Sex, AIDS, and

_Jan_uary 19_92 V_ol_S,_N_o3 $_4.0_0 Magic

'%e 6oisterous sea offi6erty is never without a wave. JJ - Jefferson (((jive Me II Liberty II

or (jive Me 'Death. 11

-Patric/(J{enryI 1775

Old Pat really was an extremist ... especially when ·it came to Christmas presents! The odds are good that your friends are less fussy about the gifts they receive ... And chances are excellent that they would genuinely appreciate a gift of Liberty!

This winter, why not give a special friend the sheer pleasure of individualist thinking and living ... This is the ideal gift ... it is so easy, and so inexpen­ ... the state-of-the-art in libertarian analysis ... the sive: free-wheeling writing of today's leading advocates of freedom ... the joy of pulling the rug out from under Specia{ j-{o{iday 1\fltes! the illiberal establishment. To encourage you to give gifts of Liberty this holiday These are a few of the little pleasures we provide season, we offer gift subscriptions at a special rate: the every other month. Wouldn't it be fun to share them lowest price subscriptions we have ever offered! with a friend? First Gift (or your renewal) . .. $19.50 In the past year, Liberty has published the writing of Second Gift $17.00 Karl Hess, Milton Friedman, John Hospers, David Each Additional Gift...... $15.00 Friedman, Richard Kostelanetz, Loren Lomasky, Rob­ Act Today! These special rates are available only ert Higgs, Stephen Cox, Mark Skousen, David Boaz, through December 31, 1991. And remember, your own Bill Kauffman, Jane Shaw, Leland Yeager ... The most subscription or renewal qualifies as one of the subscrip­ exciting libertarian writers providing a feast of good tions. reading! Use the handy coupon below, or call this number with You pay a compliment when you give the gift of your gift and credit card instructions: Liberty. Send us your gift list today, and we'll send your greeting with every issue! We'll also send a hand­ 800-321-1542 some gift card in your name to each recipient. What could be easier-or better! r------' Pat Henry was right! Please send Liberty to ------Name _ I·Yes my gift list as directed below. -­I Address _ I have enclosed additional names on a separate sheet I o City _ I of paper. I o My first "gift" is for myself, so I can take advantage State Zip _ I of these great savings! I o Start my first year of Liberty with the next is­ I Name _ sue. I I o Renew my current subscription. Address _ I o My check (or money order) is enclosed. City _ I Please charge 0 Visa 0 MasterCard Expires _ I State Zip _ I account # I Send to: Liberty Gift Department I SIgnature PO Box 1167, Port Townsend, WA 98368. L. _.------.I ed Leb January 1992 l nSI e 1 erty Volume 5, Number 3

4 Letters Our readers take Liberty into their own hands. 7 Reflections Liberty's editors on Magic Johnson, motorcycling, liberal sensitivity, David Duke, political chicanery, honoring dead composers, and other matters, ephemeral and eternal. 17 The Thomas-Hill Affair Sex. Racism. Gross injustice. Trendy politics. Washington D.C.'s answer to L.A. Law is reviewed by our critics - Jane Shaw, David Friedman, Richard Kostelanetz, and Bill Kauffman. Features 23 The National Park Disgrace R. W. Bradford observes the 75th Anniversary of the National Park Service. 31 Rocky Mountain Low Karl Hess, Jr., explains how the National Park Service is turning one of America's most spectacular regions into an ecological nightmare. 38 Why Term Umits Lost Chester Alan Arthur analyzes what went wrong with Washington State's recent term-limitation initiative. R. W. Bradford wonders why we should care. 41 Beyond Austrian Economics: The Economy as Ecosystem Michael Rothschild explores the common ground between a new paradigm of economics, ''bionomics,'' and the"Austrian school" of Mises and Hayek. 53 America's Population Registration Act Brian Doherty reveals the ominous parallels between the recent civil rights bill and South Africa's justly hated apartheid. 55 How to Think About Pollution The Swedes got it right when they awarded the Nobel Prize in economics to Ronald Coase. David Friedman shows how Coase pioneered a solution to the problem of pollution. Reviews 60 Post-Randian Objectivism: R.I.P. Ayn Rand's "intellectual heir," Leonard Peikoff, has written a book. David Ramsay Steele performs the autopsy. 61 Will ObjectiVism Ever Become Respectable? Henry B. Veatch, the eminent Aristotelian, looks for the Peripatetic among the fugitive arguments presented by Ayn Rand's oracle, Peikoff. 69 Democracy Diagnosed Leland Yeager adds some choice libertarian and Public Choice thoughts to Alan Ehrenhalt's The United States of Ambition. 71 Drug Policy Abuse The Heritage Foundation puts its $10 worth into the propaganda effort of the war on drugs. Mark Thornton demythologizes the establishment crusade. 72 The American Meteor Gary Alexander surveys the life and writing of America's most popular socialist author, and finds much to admire. Departments 74 Classified Advertisements What our readers want to sell ... or freely give. 77 Notes on Contributors Who we are and what we do, if not why we do it. 78 Terra Incognita Excerpts from the real and unreal worlds of the media, the state, and the booboisie. work natural rights libertarians have un- dertaken ..." S In the field of science, theories are con- ( et t er ]] L stantly challenged by conditions they fail .;:::======~ to explain. But new theories that do ex- Give Me Accuracy or ... the realization of the dreams of Marx plain the exceptions to the rule are almost Historical inaccuracies usually lay would be "a police and slave state." never developed by - and are almost al- hidden in some obscure paragraph, so It is of the last importance to appre- ways resisted by - those who brought you can imagine my surprise and dismay ciate the significance of such refusals to forth the preceding theories. Indeed, a to see one in the headline of an advertise- attend to seriously argued criticism. For whole generation of adherents must fre- ment in the November Liberty. his indifference to the likelihood ofthat quently die off before an old theory can be Patrick Henry made his famous servile outcome indicates that Marx him- replaced by a superior version. This is be- speech which concluded with "Give me self was not, what so many have asserted cause we humans invest so much identity liberty or give me death" on March 23, that he was, someone who - however in our ideas (as opposed to our thought 1775. misguided - was sincerely and whole- process) that curiosity withers, and any What he was doing in 1776 I know not heartedly devoted to the cause of human question raised against our ideas assumes nor do I care. Mr. Henry gerrymandered emancipation and betterment. Had he the nature of personal attack. So it would James Madison's district in an attempt to been, Marx could not but have been wor- seem in the field of philosophy as well. stop him from being elected to the House ried by that likelihood. For abundant bio- While providing no replacement theo- of Representatives (he had already graphical evidence of his actual motiva- ry, my offering of exceptional cases clearly blocked his appointment to the Senate) tion, compare Leopold Schwartzschild's points to the need for further evolution in and I haven't forgiven him for it yet. The Red Prussian. thought. It is my hope that these questions John R. Carter Antony G. N. Flew raised will spark new work by minds Earlysville, Va. Bowling Green, Ohio more agile than mine. First Things First VUlgar Politicians Jim McClarin Cool, Calif. One little correction ofDavid Horo- I question R.W. Bradford's attribution witz's article ("The Road to Nowhere," of "vulgar" notions of the economic and Machan Si, Yeager No! November 1991): He states that the 50- ecologic systems to "the man on the I was astounded, angered, and dis- viets celebrated the fortieth anniversary street," in his "Economics and Ecology, mayed to read Leland Yeager's review of of the revolution by launching a man into Sophisticated and Vulgar" (November Tibor Machan's Capitalism and Individual- space in 1957. Actually, the first man 1991). I believe that the "average citizen" ism: Reframing the Argument for the Free 50- launched into space, Yuri Gagarin, made has a reasonably correct intuitive sense of ciety ("Ethics vs Economics," November his trip in 1961. (Sputnik was an un- his proper place in society and nature. It 1991). Yeager is guilty of precisely the fail- manned satellite.) Not a big deal, but it's is the politician that is convinced that "the ings for which he faults Machan, and it is nice to get these things straight. economy will run amok if left unregulat- clear that Yeager doth protest too much. Gary McGath ed by the state" and that "nature is chaot- Yeager's main objections rest on what he Penacook, N.H. ic if left alone." It is the politician's con- tells the reader are Machan's misrepresen- stant exhortations and promises that stir tations of several writers. This is a serious Marx: Worse Than You Think up a vocal minority to become political charge to level against a scholar, more so The argument of David Horowitz is activists. It is an avalanche of legislation when prefaced with the ad hominem, "I overwhelming. Yet even now he is still that forces the average citizen to take wonder whether Machan is equipped to understating the case. Thus he says, sides on issues that he sees will have an supply focused criticism." A paragraph "From the very beginning ... the critics important effect on his life and well- later, the reader finds Yeager shooting of socialism had warned that it would being. I think that the statistics on low himself in the foot as he tries to set Ma- end in tyranny ..." But the critic he cites voter turn-out and low return rates of sur- chan straight with the following claim: is Bakunin, writing in 1872. Yet nearly vey questionnaires support my view that "Thomas Hobbes did not maintain that thirty years earlier, in 1844, before even the average citizen really wants to be left human nature consists in the ruthless pur- the first publication of the Communist alone to make his own contracts, to take suit of narrow self-interest." I laughed out Manifesto, his then collaborator Arnold his own risks and to be responsible for loud when I read this. My philosophy stu- Ruge, who was "still a democratic not a the resultant consequences. How else can dents would have wondered to see such a socialist revolutionary," protested that Bradford account for the robustness of the howler in print. They, at least, have read systems he remarks upon? the first chapter of Hobbes' De Cive. Maribel Montgomery Yeager also misfires when he attempts Albany, Ore. to disarm criticism: "One occasional de- No Replacement Intended vice is to hold doctrines in supposed rival­ ry with his own guilty by association. For I am sorry, but not surprised, that Ti- example, Hobbesian individualism is de- bor Machan (Letters, November 1991) terminist and nominalist. (Determinism is viewed my combination of humor and in- bad, freedom good; but the discussion of qurry' (in my article "Questions on the this technical issue of philosophy on pages Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Rights," Sep- 39-40 is hardly satisfactory.)" How much tember 1991) as "nasty quips and put- downs" and "denigrating all the hard continued on page 6 NEW FREEDOM AND THE LAW EXPANDED THIRD EDITION By Bruno Leoni Foreword by Arthur Kemp uLeoni's Freedomandthe Lawshould be as widely read now as Hayek's Road to Serfdom, for Leoni demonstrates how the law, properly understood, barricades that road. Only if we recapture Leoni's vision of the law as liberating rather than constraining can individual freedom survive." -James Bond, Dean, School ofLaw, University ofPuget Sound Freedom and the Law is widely regarded as one of the most cogent introductions to the role oflaw in a free society: including the analogy between the market economy and law, and the contrast between legislation and law. This expanded edition includes four lectures published here for the first time. 260 + xiv pages. Foreword, index. Hardcover $20.00 0-86597-096-3 Paperback $ 7.50 0-86597-097-1 LibertyPress, 1991

ORIGINS OF THE COMMON LAW By Arthur R. Hogue uThe book has an importantfunction for which it does not have any real competition. It deals with the development ofthe English Common Law on a level which is accessible.... It was easier for students to use than any of the more 'advanced' texts. It is well written and reliable." -R. H. Helmholz, University ofChicago The Common Law ofEngland may confront students and scholars in many fields. Dr. Hogue's book, first published in 1966, is a lucid history of the common law roots of our modern legal system. 271 + xvi pages. Biographical note, preface, glossary, index. Hardcover $10.00 0-86597-053-x Paperback $ 4.50 0-86597-054-8 LibertyPress, 1986

Please send me:

&d::~ Title Edition Price Amount o Enclosed is my check or money order made payable to Liberty Fund, Inc. Hardcover $20.00 Freedom and the Law Please send me a copy ofyour current catalogue. Paperback $ 7.50 o Name _ Hardcover $10.00 Origins of The Common Law Paperback $ 4.50 Address _ Subtotal City _ Indiana residents add 5% sales tax State/Zip _

Total Mail to: LIBERTY FUND, INC. Prepayment required on all orders not for resale. We pay book Department J102 rate postage on prepaid orders. Please allow approximately 4 7440 North Shadeland Avenue weeks for delivery. An orders from outside the United States must Indianapolis, IN 46250 be prepaid in U.S. dollars. Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 Letters, continued from page 4 politics. Arthur reported. discussion does Yeager need here to get This is important for classical liberal I was not an alternate. An alternate is the point? Hobbes is a determinist; deter­ and libertarian politics because while for someone who asks to be one and is so des­ minism categorically precludes freedom utilitarianism it is feasible to argue that ignated by a state delegation. Someone of choice; since "ought" implies "can," some coercive policies may (at least tem­ else, with neither my consent nor knowl­ Hobbes' metaphysics renders morality in­ porarily) facilitate the achievement of cer­ edge, designated me an alternate. I did operative. This is a simple matter of fact tain good end-states or values, for classi­ not seek or express any desire for that and logic, not guilt by association. cal egoism it is not feasible that coercion status, which is why I refused to pick up I am astounded that Yeager was so could be good public policy. In some rare the (not my) credentials. patently in error about such basic matters or emergency cases there may be some I hope that sets the record straight. as these; I am angry at his sophistic at­ justification for coercion but not as a gen­ Sheldon Richman tempt to manipulate the reader and I am eral policy. Woodbridge, Va. dismayed that such a piece was ever pub­ Though I have argued against Yeager A Noted Improvement lished. It is the nastiest diatribe parading that this distinction is important, he has Just a short note to say thank you for never even addressed it. He hasn't done as a book review that I have ever read. your story on the Libertarian Party nomi­ so in his so-called review of my book, ei­ J. E. Chesher nating convention. It put some of the ther. It would be at least civil of him to do Santa Barbara, Calif. missing pieces together for us. that and not waste readers' time on all his Ad Hominems on Stilts? However, you did commit one factual ad hominems instead. In his review of my book, Capitalism error in your coverage. Based on the Tibor R. Machan and Individualism, Leland Yeager has giv­ board of directors' own personal experi­ Auburn, Ala. en very low marks to how I attempt to ence with IIrubber chicken" in Philadel­ upgrade the defense of the free market That's Not Libertarian, That's Sick phia, the entree for the Presidential Ban­ advanced by many free market econo­ Your magazine is not worth the paper quet was tasty filet mignon with sinful mists. I don't wish to dwell on Yeager's ad it is printed upon. I was appalled to read chocolate cake for dessert. There was both hominem attacks in which he asserts, with­ Chester Arthur's sick IIreport" (liMy Kind wine and champagne for table libation. out even bothering with a few direct quo­ ofTown," November 1991) on the LP The operator of the convention, Libertari­ tations, that my book is pretty worthless. Convention in Chicago, which I was fortu­ an Enterprises, remembered to have One cannot contest a case that has not nate enough to attend. Your articles are souvenir mugs and a dance band for been given even a modicum of defense. hurting libertarianism. Friends who are those that complained in 1989. I do wish to note, however, that the trying to learn about libertarianism think Sue Walton claim Yeager makes about how my posi­ we are a joke after reading your maga­ Libertarian Enterprises tion is in some sense utilitarian is one he zine. I suggest you close up shop, or Chicago, Ill. has asserted over and over again not only change your format to report factual infor­ Arthur responds: I am surprised at Mr about me but about nearly all the natural mation about the principles of libertarian­ Hickman's finding that my report on the LP rights libertarian positions that have been ism. Your magazine should be a profession­ convention a "hatchet job on the Libertarian placed on record. Yeager made this point al forum ofideas that will make the reader Party/movement," and his bemoaning the fact at length in a piece he wrote some years want to learn more about the philosophy. that "he has read far more positive LP report­ ago for Cato Journal. I responded in a dis- : R. Michael Borland, MD, PhD ing in The Wall St Journal." I aman active cussion note in the next issue ofthat jour- -­ Colora, Md. supporter of the LP. But I am not a public re­ nal, pointing out that Yeager has lumped Fungible Fellows lations flack for the party. My job is to report together distinct notions - e.g., the teleo­ accurately and analyze honestly what I ob­ Chester Alan Arthur is interchangea­ logical position ofclassical egoism and the serve. If Mr Hickman disagrees with what I ble with Murray Rothbard or Lew Rock­ consequentialist position of utilitarianism. say, I invite him to state his disagreements well; and they are some of the most disin­ Why is my philosophy not utilitarian? and explain where I have gone wrong. genuous fellows I've had the displeasure Because utilitarianism is essentially only a Ms Walton is quite right about the food at ofan acquaintance. value theory, while the classical egoism I the banquet; at least I have been told by sever­ I read Liberty for libertarian perspec­ defend is a moral value theory. Utilitari­ al mouth-witnesses that it was bodacious. My tives, not hatchet jobs on the Libertarian anism stresses that certain good end­ "rubber chicken" comment was a reflection on Party/movement by Arthur. I've read far states are to be achieved and if a system the usual fare at political banquets. I have more positive LP reporting in The Wall facilitates this achievement better than asked Liberty's editor to send our restaurant Street Journal. others, it is a good system. The classical critic along next time. Is a refund for my remaining issues egoist, in contrast, stresses that it is the fa­ As for Mr Richman, well . .. some men available? Never mind -I wouldn't trust cilitation of moral values that needs to be achieve alternateness, others have alternate­ the editors of Liberty to send the check. achieved, and ifa system furthers such ness thrust upon them. William J. Hickman achievement in a superior fashion, it is Granville, Ohio Capitalist Psycho? better than others. The central difference Panos Alexakos and Daniel Conway One Small Non-vote for ... between the two is that the former omits (1/A Case of Mistaken Identity: the Boycott As a devout Szaszian, I resist having the essential role of human initiative­ of American Psycho," November 1991) the moral component - in the achieve­ others define me. Thus, I must take issue have ably defended their case that B.E. El­ with Chester Alan Arthur's reference to ment ofvalues, while the latter makes lis attempted to depict nihilism in his such a human initiative a vital ingredient me. "Richman [was] an alternate (though of the human good, both in ethics and in he refused to pick up his credentials)," continued on page 76 6 Liberty Reflections

None so blind as those who cannot eat seem to support the notion that he was ever very sincere. At -. In a recent article about deforestation in China, Chicago the same time he was a professional racist, for example, he Trzbune staffer Uli Schmetzer remarked, inter alia, that most worked part time writing a sex manual for women, and one people in one particular part of Yunnan province had been of his Nazi buddies has said that he has witnessed Duke 'bypassed by socialism's main achievements - adequate snorting cocaine. These seem more like the actions of an op­ food production and modernization." portunist with no serious convictions than of a right-winger. I wonder: do some journalists join the profession straight My own guess is that the American politician most similar i~ from another planet? Saying that food production is the main t? David Duke Teddy Kennedy. He has advocated posi­ that he beheves will advance his own political career achievement of socialism (which in this context means com­ tions and follOWing. Kennedy was born into a wealthy Democrat munism) is like saying that emancipating European Jewry family, so he adopted Democrat views. He was elected to the o/as the main achievement of Nazism. -WPM Senate on the basis of his brother's popularity. He has since David Duke and Teddy Kennedy, separ­ advocated a rather silly version of left-liberalism, which has ated at birth? - The great David Duke threat to de­ stood him well with the left-liberal Democrats and electors of Massachusetts, and allowed him to build a serious following mocracy has come and gone since the last issue of Liberty. At within the Democratic Party. least that's the way the media had portrayed it. Personally, ifI on the other hand, was born into a poorer family in had had the misfortune of being a voter in the Pelican State, it Duke, a rural backwater. Within that framework he achieved consid­ would have been a tough choice. Edwards is a sleazy crook, erable success, at any rate as much success as one can manage and Duke a racist (or, if we believe his change of heart, an ex­ in a tiny goofy movement. Somewhere along the line, it oc­ racist). Based solely on the issues, I suppose I would have vot­ cured to him that there wasn't much future as a crypto-Nazi, ed for Duke: after 'all, I agree that welfare ought to be cut and but that there was considerable public support for political that affirmative action is bad public policy. On the other conservatism. So he had plastic surgery to make him hand­ hand, a Duke victory would no doubt increase the mischief he some, declared himself a Republican, and articulated proposi­ might do on the national stage. It is even possible that he tions that most Republicans believe but feel too intimidated to might one day be president, if the economic situation gets advocate openly. He parlayed the free publicity of his Klan much worse. This would be very bad news: Duke still advo­ past into election to office, and continues to exploit that noto­ ~ates some of the stupidest and most destructive views imag­ riety today. Inable (e.g. his opposition to free trade exceeds even that of So who would have been a better governor, Edwards or Pat Buchanan and Richard Gephart). Duke? Probably Duke. If elected, he would have been under ,I suppose it comes down to a question of Duke's character. extreme scrutiny. The first act of corruption would have been As I see it, there are three ways to explain his behavior: celebrated by the news media, local and national. He would 1. Duke remains a crypto-Nazi and crypto-Klansman have had every incentive to keep his nose clean, since he right-wing nut. His denunciation of racism and his past bigot­ plainly aspires to play on a broader political stage. ry is entirely false. On the other hand, a Duke victory would likely have 2. Duke had a genuine change of heart and mind. He is fueled his presidential ambition and credibility, thereby ad­ now a political conservative, sincere in his views. vancing his idiotic anti-immigration, anti-free trade agenda. 3. Duke is a typical politician: he has no real convictions, And, if I read his character incorrectly and he secretly is still a but seeks power for the sheer pleasure of exercising it. Nazi, he could cause even more mischief. Personally, I think the third explanation is the likeliest, As I say, I'm glad I'm not a Louisianan. --eAA mostly because I don't think Duke ever had a seriously held conviction in his life. For one thing, I can't think of another The Tragedy of Earvin Johnson - At a hast- highly visible political nut of any stripe, let alone any as exot­ ily-called press conference only a week into the National ic as Duke's Nazi-Klan variety, that simply put his goofy Basketball season, Magic Johnson told a stunned world that a views behind and became a mainline politician. routine physical examination for insurance purposes had dis­ This is not a case of a political nut cracking a major party covered that he was HIV-positive. to further his nutball ends, or attaining a major following for Magic Johnson is by a wide margin the most famous per­ his goofy position. Since he became a Republican, Duke has son ever known to be infected with the AIDS virus. He advocated more-or-Iess respectable conservative Republican brought to the basketball court a joie de vivre that made him ideas, not much different from, say, Pat Buchanan's. more than a star basketball player. In an era in which sports And Duke's career as a racist, though extensive, doesn't stars are encouraged to be all-too-human, Magic seemed too Liberty 7 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 good to be true. Deeply involved in community affairs, always ing permeated the core of his being. It was never a matter of cheerful, never associated with any of the vices of star athletes, his thinking what he ought do. It was always a matter of his Magic was a role model that just about anyone could respect knowing what to do and doing it, autonomically. But he was and admire. His grin was as wide as the Pacific Ocean and lit as far from being an automaton as a human being can be. up his face with a joy that made him an effective spokesperson No one who ever saw him play questioned his hunger for for just about everything he talked about: the need for kids to victory; His intensity and devotion to basketball were like stay in school, the NBA, Pepsi, Converse shoes, Kentucky that of no other human being. He was emotionally transpar­ Fried Chicken, America ... ent: the joy, the intensity, and the enthusiasm infused his But Johnson is more than an ordinary basketball star. He is soul. the best player ever to play basketball. Knowledgeable stu­ One is tempted to compare him to Babe Ruth, who stands dents of basketball can argue long and hard about who else be­ head and shoulders over all others who played the other longs on an all-time all-star team. They can argue forever great American game. But the similarities don't run very about who is the second-best player. But there is no argument deep. Ruth excelled by haVing a single skill that transcended about who is the best. that of every other man to play the game: his ability to hit a True, other players are sometimes considered to be in Johnson's league by casual fans. For sheer scoring intensity, Michael Jordan is his superior. For elegance and beauty, Earvin Johnson was the best at his life's Johnson didn't hold a candle to Julius Erving. All sorts of players have run the court faster, have jumped higher, have work. He made the game of basketball an art of shot better. Johnson's hook shot was denigrated as a "baby astonishing beauty. hook"; it lacked the grace and beauty of teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's. When Johnson broke for the basket, he often looked outright clumsy. His outside shot looked like some­ baseball harder and farther. Johnson excelled by re-inventing thing you might see in the schoolyard. His dunk was inele­ the way the game is played, and excelling at virtually every gant, almost geeky. His only skill liable to impress the casual aspect of the transformed game. fan was his ability to pass the ball with amazing accuracy. I first saw Magic play when he was still called Earvin. It Where Johnson excelled was at the mental game of basket­ was 1977 and a friend told me I really ought to see this local ball. He understood better than anyone else the seamlessness high school kid play. ''Earvin Johnson plays basketball like of basketball, the most synergetic of team games. Johnson un­ you've never seen," he told me. ''You've got to see him." I derstood this intellectually at such a level that it infused his be­ was very busy with my work, so I told him to pick out an es­ ing. When· he stepped onto the court, he always seemed to pecially interesting game, and I would go. know without looking where the ball and every other player The game he selected was between two high schools in were. He knew when a man was open for an easy shot. He Lansing, Michigan. Earvin played for Everett High, a subur­ knew when a defender could be beaten. He knew what to do ban white school to which he had been bussed. The opponent all the time. And his skills were always adequate to do what that night would be Lansing Eastern, a huge inner-city he did best: win basketball games. His intellectual understand- school, with over 5,000 students. Eastern was a traditional powerhouse, and featured two players that year

U. S. reverses position on U.N. Chemical Arms Pact... II who eventually were to play in the NBA. I man­ aged to get tickets when the game was moved from fJ) NEW pOLICY. BONG. WE NOW WHAT ABOUT BUSH's Eastern's home court, which seated only 5,000, to PREFER LIMITED INSPECTiON \'.ANYWHEREJANYTIME} OF CHEM'CALARMS. NO R'GHr0':: REFUSAL"P the Michigan State University's fieldhouse, which z pO OTHER NAnoNS COULl> seated 15,000. Despite the NBA-sized arena and PRY INiVOUR MILITARY SECRErS. broadcast on local television, the game was a sell­ o 2?J ') out. (t g ~ OPERATIONC~~~~ After the huge crowd packed the place, the ~ ffi II IQ lights were turned off and rock music turned on at ::> ev a deafening volume. Spotlights focused on a huge hoop in one corner of the court. The announcer co .....----.... screamed over the blaring music, "Ladies and gen­ tlemen, the Lansing Eastern Quakers!" Suddenly, ANPNOW black kids dribbling basketballs and dancing burst WE ARE? CAREFUL through the tissue-paper-covered hoop and a deaf­ THEREJBCNG. ening roar filled the arena. The spotlight turned to another hoop in another corner. "Ladies and gen­ ( II SHOW ME \ tlemen, the Lansing Everett Vikings!" Through the II YOURS FIRST" ) hoop burst a bunch of little white kids and one tall black kid. The game that followed was remarkable. Eastern played disciplined, high quality black bas- 8 Liberty "The best one-volume history of philosophy in English." -Ronald Nash, Western Kentucky University

"Greek philosophy began on May 28, 585 B.C., at six-thirteen in the evening." That is the opening line of what critics have called a "masterful," "stimulating," and "brilliant" survey of the major philosophies of the past 2,500 years. Thales to Dewey is available in both hardcover ($16.95) and paperback ($11.95). If you have not read Clark on philosoph~you have an exciting opportunity awaiting you.

Other titles in philosophy are also available from The Trinity Foundation.

ORDER FORM

Please send me copies of Thales to Dewe}T, A History of Philosoph)T. I have enclosed my check for

Name _

Address _

Dr. Gordon H. Clark City State ZIP _

The Trinity Foundation PO Box 700 Jefferson, MD 21755 301-371-7155 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 ketball. Everett was a typical bunch of clumsy white kids and At first, his great talent was not widely recognized, and Earvin Johnson. Earvin already played the way that would even today there are some who don't appreciate his contribu­ amaze basketball fans when played in college and the pros. tion: Earvin transformed basketball. When he came to basketball, His team was grossly outmatched at every position but his. it was a game played by five guys anxious to showtheir indi­ But that didn't seem to matter. He was double-teamed or vidual talents, with scoring and rebounding considered the triple-teamed, but somehow he'd get the ball and shoot an most important skills. Today, basketball is a team sport like no amazing bullet pass to a white kid who was open for a ridicu­ other. The best teams are those that play witha lightning-fast lously easy shot. Or he'd move to the basket himself. Or he'd intelligence, always controlling the ball and the court, always shoot long. knowing their teammates' and opponents' positions and abili­ Earvin fouled out late in that game, and his team lost by a ties. This was Earvin Johnson's greatest contribution to the small margin. It was the only game his team lost that season, game. All the while, he brought an enthusiasm, a happiness and the only game he fouled out of. He took that team of and an intensity to the game that no one had seen before. He clumsy white kids on to a state championship, beating teams was always a joy to watch. of giant, skilled black kids from huge schools. At his press conference, Earvin explained that he had test­ Earvin got some national press, but mostly people said, ed positive for HIV and would be retiring from basketball im­ "A 6'8" point guard? Who needs that?" The next season, he mediately. But his life would go on. He would be a decided to go to the local college; when reporters asked what spokesman for HIV. He didn't know how he had become in­ position Earvin would play, his coach responded, "Court." fected. He was happy to say that his wife was not infected. He The team he joined was a run-of-the-mill college team. With was dignified, graceful, and charming, lighting up the room Earvin running the team, it shocked the world by easily with his genuinely magic smile. He didn't shed a tear over his trouncing the top-rated Big 10 teams. It lost in the tourna­ tragedy. I was not so strong. ments in a very close game with the team that went on to win EarvinJohnson was the best at his life's work. He made the the championship. game of basketball an art of astonishing beauty. By Earvin's sophomore year, he was called ''Magic'' in the Basketball- and life - will not be the same without his papers, thanks to the efforts of a university public relations presence on the court. -RWB man. He took Michigan State to a remarkably easy national What's remarkable tome about championship. In the semi-finals, he led his team to an in­ The joy ofAIDS - the Magic Johnson case is not the fact that a popular basketball credible 51-17 lead at the end of the first half, before the coach player has been stricken by AIDS. I never imagined that popu­ rested Earvin and the other starters. In the finals, the team lar basketball players were immune to disease. easily defeated an unbeaten Indiana State team starring Larry What's remarkable is the overwhelmingly favorable pub­ Bird. licity that the event has produced. No, I'm not referring to the Earvin (he will never be ''Magic'' to me) turned pro the outpourings of sympathy for Johnson; they are both proper next year. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers, an in­ and predictable. I'm referring to the outpourings of what can different NBA team with only one star, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, only be called glee about his having contracted the disease. a 7'2" giant center who never seemed to be terribly motivat­ "America's Wakes Up to AIDS." That's the general format ed. The story was the same: Earvin's mastery of the court for headlines. "Now at last America can see that anybody can made his teammates look like stars; his enthusiasm motivated them to play like champions. The Lakers breezed to a divi­ sion championship and through the early rounds of the play­ offs. How sickening this spectacle will seem to the Going into the sixth game of the championship round, the general population, I can only guess. I know how Lakers held a 3-2 lead over the Philadelphia 76ers. The game was to be played in Philadelphia and the Lakers were expect­ sickening it is to those of us who have seen friends ed to lose that game to the tough 76er team. Kareem, who and neighbors die of AIDS, and know that it is far had missed occasional games all year because of migraine from an appropriate cause for political joy. headaches, announced that he had been stricken with another inigraine headache and would not be able to play. He would be ready for game 7, which would be played on the Lakers' come down with the disease. And now at last something can home court in Los Angeles and determine the championship. be done about it." That's the general format for commentary. The Laker coach decided to start Earvin at Kareem's posi­ Every advocacy group on the cultural left seems to be im­ tion. Earvin took charge. In one of the greatest games in bas­ pressed, excited, pleased. Johnson's terrible plight has bought ketball history, the Lakers obliterated the 76ers. Kareem them another huge slice of the spotlight. Or so they think. watched the game on television in L.A. There was no seventh We'll see if they can make the general public, which for nearly game. Kareem played another decade never suffering another a decade has been systematically scared to death by the liberal lnigraine sufficient to cause him to miss a game. media, believe that In four years, Earvin had joined three different teams, none - although the government has been spending many of whom were expected to contend, and led each to a champi­ times the money on AIDS that it spends on any other health onship. He has played eleven more years with the Lakers, problem, including problems more destructive of life than playing in 9 more NBA finals, winning four more NBA titles. AIDS, it is culpable for not spending more; He had more moments of triumph, and his share ofinjuries. - President Bush is an evil man for failing to provide a 10 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 cure for AIDS (much as, one supposes, medieval kings were away, there is a total state. Where Marx saw self-actualization thought to be evil if they were unable to cure victims of dis­ there is regimentation in thought, action and dress. Where ease by touching their flesh); Marx saw peace there is perpetual war (''In the battle for agri­ - the sickness of a very wealthy man is conclusive proof cultural production our hands are rifles!" a Cuban farm labor­ of everybody's need for national health insurance. er stated). Where Marx saw technological progress, there is Preposterous? Yet these are the conclusions that immedi­ collapse. Where Marx saw plenty, there is poverty. ately leaped from the mouths and typewriters of countless lib­ But this reversion to low-tech (or no-tech) may be appeal­ eral commentators brooding gleefully over Johnson's plight. ing to EarthFirst!ers and other neo-Luddites. By their stan- How sickening this spectacle will seem to the general pop­ ulaHon, I can onIy guess. I know how sickening it is to those of us who have seen friends and neighbors die of AIDS, and know that it is far from an appropriate cause for political joy. This reversion to low-tech (or no-tech) may be -sc appealing to EarthFirst!ers and other neo­ Lesion lessons - Having written in these pages Luddites. By their standards, Cuba represents about the scarcity of straight males contracting AIDS, I feel progress, not collapse. obliged to deal with the Magic Johnson story. I find dubious Johnson's claim that he doesn't know who gave it to him. Remember that AIDS is transferred from the semen or blood of a carrier to the blood of a recipient. That accounts for dards, Cuba represents progress, not collapse. So why not de­ clare Cuba a Technology Free Zone (TFZ) and preserve it as a why the most common path of dissemination is anal inter­ refuge for radical environmentalists, peasant revolutionaries course to a climax, where an erect penis has already torn rec­ and glorifiers of the noble savage? All man-made items, from tal walls. Straight women are far more likely to contract it aircraft to medicines to clothing, would be banned from the than straight men for the simple reasons that female genital island. Cuba would be left to revert to its natural, pre­ lesions are not visible and many are insensible. A man, how­ Columbian state. Then everyone who thinks that this is a ever, cannot only see such lesions, he can/eel them. He knows proper mode of human existence can go to Cuba (or whatever about them when he washes himself; he can certainly feel they rename the place - EarthMother, Eden, Sanctuary, them when his penis penetrates a woman. There is no way, BioHaven, Bedrock, etc. - and escape the worries of the other than operations requiring intravenous needles, that a modern world. With luck it would take the inhabitants only a straight male can become HIV-positive unless his lesioned pe­ few years to achieve a paleolithic society. Guantanamo Bay nis penetrates a woman who not only has AIDS but lesions as naval base could be converted to a monitoring station from well. which anthropologists could gather data on life in primitive Assuming that Johnson was as generous with solicitous communities. The reintroduction of top predators would help women as he was with solicitous reporters, and assuming as keep population levels in check, though it might spur illegal well that he has not been continuously plagued with lesions, I weapons production among the humans - clubs, spears, per- think he must have remembered the woman, or even women, haps even advanced bows and arrows. -JSR with whom sex would have been, for him, an untypical pain. My hunch is that he's protecting, not the identity of his infec­ The cycles of freedom In the November tor, but his reputation, from a partner, whom he'd rather not, Liberty, Sheldon Richman wrote a eulogy for Soichiro Honda, because of her reputation, publicly identify. I know, because, the barely-educated Japanese mechanic and businessman less generous than Johnson (and less universally desirable as who built one of the world's greatest industrial firms from well), I have more than once decided it would be better, alas, scratch, against the wishes of his own government, in the to desist and apologize. Now that Johnson has made so much post-war ruins of his country. In recognition of Richman's el­ of his story public, the additions would be instructive. -RK oquence, I renounced my editorial droit de seigneur and passed up the opportunity to publish my own tribute to When the Cuban Enviro-communism Honda. But lowe a very personal debt to Soichiro Honda, Communist Party held a conference in October, it seemed that and I feel obliged to add a few words to Richman's. the Caribbean Communists might finally join their former Those who drive the exquisite automobiles manufactured Soviet and East European counterparts and institute some form of economic and political reform. But at the end of the conference all that emerged was a call for a new war on crime - meaning a campaign against those few souls brave enough to engage in free-market activity in Cuba. Facing an end to its Soviet subsidies, Cuba is reverting to a semi-industrial age. Oxen-training facilities have been set up to domesticate bulls to replace tractors. Bicycles from China ("socialist transportation") are replacing motor vehicles. , Industries are failing, and agriculture is becoming more peas­ ), ~I,IJ ant-intensive. The fate of Cuba under Maximum Leader Fidel Castro is &II didn't mind when my wife frrst started talking to plants, but another irony of Marxism. Where Marx saw a state withering yesterday she threw a bar mitzvah for her wandering jew!" Liberty 11 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 by Honda Motor Company feel indebted to its founder, for than the clunkers with which Honda competed two decades the comfort, performance, economy and superb engineering earlier, when he began making motorcycles. I never drove it of their cars. Those who value liberty are indebted to Honda more than 50 miles without a breakdown. But I loved every for his superlative demonstration of what a good man, with mile I drove. practically no education, can accomplish to make the world a When my father learned about it, he made me choose be­ better place, if only he is left alone by his government. These tween it and the financial aid he provided for my college edu­ are very great debts. But, like millions of people around the cation. I sold it. The day I got my first job after college, I world, lowe far more to Soichiro Honda. bought another motorcycle. This time, I bought a Honda. Honda's greatest achievement, not mentioned by Since that day, I have always owned at least one Honda mo­ Richman, was the virtual reinvention of the motorcycle. Prior torcycle and have ridden as much as I have been able to find to Honda, motorcycles were lumbering behemoths. Few time. dared to ride them far from their homes, thanks to unreliable I got my first big motorcycle in 1984. It was a Honda engines and butt-breaking ergonomics. They were the toys of Silverwing, a downsized version of a touring motorcycle, de­ a tiny minority of individuals who didn't mind the endless signed for long distance travel. My wife and I drove it across maintenance, the cloud of smoke and broken parts left in their the continent that first summer. We were punished by the wake, the discomfort, the high purchase prices, or the constant danger of accidents from breakdowns at highway speeds. Honda changed all that. He was a mechanic and designer. "Motorcyclinghas always been about free­ Gas was scarce in post-war Japan, and Honda hated public dom," the magazine ad said. And anyone who transportation. He made his first motorcycles in 1948. It was a natural thing for him. ever sat on a motorcycle with the road stretched Honda was never satisfied with what he did.. He always out before him knows that it's true. It's not sur­ worked to improve his product. His first motorcycle was a prising that four of the founding editors of this crude two-stroke engine, requiring the user to mix oil into the gas. Within a decade, Honda was winning international mo­ magazine ride motorcycles. torcycle races and exporting motorcycles to the United States. The 50 cc "Cub" sold for $215, got nearly 100 miles to the gal­ lon, and ran like a watch. It introduced motorcycling to mil­ long days on the dreadfully overloaded motorcycle. But the lions who would never have otherwise known its pleasure or bike never complained and we saw 12,000 miles of America, utility. feeling the texture of the land and experiencing the freedom In the years since, Soichiro Honda and the company he of the open road in a way impossible in an automobile. founded never stopped improving and re-inventing the mo­ The next year, my wife bought her own Honda, and since torcycle. Today, you can still buy a Honda with a 50 cc engine then we have taken as many motorcycle trips as we could that gets 100 mpg. You can also buy a Honda with a 1500 cc manage. We have ridden about 40,000 more miles on our mo­ engine that you and a passenger can ride all day in comfort, a torcycles. We have ridden through America's great cities, Honda that you can ride up mountains and down ravines, a across her scorching deserts

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

"The Cato Institute continues to produce a steady stream of thought­ provoking reports challenging big government and all its works." - Milton Friedman "This uninhibited upstart of a research group has managed to generate more activity across a wider political spectrum than some of its more sedate competitors with much larger budgets." - New York Times

