In Defense of Jim Bakker and Zsa Zsa

January 1990 Vol 3, No3 $4.00 (see page 5)

(ty:(6ove aCC tliin s: Libert ! J1 - Jolin SeCaen evaluating "how well we do something by comparing our performance to others." . e tters . As a cure for poor self-esteem, Nozick [ L ] looks to society to "have a diversity ofdif- ~======::_() ferent lists of [comparative] dimensions and weightings" upon which individuals All Wet wonder that New Yorkers frequent Eu­ should base their self-esteem. This leaves an individual's self-esteem at the mercy of As a New Yorker, I feel it is important rope more than others-at least they other people's value judgments. to address some ofthe points Mr. Brad­ know how to read the menus! This is a very unlibertarian view and ford made in his article"A Rustic in New No, Mr. Bradford, New Yorkers do also an inaccurate view self-esteem. Self­ York" (November 1989). Having been to not believe that everything worth seeing esteem is not mere performance compari­ the Olympic Peninsula several times, I is in New York. Most of us will grant you sons with others; it is the recognition of would attest to its beauty if you like the your majestic Cascades that seem to al­ self-worth based upon one's positive eval­ sea and rain, the mountains and rain, and most grow out ofthe surf, your verdant uation ofthat which makes skills, knowl­ isolation and rain. In short, it's a beautiful landscape, and clean air. What New York­ edge and values possible-one's own place for a retreat ifyou like rain. On the ers do believe is that there are a great many things worth seeing in New York. rational faculties and inner self. Authentic peninsula after a week of rain, people are self-esteem, Nathaniel Branden noted, is wont to tell you how nice the weather was And, moreover, a great many interesting people worth meeting. It seems you have experienced when one has proven oneself on a day in the previous month, or how competent to promote one's own beautiful it will be in July and August, or found that, too. For this we're glad. Just existence and worthy of achieving to remark about how green the grass is please don't tell too many people. Joseph R. Fragola happiness. (with all the rain, why not?). Unfortunately, there are many who Now it's true there are days in the New York, N.Y. Bradford replies: The ruse used in these feel that self-esteem is based on social summer in New York when the horizon is comparisons. When accepted, this view parts to keep down the tourist population obscured by "a yellow brown haze." But results in a loss of identity, a poor self­ is rain. Port Townsend has an average most ofthe year, the air is cleansed with im~ge, a reliance on pleasing others, and a rainfall of18.57 inches per year, versus the haze being blown out to sea. Los An­ propensity to see oneself and the world the Big Apple's average of44.28 inches. geles and Denver can make no such claim through the eyes of others. This is the pri­ even though Port Townsend might. When In Fine Tenure mary cause of neuro.sis, and I believe it is the rain stops. Given this, I must object to I wonder if Richard Kostelanetz the primary reason for the acceptance of the statement that we endure the worst realizes how deep the connection altruist/collectivist ideals. Almost government if only to point out, as did between his two concerns-avant-garde without exception, those who hold a seri­ Murray Rothbard ("Loathing the Fear in art and tenure (September and Novem­ ously inadequate concept of self and self­ New York," November 1989), that we will ber, 1989)-really is. It is amazing how far esteem advocate the subjugation of the in­ now be treated to one that will be worse society will go to grant an avant-garde dividual to the parasitic desires of the and just missed getting one worse still. ' artist tenure and psychic insulation. I am collective. As to your comments on cabs, bums, thinking of Ezra Pound whom Kostela­ Like it or not, rational self-interest is crime and the like being less than adver­ netz quotes approvingly. Pound was libertarianism's ethical foundation. This tised, while they are true, it would be ap­ granted "tenure" at St. Elizabeth's specifies that each individual should be preciated if you keep them to yourself. Hospital in Washington, DC, where he free to choose and pursue his or her own This ruse is one that we New Yorkers use wrote some of his greatest poems and values, while respecting others' individu­ to keep down the tourist population. In also taught many of his disciples. Pound al rights. Like other statists, Robert No­ spite ofthe best efforts of Hollywood, the was "far out," sO much so that society zick finally concluded that this is a bad news media, and our own inhabitants to had to put him away. thing and that his list of "dimensions and maintain our rotten reputation, the city All ofwhich leads me to say I am still weightings" should be imposed on every­ streets still bustle with camera-happy visi­ not sure if tenure is a good or a bad thing one using the government's power of tors from all nations. for college teachers. Maybe it's good if the brute force. Concerning the cultural advantages teacher is a libertarian and maybe it's bad Alexander N. Knight ofthe City, I believe that these lie primari­ if the teacher is a socialist. Or is it the oth­ Irondequoit, N.Y. ly in the people and their diversity. Where er way around? else other than Epcot can you go from Living in the Present With David Herman China, to Italy, to Korea within a few Nathaniel Branden Los Angeles, Cal. blocks? In New York, you can experience I find it extremely unfortunate that the little Odessa ofBrighton Beach, Scan­ No Comparisons your magazine has apparently taken a dinavia in the little Norway ofBrooklyn It comes as no surprise to me that hard-line editorial stance against the Heights, Germany in Yorktown, to say Robert Nozick has joined the statist camp works and accomplishments of Dr. Na­ nothing ofthe better known Black, His­ (per Loren Lomasky, "Beyond Philoso­ thaniel Branden. Dr. Branden is a man of panic, Korean, Chinese, Italian, and Jew­ phy," November 1989). This could have many worthy achievements, and has ish experiences, all for a $1 subway ride. been predicted as far back as 1974, when helped me immensely in my own pursuit In New York it is no oddity to be in a res­ in Anarchy, State and Utopia, Nozick iden­ of personal growth and well-being. taurant and hear French, Italian, German, tified his concept of self-esteem. To the My own experience speaks to me and Japanese spoken all about you. It's no "old" Nozick, self-esteem is based upon continued on page 4 2 Liberty ·d L·b rt January 1990 InSl e 1 e y Volume 3,Number3

2 Letters Taxes, Nozick, Branden, Moses ... 5 Reflections The editors defend Jim Bakker and Zsa Zsa, dismiss anarchists (if not anarchism), expose corruption, reveal the full extent of the war on drugs, and conclude that it is not enough to speak truth to power ...

13 Now the Real Struggle Begins R.W. Bradford chal­ lenges libertarians to look beyond the collapse of an enemy ideology. 15 uDoors" a poem by Stephen Cox lATh~t ;t rr\tl~n~ The Death of Socialism 16 Dreams: Socialist and Libertarian by Sheldon Richman Y Y .1lU" .I\. .1.1.lCU.1l~ 18 RI P: The New Soviet Man by William Moulton 19 No Time for Pessimism by Murray Rothbard 20 Once for All? Stephen Cox examines Fukuyama's "The End of History" to see ifthere is something more than wishful thinking in this trendy contribution to secular eschatology.

24 The Cheesing of America Lawrence Ludlow uses hindsight as foresight to reveal the great health menace of our time: killer cheese. 27 The Greenhouse Effect: Beyond the Popular Vision Environmental scientist Patrick Michaels looks for evidence of the "greenhouse effect" and discovers that the world is a lot more complicated than doomsayers are wont to admit. 34 The Case for Paleolibertarianlsm According to Llewelyn Rockwell, the only hope for libertarianism is to shuck off the dregs of the movement, and approach mainstream America as responsible right-wingers. 39 Kingdom Come Murray Rothbard explains the political ramifications ofthe Christian idea ofthe Millennium. 43 Choosing Freedom Charles Rowley and Richard Wagner provide a personal Public Choice perspective on the nature of freedom and the reason they like it. 46 In Defense of Elitism Karl Hess believes that elitism is one of the best things about America, and explains why. 49 Barbara Branden Speaks Out Liberty talks with Ayn Rand's biographer about Rand, the Objectivist experience, and her ex-husband's memoir. 58 The New Benefactors Richard Kostelanetz tells how taxpayers were first made to support the arts in America. 61 Ersatz Entrepreneurship Roger Koopman unmasks the guruship of America's most odious "entrepreneur." 63 Regulating Children's TV David Bernstein wonders: why throw out the Bill of Rights? 65 The Midwest Work Ethic Stephen Barone warns that the virtues of the decent folk of America's heartland might actually hamper the cause of freedom. 67 The War That Was Hell Sheldon Richman shows that World War II was not the "good" war that everyone pretends it was. 69 Life, Happiness, and the Pursuit of Policy David Gordon dissects Charles Murray's latest arguments against the welfare state, and finds some of them, alas, dead on arrival. 71 Ideal is Real, but Not Ideal Charles Ziarko finds Ayn Rand alive and well in Los Angeles, but ... 72 All That's Fit to Watch Andrew Roller finds the stuff on the boob tube that the booboisie wouldn't watch. 73 Booknotes Choosing sides on Deicide, right-wingers galore, the "more liberal than thou" attitude, and the Reagan years in perspective. 77 Notes on Contributors 78 Terra Incognita Volume 3, Number 3 January 1989 Letters (continued from page 2) ciency-based reasons-to avoid taxing the my earnest critic will provide one? Naturally, I do not deny that environ­ louder than any defamatory remarks same income twice, to guard against tax­ made by someone whom I do not know ing inflationary gains-for at least having mental damages exist and ought to be and whose own credentials at evaluating a lower tax rate on capital gains. If Mr. dealt with and I certainly agree that free psychological accomplishments are ques­ Christian has a refutation ofthese argu­ markets can and will deal with them. So tionable. I don't care who was "right" or ments, that's fine, but to ignore them is ei­ what? Jane seems to think that this is all "wrong" in the Ayn Rand Cult days. I ther negligent or ignorant. some kind of educational problem that can care about the total picture, unlike some RoyCordato be solved with a good book or two and a unobjective writers whose tendency to Auburn,Ala. few essays in Regulation magazine. Yeah, sure. And incidentally, how does live in the past bequeaths them to The Gains from the Cut bitterness. one reconcile Meryl Streep's idiotic prO­ In his essay, "Against a Capital Gains nouncements with "high intelligence?" James E. Britton Tax" (November 1989), Michael Christian Does concern for the environment release Newport, N.H. claims that from the premise-a capital one from the normal canons of intellectual The Unkindest Cut of All gains tax cut will encourage investment, exercise, or is Streep Jane's personal I looked in disbelief at the title ofthe it does not follow that a capital gains tax friend? article, "Against a Capital Gains Tax Cut." cut should be implemented. I don't dis­ Further, I wishJane and all her fellow Was this the New Republic, The Nation, or pute thisbut this is not the only reason public policy institute soldiers much suc­ The Washington Post? No! It was Liberty. I for advocating a cut in the capital gains cess withtheir attempts to make govern­ am amazed that Liberty, a magazine that is tax (in fact, I don't think many libertari­ ment policies better than they might have part ofa movement virtually overflowing ans would say this is the best reason for been without the benefit of their efforts. In with economists, would publish an article such a cut). the final analysis, however, we all live with that is so uninformed about the econom­ The fact is that rather than creating in­ those residual policy outrages that they fail ics of capital gains taxation. centives for certain investments, a tax cut to stop or to modify along libertarian lines. It appears that Michael Christian stud­ can be looked on as lowering disincen­ In other words, their attempts to make pol­ ied at the Dan Rostenkowski school of ec­ tives. This does not conflict with the idea icy rational canbe only partially successful onomics. He accepts the knee-jerk view that an unhampered market is the most and that was a subsidiary point in my arti­ that to tax capital gains at a lower rate efficient way to produce and allocate cle, to wit: once you accept the basic right than ordinary income is to create a "loop­ goods and services. ofthe state to guard the environment, then hole" or a "tax benefit." (Why shouldn't Even if Mr. Christian's argument that you have already lost the war and all else the higher rate on ordinary income be a capital gains tax cut will do little to en­ is a rear guard exercise. considered a tax penalty?) If he had even courage investment in productive, do­ Finally, I am flattered that with a mere scratched the surface ofthe economics lit­ mestic endeavors is accepted as sound, it three page edit in a magazine of some erature on the subject he would have is still a good idea because, to use Mr. . 4,000 total circulation I was able to insert found that there is a strong case to be Christian's phrase, "freedom from gov­ myself in the environmental progress made that capital gains should not be ernment meddling is in itself a worthy door, delaying all the good efforts of those taxed at all. end." And, conceived of as a lowering of who better understand these issues. It An income tax that includes interest disincentives rather than as a creation of must be the overpowering "nihilism" that income is inherently biased against saving incentives, this tax cut is indeed a step to­ permeates my article! and investment. The reason for this is sim­ ward freedom from government med­ I diagnose mild hysteria induced by ple. The returns to saving are taxed while dling, and as such should be supported sloppy reading. My prescription is a tran­ the returns to consumption are not. For by libertarians. quilizer and a rereading of my article, example, say I have $100 of disposable in­ preferably with a good dictionary close by Mark Turiano come and my choice is to spend it on a so that when incorrect adjectives such as Auburn, Ala. new tape deck for my stereo or put it into "nihilistic" float into conscious view, the my savings account where it will draw in­ Exegesis appropriate remedy is readily available. terest (or put it into stocks where I would Contrary to Jane Shaw's assertions R. Formaini expect to earn a capital gain). IfI buy the ("The Reformed Church of Ecology," No­ Plano, Tex. tape deck, no further tax is due. I enjoy vember 1989), I did not disparage either the use of the tape deck-the returns to Murray Rothbard's or her writings on ec­ continued on page 60 consumption-tax free. IfI put the money ological matters (R. Formaini, "The Theol­ r into my savings account, I must pay tax ogy of Ecology," September 1989). My Letters Policy on the interest-the returns to saving. argument was that neither oftheir ap­ We invite readers to comment on Hence a bias is created against saving and proaches can ever be decisive against the­ articles that have appeared in Liberty. in favor of consumption. The best way to ological ecology. She provides no We reserve the right to edit for length eliminate this bias is to exempt the returns argument to the contrary in her reply. and clarity. All letters are assumed to to saving-whether they are in the form Further, "substantive contributions" be intended for publication unless of interest, dividends, or capital gains­ to the literature on any subjectrequire a otherwise stated. Succinct, typewrit­ from taxation. good deal more space and effort than one ten letters are preferred. Please in­ This is not an argument for subsidiz­ tends to devote to short pieces for a mag­ clude your phone number so that we ing savings and investment, but for not azine such as Liberty. I agree that such a can verify your identity. penalizing it. There are several other effi- contribution is sorely needed. Perhaps 4 Liberty Dan Quayle Theory # 137 - George Bush is a pated natural disaster ever happened. closet anarchist. He plans to resign when the time is ripe and Would there be a public outcry against the owner and build­ leave the United States without a government. -RPM er of the structure? Would he be denounced as a murderer? Would he be told he had blood on his hands? Would he be sued Blackmale in the Pentagon - Homosexuality for millions or billions of dollars, and perhaps bankrupted? has long been grounds for medical discharge from the U.S. In the Alaska oil spill last spring, not a single human being armed forces. Homosexuals are considered unstable, and a was injured, let alone killed, yet the press and public have en­ threat to unit cohesion, effectiveness and morale. However, a re­ gaged in an orgy of denunciation of the owner of the oil tanker cent report by the Defense Personnel Security Research and at fault. In the collapse of a hotel in Kansas City, the papers Education Center may help to change this conventional wisdom. teemed with indignation against the hotel's owner. The Center examined the school conduct records, thinking skills, Then why is it that there has been no public outcry about the adjustment to military life and substance abuse problems of 166 collapse of Interstate-880, the Oakland freeway whose collapse gays and lesbians who had been discharged from the military crushed 42 people to death during the San Francisco earth­ because of their sexual preference. The homosexuals outper­ quake? According to news reports, the owner of the freeway (the formed their heterosexual counterparts in all areas except sub­ State of California) has known for decades that even a moderate stance abuse, and it is probable that, were they not subjected to earthquake would cause it to collapse, and the state had attempt­ the pressures of keeping their sexual identities a secret, the ed some minor repairs that it knew did not correct the problem. abuse levels would drop to normal. The reason, I suspect, is that the press and public have a dou­ The study is being given a high profile by legislators such as ble standard: when damage or death is the result of the negli­ Rep. Gerry Studds (D, Mass) who want to see the Pentagon gence of a business enterprise, the crime is heinous; when change its anti-homosexual policy. However, the effort faces damage is the result of the negligence of the government ... considerable opposition. A longer 1988 study by the same well, it couldn't be helped, and I'm sure glad I wasn't on 1-880 at Center also concluded that homosexuals should be allowed to 5:04 P.M. on October 17. -RWB enter military service, but was rejected because it did not ad­ On July 14, Paul Kramer, a Beverly dress the "security risk" which homosexuals present. Gays in Celebrity abuse - Hills policeman, stopped a Rolls Royce driven by an elderly lady the military are, according to the Pentagon, subject to blackmail, and asked to see her license. Alas, her license had expired, the favored recruitment device of the KGB and other foreign in­ whereupon the officer ordered the driver from her car. What telligence services. happened next is disputed: according to the officer, the diminu­ There is an element of illogic in this assertion. If gays were tive, elderly lady verbally abused him and assaulted him. allowed to join the military openly, everyone would know they According to the lady, the officer verbally abused her, woman­ were gay, and thus they could not be blackmailed. On the other handled her, and finally provoked her to slap his face. None of hand, if the policy is left as it is, gays, who will join the military this would have attracted much attention except that the woman anyway, are perfect extortion targets, because they can be threat­ was the professional celebrity Zsa Zsa Gabor. ened with exposure and subsequent discharge. So it would seem Of course, the prosecutor ignored the nature of her "crime," that the interests of national security would be best served if choosing instead to paint a horrible picture of a woman who be­ gays were not only admitted but welcomed into the armed forc­ lieves she is better than her neighbors who keep their driver's li­ es-or is that too reasonable? -JSR censes current and are polite to police officers. The jury Pineapple Face? - Note that the media are habitual­ convicted Zsa Zsa and threw her upon the mercy of Judge ly referring to the distinguished Generalissimo of Panama, Charles Rubin. Manuel Noriega, as "pineapple face." Isn't that displaying a re­ Alas, the judge was not merciful. The diminutive serial poly­ markable and brutal insensitivity toward the pockmarked? andrist "not only slapped the face of Officer Kramer out there on Surely they will soon hear from the Pockmarked League of Olympic Blvd, but by her vituperative and denigrating com­ America. -MNR ments she has verbally slapped the faces of every prosecuting witness that appeared in this case and she was not satisfied with That 01' double standard - Suppose a natural that but she turned around and slapped the face of every event that has been long expected causes Widespread damage American ..." over a wide geographic area inhabited by millions of people. He sentenced her to 4 days in jail, 120 hours of community Suppose further that about 2/3 of the deaths caused by the dis­ service, and a fine of $2,936.50 (not to put too fine a point on it), aster occurred because of the failure of a single structure. He also ordered her to pay $10,000 to compensate the state for Suppose also that the builders and owners of the failed structure the extraordinary expense of the case because of her "milking had known for decades that it was improperly designed and this case for publicity." She certainly wasn't the only one to seek was bound to cause substantial casualities if the widely antici- publicity: Officer Kramer is reportedly seeking a career as a mo- Liberty 5 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 vie actor, and Judge Rubin appeared in court with makeup, care­ are off the hook. fully coifed hair, and a rehearsed speech. As lagniappe, Judge The Rev. Bakker has every reason to believe that some of the Rubin explained, ''Now I have been involved in the criminal law people who signed up for his 3-day hotel room and amusement system for 23 years and I've developed some familiarity with per­ park would not show up. So he overbooked. Presumably, if too sons who display some psychological or emotional difficulties. many people showed up, he would do the same as an airline: of­ I've observed a hyper or manic quality to Miss Gabor's behavior fer them a freebie to stay at another motel, or even cash. Like the that absolutely wo~ld not-and I repeat not-amount to a legal airlines, he could give them $400 and tell them to go to Hell. But, defense in this case"-this .happened in California, after all, noooooo! What's good enough for the airline passengers is not where psychological expertise is nearly universal-and ordered good enough for contributors of the Rev. Bakker. What's fair for her to seek the services of a psychiatrist. airlines is a criminal offense worse than murder or rape for the What had Miss Hungary 1936 done to deserve this penalty? Rev. Bakker. ' She had been pulled over by a highway patrolman and hassled But the punishment of the Rev. Bakker is pernicious for a about a minor oversight (her driver's license was expired). When much more fundamental reason. Since when are the promises of the officer got obnoxious, she did what any American worthy of men of cloth considered to be valid legal contracts? this great nation would do in the same circumstances: she One of my hobbies is listening to religious leaders slicker slapped the smart-ass punk. Given her slight stature and ad­ cash from their flocks. My particular favorite, heard on the radio vanced age, it is apparent that she was a threat to nothing but his more than a decade ago, was crafted by a learned Rev. Dr. of supercilious pride. -EOW considerable holiness, who told the story of a poor fellow down to his last $10 who happened to attend one of the Rev. Dr.'s Clergy abuse - The Rev. Jim Bakker was recently tried prayer meetings. Moved by the spirit of the Lord and oblivious and convicted offraud. In the course of his television ministry, he to his own great need, the man put that $10 bill in the collection told his flock that if they contributed $1,000 to his ministry, he plate. Then, as now, the Rev. Dr. had assured his flock that the would give them free admission to his amusement park and a Lord would repay them tenfold. As the man left the church and room in his hotel for 3 nights per year. Unfortunately, he didn't walked down the street, worrying about his future, he turned have enough hotel rooms to satisfy all the donors. the corner and, ''Behold! An Angel of the Lord appeared! ... To hear the prosecutor explain it, Bakker was a businessman And in the hand ofthe Angel was a brand-new $100 bill!" who committed fraud on a grand scale, taking poor people's Now I don't recall that this Rev. Dr. was arrested for promis­ money on false pretenses to finance his sexual escapades, his ing a 10-to-1 return. I don't recall hearing anything about anSEC wife's makeup and his dog's air-conditioned home, leaving the investigation. The bunco squad wasn't called out. No, a few poor contributors in wretched condition. weeks later, while scanning the nether regions of my AM dial, I The jury bought these dubious propositions and convicted again encountered this same Rev. Dr., making a similar pitch. the by-now-pathetic Rev. Bakker. And the judge meted out "jus­ The reason is simple: The Bill of Rights guarantees both free­ tice." For his "crime," the Rev. Bakker was sentenced to 45 years dom of speech and freedom of religion, offering the holy orders in the slammer, with possible parole after 10 years, and fined a certain exemption from civi1law and customs. Furthermore, $500,000-a punishment far greater than the typical murderer­ most Americans, aware of the long tradition of treating with im­ rapist is dealt. punity behavior by men of the cloth that would constitute fraud if committed by mere mortals, believe the clergy to be a special A clergyman or politician is no more, able to class in our society, a class exempt from ordinary legal and mo­ ral standards. keep his word than a cat can respect property The exemption from ordinary standards of decency and hon­ lines, or a 5-year-old boy can keep his promise to esty was for years recognized in the legal doctrine called ''benefit keep his good clothes clean on the way home from of clergy," under which clergymen were exempt from the death penalty for otherwise capital crimes. Although this doctrine was Sunday school. gradually repealed during the 19th century, vestiges of it remain today. The outrageousness of the Rev. Bakker's conviction and the Consider the promise made by just about every clergyman: if heinousness of his punishment are manifest. In essence, the Rev. you will believe, or profess, or dedicate your life to an incorpo­ Bakker was accused of what the airline industry calls "over­ real, ineffable, omnipresent, omniscient, miracle-dispensing booking." But in the airline industry, the practice is perfectly le­ Being-or better still, make a generous donation to His agent on gal. The airlines know that some of the people who reserve earth (yours truly!)-then you will be rewarded on Earth or in seats on a flight will not show up. Therefore, as a matter of rou­ Heaven, or both. tine, they sell more seats than are actually available. On those This sales contract is clearly far more fraudulent than the occasions when too many passengers with reservations actually Rev. Bakker's deal. Maybe there was no room at the inn for some show up for a flight, what happens? Do Federal Marshals run of the Rev. Bakker's flock. But how many people have collected in with leg-irons and haul away the employees or owners of the on the promises of peace of mind or happiness-not to mention airline? eternal bliss? No way. Instead, the airline offers bribes to get enough pas­ Why then were the traditions and laws of this country per­ sengers to agree to take another flight. Usually the bribes are verted to put the pathetic Rev. Bakker behind bars for a half cen­ "free" flights, but if not enough passengers accept this compensa­ tury? The major reason, I think, is the clergyman's lust, first for tion for being "bumped," the airlines must offer cash. What hap­ the innocent young Jessica Hahn and later for male employees. pens if they offer less cash than the passengers want? They raise A cleric is free to promise his parishioners anything to induce their bid. All the way to $400. Then, by Federal Law, the airlines them to give him money, but if he pokes his secretary, the peo- 6 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 pIe's wrath will be felt. searches. The War strikes even the high and mighty. The clergy is not the only profession exempt from ordinary le­ Consider piteous Kitty Dukakis. Married to a millionaire pol­ gal and moral standards by virtue of tradition and expectation. itician, born and reared in wealth, accustomed to the accoutre­ The other major class that traditionally is allowed to lie and cheat ments and perquisites of power, Kitty seemed pretty safe. Sure, without punishment is government officials. As with ministers of she has been addicted to speed for years, but as a member of the the Gospel, politicians' promises are traditionally broken so uni­ power elite, she bought her drugs at her drug store with her doc­ versally and uniformly that scarcely anyone notices the event. tors' prescriptions. Like most wealthy addicts who have legal Candidate Reagan promised that he would never allow the gov­ connections for their drugs, she handled her addiction pretty ernment to spend more than its revenue; as President, his govern­ well. It had so little impact on her life that her husband Mike ment tripled the national debt. No one cared, and Mr Reagan is didn't even know about it fer more than 20 years. This is all the now honored as one ofthe nation's greatest presidents. more remarkable in light of the fact that Kitty and Mike shared Or consider what happens to a political leader who gets an extraordinarily close relationship, according to press reports caught with his hand in the public's pocket: typically, he resigns during his heroic dash for the Presidency. his post, writes his memoirs, takes up a position as a lobbyist or Anyway, Mike and the world found out about Kitty's "prob­ Wall Street executive, and pockets a generous pension, mostly lem," and Kitty's life has taken a turn for the worse. Deprived by tax-free for the rest of his days. The most prominent elected lead­ her loved ones of the amphetamines she craved, she turned to er to be forced from office in the past decade is the Hon. Mr. ethyl alcohol, available at any liquor store. Her loving family hid James Wright, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who the liquor from her for her own good. Deprived of what had be­ cost the nation's taxpayers billions of dollars by interfering with come part of her daily routine, she turned to what was available investigations into the fraudulent activities of various fatcat con­ around the house. The only drug she could lay her hands on was tributors to his campaign. How has he been punished? He is pro­ rubbing alcohol in the medicine chest. It looked and tasted a lot vided with three full-time staffers, an allowance of $120,000 to maintain an office plus $67,000 for stationery and phone calls, free use ofthe mails, a pension of$200,000 per year, plus the right Is Kitty really better off under her family's to unlimited Chicken McNuggets at any McDonald's, all at the #tough love," inspired by the national anti-drug expense of the same taxpayers whom he defrauded, and spends his time giving speeches at $10,000 a pop and working on a new mania? Is it better for her to poison herself than to book, for which he has been paid a massive advance. (Okay, so I continue her regular use of amphetamines or alco­ was kidding about the McNuggets.) hol, an addiction that had so little impact on her What has happened to his junior colleague, the Hon. Mr. Tony Coelho, who was caught taking a bribe disguised as an in­ life that those close to her didn't even notice it? vestment? In addition to his generous pension, he makes a mil­ lion dollars a year as a Wall St executive, despite the absense of like drinking alcohol, so what the hell. Chug-a-Iug. any qualifications for the job. He was recently honored at a black­ The resulting trip to the hospital put her name back in the tie charity affair in Washington, emceed by Dan Rather and at­ headlines, and gave most voters yet another reason to rejoice that tended by his former colleagues (that is, those who haven't yet they had chosen George Bush over her husband Mike. Barbara been caught with their fingers in the till). Bush may be fat and wrinkled, the antithesis of cool, but at least The exemption of politicians from ordinary standards of hon­ she isn't embarrassing anyone by doing an imitation of a Bowery esty is widely recognized in the world of commerce as well. For bum. example, most print shops require politicians to pay for all print­ in the meantime, one has to wonder: Is Kitty really better off ing in advance; most radio stations, television stations and news­ under her family's "tough love," inspired by the national anti­ papers require that all political advertising must be paid in cash drug mania? Is it better for her to poison herself than to continue up front, and even the phone company requires political cam­ her regular use of amphetamines or alcohol, an addiction that paigns to pay large deposits prior to connection of phone lines. had so little impact on her life that those close to her didn't even All in all, I think the doctrine that clergymen and politicians notice it? should be exempt from ordinary standards of honesty is a good Perhaps I read too much into Kitty's ordeal. A friend sug­ one. So far as I can see, a clergyman or politician is no more able gests another explanation of her behavior: after a 25-year binge, to keep his word than a cat can respect property lines, or a 5-year­ Kitty sobered up, look a good look at her husband, and reached old boy can keep his promise to keep his good clothes clean on for the first bottle she could find with POISON on the label. the way home from Sunday school. Just as we would take for a -RWB fool the person who kicks his cat for straying into a neighbor's yard or whups his son for stopping on the way home from Killer tax cuts - Perhaps the most ludicrous reaction church to climb a particularly interesting-looking tree, so we to the California earthquake is the assertion that the deaths were should take for a fool the person who wants to punish politicians the result of Proposition 13, the citizens' initiative that stopped or clergymen for failing to keep their promises. -EOW the geometric growth of taxes in the nation's largest state. This theory has been advanced by Ted Koppel, star of ABC-TV's Another casualty in the War on Drugs- Nightline, political cartoonist Paul Conrad, columnist Lou The victims of the War on Drugs are not just boat-owners who Cannon, and California Assemblyman Richard Katz. get caught with a guest who has a marijuana seed in his pocket, Now, the quake deaths nearly all resulted from the collapse of ghetto grocers whose cash register is emptied by the cops because government-operated roads and bridges, which are financed by one bill tested positive for crack, dopers who have to pay higher state and federal gasoline taxes, both of which are exempt from prices for their recreation, and school kids subjected to strip Proposition 13, and both of which have increased by a whopping Liberty 7 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 30% since Prop 13 passed. October 11 was instructive in understanding Haavelmo's contri­ So the obvious question is: Just how did the tax-limiting Prop bution. After describing how Haavelmo replaced simple statisti­ 13 cause the deaths? Or is it simply a matter of turning every dis­ cal analysis with his new methods, the commentator noted that aster or semi-disaster into an excuse to expand the state? - RWB econometrics is "not a perfect science." If it were, he explained, all economists would agree on things like the size of next year's Speaking truth to Bryant - On the October 17 budget deficit. But, he added, the shortcomings are not in episode of NBC's Today, Bryant Gumbel grilled Rev. Ralph Haavelmo's techniques. The problem is rather that human be­ Abernathy about descriptions in his new book, And the Walls havior is "erratic" and cannot be described in "one or even a Came Tumbling Down, of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s last hundred equations." In other words, econometrics is fine, but we night on Earth. Apparently King, a man of some appetite, spent acting human beings won't cooperate, which is like saying a new parts of the night with two women, then slapped a third who molecular theory is fine, but the molecules don't do what the the­ complained that he had not been with her. Not one of the three ory predicts. was King's wife. Gumbel, instead of accepting the fact that King Aristotle said that in any discipline the method should con- was a man with normal desires (even though some might call them "immoral"), criticized Abernathy for giving "great comfort to those who would like to demean the memory of Martin Guest Reflection: Luther King." Abernathy explained that he wanted King to look Avant-Garde Redneck - Virtually every crit­ like "a human being, not a god, not a saint." He also noted that ic, journalist, scholar, curator and fundraiser concerned with King's proclivities are well-known, and there was little in the the arts has taken a position on Senator Jesse Helms's book that hadn't been revealed elsewhere. Still, Gumbel pressed amendment, which (in reaction to Andres Serrano's "Piss the Reverend, saying that Abernathy had to know that "this Christ," a crucifix immersed in the artist's urine, and to the would hurt [King's] family," and pointing out that the book had Robert Mapplethorpe photos of male genitalia) would forbid been "repudiated now by almost every black leader, every major agencies of the United States government-notably the black official in this country." National Endowment for the Arts-to fund obscene, anti­ Throughout the interview, Gumbel's face showed disbelief, religious, or bigoted works of art. incredulousness, frustration. There was clearly much more than All the articles I have seen by arts professionals have tak­ objective journalism involved. Emotion had taken control. But en an identical position: the Helms amendment is an in­ when Gumbel referred to the line from "The Man Who Shot fringement on free speech, it amounts to censorship, it Liberty Valance" about how when truth collides with legend the would politicize the NEA and similar organizations by as­ author should write the legend, he crossed the line from journal­ serting the right of ignorant Congressmen to make aesthetic ist to mythologist. Abernathy was unmoved, and responded judgments, and it would gravely undermine American cul­ simply that /lYe shall know the truth and the truth will set you turallife. free." It is embarrassing to identify myself with a redneck reac­ Any such realistic approaches to the life of a revered man tionary like Jesse Helms, but I feel compelled to defend what will generate this sort of criticism. And perhaps Bryant's emo­ the whole arts community is calling an act of fascism. tionalism is understandable; he is a young African American It is perhaps irrelevant to note that the Serrano and who was politically socialized in the King era. But one mark of a Mapplethorpe works are trashy examples of everything professional journalist is the ability to face soberly and objective­ wrong with American cultural life, and should have been de­ ly situations which conflict with his or her world view or predis- nied funds simply on the basis of their lack of artistic value. positions. Evidently Bryant Gumbel failed this test. -JSR That is a matter of artistic judgment. It is, however, a matter Guerilla reply mail - Somehow, a few years back, of political judgment to note that a refusal of government to somebody got the idea that I was a Republican National fund a work of art has not the slightest thing to do with cen­ Committee Sustaining Member, and they've been sending me sorship, since the publication or exhibition of the work itself membership cards ever since. It's a handsome thing as such is in no way forbidden; that the NEA is already thoroughly cards go, and it's very handy to cash checks with. But no matter. politicized, its peer-review panels consisting ofan ideologi­ The point is that they've gone farther this time and sent me a cally monolithic elite of "arts experts"; that if a work of art survey to fill out. Since they're paying the return postage, I took responds to the real spiritual needs of its society, it ought to advantage of the opportunity to advise that Quayle resign and be able to find in the free marketplace people who need it be replaced with Walter Williams (in answer to the "00 you ap­ enough to pay for it; that it is inherently unjust to force tax­ prove or disapprove of the job Dan Quayle is doing" question), payers to finance art they find offensive; and that-here's an that drugs be legalized, and that we abolish HUD, HHS, and the old-fashioned fascist rallying cry-there should be no taxa­ Departments of Education and Energy. tion without representation. So don't throw those surveys away. Do asI do, and who Alas, we live in a topsy-turvy society, where persons knows?-you may find a fellow thinker doing scut work for the who should be most in favor of freedom-namely, artists­ Republican Party. -RPM instead rally for statist compulsion, and where persons who care nothing for the arts or the values they embody­ Economic jumbo-mumbo - The Nobel Prize in namely, the anti-intellectual right wing-lobby to ensure Economics for 1989 went to Trygve Haavelmo of Norway. He is that the conditions of free artistic production and consump­ credited with developing econometrics, the branch of economics tion be preserved: where an apostle of avant-garde creativity that attempts to mathematically model economies and predict like me finds himself allied with Jesse Helms. the future. A commentary on the "science" broadcast on -Jonathan Saville National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" program 8 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 form to the subject. Not so in mainstream economics, where the Riegle, Cranston and McCain positively bristle with indignation subject is expected to conform to the method. -SLR at any suggestion that their interference with the audit of Lincoln Savings and Loan was anything other than their looking Minority report - I don't know if you can learn into a matter on behalf of a constituent. None of them told the much these days from taking Freshman comp, but you can cer­ Home Loan Board to layoff the investigation, at least not expli­ tainly learn a lot from teaching it. The latest revelation came citly, though it's hard to know how else a federal employee will when I was grading the rough draft of a student's paper dealing interpret being called on the carpet by five powerful Senators. with the Progressive era. In an otherwise quite sensible and com­ But there is a limit to the credulity of the American voter, who prehensible piece of writing, I came across a sentence something cannot remember the last time five U.S. senators called to the like this: 1/Although women had made many advances, they carpet a government employee that had been hassling him, or were still a minority." Now, remember how naIve I am. A mi­ any of his friends, for that matter. nority of what, I asked myself. And I just marked the spot with a Three observations: question mark and waited to ask the student about it. 1. Unlike the ethics crisis involving House Democrat leaders "Did you leave something out here?" I asked. Jim Wright and Tony Coelho, this one has a bipartisan ring to it: "No. I don't think so." two of the crooks so-far identified are Republicans, and a third 'Well, what did you mean by 'minority' here?" first came to Washington as a Republican. There is good reason "They were a minority. Women were still a minority." that corruption in the Senate is more bipartisan than in the "I'm sure they weren't ... [then came the dawn!] ... Ah! ­ House: corruption is a function of power, and the House has so What does 'minority'.mean, the way you used it here?" "They couldn't vote. You know, they couldn't have certain jobs." Senator-buying is a good investment.' the ex­ So we proceeded to look up "minority" in the dictionary to­ penditure of $1.3 million allowed Charles Keating gether, and we both learned something about the English lan­ guage and how dangerous it can be. This is a bright kid. She and his buddies to loot the taxpayers to the tune of knows what words mean, by and large. But somewhere along about $2.5 billion- a return on capital of 1,823%. the line, while going through our fantastic secondary school sys­ Maybe we can payoff the National Debt by allow­ tem, she's learned that "minority" means "group without rights." There are probably several million people who think it ing the Treasury to invest directly in Senators. means just that. The moral of this is that when you or I talk about or write long been so dominated by a single organization, the House about public affairs, and we use the word "minority" an}'W'here, Democrats, that it simply isn't worth corrupting Republicans. On the chances are excellent that many seemingly-literate people are the. other hand, the Democratic hold on the Senate is tenuous; not going to understand what we're saying at all, and even Republicans controlled it as recently as three years ago, and re­ worse, are going to think that they do understand it when they main a large and powerful minority. don't. 2. Senator-buying is a good investment. The expenditure of ''Humpty Dumpty, call your office!" -RFM $1.3 million to the pockets of Sens. Glenn, DeConcini, Reigle, Investing in Senators - How many crooks are Cranston and McCain allowed Charles Keating and his buddies there in the U.S. Senate? The correct answer is: at least six and no at Lincoln Savings to loot the taxpayers to the tune of about $2.5 more than 100. billion-a return on capital of 1,823%. Maybe we can payoff the So far this year, we have learned that Alfonse 0'Amato, John National Debt by allowing the Treasury to invest indirectly in Glenn, Dennis DeConcini, Don Riegle, Alan Cranston, and John Senatorial bribes. 3. It McCain are crooks. D'Amato effectively took over the Depart­ is particularly revolting to hear Keating claim to be a poor-but-honest businessman being unjustly hassled by the bu­ ment of Housing and Urban Development, controlling its bil­ reaucracy. I am as sympathetic to victims of the Feds as any lions of pork barrel dollars, funnelling vast sums into the pock­ man, but in this case, the evidence is pretty plain that Keating ets of friends, associates and political contributors. The took advantage of the availability of deregulation and federal de­ remaining five received "contributions" from Lincoln Savings posit insurance to pick the taxpayer's pocket. And prior to his fi­ and Loan totalling about $1,300,000 and then interceded on its nancial hooliganism, Keating was a longtime crusader against behalf when federal regulators began to discover its massive freedom of the press, acting as Chairman of the Citizens for fraud against the taxpayers. It all began in 1984, when Charles Decent Literature and a member of the Meese Commission. Keating, Jr, purchased Lincoln, and began to use it as a source of -RWB low-eost money he could invest in high risk ventures. It was a no-loss situation for Keating: if the ventures went belly-up, the Punching out Senators - One of the most de­ S&L would be out the money, and the taxpayer would payoff lightful moments in the history of TV occurred on Wednesday, the depositors; ifthe ventures paid off, Mr Keating could make a October 25. It was after one of those tedious tree-planting cere­ huge profit, thanks to the availability of low cost deposits. It was monies in Washington. Senator John Glenn (0, Ohio) had just also a no-win situation for the taxpayer. Ultimately, it looks as if helped plant an official tree, and was talking to a TV reporter the scam will cost the taxpayer about $2,500,000,000. when Michael Breen, a young engineer, walked up, and pow! Now Sen. 0'Amato claims his lassooing of federal mega­ punched him square on the jaw. It was a unique bit of cinema ver­ bucks for a swimming pool for his hometown and subsidies for ite. As the cops seized Mr. Breen, the Senator walked around, the purchases of homes by his rich pals and their kids was all rubbing his jaw, muttering: '1 haven't been hit that hard in twen­ done for the public good. Similarly, Senators Glenn, DeConcini, ty-five years." Liberty 9 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 What was Breen's motivation? The answer is still murky. pressures were less intense, small change was provided largely Breen linked his dramatic act with the alleged message that the by privately issued tokens struck on the exact standard of the Virgin Mary supposedlydelivered to three youngsters at Fatima, under-supplied cent. About eleven thousand designs are known, Portugal in 1917. The message warned about Bolshevism and including a few Southern examples. Most feature patriotic slo­ urged penance for sins-but in the hearts of some Catholics lurks gans and symbols or else carry an advertising message for the is­ the belief that Our Lady of Fatima had conveyed a secret mes­ suing business. sage that the Popes have been carefully guarding ever since-a Recently, while examining a collection of such tokens, I was message presumably about future disasters with some sort of struck with the topicality of one of them. The obverse displays a darkly right-wing content. At any rate, Breen was apparently in flag, the date 1863, and the inscription ''The Flag of Our Union." some way linking the San Francisco earthquake of the week be­ The reverse states ''If Anybody Attempts to Tear it Down, Shoot fore with the Fatima message, and felt he had some important Him on the Spot." A lot more pithy and to the point than any of revelation of his own to convey to the world. the currently proposed laws and amendments, wouldn't you Breen's attorney, Barry Stiller, concluded that Breen is "just a agree? -WPM very nice young man who I think is a little confused." Probably so. But one observer heard Breen, just before he punched out the Public choices in ecotopia - On November 7, Senator, mutter, "The earthquakes are starting, the earthquakes voters of Seattle overwhelmingly voted to increase taxes to hire are starting." I like to think that Breen had come up with the additional policemen, but voted against raising taxes to "help charming theory that tree-planting causes earthquakes, and that kids" via a complicated measure that would increase spending he had to act to call the world's attentiC?n to this insight. -MNR on welfare and the public schools. This puzzled the commenta­ tors on Seattle television: why raise taxes for one purpose but not Proud, but gender-neutral - Apparently there's the other? one thing that unites conservatives and libertarians--a reverence The "children's initiative" lost by a margin of more than 2 to for language that uses male terms to mean male and female. In 1, but the leaders of the campaign were encouraged that they had the September issue of Liberty, Rex F. May mocked college galvanized a new movement in favor of increasing state spend­ English teachers for ''kowtowing to the cultural commissars" by ing on children. Curiously, the constituents of this movement using "slasher pronouns" such as he/she and himself/herself. were public school teachers, social workers and other direct re­ And in the September issue of Chronicles (a culturally conserva­ cipients ofthe increased taxes. tive journal published in the Midwest), William F. Campbell de­ As nearly as I can tell, not one of these puzzled opinion lead­ cried the triumph of inclusive language over "not only tradition ers found it significant that the tax increase to ''help kids" was a and elegance, but even reason." sales tax that all voters would have to pay, but the tax increase to I join them in condemning punctuational curiosities and hire more police was a tax on business enterprises. Is it possible clumsy neologisms. But why doesn't someone on the Right take that voters are happy to tax others for their own gain, but not to seriously the idea of trying to make language more inclusive? tax themselves? Does the Right have to treat this issue as a litmus test of political The best hypothesis the commentators could come up with belief as the Left does? You don't have to endorse awkward was that the "children's initiative" lost because "kids couldn't terms to reduce the number of times you use "he" to mean he or vote." Maybe they were right: maybe the only people who will she, or to stop saying "men" and "mankind" when you mean vote for a tax increase are those who directly benefit from it ... "people" or "humankind." especially if they do not have to pay for it. -RWB Imagine that the world consisted of two races, black and New Yorkers are already white. What word would we use for the entire group, consisting Race with no winners- engaging in the predictable orgy of self-congratulation about the of both blacks and whites? If we are to follow the preference of historic election of their first black mayor, David Dinkins, and of Campbell and May, we would use ''blacks'' to mean everyone, or what this supposedly shows about the spread of racial tolerance "whites" to mean everyone. Which term we would use would in the city. Don't you believe it. The election was ''historic'' all probably reflect the political power of one group relative to an­ right, but in a completely different way. This mayoral election other, and some people might feel mislabeled if they are black polarized the city racially as it has never been split before. New and described as white or vice versa. Isn't it fair to suppose that York's Jews, a center of liberalism who have voted overwhelm­ women might similarly dislike being called men? ingly Democratic since the beginning of the New Deal, voted al­ True, this analogy has a flaw. Those who use "men" to mean most as overwhelmingly for the Republican Rudolph Giuliani. "men and women" intend to be inclusive, whereas the terms Jewish voters at exit polls on Election Day said that they voted ''black'' and "white" are used to differentiate. Logically, howev­ two to one for Giuliani, but, voters systemically lied to the poll­ er, the error of calling one sex by the other's name is parallel to sters, who foreCast a 10 percent margin for Dinkins when it actu­ calling one race by the other's name. ally turned out to be a slim 2 percent. The Forest Hills-Kew The defenders of the "once-proud" English language (to use Gardens section of the borough of Queens, traditionally Jewish May's term) must be sorry that we dropped the second person middle-class liberal,Democrat, voted by a remarkable 3 to 1 for forms "thou" and "thee." -J55 Giuliani, while conservative Democratic Borough Park district of Nothing new under the hyperpatriotic Brooklyn, consisting of Hasidic Jews, voted for the Republican by no less than 5 to 1. The middle-class Jewish district of sun - During the ·War of Yankee Aggression (1861--65) Riverdale in the Bronx went Republican by 60 percent. Even the shortage of legitimate coin of the realm led to various expedien­ Upper West Side of Manhattan, traditionally very left-wing and cies in both nations. In the Confederate States, where the short­ the stronghold of left-wing Jewish intellectuals, went for Dinkins age of specie was acute, a solution was sought in paper money, by only 57 percent-this in a district that usually piles up 3 to 1 with predictable results. In the Northern Dominion where fiscal Democrat majorities. 10 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 Other whites voted almost unanimously for Giuliani; non­ days before the election, forecast a 14 point victory for Dinkins, Jewish whites voted 85 percent for Giuliani, and this was the un­ while the Gallup-Newsday poll predicted a 15 percent margin. derestimate given at the exit polls. The pollsters, of course, blamed the public; they lied to the poll­ How, then, did Dinkins squeak through, by 50 to 48 percent? sters, especially wherever race matters. Well, tough patootie, fel­ Two reasons: first, the Puerto Ricans, who had long split from las. How about you highly paid professionals taking the fall, and the black voting bloc, supported Dinkins by 70 percent; and, going into a more legitimate line ofwork? -MNR more important, the blacks turned out overwhelmingly and in unprecedented numbers, voting almost unanimously for Anarchy in the USA - Lenin wrote that anarchism Dinkins. Usually, black turnout rates at elections are far below is "often a sort of punishment for the opportunist sins of the those of whites; this time, however, while 55 percent of all eligi­ working class movement." Of course, his experience with anar­ ble voters turned out, over 65 percent of eligible blacks trooped chism came at a time when the movement was serious and, in to the polls. Exit polls estimated 93 percent of the black vote to some circles, important. He could recall the vicious struggles at Congresses of the Second International over whether or not to Dinkins, but once again, this probably underestimated the black expel the anarchists. When they finally were cast out, they estab­ support to Dinkins by a considerable margin-as in the case of whites, some blacks lied out of fear of being considered "racist" lished the "Black International," which persisted at least until the Spanish Civil War. Lenin lived at a time when the syndicalist by the pollsters. Thus, the Crown Heights-Bedford-Stuyvesant wing of the anarchist movement had an important (which is not black region of Brooklyn voted 54,546 for Dinkins as against to say beneficial) impact on the political landscape by assassinat­ 1,273 votes for Giuliani, a stunning percentage of 97.7 for the ing heads of state and other political notables. To Lenin, anar­ Democrat. The rather less militant black voters of Harlem voted chism was a threat, one to be treated seriously. 54,170 for Dinkins as against 3,764 for Giuliani, which comes in Today, anarchism seems to be nothing more than "Left child- at the official estimate of 93.5 percent for Dinkins. Put another way, the "outer boroughs" of NewYork, eternal­ ly Democratic, voted a margin of 53,000 for Giuliani, and it was Some of the anarchists voiced concern that the only Manhattan, the most leftwing borough in the city, that sup­ plied the 95,000 margin that allowed Dinkins to slip through. government wasn't doing enough to help the dis­ Far from the election being a harbinger of tolerance, New advantaged, and demanded government assistance York has slid ever closer to eventual race war. An old friend of for housing and other social programs. "State mine-a lifelong libertarian who generally votes New Left Democratic-remonstrated with me on the phone just before the Anarchism" was born. election for my stronger opposition to Giuliani. "Murray, have pity on those of us who still live in New York," he pleaded, "be­ ishness," if the latest North American Anarchist Conference is cause if Dinkins wins, they will take over." They meant two con­ any indication. The Conference was held at the Horace Mann joined forces: blacks and leftists, for indeed Dinkins, while Middle School in the Mission District of San Francisco (not to be personally a calm, unthreatening figure, is surrounded by left­ confused with Tom Mann, U.S. syndicalist, known for his frenetic wing ideologues, mainly black, including Jesse, but also by such ranting of "We must destroy!" at the 1893 anarchist conference in long-time white socialist activists as City Councilwoman (now London). The anarchist organizers (that grand contradiction in Borough President of Manhattan) Ruth Messinger. terms) had hoped to improve the image of anarchism through Indeed, amidst the euphoria of Democratic victory, outgoing hosting a series of lectures and discussions (e.g., "Anarchy 101," mayor Ed Koch, who lost by 10 points in the Democratic primary and "TV: Totalitarian Technology"). However, most of the 1000 but whom most observers concede would win an election today, people who showed up were not straight-laced intellectuals, but issued a stern warning against mlany of Dinkins's cherished pro­ a cross section of the alternative culture; punks, hippies, mystics grams. In particular, Koch warned against two proposals of and other free spirits, engaging in festive, unstructured, anarchic Messinger that would serve to dE~stroy what is left of the housing behavior. Mirroring the Old Left/New Left disputes of the 1960s, stock already gravely crippled by fifty years of rent control. For Joey Cain, one of the organizers, complained of a lack of histori­ Dinkins favors imposing rent control on retail stores, as well as cal sense among the younger anarchists. "A lot of people think preventing landlords from keeping apartments off the market anarchism started 10 years ago with the Sex Pistols," he said. It's while waiting for more profitable use. Koch also attacked such hard to blame the punks for the misunderstanding, though. The destructive statist proposals of [>inkins as imposing the concept Sex Pistols sold a lot more albums than Chernyshevskii or Emma of "comparable worth" for municipal jobs, as well as favoring Goldman. muncipal unions vvith even greater privileges than they now Despite the philosophical confluence between libertarianism enjoy. and anarchism, the sentiment at this conference was decidedly As for the outgoing mayor, don't cry for Ed Koch. His spirits anti-capitalist and anti-property. Jef Strohl, a participant from have recovered nicely from defeat, and he is happy and chor­ Oakland, said that capitalism is to blame for most of the world's tling as he looks forward to his next career: What else? Cleaning problems. "There is enough in this world for all of its need, but not up on the lecture circuit, where Koch will be entertaining his au­ enough for all of its greed," he stated. "Half the people here have dience at about $30,000 a pop. New York City, however, is not no chance of getting a well-paying job or buying a house." (Half going to be so lucky; it's in for a helluva ride. the people there also had shaved heads and only a nodding ac­ A final note on the polls: happily, for those of us who dislike quaintance with soap.) Others, betraying something of a confusion the arrogant determinism of the pollsters as well as their heavy as to what anarchism is usually thought to be, voiced concern that influence on political campaigns, they came a cropper this time. the government wasn't doing enough to help the disadvantaged, Not only did the exit polls predict a 10 percent win for Dinkins, and demanded government assistance for housing and other s0­ but the highly respected Daily News-CBS poll, taken only two cial programs. "State Anarchism" was born. But not everyone op- Liberty 11 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 posed the free market. Karry Koon, from McVerytown, Pa., had a of patriotism influenced me, years ago, to decide not to recite the brisk market in political pins, particularly those featuring the an­ odious Pledge of Allegiance. I reasoned that pledging allegiance archist "Circle-A" symbol. "The pagan designs are also going to a symbol that was usually carried by the most despicable of well," theyoungentrepreneur said. criminals (that is, politicians) would be as unpatriotic an act as I The Conference ended with a spontaneous riot, to the dismay could imagine. It would fly in the face of what I regarded as my ofthe organizers, who hoped for something more respectable. But American values: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I be­ the "riot" was a pretty pathetic specimen of Propaganda of the lieved that the right to govern should rest on the consent of the Deed. This was no Haymarket Bombing or Homestead Steel Strike. Windows were smashed, in defiance ofHazlitt's Economics in One Lesson. A Coca-Cola delivery truck, symbol ofdreaded cap­ State worship, "Americanism"-the whole ser­ italism, was hijacked. Trash cans, unable to flee, were burned. But vile civic religion that self-proclaimed patriots have there were no injuries, and thirty anarchists were arrested. For some reason, nationwide sympathy has failed to manifest itself. been shoving down the throats of innocent children Such is the state of anarchism today. Kind of feels good to see a ever since freedom and the rule of law became inad­ group in worse shape than the Libertarian Party. -JSR equate for "good Americans"-is badly in need of Hats off! - Not surprisingly, as soon as Congress passed challenge. a law prohibiting the "desecration" of the flag (oops, The Flag), certain radicals made headlines by burning the same. Though I was not one of those certain radicals (certainty is not my bag), I governed, and that the nobility of the American experiment con­ could not help but sympathize with them. Jingoistic laws like sisted in the principle of limiting governments by the same rule this deserve to be challenged. State worship, "Americanism"­ of law that limits the activities of the common folk; no symbol of the whole servile civic religion that self-proclaimed patriots have America (I reasoned) should be allowed to work against these been shoving down the throats of innocent children ever since ideals. So I dissented. freedom and the rule of law became inadequate for "good Conveniently, by the time I made this decision I was no long­ Americans"-is badly in need of challenge, and if the Supreme er required to recite the thing. Not so conveniently, I have often Court will once again decide against the statists, I cannot help found myself in a somewhat similar position, where I am expect­ but raise a cheer. ed to stand in respect for the flag as the National Anthem plays. Still, I doubt ifI could bring myself to burn a flag. As symbol­ Though I believe that sitting while the musicians go through the ic acts go, flag-burning is far too extreme for my temperament. leaps of their variant of "Anacreon in Heaven" is too disrespect­ Furthermore, it is expressive of a severe, unambivalent attitude, ful (people might think I am a communist, or against freedom, or and my attitude to both America and its symbology is nothing if something), doing what everyone else is doing seems too respect­ not ambivalent. ful of the unthinking patriotism of the obedient masses. My solu­ It is not that I am not patriotic, in my own way; it's just that I tion to this crisis of ceremony is novel enough that I recommend am not patriotic in other people's way. For instance, my version flag-burners to follow suit. When the anthem is played (or worse yet, sung), I stand up, take off my hat •• Bush givesTVtalkon dru9st:o public school kids.•• and place it over a portion of my anato­ z my somewhat removed from my heart. GEORGE GAVE ATV TALK DRUGS HAVE NO CONSCJENCE} I call this the "CYA gesture," and ~ ABOUT DRUGS TO ALL THEY DON~ CARE WHERE though most people do not notice it, I PUBLIC SCHOOL- KIDS. THE MONEY COMES FROM do not hesitate to explain when asked ~ AND THEY MURDER PEOPLE. by anyone who looks unlikely to assault WJ-IAT DII> ~ITS me in response. ~• THOSEARE HUN\AN ~ HE'S G'VIN~ 10 DRUGS' So, if you feel compelled to show [ii]HE~ your dissent by burning a flag, show at @) least a little respect for the common • opinions of mankind (or at least e ! ~C)g_- 06 ~~ Americans) by refraining from chanting, (fJ -ffi_• ..." swigging beer, shouting names, or mak- ing rude gestures to the police. Write a solemn declaration-perhaps mimicking HE HAD70. DRUGS ARE NO, WHEN THE ENEMY IS Jeffersonian language--and have some­ NON-HUMAN) THAT RULE Z iHE ENEMY IN THIS WAR. one soberly read it for the assembled dis­ OFTHUMB 15 REVERSED. THAT/SASWITCHIINA sidents and voyeuristic cameramen. D WAR \NE'RE SUPPOSE.DlD WAR-SURE And, as the flag goes up in flames, why not saluteit, or play taps? H flag-burners Jr~~~D claim to stand for ideals that flag­ SU\E. burning laws unconstitutionally abridge, ~ =;~ they should show respect for the ideals they wish to uphold by recognizing that, me ffi ~ to many people, Old Glory once stood UJ'-----~ for those same ideals. - TWV 12 Liberty The Death of Socialism Y v lLaL lL llLt;alL~

