May 1996 Vol. 9, No.5

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• ""...,.~------~ ...... "" "The liberty ofa single individual implies the emancipation ofall. "-Mikhail Bakunin

o The editors ofLiberty invite you to attend The 1996 Liberty Editors' Conference Libertjs editors, contributors, and readers will meet near Seattle over Labor Day weekend to light the flame ofliberty. The result will be intellectually stimulating and tremendously fun. And you're invited!

The 1996 Liberty Editors' Conference will bring together the world's leading libertarian writers, theorists, journalists, econ­ Libert, '96 omists, and historians, plus scientists, entrepreneurs, and fu­ The future of turists: David Friedman, Robert Higgs, John Hospers, Durk freedom & tyranny. Pearson and Sandy Shaw, R.W. Bradford, Douglas Casey, Bill Limiting the state for Kauffman, Randal O'Toole, Scott Reid, Loren Lomasky, fun & profit. Brian Doherty ... and those are just our confirmed speakers. Defying regulation's Additional editors, contributors, and special guests will be an­ death grip. nounced as they confirm. The acceleration of Past attendees will attest to the pleasures in store - the history. repartee, the information, the argument, the camaraderie; the The revolt against food, drink, and friendly faces. A Liberty Editors' Conference bureaucracy. is a convivial adventure for activists and intellectuals. Join us! The economy shifts gears. Special ~eature: Government goes The Meaning ofAyn Rand obsolete? Workshops, The '96 conference will include a special session explor­ lectures, seminars, ing the art, life, philosophy, and significance ofAyn ..- parties ... more Rand. Confirmed participants include Rand's biogra­ intellectual fun than pher Barbara Branden, philosopher Lester Hunt, lead­ you thought possible! ing Rand interpreter Chris Sciabarra, and Rand's phi­ Join Libertjs losopher-friend John Hospers. And they'll be joined by editors and writers­ several surprise guests with even more insights to offer! and your fellow readers - and celebrate the future! The 1996 Liberty Editors' Conference will be held in Tacoma, Washington, from August 30 ~. I want to attend the 1996 Liberty Editors' • through September 2, 1996. The conference price in­ .s , ... tgn me up. Conference in Tacoma over Labor Day.. cludes meals, lectures, seminars, workshops, and eve­ ------weekend. I enclose my payment of $225 I ning parties. I Please send me information on hotel accommodations. a My check for $225.00 is enclosed Apply today. We'll send you information on hotel accommodations, travel arrangements, schedul­ I a Charge my a Visa a Mastercard Expires: _ I ing, etc. Only a limited number ofreaders can at­ Signature _ tend, so make your plans now. This will be one vaca­ I Account# _ I tion you won't forget! Name: _ To reserve your participation, send in the coupon Address: _ to the right. I I City,State, Zip: _ Full-time students may Special Student Rate: PhoneNumber: _ attend at a special rate of$150. Include a photocopy I I ofcurrent student identification. Liberty, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368 L ------.I May 1996 Inside Liberty Volume 9, Number 5

4 Letters Not the alphabetical kind. 9 Reflections Liberty's editors on the radicalism of Rob Reiner, the hidden advantages of global warming, the return of the Cold War, and other news you may have missed. 16 Medianotes Journalism about journalism. 19 Politics The return of Ron Paul, the manly virtues of Bob Dole's secret ally (Pat Buchanan), the rhetorical consistency of Bill Clinton, and more! Features 23 The Life and Death of the Forbes Campaign Chester Alan Arthur explains why the Forbes campaign mattered - and exposes the stealthy deceit that Bob Dole used to sabotage it. 27 Puritan Overdose Robert Nelson examines the religious persecution of chemistry. 33 Wings Over Mongolia Jim Huffman flies the unfriendly skies. 35 Timothy Leary, Then and Now Interviewer Brian Doherty is on the outside, looking in. 39 The Truth and Ayn Rand Ayn Rand left the Soviet Union in 1926. R. W. Bradford inspects her baggage. 42 Revolution Betrayed Kevin Knight tells how Congress betrayed its mandate to reduce government. Aaron Steelman offers a case study: the survival of Selective Service. 44 How Johnny Cash Restored My Faith in the Healing Powers of Hip Jesse Walker testifies. 46 Why I Would Not Vote Against Hitler Wendy McElroy explains why she won't vote not matter what - and why you shouldn't either! 48 Kill the Mockingbird! A cache of secret Hollywood memos, exposed for the world to see by Jesse Walker. 50 Peace, Love, and Violence Quebec's secessionist movement has stumbled on some basic questions about the nature of the state. Pierre Lemieux explains. Reviews 51 The Woman Who Knew Clinton Stephen Cox reviews the promising debut novel of a writer who calls herself "Hillary Rodham Clinton." 55 Rum, Sodomy, and Christopher Lasch Jesse Walker decries the expropriation of everyday life. 59 Market-Based Miseducation Nathan Crow dissects market socialism in the classroom. 62 Inward Ho! Michael Levine puts America first. 64 Not Right from the Beginning David Boaz defends our godless Constitution. 65 Booknotes Reviews in miniature.

r ttt(.. #' 66 Classified Advertisements Our sometimes bizarre bazaar. 69 Notes on Contributors Your identification kit. 70 Terra Incognita These are the times that try men's souls. bankers. He offers no evidence to :::~6 Let t erS ] [.::--======:::=:::::...... :- atthehistheory,cavalierusingconclusion;the rhetoriche disregardsof politi- cians: bizarre, crackpots, silly, political Endangered Speciousness Then I could sleep better at night, know­ fringe, absurd ... Randal O'Toole's "Learning from ing that, since I was a shareholder, But look at the evidence submitted Environmentalists" (March 1996) was a they'd leave me alone. I wonder if they by conspiracy theorists: The Federal Reserve Bank is as "fed­ useful exercise. Inhis analysis, though, pay dividends, too. eral" as Federal Express! Of the original O'Toole missed one of the most impor­ If the Fed is an arm of the U.S. gov­ 203,053 shares of Federal Reserve stock, tant ingredients in the environmentalist ernment, that must mean that all the 65% is owned by foreign banking inter­ success story- their willingness to lie in people at the Fed are government ests and 35% is owned by domestic order to create hysteria. From Alar to glo­ employees. They must get paychecks banking families - the Rockefellers and bal warming to the thinning ofthe ozone from Uncle Sam. So those guys who Morgans - 36,000 shares each. Who are layer, organized environmentalism has head up the Fed banks are civil service the other stockholders? Rothschild Banks pursued what mightbe called a big lie employees on regular civil service pay­ of London and Berlin, Lazard Brothers strategy. The approach is to fabricate evi­ roll. Boy, some of those bank directors Banks of Paris, Israel Moses Sieff Banks dence or distort existing science to scare live in really nice homes to just be civil of Italy, Warburg Bank of Hamburg and people into believing some disaster is service employees. Amsterdam, Lehman Brothers Bank of imminent. The unquestioning media I only have one question though. New York, Kuhn Loeb Bank of New then disseminate the lie, whichstimu­ Who are those shareholders who own lates contributions to the eco groups. York, and Goldman Sachs Bank of New this arm of our government? Ancl are 'This money, in turn, gives them the clout York. they all U.S. citizens? they need on Capitol Hill. The following editorial appeared in JimShowker Hopefully, libertarians will not stoop the London Times, a newspaper owned by Eugene, Ore. to emulating this aspect of the environ­ the Rothschild banking dynasty, at the mentalist strategy. Paranoid Free time President Lincoln was taking action Roy E. Cordato In a mere six pages, McCormack to create an unborrowed currency - the Buies Creek, N.C. debunks thousands of hours of conspira­ Greenback: "If this mischievous financial Biting the Arm That Fed Him cy talk radio and tens of thousands of policy, which has its origin in the Ameri­ John McCormack ("The Conspiracy pages of conspiratorialist tomes. Bravo! can Republic, shall become permanent, Bugaboo," March 1996) sets out to refute For years, conspiracy theorists have then that government will furnish its the most common misconceptions about co-opted libertarian economic argu­ own money without cost! It will payoff the Fed, starting with: "The Federal ments. Alas, thecross-pollination has its debts and be without debt. It will Reserve is privately owned." Let me gonebothways. have all the money necessary to carryon quote from his next paragraph: "shares One of Murray Rothbard's last its commerce. It will become prosperous in the Fed were sold to memberbanks at works, The Case Against the Fed, contains without precedent in the history of the its establishment," "shareholders elect more pages devoted to railing against world. The brains and the wealth of all only six of the nine Fed directors" (let's the Rockefellers and Morgans who start­ countries will go to America. That gov­ see, six-ninths is the same as two-thirds), ed the Fed than to presenting cogent ernment must be destroyed or it will "holding shares in the Fed is not a very arguments against central banking. The destroy every monarchy on the globe!" profitable activity," "Dividends to mem­ Ludwig von Mises Institute is presently Believers and non-believers must not ber shareholders are limited to ..." And promoting a posthumously published dwell on the conspiracy, true or not, but then, as ifprovenby the foregoing state­ Rothbard monograph, Wall Street, Banks, must keep focused on the Big Picture: ments: "The Fed is, and always has been, and American Foreign Policy, as "Rothbar­ electing constitutionalists to Congress to an arm ofthe U.S. government." dian 'power elite' analysis at its best." reduce a bloated bureaucracy; forcing Gee, I didn't know that you could And Rothbard isn't alone. Ron Paul Congress to justify, by article and section purchase shares in various arms of the has been known to speak of the "Eastern of the Constitution, their authority to federal government. I'd like to buy some banking elite" in terms reminiscent of pass every piece of legislation; and shares of IRS, FBI, ATF, and perhaps Pat Robertson. Conspiracy theorists now encouraging the Supreme Court to inter­ some NSA and Justice Department. seem the dominant force on libertarian pret the Constitution as it is written. Internet newsgroups. Leon Howard We libertarians have a hard enough West Richland, Wash. time being taken seriously without hav­ Dense Dave ing our arguments tainted with conspir­ If "fractional reserve banking hasn't atorialist paranoia. added anything to" David Rockefeller's T. Franklin Harris, Jr. fortune, then David must be as dense as Athens, Ala. McCormack believes your readers to be. Conspiracy: The Evidence Jack Dennon John McCormack makes a serious Warrenton, Ore. mistake by sloughing off the conspiracy The Best-Laid Schemes theory about "secret" international IfMr. McCormack (and other starry- Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 eyed libertarians) could get over their things about the Establishment, even a where; and have.collected the majority unsophisticated faith, viz., that they will book (The Greening) with Larry Abra­ ofheroriginal source materials over save the world by privatizing garbage ham, who happens to be half Jewish and almost three decades. collection, they might ask of privatiza­ a Roman Catholic. Strange for an anti­ (3) McCormack is almost correct in tion, Who benefits? By the context and Semite, don't you think? I don't mind insisting that that the Fed is "an arm of the company in which he places my hanging for what I write, but I certainly the U.S. government." It is precisely a remarks about N.M. Rothschild Co. act­ don't deserve hanging for what some­ government monopoly corporation or ing as consultants to the Thatcher pri­ one imagines I write. privileged cartel. vatization, Mr. McCormack implies that Franklin Sanders Conspiracy is bestdefu1.ed as a I was actually promoting anti-Semitism Memphis, Tenn. human activity involving more than one (wink, wink, it's really the Jews behind it Gibbon, Toynbee, Webster person, in which the parties are: (1) all). Ifhe had read my two lengthy John McCormack's polemic against advancingbasically the same orcom- . reports on New Zealand and the privati­ the conspiratorial view of history is typi­ mon objectives, (2) advancing objectives zation there (published in 1989), he cal of all such attacks. McCormack care­ which would reasonably be recognized would have found that the Rothschild fully avoids reference to, or discussion as personally harmful, desp-uctive, or firm also consulted there and in numer­ of any examples from, the mountain of evil, (3) doing so either in secret or with­ ous other countries. It appeared that the primary-source archival documentation out warning their potentialvictims. Note New Zealand privatization was not that exists to support the Master that the definition says only that the par­ democratic, free-market capitalism in Conspiracy thesis most associated with ties are promoting the same objectives, action, but merely a political scheme to Nesta Webster and Robert Welch. not at all necessarily for the same person­ transfer government assets to a well­ McCormack attempts to discredit the al reasons, goals, or motivations. This connected oligarchy. Webster/Welch thesis by lumping it helps one understand why many differ­ Fromthe countyward heeler to the with the wholly unsubstantiated ent types ofindividuals would promote halls ofpowerinWashington,business theories of Lyndon Larouche, Social totalitarianismboth in Washington and and politics runona networkofcontacts. Credit economists, racists, and anti­ worldwide, each for their own reason or This is'afact oflife known to all but the Semites (as well as McCormack's long­ benefit. Italso helps one realize that the terminallynaive. Thosewith the contacts distance and unsolicited psychologiz­ conspiratorial view ofhistory is little getthebusiness. The "free market" is an ing). McCormack also makes some care­ more than the application ofhuman voli­ illusion as long as real humanbeings are less errors: tion (a person is normally presumed to involved, and as long as governments (1) Robert Welch dated the founding intend the logical consequences ofhis or regulate the economyand the monetary ofthe Master Conspiracy with the Order her actions) to historical events. And it system there can'tbe any free markets. ofthe Illuminati in 1776, not "millennia helps us recognize the irrational assump­ In any event, I have never promoted old." See his essay "TheTruthin Time." tions of such a superficial, sociological any conspiracy theory akin to what Mr. (2) Nesta Webster was not "a signifi­ notion as McCormack's undefined "pub­ McCormack describes. But I have spent cant figure in the British Union of Fas­ lic choice theory." hundreds of hours reading the mind­ cists" and no one has ever produced any William H. McIlhany numbing documents published by the documentation of that or any other Beverly Hills, Calif. CFR, Trilateral Commission, U.N., etc., alleged British fascist partisanship on McCormack responds: Jim Showker etc., and if you don't see a commonality the part of Webster. She lectured on the repeats a demand made often over the of interest, action, and sponsorship Master Conspiracy in 1920-1921 before years by conspiracy theorists - that among these people, you're blind as a the Royal Artillery Institution and the someone produce a list of Fed share­ bat. Ifyou want to know what "your" Brigade of Guards at the United Services holders. This is asked as though uncov­ government and "your" free markets Institute. And, before her death in 1960, ering the list of member banks (the will be doing ten years from now, just Webster rewrote her 1921 book World nominal"shareholders") were some­ read them. However, I have never Revolution, clearly rejecting any belief in thing requiring heroic detective work argued that our American establishment a "Jewish conspiracy," admitting that and not information the Fed's public is all-powerful, and have in fact contro­ when she wrote in 1920 she was then affairs department is happy to send to verted such naive views. only aware of conspirators in such anyone who calls and asks for it. Per­ Furthermore, I have done everything events as the Bolshevik coup of 1917 haps by combining his prodigious intel­ in my power to promote racial harmony who were of Jewish or German extrac­ lect with the others in his "financial cir­ according to the plain demands ofthe tion (none of whom were religious or cles," 5howker may be able to master gospel ofJesus Christ. I have, quite liter­ Orthodox Jews). the arcana of directory assistance. ally, putmy family, my property, my Far from being "ridiculous" or "sil­ But even ifhe were to review the career, and yes, even my life on the line ly," Nesta Webster was a most impres­ names of a114,115 member banks (year­ for liberty under law and monetary sive and serious historian whose The end 1994), representing all nationally­ reform. I have fought every level of gov­ French Revolution (1919) remains a work chartered U.S. banks and 67% of all U.S. ernmentfrom the municipal to the feder­ ofmajor importance today. I feel I can commercial bank branches, Showker al, and with precious little help from fairly make this claimbecause I own the would not have gained any insights into libertarians whoblow hard at the bar or only copy ofher research notebooks the Fed's decision-making. As explained at their keyboards but lose their wind (about 14,000 pages) in the U.s., have in my article, member banks have no when there's fighting to be done. looked up and checked many ofher control over the Fed power that matters I've written a lot of controversial sources in the British Library and else- - the power to create money. That Liberty 5 power is held by the Fed's Board of Gov.. emors, all seven members of which are political appointees. Not only do the nominal "sharehold.. Liberty Live ers" not control Fed decision..making, •• • they don't even benefit from "owner.. ship" in a passive way. Their "invest.. Intellectual sparks flew at Liberty's 1995 Editors' Conference. ment" represents a capital loss to them The best individualist minds ofour time met to thrash out the because the 60/0 maximum return is lower than the cost ofcapital ofevery U.S. bank. future ofliberty and society - and to have a ton offun in the National banks become "shareholders" process. because it is required of them by law. The Now you can witness the proceedings for yourself! A complete number of "shares" they are required to "own" is determined by a fixed percent­ set of22 videotapes costs only $275. A complete set of21 age of their regulatory capital; it isn't an audiotapes is just $99. Sessions can also be ordered individually: investment portfolio decision they make $19.50 per videotape, $5.95 per audiotape (unless otherwise themselves. Showker misunderstands even the marked). point about the low real returns to hold­ Join in the excitement ofthe 1995 Liberty Editors' ing Treasury securities. That the Fed Conference. With these tapes, you can experience it all year! creates inflation and collects an economic rent from money creation is hardly in dis.. The Prospects for FDA Reform: For now, abolition of the FDA may be just a dream. pute. The important point is that the But is there any hope for serious FDA reform? Robert Higgs takes a hard look at the money generated (over $20 billion in prospects for genuine change. A real eye-opener. (Audio: A138; Video: V138) 1994) goes to the government by law and The Oklahoma City Bombing: Half a year after the bombing in Oklahoma City, the not into the pockets of private citizens. conspiracy theories are flying. But who knows what they're talking about, and who's Leon Howard's letter also demon­ just a paranoid flake? Explosives expert Larry Grupp investigates different theories strates the mental confusion induced by of how the bombing was done - including the official story - and offers the most conspiracy theory. In addition to includ" believable explanation to date. (Video only: V139) ing a spurious Times quote (and attribut­ ing the paper's ownership to the Roths.. Going to Extremes: Wendy McElroy, Pierre Lemieux, David Friedman, Timothy childs!) he provides us with a hilarious Virkkala & R.W. Bradford. When people are radicalized, they often embrace list of Federal Reserve "owners," includ" suicidal- or even homicidal - strategies. How do libertarians get drawn into ing the Rothschild Bank of Berlin (sic), martyrdom? How do others get drawn into terrorism? How can radicals avoid being Israel Moses Sieff Bank of Italy, and the sucked into the system? This tape deals with all these questions and one other: Is Warburg Bank of Hamburg and Amster­ voting immoral? (Audio: A140; Video: V140) dam - institutions that have been Revolution: The militia movement is readying itself for a revolution. But is the time defunct for more than half a century. really ripe? In this tape, Pierre Lemieux asks the questions, "Revolution - if not, While I applaud Howard's desire for why not? And how do you know if it is time?" (Audio: A141; Video: V141) constitutional government, I cannot ima­ gine anyone laboring under his misap­ The Best - and Worst - Places to Invest and Live: Investment advisor Douglas prehensions as an effective spokesman Casey is also a world traveler, visiting Third World backwaters and chatting with for the cause. tinpot dictators from Cuba to Central Asia. In this fascinating talk, he recounts his Regarding Rockefeller wealth: Forbes recent adventures - and tells what valuable wealth-protecting information he learned. has estimated the net worth of John D. (Audio: A142; Video: V142) Rockefeller in 1910 at $1.1 billion, when Investment Advice: Bonanza or BS? Harry Browne, Douglas Casey, R.W. $20.67 bought an ounce of gold. That Bradford, David Friedman & Victor Niederhoffer. Do investment advisors really would be about $20 billion in current dollars. Forbes estimates the wealth of all have anything to offer their customers - at least so far as good investment advice is Rockefeller descendants (now number­ concerned? Is there a science of economic forecasting? A no-holds-barred debate! ing in the hundreds) at $6.2 billion. Of (Audio: A143; Video: V143) that amount, $1.3 billion is attributed to Camouflage, Deception, and Survival in the World ofInvesting: Victor Niederhoffer, David Rockefeller, the oldest and single one of the most successful speculators in the nation, offers his model of how markets richest Rockefeller. I presume Jack Den­ function. Complex and in-depth. (Audio: A144; Video: V144) non is not too"dense" to figure out what Do Short-Sighted Corporate Decision-Makers Screw the Future? Collectivists claim kind of a real return that represents. free markets destroy society and the environment, because companies only think on a Franklin Sanders' wounded response quarter-to-quarter basis. Economist Richard Stroup takes on this charge. (Audio: to my article is simply bizarre. It is amaz­ ing that he spends so much time defend­ A.145; Video: V145) ing himself against anti-Semitism, a Does Foreign Policy Matter? R.W. Bradford & Leon Hadar. Most libertarians charge I never made against him. The focus their energies on domestic issues. Should they pay more attention to the world continued on page 8 around them? (Audio: A146; Video: V146) 6 Liberty Share the Excitement!

The Four Political Types: Fred Smith points out some nasty What America Needs - and What Americans Want: The 1994 roadblocks on the way to freedom - and how libertarians election showed that Americans are sick of politics-as-usual, but can navigate around them. (Audio: A147; Video: V147) it's clear that the GOP isn't going to deliver on its promises. Is Libertarianism Getting Anywhere? Harry Browne, Harry Browne explains why the time is right for a Libertarian Robert Higgs, Pierre Lemieux, Fred Smith & R.W. victory, and lays out his plan for dismantling the federal Bradford. The case for (and against) libertarian optimism. government. (Audio: A156; Video: V156) Are we making any progress? (Audio: A148; Video: V148) Has Environmentalism Run Its Course? Fred Smith, Randal Why Not Hang 'em All? Everyone's talking about crime and O'Toole, Jane Shaw, Rick Stroup & R.W. Bradford. The punishment, but few ever take an economist's approach - or honeymoon seems to be over for such green giants as the Sierra approach the topic without an unrealistic trust in government. Club and the Wilderness Society, with their bloated bureaucracies David Friedman explains the benefits of apparently and statist politics. But what about the environmental movement inefficient punishment, with a historian's eye for how as a whole? And where do free-market environmentalists fit in? different societies have dealt with crime issues in the past. (Audio: A157; Video: V157) (Audio: A149; Video: V149) Ayn Rand: The Woman Behind the Myth: Barbara Branden, Private Law Enforcement in Eighteenth-Century England: John Hospers, Chris Sciabarra & R.W. Bradford. These Two hundred years ago, prosecution of felons in England was incredible tapes include countless priceless moments, along with a private matter, rather than one for agents of the state. How information unavailable anywhere else. A must for any Rand fan! did this system work? Why did it emerge? What were its (Two audios: ARM, $14.95; Two videos: VRM, $29.95.) advantages - and disadvantages? David Friedman holds your attention for all of this fascinating talk. (Audio: AlSO; Video: VISO) r ------., I ---Complete Sets Video @ $275.00 =--- I Is Cyberspace Liberspace? David Friedman, Leon Hadar, ____ Complete Sets Audio @ $ 99.00 = _ Pierre Lemieux & Ross Overbeek. What impact will the Internet, encryption, virtual reality, electronic money, and I Individual sessions (list by number): I other technologies have on the political realm? Is cyberspace leading us toward greater individual freedom? Or is it all I I cyberhype? (Audio: AlSI; Video: VlSl) I I What Libertarians Can Learn from Environmentalists: Libertarian Randal O'Toole has worked with I I environmentalists for years, observing the strategies of one of Total audiocassettes @ $5.95 = _ this century's most successful political movements. In this I Total videocassettes == @ $19.50 = I fascinating talk, he applies his insights to the battle for I Postage & Handling_.__ ($3 per order)* = I freedom. (Audio: AlS2; Video: V152) "foreign orders: $1.00 per audio, $2.50 per video I Can Liberty Survive Without Religion? Are religious I Total: institutions necessary for a free society to survive? Has evolution killed religion - and, if so, is there any hope for I r:l My check is enclosed I freedom? Jane Shaw addresses these questions and more in I r:l Charge my r:l Visa r:l Mastercard Expires: _ this amazing talk. (Audio: AIS3; Video: VIS3) I IfGovernment Is So Villainous, Why Don't Government I I Officials Seem Like Villains? Most government bureaucrats Signature _ believe in what they're doing. Many are actually nice folks. I Account # _ I But their actions lead to suffering, even death, for millions of people. How is this possible? Economist-philosopher Daniel I I Klein offers a compelling explanation - with very I Name: _ interesting implications. (Audio: AIS4; Video: VlS4) I Sexual Correctness: A new breed offeminist has declared I Address: ------­ I war on individual liberty, in the process undermining I City, State, Zip: ------women's autonomy - the very value they claim to uphold. I In this information-packed talk, individualist feminist Wendy I Phone Number: ------McElroy gives the chilling details of the latest illiberal court I precedents and speaks up for the civil liberties of men and women alike. (Audio: AIS5; Video: VI5S) I Call1-800-854-6991, or write Liberty Book Club, I ..• Dept._------BC7, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368. • Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 Letters, continued from page 6 the issue by ~ayingshe disavowed all altering one'scontext, vantage point, or thatbefore she died in 1960. level ofgenerality, Rand suggests, one only reference to him in my article was a Perhaps most revealing, though, is can articulate theessence ofthe thing, single line accurately characterizing his McIlhany's definition of conspiracy. It is and those relations thatmightberelevant opposition to Thatcher's privatization so elastic as to be meaningless. That to ouranalysis ofit. Moreover, since plans on the grounds that they involved Welch's latter-day admirers feel it neces­ nothingcanbe defined external to its con­ N.M. Rothschild as advisor and under­ sary to define conspiracy to include all text, the conditions ofone's definition are writer. While Liberty readers will those who promote the same objectives, partlyconstitutive ofthe analysis. undoubtedly be gratified to learn of the whether or not their goals and motiva­ These principles are ondisplay invir­ ecumenical nature ofhis collaboration tions are the same, and whether or not tually every aspect of Rand's thought. with Larry Abraham, Sanders illustrates they actually collaborate consciously, Even when Rand stresses the primacy of the difficulty conspiracy-minded people shows how intellectually empty the existence she argues that one cannotful­ often have in dealing with policy issues. "Master Conspiracy Theory" is. By ly understand metaphysics, epistemolo­ His attack on the New Zealand pri­ Mcllhany's definition, Congress itself­ gy, ethics, politics, or aesthetics in their vatization program is an excellent case and everyone who votes on the basis of abstraction from the whole theyjointly in point. The most socialistic country in the benefits they expect - is a conspira­ constitute. In her literary methods, she the First World just 15 years ago, New cy. "Master Conspiracy Theory," as recognizes that each story- with its Zealand is now ranked below only defined by McIlhany, is simply a histori­ characters and plotintegrated to a cen­ Hong Kong and Singapore in the Fraser cal Rohrschach blot. tral theme - "is written as a man is born Institute's survey of global economic lib­ As for whether Welch's conspiracy is - an organic whole, dictated onlyby its erty. The privatization program initiated "millenniaold": in The New Americanism, own laws and its own necessity" (Letters by Roger Douglas and implemented Welch traced the conspiratorial idea back ofAyn Rand, p. 157, emphasis added). with the advice of Rothschild, among to ancient Sparta, thoughhe admitted And in her social theory, she rejects vul­ others, was an absolutely critical ele­ that the Spartans"did not establish an gareconomism, and traces the internal ment in New Zealand's transformation. esoteric core of uninterrupted organiza­ relationships among disparate factors, That Sanders echoes the claptrap of the tional permanence to control and guide identifying "the great mistake [of] assuming thateconomics is a science socialist opponents of privatization collectivist drives for powerinthe centu­ which canbe isolated from moral, philo­ shows how debilitating his obsession ries ahead." Instead, he claimed, itsplin­ sophic and political principles, and con­ with the "Establishment" is. tered into "manysmall sects and heresies sidered as a subject initself, without rela­ William Mcllhany's defense ofNesta and societies and associations ... each of tion to them" (Letters, p. 260). Webster is disingenuous. Oswald Mos­ which intended to be the embryo of an ley's British Union ofFascists was far Chris Matthew Sciabarra organization that would grow in power New York, N.Y. more representative ofthe groups Web­ until it ruled the world." Soon, they ster addressed as a featured speaker in "coalesced into a uniformly Satanic Out of the Ballpark the 1930s than the Brigade ofGuards or creed and program" that was promoted Is Randal O'Toole ("Street smarts," the Royal Artillery Institute. Not only by the Bavarian Illuminati. March 1996) nota regular readerofLiber­ did the BUF promote her literature exten­ By McIlhany's definition, this fanta­ ty? Ifhewerehe wouldhave known that sively in Britain, but the Nazi Party in sy would certainly qualify as a millen­ his assertion thatthe solutionto highway Germanycited her frequently and nia-old conspiracy. I'd say it qualifies by problems is to sell theroads i~ hardly approvingly in their own propaganda. the usual definition as well. original. Infact, I proposed thatvery McIlhany cannotdeny thatWebster pub­ I thank Franklin Harris for his kind thing myarticle inthe November 1988 licly and repeatedly attributed the ills of comments. I certainly share his concerns Liberty. Inasmuch as the questfor a more the Western world to the "international about the libertarian movement and, rational highwaysystemvia selling the and insidious hegemony" oftheJews at judging from some of the other letters roads has notyetbeenachieved, I thinkit thattime; he simply attempts to sidestep responding to my article, our concerns is worthwhiletopursueothermeans of are very well-placed. makingprogress toward thatobjective. Errata While I, like Brown and Shull The Dialectic of Context (Letters, March 1996), am not complete­ Owing to a faulty transcription and to Lester H. Hunt ("In Search of Rand's ly at ease with the role insurers have incomplete fact-checking, several Roots," March 1996) questions whether played in influencing driving and high­ errors appeared in "The Road to the Rand adhered to a doctrine ofinternal way laws, I am more troubled by their Big House," by Chester Alan Arthur relations. Inmybook, Ayn Rand: The Rus­ apparent willingness to disavow respon­ (Liberty, March 1996): the associate sian Radical, I supporthis contention that sibility for their own driving mistakes. It White House counsel is W. Neil Rand had no such metaphysical commit­ is this cavalier attitude of "to hell with Eggleston, not "Eggleson"; the ment. She acknowledges thateverything everybody else" that gives libertarian­ Clintons' attorney is David Kendall, is related mthe universe, butthatitis not ism a bad reputation. A free society not "Donald"; it's Patsy Thomasson, a philosophical task to establish the ulti­ requires that each person take responsi­ not "Patty"; Vince Foster died in 1993, matenature ofthese interrelationships. bility for his own actions. Those who not 1994. Our apologies to readers and However, I also argue thatRand endors­ would repudiate this responsibility the author, and our thanks to those es a kind ofepistemological internalism. (because they are "too poor") invite who wrote with corrections. An analysis ofrelations is legitimate pro­ chaos and tyranny. -Jesse Walker, Asst. Editor vided thatone defines one'scontext. By continued on page 68 8 Liberty The end of the end of history - So you and the U.S. timber economy. I don't know about the climate thought you could really get rid of us, the good old boys of models, but I give the agency credit for putting together some the Cold War - the spooks, the propagandists, the military­ productivity and economic models that are pretty good. industrial complex. The fall of the Berlin Wall ... capitalism Their results showed that under a "worst-case" (or is it in China ... peace in the Middle East ... the End of History. best-case?) scenario, global climate change will increase U.S. Things will be different now, you said. ' forest growth by 24% in 50 years. This will reduce timber You were wrong, my friends. Just look arouhd you: the prices by 35% below what they would be wtthout climate Communists are about to return to power in Moscow after an change. Though 50 years is the extent of the *agency's eco­ impressive comeback in Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. nomic projections, it is clear that growth will increase and Russia is emerging again as a "threat" to our "national inter­ prices will decline even further after that time. est," so we'll strengthen and expand NATO, and forget about Global warming means more carbon dioxide in the atmos­ the peace dividend. China and the United States may soon go phere, which is essential for plant growth; warmer tempera­ to war over Taiwan, just like in the 1950s. We may even have tures, which means longer growing seasons; and more, not another armed conflict in the Korean Peninsula. And Cuba less, rainfall. So if you're worried about global warming, and Castro are back in the headlines - maybe we'll have a don't fret for America's forests. Instead, you better buy an rerun of the Bay of Pigs. In Israel, most polls indicate that the umbrella. -RO'T Likud party will win the coming election. Bye-bye, peace; welcome back, intifada. And maybe even another Desert The parent trap - The education establishment Storm - against Iran this time. likes to blame children's poor performance on their parents. Most important: an aging Nixonite may be the next U.S. The Department of Education's "Goals 2000" program, for president, meaning it will soon be springtime in Washington example, lists "increased parental involvement in learning" for the neocons and other lovers of global crusades and mili­ as one of its aims. tary intervention. The CIA, USIA, VOA, NSA, and all the It is true that smart parents tend to have smart children other parasites of the warfare state are back in business, ready and' that dysfunctional families block learning. But the idea to roll back Russian nationalism, Islamic fundamentalism, that children won't learn unless their parents are actively and Chinese expansionism. You'll have to go back to reading involved in school is nonsense. It's just another effort to pass Commentary and Martin Peretz's articles in The New Republic. the buck. Ah, life is good! -LTH For four years my son went to a private Montessori school, where children proceeded at their own pace through a Randolph Bourne, call your office - Why specified curriculum. Some did better than others, but all chil­ did Clinton send troops to Bosnia? Economists Gregory Hess dren learned the basics, and parents didn't have to do a thing. and Athanasios Orphanides may have the answer. Oh yes, they attended potluck dinners and helped paint the In an econometric model, they tested the theory that, in furniture, but the teachers did the teaching. bad economic times, weak presidents (those with shaky re­ Now my son is in public school. There are a lot of daffy election prospects) tend to send troops abroad. The test situations and bureaucratic rigidities with public school, as included data for the period 1897-1988. Its conclusions: when you would expect, but the direct cause of children's difficul­ the president could not seek re-election or the economy was ties is this: not in recession, the probability of initiating war was about Children are expected to follow a specific curriculum at 30%. When the president was up for re-election with a poor the same pace. That is, they are supposed to read the same economy, the probability rose to about 600/0. -WM stories, do the same exercises, learn the same spelling words, figure out the same math problems. At the same time, the The blame falls mainly on the rain - A makeup of each class is designed to include as wide differ­ few years ago, Forest Service ecologists were predicting dire ences in ability as possible (the opposite of "tracking," which things for U.S. forests if global warming took place. They is viewed as elitist). painted pictures of desertification throughout the West, with In this situation, the curriculum must be geared to the most of our forests pushed up to the Canadian border. median student. So nearly half find it too easy and nearly half When global warming was all the rage, Congress gave the find it too hard. Only a few find it "fits." Forest Service several million dollars to study its effects on Eventually, parents realize that their child is out of step ­ forests. Now the results are in, and guess what? The main either ahead of the curriculum and bored, or behind it and problem is going to be that we will have too much wood. frustrated. Forest Service scientists combined the latest global climate At that point, concerned parents have to be involved. They models (made by others) with models of forest productivity scurry around trying to figure out what is wrong. They talk to Liberty 9 Volume 9, Number5 May 1996

