iety of private providers. 13 the state to pay a percentage of school that just under two thirds of the How well does such a system deal expenses corresponding to the percent­ children in Manchester attended with the problems we have discussed? age of net benefits that went to people school, and contrasted that to the A voucher system solves some of other than the student and his family. (claimed) hundred percent atten­ the problems associated with market A voucher makes sense, from this dance rate of the Prussian system. failure on the human capital market. standpoint, only if the optimal educa­ The Prussian system, however, pro­ Families that are too poor to pay to tional expenditure is known and is vided for only seven years of send their children to school will be about the same for all families ­ able to use the voucher to pay for schooling - so even if the claim which seems implausible. that every child got the full seven While vouchers give the wrong pat- years was true, the average years of tern of incentives for solving the exter­ schooling per child were about the British workers of the early nality problem, government schools do same in the two systems (seven in still worse. A parent who wishes to Prussia, about six-and-a-half in nineteenth century were able, give his child a thousand-dollar educa­ Manchester). The Statistical Society without government help, to tion when the government schools are offered no evidence that the British buy enough education for their spending only nine hundred dollars number represented two thirds of per pupil must pay the full cost of the students attending school for children to provide at least sending his child to a private school: a ten years each, and later evidence minimal literacy - more than thousand-dollar cost for a hundred 16 made it clear that it did not. The many inner city children get dollars of additional schooling. If the actual number who never attended additional schooling is worth less than the additional cost, the parent leaves school seems, from slightly later now. his child in the public school, where he studies, to have been between one and three percent. gets less schooling than his parent schooling. Parents who do not care would have bought for him in an 3. Attempts to measure educational enough for their children to be willing entirely private system. So a govern­ output in the form of literacy, using to pay for their schooling will be able to ment system might result in less both a variety of studies made at use vouchers to provide schooling for expenditure on schooling than a com­ particular times and a crude meas­ their children at no cost to themselves. pletely private system - making the ure (percentage of grooms who A voucher system might also reduce inefficiency associated with the failure signed their names when they got educational inequality, relative to both to allow for positive externalities married) that is available over a government and private systems. It worse rather than better. long time period, show no signifi­ would not, however, eliminate inequal- Whether a voucher answers the cant effect of government interven­ ity, both because parents would be free arguments of those who believe that tion. So far as one can tell by the to supplement the voucher14 and parents are incompetent to control (very imperfect) evidence, literacy because the parents themselves are a eel their children's schooling, either was already rising rapidly prior to major input to the child's education. because they have the wrong objec- the beginning of government sub­ It is not clear whether a voucher tives or because they have the right sidy. Most of the measured system solves any of the other prob- objectives but not enough knowledge increase in literacy had already lems raised by a purely private system. to achieve them, depends on how occurred by the time a nationwide It is, for example, a poor tool for solv- much control the state exercises over system of government schools and ing inefficiencies associated with posi- schools that accept vouchers. This sug­ compulsory attendance was tive externalities - supposing that one gests an important disadvantage of established. believes such externalities exist and are vouchers. If the government is paying 4. The eventual expansion of the gov­ substantial. With a voucher, the cost to the piper, it may well choose to call the ernment school system was in large the parents of each additional dollar of tune. If it is giving vouchers to pay for part the result of efforts by the peo­ schooling is zero up to the amount of education, it will probably want to ple running it, and is plaUSibly the voucher and one dollar above it. determine what counts as education. explained by their own self­ That means that parents who would in Thus a voucher system, like a govern­ interest. Its main effect was to any case spend more than the voucher ment school system, has the potential 52 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

to be used either to encourage indoctri­ standpoint of those who do not believe U.S., is maintained mainly by the ten­

nation or to redirect IIeducational what is being taught. Under a private dency of teachers, like other people, to expenditure" to benefit politically system, however, there is no single regard what they believe in as fact and well-organized groups such as teachers orthodoxy. Different children are only what other people believe in as and administrators. While one could taught different things, reflecting the religion. A government school system design a voucher system to minimize differing preferences of their parents in a diverse society is thus deeply divi­ such problems, perhaps by permitting and, to a lesser degree, the beliefs of sive, since it means that some people's private schools to qualify if the mean teachers, textbook authors, and other children are being indoctrinated with performance of their students on objec­ contributors to the educational pro­ other people's religion. tive exams matched the mean perfor­ cess. As adults, the graduates of such Many of the disadvantages of gov­ mance of students at government schools have the opportunity to correct ernment schooling could be elimi­ schools, it is far from clear that such a the deficiencies in their education by nated, or at least reduced, by a voucher system could be either passed or interacting with the graduates of other system. While such a system would be maintained. schools who have been taught very dif­ a great improvement over government A second argument against vouch­ ferent things. Under a government sys­ schooling, there seems little reason to ers is that they may encourage wasteful tem, there is a serious risk that one believe that it would be superior to an expenditure on schooling. During the official orthodoxy will be taught to all. entirely private system. The great argu­ two decades when the performance of A further disadvantage to state ment against it is that a voucher sys­ U.S. schools, measured by objective education, especially in a diverse soci­ tem must include some definition of exams, plummeted, real expenditure ety, is that it inevitably involves a state what is or is not schooling, in order to per pupil roughly doubled. Under a religion. One cannot educate children determine what can be paid for with voucher system, interest groups selling without talking about issues on which the voucher. Imposing such a defini­ inputs to schooling - textbook pub­ religions differ. The pretense of a relig­ tion on private schools implies the lishers, teacher's unions, and the like­ iously neutral education, at least in the same sorts of problems of government have an incentive to lobby to raise the amount of the voucher above the opti­ mal level of school expenditure. While their ability to divert such expenditures "There is far more original thought in the to themselves will be limited by quality competition among the schools, an pages of The Education ofa Speculator increase in demand for their product than in many libraries of financial tomes." will still tend to raise its price. - Financial Times (London) Conclusion There are arguments in favor of having government pay for and pro­ duce schooling, as there are arguments in favor of having government pay for and produce practically any good or service. I have tried to show that the arguments in the case of schooling are not very strong. There are also argu­ ments against having government pro­ A wealth of profitable and fascinating knowledge! duce and pay for any good - the arguments for political failure com­ "A compelling and entertaining read. ... Readers interested bined with the general economic argu­ ment that private markets tend, at least in learning the connection between music and speculation in some approximation, to produce the or, better yet, sex and trading, will find this treatise an optimal output at the minimal cost. In eye-opener. Read it."-Wall Street Journal the case of schooling, there are addi­ tional and very powerful arguments The Education ofa Speculator is now available for only $26.95 - 10% off against government control. One of the publisher's price. This is perhaps the only book we've ever sold whose most important is its potential use to purchasers have telephoned to thank us personally for such a fascinating read. So indoctrinate the population in views that the government, or the schooling get your copy of The Education ofa Speculator today. You won't be bureaucracy, or powerful lobbying disappointed! groups, wish people to hold. In this regard, one of the great dis­ Call 1-800-854-6991 advantages of government schooling is or send your order to Liberty Book Club, Dept. BC14, P.O. Box 1181, Port its uniformity. Any education can be Townsend, WA 98368. Add $3.00 s&h for single orders, $1.00 extra for each viewed as indoctrination from the additional book. (Foreign orders add $5.00 s&h for single orders, $1.00 extra for each additional book.) Se tember 1997

Learn at control that would arise with a govern- correct in his suggestion. Whether or ment school system, although possibly not it is proper to have a government Liberty to a much reduced degree. system of schooling, it is prudent not I conclude that Adam Smith was to. 0 Liberty Foundation, the publisher of This article is dedicated to E. G. West, to whom, allowing for the usual time lag between ideas and Liberty magazine, offers full-time, policy, our grandchildren will owe a large debt. Most ofmy historical discussion is based on E. G. West, paid internships at all times of the Education and the Industrial Revolution, P.T. Batesford & Co., London 1975. year. For more information, contact: Notes 1. "The expence of the institutions for ruled by the first thousand names picked R.W. Bradford education and religious instruction, is out of the New York phone book than by Liberty likewise, no doubt, beneficial to the whole the faculty of Harvard. P.O. Box 1181 society, and may, therefore, without 6. For an interesting and original discussion Port Townsend, WA 98368 injustice, be defrayed by the general of such issues from an economic contribution of the whole society. This perspective, see Frank, Robert H., expence, however, might perhaps with Choosing the Right Pond: Human Behavior equal propriety, and even with some and the Quest for Status, N.Y: Oxford, advantage, be defrayed altogether by Oxford University Press 1985. those who receive the immediate benefit 7. E. G. West, Education and the Industrial Moving? of such education and instruction, or by Revolution, P.T. Batesford & Co., London the voluntary contribution of those who 1975, p. 36. We need to know four weeks in advance. Warn us! think they have occasion for either the one 8. Quoted byWest from C.R. Fay, Adam The U.S. Postal Service does notforward "periodi­ or the other." (Adam Smith, An Inquiry cals" mail without a written request. Liberty does not Smith and the Scotland ofhis Day, 1956, p. 51. replace subscription copies that do not reach their into the Nature and Causes ofthe Wealth of 9. Smith (1976) Book V, Chapter 1, part III, addressee because offailure of the subscriber to Nations, 1789 edition, E. Cannan ed., 1904 article II, ii 301. notify us of an address change. U of Chicago Press, Chicago: 1976, Book 10. For citations to the relevant literature, see New Address: (Attach old address label) V, Chapter 1, Conclusion, p. ii 340). Sam Peltzman, "The Political Economy of Name _ 2. I have chosen to refer to "government" the Decline of American Public rather than "public" schools and Education," Journal of Law and Economics, Address, _ schooling, because I find the latter Vol. 36, (1993). City ---'State_ Zip. _ terminology misleading. A privately run 11. West (1975) p. 123 school may be "public" in the sense that 12. West (1975); Education and the State: A differentiates a public hotel or restaurant Study in Political Economy, Institute of Attention from a private club - it may choose to Economic Affairs, London 1965; "The accept all customers willing to pay its Political Economy of American Public price. In this sense, most government-run School Legislation," 10 Journal ofLaw and Liberty schools are private, since they accept only Economics, 101 (1967); "Private Versus students who meet certain criteria, most Public Education: A Classical Economic Subscribers: commonly geographical. To describe Dispute," 72 Journal ofPolitical Economy You can easily tell when your sub­ government schools as "public" on the 465 (1964). scription ends: grounds that they are run by the public is 13. Some variants include the option of (1) Ifyour subscription runs out with to identify the public with the state, which voucher-supported public schools. In the current issue or the next issue, we will I think a mistake. Avoiding the term others, the amount is different for "public school" also avoids confusion enclose a renewal notice with your copy. different sorts of pupils, or is payed out between the British and American usages; (2) Ifyou do not have an enclosed on the basis of performance measures a British "public school" is what rather than years in school. For the renewal notice, take a look at the address Americans call a "private school." I use purposes of this essay I shall ignore such label on your magazine. To the right of "government" rather than"state" in the fine points, and consider a simple version your name should be the issues left in context of schooling in order to avoid of the voucher proposal. your subscription, followed by the word confusion with "state" in the sense of a 14. Even ifschools were not permitted to "left," as in "3 left" (followed by your political subdivision of a federal system, charge more than the voucher, parents subscriber Ld. number). such as the state of Illinois. still could and would supplement their 3. One can, however, argue that such virtues children's education in other ways. Any questions about your subscrip­ are in the long run interest of the 15. This conclusion ignores income effects tion, and ... individual who possesses them, since they due to redistribution. Families with many make him a more valued partner in freely children and low income will be net All subscription problems chosen associations. See Frank, Robert H., gainers by a voucher; families with few should be addressed to: Passions Within Reason: The Strategic Role of children and high income will be net the Emotions, Norton: NY 1988. Ifthis is Liberty Circulation losers. The former will tend to buy more right, then private schools may do a better schooling for their children than without P.O. Box 1181 job of inculcating virtue than government Port Townsend, WA 98368 a voucher, the latter less. schools, precisely because it is in their 16. Ifthe only relevant dimension of Please provide a written description interest to teach what parents want their schooling is number of hours, this is not of the problem you are having; please children to learn. true; a parent can provide the extra include your phone number and current 4. Lott, John R. Jr., "An Explanation for hundred dollars as privately provided address. Public Provision of Schooling: The after school tutoring. But if the relevant Weare sorry, but notification of any Importance of Indoctrination," Journal of dimension is quality rather than quantity subscription probem must be in writing; Law and Economics 33: 199 (1990). of schooling, simply supplementing what the government prOVides is not a we cannot handle problems presented to 5. William Buckley's response to this satisfactory option. us over the phone. argument was that he would rather be Survey Gun-Point Democracy in Africa by George Ayittey

The road of progress is impassable when overrun with highwaymen dressed in police uniforms.