Now" the Real Struggle Begins Seven Observations on the Death of Socialism by R. W. Bradford

George Bush seemed doleful to Observation 1: The faith is broken. Last spring, Hungary legalized the Boy Scouts; this fall, it enacted the reporters he summoned to his of­ a new constitution and is now a self-proclaimed Western-style repub­ fice after hearing the news that the lic. Its Communist Party reformed as well, reorganizing itself as a Berlin Wall had fallen. Western-style socialist party. Poland held a free election, which was #¥ou don't seem elated," one re­ won by a non-Communist party. The Soviet Union has held elections with non-communist candi­ porter observed. dates, admitted to war crimes during World War II, tolerated a con­ #1 am not an emotional kind of siderable amount of dissent, acknowledged the crimes of its secret guy," Bush replied. police, and even supported such previously forbidden notions as pri­ vate ownership of capital goods. #Well, how elated are you?" In Vietnam, a communist backwater, free-market thinking is toler­ #1 am very pleased." ated and the state has begun to allow basic commodities to trade at Well, I am not sure whether I market prices. On October 18, Erich Honecker, the hard-line leader of East Ger­ am a more # emotional kind of guy" many, who only a few months earlier was seen as the most secure than the President, but I didn't re­ leader of any communist government, was ousted by his party in an spond to the news that the Wall was attempt to satisfy the angry mob in the streets. It was not enough: on being torn down in his hang-dog November 4, a half million people rallied against the government in East Berlin. Three days later the entire Cabinet quit under pressure, fashion. The collapse of the Berlin and the next day Honecker's Stalinist replacement resigned his gov­ Wall and the attendant disintegra­ ernment position, victims to its enraged citizenry emboldened by its tion ofsocialism is cause for celebra­ unaccustomed exercise of power. The next to go belly up was Todor tion for all who love humanity and Zhivkov of Bulgaria, who had held power for 35 years, the longest tenure of any communist head of state. especially for those who love liberty. On November 9, the East German state agreed to allow its citizens But the collapse of socialism is to travel freely in other Eastern Bloc countries, including those that occasion for more than celebration: it had opened their borders to the West. Thousands of East Germans is also cause for reflection and went West. This did not satisfy the people. In the most dramatic event to date, the East German state decided to open up its borders to emi­ observation. gration and travel directly to the West. In effect, the Berlin Wall, which had symbolized the slavery that communism had become, fell. The state said the Wall would be retained as a military barrier, but the people of both Berlins had another idea: they began tearing it down with hand tools, tossing chunks ofconcrete into the streets below. Berliners were intoxicated by the new freedom. Students from the West streamed into the East, giving flowers to the Volkspolezei, who only a few days earlier had orders to kill anyone who approached the Wall. East Berliners toasted their new freedom with West German Liberty 13 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 champagne. Prices rose on the Frankfort stock exchange. Peo­ Such goods as were offered to the workers of the commu­ ple allover Germany rejoiced. nist states were of inferior quality, when available. In Eastern "More liberty begets desire of more," John Dryden ob­ Europe, the process ofacquiring a car involved filing an appli­ served three centuries ago. Appetites for liberty stimulated, cation, waiting for years-sometimes even decades-and then the massed people of Eastern Europe demanded more and paying an exorbitant price for a poorly crafted version of an more liberty. In a desperate attempt to hold onto some rem­ automobile designed in the West twenty years earlier. The nant of power, the Communist Party of East Germany an­ price of food in government stores was usually reasonable, nounced that free elections would be held, appointed non­ but the quality was awful, the waiting in line opprobrious, Communists to the Cabinet, and began an investigation of and the availability sporadic. The most available consumer Honecker, who only a month earlier had held near absolute good in the Soviet Union was vodka, cheap to produce and power. Egon Krenz, the former chief of secret police who had sold at steep prices by the government monopoly. So the So­ taken over for Honecker, gave interviews to West German tel­ viet worker lived in his tiny apartment in his crumbling apart­ evision, desperately trying to portray himself as a liberal; a ment building, ate garbage for food, was watched over by few days later he resigned with his feet to the fire. Fully half secret police, and drank his vodka, trying to forget. of the residents of Prague took to the streets in protest against The Soviet experiment began by promising paradise to the their government, which had resisted liberal reforms. On No­ worker. It ended by giving him something quite unique in the vember 24, the Czech Politburo resigned. On December 5, modern world: a steadily declining life expectancy. After 70 Erich Honeckerwas placed under house arrest. years of promises not kept, the people stopped believing the Meanwhile, nearly every so-called "democratic socialist" promises. party in the West has acknowledged the inadequacy of cen­ The situation in Eastern Europe was worse than that in the tralized planning, thereby retreating from the fundamental Soviet Union. Here traditional tolerance of authoritarian gov­ principle of socialism:1 ernment is much weaker than in Russia. And here people As the Economist observes: liThe Swedes did that in the could see life in the West on television. The East German 1930s, the West Germans at their famous Bad Godesberg con­ worker could see that his West German counterpart worked gress in 1959. Spain's socialists recanted in the 1970s. France's no harder than he, but enjoyed a vastly superior lifestyle. too have done so in practice, though they prefer not to avow Western television also stimulated demand for other West­ the change. The party's line on the mixed economy, laid down ern consumer goods: freedom and democracy. Through the by Mr Mitterand, is stand-pat: no more privatization, no more window of television, the subjects of socialist states saw that nationalization. Britain's Labor party was torn apart by Hugh people in the West could speak their minds, live where they Gaitskell's attempt at reform 30 years ago, and was still wanted, pursue the occupations of their choice, and choose dreaming grandiosely of state intervention and state enter­ their own leaders. prise under Harold Wilson's prime ministership in the mid­ The governments of the satellite states tried to narrow the 1970s; it has gone pretty quietly along as Neil Kinnock has economic gap by importing consumer goods from the West, shuffled its ancient dogmas aside in the 1980s." by borrowing from the West, by buying whole factories in the Socialism is in retreat around the world. That is to say, the West. At first the people applauded the improvements. But notion that the state ought directly to control the economy for the gap remained, and seemed to continue to grow. And the the benefit of all is no longer widely believed. No longer do Western goods had to be paid for, putting several Eastern Eu­ people commonly see socialism (or its revolutionary clone, ropean countries on the brink of bankruptcy. communism) as an idealistic system, building a new and bet­ The communist states tried to narrow the political gap by ter society, its noble ends justifying its sometimes brutal allowing a modicum of freedom and democracy. But every­ means. where that people were allowed pittances of political free­ Socialism has lost its high moral ground that it had gained dom, two points quickly became apparent. People liked during the late 19th century and held since. freedom a lot, and they were not satisfied with the crumbs of Observation 2: The failure of socialism to deliv­ freedom they were offered. None of these developments come as a surprise to libertar­ er the goods precipitated its collapse. ians or classical liberals, who understand why totalitarian con­ For decades, the attitude of the communist leadership to­ trol of the economy does not work. But until the past decade, ward the masses was, ''Let them eat promises." They told this criticism of socialism was purely theoretical: the failures their subjects that they were gaining on the West economical­ of socialism could be explained away. As the gap between the ly and that before long they too would have decent automo­ standard of living in socialist and non-socialist countries wid­ biles, edible food, watches that keep time and the other ened, the proposition that socialism does not work ceased to accoutrements of civilized living. At first, they could point to be mere theory: it became established historic fact. progress in some areas. In heavy industry and public educa­ tion, for example, the communists did gain on the West. But Observation 3: It is a mistake to depend on this was clearly the result of two factors. First, the commu­ nists lavished resources in a few "showcase" projects, while the free market's track record of prosperity ignoring production of other goods. Secondly, the areas in as a rationale for the liberal social order. which they chose to compete were most often areas where the Okay. Communist parties are abandoning totalitarianism; state's heavy hand was limiting growth even in the West, socialist parties are abandoning state ownership of capital where education is essentially a government monopoly and goods. The free market works and socialism doesn't. We're heavy industry is often hobbled by state-empowered labor right and they're wrong. unions and extensive regulation. Does this mean that we can look forward to increasing 14 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 prosperity as the scope of the state is re- 'lATh ~ t -1 t n'"\ t:l ~ n c advocates to get smug about the free market duced and the scope of the marketplace in- today as it was for socialists to get smug about socialism during the 1930s, and for ex­ creased, with further rolling back of the state as everyone sees how much happier and The Death of Soel-all-sm actly the same reason: we have no reason to more prosperous they are as the result of VV 1 Lal II 11Leal L~ believe that market economies will continue their increasing freedom? to perform strongly. Before we indulge in this fantasy, let us For one thing, the market economies consider what happened the last time the virtue of a social today are free-market economies only in comparison to the so­ system was measured by its ability to deliver the goods. Let's cialist economies. That is to say, they are mixed economies, survey the situation 60 years ago. with a level of intervention that exceeds that prevalent during In 1929, the liberal social order had been "delivering the the 1920s and 193Os. If depressions are caused by interven­ goods" fairly efficiently: for a century and a half, the standard tion, as most libertarians argue, then another depression is at of living of just about every class of people in the West had least a possibility and perhaps a likelihood. And another de­ been rising fairly steadily. The Great War had been tremen­ pression could very well be viewed by the public as a failure dously expensive, in life and treasure, but prosperity had re­ of the free market, thereby further setting back the liberal so­ turned as the liberal economic agenda was re-enacted, with cialorder. repeated tax cuts in the U.S. and a return to the gold standard More fundamentally, free market advocates should under­ in the British Empire. The free market had its enemies, of stand the relationship between their policy prescriptions (pro­ course. Socialists had been around the fringes of civil society scriptions might be a more accurate word) and economic for years, carping about how "unscientific," how "irrational," prosperity. Elimination of government intervention is not a how "chaotic," how "unfair" the market was. But even if a guarantee of economic prosperity. There will be no economic bunch of radical socialists had taken over the Russian Empire prosperity if, for example, the earth plunges into the sun and by coup d'etat and civil war in the wake of the Great War, and all human beings perish. even if some elements in the working class, the clerical class More practically, economic prosperity requires capital in­ and the intellectual class were smitten by socialist ideas, the vestment and productive work. Even if there is no govern­ liberal social order remained productive and strong. ment intervention at all, it is entirely possible that people will But all that changed dramatically. During the four years refrain from capital investment or productive work. This is from 1929 to 1933, prosperity ended and depression set in. not an entirely remote possibility: as the millennium ap­ Employment fell, profits fell, income fell, the stock market col­ proached, for example, many Christians stopped planting lapsed ... The free market had apparently failed, and the crops, preferring instead to live off capital, and would likely credibility of the critics of the free market rose dramatically. Crank professors of eco- nomics at backwater "universities" were Doors plucked from obscurity and made presiden- On the morning when the Berlin Wall finally tial advisors; advocates of goofy economic opened, I washed the floor in my kitchen and straightened systems took power in Germany and out the closet in the spare room, and Peter Nakaji came over Britain. In only a few short years, capitalism was to paint the front door. It's an old door and not very discredited, and a centrally planned (social­ strong, and it had weathered badly. Standing in the sun, ist) economy gained a credibility that it had Peter sanded down the outside surface, now heavily oxidized, never before enjoyed. Now I am well aware and put caulking in the cracks that run like thin Greek letters that the social order of the 1920s was a far across the planes and elevations of the wood. Then he cry from the liberal social order as libertari­ applied a double layer of Inca Gold while we drank beer and ans and classical liberals envision it. The listened to reports on Cable News. I paid Peter with books market was already hampered by increasing and some more beer, and after joking awhile about the state intervention and whole segments of it disorderly nature of the marketplace, we went out to dinner. (i.e. the credit market) had been national­ Discussing events in Europe, we agreed that we must ized. And I am conversant with libertarian remain prepared for trouble but that many of our defenses explanations that the Depression was can probably be reduced. We could not agree, however, caused not by the free market, but by inter­ about history, about whether everything that happens has ventions in it. But this has nothing to do shape and purpose (like a poem, for instance, or a door) with the fact that in the public mind the De­ or whether it is only a series of explosions in the protein pression was the failure of capitalism and alphabet. We drank and argued until midnight, and then Peter verification of (or, at the very least, strong went home to complete his applications to medical school. evidence for) anti-capitalist economic theories.2 I left the door sUghtly ajar, to allow the paint to dry, The free market suffered a loss of faith in and all night long a crew worked under floodlights, smashing up the 1930s, just as socialism is suffering a loss the well-designed white modem wall that we had thought of faith today, and for the same reasons. It could keep the world divided. would be as serious a mistake for market- - Stephen Cox Liberty 15 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 have done so even ifthey had operated within the context of a It was proof that the subjects of communist states were slaves completely free market. Similarly, the spread of ascetic ideas and that the Western democracies were powerless to do any­ or of the increased use of certain drugs

