The Real Clarence

September 1991 VolS, No 1 $4.00 Thomas

((We are fiere to ret in tlie {iglit ofLi6erty upon po{itica{superstition. 11 - 'Benjamin rrucKgr mility. Yet, it seems, Dr Friedman thinks that humility is an objective value and he is able to make the moral judgment that Letters Rand lacks it! [ ] Also, Karl Popper is by no means the simple empiricist and realist about facts ... A Good Man Is Hard to Find my could be open to manipulation" and Dr. Friedman seems to think he is. And JSR's "Actions vs Words" is probably his "rather benign view of the future of even when explicated more completely, worse than the feminists he is trying to capitalism." But much more significant there are serious doubts about the wis­ slander. were Keynes' contributions to economic dom of Popper's analysis of disagree­ Feminists are not really bad. All they theory: his concern with the role of ex­ ment-see, for example, David Stove's want is a good man who can do the pectations in the market process and his Popper and After: Four Modern Irrational­ dishes. explanations of secondary depressions. ists (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1982). Norman Gorback Heilbroner's appraisal of Keynes was an In most developed sciences it has be­ Plantation, Fla. appraisal of Keynes as politician and come evident that facts are not obvious prophet, not as economist. Serious dis­ or plain to apprehend. They are theory­ Self-Incrimination at Stanford cussion of Keynes' ideas will persist. But laden and often the issue is whether the I found Stuart Reges' article "1 Am a considering Heilbroner's judgment, I theory backing up the identification of Casualty of the War on Drugs" (July predict that one of the best things about the facts is a sound one, compared to oth­ 1991) most interesting. He stated that "economics after socialism" will be the er live options. This opens the door to "Stanford's previous policy on alcohol unplanned obsolescence of lightweights seeing moral facts as part of our uni­ and drug use was to respect the privacy such as Heilbroner. verse. And when it has become evident of students, faculty, and staff-as long as David Sheldon that some act or person is morally people behaved responsibly ..." (p 38) Gresham, Ore. wrong, it is not always sound policy to And Reges' account suggests that unoffi­ tolerate it. cially that remained Stanford's policy Mises-ing the Point Tibor Machan even after the official policy statement In your July 1991 issue two very Auburn, Ala. was changed in order to continue to re­ good men, Milton Friedman and Robert A Does Not Equal A-Priori ceive federal funds. Why didn't that sat­ Heilbroner, take some cheap shots at a I am surprised at Milton Friedman isfy Reges? Was it responsible behavior very great man, Ludwig von Mises. for repeating the old canard that Ayn on his part to by-pass the Stanford ad­ Friedman ("Just Say 'No' to Intoler­ Rand "derived everything from the basic ministration and bait government offi­ ance") tries to characterize the philoso­ proposition that A=A" ("Say 'No' to In­ cials directly with harassing letters? phy of Mises as a dogmatic religion. tolerance," July 1991). Those letters didn't make fools of the Friedman merely begs the question~is The law of identity, in her view, was government people; what they did was economics an aprioristic or empirical sci­ an axiom that sets the fundamental pur­ to make plain Stanford's duplicity in ac­ ence?-when he says that, because it pose of thinking (to identify the nature of cepting the funds without intent to en­ isn't empirical, Mises' economics isn't a what exists) as well as the fundamental force the policy. Refusal of the funds science but a religion. Logic and mathe­ constraint (to avoid contradiction). It is would have been the appropriate action matics aren't empirical either. Are they the methodological foundation of knowl­ to guarantee academic freedom. As it is, religions, too? edge. But the whole content of our knowl­ Stanford faculty know for sure what Reg­ Heilbroner ("Economics After Social­ edge comes from observing the world­ es should have been smart enough to fig­ ism") will give only the most grudging with induction, not deduction, as the pri­ ure out for himself-government money credit to Hayek and Mises. Yes, they mary engine of cognition. Ayn Rand was is more important to running Stanford were right all along, socialism can't an explicit foe of any rationalist effort to University than is free speech. work, but they were never really very deduce a philosophy from a self­ I hope you will keep us informed on clear about the reason for it-that you contained set of axioms. how Reges fares in a job search. can't run an economy without market She also held that certainty is possible Maribel Montgomery signals. Well, if Heilbroner didn't learn to man, a thesis with which Friedman is Albany, Ore. this from Hayek and Mises, who did he certainly free to take issue. But I cannot The Last Leftist learn it from? And why doesn't he ever help wondering if he really means what mention the real hero, why just Hayek I suspect that Robert Heilbroner is he says. He argues that the basic premise and Mises ifthey had nothing to do with unaware of just how well his talk with of libertarianism is based on the absence his belated enlightenment? Mark Skousen ("Economics After Social­ of certainty. "1 have no right to coerce D. G. Lesvic ism," July 1991) demonstrates the pover­ someone else, because I cannot be sure ty of the Left. His hatred of the ATT Pacoima, Calif. that I am right and he is wrong." But is break-up is nothing more than knee-jerk Another Paradox of Tolerance Friedman unsure even of this argument, anti-capitalism, and his praise for Keynes Apparently Dr Friedman does not and of its conclusion? What if someone reveals an economist concerned not with recognize the paradoxical character of argued that because certainty is impossi­ his science, but with his leftist ideology. his critique of Ayn Rand ("Just Say 'No' ble, persuasion is pointless and coercion What, after all, were Keynes' "signifi­ to Intolerance"): Rand is wrong to think is the only means of dealing with peo­ cant contributions"? Heilbroner cites that she can have objective moral know­ ple? And what can we say to someone Keynes' belief that "the national econo- ledge because it shows that she lacks hu- continued on page 4 2 Liberty ed Leb September 1991 lnSI e 1 erty Volume 5, Number 1

2 Letters on whether or not to tolerate intolerance, plundering economists, latter-day leftists, and dogs of war. 7 Reflections Liberty's editors on snatching bodies, hatching owls, botching health care, watching Jeopardy, hugging George Bush and other matters ethereal and mundane. Features 18 The Real Clarence Thomas He's a natural rights advocate who quotes Karl Hess and Malcolm X and admires Ayn Rand. R. W. Bradford and James Taggart explain why George Bush may be getting a lot more than he bargained for. 23 Monumental Destruction Frank Fox finds that, while abstract reasoning may be a necessary weapon against ideology, some reformations are best accomplished with a sledge hammer. 26 Experimenting with Marijuana It's illegal. They say it leads to Reefer Madness. But it also relieves nausea and restores appetite. Robert Q'Boyle looks at the medicinal value of marijuana, and gives the straight dope on its utility in the fight against cancer and AIDS. 28 Gross National Product: A Bogus Idea? R. W. Bradford explores the history and rationale of the ubiquitous economic measurement. He is not impressed. 31 Buying Gasoline in Ethiopia Robert Miller braves custom officials, croc­ odiles, and elephantiasis on his trip through Eastern Africa-armed with a jerry can and a sense of humor. He brings home some very interesting souvenirs. 37 When Bombs are Smarter than People Bart Kosko examines the implications of introducing fuzzy logic and"spread spectrum" communications into modern warfare. War Games was just the beginning. 39 The Unraveling of Canada North America: Home to the United States, Canada ... and the sovereign state of Quebec? Scott Reid explains why Canada will soon break into two or more nations, and why no one cares. 43 The Suicide of Canadian Culture Why is the Great White North an artistic vacuum? Barry Chamish was there when Pierre Trudeau wrote the death sentence for Canadian culture. 45 50 Really Stupid Ways to Save the Earth Put away your biodegradable notepaper and pick up a shovel. Karl Hess knows precisely what to do with nut environmentalism. 47 Persuasion versus Force Mark Skousen believes that civilization is best measured by how little coercion is required to keep it intact. 51 The Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Rights James McClarin examines the rights of super-apes, sasquatches and parameciums. Reviews 53 The Gospel of DUty, According to Buckley William Moulton is grateful that Bill Buckley'S new National Service manifesto, Gratitude, at least provides a valuable (if unintended) service for opponents of "national service." 56 Respecting the Unrespectable John Hospers defends compassion and questions Paul Taylor'S rationale for respecting nature. 62 The War of the Words Sheldon Richman defends the "Bolshevik" Webster's Third against charges of permissiveness and sabotage. 67 Art and Literature: Retail and Wholesale Richard Kostelanetz explores the economics of art and criticism. 69 Notes on Contributors 70 Terra Incognita Volume 5, Number 1

Letters (continued from page 2) who actually enjoys using force? What sort of defense do we have for freedom or tolerance if we can't say for sure that coercion is wrong? Milton Friedman is a great and tire­ Stimulate less champion of liberty. At some basic There is a world of good reading in Liberty ... and there has been level, surely, he's sure of what he's fight­ ever since Liberty began publishing! Whether you want to catch up on what ing for. you missed, stimulate your mind, or complete your collection, now is a David Kelley good time to buy. Enjoy! Verbank, N.Y. Vouch-Safe, Vouch-Free Back Issues of Liberty It is, of course, a big honor to be men­ August 1987 tioned by Professor Friedman in his arti­ • "The Films of Ayn Rand," by Stephen Cox cle "Say 'No' to Intolerance" (July 1991). • "Witch-Bashing, Book Burning, and Professor Harold Hill's Lessons in Practical Politics," Dr Friedman has played a very impor­ by Butler Shaffer tant role in my own intellectual develop­ Plus reviews and articles by Ben Best, Ross Overbeek, Murray Rothbard, David Sheldon, ment, and his deep dedication to free­ Timothy Virkkala, Ida Walters and others; and a short story by Jo McIntyre. (48 pages) dom has, of course, influenced and October 1987 inspired thousands all over the world. By • "The Sociology ofLibertarians," by John C. Green and James L. Guth taking the proponents of vouchers to • "The Rise of the Statism," by Murray N. Rothbard task, I certainly had no intention of dis­ Plus reviews and articles by Mike Holmes, Tibor Machan, William Moulton, Jonathan paraging the work of this great advocate Saville, and others; and a short story by Franklin Sanders. (48 pages) of liberty. December 1987 Unfortunately, many people see • "Libertarians in a State Run World," by Murray N. Rothbard • "The Most Unforgettable Libertarian I Ever Knew," by Karl Hess vouchers as an end rather than as a Plus essays and reviews by Stephen Cox, Walter Block, Mike Holmes, Erika Holzer, Timo­ means to an end. As Dr Friedman points thy Henderson, Mark Skousen and others; and a short story by David Galland. (56 pages) out, the end is education decisions being March 1988 left to parents and the free-market pro­ • "Libertarians & Conservatives: Allies or Enemies?" by John Dentinger & Murray Rothbard cess. But we at FFF believe that the best • "Free Speech and the Future of Medicine," by Sandy Shaw & Durk Pearson and most direct route to this goal is not Plus reviews and articles by R. W. Bradford, William Cate, Ross Overbeek, Stephen Cox, and through vouchers, but through the repeal others; and a short story by Raul Santana. (64 pages) of compulsory-attendance laws and May 1988 school taxes, and the selling off of school • "The ACLU: Suspicious Principles, Salutary Effects," by William P. Moulton property-and through the constitution­ • "Nicaragua: A Front Line Report," by Gary Alexander al separation of school and state. Plus reviews and articles by Nathaniel Branden, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Sheldon Richman, David Ramsay Steele, David Brown, Ethan O. Waters and others. (64 pages) Jacob Hornberger Denver, Colo. July 1988 • "Rebel Without a Clue: Lessons from the Mecham Experience," by Matt Kessler Stealing Friedman's Plunder • "Confessions ofan Intractable Individualist," by Jerome Tuccille With all of the due respect that Mil­ Plus reviews and articles by Stephen Cox, Ross Overbeek, Murray Rothbard, Tibor Machan, ton Friedman gives for Mises and Rand, William Moulton and others; and an interview with L. Neil Smith. (80 pages) we would like to suggest that Friedman, September 1988 Bradford, et. al. are starting out with as­ • "Scrooge McDuck and His Creator," by Phillip Salin sumptions that should be seriously ques­ • "Liberty and Ecology," by John Hospers tioned. • "The Ultimate Justification of the Private Property Ethic," by Hans-Hermann Hoppe Plus reviews and articles by Douglas Casey, David Friedman, Stephen Cox, Douglas Rasmus­ An assumption that we start with is sen, Murray Rothbard and others; and a short story by Erika Holzer. (80 pages) this: that stealing is the wrong wayof November 1988 dealing with our fellow man. • "Taking Over the Roads," by John Semmens Friedman points out that '1ibertarian • "The Search for We The Living," by R. W. Bradford philosophy is based on the premise [as­ Plus writings by Murray Rothbard, Tibor Machan, Leland Yeager, John Dentinger, Walter sumption?] that you should not initiate Block, Stephen Cox, Jane Shaw, James Robbins and others. (80 pages) force, that you may not initiate coer­ January 1989 cion." How are taxes collected other than • "Public Choice: A Useful Tool," by Jane S. Shaw using force, coercion? Taxes are theft, if • "High Noon for the Libertarian Party?" by Chester Alan Arthur you accept those premises. As Bastiat Plus writings by Leland Yeager, William Niskanen, John Hospers and others; and a short sto­ said in The Law, "How is this legal plun­ ry by Jeffrey Olson. (72 pages) der to be identified? Quite simply. See if March 1989 • "Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy," by Murray N. Rothbard the law takes from some persons what • "What ifEverything We Know About Safety Is Wrong?" by John Semmens and Dianne continued on page 6 Kresich 4 Liberty Your ind! • "The Wonderful Wizard ofLiberty," by Ethan Waters Richman, Richard Kostelanetz and others, an interview with Ed Plus articles and reviews by Stephen Cox, Jeffrey Friedman, Tibor Crane, and a symposium on investing. (80 pages) Machan, David Steele, Michael Krauss, and others. (72 pages) January 1991 May 1989 • "Gordon Gekko, Mike Milken and Me," by Douglas Casey • "Man, Nature, and State," by Karl Hess, Jr • "Lies, Liberalism and Lip-Reading," by Loren Lomasky • "Public Choice: A Misshapen Tool," by Murray Rothbard Plus articles and reviews by David Boaz, Ralph Raico, Lawrence Person • "Ayn Rand: The Voice of Biuerness," by Justin Raimondo and others; plus special election coverage. (80 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Stephen Cox, David Gordon, Jane Shaw March 1991 and others; and a short story by Jeffrey Olson. (72 pages) • "Keep the Hot Side Tepid," by R. W. Bradford July 1989 • "The Myth ofWar Prosperity," by Robert Higgs • "Viking Iceland: Anarchy That Worked," by David Friedman Plus articles and reviews by Richard Weaver, Jane Shaw, David Daniel­ • "The Myth of the Rights of Mental Patients," by Thomas Szasz son, Jan Narveson, Krzysztof Ostaszewski and others. (72 pages) • "Nude Dancing in Memphis," by Michael Williams May 1991 Plus articles and reviews by Tibor Machan, John Hospers, R. W. • "Journalists and the Drug War," by David Boaz Bradford, Jane Shaw, Leland Yeager and others. (80 pages) • "Something Anarchical in Denmark," by Ben Best September 1989 Plus a symposium on the Gulf WaT; and articles and reviews by John • "Holocausts and the Historians," by Ralph Raico Baden, Richard Kostelanetz, Richard Miniter, Richard Stroup and • "My Break With Branden and the Rand Cult," by Murray Rothbard others; and a short story by Lawrence Thompson. (72 pages) • "The Theology ofEcology," by Robert Formaini July 1991 Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Loren Lomasky, Gary • "Say 'No' to Intolerance" by Milton Friedman North, Jeffrey Tucker, Richard Kostelanetz and others. (72 pages) • "I Am a Casualty of the War on Drugs" by Stuart Reges November 1989 • "Ex-Nazis Say the Darndest Things" by Richard Kostelanetz • "The Lost War on Drugs," by Joseph Miranda Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Karl Hess and others, and • "Life With (and Without) Ayn Rand," by Tibor Machan Mark Skousen's interview with Robert Heilbroner. (72 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Murray Rothbard, Loren Lomasky and others; and an interview with Russell Means. (72 pages) January 1990 ,.------,send me the back issues of Liberty • "The Death of Socialism: What it Means," by R.W. Bradford, Please I have marked. Stephen Cox, Sheldon Richman, and William P. Moulton (foreign orders, add 50¢ per issue) • "The Greenhouse Effect: Myth or Danger?" by Patrick J. Michaels Aug. '87, $4.00 __ Nov. '89, $4.00 __ Plus articles and reviews by Charles K. Rowley, Richard E. Wagner Oct. '87, $4.50 __ Jan. '90, $4.00 __ and others; and an interview with Barbara Branden. (80 pages) Dec. '87, $3.00 __ Mar. '90, $4.00 __ March 1990 Mar. '88, $4.00 __ May '90, $4.00 __ • "Isolating the Error of Isolationism," by Stephen Cox May '88, $4.00 __ July '90, $4.00 __ • "Mencken: The Man vs the State of Opinion," by R. W. Bradford July '88, $4.00 __ Sept. '90, $4.00 __ Plus articles and reviews by Richard Kostelanetz, Loren Lomasky, George Smith, Leland Yeager and others. (80 pages) Sept. '88, $5.50 __ Nov. '90, $4.00 __ May 1990 Nov. '88, $4.00 __ Jan. '91, $6.00 __ • "The Decadence ofConservativism," by William P. Moulton Jan. '89, $4.00 __ Mar. '91, $4.00 __ • "A PopUlation Crisis?" by Jane S. Shaw Mar. '89, $4.00 __ May '91, $4.00 __ Plus articles and reviews by R. W. Bradford, Karl Hess, Bill Kauff­ May '89, $4.00 __ July '91, $4.50 __ man, Richard Kostelanetz, Bart Kosko, Loren Lomasky, Leland July '89, $4.00 __ Shipping: $1.00 Yeager and others; and poetry by Brett Rutherford. (72 pages) Sept. '89, $5.00 __ Total: July 1990 • "The Orwellian University," by Charles Thorne o My check is enclosed • "Conversations with Ayn Rand (part 1)," by John Hospers o Charge my 0 VISA 0 Mastercard Exp _ Plus articles and reviews by John Baden, Brian Doherty, David # _ Friedman, Bill Kauffman, Sheldon Richman, James S. 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Letters (continued from page 4) ral code would not condemn someone the actions taken by American soldiers in for killing an innocent person ... to save Iraq were quite correct, appropriate, and belongs to them, and gives it to other per­ his own life." not at all contrary to libertarianism. sons to whom it does not belong." What He then takes this further and says If General Schwartzkopf had been the other description of taxation does anyone it's "okay" to kill innocent bystanders in operations manager for a private, volun­ need? order to repel an aggressor, concluding tary, mercenary force that had been em­ Even the United States Supreme with a "moral rule" that foreign interven­ ployed, say, by victims of Mr Hussein's Court agrees: "To lay with one hand the tion is acceptable when "it is in your in­ violent initiation of force, it would be power of the government on the property terest" and when you "believe you can very difficult to raise objections based on of the citizen, and with the other bestow make the situation better." libertarian principles. Unfortunately, if it on favored individuals ... is nonethe­ I would reject this as just and suffi­ such were the case, current U. S.laws less robbery because it is done under the cient reason for intervention or for kill­ would have branded him an "outlaw." form of law and is called taxation" [em­ ing. Virkkala's moral rule sounds awful­ Other laws would have prevented his phasis added] Loan Association v. Topeka ly like "the end justifies the means," group from obtaining weapons, forbid­ (1874). which I understood to be the basis for den its voluntary financing, barred recon­ Does the person who 'fences' stolen Marxist and most other evil "morality" naissance by orbiting satellites, and gener­ goods, condone theft? Does that person throughout history, and the antithesis of ally made it impossible for legitimate assist in the illegal plunder of property? libertarianism. retaliatory actions to have been carried Considering the number of arrests of Absent fromVirkkala's code are sev­ out by non-government groups. It is these people who 'fence' stolen goods, some eral tenets which have formed the basis laws that are objectionable to libertari­ people think so. of Christian teaching about a just war for ans-not the military actions themselves. Is the person who suggests the use of centuries. War is inherently evil, but can Despite the impressions left by several educational vouchers, in effect, condon­ be justified in extreme circumstances. writers, libertarianism is not pacifism. ing theft? After all, educational vouchers The cause itself must be just; it must be Bruce A. Martin are only made possible by the use of co­ grave; all reasonable alternatives must Middle Island, N.Y. ercion to put the vouchers into effect. have been exhausted; and innocent casu­ And to have a negative income tax­ alties must to the greatest possible extent The International leash-law there must be a positive income tax be avoided or minimized. One argument that the various articles somewhere. Ifwe agree that taxes are Perhaps these tenets are not the on the Gulf War have failed to address is theft, then this can only mean that Fried­ complete answer, but they do add an im­ what I call the rabid dog argument. man condones theft, that he endorses portant moral dimension to what ap­ I'm sure that all libertarians would force and coercion. Therefore he can pears to be Virkkala's purely practical agree that when a man's dog develops ra­ hardly call himself a liberal/libertarian. rules. I hope I'm never an innocent by­ bies it is the responsibility of the owner to Abby Rodgers stander in the way ofVirkkala's interests. shoot or otherwise dispose of him. Thorndale, Pa. I might just get killed. For years our wonderful government supported Saddam Hussein with military Spring Cleaning Adrian Day Annapolis, Md. and other goodies. When he developed This may seem utopian, but why rabies and invaded Kuwait it became our should I be tolerant? I am right. Mankind Selective Censure responSibility to shoot him. Let me em­ is in its present jam because liberalism Recent letters and articles in your phasize this: to shoot him, not the entire rules not; patience and prudence have no publication have correctly voiced liber­ damn country. After all he was our dog, place in a political purification program. tarian objections to the tax-funded mili­ bought and paid for. The cause is rife with equivocators nine­ tary interventions initiated by the U. S. Of course, the same argument possi­ teenth century conditions would have government in the Persian Gulf area. bly could be applied to George Bush with pruned in adolescence ere they grew to However, the vehement indignation equal legitimacy. feel their nonsense is true. Where is Garet seems suspiciously selective in singling James OdIe Garrett when I need him? out this specific activity for censure, Glendale, Ariz. Steve Smith while ignoring so many others. It is ap­ continued on page 22 Dayton, Ohio parent that many writers were far more upset by the nature of the activity than r Caught in the Cross-Fire? by the fact that it was subsidized and I have no wish to enter the well­ Letters Policy managed by governments. trodden debate over the morality of U.S. We invite readers to comment on It is quite true that the intervention in involvement in the recent Gulf War, nor articles that have appeared in Liber­ Iraq was not a legitimate function of the the rather sterile debate of whether ty. We reserve the right to edit for Liber­ United States government. Libertarians ty should indeed cover the debate. length and clarity. All letters are as­ should therefore point out that foreign The implications of Virkkala's note in sumed to be intended for publication intervention is not a proper government unless otherwise stated. Succinct, the July magazine ("Wars for liberty"), activity, that coercively collected taxes typewritten letters are preferred. however, do warrant comment. Virkkala should never be used for such purposes Please include your phone number supports Sheldon Richman's comment in

Rockwell to take credit in the name of the Mises Institute, One thing is plain: Murray Rothbard remains a master since the Institute syndicated his column on the subject to rhetorician. His articles never conclude before he has used the Times. every persuasive strategy possible. In this article, he used an Meanwhile, Rockwell's colleague at the Mises Institute, ad hominem attack on Rodney King, a bad person. But that's Murray Rothbard, has risen to defend his friend. Rothbard not all. He includes ad publicatoruem attack on the publisher argues that those critical of the police beating had failed to of Liberty. It would have been too obvious to respond to what understand the "context" of the beating because "videocame­ I wrote about Rockwell'scolumn. Instead, Rothbard analyzes ras are dumb, and people who follow them blindly are even my life: "Bradford is just a business man who decided to buy dumber." Here's the "context" that, according to Rothbard, himself a libertarian magazine. Well fine, but so what? was missed by the "dumb" people who were shocked at the What's he ever done apart from that? The fact that he calls sight of a man lying prone and helpless on the concrete as a himself a scholar and philosopher should cut no ice with group of cops smashed him to pieces: anyone./I 1) Rodney King is a bad person. I can remember Rothbard calling me a scholar (after I'd 2) Rodney King was "maniacally speeding" and tried to written an article critical of someone he disliked), but I never avoid the police, and refused to get out of his car when the police stopped him. 3) The police couldn't use a choke hold on him because Lew Rockwell remains convinced that his de­ "the noxious forces of left-liberalism ... had gotten the choke fense of the L.A. police brutal beating of a black hold outlawed as being unfair to poor criminals." motorist accused of speeding is a good thing. He 4) The cops shot him with a taser gun, but that didn't stop him from "dancing around maniacally./I bragged about it in the Ludwig von Mises 5) Some weeks later, when police tried to arrest King for Institute newsletter, attacked Reason magazine hiring the services of a prostitute, King "tried to run down a for criticizing him, and sicked Murray Rothbard police office with his car." on Liberty for the same offense. In this "context," Rothbard writes, the cops had no alter­ native but "beat Rodney King into submission with batons. Except a couple of baton blows couldn't do it. Why did the have. But I enjoy the romantic view of myself as a literary cops keep beating King again and again with their batons? J.P. Morgan, buying up journals. But most entertaining is his The Rasputin factor; he simply wouldn't go down." notion that only philosophers or scholars should be allowed Rothbard has some facts wrong (e.g. the police records in­ to comment on newspaper columns. That should keep the dicate King drove as fast as 55 mph, hardly "maniacally noise down in political circles. -RWB speeding"). But even if his argument were factually correct, it isn't very convincing. Does an attempt to elude police for a Zero coherence - Clarence Thomas smoked dope. speeding ticket justify a beating? What if the driver also re­ Big surprise. The Bush administration pooh-poohs those fuses to get outof his car? What if goddam liberals won't let who use this against his appointment to the Supreme Court. the cops use a choke hold on the speeder? (As I recall, the Just a youthful indiscretion. Anyway, he's renounced his sin. "noxious left-liberals" couldn't get the choke hold outlawed How does this (eminently sensible) attitude jibe with the until the police had killed more than 25 people in custody by drug war strategy of targeting users with draconian property using it.) What if the taser gun doesn't knock the driver takings and tougher jail sentences? How does it mesh with senseless? Then are the cops justified in beating him sense­ the anti-drug rhetoric of "just saying 'no,'" or all the hysteri­ less as he lies helpless on the pavement? And what does cal calls for hanging dealers on street corners? Isn't it time King's behavior weeks after the incident have to do with it for the Bush administration to admit publicly what it has tac­ anyway? itly admitted-that people's private drug use just isn't any big deal, isn't anyone's business, and isn't worth violating civil liberties and wasting the citizenry's tax dollars? If drug use isn't enough of an issue to disqualify one from a seaton the Supreme Court, how can it disqualify you from your right to life, liberty and property? -BD Compulsory volunteerism in the Free State - A proponent of mandatory "voluntary commu­ nity service" for Maryland high school students stated that the program will teach students, "To be fully human, you must serve./I It's a shame the Thirteenth Amendment is keep­ ing all of us from realizing our full human potential. -JSR

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Day Phone Evening Phone Volume 5, Number 1 September1991 has officially announced his intention to run for president in hair modern classical/jazz/pop-rock composer? Especially '92, but as an independent. I've heard that matchmakers one whose music is as alternately silly, scatological, overly within the Libertarian Party are trying to hook up with him, mannered and ill-conceived·as Zappa's? but with the convention only a month and a half away, the Well, why not? As I see it, what you want to do with a arrangement seems unlikely to be consummated. Besides, party like the LP-that is, one with no hope of winning a na­ Zappa is too iconoclastic to want to be saddled with any par­ tional election-is gain media attention for your organization ty identification. He announced his intentions in an interview and ideas, however possible. in the July issue of the rock culture magazine Spin. Zappa would certainly deliver on press attention. He Libertarians of my acquaintance were impressed, particularly points this out as one of the pluses of his candidacy. "You by his suggestion to abolish the income tax. know what the other guys are going to say before they say it. Zappa first came to the (non-rock world) public eye as a And television is an entertainment medium. Now, you don't star witness against Tipper Gore's record labeling initiative know what I'm going to say. Now you're in the middle of an in the mid-'80s. Hey-strong on civil liberties and economic election year and it's real dull. Do you think they would send freedoms! The very definition of a proper libertarian, right? someone over to talk to me every once in a while just to liven Well, I think it more than possible that Zappa is a libertari­ things up a bit?" an by inclination. At least his broaching of the idea of the abo­ He has a point. But, of course, he'd just be a laughing­ lition of the income tax shows he's not just another idiot stock-right? Could be. Just consider his hair, his past, hell, liberal showbiz loser. Could you imagine Ed Asner saying even his vie:ws. But perhaps his persona may· help people something like "the only thing the income tax does to every­ think about heresies like abolishing the income tax-if only body who pays it is it pisses you off because you earned that for a minute. And once that thought is in people's·· heads, money and now the government is taking itaway from you"? who knows? Zappa also seems to understand that there are good prac­ I am dubious about the combination of pop and politics tical arguments for gutting the income tax: he cheers the on aesthetic grounds. Pop artists are generally idiot-savants enormous economic boom that would result from an income utterly ignorant of politics (and everything else), and politi­ tax abolition. cal thinking usually casts a pall of hypocritical solemnity But on other issues he seems slightly soft in the head. He over music-as over an extended family at the funeral of makes reference to "Reagan's depression during '82-'83, a universally hated patriarch-that is death to the pop aesthetic. But on political grounds the marriage is fine with me. Anything to get attention, as the fisherman said to the sal­ Pop artists are generally idiot-savants utterly mon swimming upstream. We libertarian salmon ought to ignorant of politics (and everything else), and welcome a Zappa candidacy, LP related or not. -BD political thinking usually casts a pall of hypo­ RIP Leningrad, 1924-1991 - An old Soviet critical solemnity over music that is death to the joke goes: A man at an employment agency was asked sever­ pop aesthetic. al questions. Where was he born? St. Petersburg. Where did he grow up? Petrograd. Where does he live now? Leningrad. Where would he like to live? St. Petersburg. Well, if he's still when his economics first took its toll." What could he mean alive, he will get his chance. In a recent referendum, 54% of by this? What policy unique to Reagan created this? This the citizens of Leningrad voted to change the name of their sounds like typical thoughtless left-liberal rhetoric about the city back to St. Petersburg, honoring Tsar Peter the Great, "decade of greed," usually based on the Widespread (and un­ who carved the port city out of a swamp to increase access to true) assumption that Reagan was a vicious slasher of social and contact with the developed west. spending. Soviet cities have been changing their names for several Zappa responds to the hopeless mess of the state educa­ years now, casting off Communist-imposed titles in favor of tion system with lame, vague prescriptions to "meet [chil­ their traditional names. Leningrad, the birthplace of the revo­ dren] halfway and install equipment into classrooms that are lution, was the largest of the renamed cities. But Lenin's ex­ going to be able to deliver data into the language that kids al­ periment, if destroying a country can be called that, has ready understand." In rap, I suppose? No, Zappa is merely failed miserably. His name and those of his cohorts are being pulling on the tired old McLuhan "post-literate" string here. wiped from the maps, just as the names of ancient·despots But he still has a positive side. He stands up to sensitivity were obliterated from marble columns by their newly freed pressure groups-he resisted a request to apologize for his subjects. The Bolsheviki thought they acted for the ages, but song ''Jewish Princess" by the Anti-Defamation League of history has shown otherwise. -JSR the B'nai B'rith. He is also leery of democracy and very sin­ cerely pro-free expression. He refuses to debate other candi­ How to succeed in business - First, form an dates when he runs, just because he thinks they're all oil-and-gas exploration company. Call it, say, Apex Energy hopelessly full of shit. But of course. Co. Get a buddy to join you in contributing capital. The two Is this whole question anything more than a fanciful exer­ of you together should invest only $3,000 while retaining 51 cise in badinage? Would it really make any strategic sense percent control of the venture. for the Libertarian Party to pursue the candidacy of a long- Get the rest of the capital you need~say,$2.3 million-by 10 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 selling stock to and borrowing from venture-capital corpora­ The beer drinkers who made this nation great enjoy its pro­ tions that operate with federal guarantees. This should not be tections too. difficult, so long as the venture-capital firms are controlled BATF has come down hard on G. Heileman Brewing by a longtime friend of your father. The Small Business Co.'s attempt to market a new malt liquor called Investment Corporation, an institution created to assist politi­ "PowerMaster." (No, that's not a brand of cordless drills.) cally well connected guys like you, will dispense the money. According to bureau spokesman Tom Hill, the name consti­ Now, make yourself the president of Apex at a salary of tutes an illicit form of advertising. While beers typically have $160,000 a year plus expenses; give your buddy a salary of an alcohol content of 3.5 per cent and malt liquors 5.5 per $80,000 a year plus expenses. In a few days the two of you will have recovered in salary more than you invested in the company. Your first business move should be to buy an oil­ If consumers were afforded alcohol content and-gas lease for $150,000 from two other companies already owned by you and your buddy. information, might they then elect to moderate Fourteen months later, report that Apex has lost $708,000 their inebriation by choosing a less potent and its stock has no value. But don't worry. If the remaining brand? Sure-and Dan Quayle might resign assets of the venture-capital outfits (now being liquidated) that lent you the capital are insufficient to cover the losses, the Vice Presidency to study phenomenology at the taxpayers will take care of everything. the Sorbonne. Finally, resign from your position as president of Apex and look for another job-a similar one, of course. Sounds too good to be true? cent, PowerMaster is cranked up to a jolting 5.9. Federal law Not so. Just ask Neil Bush. -RH forbids brewers from mentioning alcohol content either in advertising or on labels. Heileman may have thought it had Owl spotted - Footnote to the Northern Spotted hit upon a clever way to subvert the law's intent, but it Owl controversy: a number of spotted owls have been sight­ couldn't sneak its subliminal ploy past the watchdogs at ed in second generation forests in eastern Washington. This BATF. (Well, actually it did sneak it by. BATF first gave is big news indeed. Heileman approval to market PowerMaster and then, once You will recall (from my discussion, ''The Owls Are Not thousands of cases were already on their way to the stores, What They Seem," July 1991) that by defining the word "spe­ rescinded the agreement. Being a federal bureau means you cies" to include "subspecies" and "distinct populations" of a don't have to live with your mistakes; the other guy does.) given species, the Endangered Species Act had enabled the Some naive folk believe that the government's job is to spotted owls that live in the mountains along the northern police deceptive advertising. That may be true in Third Pacific coast to be classified as a species, despite the fact that World backwaters, but not here. Consumers can fend against substantial populations live elsewhere and are not threat­ falsehoods for themselves; Uncle, though, will protect them ened. The only way to protect this new "species" is to prohib­ against incursions of truths. Why? Well, if Joe Sixpack knew it timber harvesting, since the spotted owl can survive only that he needed only eight bottles of PowerMaster to get soz­ in old growth forests. zled instead of 14 Buds, then he might decide to drink less The discovery of the spotted owl living happily in second and enjoy it more. Although that would carry some ecologi­ growth forests around Wenatchee in eastern Washington cal benefit-fewer aluminum cans tossed onto roadsides, less strikes two blows at the notion that timber harvests in the water consumed by flushing toilets-its liabilities are pro­ coastal mountains should be stopped: (1) it demonstrates that found. They include ... well, I'll let the readers of Liberty fig­ the spotted owl can indeed live in areas that have been har­ ure it out for themselves. vested; (2) it suggests that the spotted owl was not nearly as Why this prohibition for beer when wine and whiskey la­