Each year, the international community responds to Africa's self-inflicted catas­ trophes with the same monotonous routine. First, grisly photos of Africans' emaciated bodies are paraded in the Western media, as aid bureaucrats make urgent appeals for humanitarian assistance. Unable to bear the horror, the international community is stirred to mount elev­ enth-hour humanitarian rescue mis­ regimes in Africa. Just recently, for and "democracy." In exchange for a sions. Food, tents, and other relief example, China supplied five MiG-21 diplomatic or ministerial post, many African intellectuals are willing to supplies are airlifted to the refugees. fighter jets to Mobutu's forces, while betray their principles in service to the Factional leaders initially welcome the North Korea provided an estimated dictates of military goons with half humanitarian mission to feed refu­ 600 tons of machine guns, grenade launchers, and ammunition. their intelligence. It is pointless to rail gees, then turn against the mission But the fact is that foreign support, against Western aid to corrupt and and refuse to cooperate. They tax or lack thereof, has little to do with incompetent African regimes so long relief supplies and make extortionate the recent implosions of African coun­ as they have the support of such intel­ demands; aid workers are taken hos­ tries. The disasters continue primarily lectual prostitutes at home. tage or killed. In the end, the rescue because African despots and ruling Africa's woes stem largely from mission pulls out, CNN goes on to vampire elites refuse to relinquish or the imposition of two defective sys­ fresh kills, and starving refugees are share political power, and because tems on its people by its postcolonial left to fend for themselves. Soon they are supported internally by sol­ leaders. The first was statism - an another African country implodes, diers, intellectuals, civil servants ­ economic system in which enormous and the same macabre ritual is even by ostensible leaders of the powers are concentrated in the hands repeated. opposition. of the government, in contravention Why do durable solutions prove One such political chameleon is to Africa's indigenous heritage of free so elusive? Partly, of course, it is sim­ Zaire's former prime minister, opposi­ village markets, free enterprise, and ply because the same failed policies tion leader Kengo wa Dondo, who free trade. The village markets that are tried again and again. As the col­ fled Zaire this March after looting existed in Africa for centuries were lapse of Zaire shows, nothing - abso­ $160 million from the fund intended dominated by market women (espe­ lutely nothing - has been learned for elections. (In a bravura display of cially in West Africa), not controlled from the melt-downs in Somalia, hypocrisy, the kleptocratic Mobutu by African chiefs. Liberia, or Rwanda. Western media regime responded by putting out an The second imposed defect was analysts, employing Cold War para­ international warrant for his arrest.) sultanism - a system characterized digms, tend to engage in a debilitat­ The most scurrilous internal sup­ by the concentration of vast political ing and unproductive "Blame the port, however, has often been fur­ powers in the hands of one person. West First" game. The West, they nished by Africa's own intellectuals: This power is used to manipulate the point out, supported Mobutu, and professors, lawyers, teachers - the economic system to enrich the head of ignore the fact that other foreign pow­ very groups that are supposed to state (kleptocracy), his cronies (crony­ ers have also propped up flagitious understand such terms as "freedom" ism), and fellow tribesmen (tribalism). Liberty 55 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

What exists in many African countries reconstituted as "sovereign national armored car and heavy machine guns is a mafia state - a state hijacked by conferences," and used to ordain dem­ mounted on pickup trucks. The regime gangsters who use political power to ocratic dispensations for Benin, Cape stopped two radio stations from broad­ advance their own economic interests Verde Islands, Congo, Malawi, Mali, casting and shut down all of the coun­ and exclude everyone else. In Africa, Zambia, and South Africa. In Benin, for try's international phone lines. After political power is what guarantees example, a nine-day "national confer­ the Supreme Court, bazookas pointed access to fabulous wealth, and the rich­ ence" was held in 1990, with 488 dele- at its building, had declared est persons are often heads of state and . gates representing various political, Mainassara the "winner," the opposi­ ministers. religious, trade union, and other tion candidates were released. groups encompassing the broad spec­ Other African countries, such as Electoral Road to Hell trum of Beninois society. The confer­ Nigeria, Togo, and Zaire, have held The destruction of an African coun­ ence held "sovereign power," with its national conferences, but so devilishly try, regardless of the professed ideol­ decisions binding on all, including the manipulated them that they were ren­ ogy of its government or foreign government. It stripped President dered utterly useless. For example, in patron, generally begins with some Matthieu Kerekou of power, scheduled Nigeria military thugs have kept the dispute over the electoral process. The multi-party elections, and ended 17 country in a state of perpetual transi­ blockage of the democratic process or years of autocratic Marxist rule. tion to democratic rule. The previous the refusal to hold elections plunged South Africa used a similar vehicle five-year transition program, started in Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, Mozambique, to make the arduous but peaceful tran­ 1985 by the country's former dictator, Somalia, and Sudan into civil war. The sition to a multi-racial democratic soci­ General Ibrahim Babangida, was manipulation of the electoral process ety. The Convention For A Democratic stretched out with frequent interrup­ by hardliners destroyed Rwanda South Africa (CODESA) began deliber­ tions, devious maneuvers, and broken (1993) and Sierra Leone (1992). The ations in July 1991, with 228 delegates promises. For eight years, Babangida drawn from about 25 political parties went through political contortions ­ and various anti-apartheid groups. dribbling for position like the Brazilian Foreign support has little to CODESA was "sovereign" and strove soccer star who supplied his nickname, to reach a "working consensus" on an "Maradona"; constantly shifting the do with the recent implosions interim constitution. It set a date for goalposts; on four occasions reneging ofAfrican countries. The disas­ the March 1994 elections and estab­ upon his commitment to return the ters continue because African lished'the composition of a transitional country to civilian rule; and finally government to rule until then. annulling the June 1993 elections - the despots and ruling vampire By contrast, Burkina Faso, most free and fair in Nigeria's history elites refuse to relinquish or Cameroon, Gabon, The Gambia, - and throwing the winner, Chief share political power. Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Zimbabwe, and Moshood Abiola, into jail. several other African countries have Babangida's charade was immedi­ refused to hold national conferences. ately followed by General Sani The electoral process was blatantly Abacha's own scam transition, which subversion of the electoral process manipulated and rigged to return des­ instigated civil strife in Cameroon pots to power. (1991), Congo (1992), Togo (1992) and Niger is a good example. There, a Most African rebel leaders Kenya (1992), and in Liberia (1985) laid military thug, General Ibrahim Bare the ground work for civil war. Finally, Mainassara, seized power in a January are themselves closet dictators. the annulment of electoral results by 1996 coup. Under intense pressure the military started Algeria's civil war from both the domestic and the inter­ (1992) and plunged Nigeria into politi­ national community, Mainassara even­ followed the same steps as the cal turmoil (1993). tually scheduled presidential elections "Babangida boogie": one step forward, Even more maddening, there is a for July. Though opposition parties three steps back, a.sidekick, and a flip simple, indigenously African approach were given less than two months to to land on a fat Swiss bank account. to all such problems. Traditionally, campaign, early results showed that he Accordingly, the opening of when a crisis erupted in a typical was losing. So Mainassara sacked the Nigeria's June 1995 Constitutional African village, the chief and the elders Independent National Electoral Conference was greeted with a massive would summon a village meeting ­ Commission and replaced its members dose of public skepticism. Slated to similar to New England's town hall with his own appointees, while putting convene in January 1995, it was post­ meetings. There, the issue would be his opponents under house arrest and poned to March and then to June, caus­ debated by the people until a consen­ cutting off their phone lines. A ban on ing great confusion and anxiety. A day sus had been reached. And once a deci­ public gatherings in Niamey was after the conference finally began, it sion had been made, all - including imposed, and Mainassara deployed was adjourned for two weeks. The offi­ the chief - were required to abide by security forces at candidates' homes cial reason? Accommodations for the it. and at opposition party offices. The delegates were not ready. Nonetheless, In recent years, this indigenous floodlit Palais des Sports, where the the frequent postponements were African tradition has been revived and results were tallied, was guarded by an widely interpreted as a stalling tactic 56 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