CAT () S P 0 N S () RENR () L L MEN T F () R \1 Please enroll me as a Cato Sponsor at the following level of support: o Benefactor ($2,500) 0 Patron ($1,000) D Sustaining ($250) o Regular ($100) D Introductory ($50) o Please send me information on corporate/foundation support. D My check is enclosed (payable to Cato Institute). o Charge my 0 VISA 0 MasterCard Account# _ Signature _ Name _ Address _ City State Zip _ 224 Second Street S.E., Washington" D.C. 20003 (202) 546-0200 Fax (202) 546-0728 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 mid-August the committee revealed some preliminary recom­ ing patterns for two recent ballot initiatives in the state of mendations, which were succinctly expressed by the headline Washington. Voters in the rather conservative, "backwater" in the Seattle Times (Aug. 17, 1991): "Health care for everyone. regions of the state overwhelmingly rejected both the pro­ Commission agrees on that, regardless of who pays for it." abortion and the euthanasia initiatives, but the more "liberal," Could anyone, even in jest, more damningly characterize a city voters saved the abortion law, and a majority supported government program? the doomed euthanasia law as well. The newspaper report led me to recall what U.S. Supreme Whatever the ultimate merits of abortion and euthanasia, Court Justice William R. Day once wrote (dissenting in Wilson all should concede that support for either takes a certain de­ v. New, 1917): gree of callousness: killing is not easy for sentimental souls. Such legislation ... amounts to the taking of the property of Few people uphold the value of any particular act of abortion one and giving it to another in violation of the spirit of fair play or euthanasia as something intrinsically desirable; when de­ and equal right which the Constitution intended to secure in the fended, the value of these killings (of fetuses and the terminal­ due process clause to all coming within its protection, and is a ly ill, respectively), and of the laws allOWing them, is always striking illustration of that method which has always been seen as instrumental. It is not because they like killing human deemed to be the plainest illustration of arbitrary action, the taking of the property of A and giving it to B by legislative fiat. Needless to say, the Supreme Court has not expressed such a view of the Constitution for more than 50 years. I t is not because liberals like killing human or­ The Washington commission envisions alternate systems ganisms that they tend to support abortion; it is for financing the state's new health-care program, which not because they hate the sick that these liberals would guarantee a comprehensive set of services to which wish to allow doctor-assisted suicides. The issues "every citizen should be entitled." One option would put the financial. burden on employers and employees, another on are seen as too complicated to apply compassion taxpayers; or perhaps some combination of parties would fi­ with a knee-jerk. nance the universal care. Individual recipients of care "would help .pay for services based on their income." Regardless of the option selected from among these alternatives, many peo­ organisms that collectivist liberals tend to support abortion; it ple will be forced to pay for the care of others. is not because they hate the sick that these liberals wish to al­ Of course those others will remain perfectly free to behave low doctor-assisted suicides. The issues are seen as too com­ as they wish, preserving or jeopardiZing their health as their plicated to apply compassion with a knee~jerk. pleasure or caprice dictates. It's a free country. Your neighbor Left-liberals should be reminded of this. We should also is free to smoke cigarettes, eat too much, drink to excess, use call to their attention that the scare campaign directed against dangerous drugs, drive recklessly,· or otherwise· place at risk the euthanasia measure used the same kind of arguments that his and his children's prospects of physical wellbeing. You are they regularly use against market capitalism: that the weak free to pay for dealing with the consequences. and the disturbed are most likely to be manipulated by indif­ Besides the fundamental violation of genuine rights inher­ ferent (sometimes malevolent) professionals into making un­ ent in such programs, they are doomed to produce unsatisfac­ informed and deadly choices. tory outcomes. Socialism doesn't work in the USSR, and it I suggest that those who are tired of modern liberals' doesn't work in Washington state. Much of the problem now seemingly invincible high moral ground regarding compas­ plaguing the state's (and the nation's) health care system aris­ sion study these issues, for here we find that the standard lib­ es precisely because those who decide how to conduct their eral rhetoric fails, and liberals are left with the same devices that the ideologically less privileged must use. - TWV lives (Le., what health risks to accept), whether to purchase in­ surance, and when to seek treatment do not bear the full costs They just don't get it - The failure of centraUy­ of their treatment. When government compels third parties·to directed command and control economies is admitted by just shoulder the burden, in a system administered by a politically about every observer, apart from a few marginal sectaries. appointed "professional" commission that decides which Even those who are emotionally crushed by the implosion of treatments are "basic" and therefore should be a "right," the communism generally harken to some alleged "authentic" or costs escalate and justifiable rights - the ones that every per­ "humanistic" impulse within the movement, not to its once son can enjoy without trenching on the equal rights of others touted scientific character. - go down the drain. -RH Now, however, a small counter-reformation on behalf of central planning has arisen. Led by a few non-economist aca­ One man's sensitivity is another man's demics, the line of this proto-movement is, in essence, that the callousness - A friend of mine, who doesn't share good guys gave up just a little too early, that computer tech­ my political beliefs, sometimes suggests that I (along with oth­ nology would have soon come to the rescue with a new ability ers of my ilk) am deficient in caring for others. I try to remind to rationally allocate every manner of capital and consumer him that everyone's sympathy is limited, and that individual­ goods. Probably the most succinct statement of this view to ists (like me) are sensitive to aspects of social discord that he date appeared in a recent article for The Globe and Mail by is, in fact, remarkably insensitive to. It is not that libertarians Theodore Sterling, a professor of computer science in British are insensitive, but simply differently sensitive. Columbia. Sterling's piece is called "Tossing in the Towel Too Evidence for my contention was well provided by the vot- Soon?" and the title pretty much says it all. Stating that "histo- 14 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 ry may record some day with irony that the communist coun­ Composer of Connecticut." tries abandoned central planning just when success was with­ Politics being what it is, however, this seemingly innocu­ in reach," Sterling asks "why did central planning fail?" His ous bit of legislation was fated to be twisted in the winds of answer is, basically, "lack of information-processing facili­ current ideological fashion. Democratic Senator James ties." He has absorbed, perhaps merely through cultural os­ Maloney insisted that the state honor, instead, living compos­ mosis, enough of the modern free market critique of socialism ers. An imbroglio ensued. What began as an attempt to declare to realize that scarcity of knowledge is a key component a simple truth wound up turned into yet another program of thereof. the Distributive State: every year Connecticut arts­ Where Sterling fails intellectually is in his lack of under­ organizations will bestow (oh-so-democratically) on a contem­ standing of the fact that socialism cannot generate the kind of porary Connecticutian the title of State Composer Laureate. facts which a (hypothetical) efficient central planning bureau Ives will serve the first year, posthumously. would require. Thus he sees the problem as simply one of The difficulty of balancing the past and the present is even scale. "Soviet planners have failed because they have simply more startlingly demonstrated in a current non-controversy been unable to exchange enough information. Is it technically concerning Ives' conternporary, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach possible to cope with information on this scale? Not now, per­ (1867-1944). I say non-controversy because I seem to be the only haps, but soon ... Technology is rapidly reaching a stage at which efficient socialist economics can become a reality." After some further animadversions on the wonders of modern data processing, Sterling opines that "It would be useful for We do not honor an individual by making her the evolution of human society to see how well central plan­ conform to our values, rather than hers, no matter ning can provide an adequate standard of living." how "reprehensible" her values may seem to us. This is a truly bizarre concept. Apparently we are expected to say to the people who inflicted suffering and ruin on whole nations: "All right, you have one more chance. Try a little harder and choose your software carefully, and maybe this person offended by what everyone is calling her these days: time you can get it right." Sorry, but that's asking for a little that is, Amy Beach. During her rather successful career as a con­ too much patience and forbearance on behalf of their victims. cert pianist and composer of Late Romantic music (she was The central planners of the world should be kicked out of the certainly more successful in the profession than was Ives, who ballgame for life. -WPM made his living innovating the insurance business) she referred Sounds of silencing - Everyone knows that the to herself as Mrs H. H. A. Beach. Times they have a-ehanged, of war between the present and the past has a political dimen­ course, and the acceptability of a professional woman referring sion. Few recognize, however, how far into even the most ob­ to herself in such a sexist way is, of course, long past. And so scure corners of our culture you can hear echoes of this war. contemporary critics, disk jockeys, and other collaborators of Consider the posthumous life of two American composers: the tyranny of modern mores have changed her name for her. Ives and Beach. Now, I wholeheartedly applaud the spirit of this age on the Charles Ives (1874-1954) was arguably the first modernist matter of married names. I find patriarchal name changing a composer, and perhaps the first post-modern composer as well bit unseemly. I think it would be good and progressive if (he refused to stick to one tradition or aesthetic program, in­ women, when they married, kept their old last names. It stead honoring, incorporating, and even encompassing as much would be even better if both parties to the marriage altered music as possible). Often dubbed America's greatest compos­ their names, each in honor of the other. But I am not censori­ er, he is without question Connecticut's greatest claim to musi­ ous about the issue: traditionalists should have the right and cal fame (though what the state had to do with his propriety to choose the custom that suits them. And I abhor development is, well, disputable). So it is at least understanda­ the disrespect involved in not calling people by the names they ble why Connecticut State Senator Tim Upson (Rep.) intro­ choose for themselves. If you wish to go by a moniker such as duced a bill to name Danbury's iconoclast the "State Amadeus, or John Galt, or even Attila, I will not deny your preference. And this courtesy, or justice, should surely extend to the dead. We do not honor an individual by making her conform to our values, rather than hers, no matter how "repre­ VOTE FO~ hensible" her values may seem to us. SPOT Amy Beach should be called by the name she actually chose: Mrs H. H. A. Beach. It is what she wanted. It is the only decent thing to do. ~ ~:J But what would Charles Ives have thought about these is­ c [ EJ sues? What would he have thought of Mrs Beach's nom de poli­ YOURciJBEST tique - or current feminism, for that matter - considering FRI~ND that his ultimate word of opprobrium was "sissy"? (He used it EJ against his Late Romantic critics, oh-so-sensitive to his provoc­ r ative, dissonant music.) And how would his naive, extrava­ 0 gant faith in "The Majority" have fared had he witnessed his Tl..ltJ{) fate in the hands of the Connecticut legislature? I am reminded Liberty 15 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 of the words of a wise poet: "The minority has the majority./ Sure, the whole issue is small potatoes, but still this seeming The dead are outvoted." -TWV change in attitude mystifies me. After all, Marrou didn't march into the wilderness and launch the Alaska Free Love Free Malice in wonderland - For years conservatives Thought Commune or commit some other red-flag offense of have been telling us that the political left is heavily motivated the type designed to bait conservatives. He simply lived for a by, or at least aims much of its appeal at, the emotion of envy, time in a way similar to that of many of our ancestors. Has and particularly its uglier manifestations - malicious hatred American conservatism become so narrow-minded and intoler­ of ability and achievement and the desire to destroy their ant - or so wimpish - that the slightest deviation from the fruits. That some leftists think and feel in these terms is be­ standard station-wagon-in-suburban-garage lifestyle is to be yond doubt. As Exhibit A, I refer the reader to Detroit free condemned out of hand? -WPM Press staffer James Ricci's column of October 24. Referring to the disastrous and freakish fire that swept the A dubious achievement - Because the second set San Francisco Bay area earlier in the month, Ricci offers a few of Judicial Committee hearings on the nomination of Judge conventional tongue-cluckings, then moves on to the red meat: Thomas to the Supreme Court did not constitute a legal trial­ "[W]hen it comes to the ruined million-dollar-plus dwellings despite the allegation of criminal wrong-doing - we are at lib­ and the sudden homelessness of their owners, a small, delin­ erty to call it anything we want. Shall it be Hill v. Thomas, or quent voice inside me murmured ... good. ... What was the Thomas v. Capitol Hill, or The People v. The Establishment? source of this voice? The answer, I think, is political. For the Whatever we call it, journalists seem to have concluded that past dozen years the rich, thanks to calculated government the ordeal was some sort of "National Teach-In on Sexual policies, have gotten amazingly richer... and the poor have Harassment." But like most media efforts at education, little got come to be despised as mutants who somehow deserve the taught, and the lessons learned were not anything like what the squalor and terror of their benighted neighborhoods.... This, pedagogues intended. Many had hoped that Anita Hill would perhaps, is the origin of that little voice. The voice that said, become the "Rosa Parks of sexual harassment." Instead she be­ good, as stunned people wandered the charred ruins of million­ came, in the eyes of the American public, sexual harassment's dollar homes. Good, as fire victims bemoaned the loss of their "Tawana Brawley." -TWV art collections. Good, at the thought that nature at least pays no A stalking horse of a different colo.r - homage to net worth." [emph. in original] During the first few weeks after Lew Rockwell began hIS pro­ Here, then, is the dark, corrupted heart of populism. It goes motion of Ron Paul as a challenger to George Bush in the beyond what the Germans call shameful joy - glee at the mis­ RepUblican primaries, I talked to Paul several times. "Are you fortune of others. What Ricci is attempting is the formalization running for president?" I would ask. And Paul would answer, of such schadenfreude into a value system. He is saying that suc­ "Almost certainly not," or "There's virtually no chance that I cessful people deserve and ought to receive misery, despair, wilL" This made sense. For one thing, he didn't stand much the shattering of their dreams. This is disgusting stuff. I'll take chance of getting many votes. When he had left the RepUblican the old-line Marxists any time. At least they thought they were Party, he had denounced it in vivid terms, attacking its demi­ acting in accord with the laws of history, not of mere malice. god Ronald Reagan. Political parties and their faithful seldom -WPM care much for renegades, and turn-coats who return don't get The genteel tradition strikes back - Un~il much support. Ron Paul is a politically savvy guy; he knew his recently I had believed that one value all segments of the poht­ chances for success were negligible. In addition, Paul had ical right accepted, at least passively, was the idea of. the strong personal and family reasons not to run. Paul also assured me that his campaign, if it were to happen, rugged outdoor life. Even those who had no interest whatever wouldn't do any harm to the Libertarian Party campaign, since in the idea of "retreatism" portrayed the notion of self­ his campaign would be. aimed at Republicans. When I asked sufficient living benignly. As far as I am aware, even hopeless him whether he thought fund-raising on his behalf might make old stick-in-the-muds like Russell Kirk never actually con­ it tougher for the LP to raise funds, he told me that any fund­ demned this particular kind of unconventional lifestyle. raising would be aimed at Republicans. Lately, though, it's beginning to look as though some of But reports continued to reach me from certain libertarian­ our conservative friends are developing bats in the belfry on oriented Republicans that Paul was telling them a different sto­ this matter. I first noticed that something was amiss when an ry, saying that he would announce very soon. This left me won­ article on the national Libertarian Party convention by Jeffrey dering whether Paul was as straightforward as he had always A. Tucker, which appeared in the September 21 Human Events seemed. So I told Paul about these claims and asked whether he featured the observation: "Neither Marrou nor the LP itself re­ had ever told anyone that he would run. "They never heard that flects conservative social dispositions ... part of his pitch to from me," he said. the delegates was that he lived· in the Alaskan wilderness for But when Lew Rockwell organized the Ron Paul for two years in the '70s which taught him 'self-sufficient living.'" President Exploratory Committee and began raising funds, I fig­ A few days later, William F. Buckley devoted one of his col­ ured out what was going on. Rockwell was using Ron Paul as a umns to the LP. After briefly introducing Andre Marrou to his stalking horse for conservative pundit Pat Buchanan, who had readers, Buckley opined that "Perhaps he is inactive because long been exploring the possibility of challenging Bush in the he is out of touch. He explained to the delegates proudly that primaries. For the past couple of years, Rockwell and Buchanan he spent two years living in the Alaskan wilderness." There have promoted each other. Buchanan has given Rockwell was similar sniping in National Review and from some of the Chronicles circle. continued on page 54 16 Liberty yond a reasonable doubt). Furthermore, 59% thought the The High-Tech Lynching questions and testimony "[went] too far in what should be al­ by Jane s. Shaw lowed in a public hearing." (Thirty-three percent thought they In recent years I have generally been proud to be an were appropriate.) These findings suggested that people gen­ American and I have agreed with Winston Churchill that de­ erally had a sense of balance about the whole thing. mocracy, with all its flaws, is the best system of government. In spite of this partial restoration of faith, I will never for­ On October 11, 1991, my pride in America was shattered and I get the mixture of horror, sorrow, and sense of complicity I lost most of my faith in democracy. The Clarence Thomas felt when the hearings began. This is the reaction I have al­ "hearing" on sexual harassment proved that in the U.S. today ways felt when I have seen discrimination against blacks in there are no limits to the lengths to which elected officials will this country. For many women, Anita Hill's accusations go to destroy their enemies. People who justify abortion on the evoked personal memories of sexual harassment, but to me, grounds of a constitutional right to privacy saw no problem in the hearings were a surrealistic re-enactment of the hatred, peering without restraint into the most private life of a nomi­ disparagement, and sexual stereotyping of the Negro that nee for high office. blots this nation's past. This fear and stereotyping was the The Senate Judiciary Committee ''hearing'' was not about cause of the American lynchings that occurred as late as the 1950s, but even more importantly are at the root of an excru­ sexual harassment; it was, in Clarence Thomas's words, a "high-tech lynching." A mob of fanatic women and senatorial ciating self-hatred and guilt that I have read about in books like Toni Morrison's and which, I suspect, many blacks vultures set upon Thomas, erected a hasty gallows, and Beloved live with today. brought in a member of his race to tie the noose. The inquisition, with its humiliating examination of a ra­ Whatever occurred or did not occur privately in the past cial stereotype, represented to me a kind of implosion of the between Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill should have re­ civil rights movement. mained private, unless Anita Hill chose to bring charges in a I was an early recruit to civil rights. Starting in the 1940s, court of law. Only an institution that has abandoned all recol­ my family was part of a small but growing number of people, lection of human decency would have subjected any person to a public ordeal that had no rules of evidence, no burden of proof and, above all, no stopping-rule. In a court proceeding, Thomas would be vindicated or legally convicted. Instead, as Whatever occurred privately in the past be­ with the 17th century witchhunts, the method used to find out tween Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill should "the truth" was torture. Most of these words were written halfway through the have remained private - unless Anita Hill chose hearings. Some of my faith in majority rule was restored on to bring charges in a court of law. October 15, 1991, when, to my amazement, the Senate con­ firmed Thomas' nomination. I was so surprised by the out­ come that I began to think that my initial horror at the hearing black and white, who tried to end segregation and discrimina­ must have been intemperate. After all, as the interrogation tion against blacks in the St. Louis area. When I was about five went on, I too became used to hearing on C-Span the kind of years old, my parents sent me door-ta-door in my neighbor­ language that wouldn't be allowed on the David Letterman hood in Webster Groves, Missouri, asking my neighbors to show, and I too began to treat the inquisition as though it was vote yes in the next election so that I could go swimming next a legitimate part of the democratic process. summer. The city government had recently built a swimming It appears that people were more judicious than I expected. pool with taxpayer money, but did not admit Negroes, even Twice as many people believed Thomas as believed Hill, ac­ residents of Webster Groves. Someone pointed out that this cording to a New York Times/CBS News poll, but, more im­ might be unconstitutional, so, in response, the city authorities portant, 56% of the people polled said that "if there was a closed the pool to everyone. The ballot proposal I advocated doubt about whether the charges are true, he should be con­ would reopen the pool the next summer on an integrated ba­ firmed." After all, Hill was not even claiming that her career sis. (The proposal passed.) was hampered in any way by what Thomas had said or done; My father, a clergyman, preached against segregation and she was telling the world that his character is objectionable. attempted to integrate his suburban congregation (losing The majority of viewers seemed to believe that at least the stan­ members along the way). Although he officiated at many wed­ dard of proof required for a civil trial should have been neces­ dings, he refused to attend any wedding receptions at clubs sary to reject the nomination. Perhaps they even favored the that excluded blacks. My sister entered government service to more stringent degree of truth required in a criminal trial (be- combat discrimination, first at the Missouri Commission on Liberty 17 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

Human Rights and later at the EEOC, where she is today. As can be stretched. Sexual harassment means something in a for me, I was a civil rights activist during the Mississippi noncompetitive economic system in which most female work­ Freedom Summer in 1964. ers are poor or truly disadvantaged in some way. But for most Our actions were aimed at ending the blight of segregation of the people who have been suddenly so vocal about it, the and discrimination against blacks that we felt had undermined concept strikes me as absurd and interlaced with hypocrisy. It American and Christian principles. We felt that the civil rights assumes a frailty and inability to cope with pressure that is be­ movement was the way to correct this tragic legacy. lied by the job success of many of the women who complain That civil rights movement has been over for a long time, about it. but on October 11 it seemed to me as though it had never oc­ Pressure to engage in sexual behavior in order to receive curred, that we were back in the 1960s all over again, except promotions is certainly deplorable. Such pressure ought to be that the killing wasn't occurring off a back road near curtailed by the company where it occurs - it is in the interest Philadelphia, Mississippi, but in a dreamlike Kafkaesque trial of the owner to do so - but when management fails to stop on national television with everyone watching. such pressure, the solution in a competitive society is for the Today, the civil rights movement is a bitter and divisive pressured employee to leave. This solution is increasingly at system of privilege allocation. As far as I can see, this system odds with today's prevailing idea, promoted by court deci­ benefits educated white women more than anyone else. They sions, that once a worker has a job, he or she has the right to have made the most of the privileges provided by the Civil keep it. That is unfortunate since competition for employees Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent affirmative action pro­ disciplines employers far more effectively than government grams. No one who has read Thomas Sowell's analysis of affir­ regulation, just as competition for sales disciplines producers. mative action throughout the world would find this The sexual harassment that women complained about dur­ surprising. "Within the groups designated by government as ing the Thomas hearing is a far cry from this kind of pressure. recipients of preferential treatment, the benefits have usually It involves, as virtually everyone knows by now, primarily gone disproportionately to those membersalready more fortu­ talk, gestures, and pictures of a sexual nature. Here, too, if an nate," he wrote in Commentary (December 1989). "Group pola­ individual can't stop this behavior, the proper remedy is to rization has tended to increase in the wake of preferential quit, as Robert Townsend, author of Up the Organization point­ programs...." ed out long ago. "If you're surrounded by witless slobs, join While achieving special privileges, educated white women another company," Townsend said in his "Guerrilla Guide for (and their spokespersons) have perpetuated the myth that Working Women." women (all women, not just minority women) are especially The Wall Street Journal focused on this kind of harassment in deserving of help. The evidence for this myth is the relatively a special editorial section published after the hearing (on low (but rising) representation of women in many parts of the October 18). It selected for its one case history the experience of a woman who tried to break into the male ranks on a metro­ politan police department. The harassment that Ramona While achieving special privileges, educated Arnold experienced in Seminole, Oklahoma was surely nasty white women (and their spokespersons) have per­ and it involved sex-related materials and actions such as por­ nographic pictures and bathroom graffiti. It should have been petuated the myth that women (all women, not stopped. But it took place in a highly political, probably union­ just minority women) are especially deserving of ized, government-run monopoly, where the discipline of the help. market was not present and her supervisors had little pressure to restrain objectionable behavior. In such a setting, an inde­ pendent agency designed to protect employees may be appro­ work force. Since the reason for this non-proportional repre­ priate. Thankfully, this situation does not represent the kind of sentation cannot be poor education or lack of money (these environment that most people work in. characteristics don't differentiate white women from white I'm skeptical about sexual harassment simply because dur­ men), it must be sexual discrimination - or possibly a disad­ ing more than twenty years in the workforce, I never experi­ vantaged upbringing that makes women afraid of math and enced anything that I would call sexual harassment. I have, hard sciences, cautious about entering certain professions, and however, experienced some awkward on-the-job situations reluctant to assert themselves in a wide variety of conditions. that were related to sex, just as I experienced awkward off-the­ A superstructure of regulation and subsidy has been devel­ job situations of a sexual nature. They undoubtedly reflected oped to combat both discrimination and these supposed uncertainty about appropriate behavior, especially as mores disadvantages. changed over the past couple of decades. As an opponent of affirmative action, Clarence Thomas Certainly, all people have to learn how to deal with the sex­ threatened the system of allocation that has resulted. I don't ual side of their lives. Women have always had to deal with think that women were out to get him at the start; his enemies sexual advances, wanted and unwanted, and with behavior were the Democratic Party and the leaders of "civil rights" or­ they consider crude. Exactly what is inappropriate is a matter ganizations. But when the sexual harassment issue surfaced, of personal judgment and it may change over time. Wall Street they were ready. Journal columnist Paul Gigot recently wrote about a filmhon­ The concept of sexual harassment, especially as embodied oring congressman John Dingell. In it, his wife illustrates her in Anita Hill's accusations, approaches the outer limit of how husband's persistence by saying: "As the story goes, he asked far an idea - protecting people against job discrimination - me out more than a dozen times before he finally got me to say 18 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 yes. I finally said yes just to get him off my back!" selves before a congressional committee against charges of I have one remaining concern about the hearing and its wrong-doing. Thomas' accuser, Anita Hill, had been his em­ outcome. Clarence Thomas prevailed because he defied expec­ ployee and protege; Hiss' accuser, Whittaker Chambers, had tations and came out swinging. He denied all charges and been (by his account although not by Hiss') a close friend of challenged the underlying racial stereotype that he was being Hiss. In each case, the accuser was willing to submit himself to made to represent. The price of his doing so may have been to a lie detector test; the accused was not. lie about some things. Clarence Thomas was a graduate of Yale Law School; Alger It is possible that some of the events described by Anita Hiss was a graduate of Harvard Law School. Thomas was ac­ Hill are true. If so, they were isolated incidents and not reflec­ cused of having committed sexual harassment some ten years tive of Thomas's general demeanor or habits; nor was Hill's prior to the accusation; since the statute of limitations on the of­ professional life harmed by them. They would not constitute a fense had expired, the accusation was a danger only because of reason to deny him the nomination. its effect on his reputaHan and future career. Hiss was initially But if they are even in small measure true, Clarence Thomas lied. If that is the case, I'm sorry, because I hold to the view that people should be truthful. The Hiss case, like the Thomas case, became for Thanks to this unprecedented event, however, I now know more about the conditions under which lying may be accepta­ many a symbolic combat between the forces of ble. R. W. Bradford already speculated in the last issue of good and the forces of evil. Hiss eventually went Liberty that Thomas may have misrepresented his views on le­ to jail for perjury, but to this day there are people gal issues during the original hearings. If so, said Bradford, lithe worse that can be said of him is that he is playing politics who still believe he was innocent. by the same rules as those politicians who are grilling him." In political trials, it may be that if the only winning strategy is to admit nothing. Otherwise, you start on a slippery slope that charged with having been a communist, and eventually with having turned over State Department papers to Chambers, will end you in a snake pit. then a Russian spy, some ten years earlier. In that case too the If Bradford's argument is fair, it applies much more sweep­ statute of limitations had run. Hiss denied Chambers' charges ingly to Clarence Thomas' second ordeal. In a witchhunt and a in order to protect his reputation and maintain his job as presi­ kangaroo court, lying may be justified. My view today is this: dent of the Carnegie Endowment. In each case the charge in­ If my particular torture was the public revelation of highly volved a sort of professional treason - loyalty to a foreign personal, private activities that caused no one harm, and if this power by a member of the State Department, sexual harass­ information was presented in excruciating detail before a na­ ment by the official in charge of preventing sexual tional audience, evoking degrading stereotypes whose images harassment. had already afflicted me during much of my life, and if, in In both cases, which side you supported depended in part some important way, I represented the hopes of many people on whether you believed the charges were true, and in part on who shared my color and my background, and especially the whether you thought they mattered. Few of Thomas' defend­ hopes of my mother, I would feel that God would forgive me ers were Willing to say publicly that talking dirty to a female if I denied the facts to my interrogators. 0 subordinate ten years ago is no big thing, but I suspect that many of them felt that way. Many of the left-liberals who sup­ The Nezv Alger Hiss ported Hiss surely felt that what he was originally charged by David Friedman with - having once been a communist party member - was not a very serious sin. The Hiss case, like the Thomas case, be­ The scene is a congressional courtroom. A prominent pub­ came for many a symbolic combat between the forces of good lic figure is defending his reputation against a voice from his and the forces of evil. Hiss eventually went to jail for perjury, past. The nation is watching. One of the two is lying - but ob­ but to this day there are people who still believe he was servers divide, largely along political lines, on which. The ac­ innocent. cused party denies everything, argues that such an upright There were, of course, some major differences. Hiss and and thoroughly respectable person as himself could never Chambers, unlike Thomas and Hill, eventually fought out have done such a terrible thing, and indignantly attacks the their battle in the courts. Hiss sued Chambers for libel; the committee for subjecting him to such charges. The other side case ended in a victory for Chambers. Hiss was himself indict­ responds by pointing out that, if the accusation is true, the de­ ed for perjury. The first trial ended in a hung jury. The second fendant has every incentive to deny it; if it is false, the accuser ended with Hiss convicted of perjury and sentenced to five has no reason to make it. The defense replies that the accuser years in jail. must be mentally unbalanced. One reason for the different outcome was that Hiss and It could be Clarence Thomas v. Anita Hill in 1991. It could Chambers, unlike Thomas and Hill, disagreed on facts about equally well be Alger Hiss v. Whittaker Chambers in 1949. which it was possible to produce some real evidence. What There are a lot of similarities between the two cases. eventually swung the committee to Chambers' side was a cer­ Clarence Thomas was a former head of the EEOC and a feder­ tificate of title showing the sale of a car that had once be­ al judge. Alger Hiss was a former state department official and longed to Hiss - a year too late to be consistent with Hiss' the President of the Carnegie Endowment for World Peace. account of the transaction, and under circumstances strikingly Both were highly respectable people forced to defend them- consistent with Chambers' version. Without that, and a few Liberty 19 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 similar scraps of evidence, Hiss' strategy of blanket denial and in a circumstance more comfortable than, say, a singles bar. indignant attack might have been as successful as Thomas' One inadvertent result of the nationally televised "sexual ha­ similar strategy forty-two years later. Chambers finally won rassment" hearings may wellbe killing the possibility of office his libel case, and ended Hiss' career, by producing documents romance and thus - since most Americans work in offices­ and photographs of documents giving inside state department jeopardizing the rates of marriage and procreation for a dec­ information - some typed on Hiss' typewriter and some writ­ ade. You'd think the "pro-life" forces would be the first to ten in his handwriting. complain. A second difference was in who was on which team. Hiss Perhaps we should regard as a meliorating effect the intro­ was a prominent New Deal liberal; his opponents were conser­ duction onto national television of certain images unique to vatives and anti-communists. Thomas was a conservative; his pornographic films, which were described with a vividness opponents were liberals and feminists. In both cases the ac­ previously reserved, at least in New York City, for a single cused was on the same side as the administration in power. (easily blockable) cable channel after 10:00 p.m. Not only may Both were, in part, an attempt by the outs to get at the ins. Anita Hill's testimony prompt a boomlet in porn sales and ren­ Harry Truman was not very far left - but then, George Bush tals, but, should any censor later object to such pornographic is not very far right. descriptions over home broadcasting in the daytime hours, the The final difference was the outcome. Hiss lost; his defeat, obvious defense would be that not only Professor Anita Hill contributed directly to the career of Richard Nixon, a promi­ but several senators did it first! nent member of the congressional committee before which he Credit for publicizing the secret, unconfirmed FBI report testified, and indirectly to the career of Joseph McCarthy. It be­ goes to Nina Totenberg of National Public Radio, the same came much easier to argue that people in high positions might woman who - it should not be forgotten - exposed Douglas be communists after one of them had been convicted in a court Ginsberg's marijuana smoking several years ago. That earlier of law. Thomas won; it is too early to say what the effect will journalistic punch not only forced Ginsberg to withdraw his be on the intertwined issues of race, sex, law and politics that nomination, it implicitly made it more difficult for anyone of became, in various ways, what the two sides were fighting his generation - anyone born after 1940 - to be nominated to over. such a high position, simply because nearly all of us, even the I think there is a lesson to be learned from the similarity be­ most conservative of us, have been exposed to pot. Since tween the two cases, beyond the familiar observation that his­ Thomas was nearly defeated, might not one result be making it tory sometimes repeats itself - not a lesson about Hiss and less likely that any healthy heterosexual be nominated? Won't Thomas but about their supporters. One result of the Hiss case another result be a Supreme Court of David Souters? Can I be and its sequels was a clear division between liberals and con­ the only one wanting to withhold my contribution to my local servatives on the question of means. The view of the liberals NPR station? was that the whole procedure of summoning prominent peo­ With one ambitious black person exposing another in a na­ ple before a tribunal to force them, under oath, to affirm or tional forum, I was reminded first of the "battle royal" in deny accusations about their past misdeeds was fundamental­ Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, where young blacks bloody one ly demeaning to the participants and corrupting to the politi­ another to the amusement of whites, and then of Abbie cal fabric of the nation. It led inevitably to smear tactics, leaks, Hoffman, nearly a quarter century ago, calling Judge Julius guilt by association, friend betraying friend under pressure ­ Hoffman, presiding over the Chicago Seven trial, a "shanda for a demagogic witch hunt. The conservative reply was that a the goyim," which is to say a Jew implicitly working for the witch hunt was not such a bad thing when there were real gentiles and thus, by extension, a traitor to his tribe. A similar witches about. If Alger Hiss had been a communist spy, there charge could be aimed at Nina Totenberg, whom I assume to might be others. Public hearings were a way, perhaps the only be Jewish; for by discrediting Douglas Ginsberg, who would way, of alerting the public to the danger of traitors in their have been the first Jew on the Supreme Court since Abe Fortas, midst, communists in high places. she initiated processes that ultimately caused the selection in­ Each side said, and believed, that its position was one of stead of Anthony Kennedy. If Thomas had not been confirmed principle. And yet, when the roles were reversed, when it was (and remember that it was a close call), one result of liberal a prominent conservative who stood publicly accused of some­ passions could have been the opposite of what such liberals thing that liberals strongly disapproved of, the two sides say they desire - a lily-white Supreme Court. If NPR were to promptly switched principles. Suddenly it was the conserva­ exemplify the fidelity to the truth it expects of others, it should tives who found the whole process demeaning and corrupting advertise itself, especially during its fund-raising campaigns, and the liberals who found it useful, the conservatives who be­ as "the network that brought you a Supreme Court that is lieved that public muckraking was a bad thing, and the liber­ Judenrein [to use the Nazi term for "clear of Jews"] and was, als who believed that if the muck was there it ought to get nearly, Schwarzenrein as well." raked, as publicly as possible. 0 To my mind, a principal theme of the debate over the Thomas nomination was racism, which is to say the reluctance Sex, Race, and the Single of too many·people, both white and black, to accept in a black person an independence and intellectual complexity, an ambi­ Gentlentan tion to overcome stereotype, that would be perfectly accepta­ by Richard Kostelanetz ble in a white. When Eleanor Holmes Norton, for one, asked As a single gent who has never worked in an office, I've al­ that Thomas be closer to "his black roots," she was really ask­ ways envied those who do, in part for access to nubile women ing that he be subservient to black publicists, such as herself, to 20 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 a degree that would not be required of a white, no matter how who remembers him expressing an opinion on Roe-Wade a "libera1." If, like myself, you can't imagine a feminist "activist" decade ago; an investigation of Hill should begin by checking saying something similar of a female nominee, or a Jew of a telephone records. Another difference between them is that Jew, you can measure how far African-American "leaders" Hill works as a university professor and thus in her everyday have not yet come. job has more opportunities than a federal judge, say, to get Similarly, the implicit theme of Anita Hill's testimony was away with fibbing. Though Thomas, ever the gentleman, never attributing to the short, bespectacled, portly Thomas the stere­ attacked Hill directly, he did question her pretense of passive otype of the oversexed darky who might want to seduce, mar­ innocence, as did others after him - a meekness that seemed ry (and then betray) your daughter. Nothing seemed to further incongruous before the fact that, speaking under oath, undermine the earlier characterization of Thomas as a "self­ most of the other women from Thomas' office seemed a hellu­ hating black" than another African-American's portrayal of va lot more assertive than Anita Hill. (One fundamental differ­ him. I found it surprising that no one publicly noticed, given ence in the duel was the authority of the purported witnesses the presence of Thomas' hyper-caucasian wife beside him, that - whereas Thomas had thirteen female colleagues from his of­ Ms Hill "may not be his type at all." fice, Hill had only a four-person rainbow coalition of those To my mind, Thomas' principal historical achievement was getting support from kinds of white Americans, beginning with Strom Thurmond 0), who had never before backed so The real racism evident in the confrontation wholeheartedly an African-American for such a high political was the reluctance of too many people, both white office - to take his place in the political major leagues. In this respect, as well as his behavior during the Senate process, and black, to accept in a black person an indepen­ Thomas reminded me more than once of Jackie Robinson. If dence and intellectual complexity, an ambition to this isn't extending Jesse Jackson's "rainbow coalition," that overcome stereotype, that would be perfectly ac­ epithet is a fake. ceptable in a white. It seems to me that too many of us have been far too gener­ ous in automatically believing the accusers in charges of sexu­ al harassment and child abuse - crimes that have no who, since they worked in other offices, knew her story only witnesses other than the purported victim, to which there is second-hand. How many males would be able, if similarly thus no real defense other than the defendant's reputation and charged, to get as many solid-looking women to support us?) perhaps the absence of others similarly victimized. Nothing Too many commentators had trouble identifying Hill's more indicates how softly Anita Hill was treated, even by the "motives." It seems obvious to me that, thanks to leaks to the big bad Republicans, than the fact that she was never asked press (and then the urgings of her mostly white handlers/ about similar "harassment" in other situations in which she exploiters), she got caught up in having to defend publicly the worked - never. Am I being too obvious to suggest that just stories she had occasionally told privately. It is interesting to because sexism (or racism or anti-Semitism) exists doesn't speculate whysome acquaintances of hers heard these stories, mean that every accusation of it is necessarily true? while others did not, beginning with female colleagues in the What is ultimately being tested here is faith in a certain office, and why as well the stories were not known to friends feminist ideology - whether someone believes that all male or professional colleagues she shared with Thomas. The wom­ bosses harass female employees and thus that all accusations an academic historian who had once worked in Thomas' office of harassment are necessarily true, no matter how long ago the noted that African-American history is filled with conspiracies affront purportedly happened, no matter how unlikely it accounting for the lack of black advance, implicitly raising the seems, no matter that such charges suffer from the lack of ei­ question of whether on a subconscious level Hill might have ther a witness and, most important to my mind, another victim craved this week of celebrity as a heroine risking martyrdom; similarly situated. After the rebuttal by not one but over a doz­ and as the author of his own recently published book of black en women who had worked with Thomas, it seemed to me history, I am willing to wager pfennigs against dollars that on that only if an observer subscribed to the ideology, if one were this level Anita Hill will realize a certain immortality. 0 a true believer, would he or she still support Anita Hill (and think Anita Hill's testimony should be the principal reason for voting against Thomas). I wonder whether uncorroborated Clarence and Zora charges such as Hill's will be so facilely acceptable after one by Bill Kauffman prominent accuser is, in one way or another, exposed as We all learned so much from watching Clarence Thomas faking? run the gauntlet of Senate windbags, indignant anchorpersons, Just as I did not believe Clarence Thomas' assertion that he and the phalliphobic bitches who make feminism so difficult to had no opinion on Roe v. Wade, so I didn't believe Hill's claim caricature. We learned that U.S. Senators are the only men in under oath that no "individuals or organizations" approached America who can say "Long Dong Silver" without cracking a her about embarrassing Thomas. As Juan Williams, among smile; we learned that Richard Epstein's Takings contains he­ others, has reported (and Orrin Hatch has publicized), there retical opinions to which no sane man can assent; we learned were individuals and organizations scouring the country for that "the women of America" are far more relaxed, tolerant, "dirt on Thomas." Were Hill to be indicted for perjury, the and fair-minded than the shrieking viragos who presume to prosecution should start by questioning the veracity of that represent them in the Imperial City. statement. Thomas could be proved a liar by finding someone What we did not learn was that Justice Clarence Thomas Liberty 21 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 has a fascinating intellectual lineage that threads through "The Little White Father" and she insisted, "1 do not share the Malcolm X, Thomas Jefferson, Booker T. Washington, Richard gloomy thought that Negroes in America are doomed to be Wright, and Thomas Sowell. The judge's closest ancestor, how­ stomped out bodaciously, nor even shackled to the bottom of ever, is the current darling of multiculturalists and Dead White things ... No, we will go where the internal drive carries us Male-bashers, the novelist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston like everybody else. It is up to the individuaL" (1901-1960). Justice Thomas displays the same stubborn individualist We are experiencing something of a Hurston revival, streak. "1 didn't come from the leadership ranks," he told me. thanks largely to Robert E. Hemenway's 1977 biography and '1 came from the people that they're leading. My grandfather: Alice Walker's moving 1975 essay, "In Search of Zora Neale that's the guy who got me out. It wasn't all these people who Hurston." College curricula are- incorporating Miss Hurston's are claiming all this leadership stuff. It was this old man and works; Afrocentrists are demanding that her novel Their Eyes this old woman." Were Watching God (1931) be enshrined in the American canon He criticized civil-rights organizations that "tell minority alongside Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby. kids that it is hopeless out there. Why is it hopeless? Because Hurston's rediscovery is a wonderful thing, but her politics ­ the government isn't spending enough money... It will always dismissed by one admiring scholar as "naive and dangerous" be hopeless if that's the reason. You don't have any control - keep getting in the way. Miss Hurston, you see, was a over that. What you do have control over is yourself. They proud daughter of the South, a patriotic black nationalist, and should be telling these kids that freedom carries not only bene­ a believer in limited constitutional government. When she fits; it carries responsibilities. You want to be free? Then you've talked politics, which she often did, she sounded an awful lot got to earn your own living. You've got to learn how to take like Clarence Thomas. care of yourself, learn how to raise your kids, how to go to Hurston was rooted in the rural South and raised by a school, prepare for a job and take risks like everybody else." Baptist preacher and a schoolteacher. Her hometown of Hurston confounded even her most enthusiastic boosters Eatonville, Florida was, as she boasted, "the first attempt at or- with her disparagement of the 1954 Brown vs. Topeka Board Of Education decision. She hated Jim Crow (witness her biting 1945 essay, "Crazy for This Democracy,"·in the Negro Digest) What we did not learn from the hearings was but she also chafed at what she thought was the condescension that Justice Clarence Thomas has a fascinating in­ of the integrationists. "The whole matter revolves around the self-respect of my people," Miss Hurston wrote. "1 regard the tellectuallineage, one that includes a current dar­ ruling of the United States Supreme Court as insulting rather ling of multiculturalists and Dead White Male­ than honoring my race.... It is a contradiction in terms to bashers. scream race pride and equality while at the same time spurn­ ing Negro teachers and self-association." This is not separatism; it's spirit. Clarence Thomas played ganized self-government on the part of the Negroes in the same note in our talk: "1 went to segregated schools. You America." (Her father served three terms as mayor.) Alice can really learn how to read off those books - even if white Walker called Eatonville "a self-contained, all-black communi­ folks aren't there! I think segregation is bad, it's wrong, it's im­ ty where loyalty and unity are taken for granted. A place moral. I'd fight against it with every breath in my body. But where black pride is nothing new." you don't need to sit next to a white person to learn how to Justice Thomas grew up in similarly healthy surroundings. read and write." In an interview with me in the November 1987 issue of Reason Like Thomas, Hurston was chastised by the NAACP for her magazine, Thomas described life with his grandfather and heterodox views. Roy Wilkins denounced her in language that hero, Myers Anderson: "We lived out in the country during the critics of Thomas' nomination recycled: "Now is no time for summer; we had chickens and hogs and· corn and beans, but tongue-wagging by Negroes for the sake of publicity. The race the staples we had to go to the grocery to get. When we came is fighting a battle that may determine its status for fifty years. back with all these groceries [my grandfather] would go by Those who are not for us, are against us." peoples' houses, older people in particular, and he would just Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who has helped bring Hurston the drop the groceries on the porch. Or if he harvested something, wider audience her writings deserve, credits her with a "com­ he'd just put it there and leave. If somebody's house burned plexity that refuses to lend itself to the glib categories of 'radi­ down, he'd go start marking it off and we'd start building an­ cal' or 'conservative,' 'black' or 'Negro,' 'revolutionary' or otherhouse ... There was a feeling that you had an obligation 'Uncle Tom.'" She carried Eatonville within her, as Clarence to help other people but itdidn't come from government." Thomas carries Pin Point, Georgia and Myers Anderson. The Her sturdy upbringing immunized Miss Hurston against lessons learned in small, nurturing communities are not easily cheap despair: "1 am not tragically colored. There is no great translated into the boilerplate of conventional politics. sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes ... To those who listen only to the tedious dialogue of left and I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold right, Zora Neale Hurston must seem an incoherent fool. She that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal preached black cultural self-awareness and wrote paeans to and whose feelngs are all hurt about it.... No, I do not weep at Senator Robert Taft in the Saturday Evening Post. She was, as bi­ the world -I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife." ographer Hemenway notes, "a Republican conservative and Self-help and black pride were the twin pillars of Hurston's yet an early black nationalist." She was feisty and independent. political program. She scorned the incipient welfare state as She would've loved Clarence Thomas. 0 22 Liberty Exploration

Happy Anniversary, National Park System! by R. W. Bradford

Welcome to your National Parks, where development is preservation, where the monopoly profit of developers is the common good, and where America's Revolution is celebrated by measures the Redcoats never had the nerve to try. Enjoy your visit!