the power of communism. Socialism may be 'lATh ~ t .; t 'O'l O~ n c. ments to deliver the goods to its people. able to grab men's minds-human beings What role did Reagan's huge military seem almost infinitely able to believe in buildup play in this process? What role did crazy ideas-but it cannot organize a social The Death of Socilailism his confrontational foreign policy play? No system in a way that brings prosperity. For role at all. The East German people didn't libertarians, socialism was never the wave of V V 1 Lal II 11Leal L~ turn against Communism because they the future; it was always a wave of the past, feared Reagan's de-mothballed fleet of a wave that held a powerful grip on men's minds, but was World War II battleships or Polaris submarines. The Russian always doomed to fail when put into practice. people didn't demand democracy because of Reagan's financial Twenty years ago, as a college student, I argued with aid to the Unita army in Angola or to the Contras in Nicaragua.3 conservatives that a defeat of the U.S. in Vietnam wouldn't How will the crisis into which the death of socialism has be much of a loss. The war was between two dictatorships, plunged conservatism be resolved? Will the great compromise equally unable and unwilling to institute free markets. Viet­ engineered by Buckley come to an end? With no further need to nam would remain a poor country whichever side won, fight communism around the world, will conservatives join li­ and its people would be unhappy and rife for further bertarians in fighting the growth of the state at home? Will con­ change. If the socialist totalitarians defeated the anti­ servatism return to its quasi-libertarian, pre-Cold War roots? socialist totalitarians, all it would mean is that the Soviets Or will it cast aside its libertarianism entirely, now that it would have a problem that would require either substantial can no longer be placated with lip service, and make its reac­ cash subsidy (as in Cuba) or massive military repression, tionary, statist "social agenda" its central theme? rather than the U.S. having the same problem. My suspicion is that conservatism will follow the latter My argument, of course, went nowhere. Didn't I realize course. It was this course, after all, that brought conservatism that Vietnam was a domino, that ifthe Reds captured it, next such political power as it enjoys. But only time will tell, and in they would grab the rest of Indochina, then Thailand, then the meantime, I applaud those libertarians who again approach Indonesia ... and the next thing we knew they would be in American conservatives. California. This childish faith in the power and efficacy of communism seems pretty silly today, but in the 1950s and Observation 5: The death of socialism is not a 1960s it fueled conservative ideology and U.s. foreign policy. victory for libertarian ideas. Now there are some conservatives who argue that the The proposition that state control of every element of eco­ collapse of Communism has been the result of the Reagan nomic life is morally good or economically productive is perni­ "get-tough" policy. But this is surely nothing more than a cious. Belief in that proposition has been at the root of much of coincidence. It was not the military strength of the U.S. that the pain, suffering and death that men have inflicted on one an­ destroyed the Berlin Wall or brought about elections in the other for the past century. Its passage into the intellectual ceme­ Soviet Union. It was the inability of communist govern- tery is a profoundly progressive development. The death of socialism is cause for cele­ bration by lovers of liberty, as it is for all Gorby: closet Objectivist? - It is amusing to see the human beings. But it is not a victory for liber­ right-wingers who are nostalgic for the Cold War grudgingly concede that tarians qua libertarians. The end advocated something significant is going on in the Eastern bloc, but at the same time try to by libertarians goes far beyond the elimina­ salvage a part of the good old days by insisting that Mikhail Gorbachev can't tion of the total state: it is the radical reduc­ possibly have honorable intentions. Even some libertarians and Objectivists are tion of state power, or even its total abolition. prone to this. But consider this: imagine that Gorbachev, just before becoming The fact that governments that once advocat­ boss of the Soviet Union, had read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged or Henry Haz­ ed the total state have changed their tune, litt's Time Will Run Back and had become thoroughly convinced that individual while a wonderful development, is not a vic­ liberty and the free market were right. Might it not be reasonable for him to tory for the proposition that the role of the have pursued the same policies as he has for the last several years? Sure, he state should be minimized. could have defected to the United States and renounced his homeland, but that would have had little effect on the Soviet system or his people. Instead, he Observation 6: Libertarians now might have decided to continue his rise to power and liberalize from within. face their greatest challenge. He, of course, has done some bad things, such as ordering the suppression of Consider the following propositions ethnic demonstrations. But one could argue that he had no real choice given the about the optimal role for the state in human constraints imposed on him by the communist system. Failure to do something life. might have gotten him ousted and blown his program to free the Soviet Union. 1. The role of the state in people's lives I'm not saying this gets him off the hook morally-only that he reasonably should be radically· reduced or even could have seen those actions as his best choices under the circumstances. eliminated; only when individual con­ Of course, Gorbachev is probably not a libertarian. The point is that none of trol of social life is maximized will a us knows what his intentions are. We would need much more information to good, just and prosperous society make an intelligent guess. But more importantly, his intentions are not relevant. emerge. The law of unintended consequences is what matters. The toothpaste is out of 2. The role of the state in people's lives the tube, and good intentions or not, it won't be easily put back in. should be increased substantially; only An Objectivist in the Kremlin? There's one running the Federal Reserve, when state control of social life is maxi­ isn't there? mized will a good, just and prosperous - Sheldon L. Richman Liberty 17 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 society emerge. 3. The state should have a powerful role in people's lives, The first of these is a reasonable summary of the libertari­ but its power should not be absolute-indeed, the opti­ an (or classical liberal) position; the second is a reasonable mal role of the state may vary considerably from one sit­ summary of the socialist position. It is plain that the agree­ uation to another; only when the power of the state is set ment with one proposition implies disagreement with the at an optimal level and carefully managed will a good, other and the truth of either implies the falsity of the other. just and prosperous society emerge. But this is no place to enforce the Law of the Excluded This third proposition is a reasonable summary of the po­ Middle. 4 litical views of most Americans, and (I believe) most educated These are not the only two propositions about the optimal people around the world. It's easy to understand its wide­ role of the state. There is another proposition, one that is more spread popularity: it is "middle-of-the-road," non-extreme, widely accepted than either the libertarian or socialist non-radical and non-threatening; it reflects (more-or-Iess) the proposition: status quo, and it seems to be working adequately. And it is this proposition, this IIMiddle Way," that libertarians find most vexing. RIP: The New Soviet Man -Itis hard to refrain from com­ menting on the ongoing breakup of the Communist Empire. For now I will The actual policy issues that libertarians limit myself to two observations. The first is that, on one of the very central is­ face take the form of: Should government sues of the movement that he represented and molded, Josef Stalin was right. power be increased to deal with this-or-that Specifically, he was correct in his belief that, within the context of a Marxist­ problem? The libertarian answers no, it Leninist (or more accurately, Leninist-Stalinist) regime the only long-term should not, because the growth of the state workable model is the Stalinist one-i.e., the total absence of intra-party democ­ is a bad thing. racy, the extirpation of all competing institutions down to the most trivial level, The libertarian is nearly always op­ and rule by endless terror. The history of the Communist world since Lenin's posed by advocates of the Middle Way, not death has shown that this model (of which classical Maoism is a slight modifica­ advocates of total state control. tion) is stable and other versions of the Leninist dream are not. Within the con­ Consider the last time you witnessed (or text we are using, that is to say, Bukharin, Tomsky, Radek and, more recently, participated) in a discussion by a libertarian Abenganjan, Yeltsin and Gorbachev himself have been wrong, and the Father of and a non-libertarian on just about any pub­ Peoples was correct. (Of course, it is also true that for some of the current Soviet lic issue. Chances are the discussion took leaders the Marxist-Leninist framework may no longer be the guiding principle the following form. in any sense whatsoever, although I regard this as uncertain at the present Professor Libertarian: We should solve time.) problem X by restricting or eliminating My other observation concerns a tenet that was at one time held not only by government interference with the free party members and fellow travellers but even by quite a few anti-communists. exchange between individuals. For a long time many observers believed that, for good or evil, the Soviet re­ Joe Citizen: Well,· 1 don't like giving the gime had succeeded in annihilating the primordial patterns of human existence government more power very well, and producing a new type of being, a sort of Homo sovieticus, the perfect totali­ tarian being. In the 30s and 40s, especially, this was an article of faith among the but if we don't, then how are we going more silly-brained breed of Sovietophiles. (It was not so common among the to solve problem X? more cynical, G.B. Shaw types.) This period saw a parade of nOW-forgotten vol­ Prof: Whenever you increase govern­ umes explaining that greed, envy, selfishness, careerism, and old linguistic, re­ ment power, you decrease the net utili­ ligious and national identities and loyalties had vanished in the Socialist Sixth ty, thereby reducing the total. (Or: of the World. A few decades later we were told that individualism had ceased Increasing government power violates to exist in China and that its countless citizens yearned with a single will to be people's rights, and this is always faceless cogs in the Maoist anthill. wrong.) Well, wrong on all counts. When the screws were loosened, it turned out Joe: But what about problem X? that the New Soviet Man does not exist, that people still think of themselves as Seldom indeed does the dialogue be­ Latvians and Lithuanians and Ukrainians and Moldavians and Great Russians tween a libertarian and non-libertarian take and Armenians. They are Orthodox Russians and Catholics and Baptists and this form: Jews and non-believers. They are westemizers and (in much greater numbers) Professor Libertarian: We should solve romantic Russian nationalists. Unfortunately, many of them are anti-Semites. problem X by restricting or eliminating The point is, they are the same variety of people they were before the imposi­ government interference with the free tion of Communist despotism. At the same time, we have been given ample evi­ exchange between individuals. dence of the deep and abiding love that the populaces of the satellite nations Joe Citizen: No, no, no! We should solve have for their Soviet masters and for the Marxist system. And, in the other red it by increasing government control as giant, we see that, 10 and behold, Chinese are people too, with a wide range of much as possible. opinions, with hopes and plans and individual desires, and furthermore that Prof: Whenever you increase govern­ many of these desires are rooted in western liberal concepts. So much for the billion happy blue ants with which the media constantly regaled us during the ment power, you decrease the net utili­ Nixon-Mao era. ty, thereby reducing the total. (Or: There are two historical lessons in all of this: Increasing government power violates 1. Ifyou're serious about tyranny, you must rule as a tyrant. people's rights, and this is always 2. Once repression slackens, the natural order of human activity-in both its wrong.) benign and malevolent manifestations-speedily reasserts itself. Joe Citizen: You've got it completely -William P. Moulton wrong, Professor. Whenever you in- 18 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 crease government power, you increase 'lATh ~ t .; t 'n"\ 0 ~ n C 90%-demonstrates the possibility that state people's control of their own lives, power can decline. which makes everyone but the rich cap­ ill Furthermore, the impact of an increas- italists happy! e ea 0 oCla Ism ingly powerful state is mitigated in a mixed Those who advocate the Middle Way are Th 0 th fS economy. As markets and technological ex­ impressed by neither the theories of the li­ VV 1 Let l II 11 Ltetl L~ pertise expand, people channel their ener- bertarian nor the theories of the socialist. gies into areas in which the power of the Both socialism and liberty seem extreme and far too abstract. state is limited, often rapidly developing "new" industries The marketplace is productive, all right, but it does a poor job that the state hasn't yet jumped on. We have seen this in the of taking care of the poor, or the elderly, or the environment. U.S. during the past three decades: heavy industry (e.g. steel­ An absolute free market would be a very bad place in which making), which is highly regulated has shrunk, while new in­ to live. Massive state control may help provide a safety net for dustries (e.g. computer technology and software), which are the poor, medical care for the elderly, and the kind of almost unregulated, have grown tremendously. Indeed, so far environment that we like, but it isn't very productive. The so­ as the U.S. economy as a whole is concerned, the decline in cialist state would be as bad a system as the free market. What steel production has been dwarfed by the growth in comput­ we need, then, is to optimize life by allowing the market to ers. Indeed, it may be appropriate to term such heavily regu­ function, but tempering it with government control. We will lated industries as steel-making "politically obsolete." have constantly to adjust this system as circumstances change. Soviet propaganda films from the 1930s featured heavy in­ For example, as long as our country is the lowest cost pro­ dustry, with its huge grey buildings filled with gigantic grey ducer of most agricultural and industrial products (as was the machines operated by sweaty grey men. It is not coincidental U.S. during the post-war era) then free trade is the optimal that heavy industry was the centerpiece of socialist planning system, and countries that do not favor it better watch out! during its heyday: here, at least for a while, by concentrating Maybe we won't protect them with our military! Maybe we national efforts, the planned economies could compete, more will pass laws punishing them! or less, with their heavily regulated "capitalist" counterparts. But if other countries are able to produce industrial or ag­ The Soviets remained reasonably competitive with the West ricultural goods more efficiently than the U.S.... well, that's in these areas; however, both soon were upstaged by heavy not fair, they will put Americans out of work, ruin our bal­ industry from a quarter they least expected: the unregulated, ance of payments ... maybe we should charge them large free-market Pacific Rim. sums of money to allow them to sell their goods in our coun­ At any rate, it is clear that the burden of proof is on those try, or "convince" them to limit their sales in the U.S. who assert that the Middle Way is fatally unstable; our com­ "voluntarily." mon experience indicates that it is sufficiently stable to enable Just as advocates ofthe Middle Way are unimpressed with human life to go on, and indeed to prosper, albeit to a lesser libertarian thinking, so libertarians are unimpressed with degree than a more libertarian society would permit. Libertar­ Middle Way thinking. Just as the advocate of the Middle Way ians commonly agree that civilized society has never taken dismisses libertarianism as too abstract, so libertarians often the form of total liberty, and that total state control is actually dismiss the Middle Way as too concrete-bound. This view impossible. If these propositions are correct, it seems pretty may be philosophically satisfying, but its relevance in a world obvious that society has always been organized according to characterized by mixed economies and populated chiefly by the Middle Way. advocates of the Middle Way is difficult to fathom. The equilibrium between state power and individual free­ Many libertarians argue that the Middle Way is no way at dom that exists in society changes constantly. But to suggest all because a social system organized according to it is inher­ that this constantly changing equilibrium results in an inher­ ently unstable and unviable. The debate over social organiza­ ently unstable and therefore unviable society makes no more tion is a debate between socialism and liberty; there is no sense than to argue that the constantly changing equilibria of third position. prices mean that a free market is inherently unstable and These arguments usually grow from the observation that therefore unviable. when state power is increased to solve one or another social For libertarians, individual rights are the absolutes that problem, the result is usually an actual exacerbation of the provide structure to society in which prices and economic problem and perhaps other problems as well, which generally conditions are in disequilibrium; for advocates of the Middle results in further calls for the increase of state power by its ad­ Way, individual rights fluctuate, providing a changing struc­ vocates, or that when a crisis is responded to by the increase ture to society so that prices and economic conditions are of state power, the power of the state is seldom reduced to more or less in equilibrium. When Herbert Spencer, the most pre-erisis levels after the crisis has passed, but instead falls to systematic thinker among 19th-century advocates of the liber­ a new level, from which it expands at the time of the follow­ al social order, wrote about the ideal libertarian polity he ti­ ing crisis. Another argument, promulgated mostly by Objecti­ tled his work Social Statics, and for good reason. Libertarians, vists, holds that the philosophical inconsistency of the who like to talk about market processes, should recognize the Middle-Way causes it to break down. extent to which they oppose the political process. The case for These views offer intelligent ways of understanding recent libertarianism will remain unconvincing as long as it remains history, but it is difficult to see them as genuinely universal. unclear why libertarians believe that everything but politics In fact, the decline of state power in the communist world in should be in flux. recent years, or in the Republic of Texas during the second ad­ One can no longer make the case for a free society simply ministration of Sam Houston-he cut spending by nearly by demonstrating that a totalitarian one doesn't work or is un- Liberty 19 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 pleasant to live under. Socialist theory has long ago been re­ This ideology was already in decline by the birth of the futed by liberal thinkers, and now is rejected even by the so­ Empire, and was clearly dead by the end of the first century. cialists themselves. For libertarians to concentrate their Yet the Empire was vigorous well into the fourth century, and intellectual energy on criticizing socialism in this age is nearly continued to exist on a reduced scale until the Eastern Empire as silly as it would be for Christian evangelists today to aim was overrun by the Turks in 1453. their attacks at Gnostism. But only one Roman state has come along in the past two With socialism out of the picture, libertarians must devel­ millennia, and whether the socialist states will show similar op arguments that a free society is superior to the Middle longevity remains to be seen. The long life of the Roman state Way. This will not be an easy task: for most people the crack­ was the result of a great many factors, but the most important up of socialism seems like evidence that the Middle Way is were the practical success of its political institutions and the correct. The crack-up of socialism demonstrated that extreme primitive level of its competition. positions are best avoided and that social systems based on Socialist states, in contrast, are burdened with eminently the application of universal laws don't work. impractical institutions, and their competing states are far The primary challenge for libertarians of the next genera­ more advanced in the provision of wealth and order. tion is to demonstrate that a free society is preferable to a soci­ True, socialist states control tremendously powerful mili­ ety with the market inhibited and controlled by state tary forces, massive police forces, tax collectors, regulators, intervention. This is a far more difficult job than proving that educators. .. These states are owned and operated by power­ socialism doesn't work.s ful elites that live very well, despite the poverty of their sub­ jects. Members of these elites (a large class, not limited to Observation 7: Socialism is dead as an ideolo­ changing politburos) stand to lose power, status, and a high gy, but socialist states may persist. standard of living if their states wither away. They can be ex­ As countries run by socialists grew poorer and meaner, so­ pected to try to maintain their privileges. cialism has lost its intellectual and religious vigor, its moral Already the leaders of the socialist states have shown a lit­ high ground. With few exceptions-mostly in the political tle stomach to defend their institutions and leaders. They leadership ofdreadfully poor African nations and in academic have been inclined to try to survive at any price: equally will­ chairs of Western universities-no one believes the religion of ing to abandon leaders, institutions and fundamental ideas. socialism any longer. Without their ideology or willingness to use raw state terror But socialist political institutions remain, and lip selVice is on a wide scale, the institutions of socialism will give way to paid. Anyone who thinks this necessarily means that commu­ those of the Middle Way: free elections and at least some free nism is on its last legs should look at the history of Rome. The markets. A few hard-line states (e.g. North Korea, Romania) ideology of the Roman Empire was a religious view that the may persist by virtue of state terror, but these states will be in­ Roman people were uniquely blessed by their gods with a mo­ creasingly poor and isolated. rally superior way of life, centered on dignity, simplicity and With the old wine back in the old bottles, we can expect productive work, and had a divine mission to carry their way less danger than we have grown accustomed to, but there will of life to the rest ofthe world. still be a lot of spillage: lives will still be broken, and the en­ trenched bureaucracies of the socialist states No time for pessimism - I think Bradford is too pessimistic may continue to pose a military threat to the about libertarian chances in the dialogue or struggles of the future. security of free people. a While it is true that most people tend to stay in the confused Middle, one Notes extreme pole-socialism-has now been thoroughly discredited, whereas free­ 1. Throughout this essay, I use the term "so­ dom has not. One powerful argument we can use is that Middle Way policies cialism" in its original, somewhat technical are socialistic and incorporate aspects of policies that everyone dreads. This sense: the theory that society is best organized means that, in contrast to the socialists in the late 19th century, we now have when a single authority controls capital goods, the permanent moral high ground. We can now say, when an advocate of the as opposed to individual ownership of such Middle Way says that libertarianism won't work, "Give us a country, or a re­ goods. In a socialist society there would be at gion, and let's find out." The fact that Communists are constantly calling for most two markets: a monopsonistic market for freedom, private ownership, currency convertibility (even a gold standard), labor and a monopolistic market for consumer private property rights, etc. has to have an enormous effect on the Middle, and goods. In recent years, especially in colloqUial to shift the Middle way toward our position. discussions, "socialism" has come to be used to It should be noted that the Misesian position on the Middle Way is far more refer to other views. sophisticated than the common libertarian position Bradford outlines. It is not "Socialist" is also sometimes used to mean simply that government intervention creates new problems in a failed attempt "tending to increase collective control of the to solve one, and thereby leads cumulatively to socialism. It is rather that these economy." This usage is a bit misleading, since it new problems confront everyone with this choice: either escalate the interven­ connotes that to advocate any increase in collec­ tions (finally going on to socialism) or go back, repeal the interventions and tive control is to advocate absolute collective move ''back'' to freedom. Whereas the West has generally taken the first set of control. A better term to use in such situations is choices, the Communist countries (beginning with Yugoslavia in the 1950s and "socialistic." 196Os) take the other path. When things get screwed up, they ask: where can we These days, "socialism" is sometimes used to roll back the state in order to solve these problems? The point is not that social­ refer to the theory that a combination of collec­ ism the inevitable result of intervention; it is that intervention is not a viable tive ownership and individual ownership is opti- system Pecause it sets these other choices into motion. - Murray N. Rothbard continued on page 23 20 Liberty The Death of Socialism Y v llCll II lll,==all~ Once for All? by Stephen Cox

Once to every man and nation Comes the moment to decide In the strife of truth with falsehood For the good or evil side.

In uThe End OfHistory?" According to Fukuyama's thesis, the nations have had the moment promised them in the old Protestant hymn, and they have chosen truth­ Francis Fukuyama argues that truth being defined as 'Western liberalism," the ideology of economic historic'change is the result of and political rights that is embodied in more-or-Iess capitalist, more-or­ ideological struggle, and that less democratic states like West Germany, the United States, and Japan. The nations' choice has put an end to history-history being defined the resolution of East-West dif­ as the struggle of conflicting ideologies, which is the only kind of history ferences will result in the end of that really matters to Fukuyama. Because "systematic alternatives to Western liberalism" have now suffered "total exhaustion," no source of history. deep ideological conflict remains, and we may expect no further profound His controversial thesis has changes of human values to threaten or inspire us. The world deprived of profound conflicts will be the kingdom ofthe saved: comfortable but dull. touched off considerable contro­ In the ample sun of this new age, art and philosophy, which have tradi­ versy: responses by Allan tionally been the code and expression of ideological conflicts, will shrink Bloom, Timothy Fuller, Ger­ into mere semblances of themselves, healthy but juiceless raisins and prunes: "In the post-historical period there will be neither [new] art nor trude Himmelfarb, Irving Kris­ [new] philosophy, just the perpetual caretaking of the museum of human tol, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, history." The post-historical world resembles the world of Calvin and Hobbes, David Satter, Leon Wieseltier, as depicted in the Sunday comics now lying on my desk. In the first few and others. (The National In­ panels of today's strip, Calvin tells Hobbes that "History is a force ... everything and everyone serves history's single purpos~." "And what is terest, Summer and Fall, that purpose?" Hobbes inquires. 'Why, to produce me, of course!" Calvin 1989.) answers. '1'm the end result of history." Hobbes then wants to know, now that history has reached its culmination in his self-satisfied friend, "what are you going to do?" The answer comes in the last panel, in which Calvin and Hobbes are sitting in their easy chair, laughing their heads off at a tel­ evised cartoon about Bugs Bunny. Well, I doubt the part of Fukuyama's thesis that implies that art and philosophy are about to become the preserve of couch potatoes like Cal­ vin, but I'd like to believe some of the rest. .In principle, the victory of Fukuyama's '1iberalism" is the victory of my "liberalism," too-my idea of the ism of liberty. I'm not unduly wor­ ried about Fukuyama's failure to distinguish among all the varieties of lib­ eralism. I'm quite willing to accept the idea that there are "liberal" premises I share with George Bush and Helmut Kohl, especially when the alternative is the illiberal premises of people like Fidel Castro and Erich Honecker. I think I have more in common, ideologically, with such hum- Liberty 21 Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 ble essayists as F. A. Hayek and Mario Vargas Llosa than I do Tian An Men Square comes ominously to mind. with such world-historical figures as Bush or Kohl, but I'm 2. He relies far too faithfully on the dialectical means of quite willing to defend the principles of individual political thinking that got poor Marx into so much trouble-and he and economic freedom that the contemporary Western big­ relies on it without once trying to justify or answer objections government leadership claims to be defending, especially ifan to its use as a logic. When Fukuyama describes history as pro­ inspection of those principles reveals that they ought to be gressing through the dynamic action of grand binary "contra­ much more consistently applied and defended than "liberal" dictions," and progressing by means of this action alone, he big government intends to do. uses very different tools of thought from those employed by And who would deny that all the once-vigorous ideologi­ classical-liberal pluralism and empiricism, which do not as­ cal competitors of liberalism seem to be dying? East-of-the­ sume, a priori, that history must assume this shape or that, or Elbe Marxists are trying to figure out how to hold onto their that we will be able to know its shape (if any) before we see dachas after the next election happens; West-of-the-Elbe Marx­ many kinds of specific evidence for it. In fact, ists are trying to figure out how to advance to Full Professor 3. He tries, as political scientist Timothy Fuller points out, without admitting that History has betrayed them. (Their lat­ to unite the "radical voluntarism" of the liberal vision with the est strategy is to "formulate" an ahistorical Marxism.) I am still "determinism" of historical dialectic. To do this, attracted by John Lukacs' theory that fascism didn't perish in 4. He general~es unmercifully about historical move­ World War II but merely migrated to the national-socialist ments, virtually excluding the possibility that little accidents countries of the Third World. But current privatization and like Hitler's charisma might leave any mark on history's well­ liberalization campaigns in many of those countries leave me wroughtum. less secure in my opinions. And I must admit the cogency of Some of the published responses to Fukuyama are almost Fukuyama's central claim that in the long run, it's ideology too dumb for words. For example, one critic insists that Fu­ that matters. The ideology of national socialism is now so dis­ kuyama is wrong in claiming that nations no longer consider credited that it may not be able to wage serious trench-warfare it legitimate to appropriate one another's territory, and the against a liberalism that demonstrably works. reason Fukuyama is wrong is that the Japanese have been When Fukuyama argues that in the long run, it's ideology buying land and industry in Australia and the U.S.: "Is this that matters, he is arguing as an Hegelian; but on this ground, some 'kind of territorial aggrandizement,' or is it not? ... Ifit is individualist liberals and Hegelians will have no trouble em­ not, then neither was the Japanese presence in Manchuria in bracing one another. It is (among other reasons) because indi­ 1925." What can one say to nonsense like this? vidualists view the contents of the human mind as ultimately But many of the responses are thought-provoking. Among determinative of its contexts that they have perennially strug­ the most interesting is one by David Satter, former Moscow gled against all Marxist and fascist claims for the dependence correspondent for the Financial Times of London. Satter is of human values on social conditions. Individualists have skeptical about the victory of liberalism in Eastern Europe so tended, like Hegelians, to see history as a drama of ideas, long as the ''liberal'' reforms in those parts proceed from the ideas that promote or inhibit various·forms of social and eco­ notion that a well-running social and economic system is the nomic behavior; indeed, individualists, like Hegelians, have highest good rather than from the "sense of transcendent val­ ues" on which Satter believes that liberalism ultimately relies. Libertarian subjectivists and relativists take heed: if a "supra­ The theory is that world deprived of profound mundane" sense of values is not provided as a check on the conflicts will be the kingdom of the saved: com­ state, the state may define itself as a "supramundane point of fortable but dull. In the ample sun of this new reference." Satter and a number of other critics of Fukuyama warn that his comfy post-modem world may be destroyed by age, art and philosophy, which have traditionally a continuing "spiritual crisis," the crisis arising from people's been the code and expression of ideological con­ difficulty in finding and living by transcendent values. In such flicts, will shrink into mere semblancens of them­ a world, so it is claimed, there is always a market for "destruc­ tive political ideas" that can seem to impart value to lives that selves, healthy but juiceless raisins and prunes. appear to have no ultimate meaning, whatever political free­ dom or economic success the people living them may have sometimes harbored far too abstract visions of history as a attained. drama of ideas. Fukuyama will answer his critics in the next issue of The And yet, simply because many of Fukuyama's arguments National Interest. In the meantime, the energy and clarity of his seem so gratifying and even so cousinly to the libertarian argument, as well as its timeliness in relation to the revolu­ mind, one cannot help feeling that one needs a good slap in the tionary resurgence, in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, of all face to keep from getting drunk on them. If Fukuyama were kinds of liberal ideas, have made it the hottest thing on 1989's coming up with anything but good news for liberty, I would intellectual stove, the thesis that every thinker must at least have started this article by vigorously lecturing him about his pretend to have read. When all objections have been duly re­ many and grievous intellectual offenses, all of them typical of corded, Fukuyama's description of the current scene-illiberal modern Hegelian meditations on history. But it's not too late systems in crisis, liberalism sitting pretty as an historically val­ for the lecture. I, and several of the people who comment on idated ideology-is curiously close to the truth, despite the de­ Fukuyama in The National Interest's book-length considerations scription's murky origins in dialectic. of his thesis, accuse him of the following thought-erimes: Columbus, you know, was quite wrong and self-deluded 1. He does not sufficiently distinguish distant and secure about the reasons for which he expected to discover bountiful long runs from current, very wiggly, short runs. Here the name lands in the distant west. a 22 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 anuary 1990 Bradford continued from page 20 conflict. Just as the Vietnamese made conquest of mal (the system that Mises calls zwangwirtschaft 'lATh ~ t .; t Tn t:l ~ n c their nation by the U.S. more expensive in terms and is most often today called a "mixed econo- Th D th fS I II of treasure and human beings than the American my"). I prefer to stick to the original meaning of e ea 0 OC la Ism citizens would pay, the Afghanis were able to the term for several reasons: it is the original make the price of conquest higher than the Rus­ meaning; there are many other terms in common V V 1 La-I,. Il 11Lt::'a-l L~ sian people would pay. use for the theory advocating the mixed econo- 4. Of course, the Law of the Excluded Middle my, but socialism remains the only term in common use for total does apply to each of these propositions, as it does to all proposi- centralized ownership. tions. About each proposition, it says the same thing: if the proposi­ 2. We who grew up in the 1950s and 60s and defended free mar­ tion is meaningful (Le., is indeed a proposition) then it is either true kets and the liberal social order were often confronted by our elders or not true. with an argument that we could not answer: You didn't live through 5. Of course, the categorizing of both libertarianism and socialism the Depression. Our response that the Depression was caused by cred­ as equally "abstract" and "simplistic" is itself simplistic and mis­ it manipulation by the Federal Reserve Bank, and exacerbated by a leading, as can be seen by the demonstration of the unworkability of plethora of interventionist responses to it by both Hoover and Roose­ socialism. Socialists have rested their case for the political control of velt fell on deaf ears: we didn't live through the Depression, so how economic life on the argument that the decentralized system of capi­ could we know anything about it? talism is too complicated and too chaotic, and that a simpler, controlled One of the compensations for reaching middle age is that propo­ organization works better than many competing ones. But socialism nents of this type of thinking are dying of old age, and their silly syl­ does not work because the world of civilized social life is necessarily logism is going to the grave with them. I guess maybe there is a complicated, much too complicated for political institutions (the lesson here: that arguments consisting solely of vague impressions means of socialist organization) to direct in any way that can even from shared experiences are not very convincing to those who do not share the experience. What a pleasure it is that today John Ken­ approach the successes of the industrial West. Libertarians, on the neth Galbraith is perceived as an irrelevant old windbag, to the ex­ other hand, recognize the complexity of economic life, and rest their tent he is paid attention to at all! case for sticking to a few simple, general rules on an extension of their 3. Russia's defeat in Afghanistan may have played a small role in case against socialism: not only is the world too complicated to be run the collapse of Soviet communism, and Reagan's bellicose efforts "simply" by a conscious, master plan, but it is too complicated to may have played a minor role in the Soviet loss-the deployment of run well when constantly "fine-tuned" by piecemeal political manip­ American Stinger missiles by the rebels discouraged Soviet air ulations. Socialism f~ils because it says that simplicity is better on strikes-but defeat was the inevitable result of its attempt to conquer nearly every level of social life; libertarianism may work because it an extremely hostile country without a total commitment to victory. insists that a complicated system works best if there is one element The Russian people didn't like getting their sons back in zinc-lined of simplicity in society that remains constant, thereby providing an coffins any more than the American people did during the Vietnam element of stability for all members of society. 0 WHAT'S SO SPECIALABOUT p3?*

1. The defense offree markets, private property, willing exchange, the unlimited accumulation of wealth, free trade, religious liberty, freedom of speech, civil liberties, and all other aspects of individual freedom. 2. The promotion of truth, honor, integrity, principle, voluntary charity, self-reliance, individual responsibility, private education, environmental quality, healthier lives, higher standards of living, and all other attributes of a free society. 3. The elimination of government schools, welfare, social security, licensing, public parks, trade restrictions, immigration controls, drug laws, minimum wages, subsidies, loan guarantees, censorship, foreign aid, foreign intervention, conscription, pre-trial presumptionofguilt, and all other political infringements of individual freedom. *THE FUTURE OF FREEDOM FOUNDATION takes an uncompromising moral and philosophical approach to the principles offreedom.