and served only to reinforce public and local, state, and regional elections point - would restore his own coun­ skepticism. - always with the possibility of inter­ try's civilian president to power. But in Moreover, the 396 delegates, who ruption in midstream. many parts of Africa, common sense is were to deliberate on the future of If South Africa had held such a con­ the scarcest commodity in officialdom. democracy, congregated at Abuja as stitutional conference, General Abacha Similar antics were employed by "guests of the military." Ninety-six and other African leaders who the former dictator of Zaire, President were nominated by General Abacha, endorsed this farcical proceeding Mobutu Sese Seko. Under international and the rest were "elected" under sus­ would have leapt 80 feet into the air and domestic pressure, he too piciously complex rules. Delegates and denounced it as palpable effront­ embarked upon a process of democrat­ were chosen by "people's representa­ ery to black people. But the Nigerian ization in 1990. A sovereign national tives" who were themselves elected by people are not so restrained in their conference was convened in 1991 to popular vote (scheduled for May 21 reaction to domestic corruption - and draft a new constitution, elect a transi­ but postponed to May 23). Candidates with Nigeria trudging tortuously tional parliament, and form an interim under 35 years of age were ineligible to through this "voodoo democracy," the government until elections could be military government that has ruled held. But the wily autocrat deviously Nigeria for 26 of 36 years since inde­ manipulated his rivals, playing one As desirable as the ouster of pendence from Britain has been the tar­ political opponent against another and get of six bomb attacks already this repeatedly sabotaging the transition Mobutu might be, the interna­ year. process to retain his grip on power. At tional community should be Ironically, when soldiers overthrew one point, there were more than 400 extremely wary of enthusiasti­ the civilian government of Ahmed political parties in Zaire - over half of Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone on May them created by Mobutu - leading cally embracing people who 25, 1997, it was Nigeria that sent in Zaireans to scorn Inulti-partyism as shoot their way to power. troops to oust the coup leaders "multi-Mobutuism." (described by Sierra Leone's ambassa­ As desirable as the ouster of dor to the U.S. as "wild savages") and Mobutu might be, the international run. And besides excluding ex-convicts to restore the civilian president. One community should be extremely wary and bankrupts, the law demanded that would think a leader who is such a of enthusiastically embracing people each candidate "must be sane" and "a strenuous advocate of democracy - to who shoot their way to power in fit and proper person" - requirements the extent of restoring a democrati­ Africa. Such active and open support which most of the ruling military thugs cally-elected civilian president at gun- for a rebel insurgency poses a serious themselves would surely fail to meet. Freedom From Freedom Froms by Titus Stauffer Logistical problems, inadequate Genetically engineered human and nonhuman beings and Conscious publicity, and apathy bedeviled the Computers are coming our way. Are we ready? Will we allow them electoral exercise. Campaigning was to vote, defend themselves, own property? Or will we simply say that forbidden, and there was no voters' since they're not human, they have no rights? Slavery, Part II'! We'll face these and many other vexing problems, equipped with two register or voting cards. Confusion main ideologies. Welfare Statists on the left, coercive busybody reigned. Voters did not even know moralists on the right. Socialists give us freedom from housing whom they were voting for or to what ·;f:ill J/ildiscrimination by punishing us for advertising our houses as havin purpose. Stunned by the annulment of Ji//II[·I >.walk-in closets. By doing so, they say, we convey our intent to discriminate against those in wheelchairs! Witchburners give us the June 12 elections, many chose to freedom from sin by protecting us from "lewd" Calvin Klein ads. stay home. In Ondo State, there was Perhaps genuine freedom and broad-mindedness could provide almost no voting at all. In Ogun State, some solutions. Instead of sponsoring quarrels between the NAACP, polling booths were empty. In the NAAWP, NAACC, and so on, we'd be better off with the NAACB southern states - Akwa-Ibom, Cross (Nonexclusive Association for the Advancement of Conscious Beings). We need Freedom From Freedom Froms when the freedoms River - most voters stayed home. that our leaders foist on us are false ones. Ifyou love real freedom, vicious Across the country, general voter turn­ /].mlla political satire, and science fiction, Freedom was written for you! out was scandalously low. c.. Direct Price $12.95, 530 pg, ISBN 09644113513 More suspiciously, the Bats in the Belfry, By Desien by Titus Stauffer This hard science fiction thriller, a 1996 Prometheus Awar Constitutional Conference was not n.ominee, mixes deadly, frightful ideas with politically incorrect, sovereign. That is, the Abacha regime dIsrespectful humor and adventure. It's a hoot and could also be reserved the right to reject or accept its warning! In the next 50 years, we'll spend billions of dollars' recommendations. If the regime developing new uses for genetic engineering. To what ends? Some have speculated that we'll build an amusement park featurin rejected them, the entire exercise dinosaurs. Remember the Manhattan Project?. We sure didn't split would be a colossal waste and would the atom because we wanted a place to play. We haven't learned, yet, have to be started anew. If the recom­ that we can't expect to survive very long, if we keep on building every "defensive" death-toy that new technology permits. mendations were accepted, the mili­ ------~~~~~~~~~~ tary regime would then draw up a Order Directly From: timetable probably specifying FreeVoice Publishing (713) 251-5226 P.O. Box 692168, Houston, TX 77269-2168 Please send __ copies of Freedom From Freedom Froms @ $12.95 each. another eight-year transition period for 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 $1.00 for each additional book. "civic education," voter registration, Allow 3 - 6 weeks delivery. Texas residents add 7.25

setback to the democratization process Liberia, factional leaders battle fero­ played by Ugandan and Rwandan in Africa. . By encouraging similar ciously to fill the powervacuum. Tutsis in the movement. insurgencies, it sends a dangerous sig­ Another example is provided by nal and delivers a destabilizing jolt to a Kabila's fractious movement, the The Role of the West continent already reeling from wanton Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Western investment and "aid" brutality. Liberation of Congo-Zaire, which is often turns out to be a key source of In this vein, a joint communique composed of three parties. Differences income for local despots. In Somalia, issued in May by political parties rep­ between them, buried for the moment, for example, the warlords imposed lev­ resented in Zaire's parliament is note­ could soon erupt· into open warfare, ies on.relief supplies to starving vic­ worthy. It observes that peaceful and in the post-Mobutu era, remnants tims. When relief aid as a source of demands for democratic change have of Mobutu's army may well stake a revenue evaporated, a Somali warlord, failed to produce results, and "given claim for the spoils of power. Etienne the late Mohamed Farah Aidid, turned that the only language understood by Tshisekedi, the most popular opposi- his attention to the lucrative banana those in power is the language of export trade to Europe. A "banana arms," it expresses support for armed war" erupted between him and struggle to establish democracy. Africa'S liberation struggle Somalia's other warlord, Ali Hassan But the record of insurgencies and is a story of betrayal, choreo­ Osman "Atto." The ancient port of liberation movements in postcolonial Merca, the scene of the fierce fighting Africa inspires little confidence. Most graphed by an assortment of in 1996, is a small town south of African rebel leaders are themselves self-styled liberators, quack Mogadishu. closet dictators, exhibiting the same revolutionaries, Swiss bank The port had been renovated by tyrannical tendencies they so loudly two foreign firms: Somali Fruit of Italy denounce in the despots they hope to socialists, and grasping klepto­ and Sombana of the U.S. The two com­ replace. Africa's liberation struggle is a crats. panies paid Aidid 20 cents for every story of betrayal, choreographed by an carton they exported - about $800,000 assortment of self-styled liberators, a month. Additional levies brought in quack revolutionaries, Swiss bank tion leader, will loathe being marginal­ $200,000 to Aidid's coffers each month. socialists, and grasping kleptocrats. ized. Granted, Zaire's opposition lead­ Fighting flared up in March 1996, One cause of Africannations' inter­ ers have yet to liberate themselves, as when Atto demanded that the warlord nal divisions is natural tribal rivalries ­ Kabila has scornfully remarked. But either share the revenues from Merca and even before they accomplish their any attempt to cut them out of the food or see that port closed. liberation mission, rebel movements chain could provoke riots, especially in In Liberia, "liberator" Charles often splinter into tribal factions· and Kisangani. Further, the Baluba, the Taylor turned out to be another politi­ turn their guns on each other. Examples Babembe, and the Bahunde - strong cal entrepreneur. According to the U.S. are not hard to find: the ANC/Inkatha and fiercely independent tribes of east­ State Department's Deputy Assistant split in South Africa; the Mugabe/ ern Zaire - resent the prominent role Secretary of State for African Affairs, Nkomo rift in Zimbabwe; Nkrumah vs. played in the insurgency by Zaire's William Twaddell, Taylor has been Danquah in Ghana; Taylor vs. Johnson minority ethnic Tutsis the paid at least $75 million in each of the in Liberia; Aideed vs. Mahdi in Banyamulenge or "Easterners," as they six years since he started the Liberian Somalia; Savimbi vs. Neto in Angola; are called by locals, who comprise less civil war. Taylor's booty came from the Machan vs. Garang in Sudan, among than one million of Zaire's 43 million sale of Liberian diamonds, gold, iron others. If the campaign to overthrow people. ore, and timber, mostly to companies the hated regime is unsuccessful, the In Goma this April, tensions in Belgium, France, and Malaysia. war may drag on for years - even dec­ between Tutsi soldiers and the. According to Twaddell, this was in ades, as in Angola, Mozambique, Katangan gendarmes of the rebel addition to Taylor's share of the "$16 Sudan. If the head of state is ousted or movement erupted into a gunfight. million to $20 million" in ship registry killed, as happened in Somalia and The Katangans are Zaireans who in the revenues which he and the five other 1960s and 1970s fought members of his Council of State shared unsuccessfully for auto­ among themselves in 1995. nomy for the mineral­ In Zaire, it is deja vu all over again. rich Katanga province, American and European mining com­ fleeing to Angola after panies have been relentlessly pursuing their defeat. Since the Zaire's new leader, Laurent-Desire rebel insurgency, they Kabila, pressing him to negotiate have returned multimillion-dollar concession deals. together with the chil­ South Africa's diamond-mining giant, dren of the original De Beers, said it held talks with Mr. separatists - to join the Kabila this April. American business­ rebel insurgency men - miners, bankers, lawyers, and against Mobutu. They communications executives - are also "Oh you would, would you!" deeply resent the role continued on page 60 58 Liberty Comment Lew Rockwell's Vienna Waltz by Tom G. Palmer

Who is this Rockwell fellow, and why is he linking one of history's great libertarians to an imperialistic police state?

The Habsburg Dynasty was: A) One of the more reactionary and anti-constitutional forces in 19th century and early 20th century Europe. B) A popular American television evening soap opera from the mid-1980s. C) A famed guardian of Western civilization and a noted patron of the Austrian School of Economics and of classical liberalism. According to Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., president of the Ludwig appointed Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk and he did try to get the Empire's von Mises Institute, the answer is "C." twice as Finance Minister, to institute accounts in order - but what this In a letter asking donors to lido us the and strengthen the gold standard. says about the Emperor's attachment honor of serving on the Dinner Mises himself was decorated three to subjective value theory or praxeol­ Committee" for the Institute's upcom­ times for bravery under fire as an ogy is not clear. Fifth and finally, giv­ ing fifteenth anniversary, Rockwell artillery officer in the emperor's ing some medals·to a soldier in an gushes, liThe honorary chairman of army." idiotic war - occasioned by the the Dinner Committee, also our guest How many silly things can Emperor's imperialistic grab for of honor that evening, is Karl von Rockwell pack into one paragraph? Bosnia and his sabre-rattling toward Habsburg-Lothringen, Archduke of Let's count. First, ennobling an Serbia - is pretty thin evidence of Austria. We are honored by his sup­ obscure bureaucrat who was inciden­ fondness for Austrian economics or port of the Institute. His presence tally the father of a future classical lib­ classical liberalism, even if the young makes this the event of a lifetime." eral economist hardly counts as soldier would later become famous as As if this bowing-and-scraping patronage of classical liberal thought. a classical liberal and an Austrian were not enough, Rockwell continues Second, the Emperor certainly did not economist. (Indeed, serving as a sol­ with a remarkable rewriting of mod­ hire Menger to teach classical liberal­ dier in a conscripted imperial army at ern European history, asserting that ism to his son, since the Emperor war with the United States, France, "in European history, the Habsburg despised liberal thinking; in any case, and Britain is hardly the proudest monarchy was a famed guardian of Menger was not known at the time as moment in a great liberal's life, and Western civilization. But even those of an outspoken classical liberal. Third, certainly an odd one to celebrate.) us devoted to the old American Menger was a full professor at the Perhaps Rockwell has forgotten republic are aware of the warm and University of Vienna, and such nota­ that Mises was a republican; that long relationship between the ble persons were quite commonly Mises strenuously opposed absolut­ Austrian school and the House of given appointments to the upper ism; that the Emperor Franz Joseph Habsburg." In defense of this startling house of the parliament, so this is not presided over the slaughter of the claim, Rockwell claims that liThe evidence of any attachment to liberal­ Hungarian classical liberal revolution­ Emperor Franz Joseph ennobled ism or to Austrian economics. Fourth, aries when he came to power in 1848 Mises' father, hired Carl Menger to Bohm-Bawerk was indeed Finance and pursued a policy of revenge mur­ teach classical liberalism to Crown Minister from 1900 to 1904, and his ders against them; and that the Prince Rudolf, made Menger a mem­ visage today appears on the 100 schil­ Habsburg policy stressed protection­ ber of the House of Lords, and ling note of the Republic of Austria, ism, an established state church, Liberty 59 Volume 11, Number 1 Se tember 1997