IIendangered" as had been believed. bels declare in large type their alcohol content? The answer is Why hadn't the spotted owl been seen in eastern obvious. The characters on thirtysomething sip wine; real Washington before? Like most predators it is shy around hu­ Americans guzzle beer. If they're thrown off their stride, con­ mans and naturally has a low population density. And no­ sequences for our nation's well-being could be profound. body had looked for them before. Suppose that Ford assembly line workers had spent the pre­ This is another unhappy episode of the government dis­ vious evening downing PowerMasters: would you drive the rupting thousands of people's lives and wasting millions of cars they put together the next day? (Please don't write in to dollars, because of wrong conclusions arrived at by political­ tell me about the new Honda in your garage. Neither I nor ly motivated scientists. -RWB BArF would be amused.) If consumers were afforded alcohol content information, Up from inebriation - In the July issue of Liberty, might they then elect to moderate their inebriation by I reported that the ever-Vigilant Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, choosing a less potent brand? Sure--and Dan Quayle might and Firearms is at work protecting us against winemakers resign the Vice Presidency to study phenomenology at the who have the audacity to proclaim on the labels of their Sorbonne. Remember, these are beer drinkers we're talking products that drinking wine is a cultured, civilized activity. It about. For them, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and gives me pleasure now to note that BATF's cuddling more than a little entirely out of the question. BATF knows embraces are not restricted to hoity-toity sauvignon sippers. its clients. Let them be entertained by commercials replete Liberty 11 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 with bouncing C-cups and superannuated jocks; just don't The Bush administration is sending six teams of government tell them what's actually in the brews they hoist. lawyers to the former Soviet bloc countries to instruct offi­ Heileman may have received its just come-uppance, but cials there in how to frame and enforce antitrust laws. BATF's work has beerly commenced. ''We've been collecting For a century, antitrust laws have generated counterpro­ advertising. If we find any to be similar in nature, using the ductive distortions in U.S. markets. They have given rise to term 'power' or connoting strength, we will be writing those business uncertainties-at times (e.g., 1897-1911, 1938-1941) companies letters telling them to cease and desist that type of extreme and pervasive uncertainties. They have helped to advertising," announces Mr. Hill, BATF's spokesman. shield uncompetitive firms from the gale of creative destruc­ Buy that man a Perrier! -LEL tion. And worst of all, they have placed in the hands of gov­ ernment officials a power that cannot help but be wielded in Unhappy campers - Scouting has been in the an arbitrary and capricious manner. The antitrust laws have news recently for policies that exclude gays from being served as a perennial threat to the economic liberty of con­ scoutmasters and atheists from joining at all. senting adults. Eight year old atheist Mark Welsh sued the Cub Scouts Adam Smith observed that there is a lot of ruin in a na­ after they denied him membership. I don't have any prob­ tion. Given that the American economy has survived for 101 lems with atheists or homosexuals-or atheist homosexu­ years with antitrust laws in effect, he was obviously right. als-joining any organization. But is the issue here Antitrust laws are, and always have been, a bankrupt pol­ discrimination or free association? Certainly the Boy Scouts icy instrument, as Dominick T. Armentano (Antitrust and of America are discriminating against atheists who want to Monopoly, 1990) and others have shown conclusively. How be scouts. But does anyone, whatever his religious orienta­ utterly in character that the federal government should give tion, have a right to be a scout? Or does the organization other governments the rope needed to hogtie their econo­ have the right to decide for itself what it regards as proper mies. -RH qualifications for membership? Mark Welsh's attorneys claim that the scouts are a public The body snatchers - Who owns one's corpse? A organization and may not discriminate. According to this recent court case has raised this question. A hospital re­ reasoning, the scouts are "public" because they "recruit in moved the corneas from a man's corpse and donated them, the public domain." Thus, the argument goes, they must ad­ contrary to the instructions the man left while alive. His fami­ mit members who disagree with their social philosophy. ly is suing for redress, but the courts have thus far taken the But this legal definition of "public" is wrongheaded. It position that "no-one owns a corpse." Health care workers runs roughshod over property rights, invites governmental may apparently loot bodies for organs when there is suffi­ intrusion into what is properly the private domain. The prior cient need, with no recompense to the deceased's estate. moral distinction between public (government owned) and Why can't one's body be willed to one's heirs, just like private (everything else) has been lost. So why can't Mark any other property? One's body is as much one's property as Welsh (or his father) form his own atheist scout group? Why one's house or car. In fact, it is more than one's property. It is can't gay outdoorsmen raise their own troops? And by what pre-property, a basic factor in one's existence. Treating a right do federal judges intrude on the God-fearing, gay­ corpse-or any other property-as a free resource results in fearing scouts to tell them with whom to camp? -JSR exploitation, shortages, and the replacement of legal for mar­ ket mechanisms. Exporting misery - There is an old joke to the ef­ Why should judges decide where body parts go? Why not fect that U.S. problems with international competitiveness the market? The most often heard retort is that this would could be relieved if only we traded according to our compar­ mean"organs for the rich." But this is not likely. By establish­ ative advantage: Japan sends us cars and VCRs, and we send ing regular payment mechanisms for body parts, the market them lawyers. will expand and prices will seek clearance level. Certainly Unfortunately, a variant of the joke is being adopted as prices would decline from current levels, thanks to tremen­ U.S. foreign policy in an apparent attempt to prevent the dous supply and paltry demand. The technologies associated newly liberated nations of eastern Europe from developing. with organ preservation would progress faster, driven by the lure of profit. "f'A RANOfA eLIN IC We can only hope that, by recognizing that property rights cover corpses, this line of thought can be buried. -JSR Billions for bombers, but not one cent for defense - The Pentagon has revealed that Northrop Corp. has been at work for several years on secret development of a "stealthier" cruise missile, a weapon with more than 100 miles range that can be fired from the ground or the air. The political strategy seems to be that, given all the hoop­ la about the "smart" weapons used in the Persian Gulf war, 1730100 the announcement might give a boost to Northrop's B-2 "Stealth" bomber, whose enormous price tag has become 12 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 painfully visible to members of Congress. After all, even the reason why my heart warmed so at the picture on page one $15 billion projected to be spent for 8,650 stealth missiles of my local paper-President Bush warmly hugging Jack looks like small potatoes when compared to the projected Prater, the young black physicist who was Caltech's out­ cost of the B-2s, which go for $860 million each ... that comes standing graduating senior at this year's commencement. to $64.5 billion for the 75 units the Pentagon would like to Go ahead, call me naive. Call me a sucker for symbolism. procure. This is the kind of symbolism that does no harm. The The B-2, the plane famous for having no known mission, President wasn't handing out promises; he was congratulat­ looks as if ultimately it will be a loser in the political wars. ing achievement. I know that Americans are scandalous over­ Even Congress has some budget restraint. But if no more huggers, but I would rather see a hugging president than an than the 15 already in production ever emerge, the program imperial one. A hug may be smarmy (though this one didn't will still rank as one of the dumbest in the history of a gov­ look that way), but at least it's a symbol of equal humanness. ernment department notorious for dumb projects. - RH That's a good side of America. A bad side quickly emerged, when Mr Prater, who seems like a very nice man, A self-defense - When I wrote "No Victory for commented: "1 asked him if I could hug him, and he said I Liberty" (May 1991) I may have under-argued the "do no harm" principle (l wasn't writing a book), but that doesn't in­ validate it (as contended by Virkkala, "Wars for liberty," July I 1991). It seems to be good advice not only for states, but also know that Americans are scandalous over­ for individuals. It means that if you cannot do good, at least huggers, but I would rather see a hugging presi­ dono harm. dent than an imperial one. However, there is a big difference between states and in­ dividuals. Individuals are generally accountable for their ac­ tions, and they pay their own expenses. States are not and do could. I didn't want anyone to shoot me." The "anyone" he not. The history of diplomacy is a sordid saga of presumption had in mind was the gang of armed guards that follows the and imposition. If a state presumes to defend a people from President around, as numerous and as scary as those hun­ foreign aggression and forecloses other effective alternatives, dreds of identical cats that used to infest the Mighty Mouse the people, until they change the system, are justified in ex­ cartoons. It's ridiculous. pecting protection, just as they may call the cops. Thus, my And of course they don't "protect" just the president. statement that a reasonable moral code would not condemn When Teddy Kennedy (and who the hell is he, anyway?) was someone for killing an innocent person when it was the only running for the presidency a few years back, he visited my way to save his own life would also apply to that state when university, which is 12 miles from the airport. The interstate it was actually defending the people living under its highway was emptied for him. Helicopters shadowed his jurisdiction. route. Sixty-six motorcycle patrolmen followed his car (l My point in the article was that when its people's safety is didn't count the ones that preceded it). Cherubs descended not at issue, the state should avoid doing harm, whether or on rose-petal clouds. not it can do good. Virkkala grows vague and mushy when No, I'm lying about the cherubs. But everything else is he wonders why the principle about killing innocents does true. Hugs and guns: it seems that we've got our symbolism not apply when other people are being aggressed against. It a little mixed up. Maybe it has something to do with the has nothing to do with being heartless (the heartful should be President's defensive remark at the Caltech ceremonies, free to help at their own risk.) If we are to limit state power, where he said,"I am not a government basher." Too bad. But we of course do not want the the government doing interna­ would you consider scaling it back a bit? -sc tional charity (!) work (like the murder of 100,000 conscripts and some number of civilians?). This is a critical point in the Damned if they do, damned if they don't debate over limiting or expanding state power. - Over the decades of keeping Ivan at bay, American tax­ I disagree with Virkkala when he writes that distinguish­ payers have shelled out trillions of dollars. Now that the ing the state from private persons is utopian, whatever he Cold War is declared won by the West (never mind that the means by that. If anything is utopian it is Virkkala's last para­ military-industrial complexes on both sides apparently have graph. States do not make foreign policy that way and never not heard the news), one might have expected that the tax­ will. There is a basic conceptual problem that impedes the payers would get some relief from foreign-policy burdens. carrying out of his seemingly simple advice: if we are talking But no. about an individual, I know who the you is in "Intervene in Gorbachev and his apparatchiki have discovered a more ef­ those conflicts when it is in your interest to do so and you fective way to deal with the West. Rather than threatening have good reason to believe you can make the situation bet­ with tanks and missiles, they now turn to blackmail. They ter." But what the heck does it mean if we are talking about speak darkly of the chaos that will envelope the USSR and the state? -SLR hence the whole world if they do not receive massive infusions ofWestern aid. Just imagine, they urge, what calamities would Have you hugged your President today? befall Western Europe if, rather than being invaded by Soviet -I grew up in the northern midwest, but during my ado­ tanks, it were invaded by Soviet refugees seeking subsistence lescent years (not long ago), my part of the country was still and employment. Worst of all, ifthe West does not prop up the racially segregated in every meaningful sense. That is one Gorbachev regime, it might be overthrownby "hardliners." Liberty 13 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

So there's a catch-22 for U.S. taxpayers. If the USSR con­ more efficient. It would save an estimated $67 billion per tinues the Cold War, we lose. But if the USSR gives up the year in insurance and administrative costs, which would be Cold War, we still lose. It's enough to make you wonder: if sufficient to cover the full cost of insuring all those now unin­ heavy U.S. tax burdens are invariant with respect to Soviet sured plus the current out-of-pocket costs of consumers of actions, then maybe, just maybe, the root of the problem health care. does not lie in Moscow. -RH Pondering these developments, I recall my own experi­ ence with the national health system of Great Britain and Queue and eh? on nationalized health what I learned from a Canadian physician I knew in care -,In the aftermath of the U.S. triumph in Operation Pennsylvania. In Britain, rationing of care is a stark reality. Desert Slaughter, the Democrats are desperate for an issue How will this agree with Americans, who tell the pollsters they can use to assail President Bush in the campaign of that they are opposed to rationing and unwilling to limit the 1992. Their old stand-by-that Republicans lack compassion types of tests and procedures available under a government for the poor-isn't playing very well these days. So they plan? My physician acquaintance in Pennsylvania had fled have decided to pump up hysteria over the "crisis" in health Canada in disgust, after finding the entire system mired in care. mindless bureaucracy and concluding that the decisions Now, the crisis consists not in increasing mortality or made under the system required him to be a party to morbidity rates or in declining standards of care. It consists unconscionable actions in treating, or failing to treat, his in the desire of one and all to shift the higher costs of high­ patients. tech health care onto somebody else. As usual, when convinced-however spuriously-that a The Democrat's scheme, qbetted by the news media, crisis exists, Americans cry out for government to "do some­ seems to be succeeding. According to a recent Wall Street thing." And regardless of which party holds power, the gov­ Journal/NBC News poll, four out of ten people surveyed think ernment responds. But should the country adopt a full­ that health is either the fi~st or second most important prob­ fledged government health system, people will live to regret lem for the federal government to. solve. The respondents their credulity and impetuousness. Their bodies as well as don't blame the government for creating the mess in the first their pocketbooks will suffer. -RH place-insurance companies, doctors, and hospitals get cred­ it for that. Even among self-described Republicans and con­ A few kind words about George Will - servatives, big pluralities think the government must "do One of the most irksome forms of sophistry is the evasive ar­ something." Sixty-nine percent of the respondents say that gument. I am sure you are familiar with the maneuver: a dis­ would support a universal, government health-care system putant aims his fire at irrelevant details of an argument, like Canada's. ignoring his opponent's logic and evidence. I suppose this is Even though the Bush administration seems opposed to done out of a fear that one's actual position will not with­ such a drastic expedient, Darman and company are hard at stand scrutiny, or will not appeal to a large enough portion work on an alternative reform that will surely give the feder­ of the audience being addressed. At other times such a ploy al government a more prominent role in the health-care sys­ may be a roundabout attempt to soften an argument or make tem than it has now. a viewpoint seem less radical. In the midst of the political sturm und drang, the General For example, both liberals and conservatives frequently Accounting Office released a study claiming-I am not mak­ condemn political activism on the part of clergymen. The rea­ ing this up-that a Canadian-style system would be much son usually given is that men of the cloth should stick to their own field and not intrude into secular affairs. This argument is patently insincere. Liberals do not commonly object to ministers, priests and rabbis leading anti-apartheid move­ ments or calling for more public spending. Similarly, few conservatives fly into a tizzy upon hearing of clergy who are active against abortion or pornography. In both cases, people are looking for an argumentative shortcut. It is easier, appar­ ently, to say "He's meddling in worldly affairs when he should be sticking to his pulpit" than to present cogent and reasoned arguments for one's stands. I am always glad when someone forgoes such evasive methods, adopts the principles of Occam's Shaving Kit, and gets to the point. I must, for example, give credit to columnist George Will for his recent arguments for strong gun control. c Unlike most gun-grabbers, Will does not attempt to skate around the Second Amendment. More importantly, he doesn't adhere to the specious notion, common among anti-gun acti­ vists, that the amendment is intended only to protect the right "They are pretty repulsive, Son, but you must remember that the rab­ of members of state militias to bear arms while on active ser­ ble are an important element of the economy." vice. Will is aware that the term "militia" meant, in ordinary 14 Liberty WHY SHOULD YOU BE READING FREEDOM DAILY?*

1990-91 ISSUES•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••OF FREEDOM DAILY (PHOTOCOPIES) AND ADDITIONAL ESSAYS-one Dollar Each 1 January: "An Introductory Message from 10 October: "Racism, Control, and Rock and 19 JUly: "Players and Pawns: The Persian Gulf Jacob G. Hornberger"; "An Introductory Mes­ Roll" by JGH; "Racism and the Market Process" War" by JGH; "A New World Order: Economic sage from Richard M. Ebeling"; "Self-Reliance" by RME; "Discrimination" by F.A. Harper, and Liberalism or The New Mercantilism" by RME; by Ralph Waldo Emerson; and RME's review of RME's review of Preferential Policies by Thomas "Some Other Costs of War" by Robert Higgs; The New Realities by Peter F. Drucker. Sowell. "We'd Rather Fight" by Lannon Stafford and 2 February: "Fighting Plunder with Plunder in 11 November: "The Vietnam War" by JGH; RME's review of The Hidden Nations by Nadia Poland" by JGH; "Free Market Money-Instead "Foreign Policy and Foreign Wars" by RME; Diuk. of Political Manipulation" by RME; "Visions "Conscription" by Daniel Webster, and RME's 20 August: "FOR and the End of Economic and Ideals" by James Allen; and RME's review review of Rock Around the Bloc by Timothy W. Uberty" by JGH; "From the New Mercantilism of Discovery, Capitalism and Distributive Jus­ Ryback. to Economic Fascism" by RME; "The Farm Pro­ tice by Israel Kirzner. 12 December: "Christianity and Freedom" by gram Fiasco" by Dominick T. Armentano; and 3 March: "Forget the Alamo (and the Flag)!" JGH; "Yes, Virginia, There is No Santa Oaus" RME's review of Russia's Last Capitalists by by JGH; "On the Edge of Hyperinflation in Bra­ by RME;Charity: Biblical and Political" by Alan M. Ball. zil" by RME; and RME's review of Free Per­ Russell J. Clinchy; and RME's review of The sons and the Common Good by Michael Novak. Ethics ofRedistribution by Bertrand de Jouvenel. ADDITIONAL ESSAYS BY 4 April: "The U.S. Govemment-Guilty as 13 January: "The Sanctity of Private Prop­ JACOB G. HORNBERGER Charged" by JGH; "The Economics of the Drug erty-Part 2" by JGH; "Free Trade vs. Pro­ War" by RME; "The Morality of Drug Controls" tectionism" by RME; "The Tariff Idea" by W.M. -One Dollar Each by Thomas Szasz; "An Open Letter to Bill Ben­ Curtiss; and RME's review of Free Market 21 "The Compromise of Silence" nett" by Milton Friedman. Morality by Alexander H. Shand. 22 "Principles and the Constitution" 23 "An Open Letter to Russell Kirk" 5 May: "Dying for Freedom in Panama" by 14 February: "The Preservation of the Bu­ 24 "How Bad Do You Want to be Free?" JGH; "Panama and the Canal: Children of Amer­ reaucracy" by JGH; "Democratized Privilege: The 25 "War for Peace in the Middle East" ican Imperialism and Socialism" by RME; "The New Mercantilism" by RME; "The Roots of 26 "Conscience, Patriotism, and the Persian Conquest of the United States by Spain" by Wil­ Umited Government" by Alan Barth; "Thought Gulf War" liam Graham Sumner, "Patriotism" by Herbert and Purpose" by James Allen; and RME's review 27 "Omnipotent Govemment and the Per­ Spencer. ofCapitalism by Arthur Seldon. sian Gulf War" 6 June: "Democracyvs. Constitutionally Umi­ 15 March: "Why Americans Won't Choose ted Govemment" by JGH; "Freedom's Greatest Freedom" by JGH; "The Origin of Democratized Challenge" by RME; "The United States and the Privilege" by RME; "Are Compulsory School ADDITIONAL ESSAYS BY Roman Empire" by Lawrence Reed; "We Have Attendance Laws Necessary?-Part 1" by Samuel RICHARD M. EBELING Socialism, Q.E.D." by Milton Friedman. L. Blumenfeld; and RME's review of Unfinished -OneDollar Each Business by Clint Bolick. 7 JUly: "The Forgotten Importance of Civil 28 "Europe's Future in the 1990's" Liberties" by JGH; "The Heritage of Economic 16 April: "Reflections on National Service" by 29 "The Political Economy ofthe French Liberty" by RME; "The Bill of Rights" by Hugo JGH; "Politically Correct Thinking and State Revolution" Black; "Give Me Liberty" by Rose Wilder Lane. Education" by RME; "Are Compulsory School 30 "Education, Businessmen and Economic 8 August: "The Sanctity of Private Property" Attendance Laws Necessary?-Part 2" by Samuel Freedom" by JGH; "Is Liberty Too Extreme?" by RME; L. Blumenfeld; "Why Not Separate School and 31 "Uthuania: Stalin's Victim Wants a Free "The Income Tax: Root of All Evil" by Frank State?" by Leonard E. Read; and RME's review Market Future" Chodorov; and RME's review of Tell the World: ofEconomics on Trial by Mark Skousen. 32 "Down a Slippery Slope of Kuwaiti Oil: What Happened in China and Why byUu 17 May: "Gun Control, Patriotism, and Civil American Military Intervention in the Binyan. Disobedience" by JGH; "Something Must Be Middle East" 33 "Inside Uthuania" 9 September: "Letting Go of Socialism" by Done!" by RME; "Are Compulsory School JGH; "The Impossibility of Socialism" by RME; Attendance Laws Necessary?-Part 3" by Samuel "Sinking in a Sea of Buts" by Leonard E. Read; L. Blumenfeld; and RME's review of This One-year and RME's review of The Awakening of the Hemisphere ofLiberty by Michael Novak. Soviet Union by Geoffrey Hosking. 18 June: "Locking Out the Immigrant" by Subscription To JGH; "In Defense of Free Migration" by RME; "A Capitalist Looks at Free Trade" by William Freedom Daily - $15 20 or more L. Law; "Man's Mobility" by Leonard E. Read; and RME's review of Soviet Civilization: A ($20 Foreign) selections: $20. Cultural History by Andrei Sinyavsky. *WE DON'T COMPROMISE. o Enclosed is $15 ($20 foreign) for a one-year subscription to Freedom Daily. MC/VISA # Exp. _ o Enclosed is my payment for the following 1990-91 issues of Freedom Daily NAME _ (photocopies) and essays by Jacob G. Hornberger and Richard Ebeling (One dollar each or for or more selections): $20 20 ADDRESS _ 1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 2 6 10 14 18 22 26 30 CITY/STATE!ZIP _ 3 7 11 15 19 23 27 31 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 Mail to: FFF, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209 (303-777-3588). Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

18th-century Anglo-Saxon usage, the whole of the adult citi­ Will also eschews the oft-quoted claim that the U.S. zenry (or at least the male citizenry). He quotes George Mason, Supreme Court has ruled that the Second Amendment doesn't an early advocate of adding a bill of rights to the Constitution, protect the rights of individuals. In fact, the high court has as stating "Who are the militia? They consist now of the whole ruled on Second Amendment issues only a handful of times, people." Nor does he maintain that the Second Amendment is most recently over fifty years ago, and its rulings have involved an outmoded reflection of a vanished eighteenth-century only peripheral matters (taxes on guns, ownership of firearms society. by felons, and the status of sawed-off shotguns, for the most part). F======~ W~~ilio~~~n~w~~~~~~rt~~~~ Guest Reflection "carnage that is a consequence of virtually uncontrolled private The no-tell cartel- What's the difference between a ownership of guns" and admits that our Bill of Rights protects lawyer and a gas-filled blimp? Only the blimp can advertise. that ownership. He doesn't shrink from the obvious conclusion. At least that's the situation in Florida. In December 1990, As he states in a recent column, "Gun control advocates ... the Florida Supreme Court conceded to the Florida State should squarely face the need to deconstitutionalize the subject Bar's request for new, more restrictive rules on lawyer adver- by repealing the embarrassing [second] amendment." tising. The new rules effective this year make Florida second Now, I am not a great admirer of George Will; his smarmy, only to Iowa in circumscribing a lawyer's freedom to adver- patronizing, statist brand of conservatism is among the less ap­ tise. Ads may now be submitted to the State Bar for review petizing aspects of the intellectual American right. Moreover, I and approval, although its opinion is not binding. Firms re- think his views on gun control are completely wrongheaded. sponsible for running ads found to violate the new rules may However, I do give him credit for honesty and probity, and for have to forfeit any revenue those ads generate. dealing with the real issue rather than burying it in a sea of eva- The new rules prohibit the use of celebrities or actors. If sion. Now, if only those right-wingers who advocate censor­ there is a voice in the ad, it must be either the lawyer's or one ship of everything they don't like will come out and call for of the law firm's full-time employees. And less-than-sombre repeal of the First Amendment, we can clear the air even fur­ tactics such as dramatizations or music with lyrics are also ther. -WPM banned. There can be no mention of fees, unless certain dis- closures are made and there are no promises about quality. Ron Paul in Jeopardy - The Libertarian Party In adopting these new rules, Florida bucks the liberaliz- has achieved the status of trivium. On July 15, the final answer ing trend most states have followed in the past decade. The on Jeopardy, the syndicated television quiz show, was: "In 1988, Florida State Bar apparently views the relaxation of rules Ronald E. Paul, the candidate of this party, received the third against legal advertising as desecration of the professional most votes for President." All three contestants got the question image of a lawyer-which everyone knows is exemplary. correct. -KRB Unregulated advertising can "adversely affect the public's Rational garbage in Montana - Responding confidence and trust in our judicial system"-which is also at an all-time high. Further, the State Bar expressed worry that to the recent wave of environmental concern, the small city of advertising may prejudice juries against certain lawyers and Bozeman, Montana, has initiated a plan to save future genera­ their clients. tions by pricing trash on a per garbage-ean basis. Bozeman is The State Bar's opinion itself reflects several prejudices. It not running out of land suitable for landfills (this is Montana, says that commercial-type advertising can create unwarrant- after all), so there's no special need for such a program, but the ed expectations in lawyers by those untrained in the law, method selected is basically a good one. Each family has to tag thereby demonstrating an embarrassing lack of confidence in its bags or cans with easily purchased tags that cost 65 cents for prospective jury members. And though the State Bar's ex- 20 gallons or 95 cents for 33 gallons. pressed intention is to protect this public, it is likely that just With each family now paying for the amount of garbage it the opposite will be achieved. disposes (after a flat $40-a year service fee), each family has an The social benefits of advertising freedom are repeatedly incentive to cut back on its garbage, and is free to use whatever demonstrated. Advertising allows the advertiser to commu- means it wishes. This is not only "politically correct"; it also nicate what he is offering in the marketplace and this infor- makes economic sense. It is far better than mandatory recycling mation aids those with money to spend. With a state- and is a great improvement over the previous system, an annu­ mandated closed club (as in the case of state-licensed attor- al garbage fee based on the number of rooms in each family's neys) advertising is even more important. Those lawyers house! who do advertise in "unlawyerly" ways at least succeed in Unfortunately, now that this program has been in effect for shaking some dust off the club's brocade curtains. Their com- just over two weeks, there are some casualties, the chief one be­ mercial-type advertisements contain a whisper of the dread- ing the recycling business. The Lions Club has closed down one ed word: competition. of its bins for collecting aluminum cans because it is losing The lawyers and judges who voted against advertising money and because people are dumping trash at the collection freedom advertise something rather frightening for the fu- site. And Carl Weissman & Sons, which used to recycle card- ture of everyone's freedom-its decline. board, has been so overwhelmed with cardboard that it has To their credit, some lawyers are suing. stopped the program. Yes, occasionally, doing what's just and practicing law do My guess is that eventually Bozeman citizens will come to coincide. -Ann Rogers accept the fact that if they want cardboard and old chairs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~picbdup~fue~door~e~fueyhaw~payfuril.Afuwwill 16 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

go to the trouble of taking cardboard and other recyclables to morsel, intended to stimulate reluctant high school students recyclers who, over time, will be able to handle greater vol­ into an interest in American history. I filed the datum away as umes'. The policing of "midnight dumping" on the property of a curiosity, the sort of effluvium with which a teenager fills his others will presumably improve. head. I hope that the Bozeman city fathers and mothers don't A year or two later, I saw Jeannette Rankin on Sixty react by instituting mandatory recycling, which would be cost­ Minutes. She was an old lady by then, and had abandoned her ly, unnecessary, and a waste of many people's time. Recycling native Montana for Georgia. She was feisty as hell, explaining is not a sacred rite in which people should be forced to partici­ to all the world why she thought the U.S. had no business in pate. But people should be held accountable for the full costs Vietnam. She was a tough old lady, who heated her small of their waste disposal. As long as they pay those costs, there is house with the Sunday edition of the New York Times. She be­ no justification for reducing their freedom to consume prod­ came a minor hero to me. Above all, I admired her courage in ucts and dispose of whatever waste they wish. -JSS refusing to allow the Congress to declare war on Japan unanimously. Libertarians' dilemma - The Libertarian Party A few years ago, I heard from a friend that there is in certainly faces a tough choice at its upcoming convention in Missoula, Montana, a park honoring Jeannette Rankin, and I Chicago. Only two candidates have announced for its presi­ dential nomination: one a "motivational speaker" who has failed his bar exam sixteen times, the other a former state legis­ Nearly every city has a park or memorial to its lator who can't keep his facts straight when speaking in public. Neither have the status to command media attention or the war heroes. What other city has honored an anti­ means of raising the funds necessary to run a serious war hero, even as shoddily as Missoula has hon­ campaign. ored Jeannette Rankin? The Democrats face a similar problem: no person of genu­ inely national status seems interested in their nomination. But there is one massive difference: the Democrat nominee has the decided that one day I would visit it. So, in June, I journeyed worst prospects of any Democratic candidate since the Civil to Missoula to visit the park that honors her.... War, while the Libertarian nominee will have his party's best The office of the motel at which I stay is full of antique ad­ opportunity ever. With Bush running away with the election, vertisements and store promotional materials; its proprietor is the ever potent why-waste-your-vote argument is dead in the very proud of his 2 star rating from the auto club. But neither water, and with both parties getting together to raise taxes and the proprietor nor his wife has heard ofJeannette Rankin Park. engage in an insane war against drugs, the LP has its best op­ However, his wife has an idea. "Why don't you give him one portunity in its twenty-year history. of those books about Missoula?" she says to her husband. He If the party could come up with a candidate with the stat­ thrusts into my hand a slick, staple-bound book. ure, articulateness and resources of Roger MacBride, Ed Clark, In the privacy of my room, I examine the book. It contains or Ron Paul, it could do what those candidates all hoped to do: lots of ads, a map of the town, and information about local tour­ make a real impact on the national scene. The nomination of ist attractions. But not a word aboutJeannette Rankin Park. Dick Boddie or Andre Marrou, I am afraid, puts the LP back in Missoula is a big city by Montana standards-40,OOO peo­ its old rut on the road to obscurity. ple-,but it seems small enough that some combination of re­ My own guess is that Boddie will get the nod, thanks to his connoitering and querying natives will lead me to the park. histrionic abilities as a speaker at LP conventions. I have seen After forty minutes of driving around town, asking people I him perform, and while his fundamentalist-preacher style is stop on the streets, stopping in small businesses and inquiring, not my cup of tea, it is pretty plain that he impresses party I am no closer to finding it. Jeannette Rankin Park may as well members. And he may be the better candidate for all I know. be on the surface of the moon as far as the people I talk to are Is there a dark horse in the shadows? Ron Paul, Gene concerned. Burns, Ed Clark and Mark Skousen have been mentioned, but I come across the police station. Here, I figure, is my oppor­ so far as I know, none are willing to take the plunge. Of course, tunity. I walk in and ask the dispatcher, a friendly middle­ strange things have happened at past LP conventions, so you aged woman. "I've lived here all my life," she says, "and I've never know. But right now the LP is in the odd position of never heard of it." But she is friendly and helpful the way peo­ having all the pieces in place for its best results ever, except ple in Montana all seem to be, and after several phone calls that no well-qualified people want to run. -,CAA she tells me, "I think it might be at the south end of the Madison Street Bridge." Honoring our anti-war dead - In the I check my map and head to the bridge. Traffic is not American history textbook impressed upon me in high school, heavy-it is 8:00 p.m. by now-butit is obvious the bridge car­ there was a picture of Jeannette Rankin, identified as the only ries a lot of traffic. The four lanes of traffic split into two one member of Congress to vote against U.s. entry into World War way streets at the south edge of the river. Straight ahead, on II. The caption also noted that she had voted against U.S. entry the point formed by the diverging streets, is a large sign, into World War I, had been a pioneer advocate of women's "Jeannette Rankin Park." rights and was the first woman to serve in the u.s. Congress. No parking is allowed, so I continue south. A cross street But she was not a career office-holder: her two terms in forms the southern boundary of Rankin Park. It allows park- Congress coincided with the u.s. entry into both world wars. I am sure the authors considered this as a sort of enriching continued. on page 25 Liberty 17 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 AQPraisal

The Real Judge ThoInas

The most interesting aspect of Clarence Thomas is not his color, or his smok­ ing habits, or even his past, but his philosophy. Here are two rather different views of his character and judicial philosophy.

characterizes Barry Goldwater's speech would be a need for it to exist. Had we Who is Clarence Thomas? accepting the .Republican presidential lived up to our Constitution, had we lived up to the principles that we es­ by R. W. Bradford nomination in 1964 as "perhaps the most powerful contemporary statement poused, there· would certainly be no defending freedom based on our found­ need. There would have been no need George Bush's nomination of Clar­ for manumission either. U nfortunate­ ence Thomas to the Supreme Court ing principles." He quotes at length ly, the reality was·that, for political caught many people by surprise. All from Goldwater's speech. A sample: reasons or whatever, there was a need that most people seem to know about We can see in the sanctity of private to enforce antidiscrimination laws. Or Judge Thomas is that he is a black fed­ property the only durable foundation at least there was a perceived need to eral judge who criticized affirmative ac­ for constitutional government in a free do that. society. And beyond that we see and Why do you need a Department of Ag­ tion while heading the Equal cherish diversity of ways, diversity of riculture? Why do you need a Depart­ Employment Opportunity Commission thoughts, of motives, and of accom­ ment of Commerce? You can go down during the Reagan administration. plishments. We don't seek to live any­ the whole list. You don't need any of Libertarians know a good deal more one's life for him. We only seek to them, really. about Judge Thomas, thanks to Bill secure his rights, guarantee him op­ I think, though, if I had to look at the Kauffman's perceptive interview pub­ portunity to strive with government role of government and what it does in lished in Reason (November 1987) and performing only those needed and people's lives, I see the EEOC as having Judge Thomas' contribution to Assess­ constitutionally sanctioned tests much more legitimacy than the others, if which cannot otherwise be performed. properly run. Now, you can run the risk ing the Reagan Years, an anthology edit­ that the authority can be abused. When He praises the speech for its "elo- ed by David Boaz and published by the EEOC or any organization starts dictat­ Cato Institute. quence and good sense," bemoans the ing to people, I think they go far beyond In "Civil Rights as a Principle Ver­ fact that Goldwater alienated black anything that should be tolerated in this sus Civil Rights as an Interest," his con­ Americans by opposing the 1964 Civil society. tribution to the Boaz anthology, Rights Act, and warns, "unless Ameri­ Later in the same interview, Thomas Thomas reveals an appreciation of liber­ cans begin to take seriously Goldwa­ says, "1 don't think that government ty that one seldom encounters from ter's warning, our troubles may prove has a role in telling people how to live Reagan appointees or Federal judges: overwhelming." When is the last time their lives. Maybe a minister does, may­ In 1980, I was confident that great you heard a federal judge quote the be your belief in God does, maybe strides could be made on behaU of in­ words of Liberty editor Karl Hess, who there's another set of moral codes, but I dividualliberty ... Although we are wrote this extraordinary plea for hu­ don't think government has a role." able to take credit for much good, I be­ man liberty? When was the last time This prompted Kauffman to ask, "So lieve that the administration's efforts you heard a federal judge express such would you describe yourself as a liber­ did go awry, in both rhetoric and sub­ love of liberty? tarian?" Thomas answered: stance. Perhaps its faults can best be In his interview with Bill Kauffman, I don't think I can. I certainly have examined if I focus on one particular Thomas is dubious about the Equal Em­ some very strong libertarian leanings, theme: our failures to enunciate a ployment Opportunity Commission yes. I tend to really be partial to Ayn principled understanding of what we Rand, and to The Fountainhead and At­ (EEOC), the agency that he headed at were about and to articulate the mean­ las Shrugged. But at this point I'm ing of individual rights and how we the time, as well as many other govern­ caught in the position where if I were might best defend them. ment activities: a true libertarian I wouldn't be here in Elsewhere in the essay, Thomas In a free society, I don't think there government. 18 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