the teacher, help with homework, tryout tutoring, go for spe­ ,Rothschild, the young White House aide obviously modeled cial tests, seek out enrichment programs. And, yes, the on George Stephanopoulos. Throughout the film, he hectors Department of Education is right: those parents who devote the president to impose stronger gun control legislation. In the most time and energy can save their children from educa­ the end - and don't worry, I'm not giving away anything tional disaster. you won't figure out for yourself in the first ten minutes of After creating the problem, the educationists tell us that the picture - the president does indeed call for gun parents must solve it. -JSS confiscation. So beneath the surface Clintonism, the movie is saying They'll read it when it's out in Tagalog this: THE ROTHSCHILDS ARE PLOTTING TO DISARM THE - Hillary Rodham Clinton's quasi-handbook on childrear­ AMERICAN PEOPLEl ing, It Takes a Village, is obviously meant to cement her status And Clinton thought Rob Reiner was his friend. The man as a champion of family values before the presidential elec­ belongs in the Michigan Militia! -JW tion tolls in. I wonder if the namues who raised Chelsea will buy it? -WM www.censorship.stupid - German prosecutors are trying to control cyberspace once more. Their target: a The marrying kind - Why does anyone have to computer in Santa Cruz, California (www.webcom.com) that be concerned about another person's sexual preferences, so is declared "legally off limits" because it has the audacity to long as he or she doesn't use or threaten force to impose his list Ernst Zundel among its over 1,500 customers. Zundel is a or her wishes on another? Like so many problems, the con- Canadian resident who believes that the Holocaust is a troversy over homosexual marriages results from govern- Jewish historical invention - that it never took place. ment intervention. After all, a heterosexual marriage is Ironically, the attempted censorship has brought Zundel simply a contractual arrangement between a man and a undreamed-of publicity and widespread circulation of his woman concerning their respective rights under the law. theories. David Jones, president of Electronic Frontier Canada, Typically, they embark upon such an arrangement out of explains: "Instead of limiting the audience for Zundel's propa- love and a desire to live their lives together and form a fam- ganda, Germany's clumsy attempt to block access has resulted Hy. Except for not having children of their own, a homosex- in the information being copied to new locations in cyber- ual couple might do so for similar reasons. In any event, space and becoming even more accessible, ... and with the there is no reason why two men or two women couldn't publicity, more people might want to visit these web pages to enter into a marriage-like contract covering their respective see what all the fuss is about. It's rather unfortunate." Jones rights to property, inheritance, pensions, and adoption, and also stressed that EFC "strongly disagrees with Zundel's their obligations to one another. views." However, government discriminates against such con- Declan McCullagh, a free speech activist, loaded Zundel's tracts between two same-sex companions. Government regu- message into a single file and posted a Usenet newsgroup lations permit only survivors of a legal heterosexual JI:larriage with instructions on "how to open your very own Zundelsite to inherit certain valuable rights such as Social Security, pen- mirror archive in five minutes or less." The same has been , sion and job-related benefits, and the right to occupy rent- done at Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and controlled apartments. Government also discriminates, MIT. "If Germany starts to prevent their universities from against homosexual couples with respect to adoption. So connecting to other universities outside the country, it defeats homosexuals fight for "affirmative action" r------, the purpose of them being on the Internet in laws and to have their relationships legally Liberty's Editors the first place," observes Jones. -WM certified as "marriages." Reflect Ending government-decreed benefits Spoiler alert - Democrats are elated would eliminate the problem. Then homosex- CAA Chester Alan Arthur over Ron Wyden's victory over State Senator DB David Boaz uals would be free to settle amicably and RWB R.W. Bradford Gordon Smith for Bob Packwood's seat in the legally, by entering into mutually-agreed- SC Stephen Cox U.S. Senate. The environment, abortion, and upon contracts with one another, such mat- BBG, Bettina Bien Greaves the recent budget debate have all been cred­ ters as their respective rights to property, LTH Leon T. Hadar ited with the liberal Democrat's victory. inheritance, and adoption. -BBG BK Bill Kauffman In fact, the vote was so close - Wyden RK Richard Kostelanetz beat Smith by less than 1.5% (568,000 to Secret agenda? - Rob Reiner's LEL Loren E. Lomasky 551,000) - that almost anything could have movie The American President, last year's WM Wendy McElroy made the difference. One factor not men­ RO'T Randal O'Toole wildly overpraised mediocrity that made tioned in any account I read was the presence SR Sheldon Richman many critics' top ten lists, has generally been JSR James S. Robbins of third parties. interpreted as a paean to the Clinton adminis­ JSS Jane S. Shaw Wyden and Smith actually shared the bal­ tration. But could it have a more subtle mes­ SS Sandy Shaw lot with four "third-party" candidates. Two of sage - something more radical being slipped CS Clark Stooksbury them, the Socialist Party's Vicki Valdez and into our subconscious? TWV Timothy Virkkala the Pacifica Party's Lou Gold (a noted envi­ Consider Michael J. Fox's character, JW Jesse Walker ronmentalist), collected 15,000 votes. The 10 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 other two, Karen Shilling of the American Party (Le., the the New York Times in January. His point was that preserva­ Perotistas) and Gene Nanni of the Libertarian Party, collected tion, not "extractive industry or agriculture," leads to a 40,000 votes. healthy economy, since tourists and new industries are This means that a majority of voters selected parties or attracted to places with forests intact. candidates who generally oppose big government and gener­ Roush should know all about the mindset, since he has it. ally support trimming government spending. In other words, Not too long ago, he sold 400,000 board feet of wood from his if the American and Libertarian Party voters had gone for ranch in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana to Plum Creek Smith, he would have won the election even assuming the TImber Company. That's not necessarily bad, but logging Socialist and Pacifica votes had gone to Wyden. while categorically condemning logging seems hypocritical. I draw two lessons from this. First, contrary to Democratic Roush is not the first environmentalist to attack logging hopes, Oregon voters are getting more conservative: no one while doing it himself. In 1993, William Arthur, the northwest as conservative as Smith has come this close to winning a regional director of the Sierra Club, cut 700/0 (or 85,000 board statewide election in decades. Second, if the Libertarian Party feet) of the standing timber on his property. At the time, the is going to act as a spoiler, I'm not interested in it. Though I Sierra Club was suing the Forest Service over its management may not agree with his social views, I'd rather have a fiscal of Colville National Forest, which surrounds Arthur's prop­ conservative such as Smith than a tax-and-spend liberal such erty. Also that year, Arthur was a witness at Bill Clinton's as Wyden any day. -RO'T "Forest Summit," urging that more land be preserved to pro­ tect the spotted owl. Sofa, so good - What is it about a couch on a porch These two actions typify the arrogance of the environmen­ that fills certain people with rage? When I was a college stu­ tal movement. The Nation, which originally broke the Jon dent, I lived in a house with a sofa on its porch, and life was Roush story, said that "the head of the Wilderness Society grand. People could gather there to talk, or smoke, or drink, logging old growth in the Bitterroot Valley is roughly akin to or play music, or make out, or just watch pedestrians wander the head of Human Rights Watch torturing a domestic ser­ by. It was both an adjunct to the house - an extra room vant." That's harsh, but these guys do seem to take their pri­ smokers or loud talkers could be sent to without feeling ban­ vate property rights for granted while actively trying to ished - and an opening to the outside world. Random eliminate those of others. Jonathan Adler points out in his passers-by could stop for a second, stay for an hour, and end book Environmentalism at the Crossroads that in 1989 the up our newest friends. The couch was ripped-up, dirty, and Wilderness Society pushed for a doubling of federally pro­ comfy. And our landlord made us get rid of it. tected wilderness and in 1992 it urged the federal govern­ He was a good landlord in every other respect. But after ment to buy $1 million worth of private land. he took away our couch, our house's social life took a bit of a Roush and Arthur remind me of the high-level Soviet dive. And we weren't the only ones: friends and neighbors nomenklatura who bought their goods in hard currency stores also had their sofas evicted by other landlords (including one but expected others to stand in line at GUM. -JSS moderately prominent contemporary philosopher, whose sen­ sible writings on politics might lead one to expect he'd know Belfast on the Potomac - James B. Stewart's better). What gives? reve(ations (in Blood Sport) of the way the Clinton duo Well, couchnapping our favorite furniture is a landlord's worked in Little Rock - and in Washington - brought to prerogative, I suppose. The house is his property, after all, mind the structure of a terrorist organization. Bill is the politi­ and I don't remember demanding any special sofa rights in cal wing, always at arm's length from the activities of Hillary, our lease. But the city council of Indiana, a small town in at least in terms of deniability. Hillary is the militant wing, western Pennsylvania, has no such excuse. In December, the enforcing the will of the organization on any who cross its Indiana Borough Council banned residents from using furni­ path. I've always wondered why so few of the people the ture outside if it is "not specifically constructed for outdoor Clintons have double-crossed over the years have come for­ use." Offenders will be fined $50-$100 for a first offense, and ward to tell their stories, and I've assumed it was a combina­ up to $300 if they keep sinning. The law was specifically tion of Bill's charisma and the probability that the Clintons designed to get couches off porches. According to the Associated Press, "The idea came from Councilman John Morganti, who has campaigned to clean up things he regards as eyesores." Well, that's America: one man's way of life is another man's eyesore. Except in this case, the latter is a powerful prig, and he doesn't mind forcing everyone else to conform to his sterile social vision. Don't be surprised if this latest affront to civil society catches on in other cities. There is something about a happy porch that drives a busybody mad. -JW

Nature boy, spare that tree - "Too many of us are still locked into the mindset that says the way to make money off a piece of land is to mine it, drill it or log it," wrote Jon Roush, president of the Wilderness Society, in a letter to "Relax, guys - he was a rabbit long before he started coming in here." Liberty 11 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 have just as much dirt on all of their potential detractors. But and illiberalism has handed Hamas its constituency. the portrayal of the ruthless, manipulative Hillary Rodham Hamas is pursuing a classic strategy of tension. Its intent is Clinton in Stewart's book shows who inspired the real terror. to create a situation in which the average Palestinian has only It would take a strong-willed person indeed to face off with two alternatives: acquiescence to unbearable oppression, or Hillary the kneecapper. -JSR support for Hamas. The tactic requires (a) provoking a severe clampdown, and (b) eliminating all other challengers to The Hamas golem - The peace process in Israeli authority. Hamas has now achieved the first goal ­ Palestine is effectively dead. The carnage recently unleashed largely because every other player in the "peace process" has on innocent Israelis has destroyed it, and those responsible achieved the second for it. Arafat's autocratic disdain for his for the bombings have an ocean of blood on their hands: not people's interests drove supporters from his camp, and his just of their direct victims, but of all those who will die in the vigilant suppression of dissident voices in the PLO ensured crackdown to come. Hamas' terrorist tactics are as vile as its that a third path between Arafat and Hamas would not fundamentalist ideology. emerge. Meanwhile, Israel and the U.S. only helped Arafat That much is obvious - not just because it is true, but along by underwriting him. (And not only that: before the because it does not break with conventional thinking about peace talks began, Israel subsidized Hamas, hoping to under­ the Middle East. It is easy, in the'United States, to condemn mine the PLO's authority among Palestinians. At the time, the Arab and Muslim terrorists. It is much harder to seriously country was governed by the Likud Party - the same hawks discuss what makes it possible for a group like Hamas to who now push for no-holds-barred repression. The chickens, flourish. as Malcolm X liked to say, have come home to roost.) The hawks are now demanding a harsh crackdown in the Arafat is, in more ways than one, the anti-Moses: he led occupied territories; peace, they not unreasonably suggest, his people to the promised land, then entered it alone. Had he must take a back seat to Israelis' immediate security. The not cashed his nation's interests in for a chance to speak at putative doves can only suggest greater subsidies for Yasser Harvard and be photographed on the White House lawn, he Arafat, to give him a leg up on his Hamas rivals. We have would have been able to suppress Ramas before its campaign of terror got out of hand. Had Israel treated Palestinians with thus been maneuvered into a position where the only options dignity and respect - allowing them freedom of speech discussed in the corridors of power are punishing all instead of censorship, freedom of enterprise instead of puni­ Palestinians for the crimes of a minority (rather like punish­ tive regulation, a rule of law instead of arbitrary violations of ing all Israeli Jews for the assassination of Prime Minister civil rights - Hamas would never have drawn the kind of Rabin), or further propping up the man whose corruption fanatical support a campaign of suicide bombers requires. .~'S---._ The strategy of tension is working because the Israeli govern­ )~~! T'J.II: F'LASJ; --., ment and the PLO are allowing it to work. Hamas is to blame • '. ~ I ~>k" ~ ..q. F: 0 • .• J for the recent mass murders on Israeli soil, but Israel and the ~t(PU ... lJ J Now, PLO are to blame for Hamas. -JW "A~.t fi~ f\ ITr I ~1il1 ~ACIIt~~ "Til}) 4 IIEy J..f~r L

Switzerland a half-century ago. The world has changed dra­ world's first women's suffrage, South Australia followed suit. matically in the years since that meeting, and much of the In 1924, Australia made voting no longer a right, but an obli­ intellectual change can be attributed to Mont Pelerin's confe­ gation, instituting fines for those who fail to vote. rees. A grounded scientific belief in free markets is supplant­ A more recent reform requires that voters rank candidates ing the old faith in the state. In 1947, the Austrian and for office in order of preference. As I understand the system, Chicago schools of free-market economics were widely they count the first-choice votes for each candidate, eliminate ignored. In 1974, Hayek was awarded the Nobel Prize, an the candidate with the fewest, and increase the ranking of the honor bestowed on Friedman two years later. remaining candidates on each ballot. In other words, if you So I arrived at Mont Pelerin with certain expectations. A rank candidates Adams, Brown, Cromwell, Dimwit, and statue of Hayek, perhaps, or a Rue du Mises; at a minimum, a Edwards, and Adams finishes last, your ballot now counts in simple plaque outside the Hotel du Pare, commemorating the favor of Brown. If in the second counting of ballots, Brown is great conference that took place within. Instead, I found a last, your vote now goes to Cromwell. And so on. It sounds a TIbetan Institute and some cows wandering in a nearby bit cumbersome, but pretty fair, right? meadow. If 36 socialists had gathered there in 1947, there Well, not so fair as you might think. It makes voting for would be statues, streets, plaques, and still more: five books, the candidates of minor parties virtually irrelevant, since in three plays, and two novels would have been produced the end the election comes down to the two candidates of the already, with more in the works. major parties, after all the ballots for other candidates are I was disappointed, but not depressed. The land was too eliminated in the early rounds of ballot counting. At least scenic, too beautiful for me to feel down. I consoled myself that's what Albert Langer figured. So he suggested that voters with thoughts of Mont Pelerin: The Movie as I rode the funicu­ simply rate the two major parties in a tie for last on their bal­ lar down to Vevey. Perhaps One Week That Changed the World, lot. This is a violation of the voting laws, but it's a lot harder or 36 Angry Men. -guest reflection by Greg Kaza to punish the Australian who follows Langer's advice than it is to punish the Australian who does not vote, since Australia It takes a village, a sociology depart­ has the secret ballot. Not to worry. In a country that takes democracy as seri­ ment, and the 82nd Airborne - In Hillary ously as Australia does, there is a way to deal with such inso­ Clinton's smarmy book on childrearing, It Takes a Village lence. The electoral commission won an injunction forbidding (from the expression "It takes a village to raise a child"), the Langer to advocate such treason. He defied the court order, "village" is a metaphor for the state. The cozy little tome is and on Valentine's Day was sentenced to ten weeks in jail. nothing short of a self-righteous call for the state to replace Yes: in Australia, they take democracy seriously - so seri­ parental authority. As this absentee-mother explains, "The ously, in fact, that they fine people for refusing to vote and village itself must act in place of parents; it accepts those jail people for challenging the two-party oligopoly. Of what responsibilities in all our names through the authority we importance are the rights to liberty and property - the most vest in government." fundamental rights of liberal society - when Australia's When should parental rights be terminated? Not surpris­ peculiar democracy is challenged? -RWB ingly, she argues for breaking up the family upon sexual or physical abuse of the child. But then the brave Hillary These guys were the Vikings? There's plunges ahead to raise the vague specter of "improper child something about foreign travel that makes you hum all those maintenance." How could wayward but nonabusive parents patriotic songs you learned in grade school. be swayed toward her view of proper child maintenance? She My mother and I recently traveled to Norway. Fjords, suggests that medical benefits to such people be made "con­ lakes, forests, crisp clean air - it all makes you feel alive. tingent on agreement to allow home visits [from social work­ Altogether a fine place for a vacation. We had the added ers] or to participate in other forms of parent education." pleasure of visiting relatives, and being welcomed into the First she wanted to socialize medicine, placing it under homes of the local people. Norwegians have a reputation of government control. Now she wants access to medical care to being cold, and it is not undeserved, but if you are "in," they be a privilege that must be earned through conformity to her view of childrearing. As Alexander Cockburn has com­ mented, "She should change her book's title to It Takes a Police State." -WM Plebiscital maniacs - In Australia, they take ~~ n democracy seriously. ~' "':~ The Australian state of Victoria introduced the secret bal­ C .r;;? lot in 1854, on the theory that it would prevent intimidation of voters. From asomewhat different perspective, Lysander Spooner saw the so-called "Australian ballot" as a way for voters to rob their neighbors in secret, via taxation. The Australian ballot prevailed and Spooner's thinking lay dead c;;~-b1~ to the world, embalmed on the yellowing pages of old politi- .,.--' cal tracts. In 1894, only 15 years after Wyoming enacted the "Look, just because somebody yells 'stop:thief ..." 1i~/o, Liberty 13 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 become extremely friendly. We spent a .lot .of time drinking The bureaucrats of Norway have banned eyedrops as,· get coffee and eating little cakes. this, "unnecessary, and possibly addictive." It is against the Our visit included a stop by the old family farm, the place law to sell eyedrops in Norway! And red-eyed Norwegians where my grandmother was born, and· the place she left in don't even seem to mind. They just smuggle cases of 1917 to find a brighter future abroad. My grandmother didn't ClearEyes every time they come back into the country, clearly like the pool of potential mates in her town, and although she not concerned about either health or legality, but unwilling to didn't speak a word of English, she went to America,· all exert the effort to change the law. One wonders what the alone. My cousins still own the old farm, a beautiful piece of Norwegians would do if their government de~~ided to· take land right on the fjord. That's where the trouble starts. They the same approach to caffeine. Starbucks on the black market, sort ofown it. sweater-wearing blonde bums in alleys ... "C'mon, Sven! I The concept of private property rights hasn't reached this need my fix!" country yet. The government decided to build an aquarium Somehow, I pried Mom away from our relatives' constant on the property. Oh, my cousins would still own the land, all addictive and unnecessary coffee parties, and we left little right, they'd just have to put up with tourists, staff, parking Norway and all its friendly, well-meaning socialism, urging lots, and a huge aquarium right next to the house - if the our relatives to come and visit us in America.f.:For the most house is allowed to remain standing, that is. For some reason, part, they were unenthusiastic. They have a comfortable life, the aquarium has not yet been built, but the property's sort-of predictable and safe. The social engineers are doing their jobs. owners (my cousins) answer the government's plans with -guest reflection by Carolina Beroza lapdog obedience. That's just the way it goes in Norway. Luckily, one of my most unfortunate cousins was kind Better living through litigation - Coming enough to rescue me from the endless string of coffee parties up: Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw et ale vs. Shalala, Kessler, and the blue-haired old ladies. He took me out to drink beer the FDA, et ale When Durk and I first began our research into with the rest of Young Norway..Luckily again, almost all aging mechanisms in 1968, the limit to what could be done to young Norwegians are fluent in English. We talked about a extend human lifespan was information: there wasn't very lot of things over our $10.00 pints of beer- alcohol is very much of it. In 1996, the limit is regulatory barriers, particu­ highly taxed in Norway, to discourage abuse. Naturally, this larly those put in place by the FDA. Some of their most just promotes heavy patronage of the duty-free liquor shops appalling regulations concern "health claims." You aren't by those who travel, and of moonshine aquavit by those who allowed to print a statement accompanying a health care stay at home. One additional problem with drinking in product, either as part of the label or as advertising, in which Norway is that the penalties for driving under the influence truthful and non-misleading information suggests the prod­ of alcohol are very severe, and the definition of "under the uct may be good for your health, without permission from influence" is very strict. Breathing into a breathalyzer after the FDA. Our First Amendment suit against this policy is eating a liqueur-filled chocolate candy will qualify you as working its way through the courts, after having detoured intoxicated. Now, I'm no fan of drunk driving, but most peo­ through the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (which said it ple can manage to operate a motor vehicle after one beer,cer­ didn't have jurisdiction). tainly after a liqueur-filled candy. In Norway, however, such The FDA's blanket ban on health claims constitutes a prior an act will land you in jail for three weeks. restraint, which is not only contrary to the First Amendment One of our relatives once hosted a party. A guest asked but has been considered very dubious by the courts even the host to move a· car that was blocking his, so the host under the commercial speech review standard. (The courts moved the car several feet out of the way. The police saw this, have considered commercial speech to be somehow different arrested him, and threw him in jail, even though he had not from other speech and not "deserving" of full First even left his own driveway. Amendment protection. The First Amendment, of course, The family noted his example. All Norwegians take the makes no such distinction. However, even under this reduced idea of designating a driver very seriously. Well, what's standard, the courts oppose prior restraints except under very wrong with that? What's wrong with the government scaring unusual circumstances.) the beejeezus out of the population? It's good for business, If we win this case, our victory will dramatically expand too. As you might expect, the taxi business in Norway is the market for health products, particularly dietary supple­ booming, which is a very good thing for another cousin of ments, because it is very difficult to sell products without mine, a cab driver. He has five children, at last count, by three being able to tell people what the products can do. Until then, different women, none of whom he has bothered to marry. A America still won't have a health-care system, just an after­ young woman I met in the bar, wearing a microscopic mini­ the-fact illness-care system. -SS skirt, also had a child at home, also was not married. She seemed more embarrassed about not having a job than about Hired gun control - The principal objection to the fact that her child didn't have a father. Norwegians, like libel laws is that the business of establishing truth and falsity many other Europeans, don't seem to get married anymore, is strictly a matter for theocracies and other dictatorships. The and none seem to have any plans to do so. Although this liberal secular state should not be in that business at all. helps keep the divorce rate low, I wonder how having six or Anyone who supports libel is probably inclined to support eight sets of parents will affect the children. other government intrusions as well. The most comical thing I learned about Norway demon­ If someone has defamed you, the alternative to a lawsuit strates perfectly how this benevolent dictatorship operates. is simply to reply to the charges. Defamation can succeed 14 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 only if you -lack sufficient intelligence or self-respect to Wall Street Journal, "Acknowledging that Mr. Morris and Ms. respond. The fact that your critic might have a louder voice Steele are broke, McDonald's isn't seeking damages or even than you - say, because he is an established writer, or court costs. It only wants the judge to say the leaflet's state­ because the periodical publishing him has a wide circulation ments are false." McDonald's has reportedly offered, without - does not excuse failing to answer in kind. In a free society, success, to '·!settle" the case if only the writers would state such circumstantial inequalities are just as inevitable as un­ that the charges are untrue. The defendants "say they will go equal economic opportunities. Truth will usually triumph, all away only if McDonald's promises never to pursue such a excuses to the contrary notwithstanding. case again - against anybody." Hoisted on its own arrogance Individuals who choose to respond to criticism with a - and its susceptibility to aggressive con men - McDonald's lawsuit usually do so because they can't defend themselves is left embarrassed, its purported representatives no doubt in the free marketplace of ideas. I cannot think of any snickering as they write out their bill. recently alleged "libel" that was not at least somewhat true, So-called defamation suits simply represent bullies' regardless of what was decided in court. Furthermore, in efforts to harrass or censor using hired guns. Anyone initiat­ almost all cases, the complainants actually managed to ing such a suit is courting the ignominy that is generally increase the circulation of the supposedly defamatory com­ accorded bullies. -RK ments. In suing Mary McCarthy for calling her a liar, the playwright Lillian Hellman reminded everyone that she was Unpersuaded -- I was surprised to read Jane Shaw's indeed a fabricator. comment that the new interest in Jane Austen at the Cineplex Libel suits are strictly for the rich, for if litigious petition­ is a "sign that Americans yearn for a return to traditional ers lose, they are responsible for paying not only their own behavior and values" ("Virtue and virtuosity," March 1996). lawyers but the writer's lawyer and court costs as well. I've yet to see any of the recent movies based on Austen's Since such suits are rarely won, especially nowadays, only work (unless you count Clueless, which, in this context, I rich pricks can afford them. This is another way of saying don't). But I've read Austen, and if the new films are faithful that anyone who initiates a defamation suit, especially of a to her books, I think I'm more inclined to agree with The New visible critic, wants to have his or her name forever prefaced Republic's Stanley Kauffmann: "this Sense and Sensibility adap­ as That Rich Prick X.Y.Z., much as prostitutes are called tation becomes a somewhat pitiless expose of a cruel society: "whores" long after they've turned their final trick. (Don't young women whose sole purpose is to find proper hus­ discount the advantages of such a moniker in attracting a bands, young men whose sole function is to inherit money or certain class of literary groupies.) This explains why, when to marry it. Thus, rather than extolling the allegedly enviable an author writes something critical, the first question his or assurances of the past, the film implicitly admires the present her publisher asks is not whether the charge can be substan­ for being in great degree different." tiated, but whether the person criticized is rich - i.e., When I read Pride and Prejudice in high school, I initially whether he or she can afford to lose a lot of money engaging hated it, largely because I didn't like most of the characters in legal intimidation. and despised the way they lived their lives. After 60 pages or The real function of such a suit is to waste a writer's time so, dawn finally cracked over my thick skull, and I realized - to keep him or her away from his or her primary work. that Austen didn't care for this way of life either. Holding up Perhaps, then, an unsuccessful litigant should be responsible Jane Austen books to show the wonders of old-fashioned for fair compensation of professional time lost. Assuming a manners is like holding up Invisible Man as a testament to rate of $50.00 per hour for a writer's time, the court could rule American race relations. that, if 200 hours of a writer's time were wasted, the debt This doesn't really affect Shaw's ultimate point - that the would automatically be $10,000. If 2,000 hours, then $100,000. state subverts traditional values - since the people who (This is actually a cheap rate. Plumbers charge more, at least populate Pride and Prejudice aren't exactly exemplars of bour­ in New York City.) geois virtue. Theirs is the old aristocratic way of life, something If we accept this principle, it would be wise to require liti­ gants to put sufficient money in escrow before the suit begins, simply because we all know how hard it can be to collect a debt from moneyed deadbeats, such as negligent absentee fathers. This requirement ought to be acceptable, because nothing is more dubious than a rich person who does not put his or her money where his or her mouth is. Precisely because libel suits can be so expensive, semi­ scrupulous lawyers specialize in conning rich people into ini­ tiating them. It is easy to suspect a provocateur behind the most comic current libel case, in which the British arm of McDonald's is suing two impoverished environmental acti­ vists for a six-page leaflet alleging that the multinational destroys rainforests, abuses workers, and causes health prob­ ,~ ~ lems. Because the trial has become a well-publicized farce, t"" I"h l5'illoo McDonald's has suffered bad publicity, protests at its stores, "Don't you understand, Lenny? You don't have to sell and legal expenses of nearly $10,000 a day. According to The Watchtowers anymore." Liberty 15 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 that free markets tend to undermine, much as the therapeutic center," etc. seems well out of proportion to anything these state undermines the civil values Shaw and I admire. politicians have actually done over the years. In fact, as Besides, I'd be wary about drawing sweeping conclusions Bradley's book demonstrates, he has no original ideas. from what's doing well at the box office. After all, more peo­ But Bradley is from a group that actually prides itself on ple go to movies like Judge Dredd than to movies like having no ideas: the Moderates. Their special talents are deal­ Persuasion. I'm not sure what social lessons can be drawn making, compromising, and supporting the status quo. They from that, but whatever they may be, they probably won't are not the hope of the future; they are the people who have give much solace to those who hope to see a revival of virtu­ caused the problem, by lacking the will to stand up and ous behavior. -JW change the way the government works. Their reaction in the face of an attempt at real change? Give up, leave, and spout Another Rhodes scholar we never holier-than-thou rhetoric all the way out. needed - The lamentations in the press over the The Republic will survive without them, even flourish. announced retirement of Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) were par­ Good riddance. -JSR ticularly gloomy, and it was no mistake that his announce­ ment coincided with a tour to promote his new book, Time PoliSci for beginners - Democracy: A system of Present, Time Past: A Memoir. The anguish commentators feel political governance in which the ayes have it and the nays over the departure of the "moderate middle," the "sensible get it. -SR

Indifferent to the truth - If you've been follow­ warm to Pat's other big issues: absolute prohibition of abor­ ing political news, you pretty much know the story on the tion, even in cases of rape or incest; keeping foreigners out of fight for the Republican nomination. Dole went into the race the U.S.; government support for religious values. All these a frontrunner, but he quickly relinquished that role to Pat have the enthusiastic support of a minority of Republicans ­ Buchanan after Buchanan won the Alaska and Louisiana between 15% and 30% in most states. But all are opposed by caucuses, finished a strong second in the Iowa caucus, and a large majority in nearly every state. won the New Hampshire primary. Then Steve Forbes came A candidate like Buchanan, who has the fanatical support on strong, winning in Delaware and Arizona and taking the of a minority but is the last choice of a substantial majority, lead. But in a dramatic last-ditch stand, Dole came back from can get a significant portion of the vote in a few states where the dead by winning South Carolina big, then swept the pri­ his big issues appeal to an especially large minority. He can maries on "Junior Tuesday" and virtually assured himself even win a few states whose delegates are chosen by caucus, the nomination. where the zeal of one's followers is magnified by the fact that It's a great story, full of drama, surprises, upsets, come­ the less zealous are less likely to sit through the tedious cau­ from-behind wins ... there's just one problem: it is false in cus process. If there are enough other candidates to split the almost every detail. From the moment, in late January, when vote, he might even finish first in a primary or two, as he did the Forbes campaign was untracked by Dole's stealthy use of in New Hampshire. But sooner or later, the field will narrow fraudulent telephone campaigning, the battle for the nomina­ and delegates will accrue to one or another opponent. There tion was virtually over. By the morning of February 27, Dole is simply no way a candidate ranked least favorite by a large had the nomination won. Buchanan was never the frontrun­ majority of Republicans can capture the nomination - even ner. In fact, Buchanan never even had a realistic chance at if he is as good a campaigner, as charming a fellow, and as the nomination. Forbes's victories in Delaware and Arizona clever a debater as Buchanan. Buchanan was way behind didn't mark his comeback. They were the last gasps of a mor­ when he started the race, way behind after Iowa, way behind tally wounded campaign. Buchanan's support within the after New Hampshire, and is way behind today. He will Republican Party, while enthusiastic, was never large always be way behind. enough to give him any prospect of winning. Neither in 1992 But of course, the press knows that basketball tourna­ nor in 1996 did he ever manage to get even 400/0 of the vote ments sell more papers and get higher ratings than in a primary; given his views, he never will. For decades, the runaway campaigns. And the press delights in the presence Republican Party has been the party of free trade. Yes, a of a Republican who is easy to beat up on. So after minority favors protection from foreign competition (at least Buchanan won his caucuses in Alaska and Louisiana, got for whatever industry this minority happens to be employed almost a quarter of the Iowa caucus vote, and finished first in), but the majority does not. Nor do many Republicans in New Hampshire, the press declared Buchanan the man to 16 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 beat and portrayed Dole as the man trying to catch up. rednecks would prefer a fellow Southerner. Most impor­ Never mind that two of Buchanan's victories had come in tantly, the South Carolina GOP is perhaps the nation's most very conservative caucus states and that his sole primary powerful political machine, and it was absolutely committed victory was in an extremely conservative state with a large to Bob Dole. Three days later, Dole swept the "Junior Roman Catholic electorate, circumstances that would be Tuesday" primaries, again to no one's surprise. repeated nowhere else. Never mind that Buchanan's mar­ Except the media's. "Bob Dole's campaign seems to have gin in New Hampshire was so tiny that within five days gone from inert to invincible overnight," explained The Wall Dole had pulled ahead in cumulative popular vote. (If one Street Journal. An upset, a come-from-behind victory, a includes the "CityVote" primary in November, Dole's miracle! cumulative vote always exceeded Buchanan's by more than It may seem that there are only two ways to explain why % 5 .) the news media portrayed this dull runaway victory as a dra- You would think that the returns from the Arizona, North Dakota, and South Dakota primaries on March 5 would have brought the press back to reality. Sure, Forbes The "star" jobs go to people who will stretch the carried Arizona and won all its delegates, and Buchanan finished a fairly strong second in South. Dakota, a strong truth a little, ignore the evidence, dramatize a story anti-abortion state. But by now, Dole had a substantial lead a little - or maybe a little more, or maybe a lot in the popular vote and was a close second in the delegate more - until it reads like a child's sports novel. count, with Forbes's small lead explained by his good for­ tune in winning two winner-take-all primaries. At this point, Dole had won two primaries and finished second in matic race. One is that they are fools, too stupid to bother to the other three. Buchanan had won one, finished second in add up the numbers and see that Dole was ahead from the one, and finished third in three. Forbes had won two, fin­ beginning, too stupid to realize that Buchanan could never ished second in one, third in one, and fourth in one. Dole capture the nomination of a party whose members over­ had a 5% lead in popular vote over Buchanan and a 6.5% whelmingly oppose him on all his crucial issues, too stupid lead over Forbes. to see that after his drubbing in Iowa and New Hampshire, How did the experts play the story? They said that the Forbes was at best a long shot. Dole campaign was practically finished, kaput, dead; that The other explanation is that journalists have at least a Forbes had made a remarkable comeback; and that glimmering of an understanding that more people read the Buchanan was now the leader. The most idiotic interpreta­ paper for its sports coverage than for its political coverage, tion came on Nightline, which led with a false report that and that if they emulate the journalistic standards of sports Dole had finished third in Arizona and proceeded to spend reporters (Le., ignore the truth, dramatize everything) they may prosper. But the truth probably encompasses parts of both expla­ It's agreat story, full ofdrama, surprises, upsets, nations. In America, there are reporters and analysts who come-from-behind wins ... there's just one prob­ know how to add, who have common sense, who are deter­ mined to discover the truth and to tell it. But the stories they lem: it is false in almost every detail. tell are often not terribly exciting. So they don't get high­ visibility jobs with television or newspapers. Instead, the

IIstar" jobs go to people who will stretch the truth, ignore the an entire half hour explaining how and why the Dole evidence, dramatize a story a little - or maybe a little more, campaign had collapsed. The print media followed with an or maybe a lot more - until it reads like a child's sports orgy of "in-depth" coverage of the emerging frontrunner, novel. Pat Buchanan, the new threat from the extreme Right. His There is, of course, one very interesting story in the cam­ picture, sometimes retouched to make him appear Satanic or paign: the story of Bob Dole's use of mendacious telemarket­ Nixonesque, appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek, U.S. ers to quash the Forbes campaign and ensure the News, The Economist, and New York. The apogee of this orgy nomination for himself, calling tens of thousands of early was The New Republic's March 18 issue, which contained caucus and primary voters and telling them outright lies seven separate articles attacking Buchanan. Pat Buchanan about Forbes. It was a tough story to get, requiring a lot of the nutball right-wing television commentator might not sell legwork and lots of paperwork, and it didn't have strong magazines, but Pat Buchanan the nutball future nominee of visual elements. The fact that Dole lied when he claimed the GOP plainly could. that his campaign had not used negative telemarketers was Four days later, Dole carried South Carolina by a wide discovered by a small newspaper in Springfield, Illinois, margin. This surprised no one who had a glimmer of under­ which stumbled on the story when some of the phone sales­ standing of American politics: conservative rural fundamen­ men talked about it among friends. The fact that Dole's cam­ talist Protestants were not likely to vote for big-city Catholic paign spent more than $1,000,000 with a single such Pat Buchanan even if he did oppose abortion; Steve Forbes's telemarketing firm was revealed only when reporters dug campaign was going nowhere; Lamar Alexander's ludicrous through literally thousands of pages of Federal Election idea-free campaign was relying on nothing but hope that the Commission reports. Liberty 17 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