neo-absolutism, powerful bureaucra­ unable to find in his governmental sys­ Ludwig von Mises, far from being cies, and military expansion toward tem - in spite of his proverbial energy reverential toward the Habsburg the Balkans, resulting in the very war and feeling of duty - anything which dynasty, noted in his book Liberalism that shattered European civilization. could be called a standpoint based that "the impossibility of solving the Or perhaps this kind of nonsense problems of the Hapsburg monarchy should come as no surprise from the against the will of the ruling dynasty man who defended in the Los Angeles Serving as a soldier in a ultimately led to the incident that Times the brutal beating of Rodney conscripted imperial army at became the immediate cause of the King by the Los Angeles police force, World War." who suggested government controls war with the U.S., France, and Lew Rockwell may have set a new on video cameras as the solution to Britain is hardly the proudest standard for obsequiousness, even sur­ such problems, and who had the gall moment in a great liberal's life, passing Edmund Burke, who wrote so to sully the good name of Ludwig von rapturously of Marie Antoinette Mises by mentioning his presidency of and certainly an odd one to ("surely never lighted on this orb, the Mises Institute as his identification. celebrate. which she hardly seemed to touch, a As to whether the reign of Franz more delightful vision"). It may be a Joseph was especially liberal or sup­ shame that the Queen isn't alive to portive of Austrian economics, the upon principle, a systematic endeavor, dance at Rockwell's ancien regime ball. scholar Oscar Jaszi noted in his book, or even a modest program looking But the greater shame is that his ball The Dissolution of the Ha bsburg toward the future. The only real bears the name of a great defender of Monarchy, "If we look over the seven­ motives of his system were military constitutional republicanism and clas­ decade reign of Francis Joseph, we are power and diplomatic prestige." sical liberalism. 0

Ayittey, "Gun-Point Democracy in Africa," continued from page 58

flocking to sign deals with Kabila. "heroes" and installed as heads of state shortage had emerged. Then they America Mineral Fields, Inc., of Hope, has been ghastly. In most cases, the seized and nationalized Sizarail, a Arkansas, signed a $1 billion contract honeymoon lasts less than six months. Zairean railroad company owned by with the rebel alliance to search for cop­ Widespread misery and poverty South African and Belgian interests. per, cobalt, and zinc deposits. Other for­ ratchets up impatience with any new Africans have seen all this before: eign companies include America regime, making the populace less nationalization of private enterprises, Di~mond Buyers, New Millennium willing to forgive bureaucratic delays price fixing, banning of miniskirts, etc., Investment (banking), Comsat (tele­ and missteps. And the rebels have all under various guises of statism ­ communications), and Citibank. already committed some mistakes. or more appropriately, Swiss bank To be sure, Mobutu Sese Seko is a After taking Lubumbashi in April, for socialism, a peculiar form of socialism despicable disgrace to Africa, but the example, they responded to vehement which allows African heads of state method of his ouster is hardly to be protests from residents by rescinding and a phalanx of kleptocrats to rape recommended. And with him gone, their decision to ban the use of high­ and plunder Africa's treasury for the prognosis for Zaire remains bleak. denomination Zaire bank notes. The deposit in Switzerland. Though Kabila easily triumphed in the rebels also fixed the local exchange rate Africans have a saying: The enemy final showdown in Kinshasa, Africa's for the dollar at a ridiculously low of my enemy may not necessarily be experience with rebel leaders hailed as level, backtracking only after a dollar my friend. 0

Myanmar Chicago Advances in the fight against terrorism, as explained New insight into the dynamics of sexual orientation, in a press release from Myanmar's ruling party, SLORC, offered by Professor Richard Posner in his bookOvercoming reprinted in World Press Review: Law: "While the people in the country were praying and rejoicing Formally, a homosexual act will be chosen over a heterosex­ at the government's meritorious missionary tasks, those power­ ual one if

crazy, irrational beings, the destructionists ... attempted to C -C C ), CB l - l > 0, CB l l) > CB l - 2 destroy the Lord Buddha's Tooth Relic.... no damage was Where Bl and B2 are the benefits of the homosexual and the caused ... [but] there will be no place to go but hell for those heterosexual act, respectively, to a particular person and C land evil destructionists who dare to tear the hearts of the people C2 are the respective costs to him. paying homage to the Lord Buddha's Tooth relic." (Readers are invited to forward newsclippings or other items for publication in Terra Incognita.) 60 Liberty Waco: The Rules ofEngagement, a 165-minute documentary, produced, piled with kerosene for heating; the directed, co-written and edited by William Gazecki; with Dan Gifford and whole place was a tinderbox. (Some of Amy Sommer Gifford, executive producers; limited national release, 1997. the kerosene had been improvised into Molotov cocktails, apparently intended for defense against tanks. Perhaps the Davidians remembered Hungary in 1956.) We hear the Davidians' frantic Documenting calls to 911, begging for a cease-fire. Rules of Engagement also shows FBI negotiators lying repeatedly to the Davidians and the public. This should be no surprise, of course, since many of Disaster them came from the same gang that was in charge at Ruby Ridge, where killers shot "at first opportunity" under Davidians or government agents the revised "rules of engagement" Gary Alexander fired the first shots - and which drafted in Idaho that summer, then lied survived the fire, but somehow about what they had done to the disappeared while in FBI custody; Waco: The Rules of Engagement, Weaver family - and got away with it. • the crime scene video made by the William Gazecki's compelling new film Public tolerance of Ruby Ridge paved coroner's office, which was com­ documentary, is not for the faint of the way for Waco in the same way that mandeered by the FBI and then heart. The images are disturbing and tolerance of earlier holocausts in lost; unforgettable: images of the charred, Armenia and the Ukraine paved the contorted, bullet-ridden bodies of chil­ • the entire crime scene itself, which way for Hitler's Final Solution. dren and women, bent into jagged was burned down and then bull­ dozed the same day. angles after lethal CS gas was poured The Seeds of February 28 into their living quarters, forcing them Using Forward-Looking Infrared The film offers ballistic evidence to flee, only to be immolated in a bon­ (FLIR) technology, Waco: The Rules of that the BATF fired first. But we may fire ignited by government tanks; Engagement offers dramatic new evi­ never know the truth about the initial images of government agents firing on dence about what happened that day. engagement on February 28, because civilians running for cover; images of Edward Allard - a former supervisor the FBI subsequently "lost" the most politicians lying again and again about at the u.s. Army Night Vision conclusive evidence (the front door). the government assault on the Branch Laboratory and an acknowledged And the duplicity of the FBI's actions Davidian home near Waco, Texas, on expert on this technology - presents following the assault is equally disturb­ February 28, 1993, and the FBI massa­ FLIR footage shOWing flashes that ing. One of the most dramatic scenes cre of the survivors on April 19. appear to be muzzle blasts fired from records FBI agent Jim Cavanaugh's Rules of Engagement does a heroic automatic weapons, directed into the negotiations with the Davidians. job of uncovering the truth about what concrete bunker where the women and Cavanaugh repeatedly and adamantly happened and why. Sketchy federal children had sought refuge during the claims that there were "no guns on records show only that the Davidian final assault. Other FLIR footage shows those helicopters" that day. Koresh women and children burned to death ground troops directing automatic screams, "That's a lie! That is a damn or suffocated, and 19 others - prob­ weapons at the single exit door at the lie.... Now Jim, you're a damn liar.... ably men who stayed in the home until back of the compound, and bullets You're sittin' there and tellin' me that fire drove them out - died of gunshot fired at people trying to escape from there were no guns on that helicopter?" wounds. Unfortunately, we'll never the burning building. Cavanaugh replies, "I said they didn't know the whole story - both because The film includes footage of a tank shoot," and Koresh again calls him a journalists were kept more than a mile deliberately driving over the body of a liar. The agent answers, "Well, you're from the site of the action, and because Davidian, just to make a point to those wrong, David," but later modifies his most of the evidence was destroyed or inside. We see FBI agents using hand­ story again: "What I'm sayin' is that conveniently "lost." Among the most held grenade-launchers to hurl fire­ those helicopters didn't have mounted critical evidence that disappeared is: bombs and grenades, and tanks blow­ guns, O.K.?" • the bUilding's front door, which ing gaping holes in the side walls of the For nearly two hours that day, would have proved whether the Davidians' wooden structure, stock- Davidian Wayne Martin - one of the Liberty 61 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 first blacks to graduate from Harvard But it is the working press that the hands of government spin-doctors Law School - was yelling at the vari­ comes off worst of all. The mythically like Bob Ricks. Safe and comfortable in ous 911 operators on duty, "Stop the fearless folks who risk their lives to get their press room, reporters didn't press shooting, and we'll stop shooting." The a good picture, in Bosnia or Vietnam, for the truth. Instead, they were content firing finally stopped when the BATF felt compelled to obey FBI orders at Mt. to accept BATF and FBI accounts of raiders ran out of bullets and grenades. Carmel. After the February 28 shoot­ what was happening. The film shows them backing up, with out, the FBI kept the press so far away And the blackout continues. All their hands up. They were sitting that the back of the complex was com­ major news organizations have been ducks. Why didn't the "'evil cultists" pletely out of view. Journalists had no sent the FLIR film. CBS and 60 Minutes just pick them off, one by have had the film for more one? Maybe the Davidians than two years, but will were not "turn-the-other­ not show it. Neither will cheek" Christians. But any other news organiza­ they certainly weren't the tion. (The FLIR film was aggressive monsters that also available at congres­ the BATF and FBI claimed sional hearings, but the they were. committee was not interested.) The True Villains in Rules of Engagement the Drama was first shown at the The daybefore the final Sundance Festival in attack, Koresh had fin­ January, then in a pair of ished tape-recording his trendy Berkeley and San essay on the Seven Seals ­ Francisco film houses in the same day he told the March. Otherwise, it has FBI that he was ready to had only limited distribu­ come out with his tape and tion. I saw it in a nearly surrender. This was a first empty theatre in for Koresh. He had prom­ Washington, D.C., on the ised once before to come last day of its engagement. out on a certain day if the The lack of a crowd was government would agree no surprise: it was no to an uncensored radio longer being advertised or broadcast of his tape. even listed in the news­ Later, he changed his mind papers. on that offer and said God The film originated had told him to wait. On with Michael McNulty, an the basis of this single vac­ insurance salesman in illation, the FBI maligned Corona, California, who Koresh as a chronic liar ­ kept tracking down Waco though FBI lies were far evidence in his spare time. more frequent. Indeed, Trying to figure out what even the politicians don't was really happening on come off as badly as the sril{from Waco: Tht'RUIt'sofE"gagt'mt'nt(FifthEstates'P;~d':~~i;~':; some FBI film footage, he bureau - men and women just "doing way of knowing what happened on consulted Hollywood producer Dan their job," coldly and brutally killing April 19, when, the FLIR film shows, Gifford, who in turn sought the help of innocent people, posing for "trophy" the FBI used automatic weapons to cut William Gazecki, a professional sound photographs over the smoldering ruins, off the women and children's only mixer whose credits included films such then going about their business as if escape route. We never heard a peep of as The Rose and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. nothinghad happened. protest about that quarantine. After viewing the tape over and over, The hypocrisy of politicians, to be The Davidians tried to communi- they agreed that it should be made into sure, was shameless: Janet Reno smil­ cate with the press and the world by a one-hour TV documentary, accompa- ingly referred to huge tanks as "big ren­ hanging signs on the front of the build- nied by some expert testimony. Dan tal cars," playing bumper pool on the ing. "Rodney King, we understand," Gifford and co-producer Amy Sommer side of a building; Rep. Charles said one; "FBI broke negotiations. We Gifford agreed to finance the film. Schumer railed bitterly against any wit­ want press," said another. I'll bet you The Giffords are "mainstream ness at the Congressional hearings who never saw these signs on television or Hollywood," transplants from New defended individual rights or religious in the newspaper. York's trendy Upper West Side freedom, and baldly claimed that the The press didn't just back off. The ("Woody Allen Country"). Dan Gifford Davidians most likely killed journalists in Rules of Engagement come had previously worked for MacNeil­ themselves. off as flippant, cynical wimps, pawns in Lehrer and CNN in New York; Amy 62 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