L. Gorden Crovitz of The Wall St or Marshall, but with a very different independence from the Roman Catho­ Journal has reviewed the 19 opinions agenda. To date, Judge Thomas has lic Church in two ways: (1) he is di­ that Thomas has written since becom­ shown no inclination toward such acti­ vorced and remarried; (2) the church ing a federal judge 15 months ago. His vism. Indeed, he seems committed to he currently attends is Episcopalian.) conclusion: "these rulings ... are text­ restraint even when it is distinctly polit­ Nevertheless, it remains possible book examples of judicial restraint." ically imprudent to do so: he has dared that, once ensconced in a position of Thomas is dubious about the notion to suggest that the Supreme Court's power with lifetime tenure, Thomas that judges should make law ex nihilo, landmark Brown v Board of Education will emerge as a judicial activist. But I or discover new rights or obligations decision may have been bad law, in doubt it. Thomas seems too committed hidden in the Constitution. Thomas' that it was not based on sound judicial to judicial restraint, and his indepen­ idea of judicial restraint is favored by thinking and the U.S. Constitution, but dent mind and powerful intellect sug­ many conservatives, concerned about rather on "psychological evidence" and gest that he will be able to keep the law the activities of the courts during the "compassion." It is safe to say that if separate from his own personal politi­ past 40 years. But it hardly suggests cal philosophy in a way that judicial that he buys into the conservative social activists seem unable to do. But if agenda. I suspect that, given his liber­ Judge Thomas proves to be a judicial tarian inclinations, there's not much When is the last time you activist of a libertarian sort, he would chance he will ally himself with social heard a federal judge cite the at least be a breath of fresh air in what conservatives on the court. Even in words of Karl Hess, praise Ayn is shaping up to be a rather dull and 1987, when he was a highly visible stodgy Court. member of a very conservative admin­ Rand and quote Malcolm In a profile in The Atlantic Monthly, istration, he was reluctant to call him­ X from memory? Juan Williams called Thomas "a sad, self a conservative. "I'm willing to lonely, troubled and deeply pessimistic accept it for the sake of discussion, so I public servant," which I suppose is the don't have to spend a whole lot of time Thomas were not black, Bush's nomina­ wayan establishment liberal might on definitions, etc," he told Bill Kauff­ tion of him would have unleashed a Ni­ view an independent, proud man who man. "But I'm just Clarence Thomas. agara of vicious criticism. is dubious about the value of govern­ I'm an individual." Thomas' philosophy of law also will ment. Thomas' success in the world is We should remember that judicial likely preclude judicial activism of the a testament to his own perspicacity restraint is a two-edged sword. During sort many libertarians favor (e.g. elimi­ and hard work. As a child, he was dirt­ the early part of this century, it was the nating practically all government activi­ poor. He learned the pain of racism left, not the right, that called for judicial ty by means of extension of the "taking" growing up in the segregated South restraint. At the time, courts were in­ provision of the 14th Amendment) and and being educated in the "integrated" clined to outlaw social legislation on result in his coming down against the North. He flirted with the Black Pan­ the ground that it ran afoul of rights im­ Roe v. Wade decision that found protec­ thers and quotes Malcolm X from plicit in the Constitution. For example, tion of the right to abortion in the 9th memory. At EEOC, he had two flags in 1905 the Supreme Court ruled in Amendment. By the same logic, I doubt behind his desk: the stars and stripes Lochner v. New York that a law limiting that he will find any prohibition of and the Revolutionary War flag featur­ the length of the workday in bakeries abortion in the Constitution, as many ing a coiled snake and the warning was unconstitutional on the ground anti-abortionists of the "abortion-is­ "Don't Tread on Me." that it violated the "right to contract," a murder" school do. (To date, the public I don't have any idea whether the right found nowhere in the Constitu­ speculation about his views on abortion Senate will confirm Bush's nomination tion. This is the judicial activism of to­ has centered on his day's left-liberals (e.g. William Roman Catholic up- Brennan, Thurgood Marshall), who bringing; most ob- have found different rights (e.g. the servers believe he right to abortion) hiding in the Consti­ will be an anti- tution. Leftist support for judicial re­ abortionist. From straint evaporated when the leftist what I read of his judges with different political agendas character, I doubt his replaced the conservatives on the religion will be a sig­ Court. nificant factor in his There is a possibility that Judge decision. He has Thomas' commitment to individual shown himself to be rights and "natural law" (which he calls quite capable of sep­ "the best defense of liberty and of limit­ arating his own per­ ~ 'F'd/OO ed government") might overcome his sonal views from his commitment to judicial restraint, mak­ legal thinking. Also, "I've been waiting for a case like this my entire life - you ing him a judicial activist like Brennan he has demonstrated really did yell 'Fire!' in a crowded theatre?" Liberty 19 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 of Thomas. But I sure hope it does. My responds directly, "Rather than being a stitutional interpretation may be difficult own guess is that if the Senate confirms justification for the worst type of judicial to reconcile with contemporary constitu­ Judge Thomas, he will surprise a lot of activism, higher law is the only alterna­ tional practice as exemplified by either people. He has shown himself to be inde­ tive to the willfulness of both run-amok left-liberal activism or conservative judi­ pendent, intelligent, tough, and sensitive majorities and run-amok judges." While cial restraint, it is far from clear that his to human liberty. That's more than we conservatives of both the activist and the heterodoxy would be a bad thing. And can say for most of the possible candi­ judicial restraint schools would like to no matter how Hstrange" his views may dates or most of the members of the claim Judge Thomas as one of their own, seem to the current orthodoxies, the court. 0 Judge Thomas will not be had. He be­ change that Judge Thomas would bring lieves in judicial restraint and modera­ to the Court would arguably stem from tion, but his is a hybrid strain derived the best within the American political from a different source. tradition. Judge Thomas' version of judicial re­ Admittedly, constitutional theory is Judge Thomas versus the straint hails from higher law principles not identical to moral or political philoso­ Constitutional JJMainstream" as embodied in the Declaration of Inde­ phy. Nevertheless, legitimate problems byJames Taggart pendence and, by implication, the Con­ remain and must be addressed by a natu­ stitution, rather than from sheer ral rights advocate even in the context of deference to majority will. He is as con­ constitutional interpretation. Judge Clarence Thomas' views on cerned with run-amok majorities as he is Any natural rights advocate must constitutional interpretation are poten­ with run-amok judges; he believes that confront the issue of giving specific con­ tially "dangerous," says left-leaning both violate the principle of self­ tent to our general, inalienable rights. constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe. government (II'government by consent of Life, liberty and property sound great in Thomas' writings are IIstrange" and the govemed"). uThe first principles of the abstract, but what do they mean in "further outside the mainstream of con­ equality and liberty should inspire our concrete cases? Natural rights theory ap­ stitutional interpretation than [Robert] political and constitutional thinking," he plied to the Constitution could easily be­ Bork," writes Geoffrey Stone, the liberal has written. But what do these first prin­ come a double-edged sword. Judge dean of the relatively conservative Uni­ ciples mean? The Declaration states that versity of Chicago Law School. "Most U All men are created equal." On the troubling," according to syndicated col­ meaning of these famous words, Lincoln People have rights; they de­ umnist Clarence Page, is that "'Thomas' opined during his speech on the Dred serve to be treated in certain writings are extensive and replete with Scott decision: appreciation for a legal notion called ways simply because they are 1II I think the authors of that notable in­ "natural rights. From the perspective strument intended to include all men, human beings. These rights are of these modern liberal commentators, but they did not intend to declare all inalienable. In Martin Luther the "conservative" views of Judge men equal in all respects. They did Thomas must indeed seem dangerous not mean to say all were equal in col­ King's words I they are 1/nei­ and strange, yet this is deeply ironic be­ or, size, intellect, moral developments, ther conferred by nor derived cause Thomas draws many of his ideas or social capacity. They defined with from the state. II on constitutional interpretation from tolerable distinctness, in what respects such venerated Americans as Thomas they did consider all man created Jefferson, Abraham lincoln and Martin equal-equaI in "certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, Thomas recognizes this peril when he Luther King. discusses the Ninth Amendment ("The What scares modern liberals also and the pursuit of happiness." From our equality flows our liberty. enumeration in the Constitution, of cer­ worries many conservatives. As Judge tain rights, shall not be construed to deny Thomas declares: Because Uno man is good enough to gov­ ern another" (Lincoln) or uno man is the or disparage others retained by the peo­ Natural rights and higher law argu­ natural or God-anointed ruler of anoth­ ple"). He observes: ments are the best defense of liberty er" (Thomas), we can do what we will That [amendment] would seem to be and of limited government. Moreover, with ourselves and the fruit of our la­ a blank check ... Let's say the Court without recourse to higher law, we did discover a right to welfare. Then abandon our best defense of judicial bors, except to the extent that we have consented to be governed according to one can imagine it requiring Congress review-a judiciary active in defend­ to raise taxes to enforce this right ... the Constitution. By higher law Thomas ing the Constitution, but judicious in maximization of rights is perfectly its restraint and moderation. simply means that the principles of compatible with total government and But conservatives of the Borkian stripe equality and liberty hold true regardless. regulation. Unbounded by notions of deem natural rights approaches to the From these first principles come our nat­ obligation and justice, the desire to Constitution anathema. They are wary of ural rights. People deserve to be treated protect rights simply plays into the a roving judiciary, unanchored by the in certain ways simply because they are hands of those who advocate a total text of the Constitution. They rather like human beings. These rights are inaliena­ state. majorities, and they wonder about Judge ble: Uneither conferred by nor derived How does Thomas reconcile his ad­ Thomas' Urestraint and moderation.u To from the state" (M. L. King). vocacy of natural rights with his lack of this conservative charge, Judge Thomas While Judge Thomas' views on con- enthusiasm for the Ninth Amendment? 20 Liberty IfThe high-beta think tank of the '90s will be the free-market libertarians at the Cato Institute." - Lawrence Kudlow, "Money Politics," March 25, 1990

ince its founding in 1977, the Cato Institute has been in the forefront of the growing worldwide movement toward political and economic Sliberty. Through its studies and conferences, the Institute seeks to develop policy options consistent with the traditional American values of individual liberty, peaceful relations among nations, and capitalism. Recent Cato studies have dealt with rent control and homelessness, educational choice, protectionismrthe economic benefits of immigration, privatization of the Postal Service, the cost and obsolescence of NATO, South Africa's anti-capitalist policies, farm subsidies, and federal spending restraint. The Cato Institute accepts no government funding and depends on the support of foundations, corporations, and individuals. We invite you to join the Cato Sponsors Program and help the Cato Institute offer iritelligent free­ market alternatives to the status quo. Benefactors ($2,500) receive all Cato publications and invitations to all major events, including the annual Benefactor Summit. Patrons ($1,000) receive all Cato publications and invitations to major events. Sustaining Sponsors ($250) receive all Policy Analysis studies, Regulation magazine, and Cato Policy Report. Regular Sponsors ($100) receive all Policy Analysis studies and Cato Policy Report. Introductory Sponsors ($50) receive Cato Policy Report. Every new Cato Sponsor will receive a free copy of An American Vision,

which the Washington Post called 1/a new book aimed at policy makers and calling for the most radical reduction of u.S. government activities at home and abroad yet suggested by any serious policy organization."

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The answer appears to involve the issue that the Constitution is a document of but not just by any majority rule (emphasis of defining a specific content for natural limited government. in original)." Offering the words of rights. His approach involves shifting Natural rights and the Ninth Amend­ Thomas Jefferson as an explanation, he the burden of proof and the correspond­ ment serve the same purpose in Judge quotes, "Though the will of the majority ing presumptions in constitutional cases. Thomas' approach to the Constitution. is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be The point would not be to identify what He does not consider either to be a basis rightful, must be reasonable. Let the mi­ specific rights we enjoy but rather to rec­ for carving specific individual rights out nority possess their equal rights which ognize that the identification of such spe­ of the edifice of Leviathan. Rather, in his equal law must protect ... and to violate cific rights is not necessary because our view, natural rights and the Ninth would be oppression." Jefferson merely general, inalienable rights secure for Amendment merely signal that it should says what we already know from his lan­ each individual a sphere of personal ju­ be the government which bears the bur- guage of inalienable rights, namely, that risdiction and control. The burden our consent can only go so far. Ultimate­ would be on the government to justify ly, we want to know how far, but we its intrusion into this sphere by pointing Natural rights and the Ninth should not demand more clarity on this to a specific provision in the Constitu­ Amendment serve the same pur­ from Judge Thomas than we would from tion. As Judge Thomas comments, "[In] pose in Judge Thomas' approach anyone else. Though Judge Thomas may government of limited powers, each use to the Constitution. He does not be ambiguous on this point, he is not of political power would have to be ap­ "devilishly ambiguous," as some mod­ proved under the Constitution." In this consider either to be a basis for ern liberal commentators suggest. At context, Judge Thomas discusses Alexan­ carving specific individual least he starts from the rights of individ­ der Hamilton's objection to the Bill of rights out of the edifice of uals, not from the prerogative of the Rights: state. (For contemporary "liberals," the [He] maintained that the entire Con­ Leviathan. problem does not really exist.) stitution was itself a bill of rights, Beyond constitutional interpretation, which limited government power. To den when it seeks to intrude on our gen­ Judge Thomas' writings resonate with add a series of amendments that eral freedoms. themes familiar to libertarians and classi­ would explicitly deny to the national cal liberals. While he seems much more government certain powers over vari­ Any constitutional advocate of limit­ persuaded by the moral as opposed to ous subjects would imply that those ed government like Judge Thomas faces subjects, and perhaps others besides, the additional problem of how to define the economic argument for limited gov­ could be regulated in other, unspeci­ our consent to be governed under the ernment, he is not unaware of the nega­ fied ways. Constitution. A century ago, Lysander tive consequences of government It should also be noted that Judge Spooner rejected the whole notion of im­ intervention in the economy. Similarly, Thomas does not completely scorn the plied consent.* If Spooner is correct, the as chairman of the Equal Employment Ninth Amendment: whole constitutional enterprise is serious­ Opportunity Commission, he focused on justice in individual cases rather than Once a bill of rights was required for ly suspect. the passage of the Constitution, it Judge Thomas' writings are thin on broad goals and timetables. would appear that the Ninth and this point. According to him, "[Govern­ What kind of Supreme Court Justice Tenth Amendments meet Hamilton's ment by consent] means by majority rule, would this individual make? One can original objection. If we understand rarely tell ahead of time, but the tea the Ninth Amendment thus, it has a ,. See No Treason: The Constitution of No leaves look better than they have in quite great significance in that it reminds us AutJwrity,1870. awhile. 0

Letters, continued from page 6

Blaming the "Victim" and victim. His displeasure at the fate of things, is the fate of the Kurds. When The comments of Robert Higgs on "thousands of defenseless Iraqis trapped Bush publicly stated his hope for an the Gulf War are unworthy of a libertari­ in an enormous traffic jam on the road overthrow of Saddam, everyone under­ an publication. Yes, there are good rea­ from Kuwait City" reads as though they stood that he was encouraging a mili­ sons for libertarians to have opposed were citizens on a Sunday drive. The tary coup. It was only in hindsight that this war, but it is inexcusable to portray pertinent fact is that those "defenseless opponents of the war determined that America as morally guilty in the de­ Iraqis" were armed soldiers, part of a Bush had promoted the Kurdish upris­ struction resulting from Iraq's invasion brutal occupying army, and guilty of ini­ ing and "clearly implied that U.S. forces of Kuwait. Iraq committed a clear act of tiating Widespread atrocities. Iraq was would assist them." In fact, U.S. objec­ military aggression against Kuwait. given ample opportunity to withdraw tives were clearly limited to no more America acted to undo it. Whether we from Kuwait-its army and booty intact. than forcing Saddam from Kuwait and should have aided Kuwait is debatable, That many soldiers died in a war to re­ ending Iraq's military threat to its neigh­ our morality for having done so is not. pel an invasion is unpleasant but hardly bors. If "getting" Saddam was "Bush's Mr Higgs' views betray someone un­ unexpected. personal reason for plunging the nation able to distinguish between perpetrator Next, in this "Iraq as victim" view of continued on page 68 22 Liberty Site-seeing_

Sll1ashing the Idols of Socialisll1 by Frank Fox

Warsaw, November 1989. A time of dramatic change and colossal wrecks.... A friend phones to tell me a crowd has gathered at Dzerzhinski Square. I grab my camera and tape recorder and in a few minutes I am there. A crowd of young people has encircled the statue of Feliks Dzerzhinski, the Polish-born founder of Lenin's secret police, Cheka. This monument to the man who invented tionary Movement." they cannot move the huge statue modern state terrorism has been the The crowd starts to tear away some away today. A contingent of police sur­ object of scorn for many years. Stu­ of the smaller stones set in place round the statue, and the crowd dis­ dents deface the statue at every oppor­ around the entire monument. The mili­ perses. The statue will be moved tunity, painting the nose and fingers tia looks on sheepishly. Some are smil­ tomorrow. different colors each week. The author­ ing. As the larger pieces of granite The next day I arrive early but ities have had to post a twenty-four loosen, a chain of volunteers begins to workers have already begun to remove hour guard on it. load them on waiting lorries. A young, the statue. A crane is beginning to lift Some young people are taping dark-haired girl places a bunch of flow­ the statue from its pedestal. The huge hand-painted posters to its base. The ers at the base of the statue and drapes figure of the terrorist policeman rises signs are painted on architectural herself with a black shawl in a mocking above the crowd. It cracks suddenly in drawings; these are students from a show of mourning. several places, scattering the people nearby art institute. "Keep your hands I had read in a Warsaw newspaper below. The head falls off, then the off Feliks!" one sign says. Another: "Fe­ that the Mayor was about to make a de­ torso. The rest of the statue swings liks, don't leave us!" cision on the removal of the statue of wildly above the square. People forget An acrobatic youngman climbs to Feliks Dzerzhinski. It explained the danger and begin to laugh and to the top of the pedestal, about six feet (though no one believed it) that the re­ collect pieces of the statue as off the ground, pries off a few of the moval was made necessary by the con­ souvenirs. brass letters, and quickly paints on oth­ struction work on the city's Metro, a Seldom in history have so many ers. The sign had said, "The Soul of the project that began in 1939 and remains bronze, marble, and stone monuments Polish Revolutionary Movement"; now unfinished. been toppled from their pedestals as in it says "The Ass of the Polish Revolu- It is obvious to the authorities that the last two years in the Soviet Union Liberty 23 Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

and its former colonies. The Communist In Czechoslovakia, police brutally at­ ment dedicated to the victorious Red system and its symbols are collapsing­ tacked students. A few days later, Army that had liberated the city in literally and figuratively-before our crowds carried a bust of Stalin with a 1945. Another story told of people re­ eyes. sign around its neck, "Nic Netrwa moving a tablet honoring Lenin and My monument watch began in 1975 Vecne" ("Nothing Lasts Forever") and substituting one of Marshal Pilsudski. in Prague. Friends showed me an the "Velvet Revolution" was underway. In 1990 the contagious statue­ empty site where a huge, granite statue In a stunning reversal, recently jailed bashing reached epidemic proportions. of Stalin formerly looked over the Vlta­ Vaclav Havel became President. Eastern In August, an eighteen-foot bronze stat­ va (Moldau) River, competing with the Europe and the Balkans were in ue of Stalin was smashed in the Mongo­ church steeples of that beautiful city. As ferment. lian capital of Ulan Bator. The an apocryphal story had it, someone An anomalous situation developed destruction of a Lenin statue in the So­ had tied a knapsack to the statue with in Poland, the country whose first inde­ viet city of Lvov, a Polish city annexed an inscription: "Time to go!" During the pendent trade union movement precipi­ by the Soviet Union during World War tated these changes. General Jaruzelski II, continued the demolition of hated made peace with opponents while re­ images. The monument had been built Crowds carried a bust of taining the Presidency and Solidarity over a foundation of Jewish and Catho­ was transformed from outlaw to gov­ lic tombstones. In no time the joyous Stalin with a sign around its ernment. I had arrived in Poland as the battering spread to the Republics of Ar­ neck, "Nic Netrwa Vecne" country prepared to celebrate its tradi­ menia, Moldavia, Lithuania, Latvia, ("Nothing Lasts Forever"); the tional Independence Day. The modern and Estonia. Polish state was officially recognized on Reaction was not long in coming. "Velvet Revolution" was November 11, 1918-a result of Wood­ Gorbachev's decree of October 13, 1990 underway. row Wilson's Fourteen Points and the called for a halt to the removal of stat­ work of Josef Pilsudski, the Polish ues of Lenin and .suspended decisions patriot whose anti-Communism made of local authorities that allowed it. This stern directive came at a time when a Prague Spring of 1968, Stalin "went." his name anathema to Poland's Com­ munist leaders. memorial to the Victims of Fascism was "Marxism with a Human Face" was damaged in the Ukrainian city .of crushed when the tanks of the Warsaw Now, as I walked the streets of Warsaw, his portrait was everywhere. Donetsk. Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia. The decree outlawing the disman­ But no one ever restored the statue. I The radio was playing over and over the stirring music of ''My Pierwsza Bry­ tling of Communist statuary didn't stop stood on the spot that Stalin had occu­ the use of pneumatic drills, picks, ham- pied, its base the size of a football field, gada" ("We are the First Brigade"), a while my laughing companions photo­ march always associated with Pilsud­ graphed me. It was not until I saw the ski's legions. But Poland's celebration of destruction of the statue of Feliks Dzer­ its Independence Day, its first in forty­ A young man pries off a few zhinski in Warsaw fourteen years later four years, was eclipsed by the momen­ that I actually witnessed the demolition tous events occurring in Berlin, where of the brass letters, and quickly ofa socialist icon. communism was collapsing even more paints on others. The sign ·had Several decades of our troubled cen­ dramatically. Poles listened to radio said, "The Soul of the Polish tury seemed simultaneously present as and television reports from Berlin, I travelled through Poland in 1989. I happy that socialism was dying, wor­ Revolutionary Movement"; was witnessing the hyperinflation of the ried about the unification of Germany. now it says "The Ass of the 1920s, the growing nationalism (and its During this period, Polish newspa­ Polish Revolutionary Move­ junior partner, anti-semitism) of the pers reported increasing attacks on stat­ 1930s, the scars of wartime and the un­ ues of Lenin and Stalin and World War ment." finished reconstruction of the 1940s and II Russian memorials. At Nowa Huta, 1950s, the street theater and student the site of a huge steel mill, members of demonstrations of the 1960s and the un­ the "Fighting Youth" splashed paint on mers, and bare hands. The iconoclasts mistakable signs of the "me" spirit of a huge statue of Lenin and tried to fire­ added humor to their arsenal. On No­ the 1980s, all scanned from the vantage bomb it. After the militant youths made vember 7, the day given to traditional points of an emotional rollercoaster, three attempts to destroy the statue, the celebrations and parades commemorat­ leaving me excited and exhausted. authorities decided to dismantle it. The ing the victory of Communism in 1917, November 1989 was the month the official version was that the statue had Moscovites held aloft such symbols of foundations of the Communist world been removed for repairs and would, disdain as a plucked chicken with a fu­ trem~led and some of its most enduring eventually, be placed elsewhere. The neral wreath draped around its leaders fell. In East Germany, Erich Communist Party paper, Trybuna Ludu scrawny neck as officials standing atop Honecker said that the Berlin Wall ("The People's Platform"), noted that in Lenin's mausoleum could only watch would stand for another hundred years. the city of Szczecin (pre-war German and endure. In Bulgaria, a loyal ally in A few days later, the Wall was torn Stettin) a group calling itself "Fighting the good old days, there wasn't even down and Honecker was under arrest. Solidarity" had "profaned" a monu- the customary parade. The enormous 24 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

red star in Sofia that lit up the sky for all names and symbols associated with tween their spiritual symbols and the miles around had been snatched from Stalin were being removed. By the end humiliating presence of monuments to its lofty perch by a helicopter in a Felli­ of the month, crews carried away the misery and misrule. niesque scene. The ashes of the Bulgari­ bust of the former dictator, Enver The rage expressed in the demoli­ an Communist hero, Georgi Dimitrov, Hoxha, from the House of Culture. A tion of Communist statues is a measure were removed from his mausoleum and forty-foot statue of Hoxha was demol­ of the desperation and helplessness felt furtively interred elsewhere. ished as several hundred demonstrators by a people who were left with no As 1990 drew to a close, even burned his collected works and pictures. means of exacting justice, unable even Albania-which had suffered in its dia­ Destruction of hated symbols is as to confront their flesh and blood ene­ lectical straightjacket longest-turned old as the habit of creating objects of mies, left instead to gaze mutely on the against its socialist heroes. On December veneration. Iconoclasm, a religious inanimate and heartless symbols of im­ 21, 1990, the 111th anniversary of Sta­ movement that sought the destruction personal rule. The massive Socialist lin's birthday, officials decided to re­ of religious images, has had a long histo­ statues reduce history to a fable­ move a large, bronze statue of the ry in the Eastern Roman Empire, an area except unlike a fable, the story they tell tyrant. At midnight a flatbed truck car­ that strongly influenced early Russian is without remorse, reconciliation, or ried away a cloaked figure, its head society. The persistence of icon worship, moral resolution. Perhaps only when hanging over the back. As morning the worship of material symbols of faith the statues of Lenin are broken up, came, workmen labored behind a red while pursuing a spiritual other­ when his mummified remains are disin­ curtain to chip away at the marble base; worldliness, is a contradiction that terred, and the mausoleum from whose when they were finished, only rusty touches the deepest human emotions. lofty perch statue-like figures survey iron rods still protruded from the Yet it is clear that the people living in the crowds is finally dismantled, will ground. Radio Tirana announced that Eastern Europe draw a distinct line be- we see the start of a new Russia. 0

Reflections, continued from page 17

ing between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m., but it was a one-way street tar. Adjacent to the pool is a concrete box containing some going away from the park. So I circle the block and park in kind of filtering or pumping mechanism. The box has been front of the park, thankful that I had arrived after 5 p.m. bashed in, revealing its flimsy construction of thin concrete Jeannette Rankin Park is a triangle of land, bounded on over screen and rebars, faced with pebbles. The pumping all sides by one-way streets. There is a sidewalk, with an mechanism lies broken and useless, its corroded copper unexplained 25-foot gap, along the cross street. pipes attached to nothing. The park has seven trees. Its lawn is green and has been Two park benches face the pool. There are fourteen mowed within the past week or two, but that's about the evenly spaced evergreens-junipers, I think-surrounding best you can say for it. There are two small flowerbeds, with it, and two smaller junipers abut it. The walkway to the minimal signs of cultivation, and two small picnic tables. street is torn up, and barriers of yellow "no admittance" rib­ Heavy power lines and sodium-vapor lights hiss along the bon warn away those who might want to use it. streets. I have come a great distance to pay my respects to Jean­ The memorial to Jeannette Rankin consists of a round nette Rankin, and as I stand on the triangle of land with cars pool, approximately 15 feet in diameter. It is made of what whizzing by, I wonder: what do I do now? I decide to picnic appears to be corrugated copper metal bent into a circle, here as the sun sets in the June Montana sky. with pebble-imbedded concrete facing out. The sides of the In a half hour I am back with a paper bag containing a waterless pool stand about knee-high. A sidewalk leads to half chicken and a mountain of french fries, purchased at the the pool from the sidestreet, with seven spherical junipers Double Front Chicken Restaurant for $4.00. I sit at one of the along each side. There is a pedestal with a plaque commem­ picnic tables and eat my greasy meal. I think about Rankin's orating Rankin where the walkway meets the pool. It is life, about her courage, about her feistiness, about her love faced with the same sort of pebble-imbedded concrete as is of peace. Nearly every city has a park or memorial to its war the pool: heroes. What other city has honored an anti-war hero, even JEANNETTE RANKIN, THE FIRST as shoddily as Missoula has honored Jeannette Rankin? WOMAN IN CONGRESS. Among the televised reports of the triumphal return of JEANNETTE RANKIN, BORN, REARED AND ED­ our heroic conquerors of Iraq, Vietnam war veterans com­ UCATED IN MISSOULA, WAS ELECTED TO CON­ plain that they are not honored in the fashion of veterans of GRESS FROM MONTANA IN 1916 AND 1940. other wars. In the little town where I live, there is a modest SHE WAS A PIONEER IN THE CAUSES OF memorial to them; in the nation's capital, there is a grandi­ PEACE, WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE, WOMEN'S EQUALI­ ose memorial to them, erected at a cost of millions of dol­ TY AND THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN. lars, and visited by millions each year. And two thousand DEDICATED JUNE 11, 1980, ON THE OCCASION miles away, on a triangle of grass in Missoula, Montana, is a OF HER 100TH BIRTHDAY. memorial to Jeannette Rankin, erected of cheap materials, The top of the pedestal has been damaged-probably by vandalized, left in a state of decrepitude, forgotten by all ex­ vandals-and the plaque is now secured by ordinary mor- cept an occasional eccentric tourist like me. -RWB Liberty 25 ReQort Experimenting with Marijuana by Robert O'Boyle

James O. Mason, chief of the Public Health Service, has signed a new policy directive discouraging the granting of permission to new applicants for mari­ juana as a medicinal drug. "If it's perceived that the Public Health Service is going around giving marijuana to folks, there would be a perception that this stuff can't be so bad," he said. "It gives a bad signal." \

Smoke roiled in the red-plastic bong until I removed my thumb from a hole in its side. I inhaled deeply and leaned back on the couch. It's illegal, expensive and hard to come by. But it worked: A few tokes of marijuana and within 10 minutes my nausea began to recede. A signal for appe­ tite rang aloud in my mind. In the midst of our nation's drug war, I sat relaxed, hungry and high. benefits. AIDS patient: It vanquished nausea and raised ap­ Today doctors can prescribe the "It would probably be very helpful, petite like no prescription drug I had drug Marinol, a type of synthetic mari­ especially where the patient isstrug­ tried. Had I discovered a panacea for juana, to combat the nausea and vomit­ gling with nausea and vomiting,"· said nausea, an antidote for weight loss and ing associated with cancer chemo­ Roffman, an associate professor of so­ a tranquilizer for fear? therapy. But Marinol is not commonly cial work at the University of Wash­ Doctors and researchers have available for people with other serious ington. known .for years ... that marijuana­ illnesses who stand to benefit from the Results from a recent study at San regarded aside from morality and drug. And in virtually all cases, mari­ Francisco General Hospital involving myth-can be· effective medicine. And I juana itself is no longer legally people. with AIDS and AIDS-related had read enough literature and gath­ available. complex support the assumption: ered enough Personal Tales to figure I For the glaucoma patient, marijuana Researchers found the drug Marinol, should give it a try. reduces fluid buildup in the eyes, a con­ which contains marijuana's main· act­ But how could I justify breaking the dition that can lead to blindness. There ive ingredient,delta-9-THC, produced law? Could I be sure it was safe, espe­ are reports the drug eases spasms asso­ weight gain in 10 percent of the pa­ cially with my immune system already ciated with multiple sclerosis. More tients. Weight loss in another 20 percent impaired? It's not an easy topic to widely documented is the drug's effec­ of the study's cases slowed with the use broach; the use of marijuana as medi­ tiveness in reducing the chronic nausea of the medication. cine stands in the crossfire of a world­ brought on by chemotherapy and radia­ The wasting syndrome is op.e of the wide assault on drugs. tion treatment for people with cancer. devastating aspects of. AIDS: The Could it also help people with body's immune system, already weak­ .. AIDS, many of whom live with chronic ened by the HIV virus, begins to crum­ The subject wasn't always taboo. stomach upset from AZT, currently the ble as the patient loses appetite and During the late 1970s and early only drug treatment approved for the stops rebuilding reserves. 1980s, the federal government provided disease? marijuana for cancer patents in Roger Roffman, author of a 1982 + Washington and across the nation book on marijuana as medicine,· be­ The effects of both marijuana and through a research program set up· to lieves marijuana likely does hold poten­ Marinol go beyond the reduction of document the drug's medicinal tial powers of nausea-reduction for the nausea, however. Both drugs enhance 26 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

appetite, reduce pain and induce relax­ absorption of THC in the bloodstream in jail. ation. can vary greatly, rendering the drug in­ Reviewing my personal experience In studies with both drugs, patients effective one day and over-whelming and the information I've gathered, I re­ report experiencing a "high," a subjec­ the next. main uncertain about whether people tive mood change often described as Today, several groups, including the with AIDS should pursue marijuana as mild euphoria. Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics in medicine. But while Marinol is commonly pre­ The challenge, for doctors and peo­ scribed for cancer patients undergoing ple facing life-threatening illnesses, is to chemotherapy, there's little precedent It's illt;gal, expensive and legitimize research on the medical ad­ for its use for people with AIDS. vantages of marijuana. More informa­ And in the march against drugs, legal hard to come by. But it tion is needed on the drug's potential access to marijuana has essentially been worked: a few tokes of mari­ benefits and possible harmful effects, cut off. The federal government has given juana and within 10 minutes particularly for the AIDS patient. a small number of individuals the right to In the meantime, the medical profes­ smoke marijuana for health reasons, but my nausea began to recede. A sion could prescribe broader use of its widespread use for cancer patients signal for appetite rang aloud Marinol. ground to a halt during the 1980s as the in my mind. Although little precedent can be nation began its assault on the recreation­ found, and the tide of anti-drug senti­ al use of drugs, and as Marinol became ment washes against wider use of the available for medical use. Washington, D.C., continue to fight for drug, there is no law preventing a doctor But while both marijuana and the right to use marijuana for medical from prescribing Marinol for people Marinol offer health benefits, some ex­ purposes. with AIDS. Use of the drug may prove perts believe smoking marijuana is more Drug laws, meanwhile, have become to be an important breakthrough in eas­ effective than ingesting the synthetic pill. more restrictive. In Washington state, a ing symptoms of AIDS and other long­ Smoking marijuana provides almost 1989 law classifies possession of less term and life-threatening illnesses. immediate relief from nausea, says than 40 grams (about 1 1/2 ounces) of With more research, and more com­ Roffman, allowing the patient to more marijuana as a misdemeanor with penal­ passionate legislation, we may find the easily control the dosage. With Marinol, ties of up to $1,000 in fines and 90 days same is true for marijuana. 0 From del First Time In Chicago! e icS rsych To Cyperspace TIMOTHY LEARY 60's psychedlic LSD guru and 90's computer software designer ROBERT ANTON WILSON Author of the Illuminatus! trilogy, Promethous Rising, and Cosmic Trigger Introduc -ng Virtual Reality is a new environment of 3600 Combined with headphones, you can tour and I video, & sound made possible by the latest design a building yet to be built, play tennis with ".. ""ii·llI.. rr"t.•··,' U·••• a 1.' computer software. Special glasses provide a someone 5000 miles away, play Dungeons and V".}) ..,.""i ,."",...... video reality that moves as you do. A suit/glove, Dragons, or re-enact past experiences, The

•. ', .••••••••.....', .... ', I.... ·,·.· -I'.',','.·., 1·•.•,·,·,·.', y'.,.".'"• mounted with sensors, allow you to move, shoot, spiritual, artistic ,md even sexual possibilities ..,..: e,.."" ..'a.. "." .','"'. .' .·,i 1ouch, or alter the movie that surround you. make this the most exciting field in computersl R" FRIDAY AUGUST 30 • 8:00PM The VIC, 3145 N. St?effield, On Chicago's North Side, Belmont Stop On The EL $23 General Public, $19 With Convention Badge $171n Advance Call (312) 559· 1212 Press Conference/Autograph Cocktail Pany/Benefit With Reserved Seating 5:30·7:30 $50 Volunteers will be allowed to try this and other brain machines! Expose

GNP: A Bogus Idea? by R. W. Bradford

The Gross National Product is cited by economists and news commentators as a means of measuring prosperity, and by government planners as a tool for the economy_ But does it make any sense?