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The Cheesing of America by Lawrence M. Ludlow

If the business of government is to protect us from ourselves--especially re­ garding what we ingest for pleasure-then there is only one proper policy for a "nation of cheesers."

WASHINGTON, D.C., 1999 - It is difficult to imagine a time when the devastating problem of cheese abuse was not recognized as a serious menace. As recently as ten years ago buying, selling, producing, and consuming cheese were not only legitimate activities-approved of and participated in by mil­ lions of people-but were actually pro­ moted by government at all levels. Leg­ II II II I II III JJJ III II II II II III islation to regulate and subsidize all were lavishly given away to prospec­ womb to the tomb, in a huge network phases of a burgeoning cheese industry tive gourmands at country fairs, neigh­ of saturated fats, cholesterol, and melt­ was a political football occupying the borhood markets, and expensive ing goo. Whereas the Corsican soldier, efforts of lawmakers in Washington and gourmet shops, a user with a full-blown Napoleon Bonaparte, once character­ across the nation. Senators, congress­ taste for the product was only too ized Britain as a "nation of shopkeep­ men, and entire government bureaus happy to expend large sums for cheese ers," one might say that America was were engaged in greasing the wheels of by the ounce, by the pound, or in once a "nation of cheesers." What was a huge and many-faceted industry-a bulk-the large, twenty-pound hunks the source of this nutritional night­ "cheese chain" firmly anchored in fami­ of arterial sludge, still called "wheels" mare? Nothing less sacred than the ly farms deep in the nation's core, ex­ by those whose stock and trade is deal­ farms of the American heartland. tending to trendy recipes in lifestyle ing in contraband cuisine; But con­ magazines, and finally winding its sumption of this deadly delicacy was shackles around the lives of those in­ not merely the province of the rich or habiting our dismal urban slums. suburban. Those too poor to satisfy Wisconsin. Once called the Dairy The substance was literally en­ their craving were perfectly willing to Capital of America, this seemingly shrined in day-to-day social functions wait patiently in the now-infamous quiet· Midwestern state still retains a of every kind-from wine and cheese cheese lines, where tons of tax­ dubious status: it is widely known as parties to baseball games, where cheese subsidized cheese was handed out liter­ the nation's Cholesterol Kingdom. Once covered nacho chips were sold openly ally brick by brick. The ramifications of a proud industrial and agricultural cen­ in the grandstands. Ubiquity and pro­ that practice are still being felt today. ter and home to five million, Wisconsin pinquity: cheese was everywhere; it Noting the high percentage of has lost nearly a million of its residents was as close as your refrigerator. It per­ minorities participating in that ill­ in the past ten years, and the majority vaded the diet of the youngest to the conceived poverty program, Rev. Percy of those remaining-scattered across oldest-in cheeseburgers, grilled-cheese Bain of the Heavenly Light Baptist Tab­ the state's 56,000 square miles-are liv­ sandwiches, fondue, and cheese cakes ernacle and founder of Operation ing in poverty. Experts cite two causes of every description. It came in a hun­ CHOP (Cheese Hurts Our People) for this decline: the continuing demise dred varieties-from smelly-sock Lim­ claims that the government cheese give­ of rust-belt industries and the massive burger to the garlicky-pungent away was a racist attempt to destroy government crackdown on the dairy in­ Gorgonzola, from mild Gouda to the the health of program participants-a dustry beginning in 1992. Even the ex­ seemingly benign yet no less deadly covert attempt at dietary eugenics. perience of Hawaii with the federal ban Baby Swiss. In short, the life of each and every on sugar cane production did not match Although tempting free samples American was once ensnared, from the the scale of economic collapse still visi- 24 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 ble in Wisconsin. While Hawaiians had distant shadow of crop failure. fused joints. When that made it into the the tourist trade and pineapples to fall Chief among their concerns is the re­ news, they really had problems around back on, Wisconsin residents had only cent, added burden of guarding against here, everybody blaming us farmers for memories and millions of pounds of unexpected raids by law enforcement allowing dangerous milk to go to mar­ nonfat milk and cholesterol-free cheese agents in search of unregistered dairy ket. But it just wasn't the way they make with no buyers. cattle and illicit milk products. Twice a it sound, at least not the way the public­ But it is not poverty alone that year dairy marshals mount what locals TV documentaries and news people tell shapes the lives of Wisconsin's citizen­ (many of German ancestry) call der Ka­ it. You'd think they were working for ry. Despite the ban on butterfat, the FBI sekrieg-a kind of dairy Blitzkrieg. the government the way -they act like a estimates that 25% of the populace en­ Sweeping across the countryside in PR firm and all. They put on a big show gage in the illegal production, distribu­ four-wheel-drive jeeps, accompanied in to scare people by showing how farmers tion, or sale of whole, uncut milk, the skies by helicopter air support, the were selling bad milk even when they butter, and cheese. Annual street value: marshals strike fear into this hearty but knew it was tainted. That may be true $15 billion. The creators of this cash nonetheless criminal breed. about some of us, but not me. I kept a crop can be found among the thousands Emma and Rolf Schneider have re­ few cows on the side, and they really of Wisconsin farms that survived the mained in business through all of the helped me through the whole thing. I nationwide prohibition of whole-milk changes resulting from the Omnibus smuggled out safe whole milk and got a products and the subsequent dairy­ Controlled Substances Act of 1992. Mr. pretty penny for it too. And I don't care industry collapse. Schneider recalls the sequence of events who calls me a clot-pusher; at least it Even the federal program to reduce that led to their current situation. wasn't poisoned. forcibly the population of milk cows "Well, after that bill-we call it the "But like I was saying," he went on, has failed. In fact, it triggered the birth Ominous Act of '92-they started squinting slightly and nodding toward of a hybrid form of animal-rights acti­ cutting the legal amount of butterfat in the window, "there were some farm­ vism which, on more than one occasion, milk products. We had a big decline in ers-I'm not naming names-who has hampered progress in this unend­ our aboveboard business becau~e no­ weren't so particular. They sold whole­ ing battle. Matching the zeal of FDA of­ body wanted to buy the nonfat milk and milk products from cows that'd been ficials with a quirkily virulent, bovine cheese. But what really made it hard on poisoned. They knew nobody would fanaticism, the activists--aided by a us was when the state Agriculture complain. It's not like the times when score of well-orchestrated, televised Board started mixing that Para-Clot talk-show appearances-eaptured the stuff in the cattle feed back in '94. It was hearts ofall who watched their depress­ just plain murder. They thought they The life of each and every ing black-and-white video of queued could make fatty dairy products just too cows awaiting their doom in a barracks­ dangerous to eat by poisoning them. American was ensnared, from like structure with a thinly curling issue When they began phasing it in, they womb to tomb, in a huge net­ of smoke rising from a single stack sent out a few state inspectors with gov­ work of saturated fats, choles­ against a dismal, overcast sky. Com­ ernment pamphlets explaining how it bined with the death-march cadence of worked. They said Para-Clot combines terol, and melting goo. the sound track and a final wide-eyed with the fat molecules in milk, and the America was a nation of stare from an ill-fated cow-a poignant, only way to get rid of it is by getting rid cheesers. living plea, frozen by the camera and of the fat. It stays in the milk until all the dissolVing into gray ash-the video fat is removed at the milk-processing proved to be the extermination pro­ plant. So the old-fashioned, real cheese farmers were proud of their work, and gram's coup de grace. is deadly, and only the skim-milk prod­ you could take someone to court if he ucts would be safe to eat-you know, sold bad produce. Now you have to the USDA's fat-free, super-skim milk make your own justice in secret because and fat-free cheese. Freese, they call it. you sure can't take it to a judge-at least Among those eking out a living in Tastes like salty paste to me. But it's not not unless you're willing to admit you their Wisconsin fields, the Schneider even salty really-not since the volun­ broke the law by buying it in the first family (not its real name) is a living tes­ tary restraints on salt in foods kicked in. place. Heck, if you do go to the cops, tament to the conflict that ensues when Now everything tastes like sawdust. they might just string you up for some­ law meets head-on with a heritage of "Well anyway, seems like some­ thing worse-especially after the First pride, fierce independence, and dedica­ body, somewhere, goofed with that Lady went on TV and called all cheese tion to family tradition. No doubt that Para-Clot stuff. At first it only made the makers and sellers 'murderers' and said sense of pride, however misplaced, lay cows kind of woozy. But after a couple we were responsible for all the truck hi­ behind their willingness to tell their of months, it was a different story-lots jackings and other cheese-related crimes story. That they are on the wrong side of stillborn calves and even worse. My happening across the country. I'll tell of the law in no way pierces their shield own herd gave me some real monsters. you, it's making it hard for us honest of equanimity. They have worked the Like everybody else by now, you've cheese-makers to earn a living. There same 220 acres for three generations, probably seen all the articles and TV are more and more bad ones every year threatened and thereby toughened, as documentaries about calves born with pushing the good ones out of business. are all who work the land, by the never- permanently shut eyelids, no ears, or And many've been the times when I've Liberty 25 Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 not picked up a hitchhiker who I'm ready had, not to mention for the bulls weren't too frisky either. Well afraid will club me over the head, hop­ themselves. you know all the rest-how some DNA ing to find some hidden packets of real "I was suspicious right from the kid at the university found out that cheese under the seat of my car. start though. Whenever I hear about Para-Clot was splitting all those chro­ ~ "But no-and I can see that look in people messing around with any kind mosomes and all. That was about ... oh, your eye, Mr. Reporter-if you ask me, of food, whether for people or animals, I early '96 or so---a little late to do any­ it's not the farmers and the cheese can't help but think of all that PCB stuff thing about it, even if the government that're causing the real crime and vio­ in Michigan back in the 70s-how they didn't try to hush things up. But by that lence. It's the laws. We never had these mixed that fire retarder into the cattle time the word was out, cover-up or no crimes before, not when it was all open feed. I was only a youngster at the time, cover-up. So the state legislature had to and aboveboard. But nowadays, just but I remember all about it-how the give up on Para-Clot. But it sure wasn't saying 'cheese related' gets everybody cows wouldn't eat it and how they easy to convince them. After the com­ all excited and self-righteous. I think it's mixed sugar syrup and molasses into plaints, it took another year waiting for the feed to get the animals to swallow it. some blue-ribbon committee of experts Well, when the Agriculture Board start­ to be gathered and put to work on start­ While the crooks get $100 ed talking about Para-Clot, I put two ing a program to phase out Para-Clot per pound for good and bad and two together and decided to just and find a substitute. feed my own grain and hay to the cows. "But it wasn't the DNA thing at all cheese alike, the cheese-abuse That went fine until the Dairy Enforce­ that ended the whole business. It was clinics and the police forces all ment Administration paid me a visit. the pressure put on the Agriculture Seems my name was turned in because I Board by the Anti-Cruelty Society. They get scads of tax dollars to fight wasn't buying enough from Wesley's made such a stink about all those suffer­ the War on Cheese. Feed Supply in town. Not that Wesley's ing animals that the state legislature just a bad guy or a goody-two-shoes; he's had to do something. Those animal peo­ probably got to fill out forms from here ple can really put on the squeeze. All all a put-on. Maybe I'm no expert on the to Washington and keep records of all they had to do was put a few ads on TV cop killings and cheese-gang fights in his customers-you know, who's buy­ showing all those poor creatures­ the city, but those laws sure ruined ing what and how much. Spend more especially the one with a wobbly legged things around here, and it wouldn't sur­ time filling out forms and question­ calf walking in circles-and boy didn't prise me a bit if something similar was naires than you do farming nowadays. the politicians just get up and dance to happening in the city." The dull thud of I'll bet pharmacists and doctors don't their tune. It reminded me of the com­ his finger hitting the seat cushion punc­ have to watch their medicine cabinets mercial they ran last year when they tuated his last sentence. the way we have to watch our cows' ud­ tried to kill all the cows to protect us. It ders, if you know what I mean. So I had He shifted in his seat, remained si­ wasn't enough that human lives were to buy their specially treated grain, and lent a few moments while collecting his being put in danger and that we were that was that. thoughts, and then went on with his being ordered around like soldiers, but "I had to start feeding my cows the everybody likes a cuddly puppy or a story: grain from Wesley's, and sure enough, "Anyway, getting back to the Para­ long-legged baby calf! What I wouldn't they wouldn't touch it. Sometimes ani­ do to have a lobby like that animal­ Clot scare, with all the suspicion and mals know what's good for 'em better rights bunch for just plain leaving peo­ fear, lots of pepple wouldn't touch Wis­ than we do. Needless to say, my family ple alone. consin milk, Newbutter, or Freese for a never ate cheese or milk from those "So a lot of farmers went out of busi­ long time. You couldn't give it away, cows. I kept a couple aside and fed ness. Had to raise state taxes just to feed and I don't know how many good farm­ them my own grain or just let them those people-and that was after raising ers went under. Worse yet, lots of wander and glean in the fields. The them just a few years before to finance women are still afraid to have kids and state agents aren't that good that you this whole Cheese War fiasco in the first are living in fear for the ones they've al- can't keep a thing or two out from place! Of course the taxes put even under their noses. But for the rest of the more people out of business. It never cows, I did just like everyone else. I fol­ ends. So the whole Para-Clot thing real­ lowed orders and mixed syrup with the ly broke the spirit of a lot of folks new feed, and the cows ate it. Sure around here-having to slaughter their enough, they started acting queer, herds and start over. But it sure gave a sometimes just standing there looking boost to the farmers in other states, straight ahead, but not naturally. They what with all our milk off the market." didn't even move sometimes-not their "1 don't know where it'll all go," he heads or mouths, not even their tails said, shaking his head in disgust, "but swishing away the flies. And that's real­ I'll tell you a couple of things I do know: ly something for a cow. the only people making off like bandits "Sure enough, the stillborns and are the crooked farmers and the govem- "Why, sure, Coach, I'll be glad to take a freaks came-if the cow could even get drug test - I know a lot about drugs!" pregnant. And I'll tell you something, continued on page 33 26 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 Exploration The Greenhouse Effect: Beyond the Popular Vision of Catastrophe by Patrick J. Michaels

The enemies: everything from aerosol sprays to volcanos. The victim: Mother Earth. The question: do the fires of ideology produce little more than smoke in our eyes? A scientist responds.

The "Popular Vision" of the future, according to Time magazine's Planet of the Year issue,l is genuinely frightening: A global temperature rise of 4°C by 2030-2050, massive de­ forestation and ecological chaos including famine, related civil strife, and tidal waves crashing through a Manhattan landscaped with palm trees. Similar scenarios also abound in the smoking), while other times it has been Intensive instrumental records of writings of politically active environ­ disastrous

1.0 r--__r_-__r_-~___,~.....,..-...,--~__r_-...,--...,..____,r____,.-__r_ __ and background concentration estimates °C SH "Pre-Greenhouse" Greenhouse Era are much less reliable than those for the 0.5 Warming other trace gases. The historical estimate of 285ppb should be taken with some caution, as should future projections. 0.0 1-----++------~Il----+I__-~:::ttr_~ ...... t:__ftH+_+>_f_-__t The current value is 298-308ppb. 20 Virtually all chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's) are anthropogenerated. Concentrations in 1950 are estimated at -0.5 .001ppb for CFC-l1, and .005 for CFC­ 12. Current values are .219ppb for CFC­ 21 11 and .378 for CFC-12. 1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 The 1987 estimate that the combined current radiative effect of the non-C02 1.0 trace gases is 80% of that caused by a °C NH change in CO2 concentration from 279 to "Pre-Greenhouse" Greenhouse Era 350ppm implies the current atmosphere 0.5 Warming can be viewed as having an effective CO2 concentration of 407ppm (assuming no other increases in thermally active gas­ 0.0 es), or 146-157% of a background range of 260-279ppm. In other words, because of the combined effects of the various -0.5 trace gases, we have already gone half way to an effective doubling of the preindustrial CO2 concentration. This cannot be reversed in our lifetimes. 1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990 Global versus Hemispheric Figure 1. TOP: Southern Hemisphere temperature behavior for the last half century resem­ Temperature Histories bles what one would expect from a greenhouse alteration, except the magnitude of the rise It is customary to present the time apppears to be low. BOTIOM: Virtually all of the warming in the Northern Hemisphere history of global mean temperatures as record took place prior to the major trace gas emissions; there has been no net warming for "at least not contradictory to,,22 climate the last half century.23 28 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3

5.2 Din its previous generation.26 The na­ mosphere, have dropped con­ tional Center for Atmospheric Research siderably more in the southern Community Climate model (CCM), be­ hemisphere than they have else­ 20 t cause of a more realistic ocean model, where, with the greatest de­ now predicts a net warming of only clines in the polar zone. These I.... D J: 1.7 C27 after running for thirty years fol­ may be associated with the C> lowing an instantaneous doubling of south polar springtime ozone 10 ~ C~. The comparable previous model minim.urn. Declines since 1960 predicted a warming of 3.5°. The implied in the northern hemisphere are warming for forty years of an increase in generally not statistically 28 80' 70' 60' SO' .roo 30' 20' 10' O' the trace gases that mimics what oc­ significant. 30 curred between 1950 and 1980 (as op­ Problem 2: The Urban posed to an instantaneous doubling) is in the range of1.0 DC. Effect on Temperature Records While the improved ocean and cloud 20 t parameterizations are not strictly inde­ It is well known that long ;::;:::======:::::j I pendent, it seems clear that the combina­ term climate records sometimes .... warm because their surround­ J: tion of the two (UKMO and CCM) C> ings become more urbanized. 10 ~ models will result in a further reduction While much has been written of the predicted warming. Nonetheless, on this problem, it remains the observed global warming since 1950 elusive. of0.22 DC is still much lower than that ex­ A sobering example is the 80' 70' 60' SO' AO' 30' 20' 10' O' pected from climate model simulations. LATITUDE recent study comparing NASA Intrahemispheric comparisons sup­ climate records over the U.S. to Figure 3. LatitudelAltitude plot of temperature change port the contention that thermal lag it­ projected for a doubling (top) and a quadrupling (bottom) self may be overestimated. The southern the urbanization-adjusted of CO2. Because of the combined effect of other trace gas- Historical Climate Network, es, we are now over half-way to a doubling. hemisphere, with the disproportionate which found an artificial warm- share of ocean surface, displays a warm­ ing in the NASA record of 0.4° in the not take into consideration human fac­ ing whose functional form (but not mag­ twentieth century.29 It is noteworthy that tors that may induce errors in the analy­ nitude) is what might be expected from this is the same NASA record that re­ sis. Figure 2 details the disparity a straightforward interpretation of mod­ ceived so much public attention in between the two records. el output. The northern hemisphere Congressional hearings in June, 1988. shows most of its warming prior to the There is no a priori reason to suspect Problem 3: High Latitude major input of trace gases, and shows no that the urban bias is appreciably differ­ Temperatures net change over the last 55 years23­ ent in other parts of the industrialized Figure 3 (above right) details lati­ when CO2 concentrations went from ap­ world. Therefore, a simple extension to tude/altitude plots for the Northern proximately 300 to 352ppm and the oth­ the globe-which is not possible to de­ Hemisphere from a Geophysical Fluid er thermally active gases were in their fend rigorously at this time because the Dynamics Laboratory 1980 computer steepest growth phases, giving rise to exhaustive research has not been per­ simulation of future climate.32 This par­ the current effective concentration of formed-would yield a residual warm­ ticular study remains highly representa­ 407ppm. ing of 0.2-0.3°, an amount that is three tive of climate model output used to Stratospheric temperatures, which times .less than that predicted by the gen­ formulate the Popular Vision, even should fall in a trace-gas enriched at- eral circulation models used to generate though the level of sophistication has the Popular Vision. since improved dramatically, and esti­ Annual Average Temperature Anomaly Differences over USA mates of future warming have been low­ (Hansen minus HistoriCal Climate Network) This disparity re­ , .0 mains unresolved, and ered drastically. The prime feature of all unpublished accounts of these models is amplified warming at

; 0.5 0.5 T now say it is related in high latitudes and relatively modest E M ~ part to a programming warming in tropical regions. p E E error when NASA sup- Noteworthy is the highly linear behavior R 0.0 ~ A 0.0 plied the data to NOAA in the transition from 2 X CO2 to 4 X; it T ~ 30 U for analysis. It should has been noted that above some thresh­ R E -0.5 -0. 5 ~ be noted parenthetically old level, this behavior appears to be in­ 32 (DC) that statements about herent to all climate models. "99% confidence'" of As noted above, because of the com­ -1.0 ~~....,...... ,...... --.....--..,...... ,...... ,...... ~~...... ~~-+ -1.0 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 "cause and effect" be- bined effect of the thermally active trace Yeors tween observed temper­ gases, we have effectively gone beyond Figure 2. NASA's record over the coterminous U.S. warms up ap- atures and anthro­ half way to a doubling of CO , It is quite 0 2 proximately 0.4 C compared to the urbanization-adjusted pogenerated Kreen­ apparent from Figure 4 (see next page) Historical Climate Record. The discrepancy may result from a pro- house alterations31 do gramming error. that high latitude temperatures have Liberty 29 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 cy, are minimized. The growing season RrctlC - Scale: 2.0 deg C between lines is longer, because that period is primari­

Rnge II & ly determined by night low tempera­ Korshover tures. If cloudiness of any type ( 1983) continued to increase, the incidence of skin cancer would decline (after adjust­ ing for age and behavior), and finally, many plants, including several agricultu­ rally important species, would showen­ hanced growth from the well-known "fertilizer" effect of CO2. Much of this "positive" vision of the future climate has been promulgated by Soviet Academician Mikhail Budyko,37 whose position in their national science hierarchy is analogous to those of, for ex­ ample, our Steven Schneider or James Hansen in the American scientific hierar­ chy. I present it here to emphasize the broad range of future climate expecta­ tions, some of which clearly are at vari­ ance to the Popular Vision. The Holistic Nature of Global Change and Negative Feedbacks in the al.(1982)­ a I•( 19S6a) .... Pollution System One of the arguments often tendered concerning the certainty that disastrous warming either has begun or looms in 1820 1840 1860 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 1960 1980 the immediate future is based upon the concurrence of climate changes and CO2 Figure 4. Arctic temperature records. in Antarctic ice cores dating back simply not responded in the predicted 4-6 0(!). Such anomalies, which comprise through the last glacial cycle. In fact, the fashion. In fact, the data indicate a rapid the major signal in this overall calcula­ resolution of those data is insufficient to rise in temperature prior to the major tion, have simply not been observed in determine whether or not changes in emissions, followed by an equivalent de­ reality, even though they are projected to CO2 presage or follow the climate cline.33 An Alaskan study that used appear in this simulation over a decade change. However, even if they "cause" physical measurments that could not ago. the change, the usefulness of the suffer from population contamination Pleistocene analogy is severely limited found no trend in the last forty years.34 Problem 4: Day and Night by the cause of the current trace gas ex­ Figures 5 and 6 (see next page) detail Temperatures cursion: man. two interesting recent calculations. The Careful analyses of the U.S. It is clear that human activity, be­ first shows expected changes in winter Historical Climate Network data that sides altering the concentration of ther­ temperature after one of the new gener­ have been adjusted for urbanization in­ mally-active trace gases, also produces ation climate models is allowed to equi­ dicates that daily temperature ranges substances that can serve to counter that librate for thirty years after a step­ have declined precipitously since the effect. These include particulates, which change doubling of C02. The predomi­ major trace gas emissions. Interestingly, serve to scatter radiation, and sulfur di­ nance of polar warming is quite appar­ daytime high temperatures have actually oxide molecules, which in their oxidized ent, although its magnitude is reduced declined, while night temperatures are state can serve as cloud condensation nu­ from the previous generation (Figure 4). rising relative to day values; see Figure 7 clei. Anthropogenerated pollutants can The second figure shows expected tem­ (see page 32). This behavior is consistent therefore serve to "brighten" clouds, re­ perature changes after thirty years of a both with an increase in the trace gases flecting away increasing amounts of so­ one percent per year increase in CO2­ and with increases in cloudiness that lar radiation, and possibly compensating something quite analogous to the hu­ have been documented across the for greenhouse warming. A recent calcu­ man alteration of the atmosphere that country.36 lation demonstrates that the magnitude took place between 1950 and 1980.27 If anthropogenerated warming takes of this effect could indeed explain the re­ In that figure, winter temperatures place primarily at night, the Popular calcitrance of the Northern Hemisphere, over much of the northern half of North Vision is dead wrong. Evaporation rate where most sulfate emissions occur, to America warm by 2-4DC, while over increases, which are the primary cause of warm up in the fashion of the Popular much of northern Eurasia they cool by projected increases in drought frequen- Vision.38 30 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 SURFACE AIR TEMPERATURE DIFFERENCES, DJF 90E 180 90W ide emISSIons in an attempt to control acid rain. However the interrelatedness of the components of global change dic­ iB1_~60Ntates that any single remedial activity can have unforseen or negative conse­ 30N quences that in fact serve to exacerbate the problem. Regardless of the remedial actions at­ tempted, however, concentrations of the greenhouse gases will continue to in­ 4 ~30S crease. This will likely cause a crisis in environmental politics. If none of the re­ j sponses not take into consideration the holistic nature of the problem (such as the likelihood that drastic reductions in sulfate emissions will stimulate the 90W greenhouse effect) the specter of disas- Figure 5. Changes in winter temperature for a doubling of C~ calculated by one of the trous climatic change becomes much most recent generation of climate models.27 more imminent. Will the warming continue to be ex­ Satellite data now confirm that Northern Hemisphere from the disas­ pressed primarily in night temperatures, ocean-surface stratocumulus--one of the trous greenhouse warming. Wigley con­ as appears to be the case today? How most common clouds on earth, and the cluded his June, 1989 paper with: will scientists convince a public that has endured an intense campaign on behalf variety most likely to be affected by in­ The effects of 502 associated with of the Popular Vision that, if this trend creasing numbers of condensation nu­ acidic precipitation and urban pollu­ clei-indeed are considerably brighter in tion are clearly detrimental, and continues, the greenhouse effect might the lee of regions of major anthropogen­ measures to reduce emissions are be­ not be so bad? What will become of the 39 credibility of the scientists and politi­ erated sulfur dioxide (502) emissions. ing implemented widely. However, The brightening persists for thousands if we were successful in halting or re­ cians who have in all earnestness and of miles downstream from the continen­ versing the increase in 502 emissions out of genuine concern promoted the tal source regions. A contr~l'st~dy, over we could, as a by-product, accelerate Popular Vision?" the clean South Pacific, yields no strong the rate of greenhouse-gas-induced Alternatively, if the PopUlar Vision trend in cloud brightness. warming, so reducing one problem indeed begins to be verified, the public 43 It is currently unknown whether this at the expense of another. will have to choose a mix of two actions: direct and purposeful intervention in the change is sufficient to counter the expect­ The Crisis on the Horizon ed greenhouse warming to date, or how climate system (as proposed by Budyko) long it might take increased trace gas The intense politicization of the glo­ and/or attempts at adaptation. loading to overcome this effect. bal change problem almost guarantees According to Academician Budyko: However, if human activity is indeed that some type of action will be taken, Another approach to limiting global brightening clouds for thousands of such as the recent proposals by the warming ... (is) accessable even to miles in the lee of continents, there will President to limit drastically sulfur diox- modem technology (and) was pro- doutbless be some compensation for al­ tered surface warming in the position of !::A T991 ,DJF,TRANSIENT MINUS CONTROL, (YR 26-30) the jet stream. 90E 180 90W There are several reports document­ ing an increase in northwesterly flow over eastern North America during the last three decades. 40 Such a change is consistent with the hypothesis that in­ creased cloud reflectivity would lead to a tendency for a jet stream trough to de­ velop in the lee of the continents. Perhaps this can explain. the cooling of the United States daytime tempera­ tures,41 or the dramatic drop in south­ eastern mean temperatures over the last 60 years, 41 in the face of the trace gas increase. o 90So:-'----L---'---l...--"---l.-...J.-..J...::9~OE::-l---l.-~-l..-....l...-.L...-.L.--J.L-!:18-=-0....l...-....I.--.L.--JL..---J.-...l..--L..--L---.-:90LW~--J...L.:i..-.l...--~---L.--L..----.:o90S Thus we are faced with the possibili­ a ty that the same emission that causes Figure 6. Changes in winter temperature that might be expected between 1950 and the late acid rain may in fact be protecting the 1970s in one of the new generation of climate models,27 Liberty 31 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990