And nobody really cares, anyway. The most prominent domestic fights over the war in Vietnam. But this is to be journalistic report of the details of Dole's fraudulent use of expected: Feder has to embrace opinions as frequently as Liz telephone marketing to knock Forbes out of the race came Taylor embraces new husbands. weeks later, buried on the back page of The Wall Street Similar pap flows from the pens of Tony· Snow, Mona Journal on Super Tuesday, when political attention was Charen, and Donald Lambro into the pages of my Times every clearly focused elsewhere. week. Richard Grenier, who always appears at the front of No one cares, any more than they cared when Bill Clinton the "Commentary" section, is probably the worst of the lot. brazenly lied on 60 Minutes about his affair with Gennifer Usually, his tripe is interchangeable with that of the afore­ Flowers or lied repeatedly about·how he obtained his draft mentioned writers. But occasionally, to employ a popular deferment. This isn't the real world. It's politics. It's a world annoying phrase, he pushes the envelope of illiteracy.. He where fraud that goes undetected until after the election sometimes writes as if English were his second language, and interests only political groupies, whose view is, "If you don't perhaps Earth his second planet. A recent column on ... well, get caught, it's good campaigning." A world .where the so­ something to do with movies, begins: "Those were the days called "watchdogs" are really lapdogs, and pundits are when the roughest, toughest, meanest critters were the gun­ rewarded not for their analytic ability, but their skill at slingers of the Wild West -- or at least they were thought so dramatizing the banal. Truth isn't important in this world. by their admirers gathered at Musso and Frank's on -CAA Hollywood Boulevard. Bang! Bang! Caramba! But where have they gone?" After this auspicious opening, he rambles Talking heads, empty skulls - Friday, March on about Mel Gibson, foreign film critics, Peggy Noonan, and 8, on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, Messrs. Lehrer, Shields, William Randolph Hearst. The beginning and end are only and Gigot discussed why the pundits failed so miserably in tangentially related to the middle. When he has a mind to, he analyzing the 1996 GOP presidential primary race. The three can be as thick and unreadable as William F. Buckley. And analyzed their own failed analyses, and they'll be back next like Buckley, each column is accompanied by his incredibly week with even more analysis. There was no trace of self­ pompous visage. irony. A recent study in The Harvard Journal of Press and The irony in all of this is that the Times recently fired col­ Politics revealed that the accuracy rate for predictions on the umnist Samuel Francis for his white supremacist views. In McLaughlin Group is 50.1%, the same as "a monkey flipping a spite of his obvious dislike of blacks, gays, and other minori­ coin." The McGroupies will be back next week too. ties, Francis is one of the more interesting conservative com­ The problem is that there is no quality control in the mentators. He does not repeat William Kristol-approved punditocracy -- no one ever gets fired. And they are so self­ puffery for the Contract With America. In fact, he dismisses conscious about being part of the process that they lack the congressional Republicans and their hangers-on as the objectivity necessary for real analysis. Instead they discuss "Stupid Party." Francis is wrong about a lot of things, but "perceptions" or the conventional wisdom, and play the he's an independent and idiosyncratic voice. You'd think a horse-race game with opinion polls. paper as filled with warmed-over Gingrichism as the Times A new low was reached the same night, when a journalist would want at least one freethinker in its pages. --CS at the Republican debate in Texas referred to Alan Keyes as a radio talk show host with no foreign policy experience. The Lust lessons - Washington Post columnist Mark former ambassador to UNESCO then humiliated the reporter Shields wishes that Bill Clinton would emulate Franklin for his lack of preparation and appalling display of Roosevelt's words: "I should like to have it said of my first ignorance. But that reporter was back on the job the next administration that in it, the forces of selfishness and of lust day. -JSR for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second administration that in it, those forces met their mas­ Calumny - Out of work? Down on your luck? Not ter." I'm not sure about selfishness, but I think it's fair to say too bright? Perhaps you should think about becoming a that in FDR any lust for power previously seen in America newspaper columnist. It's a booming profession where any indeed met its match. -DB semi-literate can succeed, so long as you don't rock the boat or think for yourself. Our man in Guyana - How has Jesse Helms I used to believe that "liberals" -- the likes of Molly Ivins been doing as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations and Robert Kuttner -- had a corner on the half-wit columnist Committee? Not well, argues Barry Yeoman, a North market. But then I began receiving the national weekly edi­ Carolina journalist writing in the February 5 Nation. When tion of the Washington Times, whose editorial columns are Democrats filibustered Helms's anti-foreign aid bill, the sen­ filled with ex-Reagan/Bush speechwriters, supply-side theo­ ator responded by shutting down his committee for four logians, and Beltway-foundation intellectuals. It was in these months. "The news media had a field day with Helms's pages that I first learned from Don Feder that "the war maneuvers," reports Yeoman, "but reporters failed to explain between the president and Congress" over the 1995-96 gov­ the critical issues at stake in the affected countries. In ernment shutdowns was a "conflict of visions as stark as any August, Guyana suffered a massive cyanide spill from a gold in our history." Feder is a fool if he actually believes the bud­ mine into its largest river, and no U.S. ambassador was get battle is comparable to the secession of the southern present to marshal cleanup resources." . states in 1860-61, the battles over the New Deal, or the I'm sure the Guyanese are still cursing Senator No for this. 18 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

If there were an ecological disaster in my backyard, the first that reason. What they seem to have missed is the demise of person I'd look to for help would be some foreign bureaucrat its once-distinguished prose style. This became most appar­ who got his job as a political payoff. Damn you, Jesse! ent to me while reading the issue dated January 8, 1996. In a According to Yeoman, Helms has used his new position review of a biography of Malcolm Lowry I found the follow­ to fight foreign aid (Le., subsidies to American multination­ ing: "Bowker draws a convincing and chilling portrait of the als and Third World bureaucrats) and throw sand in the two main relationships in Lowry's life. His second wife, wheels of America's "presence abroad." Furthermore, all his Margerie Bonner Lowry, herself a writer, is seen partly as an work as Foreign Relations chair has distracted him from his opportunistic parasite, keeping Lowry afloat but feeding off domestic concerns - the censorship, bigotry, and theocracy the aura of his genius." A portrait "drawn" that is both "con­ that used to put him in the headlines. I've never admired, vincing" and "chilling" has three cliches in less than twice as supported, or liked Senator Helms, but Yeoman's article many words, while the image of a genius generating an almost made a Congressional Clubber out of me. -JW "aura" is likewise more hackneyed than visible. (Try to ima­ gine it.) "Keeping ... afloat" as a simile for support is like­ Kiss up and don't tell- During the speculation wise a cliche. "Opportunistic" is redundant with "parasite," over the identity of "Anonymous," author of the expose of if only because its opposite is inconceivable. the 1992 Clinton campaign, Primary Colors, Mark Miller of On the following page, in a review of the film Nico Icon, is Newsweek stated that he "could have written that from [his] this from another New Yorker author: "One of the reasons notes." Well, Mark, thanks for keeping the electorate that 'Nico Icon' works is that Nico herself was 'film perfect': informed in 1992, back when it would have mattered! The lovely to look at in her youth, arresting in middle age, and fact that almost anyone in the press corps could have written capable of a thousand transformations while projecting a the book is a sad comment on the journalistic profession. persona that conveyed ennui, chances missed, and the sense Reporters prize their access to candidates, access which they that she was stunned by her own enigmatic arrival." "Film presumably would lose if they reported the juicy stuff - but perfect" is not an expression so familiar that it merits quota­ what good is access unless it is used for something? tion marks, which function here to divorce the platitude from The real expose in Primary Colors is of the arrogance and its author, rather than enhancing its value. Any"critic" judg­ insularity of the press, for whom the author's identity is a ing anything in terms of "what works" (and thus implicitly bigger story than his depiction of a venal, racist, philander­ of "not works") is a patent beginner; that is the language of ing presidential candidate. But of course the "identity" issue gatekeepers making commercial decisions. These are verifia­ was more interesting to them. They already knew about the ble gaucheries. What's a matter of opinion is my sense that preSident's character. -JSR the image beginning with the word "capable" and ending with "arrival" is incomprehensible, precisely because it is a The best magazine that ever was? ­ series of cliches strung together to be individually acceptable Pundits residing between Wall Street and the Upper West but in sum obscure. Side have lamented the decline of The New Yorker for this or Need Igoon? -RK

Is integrity a family value? -James Carville, "Frankly, I'm fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing in a February 1, 1996 interview with CNN's Bernard Shaw, the rest of us about 'family values.' Our families have values. gave some insight into the issues the Clinton re-election team But our government doesn't. I want an America where J fam­ will stress this fall: "I think what we've had is we've had stag­ ily values' live in our actions, not just in our speeches. An nant wages in this country for too long, and we've had a America that includes every family. Every traditional family growing number of children growing up in non-traditional and every extended family. Every two-parent family, every non-two-parent families. And I think that that's, by and large, single-parent family, and every foster family. Every family." what I hope the '96 campaign is about." President Clinton began this drift towards family values rhetoric last August, Is there any reason why anyone should believe anything when he presented his 14-point American Family Values Bill Clinton or anybody remotely associated with him says? If Agenda, a list of political proposals - most of which so, I'd like to know it. -JSR involved funding for federal education and anti-crime and health-care programs. Rich, mean, and old - Each of the leading Just for the record, compare this to candidate Clinton's Republican candidates brought some strengths to bear, but July 16, 1992 acceptance speech at the Democratic convention: none touched all the bases. Forbes has money, endless Liberty 19 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 amounts of money. Buchanan knows how to be mean when • He is entertaining. From his days of putting words into he has to be - even when he doesn't have to be. Dole has Spiro Agnew's mouth to his bouts with Michael-Kinsley on experience; he's put in his time; he's pa1a:'his dues; hell'~ Crossfire, Buchanan has never been boring. he's just damned old! \ • He helped destroy King George. Once you discount the Each of these features is good by itself. But what has been real criminals (Wilson, LBJ, etc.), George Bush has to be the lacking to this point is the complete package. The party worst U.S. president of the century. He was a feckless troll should have dumped these three also-rans and drafted the who did nothing but kill people, raise taxes, and expand gov­ one man who combines all of their assets. The perfect GOP ernment. Pat Buchanan had him in his cross-hairs when Bill nominee for 1996 is none other than ... Montgomery Burns! Clinton was still whore-hopping his way across Arkansas. ("That's 'Mr. Burns' to you, Simpson.") -LEL • He has made good enemies. Anyone who is despised by George Will, Bill Bennett, Norman Podhoretz, and Jack Kemp Dole's flat tax - Steve Forbes's abortive can't be all bad. campaign proved the electoral appeal of the flat ~.~. • He was the only man in the race. tax. So it's not surprising that Forbes's oppo- ~~~ ~~. Buchanan is imbued with an appealing zest nents began to claim it. for the~selves. ~.~.•..' ~_ for I.He.. His biograph!., Right from the After Forbes won. the ArIzona prImary, ~<.;~" ~, BegInnIng, tells u~equlvocally wher~ he Pat Buchanan claImed that the flat tax ~r~ "~,, ~~~~ comes from. He IS, among other thIngs, o .f.". ..' ..'. had not been "worked up by the boys in, ~~" "" ;". ~ _~;-.~_. _ Scotch-Irish, Roman Catholic, and the Yacht Club" but actually had been '; ~.~/ /;; .~::. ~ .;;::;<:;:/' //~.~. L., Mississippi Confederate. The other . '-/ ,.,;,#,//.;~ ,.-,.-~/ Buchanan's idea in the first place; Forbes I .:;;..~:; ~'::~~.~;f/ Republican candidates were mostly had stolen it from him. Dole - who had ,ilfJ 'tltAn/'It/ " ----:: I /!~~'\~,,\,\\, faceless organization men (Bob Dole, ~/"''' rr~ ' ~ spent mllhons• ••attackIng the proposal In• /:lI.d1''''~''-'.11tiff':: ~ I//!;/I~}! .~;rr,.}\-\.I\,"//I","1' Richar d Lugar ) or grotesque cartoon thousands of secret, fraudulent tele- '~~~2;::,~~~'\'.~' 11~~i::':..~/~-:~f characters (Alan Keyes, Robert Dornan). phone calls and hundreds of television :: , ,~ t 27 'r/ :-. . -, . I realize I'm not going to win many ads that misrepresented its impact on '1;,':;::, ''', :}; ~.:!i:,t,~'<;~ ~.~:, ~ ~ ~~j ~ converts with this line of argument. ·f\',/'~~,·/IJ,,:;·. ' ; ~'o/ • taxpayers - suddenlr picked up th~ flat ·"~~~~;i70;:'r:.%2. ~~ ~. Bucha~an h~s too many flaw~ to. gaIn tax. Of course, he dIdn't do so wIthout :~%...",,,,Ko ':; % i much hbertarIan support. But his VIrtues /....z ~ ~ ~.7 1 checking the polls, which revealed that /f~/'1~{' ~~~_;:::;:~/. ~, are worth noting. -eS while people liked the idea of a flat tax, they I/I,~~r/Il~fi; "~:~::i'?; I- ~ also liked deductions for mortgage interest '.. ~/I> .,,:1; ~,_, //... ;.~d~ My enemy's enemy - The Two­ and charities. So he added these deductions ~ \ ~ ~:::~ - ~:5f' ;:' .,>/ y Minute Hate that greeted Pat Buchanan to his plan. For the primary in New York, \~ ~\\, ~ ~ ".~#'4·~ ~.~ after his victory in New Hampshire ought where state and local taxes are outra- ~. ~\>~ ~.::...~ ~,~ to teach Middle Americans once and for all geously high, Dole added a deduction for n that our ruling class not only despises state and local taxes. Then he let on that them but lives in mortal fear that some­ the flat tax should have two rates, not day, someway, the old ghosts - of just one. Jefferson and Shays, of Jackson and In short, Dole's flat tax is about the Long - will return, and the revenants same as Ronald Reagan's proposed tax will inspire a revolt. No, Buchanan isn't reform of 1986 - except that Reagan perfect. In fact, as I cheered him on one did not want to allow a deduction for night from the comfort of my couch, state and local taxes, figuring that such watching TV in what now passes for an deductability was in effect a federal subsidy for state and act of citizenship, I realized that I disagreed with him on tar­ local taxes. In other words, Dole's flat tax would be even less iffs, an abortion amendment, a moratorium on immigration flat than Reagan's 1986 reform. But the comparison breaks - but so what? As the Mugwumps said of Grover Cleveland, down: I don't recall Reagan ever calling his proposal a flat we love him for the enemies he's made. tax. -RWB Pat's subsequent flare-out - it's not easy to win primaries when ABC/NBC/CBS/Time/Newsweek depicts you as Das Buchanan - Working in the office of a libertar­ Lucifer's black-sheep brother - does have a bright side. At ian publication, it is no surprise that I often have to defend least it averted a meeting with the inevitable Arthur Bremer the frequent kind words that I have for Patrick J. Buchanan. who awaited him on the road to San Diego. -BK It's not as if I'm unaware of his;faults. He would ban the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue if given the chance, and I Aimingfor the top -- The spectre of Pat Buchanan don't care for his protectionism. But Buchanan has qualities still frightens many people, especially those who worry about that made him, for me, the best of the Republicans: his tendency to play on fear and hatred. But a Buchanan pres­ • He has some good things to say. Buchanan would have idency would have many beneficial side-effects. Consider just U.S. "allies" pay for their own defense and would abolish for­ one: it might turn leftists away from gun control. - TWV eign aid. He favors a flat tax and is, relatively speaking, an isolationist. Try to imagine Bob Dole promising to bring the Stardust memories - Barring a sudden heart New World Order"crashing down," as Pat Buchanan has. attack, indictment, or unforgivable political faux pas, Bob Dole 20 .Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 is sure to become the Republican nominee for president. authorizes the state to seize property used in such heinous Until recently, though, there were three major candidates in crimes, so the old Pontiac was taken by the police. Tina the Republican fray. Dole was the anointed candidate, the Bennis pointed out that she had a half interest in the car, and favorite of traditional party elites. Steve Forbes was the it was not fair to punish her for her husband's crime..A preppy candidate, embraced by unreconstructed supply­ Michigan court ruled that her half interest amounted to so lit­ siders. And Pat Buchanan was the fuck-you candidate. He tle money that she could go screw herself. (Or, as the New railed against the Powers That Be - and some That Aren't ­ York Times put it, "a state circuit court judge in Detroit no matter where it landed him on the political spectrum. He responded to Mrs. Bennis' request to insulate her half-interest even quoted the late author of Das Kapital on the perils of free in the car by noting that the value was so slight that 'there's trade, making him the closest we've had to a Marxist practically nothing left' after court costs were deducted.") Republican since Vito Marcantonio was in his prime. Mrs. Bennis appealed, supported by a brief from the Institute Buchanan's appeal had little to do with his philosophy (such for Justice, a sort of American Civil Liberties Union for prop­ as it is) and nothing to do with his personal qualifications erty rights. The case wound its way up to the Supreme Court, (such as they are) for the job. He was there so voters could which ruled on March 5 that there was nothing in the feel like they were sticking it to the Man. On that level, he Constitution that could prevent a state from punishing one was my favorite of the lot. person for the crime of another, at least when the punishment There were other candidates, too -loony Bob Dornan, amounted to only $300. booming Alan Keyes, plain-talkin' Morry Taylor. None of Chief Justice William Rehnquist observed in the majority them had any chance of winning, so they got to stick their opinion that "an owner's interest in property may be for­ necks out a little farther than the frontrunners did. feited by reason of the use to which the property is put even Eventually, tlley disappeared from the race, short of breath though the owner did not know that it was to be put to such use." In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas and short of funds. And the campaign became a duller spec­ observed that "if improperly used, forfeiture could become tacle to watch. more like a roulette wheel employed to raise revenue from "What do you think about the presidential candidates?" innocent but hapless owners whose property is unforeseeably "I prefer the earlier, funnier ones." -JW misused," but that nothing in the Constitution could stop such an injustice: "This case is ultimately a reminder that the At the Liberty Conference A mispacked court - federal Constitution does not prohibit everything that is last September, I asked a panel of prominent libertarians a intensely undesirable." hypothetical question: If the presidential election were held Now, the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, with today, and you had to vote in it, and your choices were lim­ which the Supreme Court is presumably familiar, happens to ited to Bob Dole and Bill Clinton, for whom would you cast state, "No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or your ballot? Four of the panelists said they'd vote for Clinton. property, without due process of law; nor shall private prop­ Their thinking was that however bad Clinton may be, Dole erty be taken for public use, without just compensation." One would be worse: a Washington insider bereft of principle, he now has to wonder what interpretive machine has trans­ would be Nixon II, leading Republicans even deeper into the formed this clear idea into the Supreme Court's opinions. jungle of pork, high taxes, and gargantuan government. The Perhaps we are to conclude that legislation allowing the gov­ one holdout confessed that he'd probably vote for Clinton if ernment to steal the property of innocent people isn't covered he were faced with such an odious choice, but there was one by the Fifth Amendment. Or perhaps we are to conclude that good argument to be made for Dole. The president controls when the State of Michigan passes a law authorizing the judicial appointments, and Dole (he figured) would be likely police to seize the property of innocent people, that's "due to appoint people less favorable to power and more favorable process of law." to individual rights. It's worth noting that the judges who dissented were In 1988, John and Tina Bennis purchased a beat-up old Kennedy, Souter, Breyer, and Stevens - a moderate conser­ 1977 Pontiac for $600. A few months later, John solicited a vative, an eclectic, a Clinton appointee alleged to be a leftist, prostitute while in their car. Local law (this was in Michigan) and the justice usually considered furthest to the left. The majority consisted of four conservatives and purported con­ servative-libertarians, plus Clinton appointee Ginsberg. When I hear libertarians suggest that a vote for Bob Dole PSSSTI [{(/C HNiAN ((Jill, will at least have a salutary effect on future Supreme Court 1cliiAllY6F'(1in nominees, I shall think of this decision. ~RWB NoAIt'l/ltrIt1tr', \ '\ Bad cop, worse cop - The Silly Season has begun, first with some warmup stretches in Louisiana, then a dash through Iowa, followed by the official mana a mana primary combat in New Hampshire. Then, just when the purveyors of public wisdom solemnly united in declaring that the senior senator from the Sunflower State had stum­ bled, perhaps irrevocably, with Pat Buchanan the unlikely deliverer of mortal wounds, Mr. Dole wrapped up the nomi- Liberty 21 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 nation with a string of primary landslides. What had people who launched and funded the Buchanan campaign? happened? Is this political tussling as exquisitely choreographed as the Not for the first time, the pundits had applied their full full nelsons and body slams of the World Wrestling powers of analysis to a delicate political phenomenon and Federation? Are we being set up by the same people who thereby managed to get it precisely backwards. What should gave us the Gulf of Tonkin resolution and the Designated have been apparent even before the New Hampshire sleight Hitter rule? of hand is that Buchanan, rather than being Dole's bete noire, I shall say no more here. But look for my name in the is in fact the best thing that has happened to him since God credits of the next conspiracy-shredding movie block- smiled on the senator and miraculously lifted all the gray buster. -LEL from his hair. Until now, Dole has been a consistent loser in presiden­ Paul runs off - In the Texas primary on Super tial races. Why is this? It cannot be because of his incoherent Tuesday, Ron Paul advanced into an April 9 runoff against mumble: compared with Ford and Bush, Dole is a veritable incumbent Republican congressman Greg Laughlin, thereby Demosthenes. Nor does he lack sufficient intelligence to assuring Republican voters in Texas' 14th district that their occupy a post within a heartbeat or two of the ·presidency: nominee for Congress in 1996 will be someone who was not a the example of Mr. Quayle is, in this regard, exemplary. Dole Republican a few years earlier. After serving in Congress is, to be sure, dull, but he is outflanked on the soporific side from 1976 to 1984 and trying unsuccessfully for a term in the by Vice President Al Gore. And, of course, as he points out Senate, Paul jumped to the Libertarian Party and ran as its on every feasible occasion, Dole has been waiting for his turn presidential nominee in 1988, only to jump back to the GOP a since - well, just about since feuds in his part of the world few years ago. Laughlin, on the other hand, was elected to were settled with bows and arrows. office as a Democrat and jumped to the GOP when he smelled Dole's problem is his unlikeableness. Try as he might, he the coffee after the 1994 GOP landslide. can't help saying things that are downright nasty. Yes, some of This year's battle proved an expensive one, despite its his acerbic asides are funny - and some zinged people rather small audience of about 34,000 GOP voters. Laughlin deserve the hit - but it's simply creepy to watch and listen to won financial support from PACs and regular Republicans, Dole as his thin lips stretchsardonically across his midwestern who want him to succeed in hopes of encouraging more Democrat incumbents to switch parties. Paul depended on visage and he launches a barrage of barbs. Most of us some­ small donations from conservatives and libertarians. More where in our past had a vice principal like that, and we did not than $1,600,000 was spent in the primary, which amounted to relish another visit to his office. So even ifwe respected Dole's approximately $500 for every vote cast. service as minority/majority leader (or, more reasonably, Laughlin attacked Paul mostly for Paul's libertarian back­ gave thanks that at least he wasn't Dick Gephardt or Jesse ground, bringing up libertarian positions on so-called "social Helms) when it came time to vote we looked elsewhere. issues" in order to reduce Paul's support among religious But now Dole has been freed from the third-rate Nixon conservatives. Paul attacked Laughlin as a big-government, persona that has haunted him 10 these many years, and the big-spending Democrat, and attempted to maintain the sup­ agent of deliverance is none other than that first-rate Spiro port of the religious Right by citing his own longtime opposi­ Agnew, Pat Buchanan. It is difficult to retain the image of tion to legalized abortion. Dole the Meanie when he shares the podium at presidential When the dust settled, Laughlin had 42% of the vote and debates with a candidate who truly oozes nativist malice and Paul 32%. The third major contender in the race, Jim Deats, authoritarian bile. If Dole occasionally knees an opponent in whose 24% of the vote prevented either Paul or Laughlin the groin, it's because something untoward has come over from getting the majority that would prevent a runoff, is close him; when Buchanan does so, it is for the sheer sport of the to Paul's thinking. Deats, The Wall Street Journal reports, has occasion. Dole doesn't seem exactly to like people, but agreed to support Paul in the runoff. Buchanan's fondness for them is the political equivalent of Paul is probably the most successful explicitly libertarian Hannibal Lecter's. If there is some group against whom an politician in American history. As a congressman in the 1970s animus can be evoked for political gain, Buchanan gleefully and '80s, he had a wonderful record of opposing taxes, sup­ places it in his sights and pulls the trigger: homosexuals, porting civil liberties, opposing government spending (even Zionists, blacks, illegal immigrants, legal immigrants, abor­ military projects in his own district), and opposing the expan­ tionists, corporations, foreigners. Dole may not dote on the sionist foreign policy popular with both parties. Often he above groups, but at least he will tolerate them, much as he stood alone in defense of individual liberty, notably in his has tolerated the Democrats across the aisle. opposition to various "anti-crime" measures that greatly Accordingly, Bob Dole has been anointed the Great White increased the power of federal police. Hope - except for Alan Keyes, there is no other kind of Both sides expect a lot more heavy spending in the runoff, Hope among the Republican tribe - for decency and with both sides drawing on the same sources that financed Marquis-of-Queensberry-rules politics. A vote for Dole is no the first round. Paul is rated the slight favorite, despite his longer simply an endorsement of narrow-minded midwest­ second-place finish. He is expected to pick up most of Deats's ern Republican boosterism, but a protest against xenophobic support, and his own support is rated very solid. It is also brutishness. worth noting that over the past 15 years, no incumbent con­ Do we chalk up the makeover to happenstance? Or is gressman forced into a runoff has managed to survive the sec­ there more here than meets the eye? Might it not be the Dole ond round. -eAA 22 Liberty Politics The Life and Death of the Forbes Campaign by Chester Alan Arthur

Why it flourished, how it was destroyed, and what it means.

Steve Forbes never called himself a libertarian, but his presidential campaign was based on a number of libertarian themes. Its central proposal, the flat tax, combined a major tax cut with an end to using the tax code for social engineering and political favors. Forbes proposed to tax all income once, and all at the same rate. (The sole exception was a reason­ able exemption for every person.) No from lobbyists. Under the Forbes pro­ longer would the tax on corporate posal, all this would change. People profits be paid twice, first by the cor­ would invest their money and energy poration and later by the stockholder. in trying to profit by fulfilling consu­ Interest income wouldn't be taxed at mer wants, instead of fill- all, and interest payments wouldn't ing out tax forms, be deductible; neither would charita­ investing in schemes ble donations or state or local taxes. to reduce tax liabil­ A person's (or a business's) tax ity, and bribing return would be remarkably simple. congressmen. Forbes's other The tax code would be reduced from proposals also millions of words to a few thousand. struck libertarian Days spent filling out returns would themes. He bravely be virtually eliminated. So would tax race. spoke about allow­ evasion schemes, tax shelters, uneco­ Political jour­ ing people to opt nalism, of course, nomic investments made to get tax out of Social Security. breaks, and all the other distortions is not very con­ He advocatedschool cerned with princi­ caused by the current Byzantine choice, a step away ples, or even policy, system. from government con­ so by and large the Indeed, the biggest threat that trol and toward privati­ media pretty much Forbes's scheme poses to the current zation. He favored term missed the libertarian political structure is that it would take limits, to end the corrup­ thinking behind Forbes's the granting and removing of tax tion inherent in the politics campaign themes. Indeed, breaks out of the political process. of the welfare state. He even they missed the fact that he was Under the current tax code, individu­ called for a return to the gold stan­ thinking at all; he was almost univer­ als and businesses can make or save dard. He was pro-choice on abortion, sally portrayed as a classic single­ huge sums of money by lobbying for at least in comparison to other issue candidate - slightly daft on the relatively small changes in the code. Republican contenders. And he never subject, don't you know? The only Not surprisingly, the lobbying indus­ descended into the swamp of anti­ exceptions that I noticed to this partic­ try is big, and the senators and repre­ civil-libertarian emotion in pursuit of ular policy of stereotyping could be sentatives who sit on committees that a "war on crime." found in an article in The New Republic write changes in the code get huge And unlike the other candidates ­ and an article in The Nation. Unfor­ "campaign donations" (i.e. bribes) Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian tunately, neither of these articles gives Liberty 23 Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996

anything like judicious consideration he thinks, to Forbes's support for a declared Democrat or Republican can­ to the ideas that they admit Forbes sound dollar based on gold. This "friv­ didates stands out as being more liber­ has. olous proposal," Judis explains, is tarian or less statist than the others, In the March 25 TNR, John B. Judis "perhaps his loopiest." select their [sic] name from the list identifies the libertarian implications In the March 11 Nation, Marc below." Over half of the respondents of the Forbes program: Cooper is shocked by the kind of peo­ selected Forbes, who easily eclipsed For two decades, Republican presi­ ple that Forbes has attracted to his "None of the Above." Curiously, dential candidates have threatened campaign: respondents who said they expected to to dismantle Lyndon johnson's The problem for Forbes, however, is be delegates to the Libertarian Party Great Society, while simultaneously that he may be attracting a thriving convention were 18% more likely to pledging to preserve such popular new subculture in American life: identify Forbes than those who didn't liberal reforms as Social Security and economic nuts (though they might expect to be delegates, which suggests Medicare. These reforms were based prefer the "libertarian" label) ... five that Forbes's libertarianism is more on the assumption that, without gov­ of six in a group of young Forbes ernment intervention, corporate cap­ activists I spent three hours with italism would create extremes of rejected any role for government in wealth and power that would under­ legislating or enforcing social moral­ Until the Forbes campaign mine the American commitment to ity. But then again, they rejected just ran aground on the invisible social equality. Democrats and about any role for government, shoal of Dole's telephone smear Republicans from Woodrow Wilson except maintaining the army, the to Ronald Reagan quarreled over the police and the courts. campaign, it was demonstrat­ extent of intervention but not over the need for it. Malcolm S. "Steve" Cooper goes onto describe the table ing that many Americans will Forbes Jr. is the first major presiden­ talk at a Forbes fundraiser in Arizona, respond favorably to a libertar­ tial candidate since Barry Goldwater in which all but one participant ian agenda. to step on what he calls the "third expressed opinions that might easily rail of American politics" and take place at a dinner table at a directly attack these reforms. ... Libertarian Party convention: the evident to libertarian activists than it is And he's getting votes - not income tax is "nothing but class enough to be nominated, but enough to others who sympathize with the envy," it "penalizes achievement" and movement. to have a long-term impact on "steals from people who work hard." Republican and national politics.... Thoughtful libertarians have long Forbes himself seems to believe sin­ Social Security? "Let's privatize it." wondered how things might have cerely that government lies at the "Welfare is stealing from me." Like worked out if so many libertarians had root of every American problem ... Judis, Cooper is aghast. He is espe­ not left the GOP in the 1970s to form He thinks the current American cially distraught that the opinions the Libertarian Party. The success that economy, if freed from government come from people who are"all middle the Forbes campaign enjoyed suggests intervention, will create an "eco­ class or above ... very political and that the move may have been unwise. nomic boom of historic propor­ very articulate." Certainly the presence of an additional tions." From Cooper's account, it seems 10,000 libertarian activists within the Needless to say, Judis is no fan of almost certain than none of the liber­ GOP would have moved it in a differ­ Forbes's libertarian agenda. He ridi­ tarians had ever been affiliated with ent, more libertarian direction. cules virtually every aspect of Forbes's the Libertarian Party or any other In the meantime, libertarian acti­ program. He describes Forbes's obser­ libertarian organization. This·suggests vists of all parties ought to be thinking vation that "the way you drive wages that there are a lot of potential acti­ about how they can mobilize the sup­ up is by having a productive, vigorous vists out there remaining to be port for a libertarian agenda that the economy" as "sincere but crazy opti­ tapped. It remains to be seen whether Forbes campaign mobilized in the mism." But this pales in comparison, Forbes will remain active in the early Republican primaries. Republican Party and attempt to keep these The Death of the new activists involved. Forbes Campaign But if he does, the GOP Forbes entered a race against four could very well turn in well-established politicians, and virtu­ a more libertarian direc­ ally no one had ever heard of him. tion. Furthermore, his opponents all had Of course, liber­ important allies within the Republican tarians have noticed the Party, and political organizations in Forbes campaign. In an place. He had none. So he followed a Internet survey con­ simple strategy: invest your time and cluded February 12, money in television advertising that libertarians were asked: articulates your program, concentrat­ "Freeze, sucker!" "If one of the major ing your efforts on the two most 24 Liberty "Voila logic!" -~ J. 0' ROURKE

"A "A senous• splendid blueprint collection for change." of -GEORGE E WILL infonned analyses ... mustreading." "A futuristic -MILTON FRIEDMAN vision ... 1\.'Pal~I(I:lglllti)·I'1 t;.ll(~ chartsnelV 2~1&1 ('~.:~:III·~III~·Y territory for "Bristles the decades with .:~,dtt(~d uncomfortable ahead." 1).lvid l...... z nnd 1/;d~v,....III.. '£J>U.:J';:· -GOY. WILLIAM E WELD ideas." -PETE DU PONT "Provocative new "Should be ideas ... a road the principal map for our "Facts, compass new president." reason, for -GOY. L. DOUGLAS WILDER clear-eyed policymakers and and " Should be read disinterested public servants." andre-read analysis ... -MALCOLM s. FORBES, JR. by every member voila logic!" of Congress." -EJ. O'ROURKE -JACK KEMP

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visible races. If you can do well in giving voters false information under aware even of the lies told about him Iowa and New Hampshire, your lack false pretenses. until the damage had been done. of fame and organization can be over­ Thousands of Iowa farmers Of course, the Forbes campaign come. received phone calls from telemarket­ eventually got reports of the massive The Forbes strategy worked pretty ers following this script: fraud, and Forbes accused Dole of well, at least through late January, by Myname is and I'm calling being behind the effort. Dole denied which time he was the frontrunner in with a special message from Iowa's the accusation, and responded, of New Hampshire and within striking Farm Families. The Iowa Farm course, by accusing ForQ~s of dirty distance of Dole in Iowa. Then Forbes Bureau has adopted a resolution that campaigning. got hit by a meteorite and was opposes the flat tax like the one On January 25, Forbes had risen destroyed almost overnight. offered by candidate Steve Forbes. above the pack of GOP challengers to No, I'm not talking about the gang­ Under the Forbes flat tax, Iowa's Dole, with 18% in the polls of likely bang the other Republican candidates farmers would pay an average of caucusers, versus Dole's 26%. By $5,000 more in taxes. February 10, only four days before the There is no organization called caucuses, Forbes had cut Dole's lead to % Political journalism, of Iowa's· Farm Families. But there is an just 1 • But then Dole's secret tele­ Iowa Farm Bureau, and it certainly phone campaign went into high gear. course, is not very interested in did not adopt a resolution against At the February 14 caucuses, Dole cap­ principles, or even policy, so by Forbes's (or any other) flat tax plan. tured 26% of the vote. Forbes finished and large the media pretty And Forbes's plan would lower the a distant fourth, with just 10%. taxes on Iowa farmers, as it would The pattern repeated itself in New much missed the libertarian lower them on virtually all other Hampshire. On February 13, Forbes, thinking behind Forbes's cam­ Americans. All the claims were false, Dole, and Buchanan were in a virtual paign themes. and the first two can be proven false three-way tie. But with Dole's secret very easily. If the same script had telephone smear and news of Forbes's been used in a television ad, Dole inflicted on the flat tax at the Iowa would have been denounced by every debate. Sure, Lamar Alexander newspaper, every television station, The genius of Dole's method denounced it as "a truly nutty idea in and every decent Iowan for his con­ the Jerry Brown tradition." And Pat scious deception. was that it could be practiced Buchanan said "it looks like one that Other voters got calls from people in near-secrecy. This enabled was worked up by the boys at the claiming to be pollsters for "National Dole to lie, leaving Forbes yacht basin." Nor do I refer to all the Market Research," another non­ denunciations of Forbes for being a existent organization. People were unable to respond. millionaire. (The other Republican con­ asked whom they intended to vote for. tenders, by the way, were also million­ H they indicated support for Forbes, aires.) they were asked follow-up questions dismal showing in Iowa, Forbes's sup­ And no, I'm not talking about the beginning with "Are you aware that port fell like a rock. He finished fourth use of "negative" television advertis­ Steve Forbes ..." and ending with a once again, and his chances of winning ing, widely heralded at the time. Yes, claim, often false, designed to tum the the Republican nomination disap­ Forbes did run advertising pointing voter against him. peared. out how frontrunner Bob Dole had One of the firms making such Forbes came back to win the supported tax increases and was part phone calls for Dole was Campaign Delaware primary four days later, and of the Washington power structure. Tel, headquartered in New York City. three days after that, he won the And there was probably some reaction An employee of Campaign Tel's office Arizona primary. But it was too little, against these ads. But they also did in Springfield, Illinois, said telemarket­ too late. By now the press had painted Forbes a lot of good - they were ers at his office alone made between him as an also-ran and was focusing its needed to counter Dole's false claims 10,000 and 30,000 phone calls follow­ energy on two major stories, both of of being a longtime opponent of tax ing this and similar scripts. According them palpably false: the emergence of increases and a critic of big govern­ to press reports, Dole used other tele­ Pat Buchanan as frontrunner and the ment. marketers, too, targeting other poten­ sudden death of Bob Dole's hopes. Forbes's mistake was failing to real­ tial participants in the Iowa caucuses. What would have happened if Dole ize early enough the depths of fraud Forbes invested in broadcasting his had not engaged in his secret tele­ and deceit to which the Dole campaign message; Dole narrowcasted his, hon­ phone smear campaign? It's impossible would lower itself. About a week ing in on those most likely to partici­ to know for sure. But one thing is cer­ before the Iowa caucuses, the Dole pate in the coming caucus or primary. tain: until the Forbes campaign ran campaign secretly hired telemarketing The genius of Dole's tactic was that aground on this invisible shoal, it was firms to call unsuspecting voters. The it could be conducted in near-secrecy. demonstrating that many -Americans professionals posed as pollsters or rep­ This enabled Dole to lie with impunity, will respond favorably to a libertarian resentatives of credible organizations, leaving Forbes unable to respond, un- agenda. Q 26 Liberty Criticism The Chemical Inquisition by Robert H. Nelson