I just had the pleasure of watching a delightful documentary entitled uGross National Product." It was an episode of one of my favorite television programs, "Economics USA," a series produced by Wharton Econometric Forecasting Associates and served up by my local government­ owned television station as a "college telecourse." The concept of GNP, it explained, 1934, Kuznets published his report, came around and said, 'You're silly! was developed during the 1930s at the showing that national income had fal­ We were down to 15-20% of our ca­ instigation of Sen. Robert LaFollette, len by $40 billion since 1929. The re­ pacity utilization for some years at the who wanted it as a tool for fighting the port showed that we were worse off depth of the Depression.' And it was a Great Depression. "The greatest eco­ than before, thereby verifying what heck of a fight, but I tell you this, I nomic crisis in our history is a grave everyone already knew. Just how Sen. don't think we would ever have won national emergency," Sen. LaFollette LaFollette and Congress used this to that battle if we hadn't had the GNP pontificated from an old newsreel, formulate a sound program to fight the weapons to demonstrate what an over­ "which makes it imperative that we Depression on all fronts, the program all fully employed economy accomp­ fight the Depression on all fronts. did not say. lishes." But the program did go on to ex­ Congress must formulate a sound pro­ The narrator went on to explain: plain one way in which GNP data "There was another capacity that had gram to this end." (I wonder: if you were useful: for instituting the central to be measured and planned for: civil­ were freezing to death, would it be planning needed to win World War II. ian needs. Why was it important to necessary to invent a thermometer to ''Without knowing the size of our real knowhow much could be devoted to warm yourself up?) GNP, it would have been virtually im­ the war, without jeopardizing the basic At any rate, Congress charged possible to judge how much produc­ supply of food, clothing, housing and Simon Kuznets, an economist with the tion was physically possible," Dr transportation? When FDR led the National Bureau of Economic Richard Gill explained. "Also, it was a country into World War II, he depend­ Research, with development of this question of how many goods would be ed heavily on the GNP framework to new measurement. At the time, the left over for civilian consumption. And predict the kind of arsenal our democ­ program explained, "the lack of infor­ what taxes the government would racy could become [sic]. In fact the mation about the economy was, in have to levy to keep the economy from economy exploded during those four Kuznets' words, a 'scandal.' The data overheating. So, GNP figures were years. Seventeen million new jobs were available were as he put it, 'neither very useful during the war, as they created, the index of industrial produc­ fish, nor flesh, nor even red herring.'" have in fact been in all of the decades tion doubled, and the GNP grew 75 Kuznets came up with the idea of since." billion dollars." All this was accompa­ adding together the sales of all goods Dr Robert Nathan, who helped ad­ nied, in the telecourse, by films of the and services and calling the total"na­ minister the economy, explained how war, factory scenes, and the like, and tional income." It is this aggregate that GNP helped us defeat the Nazis: "The interspersed with film elips of came to be called GNP. In January steel industry, which had great impact, Roosevelt and other political leaders. 28 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

Now maybe I'm not as smart as economy or analysis of recent economic exchange for the root canal. No cash the college students who take this history without hearing or reading changes hands. The GNP is $600 less course, but I still don't see how GNP about GNP. than if we had paid each other cash helped win the war. Did Dr Nathan One might think that advocates of rather than bartered. Is the economy really mean that without GNP figures free markets would avoid using a tool more prosperous if we pass the $300 the government would have been una­ designed for the expansion of govern­ back and forth than if we barter? ble to coerce or convince steel fabrica­ ment power. But this is not the case. This suggests a simple way to in­ tors to make more steel? I don't Robert Higgs, for example, in his essay crease the GNP. All we need do is get remember that in pre-GNP wars man­ ''The Myth of War Prosperity" (March Congress to pass a law mandating that ufacturers were immune to govern­ 1991), relied heavily (though not exclu­ every person in this country wash the ment pressure. Did the narrator really sively) on GNP data to support his ar­ nose of exactly one other individual, mean that without GNP figures we gument that the Great Depression was pay him $20,000 for doing so, and ex­ would have spent so much on the war actually prolonged by World War n. In empt such nose-washing fees from tax­ effort that there would have been in­ a recent interview, Ed Crane, head of ation. The income of each individual in adequate food, clothing and housing the the free-market Cato Institute, cited the United States would go up by for civilians? I don't recall people GNP data in his comments on the situa­ $20,000; the GNP would double. But starving naked in the streets in World tion in the Soviet Union. each individual would be left with the War I. Did Dr Gill really mean that It is plain that free market thinkers without GNP taxes would have been like Higgs and Crane are not using so low that the economy would have GNP as a tool for government control When I get my shirt washed "overheated"? (Just what does it mean of the economy. They are using it for for the economy to "overheat" any­ the same purpose that Sen. Lafollette at a laundry for $1.00, the way?) I can't recall our losing any legislated its creation: as an indicator of GNP is increased by $1.00. wars because of low taxes.... the health of the economy, as a meas­ Suppose I marry my laundress That is the nearest this "college tel­ ure of how prosperous people are. ecourse" carne to explaining how the This raises the question: just how and I no longer pay cash to her GNP is used as a tool. It did, however, well does GNP measure prosperity? for washing my shirt. Is the offer more evidence of its value: GNP is an 'aggregate of certain economy more prosperous in Simon Kuznets was awarded the kinds of economic activity: the volume the first case than the second? Nobel Prize in Economics in 1971 "for of goods traded for cash to a user (as giving quantitative precision to eco­ opposed to a middleman). But all sorts nomic entities." of economic goods are omitted·from The concept of GNP is not perfect, GNP: those that are produced autisti­ same amount of money as before; each the telecourse went on to say. With the cally, those that are "exchanged" with­ would have done a trivial amount of rise of the environmental movement in in the family but outside the cash labor; each would have had a trivial the 1960s, we learned that GNP doesn't nexus, and those that are bartered. service performed on his behalf. That's take into account pollution and envi­ If I wash my car, the only effect on all: essentially no effect on the economy ronmental degradation. The program the GNP is the cost of the water and or on anyone's well-being. switched to interviews with politicians soap that I use. Suppose that I give the The GNP is proposed as a measure about pollution and film of smoke­ neighbor kid $5 to wash my car. In this of our economic prosperity. But would stacks. case, the GNP is increased by the cost we be any better off in the wake of such for the water and soap, plus the $5 I a doubling of the GNP? give the neighbor kid. But is the econo­ In the course of a half hour program my really more productive if I give the designed to explain how GNP is use­ neighbor kid $5 than if I wash my own The problems with GNP have become ful, the economists at Wharton were car? at least dimly evident even to those able to do no better than offer dubious When I get my shirt washed at a enamored with econometric modeling. examples of how it helped us kick Nazi laundry for $1, the GNP is increased by At the conclusion of the "college tele­ butt and assert over and over again $1. Suppose I marry my laundress and course," Dr Richard Gill pretty well that it is very useful. Okay. Fun is fun, I no longer pay cash to her for washing conceded that most everything he had and "college telecourses" broadcast my shirt. Is the economy more said in the program about GNP's value over PBS are always good for a laugh. prosperous in the first case than the and validity was bogus: "GNP does not Nevertheless, the fact remains that second? measure economic welfare. But it is cer­ when economists or news commenta­ I go to my dentist and get a root tainly something worth measuring in tors or just about anybody else talks canal. He charges me $300, and the its own right." After all this talk about about how the economy is doing, they GNP is increased by $300. Then he what a useful and powerful measuring almost always talk about the Gross hires me to paint his house and pays tool it is, he admits that it is a measure­ National Product. It is almost impossi­ me $300. Now the GNP is up $600. ment only of itself. (Immediately after ble to get through the evening news, or Now suppose that instead of paying this rather damaging admission, how­ to read a serious discussion of the him cash, I agree to paint his house in ever, Dr Gill's eyes brighten and he Liberty 29 Volume 5, Number 1 Se ember 1991

gushes, "Our hats are off to the schol­ Similarly, Murray Rothbard pro­ capita GNP has increased 20-fold in the ars who make such measurements posed replacing GNP with Net Private U.S. during the past century. But that possible!") Product, which he defines as aggregate doesn't mean that we are 20 times bet­ Shortly after Ed Crane cited various spending minus government spending, ter off than our ancestors. Much of the GNP evaluations of the Soviet econo­ on grounds that government spending increase is the result of our purchasing my, I put the question directly to him: is a "depredation." goods and services that we formerly "How meaningful a concept do you Second, the rise of the natural sci­ produced for our own consumption or think GNP is?" He replied: "It is a ences dUring the past few centuries has produced within our families. meaningless concept. The GNP number led to the notion that the methods used This process continues today. In the is a non sequitur-it doesn't mean any­ in the natural sciences will work in any past generation, the number of meals thing" (Liberty, November 1990). field of enquiry, and the notion that eaten in restaurants has increased So why did Crane cite GNP num­ any field of endeavor that fails to markedly, as have supermarket sales of bers on the Soviet Union? Why do model itself on the natural sciences is semi-prepared and fully-prepared not really valid. The natural sciences foods. This change has increased the are all about measurement, accumula­ GNP. But the deep-fried "apple pie" tion of data, and interpretation of data. we eat at MacDonald's is no substitute The rise of the natural sci­ For economics to be valid, the theory for Grandma's apple pie. ences has led to the notion that goes, it too must crunch numbers. It is precisely because changes of the methods used in the natu­ There is another reason, I think. this sort take place over periods of GNP is not totally bogus. It doesn't years that year to year GNP compari­ ral sciences will work in any measure prosperity, it isn't the magic sons have some validity, while decade­ field of enquiry. For econom­ key that enables the government to to-decade comparisons have hardly ics to be valid, the theory goes, control the economy in an optimal fash­ any. ion, and it isn't a perfect way to meas­ The Gross National Product is not a it too must crunch numbers. ure the effect of policy changes. magic bullet that cures economic de­ But it is a raw indication of econom­ pressions or a breakthrough concept ic activity in the monetary sphere. As that enables us to understand how an economists still bandy about GNP fig­ such, it is a very rough indicator of eco­ economy functions. It is simply another ures like they mean a great deal? nomic prosperity. The fact that the ag­ economic index, and like most such in- The answer to this question is two­ gregate cash income rises or falls from fold, I think. one year to the next correlates fairly First, GNP may not mean anything, well with our own observations, just as but plainly we want it to. Practically Sen. Lafollette learned when Simon The economists at Wharton everyone who advocates any change in Kuznets' figures suggested that the could do no better than offer government policy needs a way to veri­ Depression the nation suffered from dubious examples of how GNP fy or disverify the value of the changes was real. Year-to-year comparisons of he advocates. If you advocate de­ GNP figures provide rough estimates helped us kick Nazi butt and regulation, you need to prove that de­ of changes in economic prosperity. assert over and over again that regulation works. By the same token, if But comparisons of GNP from one it is very useful. you advocate increasing regulation, culture to another or from one genera­ you want to have a way to prove that tion to another are misleading and just increasing regulation works. GNP pro­ plain silly. When we read that the per vides that way: it gives us a number capita GNP of Bangladesh is $130 and dexes, it has extremely limited validity. that we can believe, that sums up just that of the United States is $16,320, that I suspect it is about as valuable a tool as how prosperous we are. We can point does not mean that the average the Conference Board's Consumer to it and say, liThe GNP is up. Our poli­ American is 125 times better off than Confidence Index. A rising GNP sug­ cies are good." the average Bangladeshi. If we con­ gests a prosperous economy, a falling Indeed, many economists have a sumed 1/125th as much food, clothing GNP an unprosperous one. tendency to define GNP in such a way and shelter as we do now, we would Simon Kuznets criticized economic that it reflects their own policy prefer­ starve and freeze to death. The data before his invention of GNP as ences. Simon Kuznets, for example, difference between our GNP and theirs "neither fish, nor flesh, nor even red subtracted all sales of illegal goods and is not accounted for wholly by differ­ herring." So far as I know, he never ex­ services from the GNP, because illegal ences in material well-being: it is most­ plained into which category GNP falls. goods are not really goods at all, but ly attributable to differences in our I think we can answer that question: are ''bads,'' and illegal services are real­ economies. A greater portion of what a the GNP is a red herring, a slippery ly "disservices." This led, presumably, person eats, wears and lives in is pro­ concept that often misleads or confus­ to an increase in GNP in 1934, when duced outside the cash economy in es. It is plain that such limited validity the cost of alcoholic beverages was Bangladesh than in our economy. as it possesses as an economic indicator transformed from a debit to an asset The same is true of comparisons is inverse to the cultural or temporal with the repeal of Prohibition. from one generation to another. Per distance of the economies compared. 0 30 Liberty Adventure

Buying Gasoline in Ethiopia by Robert Miller

Braving a river rapids is one thing. Braving a Third World dictatorship, alien infections, and killer hippos is something else, as Robert Miller discovered when he led an expedition down the Omo River in Ethiopia.

Buying gasoline is usually a simple task. We might ponder the causes, effects and solutions to the world's energy problems. But on a day to day basis we generally figure that we can buy gasoline pretty much at will. Not long ago, I was nearly defeated in an attempt to buy 20 gallons of reg­ ular in Addis Ababa. I was there to Haile Selassie seemed like a good bet, of the Addis mosque. No gasoline complete the plans for a river trip in­ so I accosted a passerby with "tenayis­ here-just cold penetrating stares. tended to be an adventure for the par­ tling" and with my best '1'm lost" Being of Cuban extraction, I tried ex­ ticipants and a source of profits for the body language queried, "Haile uding an air of Cubanness to cover my organizers. As a condition for our river Selassie?" The poor woman's face aura of lost gringo tourist. It was a trip, one branch of the government turned white with cornea and teeth. I subtle distinction lost on the average wanted us to supply another branch of may as well have asked for Yasser Ethiopian, but it made me feel better. the government with gasoline that Arafat at a B'nai B'rith conference. I wandered into the largest open only a third branch of government News travels fast in the slums of air market on the continent. Flies produced and sold. Fair enough. I put Addis. A policeman soon approached, buzzed a welcome. Perhaps jerry cans my gasoline-buying algorithm in gear. asked for my papers, and with barely were available here. I kept an eye out Step one was finding a gas station. I intelligible English escorted me back to for a pots, pans and containers vendor. rose early, ate a breakfast of raw ham­ my hotel. I should have watched my step. burger with chilies and a cup of thick This time I turned left and headed Rivulets of sewage flowed over the coffee. At the door of the hotel I turned South down the street. I encountered a ground in complex dendritic patterns right and headed north up the street. commercial district. Lots of shops, under and around beggars, drunks Intuitively, I reckoned I'd encounter a kiosks, schools, safes and bookshops. I and amputees. Distracted, I walked gas station within 20 minutes. I passed couldn't help myself. I had to sample into the breasts of an Aunt Jemima government buildings, the Hilton, the the delights of a "people's" bookstore. look-alike. Time to retreat, I had the Cuban and East German compounds. I Did you know that the collected works will to continue but my nose's endu­ took mental notes of the streets (most of Joseph Stalin take up 20 volumes rance faltered at the raw, over-aged unnamed; none straight; few in a grid and that Bulgarian farm collectives meat stalls. pattern). I wandered into a residential publish a monthly journal in English? What had gone wrong? Surely, a slum area. I got lost. I decided to call a But I was no closer to finding a gas sta­ determined random walk in one of taxi, return to the hotel and start over. tion although I had acquired an Africa's largest cities ought to produce Addis Ababa has no public phones; I Amharic/English dictionary that I a gasoline station. Several warm beers knew no Amharic except for "good thought might help. later at the hotel bar I made a tactical morning." If only I could get direc­ Ethiopia is predominantly Chris­ re-evaluation. I'd entrust my fate to a tions to a public landmark I could start tian, and I began to feel quite nervous taxi. Addis Ababa has no mass tran­ over. as I discovered I was in the midst of sit-no buses, no trains, no rental cars, The Imperial Palace of the deposed the Moslem quarter, outside the gates no rickshaws, few bicycles or mopeds. Liberty 31 Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

No taxis as we know them. But they'do peaks in East Africa. Together we had canned goods with no resupply. have collective taxis, all painted blue led mountaineering excursions in Ethiopia has few parallels. Coffee and white, most of them Morris Mini­ Kenya and Tanzania. Now the Omo and honey were first domesticated minors. If you want a ride, stand on· a river beckoned. there. Recent archaeological discover­ main street, wave frantically, .and one The Omo has its source in the ies confirm it as the cradle of mankind. may stop. Tell the driver where you're mountainous plateau just south of The Ethiopians have always rallied to going and if he's going near there, Addis Ababa. Flowing south for 500 repel foreign invaders from the medie­ you've got a ride. If not, repeat the pro­ miles (and down 9,000 feet) it enters val hordes of Islam to the Victorian cedure. 1 tried my hand at it. A tiny Lake Rudolph on the Kenya border. It English. Aside from a short and brutal Peugeot with six people pulled over. never reaches the sea. Only one road foray by Mussolini in the 1930s, The driver looked at me searchingly. crosses the upper gorges. The middle Ethiopia has never been colonized. But My Amharic failed me. I lost that ride. reaches are virtually inaccessible and its isolation and sovereignty have nur­ I hopped·into the next taxi without not fully under the control of the revo­ tured pride and equanimity of charac­ asking. ~bout the destination or nego­ lutionary government. There are no ter along with a variety of sui generis tiatinga fare. The driver beamed with' maps. A California outfitter, Sobek, religious beliefs. Besides animistic tra­ pride at his foreign passenger. After had pioneered Omo river trips during ditions, it is home to an ancient sect of several other passengers had been the reign of Haile Selassie.We contract­ Judaism born of the very first stages of ed to hire their rafts. I was to precede the Diaspora. Most Ethiopians are our expedition by a few weeks and members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Wilderness adventures and organize food, equipment, permits, Church, itself a branch of the Coptic transportation and logistics. My con­ Church, one of many pre-reformation socialism are incompatible. The tact in Addis was the National Tourist Christian traditions that do not recog­ wilderness is freedom and self­ Office. nize the suzerainty of Rome. The reliance; socialism is regiment­ Before leaving Arizona I sought out Ethiopian Church is an amalgam of one of Sobek's boatmen who, luckily, Jewish and early Christian practices. ed and paternal. made his home in the nearby town of About the time of the Italian inva­ Jerome. Star-my cynicism blossoms sion, a revivalist sect called Rasta­ when confronted by individuals who farians made their appearance in dropped off and new ones picked up I effect a single name-agreed to meet Jamaica. These people worshipped worked my way up to shotgun and me at a roadside vegetable stand. Haile Selassie under his pre-coronation made. him understand where I wanted "Take plenty of food" he cautioned. name (Ras: prince; Tefari Makonnen) to go. He drove right up to a gas sta­ Star had a disconcerting way of an­ as the son of God, the true Messiah. tion with a long queue of taxis. I swering in vague, Sixties freak-speak The cult eschews white dominance, beamed with success-prematurely. banalities. Everything was either pork 'and second-hand clothing. They The station had no containers. None. heavy, far out or cosmic. But he did are noted for their dreadlocks, long di­ Of any kind. Anywhere. focus concretely on food. shevelled peppercorn curls, and use of "We lost all the oranges in the first cannabis. rapid" he declared. Sobek, catering to a Ethiopian cuisine revolves around young, health-conscious clientele, tried I never did want to go to Ethiopia.·As a raw meat, sourdough pancakes made to provide a diet of fresh produce and with tef, an indigenous grain, chilies Cuban refugee and certified capitalist, meats. To accommodate this culinary and mead. Pasta dishes, introduced a river trip in communist Ethiopia philosophy required extraordinary ef­ during the Italian occupation, remain wasn't my idea of a good time. fort. Rafts were stacked with boxes of popular. Before the Revolution, the im­ Wilderness adventures and socialism fruits and vegetables. Giant ice chests perial fami!y and nobility owned·all are incompatible. The wilderness is were constructed of imported plywood the land. Peasants belonged to the freedom and self-reliance; Marxism is and styrofoam and stocked with ice land. Now everything belonged to the regimented and paternal. But I like a from the Addis Hilton to keep slabs of Dergue, or Central Committee, chaired challenge, and I love adventure. And meat from putrefying in the humid by Mengistu Haile Mariam (Mengistu, Roy Smith offered me 40 percent of the heat. Midway· down the river a might of Mary). take. I couldn't refuse. His job was to planned four-wheel drive resupply of But back to the gasoline. We were sign up ten paying customers; mine, to provisions, including .more ice and due to terminate·our trip at the newly do everything else. Fair enough. meat, sometimes made contact as established Mui National Park and Roy comes from a venerable British scheduled, sometimes not, depending Game Preserve. The park has no road explorer tradition with a target fixation on the vagaries of weather, bureaucra­ access, no accommodations, no camp­ on Africa. Since the reign. of Queen cy, rapids, hippos or any number of un­ grounds and no game save for scat­ Victoria, the African bush has drawn predictable contingencies, but always tered Cape buffalo and a few zebra. these men like stray dogs to a landfill. at great expense and trouble. Star had The animals are poached by maraud­ Roy had left his mark during the gone hungry or dined on rotting fare ing Sudanese and local bandit bands. MauMau uprising of '52, the Suez crisis and the experience had never left him. The park has three rangers, one of '56 and had various first ascents on I decided on a regimen of dried and thatched hut, a wind sock and an ine- 32 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

briated observation tower made out of and drink too much at a Syrian Colorado. Still, the transfer of equip­ sinuous though stiff vines, the function restaurant. ment and consummation of the trip of which, the ranger assured us, was to John Harrington's 1596 contribution would take place in Ethiopia. "watch for enemies of the people." to civilization is a perfect example of For purposes of dealing with the Several years earlier, the park had been form following function. It is ideally government, Roy and I saw ourselves endowed with a massive six-wheel suited for the purgative functions of as Sobek sub-contractors. Not so drive Volvo flatbed truck. We were both sexes, though very young children Conrad. He would have no part of it. hoping to employ this vehicle to trans­ sometimes fall in. Whether by design To him we were potential competition, port us the 30 miles between the Mui/ or happenstance, the rejected contents or at worst, unlawful commercial ad­ Omo river junction and the wind sock of a sick stomach seldom miss the venturers that might imperil Sobek's where an Ethiopian Air Lines DC-3 bowl. A sober vomitee can bend over de facto monopoly. I begged; I cajoled; might pick us up. The availability of the mug and steady himself on the I tried to reason, all to no use. My dad the Volvo was contingent on our sup­ tank. A drunk can settle down on the used to say that if you ignored a prob- plying gasoline and a mechanic. floor, relax and hug the commode. But I was able to obtain four heavy­ there was no position I could take duty plastic jerry cans from a govern­ when amoebic dysentery attacked my Winston Churchill, in the ment hardware store after securing the gut. Every orifice in my body had to necessary permits (the permit ensured disgorge something, and if one went, midst of the Battle of Britain, I had a valid need and wasn't just in­ they all would go. I needed a bathtub sought relaxation in the tedi­ dulging in impulse buying). I went with a four inch drain. um of bricklaying. I spent the back to the gas station. No sale. After a night of Ethiopian toilet Frustrated, I went to the National hugging I showed up at my favorite rest of the day sequestered in Tourist Office. They informed me, gas station with my four jerry cans, my hotel room measuring food after the requisite wait and red tape, Certificate of Necessity, Purchase portions into zip-lock bags. I that I needed a permit and a ration Permit, Gasoline Ration Card and cash. card to buy gasoline. Fine; would they Again, no sale. The permit was dated hope Churchill found bricklay­ supply me with these? No, they would yesterday and was good only on the ing as relaxing as I found this like to comply with my request, but it day of issue at the gas station specified prosaic activity. was not within their jurisdiction. on the back; this station being for taxis Where could I get the necessary pa- only. Back to the N.T.O. for a translator and the Ministry of Transit for a new lem long enough it would go away. I permit. Three days after beginning my decided to follow his advice. Being of Cuban extraction, J quest, I stood satisfied but helpless on But the gasoline was still a problem. tried exuding an air of an Addis curb with 20 gallons of No taxi would convey 20 gallons of gas regular. as this was against the law. I had to hire Cubanness to cover my aura of Conrad had been teaching mathe­ a lorry. Lorries could be hired between lost gringo tourist. It was a matics at the University of Addis 5 and 7 a.m. at the southern edge of subtle distinction lost on the Ababa since before the revolution. He Addis. My hotel was on the northern ex­ spoke Amharic well, a language related tremity. I needed a good run, so I rose average Ethiopian, but it made to Hebrew, and coordinated Sobek's early and jogged to the industrial area, me feel better. Omo trips in Addis. Our contract with found a 2-ton Benz flatbed with an Sobek, besides the basic raft rental in­ eager conductor and was soon on my cluded our use of Conrad as a liaison way. We stored the gas at the N.T.O. pers? At the Ministry of Transit. I went and general information factotum. since my hotel would have nothing to to the Ministry of Transit. I waited in Lacking maps-except a trusty Mich­ do withit-against regulations. socialism's ubiquitous queue. Sorry, elin road map to N.E. Africa-Conrad Hotels in Ethiopia are either for lo­ the Ministry did not issue gasoline ra­ would supply us with a written de­ cals or foreigners. My hotel, the tion cards to foreigners unless they scription and log of major rapids and Tourist, was the cheapest of its class. In possessed a Certificate of Necessity is­ tributaries along our 350-450 mile de­ keeping with the new regime's political sued by the Ministry sponsoring their scent. But Conrad was suspicious and proclivities, each floor had one commu­ visit. I got angry and ran back to the guarded his turf like a building inspec­ nal toilet and shower facility. My room N.T.a. If they knew I needed a tor scrutinizing an owner-built home. was 2by 3 meters and was finished in a Certificate of Necessity, why did they Ethiopia had allowed me in as a tourist bare rose stucco, with a single light send me chasing paper all over Addis? leading a group of tourists with dollars bulb dangling from a ten foot ceiling. They apologized. They issued me a to spend. I could not engage in any For atmosphere the management piped Certificate of Necessity and even business other than as a retail consu­ in the capital's all-news radio station: called up the Ministry of Transit to ob­ mer. Though I bristled at the restric­ items on the latest milk production fig­ viate my need to stand in. line. With tions, we fulfilled the letter of the law ures in Romania and the progress of my three documents in hand, Idecid­ by contracting with Sobek in the USA Tanzania's rural self-education bri­ ed to call it a day and retired to eat and signing on our passengers in gades. Hot water was sometimes avail- Liberty 33 Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

able between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., elec­ parts, Eritrean wine and Italian spa­ cancel the trip and come home. This tricity only in the evenings. The clien­ ghetti, dabo-kolo (a deep-fried, potato woke him up. Would I lend him some tele was mostly vacationing chip-like snack), berbere (a spicy gravy money? "No." (He must not be fully Djiboutians. base) and Ethiopian peanut butter; and, awake yet.) So I spelled it out for him: I needed a rest from bureaucrats of course, Cuban sugar. Winston You must raise the fee we are charging and rules. At heart I'm an anarchist. It Churchill, in the midst of the Battle of each customer by a commensurate runs in the family. My brother was Britain, sought relaxation in the tedium amount. Since he and the crew were drafted for the Korean War and dis­ of bricklaying. I spent the rest of the flying separately, the additional funds charged for being temperamentally un­ day sequestered in my hotel room would be given us in Addis. This suited to taking orders. I have always measuring food portions into zip-lock solved the N.T.O. problem but left us been self-employed. My home has no bags. I hope he found bricklaying as re­ holding lots more dollars than we had electricity or phone. I have my own laxing as I found this prosaic activity. entered Ethiopia with. It's the only well. No street address, just a sectional Money is freedom. So Ethiopia has time in my life too much money·has description. strict currency control laws. Every dol­ posed a problem. Currency violations To avoid the bureaucrats for a dayI lar brought into the country, every dol­ could be a capital offense. concentrated on provisions. I went lar exchanged into Birr ($1 = 2 Birr), Travel within Ethiopia· is strictly shopping. Twelve people for 21-28 every Birr spent must be declared, re­ proscribed without permits. My most ceipted and tabulated on a currency important chore was to ensure that all control ledger. Roy and I are honest the requisite travel permits were issued In addition to miles of men, but we ran afoul of the system. and in order for every member of our whitewater, the Omo offered Intimidated by the Uzi-toting red group. For this we paid the N.T.G. over guard at the customs desk, Roy under­ $1,000. Yet each day, like a baroque movable gauntlets of hippopot­ declared his bankroll by 50 percent. courtship ritual, I would have to oil the amuses. Unlike most animals Ethiopia has a very simple formula for gears of officialdom. "The permit appli­ who scatter when startled, hip­ tourists: you can take out as much for­ cations are being processed, ·Mr eign currency as you bring in minus Robert" (in Ethiopia the family name pos plunge to the center of the $50 per day, every day, whether you comes first). Sobek cancelled many a stream. Never mind that our spend it or not. Birr cannot be exported, trip for want of permits. rafts were usually there. and they can only be exchanged for for­ It was on one of these· daily trips eign currency within these regulations. that I met our tour guide, Efrem. All Roy had got·himself into a muddle. But tourists must be accompanied by an even before he arrived, we had our first days. No ice, no fresh food. All canned N.T.O. guide. Efrem was 24 years old financial crisis. and dried. Addis has no Safeway, and and hosted a tape worm. This assign­ One week before embarcation the the open air market looked like a dan­ ment was punishment for a bookkeep­ N.T.O. raised their fees by 300 percent. gerous way. I made the rounds of the ing infraction on a previous excursion Visa, Mastercard and Karl Malden with East German big-game hunters. neighborhood grocers. Once they had couldn't have helped. I had to call Roy been thriving, cutthroat concerns run He spoke English well but none of the and have him bring more money. At languages we expected to encounter by East Indian or local entrepreneurs. the Ministry of Communications I was along the banks of the Omo. For $2,000 Now they were franchises of the able to snare an international phone we were getting two parasites in one. Dergue with identical stock and prices line after a two-hour wait. Roy an­ Our safari guide could neither swim managed by bored and surly atten­ swered the phone out of a deep sleep. nor cook nor handle a gun. But he was dants. I bought dried lentils, black When it comes to money, Roy is parsi­ a natty dresser, with pointed leather beans and rice, coffee and English tea, monious to a fault-he's from shoes, sleeveless cardigan and stylish canned Russian mackerel (with scales Lancashire. Instinct took over and all afro. and bones) and tinned ground pork he could say was "NO." So I said I'd

The day Roy and the rafters flew in, I Porcupine Silver Rounds cancelled the expedition. The Ministry of Parks and the N.T.D. were feuding. One ounce fine silver coins The six-wheel drive Volvo, according ( .999 pure silver) to the latest memorandum, would $8 each or spot plus $1 for 10 henceforth only be used for game man­ Callfor details agement and not for tourist transporta­ tion. With nothing to lose, Roy and I Robert Clarkson stormed into the minister's office and 515 Concord Ave., Anderson, SC 29621 demanded our money back. We played 803-225-3061 good cop/bad cop: I ranted and raved; Roy begged and bribed. We were lec- Volume 5, Number 1 Se ternber 1991

tured on business ethics and our or­ either from accumulated debris or re­ And crocodiles, unlike alligators which ganizational acumen was impugned. sistant strata. are shy and retiring, stalk human prey. We threatened bad publicity. Finally In addition to miles of whitewater, I was beginning to understand why the the minister at N.T.a. phoned the min­ the Omo offered movable gauntlets of upper Omo was unpopulated. ister at Parks; we got the Volvo. hippopotamuses. One day we counted Camp routine included all-night The day we left for Gibe bridge 300. Unlike most animals who scatter watches in two-hour intervals. As we over the Omo gorge I celebrated by get­ when startled, hippos plunge to the boiled the next days water supply, ting drunk and belligerent on Eritrean center of the stream. Never mind that we'd watch the parade of curious eyes wine in defiance of the rules for riding our rafts were usually there. Suckling at the perimeter of light. High, large in a bus. mothers and bulls in rut know no fear. and far apart eyes precipitated frenzied At least six separate rebellions One surfacing hippo heaved a fully hound the Dergue. In the north, loaded raft five feet in the air knocking Eritrea, an Italian colony until 1952, is Efrem into the drink and precipitating "5aalam, doctor, saalam/" trying to strike out on its own. In the a rush of would-be humanitarians into Ogaden, ethnic Somalis want to join the water after the non-swimmer. yelled the Mursi hunter with a Somalia. Somalia periodically lends Another overprotective cow charged penis that hung to his knees them a hand. Between Eritrea and my raft with a five foot jaw spread. and grapefruit-size testicles. It Somalia, the Tigre People's Liberation With her canines less than a foot from Front and the Oromo Liberation Front the air chamber she feinted and dove. was the only European word he hold sway. On the west, Sudan gives We had to change our non-violent tac­ knew. Both our doctors just sanctuary to Ethiopian rebels and tics. One hundred pounds of shot-put shook their heads. We had no poachers, and Addis Ababa retaliates size cobbles and aggressive shouts and by supporting Sudanese guerrillas. postures effectively cleared our way. way to treat elephantiasis. Nationwide, a nascent anti-Marxist re­ During the night these overgrown pigs sistance is showing birth pangs. At the graze on the hillsides. Their trails to Gibe crossing, a detail of Baby and from the river are like eight-foot spurts of fire feeding. It was a good Thompsons guarding the WWII truss ball chutes in a giant bowling alley. time to read, write or reflect. bridge met our seditious little group of While the hippos monopolized the Two weeks down the river a Bodi tourists. Efrem rescued our cameras sandy, sylvan beaches, we camped on hunting party waved us over--eight from confiscation. We set to work fer­ rocky, sloping promontories. tall, handsome Nilotes armed with rying our gear down the embankment Sex will kill us if it doesn't save us. WWI Italian carbines and a gourd, no Living organisms procreate and spread clothes or hair. As we approached without regard for consequences. In shore, Anita, our Swedish doctor, North America we annihilated our abo­ warned us against disembarking bare­ The Bodi couldn't tell riginal population and repopulated a footed. River blindness, transmitted by whether we were male or fe­ continent from scratch. In this part of a beach-borne parasite that travels up male. I assume our hair, cloth­ the world, wall-to-wall people are the the sole of the foot, was endemic to the rule. Yet for 200 miles down the upper area. ing and white skin confused Omo we saw not a soul. As romantic The Bodi couldn't tell whether we them. 50 they felt for our geni­ adventurers we revelled in the absolute were male or female. I assume our hair, tals. Their innocent arrogance wilderness; as a skeptic, I wondered: clothing and white skin confused them. was so disarming we took no Where are the people? So they felt for our genitals. Their inno­ I have never been able to pro­ cent arrogance was so disarming we offense. nounce tse-tse fly, but I certainly felt its took no offense. One woman was flat­ sting. About the size and color of a tered when she was invited to a tryst in deer fly, the bite is slightly milder than the bushes. Another, a recent divorcee, and kitting up our boats. I personally a hornet's and the itch of the welt is was disheartened no Bodi hands carried the gasoline. comparable to a black gnat's. The touched her crotch. But most of the There are three cardinal rules in the insidious effects are not apparent im­ stroking they saved for our rafts, so we sport of river running: always wear a mediately: sleeping sickness and ele­ obliged them with a ride down to their life jacket; tie everything securely to phantiasis. No shorts or bare backs on village. We traded razor blades, fish­ your craft; and never float what you our rafts. hooks and empty tin cans for eggs and can't see. John Wesley Powell, on his Cooling off with river water was no jerked hippo meat. They knew money first descent of the Colorado River, had antidote for the heat and humidity. If had value, though they could not dif­ an oak desk chair strapped to the high the crocs didn't snare you, the schisto­ ferentiate between denominations and deck of a dory as a makeshift craw's somes would. Entering through the preferred coin to paper. nest. Sometimes only stopping and pores, the parasite lodges in the nearest Sobek, in the interest of preserving climbing the banks will reveal the se­ available organ, lays its eggs and, years the native cultures, had developed a set verity of a drop. Most rapids are hence, brings about its host's demise. of guidelines for trading. Anything the caused by the damming of the current Often there are no initial symptoms. river peoples had was fair game. But in Liberty 35 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

return, trip participants could only tered the edge of the Sahara, and we Department of Immigration and ex­ offer items already in use by them: fish­ encountered no more rapids. Along the plained why I had been unable to ing line, salt, razor blades and such. No banks the tropical forest was thick, but renew on time. Sierra Club T-shirts, Swiss Army inland the country resembled central The $4,000 took more imagination. knives or pressure cookers. I can't pa­ Arizona. The Mursi differed from the Part of it was in Birr. We could legally tronize another human being; we of­ Bodi in the females' use of labrets, convert some to dollars at the National fered anything we could spare. some a full 6 inches in diameter. Cattle Bank, so we did. And we got· every Navigation on the river was ''by marked the edge of tse-tse fly territory. member of our group to help out. The ghesse and by God." Our Michelin Log dugouts with live chickens would rest of the Birr we traded to our crew road map for N.E. Africa supplied the periodically glide out to trade. so they could buy last minute memen­ broad strokes. Sobek had compiled a At first we felt confident we tos. We then converted the remainder pilot describing major tributaries and wouldn't miss our take-out-"a small into $100 bills thereby consolidating tributary on the right preceded by a the loot. We paced and brainstormed right bend just past a left bend marked for half a day in the hotel room. I love Cooling off with river water by a prominent pink cliff with a white my life. I categorically refused to smug­ streak and a Mursi village on the oppo­ gle any money out. The consequences was no antidote for the heat site bank." As we neared the Mui tribu­ were just too dire. But Roy and cash and humidity. If the crocs tary, doubts beset us. For one, Mursi are hard to part, and he had experience didn't snare you, the schisto­ villages are seasonal and their location smuggling guns in Africa. is changed periodically in search of ag­ I suggested making a neat incision somes would. riculturally productive land. The "pink along the edge of one of our sleeping cliff" was a band of loosely consolidat­ pads, placing the money inside, and ed conglomerate strata overlaying the gluing it together again. Too much landmarks with running time between entire region and exposed at every work thought Roy. Instead he removed them at low, medium and high water bend. The "white streak," that I origi­ the arch support from the Nikes he'd levels. Interpreting their descriptions nally pictured in my mind's eye as a worn daily on the river and glued the and differentiating between rapids and water stain, turned out to be a caleche sole pad over the wad of bills. Then he tributaries required lots of Zen guess­ lens-every cliff had at least one. placed the rancid shoes in a stuff sack work and accurate timing. After cali­ Somehow we found the right spot. with his dirty river clothes and stuffed brating our progress, we settled on Logistics at the Mui Game Reserve the lot in his duffel bag. He was lucky eight-hour days full on the oars. One went as planned. The six-wheel drive he opted not to wear them. rapid, Gypsy's Bane, consumed half a Volvo was operational and met us on At the airport, I didn't even enter day of portage and lining. schedule. I personally fed it the 20 gal­ by the same door as Roy. Wherever he "Saalam, doctor, saalam!" yelled the lons of gasoline we had nursed down went, I went the other way. The first Mursi hunter with a penis that hung to the river. Our DC-3 was only two days hurdle was baggage check. Two armed his knees and grapefruit-size testicles. It late, inducing a massive depression guards ransacked our luggage for con­ was the only European word he knew. among our crew. We hoisted the wind traband. Roy was three booths away, Both our doctors just shook their heads. sock and chased the buffalo off the nonchalant as he could be. The guards We had no way to treat elephantiasis. landing field. It was all we could do. pulled out his dirty clothes bag, Anita put on her best bedside manner "It's a staph infection," announced opened it, pulled out his shoes, took and gave him two aspirin. Anita prescribing an antibiotic oint­ one cursory glance at them and told We were lucky to have two doctors ment. I was skeptical. My testicles had him he could repack his belongings. on board. Anita, our expert on tropical never been so swollen, raw and pain­ But I still didn't relax. diseases, suffered a miscarriage half­ ful. I pictured in my mind the Mursi Just before boarding the plane we way through the trip. Dr Dean, the GP hunter with elephantiasis. Dr Dean de­ had to pass currency control. We lined from Texas, was knocked unconscious clared it looked like herpes and pre­ up. The white telephone booth-size cu­ scribed fresh air (no ointments). I knew while cleaning an electric fish we mis­ bicles had a quick-draw curtain for pri­ took for a common catfish. It was their it wasn't herpes. The tropics sure breed vacy. Each departing passenger was surgical skills that really saved us: a some strange critters. Our raft decks subject to a strip search and a full ac­ sprouted large mushroom colonies out maverick snag disembowelled Roy's counting on his currency control led­ raft; it needed over 100 stitches to be­ of the layers of the plywood. ger. One well dressed East Indian was come river worthy again. All for Afterward Conrad told me a Blister escorted at gunpoint out of the booth naught. A few days later a hungry croc Bug had bitten me. I'd be back to nor­ and back into the airport. He was all administered the coup-de-grace to the mal in a week. eyes, sweat and terror, punctuated by left front chamber of his Avon Pro so Back in Addis the real hardships the humiliation of unshod feet. The we loaded up everything on my boat began. My visa had expired while on guard carried his shoes in his hands. for the run out. That crocodile swal­ the river, and Roy and I had to devise a When the plane took off and finally lowed all our profit. way to smuggle $4,000 out of the coun­ entered Sudanese airspace our relief Mursi country presaged the end of try. The visa extension was easy­ the trip. The river broadened as it en- Efrem accompanied me to the continued on page 38 36 Liberty Analysis

Smarter Weapons, Harder Fights by Bart Kosko

"Military intelligence," the old joke runs, is a contradiction in terms. But "in­ telligent weapons" are a whole different story.