Areelly Weighted Tempereiure Renge ago. One very careful Popular Vision. Netio":~~~~lo(~~~t ~oD~gtS ted)

3,6 : 4% StC'0'S I study shows relative And there is evidence that other an­ 3,0 -' warming at night, thropogenerated compounds may in fact

ST ::: ~ ~ 16,0 T which may in fact be be mitigating the expected warming. We

~ ~ 1.6 ~~'--~,--~----+-H---1+----i\--_~-t----I\------r14, 7 ~ beneficial. The have now embarked on a road to elimi­ ~ = ~:: ~ = amount of global nate those compensating emissions, : R 0,0 I : warming is at least a even while there is universal agreement o ~ -0,6 -1 T factor of three less that the concentrations of greenhouse ~ u -1,0 -i ~ than predicted by the gases will continue to increase, despite ER -1,6 E h d DE -2,0 ~ (oCI most sop isticate our best efforts. -2. 6 ~ models. If findings A crisis in environmental politics ~ ~~ -30 J ... 2 about urban contami- lurks on the horizon. If the greenhouse -3,6 -+I...... ,,.....-.-.~...... ,.,....~...... ,..-,...,.~ ...... ,...... ~~...-o-rr...... ,...... ,.~ ...... ,...... ~~ 188& 11106 1816 1826 1836 1846 18&6 1886 1876 1886 nation of climate effect proves to be primarily benign, it Veer. records over the U.S. will be very difficult to convince a public persist worldwide, that is now so highly sensitized to accept Figure 7. This plot details the difference between United States daily high and low temperatures~ The narrowing of the range, which results the amount of warm­ it's malignancy. If in fact the Popular primarily from a rise in nighttime temperatures (daytime values de­ ing is even less and Vision appears likely, it will be equally clined from the 30s through the 80s) is unprecedented, and is consis­ may vanish altogeth­ difficult to convince the public that some tent with a benign (or possibly beneficial) greenhouse effect. er.' Polar regions type of direct intervention and adapta­ have a temperature tion-perhaps even the introduction of a posed long before the onset of wide history over much the last forty years compensating pollutant-may be the international studies on anthropo­ that is in fact opposite to what is the only viable remedy. 0 genic climate changes. The main idea of this method is to increase the strat­ ospheric aerosol concentration by Notes burning sulfur delivered by aircraft into the lower stratosphere. 1. Timt magazine's 1988 ''Man of the Year" issue was changed to ''Planet of the Year" to underscore their perception of It can be noted that this method will the importance ofthis current crisis. require incomparably less expense 2. As an example of a politically active environmental scientist espousing this view, see Titus, J.G., ''Rising Sea Levels: than those due to damage caused by The Impact they Pose," EPA Journal, 1986. drastic reductions in carbon fuel con­ 3. Lobbyist example: G. Speth, "Can the Human Race be Saved?," EPA Journal, 1989,47-50. 4. Philip Shabecoff of the New York Times provides many examples; one of the best appeared in the Sacramento Bee on sumption aimed at retarding global July 3, 1988 as a sidebartitled "Now for a worst-case scenario." warming. One other most important 5. An excellent compilation ofthese reports can be found in "The Atmospheric Crisis: The Greenhouse Effect and Ozone advantage of this method is the pos­ Depletion," Social Issues &souru Series, POB 2348, Boca Raton, Florida 33427. sibility to considerably change cli­ 6. A.V. Gore, Jr., "An Ecological Kristallnacht. Listen," NewYork TimtS, March 18, 1989. mate to cooling for a short period of 7. See Senate Bill 603, sponsored byRM. Boschwitz and A.V. Gore, Jr. 8. S.M. Goshko, The Washington Post, January 31,1989. time ...37 9. TM.L. Wigley, "Relative Contributions of Different Trace Gases to the Greenhouse Effect," Climate Monitor 16 (1987), It seems highly improbable that a 14-28. 10. M.E. Schlesinger, "The Climate Change Induced by Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide," in Carbon Dioxide public that accepts abnormally high risk Proliferlltion: Will the Iucaps Melt? (Special Publication #21 ofthe IEEE PowerEngineering Sodety, 1982), pp. 9-18. aversion will agree to Bu.dyko's remedy. 11. A. Neftel, E. Moor, H. Oeschger, and B. Stauffer, ''Evidence from Polar Ice Cores for the Increase in Atmospheric CO2 in the past two centuries," Nature 315 (1985),45-47. 12. D. Raynaud, and J.M. Barnola, "An Antarctic Ice Core Reveals Atmospheric CO2 Variations over the Past Few Conclusion Centuries," Nature 315 (1985),309-311. According to the Popular Vision, in­ 13. C. Lorius, J. Jouzel, C. Ritz, L. Merlivat, N. 1. Markov, Y. s. Korotkevich, and VM. Kotlyakov, "A 160,000 year Climatic record from Antarctic Ice," Nature 239 (1987), 591-596. creasing concentrations of trace gases 14. J. Jeuzel, C. Lorius, J.R Petit, C. Genthon, Nl. Barkov, V.M. Kotlyakov, and V.M. Petrov, ''Vostok Ice Core: a have brought the world to the brink of Continuous Isotope Temperature Record over the Last ClimaticCycle (160,000 years)," Nature 239 (1987),403-408. an ecological disaster characterized by 15. Gl. Pearman, D. Etheridge, F. deSilva, and p.o. Fraser, "Evidence of Changing Concentrations of Atmospheric CO2 N20, and CH4 from Air Bubbles in Antarctic Ice," Nature 320 (1986), 248-250. dramatically rising temperatures, in­ 16. RA. Rasmussen, and MA.K. Kahlil, "Atmospheric Trace Gases: Trends and Distributions over the Last Decade," creased evaporation rates, and higher sea Scienu 232 (1986), 1623-1624. 17. C.P. Rinsland, J.S. Levine, and T. Miles, "Concentration of Methane in the Troposphere Deduced from 1951 Infrared levels. This Vision continues to be es­ Solar Spectra," Nature 318 (1985), 245-249. poused despite several lines of evidence 18. H. Craig, C. C. Chou, JA. Whelan, CM. Stevens, and A. Engelmeier, "The Isotopic Composition of Methane in Polar Ice Cores," Science 242 (1982), 1535-1539. that indicate such a "carbon dioxide in­ 19. H. Craig, and C.C. Chou, ''Methane: The Record in Polar Ice Cores," Geophys. Res. Let. 9 (1985), 1221-1224. warming out" concept is immature at 20. R A. Rasmussen, and MA.K. Kahlil, "Atmospheric Trace Gases: Trends and Distributions over the Last Decade," Scienu 232 (1986), 1623-1624. this time, given the complexity of the glo­ 21. J.E. Hansen, A. Lads, D. Rind, G. Russell, P. Stone,!. Fung, R Ruedy, and J. Lerner, "Climate Sensitivity: Analysis of bal change problem. Nonetheless, politi­ Feedback Mechanisms," Geophys. Mono. Ser. 29 (1984), 130-163. 22. M.C. MacCracken, and G.J. Kukla, "Detecting the Climatic Effects of Carbon Dioxide: Volume Summary," Detecting cians have compared the severity of the the Oimatic Effects ofIncrellSing Carbon Dioxitk (United States Department of Energy, Publication DOE/ER-0235, 1985), expected paroxysms to those of the Nazi 163-176. holocaust. Global warming is now a 23. Graphics supplied by H.F. Diaz, U. of Massachusetts of data of P.D. Jones and T.M.L. Wigley, University of East Anglia. touchstone of U.S. foreign policy. 24. Testimony of PatrickJ. Michaels to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, April 20. 1989. The Popular Vision developed de­ 25. The five climate models are 1) The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) Model, generally assodated with Sukryo Manabe of GFDL at Princeton, 2) The Goddard Institute for Space Science (GISS) Model, generally associated spite several remarkable inconsistencies. with NASA's James Hansen, 3) The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Climate Model, The northern hemisphere, which should generally associated with Warren Washington at NCAR, 4) The Oregon State University (OSU) model, generallyasso­ dated with Michael Schlesinger at University of Illinois-Champaign, and 5) the United Kingdom Meteorology Office be the first to warm according to the the­ (UI

September, 1988. 132-134. 118. 38. T.M.L. Wigley, "Possible Climate Change Due to SOT 27. WM. Washington and GA. Meeh~ "Climate Sensitivity 33. SR. Schneider, ''The Greenhouse Effect: Science and Derived Cloud Condensation Nuclei," Nature 338 (1989), Due to Increased C02: Experiments with a Coupled Policy," Science 243 (1989), 771-781. 365-367. Atmosphere and Ocean General Circulation Model," 34. H W. Ellsaesser, M.e. Mac.<:racken, J.J.Walton, and S.L. 39. RE. Cess, Presentation to U.S. Department of Energy Climate Dynamics, Vol. 4 (1989), 1-38. Grotch, "Global Climatic Trends as Revealed by the meeting on research planning for Global Change, 28. J.K. Angell, "Annual and Seasonal Global Temperature Recorded Data," Rev. GetTfJhys. 24 (1986), 745-792. Germantown, MO, 4/89. Changes in the Troposphere and Low Stratosphere," Mon. 35. P.J. Michaels, D.E. Sappington, and D.E. Stooksbury, 40. A rather striking example of this can be found in P.J. Wea. Rev., 107 (1986), 1922-1930. "Anthropogenic Warming in North Alaska?," J. Climate 1 Michaels (principal Investigator), Final Report on "Origin 29. T.R. Karl and P.D. Jones, "Urban Bias in Area-Averaged (1988),942-945. and Destination of Pollutant-Bearing Airstreams Impacting Surface Air Temperature Trends," Bull. Amer. Met. Soc. 70 36. T.R. Karl, R.G. Baldwin, and M.G. Burgin, "Time Series of and Exiting the Commonwealth of Virginia," Virginia State (1989),265-270. Regional Season Averages of Maximum. Minimum. and Air Pollution Control Board, 6/88. 30. T. Karl, Personal CommunicationtoP.J. Michaels, 5/89. Average Temperature, and Diurnal Temperature Range 41. R.c. Balling, and S.B. Idso, "Historical Temperature 31. Testimony of J.E. Hansen to U.S. House of across the United States 1901-1984," U.S. Dept. of Trends in the United States and the Effect of Urban Representatives, 6/88. Commerce, Historical Climatology Series 4-5, National Population Growth," J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 84 (1989), 3359­ 32. S. Manabe, and R.T. Wetherald, "On the Distribution of Climatic Data Center, Asheville, North Carolina. 108pp. 3363. Climatic Change Resulting from an Increase in the C02 37. Ml. Budyko, 1988. Paper read to the first meeting of the Content of the Atmosphere," J. Atmos. Sci. 377 (1980), 99- Climate Trends Panel, held at National Research Council,

Ludlow, liThe Cheesing of America," continued from page 26 ment employees. While the crooks get I asked if he was worried about how view mirror: the four of them, standing $100 per pound for good and bad cheese his children would be affected by their together, reflecting the insularity of their alike, the cheese-abuse clinics and the po­ involvement in such activities. "They position and the unthinking obedience lice forces all get scads of·tax dollars to know better than to believe everything which characterized their family ties and fight their War. And the control-this­ they hear," he said, "especially when allowed them to raise themselves above and-that bureaucrats do too: they make their teachers tell· them to turn in their the welfare of those around them. off real well administering blood tests to own flesh and blood. Used to be a nice A few hours later, with a full tank of cheese abusers and "rehabilitating" town where kids respected their parents gas and a freshly brewed cup of coffee them-whatever that means. Probably and kept the sixth commandment." cooling on the dashboard, I remembered some high-priced cooking classes! And ''Fifth, dear," his wife Emma broke Mrs. Schneider's package. The orange that's not to mention paying for anti­ in. "Honor thy fa ..." and apple slices were just fine, but the cheese slogans on TV and programs in "OK, fifth, but you know what I cheese sandwich was the best I've ever the schools. Heck, even the judges and mean." had. 0 lawyers get jobs accusing and defending ''Fact is," he continued, pointing his suspects and building new prisons to finger directly at me, "1 feel more honest house them. Worst of all, the taxpayers selling a ripe wheel of tasty cheddar than EVERYONE Can have to shell out for this $10-billion War. I do about lining up for all of those gov­ Become a Millionaire I'll tell you, next time I hear someone say ernment nonfat milk subsidies. Bah! It's You will pay half a million dollars in we must 'pay any price' for some busy­ just one thing after another these days. taxes over your lifetime. If you could body program, I'll have a cow! Pretty soon we'll all be in jail." simply keep this money in the bank, "They'll never learn their lesson," he Almost as if to emphasize his point, collecting interest YOU would earn added, bitterly pursing his lips and lean­ the children's expressions took on an air the millions the government takes ing back again, sinking into the couch. "I of defiance, and the family seemed to from you. Free markets will create unprecedented wealth and oppor­ hear they want to redouble their efforts, gather into itself-the children, Bobby tunity for people of all backgrounds. call in the armed forces, and even impose and Jennifer, moving closer to their par­ The public will support the abolition the death penalty. Some of these people ents on the already-erowded piece of of taxes when they understand all the get a bug up their ... uh ... bee in their furniture. harm that government causes. bonnet, and Hell'll freeze over before THE PRAGMATIST has the vision, they give up." The interview took us late into and a practical strategy to·achieve this goal. Claim back your millions! the night, and I slept on the Schneider's living-room couch. o Yes, Iwant to explore the market society. Here's $10 for six bimonthly issues, or After sharing their simple breakfast $18 for 12 ($12/$20 outside U.S.) the next morning, Mrs. Schneider o I'd rather see a sample copy. Here's $3. followed up by handing me a small package with a snack for my long drive to the airport. They had been Name remarkably hospitable during my Address entire visit, even when they sensed my insufficiently hidden contempt for the "family business." We said our goodbyes, and as I left them-driving down the nar­ row dirt lane to the county road-I "It's ajungle out there!" saw them one last time in my rear- Manifesto The Case for Paleo­ Libertarianism by Llewelyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Thirty years ago, an attempt was made to promote a fusion of libertarianism and conservativism. The attempt failed; Llewelyn H. Rockwell, Jr, thinks it is time to try again.

"The conservative crack-up is near," writes Charles Krauthammer. HAs Communism unravels, so does ... the conservative alliance." Indeed, old-fashioned conserva­ tives (paleoconservatives) are splitting with statist neoconservatives. Patrick J. Buchanan argues that America should "come home": we are not "the world's policeman nor its politi­ This conservative crack-up presents not sufficient condition for the good soci­ cal tutor." Ben Wattenberg, a neocon ad­ an historic opportunity for the libertari­ ety, and they're right. Neither is it suffi­ vocate of what Clare Boothe Luce called an movement. The Cold War ruptured cient for the free society. We also need globaloney, denounces Buchanan as a the Right; now the healing can begin, for social institutions and standards that en­ "Neanderthal." Joseph Sobran then Lord Acton's axiom that "liberty is the courage public virtue, and protect the in­ notes that democracy is not a good in it­ highest political end of man" is at the dividual from the State. self, but only in so far as it restricts State heart not only of libertarianism but of Unfortunately, many libertarians­ power. Jeanne Kirkpatrick-a former the old conservatism as well. Many is­ especially those in the Libertarian Humphrey Democrat like most ofthe ne­ sues separate good conservatives from Party-see freedom as necessary and suf­ ocons-says none ofthese intellectual ar­ good libertarians, but their number is ficient for all purposes. Worse, they guments mean anything because the lessening and none of them is so broad equate freedom from State oppression neocons hold State power and don't in­ as to prevent il1telligent,exchange, and with freedom from cultural'norms,relig­ tend to let go. cooperation. ion, bourgeois morality, and social Despite Kirkpatrick, these intra-Right There have been more than ideologi­ authority. arguments are extremely significant, and cal disputes, however; culture has also In its 17-year history, the LP may more than foreign policy is involved. As separated us, and there is no more pow­ never have gotten 1% in a national elec­ the U.S.S.R. is revealed as a paper bear, erful unifier or divider. So divisive has it tion, but it has smeared the most glori­ been in this case that good libertarians good conservatives are returning to their ous political idea in human history with and good conservatives have forgotten Old Right roots in other areas as well. libertine muck. For the sake of that glori­ how to talk to each other. Conservatives are questioning not ous idea, it's time to get out the scrub For the sake of our common ideals only foreign intervention, but the entire brushes. we should restore the old concord. But New Deal-Great Society-Kinder Gentler Most Americans agree that aggres­ can we? In my view, not untillibertari­ apparatus. This worries the neocons sion against the innocent and their prop­ anism is deloused. even more, since-like their Svengali Ir­ erty is wrong. Although these millions ving Kristol-they give at most "two The Conservatives Are Right: are potential libertarians, they are put off cheers for capitalism" but a full three Freedom Isn't Enough by the Woodstockian flavor of the move­ cheers for the "conservative welfare Conservatives have always argued ment. Hair may have left Broadway long state." that political freedom is a necessary but ago, but the Age of Aquarius survives in 34 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 the LP. also distinguishes them from the neo­ vast majority of Americans and has The cultural anti-norms that mark cons. We have no parallel to the necons, helped keep libertarianism such a small the libertarian image are abhorrent; they but it is just as urgent for us to movement. have nothing to do with libertarianism distinguish libertarianism from per se; and they are deadly baggage. Un­ libertinism. The Conservative Attack on less we dump that baggage, we will Briefly, paleolibertarianism, with its Libertarianism miss the greatest opportunity in roots deep in the Old Right, sees: None ofthe conservative criticisms of decades. I. The leviathan State as the institu­ the political philosophy of libertarianism Americans reject the national Demo­ tional source ofevil throughout history. is persuasive. The same is not true, un­ cratic Party because they see it as dis­ IT. The unhampered free market as a fortunately, of the cultural critiques. daining bourgeois values. If they have moral and practical imperative. Russell Kirk is the conservative critic ever heard of the LP, they rebuff it for ITI. Private property as an economic libertarians find most offensive. He similar reasons. and moral necessity for a free society. The Libertarian Party is probably ir­ IV. The garrison State as a preemi­ reformable-and irrelevant even if it nent threat to liberty and social well The conservative crack-up weren't. Libertarianism is neither. But being. unless we cleanse libertarianism of its V. The welfare State as organized presents an historic opportu­ cultural image, our movement will fail as theft that victimizes producers and even­ nity for the libertarian move­ miserably as the LP has. We will contin­ tually even its "clients." ment. The Cold War ruptured ue to be seen as a sect that "resists au­ VI. Civil liberties based on property thority" and not just statism, that rights as essential to a just society. the Right; now healing can endorses the behaviors it would legalize, VII. The egalitarian ethic as morally begin, for Lord Acton's axiom and that rejects the standards of Western reprehensible and destructive of private that "liberty is the highest po­ civilization. property and social authority. Arguments against the drug war, no VIIT. Social authority-as embodied litical end of man" is at the matter how intellectually compelling, are in the family, church, community, and heart not only of libertarian­ undermined when they come from the other intermediating institutions-as party of the stoned. When the LP nomi­ helping protect the individual from the ism but of the old conserva­ nates a prostitute for lieutenant governor State and as necessary for a free and vir­ tism as well. of California and she becomes a much­ tuous society. admired LP celebrity, how can regular IX. Western culture as eminently wor­ Americans help but think that libertarian­ thy ofpreservation and defense. claims that the libertarian, "like Satan, ism is hostile to social norms, or that le­ X. Objective standards of morality, es­ can bear no authority, temporal or galization of such acts as prostitution pecially as found in the Judeo-Christian spiritual. He desires to be different, in means moral approval? There. could be tradition, as essential to the free and civil­ morals as in politics" as a matter of prin­ no more politically suicidal or morally ized social order. ciple. As a result, there "is no great gulf fallacious connection, but the LP has Is Paleolibertarianism fixed between libertarianism and liber­ forged it. tinism." With their counter-cultural beliefs, Libertarian? The libertarian must agree with the A conservative critic libertarians find many libertarians have avoided issues of first six points, but most activists would more congenial is Robert Nisbet. But he increasing importance to middle-class be outraged by the last four. Yet there is too worries that"a state of mind is devel­ Americans, such as civil rights, crime, nothing unlibertarian in them. oping among libertarians in which the and environmentalism. A critic might point out that libertari­ coercions of family, church, local com­ The only way to sever libertarian­ anism is a political doctrine with nothing munity, and school will seem almost as ism's link with libertinism is with a to say about these matters. In one sense, inimical to freedom as those of the politi­ cleansing debate. I want to start that de­ the critic would be right. The libertarian cal government. If so, this will most cer­ bate, and on the proper grounds. As G.K. catechist need know only one answer to tainly widen the gulf between Chesterton said, "We agree about the one question: What is the the highest libertarians and conservatives." evil; it is about the good that we should political end of man? The answer: Kirk and Nisbet are right about all tear each others eyes out." freedom. too many individual libertarians, but not A Culturally Effective But no political philosophy exists in a about the formal doctrine, as Rothbard, Libertarianism for America cultural vacuum, and for most people po­ Tibor Machan, and others have shown. If we are to have any chance of victo­ litical identity is only an abstraction from Yet this distinction between the doctrine ry, we must discard the defective cultural a broader cultural view. The two are sep­ and its practitioners is difficult to make for non-intellectuals. framework of libertarianism. I call my arate only at the theoretical level; in prac­ suggested replacement, with its ethically­ tice, they are inextricably linked. Anti-Christianism vs Freedom based cultural principles, "paleolibertari­ It is thus understandable and desira­ 94% of Americans believe in God, yet anism": the old libertarianism. ble that libertarianism have a cultural a poll by Green and Guth showed that I use the term as conservatives use tone, but not that it be anti-religious, only 27% of LP activist-contributors do. paleoconservatism: not as a new creed, modernist, morally relativist, and These political scientists comment: "Al­ but as a harking back to their roots which egalitarian. This tone rightly repels the though some Libertarian thinkers [such Liberty 35 Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 as Murray N. Rothbard] insist that ortho­ sisted outside Christianity" and he urged people, not creative but impotent dox Christian belief is compatible with that we "keep liberty as close as possible individuals." [their political ideas], the Party has cer­ to morality," since "no country can be The Role of the Family tainly not done well in attracting such free without religion." Libertarians tend to ignore the essen­ supporters." In fact, "many Libertarians While agreeing that it is not "anti­ tial task of the family in forming the re­ are not only areligious, but militantly an­ religious," Machan says libertarianism al­ sponsible individual. The traditional tireligious, as indicated by extensive lows no "reliance on faith for purposes of family-which grows out of natural write-in comments." understanding ethics and politics." Pale­ law-is the basic unit of a civilized and A later Liberty poll shows 74% of the olibertarians prefer the view of two other respondents denying the existence of non-believers: Rothbard, who says that God; this is no surprise to the editors, "everything good in Western civilization, who mention the "common perception from individual liberty to the arts, is due No political philosophy ex­ that libertarians are almost all atheistic." to Christianity," and F.A. Hayek, who ists in a cultural vacuum, and I do not, of course, argue that relig­ adds that it is to religion that "we owe ious faith is necessary to libertarianism.. our morals, and the tradition that has for most people political identi­ Some of our greatest men have been non­ provided not only our civilization but ty is only an abstraction from believers. But the vast majority of Ameri­ our very lives." cans are religious and too many libertari­ a broader cultural view. The ans are aggressive atheists who seek to Authority VI Coercion two are separate only at the portray religion and libertarianism as en­ "Question Authority!" says a leftist theoretical level; in practice, emies. That alone, if unchecked, is bumper sticker popular in libertarian cir­ enough to ensure our continued cles. But libertarians are wrong to blur they are inextricably linked. marginalization. the distinction between State authority The family, the free market, the digni­ and social authority, for a free society is ty of the individual, private property buttressed by social authority. Every free society. The family promotes values rights, the very concept of freedom-all business requires a hierarchy of com­ necessary for the preservation of a free are products of our religious culture. mand and every employer has the right society such as parental love, self­ Christianity gave birth to individual- to expect obedience within his proper discipline, patience, cooperation, respect sphere of authority. It is no different for elders, and self-sacrifice. Families en­ within the family, the church, the class­ courage moral behavior and provide for room; or even the Rotary or the Boy proper child rearing and thus the contin­ unfortunately, many liber­ Scouts. uation ofthe race. tarians see freedom as neces­ Giving trade unions license to com­ Chesterton said the family "might mit violent crimes subverts the authority loosely be called anarchist" because the sary and sufficient for all of the employer. Drug laws, Medicare, origins of its authority are purely volun­ purposes. Worse, they equate Social Security, and the public schools tary; the State did not invent it and nei­ freedom from State oppression sap the authority of the family. Banishing ther can it abolish it. religion from public debate undermines Yet the State attacks the family with freedom from cultural the authority of the church. through perverse economic incentives. norms, religion, bourgeois mo­ In a recent article, Jerome Tucille As Charles Murray has pointed out, fed­ rality, and social authority. claims he's fighting for freedom by bat­ eral welfare policy has been largely re­ tling "the orthodoxy of the Roman Cath­ sponsible for the 450% increase in olic Church." But there is nothing illegitimate births in the past 30 years. libertarian in fighting orthodoxy, Catho­ "The most vital function" the family ism by stressing the significance of the lic or otherwise, and by deliberately con­ performs, Chesterton thought, "is that of single soul. The church teaches that God fusing his prejudices with libertarianism, education." But beginning with the estab­ would have sent His Son to die on the­ he helps perpetuate the myth that liber­ lishment of the public schools in the 19th cross if only one human being had need­ tarianism is libertine. century, which sought in Horace Mann's ed this intercession. Authority will always be necessary in phrase to turn "local citizens into nation­ With its emphasis on reason, objec­ society. Natural authority arises from al citizens," the State has attacked the ed­ tive moral law, and private property, voluntary social structures; unnatural au­ ucational function ofthe family. Christianity made possible the develop­ thority is imposed by the State. Since the role of the State schools ment of capitalism. It taught that all men Paleolibertarians agree with Nisbet is-as one official put it-to "mold these are equally children of God (although that "the existence of authority in the so­ little plastic lumps on the social knead­ not equal in any other sense), and thus cial order staves off encroachments ·of ing board"-then a key part of the State should be equal before the law. It was power from the political sphere." Only agenda must be subverting the family. the transnational church that battled na­ "the restraining and guiding effects" of Libertarians, on the other hand, should tionalism, militarism, high taxes, and "social authority" make possible "so cherish and support it. We are not, as so political oppression, and whose theolo­ liberal a political government as that many commentators have claimed, gians proclaimed the right of which the Founding Fathers designed. promoters of "atomistic individualism." tyrannicide. Remove the social.bonds," says Nisbet We should show that by lauding the in­ Acton said that "Liberty has not sub- and you have "not a free but a chaotic dispensable roles of the family and 36 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 social authority. ciety, lithe court of taste and manners" be to seek State recognition of this belief, Hatred of Western Culture should be the strongest institution. He whether correct or incorrect. called it the only court of "undebatably From a Christian viewpoint, it is cer­ "Culture," said Matthew Arnold, "is competent jurisdiction." In this court, tainly wrong to treat someone unjustly or to know the best that has been said and many libertarians stand condemned. uncharitably as a result of racial beliefs. It thought in the world." For our civiliza­ is also wrong to treat someone unjustly tion, that means concentrating on the Egalitarianism and Civil Rights or uncharitably because he's bald, hairy, West. But the Left, from Stanford to New Most Americans despise civil rights skinny, or fat. But can it be immoral to York, denounces Western culture as ra­ and rightly so. At one time, civil rights prefer the company ofone to the other? cist, sexist, and elitist-worthy more of "meant the rights of the citizen against extinction than defense. the State," says Sobran. Now "it means Those who defend Western culture favored treatment for blacks (or some are called ethnocentric by leftists who other minority) at the expense of every­ The family, the free market, equate Dizzy Gillespie with Bach, Alice one else." the dignity of the individual, Walker with Dostoevski, and Georgia Yet because so many libertarians are O'Keefe with Carravaggio, and who themselves egalitarians, they are either private property rights, the teach our children such bosh. They seek blind to this issue or purposely ignore it. very concept of freedom-all to construct a cultural canon that is sexu­ Paleolibertarians suffer from no such lia­ are products of our religious ally and racially "balanced," meaning bility. They reject not only affirmative ac­ unbalanced in every other sense. Yet on tion, set-asides, and quotas, but the 1964 culture. With its emphasis on these cultural matters, too many libertar­ Civil Rights Act and all subsequent laws reason, objective moral law, ians agree with the Left. that force property owners to act against and private property, Chris­ Libertarians have to catch up with their will. the American people, who are fed up State-enforced segregation, which tianity made possible the de­ with modernism in arts, literature, and also violated property rights, was wrong, velopment ofcapitalism. manners that is. really an attack on the but so is State-enforced integration. State­ West. Consider the outcry against the enforced segregation was not wrong be­ government-subsidized pornography cause separateness is wrong, however. Black liberal William Raspberry re­ and sacrilege of Robert Mapplethorpe Wishing to associate with members of cently wrote about the newest slogan in and Andres Serrano. The people knew one's own race, nationality, religion, Washington, D.C.: "It's a Black Thing. instinctively that America's tax-funded class, sex, or even political party is a nat­ You Wouldn't Understand." art establishment is devoted to offending ural and normal human impulse. A vol­ This is "race-conscious in a healthy bourgeois sensibilities. Yet the typical li­ untary society will therefore have male sort of way," says Raspberry. ''But show bertarian newsletter was far more upset organizations, Polish neighborhoods, me a white with 'It's a White Thing ...' with Jesse Helms's correct position on black churches, Jewish country clubs, and my attitude changes," says Raspber­ this outrage than with taxpayer funding and white fraternities. ry. "A Congressional Black Caucus is le­ for the National Endowment for the Arts, When the State abolishes the right of gitimate" but a "Congressional White let alone with blasphemy orobscenity. free association, it creates not social Caucus would be unthinkable." ''Black Is "Art, like morality, consists in draw­ peace but discord. As Frank S. Meyer Beautiful" is permissible but "White Is ing the line somewhere," said Chester­ wrote, liThe multifarious adjustments of Beautiful is the slogan ofbigots." Oh? ton. Paleolibertarians agree, and make the relations of human beings-sensitive There is nothing wrong with blacks no apology for preferring Western and delicate, and above all individual in preferring the "black thing." But paleoli­ civilization. their essenc~an never be regulated by bertarians would say the same about Pornographic photography, "free"­ governmental power without disaster to whites preferring the "white thing" or thinking, chaotic painting, atonal music, a free society." Asians the "Asian thing." Paleolibertari­ deconstructionist literature, Bauhaus ar­ But the existence of such institutions ans hold no utopian vision of social rela­ chitecture, and modernist films have is a scandal to egalitarians. Congressman tions; we seek only to stop the State from nothing in common with the libertarian Ron Paul, the 1988 LP presidential candi­ interfering in voluntary actions. political agenda-no matter how much date, was attacked by libertarians for op­ individual libertarians may revel in posing the tax-financed Martin Luther Crime and Coercion them. In addition to their aesthetic and King holiday. King was a socialist who Libertarianism is widely seen as anti­ moral disabilities, these "art forms" are attacked private property and advocated force. But force will always be necessary political liabilities outside Berkeley and forced integration. How could he be a li­ to defend against wrong-doers and to ad­ Greenwich Village. bertarian hero? Yet he is-for egalitarian minister justice. Libertarianism opposes We obey, and ought to obey, tradi­ reasons. aggression against the innocent, not coer­ tions of manners and taste. As Rothbard Too many libertarians also join liber­ cion in general. explains: "There are numerous areas of als in using the charge of racism to bash The State has always been the pri­ life" where the "pursuit of custom eases non-conformists. It may be scientifically mary aggressor, but there is also private the tensions of social life and makes for a false to believe, for example, that Asians crime. As the breakdown of social au~ more comfortable and harmonious are more intelligent than whites, but can thority invites statism, so does the ab­ society." it really be immoral? From a libertarian sence of coercion against real crime. If Albert Jay Nock said that in ia free so- perspective, the only immorality would crime goes underpunished or unpun- Liberty 37 Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 ished, as is typically the case today, im­ caught. But the perpetrator was seldom Environmentalists worship at the moral behavior is rewarded and encour­ turned over to the police, since he would altar of Mother Nature, sometimes, as in aged, and therefore increases. be released in a few hours and free to the Gaia Movement, literally. Too many Liberals and some libertarians tell us rampage again. The criminal was pun­ libertarians join them, proving Chester­ to be soft on crime because much of it is ished on the spot, and as a result, there ton's gibe that "people who believe in was almost no crime in this nothing will believe in anything." neighborhood. Paleolibertarians are unapologetic Although hardly an ideal system, it about preferring civilization to wilder­ Libertarians must adopt a was rough justice and eminently libertar­ ness. They are likely to agree with Nock new orientation. How nice ian. Yet many libertarians would oppose that "1 can see nature only as an enemy: a that it is also the old one. In such a system-even though it was a re­ highly respected enemy, but an enemy." sponse to State failure-because the crim­ Politically we need not be shy about the new movement, libertari­ inals were black. Paleolibertarians have being pro-Man. Few Americans are will­ ans who personify the present no such reservation. There should be ing to sacrifice their property and pros­ corruption will sink to their equal-opportunity punishment. perity to satisfy pagan delusions. natural level, as will the Liber­ The Return of Paganism The Challenge Paleolibertarianism is unabashedly If the American people continue to tarian Party, which has been pro-Man. It argues-and how can this be connect libertarianism with repellent cul­ their diabolic pulpit. controversial?-that only man has rights, tural norms, we will fail. But ifpaleoliber­ and that public policies based on mythi­ tarianism can break that connection, then cal animal or plant rights must have per­ anything is possible. caused by white racism. But if that were verse results. Even non-paleo libertarians ought to the case, given concentration camps, Environmentalists, on the other hand, be unhappy that our movement has a sin­ property seizures, and Widespread bigot­ claim that birds, plants, and even seawa­ gle cultural image. They ought to wel­ ry, we would be threatened by Japanese ter have the right to be protected from come, in conservative middle-class "Wilding." energy production and other human ac­ America, libertarians who are cultural In fact, crime is a result of moral evil, tivities. From the snail darter to the fur­ and moral traditionalists. But my guess is a 'conscious decision to attack innocent bish lousewort to wilderness as a that they will not, and that we will have a lives and property for immoral motives. whole-all deserve State protection from nasty fight on our hands. I, for one, wel­ For that reason, even more than for deter­ the production of goods and services for come that fight. rence, crime must be punished swiftly mankind. Do we want to remain a small and ir­ and harshly, although a libertarian crimi­ Environmentalists claim that nature relevant social club like the LP? Or do we nal justice system would make use of res­ was in perfect balance before the modem want to fulfill the promise of liberty and titution as well. era, and man's"damaging" economic de­ make our movement a mass one again as The present State monopoly over the velopment must be repaired by returning it was in the 19th-century? production of domestic security is a fail­ us to a more primitive level. Leaders of Culturally meaningful libertarianism ure. The streets of our big cities have be­ England's Green Party idealize the level has arrived during the greatest turmoil come the realm of barbarians (if that is of economic development between the on the Right since the 1940s. Libertarians not a libel against the Visigoths). In New fall of the Roman Empire and the corona­ can and must talk again with the resur­ York City, reports of home burglaries are tion ofCharlemagne-in other words, the gent paleoconservatives, now in the pro­ filed and forgotten. In Washington, D.C., Dark Ages. Friends ofthe Earth character­ cess of breaking away from the neocons. violent. muggings elicit police and prose­ ize the Industrial Revolution, and its enor­ We can even form an alliance with them. cutorial yawns. mous increase in standards of living, as a Together, paleolibertarians and paleocon­ Like all bureaucrats, police, prosecu­ "vicious worldwide stripmining." Earth­ servatives can rebuild the great anti­ tors, and judges have no incentive to re­ first! says, "Back to the Pleistocene!" welfare state, anti-interventionist coali­ spond to consumer demand, in this case The de-christianization of public poli­ tion that thrived before World War II and would-be consumers of protection cy has resulted inanenvironmental move­ survived through the Korean War. against crime or justice against criminals. ment that is not only anti-capitalist but Together, we have a chance to attain There is no consumer sovereignty when pro-pagan. Paganism holds that man is victory. But first we must junk the liber­ the State has a monopoly of fighting only a part of nature-no more important tarian image as repugnant, self-defeating, crime, and when the only crimes it treats than whales or wolves (and, in practice, and unworthy of liberty. seriously are those against itself: counter­ muchless important). Christianity and Ju­ Instead, we must adopt a new orienta­ feiting, tax evasion, etc. daism, on the other hand, teach that God tion. How nice that it is also the old one. I know a woman who lived in an Ital­ created man in His image and gave him In the new movement, libertarians who ian working-class enclave surrounded by dominion over the earth, which was creat­ personify the present corruption will sink Cleveland's slums. Crime was unre­ ed for man's use and not as a morally val­ to their natural level, as will the Libertari­ strained around this refuge, but within it, uable entity in its own right. The natural an Party, which has been their diabolic streets and homes were safe. order exists for man and not the reverse, pulpit. Anyone who crossed into the Italian and no other understanding is compatible Some will find this painful; I'm look­ area and committed a crime was-thanks with a free market and private property, ing forward to it. Let the cleansing pro­ to private surveillance-almost always and therefore withlibertarianism. cess begin-it is long past due. 0 38 Liberty Eschatology Kingdom Come The Politics of the Millennium by Murray N. Rothbard