"The lamp of American Puritanism ... became converted into a huge bonfire, or rather a blast furnace, with flames mounting to the very heavens, and sinners stacked like cordwood at the hands of an eager black gang." - HLM.. encken Our Puritan heritage has left us the view of America as a model for the world, the place where God's full design will first be realized. Puritans see the world as a struggle between good and evil, with America leading the forces of good. But the devil is always seeking to corrupt the innocent and sow discord. Constant vigilance is required to subdue this force for evil. about this between Republicans and waters of the United States by 1985, The Puritan impulse has produced Democrats, though they do disagree whatever the cost. Earlier, the some noble causes, such as the move­ about which chemicals threaten us Delaney Clause had banned even the ment against slavery, in which New most. Democrats tend to focus on minutest part per billion of any food England abolitionists applied the dioxin, Alar, asbestos, and other envi­ additive that has been shown to have moral righteousness of their Boston ronmental pollutants, and call for a the potential to cause cancer in tests forebears to a worldly purpose. But it federal police authority to protect the on any laboratory animal. also has let loose in the land the fear citizenry. Republicans prefer to fixate These fears play on the modern of devils, giving rise to such public on heroin, cocaine, and other psycho­ anxiety that science and technology hysteria and religious persecutions as active drugs. Both parties call for a may be not the savior but rather the the Salem witch trials. nationwide crusade to purify the destroyer of life. Science, many peo­ Puritanism pervades the American nation. ple suspect, may be the devil's final experience. Today'sprosecutions of Last year, House Speaker Newt trick. First he tempted us with scien­ alleged child abusers, often brought to Gingrich took up the Drug War theme tific knowledge, offering people new trial on no evidence other than flimsy, with great enthusiasm, suggesting the power over nature and vast material crackpot-therapist-induced "repressed execution of some drug dealers. rewards. Then he used the very same memories," are eerily reminiscent of Gingrich's get-tough approach fol­ instrument to destroy mankind. the Salem hysteria. So are campaigns lows in the steps of Bush's Drug Czar Synthetic chemicals are the modern to ban pornography, and some femi­ William Bennett, who warned in his apple, and society today faces expul­ nists' claims that all heterosexual sex 1989 report to Congress that the sion from Eden. reflects unworthy motives. But these "evils" of drugs raised the prospect of But we can be spared that fate if developments pale in comparison to a "personal, social, medical, and eco­ our politicians are vigilant enough ­ much larger campaign to purge the nomic catastrophe."I President Bush or so drug warriors like Gingrich and corrupting presence of chemicals from denounced drugs as a moral environmental crusaders like Henry American life. In chemical substances, "scourge" upon the nation, and called Waxman tell us in their different our new Puritans see contaminants for vastly increased enforcement ways. They can save us from our fal­ that threaten the very fabric of activity and spending.2 len selves. American life. The synthetic products These Republicans, to be sure, had The Bible tells us that playing God of modern science have become our already seen the environmentalist is not only a great sin, but one sure to contemporary witches. They must be brand of chemical prohibitionism at provoke His wrath. This theme suppressed and eliminated. work. The Clean Water Act of 1972 appears first in the book of Genesis There is no real disagreement aimed to ban all pollution from the and is repeated many times through- Liberty 27 Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996

out the rest of the Bible. In the story of individual rights generally end up tak­ typical cost of $30,000 to $50,000 Noah, for example, good times spread ing a back seat to moralistic posturing per inmate per year, a main reason in the land, the people turn to evil and self-righteous condemnation. for the explosive growth of the ways, and God must impose severe Laws assert religious symbolism and U.S. prison population. That's a punishment - here, as elsewhere, in ignore the disastrous practical conse­ total cost of about $12 billion per the form of an environmental catas­ quences of mandating personal choice. year. trophe. Now modern science, seeking It becomes difficult or impossible to (6) Transformation ofmany inner-city to remake God's creation, threatens the ask questions about the costs and ben­ areas into virtual war zones. The cul­ same severe punishment in the same efits of laws. Indeed, some environ­ ture of urban crime and poverty is form. Environmental Jeremiahs warn mental laws specifically prohibit largely a product of the War on that the sinners of the world will soon consideration of costs and benefits. Drugs. face their just fate, with global warm­ Drug policy advocates who advocate Despite its enormous costs, the ing and other supposedly imminent "zero tolerance" of drugs and drug results of human industry leading. to users speak in the same absolutist Drug War has done little to reduce terms. illegal drug use. The number of casual The high costs to American society recreational users has dropped some­ what over the past ten years, but the Science, many suspect, may of environmental policy - more than $100 billion per year just for laws most recent data show this trend is 4 be the devil's final trick. administered by the Environmental reversing. Hard-core use has stayed Protection Agency - are probably about the same. Researchers generally matched by the costs of drug policy. think that drug use is driven more by widespread flooding, famine, disease, The costs of drug enforcement, broad cultural and social factors than and other disasters. although sometimes harder to measure by government control efforts. Peter The drug warriors focus their pun­ than the costs of pollution enforce­ Reuter of the Rand Corporation and ishments on the iniquity of the inner ment, include: the University of Maryland finds that cities. It is here above all that people (1) Widespread criminal activity affecting "the available evidence suggests that have succumbed to chemical tempta­ all Americans. About 10% of all vio­ intensified enforcement has had mod­ tions. For a few moments of pleasure, lent offenses and 250/0 of all prop­ est success in raising drug prices and they have sold their souls. And they erty offenses in the United States has not reduced already limited access will surely pay a price as a different are committed "to get money for for the middle class. Public disap­ type of environmental calamity strikes, drugs," according to Justice proval of drug use has increased, and already visible in the social decay, Department surveys of current jail that may well have reduced initiation, crime, and other hellish conditions of inmates. but it is unlikely that this disapproval the inner city. But if the forces of good (2) Destabilization ofother countries' are sufficiently vigilant and mount a political systems. In Mexico and crusade to purge the evils of drugs Colombia, for example, drug­ from the world, some people may yet related corruption is rampant. In his standard sermon, be saved. (3) Increased taxes for enforcement of prominent environmentalist Like the crusades of the Middle drug laws. The federal govern­ David Brower describes human Ages, America's campaigns against ment's direct expenditures alone evil have fallen short of expectations. totalled $13.3 billion in 1995 (up beings as a "cancer" on the Nineteenth-century abolitionists suc­ from $1.5 billion in 1981). State and Earth. ceeded in freeing the slaves, but ­ local governments spent $15.9 bil­ owing to their own intransigence and lion in 1991, the year with the most extremism - they failed to solve the recent data available. is a function of enforcement problem of black-white relations in the (4) Overloading the criminal justice sys­ stringency."5 South. In the aftermath of the Civil tem. In 1993 alone, 1.1 million peo­ The government simply does not War, black slavery was replaced with a ple were arrested for drug have the power to prevent tens of mil­ century of almost equally severe offenses, "bankrupting the crimi­ lions of Americans from getting what repression. The temperance move­ nal justice system [and] leaving it they want. Fully 77 million Americans ment, which ended in complete failure without the resources to punish twelve and older (37% of the popula­ with the repeal of alcohol prohibition violators of other laws," in the tion) report having used some kind of in 1933, repeated the experience. words of Harvard professor Mark illegal drug at some time in their life. Kleiman.3 The Costs of Intolerance (5) Massive expansion ofthe prison popu­ Junk Science Paves the Way Having failed to learn from history, lation. Drug offenders now consti­ In a moral crusade, dispassionate we are condemned to repeat it. When tute 61 % of federal prison inmates, analysis is suppressed and sound sci­ lawmakers initiate moral crusades ­ up from 25% in 1980. More than ence loses out. The victims of the Salem when their goal is to banish evil ­ 300,000 people are being held in all witch trials were convicted in substan­ practical results, social tolerance, and U.S. prisons for drug offenses at a tial part on the basis of testimony given 28 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996

by adolescents who claimed to see holics. Alcohol has almost as severe coincided with the imposition of Jim "spectral images" (spectres flying in physical and psychological conse­ Crow, since Southerners feared that the air) of the accused - images only quences for abusers. Many people use the availability of alcohol would stir people in league with the devil were cocaine, like alcohol, for long periods local blacks to violence, as black resent­ said to be capable of producing. That without great adverse effects.s ments festered under increasingly was the junk science of 1692. Users who face a low risk of addic­ oppressive race laws. Today, junk science takes the form tion might well benefit from the availa­ The history of heroin and cocaine is of the epidemiology and other "scien­ bility of new types of relatively similar.9 Concerns about opium - the tific" data used to buttress environ­ innocuous mental stimulants - as mil­ naturally occurring predecessor to mental fanaticism, as well as the wild lions already so regard alcohol, manufactured heroin - were stirred misinformation used to justify much of nicotine, caffeine, and other equally by the spectacle of poor Chinese gath­ the current drug policy debate. Avram ering in mysterious opium dens. Goldstein, professor emeritus at However, it was not until early in this Stanford University, says that the pub­ Democrats tend to focus on century, when cocaine use spread to lic discussion of illegal drugs has been poor urban districts, that the move­ "virtually uninformed concerning the dioxin, Alar, asbestos, and ment for strong measures to control neurobiology, neurochemistry, toxicol­ other environmental pollu­ drugs gathered enough strength to ogy, and medical aspects of the addict­ tants. Republicans fixate on enact legal restrictions. In a recent ing drugs."6 Rand Corporation study of the history Another leading authority on drug heroin, cocaine, and other psy­ of cocaine, Joseph Spillane observed: pharmacology, Dr. E. Leong Way, com­ choactive drugs. The fear of violent crime committed ments that - despite its fearful public by cocaine fiends appeared in count­ image - "heroin does not have major less popular accounts of the period. effects on the motor and cardiovascu­ powerful but legal drugs. Early in the As several historians have argued, lar system and hence, the user can century, before heroin was banned, there is little doubt that these function effectively if access to the many doctors recommended it to alco­ accounts frequently distorted reality drug is not prevented."7 Americans and were sustained through fear and holics as less damaging in its overall prejudice against cocaine users. understand the physiological effects of consequences. And the harmful effects heroin no better than they do the In much the same way that the real of cigarettes, which cause 400,000 health costs of cocaine were often actual risks of dioxin, Alar, asbestos, deaths per year, might be diminished grossly exaggerated, so too were the and other chemical substances that by increased access to alternative stim­ real effects of cocaine on the behavior have caused recurring and costly pub­ ulants. But with the religious crusade of its users. Nowhere was this more lic panics. against psychoactive drugs, no alterna­ true than in the South, where police Cocaine is a less predictable and tive but prohibition can even be departments in particular rallied to more dangerous drug than heroin. discussed. the defense of white communities Discovered in 1884, it was at first con­ against the imagined menace of sidered a "miracle drug," and doctors Drug War or Class Warl cocaine-crazed blacks. No one prescribed it for a wide variety of con­ expressed a more extreme view than Except, of course, for the mood­ ventional uses. Cocaine was the first E.H. Williams.... Cocaine, Williams altering drugs whose use is popular local anesthetic, enabling surgeons to believed, transformed "hitherto inof­ with "respectable" people in the mid­ perform operations that up to then had fensive, law-abiding Negroes" into dle and upper classes; drugs such as been extremely painful or altogether "a constant menace to his [sic] com­ impossible. As is well known, cocaine caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and various munity." Under the influence of cocaine, "sexual desires are increased was also part of the early formula for prescription tranquilizers remain quite legal. It is the drugs of the poor and and perverted, peaceful Negroes Coca-Cola, although in small enough become quarrelsome, and timid amounts that it posed no risk of physi­ dispossessed that become the objects of Puritan hysteria, public anxiety, and Negroes develop a degree of 'Dutch cal harm or addiction. courage' that is sometimes almost repressive legal control. When a drug's Higher levels of cocaine use, how­ incredible." The result was that "a ever, not only have much more power­ popularity moves upwards in society, large proportion of the wholesale ful effects on the mind but can cause persecution is reduced or eliminated. killings in the South during recent unexpected heart stoppages. And The Salem witch trials stopped when years have been the result of heavy cocaine use can lead to paranoia. prosecutors began to file charges cocaine." A black user of cocaine was Still, withdrawal from cocaine addic­ against eminent citizens of the "absolutelybeyond redemption." 10 tion, although psychologically very dif­ Massachusetts colony. The great gap between public atti- ficult for many people, is less Indeed, drug policies often reflect tudes toward middle-class, "respecta­ physically stressful than heroin or alco­ racist attitudes. Years before national ble" drug users and poor or non-white hol withdrawal. And the proportion of prohibition, many states and localities, "dangers to society" was formalized in recreational cocaine users who become particularly in the South, adopted their the 1980s when highly disparate addicts is similar to the proportion of own alcohol prohibition laws. The arri­ federal penalties were enacted for deal­ recreational drinkers who become alco- val of prohibition in the South roughly ing in different kinds of cocaine. These Liberty 29 Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996

new laws mandated much more severe by public authorities willing to admin· not the actual damage done by cocaine penalties for crack (the form of cocaine ister harsh punishments. The moral but the social- really religious - con­ popular with poor, black Americans) crusades against chemicals are waged text of its use. than for powder (the equally danger­ as total wars that will decide whether In the Middle Ages, usury was a sin ous form of cocaine favored by white the endangered forces of good in the against God, but the identical financial middle- and upper-class users). To world will prevail or lose out to the transaction, properly reinterpreted by receive the same prison sentence, pow­ looming forces of evil. According to clever theologians, could receive the der cocaine users must possess 100 the reigning drug "theology," the ideal blessing of the Church. To<1ay, heroin times the amount of cocaine as crack state is a natural condition unaltered is taboo, but methadone is a valued users. Only 4% of imprisoned crack by artificial substances - a personal and legal treatment for heroin addicts. offenders are white, compared with Garden of Eden, chemical free. A new In actual fact, methadone is very simi­ 32% of those imprisoned for powder lar chemically to heroin. It has similar cocaine offenses. The drug laws are a physical effects on the body, but less principal reason why one third of Republicans and Democrats euphoric impact. The great~sin of her­ black men in their twenties are cur­ oin, then, is not that it catlses addic­ rently in prison, on probation, or on agree . that certain chemicals tion, but that it violates the Calvinist parole. pose a threat to the American stricture against effortless and thus ille­ In Puritan theology, the elect are way of life, though they disa­ gitimate sources of pleasure. revealed by their success in a business gree about which chemicals As in so many other respects, drug or other calling - a key contributing policy has common Puritan roots with factor, Max Weber argued, in creating threaten us most. environmental policy. The areas the cultural conditions for the emer­ included in the national system of gence of capitalism. The same theologi­ wilderness - those "cathedrals" of the cal tenets strongly suggest that many substance introduced into the body, of environmental faith - are defined by of the poor, by contrast, are sinners course, may be considered a great their freedom from roads, buildings, chosen by God for damnation. As medical advance if it "restores" the motorized vehicles, and other human instruments of the devil and of weak body to its "natural" state - even if it contaminations of the natural order. moral fibre, and thus a great menace to may have dangerous side effects. Thus, The theology of environmentalism society, it is necessary to wage a con­ sufferers from "depression" are strongly supports efforts to "restore" stant and fierce war against their encouraged to take lithium or Prozac, nature - like the Bible, which calls on influence. even though some dangers may be man to emerge from his fallen state by The Puritan roots of our drug poli­ posed, because such drugs are admin­ resurrecting the Garden of Eden, or, cies have not gone unnoticed. One istered in an attempt to bring patients failing that, to look forward to the har­ authority has described them as a back to "normal." However, a drug mony of man and nature in heaven. "pharmacological Calvinism."ll For such as LSD is unquestionably evil ­ In Yellowstone National Park, offi­ the Calvinists of old, a life of pain and although for many users it has few, if cial park policy has decreed that suffering could be therapeutic. Life any, adverse effects - because it is mountain goats entering from the west should be lived for labor, not con­ taken to stimulate an "abnormal" or side must be welcomed, but other sumption; too much enjoyment is "unnatural" mental state. mountain goats - biologically identi­ likely to create an opening for the In deciding whether to take a medi­ cal - seeking to enter from the north­ devil. Our modern Puritans fear that cal drug, the doctor and the patient east side can be killed if necessary to illegal drugs will lead people astray by simply weigh the dangers against the keep them out of the park. Park offi­ offering pleasure without work. In potential benefits. For illegal drugs cials explain that the goats west of the environmental matters, the same such as cocaine or marijuana, however, park are a "natural" herd; those to the Puritan spirit sees the corruption of the such pragmatic balancing is permitted northeast, having been introduced human spirit in the mass consumption neither to the individual nor to society. there in the twentieth century by hunt­ that characterizes prosperous, modern Instead, religion makes one absolutist ers, are artificial. They are like the new life.12 The false lure of science every­ determination for all of us, based on a chemicals discovered by modern sci­ where tempts us down the path to strict morality of the "natural." ence in this century. Similarly, the EPA destruction. As Joseph Spillane showed in his for many years showed little interest in study cited above, early in this century, indoor air pollution, even while spend­ Sin and Pleasure addiction to cocaine was considered an ing billions of dollars to curb less dan­ In his standard sermon, prominent acceptable risk of medical treatment. gerous pollutants that threatened to environmentalist David Brower But if the "sole excuse [for using contaminate the "natural" environ­ described human beings as a "cancer" cocaine] is the seeking for new sensa­ ment outdoors. on the Earth.I3 Drug dealers, others tions," then the cocaine user "does not I don't want to minimize the per­ say, are the cancer of the inner city. need protection, but rather restraint by sonal tragedies - death, homelessness, These views are secularizations of the law in order that he may not become a bankruptcy, family breakup, physical old Calvinist belief in the total deprav­ menace to the public weal."14 What incapacitation, etc. - suffered by those ity of man. Evil can be combated only determines the attitudes of society is addicted to heroin, cocaine, and other 30 Liberty TfIE QADICAL QOMANTIC

is: People you've never met... Who do things that have never been done. Andsay things that have never been said. • Tired ofso-called Romantics whose only trace ofRomanticism isacharacter who says, "Capitalism is good"? • Bored with Libertarian science-ftction epics? • Mystery novels not meaty enough for you? The Radical Romantic takes no prisoners in the war against Modernism. Subscribe to the only magazine thatfires writers for being too

realistic! 0 r------~-, I YES! I WANT TO BE A QADICAL ROMANTIC! I I NAME . _ I I I I ADDRESS _ I I CITY STATE ZIP _ I I SEND ME: I I 6 ISSUES FOR $20 0 12 ISSUES FOR $30 0 I I ENCLOSE US FUNDS ONLY IN CHECK OR MONEY ORDER. MAIL TO: I ~ IL mE RADICAL ROMANTIC: 12226 PACIFIC AVE #1 MAR VISTA CA 90066-4429 THANKYOUI I Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

illegal (and legal) drugs. Nor do I lives, but it serves both parties by moti­ overall interests. Different places might intend to imply that no environmental vating supporters to contribute time experiment with more lenient policies, threats exist. But the anti-chemical cru­ and money in the belief that they are perhaps allowing drugs to be sold sade has cost billions of dollars with enlisting in a righteous crusade to sa¥e over-the-counter, like cigarettes. In any few results beyond the promulgation the world from evil. case, there is no need to insist that of a civil intolerance informed by a sys­ Some Republicans recognize these there be one policy for everyone, tem of quasi-religious symbolism. It problems when it comes to environ­ decided everywhere by federal law. has created a vast and expensive mental regulation. Following up on the Neither the absolutist crusade for a bureaucracy that tramples on civil Contract with America, the House this drug-free America nor the absolutist rights and uses tax money to defend year passed legislation requiring that crusade for a pollution-free environ­ itself through propaganda, beginning the benefits of such regulations be ment serves us well. Both are in grade school and continuing in the weighed against their costs. But when grounded in a secularized account of workplace. It has generally assumed it comes to illegal drugs, the average man's fall from grace, in which, having the role of a benevolent dictator: part Republican seems blind to the logic of eaten of the apple of science, humanity nanny, part cop. Such are the results of costs and benefits. Democrats suffer a must fight to restore its purity by con­ religious warfare. reverse blindness: they occasionally taining the evil forces of chemistry set Part of the reason the system works show greater tolerance for drugs, but loose in the world. People of other for politicians is because they receive seek to ban environmental pollutants faiths and convictions can derive little money to distribute to constituents. regardless of the cost. satisfaction from all this Puritan Prisons have become a new form of There are many alternatives to the righteousness. pork. Accor~ing to one recent report, War on Drugs.l6 Total drug legaliza­ Now some prohibitionists are call­ "the burgeoning business of supplying tion lies at one end of a spectrum that ing for using the death penalty in the goods and services to prisons is fueling includes different forms of limited drug war. This is the modem equiva­ demand for even tougher laws." One legalization hedged by various con­ lent of burning witches at the stake. As student of prison policies notes, "The trols. I can imagine a system that fully Paul Johnson has reminded us, in the people lobbying on the crime bill are decriminalizes personal use and pos­ sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from these industries. It's rivaling the session, imposes mild sanctions "wherever Calvinism be-came strong, old Pentagon industry."ls against illegal drug sales, allows low­ witches were systematically hunted" Inside the Beltway, it frequently dose legal sales of non-addictive and - not only in Salem, Massachusetts, appears that Republicans differ from mildly addictive drugs, and establishes but throughout Europe.17 Democrats more by the constituencies a tightly controlled and monitored sys­ It is time to call off this Puritan cru­ they serve than by matters of political tem by which physicians can prescribe sade, a crusade that once again perse­ and economic principle. Puritan hys­ heroin, cocaine, and other drugs when cutes some Americans in the name of teria may waste tax dollars and destroy they judge it will be in the patient's the religious certainties of others. Q

Notes:

1. William J. Bennett, IIIntroductionll to Thoughts about Striking the Right Hedonism vs. Pharmocological National Drug Control Strategy Balance," in MelvYn B. Krauss and Calvinism," Hastings Center Report, (Government Printing Office, September Edward P. Lazear (eds.), Searchingfor September 1972. 1989), pp. 4, 2. Alternatives: Drug-Control Policy in the 12. Robert H. Nelson, IIEnvironmental 2. Letter from President George Bush to United States (Hoover Institution Press, Calvinism: The Judeo-Christian Roots of House Speaker Thomas S. Foley, trans­ 1990), p. 399. Eco-Theology," in Roger E. Meillers and mitting the National Drug Control Strategy, 7. E. Leong Way, IIPharmacologic Bruce Yandle (eds.), Taking the September 5, 1989. Assessment of Dependence Risks," in Environment Seriously (Rowman and 3. Mark A.R. Kleinman, IINeither Krauss and Lazear, ope cit., p. 394. Littlefield, 1993), p. 235. Prohibition Nor Legalization: Grudging 8. Sheigla B. Murphy, Craig Reinarman, and 13. John McPhee, Encounters with the

Tolerance as Drug Control Policy,II Dan Waldorf, IIAn II-Year Follow-up of a Archdruid (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Daedalus, Summer 1992, p. 72. Network of Cocaine Users," British 1971), pp. 79,83. 4. Marijuana use among twelfth graders Journal ofAddiction (1989) 84,427-436. 14. Spillane, Ope cit., p. 254, quoting a New rose almost 50% from 1991 to 1995, and 9. David F. Musto, The American Disease: York physician. more than 150% among eighth-graders ­ Origins ofNarcotic Control (Oxford 15. Carol Matlack, IIPrisons," Government UniverSity of Michigan, IIMonitoring the University Press, 1987). Executive, October 1995, p. 63. ll Future study, December 1995, cited in 10. Joseph F. Spillane, Modern Drug, Modern 16. See Ethan A. Nadelmann, IIDrug USA Weekend, February 16-18, 1996. Menace: The Legal Use and Distribution of Prohibition in the United States: Costs, 5. Peter Reuter, IIHawks Ascendant: The Cocaine in the United States, 1880-1920 Consequences and Alternatives," Science Punitive Trend of American Drug (Rand Corporation, May 1994), pp. 245 (September 1, 1989), pp. 939-947. Policy,1I Daedalus, Summer 1992, p. 36. 310-311. 17. Paul Johnson, A History ofChristianity 6. Avram Goldstein, IIDrug Policy: Some 11. Gerald 1. Kleiman, IIpsychotropic (Atheneum, 1987), p. 310. 32 Liberty Travel

Wings Over Mongolia by Jim Huffman

First class isn't even second-rate in the Third World.

Air travel, like railways in an earlier day, reflects a country's life. The benignly oppressive states, like Singapore, have wonderful airlines, I am told. It was said of Mussolini's Italy that its trains ran on time. Mussolini is no more, and the Italian railways didn't really work well even then, but one can still learn a lot about a country from its airlines - as I learned last summer, when my 13­ the idea of bringing those who grum­ ing China Airlines head-to-head for year-old son and I traveled to ble about American dependence on market share, you probably wouldn't Mongolia. beef to this land, where a meal with­ be shaking in your corporate boots There are essentially two routes to out meat in unthinkable. And the air­ either. Mongolia by air - through Russia, line meals are no different. Domestic flights are a different and through China. I chose China, 1 had dreamed of going to animal entirely. Mongol Air is the where we hopped a Mongol Air flight Mongolia since I was 17, so they only ride in town. And it shows. to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital. could have served shit on crackers (as Apologists for the USPS first-class Mongol Air is also known by its my wife's family indelicately puts it) mail monopoly should be required to Mongolian initials, MIAT. The few and I would not have cared. What fly around Mongolia on domestic Americans who have flown in they served was not that, but it runs for a month or so. MIAT being Mongolia say the initials stand for ranked not far behind. Soggy corn MIAT, they probably wouldn't make "Maybe I Arrive Today." MIAT has chips, sandwiches made of some it back, but what the heck. While two tiers of air service - international unknown meat (complete with MIAT's international flights resemble (essentially, to Beijing and back) and bones), and some unusual pickles. flying on Eastern from Greensboro to domestic. International is pleasant The redeeming factor for my son Chicago in 1972, MIAT's domestic enough, flying on old planes that came when I belatedly explained to flights resemble flying with a Soviet remind you of, say, Eastern Airlines him that, not being amongst invasion force in 1943. And I'm being in 1972. The flight attendants seem to American puritans, he could have a generous. bathe with some regularity. Meals are beer. I told him the Mongolian word The aircrafts themselves are ­ served. - piiv - and he relished using it for let's be charitable - elderly. Giant But what meals! People bitch the next two weeks. (1 finally began Soviet behemoth hand-me-downs. about airplane food, but I confess to a to limit him to one beer per flight, Airplanes that look like giant mangy certain delight in it; it reveals the air­ much to his consternation.) Chia pets. My son and I flew from line's national face. And a lot of the But at least they serve food on the Ulaanbaatar to Dalandzagdad, a small time, I really like what I'm eating. But international flights, so if you're hun­ town of 5,000 in the middle of the those who complain about Western gry, you can have something. On Gobi desert. The x-ray operator at the airlines' overcooked, high-fat meals international flights, there is at least a Ulaanbaatar airport was sleeping have probably never eaten on MIAT. modicum of competition, and it is beside her machine. Luckily for the Mongolia is hell for vegetarians: a truly astonishing what even a slight Mongols, I was not carrying a bomb. land of descendants of nomads, big market can do. Admittedly, the com­ There was no check-in. Someone from on their meat and little else. I relish petition is not fierce. Ifyou were fight- MIAT announced boarding, and the Liberty 33 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

race was on. While rushing on board, hardly optional: in January, the tem­ tions. Even paved runways. we waved our laminated, reusable perature sometimes drops to 50 below Outside of Ulaanbaatar, it is an act boarding passes at the flight attendant. in Ulaanbaatar. Those madcap masters of charity to refer to anything as an air­ (Believe me, they are definitely reused. I of centralized planning, the Soviet-era port. We were preparing to land in wanted to keep mine for a souvenir, Russians, brought their own ideas of Dalandzagdad when I realized that and was told that this was forbidden.) city planning to Mongolia. Ulaan­ there was no runway there. We were Like the shuttles here in the states, baatar, a city of 600,000 people, oper­ coming into the middle'" of a sheep there are no assigned seats. But don't ates one gargantuan central heating field. What's more, my son-noticed that misunderstand me. This policy does facility, and heat is distributed the pilot barely missed the fence. I not exist for the convenience of the throughout the city by a network of bemusedly asked my Mongolian host passengers. One boards through the pipes and conduits. Should something if animals were ever killed by incom­ happen to that facility around, say, ing flights. He took me with complete January 15, things would get pretty seriousness: 1I0h, no," ,he replied, While MIAT's international cool pretty quickly. I am told that the IIThere are heavy fines for the pilot American embassy has emergency who kills an animal." The Mongols flights resemble flying on plans fo evacuate all Americans in that take their animals seriously. Eastern in 1972, their domestic event.) Not necessarily so their human flights resemble flying with a Mongolia has decided that the way charges. Soviet invasion force in 1943. to rectify the inequities of the world is It was perhaps fortunate that to charge anyone unfortunate enough Mongolia is so cut off from civilization to have a non-Mongolian passport in that international phone calls are U.S. dollars. That's anyone: Americans, almost impossible, making my wife back of the plane, on a rickety ladder. Mexicans, Canadians, Germans, Jap­ My son and I managed to find adjacent and me unable to speak to each other anese. Anyone traveling to Mongolia for the entire two weeks. Had she seats, but the fun had only begun. Let's must bring along a considerable cache say that maintenance was probably not known we were flying MIAT, there of American cash. Our flight from would have been wringing of hands one of MIAT's corporate targets for Ulaanbaatar to Dalandzagdad was 1995. You see, my seat had no seat belt. and biting of nails back in North about 350 miles, and my round-trip Carolina. For MIAT is cursed with a Neither did my son's. There were no ticket was $140 - cash, since hardly somewhat less than sterling safety oxygen masks, no seat-cushions-that­ anyone, including MIAT, takes charge record. A month after our return, a double-as-life-rafts. (Okay - Mongolia cards - while my son's was $70. plane bound for the unfortunately is mostly desert, so I suppose they Mongols (the only other people on our named city of Moron crashed into a wouldn't be much help.) There were flights) were charged about $14. mountain in fog. While this sort of inci­ no flight attendants giving safety We didn't realize that this consti­ dent occurs in other countries, too, it instructions and pointing out passen­ tuted a form of first-class passage. ger exits. In fact, there was only one I have never flown first-class in the flight attendant, and her sole function West. It always struck me as a little consisted of bringing around a tray of ridiculous to pay such high prices for The x-ray operator at the hard candies at the beginning of the the privilege of wider seats and mini­ Ulaanbaatar airport was~leep­ flight. One apiece, please. mally better meals. But I got what There is no air conditioning on passed for Mongolian domestic first­ ing. Luckily for the Mongols, I MIAT planes, either. Given that we class treatment on this trip. was not carrying a bomb. were flying in August, this was no On the way down, we were foolish small consideration. But there were enough to get on with everyone else. flies, and they were a source of mild On the way back, the solitary flight happens a tad more frequently in torment for us during the flight. attendant singled us out of· the crowd Mongolia. Nor is it reassuring that out­ Initially, I blamed the flies for the con­ and insisted we board first. Uh-oh, I side Ulaanbaatar, we saw no radar stant itching on the back of my head. thought, we've done something equipment. After an hour or so, the Mongolian wrong. But no: she was merely giving Upon disembarking, passengers friend I was traveling with spoke us the pick of the seats. walk out onto the field. The glaring sun harshly to the man behind me, and Americans expect certain amenities contrasts with the subdued light in the the itching stopped. He later at airports, and we are not usually dis­ plane. (Subdued because the inside is explained that the man had been play­ appointed. What would an American painted military green - does this give ing with my hair, which apparently is airport be without Hare Krishnas, you some indication of the plane's pre­ a custom in certain parts of the surly luggage checks, bad and over­ vious purpose?) Disembarkation is country. priced food, and rude miniature slowed because each passenger has his (The Mongolian summers are cool Stalinists at the x-ray machine? And luggage with him there on the flight. enough that getting along without air there are other things, usually invisible There's nothing quite so disconcerting conditioning is generally not a prob­ to us. Things like navigation systems, as realizing that one is flying on a plane lem. But heat in midwinter Mongolia is radar, and ground-to-air communica- continued on page 41 34 Llberty Profile The Transmigration of Timothy Leary by Brian Doherty

An interviewer, on the outside, looking in.