Gifford had worked on lighter material spoke in biblical terms. BATF and FBI with a more peaceful outcome. for A Current Affair and The Maury agents were secular, "law-and-order The Worldwide Church of God and Povich Show. nuts." But the FBI's Hostage Rescue its affiliate, Ambassador College, were Gazecki was a Buddhist and a Team wouldn't use a translator (and raided by dozens of officers of the state Deadhead who'd always voted there were many around) who could of California early one Wednesday Democrat. "When I started this thing, I speak the Davidian language; appar­ morning in 1979. Thankfully, it was not hated guns to the degree that I was ter­ ently, the Hostage Rescue Team was an armed church, so nobody was rified of 'em. I still don't like 'em. But I not all that interested in talking them killed. But the agents did take over all will say that in learning more about off the cliff. administrative offices and comman­ how this country was founded, the rea­ In brief, the Davidians are a branch deered church finances for nine months son we were given because of allegations the right to have from dissident groups guns is in case we're that these funds were gonna have to over­ being misused. (Are throw our govern­ church finances now sub­ ment again." ject to state control? If so, All the principals heaven help,us all.) had their original On April 19, 1993, I intentions reversed happened to be in a bar­ by the facts. Gazecki ber shop when a televi­ said: "When my sion news bulletin friends heard about showed the blaze. I said, it, their reaction was "This is a sad day for 'Those nuts deserved America." The barber shot what was coming; back, "They're a bunch of anybody who religious nuts with guns. molests children They asked for it. Good should be lined up riddance, if you ask me." and shot.' 1'm talking And most of the rest of about the touchy­ the customers in the shop feely, liberal crowd in agreed with the barber. Santa Monica; they Rather than say to a man said that." still from Waco: Th~Rl//~sofEngagm1mt(Fifth Estates Productions} with a razor at my throat Dan Gifford added: "Doing a piece (offshoot, sect) of the Seventh Day that this nation was founded by relig- like this was the farthest thing we had Adventist church. The Davidians first ious nuts with guns, I shut up. from our minds." Amy Gifford is per­ broke away in the mid-1930s, and they In the Tiananmen Square Massacre haps most uncomfortable with the pub­ eventually formed a religious com- (siege?) in 1989, Americans across the lic view of what happened: "It mune in east Texas. As often happens, nation rooted for the lone man standing infuriates me that Waco has become an there eventually was a power struggle. up to a tank. (The tank backed off, if issue of far-right gun nuts. It's a human In the end, the loser of that struggle you remember.) But in America, when rights violation. No one seems to went to the press, and to the govern- a lone Davidian is trodden under by remember, because they're too busy ment, with all the dirt he had on the our tanks, the majority seem to root for arguing over pieces of metal, that 90 sins of the winner - including allega- the man in the tank, rolling over the human lives were lost. There are 90 tions of child abuse, stockpiling of nut on the ground in the name of "law grieving families out there. Eighty-six guns, and polygamy. and order." In this age of pro forma of those people were pretty bloody apologies for sins of 150 years past ­ weird. But we have something called Not Unprecedented when neither perpetrator nor victim is the First Amendment. It gives you the Waco: The Rules of Engagement is a alive - why are there no apologies by right to be weird." difficult film for me to review. From the assassins in the agencies - the men 1963 to 1975, I was a member of who pulled the trigger? A Separate People another sect, which also grew out of If Janet Reno ever has the pride to What is a Branch Davidian, any­ Seventh Day (Saturday/Sabbath­ fall on her sword, or Ruby Ridge assas­ way? Does anyone know, or care? One keeping) churches. Like the Branch sin Lon Horiuchi is prosecuted for mur­ major reason why up to 90 people died Davidians, the Worldwide Church of der, or Bill Clinton apologizes to the near Waco, Texas comes down to the God was founded in the mid-1930s. families of the 80 or 90 fallen "nuts" in fact that the Davidians and the U.S. And like the Davidians, it later added Waco - with the same flourish offered government spoke different languages. a Texas campus (compound?) and pub­ in the tributes to the 168 victims in They may as well have conversed in lished unique theories on the book of Oklahoma City - I'll begin to believe Mandarin and Portuguese for all they Revelation and its Seven Seals. Also that Americans truly care about the understood each other. The Davidians like the Davidians, my church was outcasts Christ referred to as "these, the were "religious nuts"; as such, they raided by the government - albeit least of my brothers." 0 Liberty 63 Volume 11, Number 1 September1997

Hidden Order: The Economics ofEveryday Life, by David Friedman. absence of hierarchies and policing, HarperCollins, 340 pp., $25.00, 1996. professional insecurity, free associa­ tions without regard to credentials or licensing, and the general elimination of state prohibitions - all on the assumption that chaos eventually pro­ duces an equilibrium beneficial to most people. What my anarchist colleagues The Economics fail to understand is that economic con­ trol is generally as deleterious as social control and that the "spontaneous order" of a truly free market is a lauda­ ofReal Life ble chaos. Especially since Friedman's first book, The Machinery of Freedom, envisioned a society with minimal gov­ ernment, I wanted to find here a per­ suasive explanation of why economic Richard Kostelanetz why prospective landlords don't build or even renovate anything with low chaos works. rentals (and thus for the continuing I hoped this feat of epistemology Hearing someone identify a libertar­ housing shortage); and so forth. might have come in the wake of a ian as a "Republican who has done Perhaps the job of perspicacious Friedman anecdote early in the new drugs," I replied, for myself, that a economic criticism should be identify­ book, telling of a high official in the libertarian could also be an anarchist ing this "hidden order" of contrary Chinese "ministry of materials supply who has learned something about eco­ effects. [who] was planning to visit the United nomics. If only to see how much I've Otherwise, this book is filled with States in order to see how things were learned, as well as how much I could great sentences, luminous sentences done there. He wanted, naturally learn, I eagerly read my colleague really, often worth remembering, if not enough, to meet and speak with his David Friedman's latest book, Hidden transcribing in Every Libertarian's opposite number - whomever was in Order: The Economics of Everyday Life. Commonplace Book: charge of seeing that U.S. producers got the materials they needed in order to Attempting to relate sophisticated eco­ When you buy insurance, you nomic ideas to one's daily life, this accept an unfair gamble - a gamble produce. He had difficulty understand­ book is meant to be high populariza­ that loses money on the average - in ing the answer - that no such person tion, which is a respectable tradition, order to reduce uncertainty. exists [in the U.S.]." What Friedman doesn't explain is why such a czar is especially in economics literature. The essential objective in any con­ Friedman knows that the measure of flict is neither to defeat your enemy unnecessary in a chaotic economy, per­ his and his reader's success should be nor to make it impossible for him to haps because he thinks readers already this: "Until you have fitted the logical defeat you but merely to make it no know. (It isn't obvious to those who pattern together yourself, inside your longer in his interest to do whatever think the government should "do own head, what you have read is only it is that you object to. something" about any chaotic words." Organized crime [is] not a giant problem.) What I came to understand better corporation but something more like Friedman repeats in passing one than before is what I call the principle a chamber of commerce or better fundamental truth of anarchist econom­ of contrary effects - truths that are the business bureau for the criminal ics as I got it from the great writer Paul bane of a do-gooder's understanding of market. Goodman - that the best things in life the world. Consider these examples: [Illicit] drug sellers have lots of are free. I wish Friedman had raise the minimum wage, because we portable wealth in the form of money expanded on this thought, because it all agree poor workers should be paid and drugs, and do not have the seems to me that a true "anarcho­ more, and one result is an increase in option of calling the police if some­ capitalism" should be about expanding unemployment among the poor; allow one steals it. The result is violence by one's practice of what is usually free or polygamy, which is distasteful to femi­ drug dealers defending their prop­ nearly free - not only love and sex but nists, and one result is increasing the erty and by other people trying to friendship, the appreciation of nature, number of married women and thus steal it. reading a book (or Liberty), listening to reducing the purported "lack of availa­ Friedman warns that when you are music, looking at art, walking, jogging, ble men"; price controls induce not one of millions mailing back a sweep­ swimming, playing with one's kids. In lower prices, but shortages - and thus stakes invitation from, say, Publisher's that case, the ultimate economic aim of black markets with higher prices; plea Clearinghouse, "the value of the prize a libertarian society should be not 100% bargaining, rather than releasing pris­ multiplied by the chance of getting it employment, which communist econo­ oners, partially accounts for the comes to less than the cost of the stamp. mies once claimed to realize, but 100% increase in the number of people incar­ The expected return is negative." unemployment, or at least self­ cerated; New York City rent control of An anarchist since college, I believe employment. However, the subsequent sub-luxury apartments accounts for in the virtues of social chaos - the paragraph in Hidden Order is devoted 64 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 to diamonds (no joke), precisely one of The Coming Conflict With China, by Richard Bernstein and Ross H. those "best things" that most of us can Munro, Knopf, 1997, 245 pp., $23.00 (he). easily do without. A Firing Offense, by David Ignatius, Random House, 1997, 333 pp., Two technical caveats: Friedman $23.00 (he). often ends chapters of this pseudo­ textbook with challenging questions based upon previous explanation. Since the answers weren't as obvious as Friedman assumed, even to me, more than once I went to the back of the book The New looking for answers that were not there. (My hunch is that some publish­ ing genius removed them at the last minute.) Second, as someone who like­ Sinophobia wise has a family name that reminds many readers of another guy, I won­ dered why Friedman, only a few years have ceased to talk about Japan as the younger than middle-aged me, is still Leon Hadar acknowledging his illustrious father in "Rising Sun," and they no longer cast biographical notes. David is old the Japanese as villains. In the new zeit­ enough to know that, filial respect not­ In the early 1990s, as the Cold War geist, Japan is a "has-been," incapable withstanding, that is an unfortunate was coming to an end, American intel­ of adapting to the pressures of the glo­ move in this country, which isn't lectuals were increasingly suggesting bal economy, and is doomed to join the England. that the geostrategic rivalry between former Soviet Union in the dustbin of The principal disappointment, for Moscow and Washington would soon history. America is now the uncon­ me at least, is that too much of Hidden be replaced by a geoeconomic conflict tested winner, and its capitalist model Order resembles French literary­ between Japan and the United States ­ is the envy of the world. political theory - for all of its aspira­ one that could eventually take the form But not to worry! America may tions and pretensions to be relevant to of a military confrontation. Many have lost Japan as the post-Cold War foe, but it has gained another, even my everyday life, it isn't. I wish it were, "experts" warned that America had more powerful enemy. Those of you if only to acknowledge Friedman's already lost that war, with newspapers intellectual ambition. I sensed that carrying headlines lamenting the who missed The Coming War With Japan may want to skim through The Con1ing. toward the end of the book Friedman Japanese "invasion" of Rockefeller Conflict With China, in which Richard became bored with his introductory Center and Hollywood. Bernstein and Ross Munro predict Cold purposes and dropped sentences that "Revisionist" scholars were arguing War II, with the United States facing its warranted further explanation. that Japan, Inc. constituted a challenge new rival, China, in competition for Consider this from page 299: "Also on to America's model of capitalism. They diplomatic, military, and economic average, every hundred muggings pro­ suggested that the U.S. should adopt supremacy in Asia and the world. And duce one dead mugger. At those odds, the mercantilist features of the Japanese if you enjoyed Rising Sun and Debt of mugging is an unprofitable business ­ economy to help defend itself against Honor, and are now searching for a new not many little old ladies carry enough Japan's aggressive strategy for conquer­ xenophobic thriller in which conniving money to justify one chance in a hun­ ing global markets. An obscure political and bloodthirsty Chinese are accumu­ dred of being killed getting it. The scientist, George Friedman, became an lating wealth and producing weapons number of muggers declines drasti­ instant celebrity in intellectual circles of mass destructionas part of a strategy cally, not because they have been killed by writing The Coming War With Japan, to defeat the naive and complacent but because they have, rationally, which called on the United States to Americans, well, David IgnatiUS' A sought safer professions." The troubles prepare for a confrontation with Japan Firing Offense (soon to be made into a here are not only that other factors con­ over the world's oil resources. Michael motion picture) is just the book for you. tribute to declines in mugging, but that Crichton's Rising Sun and Tom Bye-bye Japanphobia, and welcome to violent robbery of strangers doesn't dis­ Clancy's Debt of Honor, which por­ the new world of Sinophobia. appear - perhaps because potential trayed the Japanese as the ultimate vil­ The Coming Conflict With China muggers don't know the poor odds or lains, intent on stealing America's would have probably aroused only lim­ don't share intelligence with one scientific and military secrets, occupied ited interest if not for the current ten­ another. Trying to follow such smug the top best-seller lists, and Crichton's sion between the United States and logic (and looking in vain for answers book was turned into a successful China, caused by an aggressive coali­ to those concluding questions), I movie. The American zeitgeist was that tion of liberal and conservative China­ remain less influenced than impressed the "Japanese Are Coming." bashers, who have launched a success­ by intellectual gymnastics that, alas, I These days, the writers and film ful campaign against "constructive cannot "fit into a logical pattern" for makers who five years ago were warn­ engagement" policies with Beijing. daily use. 0 ing that Japan had already won the war After all, while Bernstein and Munro Liberty 65 September 1997