Christianity has played a central role in Western civilization, and contributed a important influence on the development of classical liberal thought. Not sur­ prisingly, Christian beliefs about the "end times" are very important for us right now.

Christian Reconstructionislll is one of the fastest growing and most in­ fluential currents in American religious and political life. Though the fascinating discussions by Jeffrey Tucker and Gary North (in the July and September issues of Liberty) have called libertarian attention to, and helped explain, this movement, to , II clarify Christian Reconstructionism fully we have to understand the role all the orthodox and liturgical Christian the millennium (pre-millennialists, or and problem of millennialism in Chris­ Churches: the Roman Catholic, the "pre-mils"); and those that believe that tian thought. Greek and Russian Orthodox, high­ Jesus will return to earth after the mil­ The problem centers around the dis­ church Lutheran, and Anglican, as well lennium (the post-millennialists, or cipline of eschatology, or the Last Days, as by the Dutch wing of the Calvinist "post-mils.") and on the question: how is the world church (where Calvin himself stood is a This seemingly abstruse theological destined to come to an end? The view matter of dispute). The Augustinian difference carries enormously signifi­ that nearly all Christians accept is that line is that the millennium, or thou­ cant social and political implications. at a certain time in the future Jesus will sand-year reign, is solely a metaphor For as much as the pre-mil yearns to at­ return to earth in a Second Advent, and for the creation of the Christian Church; tain the KGE and install it for a thou­ preside over the Last Judgment, at the millennium is not something to be sand years, he is constrained to wait; he which all those then alive and all the taken literally, as ever to take place, must wait for Jesus's return. The post­ bodily resurrected dead will be as­ temporally, on earth. This orthodox po­ mil, on the other hand, maintains that signed to their final places; and human sition has the great virtue of disposing man must establish the KGE, first, in history, and the world as we know it, of the millennium problem. The an­ order that Jesus may eventually return. will have come to an end. swer: Forget it. At some unknown time In other words, the post-mil is under So far, so good; a troublesome prob­ in the future, Jesus will return, and theological obligation, as a fulfillment lem, however, comes in various passag­ that's that. of the divine plan, to establish the KGE es in the Bible, in the Book of Daniel, But to many centuries of Christian as quickly as possible. Hence, the sense and especially in the final book of Reve­ dissidents, this answer has failed to sat­ of hurry, the sense of rushing toward lation, in which mention is made of a isfy. It deprives them of hope, of the lit­ impending triumph, that generally suf­ millennium, of a thousand year reign of eral passages in the Bible that seem to fuses the post-mils. For the march of Christ on earth-the Kingdom of God promise a thousand years of temporal history, the plans of Providence itself, on earth [KGEl-before the final Day of blessings on earth: the glorious King­ depend upon the post-mil being trium­ Judgment. Who is to establish that dom. Among the numerous groups of phant as soon as he possibly can. Kingdom, and what is it supposed to millennialists, those who believe that the What, then, is this all-important mil­ look like? KGE will and must eventually arrive, lennium, in either the pre-mil or post­ The orthodox answer to this prob­ there are two very different groups: mil version, supposed to look like? As lem was set forth by the great Saint Au­ those who believe that the Kingdom we might expect, as with many Utopias, gustine, in the early fifth century; this will be established by Jesus himself, the vision is a bit cloudy. Most theorists, Augustinian line has been accepted by who will therefore return to earth before beginning with one of the first and most Liberty 39 Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 influential, the early 13th century Cala­ saints can go about establishing His the path taken by the group that later brian abbot, Joachim of Fiore, have been Kingdom. From the libertarian point of became known as the Seventh Day explicit communists: that is, that work, view, the pre-mil poses little danger, Adventists. private property, and the division of since his role is to await eagerly the al­ But at last a creative way out was labor will disappear in this perfect socie­ leged Signs of the impending holocaust. discovered from the irritating falsifica- ty. Joachim, who almost converted three For the pre-mil, regardless how eager he popes and therefore almost significantly may be, is supposed to wait for God to altered the history of Western civiliza­ make the crucial moves. Unfortunately, tion, offered a unique solution to the there are many strains in pre-mil Many have understandably problem of production under commu­ thought holding it important, and mo­ grown tired of Waiting for the nism: it would disappear, because in the rally obligatory, for the pre-mil, know­ Rapture, and have started KGE aborning (he predicted its advent ing Armageddon to be at hand, to try to in fifty years after he wrote), all human speed up God's timetable by giving it a looking for a coherent political flesh would disappear, and man would little healthy push, thereby "doing program and strategy, which God's will." In that way, to borrow from pre-millennialism can never be another famous (atheist) millennialist, equipped to provide. Throughout history, pre­ the pre-mil is to act as "the midwife of history." Which is why I, for one, would millenialists pored over the be a bit fidgety to have a pre-mil with Bible, and over world events, his finger near the nuclear button. (Our tions of the historicists' predictions. and discovered presumptively beloved ex-president, Ronald Reagan, is John Nelson Darby, an English preacher an avowed pre-mil, but it is doubtful if and mystic, invented around this time infallible signs of the Big One he fully understands the implications of the concept of dispensationalism, which his own position.) later spread like wildfire in the United (Armageddon) coming up. States and was to become known as In general, if you want an event "fundamentalism" (after the volumes, badly enough, and you think it inevita­ published in 1910.) ble, you tend to see it coming just over The Fundamentals, be pure spirit. So much for the problem What Darby and the fundamentalists the horizon. And so pre-mils, through of production or property. These pure did was to repudiate the basic method history, have been poring over the disembodied human spirits, then, of the historicists, which was to time the Bible, and over world events, and see­ would chant praises to God in mystical countdown to Armageddon from clocks ing presumptively infallible signs of the ecstasy for the duration of the millenni­ of prophecy which they discovered in Big One (Armageddon) coming up. um. Other millennialists, however, the Bible. Darby severed the pre-mils Any times of war, upheaval, or revolu­ could not take such an easy way out. from being tied to the number­ tion have engendered large numbers of While most KGE theorists have been prophecies based on the Bible. Accord­ pre-mil movements. But these precise communists, some post-mils, such as ing to Darby, the Biblical clock of proph­ predictions have always been falsi­ early twentieth-century American Cal­ ecy kept ticking until the founding of the vinist, J. Gresham Machen, have been fied-the eternal problem of ''histori­ Christian Church. The founding of the laissez-faire, free-market stalwarts. But cist" pre-millennials, those who pick Church stopped that clock, since it con­ on one point all millennialists are specific historical dates for either Arma­ stituted a new dispensation in history. agreed: there can be no sinners worthy geddon or the Second Advent. One of The Church, in a famous phrase of of liVing in the perfect world of the the most influential group of historicists Darby's, "is the great parenthesis in his­ KGE. "Sinners," of course, are broadly was the Millerite movement, followers tory." At some point, however, for defined to encompass a massive chunk in America and England of the Yankee which pre-mils look for Signs, the clock of the existing human race: they include preacher William Miller, who forecast of prophecy will start up again, and the adulterers, sodomites, blasphemers, Armageddon on a specific day in 1843. countdown to imminent Armageddon idolators, prophets of false doctrines, Typically, when nothing happens on will begin. One of the predicted signs and all the rest. So a crucial question the predicted date, the guru rethinks was the return of all the Jews to Pales­ then becomes: how are the sinners to be the matter and concludes that there was tine and their mass conversion to Chris­ gotten rid of, so that the KGE can. be a slight error in his scientific calcula­ tianity. With a little stretching, then, the established? tions-the date is really a year or so mainstream of pre-mils picked the For the pre-mil,·the answer is that, later. This is what happened with Mill­ founding of the State of Israel in 1948 as just prior to Jesus's Second Advent that er. But then, when nothing happens on the beginning of the countdown, with will establish the KGE, God will send us the second date--in this case 1844­ many of them therefore picking forty Armageddon, the final War of Good confusion sets in and the movement col­ years after that, or 1988 as Armageddon against Evil, in which all the strange lapses. In the case of the Millerites, a Year. creatures that populate the Book of Rev­ sub-group arose that claimed that Jesus As pre-mil thought developed, how­ elation will figure prominently: the really did arrive, thus vindicating the ever, Armageddon-which is now con­ Beast, the Anti-Christ, 666, and all the prediction, but that his Advent. was in­ sidered to take seven years, and which rest. At the end of Armageddon, the visible; the Advent would be made visi­ is known as lithe tribulation"-began to world will have been cleansed of all the ble to all at some time in the future. pose a big problem. It is true that the sinners, and Christ and His cadre of This less than satisfying resolution was Bad Guys, the vast mass of sinners, will 40 Liberty newfrom ICS PRESS The Farm Fiasco exposes the absurdities of U.S. farm policy. "A damning e.xpose ... Bovard lays the truth on the table for everyone to see." -The Washington Titnes

"The hardest hitting, best vvritten, and best docun1entecl indictment o.f the government's farm jJrogran1s I have ever read." -Don Paarlberg, former Assistant Secretary of Agriculture

"The politics ofoutrage may be the only 1-'t'ay to end the farm fiasco. fl so, .lames Bovard has provided amjJle reason for such outrage. Don't tinker. Don't refornl. Free the An1erican farmer fronl the conlhination (~l cloth I 362 pages welfare and controls calledfederalfarm policy."

-William Niskanen, Chainnan, CATO Institute

K Farm subsidies-roughly $25 billion a year in federal handouts, plus $10 billion more in higher food prices-are the equivalent of giving every full-time subsidized farmer two new Mercedes each year.

K Annual subsidies for each dairy cow in the United States exceed the per capita income for half the population of the world.

K With the $160 billion that the government and consumers have spent on farm subsidies since 1980, Uncle Sam could have bought every farm, bam, and tractor in thirty states.

)C This year the USDA is rewarding farmers for not planting on 78 million acres of farmland-equivalent to the entire states of Indiana, Ohio, and most of Illinois.

CALL 1-800-326-0996 MONEY BACK 9-6, M-F and noon-5, Sat. (Pacific Time) $18.95 GUARANTEE: or send your order to: Book code: CU4455 If for any reason LAISSEZ FAIRE BOOKS, Dept. LKNR you are dissatisfied, 942 Howard Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 just return the book within Include $1.00 postage ($2.00 UPS). 30 days for a refund. You may pay by check, money order, MasterCard or Visa. Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 be satisfactorily disposed of by God's favorite pre-mil televangelist, the Rever­ The Anabaptist failures served to wrath. But how about the Good Guys? end Jimmy Swaggart (before personal or discredit immediatism, and from then After all, they, too, during those won­ satanic forces laid him low). The Rap­ on, post-mils turned to more gradual, derful but strenuous years, will be in ture, which Jimmy asserted was immi­ and therefore somewhat less coercive, danger of getting caught in the crossfire, nent, was the emotional high for the measures. The idea was that instead of and getting slaughtered along with eve­ reverend along with his massive congre­ killing all sinners and heretics immedi­ ryone else. It didn't seem fair. gation. As he described the glories of the ately, post-mils would take over the And so pre-mil theorists, poring Rapture, shouts and sobs of joy shook reins of government, and, by rather over the Bible, came up with a solution: the celebrants. It didn't seem contradic­ kindlier and gentler means, use the State the Good Guys will not have to suffer tory to any of the faithful when, a few to shape everyone up, make men moral, during Armageddon. Instead, just be­ sober moments later, Jimmy pleaded for and stamp out sin, so as to make them fore Armageddon is to begin, Jesus will contributions to his Bible college. But fit to enter the KGE. The mainstream why worry about schools and colleges Protestant'churches of nineteenth centu­ when the Rapture was promised for a ry America, for example, were taken Jesus never held nor ran for few weeks or so hence? over by a fervent pietist version of post­ Pre-millennialism is basically a pas­ mil, who emphasized revivalism, bursts political office, nor did he ever sive creed, and yet, since the early 1970s, of emotion, and rule by the Holy Spirit. advocate any legislation­ fundamentalist Christians have engaged These post-mil Protestants became in­ perhaps, after all, an indica­ more and more fervently in political ac­ creasingly more progressive and statist, tion. Many have understandably grown their outlook being best expressed by tion that Jesus was more liber­ tired of Waiting for the Rapture, and one of their leaders, Professor Richard T. tarian than the Recon­ have started looking for a coherent polit­ ical program and strategy, which pre­ structionists have believed. millennialism can never be equipped to provide. Hence, the golden opportunity To say that it is impermissi­ for the Christian Reconstructionists. ble to talk to or work with any­ return invisibly (a variant on the Sev­ Enter, then, the post-mils. Post-mils enth Day Adventists) and "rapture up" have to have some sort of political pro­ one who is not a 100 percent the Good Guys bodily to Heaven. Then, gram, because they believe that man libertarian is to follow the dis­ the Good Guys, the saved, will sit at the must establish the KGE on his own. astrous and crackpot path of right hand of God up in Heaven watch­ Post-mils can be divided into the "im­ ing (enjoying?) the spectacle of the Bad mediatists," who want to seize power Orthodox Randianism: That Guys slaughtering each other down and establish the KGE immediately, and is, to dig oneself a deep sectari­ below. Then, after the war is over, the the gradualists, who are prudently will­ an hole and then leap in. dust settled, and perhaps the radiation ing to wait a bit. The most notorious im­ fallout finished, Jesus will return visibly mediatists burgeoned at the beginning to earth along with his Saints, to rule of the Reformation, in fifteen brief but Ely, founder of the American Economic the earth for a thousand years, and with turbulent years, from 1520 to 1535. In Association, Christian Sociologist, and the sinners eliminated in a most satisfy­ numerous towns in Germany and Hol­ indefatigable activist and organizer, ing manner. Thus, the Second Advent is land, different sects of Anabaptists tried who considered "government as God's split into two parts: the first invisible to grab power and bring about the KGE. major instrument of salvation." The sins one where Jesus raptures up the Good The sinners were to be gotten rid of by that the Protestant pietists were particu­ Guys; and the second visible one, immediate slaughter of all heretics, larly interested in stamping out were: where He returns with them to set up which included all who refused to take Demon Rum, sabbath-breaking, and the KGE. orders from the sect's maximum leader. that well-known instrument of the Anti­ I well remember one sermon by my Leaders like Thomas Miintzer and Jan Christ, the Roman Catholic Church. Bockelson tried to impose On the other hand, the seventeenth­ theocratic communism, century Puritans in America were theon­ vowing to exterminate un­ omists, believers in God's law, trying to believers and act as "God's construct a Christian Commonwealth scythe," until, as some of rather than emotionally harking after them phrased it, blood will the Holy Spirit. The modern Christian cover the world to the Reconstructionists are the Puritans' spir­ height of a horse's bridle. itual descendants. But post-mil theono­ Finally, in 1535, the last and mists have a problem. For Jesus never most important of the held or ran for political office, nor did bloody experiments in Ana­ he ever advocate any legislation­ perhaps, after all, an indication that 1i'~/,~ baptist communism, in the Jesus was more libertarian or less KGE­ ~ city of Munster, was over­ minded than the Reconstructionists and "A pacifist? Sorry, Armageddon's coming up, thrown, and its adherents and we'll be needing aggressive types." massacred in turn. continued on page 45 42 Liberty Credo Choosing Freedom Public Choice and the Libertarian Idea by Charles K. Rowley and Richard E. Wagner

"For the man devoted to liberty, there is nothing which makes liberty important. And he has no reason for his devotion."-R. Rhees, Without Answers

Public choice scholars are a more diverse lot than the recent debate in Liberty concerning .the usefulness or otherwise of public choice would seem to suggest. We believe that both Jane Shaw and Murray Rothbard commit a serious aggregation fallacy in ascribing to all public choice scholars the normative values and the particular scientific method associated with James M. Buchanan. We enter this not mutually exclusive. As a rule, how­ not shirked or evaded, but is actively debate as two scholars of public choice ever, the subject matters of negative and embraced. In a nutshell, we who em­ anxious to offer our own personal per­ positive freedom do not overlap, even brace freedom will not force others to spectives on the controversy. We do not though conceivably deprivation of the be free. Yet, for us, freedom is valued as speak-indeed could not possibly positive freedom to be one's master may an ultimate end, not as a means to some speak-for the diversity of our col­ be judged as infringement of a man's higher political goal or as a derivative leagues in this vibrant and expanding negative freedom. Recognizing that the of some other end. field of scholarship. freedom of a vagabond may have little From this deontological perspective We believe it is especially relevant value to that individual is not to deny we evidence neither a desire nor a ne­ that we should respond to the issues that his freedom is lost when eventually cessity to justify our goal of liberty. For raised in this exchange, since we, more he is conscripted into some more com­ us it is an ultimate and a self-evident than most of our·colleagues, are viewed fortable economic environment. value. It is not to be justified, as Hume as true believers in classical liberalism, In defining freedom in negative and Mill argued, as a prerequisite for if not perhaps in the libertarianism·· of terms-as the absence of coercion or the individual rational self-determination. Murray Rothbard. No doubt we both threat of coercion of one individual by For liberty may be used well or ill with­ would die in the same ditch as Roth­ another-we do not deny that such out impact upon its value. Nor is it, as bard fighting against the same enemies freedoms may have to be curtailed, ei­ Buchanan and most other contractari­ of liberty. ther because their exercise conflicts ans argue, the derivative of some more Our departure point in this discus­ with that of other, perhaps incommen­ highly valued concept of universal con­ sion is the concept of liberty itself, since surably valuable freedoms, or because sent to be pursued through such artifac­ it is doubt concerning the compatibility they compete with other values that tual devices as the Rawlsian reflective between liberty and public choice that largely are distinct from those compre­ equilibrium enunciated by hypothetical leads Rothbard to vent his spleen hended in typical judgments about free­ individuals following a hypothetical against the public choice approach. For dom. For we share with Berlin a constitutional debate behind some hy­ us, freedom is construed as non­ repudiation of monism in philosophy pothetical veil of ignorance. Our devo­ interference within a protected sphere and a recognition that the conflict· of tion to liberty is as unjustifiable as it is of an individual's life, as independence values is an ineradicable feature of unqualified, with debate curtailed only or autonomy; a free man is character­ human experience. to the important issue of the definition ized as one who governs himself and is A liberal society in which moral con­ itself. In this position, we sense our one­ governed by no one else. In this sense, flicts are openly revealed is commend­ ness with Rothbard. Our values are the freedom is a negative and not a positive ed to us because in it the competition same. concept, though, following Isaiah Ber­ for "goods," which is an unalterable Though our values are the same, lin, we recognize that these concepts are feature of the human predicament, is our visions of desirable institutions Liberty 43 Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 differ. For Rothbard, private markets government can be fair only if it follows Rothbard is entirely correct in his bid represent voluntary exchange and gains rules that everyone agrees to before the to disabuse individuals of any notion from trade, and a market economy is the process of governing begins." To which that man can be made perfectible institutional incarnation of the principle a Rothbardian natural rights scholar through some utopia of the socialist of liberty. Government, in contrast, rep­ might rejoin: "1 have not, and would not state. Yet, if the mean sensual man of resents coerced exchange, where one have, agreed to the government we Hume pervades political markets, how party gains at the expense of the other, have, so it must be judged unfair byyour is it that homo economicus casts down his and is a vehicle of grand larceny and is own principle of consent." We would self-seeking garbs in his dealings the very epitome of coercion. With this agree that we have not chosen our gov­ through private markets? Viewed from unequivocal distinction we find our­ ernment. But we would also note that this perspective, Rothbard's For a New selves uncomfortable, not least as a con­ none of us has chosen to be governed by Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto is no sequence of viewing these institutions the set of rules that would constitute a less a chimera than is the communist through the lens of public choice. Our market economy. Both governments and paradise envisaged by Karl Marx in Cap­ discomfort, however, is not that which markets are coercive in that they repre­ ital, and his attempted bifurcation be­ would energize Buchanan, whose prin- sent rules or constraints that we must tween political and private markets is live byand that we have not chosen. blind to the reality that both inevitably Individuals can never be completely are grounded on rules that invade the Our devotion to liberty is free in the negative sense here defined freedom of the individual. as unjustifiable as it is un­ except when they are isolated from all Public choice emerged as a scientific other individuals in the sense of Robin­ endeavor to bond into a single study of qualified, with debate cur­ son Crusoe prior to the arrival of Man markets the two subjects of private and tailed only to the important Friday. For relationships between indi­ of political markets that had been separ­ issue of the definition itself. In viduals are always conditioned by rules, ated unjustifiably with the demise of however primitive, which limit certain classical political economy. Indeed, pub­ this position, we sense our freedoms even if only to advance others. lic choice represents a return to the clas­ oneness with Rothbard. Such rules are manifest even in the so­ sical tradition, as refracted through the called anarchic jungles that precede the techniques and methods common to emergence of societies, even in the pre­ twentieth century scholarship. In prob­ cipal contributions have revolved property right environment where there ing the strengths and weaknesses of gov­ around the delineation of logical foun­ is no "mine and thine." In the absence of ernment and its coercive appendages, dations for constitutional democracy rights, however, and of some rule of public choice alerts the friends of free­ vested in universal consent and whose law, individuals can be coerced mighti­ dom to the invasive powers both of gov­ vision of such forms of government is ly, as predators and prey battle over the ernments and of private markets and it essentially benign. For our vision is one distribution of unowned spoils. signals routes and opportunities to rein in which real-world parchment is of a The rules that lift savages from the such powers in. different texture from that of any jungle into society evidently require a Viewed from this perspective, the in­ calculus of consent, the derivative at social interaction more formal than that sights that Rothbard ridicules may be best of a transient super-majority and of anarchy. It is this formal interaction ultimately dependent for its survival that forms the basis of the minimal state. upon the competing guns of minority For if rights are to be established and to In the absence of rights and interests. be protected from the predations of of the rule of law, individuals For us the principle of liberty leads those who view themselves to be inade­ not to the parchment of even some quately endowed, an enforcement mech­ can be coerced mightily, as widely endorsed limited transfer state, anism more extensive than the predators and prey battle over but rather to the classical liberal doc­ individual becomes necessary. To fulfill the distribution of unowned trine of the minimal state, in which gov­ this function, the state as referee arises, ernment is small and heavily not necessarily through violence and spoils. constrained and acts as nightwatchman conquest but even through some limited for an otherwise unconstrained market calculus of consent. For even private economy. Note however that this vision markets depend on rules, not least the more relevant to liberty than he is pre­ does not lead us to endorse the zero law of property and of contract, that pared to admit. If self-seeking voters state of Rothbard or indeed the totally typically do not emerge from a sponta­ deem themselves too unimportant indi­ unconstrained interaction between indi­ neous order of competing private courts vidually to tum an election, they well viduals that then would ensue. For we but rather are the product of the bureau­ may divert·their attention from matters do not view private markets as benignly cratic judgments of a state judiciary. In politic to the sports pages of their news­ as Rothbard, nor do we eye government the absence of such rules, and of the po­ papers. Ideology well may substitute for as an entirely malignant Satan, the very lice mechanism to enforce ·them, Tul­ information in determining the lever existence of which is the enemy of lock's law that "might is right" would that they pull when they do vent~e to freedom. invade the freedoms of private markets the polls. In such circumstances, the per­ Shaw notes that "lBuchananesque just as they invade freedoms in the un­ suasive media powers of the transfer s0­ public choice scholars] believe that fettered market-place of politics. ciety interests may exercise a pull that is 44 Liberty Volume 3, Number3 Janu 1990 no friend of liberty, and the political Nevertheless, he died, because his idea or plausible ground for thinking that pub­ lobbying of such coercive interest belief about his self interest, erroneously, lic choice scholarship casts the anti­ groups indeed may exercise more lever­ no doubt, saw the removal of bad hu­ federalists in a more favorable light than age than freedom can sustain. Better mors through bleedingas life enhancing. is customary. But the federalists and that the friends of freedom are alerted The Virginia School of Public Choice, anti-federalists were united in their through public choice to the threat that most particularly, is not to be viewed as commitment to liberty and in their view such forces pose than that they rely being careless of, let alone hostile to, the that the preservation of liberty was upon idealistic manifestos of the liber­ preservation or the restoration of indi­ problematical and not assured, and tarian creed destined to fall upon the vidual freedoms. In most essentials, its most certainly required eternal vigilance stony ground of self interest in the Real­ objectives and its concerns are identical combined with right understanding. politik of homo economicus. to those of James Madison and Alexan­ Public choice, we believe, can provide To be sure, some, though certainly der Hamilton, not to mention Samuel for modern readers a basis for a reaffir­ not all, public choice scholarship does Adams and George Mason, along with mation of that understanding, which assert the preponderance of pecuniary the other contributors to the federalist would make eternal vigilance a sensible interest and dismisses the significance of debate who agonized in search of a set price to pay. ideology. We, however, do not wish to of rules that would confine the minimal Grounded in methodological indi­ side with one or the other, as if ideology state to the role of a referee that might vidualism, recognizing the unknowabili­ and interest were competing and inde­ preside over a system of free enterprise ty of the future, and committed to pendent forces in human action. For we and yet remain the servant of the people. liberty, we who will carry the baton of would note that to a large extent self in­ The Federalist Papers themselves recog­ public choice on its second lap pay it terest is itself a mental construction, an nize the omnipresence of self-seeking homage, not as any substitute for good idea. George Washington allowed him­ men and urge the importance of rules sense, but just as a tool that may help us self to be bled to death. We can be quite and institutions to protect such individ­ in the important task that we are privi­ sure he did not want to die at that time. uals from their wont to coerce. There is leged to inherit. 0

Rothbard, "Kingdom Come," continued from page 42

other post-mils have believed. presuppositionalism is not a position on the context and on his or her person­ Therefore in attempting to construct likely to gain adherents outside the al temperament and interests, to decide a commonwealth based on God's law hard-core Calvinist faithful, and even which issues and coalitions to stress. the Puritans could only turn to the Old there I suspect he might have problems. Obviously, it is important for liber­ Testament, and to the government of an­ (Is there really only a Christian chemis­ tarians to discuss what issues are likely cient Israel. Hence, the emphasis on try, a Christian mathematics, a Christian to be dominant or most important in any stoning to death transgressors, and wayto fly a plane?) given historical period. Thus, during the hence the dispute about whether ancient Finally, I must confess I find all the Vietnam War, in my view the most im­ Israelite law applies nowadays to sab­ talk about "alliances," coalitions, associ­ portant political issues were the war and bath-breakers. ations, or "willingness to work together the draft, and hence my argument that a Conscientious Christians try to abide on an informal basis" (Tucker), an exer­ coalition, alliance, informal association by a personal and political ethic. It is dif­ cise in hairsplitting. Libertarians live in or what have you with the New Left ficult to see how a Christian can be a a world where-alas!-not everyone is a was in order. Now, the draft is down to utilitarian, a nihilist, or a might-makes­ 100 percent libertarian. Many people­ registration, and it seems clear that the right advocate. There are, it seems to undoubtedly most people-are blends of Wheeler-Rohrabacher "freedom fight­ me, only two possible genuine ethical X percent libertarian and Y percent non ers" have pretty well disappeared, and systems for a Christian. One is the or anti-libertarian. To say that it is im­ that the Cold War itself is in the process natural law/natural rights position of permissible to talk to or work with any­ of coming to an end. If that is true, then, the (Catholic or Anglican) Scholastics, in one who is not a 100 percent libertarian in the coming period, some sort of asso­ which human reason is equipped to is to follow the disastrous and crackpot ciation/coalition or whatever with some discover natural law, and purely path of Orthodox Randianism: That is, types of conservatives might be in order. theological or divinely revealed ethics is to dig oneself a deep sectarian hole and But only, of course, as once applied to a very small separate though important to leap in. It seems to me that both the the Left, with anti-Establishment types. part of the system. Another is the Cal­ sane and the common-sense thing to do There can never be a persuasive vinist view that man's reason is so cor­ is to work with the X percent libertarian argument for coalescing or allying our­ rupted that the only viable ethic, indeed aspect of people, and to ignore, discou­ selves with the State apparatus. the only truth about anything, must rage, or work against the other Y per­ In any case, one would hope that come from divine revelation as present­ cent. Whether you call it alliance, strategic discussions can be conducted ed in the Bible. With his usual insight, coalition, or whatever makes no differ­ among libertarians with a minimum of Gary North sees that the two positions ence. Obviously, in different contexts anathemas and threats of excommunica­ are and must be at loggerheads, and and different times, some issues will be tion, since, as Jeff Tucker well says, in hence stakes his entire case on Calvinist more important than others, and it is up "questions of strategy, final answers are presuppositionalism. Unfortunately, to the individual libertarian, depending elusive." 0 Liberty 45 Defense

Elitism In Defense of Virtue is No Vice by Karl Hess

A simple truth that bears repeating: the charge of "elitism" is often little more than an attack on merit, and there is nothing meritorious about that.