After a couple of decades as that saddest of things, a celebrity without portfolio, Timothy Leary has enjoyed a recent spate of media attention for an unfortunate distinction: he is dying of prostate cancer. It has metastasized, he tells me, and causes a severe pain in his left hip. He's been turning up more often than usual in newspaper features and on TV. A bio­ pic is also in the works, possibly to be experiments with reducing prison rock videos, and is adopted as a pre­ directed by Leary's friend Tim recidivism rates, changing personality miere intellectual on a low-level Robbins. traits, and working out the theological Hollywood star circuit. When I first arranged to interview implications of this strange and pow­ To me, Leary was a hero not for Leary, my intention was to do a sim­ erful substance. Controversy erupts his associations with psychedelics, but ple Q-and-A, to be transcribed and over his using undergrads in psyche­ for his eventful life - and for the published in Liberty. That's not what delic experiments. He is driven from expansive, radically libertarian happened, for reasons that will Harvard, gets wealthy backing, and visions of his '70s books, particularly become dear. If this had been the fea­ establishes himself and his research at Exo-Psychology, Neuropolitics, and The ture that Liberty and I had planned, I a house in Millbrook, N.Y. He Intelligence Agents. Written during a might have explained in the introduc­ becomes a public proselytizer for the time of simultaneous advances in tion that in talking to Leary, I was not wonders of acid, shifting from the tra­ rocketry, neural sciences, and genet­ a disinterested journalist just doing a ditional scientist's role into a sha­ ics, these were fabulous, systematic, job. I had long admired the man and man/showman mode, and attracts rococo treatises elaborating on the his work, ever since first reading his unwanted attention from the law. He '70s sequel to "Tum On, Tune In, books in my early adolescence. I was runs for governor of California, is Drop Out": 8.M.P.L.E., which stood talking to one of the heroes of my arrested for pot possession, and for Space Migration, Intelligence youth, which undoubtedly blunted escapes from prison, fleeing the coun­ Increase (I-squared, get it?), and Life any aggressive journalistic edge and try with the help of the Weather Extension. ("The making of slogans," contributed to the interview's disap­ Underground. He then lives the life of says Leary, "is key to any form of pointing results. the international fugitive jetsetter in humanist culture.") Leary portrayed My affection for the man went Algeria and Switzerland, is captured DNA as a godlike intelligence rapidly beyond enjoying his books. I admired in Afghanistan and dragged back to propelling human beings toward the the fine rebellious figure he cut: a the States in chains, serves a few more next phase in the evolutionary script: straight-laced Harvard psychologist years in prison, and is let out under escape from the planet, exponential and designer of personality tests dis­ circumstances that led to accusations growth in intelligence, immortality. covers the magic of psychedelic of being a federal stool pigeon, even a He built these visions around a mushrooms and begins wondering CIA agent. He moves to Hollywood, unique model of human conscious­ what applications they might have for where he lives the life of the L.A. ness, which he divided into eight "cir­ psychological science. He launches on party boy, works with computers, cuits" - four terrestrial and four a program of applying psychedelics to debates G. Gordon Liddy, lectures, post-terrestrial. He linked these to psychology, discovers LSD, and guest-stars in various movies and other traditional human psychological Liberty 35 Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996

testing systems: tarot, I Ching, names should be clear enough.) I went. interested in leaving them to talk to astrology. The computer illustrations for this me. While Leary was occupied, Leary's grab-bag of '70s enthu­ peculiar and frustrating book were Howard showed me around the house. siasms pretty much summed up what done by my pal Howard Hallis, w.ho After a while, Leary joined us in his is currently being hyped by a colorful was also at the signing. I got some old study/ computer room, where he group of Southern California entre­ books autographed, introduced myself tested his deteriorating memory by preneurs as "Extropianism." If Dr. Tim to Leary, and tried to enlist Howard's making me write my name on a pad wasn't the first Extropian, he's defi­ help in scheduling an interview. A while he tried to remember who I was. nitelya Hall-of-Famer. week later, by accident, I found myself (He had warned me when we His '70s books were daring, optimis­ sitting next to Leary at a party at a exchanged numbers that I would have tic, and encyclopedic, risking ridicule Hollywood restaurant. to constantly remind him who I was Unusually for Hollywood, we and where we had met, and indeed I ended up talking one-on-one for did.) around 45 minutes - perhaps because We chatted for a few minutes, then III can walk from my study we were sitting toward the back of the he and Howard and I inhaled a balloon to the kitchen and forget what I patio with no natural flow of traffic full of nitrous oxide. Leary got "profes­ was going for, but recapitulate around us. I was not, of course, taping sorial," as he put it, and lectured us our conversation, or even taking notes, briefly about the roles of William the history of humanity from but in many ways this approached a the amoeba to Dan Quayle, James and Gertrude Stein in populariz­ dream Q-and-A. We talked about ing the use of nitrous oxide - "pure and how Freud fits in." Thomas Szasz and Noam Chomsky ­ brain food." He raised his hands in Leary praised them both, and I supplicant prayer to heaven, in the expressed discomfort with Chomsky's name of William James, and asked economics. Leary winked - "We're all and error in their dense breadth of spec­ Howard to fetch a biographical dic­ libertarians, of course," he whispered ulation. They were my first exposure to tionary and a quotation book. He read conspiratorially, but Chomsky was still sociobiology, life extension science, and us some of Stein's bon mots and her bio a brilliant linguist and critic of govern­ credible space colonization schemes. entry, then dismissed me; we'd have to ment crimes. We talked about the Leary wrote these tidings of the ulti­ do the interview some other time. AIDS establishment (we had been mate escape while locked up in a cage A few weeks later, 1 arrived at the by the U.S. government. It was a grand introduced at the party by a mutual arranged time to find the contents of vision, and presented with just the right friend, heretical AIDS journalist Celia his garage/archive scattered in the touch of what those who sneer call Farber of Spin), medical fascism (he driveway. The garage was being snake-oil salesmanship. The ever­ mocked attention deficit disorder ­ optimistic and chipper Leary doesn't "It's just kids being hyper, curious"), bridle at such descriptions - a chapter Leary's relationship with his stepson, of Neuropolitics is called "In Defense of computers, senility ("I can walk from Timothy Leary is going to Snake-Oil Salesmen." my study to the kitchen and forget try to talk to us from the dead. what 1 was going for, but recapitulate Tim & Me the history of humanity from the Well, who would you rather When I heard Leary was dying, I amoeba to Dan Quayle, and how hear from? vowed to meet him before he went. We Freud fits in"), and his arrangements were both living in Los Angeles, but I for his death. (LSD, he has decided, didn't know how to go about contact­ can work as a mental preparation for repainted. Dozens of people milled ing him. I knew he lived in Beverly death. "If you haven't had a couple of about the house, Leary was far too dis­ Hills -I even had a couple of friendly death experiences, your dealer is cheat­ tracted to talk, and one of his assist­ acquaintances who were associates of ing you.") ants, suspicious of my presence, asked his - but I didn't try too hard to fina­ He was sharp, he was interested, me to please fax the details of why I gle the matter. and the conversation didn't lag. He sig­ wanted the doctor's time. (I passed In early December, there was a naled the conclusion of one line of talk that test - she even waved his custo­ book-signing at Hollywood's La Luz with, "And that's the end of that." mary $1,000 interview fee in recogni­ de Jesus gallery for Leary's newest Then we were on to the next topic. 1 tion of Liberty's small-press status.) book, Surfing the Conscious Nets, a very dared to broach the idea, as he pre­ A few weeks later, the taped inter­ curious and uncharacteristic computer­ pared to leave, that perhaps we could view finally took place. Leary was sit­ ized graphic novel telling the adven­ talk like this again on tape, for this ting in sweatpants at a table in his tures of a young ambisexual black man libertarian magazine 1 write for? We living room, that day's mail and faxes with the improbable but telling name exchanged numbers. scattered around him. The phone rang Huck Getty Mellon von Schlebrugge. My first attempt at a scheduled, a lot, and Leary actually answered it (Von Schlebrugge was the maiden official interview was aborted; he was himself most ofthe time. (Once he had name of Leary's second wife Nanette; entertaining a couple of female house­ me do it, and take a number down for the significance of the other three guests when 1 arrived, and he wasn't him. He also asked me to move a pile 36 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996

of old newspapers and envelopes into ure out how it relates to my question. tion, bringing up some of the same top­ the laundry room. What can I say? It's While they disappeared on this mis­ ics and hoping to get some of the same Timothy Leary. I did it.) sion, I had plenty of time to take in my responses. No such luck. On Thomas surroundings. For once, no one else Szasz: "I have been a great admirer of The Interview Commences wandered through for almost 20 min­ his for years. He is one of the great The interview did not start well. utes. (Earlier in the interview, a neigh­ libertarian figures of our time. He's Questions that I'd hoped would trigger bor had arrived with dog food.) Leary's taking power away from the medical long, discursive answers garnered home is plainer than you'd expect from monopoly and empowering individu­ brief, telegrammatic ones instead. its hyperwealthy surroundings at the als, he's right down the line for liber­ Leary was impatient with the inter­ heights of Beverly Hills - the slope tarian politics, humanist politics." At viewer-subject game. I had hoped that, above his house is uninhabited grass­ our first meeting, he had called Szasz as an early expert in transactional psy­ land, rare in L.A. It's a typical subur­ "brilliant, dangerous, ahead of his chology, he would remember the rules ban one-story bungalow, garage on the time" and told me of having brought and respect them. But Leary is uninter­ Szasz to speak at Harvard. ested in playing anyone's games but On his death: he is ready to be fro­ his own these days. He is a great, 1/My politics is basically zen, but "I want to make it clear I may accomplished man in his last days ­ saying that power resides decide not to do it." He also com­ who can blame him for not delighting mented that "if I could be brought in taking yet another hour of his rap­ inside the individual. The state back, the condition of my brain might idly diminishing life to explain his has simply no right." be of some interest to science." His work to yet another reporter? executors "are commanded to discon­ As a nervous acolyte speaking with nect any life-preservation method if him for the record - for history - I right, a study, a living room, and one I'm inarticulate. This is a tremendous was nonplussed, growing on annoyed. bedroom. From the back yard spreads opportunity.... I'm gonna try to plan Questions about his writings got a glorious vista of the Los Angeles my dying. You plan for college, you responses like this: "My problem here basin. The house is sparsely but should plan for dying. In my case for is I've written all of this. Saying it is like delightfully decorated: bits of art by many years I've been planning. I have reciting it; it's already written. What Robert Williams, Kenny Scharf, prostate cancer that's metastasized, can we do about that?" He stared off Howard Hallis; a portrait of his friend, painful cancer rupture in my left hip. into space, was unresponsive, hesitant. actress Susan Sarandon; a Japanese I'm having radiation, doing everything He'd cut off long silences with a sharp poster for the film True Romance; movie the cancer doctors want. I want to be a "Next question," even if the last one promotion stand-ups of John Wayne good patient," he added, but admitted hadn't quite been addressed. Brief per­ and Clint Eastwood - gifts of rock star that he ignores their dietary advice, orations on subjects like S.M.P.L.E. or Al Jourgensen of Ministry. Pretty/ and continues to eat what he likes. cryogenics (Leary wears a bracelet that grungy young people, male and He is attempting one final experi­ identifies him as a candidate for cryo­ female, float about the house helping ment in mental exploration and com­ genic preservation) would trail off with Leary take care of his business. munication. There's a period of time him telling me, "You know all that." The house did have a smattering of after the heart stops but before brain He was right. But, I tried gingerly more bizarre bric-a-brac. I was facing a death. "Obviously, this period [is] a to explain (my enormous admiration seven-foot-tall pencil in the left corner, wonderful opportunity to explore, for the man making me unwilling to be and a large, stringless musical instru­ communicate back," he explained. We adversarial), this was more than just us ment - double bass? cello? - on the tried to figure out how long that two chatting. A tape recorder was run­ right. Other items catalogued: period might be. Leary suggested 2-15 ning. An audience of 14,000 who might A gold record for Ministry's Psalm seconds. I know very little about this not - probably do not - know all of 69 album. subject, but recalled that during our what Timothy Leary has to say had to A well-wishing note from William party conversation on the same topic be considered. But he still didn't want Burroughs, taped to a sideboard he suggested the time could be min­ to play. in the kitchen. utes. "I try to be conservative," he One question about his attitude A three-dimensional car door with winked. "It has been known for a thou­ toward death led to a lengthy break as a mannequin's arm hanging out, sand years that there was a period Leary and one of the young, dread­ adorning a wall. after death. Oriental philosophies sug­ locked Lollapaloozians who litter the A billiards table. gest that it's your duty as a brain­ house tried to retrieve a computer doc­ The walls were white. There weren't carrying, conscious person to turn off ument Leary had written for a Japan­ as many books as I had expected ­ your mind, get the body no longer ese magazine, which he insisted would one wall in the dining room, some in involved. be a better response to my question his study/computer room. "So I'm gonna have in my dying than anything he could tell me. It room, when I'm tubed up and wired turned out to be a strange three-page Tim Speaks up, so even when I'm close to inarticu­ poem that mixed computer and sexual I had hoped to recreate some of the late, I'll be able to type with my finger, imagery bizarrely, and I still can't fig- best moments from our first conversa- maybe even by blinking eyes, work out Liberty 37 Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996

a language. The key thing is my whole cerns, he sees himself serenely going Socratically at the party when I casually front wall in my deanimation room with the flow. "Everyone knows that. mentioned that something "calmed my will be a screen, so I can word-process Everybody knows we're getting off the nerves." What, precisely, did I mean by and communicate when I won't have planet. No big Socratic leap there. "nerves"? We went back and forth on the body to help out." In our party con­ What I'm trying to do in all mywork is this for a few minutes. I began to under­ versation, he had suggested using a point out my duty as a genetic engi­ stand why the Athenians got so pissed system analogous to the experiential neer. Obviously that idea was ahead of off at Socrates that they made him swal­ typewriter he and Richard Alpert its time. It's gonna happen, but not low hemlock. developed to help communicate ineffa­ right now. But there is more humaniza­ He had gone on to wax on the ble psychedelic impressions in some­ tion of space. They're flying around beauty of computer language, direct thing better than ordinary language. there all the time now. That's good." commands leading to direct and pre­ For the intrepid explorer of new In the decade between space travel dictable results. He was fascinated ways of thinking, experiencing, and and dying, Timothy Leary began a with the save as commanp., .allowing communicating, this was a predictably love affair with the computer. "Over one to create something n~w over the delightful obsession: Timothy Leary is and 0v.er again, I'm gonna come back body of something old While preserv­ going to try to talk to us from the dead. to the Web," Leary told me - and he ing it as well. He ended with one of his Well, who would you rather hear did. "The Web's implications are so grandly charming and disarming Irish from? profound and far-reaching and so winks: "And, of course," said one of obvious. Once you get kids growing America's most notorious prison Surfing Waves up dialing ... what power that gives escapees, "'Escape.'" To many people, Leary's career the kid! Those kids are gonna wanna seems flighty, if not flaky - even dan­ turn on and tune in!" Leary says that Politics gerous or criminal. From transactional his "Turn on, Tune in, Drop out" slo­ Of course, we talked politics. "Yes, therapy to drugs to space travel to gan for acid in the'60s was ahead of its I am a libertarian," Leary said. During computers, he has not chosen the stan­ time technologically; only with com­ one of our phone conversations, when dard academic (or celebrity) route of puters and the World Wide Web does I mentioned Liberty, Leary brought up hoeing the same row over and over. it fully make sense. "We can make his Libertarian Party membership. Accusations of trendiness bounce off pretty solid predictions here. The Web "I've known some of the people him; he is consciously and philosophi­ will change human civilization. involved in it for years." He hosted a cally trendy. When asked about his fundraiser for Ron Paul's 1988 presi­ current status as spokesman for indi­ dential campaign at his home. vidualistic, self-chosen dying, he "I get mad when liberals Why is he a libertarian? "I'm a points out that it's an obvious concern humanist. The state has no right to tell of aging baby boomers, a generation he insult advertising," Leary said, adult humans what to do with their is a full leap ahead of (he's exactly 25 calling the great cathedrals of personal lives. I'm not waiting for the years older than the oldest boomer) yet government to give me permission." A has strangely haunted. "Now the baby Europe grand advertisements lot of people probably feel similarly, boom is discovering death. It's spooky. for the Catholic Church. but not that many take active steps like I read the New York Times and see five joining the LP. "There's an enormous articles dealing with someone planning minority of people who are basically to die. Life extension stuff, it's hot right McLuhan talked about it and we libertarians, but see no reason why now. It's quite predictable. Once again always knew we'd have a global vil­ they should say it." The notion of an I'm surfing a wave that's there. I lage - and now it's happening. It's obligation of any sort to be an activist expected the wave to come." coming right now." about one's personal politics rankles The same goes for drugs and com­ I wondered what Leary's under­ puters. "That's being a evolutionary standing of computers had taught him him. "My politics is basically saying agent, watching cultural stuff that's about his older interest, human intelli­ that power resides inside the individ­ been happening sequentially. It's noth­ gence. During our first conversation, he ual. The state has simply no right ­ ing new that I'm doing. I'm simply had shared his fascination with words, politics, laws, bills, lobbying about per­ passing on the word." their history and meaning and precise sonal life, censor sexual expression, "I'm an absolute fanatic about lan­ usage. Sitting casually on a couch in his drugs? What does that mean? I was guage," Leary told me on two occasions study is a printout of a parsing of the accused by many, like Abbie Hoffman, - the one idea he repeated of his own definition of the word celebrity. Posted of luring a young generation away by volition, not because I tried to make to the wall in his study is an advertise­ making them feel good, allowing them him. When I would refer to "his ideas" ment doing the same for the word to reward themselves." and his success in spreading them, he amplify. (He told me at the party that Leary is not afraid of the market, corrected me, not pedantically but one of his favorite words is reflect.) unlike so many "civil" libertarians who almost angrily: "They're not my ideas." He loves tracking down words' might agree with him about-censorship Even with regard to space travel meanings, tracing their roots. He had and personal-freedom issues. During and life extension, his more outre con- pounced on me ferociously and continued on page 69 38 Liberty Hermeneutic

The Truth and Ayn Rand by R. W. Bradford

Ayn Rand left Russia in 1926. Just what did she bring with her?

In 1961, Ayn Rand told Barbara Branden about an encounter many years earlier with a long-forgotten philosopher. Back in 1924, while a student in the Soviet Union, Rand had taken a course on ancient philosophy from Prof. N. o. Lossky, an "international authority on Plato." Rand explained that she had demonstrated a mastery of Plato that impressed her professor. Lossky detected a hostility that of attempting to gain some sort words, it's difficult to understand a toward Platonism in her account, and of respectability. At the time she told person who is both secretive and asked about her own views. Rand this story to Barbara Branden (1961), prone to lying about herself. explained her position to the famous he was dying in almost complete Whether one is generous or ungen­ scholar, concluding, "My philosophi­ obscurity. Very few people in this erous in explaining the problem of cal views are not part of the history of country knew who he was, or would Ayn Rand, this underlying problem philosophy yet. But they will be." The have cared if they had known. His persists. name unfortunately could work no professor, an especially harsh grader This is the only place I have used magic in the world that she knew at the word "lying" about the Lossky who believed women incapable of that time. Further, trying to gain story. I use the term in what I describe understanding philosophy, gave respectability by associating your­ Rand the score of "Perfect." self with some antecedently respect­ as an "ungenerous" characterization Unfortunately, research by Chris able person was not the sort of thing of her behavior; I think the other Matthew Sciabarra has demonstrated that Rand did. As I have indicated, (which I describe as "generous") is quite conclusively that Lossky did not she was, if anything, in the grips of more accurate. Worse still, there is teach at the University of Petrograd the opposite vice: that of presenting nothing to suggest that I believe that when Rand studied there, that he was oneself as unconnected with human what she was doing was in any way not a Platonist, that he was not a history. "simple." harsh grader, and that he had many Prof. Hunt's criticism seems Prof. Hunt could conceive of only women students and treated them wrong in so many ways that I hardly one reason that might explain why very well. know where to begin. Rand would tell such an anecdote In the September Liberty, I sug­ It mischaracterizes my position. I were it not true: she was "attempting gested that Rand's story was not have never suggested that Rand was to gain some sort of respectability ... entirely accurate, but was probably an "simply lying" when she told the by associating [her]self with some attempt at self-mythology. In the Lossky anecdote. Here is the closest I antecedently respectable person." It is, January Liberty, Lester Hunt ascribed have come to making such a charge: he observed, ludicrous to suggest to me the view that Rand was "simply The challenge faced by anyone who Rand would have such a motive, since lying" when she told this to Branden, tries to come to grips with the life Lossky was not respectable when she and that this is the "least plausible" or intellectual development of Ayn told the story and since Rand consid­ interpretation. His reasoning: Rand is that she was both a very ered such a motive downright dishon­ What motive could she have had for private person and one who orable. His observation is correct, of inventing a connection with Lossky? believed that myth was sometimes course, and if I could think of only The only one I can think of would be more important than truth. In other such a ludicrous explanation of Liberty 39 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

Rand's motivation, I would also reject because he was banned from teaching, bizarre conclusion: the hypothesis that her account is less and therefore at the time a tough [T]he direct evidence that the youth­ than true. grader who disliked women to the ful Ayn Rand was positively influ­ Happily, I can conceive of another point of discriminating against th~m enced, through Lossky, by the explanation. Why might a person con­ academically - though at other times /Idialectical antidualism" of early coct a story about herself that portrays in his career he was an easy grader, 20th century Russian philo~ophy is her as brilliant, fearless, extremely orig­ who was pleasant and treated women thin. ... [S]uch influences are taken inal in her thinking, and extraordinar­ students very well. And perhaps for granted: "Though Rand rejected ily self-confident and self-perceptive? Lossky did teach a special seminar ­ much of the content of Lossky's phi­ losophy, her own system retained an Perhaps because she would like people though there is no evidence that he exhaustive and dialectical form that to think of her as brilliant, fearless, did. Perhaps the subject of that semi­ reflected her roots," writes Sciabarra. nar was Plato, since the Communist And, later, "[A]s I have demon­ authorities would perhaps think Plato strated, Rand's philosophy ... was a Why might a person concoct was a harmless subject for an anti­ historical product of her revolt Communist to teach - though Lossky against formal dualism." a story about herself that apparently never taught Plato at any Demonstrated is a strong word ­ portrays her as brilliant, other time. Perhaps the reason that and entirely inappropriate here. No there is no evidence that Lossky ever evidence that Rand was familiar fearless, extremely original in taught such a course is that all records with Lossky's philosophy has been her thinking, and extraordinar­ were lost, because "it was taught on provided, and only weak, conflicting ily self-~onfident and self­ the fringes of the university." And evidence that she studied ancient perhaps, although it would be philosophy with him. Sciabarra thor­ perceptive? extremely unusual, Rand managed to oughly discusses the philosophy of Russia's IISilver Age," but provides get permission to attend the seminar, no direct evidence that it influenced and (again) the records were lost. And AynRand. extremely original in her thinking, and perhaps Rand simply forgot that her extraordinarily self-confident and self­ vivid experience with Lossky did not That's it. From the fact that perceptive. take place at the university, but rather Sciabarra failed to prove that Rand I believe that it is likely Rand told at the annex. the story to illustrate these traits in This is the account that Sciabarra herself, just as she told stories to illus­ provides and that Prof. Hunt finds All these unlikely events are trate the personal traits of the charac­ "most plausible." I personally am possible, since there is no docu­ ters in her novels. My suspicion is more inclined to apply Occam's that she had a vague memory of Razor. All these unlikely events are mentary evidence that speCifi­ Losskyas a prominent philosopher of possible, since there is no documentary cally disproves them. But what the appropriate time and place (likely, evidence that specifically disproves are the chances that all one she remembered from a guest lec­ them. But what are the chances that ture at her gymnasium), inserted his all these less-than-likely events occurred without leaving a name into a story that may have had occurred without leaving a scintilla of scintilla of evidence? some (probably slight) basis in fact, evidence? and embellished the tale to illustrate I invite the interested reader to the traits she wished to portray. I fur­ examine the evidence and form his had known Lossky, Lennox concludes ther doubt that she ever suspected own conclusion. that the philosophy of Russia's Silver that Lossky was still alive or that Age did not influence Rand! anyone would ever investigate (and Defender of the Faith Lennox has it precisely backwards. thus undermine) her fanciful story. James G. Lennox is one reader who Sciabarra may have presented only Further, I suspect she may have come has examined the evidence. In a "weak, conflicting evidence" that Rand to believe her anecdote, at least in review of Sciabarra's book published knew Lossky, but the evidence some sense, like any good salesman in the newsletter of the Institute for Sciabarra presents that Rand was influ­ would. Objectivist Studies (and reprinted, in a enced by the philosophy of Russia's Of course, what I offer is only a slightly different form, in Reason), he Silver Age is thorough and convincing. hypothesis. Despite Sciabarra's hercu­ arrives at pretty much the same con­ Sciabarra's case consists of two ele­ lean search, the historical record is not clusion I did. Peculiarly, much of the ments. First, the philosophical environ­ absolutely conclusive. As Sciabarra remainder of his review reveals the ment in which Ayn Rand immersed has shown, it is possible to construe same sort of propensity for apology as herself was saturated by Silver Age Rand's story in a way that is consis­ the evaluations of the most fanatical thinking. Second, Rand's philosophy tent with the historic record, if certain followers of Rand. contains powerful similarities to that gaps in the evidence are filled very, In a stunning passage, he jumps thought, as well as elements that seem very carefully. Perhaps, for example, from rejecting Sciabarra's case for a very much to b~/ intended as reactions Lossky was "very dour and irritable" direct Rand-Lossky connection to a against portions'of it. 40 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

This case is entirely circumstantial. Rand contains numerous letters, tual development that Sciabarra is But it is so overpowering that especially those to Isabel Paterson writing about. And they were written Lennox's criticism of it is reminiscent and John Hospers, in which Rand after "nights and nights and nights of of the defense attorney who tells the discusses philosophical method and discussion" with Paterson, so naturally jury: "Yes, it's true that these credible the history of modem philosophy. they focused on issues that interested witnesses all claim to have seen my The picture that emerges from them Paterson and her at the time, not the client shoot the victim. But all they is of a young novelist caught up in issues that interested her two decades saw was him aiming his gun at the vic­ the battle for liberty and individual­ earlier while a student in the Soviet tim and pulling the trigger, followed ism in an America quickly succumb­ Union. And Rand's letters to John by a loud report, and the victim falling ing to the collectivism from which Hospers date from 1960 and 1961, by over dead, with a bullet wound to the she had fled.... They show no hints which time Rand was in her mid­ heart. Not a single witness actually saw of the sorts of influences that fifties, no longer "a young novelist" by the bullet leave the gun and enter the vic­ Sciabarra conjectures were crucial to any stretch of the imagination. By tim's body. I therefore ask you to find her philosophical development. then, she had already begun to prom­ the accused not guilty." Good grief. Rand's philosophical ulgate the myth that her philosophy Lennox concludes his attack on letters to Isabel Paterson were written sprang fully mature from her head like Sciabarra's book with these words: between 1945 and 1948, more than two the goddess Athena from the brow of The recently published Letters ofAyn decades after the period of her intellec- Zeus. 0

Huffman, "Wings Over Mongolia," continued from page 34

with no radar to an airport with no there was a stir of excitement among Being an American, I am not good radio on a plane with no safety equip­ the waiting passengers as we saw an at bribery. And being a Southerner, I ment, with a staff consisting of one airplane descending from the sky. The am not good at being direct. So it was flight attendant - and knowing that plane had no sooner stopped when the doubly bad when I waited until all the your way out is blocked because the fat crowd surged forward, mobbing the other passengers left the plane in lady in the aisle seat has a breadmaker aircraft. The flight attendant shooed us Beijing, then suggested to the atten­ box between her bandy legs. all away to allow the arriving passen­ dant that I wanted an apron. I waved But it was an uneventful landing, gers to get off, then shooed us away some U.S. currency, which - as and we spent the next three wonderful again because she needed to clean. And you've probably guessed by now - is days exploring the Gobi desert around clean she did. She swept the inside, and widely beloved in Mongolia. Dalandzagdad. She did not take the bait. They are We found out belatedly that not for sale, she said, smiling. I'm not Dalandzagdad's domestic terminal (a There was only one flight sure she even understood that I was concrete building to the side of the offering her a bribe. But that was my field) had a bar. The Mongols love their attendant, and her sole func­ fault, not hers. alcohol, and my friend and host knew tion consisted of bringing Get me out of this country alive, I that the flight would have no beverage around a tray of hard candies vowed while in Mongolia, and I won't service, so he entered the bar, there to complain about American air travel for be fortified for the return flight to at the beginning of the flight. . . . a long time. Well, maybe two Ulaanbaatar. My son and I waited in One apiece, please. weeks. And then I'll shut up. If the the "lounge" (a picnic table outside flight attendant is grumpy, I'll smile with a roof over it). The flight was and be nice. Because I know that 12,000 scheduled to leave at 1:30 and was the anyone unfortunate enough to be miles away, flying across the one and only flight thatday. We arrived standing at the door when she was fin­ Mongolian desert, one of her com­ at the airport around 1:00 and there was ished was treated to a faceful of dust rades-in-arms is passing out hard can­ no plane in sight. Nor any passengers. and assorted airplane debris. dies that would scare your dentist half We occupied our time by looking at the to death. If I made it back to Ulaanbaatar. But I I have a rough landing, I'll arrival and departures board. Itwas not secretly rejoice that we didn't squash a was not through with MIAT. The high-tech. It consisted of a chalkboard. sheep on the way down. That, indeed, Given that there were two incoming attendants on the flights to and from there were no sheep there for the and two outgoing flights a week - and Beijing wear an apron when serving squashing. Then I'll remind myself that that the arrival and departure times food. It is a gloriously pretty piece of when Reagan fired the air traffic con­ seemed more in the realm of hope or cloth, all done up in the colors of the trollers, he could have replaced them prophecy than reality - there were not Mongolian flag. I wanted one of those with Mongolian scabs. a lot of changes in the schedule. In the aprons. I knew I could not buy one, but Few things can make American air meantime, passengers began trickling I thought perhaps I could bribe the travel look appealing. MIAT is one of in, and finally, a few minutes after 3:00, attendant into giving me one. them. 0 Liberty 41 Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996 Republicans What Became of the Revolution? by Kevin Knight

How the GOP betrayed its mandate to reduce the size and power of government.

The GOP revolution has bombed. In November 1994, Americans believed big government was a failure, and the Republican Party was given the opportunity to reduce the government's size and scope. But congressional Republicans have since crumpled under the weight of political pressure, pork, and privilege. It appears we voted for Dimestore Democrats ("we can do it ten cents added, was to "produce reform peo­ ground to the sordid realities of get­ cheaper"). ple can point to." ting re-elected and to a larger realiza­ At the outset of 1995, House Unfortunately, what people can tion that the incomplete victory of Speaker Newt Gingrich and the 73 point to is business as usual. While nudging the government in a new fresh-faced first-term House Repub­ GOP leaders should have proposed direction is better than the total defeat licans excited the public with their balancing the budget in two years, of bringing it down." promise of smaller government. The reducing cost of living adjustments in David Boaz, executive vice­ federal departments of Commerce, order to preserve and then privatize president of the Cato Institute, has Education, Energy, and Housing and Social Security, and enacting afflu­ accurately assessed the current politi­

Urban Development were targeted for ence-testing for other entitlements, cal mood: 1/Americans feel they are elimination. The National longtime Republicans in the House faced with a choice between Endowment for the Arts, the National and Senate have become infatuated Democrats who want to tax produc­ Endowment for the Humanities, the with their newfound seniority. As tive citizens to subsidize both a non­ Legal Services Commission, and the committee chairs, they've joined the working underclass and a new class Corporation for Public Broadcasting Democrats in a celebration of pork, be of cultural elitists, and Republicans were headed for the trash heap. it courthouses and highways or B-2 who project an image of intolerance A cynical public had faith that bombers the Defense Department and don't actually cut government." finally, someone was going to do does not want. A conspicuous exam­ The GOP revolution stalled in part something about wasteful big govern­ ple was the federal ethanol subsidy. because members have failed to edu­ ment. At the start of the Republicans' Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader cate the public. It's a challenge to first 100 days, Gingrich set the march­ Bob Dole fought tooth and nail to pre­ decipher trillion-dollar economics for ing orders: Cooperate, yes. Compromise, serve this $770 million pork-laden people justifiably more concerned no. But as Boston Globe columnist Jeff welfare program for farmers and with balancing a $100 checkbook. Jacoby has said, "Right after that, the agribusiness. Members have not explained the big compromising began." Even the 73 freshmen, the spear­ picture - that to help the homeless, The revolution wasn't derailed by head of the GOP revolution, have the poor, and children, we've got to predictable Democratic demagoguery become embroiled in the business of balance the budget. And members - tales of children not learning, sen­ Washington, abandoning their prom­ failed to illustrate the degree that iors starving, Big Bird out of a job ­ ise to abolish agencies and programs government borrows to finance cur­ but by Republicans "moving too that regulate, subsidize, or redistrib­ rent spending. As Robert Eisner slow," according to Republican poll­ ute. As Time magazine noted, these recently wrote in The Wall Street ster Frank Luntz. The challenge, he "onetime absolutists are giving Journal, "voters would not permit 42 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

increased spending if it had to be Washington, not co-conspirators. will be sending them home a lot sooner financed by taxes rather than painless Unless Republicans move faster, voters than they imagined. Q borrowing." Perhaps most importantly, mem­ bers failed to clearly redefine the role of government. As Cato's Stephen Moore has said, "no matter how long one searches the Constitution, it is Conscription impossible to find any language that authorizes at least 900/0 of the civilian programs that Congress crams into the federal budget today." By reducing the deficit, we Fever strengthen the economy for future gen­ erations of Americans, rich and poor. If by Aaron Steelman the federal government borrowed less to sustain its spending programs, there would be more money available for . Co~gressional Republicans like to preach against business to create jobs, boost produc­ IntrusIve government - but they're dodging the draft. tivity, and deliver better paychecks. Less goveJ;"nment borrowing means he failure of the Republican ety is committed to defending." As lower interest rates. Homes, autos, and "revolution" is nowhere more soon as the election was won, how­ college tuition could be financed more T evident than in the survival of ever, he abandoned this principled cheaply, saving Americans billions of that absurd relic of the Cold War, draft stand; now, he declared, registration dollars. registration. The Republicans, like their was needed to procure emergency Many elected officials here in twins across the aisle, support this manpower. Reagan's superficially Minnesota have railed against the authoritarian and intrusive system practical rationale, like Carter's, was hard-fought spending reductions pro­ even though it has no valid military contradicted by a nearly simultaneous posed in the federal budget, crying that purpose. Indeed, government commit­ government report. This one was such reductions place unfair burdens tees appointed to investigate the mat­ issued by the president's own Military on state, county, and city governments. ter have repeatedly rejected peacetime Manpower Task Force, which echoed But remember, we are all federal registration as inefficient and the SSS's finding that peacetime regis­ unnecessary. tration does little to increase efficiency. Draft registration survives for one Like most products of presidential task It appears we voted for reason alone: statists like it. It reminds forces, it was buried, and registration Dimestore Democrats ("we can young men that they are servants of became a non-issue. empire. Then, in December 1993, the do it ten cents cheaper"). In the wake of the Soviets' 1979 Department of Defense issued a report invasion of Afghanistan, Jimmy Carter stating that registration could be ended proposed restoring draft registration as with "no effect on military mobiliza­ citizens. I welcome the reductions. I a "necessary step" to preserve and tion requirements, little effect on the welcome the opportunity to take enhance "national security require­ time it would take to mobilize, and no responsibility for our own. ments." But around the same time, the measurable effect on military recruit­ We must make drastic changes in Selective Service System (SSS) released ment." As a result, the report stated, how we spend your money. Even if the a report that found post-mobilization "suspending peacetime draft registra­ revolution in Congress has stalled, we registration "preferable" to registration tion could be accomplished with lim­ must reduce the size of government in peacetime. Carter quickly changed ited risk to national security everywhere, quickly. his tune, presenting registration as a considering the low probability of the The GOP must rediscover its man­ symbol of America's "resolve" to stand need for conscription." These admis­ date and continue the revolution, put­ firm against Soviet aggression. Over sions won widespread praise from ting aside the spoils of office. As GOP the opposition of non-interventionists both Republicans and Democrats. Rep. freshman Rep. Mark Neumann of such as Mark Hatfield and a handful of Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) remarked, "For Wisconsin has said, "This is about the left-wing Democrats, Congress caved the first time in 14 years, we've gotten a future of our kids and what's going to in and restored registration in 1980. straight answer from the Pentagon that happen to them. ... You've got a During Ronald Reagan's 1980 cam­ says that peacetime registration has group of people here who want to fix paign, he repeatedly stated his opposi­ nothing to do with real defense needs." Since the man in the White House this country and go back home and tion to the new policy, arguing that live out our lives." . forcing young men to register would had spent the better part of his youth avoiding the draft, Selective Service The voters sent revolutionaries to destroy "the very values that our soci- continued on page 47 Liberty 43 Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996 Testimony How Johnny Cash Restored My Faith in the Healing Powers of Hip by Jesse Walker

Two years ago, the good folks at Time magazine, in their never-ending quest for new "trends" to invent or oversimplify, discovered the death of Hip. According to Richard Lacayo's August 8, 1994 cover story, things have gotten to the point where everybody is trying to be hip. Therefore, since hipness is supposed to be an outsider's stance, Hip is dead. Film Festival prize. The passe Lynch Rick Rubin, known for his work with The Hip Dialectic produced a powerful film prequel to stars of rap and rock, and featured What Time discovered, in its char­ his TV series, and it was roundly songs written by such un-Nashville acteristically - forgive the word ­ booed at Cannes, because the director figures as Tom Waits and Glenn unhip way, goes far beyond hipness. had hogged the spotlight too long. Danzig, the latter the former frontman To be hip, once upon a time, meant to The hipster despises fashionabil­ of the '80s punk band the Misfits be aware, to see through social games, ity, or at least makes a fashionable (sample song title: "Mommy, Can I as in "I'm hip to that." Somewhere show of doing so. Why? Partly out of Go Out and Kill Tonight?"). Its most along the line, it changed meaning; elitism: Everybody'S into "my" thing; notorious track was "Delia's Gone," now, it is synonymous'with fashiona­ better dump it fast. But partly out of a about a man who murders his bility. Fashion, after all, is the art of real disgust with seeing his honestly betrothed. That song in particular set selling poses, and no pose is more felt attachments mass-produced and the critics' tongues a-waggin': to hear fashionable than that of not caring reduced to an oh-so-contemporary the media tell it, this was something about fashion. ("I'm the kind of guy wink. So you're into Johnny Cash, eh? incredibly new for Johnny Cash. who doesn't like labels," an anarchist Yeah - I hear he's big with Generation X Few, if any, pointed out that he acquaintance once told me. What bet­ right now. Imagine my surprise when I had recorded the same song once ter label could a hep cat hope for?) woke up one morning to find the flan­ before, back in 1962. The fashion cycle already turns nel shirts I'd been wearing since the American Recordings is a stark, without logic or reason. Grease the seventh grade had been magically dark, and wonderful album, but it wheels with hipness, and they spin turned into the badge of an imaginary marked no great break with Cash's ever faster. Now, whatever is hip movement called "grunge." Damn, I long-established punk persona. becomes fashionable, but what is fash­ thought to myself. Now everybody's Uohnny Cash at San Quentin packs ionable cannot long be hip. David going to think I'm trying to be hip. more revolutionary fervor than any­ Lynch labored in hip semi-obscurity thing any '60s rockers set to vinyl, for years before the Twin Peaks televi­ The Man in Black and "One Piece at a Time" belongs in sion series made him fashionable ­ I mentioned Johnny Cash a the IWW songbook.) Nor, despite the and that fashionability ensured that in moment ago. For those in the dark: in "GeI1;eration X is discovering Johnny a year or two he would be unhip, 1994, Mr. Cash dropped out of the Cash" articles that filled the trashy ignorable, backlashed, passe. The Nashville rat race to record a CD, pages of USA Today and its ilk, was fashionable Lynch produced a minor, American Recordings, that seemed tar­ the man in black a newcomer to hip­ moderately amusing movie called geted at the so-called alternative ness. I worked at an alternative radio Wild at Heart, and it won the Cannes music audience. It was produced by station from 1988 to 1993 with the hip- 44 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996

pest bunch of folks you'll ever lay eyes In plain language, they discovered mitted to hunt. Today's desktop pub­ on, and they all loved Johnny Cash. All that we are all individuals. Shocking, lishing may be cheaper than the ama­ of them. Long before the hype machine shocking. teur-press magazines of past decades, shifted into gear. This is true of every generation, of but the new zines aren't necessarily According to the old fashion-cycle course. But with mine, one factor was any better. pattern, Johnny Cash should be termi­ different: even the generational "lead­ There have always been some peo­ nally unhip any time now. This time, ers," those arrogant folk who claim to ple who prefer creating. to consuming, though, it might not happen. Here's speak for all their peers, were heading or who prefer consuming something why. in wildly different directions. No one in old or outre to consuming something Time says that because everyone is the media knew who to write about, or current. If I think there are more of us hip, Hip is dead. But hipness in the old when. They finally settled on the Time now than before, I'm probably just fall­ sense - the sense of awareness, of dis­ line - that we were simply confused ing prey to the Last Generation covering the truth behind the social - and Generation X was born. When maya - need not shrivel when popu­ even this generation gap failed to mate­ larly adopted. Truth doesn't change; rialize (the people who didn't fit the The reporters could discern only lies do. The Mel Torme revival label hated it, and the people who did will disappear once the kids figure out fit it hated it even more), Time and the no pattern. Since they had to that Torme doesn't have much to offer rest threw their hands in the air and find a "trend" to write about, besides a few campy laughs. The proclaimed that Hip must be dead. they announced that twenty­ Johnny Cash revival might last for as In the meantime, forgotten music, long as Cash can produce great music. movies, even commercials of the past somethings are directionless If you're a music-lover looking for a are reissued on low-circulation videos and confused. rebellious hero, you can sign on with and CDs. Cassette networks, cheap the adolescent thrills of a heavy-metal camcorders, micro radio, and desktop hairspray band (or their contemporary publishing make local, do-it-yourself syndrome: the ludicrous faith that the "alternative" soundalikes), or you can expression even simpler than before. changes of my time will dwarf those of seek out the real thing. And if the real Twenty-year-olds find it easier to past and future eras. thing turns out to be a born-again explore Fats Waller, or Hasil Adkins, Christian who sings country music - or Spike Jones - or Johnny Cash ­ An Unaccountably while they're supposed to be tuned to Optimistic Conclusion Pearl Jam, Blind Melon, and the other Still, at the risk of embracing a The authentic is eccentric; officially designated alternatives to the Tofflerian faith that a Great mainstream. Kids find it easier to pro­ Transformation is taking place around only the prepackaged fit into duce their own zines about their own me, I prefer optimism, if only because easy stereotypes. interests when the mass media leave it helps to get me through the night. them behind, or just to post some com­ Besides, every now and then, some­ ments on the Internet. Hegemonic pop thing comes along to justify it. well, who were you expecting? Sammy culture dissolves into an egalitarian Last summer, a friend and I Hagar? The authentic is eccentric; only soup, where yesterday's creations are attended a Johnny Cash concert, along the prepackaged fit into easy as accessible as the fashions of today. with the most diverse crowd I'd ever stereotypes. And the guardians of mass culture, seen at a musical event. There were of the Fashion Cycle, see their precious kids under 20, and there were a couple A Utopian Scenario pose of hipness decline in value, of folks I swear were older than my Perhaps, if I may be optimistic, because just about everyone is hip to it grandmother. There were Garth Time has discovered, not the death of by now. Brooks lookalikes and there were Cure Hip, but the death - or growing irrele­ In this optimistic view of things, wannabees. In the aisle, two young vance - of Fashion. In other words, Time's "Death of Hip" story is a rear­ men passed a joint back and forth; next people may be getting hip to Hip. guard action, a last-ditch attempt to get to them sat an old man with a cane. Back in 1990, Time started the this secession from mass media under June Carter sang for a bit - and so did Generation X hysteria with a stupid control. Oh, so you think it's a waste of the lead singer of the Screaming Trees. cover story about some people they time trying to be hip? I hear that'5 very The audience crossed all boundaries of annoyingly called "twentysome­ "in" now. And it might work. But it age, culture, and class, and just about things." Time's reporters interviewed a might not. Not if popular culture really everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. number of members of my generation is getting more diverse and Generation gaps, petty subculture and discovered, to their horror, that uncontrollable. boundaries, and class prejudice are they could discern no pattern. Since always fashionable. But the Johnny they had to find a "trend" to write A Dose of Realism Cash concert - so everyone told me ­ about, they announced to their readers But is it? It may be easier to find old was hip. that twentysomethings are direction­ records or movies today, but they were And even if that doesn't signify less and confused. always there, somewhere, for the com- anything, I still had a good time. a Liberty 45 Volume 9, Number 5 Ma 1996 Explanation Why I Would Not Vote Against Hitler by Wendy McElroy

You can't fight tyranny at the ballot box.