Smarter weapons will complicate warfare in the future. The chess pieces will have eyes and minds of their own; both sides will put silicon brains in their boxes. Smaller countries with higher machine IQs may balance, or even overpower, larger countries with larger weapon stock­ piles and more uniformed brawn. Today's Patriot missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles have limit­ and San Diego, ensure privacy by pre­ promise for the individual. Spread ed machine intelligence: small on­ venting "enemy" jamming and inter­ spectrum represents one of the few board computers house tightly ception. Future swarms of cruise computer-age technologies that works written computer programs. These missiles and ICBMs will likely use at every level to increase privacy and software programs carry out sophisti­ spread spectrum to communicate with decrease external interference. Rather cated mathematical instructions to one another in flight. The communi­ than compress more information estimate their own and enemy posi­ cating swarms will share incoming through a tiny frequency window or tions, match digital TV scenes to sensor data and command instruc­ bandwidth, spread spectrum spreads scenes stored in missile memory, and tions, reassign targets, and reallocate out signals across large stretches of the adaptively control and guide the mis­ surviving missiles-reallocate them­ frequency range, which extends from sile to its target. selves. zero frequency at the bottom to light The machine IQs of weapons will The U.S. government has devel­ frequencies at the top. A spread signal rise dramatically in the next decade as oped spread-spectrum technology for looks like low-intensity white noise computers and sensors shrink and re­ half a century at taxpayer expense. across any given band of frequencies. place hardwired instructions, more Until recently, the government has You cannot intercept the signal unless communications go wireless, and the usually demanded that workers in the you can "derandomize" the white new neural-network and fuzzy-logic field hold a security clearance. The first noise. You cannot jam the signal or in­ species of machine intelligence move patent for frequency-hopping spread terfere with it unless you jam most or from the laboratory and commercial spectrum communications was filed in all of the frequency range, and that marketplace to Pentagon shopping 1941 by actress Hedy Lamarr, of can bankrupt even governments. But lists. Samson and Delilah fame. She sought you can overlay multiple spread sig­ Today in Japan, engineers race to to thwart the Nazi attempt to increase nals to achieve genuine multiplexing endow laptop computers with super­ the moron-level machine IQ of torpe­ and to help alleviate the new crisis in computer abilities by inserting flash does and teamed up with an acoustics modern communications-limited and memory chips and RZSC (reduced in­ expert to do it. Researchers have since overcrowded frequency bandwidth. struction set) processors, devices des­ developed spread-spectrum systems Look for smart weapons that com­ tined for nose cones and missile tips. for electronic warfare in fighter municate with spread spectrum with­ The spread-spectrum cellular phone aircraft. in the decade. The U.S. Army has systems, under test in Los Angeles Yet this technology holds the most already funded a massive effort to de- Liberty 37 Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

velop handheld spread-spectrum radi­ goes a long way toward explaining why Smart weapons will proliferate in os for infantrymen. Sometime in the his casualties numbered over 100,000 arsenals faster than personal comput­ next century spread spectrum should while Allied casualties numbered about ers have appeared in offices. Every mil­ help make "wireless" buildings, cars, 100. Every military leader and planner itary will have them. For smart and individuals. has seen the video clips of SCUD vs. weapons provide a new shield as well Fuzzy logic is not a fantasy. It's al­ Patriot missiles and has read the news- as a new sword. No one wants a neigh­ ready in use. In the past year the bor who can shoot down your weap­ Japanese have used fuzzy-logic com­ ons and still hit you with his. U.S. and puter systems to run subways intelli­ Future arms races will ad­ European hightech firms will compete gently, to focus camcorders and TVs, to vance to machine-IQ races, with the Japanese electronics giants to schedule traffic and elevators, to con­ supply the software and computer and trol microwave ovens and car transmis­ from metal and chemical con­ sensor components, and in small sions, to guide washing machines arid tests to information contests. enough pieces that other governments vacuum cleaners and robot arms-even When machine bulk meets ma­ cannot easily monitor or control. to arrange flowers. In June, Japan's chine brains, bulk loses. Every country might face in micro­ Ministry for International Trade and cosm the instabilities of a futuristic Star Industry estimated that fuzzy products Overnight higher machine IQ Wars (SDl) shield between it and its and systems in Japan in 1990 generated has become the new ante in neighbors. As the shields go up, those $1.5 billion in sales, (70% of this in con­ arms races around the world. without shields may see their last sumer electronics) and should generate chance to attack with their old arsenals. $2 billion in 1991. As machine IQs go up, the possible Fuzzy logic will allow inflight expe­ paper scoreboards. They will accord­ conflict scenarios will increase astro­ rience to modify a missile's decision ingly restructure their plans and bud­ nomically in complexity and in sensi­ units, smooth out control and guid­ gets. Overnight higher machine IQ has tivity. Decision makers will face more ance, and doggedly track deceptive tar­ become the new ante in arms races and radically different possibilities gets. In principle a fuzzy-logic warhead around the world. with no experience of any of them. The or grenade could prevent its own deto­ The good news is governments can lessons of military history may offer no nation when it detects friendly troops increase the machine IQ of weapon sys­ more guidance to future military lead­ or buildings nearby. tems more cheaply than they can in­ ers than an abacus blueprint offers to a Future arms races will advance to crease weapon stockpiles or increase computer-chip manufacturer. machine-IQ races, from metal and and train recruits. This will reduce the Smarter weapons can lead to thick­ chemical contests to information con­ perceived need for spending on de­ er skins and mutually assured defense. tests. When machine bulk meets ma­ fense. The bad news is governments Or they can lead to thinner skins and chine brains, bulk loses. That's a lesson will do it, thereby increasing their pinpoint strikes instead of diplomacy. Saddam Hussein failed to learn, and power and ability to do mischief. It can go either way. 0

Miller, "Buying Gasoline in Ethiopia," continued from page 36

was palpable. We yelled and hugged "Because this is a U.S. Post Office arrive in Atlanta within two days." In and counted our money. and I'll be sending out one a week for fact, I was mailing small ice chests with the next six months and Prescott is a stools on ice and in formaldehyde and .. far drive away." Fran had never dealt blood samples. with Overnight Express Mail and the Eight of us tested positive for schis­ Most of us developed a variety of prospect of reading reams of instruc­ tosomiasis and two for amoebic strange symptoms about six weeks tions and filling out new forms set her dysentery. after our return home. Roy's were the to quivering. She had become postmis­ A few years later, Roy returned to worst: loss of weight and appetite, tress through a complex process of po­ Ethiopia. He ran the Omo all the way dizziness, intermittent fevers of a litical patronage. Her brother-in-law to Lake Rudolph. He received dual violent nature. His doctor referred him had been a one-term state legislator grants from National Geographic and to the Centers for Disease Control in and the job had been offered to her the Ethiopian government. For the for­ Atlanta, part of the National Institutes husband. The regimentation ill-suited mer he conducted a team of scientists of Health. The NIH took a very him, but they needed the money so she for a variety of environmental studies. solicitous attitude toward our group accepted the post. Fran worked hard For the latter he acted as an agent of and began running extensive tests im­ and had a good heart but compleXity the Dergue helping to extend the cen­ mediately. overwhelmed her. tral government's control over the "Why don't you mail that in "What's in there that's so lower Omo basin. Prescott?" asked Fran, the postmistress important?" Mengistu Haile Mariam was de- at Chino Valley. "Fresh biological material that must posed in June of this year. 0 38 Liberty Report

The Unraveling of Canada by Scott J. Reid

Eighty percent of Canadians believe their country will split apart. Scott Reid explains why his country is doomed, and wonders: is its death a good thing?

The drab world of Canadian politics has been transformed. As Americans watch Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union break apart every night on CNN, they are missing an equally dramatic disintegration in their own backyard. Probably because so many Americans find Canada so boring, they are miss- ,1;11111 ing its break up. Ironically, the reason 11111 III:; I that Canada is coming apart at the in Canada. The federal Conservatives distinctive culture. This is understanda­ seams is the same: Canadians now find have become the.least popular govern­ ble for a community of six million the notion of Canada to be boring. ing party in Canadian history. Polls in­ French speakers nestled in a continent Like the break-up of the former so­ dicate that if an election were held of two hundred million English speak­ cialist nations, this is a recent and large­ today, the Tories would finish fourth, ers. Since the early years of the Canadi­ ly unexpected phenomena. Five years behind the Liberals, NDP, the Reform an confederation, this has meant that ago, Canada was enjoying a period of Party, winning only fifteen percent of Quebec has been very jealous of its unprecedented unity and prosperity. the popular vote. rights, and distrustful of the central The economy was in the midst of the government. Lately, however, this con­ longest boom of the postwar era. The A Lack of Accord cern has tended to manifest itself in the political situation had, on the surface, The seed of Canada's destruction form of demands for special protection never been more stable. The popular was its peculiar system of government for the collective rights of ethnic Progressive-Conservative government by ethnic accommodation. Canada's groups. The resulting policies have held a vast majority in the House of population is approximately 75% often been upsetting to the generally Commons and separatist sentiments in English-speaking and 25% French­ liberal and individualist sentiments of Quebec had dimmed. speaking. Because Quebec is more ho­ English Canadians. Today, the situation is radically dif­ mogeneous than English Canada and The best example of this kind of ferent. Over half of the population of tends toward block voting, putting to­ policy is official bilingualism, which Quebec now favors independence. A gether a winning electoral coalition has was originally designed to provide referendum will be held on the issue by always involved capturing almost all government services across Canada in the end of next year. Eighty percent of the seats in which French-speakers form both official languages, but which has Canadians think the country is likely to the majority of voters, supplanted by a long since become an elaborate affirma­ split apart. minority of the seats in English Canada. tive action program for bilingual peo­ The party structure has collapsed This is sufficient to provide a majority ple (most of whom are middle-class both at the federal level and within in the House of Commons. This has en­ Quebecers). Many other programs, Quebec. New ethnic-based parties have tailed that successful Canadian political such as federal transfer payments to started to take the place of the old-line parties must be non-ideological. Instead the provincial governments, have been parties, signalling the death-knell of a of a left or right in Canadian politics, redesigned to provide disproportionate system of French-English coalition gov­ there has been a constant battle for the benefits to Quebec. ernment that dates back 150 years. This hearts, minds and pocketbooks of Confederation, as it is now struc­ turn probably means that the old-line French Canadians. tured, denies French Canadian nation­ parties will be unable to patch together French Canada has been collectively alism its ultimate aspiration­ a last minute deal to keep Quebec with- obsessed with. the preservation of its independence for Quebec-offering in Liberty 39 Volume 5, Number 1 Se ternber 1991

its place a smorgasbord of subsidies Canada would contort itself to placate the Bloc Quebecois. The leaders of the and special deals in return for keeping Quebec. old-line coalition parties insist that its soul in perpetual hock. The rising popular tide against the these new parties signal the rise of intol­ English Canada dreams much more Accord in English Canada, the staunch erant "tribal" politics. This is simple modestly of prosperity and the right of French-Canadian stand that it must be nonsense. The Reform Party and the individuals to equal treatment before swallowed whole, and the absurd Bloc Quebecois are the political vehicles the law, but such things are impossible machinations of the politicians caught for the fundamental values of the na­ when the state is structured around up in a crisis of their own making was tions that they respectively represent. bribing Quebec to remain in Canada. So the stuff of high drama, or else low The antipathies typical of genuine English Canada has had to satisfy itself farce. As expected, the death of the Ac­ tribal politics-recently witnessed in with a make-believe "national unity," a cord caused an uproar. After its de­ places like Azerbaijan and Yugoslavia­ sort of booby prize. mise, the fundamental philosophical are notably absent from either the Re­ At least one French-Canadian ob­ disagreements of French and English form Party or the Bloc Quebecois. Pres­ server appreciates the bizarreness of ton Manning, leader of the Reform the situation. Christian Dufour has Party, stresses in virtually every speech written: Confederation, as it is now that it is Canada's system of govern­ Well, from one ocean to the other, ment and not the existence of the French Canada is presenting a bilingual structured, denies French Ca­ minority that is the source of the coun­ image that is stronger than ever, nadian nationalism its ulti­ try's woes. Linden Bouchard, the leader while in Quebec, for the first time mate aspiration-independence of the Bloc Quebecois, has stated that since 1760, the official image is exclu­ the Reform Party is the real voice of sively French. If one sticks to the for Quebec-offering in its English Canada, and has even suggest­ image, not only is Quebec sovereign, place a smorgasbord of subsi­ but it has succeeded in partially an­ ed a tactical alliance between the two parties in Parliament following the next nexing Canada. 1 dies and special deals in return In April 1987, Prime Minister Brian for keeping its soul in perpetu­ election. (The Reform Party response Mulroney called the premiers of the al hock. has been unenthusiastic, since it is Bou­ nine English provinces to his lakefront chard's intention to make that session summer home to discuss constitutional of Parliament into Canada's last as a united country). changes. Once the nine politicians ar­ Canada, which always had been fastidi­ rived, he locked them in a room and The credibility. of both the Liberal ously swept under the carpet, could no and Conservative Parties rests on the told them they could not leave until longer be ignored. they had agreed on a new constitution­ dying French-English coalition. It looks Prior to the Accord, ethnic demands like both parties will be displaced by al order that dealt with a series of de­ were accommodated by alternating ad­ mandsset forth by Quebec Premier the new ones. ministrations. The collapse of the Still, the spectacular unpopularity of Robert Bourassa. Accord destroyed the century-old for­ The premiers emerged early the the Conservative government is only mula for winning elections by alienat­ partly the result of its outmoded way of next morning, clutching the "Meech ing each of the two constituent groups Lake Accord," a package of constitu­ thinking. It is also wrapped up in the to such an extent that they could no personal unpopularity of Prime Minis­ tional amendments designed to satisfy longer bring themselves to support the Quebec. It was exactly the sort of con­ ter Brian Mulroney, who is the most vil­ same party. Most Quebecers seem final­ ified Prime Minister in Canadian stitutional arrangement you might ex­ ly to have decided that they are no pect from a bargaining session that history. In Quebec he is disliked; in the longer willing to sacrifice the goal of rest of the country he is despised. He is more closely resembled an all-night national independence ... or at least seen as having sold out the national in­ poker game than a constitutional con­ that in the future the bribes necessary terests for the sake of maintaining his vention. The original text of the Meech to keep their province in Canada will support in Quebec. It is difficult to find Lake Accord was full of the kind of have to be extraordinarily large. In the an American parallel to Mulroney. Ima­ mistakes that get made by hurried, rest of Canada, the population has gine a politician who combines, in the tired people. Had the Accord become slowly been coming to the conclusion popular estimation, the backbone of the law of the land, Canadians would that if Quebec wishes to remain a part Jimmy Carter, the honesty of Richard have awakened the next morning with of the country it will have to do so Nixon, the moral rectitude of Joseph a constitution as coherent as alphabet without subsidies and on the same McCarthy and the understated good soup. terms as the other provinces. 2 Under the terms of the constitution, taste of Lyndon Johnson. the provinces must approve amend­ New Parties for Old Curiously, Mulroney is the only ments within three years of their pro­ Clearly these are incompatible vi­ thing holding the Conservative caucus posal. The June 23, 1990, deadline sions. Each has given rise to a new po­ together. As an English-speaking Que­ passed with two provinces failing to litical party. The past year has seen the becer who has thoroughly assimilated pass the package of amendments. But rise in English Canada of the previous­ the Quebecois culture, he is tolerable to it had lived long enough to become a ly obscure Reform Party and, in Que­ the Quebec MPs. The Quebecers also test of the extent to which English bec, of a newly-formed separatist party, tolerate him because they feel he stands 40 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

a better chance of cutting a deal with Party and to look for prospects in other this was done informally. This time, the their provincial government to re­ parties. Bloc Quebecois has the formal support negotiate the constitution than anybody of the Parti Quebecois, and Liberal Pre­ else. Mulroney's English-speaking MPs The Party for Secession mier Robert Bourassa is probably too The Bloc Quebecois is a one-issue would probably be happy to get rid of clever a political actor to be caught party. Modeled on the "Rassemblement him. Unfortunately, doing so would lending the support of his party to the split the party and cause an immediate jurassien," a Swiss party that spear­ unpopular Conservatives in the next headed the secession of a French­ election, which would almost certainly election, since this would damage his speaking region from a German­ result in nearly all Conservatives being nationalist credentials and deprive him speaking canton, the party represents tossed out of office. So they cling to of the opportunity to become the first Quebec's regional interests and nothing their prime minister and will probably prime minister of an independent Que­ else. Its stated purpose is to help win bec. continue to do so until their hand is Quebec's independence and then to dis­ forced. If nothing else intervenes, a new The result will probably be that the band. In a sense, this makes the Bloc Bloc Quebecois will take every single election must be held in the autumn of Quebecois a perfect reflection of the ob­ 1993 whether Mulroney wants it or not. sessive core values of Quebec society. But things may come to a head sooner. Its membership includes socialists and If as expected the Quebecois cast a rightwingers, united by a single all­ For the first time in this "oui" vote on their independence refe­ powerful bond: the assertion that Que­ century, Canadians will have rendum, the Quebec Conservatives bec, as a corporate entity, must have ab­ would almost certainly split from the solute control over its own destiny. elected legislators who actually English-speaking Conservatives, caus­ The leader of the Bloc Quebecois, represent the views and inter­ ing an immediate election. Lucien Bouchard, was once Prime Min­ ests of their constituents. This The Liberals have an equally great ister Mulroney's right-hand man. How­ problem-though it is better hidden. ever, Bouchard's loyalty to his province does not bode well for Canadi­ The party is horribly in debt, and is proved stronger than his ties to the an unity. able to produce literature, advertising, Prime Minister. He broke with his old etc., only on the good graces of its sup­ friend when the Meech Lake Accord pliers of these goods. These suppliers failed, declaring that since Quebec had Francophone seat in that province negotiated the Accord on its knees, it (about 65 of Quebec's 75 seats). The would soon find itself reduced to nego­ Conservatives have no support among tiating on its stomach. For thirty years In Quebec Brian Mulroney the English-speaking minority and the Bouchard had been Brian Mulroney's loss of the French vote will almost cer­ is disliked; in the rest of the closest friend. They have not spoken tainly result in the loss of all or almost country he is despised. Imagine since. all the seats in the province which is The Bloc Quebecois is now a sub­ their power base. a politician who combines, in stantial presence in Parliament. A total the popular estimation, the of seven members sit under its banner, The Party for Expulsion including four former Conservatives The rise of the Reform Party has backbone of Jimmy Carter, the and two former Liberals. Only one of been considerably less spectaCUlar than honesty of Richard Nixon, the the Bloc's MPs was elected under its that of the Bloc Quebecois, but is no less moral rectitude of Joseph colors; the rest "crossed the floor" of the troubling for the Conservatives. House of Commons and have never The party was founded in 1987 by McCarthy and the understated faced an electoral test of their decision. Preston Manning, a Calgary-based man­ good taste of Lyndon Johnson. However, this is not a reflection of a agement consultant. It has attracted lack of strength or popularity. The most Westerners who feel that their interests recent polls indicate that if an election are no longer represented by the Con­ were held today the Bloc would get up­ servatives. This alienation is also a re­ will be willing to work on credit (or wards of 40% of the vote in Quebec. flection of something more profound. even for free) only so long as the Liber­ Even more significantly for the The core principle of the accommoda­ als have a realistic chance of forming a Bloc's prospects, the electoral machin­ tion formula of government is that the government in the near future and pay­ ery in Quebec is working in its favor. country consists of two founding na­ ing back these debts in the form of po­ The federal Liberal electoral machine, tions of equal status and that the collec­ litical favors. Once it becomes clear that which delivered almost every seat in tive rights of these two groups are more the Liberals do not stand a realistic the province to Pierre Trudeau in elec­ important than the individual rights of chance of forming the next government, tion after election, is in ruins. The Con­ Canadians as citizens. This has never the services available to them will dry servatives have never had a machine in gone over well in the West, where the up almost at once and they will find Quebec, but depended instead upon the egalitarian and individualist spirit asso­ themselves, quite literally, bankrupt. support of the Parti Quebecois electoral ciated with the America Revolution has Already some suppliers are beginning machine in 1984 and the provincial Lib­ had its strongest impact in Canada. to distance themselves from the Liberal eral electoral machine in 1988. 3 All of None of the federal political parties Liberty 41 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

made any attempt to represent the phi­ The Reform Party has risen to third Party, it represents free enterprise and losophy of individual rights. In the mad place in the polls, nationwide, and civil libertarian points of view. It recent­ rush to build their popularity in Que­ seems likely to shut out the Conserva­ ly won praise when it was the only bec, the Liberals and New Democrats (a tives (who have been stuck in fourth party in the Quebec legislature with the socialist party with 43 seats in the 295 place for the better part of a year) and nerve to do battle with Hydro Quebec, seat House of Commons, mostly from the Liberals in the West. The Party is the largest public-owned utility in the West) threw their support behind also rising rapidly in the polls in Onta­ North America, and probably the most the Meech Lake Accord. These two par­ rio, which is home to half of all English arrogant. The Liberals and Parti Quebe­ ties had never been strong advocates of Canadians. cois have always gone soft on Hydro­ Quebec because-and this speaks vol­ Inside Quebec umes about the philosophical divide be­ The Reform Party is far The extent to which coalition politics tween French and English Canada-the more libertarian than any has disappeared in Canada is revealed utility has portrayed itself as the indus­ by a parallel set of changes taking place trial expression of the Quebecois nation­ major party in the United in the party structure in Quebec provin­ al spirit. States. The Party's policy man­ cial politics. While the Equality and Unity parties ual, called uThe Blue Book/' is In Quebec, the non-French (mostly ran candidates only at the provincial English) minority is proportionally level, a new one-issue federal party rep­ consistently free-market on ec­ smaller than the French minority in resenting the English minority has aris­ onomic matters. Canada as a whole (17 percent versus en in Quebec. The Option Canada Party 25 percent). This is enough of a differ... was founded a few months ago in the ence that, despite the block-voting hab­ English speaking-rural area of Quebec individual rights or economic freedoms its of the English, Quebec politics does known as the Eastern Township. It has to start with, and their enthusiasm for not parallel the federal model, which re­ spread rapidly into the Montreal area Meech Lake left Canada with three par­ volves around coalitions that jealously that contains the vast majority of Que­ ties advocating a collectivist line and guard their constituents' rights and in- bec's non-Francophone population. Its none representing the individualist core .terests.On the contrary, provincial leg­ single issue? The partition of Quebec so values of English Canada. islation has increasingly restricted that the English-speaking areas of the For their pains the Liberals and the minority rights. province may become Canada's elev­ New Democrats got nothing. In the Traditionally the English vote in enth province. It istooearly to tell if this 1988 general election, the Liberals won Quebec went to the provincial Liberal party will have any success in the next only 12 seats in Quebec, and the NDP party. Assuming that the English vote federal election. I suspect that if the sep­ none at all. The Reform Party, mean­ would fall to them no matter what they aration of Quebec is a realistic prospect while, quietly gathered support in the did, Premier Bourassa and the Liberals at that time, the Option Canada Party West, although it failed to win any seats set about actively courting the national­ will take all the English seats in the in the House of Commons. (A Reform ist vote following their re-election in province. MP was elected a year later to fill a va­ 1985. In 1988, they deliberately aban­ The collapse of ethnic accommoda­ cant seat. Canada's first elected senator doned the English speaking community tion politics will be complete. Federally, is also a Reformer.) by passing a law that severely limited the only old-line party to survive the The Reform Party is far more liber­ minority language rights collapse will be one that never repre­ tarianthan any major party in the Unit­ Like the Conservatives in Western sented the coalition point of view: the ed States. The Party's policy manual, Canada, the Quebec Liberals made the NDP, which has 'never had a serious called "The Blue Book," is consistently incorrect assumption that they would base of support in Quebec andhas elect­ free-market on economic matters. It fa­ never face a challenge from the advo­ ed only one member of Parliament in vors privatization of most government cates of individualism and individual that province. If the next election is corporations, including the Post Office; rights. In 1989, two tiny English-rights fought after a positive vote in the up­ legal limitations on deficit spending; a parties, the Equality party in Montreal coming referendum on independence, flat tax; and an end to the subsidization and the Unity Party in rural Quebec my guess is that the Reform Party and and cartelization of Canadian agricul­ contested the Liberal Party's dominance the New Democrats will split English ture. in the English speaking community. Canada between them, with the Liberals The Blue Book favors referenda on The Equality party managed to elect limping along in third place. The Bloc sensitive issues-especially on constitu­ four members to the National Assem­ Quebecois will probably dominate Que­ tional reforms-as well as the right of bly. (The two English-rights parties bec. recall and public initiative. These insti­ have since united under the Equality This bodes well for the representa­ tutions, which are taken for granted in Party name.) Two of the districts that tion that Canadians will receive in the the United States, are nearly revolution­ elected Equality candidates had voted next Parliament. For the first time in this ary to Canadians. In general, the thrust Liberal ever since their creation; the century, Canadians will have elected of the Reform Party's populism'is to re­ other two had voted Liberal for fifty legislators who actually represent the design the federal government on the years. views and interests of their constituents. model of some of the better-run Ameri­ The Equality Party has since ex­ can states. panded its agenda. Like the Reform continued on page 44 42 Liberty Testimony

The Suicide of Canadian Culture by Barry Chamish

Protectionism's effects are suicidal for a nation: it keeps "infant industries" infantile, and makes healthy concerns weak and pathetic. The same is true of protectionism in the arts.

By 1975, three of my novels and a collection of my short stories had already been published in Canada. All had been widely reviewed and two had won prestigious literary awards. I was only 22 years old. And I decided that it was time for me to emigrate from Canada. I left because of the new govern- ment policy ostensibly aimed at fur­ thering the arts in Canada, but play-be he from New Jersey or cable networks was almost entirely for actually aimed at repressing free Tahiti-suddenly became Canadian, American products. thought. The policy might best be whether he liked it or not. By exploit­ Still the government refused to ac­ called "Legislating a Canadian ing these loopholes, the radio stations knowledge the irrationality of the Identity." complied with the letter of the law, if policy. The mastermind of the policy was not the intent. The magazine industry became the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, an Trudeau next passed a law forcing next target. The government simply over-rated intellectual who posed as a television stations to broadcast 60% forbade all foreign magazines from Canadian content. This did not work liberal but had a lifetime history of publishing in Canada. Both Time and at all, but since most Canadian televi­ Reader's Digest had profitable Canad­ socialist activities. His position? That sion was government-owned, the poli­ ian editions; the government ordered the future of Canada was best assured cy continued. This proved to be a both to shut down. The hope was that by creating a unique-read non­ tremendous stimulation to the cable­ a Canadian magazine industry would American-eulture. television industry, as Canadians replace the foreigners. To evaluate the Trudeau began small, forcing radio sought to avoid the pure bilge forced policy, simply walk down to your stations to fill 30% of the airwaves upon them by the authorities. Thanks local newsstand to see if you can buy a with the work of Canadian artists in to the miserable fare available on local Canadian magazine. the hope of begetting a local music in­ TV, cable television in Canada Onward to books. McClelland and dustry. Since only about 10% of thrived-a full decade before the cable Stewart, the country's largest publish­ Canadian songs were worthy of an au­ industry caught on in America. er, was broke. In accordance with the dience, radio station owners sought Though the intent was to produce new policy, the government promised every loophole in the book to fill their a profitable local industry, the oppo­ to keep McClelland afloat on the pro­ air time with what the legislation de­ site occurred. No Canadian television viso that it only publish Canadian con­ manded. Suddenly, any foreign record series has ever been seen on the tent. The result? A peculiar style of with the slightest Canadian tie was screens of any respectable country, literature that dominates Canadian counted "Canadian." Songs from the and Canadians themselves have writing to this day. In order to receive musical "Hair," for instance, were abandoned their local stations for subsidies, publishers must cater to the written by two Canadians. So, shortly American networks. The policy stimu­ tastes of the Canadian government. after the passage of this legislation, lated the Americanization of Canada Here are some of the preferred charac­ whoever recorded a song from the in another way: the advertising on the teristics of this new literature: Liberty 43 Volume 5, Number 1 Se ember 1991

1. A constant mention of Canadian American and world humor. Such crea­ Based on the success of this novel, I place-names, no matter how irrelevant tivity may have been born in Canada, was invited to a conference of literary to plot. but it could not be tolerated there. figures, in part organized by Livesay. 2. A mixture of English, French and When government determines artis­ For two days I listened to speakers especially "Native" characters. tic policy, it guarantees that the result planning ways to keep dreaded 3. A political point of view that American books, from Canadian book­ must be Liberal, or left. (This, because a stores and classrooms, plotting to re­ Liberal administration initiated the pol­ I addressed the podium and place the banned literature with the icy and the bureaucrats watching over Canadian brand. Finally, I addressed the subsidies were Liberal appointees.) innocently asked if petty na­ the podium and innocently asked if 4. Anti-American diatribes - wel­ tionalism didn't create petty petty nationalism didn't create petty come proof of "Canadianess." literature. The explosion at literature. The explosion at Mount St. 5. Images of geese, snow, beavers or Mount St. Helens, I suspect, Helens, I suspect, was quieter. I was anything found in a frigid climate. cursed, insulted and more than a few One might think that the academics was quieter. I was cursed, in­ times accused of outright treason. I in Canada would have rebelled at such sulted and more than a few knew then that I could never write intervention. But not only did times accused of outright honestly if I stayed in Canada. Two Canadian liberal arts departments toe treason. months later I landed in Israel. the line, they toed with a vengeance. People often ask why I chose to One after another, unprofitable literary leave a country as rich as Canada to journals became totally dependent will be mediocre. Before the Bolshevik move to such a poor, besieged one. I al­ upon government grants to survive. Revolution, Russian literature was ar­ ways answer that Canada is the most And, one after another, professors guably the finest in the world. But boring country in the world (excepting, passed on the goal of finding a "Unique when the Soviet Union decided to reg­ of course, Finland). When they don't Canadian Identity" to their students, ulate its writers, to censor its artists in believe me, I ask them to name their fa­ who bought the guff without serious the interest of ideology, a vast tradition vorite Canadian movie. That usually opposition. died. Only a few expatriates have man­ answers the query. When it doesn't, I The policy spread to art galleries, aged to keep the vestiges of a once ask them to name a Canadian inven­ dance companies, theater troupes. No great culture glowing-and that, only tion, or even a product. one in Canada objected. No one except weakly. Since I've removed myself from the the most talented artists. They left in Yet Canadians outside the arts have deep repression of Canadian culture droves; the most visible refugees were passively watched their finest leave, I've had perhaps 350 publications, in­ the original editors of The National and allowed pap to rule. cluding work in The Atlantic, Newsday I..tzmpoon. Shortly after my third book was and Boston Globe. But I have no doubt I During the 1970s, hundreds of mag­ published, I gave a reading from it to a would have quit writing had I stayed azines, books, plays, radio shows and very enthusiastic audience. Afterward, in Canada. I would rather surrender films were all spawned by a few I was greeted by Dorothy Livesay, a re­ my career before allowing bureaucrats Canadians who had travelled to New nowned poet in Canada. I was very tal­ to tell me what and how I should write. York to set up shop. From Broadway's ented, she informed me, but I wrote And I think the multitudes of ex­ Lemmings to television's Saturday Night like an American. At the time, I took Canadian artists who have relocated to Live to Hollywood's Animal House, the statement as a compliment. She in­ Los Angeles, New York, and London Canadian born wit changed both tended it as a warning. since 1975 would agree. 0

Reid, liThe Unraveling of Canada," continued from page 42

This does not bode well for Canadian parties guarantees it. If my country has Quebecers who attended its group unity. Neither side will be willing to to die of something, an overdose of de­ discussions supported nUnity, at any make the concessions the other side mocracy is probably better than most of costs." Over half favored the position "All provinces must be equal/' which is unac­ wants, and there will be no party appa­ the alternatives. 0 ceptable to Quebec. A much smaller per­ ratus such as the Conservatives and Notes: centage -around 5%-favor kicking Liberals have always had, to force MPs Quebec out of Canada. See Figure 3, on 1. Christian Dufour, A Canadian Challenge / to vote against the interests of their con­ page 159 of the English-language text of Le Deli Queoecois. Lanzville, British the Report. stituents in order to save the country. Columbia and Halifax, Oolichan Books, Given the kind of country that Canada 3. Party names in Quebec are confusing: the 1990, and the Institute for Research on provincial Liberal Party is in no way con­ has become, you have to wonder if this Public Policy, 99. nected with the Liberal Party of Canada, is not a good thing. 2. The Report of the Citizens' Forum on and the Parti Qu~becois is a purely pro­ Canada seems to be doomed to split Canada's Future (Ottawa, 1991) indicates vincial party founded separately from the in two anyway, but the rise of the new that less than thirty percent of non- Bloc Quebecois. 44 Liberty Disputation

50 Really Stupid Ways to Save the Earth by Karl Hess

Recently I came across 1/50 difficult things you can do to save the Earth," a collec­ tive effort by members of various U.S. environmental groups at the invitation of Earth Island Journal. Here is the list, with my comments following. 1. Bury your car. Now you'd think that such con­ cerned folk would recommend that it Save the Earth by ending the human and picking berries? And where do be sold for scrap. That way it would race. Neat idea. we get money when we have to be recycled. The steel industry has 6. Restrict the population ofmotor work without electricity, have no been recycling metal for decades. vehicles. cars, and still have to plant and hoe, Oh, I forgot. Steel mills use electrici­ But, but ... I thought we'd bury 'em plant and hoe? ty. (See point 4) all! 13. Blockade a lumber truck carrying old­ 2. Become a total vegetarian. 7. Don't build cars. growth trees. Many people in Africa depend on in­ Well, that would take care of restrict­ Okay, but let pass the trucks carry­ sects such as locusts as a major ing the motor car population. But ing firewood, fresh pine lumber, source of protein. Perhaps you could does that include buses? (See point plywood, and so forth? Don't for­ talk them into eating more beans. 43) get, firewood can replace electricity But then how would you visit them 8. Stop building roads. and, with enough burning, cause (see point 43) prior to rebuilding the So that no fugitive motor car could interesting waves of lung disease in schooner fleet? Oops, schooners re­ escape burial, I suppose. those urban areas populated by quire old-growth timber ... (See 9. Replace roads with homes, parks, and working Brazilians subsidized by point 13) gardens. non-working Yankees. 3. Grow your own vegetables. How about at least leaVing some 14. Spend a month tree-sitting. Sure, I and others have grown vege­ footpaths so that folks in Maine Now, let's see, is that sitting with a tables even on urban rooftops, but could trudge to Florida for their nat­ tree, or in a tree? And who will snow is a problem and the time ural Vitamin C or folk music bring us our vegetables? taken to do it is a luxury not every­ festivals? 15. Try to live within the world average one can afford. Later, of course, lots 10. Halt weapons produetion and income ($1,250 a year) for one month. of time will be available because exports. That would come to $104.17 per there will hardly be anything else to Have you tried that one out on the month-a princely sum for those of do except grow them veggies and Pathet Lao or the Shining Path? us who have buried our car, sworn trudge dozens of miles to help build 11. Stop the sale, distribution, and export off meat and grown our own houses (out of saplings). ofcigarettes. veggies. 4. Have your power lines disconnected. Joints too? Horrors. 16. Cut up your credit cards. You won't have much time to use 12. Send money to Brazil to provide Well, you can'tbe wrongall the time. any electrical device anyway after urban jobs for impoverished workers now 17. Unplug your television. hoeing, raking, and trudging your forced into the rain forests. And miss all those Public Televi­ way through this entire agenda. How come they get urban jobs while sion shows? S. Don't have children. the rest of us are demolishing roads 18. Undertake a uConservation Sab- Liberty 45 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

bath"-one day a week without consum~­ thing to believe in? How about We're going to have to dig up that ing electricity or fuel. slaughtering people you don't like damn minivan after all. Is that before or after we bury all the because youbelieve them tobeinferi­ 40. Pipe polluted water back into the cars and dig up the roads? or? And while everyone's in the water supplies of the companies that do 19. Fast one day each week and send the clink, who attends to the rest of the the polluting. money saved on food to help feed the agenda? We trust that includes all units of hungry. 31. Don't own pets. government, the acknowledged Sorry, but since we started growing Let 'em run wild. There's nothing largest polluters on the continent. all our food we'll have to send tur­ more "natural" than a pack of feral 41. Don't own anything that runs on nips instead. dogs. batteries. 20. Adopt a homeless person. 32. Allow all beef-producing domestic cat­ Sure. What the hell. By the time we And send him or her out to tend the tle to become extinct. get in from the hand planting, hoe­ veggies. Would that be extinction by .44 ing, reaping, and road ripping we're 21. Raise the minimum wage to a survi­ Magnum or lethal injection? Or how too tired for any of those gadgets val income. about starvation or being eaten by anyway. See point 15. feral dogs? 42. Hand over all the excess packaging to 22. Enact a maximum wage law. 33. Redirect the military budget to resto­ a store manager on each visit to the gro­ No worry, if the rest of the agenda ration work; convert weapons factories to cery store. succeeds, there won't be any wages. peaceful research; retrain soldiers for eco­ Pardon our continuing confusion, 23. Tie politicians' salaries to the average logical restoration. but aren't we supposed to be grow­ working wage. And, besides, they'll be used to ing all our own food? The tie is tight already. Where do walking on rough terrain such as all 43. Travel by bus, never by air. those ripped up roads. But that re­ you think those political salaries Okay. So we don't bury the buses come from, anyway? search item sounds suspiciously like but we do bury the planes? 24. Replace majority rule with propor­ letting technology in through the 44. Stop using toilet paper and Kleenex; tional representation . factory door. Do you really want use washable cloth. And the proportional reps would that, in view of your other points? What's wrong with your fingers, what? Require a majority vote on 34. Remove the U.S. Forest Service from Mac? They're washable. stuff? Pass laws with proportional under the Agriculture Department; place provisions for various groups? Oy USFS, the Bureau ofLand Management, 45. Extend the life ofyour wardrobe by vey. and the Fish and Wildlife Service under learning to make and mend your own clothes. 25. Replace the electoral college with di­ the Environmental Agency. rect democratic elections. Come on, collective, couldn't we Phew. I really thought that loin­ Hmmm. Whatever happened to just bury them along with the cars? cloths were going to be mandatory proportional representation? You're 35. Consume only products produced on this one. taking the biggest majority vote of within your bioregion. 46. Give money to every single panhan­ all. Since bioregions are much larger dler you meet. 26. Abolish the CIA and the National Se­ than countries or states, doesn't that Including the ones who make more curity Act of 1949. raise the ugly question of roads and than you do? And how can we make Okay. But we might need a little tracks and stuff? sure there'll be enough dough left help from anyone not ripping up 36. Don't eat anything that comes in a over for those folk in Brazil? the roads, etc. package. 47. Democratize your workplace; start a 27. Pass a nature amendment to the U.S. Here, clerk, just shovel that granola union or a collective. Constitution. into my bag (made from the hide of Like the Teamsters? Or like those Now let's see, would that be to limit a now extinct beef cow). wildly successful collective farms in nature, zone it, make it pay a fair 37. Don't buy anything that comes in a the USSR? share of taxes, or what? box. 48. Learn to farm. 28. Oust Presidential advisor John Okay, okay, let's get this package Tell it to all those farmers living off Sununu. and box thing sorted out once and government subsidies. And replace him with the Earthls­ for all. 49. Liberate a zoo. land Journal collective? 38. Require operators and owners of nu­ Nothing like a bunch of rattlesnakes, 29. Plant one new tree every day. clear power plants to live within one mile panthers, hippos and elephants Okay, but remember, Eskimos in of the site. romping through the neighborhood. Alaska haven't had much luck with Sure, sure, without cars they'd have 50. Ask your boss ifyou can take the day trees the past few hundred years. to. But what are those nuclear plants off to work on healing the planet ... with 30. Go to jail for something you believe going to be doing? Remember-we pay. in. disconnected the power lines! What boss, what work, what pay? I Wherever is the jail going to get its 39. Mandate federal recycling and insti­ thought all that stuff was obsolete veggies? How will it transport its in­ tute a refuse tax on solid waste. according to the implications of mates? Is tax resistance okayassome- Groan. Get out the shovel, Jack. most points 1 through 49. 0 46 Liberty SUQ-gestion Persuasion versus Force by Mark Skousen

"Free to choose" and "responsible for choosing." These are not mere slogans. They are also the triumph of civilization.