may have been correspondents in human rights buffs, labor unions, and China and bureau chiefs in Asia environmentalist groups on the left, and (Bernstein represented the New York pro-Taiwan lobbyists, social conserva­ How to Times and Munro worked for the tives, and textile producers on the right, Toronto Globe and Mail), neither is con­ all of them trying to shift American pol­ sidered a leading expert on China. icy in an anti-China direction - which Subscribe Their book is based mostly on in the short term means revoking American newspapers clips, lacks any China's most-favored-nation trading to original research, and reads more like a status, sabotaging China's entry into the long and tedious op-ed piece than a World Trade Organization, and forcing serious scholarly work or coherent pol­ the United States to recognize Taiwan's II LibertVJ icy analysis. independence. The Coming Conflict With China is If Bernstein and Munro are not the nothing more than a political manifesto George Kennan and Henry Kissinger of that mushes together all the major U.S. foreign policy discourse, Ignatius, arguments in support of "containing" business editor of the .Washington Post Liberty takes individual China. The authors have no doubt that and author of three espionage novels freedom seriously ... and China is an "unsatisfied and ambitious set in the Middle East, is certainly not the status quo with more power whose goal is to dominate the new John Le Carre of the spy than one grain of salt! Asia." Since Washington must remain thriller genre. His novels center around the "preeminent power in Asia," that cardboard characters and farfetched Every issue of Liberty brings. goal is "directly contrary to American plots. A Firing Offense features an you news you can't miss, interests." The authors think it quite American journalist who falls victim to opinions you won't find likely that the two powers will eventu­ a geo-economic conspiracy involving anywhere else, and the best ally go to war over Taiwan. But even if Chinese officials and French business­ libertarian writing in the world. that doesn't happen, "the rivalry men. In exchange for bribes and for between China and the United States help in developing its biological war­ You won't want to will be the major global rivalry of the fare capabilities, the Chinese govern­ first decades of the twenty-first cen­ ment awards a huge communication miss a single issue! tury, the rivalry that will force other contract to a French company. Working countries to take sides" and will together with the French, the Chinese Act Today! involve the usual shopping list of kidnap a renowned French scientist, Liberty offers you the best in prizes: military strength, economic murder a leading American columnist, libertarian thinking and writ­ well-being, influence over other nations and attempt to silence the American ing. So don't hesitate. You have and "over the values and practices that reporter who uncovers the story. nothing to lose, and the fruits of are accepted as international norms." Neither The Coming War With China Liberty to gain! Challenging the conventional wis­ nor A Firing Offense is expected to win a dom, the authors argue that the eco­ Pulitzer Prize this year. But in the cur­ Use the coupon below or call: nomic reforms in China will not lead to rent anti-China atmosphere, the two political liberalization. Instead, they books are receiving a lot of attention, 1-800-854-6991 foresee the emergence of a quasi-fascist - and both serve as powerful public­ regime in Beijing, and call on relations tools for the China-bashers. (Subscription orders only; no inquiries please.) Washington and Tokyo to join other Indeed, if the day comes when his­ ..... nations in the region to form an alliance torians are analyzing the roots of the ..Y------,es, Please enter my subscription to contain China. Finally, they accuse Sino-American War of 2005, they may I· to Liberty immediately! I the "New China Lobby," an axis of U.S. point to The Coming War With China ,D Six issues (One Full Year) $19.50 corporations operating in China, of and A Firing Offense as the first two I o Twelve issues (Two Full Years) $39.00 I manipulating American foreign policy entries in a long list of non-fiction and I Add $5 per year for foreign subscriptions. I towards"constructive engagement" so fiction books that helped to ignite as to suit their business interests. American hostility and create an intel­ I I Those are all provocative ideas. lectual atmosphere in which u.s. poli­ They just happen to be wrong. China is cymakers considered conflict with I I being transformed politically as well as China "inevitable." Alternatively, if the economically, a trend that in the long day comes when historians are recall­ I DI enclose my check (payable to Liberty) I run will produce a giant Hong Kong. ing the Sino-American Economic D Charge my D VISA D MasterCard Japan and other East Asian govern­ Cooperation Council of 2005, they may I I ments have rejected any notion of form­ treat the two books as nothing more I signature ing an anti-Beijing alliance. And if there than amusing historical trivia or forgot­ I is any problem in America's China pol­ ten intellectual anecdotes in the mostly I account # expires icy, it is the emergence of the "New peaceful history of Sino-American Send to: Liberty, Dept. L61, I Anti-China Lobby," which includes relations. 0 L P.O.------_Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368..• Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997