When I was editor of my college's student newspaper, some 25 years ago, a friend and I wrote a story that annoyed the newspaper's "advisor," the school's public rela­ tions director, to the point that she insisted we print an apology. When I advised her that the order amounted to censorship, she handed me a copy of the newspaper's "charter," a document drawn up by the college's administra­ The rationale for creating national Green Rivers in central Utah. It is tion. The document listed several ways parks, especially in recent years, is to about as inhospitable a piece of land as the administration (and she, as its rep­ preserve wilderness before it is all de­ one can imagine. Travel is almost im­ resentative) was entitled to control stroyed. Yet the very creation of na­ possible: the topography is about half what we published. When I mumbled tional parks invites development, vertical and half horizontal. The area something about "freedom of the destroying the very wilderness it is in­ gets practically no rain, so it has scant press," she referred me to the pream­ tended to protect. Indeed, the designa­ agricultural value. Prior to its designa­ ble to the document. Sure enough,·· it tion of a piece of land as a national tion as a national park in 1964, proclaimed freedom of the press a sa­ park almost entails development, if Canyonlands had seen only two brief cred right and guaranteed that no one only because the National Park System periods of development: in the 1930s, in the administration could interfere has developed political support for it­ the Federal Grazing Service drilled two with the editorial policy or content of self by publicizing its units. deep wells and converted 90,000 acres the newspaper. The apparent theory "Canyonlands preserves an im­ of its relatively flat top into grazing behind the charter was that we were mense wilderness of rock at the heart land; in the 1950s, the federal govern­ free by virtue of the preamble, so the of the Colorado PIateau." ment encouraged prospectors to mine controls spelled out elsewhere could That's the very first sentence in the uranium there. Aside from these incur­ not amount to censorship. Stating a elaborately printed informational bro­ sions, Canyonlands remained about as contradiction baldly, apparently, made chure you get when you enter unvisited as any piece of land in the it no longer a contradiction.1 The theo­ Canyonlands National Park. country: occasionally an adventurous ry behind the National Park System is Canyonlands is a huge tract of land person or two would mount a horse­ a lot like that charter. at the confluence of the Colorado and back expedition into it and return tell­ ing of its ruggedness, beauty and 1. The legal mind behind the document, I was told, was the college's Vice President for inaccessibility. More characteristic of Legal Affairs, Phillip N. Buchen. In the years since, Buchen has enjoyed positions of influence human intervention was the escape of and authority in Washington, D.C. by virtue of his friendship with Gerald Ford, the ignora­ several outlaws into it in 1924. The po­ mus politician whom Richard Nixon plucked from obscurity and appointed Vice President, holding the distinctionof being the only President of the United States never elected to any lice didn't bother to follow them, figur­ office larger than a single congressional district. Buchen is currently in charge of "solving" the ing their death inevitable. Savings-and-Loan mess. But in 1964, Canyonlands was Liberty 23 Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

made a National Park. The Park the development of the land as a na­ group grew out of the environmental Service removed the cattle, paved the tional park - the area would remain movement of the early 1970s, and its road through the pasture, punched practically pristine, thanks to its rugged members have never been very numer­ roads to a few points overlooking the topography and hostile climate. As it is, ous. They are nevertheless very·articu­ canyons, and built a Visitor Center. about 300,000 people visit it each year. late and relatively wealthy, so their They closed most of the rough tracks In the case of National Parks, devel­ influence exceeds their numbers. Even that the uranium miners had cut a dec­ opment is preservation, and preserva­ so there are far fewer wilderness lovers ade earlier, except a single road around tion is development. We know it is, than tourists, and their funding for lob­ the lower rim, which they improved. because the laws creating national bying is dwarfed by that of tourist-" The overwhelming majority of park parks say so, and because the literature visitors never go into the canyons at distributed by the Park Service says so. all: they drive to the Visitor Center, get In the National Park Service brochure I Were it not for the actions of pamphlets, watch the movie, drive to quoted, three sentences after explaining the overlooks and leave. I spent 2 days that the National Park "preserves an government - the develop­ in the canyons last summer, during immense wilderness," explains, ''Few ment of grazing, the encour­ which time I saw only 6 other vehicles. people were familiar with these remote agement of mining, and the de­ The ranger told me that it is far more lands and rivers when the park was es­ velopment of the area as popular in the spring and fall, when tablished in 1964." To assert a contra­ temperatures are not so hellish. In fact, diction baldly is to make it no longer a Canyonlands National Park ­ he said, the campgrounds (totalling contradiction. Censorship is freedom. the area would remain practi­ about 45 campsites, some authorized to War is peace. hold up to 20 people) are often totally cally pristine, thanks to its booked. The Parks' Purpose rugged topography, and hostile At one overlook, the Park Service National parks were designed for climate. As it is, 300,000 peo­ has provided a sign pointing out a two conflicting purposes, preservation long-abandoned track below, explain­ and use. The legislation establishing ple visit it each year. ing that the damage done to the planet Yellowstone, the first national park, by the thoughtless miners would last a spelled it out: the Secretary of the related businesses. In addition, evi­ long time. Curiously, its discussion of Interior was to "provide for the preser­ dence suggests their numbers peaked the other road below, also built by min­ vation from injury or spoliation of ... around 1975 and they are now declin­ ers but now maintained by the Park natural curiosities or wonders within ing.2 Consequently, they tend to lose Service for the convenience of tourists, said park and their retention in their most battles against high-impact users. natural condition ..." but the land was Of course, the environmentally sen­ to be "dedicated and set apart as a pub­ sitive have managed to keep portions lic park or pleasureing-ground for the - often large portions - of many Several outlaws escaped benefit and enjoyment of the people." parks in a wild state. This is not surpris­ into Canyonlands in 1924. The bureaucracy that administers ing: many parks are so huge that ordi­ Police didn't bother to give the parks acts like any bureaucracy: it nary tourists have little interest in chase, figuring their death seeks to maximize its own well-being. substantial portions. But environmen­ Its funding comes from taxpayers via talist victories in preserving wilderness inevitable. Congress, which tends to respond to its have been limited to the less beautiful highly motivated constituents. The or otherwise less desirable portions of most highly motivated citizens have parks. Furthermore, these victories are didn't mention the damage to the plan­ businesses that profit from the tourism temporary. So long as parks are under et. Nor was there any suggestion that engendered by the parks and tourists political control, the biggest users' the building of roads, picnic areas, the who use the parks. Tourist businesses wishes will ultimately prevail. Right Visitor Center, or the campgrounds are interested primarily in high traffic now, the family tourist is satisfied with also might have damaged the planet. in the parks. Tourists are interested pri­ the Yosemite Valley proper, and is Nor was there any mention of the dam­ marily in developing the parks and happy to leave much of Yosemite age done by the idiotic and uneconom­ keeping the cost of park usage low. National Park to wildness and low­ ic sinking of wells and development of Both seek development; preservation is impact backpackers. But as the pressure its topland for grazing. Nor was there a low priority. So it comes as no sur­ of population increases, political pres­ any mention of the fact that the miners prise that the parks have been devel­ sure will mount for development of who put in the roads so injurious to the oped for use rather than preserved. more remote areas. And the chances are planet and the ecosystem were operat­ In the past few years, a third constit­ overwhelming that that pressure will ing on government land at the behest uency has arisen: lovers of wilderness, undo the current "victories" of of the government. whose interest is in preserving the Were it not for the actions of gov­ wildness and ecological integrity of the 2. One indication: the number of back ernment - the development of graz­ parks. Just about the only use they ap­ country hiking permits at most parks peaked ing, the encouragement of mining, and prove of is lOW-impact hiking. This in 1975 and has since declined. 24 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

preservationists. ther actions to enhance its wealth and 95% of the American public approves But the National Park Service must power, just like any bureaucracy. And of its work. And no wonder: the Park give the appearance of responding to it will continue to do so. Unless the Service has been given the most beauti- both conflicting interests and to both lovers of wilderness one day exceed ful land in America and has made it conflicting goals. It has done so by the political influence of ordinary available at negligible direct cost to the adopting a variety of murky, self- tourists, the development of the parks public. Not surprisingly, tourists are contradictory policies. The current offi- will continue. The ecosystems of exist- happy with this subsidy. cial policy of the parks, adopted ••••••••••••••• And what a huge subsidy it is. in 1968, is called "natural regula- In a free market, demand is great- tion," which stipulates that park er for more attractive tourist des- managers must "maintain all the tinations than for less attractive components and processes of nat- ones; consequently, the more at- urally evolving park ecosystems" tractive destinations cost more to while at the same time permitting visit. Yet in the United States, the no "interference with natural pro- most attractive tourist destina- cesses." Ecologist Alston Chase tions - Yosemite and Yellow- explains the policy: stone - are priced so low that The premise of natural regula- they are nearly free. In the spring tion is that parks are self- of 1991, USA Today reported that regulating ecosystems that if with the recession, people had left alone will maintain ecologi- less money for vacations, so they cal equilibrium. And that as- planned more visits to inexpen- sumes that parks, visited by sive destinations like national millions every year, can actual- parks! ly be left alone. The subsidies to users of na- As a scientific hypothesis, nat- ural regulation is as phony as tional parks do not, however, the phlogiston theory. No park help the poor. The cost of entry can be an island isolated from and use of national parks is kept effects of civilization. Nearly all artificially low, so the cost of vis- parks are missing major compo- iting is far less than many other nents, such as predators, need- popular tourist destinations. But ed for a complete ecosystem. because national parks are usual- And each continues to be dis- ly located remote from popula- turbed by a range of human ac- tion centers, the cost of getting to tivities from acid rain to automobile traffic. So when the parks is considerable, usually beyond the means of the poor. "left alone" by resource manag- ers, parks do not revert to their The national park subsidies, pre-Columbian conditions; rath- therefore, primarily benefit the er they become less "original," middle class. This is apparent to often losing native species. anyone who has ever visited a Natural regulation fails to pre- campground at Yosemite or serve "the primitive scene," but Yellowstone, and seen the travel this fact has not prompted the trailers and motor homes Park Service to abandon the eqUipped with satellite dishes, policy. Rather, the agency touts microwave ovens and other ac- the strategy's ineffectiveness as coutrements of modern living. a reason for expanding it, while f h Many 0 t ese vehicles cost giving it another name: ecosys- tems management. Natural reg- $30,000 or more - hardly the ulation has not worked, the Park ing parks will continue to deteriorate. playthings of the poor. Service says, because parks are not (Of course, development of parks for Under pressure from the Reagan large enough to be complete ecosys- tourists is not the only source of ecolog- administration to keep costs down, the terns. But if they are enlarged to en- ic deterioration. The Park Service's eco- Park System now charges fees at many compass entire ecosystems, it claims, logic management is also at fault, the policy of lettin! nature take its particularly its notion of "natural regu- 4. Cf. Alston Chase, Playing God in course will succeed. lation.,,)4 Those parks that are not de- Yellowstone (San Diego: Harcourt, 1985), Not surprisingly, the Park System veloped for tourists are merely being "What Washington Doesn't Know about the responds to the inherent contradiction held in reserve for future development. National Park System" in The Yellowstone Primer, edited by John A. Baden and Donald in its official purpose by proposing fur- The Park Service is the most popu- Leal (San Francisco: Pacific Policy Institute, 3. "Unhappy Birthday," Outside, December lar bureau in the federal government. 1990), and Karl Hess, "Rocky Mountain 1991 According to public polls, as much as Low," Liberty, January 1992). Liberty 25 Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

of its properties. But these fees are prac­ 101, which twice enters the park briefly Lincoln's words, "were collected to­ tically unrelated to the impact of the and is heavily used by area residents gether the wisdom, the patriotism, the user. Consider two cases: and miscellaneous travelers. Whenever devotion to ·principle from which •A Winnebago, with Mom, Dad, someone drives between the two largest sprang the institutions under which we three kids, and the family dog, enters cities in the area (Port Angeles and live." Meanwhile, the Park Service has Yellowstone.Park. The vehicle weighs Aberdeen), the Park Service counts the lavished $43 million on Steamtown. 8,000 pounds and burns gas at the rate trip as 10.4 visits: 4 vehicles @ 2.6 visi­ What explains this disparity? of one gallon per ten miles. The 5 peo­ tors per vehicle. Steamtown is in the congressional. dis­ ple and one dog have a picnic, leaving Don't be surprised when you visit trict of the Hon. Joseph McDade, who Yosemite and discover that it is a virtu­ has the clout needed.to bring the eco­ al city, complete with huge parking lots, nomic windfall to Scranton. In the halls Death Valley National a public transit system of huge busses of Congress, the Park Service is collo­ Monument was not created to belching foul-smelling diesel fumes, a quially called the "Pork" Service; the police force, a courthouse, crime rates money it spends is known as "little preserve extraordinary features comparable to an urban area, and over­ pork," to distinguish it from the much at all. It was created to subsi­ crowded jails. The Yosemite Valley is a larger sums spent on energy and water dize two tourist-oriented busi­ city, except that its only permanent resi­ projects (''big pork,,).5 dents are park employees. Its managers Congress also uses the National nesses and to protect them have every incentive to maximize its Park System to play political games. from competition. ability to accommodate tourists, includ­ The .heavily-Democratic Congresses of ing the power to sell its accommoda­ the. past 50 years have honored every tions very cheaply. Democrat president of that same period several pounds of trash, plus substan­ with at least one Park Service property. tial human and animal scat. The cost Park Pork In all, 9 parks honor Democrats, and for all this usage is $5.00. If Grandma Of course, the Park Service has an only.one honors a· Republican, despite or Grandpa is along, the whole gang agenda that goes beyond the public's the fact that Republicans have held the and their recreational vehicle get in wishes. It also responds to the pork bar­ presidency most of that time. free. rel politics of Congress. On issues •A woman enters the park, driving where the public is relatively indiffer­ Death Valley Developers a motorcycle. Her vehicle weighs 400 ent, Congresspeople tend to use their Four hundred miles west of pounds and burns gas at the rate of influence to distribute loot to their own Canyonlands lies Death Valley one gallon per 50 miles. She picnics, constituents. The results are bizarre. National Monument. It encompasses 6 leaving a half pound or so of trash, Consider the case of two Park the lowest point in the United States plus a small amount of waste. Her Service facilities in Pennsylvania. plus a vast stretch of surrounding terri­ cost is $5.00. Yet she has done less Independence National Park in tory - 2,981 square miles in all. If damage to the roads, left less gasoline Philadelphia consists of Independence Death Valley National Monument were engine emissions, used less space, left Hall, where the Continental Congress an independent nation, it would be less waste. met and passed the Declaration of larger than 19 of the member states of Why this disparity? The group most Independence; Old City Hall, where the the United Nations. likely to vote - the elderly - is al­ Supreme Court first met; the restored Death Valley itself is rather small­ lowed to use the parks at no cost. And house in which Jefferson wrote the only a few hundred square miles. families - another politically powerful Declaration of Independence; 16 other Death Valley National Monument is group - are given preferential rates. buildings from the founding of the na­ many times the size of Death Valley; be- But people less likely to vote (e.g. single tion; and adjoining areas.

people, motorcyclists) pay more. One hundred miles away in 5. For more details, see 1/A Shrine.Suffers There are other reasons that fees are Scranton, the Steamtown National as Pork for Parks Is Larded Unevenly," The kept artificially low. The Park Service Historic Site maintains "a third-rate col­ WallSt Journal, Jan 11, 1991, P l. receives only a small part of the fees, lection [of early 20th century railroad 6. Death Valley has been the lowest point and none goes directly to the park visit­ engines] in a place to which it has no in the U.S. since 1905. Prior to that date, the Salton Depression, 230 miles south of Death ed. And the Park Service has a powerful relevance," in the words of John H. Valley, contained the lowest point in the incentive to keep fees low: Congress is White Jr, retired transportation curator United States, some 4 feet lower than inclined to measure the public value of at the Smithsonian Institution. Badwater in Death Valley. However, between the Park System at least partly in terms During the past five years, the Park 1905 and 1917, water from the Colorado of usage, so the higher the number of Service has spent $35. million on River, which had been diverted for irrigation, visitors, the more money the Park Independence National Park, a sum in­ spilled into the Salton Depression. Optimistic Service gets. When I first saw the Park sufficient to maintain the buildings. Californians christened the result the Salton Service claim that there are more than Eight of its 19 buildings are closed Sea. Subsequent runoff from irrigation has kept the Sea from drying back to its original 3.5 million visits to Olympic National "until further notice." A leak in the roof state. Runoff has also brought about 45 feet of Park, I was astonished-until I learned of Independence Hall was discovered silt, so even if the Salton Sea were allowed to that the Park Service included in those and patched barely in time to prevent evaporate entirely, it would no longer hold numbers people who drive along US- serious damage to the rooms where, in title to the lowest point in the United States. 26 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

sides the fabled valley itself, the nation­ road. national park. al monument includes the Grapevine So the tourist promoters faced two The tourist operators' public rela­ Mountains, the Black Mountains, the immediate problems: not enough tour­ tions men got stories published in the Funeral Mountains, the Confidence ists and the high cost of building and popular press; the New York Times Hills, the Cottonwood Mountains, the maintaining roads. In addition, they commented that one of the portrayals Panamint Range, and various valleys feared that if their expensive promotion of Death Valley "made the worst and between these mountains. of Death Valley as a tourist destination hottest desert in the United States so lu­ Why does Death Valley National ever bore fruit, others would build ho­ ridly attractive that ... it is all a normal Monument include so much of the sur­ tels nearby, reducing their profits. The person can do to resist dropping every­ rounding country? Was that huge area solution to these problems was simple: thing ... and going there." In addition, included because it was necessary for make the area into a National Park. This the borax miners invested a half million "the preservation of the unusual fea­ would solve all their problems, as histo­ dollars per year (big money in those tures of scenic, scientific, and education­ rian Richard E. Lingenfelter explains: pre-inflation days) in a weekly radio al interest" as claimed by the president's The commercial advantages were program "Death Valley Days" that pro­ proclamation that created it? obvious. By making Death Valley moted the idea of making Death Valley Well, no. The reason that it includes one of the nation's official won­ a national park. In 1930, Albrecht pre­ so much additional land is that Death ders, it would become a "must" pared a proposal to make a huge na- Valley National Monument was not for millions of additional tional park, which would created to preserve extraordinary fea­ tourists. Moreover, the promote traffic to the tour­ tures at all. It was created to subsidize government would ist facilities of his ''boy­ two tourist-oriented businesses and to then help adver­ hood friends," while protect them from competition. During tise it and relieving them of the 1920s, Death Valley gained slight maintain all the expense of popularity with tourists, thanks to the those costly road mainte- development of inexpensive automo­ roads. And nance and pro­ biles, its unusual name and the heavy finally, since tecting them exposure it received in Hollywood all the lands from competi­ films. In 1925, a former gold prospector within the tion. Despite all named Bob Eichbaum wrangled permis­ park would the efforts of the sion from Inyo County to build a toll­ be withdrawn promoters, public road suitable for tourist automobiles from further support was diffi­ into the Valley, giving him a monopoly settlement, the cuIt to rally and on tourist access. In May 1926, the road tourist bonanza Congress had litHe in­ was opened. On November 1, he could be kept in the terest in the measure. opened a tourist hotel in Death Valley. hands of those already on So Albrecht came up with an al­ Within a few weeks of Eichbaum's the ground; no more newcomers ternate plan: make the area a "national permit for a toll-road, owners of Borax could crowd in.7 monument" instead. Unlike national It seemed like it would be easy to parks, national monuments do not re­ do. Richard Stephen Mather, the quire any act of Congress; the president Huelsdonk became a legend, founder and head of the National Park simply proclaims them.8 However, renowned for his prodigious Service was a former public relations Herbert Hoover was reluctant to do so, strength and his skill as a man for the same borax operations that perhaps because the former mining were developing tourism and lobbying man feared public reaction to the un­ woodsman. But the "Iron Man for the park. But he was reluctant to popular measure to enrich the mining of the Hoh" was a real person, propose establishing a park without interests. But in November 1932, he lost and his life was destroyed. public support, which wasn't forthcom­ his bid for re-election, and on Feb II, ing. In 1929, Mather resigned because of 1933, the lame duck president (he had health problems and was replaced by Consolidated, the mining company that Horace Albrecht, who had grown up in 8. The National Park Service deliberately had shipped borax from Death Valley the area and was an old friend of obscures this difference, explaining the dif­ since it was formed by merger of small­ Christian Zabriskie of Borax Con­ ference between national parks and national er mining operations in 1899, began solidated and several other principals in monuments in these words: "Generally, a na­ plans for their own tourist hotel. It the scheme. Albrecht worried that he tional park contains a variety of resources opened for business on February 1, "might be unfairly accused of trying to and encompasses large land or water areas 1927. Both tourist facilities did their do something at the Nation's expense to help provide adequate protection of the best to promote the area as a destina­ for my boyhood friends," but he went resources. A national monument is intended to preserve at least one nationally significant tion resort, paying substantial money to ahead and ordered National Park resource. It is usually smaller than a national public relations firms, inventing phony Service personnel to begin plans for a park and lacks its diversity of attractions." marvels to excite tourists and the like. The National Parks, (Washington, D.C.: Office These were expensive undertakings, as 7. Death Valley and the Amargosa, Berkeley: of Public Affairs and the Division of was maintenance of the little-used toll- University of California Press, 1986, p. 464. Publications, National Park Service, 1989). Liberty 27 Volume 5, Number 3 Januar 1992

only 3 weeks left to serve) issued paigns to make them national parks. from the Olympic National Park warn­ Proclamation #2028.9 Death Valley and The July 14, 1991, issue of Pacific, the ing him not to enter the area under se­ the surrounding area was now a na­ magazine supplement to the Seattle vere penalty of law. The area had tional monument. Times, featured a cover story titled recently been added to the national Given this sort of hypocrisy, there is ''HELLS CANYON: Some people park, and he was liable to arrest for little wonder that national parks fail in think what we're doing to it is a SIN." walking on his own land. (He ultimate­ their stated goal of preservation. Hell's Canyon, along the Oregon­ ly settled with the Park Service, under National parks are splendid illustra­ Idaho border, is the deepest in the threatof condemnation.) tions of the difference between the rea­ world, more than a mile and a half In 1941, President Roosevelt added son and excuse for legislation. The deep in one place. It is also a place of 187,411 acres to Olympic National Park reason they are created is generally to astonishing beauty, currently a "na­ and confiscated a two-mile wide strip promote tourism to remote areas; the tional recreation area" administered of land down the Queets River for fu­ excuse that is publicly stated is to pre­ by the Forest Service. ture addition to the park. John serve the natural and historic wonders The article cites Ric Bailey, "a log­ Huelsdonk went to the capital to of these areas. ger-turned-truck-driver-turned-envir­ protest. He was photographed carry­ This hypocrisy is hardly unique: onmentalist," as its major source of the ing a sign, J'This Isn't Russia ­ while proclaiming a need to preserve, need to make the area a national park, Secretary Ickes has no right to take our special interests bent on profiting "at and sympathetically portrays Bailey's homes away from us." He asked the the Nation's expense" campaign and concern for nature and opposition to governor of Washington to call out the lobby for creation of national parks and logging and grazing nearby and ad­ national guard to prevent the federal monuments. Even the creation of ministration of the area by the Forest government from taking the land. His Yellowstone National Park, much cele­ Service. "Asking the Forest Service to protest caused quite a stir. He was not

brated as the world's first national park manage the natural resources of the I just a cranky old man. He was a living land," he says, "is like asking legend. Madonna to sing gospel." It mentions In 1888, Huelsdonk had emigrated The Park Service has been in passing that Bailey has "powerful from Iowa to the wilderness of the arms that come from guiding river Hoh River valley. Arriving in the for­ given the most beautiful land rafts through the rapids," but fails to est with only a wet sack of flour, he in America and has made it note that as one of the few guides survived on raw dough until he found available at negligible direct granted the right to do so, his earnings a place to homestead. After returning would soar if the area gained popular­ to civilization for equipment he spent a cost to its users. Not surpris­ ity with tourists, as invariably hap­ year building a cabin, clearing land ingly, users are happy with pens after an area is designated a and planting seeds. Then he went back this arrangement. national park. It also fails to mention to Iowa, married his foster sister, and that the tourist influx from naming the returned to make a home and raise a area a national park would almost cer­ family deep in the wilderness, 20 miles and the undisputed jewel of the tainly do far greater environmental from the nearest river that a canoe National Park system, was substantially damage than the nearby timber­ could navigate, 36 miles from the near­ the work of Jay Cooke's Northern harvesting and grazing currently do. est settlement. Pacific Railroad, which was virtually The fact that a limited amount of Itwas a hard life, butHuelsdonk, his the only means of public transrortation timbering and grazing in the area is al­ wife and his four daughters persevered. that approached Yellowstone.1 lowed at all is the result of a congres­ Other families settled elsewhere in the Even today, seldom-visited little­ sional aberration: when Congress area. Huelsdonk became a legend, re­ developed areas are threatened by cam- created the Hell's Canyon National nowned for his prodigious strengthand Recreation Area in 1975, it inserted a his skill as a woodsman. He was reput­ 9. There seems to be a pattern of national compromise clause that grandfathered ed to have killed mountain lions with parks benefiting from proclamations by existing logging and grazing. Con­ his bare hands. He got double wages lame-duck. presidents. For example, the gress' normal practice is simply to when he hired himselfout as a pack ani­ 01ympic Forest Preserve, the precursor to order all human activity to stop in the mal, since he carried a double load. He Olympic National Park, was proclaimed by designated area, without regard for customarily traveled through the forest President Oeveland 7 days before he left of­ the rights or lives of the individuals at a half-trot, leaving others behind. It fice in 1897; the Olympic National Monument was proclaimed by President Roosevelt in involved. was said that he carried a cast iron stove 1909 two days before leaving office; an addi­ In the early 1950s, J'Jeff" Jaffarian of under each arm over the mountainous tion of vast acreage along the Queets River Seattle visited Washington's Olympic 20-mile trail into the valley where he and the Pacific coast to the Olympic National Peninsula and fell in love with the soli­ settled. This may have been an exagger­ Park was proclaimed by President Truman tude. He purchased a piece of land and ation, but there is no doubt that the cast the day before he left office in 1953. made it his home. One day in 1976, he iron stove in his cabin was hauled in by 10. Cf. The Yellowstone Story (Vol 1), by walked down to the frontage he owned someone. He was known far and wide Aubrey L. Haines, pp 170-171 (Yellowstone as J'the Iron Man of the Hoh." He be­ National Park: Yellowstone Library and on Lake Ozette. As he neared the lake, Museum Association, 1977). he was astonished to discover signs came a legendary figure; before his 28 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

protest, many people didn't realize he and costly battle. sounding) solutions such as privatiza­ was a real person. tion to be resisted until the best-known But the Iron Man of the Hoh was a Sell the Parks? parks show obvious, extensive and real person, and his life was being de­ The mismanagement, environmental spectacular repeated damage. stroyed. Nearly everyone sympathized degradation and waste that occur in the Until then, what we have is what with the old man. Huelsdonk was a pi­ national parks are functions of their we get. oneer born a generation too late. His government ownership. Those who protest fell on deaf ears. The land. in control the parks have neither incen­ A Birthday Party the valley he had settled was confiscat­ tives nor means to manage them wisely, Last October, the Park Service ed, his neighbors removed. since they are denied the feedback of the threw itself a party to celebrate its 75th price system. What incentives they face birthday. Held in the counterfeit alpine (many of which have been discussed in city of Vail, Colorado, 300 bureaucratic In the halls of Congress, the this article) discourage management in bigWigs and a lesser number of invited a way that even approaches maximiza­ guests had a swell time congratulating Park Service is colloquially tion of the assets' worth. They have few themselves on what a terrific job they called "little pork" to distin­ incentives to maintain the environmen­ have been doing running the parks. guish its spending from the tal integrity, since their control is short­ I wasn't invited to attend. But about much larger sums spent on· en­ lived and the process ofenvironmental the same time I was invited (by bulk degradation moves slowly. rate mail) to join the National Parks ergy and water projects ("big Privatization of the parks, though, and Conservation Association. My first pork"). would rid managers of most of these year's membership fee was only $15 ­ incentives to mismanage. Private man­ a far cry from the $1,000 per person the agers - especially in an environment Vail soiree cost. That trivial sum enti­ tled me to all the privileges of member­ On the first day of the Senate hear­ of competitive capitalism, rather than ship: a "stunning, full color" magazine, ings on the confirmation of Supreme present-day "corporate (that is, protec­ "'NPCA Park-PAK," a discount on Court Clarence Thomas, Senator tionist) capitalism" - would have the photo-processing, discounts on rental Joseph Biden sternly warned Thomas well-known incentives of profit and that any attempt to require govern­ loss to not only preserve the assets ment compensation for property con­ under their care, but to increase their fiscated from people would be "a value. This arrangement would not Tourists who appreciate the multibillion-dollar expense for taxpay­ create a preservationist's utopia - as I wilderness or uncluttered nat­ ers." Biden, and apparently most understand it, no policy could succeed Americans, favor the current policy of at thatll - but it would preserve wild­ ural beauty ought not fear. simple confiscation of the property that erness and maximize environmental in­ You won't find a travel trailer people like John Huelsdonk worked a tegrity far better than any alternative sporting a television antenna lifetime to achieve. that I have heard of, and certainly bet­ Initially, national parks were creat­ ter than the present system. within miles of some of the ed on government owned land. But in The biggest cost to such a proposal most astoundingly beautiful recent years, many have been created would likely fall on the tourists, both places in America. on private land, acquired by forced middle-class gawkers and enviro­ sales, condemnations and other forms backpackers, both of whom benefit of confiscation. For example, the Park from the huge subsidies. And it is they Service took over 700 private homes for who are most likely to object to such cars, and a "handsome window deca1." the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, proposals the loudest and longest. And as a special bonus, I could get a created in 1966. Ironically, the first na­ Privatization of the national parks es­ fanny pack with the NPCA trademark. tional park to be built entirely on pri­ sentially entails the de-subsidization Wow! What a bargain! vate land .;...- involving the forced take­ and de-socialization of one of Plus I could help NPCA achieve over of about 150 private homes - was America's biggest leisure industries. As their goals. Like outlawing chemical the Minuteman National Historical the recent events in Eastern Europe emissions that might cause acid rain. Park in Concord, Mass., created in 1959 show, the beneficiaries of socialism will Making the National Park Service an in­ to help commemorate the Revolu­ only acquiesce to radical reform when dependent agency, no longer part of the tionary War, a war fought against just it becomes obvious to them that they, Interior Department. Starting tax­ this sort of government action. too, are victims. So we can expect rea­ funded programs for "science, historic Many landowners give up without sonable (no matter how radical- preservation and conservation pro­ a fight, but there are hundreds of cases grams."Confiscating land around the of individual people's fights to keep parks ("Setting more realistic boundar­ 11. This is not literally true: the preserva­ ies for near!y 175 of the park units" the their land, many of them quite tragic. tionist utopia could be achieved by eradica­ Stories of the Park Service's persistence tion of human life, a policy that some radical letter said). "'Develop school programs and brutality are legion. Almost invari­ environmentalists corne preciously close to and educate Americans of all ages in ably, the individual loses after a long advocating. how to use, enjoy and care for their Liberty 29 Januar 1992

parks." Lobby Congress on NPCA's degraded. National parks become The Sound of agenda. "Alert today's young people magnets for Winnebagos, attracting (4th-6th graders) to tomorrow's park tourists in far greater numbers than Liberty problems." Add more areas to the park prior to their designation as parks. system.12 But tourists who appreciate the We captured the voices ofLiberty's Hmm. Increase funding for the wilderness or uncluttered natural editors and guests at the top of their Park Service. Add to the Park Service beauty ought not fear. You won't find fonn at a conference we held some time a travel trailer sporting a television an­ back, and offer their wise words on tape. empire. Propagandize for Park Service tenna within miles of some of the most Here is some of the excitement: goals, and teach people to obey the rules in the parks. Free the park ser­ astoundingly beautiful places in • Liberty and the Environment, with vice from the Interior Department. America. If you doubt this, I invite you Jane S. Shaw, Richard Stroup, John Does the NPCA's agenda· sound a Hospers, R.W. Bradford and David little bit like the Park Service's? Friedman (A-l07, V-l07) The NPCA was founded in 1919, • Making Sense ofRights, with David National parks are splendid Friedman, John Hospers,Timothy three years after the creation of the Park illustrations of the difference Virkkala, R.W. Bradford, Loren Service, at the suggestion of Stephen Lomasky and David Ramsay Steele Mather, head of the Park Service. Its between the reason and excuse (A-l08, V-108) founder and first boss was Robert for .. legislation. • The Economic Case for and against Sterling Yard, a friend of Mather's. Anarchy, by David Friedman (A-I09, ''With you working outside the govern­ V-I09) ment and with me working inside," to visit the Abert Rim in southern • Does Economics Make Sense? by Mather told him, "we ought to make Oregon. It towers 2,000 feet high above David Friedman (A-112, V-112) the national park system very useful to 20 for more than 30 miles, and the • The Poverty ofLibertarian Fiction, by the country." Its current president (and u.s. Stephen Cox (A-114, V-114) last time I visited I had the highway the man who signed the junk mail letter Audio tapes (A #s) $7.50 each, to me) is Paul C. Pritchard, formerly entirely to myself. Or visit the Bruneau River where runs though a narrow Video tapes (V #s) $19.50 each, add deputy director of the Heritage it $3.00 shipping & handling per order Conservation and Recreation Service, steep canyon of incredible beauty in ($2.50 extra per tape for foreign orders). now a part of the Park Service. So it's southwestern Idaho. The nearest road Send check or money order to: not very surprising that the NPCA re­ isn't paved and has signs warning you flects the ParkService's agenda. to watch for planes with "objects" at­ Liberty, Dept T., PO Box 1167, Port tached to their bottoms, lest you be hit Townsend, WA 98368. I joined the NPCA. What the hell. Fifteen bucks isn't much money, and by a bomb (the road· runs through anyway I wasn't invited to the Park some sort of bombing range), and get­ Service's $500,000 bash in Vail. ting to the canyon involves a bit of a Besides, I wanted the fanny pack. hike. But you won't find litter and you •II won't find Ma and Grandma fixing Travel Advice dinner in their microwave, while the When Congress creates a national THE INEVITABILITY OF CAPITALISM teenage son listens to his boombox, park it almost guarantees that area dad watches television, and the two lit­ will be developed and its environment "Revolutionary ... signals a tle kids play Nintendo. National parks can be considered a fundamental shift in the way people should think 12. "The Reagan Administration may boon to those who seek natural beauty, about economics." have been the most insensitive in history on wilderness experience or just solitude: the issue of national parks - adding less -The Wall St. Journal just circle the national parks on your acreage to the park system than any other map with a red magic marker, put two president in recent years." This is a very cu­ Order Bionomics circles around the most popular of rious statement. For one thing, Congress 13 by Michael Rothschild creates new national parks, not the presi­ them, and avoid going near them. 0 dent. For another, it ignores the fact that on for just $19.95 (pub. price $24.95) a single day (Dec 1, 1978) Congress added 13. Okay, visit the more interesting ones plus $2 shipping and handling an astonishing 51,302,745 acres to the Park once. How else can you see the Grand from: System, making it two-and-a-half times larg­ Canyon, Old Faithful and El Capitan? If the er. The land added that day was about the parks of your choice have a slow season, lAJSSEZ FAIRE B(])KS size of Switzerland, Austria and Hungary visit them then. But don't count on finding combined. If Congress added to the Park uncrowded conditions in the spring and fall System at the same rate as it did in 1978, the when families can't bring their kids: those 942 Howard Street entire United States would be within the Americans with the most spare time, the San Francisco, CA 94103 system in less than four ·years; the entire most wealth and the biggest subsidies ­ world is less than 8 years. So it oughtn't be "senior citizens" - are wise to this fact. or call TOLL FREE 800/326-0996 too surprising that the pace slowed in the National parks in September and October for Visa/Mastercard orders decade that followed. are a lot like Sun City with scenery. Expose

Rocky Times in Rocky Mountain National Park

by Karl Hess I Jr.

Millions watch, but no one sees, as one of America's most spectacular tributes to natural beauty is being transformed into one of America's greatest ecological disasters.