Sometimes a single book or even a short cogent essay changes an individual's entire outlook on life. For Christians, it is the New Testament. For radical socialists, it may be Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' The Communist Manifesto. For libertarians, it may be Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. For Austrian economists, it may be Ludwig von Mises' Human Action. RecentlyI came across a little essay Professor Whitehead's ViSion of change their ways. in a book by Alfred North Whitehead, civilized society as the triumph of per­ Too often politicians think that the British philosopher and Harvard suasion over force should always be new programs and ne,,y taxes are the professor, that captured my interest. paramount in the mind of all political­ only way to pay for citizens' retire­ The book is Adventures of Ideas, and the ly active citizens and government ment, health care, education or other essay is "From Force to Persuasion." leaders. It should serve as the guide­ social needs. "People just aren't will­ Actually, what caught my attention line for the libertarian ideal. ing to pay for these services them­ was a passage on page 83, only one Let me suggest, therefore, a new li­ selves," they say. page in the entire 300 page book: bertarian creed: Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "Taxation is the price we pay for civili­ The creation of the world-said "The triumph of persuasion over zation." But isn't the opposite really Plato-is the victory of persuasion force is the sign of a civilized society." over force ... Civilization is the Surely this is a libertarian creed the case? Taxation is the price we pay maintenance of social order, by its that most citizens, no matter where for failing to build a civilized society. own inherent persuasiveness as they fit on the political spectrum, can The higher the tax level, the greater embodying the nobler alternative. agree on. the failure. A centrally planned totali­ The recourse to force, however una­ tarian state represents a complete de­ voidable, is a disclosure of the fail­ Too Many Laws feat for the civilized world, while a ure of civilization, either in the Too often lawmakers resort to the totally voluntary society represents its general society or in a remnant of force of law rather than the power of ultimate success. individuals.... persuasion to solve a problem in socie­ Thus, legislators--ostensibly con­ Now the intercourse between indi­ ty. They are too quick to pass another cerned about poverty and low viduals and between social groups law in an effort to suppress the effects wages-pass a minimum wage law takes one of these two forms: force or of a deep-rooted problem in American and establish a welfare state as their persuasion. Commerce is the great ex­ society rather than seeking to recog­ way to abolish poverty. Yet poverty ampleofintercourse by way of persua­ nize and deal with the real cause of persists, not for want of money, but sion. War, slavery, and governmental the problem, which may require par­ for want of skills, capital, education, compulsion exemplify the reign of ents, teachers, pastors, and communi­ and the desire to succeed. force. ty leaders to persuade people to The community demands a com- Liberty 47 Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

plete education for all children, so local Abortion is a troublesome issue, we think only in terms of freedom and not leaders mandate that all children at­ all agree on that. Whose rights take in terms of responsibility for their free tend school for at least 10 years. Winter precedence, the baby's or the mother's? actions. Too many libertarians equate Park High School, which two of my Apparently millions of pregnant liberty with libertine behavior. That children attend, is completely fenced women prefer abortion because it's a the freedom to have an abortion in. Students need a written excuse to quick little clean operation that can means that they should have an abor­ leave school grounds and a written ex­ eliminate in a day all the outward signs tion. That the freedom to take drugs cuse for absences. All the gates except of sexual irresponsibility. Did you let means that they should take drugs. one are closed during school hours, your sexual desires get carried away? That the freedom to use handguns and there is a guard at the only open Forget to use a birth control device? No means they can use them irrespon­ gate at all times to monitor students problem-you can get an abortion sibly. coming and going. Florida just passed a down at the local clinic. You know, More than Just Freedom law that takes away the driver's license right next to the drugstore, where you It is Significant that Professor of any student who drops out of high forgot to buy the condoms. Whitehead chose the word "persua­ school. Surely that will solve the Political conservatives are shocked sion," not simply "freedom," as the problem! and embarrassed by the millions of ideal characteristic of the civilized Now students who don't want to be legal fetal killings that take place every in school are disrupting the students world. The word "persuasion" embod­ year in America and around the world. ies both freedom of choice and respon­ who want to learn. The lawmakers for­ How can we sing "God Bless America" sibility for choice. In order to persuade, get one thing-schooling is not the with this eyesore plaguing our nation? same thing as education. you must have a moral philosophy, a So, for many conservatives the answer system of right and wrong that gov­ Many high-minded citizens don't is simple: Ban abortions! That will like to see racial, religious or sexual dis­ erns you. You want to persuade peo­ solve the problem. This quick fix will ple to do the right thing, not because crimination in employment, housing, undoubtedly give the appearance that department stores and restaurants. they have to, but because they want to. we have instantly solved our national In this context, let us answer the Instead of persuading people in the penchant for genocide. schools, the churches and the media all-important question, "Liberty and Yet wouldn't it be better if we tried Morality: Can We Have Both?" The an­ that discrimination is unchristian and to answer the all important question, morally repugnant, lawmakers simply swer is, absolutely, we must have ''Why is abortion so prevalent today, both-or eventually we will have nei­ pass civil rights legislation outlawing and what can we do to prevent the discrimination. Well, so much for that ther. As Sir James Russell Lowell said, need for abortions? How can we per­ ''The ultimate result of protecting fools problem! Does anybody wonder why suade teenagers, for example, that sex­ discrimination is still a serious social from their folly is to fill the planet full ual irresponsibility only creates more disease in our society? of fools." problems than the temporary pleasure Our motto should be, "We teach Is competition from the Japanese, it gives?" the Germans and the Brazilians too stiff them correct principles, and they gov­ There are those in society who want for American industry? We can solve ern themselves." to ban handguns, rifles and other fire­ that right away, says Congress. No use Freedom without responSibility arms, or at least have them tightly con­ trying to convince industry to invest in only leads to the destruction of civili­ trolled and registered. Is there is crime more productive technology, or trying zation, as evidenced by Rome and problem? Don't worry. We can solve to reduce the tax burden on business. other great civilizations of the past. As the murder and crime problem in this No, we'll just impose import quotas or Alexis de Tocqueville said, country, simply by passing a law tak­ heavy duties on foreign products. "Despotism may govern without faith, ing away the weapons of murder. No Surely that will make us competitive. but liberty cannot." In a similar vein, guns, no killings. Simple. Thus, they Henry Ward Beecher added, ''There is Drugs and Abortion look to change out­ Is drug abuse a problem in ward appearances, America? Then pass legislation prohib­ but they show little iting the use· of certain high-powered interest in finding drugs. Surely that will solve the drug­ ways to discourage abuse problem. Yet it never addresses a person from be­ the real problem, which is why people coming criminal or misuse drugs in the first place, and violent in the first how can these needs be satisfied in place. nondestructive ways? By outlawing I am convinced drugs, we fail to consider the beneficial that the libertarian usesof these drugs in medicine and we movement will re­ fail to consider the underlying cause of main a fringe increased drug or alcohol misuse movement so long "Of course I believe in objective truth - at least as far as among teenagers and adults. as libertarians I'm concerned." 48 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 Se tember 1991

no, liberty to men who know not how it be restricted to certain areas and to dream about the promised land. Well, I to govern themselves." And Edmund certain ages, but if people really want too have a vision of an ideal society. Burke wrote, "What is liberty without it, no one is going to be jailed or fined. I have a vision of world peace, not wisdom and without virtue?" If an adult bookstore opens in your because the military or the police have My challenge to all libertarians neighborhood, we don't run to the law been called in to maintain order, but today is to take the moral high ground. and pass an ordinance, we picket the because we have peace from within Neither the Republicans nor the store and discourage customers. If we and friendship with every naEon. Democrats think any more in terms of don't like violence and sex on TV, we I have a vision of universal pros­ persuading people; they feel the need don't write the Federal Comm­ perity and an end to poverty, not be­ to force their nostrums down our unications Commission, we join boy­ cause of foreign aid or government­ throats at the point of a bayonet and cotts of the advertiser's products. subsidized welfare, but because each Several years ago the owners of Seven of us have productive, useful employ­ Eleven stores removed Playboy and ment where every trade is honest and Penthouse from their stores, not be­ beneficial to both buyer and seller, and In this context I let us an­ cause the law required it, but because a where we eagerly help the less fortu­ swer the all-important ques­ group of concerned citizens persuaded nate of our own free will. tion, ULiberty and Morality: them. Truly, these actions reflect the I have a vision of an inflation-free Can We Have Both?" The an­ spirit of libertarianism. society, not because of wage and price It is the duty of every advocate of controls, but because our nation has an swer is, absolutely, we must human liberty to canvince the warld honest money system. have both--or eventually we that we must solve our problems I have a vision of a drug-free will have neither. through persuasion and not force. America, not because drugs are illegal, Whether the issue is domestic policy but because we desire to live long, or foreign policy, we must recognize healthy, self-sustaining lives. that passing another law or going to I have a vision of an abortion free the barrel of a gun, in the name of the society, not because abortion is illegal, IRS, the SEC, the FDA, the DEA, or a war is not necessarily the answer to our problems. Simply to pass laws but because we firmly believe in the multitude of other ABCs of govern­ sanctity of life, sexual responSibility, prohibiting the outward appearance of ment authority. and family values. problems is to sweep them under the Our cause is much more compel­ I have a vision of a free society, not rug. It may hide the dirt, but it doesn't ling when we can say that we support because a benevolent dictator dispose of the dirt properly or perma­ drug legalization, but do not use commands it, but because we love free- drugs. That we tolerate legal abortions, nently. Libertarians should do more but choose not to abort our own future than simply oppose federal funding of generations. That we support the right abortions, they should also favor the to bear arms, but do not misuse hand­ "fully informed" consent rules before Taxation is the price we pay guns. That we favor the right of indi­ a woman can get an abortion. Under for failing to build a civilized viduals to meet privately as they this approach, abortion may not be society. The higher the tax please, but do not ourselves prohibited, but it would be discriminate. discouraged. level, the greater the failure. In the true spirit of libertarianism, Convincing the public of our mes­ Voltaire once said, "I disapprove of sage, "that persuasion instead of force what you say, but I will defend to the is the sign of a civilized nation," will dam and the responsibility that goes death your right to say it!" If we are to be a lot of hard work, but it can be re­ with it. be effective in convincing others of a li­ warding. The key is to make a convinc­ I end my remarks with these words bertarian world, we must take the ing case for freedom, to present the taken from a Protestant hymn. The au­ moral high ground by saying, ''We facts to the public so that they can see thor is anonymous, which I think is ap­ may disapprove of what you do, but the logic of our arguments, and to de­ propriate, for it expresses the we will defend to the death your right velop a dialogue with those who may aspiration of every man and every to do it." be opposed to our position. Our em­ woman in a free society. In short, my vision of a libertarian phasis must be on educating the pub­ Know this, that every soul is free society is one in which we discourage lic. For we shall never change our To choose his life and what he'll be; evil, but do not prohibit it. We teach political leaders until we change the For this eternal truth is given our children and our students not to people who elect them. That God will force no man to abuse drugs, but after all our persuad­ heaven. ing, if they still want to use harmful A Vision of a Libertarian He'll call, persuade, direct aright, drugs, that is their right-so long as Society And bless with wisdom, love, and they do not infringe on the rights of Martin Luther King Jr. gave a fa­ light, others. We may discourage prostitu­ mous sermon at the Lincoln Memorial In nameless ways be good and kind, tion and pornography by insisting that in the mid-1960s. He said he had a But never force the human mind. 0 Liberty 49 Till lIIIe_1.1111 WelLIt by TOM TOMORROW GOOD EVENING-X·M ••... IT WAS '1:(J() ,. M. IN "riAl) -rIlE,R£ 8EEN A OAN RATHER. LEADJN' IIIE CBS S11IIJ/dS /.AIl6E nA(~ OF OLD OFF 1t1E- NEWS 'tONIGHT; WHEN A r£(HN/~/AN N&It!SI'I1PE1lS N£AI?8~ A MAJO~ CONFLA6~A'" LI6J1rING A CI&A~· of? AN oll) PIlE OF -nON -rJ-fAT (OUL.D HA'IE er,£ AC(/IJ£NTAll.i GASOlINE- StJAKE/J ~AGS, D~oPW pe',MATEJ) NEW YD~K HIS' ",Arcl/ ! It -rHF~£ ~/6117 IIA(E BEEN "T" WAS NA~Q.OWL'I A Fi/lE WNIOI CdVJ.J) AVOIDEb 1tUS AFffRNc1ON~ flAVE DFSr~()YE/) rilE

srIlQ/()$ WI. ANI), IN A #VtJIlsr-CA$E SCGlfMIO, PdSSI9LY /i1()cR of NEw >'4/1K (IrYI"~

"F()~rPNAT£l.t, ,JlEIlE l·oNE E'JI'ERT HAD COMING UP N£XT -- T\.(E' WAS 1/(1 Sl/'H Ct1A1­ 171/5 COAlItfENr. •• " PRESJD~T S-rUM8L.£P Bdsrl8LE MATe-II/AL ot-l Tt-IE ~H 11E HOUSE NEARB>'. THE TE'HNICIA~ LAW~ 1l)O~". I-'~C> HE T)/INK,N6 QIJICKJ.:I, F~LLEN AND I(,'f t'IS 5rEPPED ON TJlE MATtJl HE~D oN A ROCK, ANI> DOI/S6!J 1"JlE I'OT!N­ e~PERTs SAY HE MIG~T' /jA/-J.Y DEADLY FlAIA&./1f HA'4E DI£D. Challeng~ Questions on the Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Rights by James McClarin

Warning: the American Association of Stodgy Philosophers (AASP) has de­ termined that the following essay will cause readers to both think and laugh.

The animal rights and abortion rights battles are merely two tips of a very large iceberg lurking beneath the plane of debate chosen by most rights theorists: It is our lack of sufficiently rigorous criteria for establishing precisely when the condition of "rights" exists, and when it does not. What follows is a series of situa- tions--most of them hypothetical-in which "common sense" may not be scendants? Was the sudden posses­ enable rights? Upon what basis? sufficient to determine the presence sion of rights unrelated to other con­ of rights. I hope to elicit not convic­ ditions, such as intellectual capacity, Human Body Parts tion but caution: it is time to recog­ language, .and emotional develop­ In 2008, a crack surgery team suc­ nize that many important questions ment, and if so, did it mean that every ceeds in keeping alive portions of an remain unanswered,_ that our philo­ member of the entire evolutionary accident victim's body: advanced, sophical evolution is incomplete. line-no matter at what level of de­ miniaturized life-support hardware velopment-was thenceforth in pos­ maintains ·his brain and one leg. Early Man session of inalienable rights? However, there is no practical way to Assuming humans have inaliena­ rejoin these surviving body parts. The ble rights, at what point in our evolu­ The Super-Ape leg is fitted with a walnut-sized elec­ tionary past might these rights have Upon isolating several hundred tronic brain that enables it to stand, appeared, and did they do so gradu­ gene· factors affecting intelligence in jump and take bus trips downtown ally or suddenly? If gradually, we gorillas, scientists in the year 2007 where it hops about, drawing incred­ must assume these rights were some­ succeed in concentrating all such fac­ ulous expressions from fellow pedes­ thing less than inalienable at any tors in one gorilla ovum, and are able trians waiting for the light to change point before their full emergence. to induce development of the egg at cross-walks. Would that mean there can be condi­ without fertilization, by parthenogen­ The leg is clearly human in genetic tions under which modern humans esis. The result is a female ape of composition, and it's alive. Is it a are something less than human (idi­ super IQ. Though this ape has charac­ human life, possessing a "right to ots, fetuses), and therefore not in pos­ teristic difficulty with vocal language, life"? If someone killed it, should they session of inalienable rights? she excels in non-verbal communica­ be prosecuted for murder? On the other hand, if inalienable tion, mastering the word processor in Meanwhile, the surviving brain is rights appeared suddenly on our phy­ several human languages by age encased in a motorized, suitcase­ logenie tree, what was the agent that three. This whiz ape goes on to pub­ sized mobile life-support unit with caused this sudden condition? Was lish phi1osoph~cal treatises in Liberty, assorted sensory apparatus, mechani­ every member of the gene pool in­ eventuallylanding .a job as editor of cal arms and electronic speech. The stantaneously transformed, or was it the Daily Libertarian News-America's brain is able to communicate, watch only one specimen, with the condi­ largest circulation newspaper. movies, go to the bank or the baseball tion passed on as birthright to its de- Does this animal possesses inali- game, or even go deep-sea fishing. Liberty 51 Volume 5 Number 1 Se tember 1991

Does this brain have an inalienable pacity for abstract thought, humor, right to life, and on what basis? creativity and introspective analysis, How to which it combines to produce several Continua excellent submissions to and serves as A doctor examines 800 mentally chairperson of the politically domi­ Subscribe impaired persons ranging from coma­ nant Libertarian Party for a term be­ tose individuals unable to perform any fore an octogenarian Democrat non-autonomic action, to those able to assassinates him. Should the Demo­ to talk and look after themselves to some crat be tried for murder? If so, at what extent. Do all of them possess rights? Liberty Do some possess more than others? Various brain-damaged individu­ als in the 21 st century are given elec­ Insectoid space aliens land Liberty celebrates the tronic brain booster components, and inform us that our notion diversity of libertarian enabling them to live useful lives. The of rights is all wrong. Should thought! interfaced electronic components we respect their inalienable Liberty tackles the tough problems. range from 1% to 99% of brain mass. Every issue of Liberty presents es­ Do all of these people have full rights as if they were simply says studying current trends in human rights? Why or why not? misguided humans? political and social thought; discus­ Scientists in the 21st century final­ sions of the strategy and tactics of ly succeed in crossing humans and social change; analyses of current chimpanzees, and soon several mixes point in the evolution of artificial in­ events and challenges to popular exist 1/4 humans, 1/2 humans, 3/4 beliefs. Liberty also offers lively humans, etc. Where on this continu­ telligence do these rights emerge? book reviews, fiction and humor. um do "human rights" begin? What's the Porpoise? You won't want to miss a single "Ontogeny recapitulates phyloge­ Grocery store tabloids finally get a issue! ny," or so we used to be told in biolo­ chance to report a true story. Insec­ Act Today! gy class. This famous phrase toid space aliens land after studying commemorates a curious characteris­ Liberty offers you the best in liber­ our TV transmissions-their transla­ tic of the flesh: namely, that during its tarian thinking and writing. So tor units sounding like big-time wres­ don't hesitate. You have nothing to growth, the human fetus resembles a tlers and used-car dealers-and lose, and the fruits of Liberty to progression of fetuses of lower animal inform us that our notion of rights is gain! forms in the species' evolutionary all wrong. Should we respect their in­ past. A human fetus resembles that of alienable rights as if they were simply a fish, an amphibian, a lower mammal Use the coupon below or call: misguided humans? By what criteria and a lower primate on its way to would we attempt to establish their looking human. Do rights follow on­ possession of "human" rights? Should togeny as ontogeny follows phyloge­ we test porpoises and fetuses with the 1-800-321-1542 ny? That is, does one possess rights same criteria? only upon reaching a certain stage of Another tabloid story comes true. development? While negotiating with the San Fran­ ,..------,,Please enter my subscription H animals share rights with hu­ cisco 4gers, a huge, hairy sasquatch, is YeS• to Liberty immediately! mans, which animals are we talking poisoned by a jealous free agent. about? Does a dog share rights with Should the free agent be charged with o One Full Year (6 issues) $19.50 its fleas or heartworms? Does a snake o Two Full Years (12 issues) $35.00 murder? Why or why not? Add $5 per year for foreign subscriptions. have more rights than an earthworm? The point of all this idle specula­ Does a nightcrawler have more rights tion is merely to reveal that our smug name than the single-celled paramecium? assertion of inalienable human rights And does the ciliated paramecium rests on a wobbly foundation of inad­ address have more fights than the flagellated equate definition. city, state, zip+4 euglena? (The euglena contains chlo­ This is a call to all sides in the o I enclose my check (payable to Liberty) roplasts, and is a member of the plant rights debate to concede the need for o Charge my 0 VISA 0 Mastercard kingdom despite it's animal-like mo­ a lot more philosophical development tility.) Using euglena rights as a refer­ before resorting to extreme actions. It ence point, what distinguishes higher is not a call to stop being political or signature animals from higher plants where educational-only to pursue such account # expires rights are concerned? aims with a little more humility and a Send to: Liberty, Dept. L25, A future android robot has the ca- renewed dedication to truth. 0 L Box 1167, Port Townsend, WA 98368 ..1 Gratitude: Reflections on What We Owe to Our Country, Patrimony and Civic Obligation," by William F. Buckley,Jr. Random House, 1990. xxi + 170 pp., $16.95. argues for the fundamental principle involved. "We are accustomed to hear­ ing it said that criminals ought to repay their 'debt' to society. The term of obli­ gation is used too narrowly. Those who do not [commit crimes] also owe a debt The Gospel ofDuty, to their society, if only because it paus­ es to distinguish between those who [commit crimes] and those who do not" According to Buckley (p. 11). This is really the core of the argument. Buckley himself acknowledges that his reasoning is general, rather than deeply rigorous. We live in a great William P. Moulton of Liberty's readers because it touches on some matters that are worth think­ country, and we should feel gratitude, ing about but, in fact, tend to be ne­ reverence, and love toward it. He does Gratitude is William Buckley's most glected by the kind of people who marshal some heavyweight sources, controversial offering of the past fifteen should be examining them. but utilizes them sparingly. He touches years or so. Reviews from all sections WFB has long been one of the more upon the Aristotelian and Thomistic of the political spectrum were decided­ libertarian figures among the major roots of natural law, but more as they ly mixed-there were grumblings even avatars of American Conservatism. pertain to the necessity of a social order among the Conservative faithful. The Certainly his championing of the de­ and a state than as they relate to the no­ controversy did not center on style, criminalization of marijuana and his tion of civic duty. He cites Alexander readability or topicality, nor did it have mostly tolerant attitude on social issues Hamilton's observation that in the much to do with whether one, in gener­ place him at a considerable remove event of a "general distemper of the people" (what we would today call a al, liked or disliked the author. Rather, from, let us say, Russell Kirk or Pat massive alienation, disaffection, and the focus of the ferment was the book's Robertson or Ernest van den Haag. Yes, apathy) a republic had no prospect of central motif: its advocacy of a system sometimes he disappoints and some­ survival, and Pope Leo XIII's 1891 en­ of compulsory (or nearly so--see be­ times he veers off on some tangent of low) national service for American cyclical Rerum Novarum's compendium sheer silliness, viz. his one-time youth. of warnings of the dangers of an unfet­ obsession with the so-called Shroud of This was a bit much for many, may­ tered individualistic liberal order. He Turin. be most, conservatives and for at least a scatters in a few other arguments from In spite of this fairly decent record, sizable minority of liberals, although authority or, at any rate, arguments Buckley has flirted with the idea of na­ some of the latter made it fairly clear that bolster their case by reference to tional service for some time. In his 1974 that they would favor a similar propo­ authority. For some reason, Buckley ne­ sition if it were to emanate from a book Four Reforms he briefly and glects Cicero, whose careful and elo­ source having more progressive mo­ vaguely recommended something of quent delineation of the Roman tives. This book, shall we say, raised the sort, stating that it needed more concept of civitas would provide much eyebrows. thought in order to get around the ob­ more powerful backing for the idea of My primary intention in reviewing jections that would arise from those active patriotism than do the cited this opus is not to promote discussion concerned about the level of coercion in sources. of, or even to condemn, what Buckley society. In the intervening years, he has In Chapter Four, "Anticipating the advocates. I am well aware that the obviously formalized his views on the Libertarian Argument," Buckley takes number of libertarians and classical lib­ matter and, in his mind at least, over­ advantage of being able to formulate erals who are favorably disposed to­ come the objections and reservations to his opponents' positions in a manner ward any concept of national service which he alluded in his earlier book. guaranteed to maximize the ease of (as the words are used in today's politi­ Gratitude is a slim volume in eleven their refutation. He is aware, at least in cal milieu) is approximately zero. In­ short chapters of which three contain general terms, of the strong qualms stead, I bring this book to the attention almost all the meat. Chapter Two, "The and frequent outright opposition that Liberty 53 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 the very idea he is pushing rouses in has likened national service to the prin­ government would deny "some or all" many people, including many with ciples of the Hitler Youth (which WFB public subsidies to those who refuse to whom he is in profound agreement on erroneously calls the Hitler Youth participate. These would, or could, in­ most matters. As he states, "One needs Corps). clude direct payments (Social Security, ... to face up to the charge that we are Buckley's replies to classical liberal student loans, farm subsidies) indirect engaged in a grand manipulation of the arguments are rather thin. Most are dis­ revenue-enhancers (depreciations, de­ human personality by the state" (48). missed by mere specifications of the ductions, and rebates in tax policy; de­ He responds by merely observing that type, "No, this won't happen because posit guarantees; special mortgage totalitarian attempts to remake human the program will be designed so it interest rates for veterans), and, more nature (he cites only the example of doesn't happen. Next question." This is darkly, such accoutrements to civilized Maoist China) have failed: liThe idea of a favorite, and probably necessary, rhe­ life as driver's licenses, and admission Mao-ism died, officially, at Tiananmen torical technique used by authors of to certain public places of service, relax­ Square: died figuratively and literally. utopian and dystopian novels, but it is ation and entertainment. I said Buckley not very convincing outside of fiction. tried to be non-coercive. I didn't say he Finally, in Chapter Nine, Buckley tried nearly hard enough. gets to the meat of his proposal. Who Being a libertarian sometimes plac­ Buckley takes advantage of would participate? Ideally, everyone, es me in a quandary. I don't approve of being able to formulate his op­ beginning at age eighteen. For how most "benefits" on the above list. Yet ponents' positions in a manner long? Very complicated-no straight one has to make distinctions. To say answer. For convenience, let's say that one doesn't think driver's licenses guaranteed to maximize the most would serve for one to two years, should be required to let you drive is ease of their refutation. but some would stretch it out over a not the same as saying you shouldn't longer period. (Some, also, would be­ be given a driver's license. The latter gin later.) What would they do? Oh, all means, in every practical sense, you [This], followed so soon by the events sorts of things. Work at hospitals, nurs­ shouldn't be allowed to drive. Similar­ in Eastern Europe, was the gratifying ing .homes, hospices and psychiatric ly, I oppose public subsidies. I do not, answer to George Orwell. If all the in­ centers. Help with alcoholism and drug however, think I am obliged to say "I struments of Chinese Communism un­ treatment programs. Provide home would be indifferent to a federal policy der Mao were insufficient to change health care. Participate in Big Brother/ of giving farm subsides only to decent human nature, it is unlikely that ... the Big Sister programs. Do maintenance married farm couples of European state will ever be equal to the chal­ work at just about any public site. Join stock who attend church regularly, lenge" (48). This analysis is probably the Guardian Angels. Count snail dart­ since the people denied subsidies have accurate, but it doesn't seem to occur to ers. Many other things. What are the in­ no right to such bounty in the first Buckley that there are many crimes and ducements? At this point the whole place." I'm not saying that I would degrees of oppression and horror that project becomes somewhat labyrin­ state power has unleashed that do not thine. To his credit, Buckley backs aim at the creation of a new human ty­ away from overt compulsion in the pus. Robespierre, Stalin, and Mao are a form of military-style conscription. His Some libertarians veer off to­ special kind of case. To put it another arguments against coercion are more ward a sterile anti-American way, flamboyant tyranny is not the pragmatic than principled, it is true, position, forgetting that it is only, or necessarily even the most but he is, I think, sincerely trying to re­ almost impossible for a move­ complete and successful form of sta­ main within the parameters of a basi­ tism. (By very rough analogy, isn't cally pro-freedom outlook. "The ment that hates its own society Warren Beatty, rather than Ted Bundy, argument that it is [wrong] for the and nation to build anything the archetype of successful male state, should its citizens determine approaching a mass base. sexuality?) upon its advisability, to draft the entire Buckley is prescient enough to real­ eighteen-year old population for the ize that some opposition to his pro­ purpose of finally qualifying it for fully gram, even among those he respects, active ... citizenship is difficult to campaign for a restoration of the com­ will not be won over. He quotes former make.... However, prudential argu­ plete subsidy program, any more than I Reagan advisor Martin Anderson as ments against conscripted national ser­ presently go about campaigning for claiming that in programs for national vice are entirely convincing" (113). churches to be taxed. I'm simply saying service, ". .. one finds the sharp fangs So what would Buckley do? His sys­ that rejection of the root assumption be­ of coercion and compulsion, the faint tem would use a carrot-and-stick ap­ hind some so-called benefit does not whiff of envy and hatred of the young proach. The federal government would automatically mandate a moral blind­ and the ideological yearning for de­ provide some cash payments, and ex­ ness about possible abuse in its actual mands for a totalitarian society" (49). tensive tax credits, to be applied implementation. Buckley also notes that Milton Fried­ against the liabilities incurred follow­ Buckley is aware of the fact that the man (whom he describes as "my hero") ing one's national service periods. The program he advocates would result in 54 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 a two-tier system of citizenship. The and his bishops and priests but love the port for many (probably all) of the mas­ closest parallel that occurs to me is the Catholic Church. Whether conserva­ sive invasions of privacy and liberty distinction between citizens and humili­ tives can resolve this tension I do not that the state inflicts on its citizens. ores during the Roman Empire. Buck­ know, but they ought to give the mat­ We-at least, quite a few of us-want ley sees this in rather abstract and ter some thought. to exalt America and put forth a claim elevated terms. The dark side of such a As for libertarians, it has long been to be the most consistent upholders of system seems not to occur to him. He my belief that for the most part they ne­ its heritage. But too much sticks in our writes avidly of "encouraging civic dis­ glect political theory. Except for sincere throats. Some libertarians, unable to re­ tinctions" and. draws a comparison and consistent anarchists, libertarians solve this dualism, veer off toward ster­ with the distinction between veterans do not have a coherent intellectual rela­ ile anti-American or "fuck the state" and non-vets when it comes to VA ben­ tionship with the civic order under fences, forgetting that it is almost im­ efits. All this is unconvincing. Buckley which they live. I do not refer here to should be perfectly capable of visualiz­ possible for a movement that hates its ing the ugly and socially disintegrative own society and nation to build any­ effects of a society permanently divid­ thing approaching a mass base. Others ed into "good citizens" and "unpatriot­ Gratitude is worth reading, submerge all distinctions under an ic shirkers." if only to see the way in which anti-statist rubric, making the U.S. and There's not much more to say about an intelligent right-winger Britain become the moral equivalent of this book per se. Buckley presents as Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Germany, strong and reasonable a case as can be with a sincere but flawed devo­ and one's local police identical to the made for a program of national service. tion to freedom grapples with KGB or Gestapo. (Objectivist Peter It falls short in every respect­ some important issues that are Schwartz alludes to this phenomenon economic, cultural and moral. It is rid­ of interest to libertarians. Be­ with some acuity in his generally dled with evasions and false assump­ dreadful booklet "Libertarianism: The tions, not the least of which is the idea sides, it's short. Perversion of Liberty.") that there are vast areas of human Whether these tensions felt, con­ needs that cannot be provided for by sciously or otherwise, by libertarians the marketplace. His list of these mar­ grumbling about the depredations of and the better sort of conservatives can ket failures seems almost Galbraithian the State, or even to that certain feeling be resolved is, of course, a difficult in scope. Even apart from considera­ of alienation that nearly all ideologues question. For me, William F. Buckley's tions of liberty, autonomy and self­ experience in a culture such as ours. direction, Buckley simply does not struggle with them was the most inter­ What I am getting at is the fact that li­ esting aspect of Gratitude. Probably make a case that the service he envi­ bertarians don't seem to know what to most libertarians would, in the normal sions is in any sense necessary for the make of the United States of America. course of things, be inclined to pass fulfillment of "social needs," or that it Again, anarchists don't really have a would improve the tone of civil society problem, other than with the caution over this book, turned off either by its in any significant way. that prudence dictates. If one really, in subject matter or its author. It is worth This book does touch upon, with­ one's heart of hearts, regards all gov­ reading, however, to see the way in out really discussing, some issues that ernmental authority (or all authority, which an intelligent right-winger with both conservatives and libertarians period) as illegitimate, then loyalty, a sincere but flawed devotion to ought to think about. Many strong, "gratitude," identification with nation­ freedom grapples with some important free-market, limited-government con­ al leaders, and a sense of common citi­ issues that are of interest to libertari­ servatives seem to have a schizoid atti­ zenship present no problems. ans. Besides, it's short. No pictures, tude toward our particular nation­ But for the large number of libertar­ though. 0 stateo They despise government, espe­ ians who advocate limited or minimal cially the federal government, as it government, there is a tension similar functions as a day-to-day instrument of to what conservatives feel. This tension confiscation and oppression. But they is even more intense for libertarians, love "America" and despise its critics. because they embrace liberty as a cen­ * New and classic books, unabridged audio books, Such an outlook might be summed up tral political virtue. This tension mani­ videos, games, & collectibles. as "God damn those SOB feds, butif * History & biography, fests itself in various ways. Some of us literature, philosophy, eco­ you trash Uncle Sam it'll be over my revere the republic's radical Whig, nomics, privacy & personal finance, humor & political dead body!" Of course, there is a valid quasi-libertarian roots, but can't forget satire, self-defense, war & distinction between the government this is the same country whose govern­ peace, the family, children's books, and much more. and the nation. Even so, there is a con­ ment so casually sideswipes so many 1111"Call for FREE Catalog! stant tension evident in most conserva­ lives in so many ways. We tend to glo­ tive pronouncements on these matters, rify the American people for their his­ Liberty1i:ee Review and Catalogue AE9 just as would be evident within some­ toric devotion to freedom, but we can't 134 Ninety-Eighth Avenue, Oakland, CA 94603 one who professes to hate the Pope ignore the high degree of public sup- :II• Volume 5/ Number 1 September 1991