At the last Liberty Conference, an intellectual brawl erupted during a panel dis­ cussion on terrorism. Since I consider electoral politics the rnilquetoast equivalent of terror­ ism, my opening statelnent was a condemnation of voting. My arguments were aimed at libertarians who con­ sider themselves anarchists yet jump to their feet in ebullient applause upon hearing that a fellow libertarian essence, the question became, "If the choices as where and how to live. By wants to be a politician. fabric of reality were rewoven into a state power, he meant the actual In the two raucous hours that different pattern, would you still take amount of control the government ensued, a question was posed: "If you the same moral stand?" Since my exercises over its subjects' lives ­ could have had cast the deciding vote morals are derived from my views that is, the extent to which it deter­ against Hitler, would you have done about reality, it was not possible for mines such choices as where and how so?" I replied, "No, but I would have me to answer this question. But my people live. There is an inverse and no moral objection to putting a bullet first response was to wonder what I antagonistic relationship between through his skull." In essence, I would have been doing for the social and state power. One expands adopted a stronger line - a "plumb­ months and years that led to the only at the expense of the other. line," as Benjamin Tucker phrased it momentous dilemma of whether to I stress the word "actual" because - on eliminating the Hitler threat. scratch an X beside Adolf's name. Or the power of the state does not rest on I consider such a bullet to be an act did I have no alternatives then either? its size - the number of laws on the of self-defense in a manner that a bal­ I can address only the reality in books or the extent of the territory it lot could never be. A bullet can be which I live and, in a world replete claims. A state's power rests on social narrowly aimed at a deserving target; with alternatives, I would not vote for conditions, such as whether people a ballot attacks innocent third parties or against Hitler. Let me address a will obey its laws and how many who must endure the consequences of more fundamental question: What is resources it can command to enforce the politician I have assisted into a the nature of the state? According to obedience. A key social condition is position of power over their lives. Max Weber, a state is an institution how legitimate the state is seen to be. Whoever puts a man into a position of that claims a monopoly of force over a For without the veil of legitimate unjust power - that is, a position of geographical area. It is a form of insti­ authority, the people will not obey the political power - must share respon­ tutionalized power, and the first step state, and it will not long command sibility for every right he violates in dissecting its essence is to analyze the resources, such as taxes and man­ thereafter. the defining terms "power" and power, that it needs to live. The question then shifted: "If there "institution." In other words, freedom does not had been no other strategies possible, Albert Jay Nock wrote of two sorts depend so much on repealing laws as would you have voted against of power: social and state. By social on weakening the state's authority. It Hitler?" This postulated a fantasy power, he meant the amount of free­ does not depend - as political strate­ world which canceled out one of the dom individuals actually exercise over gists expediently claim - onpersuad­ basic realities of existence: the con­ their lives - that is, the extent to ing enough people to vote "properly," stant presence of alternatives. In which they can freely make such so that libertarians can occupy seats of 46 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

political power and roll back legisla­ unforeseen results. This explains why an election to give him legitimized tion. Unfortunately, this process good men who act through bad institu­ power, IIitler would have been, at strengthens the institutional frame­ tions will produce bad results. Good most, the leader of some ragged thugs work that produced unjust laws in the men acting through the state will who mugged people in back alleys. first place: it strengthens the structure strengthen its legitimacy and its insti­ Voting for or against Hitler would only of state power by accepting its author­ tutional framework. They will weaken strengthen the institutional framework ity as a tool of change. But state author­ social power. Ultimately, whether or that produced him - a framework ity can never strengthen social power. not they repeal any particular law that would produce another of his ilk in two seconds. This brings up the issue of institu­ becomes as irrelevant to producing Killing Hitler does less damage. But tional analysis. People apply the word freedom as their intentions. it - like voting - is an admission of "institution" to such wide-ranging con­ So, returning to the question of vot­ utter defeat. Resorting to brute force cepts as "the family," "the free mar­ ing for Hitler: purely for the sake of ket," "the church," and "the,state." An means that all avenues of social power institution is any stable and widely­ have been destroyed and I have been reduced to adopting the tactics of the accepted mechanism for achieving state. Under tyranny, such violence social and political goals. To a great Freedom does not depend so might be justified as long as I could extent, these institutions function inde­ much on repealing laws as on avoid harming innocent third parties. pendently of the good or bad inten­ weakening the state's author­ In these circumstances, however, vot­ tions of those who use theIIl. For ing could not be justified, because there example, as long as everyone respects ity. is a third party. No one has the right to the rules of the free market, it functions place one human being in a position of as a mechanism of exchange. The same political power over another. A consis­ is true of the state. As long as everyone argument, I'll grant the possibility that tent libertarian can never authorize one respects its rules - voting, going I could morally cast a ballot. Yet even human being to tax and control peace­ through state channels, obeying the then, I would still refuse to vote ful activities. And the state is no more law - it functions as a mechanism of against him. Why? Because the essen­ than the institutionalized embodiment social control. tial problem is not Hitler, but the insti­ of this authorization. F.A. Hayek popularized the notion tutional framework that allows a Hitler You cannot help freedom or social of unintended consequences, observing to grasp a monopoly on power. power by bowing your head to that conscious acts often produce Without the state to back him up and Leviathan. 0

Steelman, "Conscription Fever," continued from page 43

seemed to be on its last legs. But in SSS because "it's an inexpensive way the useless agency drew little criticism May 1994, President Clinton to keep records on the cadre of people from advocates of limited government. announced otherwise: "Maintaining who would be available if they were The reaction of Peter Sepp of the the SSS and draft registration provide ever required to be used." But it was National Taxpayers Union was typical. [sic] a hedge against unforeseen threats not Clinton's friends in Congress who "We don't expect any member of and is a relatively low-cost 'insurance were most active in fighting the pro­ Congress to vote the right way every policy' against our underestimating posed cut. It was Gerald Solomon (R­ time. It's an unrealistic expectation the maximum level of threat we expect N.Y.), chairman lof the powerful Rules given the political pressure on them our Armed Forces to face." The SSS Committee, who made it clear that he from all directions. What we would had been given yet another reprieve. would support registration at every hope is that all legislators try to prac­ The Republican "revolutionaries" tum. The day before the subcommittee tice fiscal responsibility - and in the of 1994 initially moved to abolish the voted to end SSS, Solomon said, "The case of Congressman Solomon, he has agency. The subcommittee on Veterans small amount of money is worth it. made it mostly a habit." Affairs, HUD, and Independent Killing it is not going to put any more Any hope that the Republicans Agencies voted to allow SSS only $6 school lunches on anybody's table." would change the way Washington is million this year - just enough to After the vote, Solomon lobbied run has been squelched. Gerald close down operations. As Rep. Jerry tirelessly until the House Ap­ Solomon is not an aberration. He is Lewis (R-Calif.), chairman of the sub­ propriations Committee voted to typical of the supposed Republican committee, stated, "Dollars are mighty refund the agency at a cost of over $28 revolutionaries, who do not under­ dear, and it seemed to us that one million. Proud of his work, the GOP stand that if the welfare-warfare state agency you could do without is leader noted that "these young men is ever to be dismantled, programs Selective Service." who have to go down to the post office such as SSS must be pulled out by the Ignoring Defense's own conclusion and register - it makes them very roots. that registration was pointless, some much aware of the military and our And until weak-kneed lobbyists Democratic leaders opposed eliminat­ need for it." like Sepp are replaced by men of con­ ing it. Sen. John Glenn (D-Oh.) favored Solomon's single-handed rescue of viction, that's not going to happen. 0 Liberty 47 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

Exchang~

Kill the Mockingbird! by Jesse Walker

Memo To:B. From: R. With the O.J. trial over, 1think the time is finally ripe for the To Kill a Mockingbird project we've been talking about. Here's a rough outline of the movie, as I see it: We open with a shot of Gregory Peck close to the end of To Kill a Mockingbird. Then cut to him today. (I figure his character should still be alive. When was Mockingbird supposed to take place? Let's figure 1959 or so - there was segregation then, right?) He's old but tough, with a sour look on his face. Through flashbacks, we show the great tragedy of his life: in 1975, Scout was assaulted and killed by a gang of black toughs - who got off scot-free, thanks to crook-coddling liberals in the justice system. He turns his back on his liberal val­ ues and dedicates himself to one end: "Putting every nigra criminal behind bars." Jump back to the present. A black athlete has just killed his wife. (We should use a made-up name for the athlete, of course - but could we get O.J. to play him? At the very least, Kato should get a cameo.) America is outraged, and Peck offers his services to the prosecution. They rebuff his offer and blow the case. Outraged, Peck makes the final step over to vigilantism - "Law? Who needs the law? I stand for justice!" At this point we move into familiar Charles Bronson territory. In the end, Peck leads a group of other enraged citizens in capturing the athlete and hanging him. I think we should call the movie Kill the Mockingbird! What do you say?

Memo To:R. From:B. Unfortunately, I think To Kill a Mockingbird was supposed to take place earlier than 1959. I'm sure we can find some way around that, though - maybe something about cryonics. Anyway, that's not the biggest problem 1see with your idea. As you know, the studio has a firm policy against making films that are insensitive or racist. Your story may cross that line when it employs the word "nigra." Can we cut it? Also, one of the toughs who kills Scout should be Latino, and one should be a white guy wearing his baseball cap backwards. The rest can be black, but should not be given many lines. The biggest problem, though, is that I'm not sure Gregory Peck is still a bankable star. In fact, I'm not sure whetherhe's still alive. How about Jim Carrey? With those changes, I think this may be ready for development.

48 Liberty Volume 9,Number 5 May 1996

Memo To:B. From:R. Good suggestions, except that I don't think people were wearing their baseball caps backwards in 1975. Someone should check this. Rather than cryonics, why don't we use time travel? Jim Carrey and his daughter are suddenly, unexplainably pushed into the future. Almost immediately, she is killed by a gang, and then ... etc. In fact, why don't we push this completely into the future - say 2010? Then we could have them pursued by a Terminator-like creature from the further future that wants to stop some important thing they do in the year 2010. Ideally, 0.1. would play the Terminator character. We'll keep Scout alive in this one, and make her a cute, spunky, wisecracking kid. Let's drop the justice stuff and make it a straight chase movie - O.J. coming to kill Carrey and his daughter. We'll call it Kill the Mockingbirds! Interested?

Memo To:R. From:B. Of course I'm interested! But it needs a little more work. What, for example, is 0.1. trying to keep them from doing? And why are they in 2010 to begin with? My people have spoken with Carrey's agent, and he seems interested. Is there any way we can rewrite this to make better use of his comic talents?

Memo To:B. From:R. Naturally. Let's say he's brought to 2010 because the people of the future have forgotten how to laugh. Someone reads an old book about Carrey's zany courtroom antics and decides he's just the man they need - and they pick up his wisecracking daughter as well, by mistake. (I must admit 1haven't actu­ ally seen the original To Kill a Mockingbird - are there any zany courtroom antics in it? Even if there aren't, we might dig up some in the original book - I'll have one of my readers check it out - or else we'll just come up with some flashbacks of our own. 1seem to remember a great scene in the original My Cousin Vinny script that was never filmed; maybe we could use it.) Instead of 0.1. coming back from the future to kill our heroes, let's say he's already there in 2010, and that he's responsible for the grim state of the day. We could add an environmental message as well: he's trying to wipe out endangered species for some reason or another (I doubt we'd have to explain it) with a terrible flying machine, "the killing bird." Our heroes' eventual mission (and our movie's title): To Mock the Killing Bird.

Memo To:'R. From: B. Bad news - Carrey's getting cold feet. Says he wants to be "taken seriously as an actor" and won't be doing any more comedies after his upcoming sci-fi project, Ace Double. While we're searching for a new lead, I thought you might turn your attention to the Amadeus followup we've been kicking around. I'm thinking we should go for a horror angle - say, a summer camp haunted by the spirits of dead composers. Did they have chainsaws in the eighteenth century? Q

Liberty 49 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 Peace, Love, and l1iolence

ntiI recently, canadia.. ns would when it disarms them. In this respect, the majority of lithe people" has the have shrugged off the idea that Quebecers are disturbingly Canadian. right to do anything. OnCe you get U the Quebec secessionist move­ Federal Immigration and Citizenship into this system, there·is no way other ment could lead to violence. Many are Minister Lucienne Robillard recently than violence (overt or covert) to

now having second thoughts. voiced the conventional wisdom: IIIt's define just who lithe people" is. The After the October 30 referendum, not the Canadian way of doing things, ones with the guns will win, the ones when 49.4% of the Quebec electorate it's not the Quebec way of doing without guns will cave ~in. What's voted to secede, a few separatist dis­ things.." she said. "We are a tolerant interesting about the presept partition senters started a new movement that, country, a peaceful country." But this debate is that it raises fundamental they announced, would not rule out may be changing with the increasing questions about the nature of the state, mild violence. Then a few Montreal confrontation and frustration that questions that are long overdue in English Canadians noted that if the always accompany growing state Quebec and Canada. province seceded, regions of Quebec power. In some ways, French Canadians where a majority opposed secession There is another reason why politi­ are clandestine individualists. They might choose to split off from Quebec cians do not want to paint themselves never made revolutions. They passed and remain with Canada. If Canada is into the peace-and-Iove corner. their turn when the French Revolution divisible, they reasoned, so is Quebec Irrational emotions are running very was waged and when American revo­ (a thought I had already expressed in a high. One half of Quebecers, and an lutionaries called on them. When 1983 book). Their stance won approval awful lot of other Canadians, believe authority gets too heavy, they quietly from Canadian Prime Minister Jean that Quebec secession would destroy retreat in tax evasion, the underground Chretien and other federal politicians. the greatest country in the world, the economy, and other kinds of illegality Ottawa politicians have treacher­ country that has given them free medi­ - provided they think they can get ously challenged the Quebec govern­ cal care, cheap education, the welfare away with it. The recent report of ment to commit itself to use no state, wall-to-wall security - even if Quebec's auditor general is revealing violence against such breakaway the walls are cracking and liberty is in this respect: a whole chapter deals, regions. Quebec poBticians have being swept under the rug. The other in a kind of panicky way, with means requested that Ottawa commit to not half of Quebecers passionately long for to fight endemic tax evasion and the interfering with the whole province IIthe Country" (as former Quebec growing underground economy. seceding, so long as it is "democrati­ prime minister Jacques Parizeau used Some individualists are coming out cally decided." Both sides claim to be to say with tremolos in his voice), even of the closet. For the first time in the most democratic - and neither if all it would give them is a bit more Quebec, libertarian ideas are making deals with the issue. of the same under their very own local headway. A group of young Indeed, they cannot. Violence is tyranny. Quebecers have created Les Amis de la inherent to the situation. Forcing The third reason for the politicians' Liberte (liThe Friends of Liberty"). A somebody to live under a state he does dumbness about open violence is that sign of the times: the Canadian parlia­ not want may not lead to open vio­ they can find no rational answer to the ment refused to hear their brief lence if the victim does not take up partition argument. On the one hand, against its recent firearms control bill. arms, but it is still violence, albeit cov­ if Canada is divisible, so Quebec must Another sign is the radicalization of ert. Such is the situation under a be - and so must be any region or ordinary people. The Quebec Tocquevillian, administrative, intru­ subregion within Quebec, up to the Federation of Motorcyclists, for exam­ sive state - like both the present fed­ sovereign individual. On the other ple, is adopting a tough ideological eral government and the promised hand, if none of these territories is stance toward police harassment of sovereign Quebec. A large chunk of divisible, why is North America, or the peaceful bikers. the population will be bloody angry world, partitioned into different coun­ If there is violence in this country, whatever the majority decision is, and tries? What right has the Canadian let's hope, for our children's sake, that whichever majority makes it. government to rule on, to use it will be against statism, and not The question is only whether the Voltaire's expression, these "few acres between two irrational and tyrannical violence will be covert and legal, or of snow"? brands of nationalism. Remember open and revolutionary. The root of this logical contradic­ Thomas Jefferson's words: liThe tree of Canadians are normally very tion lies in the very definition of the liberty must be refreshed from time to patient subjects. They trust their gov­ sovereign, democratic state, the system time with the blood of patriots and ernment, even when it confiscates under which - as Quebec Prime tyrants." more than 50% of what they earn, even Minister Lucien Bouchard implied - -Pierre Lemieux 50 Liberty It Takes a.Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us, by Hillary reflection of my continuing medita­ tion on children. Whether or not you Rodham Clinton. Simon and Schuster, 1996, 319 pp., $20.00. agree with me, I hope it promotes an honest conversation among us. (p. 17) Too modest to enjoy writing a book about herself, the "author" will merely convey some "personal views" ­ meanwhile ignoring the question, The Woman Who which one might expect to arise, of why her "views" should be of any greater interest than her life. But she has views about children; who could quarrel with Knew Clinton that? But you might! You just might quarrel! If so, fine; she generously grants you the freedom you already had, and she hopes that you are capa- Stephen Cox in some minds, complement each other ble of "an honest conversation." Of perfectly? course, the "conversation," honest or I will return to these essentially psy- otherwise, is bound to be rather one- No one knows who produced this chological issues. What commands sided, since "Mrs. Clinton" is writing curious work of fiction. Published immediate attention is the novel's liter- the book and you are not. She doesn't rumors suggest that the person we ary method. In this respect, It Takes a dwell on that. She simply continues to have to thank for it is a writer named Village challenges comparison to such talk about her views, allowing them to Barbara Feinman. In any event, the idea satires as Sinclair Lewis' The Man Who ooze modestly to the surface in a series of attributing authorship to "Hillary Knew Coolidge. Lewis invented a repre- of "meditations" on children and mat- Rodham Clinton" is a masterstroke of sentative bourgeois American and per- ters supposedly connected with them, irony. Mrs. Clinton, as everyone mitted him to talk, at whatever such as proposals for social and knows, is one of America's toughest length he wanted, about what- ~r-..;. \ ~\~ , political change. j~ \~ ~ and wiliest politicians. No one who fol­ ever he thought was interest- / The proposals them- ing. The longer and more ~ ,.~::, " ~l!'n I] 1 s:l~es are of no special sig- lows public affairs can fail to notice the ~ difference between the style of the real eXcitedly he talked, the _ ",:'I/JIJ); , rufJ.cance. We've heard ~ Mrs. Clinton and that of this novel. It more clearly he revealed the . II, them all before, and of horrifying emptiness of all II {:I ' ~ course the satirist knows Takes a Village is equaled in blandness his works and days. ~ \ ~ ~ \ that we have; if the only by the self-help articles in the nicer "Hillary Rodham ,F r -" .. - I '( "author" thinks that Sunday supplements. The comic effect Clinton," the protagonist 1 .I~~,~ they constitute what is similar to what one would receive of It Takes a Village, is /~. ~\ }) \ the Old Farmer's from the presentation of General Patton allowed the same scope ~\ I~l ~A Almanac used to call as the author of a book on the art of for self-revelation, but '? ¥." ~~ "new, useful, and flower arranging. her creator takes a bolder entertaining matter," The intention behind It Takes a and more compli- this is just another Village can be surmised only gradually. cated approach than amusing comment Does the author want to demonstrate Lewis. "Mrs. Clinton" on the pride she that commanding figures like Mrs. has the rhetorical cun- takes in her pro- Clinton are, at heart, merely reservoirs ning that The Man found medita- of banality? Or is there a darker pur­ Who Knew Coolidge t ion s . " Mrs. pose, an attempt to probe the complex­ lacked. She pretends to be Clinton" wants gov- ity of a human mind that disguises its concerned, not with herself, but with ernment to raise the minimum wage, aggressive instincts beneath a harm­ her ideas about the welfare of children: send unemployed people to college, lessly banal exterior? Is the intention This book is not a memoir; thank- send unemployed people into Ameri- still more deeply ironic - a desire to fully, that will have to wait. ... It is a Corps programs, pay parents not to . show that aggression and banality can, statement of my personal views, a work, make all children take phys ed, Liberty 51 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 make all children do "public service," ments, subsidize and regulate people exactly what it is. She says that she has use the schools to teach "empathy" who offer daycare: the list of this "advocated for" children, but what pre­ and "social development," impose "author's" great thoughts is long. Its cisely does that mean? And what other new laws on the insurance industry, most deliciously humorous feature is a roles has she played in her long public regulate television to make sure that proposal for the government to provide career? The answers never come. children don't see too many advertise- "funding" to help people "break Basic facts are not the only things through" government-funded bureau­ that the "author" leaves obscure. There cracies (264)! Apparently the govern­ is also the question of motives. "Mrs. Attention ment should just take charge of Clinton" believes, or at least suggests, everything. that her life has been guided by very Liberty But lest one accuse IIMrs. Clinton" of simple things: her childhood in a close believing that, she spends scores of and loving family, her sense of social Subscribers: pages lecturing her readers - who are responsibility for those less fortunate There is an easy way to find out when presumably adults - about their own than herself, her commitment to her your subscription ends: personal responsibilities: they need to church, her collection of inspirational (1) If your subscription runs out with spend time with their children, talk with quotations. She implies, in other words, the current issue or the next issue, we them, teach them the difference that a lifelong quest for political power will enclose a renewal notice with your between right and wrong, get them to has developed more or less automati­ copy. eat healthy food, find out whether their cally from such homey sources. Is this (2) Ifyou do not have an enclosed babysitters have some minimal stan­ sincerity - or another sample of the renewal notice, take a look at the address dards of cleanliness.... This list is also "author's" cunning attempts to ingra­ label on your magazine. To the right of long. All the things that are instinctively tiate herself? your name should be the issues left in obvious to other people strike this It may be sincerity. This is a charac­ your subscription, followed by the word highly educated "author" as so many ter who, despite her efforts to manage "left," as in "3 left." bolts from the blue, revelations that she and manipulate her audience, is blind Any questions about your subscrip- must urgently communicate. She has to the most bizarrely obvious clues to tion should be directed to: recently discovered, for instance, that her own nature. One such clue is Liberty Circulation children improve their chances of devel­ planted by the novelist amid the pro­ P.O. Box 1181 oping intellectual skills when their par­ tagonist's thoughts on the inspirational Port Townsend, WA 98368 ents provide them with intellectual value of literature. "You never know," stimulation. Modern "researchers" have she says, taught her that, and she explains the where you might find such guidance Liberty is on the Web! concept at some length. when you need it. One of Chelsea's Visit Liberty Unbound, Naturally, one would like to know [her daughter is named "Chelsea"] our Web site at how such a slow thinker as "Mrs. and my favorite nursery rhymes http://www.LibertySoft.comlliberty/ Clinton" could actually have come to summed up the absolute unpredicta­ and tellyourfriends! regard herself as an expert on how bility and frequent unfairness of life: other people should think. For this rea­ "As I was standing in the streetI As son, if not for any other, one begins to quiet as could belA great big ugly desire some facts about her life. But her man came upI And tied his horse to creator has given "Mrs. Clinton" a me." (148) strong impulse to secrecy, or, perhaps A peculiar rhyme, one thinks, in more accurately, to pseudo-revelation. which to look for "guidance"; a gro­ The "first lady" selects a few shiny tesque rhyme to repeat to oneself, and a fragments from her life and uses them frightening rhyme to foist upon a child. to decorate the edges of her political But it helped the protagonist, or so she and social sermons. She relates some believes: little stories about her parents, her I thought often of that rhyme during childhood, her husband and his child­ our first year in the White House: My hood, their marriage, the birth of their father died, our dear friend Vince daughter, their experiments in rearing Foster killed himself, my mother-in­ her, and so forth. But we learn next to law lost her battle against breast can­ nothing about the political struggles on cer, and my husband and I were which, as we know, a president and his attacked daily from all directions by wife must have lavished most of their people trying to score political waking hours for many years. On the points. (148) novel's first page, the protagonist refers Here, the author seems to be saying, to her "work," but she confides so little is a woman who regards the deaths of information about it that, three hun­ other people as things that happened to dred pages later, one is still not sure her, as weird impositions on her nice- Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 girl quietude, as intrusions comparable Importance is pretty much the same as whom she thinks she hears saying to unwarranted political attacks; she legitimacy, isn't it? To "Mrs. Clinton," things like: "This is real, America.... sees them as horses that ugly people means and ends are as one; she cannot We ask you the government, and you tied to her. And she accepts her reac­ tell the difference: the employer, to help us, the working tion as perfectly natural - as laudable, [T]ry applying the invective you hear people, to make it work. We can't do it in fact. leveled broadly at "government pro­ alone" (238). So proclaims one of this The passage is brilliantly inventive. grams" directly to the children who book's many subsidiary characters, a Few people in real life would be willing are among their most important ben­ moment before she is hustled off the to talkthis way out loud, but in the con­ eficiaries. Are the children sustained stage, like all the rest of them. Her sole text of the novel, it all makes sense: that by government-subsidized day care function is to act·as a ventriloquistic is the way this character would think. or fed by government-supported exponent of the protagonist's own The passage achieves two important school breakfasts and lunches a great thoughts. When she's said her aims. First, it allows the reader to ima­ "threat to our economic freedom" or piece, that's it. gine all the horrors of a personal rela­ guilty of "waste, fraud, and abuse"? But notice that last phrase: "We tionship with this demanding, entitled, (313) can't do it alone." The protagonist's self-righteous, and self-pitying charac­ But the protagonist's principal fail­ great theme is the dependence of every ter; it shows what being her relative or ure of analysis appears in her constant individual on the help of others. "It conflation of herself with other people. takes a village to raise a child" - this, Although the book consists almost she says, is an "old African proverb" The satirist's insight into entirely of Eleanor Roosevelt-like nag­ (12). It may; of course, be simply the ging, there is never the impression of a real author's invention, since it the central character is clear, person speaking to other persons, expresses so clearly the leading charac­ and devastating. never the sense of listeners who might ter's conception of other people's primi­ have their own ways of life and tive weakness. Her ideal America is a thought, separate from those of humble village whose humble residents friend would have to mean, thus pro­ "Hillary Rodham Clinton." In this never think of doing anything alone, viding information about the social and book, "we," "us," and "our" are the because they understand their uncondi­ domestic atmosphere that the protago­ salient words. tional need for one another - which is nist herself would not convey directly. That makes for some odd literary to say, given the close and clammy rela­ Second, the passage confirms the effects. Regretting the fact that America tionship between the putative author reader's impression that the truth of the doesn't look much like a "village" any­ and her country, that they understand protagonist's life will never emerge more, the protagonist observes: their unconditional need for the presi­ from her own analysis. That truth must Instead of strolling down Main dent's wife. be sought in her unwillingness, perhaps Street, we spend hours in automo­ Once again, the satirist's insight into her sheer inability, to analyze anything. biles and at anonymous shopping the central character is clear, and devas­ Ideas are not things that she can malls. We don't join civic associa­ tating. The protagonist is a naive and identify, distinguish, and reflect upon. tions, churches, unions, political par­ unreflective egotist, a person who is They are material that she kneads ties, or even bowling leagues the way always right, a person who could never together, like so much wet dough, until we used to. (13) mean anythingless thanperfectly well, a it suits her purpose. The simplest exam­ Apparently, the first lady of the person who would be perfectly satisfied ples of this agglutinative mental (or United States doesn't join bowling with herself if she lived alone on a satel­ merely verbal) process can be found in leagues the way she used to; she pre­ lite of Neptune. Yet she is vulnerable. her political remarks, because her poli­ fers to hang out at anonymous shop­ She has the obscure sensation that there tics, unlike her motives, is simple to the ping malls. But no, that's not quite are other people on her planet, unpleas­ point of inanity. what she means, is it? By "we," she ant people, people whom she cannot As far as "Mrs. Clinton" is con­ must mean "you," yet she somehow avoid no matter how"good" sheis: cerned, "government is not something includes herself in that "you," not as As I was standing in the street outside us"; it simply "is us" (312). someone who actually does the stupid As quiet as could be [W]hat, after all, as a fellow was say­ things that "we" do, but as someone A great big ugly man came up ing to us at the Kiwanis Club the who can embody and "advocate for" all And tied his horse to me. other day - what is the Government of "us." The protagonist has two options. but the union of all of us put together Thus the real author suggests that She can rebel against her surroundings for mutual advantage and protec­ the protagonist is the kind of individual and tell other people how ugly and stu­ tion? (The Man Who Knew Coolidge) who fantasizes herself as the spiritual pid she thinks they are. Or she can pro­ If you believe that, you'll believe consummation and savior of the group. tect herself by asserting a benevolent almost anything, and "Mrs. Clinton" The individuals whom she encounters mastery over those people, pretending does. According to her, new laws can­ do not interest her as individuals (and that her will is "our" will and that her not be considered "unwarranted gov­ why should they? they're usually just plans are, or ought to be, "our" plans. ernment intrusion" so long as their driving around, or shopping) but as She chooses the second option, purpose is "important enough" (86-87). illustrations of her own ideas, as people which is obviously the more profitable Liberty 53 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 one, since it simultaneously asserts her simply saying: And the height'of her imaginings is a power and assuages any guilt that she Beyond the material world. European preschool, with special might contract from asserting it. Guilt Good people. spaces for great big hugs. That's itself is a vulnerability, but how can No. banality. one feel guilty about trying to help the Nobody ever caught sight of him. The chief virtue of this novel is the billions of other people who depend on Because he's given people freedom. acuteness and broad applicability of the one? The protagonist's own vulnerabil­ Go ahead and squash that bug. psychological case-stu~dy that it ity is thus projected outward, onto soci­ These are answers that any child presents. "Mrs. Clinton" wants to be a ety in general - and one sees how can understand. But the president and species, not just an individual; and so right, how perfect it is that the author his wife never asked themselves she is. There are millions of people l~ke of this novel should have portrayed its whether people who have to struggle to her; they are a distinctive feature of the protagonist as preoccupied with chil­ come up with simple answers to child­ Americat;\ middle class. The novelist dren, with the weakest and most vul­ ish questions could possibly be very has captured all of them in "Hillary nerable segment of the population. bright themselves. Rodham Clinton." Bored, entitled, shal­ Indeed, from the protagonist's point Th~ protagonist's identification low, ignorant, they see~: refuge from of view (and this is another literary with children, which is her means of self-analysis in verbal formulas, in the infantilizing and thereby dominating various kinds of counterfeit thinking the world around her, is a much more that "professionals" who have no real The comic effect is similar to accurate identification than she work to do mistake for intellectual guesses. Although much of "her" writ­ wealth. Hence "the first lady's" babble what one would receive from ing attains the elevated tone of a term about "parenting" and "emotional the presentation of General paper written by the best darned stu­ intelligence"; her aversion to "extrem­ Patton as the author of a book dent in Everytown High School, some ism," which she defines as, basically, of it descends to the kind of conversa­ anything but her own "middle of the on the art offlower arranging. tion that goes on in Mister Rogers' road" position; her piety toward Neighborhood: "experts," so long as they favor her Imagine a country in which nearly all own vapid prejudices; her purely culi­ masterstroke), the adults who surround children between the ages of three nary attraction to what she calls "both her are actually weaker than the chil­ and five attend preschool in spark­ big and bite-sized ideas" (18); her total dren whom they have been trying so ling classrooms.... It may sound too lack of interest in any history except the fecklessly to rear without her help. "I good to be true, but it's not. (221) progression of her own emotional have never met a stupid child," she The country so breathlessly ima­ states. And hence the striking similarity claims (239), though it is obvious that gined turns out to be France! And oh, she has met many adults too stupid to don't those French children have nice understand this mighty truth. things! They spend the day in "bright But that is not the cream of the jest. and colorful" buildings, and the build­ She hopes that you are capa­ The poet Wordsworth addressed the ings are "modern," and they actually ble of "an honest conversa­ child as "Mighty Prophet! Seer blest!" have walls that are "specially con­ tion." Of course, the "con­ The president's wife is naive enough to structed to absorb sound." The sound take such notions literally. "Some of the just vanishes! And, oh, gosh, they have versation" is bound to be best theologians I have ever met," she "spaces" that are specially set aside rather one-sided, since "Mrs. says, "were five-year-olds." Even she "for play," and for "sleeping," and for Clinton" is writing the book and the president, she admits, had a "eating, and even for good-byes and tough time dealing with these mighty big hello hugs with parents" (222). and you are not. intellects. The First Couple "struggled" Special spaces for hugs! Gee, I'd like to to answer the theological inquiries of live in France! Wouldn't you? their daughter and her little friends, We have now, perhaps, come full between "Mrs. Clinton," the· dynamic who came up with such brain-twisters circle. Aggression and banality have first lady, the hardball politician, the as: '''Where is heaven, and who gets to met together; yea, they have even world's greatest exponent of humani­ go there?' 'Does God ever make a mis­ kissed each other. The "Hillary tarian ideals, and all those people to take?' 'What does God look like?' 'Why Rodham Clinton" of this novel - and whom you are forced to listen politely does God let people do bad things?'" how cruel it now appears that the satir­ at the annual office party. and "'Does God care if I squash a ist should have exploited the name of Such "conversations" usually last bug?'" (169-70) It apparently never any living person - will feel useful far too long. If this novel has a defect, it occurred to either the president or his and good about herself only if "nearly is the enormous length to which the wife that people who asked questions all" her fellow-citizehs submit to being protagonist is allowed to pursue her so­ like this might not be great theologians, nagged, led, ~~naged, nursed, called thoughts. Three hundred nine­ after all. instructed, conscripted, protected, and teen pages! - as if the novelist, like Neither did it occur to them that "advocated for" by people like her, "Mrs. Clinton," did not know where to they could answer the children by from age three on. That's aggression. ~~. a 54 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