Fourteen-thousand foot peaks of bare, angular granite stand sentinel over flower­ bedecked alpine peneplains, abrupt sub-alpine slopes cloaked in spruce-fir and lodgepole pine, and stark montane hills and valleys dotted with ponderosa pine and grassy openings. The scene is captivating; the harmony of rock, tundra and strik- ingly uniform forests paints a portrait of near-pristine nature and untram­ the park attracts more visitors than any ering aesthetics. It is special; it is unlike meled wilderness. Whether visiting of its better-known rivals. any other slice of the Rocky Mountain Rocky Mountain National Park for the Testimony to what the eye sees at chain. But to suggest that the Park is first time or the one hundredth time, first glance in the mountainous land­ now being protected, that it is some­ visitors can only gaze in awe at the scape is a commemorative plaque how uniquely devoted to conservation, raw beauty of the landscape rising be­ housed at the headquarters of Rocky or that it really does provide "a stan­ fore them. Few other landscapes can Mountain National Park in Estes Park, dard against which the effect of man's im­ compare with this small slice of the Colorado. The 1976 plaque, awarded pact on his environment can be measured" front range of the Rocky Mountains, by the United Nation's UNESCO Man is a tragic mistake. The unparalleled just 50 miles north of Denver, and the Biosphere Program confirms beauty of alpine peaks and subalpine Colorado. the uniqueness of the Park and ele­ forests is an illusion; behind the illu­ Founded in 1915, Rocky Mountain vates it to a level of importance unsur­ sion is the reality of an ecological National Park is one of fifty parks and passed elsewhere in the Rocky disaster. 85 million acres managed by the Mountain West: In Rocky Mountain National Park, National Park Service. Encompassing a ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL the assumptions of protection and mere 265,000 acres, it is tiny by the PARK IS RECOGNIZED AS PART OF preservation meet the reality of envi­ standards of the 8.3 million acre THE INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF ronmental decadence and decline; the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in BIOSPHERE PRESERVES. THIS NET­ presumed efficacy of federal owner­ Alaska - or, for that matter, the other WORK OF PROTECTED SAMPLES OF ship of America's finest landscapes THE WORLD'S MAJOR ECOSYSTEM comes face to face with the truth of seven Alaskan parks totaling over 22 TYPES IS DEVOTED TO CONSERV­ million acres. In the lower 48 states, ATION OF NATURE AND SCIENTIFIC government mismanagement and however, Rocky Mountain is substan­ RESEARCH IN THE SERVICE OF MAN. National Park Service incompetence. tial. Yellowstone, Olympic, Grand IT PROVIDES A STANDARD AGAINST Symptomatic of the illness is the Canyon, Big Bend, Everglades and WHICH THE EFFECT OF MAN'S Park's meadow showcase, Moraine Glacier national parks are larger, but in IMPACT ON HIS ENVIRONMENT Park at the modest elevation of 8,000 terms of variety of spectacular natural CAN BE MEASURED. fee~. To the untrained eye, all appears beauty packed into a compact space, Rocky Mountain's designation as a well. A clear rocky mountain stream there is no comparison. Ranging from Biosphere Preserve is appropriate in bisects an enormous mountain park, 7,800 feet in elevation to 14,255 feet, view of its unique environment, its bordered on the north by ponderosa with 113 peaks in excess of 10,000 feet, high ecological value and its overpow- pine hills and on the south by a glacial Liberty 31 Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

moraine forested in Douglas fir. picturesque grassy openings, that eco­ est ecosystem type, North American Closer inspection, though, reveals logical decline and environmental Terrestrial Vegetation, ''Rocky Mountain ominous signs. Dying willows dot the decay is most evident and most forests are disturbance forests ... with abnormally dry park. At certain spots, threatening. climax stands being less common than the mountain stream cuts unusually AmaZingly, fewer than a dozen of seral communities [and for this reason] deep into the meadow soil, exposing the almost 400 scientific and naturalist the impact of modern fire suppression raw vertical banks three to four feet studies on the Park touch on the seri­ on forest communities throughout the high. On the Douglas fir moraine, the ous problems threatening the area's ec­ Rockies needs to be investigated." signs are even more disturbing. What ological integrity and environmental Making Rocky Mountain immune to should be a luxuriously vegetated for­ health. The remaining works focus on the natural and periodic ravages of fire est floor is a desolate scene of trampled more theoretical and esoteric aspects of was the direct result of suppression ef­ soil covered with a smelly mantle of elk the Park's land and life. Indeed, admin­ forts practiced on adjacent U.S. Forest scat. Trails made by elk cut deeply into istrators and scientists pursue their Service lands and the extension of those the moraine and funnel erosive waters studies oblivious to the impending fate practices to the Park itself. As those ef­ toward the meadow below. And the awaiting Rocky Mountain. But ask any forts took hold in the first decades of surrounding Douglas fir, many of one of them about the state of the land, this century, the historic routes that which are.dead or dying from beetle in­ and few if any will deny the serious­ fires followed were cut. No longer festation, are scarred and at times gir- ness of what lies ahead. All of them are could fires move naturally from the aware of places like Moraine Park. All dryer, more arid foothills into the wet­ of them understand the nature of the ter and cooler environment of subal­ The view that the park is problem. None of them have chosen to pineforests. speak or write about what they know Human intervention did not totally being protected is a tragic mis­ and fear is happening to the park. In eliminate wildfires in the Park, but it take. The unparalleled beauty this sense, Rocky Mountain's ecological did reduce their frequency. With the of alpine peaks and subalpine and environmental crisis is a crisis of policy of fire suppression in force, fires silence. occur at unpredictable and irregular in­ forests is an illusion; behind More fundamentally, though, it is tervals, during irregular sequences of the illusion is the reality of an crisis of mismanagement and bureau­ multiple back-to-back years of extreme ecological disaster. cratic ineptitude - a crisis connected heat and drought. Of course, heat and with a long history of fire suppression drought were not uncommon to the and a laissez-faire approach to elk pop­ Rocky Mountain region. But the dura­ ulation control. In the final analysis, tion and severity of heat and drought dIed - too many elk horns have however, it is a crisis caused by the fail­ rubbed against too few trees. Even the ure of public policy and the inherent few aspen intermixed with the ponde­ distortions injected into land manage­ rosa pine to the north are scarred and ment by political and bureaucratic Historically, fire was an in­ infected with a fatal fungus. considerations. Sadly, the disquieting picture of tegral part of the Rocky Moun­ Moraine Park is not an anomaly. Ecologic Disaster in the tain ecosystem. Places like Similar symptoms of environmental Making Rocky Mountain National decay plague every valley bottom and Fire is the proper place to begin in every mountain slope of the park's diagnosing the Park's ailments. Park burned periodically, 265,000 acres. Historically, fire has always been an in­ creating and renewing a land­ The ecological crisis facing the park tegral part of the Rocky Mountain eco­ scape of immense vegetal has very little to do with the area gener­ system. Lightning strikes in the ally considered most threatened - the surrounding foothills would ignite dry diversity. fragile alpine tundra lying above the and highly flammable grasses, shrubs spruce-fir treeline. In the arctic-like en­ and ponderosa pine savannahs. The vironment of 11,500 feet plus, park ad­ flames move up canyon bottoms and needed to prepare subalpine forests for ministrators and scientists have mountain sides toward higher and lightning ignition were far from com­ focused their dollars, their research and more moist elevations that were mon. And the fires that did occur were their writings. Yet, the region above otherwise immune from the effects of less severe by virtue of rapid deploy­ timberline was never as fragile as ad­ direct lightning strikes. As a result, ment of fire-fighters to battle the small­ ministrators and scientists assumed. places like Rocky Mountain National est of flames. For all practical purposes, Nor were the vast forests and seat­ Park burned periodically, creating and Rocky Mountain National Park had be­ tered grasslands below treeline as stur­ renewing a landscape of immense veg­ come fire-proof. dy and .safe as conventional wisdom etal diversity. Fire suppression may have left dictated. For it is among the trees and This is the nature of forests in the Rocky Mountain National Park neater meadows below, obscured only by the Rockies. As Robert K. Peete noted in and trimmer in appearance and more false harmony of uniform forests and his seminal work dealing with this for- pleasing to tourists. But today's park is 32 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

far less healthy by any ecological stan­ rupt the course of the fire. This is the Someone else could tackle the problem dard. There is no better place to investi­ inevitable legacy of suppressing fire later. And that person - not he ­ gate the impact of fire suppression and weighing down nature with the al- would assume the brunt of responsibil­ than in Rocky Mountain National Park. batross of institutionalized preserva- ity for the Park's demise. By all measures, that impact has been tion and protection. And in the wake of If the risk of major conflagration and still is profound and severe. this conflagration, soils will be steril- were the only ecological crisis facing Photographs taken of the Park at ized and seed needed for renewal de- the Park, the superintendent's gamble the time of its designation in 1915 con­ stroyed. Generations of Americans and would have been reasonable, if not eth­ trast sharply with what meets the eye many generations of elk, deer, beavers, kal. The risk of multiple successive today. In place of the relatively uni­ bears, and cougars will be denied the years of severe drought and heat is form expanses of lodgepole pine and unheralded beauty and ecological rich- slim, at least in the short term. And spruce-fir forests that now drape its ness of Rocky Mountain National Park. tourists are content with the veneer of mountain slopes, abundant clones of The Park Service's fire suppression natural beauty. The only other danger aspen, irregularly aged stands of lodge­ policy, with its consequential reduction facing the superintendent is that scien­ pole pine and spruce-fir, patches of of biological diversity and increased tists may blow the whistle. successional ponderosa pine, and tran­ probability of disastrous conflagration, Happily for him, most are willing sient openings of grass and shrubs has not taken place without protest. to partake in a conspiracy of silence. cloaked the park in a distinctive mosa­ During the late 1960s and early Ecologists and biologists at ic. This vegetal mosaic clearly lacked 1970s, park biologists in- ...... III.IIIII..111t....- Colorado's state universi- the uniformity and superficial beauty formed Rocky Moun- ties were satisfied that attends today's virtual monocul­ tain's superintendent with the grants and tures of a handful of tree species. Yet of the escalating cri- privileges accord- this unique mosaic contained a degree sis. By the late '70s, ed them for re- of biological diversity that has silently their pleas were search in the disappeared from the Park in the wake heeded. The park Park. Preoccu- of almost a hundred years of fire sup­ administration ap- pied with study- pression, resulting in today's monocul­ proved a series of ing their small tures that attest to man's unthinking controlled burns to corner of the intervention. test the efficacy of Park, they had Declining diversity, though reason planned fire as a no reason to for alarm, is only half of the story. management tool. break the unstated Nearly a century of fire suppression One of those burns, but understood rule has allowed the Park's montane and set for a 200 hundred acre of silence. subalpine forests to age and clutter the plot near the base of Longs But not all are so compli- forest floor with ever-accumulating Peak, went awry. A change in wind ant. The small staff of ecologists piles of fuel. Indeed, in areas of the and humidity suddenly intensified the and biologists employed at the park it­ Park longest insulated from fire, the di­ fire, allowing it to spread over 500 self feel differently. They have long ameters of standing live trees are acres. Although the fire stayed within argued for controlled burns, pointing matched or exceeded only by the diam­ Park boundaries, it caused alarm out time and again the devastating pos­ eters of downed timber littering the among park administrators and resi- sibility of a major conflagration. So cer­ ground below. Fallen, old-aged trees dents in the local area. tain were they of the impending crisis piled one upon another create barriers Without further review, the super- that they initiated in 1989 a massive in­ from five to ten feet in height. Today, intendent canceled all future controlled ventory and classification of the Park's park scientists and fire-fighters wait in burns. He appreciated the harmful con- vegetation. In part, their motive was apprehension for the right combination sequences of fire suppression. But he one of desperation. An exhaustive in­ of dry and hot years - the once-in-a­ also understood that the political dan- ventoryand classification of the plants century combination that will ignite gers connected with continuing con- and plant communities of Rocky otherwise fire-proof forests into a con­ trolled burns were real and far more Mountain National Park would pro­ flagration equal to or exceeding the imminent. One more error, one more vide a beginning point in the restora­ 1988 fires of Yellowstone. miscalculation of wind and humidity, tion of the Park in the aftermath of the When that conflagration begins ­ and his job and career might be lost. In almost certain conflagration. The su­ it is just a matter of time - one of contrast, the danger of a conflagration perintendent reacted to this report in a America's most magnificent Parks will and the crisis of diminishing biological way they hadn't anticipated. In be consumed by flames. And this fire diversity were more distant problems. February 1991, he eliminated their po­ will be different from past fires. It will With any luck, his retirement would sitions, ridding himself and the Park of burn hotter, longer, and over a much come long before the problems of fire an embarrassing reminder of three­ larger area, because much more fuel and diversity surfaced in public view. quarters of a century of failed policy has accumulated and there are fewer In the meantime, he would remain in- and misdirected management. meadows to act as fire breaks and sulated like the forest itself from the Rocky Mountain's plant and wild­ fewer successional forest stands to dis- immediate fire-storm of public debate. life ecologists were reassigned to Liberty 33 Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

Yellowstone National Park and to a be in excess of 645 head and the first re­ The head scientist, a wildlife biologist National Park Service research facility ports of resource damage were tallied and advocate of what was becoming in Flagstaff, Arizona. The head ecolo­ by Park Service and Forest Service biol­ the Yellowstone religion of natural reg­ gist was kept on board, though with ogists. "Serious barking of aspen" was ulation, provided a scientific rationale specific instructions to engage in no observed in 1930 and subsequent Park to the park's superintendent for stop­ further biological research. Instead, his Service studies in 1936 revealed heavy ping artificial control of elk. Whether he function would be to contract all scien­ overgrazing of park browse - the criti­ was unaware of the park's earlier de tific work to outside biologists and cal winter food supply of Rocky facto experiment in natural regulation Mountain's rapidly expanding elk or whether he simply believed the theo­ herd. Resource conditions continued to ry needed further testing is unknown. worsen throughout the park as elk What is known, however, is that in 1973 Not one of the scientists on numbers expanded at an annual rate of the Rocky Mountain National Park elk the park's staff took the neces­ 17 percent, reaching an estimated peak herd was left to the mercy of the land of 1,525 in the early 1940s. and its vegetation. Hereafter, nature, sary step to blow the whistle on In response to heavy resource dam­ not man, would determine the size and Rocky Mountain's administra­ age, Rocky Mountain biologists began distribution of the park's principal tion. The crime of silence, as an aggressive control program in 1944 wildlife attraction. to bring elk numbers back within the Unfortunately, events have not un­ much as the crime of adminis­ park's estimated winter range carrying fold as predicted. On top of a growing trative ineptitude, lies at the capacity of 600 to 700 head. Within five uneasiness about the implications of heart of Rocky Mountain's ail­ years, elk numbers had fallen by more fire suppression, park scientists soon re­ ing environment. than 50 percent and remained at that alized that the theory of natural regula­ level well into the 1960s. Resource con­ tion was not performing as predicted. ditions experienced a rapid turn Elk were now completely out of con­ around. Eight years following the be­ trol, approaching by some estimates al­ ginning of elk control the first signs of most 4,000 head in 1991 - a level ecologists - consultants who would be range recovery were recorded. much easier to control and silence. In taking this drastic action, the su­ Throughout the '60s, grass and shrub­ lands continued to heal, wet meadows perintendent was responding to more recovered, and aspen stands enjoyed a So severe was the overpopu­ than the irritating and embarrassing lation problem that hundreds warnings of his staff regarding the im­ long awaited reprieve from excessive barking by antlered bull elk. By all indi­ pending fire crisis. He was reacting de­ of elk had begun wintering in cations, save those associated with fire fensively to a more immediate crisis­ the backyards of Estes Park res­ suppression, the park was finally re­ a crisis already evident on the ground idents and roaming through and one that Park scientists were point­ covering from its experiment in re­ building its resident elk herd. ing to with alarming urgency. Rocky the center of one of Colorado's Mountain's handful of biologists and Indeed, everything might have re­ fastest growing recreational ecologists were exiled not because of mained stable and well had it not been for natural regulation, a new idea gain­ towns . .. their predictions of future fire calamity. They were shipped out because they ing popularity in Yellowstone National Park. The theory was simple and ap­ :had documented and repeatedly point­ pealing - and untested. It held that ed out an evolving crisis as ecologically approximately six times the park's car­ immediate and environmentally threat­ wildlife populations - most particular­ rying capacity. So severe was the over­ ening as a conflagration: Elk were on ly elk and bison - were self-limiting; population problem that hundreds of the rampage, tromping and eating that population numbers were held in elk had begun wintering in the back­ Rocky Mountain National Park into an abeyance not by natural predators such yards of Estes Park residents and roam­ ecological oblivion no less calamitous as wolves, or unnatural ones like man, ing through the center of one of than the hypothesized conflagration. but by the limits of the available food Colorado's fastest growing recreational supply. Most importantly, the theory towns. Indeed, by late spring, 1991, elk The Antlers of a Dilemma took it for granted that wildlife popula­ that normally migrated from town to Elk were not always on the ram­ tions would reach equilibrium with alpine summer ranges were showing page, of course. When the park was es­ their food supplies

compelled them to warn the superin­ aspen tree remains in that meadow. On wild and diverse character, keeping tendent, time and again, of an ecologi­ a broader scale, preliminary estimates alive a crucial element of Rocky cal crisis in the making. And, in turn, it based on 1990 field-truthing of vegeta­ Mountain's ecosystem. was the incessant warnings of the sci­ tion units mapped in 1984 indicate that Desperate for winter forage, over­ ence staff, sounded in the context of a as much as 1/3 of the park's aspen that populated elk ate the willow stems, de­ political climate supportive of the lies within elk winter range may have priving the beaver of its building park's past elk policy, that drove the su­ been destroyed in the brief span of material, thereby driving beaver from perintendent to make his fateful eight years. the area. In the absence of beavers, the decision. Loss of aspen, though, is only part ponds disappeared, lowering the Rather than heed the messengers of of the story. Years of overgrazing by park's water table and dooming to ex­ impending crisis, the park's superinten­ elk has taken a heavy toll on the park's tinction those willows hardy enough to dent chose the path of least resistance. extensive wetlands. Willow stands, survive overgrazing by elk. As the wil­ He summarily dismissed biologists and home to plant and animal species lows disappeared, elk turned their at­ ecologists alike from Rocky Mountain found nowhere else in the park, are tention increasingly to the lush National Park. From his perspective, ig­ succumbing to the insatiable appetites understory of grasses and wildflowers noring the elk problem - as he had al­ of the elk. Willow communities located that accompanied the former willow ready done with the problem of fire within lower elevation elk winter range meadows. Elk overgrazing transformed suppression - made good bureaucratic are faring the worst. After two decades the diverse collage of grasses and wild­ and political sense. Elk, after all, were of natural regulation, landscapes once flowers into weedy expanses. The the wildlife centerpiece of the park. abundant in willow are barren, sup­ mountain stream that once meandered They were what tourists sought as they porting more simplified and less pro­ like a silver thread across the wetland's drove the park's highways. And they ductive plant communities. All that surface now cut into the drying soil, were quickly becoming lucrative mas­ remains of the fields of willows are leaving in its wake exposed and deep­ cots and desirable residents for a bur­ browning and dying stumps. ening vertical banks devoid of geoning Estes Park economy. To reduce More than willows, however, have vegetation. the elk herd from 4,000 head to the car­ suffered. Before elk reduced it to bar­ And so Moraine Park, along with rying capacity of 600 in a torrent of gov­ rens, Moraine Park had supported a many of the other willow meadows ernment bullets would be foolhardy at complex of ponds at random and within Rocky Mountain National Park best and political suicide at worst. It changing intervals along the meander­ - the very same wetlands that quali­ would mean working against the hu­ ing stream that bisected its considera­ fied Rocky Mountain as a Biosphere mane sensibilities of tourists, local resi­ ble length. Those ponds had been built Preserve and that established it as a dents, and concerned politicians. by beavers. In a natural process that standard for measuring man's impact Unfortunately, the. superintendent's predates white man's occupation of on environments not afforded similar decision meant ignoring the escalating Rocky Mountain resource damage. Park naturalists ob­ by several millen­ served declines in ptarmigan popula­ nium, the aquatic tions as a result of elk destruction of mammals harvest­ SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE prime habitat. More significantly, the ed mature willow park's aspen stands were in a state of stems and con- decay and deterioration. Mature trees structed sturdy with in virtually every stand in the park dams. The result­ W Your own custom tailored portfolio of no-load funds were scarred by elk antlers and fatally ing ponds provid­ infected with an invasive fungus. ed habitat for the W Comprehensive performance and tax reporting Seedlings that might have replaced the beavers and main­ W Long-term investment strategies without market timing dead and dying aspen had been grazed tained high water W Diversification among funds and managers in almost every instance, further sealing tables necessary for the fate of Rocky Mountain's aspen. willow regenera­ , Dollar cost averaging Indeed, the only healthy and reprOduc­ tion. Later, as sedi­ , Personal service ing stand of aspen remaining in the mentation filled in , Annual fees that start as low as $1,250 park was now found in an elk-proof ex­ the ponds, beavers closure built in the 1940s. At the time would harvest the the exc10sure was built, aspen thrived next generation of Call, write or FAX for information about both within and without. mature willow and Near the Fall River entrance to build new dams, The Multiple Mutual Fund ProgramsM Rocky Mountain, an aspen-ringed continuing the his­ a service of meadow had long greeted tourists. But toric and natural Towneley Capital Management, Inc., in the late '70s bull elk in historic num­ cycle of wetland re­ a registered investment advisor since 1971. bers invaded the small aspen grove and juvenation. In this systematically destroyed trees and manner, Moraine seedlings alike. Today, not a single Park maintained its 23197 LaCadena Drive, Suite 103, Laguna Hills, CA 92653 714-837-3580 800-545-4442 in USA only 714-837-3604 FAX Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

protection - suffers destruction of its of bear control by park authorities has correct the problem, Chase believes, ecologic system. Once scenic and exten­ created a creature so fearful of people scientists must be accorded more sive willow wetlands, they are .now that its useful habitat is limited to the power and prestige in the national park weedy meadows supporting only most inaccessible regions of the park­ system. They must become the arbitra­ dying remnants of their past diversity. areas which, by virtue of trail and road tors of nature's course, applying their development, account for only a small science prudently, reasonably and fraction of Rocky Mountain's 265,000­ without the ·obstruction of administra­ Except for a few isolated acre preserve. tive bureaucracy. blue spruce trees, very little re­ Colorado blue spruce symbolizes as Despite Chase's idealistic call to res­ well as any species the conservation toll urrect science toa more respectable and mains of what historically had being taken by bad policy and poor creditable position in Park Service hier­ been the finest examples of management in Rocky Mountain archy, the experience of Rocky Colorado blue spruce stands in National Park. The namesake of Mountain National Park suggests scien­ Colorado and the pride of the state's tists would not behave any differently the West. Ironically, more blue citizens, the tree grows in dense stream­ than the rangers who now man most spruce encircle the Kremlin in side stands where its blue tinged park administration posts. For one Moscow - a gift of the United crowns spiral far above all other native thing, the science staff of Rocky evergreens. Mountain must accept much of the States - than can now be Colorado blue spruce plays an im­ blame for the ongoing ecological crisis. found in the best of Rocky portant role in the unique wetland hab­ They were the first to recommend the Mountain's campgrounds and itat that supports a species richness far policy of natural regulation. pIcnIC areas. in excess of its spatial significance. In And not one of the scientists on the the forests adjacent to the park, frag­ park's staff took the necessary step to ments of blue spruce communities can blow the whistle on Rocky Mountain's still be found. But in the park - the administration. Concerned with their And the damage has not stopped at the proclaimed sanctuary of Colorado's bi­ own careers, they· went no further than borders of willow communities. ological treasures - blue spruce forests to warn the superintendent of the deteri­ The coniferous forests that encircle have been displaced by Park Service orating situation. Certainly, they lost park wetlands and willows have been their positions; but they did not lose trampled and defecated upon to excess. campgrounds and picnic areas. Except their jobs. Today, they are gainfully em­ What was once pristine forestlands ­ for a few isolated blue spruce trees, very little remains of what historically ployed within the National Park Service. at least along the edges of wetland And not one of them has spoken or writ­ marshes and willow openings - are had been the finest examples of ten publicly of the ecological decline of the aesthetic equivalents of livestock Colorado blue spruce stands in the West. Ironically, more blue spruce en­ Rocky MountainNational Park. Their si­ water holes and cattle feedlots: man­ lence is no more excusable, nor any less gled landscapes that make mockery of circle the Kremlin in Moscow - a gift reproachful, than the silence of academ­ Rocky Mountain's high purpose. of the United States - than can now be found in the best of Rocky Mountain's ic researchers atColorado's state univer­ A Symbol Felled campgrounds and picnic areas. sities. The crime of silence, as much as The picture emerging from almost the crime of administrative ineptitude, two decades of natural regulation man­ Cut to the Chase lies at the heart of Rocky Mountain's ail­ agement is bleak - even more bleak Alston Chase, in his memorable ex­ ingenvironment. when the complementing factor of fire pose Playing God.in Yellowstone, offers More importantly, there is every suppression is taken into account. several explanations of national park reason to believe that scientists are Elimination of periodic burns in the mismanagement. Scientists in the identical to administrators in the most park as a natural ecosystem component National Park Service, for example, are crucial way. Faced with the same insti­ has accelerated the elk crisis by speed­ isolated from administrative decision­ tutional incentives as their policemen ing the demise of aspen and diminish­ making and, for that reason, are unable counterparts, and subject to the same ing the size and quantity of grazing to steer park management along a more bureaucratic and political forces, scien­ meadows. Moreover, problems unrelat­ ecologically sound course of steward­ tists in charge at Rocky Mountain ed to elk and fire compound the park's ship. Superintendents, almost always would be hard-pressed to mount any ecological crisis. selected from the ranks of police­ substantial reform. For example, the black bear popula­ trained rangers, have little appreciation The institutional logic of survival, of tion in Rocky Mountain is far less than for what biologists and ecologists have pandering to special interest groups, the park's habitat would support under to offer toward the preservation of their and the relative painlessness of living more natural conditions. Indeed, more respective parks. with a facade of natural beauty make black bears live around and are ob­ National park management, Chase the current course preferable. To buck served in the outlying western suburbs argues, is mired in a morass of adminis­ the system of current management and of Denver than in the valleys and trative politics that over-emphasize attempt genuine reforms would entail mountains of Rocky Mountain tourism and policing at the expense of risks far beyond any hope of gain. Biosphere Preserve. Seventy-five years wildlife and vegetation science. To Allowing Rocky Mountain to continue 36 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

its environmental free fall is easier to long plagued millions of acres of forest ual parks. tolerate and far more rewarding, given and range managed by the U.S. Forest Terry Anderson, free market envi­ the array of institutional rewards and Service and the Bureau of Land ronmentalist and associate of the punishments. Management. Political Economy Research Center, Whoever the superintendent of the The legacy of Rocky Mountain goes one step further. He argues per­ park may be, the unfortunate truth is National Park is no less atrocious and suasively that national parks might be that protecting career positions, project­ unacceptable than the legacy of over­ better off under the care of the Disney ing the proper public image, and prop­ grazed BLM rangelands and overcut corporation. Disneyland, not the agating as large a budget as possible and excessively roaded Forest Service National Park Service, is by his argu­ are more important than willows, blue lands. The only difference is that Rocky ment a more suitable manager and a spruce, beavers, ptarmigans and bears. Mountain's administration cannot more preferable steward for many of It takes an unjustified leap of faith to claim the excuse of Congressionally­ America's most cherished wild and assume, as Chase does, that ecological mandated "multiple use" for its errant scenic lands. Anderson's proposal is problems of the national parks are sub­ ways. unlikely to gain much public support, stantially the consequence of the wrong Its mandate is clearly stated in the people being in control and that they United Nation's Biosphere Preserve are solvable by replacing those people designation: /I to provide a standard What once was pristine fo­ with scientists. Nothing in the unfold­ against which the effect of man's impact on restlands are the aesthetic ing drama of resource deterioration in his environment can be measured." By any Rocky Mountain National Park sup­ reasonable measure, the National Park equivalents of livestock water ports such a supposition. Unbroken fo­ Service has violated that mandate and holes and cattle feedlots. rests filled with legions of elk bring subverted the standard by which the pleasure to the casual tourist who world's human-impacted environments knows no better and perversely satis­ are to be judged and understood. at least right now. But his argument fies the local resident who, sadly Violation of that mandate is not the enough, can derive profit only from the makes sense, and as the environmental result of insufficient control of people disasters of Rocky Mountain and other spiralling collapse of the park's trou­ and resources by highly trained techno­ national parks unfold, people will be bled ecosystem. crats - the classic excuse offered by more likely to consider radical There is yet another problem with generations by scientifically-trained Chase's explanation of the ecological proposals. land managers. The problem is quite Successful protection and preserva­ predicament of America's parks. He the opposite. Rocky Mountain's envi­ blames an emergent and powerful envi­ tion of national parks like Rocky ronmental degradation is the result of Mountain require fundamental chang­ ronmental movement for an ideology excessive control and regulation; of sev­ of management, represented best by es in public policy and natural re­ ering people from the land; of making source thinking. Such changes must resources the icons of adoration; and of provide incentives to care for willows, diluting responsibility and accountabil­ blue spruce, bears, ptarmigans, and What is destroying Rocky ity for the land's stewardship. beavers. They must entail new institu­ tions that are capable of enforcing Mountain National Park is not Eradicating the Predatory accountability and ensuring responsi­ the park ranger mentality. The Bureaucrat bility. Most of all, they must make cause, pure and simple, is gov­ Effective solutions to the dilemma good stewardship the final objective ernment mismanagement. of Rocky Mountain National Park and and the ultimate reward. the 49 other national parks that stretch This means enacting far-reaching from coast to coast must begin with the reform; seeking innovative ways to restoration of responsibility and ac­ harness the vested interests of caring natural regulation, that threatens the ec­ countability. Adding a new layer of sci­ people to the ecological welfare and fu­ ological health and environmental well­ entific bureaucracy or putting even ture of America's neglected and being of the nation's park system. more land under bureaucratic control abused national parks. It means using Although Chase's charge may have sub­ (as the National Parks Conservation the tools of private property and the stance for Yellowstone and a handful of Association advocates) will not stem processes of the free market when pos­ America's other mega-parks, it hasn't the infectious ailment of predatory bu­ sible to attain the public ends that pub­ played much of a role in Rocky reaucracy. They will only make the sit­ lic institutions have failed to serve. Mountain's decline. What is destroying uation worse. Above all, it means eradicating the Rocky Mountain National Park - and The creation of independent conser­ type of hypocrisy that shrouds the for that matter, Yellowstone itself - is vation trusts, established by Congress United Nations plaque at Rocky Moun­ not the park-ranger mentality. The for a public purpose but owned pri­ tain National Park headquarters. 0 cause, pure and simple, is government vately by conservation groups, has This article is based on a paper present­ mismanagement - the historic failures, been proposed. In my judgment, such ed at the North American regional incompetencies and ineptitudes that at­ organizations would better oversee meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society on tend federal ownership and that have protection and preservation of individ- August 25, 1991, in Big Sky Montana. Liberty 37 Post-Game Analysis

Why Term Limits Lost by Chester Alan Arthur

Only in times of challenge and crisis, it is often said, can the true mettle of the man be determined. The political establishment was just so tested, recently, in the Pacific Northwest. It brought out its big guns: lies, lies and more lies.

Three weeks before the election, polls showed that Washington state's term­ limitation initiative had ~ lead of more than two-to-one among voters. Yet when the votes were counted, term limitation lost by a huge margin. Does this spell the end of the term limitation movement? I don't think so. Term limitation was defeated in Washington by a com­ bination of factors that are not likely to der also favors abolition of Social limitation campaign was an appeal to happen elsewhere. Security and the Environmental pure chauvinism, the hatred of people 1. The anti-limitation forces saw Protection Act, Washington voters who aren't like us. Californians have the issue as war, and were willing to should oppose anti-murder laws. long been a popular scapegoat in dispense with any concern for truth. The theory behind the third lie is Washington. Emmet Watson, a popu­ Rather than battling the issue on its that Californians are evil people who, lar columnist in the state's largest merits, they based their case on a se­ as "everyone knows," want to drain newspaper, has practically made a ca­ ries of outright lies: the Columbia River to fill their swim­ reer of crusading against Californians. • Term limits snatch Granny's ming pools. The main evidence of this They are buying up the land, building Social Security check right out is that periodically some nutball on the houses, and going into businesses that of her hand, leaving her des­ Los Angeles County Commission compete with locals - in short, they titute. grabs some headlines by proposing di­ are ruining the state. They have strange, sick attitudes. So voters were • Term limits mean massive oil version of Columbia River water to vulnerable to an appeal to their base spills in Puget Sound. L.A. His scheme is always rejected out­ of-hand as technically impractical and prejudices against Californians. • Term limits will take all the wa­ But how, pray tell, are Californians financially absurd. But it impresses a ter out of the Columbia River responsible for the term limitation ini­ few yahoos in L.A. county and alarms and otherwise deprade Wash­ tiative? Simple: ington. the credulous of the northwest. The fourth proposition is slightly Today in Los Angeles, Orange • Term limits mean higher elec­ County and elsewhere in California, pIausible: electric power in Wash­ tric rates. there's fresh hope ... Californians are The theory behind the first two lies ington (and elsewhere in the north­ anticipating the approval of Initiative is that term limitation was .supported west) comes partly from heavily subsi­ 553, the term-limits initiative. Finally, by David Koch, who eleven years ago dized hydro-electric boondoogIes, and they sigh. Finally! Washington would was the Libertarian Party vice presi­ Congress may one day conclude that be stripped of the strength it's held in Congress for more than three decades dential nominee, and the LP opposes there is no reason northwest business­ es and consumers should be sold elec­ ... the strength that allowed it to frus­ Social Security and certain envir­ trate Californians' agenda of greed. onmental protection legislation. I tricity at half the market rate ­ Initiative 553 wasn't home grown ... suppose that if an out-of-state oil bil­ though its relation to term limitation is a citizens' idea that sprouted from the lionaire who believes that Washington a bit obscure. grassroots of Washington. Political state should have a law against mur- But the centerpiece of the anti- conservatives in California and other 38 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

Washington to pass term limits so it the lack of seniority of Washington's states pulled some big bucks out of their wallets to finance it ... In could dump oil in pristine Puget two incumbent Senators. Both California, in the offices of politicians, Sound, drill for oil off Washington's Washing-ton's Senators are in their the headquarters of developers, the ul­ Pacific beaches, steal the water from first term, and one is virtually a lame traright political clubs of Orange the mighty Columbia River, and make duck, thanks to public reaction to his County and elsewhere, they've proba­ Washington a California colony. The novel idea of constituent relations (a bly begun to chill the champagne for logic of this position was diaphanous: prominent constituent withdrew his the victory party. California has many Congresspeople, support of the Hon. Brock Adams, ex­ This bizarre appeal to jingoism is Washington only a few; if Washington plaining that Adams had drugged his not the desperate effort of a sleazy poli­ Congresspeople lose their seniority, daughter and climbed into her bed). tician. The passages came from a col­ Californians will gain more power, Nevertheless, the memories of the il­ umn in the Seattle Times, published a which they will use for evil purposes. lustrious Maggie's fantastic seniority week before the election. It was written It is, I suppose, not surprising that reverberated on the state's airwaves. "I by Richard Larson, the paper's asso­ people in Washington should harbor ciate editor. And to drive the point such crude prejudice. What is remarka­ home, it was illustrated with a crude ble is the Willingness of establishment cartoon showing an evil Californian in Very early on, the oppo­ figures like Speaker of the House Tom black hat and black garb, clutching a Foley or Times editor Larson to appeal nents of term limits learned child labeled 'Washington." The child to this base prejudice. clutches a gun aimed at its foot. The that heaping blame on 2. Washington is similar to the Old Satanic Californian says "Pull the trig­ Californians (or "Californ­ South in another way: its citizens have ger, kid, it'll feel good." an extraordinary love of Congress' sen­ icators" as they are called in The same issue of the Seattle Times included two news articles on the term iority system and pork barrel politics. the northwest) works just limitation effort. Each mentioned that Its 1980 Senatorial race, for example, about as well in Washington libertarian oil magnates David and featured Warren Magnuson and Slade as attacking Jews worked in Charles Koch were prominent support­ Gorton. Gorton was a popular RepUb­ ers. Others mentioned include James lican Attorney General, running in an Hitler's Germany or blaming overwhelmingly Republican year in a Miller (of Washington, D.C., former blacks (or IIniggers," as they Budget Director), Ralph Nader (of New state that wentheavily for RepUblicans were called) worked in the Old York, another "ultrarightwinger"), and in state-wide races. Democrat Warren George Bush (of Texas, last I heard). It Magnuson ("Maggie," as he was affec­ South. also mentioned the support of Sherry tionately known) was obviously senile Bockwinkel of Tacoma, Washington and physically decrepit. His campaign (described as "a typical liberal appearances were carefully staged so always believed that Maggie could de­ Democratic activist") and from "sever­ that he would not have to walk to the liver more to the state with one phone al members of its steering committee podium; his "speeches" were very call than some junior Senator could who worked on the campaign of brief, since he could barely utter an in­ his entire term of office" typified pub­ Michael Collier," a peace activist who telligible sentence. Gorton managed to lic comment on the term limit issue. challenged incumbent Congressperson win, but only by the slimmest of 3. Up against this rather formidable Norm Dicks of Tacoma in his margins. set of circumstances, the pro-limitation Democratic Party primary. The only Similarly, when Tom Foley took forces were slow to respond and ineffi­ Californian mentioned was Jerry over as Speaker of the House in 1989, cient in their expenditure of money. ''Moonbeam'' Brown, hardly an ultra­ the state's newspapers and its people Given its love of the Congressional right Orange County type. carried on at length how Foley's sen­ seniority system and pork barrel poli­ Does Associate Editor Larson read iority and power would deliver lots of tics, and the popularity of its senior his own newspaper? Or does he cyni­ federal loot to the state. The celebra­ congresspersons, Washington was not cally ignore the facts and base his cam­ tion of greed got so bad that Foley a particularly good state to try to enact paign against term-limitation on an made several public statements warn­ a term limitation measure that kicks appeal to local narrow-mindedness? ing that the days of the really majestic senior congresspeople out of office. Anyway, very early on, the oppo­ pork barrel were past, and that he Given that handicap, the campaign nents of term limits learned that heap­ would have to serve the nation as a could not afford to blunder. But blun­ ing blame on Californians (or whole, rather than use his position to der it did. It blundered horribly. And "Californicators," as they are called in payoff his constituents. (In Foley's it never played its best cards. Given in the northwest) works just about as whirlwind campaign against term lim­ the huge lead in the polls, the cam­ well in Washington as attacking Jews its, he forgot all about this and revert­ paign apparently didn't bother to re­ worked in Hitler's Germany or blam­ ed to claims that his power could spond to any of the attacks. ing blacks (or "niggers," as they were deliver the pork.) Here are some specific blunders: called) worked in the Old South. The seniority argument didn't • The campaign spent much of its Californians, voters were told, wanted make much sense when one considers advertising money early, before the Liberty 39 Volume 5, Number 3 Januar 1992

campaign had really begun. During the Whether the failure of term limita­ es effectively, if it had avoided its final two weeks of the campaign, with tion in Washington will de-rail the blunders, Washington voters would the airwaves full of anti-limitation ads campaign elsewhere remains to be have enacted term limits. And Tom and news of incumbents attacking lim­ seen. But the shame is that it didn't Foley would be looking for a job. And its, I did not hear a single ad support­ have to lose. If it had been competent­ cashing in his fat government pen- ing limits. I am told that the campaign ly managed, ifit had spent its resourc- ~~ 0 spent its war-chest on general anti­ politician spots, never countering the issues raised by the opposition. For example, when the opposition was running its absurd but effective ad hominem attacks on "oil billionaires What's the big deal about term, lim,its? David and Charles Koch," the cam­ paign could have countered effectively by advertising the fact that the largest Sometime recently, when I wasn't battle over term limits, the U.S. does contributions to the campaign against looking, term limits became part of the have one significant instance of term term limits came from Phillip Morris, libertarian creed, and I don't really limitation: the 22nd amendment, the National Rifle Association, Boeing, know why. which prohibits a person from being major labor unions, the American Trial Sure, incumbents have awesome elected president more than twice or Lawyers Association, Anheuser-Busch, power. Sure, they are influenced undu­ from acting as President for more than and Kaiser Industries ... in short, big ly by lobbyists and special interest 10 years. This measure was the work money lobbies anxious to protect their groups. Sure, most incumbents are ad­ of Republicans who got control of investments in special relations with vocates of increasing government Congress in 1946 and were anxious to elected officials. power. And sure, increasing govern­ see to it that there would be no more • When most damage to the cam­ ment power is inimical to liberty. But FDRs. paign was coming from the jingoistic so what? Incumbents tend to advocate What has been the effect of the attack on Californians, the term limita­ increasing government power because measure? Since its enactment, there tion campaign brought in - get this ­ most Americans want increased gov­ have been two presidents prevented former California Gov. Jerry Brown to ernment power. from a third term: Eisenhower and campaign on its behalf. So far as I can The problem that we advocates of Reagan. Both Republicans; short!y tell, Brown is virtually the only liberty face is not the incumbency of after Reagan's re-election, his political Californian who publicly supported elected officials who disagree with us. forces campaigned for a constitutional Our problem is that most of our fellow the measure - just the man to make amendment to allow a third term. citizens disagree with us. This is an un­ the centerpiece of the campaign. Reagan was hurt badly by term pleasant fact. It is difficult to deal with. • David and Charles Koch blun­ limitation. Virtually as soon as he was It is much more pleasant to believe that dered when they publicized their con­ re-elected in a landslide, the media the reasons our policy recommenda­ tributions. It would have been an easy began to refer to him as a "lame duck" tions are ignored is some sort of con­ matter to obscure their role in bankrol­ president. The same wimpy Democrats spiracyor some sort of evil institutional ling the campaign: they could have in Congress who feared treading on arrangement. Conspiracies can be pros­ made gifts to a variety of political com­ ecuted and institutional arrangements the toes of the extremely popular mittees in both Washington state and can be changed more easily than our Reagan in his first term, were embold­ Washington D.C., which in turn could neighbors' beliefs. ened in his second to commit all sorts have contributed to the campaign. Suppose that senior incumbents to of acts of lese majeste. A good case can Instead, they funnelled their money elective office were mostly advocates of be made that the whole Iran-Contra into the campaign solely through the liberty who used the power of their in­ mess would never have been exposed Committee for Campaign Reform. And cumbency to foil attempts to increase had Reagan been eligible for another there was no good reason for David the power of the state. In that situation, term. I doubt this is what the Koch to speak to the press; whatever would term limitation be a libertarian Republicans had in mind when they he said could be (and was) taken down position? passed presidential term limitation. and used against him. Furthermore, I am not convinced (Incidentally, I don't recall hearing • The campaign for term limits out­ that term limitation would have partic­ Tom Foley or any of the other oppo­ spent its opposition by a factor of about ularly salutary effects. Sure, it would be nents of term limits argue to amend 2 to 1. But it concentrated its spending nice to knock Tom Foley, Alfonse the Constitution to remove presiden­ on staff, consultants and direct mail. d'Amato, Ted Kennedy, and Robert tial term limits.) These activities don't translate into Dole out of office. But why should we I voted for term limits. I figured, votes. In the critical area of broadcast be convinced that their replacements what the hell, the campaign against it advertising in the final weeks prior to would be any better? is loathsome, and it'll get rid of some the election, opponents of term-limits Although I didn't hear it mentioned bums. But it was a close call. outspent them by about 2 to 1. a single time in Washington's recent -R. W. Bradford 40 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 Comparison

Beyond Austrian Economics: The Economy as Ecosystem by Michael Rothschild

In economic thought, the "Austrian school" has survived but not thrived. Michael Rothschild, the author of Bionomics: The Inevitability of Capitalism, adds a new component to the Austrian information set, and predicts a scientific revolution.

conomist Mark Blaug has American government. pointed out similarities between certain made a telling point about the Though scientists may recoil at the bionomic concepts and several Austri­ remarkable durability of equi­ notion that "bad theory is still better an ideas.3 Though Austrian economics libriurn economics: than no theory at all," the evidence sup­ and bionomics follow two distinct E logical paths, they converge in their re­ Bad theory is still better than no theo­ ports Professor Blaug's assertion. As­ ry at all and, for the most part, critics saults on orthodox thinking have been jection of equilibrium economics. of orthodoxy had no alternative con­ necessary, but insufficient to upset the Nonetheless, profound differences dis­ struction to offer... The moral of the reigning economic theology. If equilib­ tinguish these two perspectives. story is simply this: it takes a new the­ rium dogma is ever to be knocked from Bionomics in Brief ory, and not just the destructive expo­ its pedestal, non-believers must re­ sure of assumptions or the collection Bionomics argues that a market spond to Professor Blaugs challenge of new facts, to beat an old theory.l economy is a naturally occurring phe­ and propose a new and better theory. nomenon. Like an ecosystem, a market Professor Blaug is correct. Equilibri- In the vernacular, critics of equilibrium um economics is, and always has been, economy is a spontaneous evolutionary economics must "put up or shut up." fatally flawed. Even its staunchest pro­ process. Neither the market economy I have recently proposed an alterna­ ponents concede that the general equi­ nor the ecosystem was planned. Nei­ tive to the equilibrium model, a new librium model bears little, if any, ther system requires central manage­ theory called bionomics.2 Of course, no resemblance to empirical reality. And ment. Both the ecosystem and the idea is truly new. Every concept has its yet, the equilibriuml approach endures, economy are examples of what science dominating the landscape of modern ec­ antecedents. In this case, the principles now calls "self-organizing, chaotic" onomic thought like an invulnerable of bionomics were drawn primarily processes. colossus. from the rapidly advancing biological Key phenomena observed in nature Decade after decade of devastating sciences. The few bionomic concepts - competition, learning, specialization, attacks by the "Austrians" and other not borrowed from biology were de­ cooperation, growth, and several others heretics have barely altered the course rived from the teachings of modern - are also central to economic life. of the "mainstream." To this day, equi­ business strategy. Moreover, the evolution of the global librium orthodoxy is passed down as To the surprise of some, the devel­ ecosystem and the emergence of mod­ gospel in virtually every microeconom­ opment of bionomics was not directly ern industrial society are studded with ics course. Though ignored by all prac­ influenced by the Austrian School. Like striking parallels. ticing businesspeople, its mythology of too many other students of economics, I Coded inforrnation is the essence of smoothly intersecting supply and de­ was completely unaware of the Austri­ both systems. In the biologic environ­ mand curves still distorts the perspec­ an tradition. But after Bionomics was ment, genetic information, encoded in tive of policy-makers at every level of published, a number of reviewers the DNA molecule, is the basis of all Liberty 41 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

life. In the economic environment, tech- ­ happens at least a million times faster history, profound cultural change. has nological information, recorded in than genetic change. been driven by the evolution of techno­ books, blueprints, scientific journals, Before developing this line of think­ logical information, not the evolution of formulae, algorithms, and databases, is ing any further, it is necessary to distin­ genetic information. Our genes have re­ the source of all economic life. guish bionomics from Social mained virtually unchanged for 200,000 As humankind's ability to copy and Darwinism. Ultimately, the perverted years. exchange information improved, first logic of Social Darwinism led to one of The Social Darwinists and sociobiol­ with the invention of the printing press the greatest tragedies in history - the ogists argue by homology - a similarity and more recently with the creation of Nazi Holocaust. Because of this horrify­ based on lineal descent. Bionomics the computer, the accumulation of sci- ing result, biology became taboo for ec­ argues by analogy - a similarity that onomic thinkers. Bionomics reopens this emerges from like circumstances. In bio­ closed subject by arguing that the in­ nomics, genes and knowledge are not sights of modern biology, properly ap­ connected, they are parallel. Our genes Though ignored by all prac­ plied, can shed new light on the do .not program us to become capital­ ticing businesspeople, main­ complexities of the economy. ists. The system known as "capitalism" Unfortunately, the appropriate use is not an "ism." It is not a belief system, stream economics' mythology of biology's lessons in deciphering hu­ like socialism. Capitalism is simply the of smoothly intersecting sup­ man social questions has been compli­ process by which coded technological ply and demand curves dis­ cated by the recent rise of human information evolves. Human beings are sociobiology. Human sociobiologists the only agents of technological evolu­ torts the perspective of policy­ employ far more sophisticated lan­ tion on this planet, because we alone makers at every level of Ameri­ guage than old-fashioned Social Dar­ are biologically equipped to read and can government. winists, but the core allegation is the writeo By virtue of an immensely long same: people are born to behave the string of evolutionary accidents, we way they do. Proponents of sociobiolo­ happen to be the only species able to gy see the diversity of human cultures code and decode strings of symbols entific knowledge quickened and then as rooted in differences within the hu­ stored outside our bodies. accelerated again. Today, a staggering man gene pool. For them, culture does On a day-in, day-out basis, biologic profusion of highly specialized firms ­ not emanate from the mind, but from and economic life are structured and from fast-food chains to microchip the genes. operate in much the same way. Organi­ makers to international airlines - em­ In sharp contrast, bionomics holds zations, like organisms, are built in ploy tiny subsets of this vast body of that economic development - and the complex hierarchies. One is made up of coded information to convert raw mate­ social change flOWing from it - is not cells within tissues within organs with­ rials and labor into the finished goods shaped by a society's genes, but by its in organisms within populations, while accumulated technical knowledge. In­ the other is comprised of work teams in­ and services that satisfy human needs deed, wherever advanced technologies side departments inside divisions inside and desires. have penetrated, cultural chasms once firms inside industries. Some organisms Although the pace of economic evo­ thought unbridgeable have narrowed and some organizations, like bacteria lution is stunningly rapid, its detailed to the vanishing point. Europe's current and sole-proprietors, are minuscule but processes are remarkably similar to unification is but one example of this found in huge numbers and varieties, those found in nature. Slight rearrange­ common process. Throughout human while others, like great blue whales and ments of genetic code, known as muta­ tions, are much like the modest alterations of technologic code, known as improvements. Major revisions of ge­ netic code sequences, called recombina­ tions, are analogous to the radical changes in technologic code called inventions. In nature, new sequences of genetic code (manifested as organisms) that "fit" the environment are sorted from less efficient strains by natural selec­ tion. Similarly, certain new technolo­ gies (manifested as organizations) are distinguished from less effective alter­ natives by market competition. The chief difference between the biologic and economic forms of information ev­ olution is speed. Technologic change 42 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