Respect for Nature: A Theory ofEnvironmental Ethics say in philosophy. That a being should by Paul W. Taylor. Princeton University Press, 1986, 398pp., $37.50. be treated in a certain way is an ought­ statement. Statements about inherent worth, which is Taylor's basic conceptu­ al tool, are ought-statements. Taylor says that to have respect for nature is to Respecting the regard the plants and animals of the earth's ecosystems as possessing inher­ ent worth; but what exactly does this UnrespectabIe mean? If we use other persons merely as means to our ends (slavery is an obvi­ that we should treat them with the John Hospers ous example), we are using them as in­ same consideration and respect. It is struments: they have instrumental wrong to inflict pain, suffering, and worth to us but not inherent worth. We The environmental movement and death on animals capable of experienc­ the animal rights movement have both treat them as having inherent worth ing these things. Such states are intrin­ when we treat them as ends-in­ achieved prominence in the last decade sically evil, and it is wrong knowingly or so. In the popular mind they are of­ themselves-for example, when we do to cause them when there is any alter­ something that contributes to their ten confused with each other, perhaps native. This is an eminently plausible because they share a common element, good even if it does not contribute to position, anticipated 200 years ago by ours. Taylor's thesis here is very Kan­ the value of non-human living things. Jeremy Bentham, who said we have Yet they are quite different; indeed, tian, except that Kant applied it only to duties to animals, not because of their human beings. Taylor takes this Kan­ each conflicts with the other at some intelligence or rationality or any other points. tian principle of treating all human be­ feature than their capacity to suffer. ings as ends-in-themselves and applies The pollution of the earth's air and Taylor, however, does not take this water, the deterioration of the soil and it to all living things. When we are con­ position. His case begins with the con­ cerned with their good and not merely the destruction of forests and wetlands, cept of a creature's good. the need to preserve endangered spe­ with what advantage we can obtain cies, the problems associated with the The Fundamentals of Respect from them, we are treating them with disposal of garbage and toxic wastes­ Most animals have interests. They all these are typical environmental is­ care what happens to them, they have sues. They focus on the general state of desires that they seek to realize. Crea­ The lioness doesn't pause to the biosphere rather than on any indi­ tures of countless species have inter­ vidual life. Animal rights advocates, on ests. But Taylor does not limit the consider whether the antelope the other hand, emphasize the sanctity scope of human duties to creatures has harmed her. Why should of all life, the wrongness of injuring with interests, wide though that scope people be different? Why and killing animals (regardless of spe­ is. He extends it to all entities that can cies), and the immorality of using ani­ be said to have a good of their own-a should the person choose not to mals for our ends. much broader concept, which includes harm rather than to harm? Paul Taylor's book is unique in its many species that have no interests at combination of both emphases. Taylor all. Plants do not have interests, yet is an environmentalist, yet he is also they can be harmed or benefited. convinced of the wrongness of taking Things happen to them and can be respect. "The entity in question must animal lives. Unlike Tom Regan, who done to them that promote or inhibit not only be thought of as having a good wrote The Case for Animal Rights l_a their lives. Something may contribute of its own; it must also be regarded as book that Taylor's somewhat resem­ to the good of an individual organism having inherent worth. When so re­ bles-Taylor does not defend a theory without contributing to the good of the garded, the entity is considered to be of animal rights: that is, he does not entire species-such as fertilizing a par­ worthy of respect on the part of all moral hold that individual animals have any ticular plant. And something may con­ agents" (72). claims against us, but only that we have tribute to the good of the entire species Worth is different from merit. certain obligations toward animals. even if it harms or kills the individual Someone who is a good carpenter has Though in practice their views often member-the individual deer may be more merit as a carpenter than some­ seem similar, their basic approaches eaten by predators, but the loss of one who is incompetent. The merits of are strikingly different. For Regan, the weaker or sickly members contributes individuals are unequal: that is, indi­ creatures who possess rights, and to to the good of the species and indeed viduals vary in the degree to which whom human beings have duties, are of the whole ecosystem (p. 70). they fulfill standards of merit for a giv­ sentient beings, capable of sensation and That a being has a good of its own en enterprise. Merit involves much in­ feeling. It is because animals can expe­ (that it can be harmed, for example) is a dividual variation; worth does not. "If rience pain and suffering, as people do, fact about it. It is an is-statement, as we we regard persons as possessing inher- 56 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 ent worth as persons, then they all pos­ humans lack. There is the flight of sess the same worth, since it is their birds, the speed of a cheetah, the power Learn at simple personhood itself which is the of photosynthesis in the leaves of ground of their worth" (77). plants, the craftsmanship of spiders Liberty Now, if one stipulates that the spinning their webs. .. ." (129) The phrase "inherent worth" is going to be speed of locomotion promotes the chee­ Liberty offers full-time internships to students of all majors interested in journal­ used in such a way that only one tah's life just as reason promotes (or can ism, writing, political philosophy or public thing-being a person-is to count to­ promote) human life. policy. Positions are available at all times ward a person having it, then, since Human survival, Taylor reminds us, of the year. everyone is (equally) a person, every­ is totally dependent on the health of the For further infonnation, write Liberty, one has equal inherent worth. Q.E.D. earth's biosphere, but the well-being of PO Box 1167, Port Townsend, WA 98368. But this is a mere linguistic victory. If the biosphere in no way depends on hu­ you use the terms that way, the conclu­ man life. The environment got along sion follows. Similarly, if the only thing quite well for millions of years before that gives non-human species inherent people came into existence (114). And Celebrate the 1991 worth is (as Taylor says) that they are the loss of human beings from this plan­ Bill of Rights Bicentennial living organisms that can be harmed or et would not be a loss to any wild spe­ benefited, then of course it follows that cies; in fact they would be better off ...and defend your rights all living things have the same inherent because their air and water would notbe by promoting public awareness••. worth. (And if we use the word "trian­ polluted and their habitats destroyed. gle" to mean grass, and all grass is One more concept: something has with a Bill of Rights T.. Shirt green, then all triangles are green.) intrinsic value for us when we find it en­ from IDEALOGOI The phrase "inherent worth" is not joyable or pleasant or worth-while for Featuring the original manuscript on front and ten much used in popular parlance. But its own sake. The experience of enjoy­ ratified amendments on back. Parchment color, "worth" by itself is, and as we ordinari­ ing music is intrinsically worth-while preshrunk, heavyweight, 100% cotton T-Shirts. Available in S, M, L, XL sizes ly use it, people have very different even though it may lead to nothing in for $12 per shirt plus $2 shipping. worths. We consider an honest, reliable the future-that is, it may have no in­ IDEALOGO™. PO Box 897T· Mtn View, CA 94042 person to have greater worth than strumental value. Even the experience Please indicate size, and allow 2 to 3 weeks for UPS delivery. someone who regularly lies and cheats. of getting high from a dangerous drug _____y~u~s!.t~~t~n~s~n.:o~d~~~y.§~r!.n~~. ..J They might both be said to have the is intrinsically worth-while, although it same "initial worth" in the sense of be­ is instrumentally bad-it may lead to a ing equally worthy of consideration (or lifelong addiction in which all other of a fair chance), just as everyone is values are crowded out. The experience Challenge said to be equal before the law (deserv­ of pleasure is intrinsically good, and of ing of equal consideration). In any case, pain intrinsically bad, though some many people will object strongly to pleasure is instrumentally bad (leads to to Liberty Taylor's allegation that all living things misery and distress) and some pain is Coming to Grips with have equal inherent worth. Human be­ instrumentally good (for example, ings, they say, have greater worth; hu­ when it leads to the correction of a dis­ the Abortion Issue mans have rationality, freedom of eased condition). by Ron Paul, M.D. choice, a sense of right and wrong­ Most writers on ethics and animals, and no other animal has these things. myself included, 2 have made extensive A unique approach to the abor­ Therefore, they say, human beings have use of the concept of intrinsic value, be­ tion question from a man who greater worth. cause only sentient beings are capable has served as both lawmaker Taylor opposes any suggestion that of experiencing pleasure or satisfaction and physician. Dr. Paul, an ob­ stetrician/gynecologis~ has de­ human beings have greater inherent (positive intrinsic value) and pain and livered thousands of babies and worth. We have capacities that other distress (negative intrinsic value), and witnessed the abortion dilemma animals lack, he says, but they also the capacity for such experience seems first-hand. A member of Con­ have capacities that we lack. If we say to define our duties to animals. Taylor, gress from 1976 to 1984, and that human beings have rationality, however, does not take this line; intrin­ the 1988 Libertarian Candidate and therein lies their greater worth, it sic value plays no great role in his for President of the United can be replied that antelopes and jack­ book. For Taylor our duties to animals States, he is eminently qualified to evaluate abortion's challenge rabbits are swifter, and are superior in are based on their having a good of to the idea and practice of that respect. ''Why should these capaci­ their own, which has different content freedom. ties be taken as signs of our superiority from one species to another. to them? From what point of view are "Respect for nature" is what Taylor 105pp. $10.00 ea. they judged to be signs of superiority, calls an ultimate moral attitude. Taylor Ron Paul & Associates, Inc. and on what ground? After all, many takes this attitude to have several 1120 Nasa Blvd, Suite 104 non-human species have capacities that components: Houston, TX 77058 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

1) A disposition to make certain clothing, using them in medical experi­ it comes down to individual cases, it is judgments, specifically "to regard all ments, and making human labor easier. far from clear which particular actions wild living things in the earth's natural And among animals that serve no par­ exhibit respect for nature and which do ecosystems as possessing inherent ticular material function we tend to fa­ not. When, for example, are we harm­ worth" (the valuational dimension); vor animals we like: some people like ing other creatures? If capturing and 2) The disposition to aim at certain dogs better than cats, others cats better training falcons is wrong, as Taylor ends and pursue certain purposes, spe­ than dogs, but not many like rats. says, .what about taming horses and cifically to avoid harming or interfering One wonders whether Taylor be­ riding them, or harnessing them to the with the natural status of wild living lieves there is anything wrong with wagon or the plough? We are certainly things (the conative dimension); this: we can't really help liking X better interfering with their lives, and making 3) The disposition to follow. rules of than Y; it is not clear why we should them do things that (at least at the time) behavior that are conducive to that end not act on this preference-as we all do they don't want to do. Sometimes they (the practical dimension); in choosing a marriage partner. do have a better life afterward, but are The Rule of Non-Maleficence we harming them when we do these things? Among the major implications of Killing animals in experimental la­ Suppose that your dog is be­ Taylor's view for our day-to-day ac­ ing slowly bled to death by tions is the rule of non-maleficence. ''The boratories, for however worth-while a most fundamental wrong in the ethics purpose, would seem to be prohibited woodticks, in places where the of respect for nature is to harm some­ by Taylor's rule-the rats and guinea dog cannot reach. Are you mo­ thing that does not harm us" (172). pigs have not harmed us. The animals rally required to be impartial A falcon kills a hawk. This doesn't killed in hunting them for sport have violate the rule, says Taylor, because the not harmed us either. Neither for that as between predator and prey, falcon is not a moral agent, and is inca­ matter have the animals we kill for letting the dog bleed because pable of wrongdoing, even though it food or hides. If you take the rule to you shouldn't intervene in na­ does harm the hawk. Only human be­ mean exactly what it says, we cannot ings are moral agents and thus capable use animal skins for protection against ture's workings? of wrongdoing. But if a falcon has been freezing, unless you happen to find an taken from the wild by a falconer, who animal that is already dead and then trains it to hunt and kill other birds, this skin it. The animals we kill for food 4) The disposition to have certain is a violation of the rule, because it is a haven't harmed us either, and this in­ feelings with respect to nature, e.g. to bit of human conduct that is aimed at cludes fish as .well as livestock. Taylor feel pleased about the maintenance and "controlling and manipulating an or­ apparently. commits us to vegetar­ prospering of wild communities of life ganism for the enjoyment of a sport that ianism. (the affective dimension). People show involves harm to other wild organisms. The practical implications are enor­ respect for nature when they act "out of A wrong is beingdonebut notby the fal­ mous. It may be possible to live as a consideration and concern for the good con, even though it is the falcon which vegetarian in 1990 (at least in the Unit­ of wild liVing things" (84). does the actual killing and even though ed States), but it was not possible, in Respect is not the same thing as the birds it kills are its natural prey. The most parts of the world, in 1790. And love. "Respect is not a matter of simple wrong that is done to those birds is a our ancestors who Iived in the Ice Age personal affection the way love of na­ wrong done by the falconer" (173). could not have survived, and thus ture is" (90). In respect for nature one is One may wonder why we should made our own existence possible, by concerned about nature's well-being. have such a rule: after all, other animals living on plants. One may have a special fondness for a constantly harm creatures that have not As if anticipating these obviousdiffi­ particular species, and this is a part of harmed them. The lioness doesn't culties, Taylor has provided an escape­ one's love of nature in general. But re­ pause to consider whether the antelope hatch. "It may be the case," he says, spect is not based on any such emotion­ has harmed her. Why should people be "that in circumstances where the only al appeal. That an animal or plant is different? Perhaps the lioness, like oth­ means for obtaining food or clothing es­ attractive to us is irrelevant to our er animals, just does what she has been sential to human survival is by hunting, adopting an attitude of respect toward genetically programmed to do, whereas trapping, or fishing, these actions are it. We may not even like the creatures in a person has freedom of choice and can morally permissible" (183). The reason question; they may be uninteresting or choose to harm or not to harm. But he gives isthat "the duty to providefot repulsive to us. But their unattractive­ why should the person choose not to human survival"-thoughhe hasnot till ness to us should in no way affect our harm rather than to harm? The usual now mentioned this as a duty­ impartial concern for their well-being. answer seems to be "Because for a hu­ outweighsthe dutiesof non-maleficence Most people, most of the time, do man being to inflict unnecessary suffer­ and non-interference. Once the rule has not have this disinterested concern for ing or pain is wrong." But this is not been diluted, the waters are confusingly living things. Pepple tend to care most Taylor's reply. He would say, rather, muddied, and one wonders what other about the animals they can use in some that harming other organisms is at exceptions may be looming on the hori­ way--eating them, using their skins as odds with respect for nature. Yet when zon. (If trapping animals is permissible, 58 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 that's already a bigexception.) sheep and cows for food, then the Indeed, some are: in a later passage whole thrust of Taylor's argument is Ayn Rand and (293) he considers "the hunting of quite opposed to that of Peter Singer's whales and seals in the Arctic, or the defense of vegetarianism because of Her Movetnenf killing and eating of wild goats and the cruelty involved in raising and kill­ In an exclusive interview, Barbara sheep by those living at high altitudes ing livestock, particularly on today's Branden reveals intimate details of in mountainous regions. In these cases factory farms. 3 Taylor, by contrast, life inside Rand's circle. The it is impossible to raise enough domes­ seems to have no compunctions about fascinating topics include the weird ticated animals to supply food for a cul­ this at all. psychological manipulations within ture's populace, and geographical If we ignore these exceptions and the group, the expulsion of members conditions preclude dependence on take Taylor at his original word, then in kangaroo courts, the glaring errors in Nathaniel Branden's memoir about plant life as a source of nutrition." The we get a suicidal result: if we can't kill his affair with Rand, and Rand's fight reason given here is that "if humans re­ animals and can't use plants as food, in a posh Manhattan restaurant with what is left? Life can live only on other frain from eating animals in those cir­ Alan Greenspan. life-that's the way the system works. cumstances they would in effect be This account, expanded from its sacrificing their lives for the sake of ani­ We inevitably kill millions of micro­ original printing in the January 1990 mals, and no requirement to do that is organisms every time we take a step Liberty, includes information that imposed by respect for nature." Well onto the grass. Anyway, Taylor says it cannot be found in any other source. and good-but "something's got to is "less wrong" (295) to kill plants than And it is available only from Liberty go," it would seem-if killing animals to kill animals-though I am far from Publishing. is permissible in these circumstances, sure what "less wrong" means: if an act we must amend the rule that we is wrong at all, it would seem, it can't $4.00 per copy, ppd. shouldn't harm those creatures that be right. Or is this a way of introducing don't harm us. And it surely waters still more qualifications to the non­ Liberty Publishing down his commitment to vegetarian­ maleficence rule? PO Box 1167 Port Townsend, WA 98368 ism, though I am not quite sure by how The argument for vegetarianism much. that Taylor emphasizes is a pragmatic There is yet another qualification to one that is not a consequence of his the rule. It is permissible, says Taylor rule. It takes five times more acreage to (294), to kill wild animals for food produce a pound of protein from cattle The Liberty Poll "where environmental conditions make than from vegetables. "We can drasti­ What Libertarians Think it impossible to use domesticated ani­ cally reduce the amount of cultivated land needed for human food produc­ The first detailed study of what liber­ mals or to grow edible plants." In this tarians think about life, government, tion by changing from a meat-eating as in numerous other passages one gets God, sex, heroes ... and how they the impression, though it is not said culture to a vegetarian culture ... Veg­ would deal with some serious moral straight out, that killing domesticated etarians use much less of the surface of problems. Now complete with data from animals is all right (perhaps because the Earth to sustain themselves than do the original poll to Liberty subscribers meat-eaters. And the less humans use and the poll of Libertarian Party for themselves the more there is for members. other species" (296). But this "empirical $4.00 each, ppd.; argument" won't work. If we were all $3.00 each for 5 or more copies. Taylor opposes any sugges­ Liberty Publishing vegetarians we could get along on tion that human beings have PO Box 1167 much less acreage. But in a short time Port Townsend, WA 98368 greater inherent worth. We the ever-increasing human population have capacities that other ani­ would expand onto that spare acreage (would we really give it over to the r------, mals lack, he says, but they "They that can give up essential liberty : birds and the buffalo?); the saving also have capacities that we to obtain a little temporary safety : would soon be more than offset by the deserve neither liberty nor safety. .. I lack. increased population requiring that Benjamin Franklin protein. There would be less acreage (back) (front) reqUired per person, but there would be more people. 4 .Q~M they are not "natural species"-or be­ T-SHIRTS cause they have been raised for that A Lack of Reciprocity • white T-Shirt purpose?). This would really put an Suppose a creature does harm us; • 100% cotton heavyweight enormous dent in Taylor's vegetarian­ now killing it is all right, just as it is all preshrunk ism, making his position not very dif­ right to kill a human interloper in self­ • sizes S,M,L,XL ferent from that of the normal defense. But does this mean "if they • $12 per shirt +$2 shipping American consumer of beef, lamb, and have harmed us"? Once a lion or bear IDEALOGO™. PO Box 897T • Mtn View, CA 94042 pork. If indeed it is all right to kill has harmed us it's probably too late for Please indicate size, and allow 2 to 3 weeks for UPS delivery. L Your satisfaction is unconditionally guaranteed. _ Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 retaliatory measures; to save ourselves we wish, because every creature is a se­ falcon, which had been extirpated from we have to strike first. Or perhaps he rious threat to some other creature? one of the original habitats.... In all cir­ means "if they may harm us, but cumstances of this sort, however, the fi­ haven't done so yet"? But they always The Rule of Non-Intervention nal end of the human practices involved Taylor's second rule is even more may, I suppose: one dog in ten thou­ must be to promote or protect the good sand may bite you, so should you take extensive: not only should we not harm of the creatures themselves" (94). what hasn't harmed us, we should retaliatory measures against any dog Let's say I see, on the beach, a wa­ leave nature quite alone; we should not you see? Or perhaps it means "if they ter-bird whose foot is caught under a intervene in its processes or in any wild rock. In this case the injury is not the re­ ereature's life or activity. We should sult of anything that humans have "let wild creatures live out their lives in done-so this is not a case of restitu­ Taylor seems to assume that freedom" (174). We may not take them tion. Should I let the bird suffer a slow from the wild, or put them in zoos, or the system of nature is perfect death under the rock? Surely almost adopt them as pets-not even by taking as it is-nature with its merci­ anyone would think of my rescuing the them out of danger, not even restoring bird as a commendable action: I am not less machinery for keeping the them to health if they have become ill only easing its pain, I am enabling the in the wild (174) . We break this rule, fittest alive and throwing the creature to be healed, to fly again, and rest aside, nature with its vast says Taylor, even when we take trees or flowers and transplant them in land­ to realize its own good-to fly freely in profusion of creatures suffering scaped grounds, or exhibit them where accordance with its nature. Why should from pain or starvation or be­ more people can see them. We must I not help nature along a bit? Why is it incumbent on me never to change na­ ing torn to pieces by predators "refrain from capturing them and re­ moving them from their natural habi­ ture except to rectify bad situations that or strangled by snakes. tats, no matter how well we might then humans have brought about? treat them" (174). It would be wrong to But Taylor is tough on this point: take a parrot from the jungle (even the duty of non-intervention "holds probably will harm us." This is more from an area overpopulated by parrots) even if such intervention is motivated plausible, but quite indeterminate. Per­ and give it a secure life in your house, by a desire to help a species-population haps you may shoot a lion if he is tak­ or even in a zoo. survive or a desire to correct natural ing an unfriendly interest in you, but In general, I agree, non-interference imbalances in a biotic community" not when it is lying placidly on the with nature is usually good advice. For (176). If a species is endangered by past ground. At what point one's life is one thing, humans have done much human interventions such as DDT, we threatened is not always clear. damage to nature, polluting the air and should help it survive to be as it was It would seem, according to Taylor, rivers and oceans, destroying rain­ prior to human intervention, but if it that if you walk in an area where there forests and creating future deserts, and would have become extinct without hu­ are grizzly bears and one of them at­ eradicating numerous plant and animal man intervention, we should allow the tacks you, you can kill it in self-defense. species. Moreover, even when we inter­ extinction to occur even if we could But then again, what are you doing in­ vene with good intentions we often have prevented it. vading its terrain? Isn't the bear simply make things worse. "Don't feed the When rabbits were introduced to protecting its own turf, as you would monkeys!" (or other animals in the Australia, they bred so fast that they al­ yours? Aren't you the interloper? wild) is advice one constantly hears on most took over the continent; to prevent And if you can defend yourself safari: they get used to being fed, then ecological catastrophe they were killed against dangerous wild creatures, what become vicious when they are not; by the millions. Doubtless Taylor about defending others? Can you kill a worse yet, they can become unable to would approve: it was people who in­ dangerous creature if it is a threat to survive in the wild. When we don't troduced these mammals into a conti­ anyone? A cobra is a threat to virtually know exact!y what we are doing we nent that lacked them, and the anyone in its proximity, so perhaps you usually produce a long string of unin­ slaughter of rabbits could be regarded should kill it before someone in your tended and unforeseen bad conse­ as restitution to all the native creatures family or the village suffers a horrible quences. But Taylor's command "never that were killed. (More precisely, it was death? interfere" is worrisome. restitution to other members of the spe­ And where does this end? Danger­ The onlyintervention thatTaylor ap­ cies; to those killed no restitution can be ous animals threaten not only humans proves is intervention that is restitution made.) This example illustrates dramat­ but other animals. Why protect only for damages people have already done. ically the difference between Taylor's oneself, after all, or even just one's own "Some interference with or manipula­ view and the animal rights view. For species? Here Taylor puts us in a box. tion of the natural world by humans is animal rights advoc_ates the rabbits And if we extend our considerations to compatible with respect for nature ... were as much subjects-of-a-life as any threats of starvation because of the [e.g.] when a polluted river, lake, or other creature, and they should not be scarcity of essential resources, things marshland is cleaned up. Another ex­ made to die: to kill them was to put an become even weirder. Don't we end up ample would be the effort to reintro­ undeserved end to their existence. True, having permission to kill any creature duce a species, such as the peregrine the rabbits ate the crops and whatever 60 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

else they came across, but these actions course, as when park rangers let thou­ impulse to be stifled in the interests of were not wrong on the part of the rab­ sands of elk starve to death every win­ "respect for nature"? By alleViating the bits because rabbits are not moral ter in Yellowstone Park. But when a dog's distress may I not be causing the agents and can do no right or wrong. species such as the grizzly is endan­ universe to contain just one bit of extra gered, we intervene to save it. Laissez-faire? intrinsic good, particularly if ticks in How far then should the rule be car­ Attitudes Towards Nature being killed feel no pain but the dog be­ ried, "Leave nature alone"? Should we Following Peter Singer, Taylor en­ fore being relieved of the ticks feels not try to prevent natural catastrophes, treats us to avoid not only racism (giv­ very great pain? such as fires that if they spread will kill ing unfair advantage to members of In view of the current overpopula­ thousands of birds and trees? Perhaps one race over another) and sexism (giv­ tion of cats, and the fact that many of we shouldn't-we are learning more ing unfair advantage to one sex over them die of starvation in our cities, about what benefits periodic fires con­ another), but also species-ism. By this fer on the soil in forest country. But is Taylor means that we should not play that always the case? Must the non­ favorites among creatures or species, It may be possible to live as intervention rule be inflexible, with no since they all have the same inherent exceptions? Couldn't there be some worth. But this is surely contrary to our a vegetarian in 1990, but it fires that it would be best to stop? How usual attitudes and practice: we tend to was not possible in 1790. And does one know this, prior to a descrip­ see animals as friendly or hostile, valu­ our ancestors who lived in the tion of the individual case? able to us or useless, beautiful or repul­ Should we never construct bridges sive. We see a snake kill a bird, and Ice Age could not have sur­ and dams, never try to redirect the consider the snake an evil aggressor vived, and thus made our own course of a river? Such activities can and the bird an innocent victim. We existence possible, by living on greatly affect wildlife. Sometimes empathize with the antelope being eat­ building a dam might facilitate a revi­ en by a lion, though the lion is only do­ plants. val in a flagging bird or insect popula­ ing what nature equipped it to do­ tion, or enable a species to flourish what as a carnivore it must do to stay which would otherwise become extinct alive. We should not even take sides, many of us think (and veterinarians al­ because of drought, or threat of starva­ says Taylor, against the bacteria and in most unanimously) it would be a good tion (no fish to eat), or being overrun favor of the larger organisms whom the idea to have female kittens spayed. by local predators. Surely there could bacteria can kill. We should remain When I have this done, I am not taking be conditions in which we could rescue neutral as between predator and prey, away from the cat a satisfying life, but I parasite and host, disease-causing and am preventing an increase in the num­ diseased. (Even when we are being ber of cats. Surely this is a good thing killed by germs?) to do? But it is a clear and unmistakable Why should purposeful ac­ Though our attitudes toward ani­ intervention in the course of nature. (So tion on our part necessarily be mals depends upon our interests, Tay­ is putting painlessly out of the way ani­ worse than the impersonal op­ lor says that we ought not allow this mals born lame or blind or diseased.) partiality towards certain kinds of crea­ Yet Taylor seems adamant on this: eration of nature's laws and tures keep us from giving them all we must keep hands off. Why? Because processes? Nature is, it seems, equal respect. Presumably giving them "by doing so our conduct manifests a totally indifferent to the suffer­ all equal respect has some consequences profound regard for the integrity of the for action-but precisely what? Sup­ system of nature. Even when a whole ing of its creatures. pose that your dog is being slowly bled ecosystem has been seriously disturbed to death by woodticks, in places where by a natural disaster (earthquake, vol­ the dog cannot reach. Are you morally canic eruption, flood, drought, etc.) we a species of great beauty or other value required to be impartial as between are duty-bound not to intervene to try to (value to us, presumably) from extinc­ predator and prey, letting the dog repair the damage" (176). Taylor seems tion? And in that case why should we bleed because you shouldn't intervene to have an unwritten assumption here, not do it? Just out of reverence for Tay­ in nature's workings? We need not con­ that the system of nature is perfect as it is­ lor's non-intervention rule? And would sider the woodticks as evil-they are nature with its merciless machinery for this not be (as some philosophers have surviving in the only way they can. keeping the fittest alive and throwing said of rule-utilitarianism) mere rule­ Nevertheless may I not be justified in the rest aside, nature with its vast profu­ worship? removing the ticks from the dog-not sion of creatures suffering from pain or We must weigh one value against necessarily because it is my dog (thus starvation or being torn to pieces by others. Sometimes we'll decide that in­ eliminating one kind of partiality)-I predators or strangled by snakes. Why tervention is on the whole better in a might do it for a passing stray-but be­ is that system so perfect that we may not given case. To make non-intervention cause the dog is in dire distress and I alter it-not its laws (we can't do that), an exceptionless rule is too stringent. can alleviate his pain? Doesn't that but certain particular circumstances in Sometimes we let nature take its count at all? Or is every humanitarian which the laws operate? Liberty 61 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

Admittedly many of our most hu­ Thirty years ago, the publication of a new dictionary was a scandal. mane efforts will be counter­ productive. If predators are removed from a region to protect the deer, the deer population explodes and then, lacking natural enemies, they multiply until the grasses and shrubs are eaten down to the ground and the land can The War ofthe Words no longer support the kind of vegeta­ tion on which the deer have previously survived. (That has happened in the American Southwest.) It seems that donald wrote that Webster's lexicogra­ prey-species can't long endure without Sheldon L. Richman phers "have untuned the string, made a predators to kill the weaker members sop of the solid structure of English, of the species. But I count this as a trag­ This year is the thirtieth anniversary and encouraged the language to eat up ic aspect of nature's workings, not of the great dictionary brouhaha. I was himself." something I revere as a part of my "re­ only twelve years old in 1961, and hav­ Jacques Barzun, writing in The spect for nature." Nature awes me (and ing grown up believing that nothing is American Scholar, called the Third "un­ this may be the underlying spring of less controversial than the dictionary, I doubtedly the longest political pamph­ the respect), but it also appalls me. was shocked to learn years later that it let ever put together by a party. Its 2662 Why should purposeful action on could create the kind of storm you large pages embody-and often preach our part necessarily be worse than the would only expect in response to an by suggestion-a dogma that far tran­ impersonal operation of nature's laws archbishop's being caught handing scends the limits of lexicography." The and processes? Nature is, it seems, total­ over state secrets to a Russian agent in New York Times referred to the diction­ ly indifferent to the suffering of its crea­ a bordello run by satanists. But that is ary as "Webster's Third (or Bolshevik) tures. The way to make a species the response that greeted Merriam­ International." The journal of the prosper, as nature is now, is for the fit­ Webster when it brought out its Web­ American Bar Association editorialized test to survive at the expense of the less ster's Third New International Dictionary. darkly that "a serious blow has recently fit, sentencing them to the extreme pen­ What could have caused such an befallen the cause of good English." Im­ alty, death, for what is not their fault. outcry? Many journalist-reviewers and agine that coming from lawyers! But it doesn't follow that we should nev­ some of our most respected newspa­ Perhaps the deepest insult was the er intervene on behalf of nature's crea­ pers and magazines denounced the declaration by the Times, The Washing­ tures, even though such attempts are Third as a permissive affront to every ton Post, and Life that they would con­ often futile, any more than that a person standard of decency. The critics tinue using Webster's Second. This should never rebel against a tyranny. charged that by adopting the modernist reaction undoubtedly inspired the "Nature, red in tooth and claw," notion that use determines propriety, American Heritage Publishing Compa­ wrote Tennyson, "with ravine, shrieks Merriam-Webster had abdicated its sol­ ny to announce that it would buy Mer­ against man's creed." And shouldn't emn responsibility to guide those who riam-Webster, junk the Third, bring we shriek against nature's ways? Can't consulted its dictionary. The abdication back the Second, and press ahead on a more good sometimes be accomplished took the form of labeling too few words Fourth. American Heritage failed to ac­ by not doing things nature's way? Per­ "nonstandard," "substandard," and quire the company (Encyclopedia Bri­ haps respect for nature is not a proper "slang," and of eliminating the label tannica got it; there is still no Fourth in attitude. Is a nature that operates as it "colloquial." the works), so it published its own dic­ does worthy of our respect? 0 How deeply the dictionary offended tionary, one dedicated to preserving can been seen in the intensity of the the purity of American English with Notes criticism. Merriam-Webster was damn­ the help of a panel of distinguished 1. Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights. ed for joining the "say-it-as-you-go writers and speakers-who agreed on Berkeley: University of California Press, school," which imperiled our ability to little except that the Third was a 1983. 2. See my article "Liberty and Ecology," Lib­ communicate. Wilson Follett's review travesty. erty, September 1988, and the follow-up in The Atlantic was titled "Sabotage in The reviewers criticized some forty article, "Humanity vs. Nature," Liberty, Springfield." (Springfield, Massachu­ items out of 450,000 words. Most com­ March 1990. setts, is home to Merriam-Webster.) monly mentioned were ain't, finalize, ir­ 3. Peter Singer, Animal Liberation. Prentice­ Follett called the Third "a fighting doc­ regardless, due to, disinterested (as a Hall, 1975. ument ... out to destroy every obsti­ synonym for uninterested), like (as a con­ 4. For more on this, see an excellent recent nate vestige of linguistic punctilio, ... junction), transpire (for happen), different book on ecology, In Defense of the Land Eth­ every criterion for distinguishing be­ than, and infer (as a synonym for imply). ic, by J. Baird Callicott (Albany: State Uni­ versity of New York Press, 1989), and tween better usages·and worse .... Other detested words or usages were Holmes Rolston II, Philosophy Gone Wild Why have a dictionary if anything alright, bimonthly (to mean twice a (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1986). goes?" In The New Yorker, Dwight Mac- month), contact (as a verb), enormity (as 62 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