Ayn Rand's Marginalia, by Ayn Rand, edited by Robert Mayhew. much more primal: "Oh God damn the Second Renaissance Books, 1995, 231 pp., $19.95 (sc). total, complete, vicious bastard! This means that man does exist for others, but since he doesn't know how to do it, the masters will give him some 'defined limits' for himself." Henry Hazlitt's futuristic, free­ enterprise novel, Time Will Run Back, Leaving a Margin describes the un-Sovietizing of the Soviet Union through the efforts of Stalin's heir, whose assistant says to him, "You have invented, chief - or for Error made possible - a wonderful eco­ nomic system.... It rewards people in proportion to their foresight and their production - their ability to provide others with what those others want." ing this passage, "What a mess! What ("Moral communism," Rand responds.) John Hospers equivocation and 'concept salad'!" "How will we be able to protect this "Human action," writes Mises, system, for instance against the inces­ Over a span of years Ayn Rand pen­ "cannot be traced back to its causes, it sant criticism of the unproductive and ciled many comments in the margins of must be considered as an ultimate the unsuccessful?" She responds, "You books she read. Those comments that given ..." Rand responds, "He thinks won't be able to - because you your­ self have conceded that the moral and were substantive - that were more that since the actions of consciousness social purpose of the productive and than a few exclamation marks or cannot be reduced to physical causes, the successful is to ~ the unprOduc­ assorted oaths - have been gathered they must be accepted as an irreducible tive and unsuccessful." I assumed that into Ayn Rand's Marginalia. Her com­ primary!" (p. 110). When he says, "The Hazlitt's passage meant only that the ments will be fascinating to anyone teachings of praxeology and economics system won't work if it doesn't pro­ who is interested in her ideas. For the are valid for every human action with­ duce things people are willing to buy. most part her remarks come under the out regard to its underlying motives, causes, and goals," she remarks, "Let's Rand took it as an apologia for altru­ heading of "negative criticism": if you see how many times he'll contradict ism. Her remarks are insightful, but agree with a writer there isn't· that this." I have not gone through all these sometimes (1 think) they are not much to say, and in this volume every­ pages of text and marginal comments, entirely fair: they attack something a bit one is treated to his share of negative but my impression is that although she different from what the author was say­ criticism. Even Ludwig von Mises doesn't always take Mises to mean ing. comes in for extensive castigation. what I think he means, she makes some Rand's criticisms usually track I would never have suspected, from important philosophical points against down an author's assertion to its "ulti­ at Rand's apartment when Mises being her favorite economist. mate presuppositions," especially and Hazlitt were guests, that her She is merciless in her criticism of when the author was unaware of them. remarks about them in the Marginalia F.A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom. Time Her final remark on Hazlitt's novel is: would be so savage. I remember her after time she faults him for being "Fundamental mistake of story: the saying to me, "I will not try to convert tinged with socialism, though the book great industrial progress would not to my philosophy someone who is 85 is an attack on socialism. "[W]e cannot happen so long as freedom was gi.v.en years old." But she was not at a loss for within the scope of this book," writes from above, from a benevolent dictator. critical comments on his writing, partic­ Hayek, "enter into a discussion of the Men would neither invest nor invent. ularly on Human Action and very necessary planning which is The intelligent men would not function Bureaucracy, the two books she most required to make competition as effec­ by permission - only by right" (170). I recommended to me when I first came tive and beneficial as possible." Rand suspect that a loud cheer should come to know her. Out of dozens of examples comments, "Oh yeah? And that's what up from the bleachers on that one. in the margins, here are a few: I'd like to see him define!" Was she There are numerous other authors "Reason and experience," writes assuming, I wonder, that the planning treated in these pages - John Herman Mises, "show us two separate realms: referred to must be government plan­ Randall's Aristotle, Wilhelm Windel­ the external world of physical, chemical, ning? "[I]ndividuals," continues Hayek band's nineteenth-century History of and physiological phenomena and the (151), "should be allowed, within very Philosophy, Helmut Schoeck's Envy, and internal world of thought, feeling, valu­ defined limits, to follow their own val­ assorted popular books of the period by ation, and purposeful action. No bridge ues and preferences .. ." To which I Harold Fleming, Lowell Mason, Fulton connects - as far as we can see - these might have responded, "Allowed by Sheen, and others (as well as assorted two spheres." Such a statement would whom? Or perhaps he means only that newspaper and magazine clippings). raise few eyebrows in the philosophic there should be no laws prohibiting She was somewhat less philosophically community. But Rand writes concern- some actions." Rand's response is demanding of these authors. She was Liberty 67 Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 benevolence itself toward Barry possibility: to say that something is speculate that it did not operate in the Goldwater's The Conscience of a empirically possible is to say that it does first few milliseconds after the Big Bang. Conservative, in spite of her objections not violate laws of nature, but to say In any case, there are plenty of things to his grounding of morality in religion. that it is logically possible is to say only we don't know with absolute certainty, But her strongest dose of venom is that, however false it maybe, there is no which we yet have every reason to reserved (with good reason) for C. S. contradiction in asserting it. Thus, I believe and none to disbelieve. Why do Lewis's The Abolition of Man. Here the said, whether or not life exists anywhere we have to choose between certainty margins are filled with oaths and in the universe without certain chemical and superstition? What a strange insults (she once showed me her copy elements being present, such as carbon conclusion - that if we don't know it of the book). One example will have to and oxygen, it is logically possible for for certain it's "deuces wild." There is suffice here (it would take a longer quo­ life-processes to go on (coming into after all such a thing as evidence, as tation to generate a context): Lewis existence, growing, reproducing, dying) reason to believe, as very strong reason writes, "The later a generation comes without the presence of these elements. to believe. - the nearer it lives to that date at Don't astronomers speculate to this day I am, she claims, "separating logic which the species becomes extinct ­ that somewhere in the galaxies there from reality." But what does this the less power it will have in the for­ may be life which doesn't depend on metaphorical expression "separate" ward direction, because its subjects will these conditions? mean in this context? Are logic and be so few" (90). "It is unbelievable," she But Rand attacked this: reality like two things which somehow responds, ''but this monster literally "Translated," she writes in Marginalia, split off from each other? I say there are thinks that to give men new knowledge "this means, since no attribute of an principles of logic, such as "Not both A is to gain power(!) over them. The entity is essential, how do we know and not-A," which apply to everything cheap, awful, miserable, touchy, social­ whether that entity will still preserve there is, Le., to all of reality. How is this metaphysical mediocrity!" its identity without any or all of them?" a "separation" of logic from reality? Marginalia's editor, Robert Mayhew, This in turn leads to more It would be a tedious and thankless notes the immense clarifying light that questions. Is she saying that all the job to go through example after Rand throws on the issues she writes properties of a thing are defining ­ example to illustrate what I was trying about - how she translates obscure or including being visible by firelight, or to say as opposed to what she took me semi-intelligible gibberish into clear and being witnessed by six observers? to be saying. On reading Marginalia I precise prose, and points out the Surely a table would still be a table was surprised at how extensive her unstated assumptions that lie behind an without these characteristics. Perhaps disagreements were. How I would like author's claims. In personal discussions then it is only those characteristics to have discussed these points with her with Ayn Rand, I was often in a position which constitute "its nature." But it is personally (we discussed ethics, to confirm this: when she and I agreed far from clear what the phrase "its aesthetics, and economics much more). on something, whether a philosophical nature" means. Is it part of "the nature At the very least we could have conveyed our meanings to one another problem or a work of literature, there of" Jones to be easily angered, or is this in person. Now, many years later, I am was sheer euphoria, an experience that only a "passing feature" of Jones? Is it profoundly sad that so many all-night occurs only when two minds are operat­ "the nature of" a car to have four discussions came and went without ing on the same wavelength, each feed­ wheels, and if so would a any such mutual clarification having ing into the suggestions or speculations three-wheeled car be a contradiction in occurred. 0 ofthe other. terms? (I was certainly not saying that Sometimes, however, I didn't think all the attributes of a thing are defining, she was clarifying: sometimes she only that some are. That a table is a seemed to miss the point of what an solid object (not liquid or gas) is author was saying, in spite of strenuous defining; that it is painted brown is efforts on my part to communicate it. not.) Booknotes Sometimes I thought she was a prisoner I had written that we do not know of certain ways of doing philosophy (as whether the law of gravitation applies I was a prisoner of mine). I often throughout all time and space. She Goading the Elite - I once thought this was true o,f her criticisms of writes, "If we do not know whether the dreamed about the cosmopolitan life. my remarks. In most cases - since we law of gravitation applies to other Sitting sitting outside a cafe, sipping didn't discuss very much the issues universes (which, in itself, is nonsense), coffee, reading The New Yorker while raised in Marginalia - I didn't know this gives us license to claim anything as the sound of beat poetry drifted about these criticisms until years later, possible.This is the epistemology of a through beaded curtains. At least that when Mnrginalia was published. For savage (and of a mystic). If we do not was the dream when I was fifteen liv­ example, in the first edition of my know the cause of the sun's movement, ing in Armpit, Iowa. Introduction to Philosophical Analysis (the then we are logically entitled to claim After a few years in the big city I only edition she ever saw), I described that the cause is a sun-god (or green came to hate all bohemians. Mostly I the distinction, familiar to most cheese)" (77). hang out with a couple third­ contemporary philosophers, between I would lay odds on the law of gravi­ generation Okies. We sit in Red's empirical possibility and logical tation, though some astrophysicists Garage, drink beer, talk about dirtbikes 68 Liberty Volume 11, Number 1 September 1997 and how much the government sucks. make me nervous," and the legendary become more famous for its "bagatori­ It is a place of sanctuary where no one "Rape" issue. He got the attention of a als" - editorials printed on its shop­ has a script, where no one is ashamed major publisher, and has now turned ping bags. of liking NASCAR. Mostly we wonder, out The Redneck Manifesto (Simon and The editorials cover many subjects "When did we become the bad guys?" Schuster, 1997, 274 pp. $22.00). self-improvement, responsibility, This is one of the most important The book is alternately brilliant and civility, and such - but most of them questions of our age. But those most infuriating. Goad demolishes most of focus on politics, the virtues of the free directly involved seem to have no the common slurs thrown at rural market, and the evils of government. If voice. There is no chair of Redneck white Americans, but most of the eco­ there has ever been an editorial prais­ Studies at Vassar. No hillbilly New nomic arguments seem warmed-over ing any facet of government, I certainly Republic. And white trash do not Michael Harrington. He has difficulty missed it. engage in long, drawn-out philosophi­ maintaining the intensity that charac­ Although the bagatorials sometimes cal discussions for the simple reason terizes his zine work, though the tC!lent have guest writers, most of them are that it has always been easier simply to for phrases remains. -John Bergstrom writtenbyJohn Roscoe and Ned Roscoe. beat the crap out of people who disa­ It is amazing thing that two such good gree with you. How I Found Freedom on a businessmen are also such good writers; Jim Goad wants to change that. He Free Shopping Bag - North of Their writing is interesting, provocative, is a modern, wimpy liberal's worst San Francisco, a company called witty, and open-minded. nightmare - a redneck with a shotgun Cheaper! operates a string of 500 dis­ Now a selection of their bagatorials and a typewriter. Goad gained relative count-grocery and tobacco stores. The has been assembled in a book - called, fame with his zine Answer Me!, the lit­ company was founded in 1957 by John not surprisingly, Bagatorials (Fireside erary equivalent of an obscenity Roscoe, and is operated by him, his Books, 1996, 175 pp., $11.00). There are shouted from a passing car, with arti­ wife, his daughter, and his son Ned. articles explaining that California cles such as "The one hundred greatest While the company is a case history (where water rationing is a recurring serial killers of all time" and "Chicks in running a successful business, it has inconvenience) has no water shortage,

Classified Advertising is available for 50¢ per word, with a ten-word minimum. 100/0 discount for six or more insertions. Payment must accompany order. Please suggest classification. Deadline for next issue: September 1, 1997. Health The Silent Killer: Mineral-Depleted Soil! for freedom, a Bolshevik struggling for his sive. Only $13.95 ($4.00 off publisher's price) plus Pennies a day for super health. "Dead Doctors dream, a British pilot who doesn't want to go $3.00 s&h. Liberty Book Club, P.O. Box 1181, Port Don't Lie." Free tape. Patti, 1487 Baden, Grover back to the farm after having seen Paris (and Townsend, WA 98368. Beach, CA93433 Russalka). $9+$3 s&h (call for volume prices). Caravela Books LB77, 134 Goodburlet Road, Miscellaneous Investments Henrietta, NY 14467 ([email protected]). The Problem Solver. Anything considered, ordi­ Wealth Protection Services. 912-236-7375 56­ nary to extraordinary. Payby result. Confidential. Are you opposed to forced integration and Sep97 912-236-7375 forced segregation? Do you favor a rational life FORBIDDEN FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE? ofchoice? Do you disagree with the propaganda Songwriter. Great Libertarian parodies of Legal proven strategies the super wealthy have of the news, entertainment, and political indus­ Beatles, Dylan, Airplane, Sedaka etc. More "bite" known for years! Learn as you earn. Savvy finan­ tries, which say that you have two choices: you than Limbaugh's material. I need a publisher or cial skills, offshore technologies, 90% profit. must either love blacks or you must hate them? singerwho's game. 912-236-7375. LRML (800) 374-6477x9319. Then read the booklet, Forced Racial Mixing: Periodicals Literature Early and Later Effects. You're not wicked, as the propagandists would have you believe if you Help Wanted - Property Caretaking Jobs Abortion and Rights: Applying Libertarian disagree with them. You're one of the decent. available. Enjoy peaceful, rent-free living! Principles Correctly, by Doris Gordon. $2.00. This publication affirms that you are and gives Worldwide! The Caretaker Gazette, 1845 Deane­ Libertarians for Life, 13424 Hathaway Drive #22, you the reasons, which you can use to assert LY, Pullman, WA 99163. (509) 332-0806, $24/ Wheaton, MD 20906. (301) 460-4141. your position. $5.00. Cardona, Box 331158, year. What's Populism? Not the media's lies! Read Atlantic Beach, FL 32233. Directory of Libertarian Periodicals updated What's Populism? $3.00. Box 174, Montreal, latest edition. Listings include addresses, many Being dragged into small claims court? Don't be Quebec, H3K 3B9, Canada. a victim, fight back and win! Please write: other details. All believed to be presently pub­ lishing. $3.00 postpaid, $4.00 overseas. Jim New libertarian and anarchist writings. Sample Academic Investigators, 11684 Ventura Blvd., Stumm, Box 29-LB, Hiler Branch, Buffalo NY and price list $1.00. Box 174, Montreal, Quebec, Suite 758-E, Studio City, CA 91604 to receive 14223. H3K3B9, Canada. FREE INFORMATION. Imagine Freedom from governments and Foundations of Morality, by Henry Hazlitt. An Personals churches. www.stormy.org amazingly clear introduction to the major schools Gay libertarian man - 36, beard, trim,. non­ Read the first book in The Russalka Trilogy, of ethics. Comparable to author's classic smoker, HIV neg. - seeks friends. POB 190906, the historical novel about a Russian girl fighting Economics in One Lesson, but more comprehen- San Francisco, CA 94119-0906. Liberty 69 September 1997