The Revolt ofthe Elites and the Betrayal ofDemocracy, by above all else skeptical. It implies a skep­ Christopher Lasch. W.W. Norton, 1995,276 pp., $12.95. ticism about tradition that allows for the most radical experiments, and a skepticism about change that erects a conservative bulwark against social engineering. Many under the spell of existential­ The Expropriation ism tend to downplay the rich body of tradition that has evolved over the years. Lasch takes the opposite route. He shares the libertarian's conserva­ ofEveryday Life tism, but not his radicalism. He rejects the "romantic subjectivity" of Oscar Wilde, the French rebels of '68, and the postmodernists; he does not share "the modernist ideal of individuals emanci­ Jesse Walker effectively throws out values and truth pated from convention, constructing altogether.* Both sides assume that the identities for themselves as they choose, standards and traditions that provide leading their own lives ... as if life itself The world lost a unique voice when our social glue have to be grounded in were a work of art" (234). Christopher Lasch died in February some universal principle. As a result, And less exotic sorts of individual­ 1994. In his nine books and countless they give up concrete attachments, one ism are in for criticism as well. The articles, Lasch constantly defied easy side replacing them with dubious unlimited experimentation of the mar­ categorization. He was a radical critic abstractions, the other with a nihilistic ketplace, Lasch suggests, has under­ of capitalism, a conservative critic of fascination with fashion. mined communal ties as surely as modem culture, and a populist critic of Reading this reminded me of my concentrated power; a man who aban­ first exposure to existentialist literature, doned the Left but could not bring him­ in my teens. (This sounds odd, I know, Lasch refuses to let anyone self to join the Right; a man who shared but bear with me.) The existentialist else do his thinking for him, the libertarian antipathy to the state but idea that human beings are condemned fiercely opposed unrestrained individu­ to be free, to create our own meaning in making him exciting to read alism. He was a small-r republican, not a meaningless universe, struck me as even when he's saying some­ a small-l liberal, and had little love for both obviously true and curiously mis­ thing that's completely nuts. social mobility or follow-yer-bliss. Yet stated. Free we are, but why should there is much for an individualist to this be a bad thing? It's exhilarating to value in his work. create our own meaning - and statism has. One might reply that some His posthumously published final besides, it isn't as though we're flying communal ties are worth undermining book, The Revolt of the Elites and the blind. We're embedded in a human cul­ - that when people vote with their dol­ Betrayal of Democracy, is not a single, ture that has survived for thousands of lars or with their feet to change their focused argument. A majority of its years; values, morals, and meaning way of life, this is a creative destruction chapters were previously published as have evolved for as long as people have that should not be constrained. For separate essays, and as a result, the interacted with each other. Some of the Lasch, this is dangerous thinking. book sometimes seems lost on one tan­ cultural stock we've accumulated may Lasch argues that while "the market gent after another. But all these detours be worth throwing out, and a lot of it appears to be the ideal embodiment of relate back to his theme of an elite at may be entirely arbitrary (which the principle ... that individuals are the odds with democratic culture. doesn't necessarily mean it's worth best judges of their own interests and trashing); but it's there, and it's a base that they must therefore be allowed to The Illusion of Certainty on which we all depend. speak for themselves in matters that Underlying all of Lasch's arguments The beauty of a free society is that it concern their happiness and well is his philosophical pragmatism. Lasch allows individuals and institutions to being," this tells only part of the story. argues that Left and Right alike attrib­ experiment, to succeed, and to fail; to "[I]ndividuals cannot learn to speak for ute too much importance to certainty. If create different ways of living, and to themselves at all, much less come to an "the hope of grounding our knowledge fall back on the wisdom of the ages if intelligent understanding of their happi­ of the world in propositions unassaila­ their efforts go awry. Liberty is thus ness and well-being, in a world where ble by doubt" (p. 188) fails, intellectuals both radical and conservative, and there are no values except those of the across the political spectrum agree, market. Even liberal individuals require society's moral foundations must crum­ the character-forming discipline" of It These are generalizations, of course - some ble as well. We thus see conservatives might say ludicrous overgeneralizations. family and community. And these inter­ desperately trying to defend untenable But they are a useful rough model of the mediary institutions are undermined by -absolutes, while the academic Left intellectual world. the marketplace, which "notoriously Liberty 55 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 tends to universalize itself.... It puts an not to "the democratization of intelli­ trust, undermines the willingness to almost irresistible pressure on every gence .and virtue" but to "the opportu­ hold others accountable for their activity to justify itself in the only terms nity to 'rise' in the social scale" (72-73). actions, destroys respect for authority, it recognizes: to become a business Today, he concludes, the transformation and thus turns out to be self-defeating" proposition, to pay its own way, to is complete: the ruling class's idea' of (98). Lasch's heroes are nineteenth­ show black ink on the bottom line" democratic reform amounts to allowing century Populists, not Progressive Era (97-98). more people into the elite, not breaking planners. His ideal is a decentralized If this were so, one would expect the down the class barrier itself. This can be republic of small property-holders, not ongoing erosion of civil society Lasch seen, for example, in the present univer­ a socialist bureaucracy. documents to correlate with eras of rel­ sity system, where racial diversity has This is an incisive analysis. Still, ative laissez faire. But social bonds were become a smokescreen for class homo­ Lasch doesn't actually cite any credible stronger, by Lasch's account, in the geneity. "Increased enrollment of lower­ process by which the market must years before the Great Society, stronger income groups, notably black and force every other institution into its still before the Progressive Era. How Hispanic, has obscured a more impor­ image. Supposedly, the late- does this indict the market? tant development, the gentrification of Lasch is far too smart to make an the leading colleges and universities, argument so easily knocked down. The both public and private. ... Economic Conservatives desperately erosion of community, he contends, stratification means that a liberal educa­ try to defend untenable abso­ actually goes back to the Industrial tion (such as it is) has become the pre­ lutes, while the academic Left Revolution and the transformation of rogative of the rich, together with small artisans into proletarians. "By the end of numbers of students recruited from throws out values and truth the nineteenth century," he writes, select minorities" (176-177). altogether. '''laboring classes' no longer referred to The fact that this situation has wors­ the vast majority of self-reliant, self­ ened during the statist twentieth cen­ respecting citizens; the term now tury only supports the second half of nineteenth-century experience proves referred to a permanent class of hire­ Lasch's argument: that the welfare state that, "Instead of serving as a counter­ lings, escape from which appeared to be has been a cure as bad as the disease. weight to the market, ... the family the only compelling definition of oppor­ "The replacement of informal types of was invaded and undermined by the tunity." The meaning of democracy association by formal systems of sociali­ market" (96). But is that great abstrac­ began to change as well. It now referred zation and controls weakens social tion, "the market," really to blame? The chief villains in Populist demonology - the capitalists whose power angered radical democrats of the day - were NEW AYN RAND VIDEO the banks and the railroads, both even then subsidized (and soon cartelized) NOWAVAILABLE 11 by the state. More generally, the indus­ trial era, especially from the Civil War A year ago, No Free Lunch Distributors first made available a on, was a period of intense angling by video featuring two 49 minute interviews by Phil Donahue ­ business for public power, public pro­ tection, and public subsidy. one ofAyn Rand, one ofMilton Friedman. We just discovered And were intermediary institutions an ADDITIONAL 49 minute DONAHUE INTERVIEW OF really wiped out during this period? AYN RAND!! We packaged it with yet another 49 minute The vast array of voluntary associations Donahue interview ofMilton Friedman to create that characterized the nineteenth cen­ tury extended well into the post-eivil War era. The urban neighborhoods RAND/FRIEDMAN/DONAHUE Lasch praises for their informal social VOLUME 2 bonds actually blossomed during this time. Working-class organizations We believe this is Rand's last live video intervie'w before her death. devoted to economic mutual aid contin­ ued to grow, and did not decline until EiTHER VOlUME after the Progressive Era. One need not I 0% diSCOUNT prettify Gilded Age America to recog­ ONLy$ 24.9 5EA. (FOR ORdERS of ANy lWO OR MORE TApES) nize that much freedom and convivial­ ity survived the Great Barbecue. (s~ippiNG, ~ANdliNG, CA SAlES TAX iNcludEd) (ALLOW 4-5 WEEKS FOR DELIVERY) The Coerced Market Write how many ofVolume 1 NO FREE LUNCH DISTRIBUTORS There is a better explanation for the and/or Volume 2 you want, and 22 19 WEST OlivE AVE. SuilE 2 1B atomized, stratified society Lasch sees. The cash nexus has indeed eroded fam- SEND PAYMENT TO: BURbANk, CA 9 1 ~ 06 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 ily and community in recent· decades, marital and familial ties." The real one argument against involving the but the culprit is government-imposed problem, I suggest, arises when state in any of this. Lasch argues that professionalization, not liberal markets. Americans accept any constraints on "Americans agree even about concrete Licensing and credentialism have their behavior except those imposed by issues" (110), and that politics therefore forced us to overspecialize. Education, the people with whom they share their can and must "give more weight to the medicine, law, construction - all these lives. Freedom from the neighbors and community than to the right of private and more can no longer be provided children, but submission to the corpo­ decision" (113). But to the extent that informally. They now must be bought rate state. Freedom from community, we agree about values, the state's and sold, and the number of people but acquiescence to coercion. Liberation involvement is superfluous. To the who can buy or sell them has been arti­ only from those who might have a extent that we don't, it is dangerous. ficially reduced. What has happened is legitimate stake in how one chooses to The government isn't very good at not so much the market forcing itself live. teaching good manners, so instead it into informal life as the state forcing persecutes druggies and queers. Civil informal life into the market. Are We Tolerating society, on the other hand, isn't consis­ This professionalization has march­ Ourselves to Deathl tently good at persecution.* But it is ed arm-in-elbow with the growth of the Fortunately, we have not plunged good at enforcing civility and uphold­ welfare state. Both have progressed totally into this dystopia, though Lasch ing standards. Talk of "the complete privatization over the same time period; both have sometimes writes as ifwe have. He com­ of morality and behavior" is ultimately been supported by the same policy­ plains that liberal opinion (and society in general) stresses tolerance too much. pointless, since such could only occur makers and intellectuals; both repre­ "We have become far too accommodat­ sent the expropriation of everyday life. ing and tolerant for our own good," he So does the growth of corporate declares. "In the name of sympathetic bureaucracies, built on a foundation of understanding, we tolerate second-rate To the extent that we agree limited liability and fed by the growing workmanship, second-rate habits of about values, the state's split between private ownership and thought, and second-rate standards of managerial control. Lasch recognizes involvement is superfluous. To conduct" (107). But in my own brief life­ and appreciates the tremendous wealth time, public opinion has turned harshly the extent that we don't, it is created by modern capitalism, even as on more than a few forms of inexcusable dangerous. he bemoans the end of the days of behavior. Drunk driving, wife-beating, dispersed property ownership and hazing, and more have come under petit-bourgeois society. But wealth and assault, not just from the state (whose under a state so powerful that it pre­ ham-handed opposition has sometimes vents people from interacting long made the problems more intractable), enough to form bonds. A society with The erosion of community, but from a public willing to be unac­ any degree of freedom will have both Lasch contends, actually goes commodating and intolerant in the public and private spheres. More back to the transformation of name of moral standards. importantly, it will have many interme­ Talk of the dangers of tolerance diary zones of social interaction, areas artisans into proletarians. puts a lot of people, including me, on of only moderate intimacy, of convivi­ guard, not because we think anything ality without intimacy, of friendly goes, but because the Bill Bennetts who familiarity, and of respectful distance. artisanship are not incompatible. The preach social sanctions tend to have a As one of Lasch's favorite thinkers, economy of Italy's Emilia-Romagna different view of just what should not Jane Jacobs, pointed out in The Death region, for example, is dominated by be tolerated. It should be incumbent and Life ofGreat American Cities: "Cities small-scale, family-owned, usually upon any intellectual who calls for a are full of people with whom ... a cer­ worker-controlled high-tech manufac­ restoration of standards to delineate tain degree of contact is useful; but you turing. This was not created by deliber­ exactly what it is he is talking about. do not want them in your hair. And ate government policy, but by market For my part: driving while wasted is they do not want you in theirs either" forces - forces that have not prevented bad; private pot-smoking is acceptable. (pp. 55-56). Such intermediate relations Northern Italy from maintaining a Shoddy craftsmanship is a problem; are essential for social order, but can strong civic culture. neither homosexuality nor homophobia only emerge voluntarily. In short, while Lasch is right to link threatens the republic. Deliberately The goal of public policy should not the atomization of society to the growth opaque language drives me bugfug; be, as Lasch suggests, to hash out our of the state, one can bemoan the former profane language rarely troubles me. In without attacking market liberalism or general, I don't like it when people individual liberty. In The True and Only push other people around, put others * There are parts of the country where it isn't pleasant to be an atheist, a lesbian, or a fun­ Heaven (1991), Lasch condemned in danger, act like jerks, are extremely damentalist Christian, but there are always Americans' "impatience with anything pompous, or do second-rate work other communities that will either welcome that limits our sovereign freedom of where first-rate work is required. such minorities with open arms or at least choice, especially the constraints of Everyone has his own list, which is let one do or say as one will in private. Liberty 57 Volume 9, Number5 May 1996 communities' values. It should be to superior parallel structures will have sonalized; .exercised through the create the conditions under which the unfortunate side effect of removing agency of the state, the burden of sup­ those values can flourish. the innovator from the public sphere. porting it falls not on the professional The danger of Lasch's rhetoric is that and managerial class but, dispropor­ The Yuppie International it.can lend support to the wrong poli­ tionately, on the lower-middle and working classes. The policies Ultimately, Lasch's critique isn't cies. Instead of removing the institu­ tions that have created the credentialist advanced by new-class liberals on aimed at individual rootlessness. It is behalf of the downtrodden and society, policymakers might simply aim directed at a footloose class. Lasch oppressed - racial integr.ation of the new sorts of social engineering at the attacks the elite, not just for its domina­ public schools, for example - require tion of the larger society, but for its sep­ professional class. Analyses like Lasch's sacrifices from the ethnic minorities aration from it. The professional classes often lead to calls for "national service" who share the inner cities with the are steadily withdrawing from common (conscription) and punitive taxation. poor, seldom from the suburban lib­ life, he argues. Neighborhoods are Instead of erasing class privileges, such erals who design and support the replaced by networks, public life by pri­ proposals merely turn members of the policies. (45) vate cocoons. When the upper-middle Lasch also argues that this arro­ class withdraws into its own enclaves, gance shows in the professionals' life­ this only exacerbates the class barriers Ultimately, Lasch's critique style. Here his comments border on the that are inimical to a free society. isn't aimed at individual root­ puritanical. "Female careerism," he But can you really fault people for writes, "provides the indispensable sending their children to the best lessness. It is directed at afoot­ basis of their prosperous, glamorous, school they can find? For choosing loose class. gaudy, sometimes indecently lavish FedEx, fax, or e-mail over the Post way of life" (33). "Indecently lavish"? Office? For protecting themselves This is as if, halfway through a high­ against crime as best they can? Indeed, professional class (and anyone aspiring brow survey of Andy Warhol's art, the in his discussion of the welfare state, to the professional class) into involun­ critic called the artist a "simpering fag­ Lasch urges working-class, lower­ tary servants of the state. got." If Lasch wants to be a prude, middle-class, and poor people to do This does not mean that Lasch is that's fine, but he shouldn't mix his just that: "As formal organizations wrong to bemoan class segregation. prejudices with his reasoned commen­ break down, people will have to impro­ Members of the cocooned class, he tary. vise ways of meeting their immediate argues with understandable indigna­ Still, there are good reasons to attack needs: patrolling their own neighbor­ tion, are "more concerned with the certain attitudes of the rootless rich. I hoods, withdrawing their children smooth functioning of the system as a don't -I can't - fault anyone for mov­ from public schools in order to educate whole than with any of its parts. Their ing around a lot, eating squid, or listen­ them at home. The default of the state loyalties - if the term is not itself ing to exotic music. I do all these things will thus contribute in its own right to anachronistic in this context - are myself. It's the self-satisfied provincial­ the restoration of informal mechanisms international rather than regional, ism of these self-styled cosmopolitans of self-help" (100). national, or local. They have more in that sets my teeth on edge: the kind of It's natural to turn to the voluntary common with their counterparts in faux-global consciousness that leads sector when the state fails. The root Brussels or Hong Kong than with the people to use a phrase like "world problem isn't that middle-class profes­ masses of Americans not yet plugged music," a mindless marketing category sionals are withdrawing from common into the network of global communica­ that shoves together any folk or pop life; it's that the state is a poor substi­ tions" (35). When this separation is music produced outside the U.S.A. This tute for common life. The government combined with social, political, and is internationalism without the nations, has produced poor schools, unreliable economic domination, it leads to an cosmopolitanism without the polities. It services, and unsafe streets, and as long astonishing arrogance: is the pretentious posturing of the Utne

as it continues to control these central Although they are full of /Icompas­ Reader. institutions, any attempt to build sion" for the poor, they cannot be said to subscribe to a An Independent Mind theory of The Revolt ofthe Elites is the final tes­ noblesse oblige, tament of one of late-twentieth-century which would America's most interesting writers. HflP r:tGHT imply a willing­ Lasch is always stimulating, because he BIG­ ness to make a is always fiercely independent. He GOVEfllV~EAJT direct and per­ sonal contribu­ refuses to let anyone else do his think­ keEP t'fS tion to the ing for him, making him exciting to OF=F public good. read even when he's saying something W~LFARE Obligation, like that's completely nuts. everything else, Of how many living writers can that has been deper- be said? Q 58 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

Market-Based Education: A New Model for Schools, by Kathleen junior high school students, whom he Harward. Center for Market Processes, 1995; 77 pp., $7.50. managed to shuffle out of school on Fridays to wait tables and do menial chores at a local soup kitchen. This, Gatto insists, was "real work," which is unquestionable, although what he describes· sounds· suspiciously similar Market-Based to the Hrealwork"performed at the local McDonald's. Less believable is his assertion that the boys' "real work" was "mathematical, linguistical, choreo­ Miseducation graphical, artistic [why not "artisti­ cal"?], sociological," and that it "directed" them, not to jobs as mini­ "projects" never quite comes i.nto focus. mum-wage fry cooks, but to "rich webs Nathan Crow What is clear is that "market-based" of ideation." This is more than generic schools will do away with classes in ed-school optimism about "experiential learning"-- it's sheer stupidity. Kathleen Harward's Market-Based "subjects," which are badly outmoded. Math is condemned, as is English. "Mathematical"? They made change. Education: A New Model for Schools has "Linguistical"? They talked to bums. all the characteristics of a· term paper History? It's history. Exeunt biology, chemistry, physics. Exit the whole she­ "Choreographical"? They tried not to by a not-quite-bright education major: drop the dishes. Etc. the same earnest tone, the same vague bang. "Students," Harward tells us, channeling her imagined consensus of The notion that school ought to argumentation, the same half-witted come as close as possible to "real life" is references. Purporting to challenge the "cognitive scientists," learn "best" when teachers involve them in large­ one of those Deweyite fantasies that status quo of American schools, it just won't die. Like most romantic fan­ manages only to reiterate the half­ scale "interdisciplinary" tasks instead of organizing classrooms around study cies, it contains more than one kernel of baked "innovations" of several genera­ truth. Schools ought to do more to link tions of educationist reformers, in the of a single discipline broken down in manageable chunks. Classes in English, academic skills to applications in the process serving up a digest of quasi­ world outside. The skills taught are libertarian rhetoric about schools and often arbitrarily selected, and the man­ learning. John Holt, John Taylor Gatto, dated regimen of courses shamefully A.S. Neill- all the luminaries of liber­ I haven't seen anything like neglects non-"academic" studies. tarian school-chat are here, directly or Harward's fevered faith in tech­ Students ought to be encouraged to indirectly, stirred in with partially pursue learning on their own, and digested lumps of "cognitive science" nology since the elementary­ room should be made for apprentice­ and Charles Koch's amateurish theor­ school film strip that promised ships. Textbooks are often wretchedly izing about "market-based" this and me atomic power so cheap it written and deliberately devoid of con­ that. troversial matter. All true. What is "market-based education"? wouldn't be worth metering. Yet the system survives - not The reader might presume it means because it is in thrall to what Harward education that is delivered in a free refers to as the "factory model," but market, with all the diversity that math, and physics are "fragmented" because however dismal its results, it implies. But Harward and, presuma­ and therefore boring. demands a bare minimum of rigor that bly, the Center for Market Processes This is the sort of junky cliche­ vanishes utterly when experimentalists have their own definition. "Market­ mongering that has made "education are given a free hand to offer "open based" schools, Harward tells us, rec­ reform" a synonym for nonsense. classrooms," "experiential learning," ognize the importance of "treating Maybe Harward really believes stu­ "whole language," or whatever is the each student as an individual" - a dents need "projects" to learn algebra, flavor of the month in ed colleges. "reform" that Ms. Harward's elabora­ or Newton's laws, or genetics, or para­ Harward is advocating the latest pop tion merely renders more vague - and graph structure, or how to write a half­ trend in education, "constructivism," the centrality of "projects" to the edu­ baked pamphlet on education reform though she does not use the term. cational process. and sell it at $7.50 a pop. That is her Constructivists believe knowledge Th,is second notion is by far the option. But to persuade us, she should ought to be acquired through engage­ more important. Indeed, "projects" are cite some concrete examples of how the ment with "complex problems without urged upon us on almost every page of thing works. simple solutions," and that teachers the book, if not every paragraph. As it is, the closest we get to a real­ who break skills down into components Defined with Harward's characteristic life portrayal of "projects" is in John and test for mastery each step of the cloudiness and elucidated by few Taylor Gatto's gushing introduction, in way are actually getting in the way of examples, the nature and necessity of which he recalls a couple of his former students' learning. Harward's claims Liberty 59 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 notwithstanding, such beliefs are con­ mache model of Middle Earth rather solving" (story problems). The so-called tradicted by research comparing the than write something, which would be subject tests demand only a basic famil­ effectiveness of various teaching tedious and difficult, maybe impossi­ iarity with the area along with the abil­ methods.* ble. (After all, to write about a book, ity to read charts and graphs and draw "Whole language" is probably the one must read it.) And so on through simple conclusions from the text - in most influential movement within the the grades. short, they measure "reading compre­ constructivist camp. Its theoretical pre­ Harward, to be sure, is dimly aware hension" in a slightly different way. sumptions are based on a view of all that this sort of thing might cause prob­ Any student capable of taking on a "pro­ human learning as analogous to the lems, so she· strenuously supports ject" should dojustfine onsuch tests. development of oral language. "accountability." But she rejects "stan­ If standardized tests are out, how Enthusiastic believers in projects, "indi­ dardized tests," which she thinks are would Harward hold teachers account­ vidualized" learning, and selection by bad because they "fragment" skills and able? With characteristic vagueness, students of their own goals and texts, "dictate what is taught in schools." she suggests that everyone - adminis­ whole language advocates would have Well, so what? The most popular stan­ trators, parents, students, teachers ­ dardized achievement tests, such as the write "narrative and descriptive" eval­ Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT), uations. This works in commercial The most curious thing evaluate how well students can under­ enterprises where decisions are based about "market-based educa­ stand what they read, perform math on market incentives, but absent those computations, etc. It's true that there is incentives, the evaluations are just so tion" is that it has nothing to more to life and to school than this, but much paper to be filed and forgotten. do with markets. students ought to know at least how to In public schools such evaluations multiply seven by eight and interpret a measure nothing. set of directions. If standardized tests "Performance assessments," includ­ teachers junk phonics "in isolation," "dictate" that faculty have a go at ing portfolios of work completed, are instead mentioning the letter sounds as teaching such skills until they are either another popular alternative to stan­ non-readers proceed through whole learned or put aside come June, so dardized tests. Something like this was books. (In many first-grade whole lan­ much the better. implemented in Vermont, where, teach­ guage classes, entire books are some­ But the problem, in Harward's ers reported, it led to increases in "dis­ times read repetitively for weeks on view, is that the bad old standardized cussion of math," "explanation of math end. The children, of course, memorize tests keep our schools from taking off solutions," and "writing about math." the text, which makes their teachers into the heady realms of "analyzing That's nice. Most of us, however, are and parents feel good but does nothing problems, proposing solutions, ... more interested in the following to teach them how to read.) Students communicating with others," etc. This question: can the students solve math are continually presented with the is nonsense. Standardized tests merely "complex problem" of learning to read, ensure that citizens get some feedback and the teacher gives very little direct about how well their children are mas­ "Mathematical"? They instruction in facts, concepts, or tering basic skills. A few years after principles. California rushed headlong into made change. "Linguistical"? This works fine for the kids who "whole language," the standardized They talked to bums. would learn how to read regardless; test results came in from the National "Choreographical"? They tried the rest either struggle along or simply Assessment of Educational Progress give up. Thus, in whole language, (NAEP), showing that California's not to drop the dishes. "individualizing" becomes a code word fourth-graders scored dead last. How for dumbing down expectations to long would it have taken Californians meet the level of the teacher's incompe­ to get the message had Harward's problems? Draw your own conclusions tence. If Johnny cannot read, it isn't Ms. "alternative" assessments via "pro­ as to which is more likely to give us the Goodman's fault; his time has not yet jects" and "narrative evaluations" been answer, a standardized test or a portfo­ come. When middle school rolls instituted in place of the NAEP? lio containing essays about fractions or around and the class is asked to do a Indeed, one wonders whether matrices. "project" for "language arts," teacher Harward has ever seen a "standardized Harward's ostensibly radical re­ graciously individualizes the work, test." She states that the tests measure forms are as stale as they are vague. But allowing him to construct a papier- "low-level skills" (such as knowing how when she suggests something original, to read) and "facts" (whose acquisition it is inane almost beyond belief. Noting is, of course, trivial). But no popUlar that teachers don't communicate their * Indeed, a key piece of constructivist propa­ ll standardized test measures factual knowledge to each other, she proposes ganda, the IIstandards of the National knowledge to any appreciable extent. Council of Teachers of Mathematics, a solution: install phones in the rooms. recently set forth constructivist methods as The most important scores are reading This, she assures us, will have "a tre­ models for professional practice - inciden­ comprehension and mathematics, mendous impact on teachers' .ability to tally acknowledging that there is no which the MAT breaks down into con­ learn and communicate." Well. As a research validating the methods described. cepts, computation, and "problem- teacher, I've had a phone in my class- 60 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 room and I've gone without. The major and expenditures per student topped grip of government schools, a society in difference was that the phone allowed $10,000. From what I saw in the class­ which students and their parents seek the office to interrupt lessons with triv­ room (and from standardized test out or invent methods and institutions ial messages about Kimberly's visit to results), student performance in the that meet their particular needs. Since the dentist, pep rally notes, and so on. rich district was markedly inferior to those needs are as diverse as the chil­ Harward's fevered faith in technology performance in two of the other dren, we would expect a wide array of is really touching; I haven't seen any­ offerings. Some youngsters benefit thing like it since the elementary-school from a highly structured classroom film strip that promised me atomic "Individualizing" becomes a with explicit instruction and goals power so cheap it wouldn't be worth code word for dumbing down established by a teacher. Others jump metering. ahead with, well, "projects" that allow The most curious thing about expectations to meet the level them to follow a will-o'-the-wisp or an Harward's "market-based education" of the teacher's incompetence. intellectual passion - tarot reading or is that it has nothing to do with mar­ physics, as the case may be. That range kets. If "market-based education" of services is what markEJts would pro­ means anything, it means schools that districts and no better than the third. vide. Calling anything less than that exist within and successfully respond The rich district had made sincere "market-based education" is mislead­ to market incentives. But when efforts to hire away (or "steal," as the ing and, ultimately, destructive. 0 Harward says "market-based," she other districts said) the ''best'' teachers means schools that have tinkered with from their neighbors. But since they also essentially socialistic structures in a fee­ had plunged headlong into constructi­ Learn at Liberty ble attempt to imitate commercial vism, their students were missing out Are you interested in working as a journalist? on outmoded trivia like dividing six by Would you like to improve your writing and edit­ enterprises - what used to be called ing skills? .. "market socialism." two or reading accurately or defining Liberty offers full-time, paid internships at all For example, she notes that "a short­ the term"democracy." They were busy times of the year. Interns are involved in all aspects age of talented and experienced teach­ doing "projects." ofediting and publishing Liberty. ers exists in high-risk geographic If Harward's suggested changes in For information, write: locations [sic] such as inner city how schools pay teachers are merely RW. Bradford, Editor, Liberty, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368 schools"; paying higher salaries to naive, she has other proposals that are tempt "experienced" teachers to these sheer folly. She suggests, for example, areas "would solve this problem." that in "market-based" schools, Well, it might help. But let's be realistic. "instead of striving to be the best RENAISSANCE Chicago pays less than, say, Evanston English teacher possible, a person largely because it has less money, and would strive to be an enthusiastic BOOKSERVICE it has less money largely because many member of an interdisciplinary team." Chicagoans have low earnings or Yuck. I wonder if Harward has any Books by Ludwig von Mises receive welfare.t Would anything short idea just how difficult and rare it is to o Human Action Magnum of a federal or state takeover of the sys­ find someone who gives a tinker's damn about being "the best English opus covers economics from subjec- tem allow Chicago to pay more? How tive value to business cycle. $21.95 would the citizens of Evanston, who teacher possible." Or if she under­ pay more taxes, feel about that? And stands what would happen to such a o Omnipotent Government: does Harward really believe a 10% man were his specific excellence Rise ofthe Total State & Total War On origins and rise ofthe Nazi Party.$IO.95 bonus is going to tempt top-notch deemed inadequate by yuppie consul­ teachers into Chicago's inner-city war tants demanding he drop all that nasty o Liberalism: In the Classical zones? boring English stuff, grammar and Tradition Ethical Foundations ofliberal­ ism; freedom, peace, equality before the Furthermore, Harward fails to paragraphing and Hawthorne, and become an Enthusiastic Member of an law $9.95 grasp that public schools, rich or poor, Interdisciplinary Team. o Planning For Freedom have little incentive to search out, hire, Harward is wrong when she asserts 17 essays incl. "Laissez Faire or Dictator­ and promote talented teachers - even ship" & "Inflantion & Price Control" $9.95 that all students learn best by engaging if they could identify talent or figure in complex "projects" that demand ALSO: out what to do with it once hired. I determination, solid basic skills, and a New Directions in Austrian recently worked in four rural school fertile and inquiring mind. Some stu­ Economics *D.T. Armentano on districts in Illinois, one of which spent monopoly theory; Kirzner on entrepre­ dents thrive under such demands; more than twice as much per student as neurship; Rothbard on money theory & some don't. Many, in fact, crash and more $9.95 the other three. Their average salary bum. per teacher exceeded $56,000 a year, But the fundamental problem with Send order with payment to: RENAISSANCE BOOKSERVICE Harward's vision is that it fails to P.o. Box 2451 Riverside, CA 92516 t Another reason is that most of the money is address what education would look (add $1.00 per book for shipping, absorbed by the bureaucracy downtown. like in a society freed from the death- Calif residents add 7.25% tax) Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

America First! Its History, Culture, and Politics, by Bill Kauffman. were beaten back by the evil Woodrow Prometheus Books, 1995, 296 pp., $25.95. . Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and their lapdogs in the press and Hollywood. This led to the dark age known as the Cold War, but even then the good did not fall, and they have kept hope alive by celebrat­ ing what was - and often still is ­ InwardHo! great .about America. The roll call of heroes continues: Gore Vidal, bridge to the Old Republic; Edward Abbey and Jack Kerouac, partisans of wilderness and the road; Murray Rothbard, the "Happy Warrior of the Old Right"; Michael Levine through art that celebrates locality, commerce that is Ma- and Pa-ish and Vermont politician John McClaughry, not Wal-Mart-ish, and politics that is prophet of a decentralized future. Bill Kauffman is a populist with decentralized and federalist. The politi­ "So let us think about the people libertarian sympathies. He despises the cos in D.C. and plutocrats in N.Y.C. who lost." Kauffman quotes William federal government and thinks private and pinheads in L.A. are waging a war Appleman Williams to set the tone for property is dandy, but he attacks big against Americans' sense of place ­ the book, and one look at the above fig­ businesses - especially those in the our sense of America - by putting ures confirms that evil has routed the culture industry - more than the aver­ England first in 1940 and Bosnia first in good - or the almost good, at least. age libertarian does. Rather than rail 1996, and the dollar first in (pick your Some of Kauffman's heroes hold pre­ against the government's destruction of year). cariously to that honor. The inclusion individual sovereignty, he decries the Second of all, the reference to the of Abbey, for example, seems slightly destruction of the sovereignty of isolationist AFC indicates Kauffman's peculiar. A wonderful essayist - witty, Batavia, New York; or Fairfield, Iowa; preoccupation with "popUlist antiwar nasty, iconoclastic - Abbey nonethe­ less was devoted to nature before or the Maxwell Street neighborhood of sentiment." Localism breeds contempt America (and before humans, for that Chicago. He argues that individualism for interventionist excursions: "As our matter). He certainly was a localist in flowers in strong localities - and he's bloody century winds down, the loud­ the sense that he became a part of his right - but I imagine that, if pushed, est arguments throughout the world he'd favor community cohesion over are between the apostles of local auton­ market forces more often than not. omy and the panjandrums of the New Thus, although he is a frequent con­ World Order. ... [T]he promise of Kauffman is always wearing tributor to Liberty and a former assist­ America First [is] an America of dis- ant editor of Reason, his new collection stomping boots. No toe is safe .. tinct regions, flavorful localities, self­ of essays, America First!, might be hard around him. governing neighborhoods, and the for­ for some libertarians to appreciate. The book might also confuse those eign policy of the coiled rattlesnake, defending its nest but letting the out­ interested in American history. The adopted American Southwest in a way name is obviously a reference to the side world go its own way, unmo­ few people cleave to a place. But I can­ America First Committee, which lested" (pp. 254-255). not imagine Abbey's ideal Arizona opposed American entry into World being made up of "flavorful localities." War II. But while this group certainly Forces of Evil in a More likely, it would be empty of peo­ gets high marks from Kauffman, it isn't Bozo Nightmare ple, as socially flavorless as the tofu what the book is about. (A humorous Kauffman expresses these views eaten by the yuppies Abbey so despis­ aside to this is Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s mostly through sketches of various ed. idiotic Washington Monthly review, America Firsters and their opponents, But anarchist Abbey did rail against which faulted the book for failing to the friends of empire. Taken collec­ empire, war, and centralized govern­ focus on the AFC. That's like criticizing tively, a fun tale of good versus evil can ment. He had no interest in controlling The Name ofthe Rose for not being about be teased out from the essays. To wit: other people's lives, and he thought botany.) During the Civil War, the evil that the urbanization of America, so Yet the title is not inappropriate, for Abraham Lincoln set out to destroy the contrary to his radical environmental­ two reasons. For one, it emphasizes the regional character of Jeffersonian ism, made it easier for the government book's major thrust, that there is some­ America. Over the next 80 years or so, to be oppressive. In this sense, he is sol­ thing distinctive about America and good men and women - exemplified idly on the side of the good, and that it lives and breathes in the differ­ by Hamlin Garland, Amos Pinchot, Kauffman is not without reason in ent regions of the country. Putting Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and praising him. This cannot be said for America first means cultivating the dis- Sinclair Lewis - arose to challenge this his praise of Ross Perot. . tinctiveness of these various places, turn away from tradition, but they According to Kauffman, "If the 62 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