a synonym for enormousness), implement scribing what Life, the Washington Post, English published The English Language (as a verb), none (with a plural verb), and the New York Times are doing." He Arts. The document, a product of mod­ shambles, unique (with a qualifier), dep­ ended his review by saying that "any­ ern structural linguistics, touted five recate (as a synonym for depreciate), and one who solemnly announces in the principles as the foundation of the fortuitous (to mean lucky). year 1962 that he will be guided in mat­ teaching of English: 1. language chang­ Philip Gove, editor at Merriam­ ters of English usage by a dictionary es constantly; 2. change is normal; 3. Webster, defended his dictionary in the published in 1934 is talking ignorant spoken language is the language; 4. cor­ Times and elsewhere. He justified the and pretentious nonsense." rectness rests upon usage; and 5. all us­ dropping of colloquial on grounds that A lesser dictionary publisher could age is relative. It rejected the terms it "has been almost universally misun­ not have excited this controversy. Mer­ "good English" and "bad English," ex­ derstood and misused by being read as riam-Webster is the legal descendant of cept in a relative sense, defining good an arrow calling attention .to words to Noah Webster, who published his first English as "that form of speech which be avoided. It became clear that the American Dictionary of the English Lan­ is appropriate to the purpose of the sharp distinction between formal and guage in 1828. After Webster died in speaker, true to the language as it is, informal was never as clear as some­ 1843, George and Charles Merriam times drawn in the Second Edition and bought the right to use his name. (It is certainly not among professional writ­ now in the public domain.) In 1909 G. & ers." On another occasion he wrote that C. Merriam Co. published its first Web­ The vitality of English lies "there are many different degrees of ster's New International Dictionary, with in the freedom it encourages. standard usage which cannot be distin­ over 400,000 entries. The second edition The freedom of English is in­ guished by status labels." followed in 1934. This dictionary be­ conceivable in such a language Other defenders argued that the came the bible of the American lan­ role of a dictionary is to report on the guage, the Supreme Authority as French, where everything is current state of the language, not on the (Merriam-Webster's slogan) in matters condemned that does not con­ prejudices of the lexicographer. They of definition, usage, and pronunciation. form to a definite set of rules said that the Third gave more guidance From the courtroom to the sitting room, than the critics intimated, with notes looking it up in Webster became the un­ laid down by grammarians. such as "used by speakers and writers appealable method of resolving seman­ tic disputes. Equally important in laying the and comfortable to speaker and listen­ The New York Times called groundwork for the battle was the in­ er. It is the product of custom, neither it "Webster's Third (or Bolshe­ creasing prominence of the science of cramped by rule nor freed from all con­ linguistics. Linguists study how people straint; it is never fixed, but changes vik) International." The jour­ use the language; they do not judge that with the organic life of the language." nal of the American Bar use. As the linguist Charles C. Fries put Bad English, it continued, "is that use of Association editorialized darkly it: "There can ... never be in grammar language which is unclear, ineffective, an error that is both very bad and very and inappropriate to the linguistic occa­ that"a serious blow has recent­ common." This was a break from the sion, no matter how traditional, 'cor­ ly befallen the cause of good traditional view, best expressed by the rect' or elegant the words or phrases English." Imagine that com­ post-Civil War commentator Richard employed." Since it had been issued by Grant White (whom Harvey A. Daniels English teachers, the document consti­ ing from lawyers! calls the Edwin Newman of his day): tuted for some a danger to the children "There is a misuse of words which can of the United States. The prescriptivists be justified by no authority, however were ready for a fight. on all educational levels though disap­ great, by no usage, however general." Gove was a perfect adversary. He proved by some ·grammarians." Ber­ This clash of standards, perhaps cul­ subscribed to the linguists' five princi­ gen Evans, a rare "liberal" language tures, between the descriptivists and ples and insisted that a dictionary commentator, pointed out that the is­ prescriptivists often touched political "should have no traffic with ... artifi­ sue of the New York Times containing and philosophical issues, such as egali­ cial notions of correctness or superiori­ its critical editorial had 153 words and tarianism, relativism, and skepticism. In ty. It must be descriptive and not constructions not recognized by Web­ particular, the prescriptivists implied prescriptive." But had Gave's diction­ ster's Second and nineteen condemned that the disbelief in external linguistic ary broken radically with past lexicog­ outright. '1n short, all these publica­ standards (beyond the requirements of raphy? It seems not, although Merriam­ tions are written in the language that clarity) necessarily entails a disbelief in Webster's press release indicated it had. the Third International describes, even objective moral standards. Most lexicographers had been descripti­ the very editorials which scorn it. And The descriptivists openly threatened vists. Although Samuel Johnson had as­ this is no coincidence, because the the established order in 1952 when the pired at first to preserve the purity of Third International isn't setting up any Commission on the English Curriculum English with his dictionary, by the time new standards at all; it is simply de- of the National Council of Teachers of he wrote the preface, he had changed Liberty 63 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 his mind: "[1] now begin to fear that I It may be only a coincidence, but many writers seem uninterested in us­ have indulged expectation which just as the anniversary of the great dic­ ing it correctly." neither reason nor experience can justi­ tionary brouhaha was approaching But the usage dictionary, taking fy.... the lexicographer [may] be derid­ Merriam-Webster published its first more than two pages, shows that the ed, who ... shall imagine that his Webster's Dictionary of English Usage. story is not so tidy. Itnotes that the ear­ dictionarycanembalmhis language...." Professor John Algeo once said that liest meaning of disinterested, before Likewise, the Encyclopedia Britanni­ "anyone who compares usage books 1612, was the simple negative of inter­ ca's ninth edition (1875-1889) noted will recognize that they propagate by ested. The ethical sense was apparently that the lexicographer's intention inbreeding." The authors of these first used in 1659. "Curiously," it goes should be "not to reform the language, books, having the same notion of stan- on, "the earliest uses of uninterested are but to present it with all its caprices, for ethical senses (both 17th century); anomalies, irregularities, beauties, de­ the modern use is not attested until fects -in a word, as the nation has "The English language 1771." So in the beginning the mean­ made it." Dr. Isaac K. Funk, in the pref­ ings of the two words were reversed ace to the 1913 Standard Dictionary of would not have been what it is from what the usage authorities say the English Language, added his emi­ if the English had not been for they should be. Samuel Johnson's and nent voice to this view: "The chief func­ centuries great respecters of Noah Webster's dictionaries listed both tion of a dictionary is to record usage." meanings for disinterested. But con­ And Clarence L. Barnhart's general in­ the liberties of each individual trary to the commentators, the usage troduction to the highly regarded 1957 and if everybody had not been dictionary concludes that the distinc­ Random House American College Dic­ free to strike out new paths for tion between the words has not been tionary said this: "This dictionary lost and that the ethical sense of disin­ records the usage of the speakers and himself·" terested "is used more than twice as of­ writers of our language; no dictionary ten (in published writing) as the other founded on the methods of modern sense." scholarship can prescribe as to usage; it dard English, tend to offer the same A similar revision is found in the en­ can only inform on the basis of the facts kind of advice, though they disagree on tryon aggravate. The "worsen" and "an­ of usage." The dictionary included an many concrete issues. Professor Algeo noy" senses came along fourteen years article on usage by Charles C. Fries, will now have to amend his statement. apart in the late sixteenth and early sev­ who had been damned for inspiring Webster's usage dictionary is unlike enteenth centuries. Neither was the The English Language Arts. The article any other; it is an extraordinary work original definition, which was "to make equated the belief in "correct" and "in­ of revisionist history that should be heavier." The commentators say the correct" usage with the belief in the considered the standard source for "newer" annoy sense is not used by flatness of the earth. many years to come. It is the place to "careful writers." This is a charge of Finally, an endorsement of descrip­ learn how disputed words and expres­ sloppiness against Haliburton, Austen, tivism is to be found in the venerated sions have been used since their intro­ Dickens, Melville, Shaw, Lewis Carroll, Webster's Second itself. The Introduc­ duction into English and how a writer's Trevelyan, Dreiser, Cheever, Styron, tion noted that unlike in the past, "it prose is likely to be received if he uses Sandburg, William L. Shirer, and Wil­ has become necessary for a general dic­ one of them today. The book is delight­ liam F. Buckley. tionary to record and interpret the vo~ fully written, laced with humor and a The story is much the same for cabularies of geographical and bite directed at the popular usage au­ many commonly condemned usages, occupational dialects, and of the livelier thorities, who, while always sure of including lay for lie and infer for imply levels of the speech of the educated." their opinions, are often ignorant of the (Thomas More coined the two senses of The Third and its derivative college history of the language. infer in 1528 and 1533). With the help of dictionaries have survived the on­ As you skip through the 2,300-plus 20,000 illustrative quotations, the usage slaught and are widely used today. The entries covering the bloodiest usage dictionary gives the history of each Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary was on disputes, you become aware that many word's use, a history of the criticism, an the New York Times best-seller list of the rules that Fowler, Follett, Strunk analysis and examples of contemporary close to two hundred weeks. But their and White, Bernstein, the Morrises, use, and sometimes a recommendation. reputations were sullied and the effects and others have enounced for years It does not advise readers to adopt a us­ linger. Recently, Donald McCloskey, in with such certitude are actually ipse age merely because of its honorable The Writing of Economics (1987), wrote, dixits that defy usage history. For ex­ pedigree. The entry defending "the rea­ "Being up to date is unimportant in a ample, the usage books carp about the son is because" (found in the writing of dictionary. ... The big Merriam­ lost distinction between disinterested William Morris and E. B. White) ends Webster Third Webster's International is and uninterested. Theodore Bernstein, with this: '1f it is not your natural idi­ not good, because it does not tell you in The Careful Writer, says, "If one is om, there is no reason for you to culti­ what usage good writers prefer. Its col­ disinterested in a situation he is neutral vate it. But if it is your natural idiom lege offsprings ... therefore are and has no selfish interest in its out­ and you choose to continue with it, you suspect." come. For some reason, however, will surely be in some very distin- 64 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 guished company." less. From the fuss, you would think tioned, and misrepresented, was this But Webster's Dictionary of English that the Third urges people to use it. In concerning ain't: "used orally in most Usage is more than a guide to usage. It fact, it labels the word nonstandard. But parts of the U.S. by many cultivated is almost a brief in defense of Webster's that is what drew the flak. The Third speakers, esp. in the phrase ain't 1." Third. Its editor, E. Ward Gilman, says puts that label on words "that can hard­ This was prefaced by the cautionary re­ he did not have the Third in mind ly stand without some status label but mark, "though disapproved by many when he and his colleagues were pre­ are too Widely current in reputable con­ and more common in less educated paring the book, but Frederick Mish, text to be labeled substandard." The us­ speech," but the critics could not abide Merriam-Webster's general editor, says age dictionary says that the word began the absence of a stigmatizing label. the controversy has had a lasting effect in dialectical speech early in the century Webster seemed to be saying that ain't, on the company. Mish, who was not and that it became so widely used in with Merriam-Webster when the Third nonstandard speech that Ring Lardner was released, says the staff was "dumb­ had a character say it in a 1921 story. founded" at the response. "I always The word continues to be commonly Modern English is nothing thought that if maybe we had done a used, "although its bad reputation has if not resilient, as evidenced little more in the Third [to explain the not improved with the years. It does oc­ precisely by the chronic dis­ history of usage]," Mish said, "the re­ cur in the casual speech and writing of tress about its health, distress sponse might have been different." educated people, and it even finds its It is instructive to see how Webster's way into edited prose on rare occa­ that began 300 years after its Dictionary of English Usage treats the sion,,, for instance in the New York birth. words for which the Third was most Times. Despite this, the usage dictionary commonly attacked. In each case, the ends with this recommendation: "But usage dictionary's entry indirectly irregardless is still a long way from win­ meaning "am not," "is not," and "are makes a reasonable case for the Third. ning general acceptance as a standard not," was standard. (The use of ain't to Take finalize, which drew so much fire. English word. Use regardless instead." mean "have not" and "has not" was la­ The Third's offense was in declining to How about due to? The Third came beled substandard.) label it and thus treating it as standard. in for criticism because it did not stig­ Over four pages, the usage diction­ It gave examples of the word's use by matize the phrase when used as a com­ ary charts the obscure history of this Dwight Eisenhower, S. Perelman, pound preposition, as in "The game J. most despised and persistent English and Robertson Davies. But Newsweek, was called due to rain." According to word. The entry states that the Third's many usage commentators do not like the language commentators, may due to judgment was "based on the informa­ the word. The American Heritage Dic­ only be used as an adjective: ''The effect tion then available," adding that the ed­ tionary's usage note says that "careful is due to the cause." Again, the critics of itors were influenced by the results writers" avoid it and that 90 percent of the Third failed to consult their beloved obtained by linguistic geographers re­ its expert panel termed it "unaccepta­ Second. Although in early editions it garding the tag question ain't I?" (This ble," apparently because it is thought to called the prepositional use erroneous, use has been defended by Fowler, The be bureaucratese. According to Web­ in the late 1940s it said the phrase was American Mercury, and William Safire, ster's usage dictionary, finalize was in "in common and reputable use," among others.) But, the entry concedes, standard business use in Australia and though it acknowledged the objections. ''There may be legitimate reasons for a New Zealand in the 1920s before it The new usage dictionary states that certain skepticism about the use of ain't came to the United States in 1927. Inex­ "in our judgment, due to is as impecca­ I. One is that much of the Linguistic At­ plicably, the critics failed to notice that ble grammatically as owing to, which is las material was gathered about a half Webster's Second had listed the word frequently recommended as a substi­ century ago; it is hard to know if the in­ as standard. tute for it. There has never been a gram­ formation is still valid." Nevertheless, All usage books condemn irregard·· matical ground for objection.... The Merriam-Webster says it has a "fair preposition is used amount of indirect evidence from let­ by reputable writ­ ters and such showing that ain't occurs ers and is even offi­ frequently in inverted expressions, such cially part of the as questions." It gives examples from Queen's English­ Henry Adams, Alfred Lord Tennyson, the OED [Oxford Ellen Terry, and Flannery O'Connor English Dictionary] (the last from a letter: "My cousin Supplement gives thought this a remarkable coincidence, a quotation from illustrating how remarkable coincidenc­ Queen Elizabeth II." es can be. Now ain't it?"). The entry in­ Of all the blas­ sists that ain't "is in widespread use but phemies committed usually in particular circumscribed "If the businessman's lunch isn't substantial enough, sir, by Webster's Third, ways that tend to remove the stigma may I recommend the bloated plutocrat's lunch?" the most often men- from its use." Liberty 65 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

This may not convince everyone The lexicographers believe, rather, that sees the resistance by guardian­ that the Third was correct, but the fact how people, including the most respect­ commentators as necessary to the "in­ that ain't has been an issue for so long ed writers, have actually used the lan­ visible hand" process, or spontaneous may be evidence in the dictionarys fa­ guage over long periods is more order, that guides change in the lan­ vor. Would the authorities make such a important than opinions about usage. guage, there is surely no reason for big deal if only the uneducated, who The tacit message is that, fundamental­ them to be ill-mannered. We are all im­ don't read usage guides, were using ly, people don't follow linguistic rules; portant to the process. the word? instead, rules are the codified reflec­ There is much evidence that descrip­ A clear pattern emerges from Web­ tions of how people have spoken and tivism is more widely accepted now ster's Dictionary of English Usage. Many written. But they are subject to change, than thirty years ago. The usage dic­ of the condemned usages had been as they were in the past, and the dic­ tionary has not been reviewed nearly as common in the best writing centuries tionary ought to tell us how they have much as the Third was; so far, it has before they were branded ungrammati­ changed. The Third was often criticized been well received, even by the popular cal by some seventeenth- or eighteenth­ for using too many examples from con­ language commentators William Safire century self-appointed authority, usual­ temporary speakers and writers. This and James J. Kilpatrick. It has excited ly someone who thought English was was probably overstated by the critics, no controversy to speak of. vulgar compared to Latin. Many other but why shouldn't the examples in to­ Does this mean the descriptivists usages are products of intelligible lin­ day's dictionary focus on contemporary have won the day? They have some im­ guistic processes that have given us un­ usage? Dr. Johnson's did. portant facts in their favor. It is hard to controversial words and senses before. At the level of good manners, Web­ take seriously the warnings that the lan­ Lasting change, it turns out, is rarely ster's usage dictionary is an implicit guage has deteriorated or is doing so. the result of illiteracy or ignorance. plea that the epithets "illiteracy" and There is a big difference between losing Judging by the usage dictionary, no ''barbarism'' not be shot off so easily. a distinction and losing a particular ex­ one at Merriam-Webster believes that No one has to like any particular usage. pression of a distinction. Even if disin­ "anything goes." (Alexander Haig's Simple abstention or the setting of a terested were lost, the referent is not. unique use of caveat as a verb did not better example, however, would be What is wrong with detached, objective, win it a place in the usage dictionary.) preferable to hectoring. Even if one impartial? Modern English is nothing if not resilient, as evidenced precisely by the chronic distress about its health, dis­ tress that began 300 years after its birth. As Allen Walker Read puts it, "The give-and-take of communication, along Classified Advertisements with the necessity of being understood, establishes the boundaries that keep American English viable and healthy." Classified Advertising is available for 2St per word, plus $1.00 per insertion. 10% discount for six or more insertions. Payment must accompany order. Please specify classification. "Anything goes" is a straw man. The vitality of English, as Mencken, tarian list around! Write: Liberty, PO Box 1167, Read, and others have acknowledged, Books PortTownsend, WA 98368; or call (206) 385-5097. lies in the freedom it encourages. The Free list of used books for sale. Subjects include great grammarian Otto Jespersen wrote Ayn Rand and H. 1. Mencken, First Editions, Literature that the freedom of English is "incon­ Anarchism, Atheism and Capitalism. Lists is­ Free-Market Environmentalism offers ceivable in such a language as French, sued irregularly. Dunn's Libertarian Books, 251 ways to protect the environment without adding where everything is condemned that Baldwin Ave, Meriden, CT 06450. to the power of the state. To learn more about it, does not conform to a definite set of Competitive co-existing governments, wave of write Jane Shaw, Political Economy Research the future (Multi-governments, many chiefs, Pa­ Center, 502 S. 19th Avenue, Bozeman, MT 59715. rules laid down by grammarians. The narchy, etc). The Primer LeGrand Day's A New CompuSelVe Users: Interested in discussing French language," Jespersen continued; Dimension of Freedom now in paperback: $6.00. liberty? GO ISSUES, read Section 3 and Library "is like the stiff French garden of Louis MG Publications, Box 2108, Reseda, CA 91337­ 3 on Individualism. Lively discussions. XIV, while the English is like an English 2108. Periodicals park, which is laid out seemingly with­ Discount Books: Up to 50 percent off. All out any definite plan, and in which you new! Mencken Award winner "Wartime," only Living Free newsletter. Forum for debate are allowed to walk everywhere accord­ $15. "After Apartheid," $10. "Other Path," $9. among freedom-seekers, survivalists, libertari­ Over 400 titles: politics, history, biography, in­ ans, anarchists, outlaws, since 1979, now in­ ing to your own fancy without having vestment, sci-fi, self-help, cosmology, film, thea­ cludes news summary: "my libertarian mail." to fear a stern keeper enforcing rigor­ ter, etc. Also: "Question Authority" buttons, $8.00 for 6 issues, sample $1.00. Box 29-LB, Hiler ous regulations. The English language stickers, 3/$4. ''Bill of Rights: VOID" posters, Branch, Buffalo, NY 14223. would not have been what it is if the $10,2/$15,3/$20. Send SASE for extensive cata­ Bigger print now in The (Libertarian) Con­ English had not been for centuries great log. FPA, Box 15548, Columbus, OH 43215. nection, open-forum magazine since 1%8. Sub­ respecters of the liberties of each indi­ scribers may insert one page/issue free, vidual and if everybody had not been Business unedited. Lots of stimulating conversation. Mailing list for rent! Rent Liberty's list of sub­ Eight issues (one year) $20. Strauss, Box 3343Z, free to strike out new paths for scribers and single-issue buyers. The most liber- VA 22038. himself." 0 66 Liberty Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991

A noted critic examines the economics ofart and literature - and something new; (2) from collector to col­ criticism. lector, which is to say that one collector recommends an artist to another collec­ tor, as they might exchange hot stock tips, or the second collector admires an artist's work in the first collector's Art and Literature: house; (3) from artist to collector, which is to say that a collector asks an artist al­ ready in his collection whom else he Retail and Wholesale should consider purchasing. Obviously, serious collectors are more likely to trust an artist than any reviewer, which is an­ Richard Kostelanetz petitor has wholesaled successfully?" In other way of explaining why in visual making publishing decisions, a book arts, unlike theater, a burgeoning repu­ seller is forced to base them not upon Neither art nor literature has value tation can survive negative reviews. A his sense of customers' tastes but upon successful art dealer needs not good re­ at birth; each assumes value only when projections of sales estimates, which are sold. There, however, the similarity usu­ views but a good track record to suc­ usually based upon the actual sales of ceed, just as a stockbroker must; and one ally ends. For these two art forms are prior books similar in kind. sold in different ways. Literature is a element'those two retailers have in com­ This difference between wholesale mon is that both persuade people to part wholesale biz and visual art, retail-this and retail also accounts for the different is the principal merchandising differ­ with rather large amounts of money. function of such devices as reviews and Visual art editions represent a pro­ ence between the two. Books are sold in advertisements. Reviews are necessary quantities of thousands, paintings in moter's attempt to wholesale what had in wholesaling, because press attention previously been retail; and even though quantities of one. brings the new work to the attention of he is dealing in visual art, a print pro­ What is the significance of this? It a larger audience of possible buyers. In moter is essentially a wholesaler, selling means, first of all, that when it is said a Broadway theater, most notoriously, fa­ not to individual collectors but to local novelist "sells well," his publisher is sell­ vorable reviews in the daily press are dealers, especially outside his immedi­ ing not thousands of copies but tens or necessary for survival, because nothing ate turf. The print promoter, in contrast hundreds of thousands of copies. When a else can reach thousands of potential painter "sells," so to speak, the number ticket-buyers during the initial weeks of of items changing owners can be less a theatrical run. In visual art, reviews than a hundred. In literature, it is possi­ appear in both newspapers and the A successful art dealer needs ble to speak of popular, if not mass, re­ trade press-the art magazines. As the not good reviews but a good sponses to a new work; in visual art, one latter customarily appear after a show track record to succeed, just as cannot. Finally, a book is sold for only has closed, they have little impact upon several times production costs, as. are sales. (Their real function, it is joked, is a stockbroker must, and for the men's shirts and other wholesaled items; certifying that an exhibition actually same reason: both persuade a painting is sold for many times the cost happened.) people to part with rather large of its materials, adding even the expense Collectors of visual art don't follow oflabor. newspaper reviews, which they know amounts of money. An art dealer is a retailer, a profes­ to be irrelevant. Such newspaper re­ sional who knows most of his custom­ views are followed instead by (1) ers. A book publisher doesn't know the browsers, who tour the galleries on to the book publisher, produces editions end customer at all; he sells the titles on weekends; and (2) curators who must in smaller numbers and claims that his his new list only to bookstore managers, justify their enthusiasms to someone product will increase in value, which is who in turn retail the literature. Such a else, and who thus need a favorable re­ to say that even in his wholesaling the market difference engenders different view to substantiate their purchase to, art dealer is performing a most extraor­ selling techniques on the part of dealers. say, a board of directors. An example dinary magic (of selling something for When a painter brings slides of his work would be a director of a university mu­ many times its production costs), a le­ to an art dealer, the dealer should be seum. Every time I see. a Philip Pearl­ gerdemain that I find insufficiently ap­ thinking: "Can I sell this work to my reg­ stein painting in a university museum, preciated in the art world. Contrast him ular customers-to Jill and Joe, Sally and as I often do, I imagine that Hilton or her to the retailer who says, "Look, Bob?" A book publisher, confronted Kramer, who was Pearlstein's dogged this cost me six; I'll sell it to you for with a similar opportunity for taking on supporter during Kramer's tenure at the eight," and you will realize how rare in a new work, has no knowledge of his ul­ New York Times, helped sell it to them. even decadent capitalism is the art deal­ timate customers. Thus, his question will Because visual art is retailing, most er's talent. be framed differently: "Does the pro­ new art is sold in these three ways, in de­ Trade publications have different posed manuscript resemble anything scending order of importance: (1) from functions in literature and the visual that I have recently wholesaled success­ dealer to collector, which is to say that a arts. The reason why most art gallery fully? Does it resemble anything a com- previously satisfied customer is sold advertisements in magazines resemble Liberty 67 Volume 5, Number 1 September 1991 the tombstones of stockbrokers is that two hundred grand changed hands. Few work, rather than show it, are too few, such advertisements don't sell art, but gallery shows are so successful.) the number that can influence museums are instead intended to establish credibil­ In a book of mine published over a is too few. That accounts for the current ity with artist, customers and colleagues. decade ago, The End of Intelligent Writing, phenomena, familiar to all, of insuffi­ One art dealer told me that an ad with a I showed how the New York Review of cient disparity in institutional taste. It full color reproduction of an artist's work Books, co-founded and co-owned by a seems to be nothing short of scandalous is actually aimed not at regular custom­ Random House vice-president, has con­ that, in exhibiting contemporary art, the ers but at other dealers, ideally in other sistently favored Random House pro­ most prominent museums in New York cities, who might think the work repro­ duce, first in reviewing them, second in City have essentially the same enthu­ duced suiting the tastes of their own reg­ using Random House writers as review­ siasms, confirm the same myths, etc. ular customers. Art magazines influence ers, third in prepublishing excerpts from not art sales but art discussion, which is books on the Random House list; and one to say table chatter, whether over coffee reason why Random House has been Not even the most ambitious or drinks in artists' studios, or over the more successful at merchandising certain art gallery ever tried to do some­ lunchrooms in art schools, where art kinds of political criticism and literature magazines are read with far greater seri­ has been the collaboration of the New thing similar in visual art to ousness than literary magazines in the York Review. Not even the most ambitious what The New York Review writing schools. Therefore, what is really art gallery, not even the most rapacious of Books does in literature, be­ reviewed in art magazines, especially in art collector, ever tried to do something longer articles, is not art per se but termi­ similar in visual art, because it would, in cause it would, in truth, be un­ nologies of understanding. truth, be unnecessary. For all of Hilton necessary. Art magazines are Don't underestimate the power of Kramer's blathering to the contrary, art less vulnerable to corruption newspaper publicity in merchandising magazines are less vulnerable to corrup­ new titles. The hoopla surrounding the tion than book reviews. than book reviews. discovery of Andrew Wyeth's "Helga" Nonetheless, precisely because visual paintings indicated that what was really art is retailing, its corruptions necessarily There isn't really a free market that al­ for sale was not paintings for only a few involve far fewer people. The principal lows the establishment of great reputa­ million dollars, but art books for many accrediting agency in establishing reputa­ tions apart from those institutions, even millions more. Don't underestimate ei­ tion is the public museum which doesn't though we know that in visual art, more ther the power of book reviewing in sell art as much as raise the prices for art than any other art, the top reputations of mass merchandising of culture. It is com­ that had previously been sold. (There is a certain time are likely to be forgotten monly said that any new book reviewed no comparable institution in literature.) at a later time. Don't forget that MoMA's on the front page of the New York Times That is why collectors like to sit on the favorite artist in the 1950s was Ben Book Review will, regardless of whether boards of such museums, like to court Shahn. In part because the art world is the review is favorable or not, sell ten staff curators, not only for advice on their smaller than the literary world (and just thousand more copies. (This was told to own purchasing, but also to advocate as there are fewer art magazines than lit­ me by a former editor of the Review in shows that would draw upon their own erary magazines, so there are fewer art the course of dismissing the art world as collections, etc. The principal problem of critics than literary critics), reevaluations strictly business, but I had to remind that the visual arts world, as I see it, is that the of, say, painting's past take place with if the new book retailed for $20.00 then number of galleries that actually sell far greater rapidity. 0

Letters, continued from page 22 landish anti-war statement. I couldn't believe I was reading Liber­ Oppose the war, fine, but let us not tyand not the Jesse Jackson newsletter into war," Bush clearly had the means to be duped by anti-war claptrap that when Higgs went on about the lower do so. His actions, in this regard, speak makes no distinction between aggressor classes being duped into supporting the louder than the psycho-babble put forth and victim, and buys into every leftwing war despite the fact that they "stood to to the contrary. conspiracy theory. suffer the greatest losses." This has been Lastly, incredibly, Higgs characteriz­ Lyndon Cramer true of every war since the beginning of es Iraq under Saddam as a country "sur­ Ashland, Ore. time and results simply from the fact rounded by hostile nations, each with its that there are usually at least a thousand own intrigues projecting into Iraq." Let Egregious Aggression times more lower and middle-class peo­ me get this straight, Iraq was threatened I'm not going to renew my subscrip­ ple than there are rich people. by its neighbors?(!) Think about that bi­ tion and I thought you might like to I am speaking as one who opposed zarre statement for a moment. Kuwait our entry into the war, for basically isola­ and Saudi Arabia contributed billions to know why. Iraq and are military pigmies; Iran, mili­ Robert Higgs' and Sheldon Rich­ tionist reasons. tarilyexhausted, feared Iraq (just who man's articles (May 1991) were so dema­ I will miss Liberty very much, but I did start that war?); and Syria, an enemy gogic in character that it makes me just have to take a stand versus this anti­ yes, but hardly a match for the larger doubt whether the magazine can be war know-nothingism. and better equipped Iraqi forces. Higgs counted on to conduct dispassionate rea­ Emmett McArliffe takes the prize for making the most out- soned analyses of the issues. St. Louis, Mo. 68 Liberty , Notes on Contributors

Chester Alan Arthur is Liberty's political correspondent. Jim McClarin spent nine years searching for Bigfoot in HBaloo" is the nom de plume of Rex F. May, a cartoonist the Pacific Northwest, and refused military induction whose works frequently appear in The Wall Street on the grounds that killing other humans was not Journal and other publications. what Christ had in mind. Kathleen Bradford is the resident voice of sanity at Liberty. Robert H. Miller is a climber, kayaker, capitalist and Cuban refugee who dabbles in construction and R. W. Bradford is editor of Liberty. writing. Barry Chamish's forthcoming book, The Fall of Israel, a study of official Israeli corruption, will be released this William P. Moulton is the pseudonym for a person bear­ November. ing the same name. Stephen Cox is Associate Professor of Literature at the Robert O'Boyle is a free-lance writer living in Seattle, University of California, San Diego. who writes a regular column, "Living with AIDS," Brian Doherty is a journalist living in Washington, DC. for the Seattle Times. Frank Fox, a historian living in Pennsylvania, just re­ Scott J. Reid, a writer living in Ottawa, Ontario, is cur­ turned from his most recent trip to eastern Europe. rently writing a book about the end of the Canadian idea. Karl Hess, the author of many books, including Community Technology and Capitalism for Kids, is cur­ Sheldon L. Richman is Senior Editor of the Cato Institute. rently working on his autobiography. James S. Robbins is a writer and historian living in Robert Higgs, the author of Crisis and Leviathan, is also Massachusetts. editor of the recent Arms, Politics and the Economy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Ann M. Rogers is an attorney and writer living in Florida. Her writings have appeared in The Freeman, John Hospers is the author of numerous philosophical Affaire de Coeur, Jest and many other periodicals. writings, including An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis and Libertarianism: A Philosophy for Tomorrow. Jane Shaw is a writer and former Economics Editor of Bart Kosko has just published with Prentice Hall a text­ Business Week now living in Bozeman, Montana. book on machine intelligence, Neural Networks and Mark Skousen is an investment advisor and economist Fuzzy Systems, and edited its companion volume, living in Florida. His most recent books include The Neural Networks for Signal Processing. Structure of Production and Economics on Trial. Richard Kostelanetz is an independent artist, writer, critic, James Taggart doesn't own a railroad, or have a sister composer and what-have-you. named Dagny. He is an attorney practicing in Seattle. Loren E. Lomasky is Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Tom Tomorrow is a cartoonist living in San Francisco. Green State University, and author of Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community, as well as numerous reviews Ethan Waters is a writer who joyously resides in and essays. Southern California.

In the next Liberty

Letter to a Political Mentor - During the 1960s, David Horowitz was a leading figure of the uNew Left." He isn't anymore. In this letter to Ralph Miliband, his former mentor, he ex­ plains why, providing important insights into the greatest development of the past half century.

Third City Report - A crack team of Liberty's editors and correspondents report from the Libertarian Party national convention in Chicago-from the convention floor, the "caucuses," the huckster room, the streets, and the barrooms, with the sort of no-holds-barred coverage available nowhere else. Indianapolis Sofia, Bulgaria Interesting civil service reform in the Hoosier State, as reported Half-measures in the transformation of Bulgarian society, as by United Press International: reported in the Los Angeles Times: Genell Jones, a supervisor for the Indiana Department of Transpor­ Workers moved in and carried away to an unknown destination the tation, required two employees who had used foul language in her pres­ upper half of the 50-foot statue of Lenin mounted opposite the former ence to wash out their mouths with soap. Communist Party headquarters, leaving just the legs. Soviet Union Singapore How Soviet democracy under Gorbachev imitates American de­ Advance in the legal status of non-human primates, as reported mocracy under Reagan, as reported in the Baltimore Sun: by the Chicago Tribune: President Mikhail Gorbachev has ordered a crackdown on smut and Under a 1983 ruling, monkeys in this island nation must have identi­ pornography to "safeguard public morals," and appointed a blue-ribbon fication cards, complete with photograph and handprint. commission to investigate how other countries suppress pornography. "A couple of days ago, I saw on television a certain professor citing New York Chinese art to illustrate interesting sexual positions," Gorbachev said. Observation on the ethos of the decade just past, as reported by "This came as a great shock to the public. People are asking, 'Does the the New York Times: government have any power at all?''' James Dierdon, director of the film A Kiss Before Dying, explained why the protagonist of the film (played by Matt Dillon) murders young Albany, N.Y. heiresses: "In a way, his motives are good. He wants to better himself. Report on the war against alcoholism in the Empire State, as It's just that he takes the yuppie ethic of the 80s to an obsessive leveL" reported in the Middletown (N.Y.) Times-Herald-Record: Seoul Sen. Thomas Libous has introduced a measure to ban sales to mi­ The unique contribution science has for our understanding of so­ nors of non-alcoholic imitation beer. "We spend millions of dollars an­ cial problems, as reported in Time: nually educating young people about the negative consequences that re­ Explaining the recent rash of suicides to an interviewer, Han Wan sult from alcohol abuse," he explained, "yet we allow access to a Sang, a Professor of Sociology at Seoul National University, said that beverage that is brewed, packaged and marketed as a beer substitute. As "Self-immolation is an extreme form of the ignition effect." a society, we are sending conflicting signals." Chicago Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas A bold move to increase the historical sense of Lone Star State Cultural note from the Heartland, as reported in the Detroit citizens, as reported in the Detroit News: News: The exhibit "Chew, Chew, Chew and Spit, Spit, Spit: Tobacco in Sherman Arnold of Taylor, Michigan, will be inducted into the Elvis the Texas Republic" opened at the Star of the Republic Museum. "Even Impersonators Hall of Fame in Chicago on June 7. Taylor, who has im­ Sam Houston spit on somebody's porch," said curator Sherry Hum­ personated Elvis Presley since 1956, will join other Elvis impersonators phreys. "These are just things that people don't normally think about." in the Hall of Fame, which is sponsored by the Elvis Presley Impersona­ tors International Association. Requirements for admission include 20 or Michigan more years ofexperience, "occasional charity work," and "good taste." Advancement in the rationality of the legal order, as reported in Kissimmee, Fla. the New York Times: In an attempt to "clarify the rules so the public knows exactly A new twist in penology, as reported by the Associated Press: what's legal," Michigan's Department of Natural Resources has an­ Durward Faulk, convicted last year of the attempted murder of his nounced regulations for the picking up of road kill within the Great wife, has petitioned the court to reduce his sentence to a form of house Lake State: arrest. He threw his wife Charlotte out of their boat, knowing that she 1. Endangered species, all migratory birds, and most non-game birds could not swim, and circled around waiting for her to drown. After can be picked up only by a "scientific or educational institution with a neighbors rescued her, she filed for divorce and helped convict him of state and federal permit." the attempted murder charge. 2. Game birds and mammals can be picked up during the hunting He was joined in his petition by his wife, with whom he had recon­ season by any individual in possession of a valid hunting license. They ciled. "It is an unusual situation," Faulk said. "I realize that." will be counted toward the licensee's hunting limit. Orlando, Fla. 3. Certain game mammals can be picked up out of season by any in­ East meets West in the Middle of Florida, as reported in the De­ dividual "after a conservation or local police officer issues a permit." 4. Animals not covered by the regulations can be picked up without troit Free Press: specific permits. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the man who brought "transcendental A person who violates the law, for example, by removing a dead meditation" to the U.S. has announced that he will build a $1 billion robin on the side of the road, can be fined $500, jailed for up to 90 theme park called "Veda Land" next to Disney World. Veda Land will days, and be required to reimburse the State for up to $1,500. Remov­ be designed by Doug Henning, the magician, and will include "a build­ ing a dead sparrow, on the other hand, is legal. ing that levitates over a pool of water and a chariot ride into the molecu­ lar structure of a rose petal." The Yogi also announced plans to sell (Readers are invited to forward newsclippings or "yogi soap" and a bottled water called "Himalayan Bliss." other items for publication in Terra Incognita.) 70 Liberty Peace Silver Dollars • Brilliant Uncirculated • Pre-1925 • $12.50 each!

Why Mint State Peace Dollars are a Bargain Right Now by Patick A. Heller Peace type silver dollars in Mint condition are at historic a good low prices, offering the astute investor an excellent opportunity possibility for profit. that we will sell The rare coin market has risen substantially since its lows out completely. In last November, but Peace silver dollars are still available at very this volatile market, it may be impossible for us to acquire addi­ low prices. In all my years as a professional numismatist, I have tional coins without raising our prices. Therefore, to avoid disap­ never seen such bargains available. pointment, I recommend you telephone us if you want to reserve And the funny thing is, the Peace silver dollar is the most your purchase. popular silver coin with collectors. It's easy to see why collec­ Act Today: Orders will be filled on a first come, first tors love these coins- they are big, and they are beautiful! served basis. This offer is limited to stock on hand. And right now, they are also downright cheap. I believe that To reserve your purchase and lock in today's price, call prices for Mint State Peace dollars may never be this low again! me (or another LCS trader) toll-free at 1-800-321-1542. That's why our numismatists have been busy bargain-hunting, Michigan residents call 1-800-933-4720. Or return the coupon acquiring quality Peace dollars at prices so cheap that I know we below. Michigan residents add 4% sales tax. will find ready buyers. Even Rarer than Morgan Dollars! Issued to commemo­ rate the Peace that followed World War I, the Peace dollar was r------, I Please send me the Mint State Peace I minted only from 1921 to 1935. As a result, far fewer Peace I Yes • silver dollars that I have indicated dollars were minted than Morgan dollars- yet we offer Peace below. I understand all are minted prior to 1925, I dollars at a price $5 lower than Morgans! (See the graph below.) I and that I may return them for a full refund for any While our supply lasts, we offer Mint State Peace Dollars reason within 15 days of receipt. I as low as $12.50 each. (See price list in coupon at right.) I Half Rolls (10 Coins) @ $ 135 = All are in Brilliant Uncirculated, personally graded by I Full Rolls (20 Coins) @ $ 260 = I Allan Beegle, our chief numismatist. And all are backed by our 5 Roll Lots (100 Coins) @ $1275 exclusive guarantee: you may return any rare coin for a full, = 100% refund for I 10 Roll Lots (200 Coins) @ $2520 = I U.S. Silver Dollar Mintages any reason, at any I 25 Roll Lots (500 Coins) @ $6250 = I time within 15 postage & handling $5.00 I days of when you I Total Enclosed receive them. Warning: Al­ I name I though we have accumulated a I address I substantial quan­ tity of Mint State I city/ state/zip I early Peace silver I phone # I dollars for this Liberty Coin Service I offering, we be­ I 300 Frandor Ave, Lansing MI 48912 lieve that there is 'D" 1-800-321-1542 (Michigan: 1-800-933-4720) IL ..I L- .. ------The Libert~1 Editors' Conference Share the Excitement!

Intellectual sparks flew in Seattle at the Liberty Editors' Individual Sessions: $19.50 VHS Conference. The best minds in the libertarian movement 7.50 Audiocassette met to discuss the future of liberty and of the libertarian Panels movement and to thrash out controversial points in liber­ tarian theory, strategy, and worldview. Liberty in the Post-Socialist World, with Sheldon Richman, David Friedman, Robert Higgs, Stephen Cox and R.W. The reviews are in ... Bradford. (Video: Vl0l; Audio: Al0l) We surveyed those attending the Liberty Editors' Con­ Spending the Peace Dividend, with Robert Higgs, Sheldon ference: Richman, James Robbins and Richard Stroup. (Video: • 100% of respondents said they "got their money's Vl02; Audio: A102) worth"! Beyond MADness: foreign policy without the "Evil Empire" • 96% said they plan to come again next year! with Stephen Cox, Robert Higgs, Sheldon Richman and Here are some of the comments that people volunteered James Robbins. (Video: Vl03; Audio: Al03) on the survey: The Revolution in Eastern Europe. with Ron Lipp and James "The intellectual event of 1990." Robbins. (Video: Vl04; Audio: Al04) "Best, most exciting conference ever!" Right and Wrong in an Unfree World, with R.W. Bradford, "Intellectual stimulation to last all year." David Friedman, John Hospers, Loren Lomasky and "This was a lot of fun!" Sheldon Richman. (Video: Vl0S; Audio: Al0S) You can experience the excitement! Heroes of Liberty: Chodorov, Paterson, Mencken, Conan the Barbarian, Tannehill, Cage, others, with R.W. Bradford, Now you can witness the proceedings for yourself! All Doug Casey, Richard Kostelanetz, Sheldon Richman and sessions are available on both VHS Videotape and cassette Stephen Cox. (Video: Vl06; Audio: Al06) audiotape: Liberty and the Environment, with Jane Shaw, Richard Complete Conference: $195 VHS Stroup, John Hospers, R.W. Bradford and David 99 Audiocassette Friedman. (Video: Vl07; Audio: Al07) 250 Both Do Rights Make Sense? with David Friedman, Timothy Virkkala,John Hospers, R.W. Bradford, David Ramsay r------, Steele, and Loren Lomasky. (Video: Vl08; Audio: Al08) ' Please send me the tapes of the Liberty I YeS • Editors' Conference I have marked. Seminars The Economic Case For and Against Anarchy, by David _ Complete Set Video @ $195.00 = Friedman with comments by Richard Kostelanetz. (Video: _ Complete Sct Audio @ $ 99.00 = Vl09; Audio: Al09) Did the Libertarian Movement Really Start in Murray _ Complete Set VHS + Cassette @ $250.00 = Rothbard's Living Room? by R.W. Bradford, with Individual Sessions (list by number) comments by Stephen Cox. (Video: Vll0; Audio: Al10) The Politics of the Avant Garde, by Richard Kostelanetz, with comments by Stephen Cox. (Video: Vl11; Audio: A111) Does Economics Make Sense? by David Friedman with Total Audio Cassettes _ @ $ 7.50 = comments by Robert Higgs. (Video: Vll2; Audio: Al12) Total Video Cassettes @ $19.50 = Children's Rights by Loren Lomasky with comments by Timothy Virkkala. (Video: Vll3; Audio: Al13) Postage & Handling ($5 per order *) The Poverty of Libertarian Fiction by Stephen Cox with * $2.50 per tape, foreign comments by Douglas Casey. (Video: V1l4; Audio: Al14) Total Game Theory, Evolution, and Freedom, byRoss Overbeek with comments by David Ramsay Steele. (Video: Vl1S; Audio: o My check is enclosed (payable to Liberty) AllS) o Charge: 0 VISA 0 MjC Card # _ War and Prosperity: Did World War II Cure the Great Depression? by Robert Higgs. (Video: Vl16; Audio: Al16) Exp __ Signature Agent or Victim: Reconsidering the Insanity Plea by John Name Hospers. (Video: Vl17; Audio: All7) Address Workshop City State __ Zip _ How to Write Op-Ed Pieces and Get Them Published, by Jane S. Shaw. (Video: Vll8; Audio: A1l8) L Liberty------Publishing, PO Box 1167, Port Townsend, WA 98368 .I