An organization reinvests its profits in technological information much as an organism reinvests in genetic informa­ tion. But there is a crucial difference. Or­ ganisms must reinvest in virtually unchanged genetic sequences. By con­ trast, company managers decide what technologies to invest in. Whether this new technology is developed internally or purchased from outside suppliers, a firm's future "corporate genes" are, at least in part, a result of conscious choice. Because resources are always limited - there is only so much "carrying ca­ pacity" in an ecologic niche or "market size" in an economic niche - the organ­ isms and organizations that survive do so by being somewhat more efficient than their competitors. Simply put, there are two ways to become more effi­ cient. The short-term process is called learning. The long-term process is called specialization. IBM, are massive and few. add value to the materials and labor it All animals - from the lowliest sin­ No living thing can exist in isolation takes in. To attract buyers, most of that gle-cell protozoans to human beings ­ from the ecosystem. In a sense, every added value is passed along to custom­ are able to learn. For example, a newly organism and every species is a node in ers, but a portion - its profit - is re­ hatched bumblebee worker takes sixty a vast network of ecological relation­ tained by the firm. minutes to gather up a full load of pol- ships, called the food chain. Each is held in place by links to its resources, predators, and competitors. A similar webwork of relationships, called the value-added chain, defines each firm and industry. In effect, firms face essen­ tially the same set of bionomic con­ straints faced by organisms. Each is

held in place by relationships to its sup­ 0 .. 1.5 0 pliers, customers, and competitors. 0.28 0/28 To survive and reproduce, a living 0.43 0.28 thing must gather more food energy Gross Profit per Foraging Minute 1..34 1..49 than it burns off while collecting that 60 60 energy. For example, individual bum­ 9 blebees collect more calories in nectar 1.7 45 than they burn up as they commute 40 75 back and forth to flowers. The gross margin collected from millions of flow­ 82.9% er visits pays the overhead of maintain­ Overhead Costs ing the hive. At the end of the summer _ """""""""""""",?fl"",(reJf?q,,lf,b?;~gthe (Jue;en Feeding Worker Larvae 1.,51.5,024 season, the net energy profit of the hive incribating Worker 1J,;arvae 38,600 is invested in drones and virgin queens, In-Hive Worker Heat Losses 378,000 the bees that carry the social organism's f)e~d Workers at Disposal 20,oao Subtotal 1.,993,844 genetic code. A bumblebee hive, like every other organism, is a genetic sys­ Net Profit Available to Reinvest 1.,1.59,057 30.5%

tem that squeezes an energy profit from Feeding Queen/Drone Larvae its ecologic transactions and reinvests incubating (jueeriXEkone Larvae that profit in copies of its genes. Subtotal To survive economically, an organi­ zation must use its unique technical know-how, its "corporate genes," to Liberty 43 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

material as organizational learning Parallel Flow of Production translates the trials and errors of pro­ duction experience into new technolo­ gy. As real costs decline, the real standard of living rises. The learning curve phenomenon has lon§ been known to orthodox.econ­ omists. But it has been virtually ig­ nored, perhaps because the learning curve obliterates the myth of rising marginal costs - the cornerstone of equilibrium logic. Intimately related to the phenome­ non of learning is specialization. To persist, every form of life tends to be­ come more specialized, developing a particular way of getting by that only a few direct competitors in its niche can match. Avoiding head-on competition through specialization - in the wild and in the marketplace - leads to in­ creasing diversity. Diversity, in turn, leads to greater interdependence and complexity. For example, 60 distinct species of bumblebees inhabit North and Central America. Each one has been physically tailored by evolution to fit a particular len and nectar from a jewelweed plant. tion experience accumulates to drive niche along a "resource spectrum." An experienced worker takes just six costs down noticeably. Nonetheless, ad­ Each specializes in a small group of minutes. This ten-fold efficiency im­ justed for inflation, the cost of automo­ plant species that live under certain cli­ provement follows the familiar pattern biles keeps falling. In real dollars, this matic and soil conditions. Short­ of the "learning curve," where perfor­ year's Ford Escort is about 20% cheaper tongued bumblebees suck nectar from mance improves as a function of accu­ than a 1912 Model T. plants with shallow, open flowers, mulated experience. Throughout the market economy, while long-tongued bumblebees collect Organizations, like organisms, learn more and more consumer value is their calories from flowers with deep from experience. In high technology squeezed out of less and less labor and corollas. businesses, where production experi­ ence accumulates quickly from a small base, "learning curve" calculations are Maze Learning in Rats essential to the formulation of competi­ (Log/Log Scale) tive strategies. But learning is not limit­ ed to high-technology. In fact, all 30 products and all services, regardless of en 20 their high-tech or low-tech character, 't:I C 0 get cheaper as the producer's experi­ U CD ence accumulates. Literally thousands ~ 10 of empirical studies have shown that ~ 8 0 u the learning curve is a universal eco­ fI) nomic phenomenon. No study has ever CD E 4 shown the absence of learning. i= Two factors tend to blind us to the fa e universality of ever-declining unit costs. CD 2 First, inflation masks historical cost de­ ~ clines, because we tend to think in terms of current dollars. Second, the vast production experience already ac­ cumulated in mature products like au­ Experience (Number of Trials) tomobiles means that decades must pass before enough additional produc- Source: Honzik and Tolman, "Degrees of Hunger, Reward and Non-Reward, and Maze Learning in Rats," Univ. of Calif. Publ. in Psych.(1930) 44 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

organizational learning and specialization, tech­ nological evolution pushes back the economy's price/performance barriers in transportation, communication, agriculture, housing, and every other sector. Increasing specialization and diversity create new opportunities for mutually beneficial inter­ dependence. Symbiotic relationships - com­ mon among species in nature - are echoed in the economy, where the vast majority of transac­ tions is based upon mutual profitability. Taken over time, the twin phenomena of competition and cooperation have yielded the diversity and abundance of the earth's ecosystem in one realm and the complexity and productivity of the glo­ bal market economy in the other. As any careful observer of the ecosystem or the economy can attest, each system is incom­ prehensibly complex. And, to make matters still more complicated, both realms are being con­ stantly restructured as evolution proceeds. New species and new industries, the manifestations of new sequences of genetic and technologic In the economy, companies behave much the same way. They con­ code, spring up whenever the ecologic or eco­ stantly differentiate their products and services to minimize head-to-head nomic conditions permit. Simultaneously, long­ competition. The fungible commodities so prominent in the models of or­ established species and industries are driven to thodox economists are exceptions, not the rule. From the Bic ballpoint to extinction by environmental shifts and new the Mont Blanc fountain pen, from Motel 6 to the Ritz-Carlton, organiza­ competitive pressures. Change, unpredictable tions jostle for position in market niches arrayed along price/ change, is the only constant. performance curves. Some firms specialize in "downscale" customers The awesome complexity of the ecosystem with thin wallets, others tailor themselves to satisfy "upscale" buyers makes it difficult to believe that it runs itself. with deep pockets. But, as Charles Darwin was the first to make Over time, as learning and specialization proceed, price/performance clear, no conscious force is needed to keep the curves keep getting pushed down. Like a vast amoeba, the economy natural world going. Life is a self-organizing, grows, extending its pseudopods into previously unreachable price/ "chaotic" phenomenon. From the interplay of performance regions. For example, the cost per seat-mile of a Boeing 747 hormones in the human body to the expansions is radically lower than that of an ocean liner. But until we had accumulat­ and contractions of the great Arctic caribou ed the technological information embedded in the 747, the size of the herds, nature's intricately linked feedback loops economy was constrained by costs of steamship technology. Propelled by maintain the ecosystem through a regime of er­ ratic, self-correcting fluctuations. As recent eco­ Communications Industry: logical research shows, there is no ''balance of Cost Frontier nature," only the confusion of species popula­ (United States, 1980) tions exploding and plummeting chaotically. In

10000 biology, balance and equilibrium are achieved only in death. 1000 In "C Markets provide a similar network of feed­ o 100 3= back loops in the economy. Without central o 10 planning, buyers and sellers respond to errati­ g~ ~ca cally fluctuating prices for commodities, capital, ~~~ and labor. A flexible, adaptive economic order ~~ ~ 0.1 'E~ ~ emerges spontaneously from the chaos of free ~~ 2- 0.01 cae markets. Free market prices are inherently un­ ~.- 0.001 predictable. Like the ''balance of nature," equi­ ~o t; 0.0001 librium prices are a myth. o Na one is in charge of either system, and no o 0.00001 one needs to be. In and of itself, competition for 0.000001 0.00001 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 1000000 survival between rival strands of coded infor­ Number of Trillion Words Made Available in 1980 mation compels learning and specialization (Log Scale) which leads inexorably to greater efficiency, di­ Source: De Sola Pool, et aI., Communications Flows (1984) versity, and complexity. These are the primal Liberty 45 VolumeS, Number 3 January 1992 forces driving capitalism. Everyone of found philosophical difference. Abstrac­ sage of historical time - the fact that them has its close parallel inbiology. tions like "the working class" are rem­ time has a directional quality and is nants of an intellectual tradition that punctuated by unpredictable events ­ Bionomics and Austrian Darwin seriously damaged with his is irrelevant to an equilibrium system of Economics Compared own brand of "methodological individ­ endlessly repeating cycles. This is why Viewing the economy through the ualism." Like the Austrians, Charles "comparative statics" is the best that or­ eyes of a biologist may seem strange to Darwin realized that an evolutionary thodox economists will ever have to of- students of the Austrian school, and yet, system emerges as the collective result several bionomic observations will of .uncoordinated interactions among seem quite familiar. This should come unique individuals. a~ no surprise. If two observers are Indeed, the Austrian principle of The chief difference between watching the same real phenomena, "spontaneous order," where economic the biologic and economic their observations ought to share some diversity and complexity emerge over forms of information evolution commonality despite their different time without central direction, owes perspectives. much to the intellectual revolution fo­ is speed. Technologic change Although lam only now becoming mented by Charles Darwin. The very happens at least a million acquainted with· the Austrian literature notion that something as miraculously times faster than genetic and still have an enormous amount of complex as the natural world could reading to do, the major similarities and have arisen without the guiding hand change. differences between Austrian thinking of a divine central planner is echoed in and bionomics seem clear to me. Take, the Austrian description of the economy for example, "methodological individu­ as a "spontaneous order" emerging out fer and why a realistic mmel of the alism," the Austrian principle that com­ of the chaos of individual "human economy as a "dynamic system" will be mands economists to pay attention to action." forever beyond their reach. the behavior of individual economic ac­ Another important similarity be­ By contrast, both bionomics and tors rather than those of abstract entities tween the Austrian and bionomic views Austrian economics place great stress like "the working class, "the banking in­ is the stress that both place on disequi­ upon the role of historical time. The dustry," or "the economy." librium. According to the Austrians, market is not a stable mechanism where In biology, focusing attention on in­ though equilibrium is the central obses­ the smooth trajectories of demand and dividuals was.. one of the greatest of sion of orthodox economics, economic supply intersect at some calculable Charles Darwin's revolutionary intellec­ equilibrium is a myth. Bionomics could equilibrium position. According to the tual contributions. Before Darwin, natu­ hardly be more emphatic in agreeing Austrians, the market is a never-ending ralists conceived of species as ideal with the Austrians abo~t the absurdity process of discovery. The market is a of the conventional fascination with necessary consequence of the fact that equilibria. Going perhaps one step fur­ information is not "given," and that The· system known as "capi­ ther than the Austrians, however, bio­ whatever information exists is imper­ nomics stresses that in the realm of fect and unevenly distributed.6 talism" is not an "ism." It is complex systems, like organic life, dise­ Again, in its rejection of the Newton­ not a belief system, like social­ quilibrium is desirable and healthy. Liv­ ian "economy as equilibrium machine" ism. Capitalism is simply the ing things stay alive only because the paradigm, bionomics accepts the Aus­ coded genetic information inside them trian view of the market as a process. process by which coded techno­ manages to overcome (temporarily) the More specifically, bionomics views free logical information evolves. entropy that leads to eternal markets as feedback loops, much like equilibrium. the feedback loops that govern biologi­ The equilibrium myth so cherished cal life at all its levels of organization. archetypes. Differences among individ­ by orthodox economists is, of course, in­ Economic players endlessly adjust their ual members of a species were dis­ timately linked to their desire for stabili­ activities and plans as they decipher the missed as unimportant. It was Darwin ty. Fundamentally, the quest for stasis is information fed back to them through \vho first realized that these tiny varia­ a rejection of historical time. Like the price signals. No stopping point, no tions (or mutations) were the raw mate­ Newtonian physics upon which it is r~sting place, no equilibrium exists, be­ rial of evolutionary change. By based, equilibrium economics describes cause new information keeps appearing stressing the uniqueness of each. indi­ the world as if it were an eternally un­ as the evolution of technological infor­ vidual organism, it was Darwin who changing, cyclical clockwork mecha­ mation proceeds. first challenged the Platonic philosophi­ nism. In the Newtonian system, once Interestingly, in his famous essay cal tradition of "essentialist" or class­ the trajectories of the planets are "The Use of Knowledge in Society," type thinking.5 Indeed, although Marx­ known, time is merely a variable in the Friedrich Hayek describes the workings ists from Engels on down have tried to precise calculation of their future posi­ of price signals by relying on an "econo­ draw support for their arguments by tions. But taken as a whole, the Newton­ my as machine" analogy. citing Darwin, such arguments have ian universe was static, timeless, and It is more than a metaphor to de­ never held water, because of this pro- therefore perfectly predictable. The pas- scribe the price system as a kind of 46 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3

machinery for registering change, or suppliers, etc.) Despite what "main­ a system of telecommunications stream" economists would have us be­ which enables individual producers lieve, the "iron lung" industry had Stored to watch merely the movement of a never achieved an equilibriurn. Its par­ few pointers, as an engineer might ticipants survived economically by watch the hands of a few dials, in or­ reacting to the same unpredictably fluc­ der to adjust their activities to chang­ Labor: es of which they may never know tuating price signals that communicate more than is reflected in the price essential economic data to the players in ANe-w Theory movement.7 every industry. However, once the tech­ of Money Two decades later, however, in "The nological information embodied by the Theory of Complex Phenomena," vaccine became part of the economy This startling and highly original work Hayek begins to shift his position when and eliminated demand for "iron sets forth the philosophical principles he describes organic and economic phe­ lungs," decision-makers in that indus­ that underlie the nature of money. It nomena as examples of the kind of try responded to this new information by shutting down. Of course, as the shows how the surface definition of complex systems that do not operate by money as being the "medium of ex­ s "iron lung" industry went extinct, a simple mechanical rules. change" has misdirected thought on one new industry grew up to produce and Having recognized these broad are­ of the most important aspects of Capital­ as of agreement - methodological in­ distribute the polio vaccine. ism This work demonstrates how the dividualism, spontaneous order, Because bionomics focuses so in­ current definitions and understandings of disequilibria, and market process - it tensely on new technology as the driv­ money are incompatible with freedom. It is essential to examine the points on ing force of economic evolution, it builds a foundation that may be fully in­ which Austrian economics and bio­ makes a somewhat stronger case than tegrated with the ideas ofliberty, proper­ nomics appear to differ. Primary the Austrians in describing the market ty rights and reason. proces~. If among these differences seems to be as a discovery the economic Send $8.00 plus $2.00 postage and the definition of information and its role of new science and technology is ig­ handling to: role in the economy. Unlike the Austri­ nored, or at least under-appreciated, Hugh Thomas ans, bionomics places utmost emphasis then it is a bit easier for orthodox econo­ mists to counter that, even though equi­ 17238 Tribune St., libria never appear in reality, they could Granada Hills, CA 91344. emerge in theory. And indeed, if the Taken over time, the twin economy were a closed information sys­ phenomena of competition and tem, not subject to the inflow of new "The point is not that knowledge, then it seems that the mar­ plundering the rich is immoral, cooperation have yielded the di­ but that it doesn't pay, doesn't ket's discovery process would eventual­ reduce but increases inequality... " versity and abundance of the ly find and eliminate all sources of earth's ecosystem in one realm disequilibria. To dismiss the importance and the complexity and pro­ of new knowledge is to play by the UP from LlBERTARIANI!M rules of static analysis. ductivity of the global market by D. G. Lesvic In "The Use of Knowledge in Socie­ ...offers a new economic argument for ty," Friedrich Hayek downplays scien­ freedom, and answers its foremost economy in the other. critics, Rothbard, White, Hazlett, and tific knowledge, pointing out instead Friedman, with their own words! the value of "the knowledge of the par­ ticular circumstances of time and The Political Economy Club of Los Angeles on the role of science and technology. 5668 Cahuenga Blvd., #313 As human beings discover new knowl­ place."9 Though Hayek is entirely cor­ North Hollywood, CA 91601 edge, write it down (encode it as strings rect in emphasizing that "scientific $4.00 ppd. of symbols), copy and disseminate it, knowledge is not the sum of all knowl­ these strands of information upset pre­ edge," he weakens his main argument viously existing value relationships. by diminishing the role played by scien­ The Liberty Poll Jobs, companies, industries, and entire tific knowledge. "Economic problems What Libertarians Think economies are continuously reshaped arise always and only in consequence of by the emergence of new technologies. change," writes Hayek.10 But change is Thefirst detailed study of what libertari­ not limited to temporary fluctuations, ans think about life, government, God, sex, To cite just one of a virtually unlim­ heroes ... and how they would deal with ited number of possible examples, the like the Florida freeze that sends orange some serious moral problems. Now com­ polio vaccine obliterated the industry juice prices straight up, that so charac­ plete with data from the original poll to that produced "iron lungs." Injecting a terize daily market function. Historic ec­ Liberty subscribers and the poll of Liber­ new strand of technological information onomic change - the directional, tarian Party members. $4.00 each, ppd.; into the economy radically altered all evolutionary change that alters society $3.00 each for 5 or more copies. the price signals flowing back to those in fundamental ways - is driven exclu­ Liberty Publishing involved in the "iron lung" business sively by the accumulation of scientific PO Box 1167 (hospitals, manufacturers, component and technological information, like Port Townsend, WA 98368 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

high-temperature superconductivity, that tells a cell how to produce acetyl­ We are often told that Homo sapiens which will dramatically alter the cost choline. In both cases, it is a linear se­ is unique because it alone has high in­ and uses of electricity. quence of symbols that captures and telligence and language. This is wrong. A dichotomy drawn from the phi­ conveys meaning. Bottle-nosed dolphins. also have high losophy of biology may help clarify Thinking about information as en­ intelligence and language.12 What these issues.11 Hayek's attention is fo­ coded knowledge leads to several far­ made our species special, what allowed cused on proximate causation; that is, reaching implications that sharply dis­ us to create technological and economic how the market changes on a day-in, tinguish bionomics from Austrian civilizations, was our biological poten­ day-out basis. Bionomics supplements thought. For example, the Austrian prin­ tial for literacy. Somehow our brains this correct analysis by stressing ulti­ ciple of "subjectivism" holds that one evolved the capacity to code and de­ mate causation; that is, how the econo­ cannot understand the economy unless code lines of written down symbols. my changes over time in response to one understands what individuals are Somehow we can scan the sequence of the evolution of technologic code. Once thinking. Following Ludwig von Mises, 42 symbols in this second source of change is recog- many Austrians regard the study of "hu­ The full moon's reflection shimmered man action" (praxeology) as paramount. upon the bay. The logic of Austrian thinking is con­ and see the image in our mind's eye. structed upon the axiom that hu-man be­ Exploiting this unique physiological A flexible, adaptive econom­ ings act purposefully to achieve chosen capacity, we, alone among the millions ic order emerges spontaneously ends. From a purely scientific stand­ of species, have been able to observe na­ from the chaos of free markets. point, the problem with these hypothe­ ture and record our observations in a ses is that they cannot be falsified by way that could be transmitted to others Free market prices are inher­ empirical evidence. There is no way to and to future generations. As we gradu­ ently unpredictable. Like the know what someone was really thinking ally compiled this extra-genetic code of "balance of nature," equilibri­ or what the true purpose of his action written human knowledge, we were was. Austrians acknowledge this by say­ able to create increasingly sophisticated um prices are a myth. ing, in effect, that economics is not a nat­ and productive economic systems. ural science, it is a social science. As such, economics cannot be expected to play by the rules of science. nized, it is unnecessary to give ground Making room for bionomic Bionomics does not dispute the im­ even to the orthodox economist's limit­ portance of human perception nor does ideas does not require the aban­ ed, theoretical claim of equilibrium. Be­ it deny the fact that every human being donment of accepted Austrian cause the economy is an open information system, new knowledge is unique and has perceptions that differ principles. These worldviews continually disrupts economic relation­ from those of everyone else. As previ­ ously noted, there is hardly a more cen­ are not mutually exclusive. In ships that may have been drifting to­ fact, they strengthen each ward some kind of equilibrium. The tral notion in evolutionary biology than faster information expands, the more the concept of individual uniqueness. other. impossible even the concept of equilib­ However, bionomics does not regard hu­ rium becomes. man thought and human action to be the Indeed, even while acknowledging sole source of economic life. Thought Where every other species has survived the many similarities shared by Austri­ and action are, of course, indispensable. by virtue of its evolving genetic code an economics and bionomics, one can­ But in an economic context, human be­ alone, we have prospered through the not escape the larger implications of ings must have something to think about evolution of our technologic code. The their fundamentally different treat­ and act upon. Bionomics holds that crea­ creativity, thought, and action of indi­ ments of the concept of information. At tive humans are engaged in an unending vidual human beings made this evolu­ least as I presently understand it, all the dialogue with encoded knowledge. Hu­ tion possible. But one must ask, ''If important distinctions between Austri­ man beings and coded information are Newton (or Darwin) had not been born an thinking and bionomics spring from co-equal partners in the economy. would we still be ignorant of classical their different views on information. Historically, it is encoded informa­ physics and evolutionary biology? Or The Austrians appear to use the tion - sequences of symbols recorded would other individuals have observed ,vord "information" in its normal, ver­ outside of human bodies - that has these patterns in nature and written nacular sense - meaning knowledge played the pivotal role in economic life. them down to share with the rest of about the state of the world. Bionomics, Without writing, we would still be liVing us?" Newton did not actually "stand on by contrast, relies on a far more restric­ as our ero-Magnon ancestors did 40,000 the shoulders of giants"; he studied tive sense of the term. In bionomics, in­ years ago. We would not be "masters of their writings. formation means a linear sequence of the planet." We would be, as we were With their cuneiform writing sys­ symbols that encodes knowledge. The for the first 2.5 million years of hominid tem, the Sumerians were able to orga­ Pythagorean theorem qualifies as infor­ evolution, like every other species, com­ nize the first large-scale agricultural mation as does the piece of genetic code pletely subject to the vagaries of nature. civilization. And after Gutenberg's in- 48 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 vention of movable type, Europeans tion of the methods of science in fields were able to copy and disseminate new for which these methods are inappropri­ scientific knowledge, turn it into ma­ ate - the claim of a direct connection Learn at chines, and establish the first industrial between economics and the natural sci­ societies. Without Gutenberg's printing ences may seem absurd. But before Liberty press - a mechanism for accurate and jumping to any hasty conclusions, the Liberty offers full-time internships inexpensive code replication - our sci­ thoughtful reader might like to reexam­ to students of all majors interested in ence and therefore our economy would ine precisely what is meant by II tural na journalism, writing, political philosophy still resemble those of the Dark Ages. sciences." or public policy. Positions are available Indeed, although it has onlybeen in Most people, and most scientists for at all times of the year. recent decades that we have come to that matter, still think of physics as the For further information, write appreciate the critical importance of in­ highest form of science. Following the Liberty, PO Box 1167 formation as an economic and social philosophy of reductionism, they be­ Port Townsend, WA 98368. force, our unique ability to process cod­ lieve that all natural phenomena can, at ed information has always been our least in principle, be explained by the r------, UThey that can give up essential liberty species' claim to fame. In fact, very re­ laws of physics. In a nutshell, they be­ to obtain a little temporary safety cent anthropological studies suggest lieve that biological phenomena can be deserve neither liberty nor safety." that the vital distinction between our explained by the laws of chemistry and Benjamin Franklin forebears, the Cro-Magnons, and their the phenomena of chemistry can, in (back) neighbors, the Neanderthals, was that turn, be explained by the laws of phys­ the Neanderthals never developed a ics. Reductionists believe in the unity of .Q~M T-SHIRTS system of notation. Our ancestors ap­ the natural sciences, with physics as the pear to have out-eompeted the Nean­ repository of all final explanations. • white T-Shirt derthals, at least in part, because they • 100% cotton For Austrian economists who accept­ heavyweight were aided in their struggle for survival ed the reductionist line of reasoning, an preshrunk by the use of simple forms of written attack on "scientism" was most sensible. • sizes S,M,L,XL knowledge, like lunar calendars • $12 per shirt Indeed, this assault was particularly nec­ + $2 shipping notched into reindeer bone and "tribal essary once Hayek had shown how so­ 13 IDEALOGO™. PO Box 897T· Mtn View, CA 94042 encyclopedias" painted on cave walls. cialist doctrine had developed from Please indicate size, and allow 2 to 3 weeks for UPS delivery. Since bionomics regards the corpus early 19th century attempts to create a _____~~~~~t~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ of recorded human knowledge existing "social physics."14 The argument outside of our bodies to be more central against scientism was straightforward: to understanding economic history economics is not like physics, and since Objectivity than the inherently subjective realm of physics equals natural science, then eco­ our individual thoughts, bionomics nomics is not a natural science. Conse­ need not distance itself from natural sci­ -A journal of metaphysics, quently, any attempts to make epistemology, and theory of ence. From the bionomic standpoint, economics seem like a natural science the study of the human economy is as value informed by modern deserve to be exposed as fraudulent. science. much a branch of "natural science" as it But what if the reductionists are is a "social science." In fact, the term wrong? What if biology is fundamental­ Topics ''bionomics,'' as used in its traditional ly different from physics? This is pre­ scientific sense, means the branch of Ontology ofRelations and Theory of cisely the argument of Ernst Mayr, Universals - Categories, Language, ecology that analyzes the relations be­ emeritus professor of zoology at Har­ and Abstraction - Infinities ­ tween organisms and their environ­ vard and this century's foremost philos­ Philosophy of Mathematics - Ide'!­ ment. As used here, bionomics is more opher and historian of biology. While tities and Invariants - ObselVers In narrowly defined as the branch of ecol­ agreeing that no biological phenomena Relativity andin Quantunl Measure­ ogy that studies relations between hu­ are inconsistent with the laws of phys­ ments - Reality of Spacetime man beings and their technological Geon1etry - Chaos - Causality ­ ics, Mayr lists eight attributes that dis­ Representationalism and Computa­ environment. tinguish living organisms from Even to suggest that economics tional Minds - Psychology ofHUlnor inanimate matter. But of these character­ - Jf'hy Man Needs Approval-Ascent might be considered a branch of the istics, just one is utterly unique to living to Volitional Consciousness ­ natural sciences will strike many read­ things. Mayr writes: Hierarchies of Nature, Cognition, ers as radical, if not comic. We are all Organisms are unique at the molecu­ and Value - From Fact to Value ­ quite comfortable with the hermetically lar level because they have a mecha­ Organism, Machine, and Value- sealed boundaries that divide the hu­ nism for the storage of historically Subscription $18, by vol (6 issues). manities, social sciences, and natural acquired information, while inanimate Free sample issue upon request. sciences. Such verities are not to be matter does not. All organisms possess challenged lightly. And to Austrian Write: a historically evolved genetic program, Objectivity, 3023 N. Clark St. economists, with their traditional dis­ coded in the DNA of the nucleus (or in Suite 238, Chicago, 11, 60657 taste for "scientism" - slavish imita- RNA in some viruses). Nothing com- Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

parable to it exists in the inanimate than coded information. Recall for a mo­ these worldviews are not mutually ex­ world, except for manmade com­ ment the havoc recently caused in cities clusive. In fact, they strengthen each puters.... all over the United States by just three other. Together, Austrian economics The genotype (genetic program) is the lines of "bad code" in a 2.1 million line and bionomics can offer a comprehen­ product of a history that goes back to telephone switching system computer sive explanation of economic life - part the origin of life, and thus it incorpo­ program.18 With coded information now social science, part natural science. rates the "experiences" of all ancestors, so obvious and prominent in modern ec­ as Delbriick (1949) said so rightly. It is Consider: The "human action" this which makes organisms historical onomic life, it is incumbent upon eco­ stressed by Ludwig von Misesis always phenomena. The genotype also endows nomic thinkers to reassess certain long­ a response to the information that pres­ them with the capacity for goal-directed held assumptions. Unfortunately, history ently exists in society. In most cases, that (teleonomic) processes and activities, a shows that there is little hope that ortho­ information, as emphasized by Hayek, capacit.,r: totally absent in the inanimate· dox equilibrium economists will rethink is simply a matter of knowing about world. 5 things like local price differences for a With reports of breakthroughs in commodity. But in other cases, particu­ biotechnology and genetic engineering larly in a high-technology society, hu­ now common fare in the newspapers, As long as Austrian eco­ man action will be taken in direct it's difficult to believe that the existence nomics relies exclusively upon response to the evolution of technologi­ of the genetic code was discovered only cal information. Now, of course, since 38 years ago - in 1953. So Hayek could fundamental concepts that are individual perceptions of· the potential hardly be criticized for his 1941 broad­ inherently unfalsifiable, it can­ economic value of a given new technolo­ side against "scientism" in The Counter­ not expect to be regarded gy will differ; and because those differ­ Revolution of Science. In fact, it has only been in the 1980s that leading philoso­ as more than a marginal ences in perception are inherently phers of science have come to accept movement. unpredictable, we cannot possibly fore­ that the genetic code places biology in a cast which human beings will act to take position quite separate from all the advantage of that potential opportunity. Some will immediately see the economic other sciences.16 Remarkably, Hayek the fundamentals. They crave stability value in a piece of "new code," others himself largely anticipated this philo­ and predictability and are likely to cling will dismiss it, and still others will take sophical shift in the 1960s.17 even more tightly to their Newtonian a "wait and see" attitude. Since we can­ In part, the recent emergence of biol­ mythology. The real world of advancing not read their minds, we cannot predict ogy as a science on a par with, or superi­ technology and historical change is sim­ or to, physics has come about because of ply too alien to their static intellectual who will do what. However, we do know that if a new the growing general awareness of coded domain. information. The rise of information the­ But Austrian economists are particu­ strand of technological code significant­ ory, the growth of computers and soft­ larly well-equipped to· make sense. of ly improves performance and/or reduc­ ware, and the "Information Age" have our bewilderingly complex high­ es the cost of an economic good (a sensitized philosophers of science to the technology economy. The validity of kilowatt of electricity, a pound of coffee, implications of coded information as the Austrian concepts like methodological a long distance phone call, etc.), then at very essence of every living thing. By individualism, spontaneous order, mar­ least some alert entrepreneurs will leap now, it is plain to all who care to see ket disequilibria, and market process is on the opportunity. And from the stand­ that the manipulation of strings of cod­ reconfirmed daily by the empirical reali­ point of the economist, we do not really ed information - whether the binary ty of economic life. What is missing care which entrepreneurs do the leap­ code of 1s and Os in computer software from Austrian economics - and what ing. It is enough to predict that new or­ or the four-letter (A,T,C,G) nucleotide bionomics may have to contribute to ganizations and new industries will self­ alphabet of DNA - is becoming the Austrian thought - is a way to connect organize around the "technological dominant form of human economic ac­ these observations to the coherent and genes" that scientists have encoded tivity. Building systems of coded infor­ scientifically testable theoretical system from their observations of nature. mation is to our economy what building of biology. In recent history, we have witnessed machines was to the economy of the in­ I must emphasize that making room many examples of this evolutionary pro­ dustrial era. for bionomic ideas does not require the cess. The science of quantum physics led But even in the machine age, techno­ abandonment of accepted Austrian prin­ to the technology of solid-state electron­ logical information was the enabling es­ ciples. Here again, the way to avoid ics. As it was enhanced through experi­ sence of economic life. This fact was not what may, at first blush, seem like a con­ ence-based learning, solid-state fully recognized because the physical flict is found in the biological dichotomy electronics was developed into the inte­ mass of industrial products masked between proximate/ functional causa­ grated circuit and the microprocessor. their "information content." Today, by tion and ultimate/evolutionary causa­ Microprocessor technology, in turn, be­ contrast, we can readily see just how de­ tion. Subjectivism and human action came the essential "technological genes" pendent we are on pure information. In­ speak to the questions of proximate/ around which the personal computer deed, in many cases, our vital economic functional causation, while bionomic hardware and software industries were systems have been stripped of their principles address ultimate/ built. Nobody planned it all. Even those physicality and reduced to little more evolutionary causation. Consequently, most intimately involved with these 50 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 technologies were astonished by their Friedman went on to argue that Mises' ways proven to be false when tested explosive economic growth. The tech­ philosophy of subjectivism and human against empirical reality, at least these nologists and business people at Intel action "convert an asserted body of sub­ economists accept as valid the intellectu­ Corporation, the inventors of the micro­ stantive conclusions into a religion. They al rigor imposed by Popper's falsifiabili­ processor, could at first imagine only do not constitute a set of scientific propo­ ty standard. Without this objective one application for their epoch-making sitions that you can argue about in terms standard, there can be no science. And technology - as a signal controller in of empirical evidence.... The virtue of without science, we are left to fathom hearing aids. But once the technology th[e] modern scientific approach, as pro­ the unknown with religion alone. existed, it did not matter to the larger posed by Popper, is that it provides a Recalling Mark Blaug's statement economy whether the inventors at Intel way in which, at least in principle, we that "it takes a new theory, and not just were rewarded for their breakthrough. can resolve disagreements without a the destructive exposure of assumptions If they had not seized the moment, conflict."20 or the collection of new facts, to beat an someone else would have, and the eco­ Professor Friedman's words are un­ old theory," we can now understand nomic and social impacts upon society duly harsh, but they help define the chal­ why Austrian economics, despite its would have been virtually the same.19 lenge facing Austrian economists as they enormous superiority over equilibrium Supplementing the proximate/ look to the future. As long as Austrian thinking, has failed to displace the or­ functional causation elucidated by the economics relies exclusively upon funda­ thodoxy. Penetrating criticisms and val­ principles of Austrian economics with mental concepts that are inherently un­ id empirical observations are simply not the ultimate/evolutionary causation re­ falsifiable, it cannot expect to be enough. To date, Austrian economics vealed by bionomics is essential if eco­ regarded as more than a marginal move­ has offered no testable new theory. nomics is ever to break free of orthodox ment. Without a paradigm that generates In the past, some have rationalized equilibrium thinking. In a recent testable hypotheses, Austrian thinking their disregard of the Popperian stan­ speech, after acknowledging that "Lud­ will never overthrow the reigning ortho­ dard by attacking "scientism." But, wig von Mises has done more to spread doxy. Though the hypotheses that flow along with virtually everyone else, most the fundamental ideas of free markets from the "economy as machine" para­ Austrian economists have failed to real­ than any other individual," Milton digm of orthodox economists have al- ize that science no longer equals physics

WHY SHOULD YOUBE READINGFREEDOMDAILY?* ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ "There is one-and only one-solution to America's crime-ridden society: to dismantle, not reform, America's welfare-state, regulated-economy way oflife." -.Jacob G. Hornberger, founder and president, The Future ofFreedom Foundation: January 1992 Freedom Daily. "The United States has probably been the most successful exporter of socialist ideas in the world." -Richard M. Ebeling, Ludwig von Mises Professor ofEconomics, Hillsdale College, Michigan, and academic vice president, The Future ofFreedom Foundation: January 1992 Freedom Daily. "The tentacles ofthe War on Drugs are reaching out to ensnare more and more people who have had no contact with drugs. -David Boaz, executive vice president, Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.: January 1992 Freedom Daily. *WE DON'T COMPROMISE. For a one-year (12 issues) subscription to our 48-page publication, Freedom Daily, send $15 (cash, check, visa, or mastercard) to FFF, P.O. Box 9752, Dept. M, Denver, CO 80209. (303-777-3588). Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

and that modern biology - the study of 3 Gilder, George, "Principles of Business rive at conclusions that are at best incom­ the manifestations of coded information Transformed Into the Laws of Nature," plete, but more likely wrong." - offers an enormously fertile para­ The Washington Times (December 24, 1990). 12 Herman, Louis M., Douglas G. Richards, digm for economic thought. If Austrians 4 Arrow, KennethJ., "The Economic Impli­ and James P. Wolz, "Comprehension of Sentences by Bottlenosed Dolphins," Cog­ are willing to supplement their tradi­ cations of Learning by Doing," Review of Economic Studies Oune 1962), p.156. ''The nition (March 1984), pp. 129-219. tional views with the lessons of bionom­ role of experience in increasing productiv­ 13 Mercier, N., "Thermoluminescence Dat­ ics, they will finally possess what ity has not gone unobserved, though the ing of the Late Neanderthal Remains orthodox equilibrium economists have relation has yet to be absorbed into the from Saint Cesaire," Nature Oune 27, always wanted but never had, a para­ main corpus of economic theory." 1991), pp. 737-39. Stevens, William K., digm - "economy as ecosystem" ­ 5 Mayr, Ernst, Toward a New Philosophy of Bi­ ''New Finding Moves Up Age of Nean­ drawn from the natural sciences that ac­ ology (Cambridge: Harvard University derthals," The New York Times Oune 27, tually comports with the reality of hu­ Press, 1988), p. 172. Mayr, Ernst, The 1991), p. A6. Marshack, Alexander, man economic life. Today, we are just Growth of Biological Thought (Cambridge: "Upper Paleolithic Notation and Sym­ bol," Science (November 24, 1972), pp. beginning to imagine a synthesis of Harvard University Press, 1982) pp. 45-47. 6 Hayek, Friedrich A., "The Use of Knowl­ 817-28. Diamond, Jared, "The Great Leap Austrian and bionomic concepts. But if, edge in Society," American Economic Re­ Forward," Discover (May 1989), pp. 50-60. in time, these ideas are fully developed, view (September 1945), pp. 519-30. 14 Hayek, Friedrich A., "The Counter­ we will have created the "new theory" Reprinted in Hayek, F. A., Individualism Revolution of Science," Economica (Febru­ that will satisfy Mark Blaugs challenge, and Economic Order (Chicago: University ary 1941), pp. 9-36; (May 1941), pp. 119­ and we will witness the long overdue of Chicago Press, 1948), pp. 77-91. 50; (August 1941), pp. 281-320. "All this is paradigm shift in "mainstream" eco­ 7 Hayek (1948), p. 87. revealed to Saint-Simon by the Lord him­ nomic thought. 0 8 Hayek, Friedrich A., "The Theory of Com­ self who announces to His prophet that plex Phenomena" in Studies in Philosophy, He has placed Newton at His side and en­ This article is based on a paper present­ Politics, and Economics (Chicago: Universi­ trusted him with the enlightenment of the ed at the North American regional ty of Chicago Press, 1967), pp. 22-42. inhabitants of all planets. The instruction meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society on 9 Hayek (1948), p. 80. "The shipper who culminates in the famous passage from August 24, 1991, in Big Sky Montana. earns his living from using otherwise which much of later Saint-Simonian doc­ empty or half-filled journeys of tramp­ trine springs: 'All men will work; they notes steamers, or the estate agent whose whole will regard themselves as labourers at­ 1 Blaug, Mark, Economic Theory in Retro­ knowledge is almost exclusively one of tached to one workshop whose efforts spect (Cambridge: Cambridge University temporary opportunities, or the arbitra­ will be directed to guide human intelli­ Press, 1985), pp. 708 and 711. geur who gains from local differences of gence according to my divine foreSight. 2 Rothschild, Michael, Bionomics (New commodity prices - are all performing The supreme Council of Newton will di­ York: Holt, 1990). eminently useful functions based on spe­ rect their works.' Saint-Simon has no cial knowledge of circumstances of the qualms about the means that will be em­ fleeting moment not known to others. ployed to enforce the instructions of his It is a curious fact that this sort of knowl­ central planning body: 'Anybody who edge should today be generally regarded does not obey the orders will be treated AynRand and with a kind of contempt and that anyone by the others as a quadruped'" (p. 28). who by such knowledge gains an advan­ 15 Mayr (1988), pp. 16-17. Her Movement tage over somebody better equipped with 16 Kitcher, Philip, "1953 and All That: A Tale theoretical or technical knowledge is of Two Sciences," Philosophical Review In an exclusive interview, Barbara thought to have acted almost disreputa­ (July 1984), pp. 335-73. Branden reveals intimate details of bly. To gain an advantage from better 17 Hayek (1967), p. viii. "Readers of some of life inside Rand's circle. The knowledge of facilities of communication my earlier writings may notice a slight fascinating topics include the weird or transport is sometimes regarded as al­ change in the tone ofmy discussion of the psychological manipulations within most dishonest, although it is quite as im­ attitude which I then called 'scientism.' the group, the expulsion of members portant that society make use of the best The reasonfor this is that Sir Karl Popper in kangaroo courts, the glaring errors opportunities in this respect as in using has taught me that natural scientists did in Nathaniel Branden's memoir about the latest scientific discoveries." not really do what most of them not only his affair with Rand, and Rand's fight lOIn his later writings Hayek modified his told us that they did but also urged the in a posh Manhattan restaurant with argument, but in this essay at least, he representatives of other disciplines to imi­ Alan Greenspan. does not mention historic economic tate. The difference between the two groups of disciplines has thereby been This account, expanded from its change. greatly narrowed and I keep up the argu­ original printing in the January 1990 11 Mayr (1988), p. 17-18. "Broadly speaking, functional biology deals with the decod­ ment onIy because so many social scien­ Liberty, includes infonnation that ing of the genetic program and with the tists are still trying to imitate what they cannot be found in any other source. reactions of an organism to its surround­ wrongly believe to be the methods of the And it is available only from Liberty ing world from the moment of fertilization natural sciences." Publishing. to the moment of death. Evolutionary biol­ 18 Andrews, Edmund L., "The Precarious ogy, on the other hand, deals with the his- Growth of the Software Empire," The $4.00 per copy, ppd. . tory of genetic programs and the changes New York Times Ouly 14, 1991), p. El. that they have undergone since the origin 19 Gilder, George, Microcosm (New York: Si­ Liberty Publishing of life. A philosopher who fails to recog­ mon & Schuster, 1989). POBox 1167 nize both of these two very important and 20 Friedman, Milton, "Say 'No' to Intoler­ Port Townsend, WA 98368 very different aspects of biology will ar- ance,"Liberty (July 1991), p. 18. Observation

America's Bi-Partisan Apartheid by Brian Doherty

There are few things more stupid than racism. One of those things "more stupid" may be, however, a supposed solution to racism.