Americanist cause is to capture the When ... William F. Buckley, Jr., had rejection of internationalism. presidential flag before the millennium him as a guest on his TV show, Yet Kauffman thinks Americans it will be with Ross Perot astride the "Firing Line," the host was nasty and have done just this. Commenting on white horse" (223). Whether Kauffman condescending and unable to under­ Gore Vidal's call for American with­ stand how Kerouac could be, at onc~, persists in this view I do not know, but drawal from the Middle East, he asks: against the Vietnam War, deeply no matter: even when the words were respectful of American servicemen, Is it any wonder that Vidal is the written, the idea of Perot as a populist contemptuous of literary commu­ most popular /Iserious" novelist in standard-bearer was dubious. First, nists, and of the opinion that /lThe America? His sentiments perfectly he's a plutocrat, fattened on govern­ hippies are good kids." These views echo those of the silent American ment contracts. He's as embedded in are in perfect harmony, as any majority. Call it isolationist, nativist, the status quo as any of the politicians American understands ... (172) whatever, but our humble country­ men simply do not want the United and pundits he scared the hell out of, Left and Right are relics of the despite the very fact that he did so. States entangled in the affairs of far­ French Revolution; with the Cold War off countries, whether Israel, Angola, Second, he has an authoritarian streak over, they've lost whatever usefulness or Vietnam. On this issue, Vidal as wide as his native state, with little they might once have had. Some fringe­ speaks with the vox populi. tolerance for dissent. How many times types from opposite ends of the spec­ In Empire he has his antecedent did we hear him blather about govern­ trum have always espoused a few Henry Adams saying: /II want us to ment needing to be run "like a busi­ dovetailing positions -localism comes build a sort of Great Wall of China, ness"? The populist point should be to mind - but with the final demise of and hide behind it as long as possi­ that it isn't a business, that decentral­ the Bolshevik International, average ble." So too, did - and do - the ized federalism is good because it herks people of these United States. and jerks about inefficiently. The popu­ (137-138) list leader need only be a figurehead In 1991, I would have said that who marshals dissent and disgust, not The politicos in D.C. and Kauffman had gone utterly mad, as a hands-on mechanic. plutocrats in N.Y.C. and pin­ Americans, silent or otherwise, seemed But most importantly, from a practi­ heads in L.A. are waging a war wholeheartedly for the New World cal standpoint, Perot is a moron. See Order, pushing up the price of yellow the populist hero marching into against Americans' sense of ribbons and proclaiming George Bush Washington, nostrils a-flamin', to be place. the Greatest Man Ever. Today, after met and defeated by ... Al Gore? If Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia, he seems to there was any remaining hope that be on more solid ground. But how Ross Perot could lead disaffected Americans seem to be avoiding pigeon­ much is this due to reemerging popu­ Middle Americans against Leviathan, holes, too. The quick and dirty evi­ lism, and how much to Americans then it was certainly laid to rest by his dence of this is the increasing number being confused about what they want singularly inept performance against of people unwilling to identify them­ Gore - poster boy for the intellectually selves with the two major parties. challenged - over NAFTA. The growing irrelevance of Left and Right can be linked to Kauffman's claim Left and Right: that we are in the early stages of a The Prospects for Stomping Middle American rebellion. "Left" and But allow me to stop griping for a "Right" typically describe attitudes held moment. Despite these problems ­ toward international matters - specifi­ and one bigger one, discussed below ­ cally, toward Communism and how to this is a great book. Kauffman is an deal with it. Now that there is nothing to excellent writer. His essays are brim­ confront, Kauffman's assertion that ming with fascinating anecdotes and average Americans want to focus on silly but hilarious gossip - e.g., "the their backyards - even to the extent of grant-grazing conservative herd is rife asking "Who cares about Castro?" ­ with closeted gay men who sing the gains plausibility. This turning inward praises of Republican 'family values' by makes it harder to weigh today's atti­ IT'S day and cruise for boy prostitutes by tudes onyesterday's scales. Back ofShirt Says: ALL night" (131). Best of all, he is always FAKE wearing stomping boots. No toe is safe Confederacy of MARtians T-Shirt around him. But are Americans more concerned Blue IGrey, Yellow IOrange and Black on White SO/50 Cotton Blend One phalanx that gets crushed is the with local than international issues? In L, XL increasingly irrelevant Left-Right spec­ one sense, of course, we are: we will $14.00 + $2.50 Sill Check IMO trum. The people gathered here on the always prefer to work in our neighbor­ Open Season Press, Dept. 112 side of good confound easy categoriza­ hoods, doing what we can in our lim­ 616 Grove City Rd. tion. Writing about Jack Kerouac, ited spheres of influence. But this Slippery Rock, PA 16057 Kauffman drives home this point: doesn't necessarily entail an ideological VisalMC 1-800-484-7660 Ext. 4478 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996

their government to do? (Or, even more don't necessarily see this last item as a tion leads to a fraying effect upon the cynically, how much does it have to do reason for joy. But it is important to social fabric. Threads are loosened by with the government's ability to manip­ separate Buchanan's supporters from the tightening of power at the center. ulate public opinion?) Buchanan himself. He is clearly the cur­ Dr. Johnson once told Boswell of a man in London he knew who uhung Furthermore, populism isn't simply rent choice of the fed-up, regardless of loose upon society." Loose in the opposition to military hegemony. There the merits of his proposed policies.) sense of the loose cannon, the ship is also the economic factor. Kauffman, Nonetheless, I am not an optimist. that slips its hawser, the dog its of course, realizes this: My main problem here is my personal leash, the individual his accustomed The Perot campaign was the most demon: an ever-lingering elitism. moral constraints. (p. 84) stentorian roar yet from MARs, the Kauffman practices the populism he Such "loose individuals," narcissis­ uMiddle-American Radicals." ... A preaches. I cannot, as much as 1'd like tic consumers alienated from the social Middle-American Radical, according to. My opinion is closer to that order, could destroy any incipient pop­ to [Donald] Warren, is anyone Uwho expressed by Robert Nisbet in The ulist revolt. I hope that my fears are views his own well-being as threat­ Present Age: wrong, and that Kauffman's hopes are ened by a combination of economic elites on the one hand and govern­ Repeatedly in history the combina­ right. But whether America devolves or mental favoritism directed toward tion of war and political centraliza- destructs remains to be seen. a ethnic minorities on the other." To MARs, the Republicans represent the The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness, former interest and the Democrats by Isaac Kramnick and R. Laurence Moore. W.W. Norton, 1996, 191 pp., the latter. (228) $22.00. This analysis certainly has some appeal, but even if Americans are turn­ ing against a globalist foreign policy, they seem agog over the global eco­ nomic order. Some people may vote for Ross Perot or Pat Buchanan because of Not Rightfrom economic insecurity or disdain for the Fortune 500 - or perhaps because they're economically stupid - but this is a minuscule subset of Republican the Beginning voters, which is in turn a slight percent­ age of American voters, which is but a tiny slice of the American people as a American independence, as it did in whole. Most Americans flock to see David Boaz such later American crusades as aboli­ Pocahontas, not to support local arts; tionism and the civil rights movement. they buy two Big Macs for two dollars, At a recent talk, I discussed the But "one of the most powerful criti­ not the burger from their local greasy Judeo-Christian roots of libertarian cisms of the Constitution when ratified spoon; they line up in droves to pur­ thought so sympathetically as to and for succeeding decades was that it chase Windows '95 - they don't even impress even a nun in the audience. So was indifferent to Christianity and have a locally produced alternative. to reassure myself of my Enlighten­ God. It was denounced by many as a The merits or demerits of multination­ ment credentials, let me wax enthusias­ godless document." als are debatable, but one thing is cer­ tic about a new book, The Godless Kramnick and Moore trace the tain: they profit greatly from Middle Constitution: The Case Against Religious founders' creation of a secular state to Americans gobbling up their products. Correctness, by Isaac Kramnick and seventeenth-century English thinkers The transition to economic localism is a R. Laurence Moore. We hear from the who favored both economic laissez faire long way off. As Wendell Berry has religious Right increasing claims that and "religious laissez faire" and who argued, it requires a radical restructur­ America is a Christian nation, such as argued that "the state was best kept out ing of our economic activities. the statement by James Dobson of of people's houses, out of the market­ I appreciate - even envy ­ Focus on the Family that "the place, and out of spiritual life." They Kauffman's optimism about the Constitution was designed to perpetu­ devote a great deal of attention to American people. And something is ate a Christian order." Kramnick and Thomas Jefferson's ideas on the separa­ brewing across the country. Catron Moore set out to discover just what the tion of church and state, and to the County-type revolts pop up around the founders thought on the subject. The Americans who bitterly opposed his West, term limits continue to be popu­ first thing they found, of course, is that political career because they saw him as lar, the militia movement is still around there is no mention of God in the an infidel and an atheist. Of all the despite a nasty smear campaign, and, Constitution, and that its only reference founders, Jefferson may have been the for heaven's sake, Pat Buchanan to religion is a ban on religious tests for most critical of the clergy. But mounted a serious challenge for the public office. Of course religion played Washington, Adams, and Madison all Republican presidential nomination. (I an important role in the struggle for defended the secular nature of the U.S. 64 Liberty Volume9, Number 5 May 1996 government and resisted pressure to theocrats.) strategy. Now, instead of deploring the involve it in religious matters. Only in the past couple of decades secular nature of the Constitution, they There's a fascinating story in the have Christian activists reversed their deny it. a book about Sunday mail. In the early nineteenth century, post offices were commonly open seven days a week; many farmers came to town only on Sunday, so they wanted to pick up Booknotes their mail then. When a fight over Sunday mail erupted in 1810, Congress Why do pub­ retain (at a minimum) the current passed a law specifying that the mail be Op-Ed Agonistes - lishers take throwaway items like opin­ prohibition on horizontal price moved every day of the week and that ion columns and collect them in books? collusion and on large mergers all post offices be open every day. In between competitors. 1828, opposition to Sunday mail again This· form of writing rarely has the stay­ arose, and Sen. Richard M. Johnson of ing power to last through the ages. The Causes and Coltsequences of Kentucky, a Baptist, produced a com­ There are exceptions, of course -I can Antitrust: The Public Choite Perspective mittee report that defended the secular still laugh myself silly reading old (University of Chicago Press, 1995, 377 Constitution, reminded Americans that Michael Kinsley columns. But Walter pp., $66.00 hc, $32.95 sc), edited by Fred the rest of the human race "of eight Williams falls into the category of read S. McChesney and William F. Shughart hundred millions of rational human once and then forget. II, is an important collection of classic beings, is in religious bondage," His writing is pleasant enough, and reprints and original articles that declared that lithe line cannot be too I agree with a lot of his opinions. His challenges the conventional antitrust strongly drawn between church and newest book, Do the Right Thing: The wisdom at both Harvard and Chicago. state," and - finally, the point of it all People's Economist Speaks (Hoover Several of the articles argue that - concluded that commerce and ideas Institution Press, 1995, 183 pp., $15.95), historical antitrust enforcement pro­ needed to move every day. The report collects columns from 1990 to 1994. duced no measurable economic benefit; was widely hailed and reprinted, and Most of them spout textbook libertarian­ that antitrust regu.lation may in fact Johnson was elected vice president in conservative thought: Second Amend­ have increased unemployment; and 1836. ment good, taxes bad, property rights that several merger waves can be asso­ After the Civil War, the railroad good, regulation bad. When he dis­ ciated with vigorous antitrust enforce­ and the telegraph made seven-day mail cusses foreign policy, though, his views ment. These articles hold that the delivery less essential, but not until become idiotic, as when he refers to the burden of proof is now on those who 1912 did Congress formally close the "treasonous stupidity" of members of believe that antitrust in practice pro­ post offices on Sunday. Congress who wanted to try sanctions motes the public interest. Meanwhile, from 1863 to 1945, a for a while before making war on Iraq. The more revisionist pieces in the group of activists organized as the Williams is one of the type that believes volume (generally, the newer ones) National Reform Association tried to the government can do no good at offer a deeper understanding of the home but no evil abroad. meaning of antitrust enforcement. In comparison to other conservative Articles such as "Antitrust Pork Barrel" The authors trace the found­ pundits, Williams is in the middle. He and "Antitrust Before the Sherman shines in comparison to semi-literate Act" present important evidence ers' creation of a secular state boobs like R. Emmett Tyrrell, but if I'm identifying some of the special interests to seventeenth-century English going to shell out 16 bucks for a thin behind antitrust. These articles aim to thinkers who favored both eco­ volume of newspaper columns, it'll be place antitrust well within the standard nomic laissez faire and "relig­ for someone like Joseph Sobran. regulatory framework, Le., that -Clark Stooksbury regulation is explained generally by the ious laissez faire. " benefits it provides well-organized DistrustAntitrust- Mainstream interest groups. Clearly, antitrust is no economists are generally skeptical of exception to this general rule, despite amend the Constitution to recognize government regulation. Yet antitrust the blinders worn by many academic God and Jesus as supreme authorities. policy remains a curious exception. and legal antitrust practitioners The National Association of Opinion samples reveal that a majority (themselves both important interest .Evangelicals made the same appeal in of economists still believe that antitrust groups). 1947 and 1954. (Kramnick and Moore laws are intended to promote consumer Will Harvard or even Chicago be fail to point out that Rep. John welfare and that the history of their persuaded and take up the cause to Anderson, the liberal RepUblican from application, while spotty, has been abolish antitrust? Not likely. Even nlinois, three times introduced such an generally satisfactory. Even economists McChesney, in his perceptive dissec­ amendment in Congress; no doubt with strong Chicago School sympathies tion of the contradictions in the Anderson's story would confuse their accept this "public interest" (or Chicago School position on antitrust modem criticism of Christian Right Harvard) theory of antitrust and would ("Be True to Your School"), is forced to Liberty ·65 Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 conclude grudgingly that the society of the Israelites, environmental­ even suppressed, by those suddenly conversion from public interest to ists resent Adam's dominion over the intrusive patriarchal warrior tribesmen public choice in an understanding of Earth, and a few years ago I even heard whose traditions have come down to us antitrust regulation is just not an Episcopalian sermon that used chiefly in the Old and New Testaments imminent. With antitrust critics such as Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son and in the myths of Greece" (the Robert Bork and Richard Posner Isaac to illustrate child abuse. Greeks were guilty of suppressing relatively content with the progress The late Joseph Campbell, student Gaia, too). made in recent antitrust enforcement, of mythology and' star of public televi­ Second, the priests and their descen­ the move to abolish the entire antitrust sion, was an important protagonist in dants treated their myths as historically apparatus is' still premature. Public this attack. Campbell, a prodigious true; the Jewish God, says Campbell, is choice and Austrian criticism of scholar, appeared to tolerate just about supposed to be a '''living God,' not a antitrust is still a minority view all but any primitive rite or practice, but the mere mythic,god, like the others of the ignored by establishment insiders. Israelites got his back up, for two world." (The Greeks, however, Intelligent books like this may help reasons. accepted their legends as mere myths.) jumpstart the cause. First, the priests who put together In The Fatal Conceit, Hayek offers a -Dominick T. Armentano the early books of the Bible tried to way of looking at the Old Testament keep out what Campbell views to be a that explains why these changes were Israelites - F.A. Hayek's insights universal myth, that of Gaia, the Earth not so bad after all. Hayek's thesis is into the role of religion in cultural evo­ Goddess. They replaced the myth of that modern civilization, the civiliza­ lution go a long way toward rehabilitat­ Gaia with belief in a male God, tion based on capitalism, came about ing the battered reputation of the Yahweh, who commanded a male­ through a crucial process of evolution, Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as dominant society. In The Masks of God: and the Old Testament chronicles much The Old Testament (c. 950-100 B.C., Occidental Mythology, Campbell wrote of that evolution. numerous translations and editions). that around 1250 B.C., lithe old cosmol­ What Hayek calls the "extended In recent years, the Old Testament ogy and mythologies of the goddess order" developed slowly through the has not fared well among the cultural mother were radically transformed, erosion of traditional habits suited to a elites. Feminists decry the patriarchal reinterpreted, and in large measure small tribe and their replacement by abstract rules of behavior that allowed :':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':':': ,..:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.::;::::::.:.:.;.: , :.:.: :.: :.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:..,...... :.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.:.;.:.;.:.:.:.:. ·······:·:···1 people to act independently of the

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Classified Advertising is available for SOt per word, with a ten-word minimum. 10% discount for six or more insertions. Payment must accompany order. Please suggest classification. Business/Employment One copy free. Please send two stamps for post­ age. Bill Anderson, 4150 Capitola Rd., Suite 0-50, New - Freedom Technology! Become self­ Capitola, CA 95010. sufficient doing the easiest thing ever invented Letters of Ayn Rand, edited by Michael Berliner. to make huge $'s seven ways! Full details ... "Ginny" Harrison Floyd Wilkerson write to: Academic Investigators, 11684 Ventura Take a look into the private and professional life Blvd., Suite 758-E, Studio City, CA 91604 of Ayn Rand - in her own words. $24.95 ($10.00 Treasonable aid and comfort off publisher's price) plus $3.00 s&h. Liberty Book Uterature Club, P.O. Box 1181, PortTownsend,WA98368. to the so-called Republic of NewAfrica (those areas currently in Abortion and Rights: Applying Libertarian Voter's Revenge. ". .. a great piece of work." ­ Principles Correctly, by Doris Gordon. $2.00. Cato Institute. $10.95 postpaid, guaranteed. Box a state of rebellion against the lawful Libertarians for Life, 13424 Hathaway Drive, #22, 394-Y, Youngtown, AZ 85363. Ph: 800-238-6823. government of the United States). Wheaton, MD 20906.301-460-4141. Text only: http://www.thebook.com/revenge/ Contact: FBI temp. hdqrs., St. Louis, MO Text and graphics: http://www.netzone.com/ Directory of Libertarian Periodicals, updated For further information read: latest edition, lists about 150 titles, with voter/ addresses, other information. All believed to be XXX: A Woman's Right to Pornography, by If I Die on the lersey Front presently publishing. $3.00 postpaid, $4.00 over­ Wendy McElroy. A stirring defense of sexual a Story of America After the Split. seas. Jim Stumm, Box 29-LB, Hiler Branch, freedom. $18.95 ($3.00 off publisher's price) plus Major critics from New England to Florida Buffalo, NY14223. $3.00 s&h. Liberty BookClub, P.O. Box 1181, Port praise it as " ... a dandy of a novel ...:' and Foundations of Morality, by Henry Hazlitt. Townsend,WA 98368. " ... a mighty clash of ideals and hopes ...:' Stirring defense of individual freedom from the Perlodleals By M. Collins, 283 pages: ISBN 0-9645726-0-5 author of the classic Economics in One Lesson. Now unreduced print in The (Libertarian) $4.99 Only at uncommonly fine book stores. Mail orders: add $1.24 postage. $13.95 ($4.00 off publisher's price) plus $3.00 s&h. Connection, open-forum magazine since 1968. Liberty Book Club, P.O. Box 1181, Port Subscribers may insert two pages/issue free, Townsend, WA 98368. 800-301-7770 - 24 hrs. unedited. Lots of stimulating conversation. The Orchard Press How the Government Got Its Hands on Your Eight issues (year) $20. 101 South Whiting Cornwall, CT 06753-0011 .Paycheck. A concise history of the Income Tax. #700Z, Alexandria, VA 22304. E-mail [email protected] 66 Liberty Volume 9, Number 5 May 1996 tribe, at least in some situations. This perpetuated at least some of these writing and promoting work he consid­ freedom, within limits, allowed trade to behaviors), says Hayek, "would have ered fundamental to "getting the truth occur and, eventually, populations to deprived mankind of a powerful sup­ out" about World War I, World War II, proliferate. port in the long development of the and the Cold War, all of which he The essential rules, says Hayek, extended order that we now enjoy." . opposed. Revisionism - putting "his­ were "those dealing with [private] -Jane S. Shaw tory in accord with the facts" - was, property, honesty, contract, exchange, he contended, "the key to peace." trade, competition, gain, and privacy" The Revisionist at the Barnes defied the stereotype of the iso­ (p. 12). Hayek implies that the Ten Breakfast Table -Despite his lationist with his head in the sand: he Commandments were critical for this massive published works on criminol­ was for peace, and as a historian, he emancipation. ogy, the history of sociology, and the was more than capable of showing Thus, the story of the Old history of western civilization - to why. He knew that war benefited the Testament, as many of us learned it in name a few areas - Harry Elmer state at the expense of the citizens. He Sunday School, may have captured the Barnes is probably best remembered also knew that the Official History of historical process rather well. As we for his work in (and the publicity he war was inevitably the government were taught it, the Old Testament is the brought to) the species of historical version, which is to say, a tissue of lies story of a special people (God's chosen study known as Revisionism. After and distortions. people) who kept rebelling against God World War I, historians subjected the In Harry Elmer Barnes as I Knew and His laws. God kept calling them claim that Germany was solely respon­ Him (High Plains, 1994, 129 pp., back to Him and His commandments sible for the war to withering criticism. $19.95), the historian's son Robert and, in spite of much backsliding, they Because the unjust Versailles treaty was Barnes has written a splendid memoir did return. founded on the principle that Germany of his father's personal life. Here we see Had the Jews gone back to the idol­ alone was at fault for the war, these Barnes the bargain-hunter, bringing worship that continually attracted historians argued that the terms of the home hoards of defective china, a mas­ them, they may not have maintained treaty had to be revised. Subsequently, sive throwaway toilet bowl, and two­ the essential behaviors on which the "Revisionism" came to refer to an day-old bread. We see Barnes the Great extended order was ultimately built. approach to history that was skeptical White Hunter, searching out rabbits The loss of their faith (or the loss of the of the government line on war. with illegal ferrets. (In this particular faith of Christians and Moslems, which Barnes championed this approach, instance, Barnes neglected to locate the O"SHORE ',NANC,AI. PRIVACY • Credit Card & Check Clearing • Offshore BankAccounts • Offshore Corporations • Offshore Trusts • VISA®Debit Cards • Investment Banking • Brokerage Services • Currency Diversification ...And Much More! For More Information Contact: LIBERTARIAN CORPORATE SERVICES Trent Business Center • Canal Street Long Eaton, NOnS. NG 104GA, England Ph: 011-44-115-946-1545 Fax: 011-44-115-946-1676 Volume 9, Number 5 Mayl~o rabbits' escape hole and held the ferret The American Economy in the growth of government over the last 50 to blame. "Dad caught him by the neck Twentieth Century (South-Western, years. He discloses the harmful effects and thrust him back into the darkness 1994, 442 pp., $48.95) is needed. Smiley, of regulation, explains the folly of stat­ with an angry denunciation: 'You're a self-described Austrian economist ist attempts to end poverty, and too goddamned fast, you hungry son of who teaches at Marquette University, exposes the Social Security system for a bitch."') And then we see Barnes the presents an outstanding alternative to the Ponzi scheme it is. Prohibition-era still-master, serving the statist pseudoscience offered by Smiley also has excellent discus­ homemade libations to dinner-guests most contemporary economic histori­ sions of immigration (he points out the not long for the world of the sober. ans. His textbook is consistently liber­ tremendous beneficial effects it brings Whether fishing or hunting or tarian, yet free of the inflamed rhetoric the American economy) and war, swearing or writing, Barnes the man or hyperbole of the ideologue. which he cites as one of the most sig­ was many things, but most of all an The book's most illuminating chap­ nificant reasons for in the growth of independent spirit and a patriarch on ters are "What Caused the Great government. He also deftly attacks the the old American model. Depression?" and "Government and argument that war is somehow"good" the Post-War American Economy." In -Gregory P. Pavlik for an ailing economy. He devotes con­ the former, Smiley gives a thorough siderable space to discussing the eco­ and insightful exposition of the nomic effects of World War II, History Retold - As one who Austrian explanation for the including the myth that the war ended has taken a few undergraduate Depression, which he contrasts with the Great Depression by spurring American economic history courses, I Keynesian and monetarist positions. In domestic economic activity and can testify to how dearly Gene Smiley's the latter, Smiley ably details the employment. He writes, "Between 1940 and 1943 the number of unem­ ployed workers fell by 7.05 million, while the number in the armed forces Why Government Doesn't Work rose by 8.4 million. No macroeconomic by Harry Browne model is required to understand why unemployment - one of the measures The presidential race is heating up, and of the contraction - disappeared." the success of Pat Buchanan The American Economy in the demonstrates that more and more Twentieth Century is an excellent book. Americans are grasping, as best they It merits an audience outside of the can, for an alternative to the Republicrat classroom. -Aaron Steelman monster. What they don't know - and what libertarians do - is that a genuine alternative is right under their noses: Letters, continued from page 8 Harry Browne. As candidate for the Libertarian My "ballpark" model (in which Party's presidential nomination, everyone uses the roads at their own Browne hopes to bring the message of risk) was offered ("Why Insurers freedom to the general public like no Should License Drivers," January 1996) : one has before. This is his call to action as an option that is superior to the cur­ : - for committed libertarians and rent system of muddled responsibility not-yet-libertarians alike. A must for and ineffectual enforcement. It is, by . anyone who wants to hit the streets and far, much less desirable than drivers : make a difference! being fully responsible for any damage Publisher's price $19.95 - Liberty Book they may cause. Liability insurance is Club price $14.95. 234 pp., hardcover. one obvious way to take responsibility. If there are any other suggestions, WhatAmerica Needs - and WhatAmericans Want I'd like to see them. After a year of speaking with Americans around the country, Harry Browne is more John Semmens optimistic than ever about the prospects for liberty. From coast to coast he has met Tempe, Ariz. with enthusiasm, as everyday Americans denounce the continued erosion of their The editors reply: O'Toole is a contribut­ freedoms. In this illuminating talk, from the 1995 Liberty Editors' Conference, ing editor to Liberty, but, like many Browne recounts his political education on the campaign trail and outlines his agenda readers, he does not recall every article for a rapid and comprehensive dismantling of the federal government. Audio: $5.95; published here eight years ago. Nor Video: $19.50. did he claim that privatizing highways is an original idea - he only expressed Call 1·800·854·6991, or write to Liberty Book Club, Dept. BC7, P.O. Box 1181, surprise that in a libertarian investiga­ Port Townsend, WA 98368. Add $3.00 s&h for single orders, $1.00 extra for each tion of traffic problems, Semmens additional book or every two additional tapes. (Foreign orders add $5.00 s&h for single orders, $1.00 extra for each additional book or every two additional tapes.) failed to make this point. Volume 9, Number 5

DohertyI continued from page 38 our party conversation, he had said, "I get mad when liberals insult advertis­ Dominick T. Armentano is author of Kevin Knight is a member of the ing," and called the great cathedrals of Antitrust and Monopoly. Minnesota House of Representatives. Europe grand advertisements for the Chester Alan Arthur is Liberty's political Richard Kostelanetz has published over 50 Catholic Church. He declared advertis­ correspondent. books about contemporary literature ing the nexus of the greatest aesthetic "Baloo" is none other than cartoonist and the arts. activity in our culture. Many modern RexF.May. Pierre Lemieux is an anarchist"pamphlet­ liberals, I now suggested, might agree John Bergstrom is the winner of the 1995 eer in Quebec. with him about certain aspects of his Mencken Award for editorial Michael Levine is circulation manager of " pro-liberty philosophy and not others. cartooning. Liberty. He was aggressively dismissive of such Carolina Beroza is an interactive game Wendy McElroy is author of XXX: A designer living in California. Woman's Right to Pornography and the people. "That's basically socialist, com­ forthcoming Sexual Correctnfss. munist, totalitarian. The so-called lib­ David Boaz is executive vice president of the-Cato Institute. Robert Nelson is author of Rea.phing for eral is totalitarian. Even more so now. Heaven on Earth and Public lAnds and [Even] back in the '60s, so-called liberal R. W. Bradford is editor and publisher of Private Rights. Liberty. left-wing magazines were very opposed Randal O'Toole is editor of Different to psychedelics." Stephen Cox is author of Love and Logic: Drummer. The Evolution ofBlake's Thought. We talked a little bit about his old Gregory P. Pavlik is editor of Forgotten friends and associates in the world of Nathan Crow is an editorial intern at Lessons: Selected Essays ofJohn T. Flynn. political commentary. On his old spar­ Liberty. Sheldon Richman is author of Separating ring partner Gordon Liddy and his cur­ Brian Doherty is assistant editor of School and State. rent notoriety as a talk show host: "I Reason. James S. Robbins is a foreign policy listen to him. We've never been in close James Gill is Liberty's staff artist. analyst in Massachusetts. touch, but I keep him posted on what Bettina Bien Greaves is co-compiler of Jane S. Shaw is a former editor of I'm doing. Liddy is a basic prankster. Mises: An Annotated Bibliography. Business Week. He's the smartest of the Nixon adminis­ Leon T. Hadar is a Washington-based Sandy Shaw is co-author of Freedom of journalist whose work appears in U.S. tration. That's not saying much, but he's Informed Choice. and foreign publications. Aaron Steelman is a publisher emeritus of highly educated." Jim Huffman is a writer in North The Michigan Review. On William F. Buckley, for whose Carolina. Clark Stooksbury is assistant publisher of magazine National Review Leary wrote a BilLKauffman is an associate editor of Liberty. scathing anti-'60s counterculturepiece in The American Enterprise. Timothy Virkkala is managing editor of the '70s, and which at that moment was Greg Kaza is a member of the Michigan Liberty. on the stands with a cover story calling House of Representatives. Jesse Walker is assistant editor of Liberty. for an end to the war on drugs: "Buckley has always beeninvolved inlegalization, even back in the '70s. Bill Buckley and learn from the great men one book adventures to write, his website to printed [Leary's '70s article] largely on admires in one's times. Using my status fix, movies to work on, a lifetime of friendship, on libertarian friendship. He as journalist, I've haphazardly friends and supporters to see and enjoy. ironically enough wrote a letter to my attempted to follow his advice. My overly earnest, pedantic approach parole board, intervened somehow in Considering its source, perhaps I to the interview probably did as much support of my getting parole. Not that I shouldn't be too surprised that it hasn't as anything else to keep it vaguely joined his group, but there was a certain worked out as gloriously in fact as it uncomfortable. A lesson I could have libertarianism in common. Buckley comes might in a fantasy. It's said that it's a learned from Leary's pre-LSD work in from the same Irish Catholic Mass­ bad idea to meet people whose work transactional psychology. achusetts [background], so his aunts you admire; the man rarely lives up to A recent TV mini-profile of Leary on went to school with my aunts, same his work. CBS News' 48 Hours asked the doctor background of upper-middle-class Irish As I left Leary's house, easing my how he hoped to be remembered by Catholics ...we all knew eachother." old station wagon down through the posterity - something the dying are I had spent more than my allotted slopes of Beverly Hills where its supposed to obsess over. Leary replied, hour of time, but the hesitancy of the decrepit, unwashed, battered self gar­ "Everybody gets the Timothy Leary conversation and the many interrup­ nered weird stares from neighbors and they deserve':' tions had forced me to leave many top­ police, I felt uneasy and disappointed. As I write this, it's a gorgeous day, ics undiscussed. But Leary was late for Of course, Leary owed me - owes as it almost always is, in Beverly Hills, a doctor's appointment. I said my quick me"- nothing. He was a large source of overlooking the most beautiful and farewell, and left. the optimism, hope, and dedication to dynamic metropolis in the world. I human freedom that got me through hope Timothy Leary, one of the twenti­ Just Deserts the depressing hormonal miasma of eth century's greatest adventurers, is Itwas Ezra Pound who impressed in adolescence, and that should be enjoying it thoroughly. That's the me the idea that one should try to meet enough. He has lectures to plan, comic- Timothy Leary he deserves. 0 Liberty "69 Terra Incognita

Washington, D.C. U.S.A. New directions in opposition research, as reported in The wisdom of Pat Buchanan, from an interview on The New Republic: Later with Tom Snyder: A mailing from Phil Gramm's presidential campaign detailed Q: Do we blame the Japanese for the fact that millions of the "ethical problems" of Lamar Alexander, including "pelting Americans have bought Japanese cars? out-of-state cars with snowballs," which "earned Alexander at A: The Japanese make outstanding, high-quality cars. But in least two paddlings in school." 1953, we had 60% of their car market, and by 1960, we had 1%. That wasn't just because their cars got good. It was because they Disney World practiced protectionism, like every Great Power that ever has risen "You've just survived the government shutdown. to be an economic power has been protectionist - Britain, the What are you going to do now?" The answer, from the United States, Germany. Atlanta Journal and Constitution: The week after the government's first budget-crisis shutdown, North Korea more than 200 federal workers whirled off to Disney World at The accomplishments of North Korea's leader, as taxpayer expense for a week of training to be better tour guides. reported in that progressive nation's newspapers, according to The Economist: London Kim Jong 11 - or "Dear Leader," as he is known - is "an out­ Crime control in fair Albion, as described in the standing great master of witty remarks as well as the greatest man Arizona Republic: ever known in history." Among his "priceless witty remarks": Following a school headmaster's recent stabbing death, the "Trust produces loyal subjects, but doubt produces traitors." government said it will propose legislation imposing sentences of "To expect victory in the revolution without the leader is as up to two years for carrying a knife without good reason. good as to expect a flower to bloom without the sun." He is also the composer of six operas, each better "than all the Burien, Wash. operas mankind has ever created," and is a marvelous athlete. The first time he ever played golf, he scored five holes in one and Mutual fund investing in the American hinterland, as broke the world record for a single round by 25 strokes. reported in the Highline Times: A federal grand jury has indicted James and Shirley McAleer U.S.A. for inviting people to invest in the "Master Transaction," a $157 Curious word association, reported in The Wall Street trillion fund allegedly owned by La Cosa Nostra, the Illuminati, Journal: the CIA, and the Vatican. James McAleer "has continually repre­ A survey found that the word or phrase voters most associate sented to investors that funding is imminent," states the indict­ with Dole is "old." Second is "too old." Third is "pineapple." ment. "To date, no such funding has occurred." Austin, Tex. Russia George W. Bush, governor of the Lone Star State, tells Reinventing government in the former U.S.S.R., as Bob Dole why Texas Republicans should cast their ballot for described in World Press Review: the senator from the Sunflower State, according to the Russia's Pacific fleet is delinquent on its utility bills, so offi­ Associated Press: cers are toying with the idea of using their nuclear submarines to "You are a man of steel. America needs your strength." generate electricity. Portland, Ore. Taiwan Politicians of the great Pacific Northwest, as described Protectionism takes root in the Orient, as described in by the Oregonian: the Far Eastern Economic Review: When asked by a reporter, Congressman Ron Wyden failed to Government restrictions on garlic imports have caused the locate Bosnia on a map, and refused to guess the price of a loaf of bulb's price to climb about 300% in the past few years. Gangsters bread or a gallon of gasoline. A few days later, Oregon voters have taken over the trade, which is now more profitable than the then elevated him to the U.S. Senate. drug market. U.S.A. United Kingdom The path not taken by Rep. Bob Dornan (R-Calif.), as New directions in British jurisprudence, as reported described in The New Republic: by The Economist: When an Associated Press reporter asked presidential candi­ Stephen Young had his conviction for murder overturned after dates what other career they might have chosen, Bob Doman it. was discovered that four members of the jury that convicted responded "archaeologist-missionary-exorcist." him used a Ouija board to consult the victim of the alleged murder. (Readers are invited to forward newsclippings or other items for publication in Terra Incognita.) 70 Liberty Libert is the antidote.

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