endorsed by Stephen Ambrose, Alistair Cooke, and John Kenneth Galbraith ­ and which frankly admits that Hiss was, Gary Alexander is a writer and editor liv­ John Hospers is the author of Human as Chambers insisted, a Soviet spy. ing in Reston, Virginia. Conduct, Libertarianism and other books; At 520 pages of text, and another Chester A. Arthur is Liberty's political he was the Libertarian Party's first presi­ 118 of index, bibliography, and notes, correspondent. dential candidate. Sam Tanenhaus's Whittaker Chambers George Ayittey, a native of Ghana, is asso­ Richard Kostelanetz recently edited (Random House, 1997, $35.00) is ciate professor of economics at The Classic Essays on 20th Century Music, another grand biography too heavy to American University and president ofThe Writings on [Philip] Glass, A B. B. King hold up while reading in bed. It is Free Africa Foundation. His most recent Companion, and A Frank Zappa heavier even than Chambers's 808-page book is Why Africa Is Disintegrating. Companion, all for Schirmer Books. autobiography, Witness, but a good "Baloo" is the alter ego of cartoonist Rex Loren E. Lomasky is author of Persons, deal easier to get through. In Witness, F.May. Rights, and the Moral Community. Chambers subjects the reader to tales of Brien Bartels is an editorial assistant at Michelle Malkin is an editorial writer and every Soviet agent he can recall, so that Liberty. columnist for the Seattle Times, and held on page 300 he is still stuck in the early Oliver Becker is an editorial assistant at the 1995 Warren Brookes Fellowship at 1930s, skulking around New York. Liberty. the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Tanenhaus gets through all this, plus John Bergstrom is a cartoonist and anima­ Chamber's strange and bohemian tor in California. Randal O'Toole is the editor of Different childhood, by page 100, never losing R. W. Bradford is editor ofLiberty. Drummer. the reader's interest. Harry Browne is the author of Why Tom G. Palmer is director of special pro­ Government Doesn't Work and How I jects at the Cato Institute. Tanenhaus gives us all the drama of Found Freedom in an Unfree World. Ralph Raico is professor of history at State the Hiss-Chambers trials and testimony Scott Bullock is an attorney at the University College, Buffalo. before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, including Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Bruce Ramsey is a reporter for the Seattle testimony not declassified until the Justice, and an amateur musician. Post-Intelligencer. Stephen Cox is professor of literature at 1970s. Unlike Witness, which was Scott J. Reid is the author of Lamentfor a DC-San Diego. published in 1952, Tanenhaus's book Notion and Canada Remapped. Nathan Crow is managing editor of describes Chambers's reaction to Liberty. Sandy Shaw is co-author of Freedom of Joseph McCarthy, a man he quietly Informed Choice: FDA vs. Nutrient Brian Doherty is assistant editor ofReason campaigned against but refused to magazine. Supplements. denounce publicly. Eric Duhaime is researcher for the Leader David Ramsay Steele is author of From Best of all, Tanenhaus gives us of Bloc Quebecois. Marx to Mises: Post-Capitalist Society Chambers - as his friends saw him, as David Friedman is the author ofHidden and the Challenge ofEconomic his enemies saw him, as he saw Order: The Economics ofEveryday Life. Calculation and co-author of Three himself. Chambers emerges a fearful James Gill is Liberty's staff artist. Minute Therapy: Change Your Thinking, and tortured figure, a fat man with Change Your Life. Leon T. Hadar is a Washington-based rumpled, baggy suit, bad teeth, and an journalist whose work appears in D.S. and Clark Stooksbury is assistant publisher of immense capacity for belief. He absorbs foreign publications. Liberty. his beliefs into his bones. As a Robert Higgs is the editor of Independent Scott G. Sutton is an editorial assistant at Communist, he's out to change the Review. Liberty. world; as an anti-Communist, he's out to save it. Asked what was the point of that clean air is of no interest to the facts and figures no one has mentioned his and Hiss's ruining each other's bureaucrats who set air standards, and before, almost every page has some­ good names, Chambers replies, "A that smoking isn't as bad for you as thing new. -Harry Browne religious age would have no trouble at you. keep hearing. all in understanding this story." The authors list 20 reasons not to Witness to History - With Compared with today, it was a vote. And then, to provide almost equal communism in ruins, its true believers religious age - an age of the religion of time, they offer 18 reasons that maybe confined to North Korea, Cuba, and politics. It was a time when you should vote, including such ironic Peruvian prisons, it's difficult even to communism appeared vital and advantages as: recall who Whittaker Chambers was. capitalism doomed. It's a measure of • Get off work early. Almost fifty years ago Chambers cut a the times - and of Chambers - that _. Get out of doing tasks for spouse. national figure as a Time magazine when he quit Communism, he thought • One can announce to friends editor who accused Yale-educated state he was leaVing the tide of history and smugly, "I've already voted." department official Alger Hiss of being enlisting in the ranks of a lost cause. You may not agree with everything a Soviet spy. It was a case that divided He was wrong about that. But in in the book, but I can almost guarantee conservatives and liberals for years. testimony before the House Committee you'll enjoy reading it - and your Now we have a biography of Chambers on Un-American Activities, and in the mind will be stretched. Whether it's a written by a man who calls himself a two Hiss trials, it was Chambers, not new way of looking at an old subject or "secular liberal," a book that has been Hiss, who told th~ t~~!l1.=_~!~_~e~~1!!s_ey__ 70 Liberty e-goldtm is not a restoration ofthe gold standard. The gold standard was never this good.

e-goldtm is not for everyone. It is for people who prefer to hold and spend money that has intrinsic value.

When was the last time you held a gold coin, or even saw one up close? How long have you been holding that peanut butter jar of pre-1964 silver coins? Are you conditioned to think of gold as something bought and sold, rather than as money for buying and selling other things?

Not too long ago, people used gold and silver coins as money... but there were problems. Heavy coins were inconvenient to carry around. Getting change also was a mess. People would sometimes cut coins into pieces, and spend them in "bits" ("two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar").

Paper substitutes - which could be redeemed for gold - began to circulate. People would deposit their gold in a bank and use bank-issued receipts as currency. But banks issued many more paper (and book­ entry) claims to the gold they held than there was gold to back the claims. The gold standard, in reality, was based on bank and government credit and used gold only as a reference benchmark. Periodically, governments needed to spend more money than they could raise by taxes or borrowing. They would allow or even force banks to renege on their redemption obligations in order to issue large amounts of new money.

Although some are calling for a re-hash of the gold standard, we at Gold & Silver Reserve, Inc. think there is a better alternative - gold itself, circulated electronically; the ultimate e-money. This system is in place now; available ull via the Web. It's called e-gold •

e-goldtm is 100% backed by gold, silver, platinum or palladium (you choose which metals are in your account). Precious metals are universally recognized as valuable and have served as money for centuries.

e-goldtm is convenient. Though backed by a variety of bullion coins and bars, e-goldtm is fungible and divisible; a payments system that is electronic and worldwide. Payments clear almost instantaneously. No more waiting for a bank to clear an incoming check before you can spend your money.

e-goldtm is verifiable and accountable. Our Examinertm utility enables you to confirm that physical metal comprising our reserve equals or exceeds total metal in all customer accounts combined. Your right of redemption (to convert to physical metal and take delivery) is unconditionally guaranteed, easily exercised, promptly fulfilled. Exchange to and from US$ is also efficient and cost effective.

e-goldtm is secure. It uses SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption, affording a previously unimaginable level oftransaction security.

Take out some dollar bills. Now imagine you are holding a gold coin in the other hand. It's your money. tm Which would you rather be holding? Now you have a choice - e-gold •

J.~ ,;.;*"~.. )~~ Gold & Silver Reserve, Inc. ,lit www.e-gold.com Celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of

Join Liberty's David Friedman, Harry Browne, Bill Bradford, Randal O'Toole, Sandy Shaw, Durk Pearson, Ross Overbeek, Victor Niederhoffer, Scott Reid, Bettina Bien Greaves, Bruce Ramsey and others, plus Libertis staffand friends, to celebrate our Tenth Anniversary, at our new offices in Port Townsend! Liberty's Tenth Anniversary Celebration and Conference includes: •A party each evening • Talks and panel discussions each day •A gala banquet Saturday evening • Perfect weather (okay: we're crossing our fingers!) in a magnificent setting between the sea and the snow-capped Olympic Mountains So join us in our new offices, in a restored century-old bank building by the sea. Visit beautiful Port Townsend, a unique community with some ofthe West Coast's most perfectly preserved Victorian architec­ ture. Explore its excellent restaurants and fine art galleries; enjoy live music and micro-brews at its colorful bars; stay over a few days and hike the gorgeous Olympic mountains or sail the beautiful Puget Sound. Ifyou've attended a previous Liberty Editors' Conference, you have an idea ofthe pleasures and intellec­ tual stimulation in store - and ifthis will be your first, be forewarned: the fun never stops for three long, glorious days and nights. Please Note: Facilities in Port Townsend are limited. As we go to press, we are nearly sold out. Therefore, ifyou would like to join our celebration, we encourage you to fill out and send in the coupon to the right as soon as possible. ... ------., I'd like to attend Liberty's Tenth Anniver­ We'll send you information on travel arrange­ '. Yes sary Celebration, August 22 - 24. I enclose ments, scheduling, accommodations (ranging my deposit of$75. from modest motels to luxurious bed & break­ o My check is enclosed (payable to Liberty) fasts and hotels), etc. This will be one vacation o Charge my 0 VISA 0 MasterCard Expires _ you won't forget! Account# _ Total cost ofthe celebration, including the Signature __'-- _ gala banquet, the seminars, talks, parties, and all the fun is $225. A deposit of$75 is required with NAME your application, and the balance is due August 1. CCMPANY To reserve your participation, return the cou­ pon to the right. Or call 1-800-854-6991 with your credit card information. OIY/SfAlE/ZIP PHCNE L--______. _ L Liberty, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368 ...