South Africa recently abolished the cornerstone of its hated apartheid system ­ the population Registration Act of 1950, which officially classified individuals by race. Meanwhile, the United States Congress seems intent on enacting legislation that could lead to a similar classifica­ tion system here. The alleged "compromise " Civil Rights bill pushed through by Senator ing that there was a ''business necessi­ every hiring decision - by producing Danforth - which is actually a craven ty" for them, thereby shifting the bur­ records he is forced to keep. The em­ cave-in on the part of the alleged anti­ den of proof to the defendant. This was ployer would do well to take great care quota Bush, whose own suggested bill a severe departure from standard to maintain the "right" numbers of mi­ was actually as much of a quota bill as American legal tradition. norities. In other words, he'd be a damn the Democratic version he excoriated The 1989 decision in Wards Cove fool if he didn't hire by quotas, even if - is being passed, as usual, with no at­ Packing v. Atonio raised the ire of Griggs the bill explicitly bans quota hiring. tention paid to its implications. lovers by requiring plaintiffs in job dis­ There is an even more striking re­ The basis of U.S. job-discrimination crimination cases to "isolate and identi­ sult. When the government takes an in­ law is Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights fy the specific employment practices terest in making sure the "right" mix of Act. One of its provisions says that that are allegedly responsible for any races prevails in every workplace, dis­ nothing in it "shall be interpreted to re­ observed statistical disparities" be­ pensing advantages for proper racial quire any employer ... to grant prefe­ tween the percentage of minorities in balance and imposing punishments for rential treatment to any individual or the workplace and the percentage in the wrong ones, it can be an advantage to to any group." This was added to de­ available labor pool, thereby slightly re­ the employee to situate himself on the flect accusations that the Act would ducing the burdenonthe employer. right end of the racial rainbow. merely institutionalize reverse discrim­ Even this tiny reduction in the onus In 1988, Phil and Paul Malone were ination; in the language of the current on employers was too much for the fired from the Boston fire department debate, this provision ensured that Democrats and the Bush administra­ when their names were submitted to Title VII would not be a "quota bil1." tion, both of whose bills cemented the the fire commissioner on a list for po­ The 1971 Supreme Court decision in principle of "guilty until proven inno­ tential promotions to lieutenant. The Griggs v. Duke Power Co. changed the cent" on the employer in job discrimi­ list was meant to be of blacks only. The emphasis of Title VII (in line with the nation cases. The "compromise bill" commissioner knew the Malones ­ actual practices of the Equal recently passed has finalized this hei­ they were the department's only identi­ Employment Opportunity Commis­ nous result. cal twins - and they certainly seemed sion, Title VII's enforcement agency) by Under these measures, an employer white to him. insisting that legally challenged hiring would be required to prove his lack of What the commissioner couldn't see practices had to be defended by prov- sinister discriminatory intent in his with his eyes was that the Malones ini- Liberty 53 Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

tially failed the department's entrance suspicious cases who were required to sense for America, atthough for benevo­ exam in 1975. They tried again in 1977, prove their racial status. Two were sub­ lent purposes, of course: some official, this time claiming to be black on their sequently fired for racial classification unmistakable definition of race must be application forms. Because of a court­ tomfoolery. Similar cases have appeared established in order to help people, not ordered affirmative action plan, the around the country (usually, for some oppress them. I'm sure the federal bu­ Malones' exam scores passed muster reason, in fire departments). reaucracy, perhaps through some newly for blacks while still falling below the Consider the ramifications. When created commission,cancome up with a required scorefor whites. race determines an individual's legal good plan. When their deception was discov­ status, an individual's race can no long­ South Africa needed the Population ered, the Malones claimed blackness be­ er be left up to personal interpretation Registration Act of 1950 because it cause of an old sepia-toned photograph any more than can guilt or innocence. wanted to create a system of laws in they had seen of their great­ When people must prove their race in a which race was always an issue. If the grandmother. She looked black to them, court of law, it can't be long before con­ U.S. Congress insists on passing legisla­ they said. These shades of Pudd'nhead cerned, sensible, practical judicial think­ tion that requires legal distinctions to be Wilson bring to mind the arcane regula­ ers will see the need to define terms in made based on race, the United States tiqns of the old Jim Crow south, where court. They have to make decisions on will approach the same vile destination arbitrary percentages of ''black blood" proper employment practices based on through the back door. But the result were said to make oneblack. the race of employees. However, in the will be the same: a society where deci­ The Malones are not an isolated American melting pot, race is a slippery, sions about people's livelihood and free­ case. When their deception was discov­ hard-to-define concept. dom of association are dictated by ered, Boston's mayor launched an in­ So what is to be done? Suddenly, the legally-mandated standards based on vestigation and found at least five more South African solution seems to make the phantasm of "race." 0

Reflections, 1/A Stalking Horse of a Different Color," continued from page 16 national exposure by inviting him to appear on his Ron wants to run, but he must know he has your support "Crossfire" cable television show and plugging Rockwell for the long battle ahead. He faces, after all, a prevaricating efforts a few times in his syndicated column; Rockwell has president and a leviathan state ... promoted Buchanan's candidacy in his syndicated column Time is ~ short. The New Hampshire primary is February 18th. A successful campaign must be geared up no and praised Buchanan effusively in his newsletter, etc. later than December 18th. So we must finish "exploring" by In the surge of popularity that George Bush enjoyed November 4th. after his triumph over the devil Saddam, Buchanan got cold Please, rush the most generous amount you can. Give Ron feet. But as the economy went belly up and Bush's popular­ the helping hand he must have. Join him on this historic ity ebbed, Buchanan decided that maybe it might be a good adventure. idea to challenge Bush in the primaries after all. There was no mention that Ron had .all but decided But he wasn't sure. Once again, Rockwell managed to against any campaign. To the contrary, it claimed that ''Ron be of service to Buchanan. He floated the idea to a friendly wants to run," and made numerous other suggestions that columnist at the Washington Times that Ron Paul might Paul had all but committed himself to the campaign. challenge Bush, and secured Paul's permission to organize I asked Paul about the fundraising letter, which hun­ the Ron Paul for President Exploratory Committee dreds of Libertarian Party activists reported that they re­ (RPPEC). ceived. ''I think they did real well. Lew (Rockwell) was In early October, Rockwell put out a direct mail solicita­ telling me that it got the highest percentage return on mail tion of funds for RPPEC. By then, Rockwell and his col­ out of any mailing he's ever done." It did so well that a sec­ leagues had put together a fairly impressive letterhead, ond mailing, nearly identical to the first except it was dated consisting mostly of libertarian intellectuals who are asso­ "November 5th," and now reported "December 4th" as the ciated closely with (and funded by) Rockwell's Ludwig von deadline for "exploring." Mises Institute, so-called "paleo-conservatives" with whom It is perhaps a trifle ironic that Lew Rockwell, who left the Libertarian Party because, in his words, it had become a Rockwell has made an alliance, and Libertarian Party refu­ gees. Theletter, sent out over Burt Blumert's signature, was "haven for bunko artists" and had been "taken over by petty crooks," was raising money on behalf of a campaign among the finest efforts of direct-mail-maven-turned-think­ that he knew almost certainly would never take place. tank-boss Rockwell, eloquently explaining how bad Bush is On November 20, Paul still didn't want to state publicly and how wonderful a successful Paul candidacy would be. that he absolutely would not run. Instead, he told me that lt concluded with an urgent note: he was now "99.9% sure" that he wouldn't challenge Bush, Ron needs your name for this effort, your volunteer time if "now with Pat Buchanan and David Duke in there, I think you can give it and your most generous contribution. I'd be more a sideshow than anything else. So some of the $100, $50, $25, or any amount would be great. $250, $500, arguments for it earlier - filling a vacuum - made more or $1,000 would be magnificent. Join the most exciting Republican campaign since Barry Goldwater. sense than they do now. I'm still thinking about getting on Barry lost, but he built a national movement, and that's the some talk shows and doing some things you know to stir least that Ron can do, if you support him ... things up a little bit, you know, to stir up a debate." -eAA 54 Liberty Explanation HoW" to Think About Pollution; or, Why Ronald Coase Deserved the Nobel Prize by David Friedman

Economics has undergone a revolution in the theory of "externalities," such as pollution, though you wouldn't know it if you listened only to the regulators and politicians.

When the Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics to Ronald Coase this year, it surprised two different groups of people. The larger group consisted of peo­ ple who had either never heard of Coase, or heard of him only as the author of something called the "Coase Theorem," generally presented as a theoretical curiosity of no practical im­ portance. The second and much small­ layman, as I will try to demonstrate in if the good is worth less than it costs to er group consisted of people who were the next few pages, and sufficiently produce he takes a loss. So goods that familiar with the importance of deep so that they have not yet been en­ should be produced are and goods Coase's work - and assumed that the tirely absorbed by the profession; to a that should not be produced are not. Swedish Academy was not. considerable extent what is still taught This only works if producers must Some people get the Nobel Prize in the textbooks is the theory as stated pay all of the costs associated with pro­ for doing a large amount of complicat­ prior to Coase. duction. Suppose that is not the case. ed and technical work that is difficult To understand Coase's contribu­ Suppose, for example, that a steel pro­ for an outsider to understand. Coase is tion, it is useful to start with the theory ducer, in addition to using iron ore, at the other extreme. His contribution of externalities as it existed before coal, etc., also "uses" clean air. In the to economics has largely consisted of Coase published "The Problem of process of producing a ton of steel he thinking through certain questions Social Cost," the 1960 essay that first puts ten pounds of sulfur dioxide into more carefully and correctly than any­ introduced the Coase Theorem to eco­ the air, imposing (say) $100 worth of one else, and in the process demon­ nomics. The basic argument went as bad smells, sore throats, and corrosion strating that answers accepted by follows: on people downwind. Since he does virtually the entire profession were In an ideal economic system, goods not pay for that cost, he does not in­ false. One side effect of his work was a worth more than they cost to produce clude it in his profit and loss calcula­ new field of economics: economic anal­ get produced, goods worth less than tions. As long as the price he sells his ysis of law, the attempt to use econom­ they cost to produce do not; this is part steel for at least covers his costs it is ic theory to understand legal systems. of what economists mean by economic worth making steel. The result is ineffi­ While there would probably be some­ efficiency. In a perfectly competitive cient: Some goods may be produced thing called economic analysis of law private property system, producers even though their cost, including the if Coase had not existed, it would be a pay the value of the inputs they use resulting pollution, is greater than very different field. when they buy them from their own­ their value. One of Coase's important contribu­ ers (wages to workers in exchange for It is inefficient in another respect as tions to economics was to rewrite the their labor, rent to land owners for the well. The steel producer may be able to theory of externalities - the analysis use of their land, etc.) and receive the reduce the amount of pollution by var­ of situations, such as pollution, where value of what they produce when they ious control devices - air filters, low one person's actions impose costs (or sell it. If a good is worth more than it sulfur coal, high smokestacks - at a benefits) on another. His ideas are suf­ costs to produce, the producer receives cost. Calculated in terms of the net ef­ ficiently simple to be understood by a more than he pays and makes a profit; fect on everyone concerned, it is worth Liberty 55 Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

eliminating pollution as long as the the use of emission fees does not re­ ber instead of renting out summer re­ cost is less than the pollution damage quire the government to measure the sorts, say - is only $50,000. If we im­ prevented - in our example, as long as cost of preventing pollution - whether pose an emission fee of a hundred it costs less than $10 to prevent a by instaIling air filters or by producing thousand dollars a year, the steel mill pound of sulfur dioxide emission. But less steel. That will be done by the steel stops polluting and the damage is elim­ the steel producer, in figuring out how company, acting in its own interest. inated - at a cost of $80,000. If we im­ to maximize his profit, includes in his I have just described the theory of pose no emission fee the mill keeps calculations only the costs he must pay. externalities as it existed before Coase. polluting, the owners of the land stop So long as he does not bear the cost of Its conclusion is that, as long as exter­ advertising for tenants and plant trees the pollution, he has no incentive to nalities exist and are not internalized instead, and the problem is again prevent it. So the fact that air pollution via Pigouvian taxes, the result is ineffi­ solved - at a cost of $50,000. In this is an external cost results in both an in­ cient. The inefficiency is eliminated by case the result without Pigouvian taxes efficiently high level of steel produc­ charging the polluter an emission fee is efficient - the problem is eliminated tion (it may be produced even when it equal to the damage done by his pollu­ at the lowest possible cost - and the is not worth producing) and an ineffi­ tion. In some real world cases it may be result with Pigouvian taxes is ciently low level of pollution control. difficult to measure what the damage inefficient. There are two obvious solutions. is, but, provided that that problem can Moving the victims may not be a One is direct regulation - the govern- be solved, using Pigouvian taxes to in­ very plausible solution in the case of ternalize externalities produces the effi­ air pollution; it seems fairly certain that cient outcome. even the most draconian limitations on That analysis was accepted by vir­ emissions in southern California would The first step is to realize tually the entire economics profession be less expensive than evacuating that that an external cost is not prior to Coase's work in the field, and end of the state. But the problem of ex­ simply a cost produced by the still is accepted by a good deal of the ternalities applies to a wide range of profession. It is wrong - not in one different situations, in many of which it pollutor and born by the vic­ way but in three. The existence of exter­ is far from obvious which party can tim. In almost all cases, the nalities does not necessarily lead to an avoid the problem at lower cost, and in cost is a result of decisions by inefficient result. Second, Pigouvian some of which it is not even obvious taxes, even if they can be correctly cal­ which one we should call the victim. both parties. culated, do not in general lead to the ef­ Consider the question of airport ficient result. Third, and most noise. One solution is to reduce the important, the problem is not really ex­ noise. Another is to soundproof the ment tells the steel company how much ternalities at all - it is transaction houses. A third is to use the land near it is allowed to pollute. The other is costs. airports for noisy factories instead of emission fees - referred to by econo­ I like to present Coase's argument housing. There is no particular reason mists as Pigouvian taxes (named after in three steps: Nothing works. to think that one of those solutions is A. C. Pigou, the economist whose ideas Everything works. It all depends. always best. Nor is it entirely clear I am describing). whether the "victim" is the landowner Under a system of Pigouvian taxes, Nothing Works who finds it difficult to sleep in his new the government charges the steel com­ The first step is to realize that an ex­ house with jets going by overhead or pany for the damage done by its pollu­ ternal cost is not simply a cost pro­ the airline forced by a court or a regula­ tion - $10 per pound in this example. duced by the polluter and born by the tory agency to adopt expensive sound By doing so it converts the external cost victim. In almost all cases, the cost is a control measures in order to protect the into an internal cost - internalizes the result of decisions by both parties. I sleep of people who chose to build externality. In deciding how much steel would not be coughing if your steel their new houses in what used to be to produce and what price to sell it at, mill were not pouring out sulfur diox­ wheat fields - directly under the air­ the company will now include the cost ide. But your steel mill would do no port's flight path. of its pollution - paid as an emission damage if I (and other people) did not Consider a simpler case, where the fee - along with other costs. In decid­ happen to live downwind from it. It is nominal offender is clearly not the low­ ing how much pollution control equip­ the joint decision - yours to pollute est cost avoider. The owner of one of ment to buy, the company balances the and mine to live where you are pollut­ two adjoining tracts of land has a facto­ 'cost of control against its benefits, and ing - that produces the cost. ry, which he has been running for buys the optimal amount. So a system Suppose that, in a particular case, twenty years with no complaints from of emission fees can produce both an the pollution does $100,000 a year his neighbors. The purchaser of the efficient amount of steel and an effi­ worth of damage and can be eliminat­ other tract builds a recording studio on cient amount of pollution control. ed at a cost of only $80,000 a year (from the side of his property immediately In order to achieve that result, the here on, all costs are per year). Further adjacent to the factory. The factory, government imposing the fees must be assume that the cost of shifting all of while not especially noisy, is too noisy able to measure the cost imposed by the land downwind to a new use unaf­ for something loeated two feet from the pollution. But, unlike direct regulation, fected by the pollution - growing tim- wall of a recording studio. So the 56 Liberty V~lume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

owner of the studio demands that the cient result occurs immediately. The It is this result that is sometimes re­ factory shut down, or else pay damages lowest cost avoiders are the owners of ferred to (by people other than Coase) equal to the full value of the studio. the land downwind; they shift from as the "Coase Theorem." It leads im­ There are indeed "external costs" asso­ operating resorts to growing timber. mediately to the final stage of the ciated with operating a factory next to a What if, instead, the legal rule is argument. recording studio - but the efficient so­ that the people downwind have a lution is building the studio at the other right not to have their air polluted? It All Depends (On end of the lot, not building the studio The result will be exact!y the same. Transaction Costs) next to the factory and then closing Why is it, if Coase is correct, that down the factory. we still have pollution in Los Angeles? So Coase's first point is that "exter­ One possible answer is that the pollu­ nalities" are a joint product of "pollut­ One solution to the problem tion is efficient - that the damage it er" and "victim," and that a legal rule of airport noise is to reduce the does is less than the cost of preventing that arbitrarily assigns blame to one of noise. Another is to soundproof it. A more plausible answer is that the parties only gives the right result if much of the pollution is inefficient, but that party happens to be the one who the houses. A third is to use the that the transactions necessary to elim­ can avoid the problem at the lower land near airports for noisy inate it are prevented by prohibitively cost. Pigou's solution is correct only if factories instead of housing. high transaction costs. the agency making the rules already Let us return to the steel mill. knows which party is the lower cost There is no particular reason to Suppose the mill has the right to pol­ avoider. In the more general case, noth­ think that one of those solu­ lute, but that doing so is inefficient ­ ing works - whichever party the tions is always best. pollution control is cheaper than either blame is assigned to, by government putting up with the pollution or regulators or by the courts, the result is changing the use of the land down­ likely to be inefficient if the other party wind. Further suppose that there are a could prevent the problem at a lower The mill could eliminate the pollution hundred landowners downwind. cost. at a cost of $80,000 a year. But it is With only one landowner, there One of the arguments commonly of­ cheaper to pay the landowners some would be no problem - he would fered in favor of using Pigouvian taxes amount, say $60,000 a year, for permis­ offer to pay the mill for the cost of the instead of direct regulation is that the sion to pollute. The landowners will be pollution control equipment, plus a lit­ regulator does not have to know the better off, since that is more than the tle extra to sweeten the deal. But a cost of pollution control in order to pro­ cost to them of changing the use of the hundred landowners face what econo­ duce the efficient outcome - he just land, and the steel mill will be better mists call a public good problem. If sets the tax equal to damage done, and off, since it is less than the cost of elimi­ ninety of them put up the money and lets the polluter decide how much pol­ nating the pollution. So it will pay both ten do not, the ten get a free ride - no lution to buy at that price. But one of parties to make some such agreement. pollution and no cost for pollution con­ the implications of Coase's argument is Now suppose we change the num­ trol. Each landowner has an incentive that the regulator can only guarantee bers in the example, to make pollution to refuse to pay, figuring that his pay­ the efficient outcome if he knows control the more efficient option - say ment is unlikely to make the difference enough about the cost of control to de­ lower its cost to $20,000. In that case, between success and failure in the at­ cide which party should be considered whether or not the mill has the right to tempt to bribe the steel mill to elimi­ the polluter (and taxed) and which pollute, it will find that it is better off nate its pollution. If the attempt is should be considered the victim. not polluting. If it has the right to pol­ going to fail even with him, then it lute, the landowners will pay more makes no difference whether or not he Everything Works than the $20,000 cost of pollution con­ contributes. If it is going to succeed The second step in Coase's argu­ trol in exchange for a guarantee that it even without him, then refusing to ment is to observe that, as long as the will not exercise its right. If it does not contribute gives him a free ride. Only parties involved can readily make and have the right to pollute, the most the if his contribution makes the difference enforce contracts in their mutual inter­ steel mill will be willing to offer the does he gain by agreeing to contribute. est, neither direct regulation nor landowners for permission to pollute is There are a variety of ways in Pigouvian taxes are necessary in order $20,000, and the landowners will turn which such problems may sometimes to get the efficient outcome. All you down that offer. be solved, but none that can always be need is a clear definition of who has a The generalization of this example expected to work. The problem be­ right to do what and the market will is straightforward: comes harder the larger the number of take care of the problem. If transaction costs are zero - if, in people involved. With many millions To see how that works, let us go other words, any agreement that is in of people living in southern California, back to the case of the steel mill and the the mutual benefit of the parties con­ it is hard to imagine any plausible way resorts. Suppose first that the mill has a cerned gets made - then any initial in which they could voluntarily raise legal right to pollute. In that case, as I definition of property rights leads to an the money to pay all polluters to re­ originally set up the problem, the effi- efficient outcome. duce their pollution. Liberty 57 Volume 5, Number 3 Janu 1992

This is one example of the sort of Coase's approach offered no practical only that he can sue to be reimbursed problem referred to under the general solution, the externalities associated for his losses? It seems simple to say label of transaction costs. Another with honey bees. Bees graze on the that we should have private property would occur if we reversed the as­ flowers of various crops, so a farmer in land, but ownership of land is not a sumptions, making pollution (and tim­ who is growing crops that produce nec­ simple thing. ber) the efficient outcome but giving tar benefits the beekeepers in the area. The Coasian answer to this set of the landowners the right to be pollu- The farmer receives none of the benefit problems is that the law should define himself, so he has an inefficiently low property in such a way as to minimize incentive to grow such crops. Since the costs associated with the sorts of in­ bees cannot be convinced to respect compatible uses we have been discuss­ The law should define prop­ property rights or keep contracts, there ing - factories and recording studios, erty in such a way as to mini­ is, Meade argued, no practical way to or steel mills and resorts. The first step mize the costs associated with apply Coase's approach. We must ei­ in doing so is to try to define rights in ther subsidize farmers who grow nec­ such a way that, if right A is of most incompatible uses. tar rich crops (a negative Pigouvian value to someone who also holds right tax) or accept inefficiency in the joint B, they come in the same bundle. The production of crops and honey. right to decide what happens two feet tion-free. If there were one landowner It turned out that Meade was above a piece of land is of most value the steel mill could buy from him the wrong. In two later articles, supporters to the person who also holds the right right to pollute. With a hundred, the of Coase demonstrated that contracts to use the land itself, so it is sensible to mill must buy permission from all of between beekeepers and farmers had include both of them in the bundle of them. Anyone has an incentive to be a been common practice in the industry rights we call "ownership of land." On holdout - to refuse his permission in since early in this century. When the the other hand, the right to decide who the hope of getting paid off with a crops were producing nectar and did flies a mile above a piece of land is of large fraction of the money the mill will not need pollination, beekeepers paid no special value to the owner of the save from not having to control its pol­ farmers for permission to put their land, hence there is no good reason to lution. If too many landowners try that hives in the farmers' fields. When the include it in that bundle. approach the negotiations will break crops were producing little nectar but If, when general legal rules were down, and the parties will never get to needed pollination (which increases being established, we somehow knew, the efficient outcome. yields), farmers paid beekeepers. Bees for all cases, what rights belonged to- Seen from this perspective, one way may not respect property rights but of stating Coase's insight is that the they are, like people, lazy, and prefer to problem is not really due to externali­ forage as close to the hive as possible. Coase demonstrated that ties at all, but to transaction costs. If Coase. Property. and the what everyone else in the pro­ there were externalities but no transac­ Economic Analysis of Law tion costs there would be no problem, fession thought was the correct ''The Problem of Social Cost" pro­ since the parties would always bargain analysis of the problem of ex­ vides more than merely a revolution­ to the efficient solution. When we ob­ ary rethinking of the question of ternalities was wrong, and, in serve externality problems (or other externalities. It also suggests a new and the process, he opened up a forms of market failure) in the real interesting approach to the problem of world, we should ask not merely whole new approach to the use defining property rights. where the problem comes from, but A court in settling disputes involv­ of economics to analyze law. what the transaction costs are that pre­ ing property, or a legislature in writing vent it from being bargained out of a law code to be applied to such dis­ existence. putes, must decide just which of the gether, the argument of the previous Coase. Meade. and Bees rights associated with land are includ­ paragraph would be sufficient to tell us Ever since Coase published "The ed in the bundle we call "ownership." how property rights ought to be de­ Problem of Social Cost," economists Does the owner have the right to pro­ fined. But that is very unlikely to be the unconvinced by his analysis have hibit airplanes from crossing his land a case. In many situations a right, such as argued that the Coase Theorem is mile up? How about a hundred feet? the right not to have noises of more merely a theoretical curiosity, of little How about people extracting oil from a than X decibels made over a particular or no practical importance in a world mile under the land? What rights does piece of property, may be of substantial where transaction costs are rarely zero. he have against neighbors whose use of value to two or more parties - to the One famous example was in an article their land interferes with his use of his? owner of the property and the owner of by James Meade (who later received a If he builds his recording studio next to the adjacent factory in my earlier exam­ Nabel Prize for his work on the eco­ his neighbor's factory, who is at fault? ple. There is no general legal rule that nomics of international trade). If he has a right to silence in his record­ will always assign it to the right one. Meade offered, as an example of the ing studio, does that mean that he can In this case, the argument underly­ sort of externality problem for which forbid the factory from operating, or ing the Coase Theorem comes into 58 Liberty play. If we assign the right initially to contributions to economics. He started EXPERIMENT IN •the wrong person, the right person, the with a simple insight, based in part on one to whom it is of most value, can having read cases in the common law LIBERTY still buy it. So one of the considerations of nuisance - the branch of law that "The history of civilization is the in the initial definition of property deals with problems such as noisy fac­ record of a ceaseless struggle for tories next door to recording studios. liberty. " (Ludwig von Mises) He ended by demonstrating that what For some problems, there is everyone else in the profession thought was the correct analysis of the problem EXPERIMENT IN LIBERTY ex­ no legal rule, no form of regu­ of externalities was wrong, and, in the amines the Europeans' first 500 year lation, that will generate a process, opening up a whole new ap­ struggle for liberty in the USA. They fully efficient solution. The real proach to the use of economics to ana­ came seeking freedom and found it. In this century their heirs would trade choice is not between an ineffi­ 1yze law. There is at least one more thing freedom, responsibility, and oppor­ cient market and an efficient worth saying about ''The Problem of tunity for equality, security, and government solution but rather Social Cost." Economists, then and (to constancy. Americans are free to among a variety of inefficient some degree) now, tend to jump from choose, but if they continue to follow the observation that the market produc­ this course, individual liberty will alternatives, private and gov­ es an inefficient result in some situa­ disappear within their society. ernmental. tions to the conclusion that the government ought to intervene to fix the problem. Part of what Coase "Am surely enjoying [Experiment in rights is doing it in such a way as to showed was that, for some problems, Liberty] and regard it the supreme minimize the transaction costs associat­ there is no legal rule, no form of regula­ analysis of forces .... active in ed with fixing, via private contracts, tion, that will generate a fully efficient American History.. " any initially inefficient definition. solution. He thus anticipated public An example may make this clearer. choice economists, such as James r~ ALFRED C. JONES Suppose that, in the pollution case dis­ Buchanan (another Nobel winner), in cussed earlier, damages from pollution arguing that the real choice was not be­ ~Salem, Oregon I are easy to measure and the number of tween an inefficient market and an effi­ people downwind is large. In that case, cient government solution but rather the efficient rule is probably to give among a variety of inefficient alterna­ "[the author] clearly has strong downwind landowners a right to col­ tives, private and governmental. In opinions about the course and lect damages from the polluter, but not Coase's words: "All solutions have meaning ofhistory, and ... a right to forbid him from polluting. costs and there is no reason to suppose skilfully brings them out. " Giving the right to the landowners that government regulation is called for avoids the public good problem that simply because the problem is not well JAMES A. ROBERTS we would face if the landowners (in handled by the market or the firm." 0 University of Kansas - Lawrence the case where pollution is inefficient) had to raise the money to pay the steel References mill not to pollute. Giving them a right Cheung, Steven N. 5., ''The Fable of the If men never learn from the past, they to damages rather than giving each Bees: An Economic Investigation," will not merely remain unenlightened, landowner the right to an injunction Journal of Law and Economics XVI (1973), they will choose action that in time 11-33. forbidding the steel mill from polluting will destroy social cooperation, re­ Coase, R.H. 1960 ''The Problem of Social avoids the holdout problem that the turning civilization to the primitive Cost," Journal of Law and Economics 3, 1­ mill would face (in the case where pol­ conditions experienced by man for lution is efficient) in buying permission 44 Friedman, D., The Machinery ofFreedom, ages upon ages. from all of the landowners. 2nd Edn., Open Court: La Salle, 1989, A full explanation of how Coase's Chapters 41-43. EXPERIMENT IN LIBERTY: The argument can be applied to figuring Johnson, David B., "Meade, Bees, and First Five Hundred Years ofFree­ out what the law ought to be (more Externalities," Journal of Law and precisely, what legal rules lead to the dom in America, 1492-1992. By Economics XVI (1973),35-52. Wm. Gray. 436 pp hardback, $30.00 best outcome from the standpoint of Meade, J. E., "External Economies and delivered. economic efficiency) would require a Diseconomies in a Competitive much longer article - perhaps a book. Situation," 52 Economic Journal 54 (1952). I hope I have said enough to make Pigou, A.C., Wealth and Welfare (1912) and Send check or money order to: clear the basic idea, and enough to The Economics of Welfare (1920). Dixon-Gray-Springer, 210 E. First, show the unique and extraordinary na­ Posner, R., Economic Analysis of Law, 3rd Chanute, KS 66720, or see your local ture of one of Ronald Coase's principal Edn., Little Brown & Co. Boston, 1986. book store. Objectivism: The Philosophy ofAyn Rand, by Leonard Peikoff. factual evidence. Dutton, 1991, ix + 448 pp., $24.95. Having come so far and so fast, Peik­ off proves the non-existence of God in four lines comprising 36 words: "One may no more ask: who is responsible for natural law (which amounts to asking: who caused causality?) than one may Peikoff's Objectivism: ask: who created the universe? The an­ swer to both questions is the same: exis­ tence exists" (15). Puzzling how An Autopsy Aquinas missed that one. Epistemology Peikoff holds that the data provided by our senses are "unchallengeable" and unless this just means that it acts the David Ramsay Steele "self-evident" (35). He does seem to mean way it acts, which I take to be true but that our senses are infallible, that we can not exactly this morning's news flash. absolutely rely on our sensory experi­ According to a very old joke, an opti­ "A thing cannot act apart from its na­ mist proclaims that we live in the best of ences and our memories of those experi­ ture, because existence is identity; apart ences. That appears to be the clear gist all possible worlds, while a pessimist from its nature a thing is nothing" (13). of pages 33-36. harbors the horrible suspicion that such But that just begs the question whether For a page or two, we might think may indeed be the case. things have "natures" other than mere that Peikoff is telling us that our senses In the words of Leonard Peikoff, au­ descriptions of the way they actually be­ present to us the world as it actually is. thor of Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn have, or of the ways they might behave Rand, "this book is the definitive state­ in all possible circumstances. ment of Ayn Rand's philosophy - as in­ From here Peikoff swiftly moves to terpreted by her best student and cause and effect as "a universal law of Peikoff seems to think that chosen heir" (p. xv). Upon perusing said reality" (13). By this he means determi­ the most effective strategy is to work, I have to recognize the awful pos­ nism: every thing in a given set of cir­ sibility that this description may be liter­ cumstances can behave in only one way issue a succession of hot­ ally accurate. (ibid.). (It immediately follows that tempered incantations, often Metaphysics everything we are doing right now is abusive, slovenly in logic, and Peikoff tells us: "Whatever exists, ex­ the only possible outcome of the state of so constructed as to head off ists. Whatever exists is what it is. In the universe, say, a billion years ago, but whatever form one is aware, one is Peikoff doesn't seem to accept that cor­ thoughts subversive of his aware" (7). Throughout this book, such ollary.) Peikoff even claims that cause position. inoffensive truisms are frequently in­ and effect follows from the logical rule toned, sometimes belligerently, some­ of non-contradiction. times with solemn emphasis, always as Suppose that the way something be­ though they were daring new formula­ haves is that, in a specific, exactly de­ This would be a highly unusual position tions, distinctive to Randism, which we fined state of affairs, it can do one thing to take. But although he begins by, per­ might have a hard time grasping. And with 50% likelihood or another thing haps inadvertently, giving us that im­ evidently we do, for Peikoff affects to with 50% likelihood. Such is the entity's pression of his standpoint, he then deduce from them all sorts of proposi­ nature, if you like that way of talking. emphatically rejects it: there are differ­ tions which are more debatable. An entity like that would contravene ences in sensory "form" (37-39). If I see For example, he claims to derive Peikoff's deterministic version of cause a thing as one color, and you see it as a from the above the proposition that eve­ and effect but there is nothing self­ different color, there is no disagreement ry entity "must act in accordance with its contradictory about it. Peikoff may sup­ between us; we perceive the same thing nature" (12). That is something of a leap. pose there are no such entities, but he in a different form (37). These differenc­ It's not clear that an entity has a nature can't prove this, and he didn't arrive at es in form don't matter philosophically. in accordance with which it must act, that conclusion by logical inference from It's the job of physics to discover the 60 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 way physical objects are, independently Objectivism: The Philosophy ofAyn Rand, by Leonard Peikoff. of the forms of perception (39). The Dutton, 1991, ix + 448 pp., $24.95. form is not, however, subjective ­ meaning that it doesn't arise from the perceiver alone, but from the interaction between perceiver and object (39-41). Might "Objectivism" Rhetoric aside, that's akin to a sim­ plified and uncritical kind of Kantian­ ism. If we perceive only in "forms," as Ever Become Academically Peikoff holds, then it may not always be entirely clear what is due to the form and what is due to objects independent­ Respectable? ly of perception (things in themselves). And if we perceive only in forms, surely tions of her views that he had in mind some aspects of what we perceive (or of Henry B. Veatch for his own future book. And he makes what we experience as we perceive) it clear that even since her death he has must be attributed to ourselves, and Speaking as the oldster that I am, I must in that sense be "subjective." And been in close touch with orthodox Ran­ distinctly recollect how, some 25 years dians, thus ensuring the orthodoxy of how can physics, if it depends upon and more ago, a veritable Ayn Rand cult his own presentation and defense of Ob­ sensory evidence, give us an account of appeared to be spreading among stu­ physical reality independent of the jectivist ideas and principles. dents on American college and universi­ Is it surprising, then, that directly in forms of perception? Peikoff stops ty campuses. Still, it was a cult that where the interesting questions start. the preface to his book, Peikoff appar­ touched only the students and not the ently disqualifies any prospective aca­ If I read him correctly, Peikoff holds professors - at least not those profes­ that perception occurs before concepts demic philosopher as either critic or sors whose calling was "academic reviewer? "This book," he says, "is writ­ are formed, and concepts are then based philosophy." ten not for academics, but for human be­ on accumulated past perceptions. Con­ Just why was it, though, that in those cepts, then, arise - somehow! - from ings (including any academics who days there seemed to be so little meeting qualify)." And where does this put an stored prior sense experience. Interpre­ of minds between Randians and profes­ tation begins only after pristine sense unfortunate reviewer like myself? For sors of philosophy? Perhaps it was that what else can I do but plead guilty to data have been collected. "Conscious­ Miss Rand was nothing if not a fiercely ness begins as a tabula rasa (a blank having been a dyed-in-the-wool "aca­ independent thinker not given to tolerat­ demic" for the whole of my professional slate); all of its conceptual content is de­ ing fools gladly, and in her eyes the then rived from the evidence of the senses" life? Perhaps I might plead at least some regnant professors of philosophy - and extenuating circumstances, in that, how­ (34). "We begin ... by looking at the most especially of moral philosophy ­ world" (4). ever benighted an academic philosopher must indeed have seemed to be little I may long have been, in recent years I That account is, in my opinion, vir­ better than fools. These professors ap­ tually the opposite of the truth, and in­ have been not just retired, but very parently had neither. time nor patience much retired. And just conceivably, this deed barely coherent. An ordering and to develop an ethics that human beings selecting principle has to be built and might serve to restore at least some hu­ could actually live by, or at least use to manity to me once again! ready to operate before any mechanism make sense and add meaning to their can utilize information from the outside own lives as individuals. Philosophy The Orthodoxy and Its Critics world. Before there can be observation, then - yes, even moral philosophy and One can safely say that the academic there must be theory. There can be no ethics - seemed to be very largely an moral philosophy that had become dom­ perception without interpretation. A fe­ affair of acquiring and then displaying inant, at least in this country, for nearly tus is programmed with theories, ready certain highly sophisticated techniques the whole of this present century ­ for application and revision. We are of logico-linguistic proficiency. whether it be of Kantian or of utilitarian born theorizing, and we develop and re­ In Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn inspiration - was largely aimed at elim­ fashion our inborn theories as we learn Rand the author, Leonard Peikoff, makes inating from ethics any and all concerns the skills of perception. To see a physi­ it quite clear that he wishes to carryon a moral agent might have with his own cal object requires a theory about the the tradition of anti-academic philoso­ ends and purposes in life, and to direct world, a theory that might be very dif­ phy as set by Miss Rand. He makes no those concerns instead toward such du­ ferent if we spent our first months in, a bones of the fact that he himself writes ties and obligations as one might have world where holograms were not as a professional philosopher, but toward others. Accordingly, ethics in commonplace. rather as a still devoted and undeviating this view was to be construed as being It makes no sense to say that a baby Randian disciple. Indeed, Peikoff states exclusively a "duty-ethic" rather than a begins by looking at the world - in the that he not only st~died with Miss Rand "desire-ethic." Likewise, one's moral conceptless sense intended by Peikoff ­ for a number of years before her death stance, it was insisted, ought always to for "looking" presupposes expectation in 1982, but actually discussed with her be one of "altruism," rather than "ego­ continued on page 66 at length many of his proposed formula- ism." That is, to use a recently fashiona- Liberty 61 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

ble term, the proper attitude for a moral which for him involved a review of his and impartially as compared with my agent to cultivate should be one of "im­ predecessors, with a view to seeing own? "But just why?" one may ask. partiality": any action that one takes one how, by an exposure of their missteps "And who says so?" should always regard the interests and and false starts, he could more success­ The root·weakness of the usual aca­ desires of others as being entitled to an fully set his own philosophy on course. demic philosophical answers to these equal and impartial consideration along But there is an even more striking , questions was that its champions did with one's own. reason to consider contemporary philos­ not rely on anyfacts in nature or in reali­ It is little wonder that such a type of ophy. For recently there have been signs ty in confirmation of their altruism and ethics should have become anathema in of a revolt, right within the ranks of the their partiality for a duty-ethic. Instead, the eyes of orthodox Objectivists. For it is academic philosophers, and particularly they seemed to rely solely on mere con­ the very hallmark of Objectivism - at in the areas of ethics and moral philoso­ siderations of lOgic and language. least as presented by Peikoff in his book phy - a revolt that would seem to be - that it is no less than a human individ­ directed pretty much against the long­ ual's own very end and goal in life that standing dominance of old-line analytic­ In Aristotelian eyes, the is at stake in any study and pursuit of linguistic philosophers. Indeed, this re­ what is rightly to be called ethics. More volt might be seen as a radical new de­ standard for what a human be­ specifically still, Peikoff insists that, in parture, a departure that seems to have ing ought to try to be and be­ Miss Rand's eyes, the end or goal or ob­ a number of affinities with the Randian come is just what his human jective in life that every moral agent position in ethics. should aim at is none other than simply Among these latter-day critics of the nature requires of him. Life (with a capital "L"). And the Life moral-philosophical establishment are that should thus be the all-absorbing ob­ some of the most outstanding of con­ ject of concern to the moral agent is pre­ temporary moral philosophers - Alas­ Two centuries ago, Kant had tried to cisely his or her own life, and not the life dair MacIntyre, Bernard Williams, and maintain that his "categorical impera­ of anyone else! An Objectivist ethics is Martha Nussbaum. This is not to say tives," or absolute "oughts" requiring every inch an egoism, and in no wise an that these established figures who have uncompromising consideration of oth­ ethics of altruism orimpartiality. now become critics of the traditional ers, were tobe justified seemingly on the ethical establishment are ready to be en­ sole ground that for a moral agent to dis­ rolled in the ranks of the Randians! At regard such categorical "oughts" could An Objectivist ethics is eve­ the. same time, one does need to men­ not but involve the person in serious in­ tion a number of younger one-time Ran­ consistencies. And yet when subjected to ry inch an egoism, and in no dians (or near-Randians) who are now careful logical analysis the inconsisten­ wise an ethics of altruism or very much a part of the present~day aca­ cies turned out to be more apparent than impartiality. demic scene, but who, understandably real. enough, have become sharp critics of More recently, philosophers from the the longstanding fashions in establish­ camp of the logico-linguistic analysis ment ethics - Douglas Rasmussen, have sought to show that if someone Granted then that what we have Douglas Den Uyl, and Fred Miller. One should pronounce a thing - just any­ been calling mainstream academic eth­ wonders why Peikoff nowhere men­ thing at all - to be good, and it being ics in this country is the very antithesis tions them in his book. Had he taken granted that anything that is good needs of any ethics of a Randian or Objectivist cognizance of what various of these con­ to be promoted and pursued, it follows type. Still, one wonders whether this temporary critics have said about some that any and every moral agent has a quite justifies Peikoff in simply brush­ of the long-standing fashions in analyt­ moral duty or responsibility to promote ing academic ethics aside, as being the ic-linguistic moral philosophy, it would and pursue any and every good, regard­ product of thinkers who, he suggests, have rendered his own presentation of less of whether it be his own good or might scarcely even be "human," and Objectivist ethics far more sophisticated not. But again, this supposed commit­ thus, presumably, not deserving of seri­ and illuminating. ment on the part of moral agents always ous philosophical consideration and at­ to further the good, whoever's good it tention. Instead, would it not have been The Collapse of an Orthodoxy might be, turns on a kind of linguistic le­ better for Peikoff to have paid serious Given this century's shift in fashion gerdemain that has recently been shown critical heed to some of the classical for­ from an egoistic, or primarily self­ to be rather readily exposable as little nlulations of the standard types of regarding, ethics, to an altruistic or oth­ more than a curious sophism. "duty-ethics," or "ethics of impartiali­ er-regarding ethics, just what, one In fact, the sophism is found to lie in ty," if for no other reason than simply to might ask, is the reason or ground of the original understanding of "good." determine just where and how they pre­ justification for such a shift? Why is it to No sooner does one come to see that the sumably went wrong, as well as how be supposed that a concern for my own term "good" cannot be taken as a simple they might best be answered? Certainly interests should never take· precedence or absolute property just in itself, but Aristotle - to whom Objectivists pro­ over my concern for others, but rather rather ever and always as designating a fess allegiance - never failed to avail that I should ever work to further the in­ good of something or somebody, or a himself of what he called "dialectic," terests and concerns of others equally good for someone or something, then 62 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 one quickly recognizes that when some­ ought to try to be and become, is just things - how can he profess to know thing is reckoned as a good of or for what his human nature requires of him. both that there really is an end or telos of someone, it does not follow that the True, one often hears it said that the human life, such as we have just de­ thing that is an acknowledged good of or end or goal or telos of man, as this was scribed, and what the basis for such a for my neighbor must therefore be recog­ conceived by Aristotle, was simply that knowledge is? The basis for such a claim nized as a good for me as well, and that I of happiness or eudaimonia; and certain­ lies simply in the very facts of nature must therefore pursue as being an obliga­ ly this is true. And yet eudaimonia or themselves. Nature discloses to us the tion incumbent upon me as well. happiness for Aristotle is to be con­ difference between, say, health and dis­ ceived as a person's full flowering, as it ease - not just in the case of human be­ Aristotle for Objectivists were, or his full perfection and develop­ ings, but with respect to living beings Objectivists and latter-day Aristote­ ment such as is demanded by his very generally throughout the whole of ani­ lians can agree on this critique of main­ nature as a person. Moreover, if one mate nature. And as far as animate na­ stream ethics, for both hold that the basic wants to know of what such a develop­ ture is concerned, we are forever being concern of the moral agent should be a ment must consist in the case of human made clearly, and often painfully, aware concern for oneself and for one's own beings, the Aristotelian answer is that it of what it means for things to be in a personal development and eventual must consist of the cultivation and exer­ flourishing or healthy condition, as over flourishing. Nevertheless, there would cise of both the intellectual and moral against their being sickly or deprived, seem to be a marked difference between virtues. In other words, a human being, and thus anything but flourishing. the two when it comes to the ways in in so far as he or she is fully and proper­ "Still," one might well ask, "just which they would go about justifying ly human, needs both to know what the where does one find the actual justifica­ both the telic character (designating the score is, so to speak, so far as human life tion for introducing such standards of element of purpose, or end, derived from and existence are concerned, and to be value - Le. of good and bad, of better the Greek word telos) and the egoistic so disciplined as regards his feelings and worse - directly into situations character of their respective ethics. and desires and emotions as to be able where the only differences would seem Consider first the Aristotelian ap­ to act on that knowledge. In other to be purely factual ones? For although proach. The Aristotelian seeks to appeal words, the end or goal in life for an indi­ we human beings may be accustomed to nature as the source of his justification vidual is simply that he learn to live ra­ to reading value distinctions into differ­ for both the telic and the egoistic character tionally and intelligently. ences between the healthy and the dis­ of his ethics. Thus in Aristotelian eyes, How is it that an Aristotelian moral eased, or between the flourishing and the standard for what a human being philosopher can claim to know these the not-so-flourishing, what warrant is Reason Papers A JournalofInterdiscIplinaryNormative Studies Rethinking Foundationalism: Metaphilosophical Essays Edited by Gregory R. Johnson and Glenn A. Magee Evidience and Justification... DavldKellt-J/