"Elitism" is one of the strongest words people use to discredit activities they dislike. Its undoubted power to provoke antagonism derives from an earlier evoker of hostili­ ty, the concept of "meritocracy." In a meritocracy the major rewards of life are awarded to (or greedily gobbled up by) people who have performed something with merit-made a good " "" e e "e ee " eeee deal, written a brilliant piece of music, undifferentiated air of virtue. The civil an observable elite of social workers discovered a new way to explain an as­ rights movement seems to be mostly re­ and educationists specially trained to be pect of the physical world, or some­ sponsible for this development. From social propagandists and organizers. thing along these lines. its undeniable moral power, the idea of Saul Alinsky's justly famed school for This arrangement is bad, it is equality became unassailable and then New Left organizers nurtured just such argued, because it leaves high and dry undefinable. To suggest that in some an elite corps. Harvard's law school all of the non-meritorious people who, areas of human action equality is not today, at least in its "criticallegal stud­ through no fault of their own, do not ac­ only impossible but also undesirable­ ies" enclave, also seeks to create an quire enough of those things or privi­ in art and science, for instance-is elite. Nader's Raiders are another obvi­ leges necessary for a good life. The sometimes attacked as racist as well as ously elite group that nevertheless can evolution from meritocracy to welfare elitist. It is difficult, apparently, for anti­ be counted on to use elitism as a pejora­ state in this country was deemed neces­ racists to attack elitism without making tive.term. sary in the belief that the non­ it appear that racial minority popula­ Social-activist elites. deny their own meritorious-previously attended to by tions are not themselves capable of elitism on grounds that their special charity-should have the requisites of a achieving the high standards usually as­ training and obviously superior grasp of good life as aright. sociated with an elite. things is meant to serve the helpless and As meritocracy vanished as a wor­ Although the arguments are usually the dispossessed. And, to be fair, many thy social and political concept, a new quite vague, the charge is felt as sharp of them actually make it their purpose assault word was needed; one that and stinging largely because, I am con­ to help people help themselves­ could be targeted not only against vinced, the media generally have ac­ actually to create a new elite of self­ whole systems, but with surgical preci­ cepted without any question the notion helping people in settings of squalor. It sion could be used against even the that elitism is inherently bad, so bad seems to me that the best intentioned of most minute part of any activity. Elit­ that everyone is expected to know that these activists are missing a useful tool. ism is just such a word. In any social, it's bad. The old definition of an elite as To achieve by merit, to do good work, to political or cultural activity, any portion an especially privileged, probably un­ improve one's life, to be an elitist of ac­ that is not demonstrably and purposeful­ deserving group--an aristocracy-is complishment and energy has a worthy ly egalitarian may be attacked as elitist. not generally involved or evoked. The sound if disencumbered of the vague Why being elitist is now or ever was new elitism has to do with the suppos­ and voguish charge of elitism. "bad" has not been widely debated. In edly rejected idea of meritocracy. The arguments supporting the the heaves of the mid-century, equality Ironically, many who launch attacks charges of elitism, as I have observed and egalitarianism took on a broad and on elitism are themselves members of them, are usually contained in the head- 46 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 lines of the stories: with the word ,elit­ themes. the government schools, presumably ism being sufficient for the charge and One of the most recent targets of the would emphasize the processes and for the explanation. In the text of stories charge of elitism are the high schools of practice of thinking rather than genu­ there may be casual clauses referring to science and technology that lately have flections to Federal guidelines. elitism as being separatist or favoring a become fashionable in many education­ The need for elites, in the meritocrat­ bright minority, but little else. al jurisdictions. Since they are limited in ic and not aristocratic sense, is more When I worked closely with many number and thus not available to every­ clear now than ever. on the New Left, the charge was as one who might want to attend, ways of It is by the business elite, the entre­ powerful and as vague as it is today. apportioning space in them have be­ preneurs, that markets are created New Left elites were able to carry the come necessary. One way is to accept which, in turn, create new jobs. It is by charge successfully into the media with­ only students who have evidenced par­ the technical elites that new products out being bothered for a discussion of ticular aptitudes or accomplishments. are made possible. And these products why elitism suddenly had become such Such procedures are, obviously, me­ are not confined, as leftists would have a bad idea. ritocratic, thereby elitist. you believe, to the ticky-tacky. They in­ In those days I always argued in Even, however, if the schools admit clude, for example, the materials of favor of elitism, thus reinforcing the students on a first-eome, first-served medical treatment and the technologies idea of many associates on the left that, basis, the programs in the schools may be of information. down deep underneath my army field attacked as elitist. They seek to create, it Non-elite-that is, heavily subsi­ jacket and jeans, I was a right-wing is argued, an elite class of scientists and dized, coddled, technically careless­ flake. technologists. farmers have been going out of business It was, of course, always unsatisfy­ In this view-which goes back as far steadily during the past decade. These ing to discuss elitism with Marxist­ as the pioneer public schooler, Horace were defended in a series of Hollywood Leninists. It was their view, as succinct­ Mann-pUbliC (government) education and TV films, in ways that included an ly stated in one seminar I attended, that has as its purpose the inculcation of offi­ interesting and subtle-and very propa­ the wisdom to tell other people how to cially determined social values and the gandistic-version of the anti-elitist ar­ live their lives was a science in which fundamentals of citizenship such as loy­ gument. The ability of the farmers to Marxist-Leninists had become superbly alty to the national state rather than to grow crops effectively and profitably skilled. When I mentioned that that localities or devotion to professions or was never the issue. The issue was re- sounded like an elitism of which they crafts. obviously should be proud, I was asked Private schools are, of course, con­ to leave, having become an "obstruc­ sidered pure poison by this view. They The air will not be cleaned or tionist." The leader of that seminar has weaken support for government schools gone on to be an energetic supporter of by siphoning off desirable students and the water purified by Everyman perhaps the most elitist group in all the thoughtful parents, and because they thinking clean and pure Americas, the Sandinistas. They are elit­ create students who may actually think thoughts. Things are far too far ist, of course, in the old sense of people of themselves as an elite simply because gone for that. The job here and who are thought of or think of them­ they got a good education. selves as socially superior and thus enti­ Perhaps we should wish these charg­ now is going to call for some tled to power and privilege. They are es to stick-for a very elitist reason. Even very smart people, an elite. not elitist in the modem sense of having if government schools of science and achieved elitism through merit. technology are successfully opposed by Elitism has become a totem word. It anti-elitists, there is no reason to believe fined down to the fact that they had has great strength and may be defined that this will stop the proliferation of been farming in one way and on one by the user. My reference to a modern special schools in the private sector. Suc­ place for a long time and thus should be definition of elitism through merit is an cessful attacks against government able to continue no matter what. The vil­ example. schools of excellence simply opens the lains, usually, were the bankers-who Unlike the Biblical doctrines, with market for more and more private make money from interest on debts in which interpretations can at least be schools of excellence. order to pay interest to depositors. The argued because of the availability of Elite private schools attacked by way that the careless farmers got into text, the charge of elitism has no stan­ Luddites might even gain from the at­ debt, foolishly expanding acreage and dard text, or definition, and has become tacks; the attacks could focus the atten­ buying incredibly expensive motorized more of a meaningful sound rather than tion of parents not on the plight of the equipment to harvest dirt-eheap crops, a meaningful concept. In movies there government schools but on the potential was not the issue. The issue was simply are certain musical themes that denote advantages to their children of the elite their desire to continue to be farmers­ moods or dangers as vividly as if they schools. Hurrah! no matter the cost to their neighbors. were accompanied by written signs. The attacks against elitism in the In the meantime, an elite of farmers Elitism as a charge has become like that. governmental system of education has been appearing, many in truck farm­ You know it's bad and nobody need might also inspire businesses and indus­ ing areas where careful consideration of bother to tell you why just as they do tries to start nurturing their own engi­ the soil, substitution of low-eost organic not need to give you a musicological ex­ neers, scientists, and technologists in fertilizers for high-eost chemical ones, planation of Alfred Hitchcock suspense their own schools which, unlike most of and judicious use of efficient, small ma- Liberty 47 Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 chines is paying off handsomely. The pIe, the neighborhoods of the under­ wouldn't that be censorship of a sort? farmers who have been going out' of class. These neighborhoods need par­ Wouldn't we risk depriving future gen­ business to the accompaniment of so ents who encourage their children to erations of good stuff if everything had much Hollywood angst have mainly study hard and work hard despite the to be seen as having merit today. Groan. been those who concentrated on the current fashion according to which Little thought seems given to why it crops, such as corn, for which price sup­ schoolmates psychologically and even wouldn't be supported in the first place. ports have been available and which physically attack achieving students as The off chance that the work is unwor­ they have been growing by brute force being unbearable nerds or even as being thy and that not even the passage of rather than by technologically sophisti­ class or race traitors, trying to be like time could redeem it is, thus, struck cated methods. "them," the enemy outside the projects. from discussion by an essentially elitist Good farmers will not have to go out And there are such elite parents in decision (in the old, authoritarian, aris­ of business, ever, so long as any sem­ even the poorest, toughest neighbor­ tocratic sense). blance of a market is available for their hoods. When discussing them, however, Think of poor old Van Gogh. Lord absolutely indispensable product. Poor, the media alludes correctly to their hero­ knows he wasn't supported much by non-elitist farmers should go out of busi­ ism and energy but rarely makes an in­ anyone other than his brother. He just ness lest millions someday starve be­ vidious comparison with the non-elite painted and painted. Would it have cause of an agricultural Gresham's Law parents. To do so would be, of course, been nice for him to have had an En­ disaster. elitist. dowment grant? Who knows? The point Now that the task of cleaning the In the cultural area, The National En­ is that it wasn't necessary. His great, environment is taken seriously by so dowment for the Arts takes a subtly elitist work got done anyway. many people-seriously enough to anti-elitist view, particularly pertaining There has been no other time on the create a market for clean air and water­ to painting, music, and poetry. The elit­ planet that more urgently needs elitism the need for an elite of superb technolo­ ist view, stemming from a meritocracy, in the meritocratic sense. gists is urgent as is the need for inspired would be that people who produce There is no time that has more need­ scientists to keep probing the conditions something popular and profitable are ed courage in facing up to charges of which we now describe rather primi­ commendable and have, without force meritocracy and elitism. Those who tively as pollution. The air will not be or favor, been able to convince people of sense grandeur and goodness in merit cleaned or the water purified by Every- the value of their work. often have kept their feelings concealed. The richest musicians in the history I am sure that discussions can be of the world are the Beatles. They are a stopped cold today when someone asks pinnacle elite all by themselves, just as "are you defending the idea of a meri­ The fittest are not the slyest Mozart and Beethoven were in their tocracy" and no one has the courage to or the cruelest or .even the own times. They all became elite in the say "sure!" strongest. In the long run it same meritocratic manner. They pro­ It is rather like the discussion stop­ duced something that people wanted. per "but, surely, you don't mean that seems that the fittest are the Even when rich patrons tried to bolster you believe in survival of the fittest." smartest, the most thoughtful. some flaccid competitor, the elite com­ Well, I do. posers won the audiences then and now. And whether I did or not, it's the (Imagine Pia Zadora having to compete way things are. man thinking clean and pure thoughts. with Ringo Starr's latest tour.) The fittest are not the slyest or the Things are far too far gone for that. Eve­ The National Endowment has a cruelest or even the strongest. In the ryman may have an essential role in quite different view. It appears commit­ long run it seems that the fittest are the keeping things clean later on, but the job ted to supporting the least elite artists in smartest, the most thoughtful. And, here and now is going to call for some the realm. Let someone appear with a among other things they have, as indi­ very smart people, an elite. well-written grant to display scribbles viduals, practised the sort of charity that Such elites, in a meritocratic sense, or scrabbles that would stand no chance has helped the less fit to survive. Or, as seem strikingly non-threatening and in a free market setting, and the Nation­ artists, they have inspired people to be wholly beneficial to me. What "mad sci­ al Endowment rushes to oblige. Let fit. Or as scientists and technologists entist" has ever been mad enough to someone discover that a monotone, re­ they have made it easier for everyone to achieve political power, to become a peated for minutes on end, is hot,' high survive, to be more fit. mad overlord? And who on earth has musical art and the Endowment orgas­ Way back, when the financier Ber­ not benefitted from the work of scien­ mically unquivers its golden bolts and nard Baruch was famous for holding tists generally, by the applications of lets them fly. "court" on a park bench across from the technologists generally, and by the The great anti-elitist attitude of the White House, I sat with him and asked promulgations of technology through Endowment over the years has seemed for sage advice. He said "young man, commerce of science, technology, and to be that anything that the public likes you will hear trusts criticized by all of even culture? (say Andrew Wyeth) is essentially un­ the politicians. Do not listen to the criti­ Unfortunately, in one area where an worthy. Their mission is to find stuff cism of trusts. Join one." elite is crucially necessary it is difficult that nobody wants and to thrust it for­ Same way about elites and elitism. even to begin the discussion. That area ward. If the Endowment didn't support Be part of the former. Be exalted by the is the neighborhoods of very poor peo- the stuff, who would? If nobody did, latter. 0 48 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 The Liberty Interview

Barbara Branden

"In terms of fundamentals, I am an Objectivist. But there are a great many aspects with which I no longer agree: a lot about Rand's view of sex, and a lot about her view of emotions, a lot of what she had to say about psychology."

Ayn Rand's philosophy, Objectivism, with its emphasis on rea­ over, which is very much a problem. But he's there as a pres­ son, self-interest, and laissez-faire capitalism, played a major role ence earlier, an almost god-like presence, which makes it diffi­ in the resurgence of libertarian thinking. Rand expressed her phi­ cult to make him seem real when he does appear. Also he's losophy in four novels, We The Living (1936), The presented so much as the perfect man, and always from the Fountainhead (1943), Anthem (1944), and Atlas Shrugged outside. We never go into Galt's psyche. These things make (1957), plus numerous essays. him seem less real. Barbara Branden published The Passion of Ayn Rand in But Rearden, my favorite character, is very real. Francisco is very real. Dagny is very real. They are wonderful characteri­ 1986. Branden was uniquely qualified to act as Rand's biographer: zations, more complex and more interesting than those in her she had known Rand intimately from 1950 to 1968, interviewed earlier novels. her at great length in 1960 for an earlier biographical essay on Liberty: One thing that Atlas definitely lacks is the great tragic Rand, and had done extensive research into Rand's early years. figure like Andrei Taganov in We The Living or Gail Wynand She had lectured and written about Rand's philsophy, and been in The Fountainhead. The closest we can find in Atlas Shrugged the chief executive of the organization that promoted it. is Eddie Willers or Cheryl Taggart. Passion was a best-seller, and caused a sensation among liber­ Branden: Cheryl Taggart is a wonderful character. tarians: among the wealth ofdetails about Rand's life, it told the Liberty: Yes she is, but she doesn't have the scope, the gran­ story of Rand's strange sexual relationship with Barbara's hus­ deur that Wynand or Taganov have ... band, Nathaniel Branden. Branden: The closest to it is Robert Stadler. A great man ... In 1989, Nathaniel Branden published Judgment Day, a me­ Liberty: Yes, but when we first meet him his tragedy has al­ moir of his life, centering on his relationship with Rand, Barbara ready occurred. We find out about his greatness only through and his two subsequent wives. Although the critics have not been flashbacks. kind to Judgment Day, it has rekindled interest in Rand, Branden: That's true. But this was a great man who destroyed Branden and the movement that grew up around them. himself. Liberty: But we don't see his fall in the way that we see the de­ Liberty: It's now been 21 years since you broke with Ayn Rand velopment ofWynand's personal tragedy. Stadler's tragedy and 3 years since your book came out. I'd like to explore how has already occurred when we meet him and we learn that he your perspective has changed during those years. Has your is only the shadow of the great man he once was. evaluation of Rand as a literary figure changed since you Branden: I can't say that Ayn ever said this, but I believe that as wrote Passion? time went by she believed less in the great tragic figure as a Branden: Oh, no. I have always thought that she was a truly possibility. She felt that where there is real greatness, great­ great writer, a literary genius. I am aware of certain problems ness of mind, of character, of soul, not just of productive or in her books. But I don't know a book in which one couldn't creative activity, that those people are not destroyed and do say that something is a problem. not destroy themselves. It was less interesting to her and she Liberty: Some critics have argued that Randian heroes became was less sympathetic to the concept by the time she got to more two-dimensional as her career progressed, that the quali­ Atlas Shrugged. There is a way in which Rearden for a great ty of her characterization actually declined. deal of the book is very much a tragic figure. His flaws are de­ Branden: I don't think that that's true at all. I agree that John stroying him, but he triumphs over them. Galt [the hero of Atlas Shrugged] is two dimensional. It may Liberty: I think Rearden was the best developed character and have been because of the assignment she set herself. In two the most sympathetic character ... ways. First of all he doesn't appear until 2/3 of the book is Branden: I think so too, although a lot of people prefer Liberty 49 Volume 3, Number 3 The Liberty Interview January 1990 Franscisco. But Rearden is my special love. I mean, his dogged that she elevated her personal taste to the level of philosophi- courage, his fight against his own mistakes ... It's wonderful cal principle. to see. Branden: One has to be fair here. Ayn always said that she Liberty: What do you think of Dominique Francon in The could not prove the validity of her musical taste, and that we Fountainhead? do not have the means, the "vocabulary," to understand the Branden: I don't think she's well realized, but I always adored line between music and emotions. She was aware of when she her. She's a fascinating character. But with Dominique, unfor- had proof and when she didn't. But she had so strong a per- tunately, Ayn wrote on a level of abstraction that she didn't sonal preference in the realm of music and of art generally that use with the other characters in the book. Had the other char- she tended to make it binding on the rest of the world-a way acters been treated that abstractly, Dominique would have offunctioning that was deeply a part of her psychology: it was made sense. But the others are more realistic and Dominique acutely uncomfortable for her to feel something strongly but is more a symbol and it doesn't work. You have less a sense of be unable to defend it philosophically. But she knew it wasn't her as a real person, you understand her less, because she's a really proven, and she said so. Liberty: I've heard about her belief that there were good homo­ As sexuals and bad homosexuals. time went by Rand believed less in the great Branden: Oh, dear. You know, this was not a belief. Ayn would tragic figure. She felt that a person with real great­ have been the first to say that she had not given it ten minutes' ness - greatness of mind, of character, of soul, not thought. I think this was simply her background that she had just of productive or creative activity - that those never thought about. And that's terribly unfortunate. Liberty: I understand that because there were some homosexu­ people are not destroyed and do not destroy als whose work she admired she felt it necessary to develop a themselves. theory that in them homosexuality was not the unmitigated er­ ror that it was in other people. symbol. And in the context of people who are more real you Branden: No, no, no. She thought it was a terrible error in don't "get" her. But I found her fascinating. anybody. Liberty: Who would you say is the central character in Atlas Liberty: I have heard this in particular about Noel Coward and Shrugged? Terance Rattigan, whose plays she admired. Branden: For me, personally, it's Rearden. No that's not right. Branden: I think Ayn's view that homosexuality is morally It's Dagny really. Despite Ayn's view of sex, why feminists are evil-is a moral issue at all-was destructive and unconscion­ not rushing to embrace Ayn for the character ofDagny I do able and wildly unjustified. But even here, we have to grant not know. Ifever there was an ideal feminist, that's Dagny-a her the right to be a human' being. woman who ran a railroad, who was sexual, who loved men, I believe her view of homosexuality was one of her rare who did her own thinking and made her own decisions­ hangovers from childhood, never questioned as the years she's perfection from a feminist point ofview. went by. What is astonishing about Ayn Rand is the number Liberty: What do you think of Rand's view of sex? ofthings she questioned that all of us are taught as children Branden: The concept of woman as man-worshipper always and it doesn't enter our minds that there are alternatives. I made me want to crawl under a rug even though I could find mean, the brightest of us, the smartest of us, the most philo­ no flaw in it intellectually and had to say I accepted it. sophical of us, still carry around an enormous baggage of Let me pause here. I just said something interesting. what only seems self-evident because we grew up with it. The "1 could find no flaw in it and therefore had to accept it." Do astonishing thing about Ayn is how much she thought about you realize that doesn't follow? None of the Collective real­ that the rest oftheworld takes as self-evident. But she didn't ized it, for all of the Objectivist years. It was a simple logical think about everything. fallacy that none of us knew we were committing. We all be­ Liberty: I have been told that Nathan was especially lieved-it was not said, but it was implicit-that if Ayn gave homophobic. us an argument we could not answer, we had to accept her ar­ Branden: Yes he was. gument. We could not say, or think, "Okay, this seems to Liberty: Old friends of his have told me that they cannot be­ make sense, but something's bothering me and I need to think lieve that the new Nathan overcame the homophobia of the about it more. I don't know what's bothering me. I've got to old Nathan. find out." That was unthinkable. Ayn had a lot of arguments for her view, but in retrospect Branden: I have an opinion not for print. they're not very convincing to me. I think the real truth is sim­ Liberty: Okay... What did Rand think about animal rights? pler. I think what Ayn was doing was presenting her own in­ Branden: Here she was very honest. I remember her a few times sides. This is a woman who from the time she was a child was saying that she would love it if someone would come along stronger and smarter than everybody else. And that was pain­ with a proof for animal rights. She wasn't able to prove it. But ful to her as it would be painful to anybody. There was such a she would be thrilled if somebody could. It was something she longing in her to meet somebody stronger and wiser and with felt quite strongly about. But she herself was not able to find more endurance than she had. I think that was really the root proof. of her theory of sex more than anything else. It was her own Liberty: Was she a vegetarian? longing presented as a philosophical concept. Branden: (incredulous) Ayn? No, no she wasn't. (laughs) She Liberty: What do you think of the hypothesis that Rand sought was a chocolate eater more than anything else. I think that was to rationalize beliefs that she already had? I am thinking, for one ofthe great bonds between us. example, of her theory of music, where it's very easy to argue Liberty: Somebody told me that Rand was an agoraphobic. Is 50 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 The Liberty Interview January 1990 this true? how did she get from A to B? How did she change from being Branden: No. My goodness, people come up with the strangest this relatively benign ... things. No, it's not true. Branden: I don't think that's a mystery. Her life was very diffi­ Liberty: Have you read Elegy for a Soprano? What do you think cult. Atlas Shrugged was a fatal blow in many respects. To of it? spend thirteen years on that book and then to re-emerge into Branden: I liked it very much. I thought it was a fine book. I ad­ the world has got to be a stunning kind of negative experience. mire Kay Nolte Smith's writing immensely. She had left Galt's Gulch and come out into a rather sleazy Liberty: It is generally believed that the Vardis Wolf character world. And the emotional intensity ofthe years writing Atlas was modelled on Ayn Rand. had worn her to a nub. She had no energy left, for what faced Branden: Well I thinkthat's true, but it's very abstract. It could her, for the opposition, for the fight, for the difficulties. She just be Ayn. It could be anyone of a dozen other people in a very had nothing left. She was tired. Tired to the bone. And she had abstract way. Yes. Presumably, her knowledge of Ayn may no idea what she wanted to do next. With the creation ofJohn Galt in Atlas she had accomplished her life's ambition, which was to present fully her concept of the ideal man. There was Rand's concept of woman as man-worshipper al­ nothing left to do. That was terrible for a woman who had ways made me want to crawl under a rug. What Ayn worked so hard all her life. was doing was presenting her own insides. From the The combination of these things just wiped her out. And brought out all the bitterness ... which was coming ... I mean, time she was a child, she was stronger and smarter this was not brand new. But after Atlas . .. the bitterness, the than everybody else. Arid that was painful to her as sense of alienation, the sense that the world had nothing to of­ it would be painful to anybody. There was such a fer her, they just snowballed. Liberty: This is the most difficult element of Rand's life for me longing in her to meet somebody stronger and wiser. to understand ... that after Atlas Shrugged was published she was depressed by the reaction ofthe world to it. It seemed to have been the source of it, but it's not Ayn Rand as opposed to me that she could hardly have expected the critics to react bet­ Maria.Callas or whoever else. ter than they did. And the public reacted by buying the book. Liberty: The theme of the book is that genius doesn't justify Branden: I remember a couple of months after my book came cruelty. out. My editor said to me, "Well, are you going through post­ Branden: I agree with that. partum depression yet?" It's very typical of writers. You are so Liberty: Was Ayn Rand cruel to the people around her? immersed in a project that excites you, that uses all ofyou. Branden: Cruel is not the right word. There was nothing mean There's no part ofyou that isn't used in writing a book. And or vicious about Ayn. There was no pleasure for her in inflict­ when you come out of it you wonder, ''What am I going to do ing pain. But yes, she did hurt people terribly because she was with me?" A lot of people go through severe depression after. proud ofthe fact that she was a moralist and she did not un­ Ayn certainly did. derstand the difference between morality and psychology. She What threw herwas not so much the critics, though they would morally denounce very easily and with no awareness were a little worse than she had expected. It was the absence of that there can be psychological reasons for what she observed any peer-ofanyone who she felt had accomplished something that have nothing to do with morality. Everything to her was a important-standing up and acknowledging what she had moral issue. It was either morally good or morally bad. I don't mean to excuse her by saying this. No one has the right to inflict the suffering on others that she inflicted. It was Ayn said several times that she would love it if time for her to "check her premises." someone would come along with a proof for animal Liberty: Was this the case from when you first met her or did it rights. It was something she felt quite strongly develop later? about, but she herself was not able to find proof. Branden: This was not the case from the start at all. The woman I first met was the kindest, most understanding person in the world. She would have moments when she would flare over done. It was predominantly kids who responded. It was peo­ nothing. She would have moments when she might be more ple whose lives were really beginning. condemning than she should be, or than I would think she She wanted somebody of stature, somebody of achievement, should be. But they were the exception. Mostly she was sensi­ to stand up publicly and say this is a great book and this is why tive, understanding, giving. She was wonderful. But gradually it's a great book. There wasn't one such person. Not one. She this other aspect took over. It really went into high gear after felt absolutely alone, totally cut off from her generation. It's Atlas Shrugged. one's own generation that can be the most nurturing. And she I have often thought that nobody who didn't know her dur­ got nothing from them. ing that early period really knew her. Perhaps that's why the Liberty: I have a feeling that part ofwhat cut her off from her people who met her later never seemed to feel the love I felt own generation was the intensity of her relationship with for her-they didn't have that time of pure gold that I had. . Nathan, and to a lesser extent with you and the other members The woman that I met in 1950 and the woman that I said ofthe collective, but that prior to the development of this rela­ good-bye to in 1968 were not the same person. By 1968, the tionship that she had more friends who were more or less her negative, angry, moralistic aspects of her personality had be­ equal. We know from your book about her friends in come totally predominant. California. We know that for some time after she came to New Liberty: One of the great mysteries of her life, it seems to me, is York she saw people socially like Frances and Henry Hazlitt Liberty 51 Volume 3, Number 3 The Liberty Interview January 1990 and occasionally Margit and Ludwig von Mises. the victims. Branden: Yes, but those relationships were never really close. Liberty: What sort ofthings? And they were never philosophical enough to suit her, not in Branden: What was very terrible was that Nathan was every­ her terms. These were people she liked who in certain ways body's therapist, so his denunciation was much more damag­ she admired very much, but they were not fulfilling relation­ ing than Ayn's. Ayn would talk strictly morally and ships because they were not philosophical enough. That's all philosophically. Nathan talked psychologically and they had she really cared about. been in session with him and he was supposed to know and he The Collective occupied a unique place in her life where she was supposed to be the world's greatest psychologist. So ifhe could talk about the things she really cared about and know denounced them it hit at their self-esteem in a way that noth­ we were fascinated every second. And that was terribly im­ ing else could. And he used that. He was constantly denounc­ portant to her. She never had it before. ing. It's not clear in his book, but, oh boy, I remember it, loud Liberty: Was Murray Rothbard the first person expelled from and clear. Ayn seemed like a pussycat in comparison. Rand's circle? Liberty: Most ofthe people who were closely associated with Branden: Oh no! There were people before that. Rand during the 50s and 60s were like you and Nathan-just developing their own intellectual character. But there were three members who were closely associated with Rand during There was nothing mean or vicious about Ayn, these years who came tp the Collective fully developed intel­ nothing. But she did hurt people terribly because she lectually-Edith Efron, John Hosper, and Murray Rothbard. Is it a coincidence that these individuals were all purged? was proud of the fact that she was a moralist and she Branden: It was just a coincidence. I mean, ultimately everyone did not understand the difference between morality was purged. (laughs) and psychology. Liberty: Did Nathan's influence alienate Rand from intellectual contacts other than the incestuous contact with the collective, which consisted of her intellectual offspring? Liberty: Oh, really? Who were they? Branden: That's hard to answer. I would have to say that he Branden: They're not names you would know, but students, didn't alienate her. Itwas her own doing, in later years, after young people ... I mean, Nathan was expelling left and right. Atlas came out. I think Nathan would have been interested in Liberty: Yes, he mentions quite a few trials but the only people meeting other intellectuals and talking to them. he mentions who were expelled were Murray Rothbard, John Liberty: Would you give the same answer ifwe were talking Hospers, and Edith Efron. Is that because the other people about the period from 1953 to 1957, before Atlas came out. weren't known? Branden: Ayn was not that alienated at that time, she was sim­ Branden: They weren't known. But I can't believe that's his rea­ ply very, very busy. son for not giving specifics. His only description [in Judgment Liberty: Was the Collective a nebulous thing, or did people Day] ofhis cruelty to people is the same example I used in come and go all the time? Passion- the young girl who was involved with Leonard Branden: Oh, no, the original Collective stayed. Peikoff. Somewhere he has blocked his own years of savagery Liberty: Who were members of the original Collective? out of his mind. There were dozens of such instances ofyoung Branden: Let's see. Nathan and me. Joan and Allan Blumenthal. students who were expelled and were just shattered. Alan Greenspan. Leonard Peikoff. Mary Ann Rukavina. Elayne Liberty: He mentions to your credit that you didn't show up and Harry I

into Ayn." I read the whole book and there was nothing there. Branden: Alan was running a large business and he had a life of Nothing! his own. He was fascinated by Ayn; I think he cared about her Liberty: Do you think your book sort of set Nathan up to write very much; he wanted to understand her ideas. He was very his? Do you think that he could have written his book before much part of the Collective. But he had his own life. yours? Liberty: When he became prominent in national affairs ... Did Branden: He says that he thought of his book two years before I this cause any friction in his relationship with Rand? started mine but I never heard him say so at the time. I leave Branden: Oh, no. Ayn was delighted. She felt what he was do­ that to you and your readers to decide. ing was wonderful. There was no friction whatever. Liberty: What do you think of the apparent fact that Liberty: I heard a story about her having lunch with him in a Objectivism had radically different effects on different people? posh club in New York and getting in a fight with him and ac­ For some ofthose who took an interest in it, Objectivism was a cusing him of being a coward ... source of inspiration that helped them to lead very creative Branden: Oh, yes, I know. But that didn't mean anything. .. I lives, while other peoples' lives seemed to have been embit­ mean, that way Ayn ... that kind ofthing didn't last with her. tered and shriveled by their experience with Objectivism. I mean everybody went through that. Four thousand times. Branden: Well, it's not surprising. The first category is by far Unfortunately, she was very quick to make such accusations. the larger because most ofthe people involved were not But fortunately, the heat didn't last very long. It was miserable to endure, but one would find, perhaps the next day, that she was in the process of retracting her accusation. His account of his first encounters with Ayn is Liberty: What did Ayn Rand think ofthe people who read her about 25% her compliments of him. I think in the books, who signed up for NBI courses? One has the impres­ course of the book he repeats every compliment any­ sion, at least from what Nathan says, that she didn't think very much ofthem. one ever paid to him in his life. Branden: When she saw in the beginning that they didn't imme­ diately understand everything that she wanted them to under­ close-physically or psychologically-to Nathan or Ayn. The stand, that their lives didn't immediately change, she was very people who were close were really desperately hurt in so disappointed and felt, "they're nothing." But as time went by, many ways at so many times. There is a bitterness in some of she saw that there were changes, that they were learning and them. In my travels doing pUblicity, I found there was a lot of that things were happening. And she was far more pleased pain in people-more than I would have expected-but also with them as time went by and she came to realize that what less bitterness than I would have expected. she had originally expected was not possible, that learning Liberty: Do you still have contacts with any members of the and growing is a much slower process than she had thought. Collective? There were many of them that she did not like and many that Branden: Oh yes indeed. I am very close to Joan and Allan she did like. She was very pleased with the phenomenon of NBI and essentially pleased with its students. Blumenthal. I am close to Alan Greenspan. And Edith Efron and I are good friends. I don't see Leonard, obviously, nor Liberty: NBI must have been immensely profitable. Mary Ann. I have seen the I

By mid-century, the new aristocracy of capitalist rich had grown tired of patronizing their favored artists with their own money. Then Nelson Rockefell­ er had an idea: let the taxpayer pay.