Founding Philosophy... StanleyRosen Systematic Pluralism and the Foundationalism Contro- versy... U/.'llter ~Vatson Philosophy Without Foundations... OR Madison Discussion Notes Phenomenology and the Foundationalism Debate... Joho J DIlImmond Game Theory and the Virtues: The New and Improved Narrowly Compliant Disposition... Gran/ A. BIorvo Foundations, Rationality, and Intellectual Responsibi­ lity: A Pragmatic Perspective... Sandra B. Rosenthal Et Tu Quoque? Rationalism Reconsidered... Pall! T: Saga! Deconstructing Foundationalism and the Question of Philosophy as a Systematic Science... H/j/liam MakeI BookSection Hegel's Rcnlcdy for the Impasse of Contemporary David L. Norton's DeO](}('f.'lLY and MOII]J DeveJo(Jmeo/: Ricflard Di('o ~Violit'/d Philosophy... A PoIi/ics' 0/' Vli'lUc. .. iVluj{' TurillIJ0 Self-Referential Argunlents in Philosophy... Michael D. Bayles' PIo('cdulZ/1Jus/icc .. (li//OlJ Pellf.l' .)/even }a/es

Reason Papers is published at the Department of Philosophy, Auburn University, AL 36849. Send orders ($13.00 per copy in US and Canada, $14.00 elsewhere; make checks payable to Reason Papers) to Professor Tibor R. Machan, Reason Papers, Department of Philosophy, Auburn Univiersity, AL 36849. Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 there for our importing such values into even though value distinctions are a end is and why such a natural end is to what, objectively considered, are no part of nature, this still does not imply be reckoned as being a good, not to say more than factual differences alone?" that the morally good, as over against the good, for man. But unfortunately, it To this sort of challenge the Aristote­ the morally evil, are both a part of na­ seems that the Objectivists - at least as lian reply is simply to insist that ture, and thus discoverable and observ­ Peikoff presents their case - are unable throughout the whole of nature there able in the facts of nature. However, an to make any such appeal to nature in are discernible distinctions between Aristotelian answer to this sort of objec­ support of their ethics. In Chapter 1 'Yhat Aristotle called potency and act­ tion is not hard to come by: for in just Peikoff does recognize that both ethics between what a given thing might be or what does the distinction between moral and politics seem to presuppose and could be, and what it actually is. Ac­ value specifically and values consist? It is a rest upon two more basic branches of cordingly, when it comes to explicit val­ distinction that emerges as soon as one philosophy, metaphysics and episte­ ue distinctions - between "good," say, recognizes that human beings are be­ mology. Still there is no word here and "bad," or "not-so-good" - an Aris- ings possessed of reason and intelli­ about nature, or about a knowledge of gence, and that they are able to discern nature, in the form of a physics (for the differences in value and disvalue, or be­ Greek word for nature is simply physis), tween good and bad, in situations they as being able to ground such knowl­ Peikoff disqualifies any pros­ actually confront in, the world. And be­ edge as one might claim to have in ei­ pective academic philosopher ing distinctive in their capacity for dis­ ther ethics or politics. Instead, Peikoff as either critic or reviewer. cerning such differences between good insists that physics is a scientific (in the Where does this put an unfor­ and evil, it is understandable why it is modern sense of the word "scientific") only human beings, as contrasted with discipline, and not a philosophical dis­ tunate reviewer like myself? other beings in the world, who, have cipline at all. As a consequence, even if For what else can I do but the power to act on their knowledge, in Peikoff's eyes physics in the modern plead guilty to having been a and thus have a responsibility - yes, a sense might conceivably be said to af­ specifically moral responsibility - to ford a knowledge of nature, it would dyed - in -the -wool 1/academic" choose the better and not the worse. not be a knowledge of nature that for the whole of my profession­ Against this background one can be­ would have the slightest relevance, so al life? gin to see readily what the justification far as ethics or politics are concerned. is for our typically Aristotelian conten­ If the Objectivists apparently do not tion earlier on that a human being's end appeal to nature as prOViding a founda­ or goal in life - that in which his per­ tion for their ethics, then where else can totelian holds that these connote just fection or well-being or true flourishing they appeal? And to this question, I am such distinctions as that between the ac­ may be said to consist - is not any­ afraid that the answer is that there is no­ tual as against the potential, and so, by thing that need be arbitrarily deter­ where else. In other words, their ethics extension, as that between the more de­ mined, or set up merely at will. No, the would seem to be nothing if not simply veloped and the less developed, the good for man, or that in which the true lacking in any proper foundation or jus­ healthy as over against the diseased, or value or perfection for a human being tification at all. the flourishing as over against the not­ may be said to consist - these are all so-flourishing. And so it is that value things that are both discoverable in na­ distinctions between good and bad are ture and grounded in nature, so that to be recognized as pervading the whole The end or goal in life for an one's very conduct of life might be said of nature, and so to be nothing ifnot em­ to be prescribed for us ultimately by individual is simply that he pirically discoverable right in nature. Even if one credits this Aristotelian nothing less than actual natural laws. learn to live rationally and line of argument, one might insist that Objectivism Without intelligently. Foundations Celebrate the 1991 But now what about the Objecti­ Bill of Rights Bicentennial vists? How do they make a case for Suppose that right here we even call their ethics, at least as presented in Miss Rand herself as a witness. For as •..and defend your rights Peikoff's book? How does he justify an Peikoff represents her position, it was by promoting public awareness•.. ethics that is both telic and egoistic? her view that the true end or goal in life Alas, with respect to this question, it for a human being is simply Life. And with a Bill of Rights T.. Shirt seems to me that not only is he unable yet without asking just what ''Life,'' tak­ from IDEALOGOI to come forward with any discernible en as an ultimate end might mean here, line of justification, he is not even sensi­ or whether possibly "Life" here is to be Featuring the original manuscript on front and ten ratified amendments on back. Parchment color, tive to the need for such justification. construed in terms of various alterna­ preshrunk, heavyweight, 100% cotton T-Shirts. We have seen how Aristotelians be­ tive ways of life, in which certain of Available in S, M, L, XL sizes lieve their appeal to nature and to the these ways might be designated as ac­ for $12 per shirt plus $2 shipping. natural world provides them with ceptable for human beings, and.others IDEALOGO™ • PO Box 897T • Mtn View, CA 94042 Please indicate size, and allow 2to 3 weeks for UPS delivery. knowledge as to what man's natural not acceptable - waiving all questions L y~u~ s~t~~t~n~s~~o~d~~c::!.Y.2~~n~~. ...I Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 of this sort,let us but focus directly on ground or justification for their in­ the novels. the question of justification as such: just sights. For all of Miss Rand's skill in de­ And that perhaps accounts for the why and on what grounds did Miss picting characters whose conduct and rather paradoxical nature of this re­ Rand hold that Life should somehow be behavior is of a definite moral and ethi­ view's title. For had the Objectivists the true and all-encompassing end or cal import - as being some of them paid a more discerning and discriminat­ goal for human beings? wise and some of them foolish, some ing attention to present-day academic Alas, I am afraid that the Randians noble and some ignoble, some admira­ philosophy, they might have seen their can then scarcely come up with any an­ ble and some despicable - for all of way clear toward basing their own phi­ swer to the question of what possible this, when one turns to the Objectivist losophy on rather more solid Aristote­ justification there could be for such ba­ philosophy behind Miss Rand's novels, lian foundations by way of justification. sic ethical principles as that Life should one seems forced to say that as a philos­ In short, academic respectability is not be taken as the true end or goal or telos ophy, it fails to provide any adequate always and everywhere a thing to be for human beings, or that such a goal moral-philosophical justification for the avoided, certainly not by the must be conceived in terms of an ego­ moral and value judgments implicit in Objectivists. 0 ism, and not an altruism. For surely, it would do no good to argue, as I feel sure Miss Rand would not have wanted to argue, that merely because Life might be supposed to be that which all Reason Papers human beings do in fact pursue, it therefore is what they ought to pursue. Back Issues Say that, and immediately all the lin­ No. 15 (Summer 1991) $8 No. 12 (Spring 1987) $8 guistic analysts will jump down our David Norton on I,ihertv. Virtue. and Essays to Commemorate the Self-Development. . throats and say that one cannot infer an 250th Anniversary of the "ought" from an "is." And in this, I be­ Antony Flew and Ernest Van Den Haag Completion of David Hume's on Marxism. lieve that the linguistic analysts would A Treatise ofHuman Nature. Theodore Vitali on the ethics of hunting. be unhappily only too right. includes papers by: Randall Dipert reviews David Kelley's The Similarly, if Objectivists are not EVidence 01 St~/J.5't'5: Donald W. Livingston the careful to specify the principIe that James T. King what we call "good" or "value" is to be Nicholas Capaldi No. 11 (Spring 1986) $8 understood (not to say even "defined") Stuart D. Warner Hans Gissurarson, "Community Without Coercion." as the actual as over against the poten­ Douglas Den Uyl and Lee Rice Frank Van Dun, "Economics and the tial, then it will do no good just to Douglas B. Rasmussen Limits of Value-Free Science". argue that "Life," as Rand and Peikoff Steven Rappaport, "What's Really Wrong call it, is what should fulfill us as hu­ No. 14 (Spring 1989) $13 with Milton Friedman's Methodology of man beings, and therefore is what we Economics". should strive to attain as human moral Special Lomasky Symposium agents. For unless "good" and "value" Issue No. 10 (Spring 1985) $8 Authors include: are to be understood as the fulfilling or Jack Hiph, "Is Economics independent of Tibor R. Machan the perfective as over against the unful­ Ethics?' Eric Mack filling and the imperfect - and this di­ Paul Me Gouldrick, "How the Jacksonians Loren Lomask)' Favored Industrialization." rectly within the order of nature itself Ralph Raico Juliana Geran Pilon, "Economic Warfare - then an Objectivist ethics that would in Defense of Liberty." set up Life as being our proper human Antony Flew, "Choice and Rationality." No. 13 (Spring 1988) $13 end or goal will unhappily be entirely Lester H. Hunt, "On Improving MAnkind without philosophical foundation. A Festschrift for John by Political Means.-' Hospers David Levy, "Constraining the Choice Set: No, not even the egoisDl of the Ob­ Lessons from the Software Revolution." jectivists would seem justifiable apart Authors include: f:red D. Milkr from a recognition that an individual No.9 (Winter 1983) $8 can only orient his life toward his own Jan Wilbanks Jet'frey Paul Nicholas Capaldi, "'The Libertarian Philo­ good. After all, no act can be the act of sophy of John Stuart Mill." Antony Flew anything other than that very thing that Neera Kapur Badhwar. "Love, Politics. and is to be reckoned as having a potentiali­ Tom Regan Autonomy." Randall E. Barnett ty for just such activity or actuality. Fred D. Miller Jr., "Rationality and Free­ John O. Nelson dom in Aristotle and Hayek." For all of the moral insight that Ob­ Michael D. Rogers & Ann Weiss, "A jectivists have displayed in their insis­ Physical Definition of Rights." tence upon an ethics that is at once felic and egoistic, they have nonetheless Send Orders to Professor Tibor R. Machan, Reason Papers, Department failed rather signally when it comes to of Philosophy Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849. (make checks payable providing anything like an adequate to Reason Papers.) Liberty 65 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

Steele, "Post-Randian Objectivism," continued from page 61 truth or falsity is independent of its his­ tory or of its maker's motives. Further­ and purpose. A blank slate cannot be power to invent, distort, or deceive. more, there is absolutely nothing wrong aware of anything, just because it is They do not respond to a zero, only to with any statement merely because it is blank. If we want a computer to process something, something real, some exis­ based on emotion and devoid of evi­ the marks on a slate, we have to give the tential object which acts on them" (35). dence - it might, for all that, very well computer the capacity to analyze the We cannot prove that there are any be true. We can look and see whether marks, and that means to translate the laws, nor whether any laws there might there is any evidence after the statement marks into the computer's '1anguage." be are inexorable, as opposed to probab­ has been made. Propositions are not The computer itself cannot be blank. ilistic, but let's suppose that there are in­ subject to original sin. Perception represents the world bycon­ exorable laws. Perception is not done by A refutation of Peikoff's position can structing conceptual models; these mod­ the sense organs and then handed in a be given along the following lines. A ad­ els always have the character of finished package to the brain. Percep­ vances a claim p, based on emotion and incomplete and fallible hypotheses, and tion is performed by the brain, using the devoid of evidence. B denies this claim, they can often be misleading, though sense organs, the way it might also use a because of evidence he has collected. In­ they can sometimes be replaced by bet­ hearing aid or a TV camera. The bit vestigation indicates that Bis right. Now ter ones. about the organs' lack of conscious in­ according to Peikoff's position, B's claim That all seems perfectly obvious to tention is excruciatingly silly: if my ra­ ("p is false") is true, whereas p is neither me, though I don't claim to have made dio emits a beep which I interpret as a true nor false. But the denial of any true out much of a case for it here. Peikoff, noise occurring at the broadcast concert, statement must be false. Hence, by re­ however, has the space to make out his the radio is not necessarily trying to ductio ad absurdum, Peikoff is wrong. case, and, such as it is, it is depressingly trick me. The point is not trivial, because the feeble. He seems to think that the most history of thought is filled with ingeni­ effective strategy is to issue a succession Truth Peikoff describes some contentions ous, beautiful, and ultimately fruitful of hot-tempered incantations, often abu­ theories which were based on emotion sive (demeaning all who disagree with as "arbitrary," by which he means that and devoid of evidence. Virtually all the him), slovenly in logic (I've given a few they are based on emotion and devoid of evidence (145). He maintains that ancient Greek cosmological specula­ such arbitrary propositions are "auto­ tions, such as the atomic hypothesis, fall matically invalidated" (145), neither true into this category. In fact, as I indicated The propaganda significance nor false (147). He goes on to say that above, all human thinking commences statements made by a parrot cannot be from mental activity which is devoid of of the Randians' doctrine is true or false, since the parrot is not con­ evidence, and "emotionally-based" in that it enables them to avoid scious (147). In the same way, arbitrary Peikoff's sense

finer detail: It is, in point of fact, possi­ correct formulation of the earlier theory enough to specify exactly when the the­ ble to prove a negative (149). En route he would have been: "Within the context of ory does and does not hold good (in advances the following argument: the circumstances so far known, [Type] which case the theory still yields an infi­ A bloods are compatible" (154). He com­ nite number of possibly false predic­ If gremlins, for instance, do not exist, ments: "like all properly formulated tions), or the theory is effectively then they are nothing and have no consequences. In such a case, to say: truths, this truth is immutable." I sup­ scuttled (since it comes to mean: "Either "Prove that there are no gremlins," is pose that any true statement is true im­ such-and-such will happen or it to say: '~oint out the facts of reality mutably, but the question remains won't"). that follow from the nonexistence of whether our attempts to get at the truth According to Popper, induction is gremlins." But there are no such facts. are infallible and incorrigible, if we fol­ logically invalid and science does not Nothing follows from nothing. (149) low some Randian recipe. operate by induction. According to the From the fact that gremlins do not Peikoff overlooks the problem of in­ surviving inductivists, such as the Baye­ exist, it does not follow that it makes no d uction. It is inseparable from the episte­ sians, induction is valid and does work, difference if they do or do not exist. mological status of a theory that it goes but only by raising or lowering the beyond the observational evidence we probabilities of theories - and never have, and therefore can never be proved raising them to 1. Either way, there is no from that evidence. If we attach to any escape from the fact that any theory, no Science is a succession of theory the proviso: "This holds only in matter how well corroborated, can nev­ false theories, though the theo­ the cases we have so far looked at," the er be shown to be true but could turn theory becomes scientifically quite use­ out to be false. ries may possibly get progres­ less. The main point of any theory is to Peikoff states that: "A man does not sively closer to the truth. be applied to new circumstances, cir­ know everything, but he does know cumstances where it may, for all we what he knows" (154). He evidently know, not hold good. If we try to protect means that if a man is a good Randian, a theory from future refutation by attach­ he can never accept a false theory. On Phlogiston, the Ether, the Collective Un­ ing the qualification ."within the context this view, individual or social knowl­ conscious, and changes in human be­ of the circumstances so far known," then edge grows by simple addition of new havior due to a full Moon do not exist, either this has to be made precise material, not by revolution. But this and it's possible to point to facts that fol­ low from their nonexistence. It may be, of course, that we cannot find any testa­ Pre-Bookstore Offering:- ble consequences of some entity's exis­ tence or non-existence, because it is too vaguely specified or for some other rea­ son. But this is quite distinct from whether they actually do or don't exist. LIBERALISM vs. CONSERVATISM And it may be helpful to·speculate about them anyway, since we really LIBERTY vs. AUTHORITY (Second Edition/1991) don't know what future tests may be de­ vised for currently untestable theories. r------, I Certainty Updated ! Peikoff asserts (153) that if a person Send to: follows the Randian epistemological Larger policy he will never have to abandon earlier views in the light of new evi­ Bibliography ELSIE PRESS dence. A Randian is always right all the P.O. BOX 1234 time. Yet one page earlier he seems to Self-tests LODI, CA 95240 accept that we can never be sure that a theory will not ''be overthrown one day New material by new information as yet undiscov­ (One Copy $10.00/Two Copies $15.00) ered" (152). His attempt to reconcile Easy reading these two positions employs the exam­ Please print: ple of blood types: four types were iden­ Comprehensive tified, but then it was found that some A-type blood was incompatible with Send: other A-type blood - the Rh factor was name subsequently identified. Peikoff has to Check say that the discovery of the Rh factor Money order address did not contradict the earlier theory. To Cash support this claim, he maintains that the I city state ZIP Stamps L. _ Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 overlooks the problem of induction. The when an animal digests food" (and so William McGonagall, though far less en­ price of an interesting, non-vacuous the­ forth) "the organism is pursuing the val­ joyable. Some of Peikoff's positions ory is that we can never have conclusive ues its survival demands" (205). It's dif­ could be given a respectable defense by evidence that it is true. Science is a suc­ ficult to see why Peikoff thinks an others, but in this book the most ele­ cession of false theories, though the the­ unconscious organism can be said to mentary standards of competent argu­ ories may possibly get progressively have values, if a thermostat, or a torna­ ment are flouted on every page. closer to the truth. Peikoff talks about do, or a crystal of salt, or a glass of water Peikoff's approach is slapdash. He "ideas" being "logically proved," but cannot. More seriously, Peikoff' ~ state­ hardly ever reports anyone else's posi­ this has no applicability to scientific the­ ment displays his misunderstanding of tion accurately. Here, for example, is his ories. No theory of empirical science has biology. account of an argument by Rawls: ever been logically proved, nor will one According to the neo-Darwinian the­ It is perfectly just, Rawls maintains, ever be. ory, individual organisms tend to maxi­ for society to sacrifice the men of in­ mize the reproduction of their genes in telligence and creative ability - to Ethics competition with other genes in the seize their products and redistribute All the usual ingredients of the Ran­ same population. This often leads indi­ them to the world's losers - because, dian ethical theory are reproduced here viduals to pursue their own survival, but he says, nobody worked to achieve by Peikoff, irresponsibly ignoring the also sometimes leads them to sacrifice his own gray matter; nobody earned many serious criticisms that have been their own survival for the sake of spread­ his brain, which is a mere gift from made time and again. The completely ing their genes. Most important features nature. (l08) bogus argument from the immortal ro­ of living organisms are adapted to mak­ Peikoff refutes "this monstrous theo­ bot is trotted out once more (l84-86). It ing them efficient machines for spread­ ry" by arguing that the notion of earn­ is asserted that an indestructible robot ing their genes, and individual survival ing one's brain is illegitimate. He gives could have no values, hence life is the is purely instrumental. It is mistaken to no page citation, and nowhere in Rawls basis of value. Now, it is hardly contro­ say that: "As a living entity, each neces­ is there any discussion of working to versial to propose that life is one pre­ sarily acts for its own sake; each is the earn one's brain, but I presume Peikoff condition for holding values, but from beneficiary of its own actions" (205). For is referring to 11:17 of A Theory of Justice this it doesn't follow that life is a value. instance, individual members of most (l00-08). Here Rawls says: ''No one de­ animal populations will typically risk serves. his greater natural capacity nor their lives to help their siblings; who merits a more favorable starting place in share an average of 50 percent of their society" (Rawls, 102), which is obvious­ Peikoff slips in a ridiculous genes. Such limited altruism persists be­ Iy true for those of us who reject reincar­ false alternative, that if we cause it is reproductively profitable nation. Rawls is here summarizing an don't accept 100 percent ego­ (from the gene's point of view). argument whose conclusion he rejects, Therefore it is quite unwarranted for and he quickly goes on to say that the ism, we have to accept 100 per­ Peikoff to suggest that any departure distribution of natural talents does not cent self-sacrifice for the benefit from total devotion to self-interest will rule out the possibility of justice: "The of others. make self-preservation impossible (205). natural distribution is neither just nor Consequently, there is no basis for the unjust; nor is it unjust that people are ridiculous false alternative unmistaka­ born into society at some particular po­ bly slipped in by Peikoff (208-09), that if sition. These are simply natural facts" And it is bootless to bring in the inde­ we don't accept 100 percent egoism, we (ibid.). Rawls defends a just society in structible robot, since there is no reason have to accept 100 percent self-sacrifice which there are differences in wealth \-vhy such a robot (if it could exist at all) for the benefit of others. Most people are and income due to birth and other caus­ couldn't hold values. I now possess the predominantly self-interested and some­ es. He does also favor some government capacity for preferring some states of what altruistic. This state of affairs may redistribution, but not for reasons recog­ affairs to others, in cases where this be as inexorable as the law of gravita­ nizably like those described by Peikoff. preference has no bearing on my survi­ tion, and it is quixotic to try to abolish it. Peikoff cannot seem to cite anyone val. And if I became indestructible, That doesn't remove our ethical obliga­ without misrepresenting them. He says there is no reason why I should neces­ tion to do something to help the poor that Spencer defended capitalism as sur­ sarily lose this capacity. and the weak, and to uphold the moral vival of the fittest, and drew this idea There is the same old Randian trad­ values of kindness, compassion, and from Darwin's theory of evolution ing on confusion between two usages consideration for others. (Peikoff, 356). He even misrepresents of "life": on the one hand, biological the Munich agreement of 1938 (110), survival, and on the other, something Carelessness saying that Hitler was demanding else (something poorly thought out, I have merely picked out a few of Czechoslovakia (instead of a German but at any rate, something which is not Peikoffs blunders. My main point is, part of Czechoslovakia whose popula­ to be identified with biological survi­ not that this or that position of Peikoff's tion wanted to join Germany). To com­ val, since it may justify deliberately is wrong (though they are mostly de­ mit one outrageous howler may be put nullifying one's biological survival). monstrably wrong, and where not down to misfortune. To cram so many Peikoff explains that: "When a plant wrong, vacuous or trite), but that Peik­ into one book looks like undue turns its leaves to reach the sunlight, off is the philosophical equivalent of carelessness. 0 68 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

The United States ofAmbition: Politicians, Power, and the Pursuit outperformed their opposition at the tasks a modern political career requires. of Office, by Alan Ehrenhalt. Times Books, 1991, viii + 311 pp., $23.00. The electorate has not sent them to gov­ ern; it has merely maintained the condi­ tions under which they could send themselves" (142). American Democracy In Wisconsin, "the GOP has become the party of Cincinnatus - the party of those who, in the final analysis, would Diagnosed rather be doing something else for a liv­ ing. The Democrats are the party of those who believe, with [Assemblyman] David Clarenbach, that 1 can't think of governmental power. anything I'd rather devote my life to"' Leland B. Yeager People with a negative image of gov­ (126). ernment, seeing it as overly meddle­ As Ehrenhalt recognizes, his obser­ Alan Ehrenhalt earned a master's de­ some, or whatever, tend to shun politics. vations do not fully apply to the general gree in journalism, has worked as a po­ Exceptions do exist, but they are just election for President. For a brief period litical reporter, editor, and columnist, that, exceptions; and they tend not to every four years, after the self­ has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard persevere in politics as tenaciously as ca­ nomination process is over, the opinions and a visiting scholar in political science reer-oriented devotees of activist gov­ and values of the electorate are decisive. at Berkeley, and is now executive editor ernment. Under our current system, However little the voters know about of Governing magazine in Washington. furthermore, a party's success depends the vast majority of political choices con­ His new book, The United States of Ambi­ on steadily recruiting full-time talent. fronting them, "they do have enduring tion, shapes his keen observations into Government-bashing does not build ma­ an intelligible pattern. jorities. Ronald Reagan's antigovern­ The U.S. political system has ment rhetoric reinforced a distaste for It is a gross fallacy to slide changed vastly from what it was several political careers among young decades ago. Old-style machines like Republicans. from the case for democracy as the one bossed in Utica, New York, by When conservatives occasionally the least bad political method Rufus Elefante (never elected to any­ come to power, they do not do much to into the case for throwing thing) are gone. Political parties have roll back activist programs already in lost their organized character. Experi­ place. "Government programs acquire more and more aspects of life enced politicians and party leaders no an inertia and a set of constituencies that into the political, meaning longer have much chance to screen po­ make repeal look like onerous and polit­ governmental, arena. tential candidates. Success no longer be­ ically costly work, even for a newly in­ longs to team players. The political stalled conservative regime that finds process has become much more open to them unattractive" (64). images of what the two major parties are leaderless individuals seeking office on [Tlhrough the 1970s and 1980s, the about in presidential politics" (270). They their own. "The skills that work in Democratic party strengthened itself apply these images and they pay atten­ American politics at this point in history as the vehicle for people who grew up interested in government and politics tion to the campaign as they choose be­ are those of entrepreneurship. At all lev­ tween the two major candidates - or els of the political system ... it is unusu­ and wanted to make a career of them And the Republican party was forced many of the voters do; so the qualifica­ al for parties to nominate people. People to compete as the vehicle of those who tion should run. Another qualification nominate themselves" (p. 17). felt that government was a dirty busi­ should be that the voters are choosing Those who gain and keep office ness and that they were demeaning only between two candidates that they tend to be people who like politics, see themselves to take part in it. (222) have not themselves deliberately it as a full-time career, and either enjoy Ehrenhalt illustrates his points with nominated. campaigning or dislike its rigors less case studies of local government (Con­ Ehrenhalt identifies a "central contra­ than most people would. They bask in cord, Cal., Utica, N.Y., Greenville diction" of the U.s. political system that publicity and put a relatively low value county, S.C.), state government (South cries out for explanation: although voters on privacy. As careerist professionals, Carolina, Alabama, Connecticut, Colora­ have shown a clear preference for Repub­ they develop expertise in fund-raising do, Wisconsin), and members of lican presidential candidates over the last and in exploiting technology and the Congress. twenty years, this has done nothing to nledia. Furthermore, people who have In Wisconsin, for example, the peo­ give the GOP a majority in the country as these tastes tend to be people who be­ ple "have never chosen the Democratic a whole (208). Yet his own method of lieve in activist government. Even out party en bloc to be the legislative majori­ analysis suggests how to explain this of genuine public spirit, they work to ty. The question is not put to the electo­ "contradiction," as well as the common expand their scope for doing good in rate that way. . .. Wisconsin's voters observation (if it is correct) that voters their favorite way, through exercising have elected individual Democrats who tend to disdain Congress in general Liberty 69 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 while admiring their own particular gestions. Skill in communicating - in out, for example, how to obtain statistics representative. town meetings, in door-to-door canvass­ on the personal characteristics of politi­ Presidential elections deal with the ing, on television, in direct-mail litera­ cians and how to test his insights in in­ big picture. Voters are interested and in­ ture - has gained in importance (p. 19). genious ways. formed - relatively. They have a "The more campaigning becomes a sci­ The book's two final paragraphs chance to express conservatism more ef­ ence unto itself, the more public offices state a brief conclusion. Our political fectively than in local and Congressional and rewards flow to people who have system is deficient in leadership, disci­ elections. mastered its details" (206). pline, and the willingness to seek ac­ Voters may dislike the performance Air conditioning and jet planes commodation of divergent personal of Congress as a whole. Taking the sys­ helped change the character of Con­ preferences. It generates a politics of tem as given, though, they can sensibly gress. More so than before, serving in it posturing and stalemate. Yet it will not elect a representative who knows how can and must be a year-round, full-time do simply to blame ambitious profes­ to manipulate it in defense of their inter­ sional politicians for "this mess": ests. Forbearance from grabbing their We understand more than we might own supposed share of federal largesse liThe GOP has become the like to admit about city councils that would not appreciably turn the system can't defer to leadership; about state around. Responsible government ­ party of Cincinnatus - the legislatures where every individual is government responsible to the general party of those who, in the final a faction unto himself; about a Con­ public interest rather than overrespon­ analysis, would rather be doing gress that lacks any sort of meaning­ sive, piecemeal, to numerous local and ful community among its members. special interests - is a public good; pur­ something else for a living." We understand these problems, or should, because they are all around suing it has prisoners'-dilemma aspects. us in American life. For all our ignor­ Why should one's own representative ance as voters and inattentiveness as behave responsibly when few others occupation; yet members can keep in citizens, we have a politics that is, in would follow the example and when the touch with their constituents. But long the end, appropriate to its time and payoff to himself and his (or her) con­ weekends back in the district, together place. stituents would be so slight and conjec­ with heavier work loads, have further This rather lame conclusion over­ tural? Furthermore - as is one of the eroded camaraderie among the mem­ looks the insights of Anthony Downs in book's main themes - their representa­ bers (p. 234 in particular). On local as An Economic Theory of Democracy (1957): tive tends to be a specialist in providing well as Congressional levels, an explo­ It is perfectly rational for the individual services to constituents and in projecting sion in staffing has changed the legisla­ citizen ordinarily to remain ignorant of an attractive personal image. tive process, making legislatures both political issues and give them only su­ Ehrenhalt mentions the chronic U.S. more competent and more active (138). perficial attention. Any reform effort government budget deficit as an exam­ Redistricting under the 1962 Su­ that hopes to succeed must take this cir­ ple of irresponsibility or dissipation of preme Court decision and the civil­ cumstance to heart. responsibility in the political and legisla­ rights movement contributed to opening Ehrenhalt neither fully explains our tive processes (although he does not up the political system. Changed con­ political malady nor gives advice on phrase the matter just that way; see pp. vention rules and the increased impor­ how to cure it. Yet even unaccompanied 245-250). More generally, the political tance of primaries have altered the by an etiology and a prescription, his di­ system has developed a critical flaw: "It presidential race. Vietnam and Water­ agnosis is well worth having. Although has allowed power and leadership, at gate created opportunities for antiestab­ Ehrenhalt is not pushing any particular many levels, simply to evaporate" (38). lishment, antiorganization types (152, ideological line, his analysis tempts me What accounts for changes in the po­ 209-210). to offer some libertarian embroidery. litical system over the past few decades? Some of these points, obviously, are Sheer eloquence, I conjecture, includ­ Ehrenhalt makes or hints at several sug- just as much features as explanations of ing a knack for deVising memorable slo­ the new system and require gans, succeeds better in the political explanation themselves. arena thancompetentconcern for the siz­ es or importance of various supposed \ Ehrenhalt does not, and does not claim to, provide problems and of the benefits and costs of anything approaching a remedies offered. Knowing economics full, well-articulated, per­ can hobble the honest politician, while suasive explanation. the pangs of conscience spare the eco­ Still, he has made a nomic ignoramus as he prevails with praiseworthy contribution promises and eloquence. Concern for the to political science. It mesh­ longrunis a similarhandicap, since look­ es nicely with the work of inggoodatelection time is whatcounts. public-ehoice economists. These are among the reasons why Perhaps more academically the qualities and· skills of a successful "Washington, D.C. police today arrested two Democratic oriented researchers will political campaigner do not coincide Congressmen for impersonating Republican Congressmen!" build on his work, figuring with those of a good government execu- 70 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

tive or legislator (as Ehrenhalt noted in rience, reason, and the growth of orga­ in point.) Ehrenhalt has made a solid Concord, Ca1., p. 55). "The ability to nized knowledge can change what is po­ contribution to this growth of knowl­ canvass for votes in Iowa or New litically feasible. (The historical and edge. So doing, he provides grounds for Hampshire does not have much to do intellectual demise of socialism is a case optimism. 0 with the qualities that make a successful president. But it has come to be a virtual prerequisite for anyone who wants the Winning the Drug War: New Challenges for the 19905, job" (206). edited by Jeffrey A. Eisenach. The Heritage Foundation, 1991, $10.00. Ehrenhalt further helps us under­ stand why the outcome of the political process does not necessarily represent the will of the people. It is a fallacy to say (as George Will and Herbert Stein do) that people must be pretty well sat­ Drug Policy Abuse isfied with government as a whole; oth­ erwise they would vote to change it. The voters do not have an opportunity to express themselves, and express able fact that the drug war has made themselves knowledgeably, on the char­ Mark Thornton acter of government and its overall things worse. This involves considerable scale of activity. The political process sleight of hand, since he must simultane­ The Heritage Foundation mono­ operates with a bias toward bigness. ously claim that the war is being won graph Winning the Drug War is more like Furthermore, voters are probably and that the anti-drug army deserves a trip to Fantasy Island than a substan­ trapped in a kind of prisoners' dilemma more money and power because things tive work on policy. It is conservative are getting worse. (as suggested in remarks about Con­ propaganda clearly demonstrating that ~ress Turner acknowledges that more and above). Heritage's "war" bias goes beyond the more people are dying from taking ille­ Ehrenhalt's readers will see further military and foreign policy levels to in­ gal drugs. But what he cannot admit is reasons for skepticism about democracy clude the war against drugs and the war that this is a direct consequence of the as a good in its own right. Democracy is against individual rights. escalation of the government's war on a particular political method, a method Winning the Drug War cleverly mixes drugs. As the government becomes of choosing, replacing, and influencing the pro-war themes of Ed Meese and "tougher" on drugs, both the risks and our rulers. Ideally it offers us a way of Bill Bennett (who wrote its introduction rewards of drug dealing increase, pro­ avoiding or dismissing rulers who and concluding essay) with writing by viding incentives to increase the potency would destroy our individual rights. It people like John Matthews, the founder of criminalized drugs, to develop more is a radically inaccurate method of im­ of Peter Bug's Shoe Academy, an insti­ plementing the desires of the people, tution that attempts to teach teenagers dangerous drugs, and adulterate drugs. but the alternative political methods are to read and sell products while at the Not surprisingly, this has meant more even worse. It is a gross fallacy to slide same time~helpingthe elderly. This mix­ deaths. Emergency room visits associat­ from the case for democracy as the least ture is the key to the book's method of ed with illegal drugs continue to climb bad political method into admiring po­ propaganda: it attempts to justify the at an astronomical rate, a fact the Bush litical methods as such and into a sup­ government's war on drugs by conflat­ administration has been forced to posed case for throwing more and more ing the activities of the drug warriors acknowledge. aspects of life into the political, meaning with the successes of private and volun­ The Heritage study confirms Santay­ governmental, arena. Ehrenhalt's obser­ tary efforts to alleviate the problems as­ ana's maxim, "Those cannot remember vations bolster the case for strictly limit­ sociated with drug abuse. the past are condemned to repeat it." ing the scope of government. The entries on private rehabilitation America's "noble experiment" with alco­ Although reforms in the democratic programs are interesting and informa­ hol prohibition never happened, so far process will not dispel the dangers of tive. But they are logically distinct from as Heritage is concerned. "Government big government, Ehrenhalt's book the government's war. It is grossly used to murder by the bullet only, now should arouse interest in exploring misleading to describe the efforts of it's by the quart," commented Will Rog­ them. The case for limiting the terms of ministers, parents, school teachers, ers on the increased death rate from alco­ governmental office looks better. So counselors, and doctors as a "war hol poisoning. And prohibition increases does the case for choosing legislators, or against drugs." These people do not use crime. It drives up the price of drugs, some of them, by lot rather than by elec­ guns and bullets. They don't destroy forcing addicts into criminal activity to tion. So, perhaps, do the radical reforms lives. They don't kill. The government's finance their habit. The extreme profita­ suggested by F. A. Hayek in The Political war, on the other hand, does all these bility of contraband drugs engenders Order ofa Free People (1979). things. turf wars among dealers, increasing the Prospects for reforming politics and The lead article by Carlton Turner, number of murders. Drug wars destroy restraining government may look bleak the first "drug Czar," attempts to put job opportunities and stunt economic just now. In the long run, though, expe- the government's "spin" on the undeni- growth in the inner city, prOViding addi- Liberty 71 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 tional incentives to criminal activity. Secretary of State George Schultz - de­ a total failure in its stated goal, is de­ Drug dealers invest a portion of their clared their support for legalization. It structive of America's heritage of indi­ profits in police protection, thereby cor­ will weaken further as the public comes vidual rights, and is a tremendous rupting those hired to protect life and to understand that the war on drugs is waste of tax money. 0 property. And with police busy fighting the war on drugs (or lining their pockets with drug money) and prisons filling up Jack London: Novels and Stories. with drug criminals, other crimes The Library of America, 1982, 1,020 pp., $27.50. against life and property go uninvesti­ gated and unpunished. Yet prohibition's effect on drug use is marginal at most. As Will Rogers observed, "Prohibition was better than no whiskey at all." An American Meteor Although neither the Heritage Foun­ dation nor the Bush administration have learned anything from Prohibition, the fer, saying: "Interest in Alaska has sub­ Same cannot be said of a growing num­ Gary Alexander ber of American People. A Gallup Poll sided to an amazing degree. Then, [1986] found that five out of seven peo­ again, so much has been written, that I ple felt that politicians who advocated After his death at age 40 on Novem­ do not think it would pay us to buy spending more money on the drug war ber 22, 1916, Jack London's literary ca­ your story." were not serious about fighting drugs reer fell into disrepute. Critics panned Perhaps the editor was busy; per­ but were merely using the issue to get his super-human heroes, his lifestyle, haps he was offended by an eccentric publicity for themselves. Only one-third his socialism - or all three. spelling (Clondyke), or perhaps he was of those polled [1986] felt that if the fed­ On this anniversary of his self­ honestly tired of the subject itself, as he eral government made a much greater predicted flame-out, we should look stated. But he missed a golden opportu­ effort to reduce drugs that drug use again at how London described his own nity to print the first commercial piece writings and see how well he fulfilled by the greatest American writer of the his destiny through his own work, and first decade of this century, because he how he changed the direction of Ameri­ didn't catch the key passage of the cover It is grossly misleading to can fiction for decades after his death. letter, the three defining elements of describe the efforts of ministers, Here is one of the first letters he London's style, which, in fact, set the parents, school teachers, coun­ wrote to a newspaper editor, at age 22: tone for much later American fiction: Dear Sir: (1) to seize upon that which is selors, and doctors as a "war I have returned from a year's resi­ interesting; against drugs." dence in the Oondyke, entering the (2) to grasp the true romance of country by way of Dyea and Chilcoot things; Pass. I left by way of St. Michaels, thus (3) to understand the people one making altogether a journey of 2,500 miles on the Yukon in a small boat. I may be thrown amongst. would decline "a lot." Of those with an have sailed and travelled quite exten­ American fiction had become pain­ opinion the majority felt [in 1989] that sively in other parts of the world and fully purple by the turn of the new cen­ President Bush's plan will not signifi­ have learned to seize upon that which tury. Samples of short fiction from cantly reduce drug use in the long run. is interesting, to grasp the true romance leading literary magazines of the day, A recent survey sponsored by the of things and to understand the people such as Atlantic, would sound Victorian Drug Policy Foundation found that I may be thrown amongst. to modern ears. Into this somnolence 36% of the population supports decrim­ I have just completed an article of strode a strong new voice from a man inalization of drugs such as cocaine. An 4,000 words, describing the trip from who lived life to the edge. His life be­ Dawson to St. Michaels in a rowboat. extremely long list of local politicians, came a lesson to all young writers: If Kind!y let me know if there would be retired law enforcement officers, writ­ you want to write, you must first live a ers, journalists, economists, musicians, any demand in your columns for it ­ of course, thoroughly understanding life worth telling, then write about what and leading professionals have recently that the acceptance of the manuscript is you've experienced. And if a writer ever declared their support for drug law re­ to depend upon its literary and intrinsic lived his work, it was London. form in the direction of legalization. value. Winning the Drug War is an attempt Yours very respectfully, Jack London. "To Seize the Interesting" to bolster the conservative hold on - Jack London to the San Francisco Adventure surrounded London from public opinion about illegal drugs. Bulletin, September 1898. the womb. He was sired in Oakland, This grip was significantly weakened Freelance writers understand this probably by an itinerant astrologer (Wil­ when three major supporters of the process. Manuscripts go out; rejection liam H. Chaney); his mother was a spiri­ Reagan Administration-William F. slips flow back. The response to this tualist (Flora Wellman), who attempted Buckley, Jr., Nobel Prize-winning econ­ young freelancer's letter was typical ­ suicide by taking laudanum and shoot­ omist Milton Friedman, and former a scribbled note on the bottom of his of- ing herself while two months pregnant. 72 Liberty Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 Mother and son survived and Jack was the first story in The Son of the Wolf the fittest in action, the attempts by born on January 12, 1876. His astrologi­ (1900), the first of three books of collect­ brutes, lower life forms, to keep the cal parents no doubt thought it signifi­ ed Yukon stories published from 1900 to strongest from surviving. Yet the strong cant that his chart revealed Saturn in 1902. All 30 of these tightly-told tales survive. One by one, the sailors who at­ evil aspect to Libra - a dangerous sign, "grasp the romance" of the northland. tempted to murder Larsen are them­ but an omen of genius. When the baby But his style is better exemplified, selves cast out to sea or murdered. was 8 months old, Flora married an old­ perhaps, by the beginning and ending er widower, John London, and named of one of his most anthologized stories, "To Understand the People" her son after his stepfather. "To Build a Fire," written in the heat of When reading London's more philo­ London's early resume reads more the South Pacific in 1907 aboard Lon­ sophical novels and psychological short like a prison record. With barely an don's boat, the Snark. It is the story of a stories, I am reminded. of Ayn Rand's eighth grade education to show for his doomed man trying, and failing, to start skill in transforming Objectivism into misspent youth, he was at 14 an oyster a fire one cold day: skin and bones characters. In fact, Lon­ don foreshadowed Rand when he said pirate; at 16, a hobo; at 17, he sailed sev­ Day had broken cold and gray, ex­ to a friend, "Don't tell the reader. Have en months on the sealer Sophie Suther­ ceedingly cold and gray, when the land; at 18, he joined the hobo army man turned aside from the main Yu­ your characters tell it by their deeds, ac­ formed to protest mass unemployment kon trail and climbed the high earth tions, talk, etc. Then, and not until then, following the Panic of 1893. He spent 8 bank, where a dim and little-traveled are you writing fiction and not a socio­ months on the rails, from coast to coast trail led eastward through the fat logical paper." in the U.S., and back via Canada. In be­ spruce timberland. There was no sun Here's a passage from Sea Wolf that tween, in Buffalo, he spent 30 days in nor hint of sun, though there was not puts literall/yeast" around an idea. The prison for vagrancy. In the 1950s, he a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, captain, Wolf Larsen, is speaking ­ would have been called a juvenile delin­ and yet there seemed an intangible partly for Nietzsche's superman, partly pall over the face of things, a subtle quent; in the 1990s, the product of a dys­ for Spencer's survival of the fittest, but gloom that made the day dark. functional home. mainly for London's strong sense of a You can catch the sense of doom He then spent a fateful year in the powerful human character: from the beginning. Still, the ending is Yukon, returning with no gold but with With nothing eternal before me but surprisingly peaceful: plenty of tales to tell. He finished high death, given for a brief spell this school in an accelerated course, spent a Then the man dosed off into what yeasty crawling and squirming which semester at Berkeley and learned the seemed to him the most comfortable is called life, why, it would be immo­ rest on his own. The product of his Yu­ and satisfying sleep he had ever ral for me to perform any act that was known. The dog sat facing him and a sacrifice. Any sacrifice that makes kon year and frantic auto-didacticism waiting. The brief day drew to a close me lose one crawl or squirm is foolish, was 50-odd Yukon stories - starting in a long, slow twilight. There were no and not only foolish, for it is a wrong \vith "To the Man on the Trail" (January signs of a fire to be made and, besides, against myself and a wicked thing. I 1899) and culminating in his best-selling never in the dog's experience had it must not crawl or squirm if I am to short novel, The Call ofthe Wild (1903). known a man to sit like that in the get the most out of the ferment. Nor The Yukon tales gave him the free­ snow and make no fire. ...A little will the eternal movelessness that is dom and money to begin a series of longer it delayed, howling under the coming to me be made easier or hard­ socio-political-psychological novels, stars that leaped and danced and er by the sacrifices or selfishness of principally The Sea Wolf (1904), The Iron shone brightly in the cold sky. Then it the time when I was yeasty and Heel (1906), and Martin Eden (1908). A turned and trotted up the trail in the acrawl. sub-theme of his life as hero-celebrity direction of the camp it knew, where Another example ofrendering philos­ was his work as a highly paid journalist were the other food-providers and ophy through character comes from recording major events of the day, such fire-providers. as the Russo-Japanese war (1904), the What is remarkable is London's con­ San Francisco earthquake (1906), the crete "grasps" on "the romantic." One of The Sociology Johnson-Jeffries boxing match (1910), the most graphic memories I have from and the Mexican Revolution (1914). my first reading of London's 1904 novel, of the The Sea Wolf, is that of Wolf Larsen "To Grasp the Romance" climbing up the forecastle ladder with Ayn Rand Cult London's first short story (sold to seven or more seamen clinging to him, the Overland Monthly in January 1899, at trying to pull him back into their abyss Murray Rothbard's controversial age 23), "To the Man on the Trail," tells to murder him. The men are yelling, monograph on the nature of the of a rough sort of justice played out in a "Give me a knife, a knife," but without a Rand Circle in its heyday. Must northland tavern one winter night. Lon­ knife, they must rely only on their arms reading for anyone interested in don echoed modern libertarian senti­ to hold him. Larsen's primordial Objectivism, cultism, or the histo­ ment when his hero toasted the man on strength gives him the power to lift him­ ry of the libertarian movement. the trail- who was technically a crimi­ self slowly, step by step, despite the $4.00 per copy, ppd. nal - while offering a second toast to arms grasping every inch of his lower Liberty Publishing the misled Mountie chasing him: "Con­ body, back up to the deck and safety. PO Box 1167 fusion to the Mounted Police." It was This is London's portrayal of survival of Port Townsend, WA 98368 Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992

Jack's socialist-hero Ernest Everhard in the stars. It's no secret that Jack London be­ The Iron Heel. Devotees of Rand will no­ In short, the metaphysicians have done came the favorite American author of tice the similarity to speeches by her he­ nothing, absolutely nothing for man­ the early Soviet leaders. Two days be­ roes, in support of society's producers, kind. Step by step, before the advance of fore his death, Lenin had London's.·story science they have been driven back.... and against the "moochers" (her word), "Love of Life" read to him again. "That The difference between you and the Es­ tale greatly pleased Ilyich," said his or "metaphysicians" (London's word) of kimo who makes a fur-clad blubber­ wife. "That was the last time I read to ourage: eating god is merely a difference of sev­ Judge them by their works. What eral thousand years of ascertained facts. him." Since his death, London has been have they done for mankind beyond That is all. the most widely read American writer the spinning of airy fancies and the And, suddenly, that was all. Jack internationally, now translated into over mistaking of their own shadows for London died early, as he said he would. 60 languages. gods? They have added to the gayety It wasn't likely a suicide, in the conven­ Though he was America's most radi­ of mankind, I grant; but what tangible tional sense, but merely the price paid cal writer of the early 20th century, he good have they wrought for man­ for high living in every facet of life - in was never, by any stretch of the evi­ dence, a communist. He was more of an kind? They philosophized, if you will food, philosophy, women, writing, pardon my misuse of the word, about anarchist of the Russian bomb-throwing drinking, curiosity, and non-stop the heart as the seat of emotions, variety, not a socialist of the Marxian di­ adventure. while the scientists were formulating alectic. Throughout his socialist speech­ the circulation of the blood. They de­ The Dreamer's Legacy es he used the terms "revolution" and claimed about famine and pestilence London died at a crucial time in his­ "anarchy" far more than "socialism"or as being scourges of God, while the tory. Had he lived just one more year, "communism." And it should be noted scientists were building granaries and he would have seen three things happen that his use of "socialism" was far from draining cities. They builded gods in that he had predicted and worked to­ precise. When he was barely 20, the San their own shapes and out of their own ward: Prohibition, the Russian Revolu­ Francisco Chronicle called him "the boy desires, while the scientists were socialist of Oakland" - an entertaining building roads and bridges. They tion, and u.s. entry into World War 1. oddity to Sunday supplement readers. were describing the earth as the centre He resigned in disgust from the Socialist When the paper asked the boy his defi­ of the universe, while the scientists Party just two months before he died, nition of socialism, London answered: were discovering America and prob­ and three months after he died the Rus­ "It is an all-embracing term - commu­ ing space for the stars and the laws of sian revolution began. nists, idealists, utopians, altrurians are all socialists." In the opinion of London, any man who strives for a better form of social organization than the one he is Classified Advertisements living under is a socialist. In evaluating London, we should re­ member the youth of this "boy social­ Classified Advertising is available for 25¢ per word, plus $1.00 per insertion. 10% discount ist." He did his best writing between for six or more insertions. Payment must accompany order. Please specify classification.

Books Periodicals Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (required by 39 U. s. C. 3685) Title of publication: Lib­ Free yourself of drugs, physicians, and health The Voluntaryist. Sample copy for two first­ erty. Publication number: 002132. Date of filing: Oct. class stamps. Box 1275, Gramling, SC 29348. 1, 1991. Frequency of issue: Bi-monthly. Number of insurance. Discover the 160-year old Revolution­ issues published annually: 6. Annual Subscription ary Science of Natural Hygiene. Send $2.00 for Bigger print now in The (Libertarian) Connec­ price: $19.50. Complete mailing address of known of­ our latest informational booklist. /fA Second fice of publication: Liberty Publishing, 1532 Sims Way tion, open-forum magazine since 1968. Subscrib­ #1, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Complete mailing ad­ Opinion," PO Box 416, Lowell, MA 01853. Natu­ ers may insert one page/issue free, unedited. Lots dress of the headquarter or general business office of ral Hygiene, the only true health science, is based the publishers: Liberty Publishing, PO Box 1167, Port of stimulating conversation. Eight issues (one Townsend, WA 98368. Full names and complete mail­ on natural law and offers simple solutions to year) $20. Strauss, Box 3343Z, Fairfax, VA 22038. ing address of publisher, editor, and managing editor: complex modern problems (AIDS, cancer, heart R W. Bradford (publisher and editor), TimothyVirkka­ Thomas Paine Review: newsletter on books la (managing editor), PO Box 1167, Port Townsend, WA disease). for the lover of freedom, reason, and human 98368. Owner: R W. Bradford, Liberty Publishing, PO Box 1167, Port Townsend, WA 98368. Known bond­ achievement. 6 issues $15; sample issue $3. Ad­ holders, mortgages, and other security holders: Literature dress: 84 Washington St. #138, Penacook, NH None. Total number of copies printed (average issue during the preceding twelve months): 5790; (issue near­ CompuServe Users: Interested in discussing 03303. est filing date): 6640. Sales through dealers and car­ liberty? GO ISSUES, read Section 3 and Library 3 Living Free newsletter. Forum for debate riers, street vendors and counter sales (average· issue during the preceding twelve months): 704; (issue near­ on Individualism. Lively discussions. among freedom-seekers, survivalists, libertari­ est filing date): 1125. Mail subscription (average): ans, anarchists, outlaws, since 1979, now in­ 4335; (issue nearest filing date): 4406. Total paid circu­ Multigovemment Governed by choice not lation (average): 5087; (issue nearest filing date): chance. Explore "New Dimension of Freedom" cludes news summary: limy libertarian mail." 5531. Free distribution by mail, carrier, or other means $8.00 for 6 issues, sample $1.00. Box 29-LB, Hiler (average): 19; (issue nearest filing date): 22. Total dis­ with sampling of literature. $6 to LeGrand Day, tribution (average): 5105; (issue nearest filing date): Box 177, Reseda, CA 91337-0177. Branch, Buffalo, NY 14223. 5553. Copies not distributed, office use, left over, un­ accounted, spoiled after printing (average): 586; (issue Free-Market Environmentalism offers ways Do we need God? If you believe that people nearest filing date): 1087. Copies returned from news to protect the environment without adding to the can lead moral, ethical lives without the fear of agents (average): 99; (issue nearest filing date): O. Total paid circulation (average): 5087; (issue nearest power of the state. To learn more about it, write eternal damnation Free Inquiry-the secular hu­ filing date): 5531. Total (average): 5790; (issue nearest Jane Shaw, Political Economy Research Center, manist quarterly-is for you. One year $25. Free filing date): 6640. I certify that the statements made by me above are 502 S. 19th Avenue, Bozeman, MT, 59715. InqUiry, Box 664, Dept C, Buffalo, NY 14226. correct and complete (signed) R. W. Bradford 74 Liberty Price Breakthrough! Canadian Silver Dollars $3.45 each! Your opportunity to acquire these large, high silver-content dollars in Mint State condition at a remarkably low price!

Canadian silver dollars of the 1960-1966 period offer a As you can see, the Canadian silver dollar sells for about 75% unique combination of beauty, investment potential and less than the U.S. silver dollar - despite the fact that the Canadi­ low price. en silver dollar has a far lower mintage. You can Before 1967, Canada issued honest-to-goodness sil­ buy a roll of twenty Canadian silver dollars ver dollars - big, bright, beautiful, heavy, high­ for about the same price as twelve of the purity silver dollars. These coins contain 325 commonest Morgan silver dollars! grains of 800 fine silver. They are not to be For the past two months, Liber­ confused with the low purity, 500 fine ty Coin Service has been assidu­ silver dollars issued since 1971. ously acquiring Canadian silver dollars. Our buyers have bought A problem for investors carefully and quietly, with close Right now, silver is availa­ attention to quality. ble at bargain levels. For small Thanks to our careful buying, investors, the best way to in­ we have been able to accumulate vest in silver is in the form of a reasonably large quantity at re­ silver coins. And for good rea­ markably low prices. LCS' price is son: silver coins are widely less than $4 per coin - even in lots recognized, inexpensive, easy as small as a roll of 20 coins. And if you to store, and easy to sell. buy in quantity, our price is even lo\ver! For many years, U.S. silver dollars have been the favorite Act Quickly! The silver market has been choice of many investors. And today, very active recently. Our offer is limi ted to our cur­ even the most common date dollars com­ rent inventory, and we have no way of knowing \Nhat it mand a price far above their melt value. Cur- will cost us to replace the coins we offer here. Orders will be rently the most common dollars sell for more than four times filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Because we offer Cana­ their melt value! dian silver dollars at such a remarkably low price, there is a With that huge numismatic premium, where can the good chance our entire inventory will sell out! small investor turn for his silver coin investment? To Reserve Your Purchase call Toll-Free at 1-800-321-1542. (In Michigan call 1-800-933-4720.) Or return the coupon below. Low Cost Solution "Look north. Old Canadian silver dollars, each contain­ r ------,'. Please send me the mint-state Canada Silver Dollars, pre­ ing 0.6 oz. of silver," writes investment advisor Adrian Day. liThe pre-1967 dollars are big, heavy, real silver ­ I YeS 1967, that I have indicated below. I understand that every I honest-to-goodness money - whose value is not subject to coin is backed by LCS' guarantee of grading and authenticity, and I may re­ investor fads and fancies. 11 I turn the coins for a full refund within 15 days, with no questions asked. I Ies easy to see the logic in what Mr Day writes. At I 20 - 99 coins @ $ 3.95 = _ I present the most common U5. silver dollars are selling for lOa - 249 coins @ 3.80 = about $12.50 each in rolls of 20 coins. Yet at less than $4.00 I 250 - 499 coins @ 3.65 = I per coin, Canadian silver dollars offer greater rarity at a 500 - 999 coins @ 3.55 = lower price. I 1,000 or more coins @ 3.45 = I The chart below compares current prices of the most common u.s. silver dollars with the Canadian silver dollar. I Postage & handling I Total enclosed I Name" _ I u.s. vs Canadian Silver Dollars Address _ Coin Date Mintage Price I I City State ZIP _ U.S. Silver Dollar, Morgan type 1921 44,690,000 $12.75 I I U.S. Silver Dollar, Peace type 1922 51,537,000 $12.50 Phone" _ Canada Silvcr Dollar 1966 10,786,596 $ 3.45 I Liberty Coin Service "Q" Toll Free 800-321-1542 I Prices are for the commonest date ofeach series, in bulk lots of1,000 coins. 300 Frandor Ave, Lansing, MI 48912 _L• L ------.. Volume 5, Number 3 January 1992 ages 22 and 36, and many of his views day, whatever one's philosophical ished all his works during high school. were as yet unformed, even when he baggage. At the age when he was living life so died. (For instance, he had just discov­ His heroes may be bigger than life, fully, I lived his life vicariously. In the ered Jung. Who knows what road his but the charm of London, like that of process, he helped me to love life and works would have taken had the Jun­ Rand or Victor Hugo, is that it inspires learning (especially the self-directed gian influence in his 1914 novel, Start people to reach for unrealistic heights kind). His longest novel, Martin Eden Rover, had time to percolate?) Neverthe­ and thereby reach higher than they ever (1908) was my favorite. It made me de­ less, his philosophy is secondary to his would have on their own. At age 15, I cide to become a writer for the rest of style, which commands reading to this began reading Jack London and fin- myd~~ 0

Letters, continued from page 6 controversial novel, but more needs to be but nationalism, itself, is seldom which causes war; get rid of the patriara­ said. Bateman, the title psycho, does in­ questioned. chy and peace will emerge. This is the deed have a moral system: you should Nationalism continues to be the pre­ equivalent of saying that the world is earn your way in life. Bateman is often in­ vailing sentiment that molds public and currently dominated by (take your pick) dignant at people who don'twork for a private life around the world today. And capitalists, communists, pagans, monar­ living, and he kills some of them when the United States leads them all with a chies, Jews, or white supremacists, and he can. (Show me a man's indignations larger percentage of its citizens behind that by getting rid of them the classless and I'll show you his morality.) But since bars than any other country on this society (or whatever) will triumph. he also doesn't work for a living - he planet. It would make just as much (or little) has a phony job that his daddy got for So the question is: Why do some li­ sense to argue that the world is run by him - he is painfully aware of not "pay­ bertarians attempt to identify libertarian­ matriarchy, as evidence by the fact that ing his way." He has no morality to fall­ ism within the political spectrum of left­ men's lives, in most societies, are consid­ back on, and expresses his frustration and right-wing nationalism? Libertarian­ ered less valuable than women's (cannon through rage and force. ism is not a nationalist movement, and it fodder being an exclusively male role); Bateman is not a consequence of nor­ never has been. Like America's founding war is a female invention, caused by mal capitalism, which when it works re­ fathers, the goal of libertarianism has women inciting men to fight each other. affirms the link between reward and been to reform government, not society. It Women, in war, remain a privileged effort, but he is something libertarians should be obvious that the spirit of na­ class, immune by law from battlefield should understand (perhaps by intro­ tionalism clashes with the revolutionary duty, and protected by convention from spection). Lacking a social bond between Spirit of '76, which founded America. harm. himself (the nobody) and those who do Bob Krel The real problem with Moore's arti­ "pay their way," he is back in the state pf EI Paso, Tex. cle is her assumption that power could nature, Manhattan-style. somehow be had without resort to force. It is too bad that it takes a boring, sec­ But What About Toe Jam? This demonstrates a dangerous ignor­ ond-rate novel like Ellis' to raise this After reading Carol Moore's manifes­ ance of what power really is. Power is issue. to I thought it would be interesting to the ability to compel people to do what Noel Criscoula make a complete list of problems/issues one wants. Any power based solely on Port Townsend, Wash. that are not the result ofthe pornogra­ consensus would evaporate the moment phy-watching, prostitute-forcing, child­ someone refused to consent. Such a soci­ Question Nationalism abusing, war-causing and politically op­ ety as described by Moore would not The only problem with Carol Moore's pressive Male Dominated Culture. Here survive its first challenge, either internal "The Woman vs. the Nation-State" (No­ it is unabridged: belly button lint, chron­ or external. Those who were willing to vember 1991) is that she limited her de­ ic halitosis and not getting salt and use violence against it - whether by an scription of nationalism by referring ketchup at a Burger King drive-through imperialist nation-state or a rampaging simply to the nation-state. window. Although, come to think of it, street gang - would inevitably have the Nationalism is a term that is very I'm not so sure about belly button lint. advantage. To claim that such a society easy to comprehend: it is the chauvinistic Tim Yule would be morally better than others and jingoistic sentiment that dominates Prince George, B.C. would have no meaning to those citizens both societal and domestic life in the about to be victimized, enslaved or United States today. And, of course, it is Utopia andOblivion destroyed. a secular religion that treats all criticism What Carol Moore presented in her Finally: any man who does forswear as blasphemy, labeling the unfaithful as article on the nation-state and war is a violence will be immediately branded by unpatriotic. variant of the old paranoid conspiracy women as a "wimp" and summarily re­ This may explain why critics prefer syndrome: blame the world's problems jected. Perhaps Lysistrata had it back­ euphemisms like the military industrial on some convenient-to-hate group, and wards: it was women who insisted that complex, and the welfare/warfare state. The then offer a Utopia as an alternative. She men march off in the first place. socialist doctrines of left- and right-wing says that the world is currently dominat­ Joseph Miranda nationalism are always subject to debate, ed by something called "patriarchy," North Hollywood, Calif. 76 Liberty Notes on Contributors

Gary Alexander lives in Reston, Virginia. Like Jack London, Richard Kostelanetz is a prolific writer and anthologist. His he once spent 30 days in jail for non-violent civil disobe­ books for 1991 include The New Poetries and Some Olds dience, and has covered a local war. Unlike London, he and Politics in the African-American Novel. Look for more prefers capitalism to socialism and plans to live long. in 1992. Chester Alan Arthur is Liberty's political correspondent. William P. Moulton lives in Michigan. He does not believe "Baloo" is the nom de plume of Rex F. May, a cartoonist that this should be held against him. whose works frequently appear in The Wall Street Journal James S. Robbins is a writer and historian living in and other publications. Massachusetts. He does not care whether or not you Bob Ortin [BauresJ lives in southern Oregon, far from the hold this against him. madding crowd. He advises that the word "Burons" (his Michael Rothschild is the author of Bionomics: The cartoon editorials) derives from the words "bureaucrat" Inevitability of Capitalism and President of the Bionomics and "moron." Institute of San Rafael, California. R. W. Bradford is editor of Liberty. Jane S. Shaw is a writer living in Bozeman, Montana. Stephen Cox is Associate Professor of Literature at the David Ramsay Steele is editorial director of the General University of California, San Diego. Books Division of Open Court Books, and the author of Brian Doherty is a journalist living in Washington, oc. numerous articles and reviews. David Friedman is a faculty fellow in law and economics at Mark Thornton is O. P. Alford III Assistant Professor of the University of Chicago Law School, and the author of Economics at Auburn University, and is the author of The Machinery of Freedom and Price Theory: An Intermediate The Economics of Prohibition. Text. Henry B. Veatch is the author of numerous books and es­ Karl Hess is a writer, environmental analyst, and Senior says in philosophy, including Rational Man and Natural Associate of the Foundation for Research on Economics Rights: Fact or Fancy? and the Environment. Timothy Virkkala, assistant editor of Liberty, prefers writing Robert Higgs, the author of Crisis and Leviathan, is also edi­ music to writing words. tor of the recent Anns, Politics and the Economy: Historical Leland Yeager is the Ludwig von Mises Distinguished and Contemporary Perspectives. Professor of Economics at Auburn University, and the Bill Kauffman, the author of Every Man a King, a novel, lives author of numersous essays on economics, monetary in Batavia, New York. policy, and political philosophy.

Coming in Liberty The Third World Property Rights Dilemma - James Dale Davidson shows that the problems of poverty and environmental degradation in the '1ess developed countries" are close­ ly related to the lack of clearly defined, enforceable property rights .. Albert Jay Nock: Prophet of Libertarianism? - We all know Albert Jay Nock as a provocative libertarian writer. Stephen Cox reveals a very complex man, who shrouded his life in mystery, advocated the "single tax," and railed against monopoly. The Ten Commandments of Orthodox Environmentalism - James Huffman has descended from the mount with the shards of an ideology, and offers for our edification the goals implicit in environmental extremism. Who Wrote Little House on the Prairie? - To libertarians, Rose Wilder Lane is an im­ portant pioneer of libertarian thinking. To the general population, if she is known at all, it is as the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House books. In this startling essay, William Holtz explains that it was Lane who should be given the lion's share of credit for author­ ing the hugely successful series. He also shows how she injected libertarian thinking into the classic children's stories. r

Houston Montgomery County, Va. Evidence of the finer sensibilities of the distaff side, as advised Innovation in elementary education, as reported by the in a recent article by Jacsun Shah, in the Houston Chronicle: Montgomery Journal: Yes, I am a man-hater, yes, I am a feminist. and why not? Women The PTA Halloween Committee of the Highland View Elementary are dying. They die every day, at the hands of men. Men ... beat them, School has outlawed Halloween costumes that involve weapons, vio­ rape them, dismember them. Hell yes, I hate men To all of you lence or suggestions of violence. Instead, they are encouraged to dress women out there, I say hate. You have every right to I knew the as "native Marylanders or regions in Maryland." kindest thing I can do for the women of this world is to hate men with Principal Myra Abramovitz, who instigated the changes, was full force. praised by Superintendent of Schools ~rian J. Porter: "It appears to be a Kenya very, almost brilliant way to connect a social holiday with teaching and Progress of democracy in the Third World, as reported by the learning at school." Detroit Free Press: Minneapolis Daniel arap Moi, president of Kenya, denounced the Ford automo­ New means of achieving marital bliss, as reported by the bile as "an ancient and derelict vehicle, which could not move without Minneapolis Star Tribune: support and which failed after every few kilometers." Energy Minister Many wives tum in their husbands for working on their automobiles Nicholas Biwott, Moi's closest political ally, called for a boycott of in their yards or garages. "The husband has an old car, and she gets Ford automobiles because it will help people understand that "the name tired of looking at it, so she calls us," explained John Moncur, director stinks," he explained. The Forum for the Restoration of Democracy, a oflicenses in Minneapolis. "She says, 'I'm his wife, but don't tell him I popular movement challenging Moi's one-party rule, is popularly re­ was the one who called.'" In Minneapolis, it is against the law to "do ferred to by its acronym, FORD. any car repair in a residential neighborhood, whether for profit, fun. or Vancouver, British Columbia just to save money." Another triumph for multiculturalism, as reported in the Toronto Hamburg, Germany Sun: Historical note on the value of fiat currency, as reported by The Canadian tax enforcement agency, Revenue Canada, has estab­ Reuters: lished 26 bilingual positions in Vancouver. However, since practically German Finance Minister Thea Waigel announced his ministry is no one in the area speaks French, the bilingual employees "don't get investigating disposing of 4 million pounds of East German paper mon­ many opportunities to speak in French," explained the head of the bilin­ ey by shredding it, mixing it with manure, and using it as compost. gual program. They have been told to practice their French by speaking "Burning the notes would cost too much and be environmentally un­ to each other for one hour per week. friendly." Houston Chicago Amendment to a progressive notion in the war on crime, as Evidence that there are limits to official corruption even in the proposed by Dr. Louis Girard, who has previously advocated castration Windy City, as reported in the Chicago Tribune: or the removal of ovaries of those convicted of serious crimes, as Arthur Gloria, 20, was arrested after he drove a stolen car to take an exam to become a police officer. He parked his 1983 Oldsmobile across reported in the Detroit News: a crosswalk, and an officer noted that its window was broken and its "For lesser crimes, partial castration or removal of one testicle or steering column "peeled." Mter verifying that the car was stolen, the one ovary could be considered. officer waited for its "owner" to return. Gloria was arrested as he start­ California ed the car by inserting a screwdriver into the steering column. Progressive measure to protect consumers in the Golden State, Kansas City as reported by The Wall St Journal: Theological observation from the Show-Me State, as reported in A California law passed in 1987 allows home buyers to sue sellers The Wall St Journal: who do not disclose all deaths at the property that occurred within three In response to criticism of spending $45 million to build an addi­ years of the sale. tional runway at Kansas City International Airport when nearly one New York third of the airport is vacant, Kansas City Aviation Department admin­ Travel advice from Augustus Hall, national chainnan of the istrator John Duba exclaimed, "0 ye oflittle faith!" Communist Party, as reported by Associated Press: Atlanta "The world should see what North Korea has done. In some ways, it Further evidence that the ways of the Lord are mysterious is a miracle. The capital is one of the nicest, finest cities in the world. If you want a nice vacation, take it in North Korea." indeed, at least in the Peach State, as reported by Associated Press: Dozens of motorists report that their lives have been changed by Washington, D.C. their noticing an "image of the crucified Jesus" in a billboard of a plate Protection for the endangered federal horse inspector, reported of spaghetti overlooking Memorial Drive in Atlanta. Joyce Simpson, by the Detroit Free Press: who was considering leaving her church's choir for a "professional ca­ The 1991 Anti-Crime Bill includes a measure making it a capital reer," stopped at a gas station and noticed the sign. "And I saw Christ's crime to kill any of the nation's 20 federal horse inspectors. facet" she said, explaining that she was inspired to stay with the choir. (Readers are invited to forward newsclippings or other items for publication in Terra Incognita.) 78 Liberty Stimulate Your Mind! There is a world of good reading in Liberty! Whether you want to catch up on what you missed, provide intellectual relief to your friends (or enemies!), or complete your collection, now is a good time to buy. Enjoy! The Back Issues of Liberty

August 1987 Karl Hess, Douglas Rasmussen, Murray Rothbard, L. Neil • "The Films of Ayn Rand," by Stephen Cox Smith and others; and a short story by Erika Holzer. (80 pages) • "The Mystery Man of the Libertarian Movement," by Ben Best November 1988 • "Life or Death inSeattle," by Murray N. Rothbard • IITaking Over the Roads," by John Semmens Plus reviews and articles by Ross Overbeek, Butler Shaffer, Timo­ • liThe Search for We The Living," by R.W. Bradford thy Virkkala, Ida Walters and others; and a short story by Jo • IIPrivate Property: Hope for the Environment," by Jane S. Shaw McIntyre. (48 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Walter Block, Stephen Cox, John October 1987 Dentinger, James Robbins and others. (80 pages) • "The Sociology of Libertarians," byJ. C. Green & J. L. Guth January 1989 • "The Rise of the State," by Murray N. Rothbard • IIAIDS and the FDA," by Sandy Shaw • "The Apostasy of Robert Nozick," by Ethan o. Waters • IIproperty, Population and the Environment" byJohn Hospers Plus reviews and articles by Stephen Cox, William P. Moulton, • "Ronald Reagan's 'Revolution'," by William Niskanen Mike Holmes, Jonathan Saville and others; and a short story by Plus articles and reviews by Karen Shabetai, Jane Shaw, Jeffrey Franklin Sanders. (48 pages) Tucker, Leland Yeager, William Wingo and others; and a short December 1987 story by Jeffrey Olson. (72 pages) • "Libertarians in a State-Run World," by Murray N. Rothbard March 1989 • "The Most Unforgettable Libertarian I Ever Knew," by Karl • "Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy," by Murray N. Rothbard Hess • "What if Everything We Know About Safety Is Wrong?" by • "Easy Living in the Bahamas," by Mark Skousen John Semmens and Dianne Kresich Plus writing by Walter Block, Erika Holzer, Mark Skousen, and • "What Do You Do When Your Mother Asks You to Kill Her?" others; and a short story by David Galland. (56 pages) by Michael Endres March 1988 Plus articles and reviews by Stephen Cox, Jeffrey Friedman, David • "Libertarians & Conservatives: Allies or Enemies?" by John Ramsay Steele, Sheldon Richman and others. (72 pages) Dentinger & Murray Rothbard May 1989 • "Free Speech and the Future of Medicine," by Sandy Shaw & • "Man, Nature, and State: Free Market Slogans are not Enough," Durk Pearson by Karl Hess, Jr • "The Majority vs the Majoritarian: Robert Bork on Trial," by • "A Conspiracy of Silence: Uncovering the Media's Election­ Sheldon Richman Night 'Coverage' Policy," by Margaret M. Fries Plus reviews and articles by R.W. Bradford, William Cate, Stephen • liThe End of the Secular Century," by Murray N. Rothbard Cox, and others; and a short story by Raul Santana. (64 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Stephen Cox, David Gordon, Justin May 1988 Raimondo, and other. (72 pages) • "Ayn Rand: Still Controversial after All These Years," articles by July 1989 David Ramsay Steele & David Brown • "Viking Iceland: Anarchy That Worked," by David Friedman • "The ACLU: Suspicious Principles, Salutary Effects," by William • "The Myth of the Rights of Mental Patients," by Thomas S. P. Moulton Szasz • "The Two Libertarianisms," by Ethan O. Waters • "Fetal Rights: The Implications of a Supposed Ought," by Tibor Plus reviews and articles by Gary Alexander, Nathaniel Branden, Machan Erika and Henry Mark Holzer, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Shel­ Plus articles and reviews by R.W. Bradford, John Hospers, Jane S. don Richman, Franklin Sanders, and others. (64 pages) Shaw, Jeffrey Tucker, Leland Yeager and others. (80 pages) July 1988 September 1989 • "Confessions of an Intractable Individualist," byJerome Tuccille • "Holocausts and the Historians," by Ralph Rako • "Rebel Without a Clue: Lessons from the Mecham Experience," • "My Break With Branden and the Rand Cult," by Murray by Matt Kesler Rothbard • "Rand-Bashing: Enough is Enough," by Ross Overbeek • "Abortion Without Absurdity," by R.W. Bradford Plus reviews and articles by Stephen Cox, Tibor Machan, Bill Kel­ Plus articles and reviews by Stephen Cox, David Friedman, Loren sey and others; and an interview with L. Neil Smith. (80 pages) Lomasky, Gary North, Jeffrey Tucker and others. (72 pages) September 1988 November 1989 • "Scrooge McDuck and His Creator," by Phil Salin • liThe Lost War on Drugs," by Joseph Miranda • "Liberty and Ecology," by John Hospers • "Goodbye, Galactic Empire," byJ. R. Dunn • "The Ultimate Justification of the Private Property Ethic," by • "A Rustic in New York," by R.W. Bradford Hans-Hermann Hoppe Plus reviews and articles by Douglas Casey, David Friedman, continued on back cover . .. Stimulate Your Mind! Liberty's Back Issues continued from previous page November 1898 (continued) July 1990 Plus articles and reviews by Krzysztof Ostaszewski, Murray N. • "Conversations with Ayn Rand (part 1)," byJohn Hospers Rothbard, Loren Lomasky, William P. Moulton, and others; and • "The Orwellian University: The War on Free Choice on Campus" an interview with Russell Means. (72 pages) by Charles Thorne January 1990 Plus articles and reviews byJohn Baden, David Friedman, Bill • "The Greenhouse Effect: Myth or Danger?" by PatrickJ. Mi­ Kauffman, Mark Skousen and others. (72 pages) chaels September 1990 • "The Case for Paleolibertarianism," by Llewelyn Rockwell • "Conversations with Ayn Rand (part 2)," by John Hospers • "The Death of Socialism: What It Means," by R.W. Bradford, • "Is Environmental Press Coverage Biased?" by Jane S. Shaw Murray Rothbard, Stephen Cox, and William Moulton • "The Abortion Pill and Legal Wisdom," by Dr Ron Paul Plus writing by Sheldon Richman, Stephen Barone, David Gordon Plus articles and reviews by Michael Krauss, Richard Fulmer, Greg and others; and an interview with Barbara Branden. (80 pages) Johnson, Ethan Waters, James Robbins, Richard Kostelanetz and March 1990 others; and a ficci6n by Harvey Segal. (72 pages) • "The Case against Isolationism," by Stephen Cox November 1990 • "H.L. Mencken: Anti-Semite?" by R.W. Bradford • "Smokes, But No Peacepipe," by Scott Reid • "Capitalism without Democracy, Hong Kong without Hope," by • ''You, Too, Can Be a Junior G-Man," by David Hudson R.K. Lamb Plus articles and reviews by Richard Kostelanetz, Robert Higgs, Plus articles and reviews by Sheldon Richman, Loren Lomasky, Alexander Tabarrok, Sheldon Richman and others; and an inter­ James Robbins, Leland Yeager and others. (80 pages) view with Ed Crane. (80 pages) May 1990 January 1991 • "Conservativism in Its Latter Days," by William P. Moulton • "Meltdown: The End of the Soviet Empire," by David Boaz, • "A Population Crisis?" by Jane S. Shaw James Robbins & Ralph Raico • "The Death of Thinking in the Schools,'" by Karl Hess • "Gordon Gekko, Mike Milken and Me," by Douglas Casey Plus articles and reviews by Thomas Szasz, Bill Kauffman, Rich- Plus articles and reviews by Michael Christial\ Loren Lomasky, ard Kostelanetz, Bart Kosko, Loren Lomasky and others; and William P. Moulton, Lawrence Person, and others; plus special poetry by Brett Rutherford. (72 pages) election coverage. (80 pages) March 1991 ------,send me the back issues of Liberty • "The Myth of War Prosperity," by Robert Higgs I Please I have marked. I • "The Woman vs the State: The Life of Rose Wilder Lane," by (foreign orders, add 50¢ per issue) William Holtz I Aug. '87, $4.00 __ Nov. '89, $4.50 __ I • "Keep the Hot Side Tepid: The Strange Death of the McDLT," by R.W. Bradford Oct. '87, $6.00 -- Jan. '90, $4.00 -- I I Dec. '87, $3.00 __ Mar. '90, $3.50 __ Plus articles and reviews by Richard Kostelanetz, Jane Shaw, Jan Narveson, Krzysztof Ostaszewski and others. (72 pages) I Mar. '88, $4.00 -- May '90, $4.00 -- I May '88, $4.00 __ July '90, $5.50 __ May 1991 • "Something Anarchical in Denmark," by Ben Best I July '88, $4.00 __ Sept. '90, $5.50 -- I • "California's Man-Made Drought," by Richard Stroup Sept. '88, $7.00 __ Nov. '90, $5.50 __ • "Journalists and the Drug War," by David Boaz I Nov. '88, $4.00 __ Jan. '91, $5.50 -_ I Plus writing byJohn Baden, Richard Miniter, Leland Yeager and Jan. '89, $4.50 __ Mar. '91, $5.50 __ others; and a short story by Lawrence Thompson. (72 pages) I Mar. '89, $5.50 __ May '91, $5.50 __ I July 1991 May '89, $4.00 __ July '91, $5.00 -- I • "Say 'No' to Intolerance" by Milton Friedman I July '89, $6.00 __ Sept. '91, $4.00 __ • "I Am a Casualty of the War on Drugs" byStuart Reges I Sept. '89, $5.50 -_ Nov. '91, $4.00 -- I • "Depolluting the USSR," byJames S. Robbins Shipping: $1.00 Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Karl Hess, Richard I 0 My check is enclosed Total: I Kostelanetz, William Moulton and others; and Mark Skousen's interview with Robert Heilbroner. (72 pages) I Charge my 0 VISA 0 Mastercard Expires: --- I September 1991 Account # _ • "Persuasion versus Force" by Mark Skousen • "Stalking the Giant Testes of Ethiopia" by Robert Miller I Signature I • "The Unraveling of Canada," by Scott Reid I ~~ I Plus articles and reviews by Bart Kosko, John Hospers, James Taggart, Karl Hess, William Moulton and others. (72 pages) I Address I November 1991 C~ • "The Road to Nowhere," by David Horowitz I I • "A Case of Mistaken Identity: The Boycott of American Psycho," I State Zip I by Panos Alexakos & Daniel Conway Plus writing by Robert Higgs, Carol Moore, Leland Yeager and Liberty, Dept. B27, PO Box 1167, Port Townsend, WA 98368 ..I L. ------others; and a short story byJ. E. Goodman. (80 pages)