The first state arts council in the U.S. was established in New York by Nelson Rockefeller, just after he had been elected governor. Rockefeller extended the efforts of his pre­ decessor, W. Averell Harriman, to establish a state arts agency; and as an enterprising collector of visual art and the son of the founder of the Museum eee eem emee e eeeee e of Modern Art, he wanted to establish mme in New York (and eventually in the en­ retain their traditional control. In New of financial disaster." This could ac­ tire U.S.) an institution similar to the York State itself, a precedent for this count for why the New York State Leg.. British Arts Council. public support of a private cultural vi­ islature's budget statute promises "state However, there appeared to be an­ sion had been established in the con­ financial assistance to nonprofit cultural other motive at work-a motive as struction of Lincoln Center, which organizations offering services to the mixed and cunning as many other Nel­ likewise began as a Rockefeller family general public, including but not limit­ son Rockefeller "public interest" de­ project. An accurate term for this diver­ ed to orchestras, dance companies, mu­ signs. Since the operation of museums sion is "socializing the costs." seums and theater groups." In the same and symphony orchestras had become Governor Rockefeller's speech to the speech, Rockefeller continued: progressively more costly in the post­ Business Committee for the Arts in We here in New York State have more WW II period, arts councils could also Washington, DC, on 17 May, 1971, re­ reason than most to know in accurate serve the function of making the finan­ veals his thinking: detail what the present-day predica­ cial drains of culture less dependent ment of the arts really is. For over a dec­ upon the patronage of rich people. Ini­ But in the United States today the arts ade now our State Council on the Arts, tially, this might be regarded as a bene- are also in trouble. The demand for which I was rash enough-I wish I their works, the size of their audiences, ficial development, as wealthy patrons could say prophetic enough-to pro­ the vigor and imaginations of their could be capricious; on the other hand, pose during my first campaign in 1957, practitioners have not been matched has pioneered in the field of govern­ the state's assumption of expenses pre­ by their economic prosperity or, in viously borne by wealthy trustees mental assistance for the arts. Over the plain fact, their ability to survive. A past two years, the State Legislature ... would take a load off their pocket­ discouraging number of arts institu­ has voted substantial appropriations of books. (And since trustees of orchestras tions, including many of high prestige Aid to Cultural Organizations, larger and museums also tend to be large con­ and long standing, are literally on the last year than the sum provided by the tributors to political campaigns, some edge of financial disaster. federal government for the entire of this money thereby saved could be The cry for help is familiar, of course, nation. funneled into more partisan purposes.) but what should not go unnoticed is the Thus does New York State take the lead If arts councils could be blessed with unfamiliar formulation. "The arts" that in showing America how to socialize government money, it was calculated, are "in trouble" are not artists or even the costs of putatively troubled arts in­ then the tax-paying middle class would particular arts (at times reportedly stitutions. Governor Rockefeller implicitly collaborate with a wealthier "dead" from avant-garde revolutions) continues, class in paying for the museums and but "arts institutions" that, in Rockefell­ What we now know is that no single symphony orchestras. The rich would er's scenario, "are literally on the edge source can provide the monetary sup- 58 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 port which the arts must have. That Arts-The Economic Dilemma (1966), a tember 29, 1965, President Johnson support must come from a partnership scholarly book that came to similar con­ called for a National Theater Company, in which government, business and the clusions, as well as generated similar a National Opera company and a Na­ traditional private patrons each must publicity, about the need for generous tional Ballet Company. As Michael M. playa part. government support for the arts. Of Mooney shrewdly observed in The Min­ In these sentiments, Nelson Rockefeller course, all "prestigious" foundations istry of Culture (1980), "Fourteen years echoed the prescription of his older that sponsor investigations expect to later, there were still no national per­ brother, John D. Rockefeller III, who generate publicity that will influence forming companies. What the arts mus­ told the New York Times (June 23, 1963) policy; but the principal difference be­ cle wanted was subsidies for the tween the famous Carnegie Commis­ companies upon whose boards they al­ sions on television, say, and the ready sat." It is not by luck alone, we If arts councils could be Rockefeller-sponsored reports on the sometimes remember, that the rich re­ Arts is that there are no Carnegies main rich. blessed with government around nowadays with a vested interest In 1967, in one of his few public state­ money, it was calculated, then in public television. ments about NYSCA, Governor Rocke­ the tax-paying middle class The immediate device ensuring pub­ feller declared, "The politics of art are lic/private collaboration appears within hazardous-yet an unalterable axiom would implicitly collaborate the NYSCA application itself, which re­ will eliminate all dangers: There must be with a wealthier class in pay­ flects in turn the legislative mandate no political inference in the arts by gov­ ing for the museums and sym­ that grants should "help offset operating ernment." When constituents com­ deficits." An application customarily de­ plained about any NYSCA recipient's phony orchestras. The rich mands a list of desired expenditures and alleged misuse of state money, they would retain their traditional possible receipts, which include money would get a letter putatively signed by control. both "earned" (sales) and "unearned" the Governor himself, declaring that nei­ (gifts from private patrons and other ther he as Governor nor the taxpayer funding organizations). The idea for the could have any legitimate influence over applicant is to make the second sum the activities of the Council on the Arts that only with government patronage (earned and unearned income) less than and, by extension, of its recipients. How- will America be able "to close the final the first (expenses), leaving a deficit. gap between our present resources, The nonprofit organization then suppos­ comprising actual income and private edly applies for government aid in rem­ philanthropy, and the costs of operating edying this deficit-and no more than Just as Nelson Rockefeller's our [arts] institutions." Thus the Broth­ that sum. If, for instance, an organiza­ defense of freedom for the indi­ ers Rockefeller transformed the New tion estimates that next year's expendi­ vidual artist served to ration­ York precedent of costs-socialization tures will be $10, while its projected into a truth valid for all America, today income is only $5, it can apply for no alize freedom for the arts and tomorrow and for the foreseeable more than the remaining $5. If anticipat­ institutions' insiders, so the future. ed income is $6, while the projected ex­ small grants that individual In his speech, Nelson Rockefeller penses are still $10, then it can apply for drew upon the conclusions of a book en­ no more than $4. An applicant cannot artists and small organiza­ titled The Performing Arts: Problems and ask for anything more than its projected tions received from the arts Prospects (1965), a high-flown "commis­ deficit. This concept of supplementing agencies unwittingly served to sion study" that was funded by the private support with public monies is Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Inc., and called "dollar-matching"-no more than rationalize the larger grants. prefaced by John D. Rockefeller III. That one government dollar for every dollar book, as well as the publicity it generat­ of income. Dollar-matching implicitly ed, helped pave the way for the Rocke­ creates a paying partnership between ever, in reality, the Governor's and the feller scenario of government the organization's customers and pa­ legislature's insistence that funding in no collaboration in arts funding. The chief trons on one side and the taxpayers on "ways limited the freedom of artistic ex­ of the "Special Studies Project Staff" that the other. pression" became a two-edged sword, undertook this study was Nancy Hanks, Since moneyed people established ensuring that not only individual artists whom Richard Nixon later appointed the museum or the orchestra in the first but the boards ofNYSCA-funded institu­ chairman of the National Endowment place, they would continue to run it by tions would remain immune from politi­ for the Arts. Among the Rockefeller pan­ dominating the boards of directors, hir­ cians'-and thus taxpayers'-pressure. elists was August Heckscher, director of ing and firing the staff as they wished, Just as Nelson Rockefeller's defense the Twentieth Century Fund, which had and using the intelligence of curators for of freedom for the individual artist itself commissioned two Princeton Uni­ their private purposes, much as they al­ served to rationalize freedom for the arts versity economists, William J. Baumol ways had. Only now these benefits institutions' insiders, so the small grants and William G. Bowen (the latter to be­ could come at a substantial discount that individual artists and small organi­ come Princeton's president within the from their actual cost. In signing the leg­ zations received from the arts agencies next decade), to produce The Performing islation establishing the NEA, on Sep- unwittingly served to rationalize the Liberty 59 Volume 3, Number3 Janu 1990 larger grants. Thus, while independent reports that Nancy Hanks, its chairman crepancy, he referred me to the director artists and literary presses received a few from 1969 to 1977, "believed that the cen­ of research at the NEA, Harold Horo­ thousand dollars ap~ece from NYSCA, in tral purpose of government funding for witz, whose reply read, IIA general view 1979-80 the Museum of Modern Art re­ the arts was to generate more support is that private philanthropy has in­ ceived $703,250 in various grants, the from private sources." Hanks's thesis creased, but not in proportion to the in­ Metropolitan Museum received $799,000, stands in opposition to the motives attrib­ creases of public funding in the past and the Metropolitan Opera received uted to Rockefeller-that public funding fifteen years or in proportion to the in­ $990,000. Make no mistake about it, the would take a burden off private sources. creases in expenditures of arts organiza­ folks in charge of NYSCA have always However, just two pages before this quo­ tions." But, in truth, how could the known what it was that Nelson Rocke­ tation, Straight cites contrary earlier re­ former increase with the government feller wanted them to do. search about this issue: "All precedents picking up so many deficits? Rockefeller In Twigs for an Eagle's Nest, his me­ argue that as public funding increases in was right. Public funding of large arts in­ moir of his years at the National Endow­ any area, private philanthropy declines." stitutions had taken private philanthropy ment for the Arts, Michael Straight When I queried Straight about this dis- off its increasingly expensive hook. a

Letters, continued from page 4 Mosaic Justice Recognize that the total cost of crime social utility in the sense of increasing at David Friedman ("Simple Principles to law-abiding citizens is both the losses least someone's utility without decreas­ vs the Real World," September 1989) to theft and the cost ofdefense. This total ing anyone's utility. This rule was codi­ makes the obtuse statement that "a cost is represented by the parabolic curve fied in the "takings" clause of the 5th prominent libertarian" determined marked TI. Notice that the total cost of Amendment. Ifthe community deter­ "many years ago" that a victim oftheft theft is a minimum at some unique pen­ mined that it had to build a road through was entitled to take back twice as much alty ratio. The question Friedman asks is: someone's property, it could do so pro­ as was stolen. While I realize that Moses how do we derive this exact number? vided it justly compensated the property is "a prominent libertarian," I don't Chicago School economists would try owner for his loss. This way, the gain to know how many other readers caught to estimate this optimal penalty ratio via the community had to at least equal the the econometric method. They'd proba­ the reference to Exodus. loss to the victim. bly come up with an answer like "2.704 The problem with the two-to-one Without victim compensation, there plus or minus 18." Those ofthe Austrian ratio as opposed to, say, a three-to-one is no guarantee that stealing will increase school would rely ona priori reasoning. ratio, says Friedman, is that it is invent­ social utility. First ofall, individual utili­ They'd probably say something like "ex­ ed, not derived. Let us therefore derive ties are not additive. The increase in utili­ actly 2 and anyone who disagrees is a the optimal penalty ratio: ty ofthose benefitting from theft cannot fooL" (Does this imply that Moses be­ Let the amount ofattempted theft even be compared to the decrease in util­ longed to the Austrian school?) (measured in units of some ity ofthe uncompensated victims of numeraire) It seems clear that Friedman believes be a decreasing function of the penalty theft. Second of all, it is predictable for this ratio is greater than one (in order to thieves to be greedy so that once they are ratio; the greater the penalty ratio, the deter theft) and less than infinity (be­ less attempted theft. This relationship is loosened from the rule of victim compen­ cause he rejects "absolute" property sation their stealing will have as its sole illustrated by the downward sloping rights) But Friedman fudges as to what if objective their own utility and not social line marked DD in the following graph. any exact number he believes in. Instead utility in any meaningful sense of that of grappling with the socially-optimal conc:ept. The Optimal Penalty Ratio penalty ratio, Friedman shifts into utili­ I don't believe libertarianism implies tarianism. Basically, Friedman argues "absolute" property rights either in the that there are times when it is "good" (in sense that theft is always morally wrong ~.. a deeply personal, moral sense) to steal. .._ orthat thieves should be absolutely pun­ Is this "good" stealing argument ished. I believe libertarianism implies made to deny the obligation to compen­ sate victims? Friedman doesn't directly "absolute" property rights in the sense address this issue. But, how could steal­ that victims of theft are to be compensat­ ing be "good" ifthe thief is unwilling to ed (note: victims may be mercifuD. Fur­ o 1 Z ~ 4 ~ • 7 • • compensate victims? It seems to me that thermore, when codified into a rule such flILnaJt.r Ral:ia as the "takings" cIause of the 5th -ss ...... 00 ..... u unwillingness to compensate victims be­ lies anti-libertarian and anti-utilitarian Amendment, victim compensation Let the cost of defense (net of recoveries discounting of other peoples' utility. makes for an operational equivalence be­ from apprehended thieves, measured (The Biblical answer, as I see it, is to com­ tween utilitarianism and libertarianism. similarly) be anlncreasing function of pensate the victim. A person stealing Clifford F. Thies the penalty ratio (how this happens I bread to feed his family is required to Baltimore, Md. don't know-all I do know is that I need turn himself in to the victim and work David Friedman responds: This is all very this to be an increasing function). This off his debt.) interesting, but the "prominent libertari­ relationship is illustrated by the upward The rule of victim compensation pre­ an" I referred to was Murray Rothbard, ~loping line marked 55. cludes stealing which does not increase not Moses. 60 Liberty Essay Ersatz Entrepreneurship by Roger Koopman

LOST: the American entrepreneur. Slipped away unnoticed. Suf­ fers from chronic memory loss and lack of identity. Last seen wan­ dering down Federal Grant Way, waving an American flag and singing patriotic hymns. He is harmless. If found, please return him to a government assistance office near you.

ver the past fifteen or extinction. est thought to where all that money is more years, our nation has Allow me to introduce you to coming from. Wayne Phillips, self-professed "Gov­ O witnessed a literal explo­ Wayne cautions people to never go ernment Grant Expert." Wayne's story the conventional lending route when sion in small business growth and, fol­ is instructive, for he is truly a creature opening a business, because "the gov­ lowing the cynicism of the 1960s, a dra­ of our times. Wayne Phillips has ernment will just give you the money matic reemergence of entrepreneurial amassed a personal fortune by con­ so you'll never have to go in debt. If activity. And yet, at the very point in ducting seminars and selling books the business doesn't go well, you'll our history when terms like "free en­ that teach people how to start busi­ never have to worry about bankruptcy. terprise" and "entrepreneurship" seem nesses with free money from the gov­ You can start your own business with­ to have gained popular, almost patriot­ ernment-all in the name of our "great out any risk involved to you. You ic usage, those terms have gradually free enterprise system." He has his don't need to have a credit rating or come to mean something entirely dif­ own definition of "free." even fill out a financial statement. It's ferent than they once did. For indeed, Wayne advertises his services on a just given to you, and you can get it this is the age of the red, white and widely aired television lltalk show," very easily and very quickly-at no blue block grant and the star-spangled professionally staged to look like an risk," he bubbles. But don't stop there, subsidy. It is a hostile environment for off-the-cuff interview. For the ensuing says Wayne. "Be sure to repeat the the true entrepreneur, whose habitat is 30 minutes, he tells people what they grant process over and over again!" freedom and whose diet is self­ want to hear-that they can get some­ This is Wayne Phillips' idea of en­ reliance. He is, perhaps, a dying breed, thing for nothing and feel patriotic in trepreneurship, and it is shared by who is unwilling to live with the the process.. First, he speaks of how many. In reality, people who pass on "new" ways and is unable to compete "excited" he is that there is "an almost the risk of doing business to the tax­ against them. In the marketplace, he is unlimited amount of money available" payer are not entrepreneurs at all. pitted against his own tax dollars and ($33 billion) in the form of federal They are counterfeits. The whole con­ against people who build their grants and awards that "pay you to cept of entrepreneurship is centered businesses around one tax support start your own business." "There's around sufficient belief in yourself and after another. The American entrepren­ something for everyone out there," your ideas that you are willing to take eur may well be on the road to says Wayne, without giving the slight- the calculated risks-to reap the re- Liberty 61 Volume 3, Number3 Janu 1990 wards or suffer the losses. You cannot The fact that business grants and block grants and assorted other goodies be insulated from failure if you are subsidies have gained such popular ac­ that entice new business into our area. functioning in an entrepreneurial role. ceptance is an indication of how far re­ Is that the only way that localities can The freedom to fail is just as important moved politics has become from the promote private enterprise and build as the freedom to succeed, for it brings basic economics of a free society. Invar­ their economies-through government out the best in us, and requires us to iably, these programs are sold to us on loans, government grants, government make the wisest, most consumer­ the specious argument that they contracts, government job training, sensitive decisions about the running of "create" jobs and expand the economy. government "incubators" and govern­ our businesses and the investing of our Nothing could be further from the ment subsidies? money. truth! Where is the net gain when gov­ And then, as if to justify their lack Thus, in a market-based system, the ernment taxes the private sector so it of principle, they must glorify these poorly-conceived business will either be can later return the taxes in the form of companies that work the subsidy sys­ forced to improve its service to the con­ thinly-veiled welfare for those who are tem, and 'recognize them as the pinna­ sumer, or it will fail and the entrepren- unsuccessful, unproductive, and un­ cles of private enterprise and willing to assume their own risks? How progressiveness. No one gives a second are more jobs created when job­ thought to the guy down the street who Allow me to introduce you producing wealth is stripped from the quietly goes about his business, earning to Wayne Phillips, self­ marketplace and reallocated by govern­ a living the "old fashioned way"-with ment "experts" to people whose pri­ his own money and at his own risk. He professed "Government Grant mary expertise is the writing of clever is the real hero of the business commu­ Expert," who has amassed a grant proposals? nity and the backbone of our private fortune by selling books that Meanwhile, the chambers of com­ enterprise system, yet how do we merce and other business groups who honor and recognize him? By passing teach people how to start busi­ support these programs must think the more laws that will set up yet more nesses with "free" money from funding for them just floats down from subsidized, propped-up businesses to the government-all in the heaven. Do they ever stop to count the compete with him. true costs? Of course not, and neither It is time we recognize that all of name of our "great free enter­ does anyone else. It's the age-old prob­ these programs that are supposed to as­ prise system." lem with government programs that sist business are profoundly anti­ pass out special favors to special inter­ business in their net effect. First, they ests. Politically-bestowed ''benefits'' are give politicians more power to manipu­ eur will lose his investment. The risk of always very specific and highly visible, late our economy. Second, they foster failure is a natural check on inferior or while the damage they inflict on the business dependency on government unneeded businesses starting in the first economy as a whole is more general­ support and kill our entrepreneurial place, and is even more pronounced ized and much harder to see. It takes spirit. Finally, they turn our economic when the new or expanding enterprise principle to perceive economic truth, system on its head and penalize the must seek outside investors or institu­ and there seems to be far more demand very businesses that, through the free tional financing. Whoever's money is at for handouts than principles market, would rise to the top-without risk will exercise a powerful positive in­ nowadays. using one penny of government fluence on the business decisions that If we actually knew the number of money. are made. But this is not the case when federal and state programs that offer The American entrepreneur can still the "investor" is a bureaucrat giving out tax-supported favors to new or existing be saved from extinction. To do so, tax dollars that aren't his own. He has businesses it would astound us. In­ business people and the organizations no stake in the company's success and deed, one need look no further than my that represent them must start reaffirm­ the recipient of his grant has no real own home town of 25,000 to see the ev­ ing their faith in the free enterprise sys­ stake, either. It would be foolish to infer idence of this, where local officials are tem by standing on their own feet-not that this person is an "entrepreneur." falling all over themselves in arranging on the taxpayers' backs. 0

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To all too many people, "Freedom of the Press" is an archaic notion restricted to archaic media; actually applying the concept to radio or television seems an in­ tolerable breach of the "freedom" to regulate . ..

During the Reagan years, the Federal Communications Commission changed from a typical power-hungry Washington bureaucracy to an aggressive deregulator and pro­ moter of the First Amendment. This progress is threatened, however, by the pro-kiddie corps led by Massachu­ setts housewife and political terror Peggy Charren, who is president of Ac­ tion for Children's Television (ACT), a While it is hard to imagine the Rea­ adding to the blandness of children's powerful advocacy group. Ms. Charren gan FCC construing the word "com­ TV. supports vastly increased government mercial" so broadly, the bill's Unfortunately, the television indus­ "supervision" of children's television. proponents obviously hoped that if try was not willing to fight the "Kidvid Her Congressional allies see the kids' Reagan would sign it, they could rely Bill," despite serious constitutional ob­ TV issue as a way of shoehorning gov­ on future, less "extreme" Administra­ jections to it. According to Timothy ernment back into the business of regu­ tions, or the courts, to force the offend­ Dyk, a partner at Wilmer, Cutler and lating what Americans watch. ing shows offthe air. Pickering in Washington D.C. who has In the fall of 1988, at ACT's urging, The bill had an even more perni­ won many First Amendment battles on both Houses of Congress passed a bill cious clause. It required the FCC to as­ behalf of the broadcasting industry, the that would have restricted commercials certain that broadcasters had "served National Association of Broadcasters' ;, during children's TV (broadcast chan­ the educational and informational lobbyists consider this particular intru­ nels, not cable) shows to 12 minutes per needs ofchildren in its overall program­ sion on freedom of expression to be hour during the week and 10.5 minutes ming" before granting renewal of a sta­ "low priority." The Broadcasters hope per hour on weekends. tion's broadcast license. (Once again, that their support for Kidvid regulation At first blush, the enormous pres­ this provision does not apply to cable will help them to win more economical­ sure for the passage of this bill seems networks, who are not beholden to the ly important political victories in the fu­ somewhat odd, as a 1988 National As­ FCC for their existence.) ture. Moreover, many broadcasters sociation of Broadcasters survey found When licenses come up for renewal, desire more regulation, believing that that commercials during children's pro­ interest groups are permitted to testify such legislation would support their gramming take up only about 8 min­ on whether they think that the broad­ claim that broadcasting is a specialized utes per hour on weekdays and 9 casters are adhering to FCC guidelines industry that deserves protection from minutes on weekends, well within the in their programming. I imagine the the fierce competition of cable and proposed limits. presidents .of Morality in Media and VCRs. But ACT had a hidden agenda. Planned Parenthood have somewhat Fortunately, there was a hero who Charren is fighting not only against ac­ different ideas about what constitutes came riding into town on a shining tual commercials during kids' shows, the "educational and informational white horse to save the day. Who was but also against shows based on dolls needs of children." The result of this that masked man? Of all people, it was and other toys, such as GI Joe and the clause would be to scare the broadcast­ President Reagan. Though his Adminis­ Smurfs. She calls such shows "full­ ers away from doing a show for chil­ tration has been in the forefront of length commercials." dren on any controversial topic, thus crackdowns on indecency and pornog- Liberty 63 Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 raphy, Reagan pocket vetoed (refused to Well, the better ones, such as He-Man, satellite TV will evolve more quickly. sign) the bill, stating that its provisions actually have intelligible plots and are The strangest thing about the Kidvid "cannot be reconciled" with the First doing fine. The others are rapidly being legislation is that in return for sacrificing Amendment's free speech guarantees. replaced by shows with more original the First Amendment, the bill regulates A shocked Charren accused Reagan concepts, such as Pee Wee's Playhouse, only a small part of the relationship be­ of "ideological child abuse." Showing children's game shows, and Disney's tween children and television. The fact no great appreciation for the non­ Ducktales. is that youngsters spend only a fraction economic value of civil liberties such as Did government force Kidvid pro­ of their TV-watching time on the type of free speech, she wailed, "What's weird ducers to improve their shows? Of shows that the Kidvid bill would have is ... no major economic forces, such as course not. Ratings did. Saturday morn­ regulated. Besides such shows, they also the networks, were against it. It wasn't ing cartoon ratings were down 30%, as watch cable kids' shows and adult cable going to raise the federal budget deficit children "just said no" to awful TV. and broadcast TV. In the average city, or taxes." Then along came the smashing ratings the poor.child that Charren worries Congressman Ed Markey of Massa­ success of Pee Wee's Playhouse, and all of about who does not have cable can chusetts, chief sponsor of the bill, prom­ a sudden a rash of shows appeared that come home from school and watch chil­ ised to reintroduce similar legislation in kids (and even some parents) could dren's broadcast TV from 3:00 until 5:00 1989. President Bush, never as ideologi- enjoy. Indeed, many Saturday morning P.M. when reruns of old sitcoms come shows are now written on two levels, on. This was also true in the days before one for the kids and one for the parents deregulation. Many broadcasters desire (tune in to the Alf cartoon, for example). As far as cable shows go, there have more regulation, believing that Furthermore, intelligent cartoons such been legislative attempts to regulate the as Bullwinkle are being revived. content of what comes through the such legislation would support A large part of the impetus for the wires (most notably regarding obsceni­ their claim that broadcasting is improvement in Kidvid has come from ty) but all have been struckdown by the a specialized industry that de­ cable, which is almost completely unreg­ courts. Moreover, no one, including ulated by the FCC (the only major role Charren, seems eager to regulate adult serves protection from the fierce the FCC has played in cable has been in shows that are on in the early evening, competition of cable and VCRs. stifling its expansion on behalf of politi­ prime viewing hours for children. When cally connected special interests). Whole channels such as Nickelodeon and Dis­ cally committed to free markets as Rea­ ney are devoted to child-oriented If activists would put one­ gan, might very well sign such legisla­ shows, and other cable networks, such tenth of the effort they put into tion into law. The Kidvid issue is very as the Christian Broadcasting Network, much alive. The question remains, how­ offer family fare. lobbying into coming up with ever, whether or not there is anything Kidvid advocates agree that many of creative marketplace solutions, substantive to it. the kids' shows on cable are of superior individual liberty would not Most of the people crying for regula­ quality. They argue however, that regu­ tion, of course, completely misunder­ lation is still needed for regular TV in have to be sacrificed to social stand the economic aspects of the order to help poor children who can't af­ expediency. question. Market forces operate on chil­ ford cable. As Charren says, "[The mar­ dren's television just as on everything ket] approach is fine for affluent families else. Children are not the slaves to the with kids lucky enough to have pay it comes to children watching adult TV, tube as often depicted: they have op­ cable. But if you want to watch Shelly Charren suddenly calls for "parental re­ tions such as playing Nintendo, reading Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater you have to sponsibility." But why shouldn't that be books, playing outside, etc., and will get HBD. Other choices might require the answer to the Kidvid problem as only sit and watch television if it ap­ movie channels. Even today, it's too well? peals to them. In 1987, a federal appeals soon to let broadcasting off the hook Some activists point out that many court judge called the FCC's assertion when it comes to serving the child audi­ adults use the television as a babysitter, that the market is operative in children's ence. The alternate technologies are not and do not properly regulate what their television "an incredible bureaucratic in­ equally available to the poor." Maybe children watch. That may be true, but it vention." Yet, advertising time during not, but the competition fostered by would apply to racy and violent adult children's shows has been limited with­ those technologies is leading to im­ shows to at least as great a degree as out government intervention. Children proved quality in all children's TV. And cartoons. hate commercials as much as adults, keeping government out of the commu­ Many parents, of course, would like and if a network or station put on so nications field is the best way to ensure to supervise their children and make many commercials that it became un­ that present technologies will get contin­ sure that kids' viewing habits are direct­ pleasant to watch TV, children would ually cheaper (they already would be if ed towards quality, non-violent educa­ tional shows, but they work during the change the channel or turn it off. it weren't for government-granted cable day and are therefore unable to watch But what about those poorly-made monopolies and FCC restrictions on the the shows and judge which ones are TV shows based on toys that have re­ use of telephone wires to carry TV sig­ cently dominated children's television? nals) and that new technologies such as continued on page 66 64 Liberty Observation

The Midvvest Work Ethic and the Spirit of Libertarianism by Stephen G. Barone

Simple theories of social change will not work simply because people are not all that simple. For instance: the mores that libertarians admire could actually pre­ vent the achievement of a libertarian society.

Among us advocates of the free market, it is fashionable-if not altogether em­ pirically justifiable-to believe that the greatest resistance to individualistic ideas exists on the East and West coasts of our country, those two seaside expanses of real estate that seem inundated with every manner and form of political loony and socialist academician. Goes the conventional wisdom: ial behavior among the government workers rude and indifferent, as in surely Midwesterners must be more employees. New York? Why aren't teachers lacka­ amenable to libertarian solutions for No, the folks at the post office aren't daisical, as in Los Angeles? government "problems." Just consider quite so deferential as the cashiers at I think I might know the answer to all those East- and West-coast compa­ the Walmart. But I've had letter-earriers these questions. It's that the Midwest's nies that routinely recruit from the track me down at my office rather than relatively intemperate weather makes it ranks of The Heartland, or even move leave parcels unattended at my home. an unattractive place for the intellectual their entire operations there, just to take Clerks at the windows have waited past beau monde, who are more prone to wax advantage of the vestigial individual­ closing for me to get important things romantically about a simple life ism and quaint work ethic. into the mail. And my intrastate letters amongst the wheat fields, rather than I have certainly subcribed to this no­ routinely make it from city-to-eity and actually leave Palo Alto to put down tion, a transplanted New Yorker from hand-to-hand in 24 hours. stakes somewhere outside of Topeka. Queens, living as I have in Wisconsin True, Midwestern private schools As a result, their collectivist cavil is since 1974, and watching the local citi­ still tend to be more efficient than pub­ less familiar to people residing nearer zenry going about their day-to-day oc­ lic ones, just as anywhere else. But most the center of our continent--as is the cupations. Most of them do so with of the public school teachers with "social welfare" legislation it tends to consummate skill and admirable dis­ whom I work spend many extra, un­ spawn-so that Midwesterners still patch, showing up for work on time, compensated hours in their ciassrooms, tend to regard slothful behavior in or keeping appointments, smiling when and are righteously indignant when about the workplace as abusing an they make change, and saying please they get compared to the illiterate and overtly fair system, instead of beating a and thank-you. overpaid unionists who infest many covertly unfair one. Of course, this is exactly the sort of big-city schools. Suggest that the mailman be re­ behavior we would expect from the pri­ All of this is disconcerting for some­ placed with a private courier, and the vate sector, wherein being slovenly and one like me, who believes that a work­ average Midwesterner will look at you taciturn, uncooperative or nonproduc­ er's efficiency and attitude are both as ifyou were nuts. The local post office tive, can have a deleterious effect upon inexorably tied to how dependent he does a pretty good job as far as he's con­ one's income or continued employment perceives the rewards and consequenc­ cerned, and he's probably correct. Nei­ prospects. But even while hating to es of the workplace to be upon his per­ ther will he like your idea about closing admit it, I must report similarly congen- formance therein. Why aren't the postal the public schools. Kids in his neighbor- Liberty 65 Volume 3, Number 3 Janu 1990 hood routinely score highly on college American Midwest is the last place it's scale than generally advocated by Dem­ entrance tests. going to happen. This is because the ocrats, and someone promises to admin­ Even Midwestern utility workers­ greater industry of its people-and by ister each of them efficiently. people who are employees of heavily inclusion, its public and quasi-public I certainly don't mean to offend any­ regulated and unionized companies that employees-precludes .such gross defi­ body with this modest thesis, especially are typically insulated from the efficien­ ciencies of government-supplied or reg­ since the political milieu and ethical am­ cies of the marketplace-are more re­ ulated services. bience of the Midwest causes me to sponsive to customer's needs. I know I maintain that it is in the Midwest prefer it over the place in which I grew this because I used to work as an inde­ that we can expect to find the least­ up. I like it here. But there's a major im­ pendent electrician. I usually could get a hospitable environs for libertarian ideas, plication to these demographic observa­ not New York or Los Angeles, even tions for those of us who want to though we might want to believe that propagate libertarianism in this part of My neighbors can't imagine the values evinced by people residing in the country. Dubuque and Peoria are in better reso­ To wit, merely providing evidence welfare cheaters because they nance with individualism than with that the private sector meets people's themselves would never cheat statism. needs more efficiently than does Consider: I am forever chagrined by government will do little to cause Mid­ the system. the propensity of my neighbors to pro­ westerners to better embrace individual­ ject their own scruples upon those who istic or free-market ideas. This is would be the beneficiaries of one or an­ because, like it or not, differences in utility truck to a house to connect a new other government program. They can't quality between private-versus govern­ service-drop literally within minutes of imagine welfare cheaters, because they ment-supplied services are not so evi­ my service order. Try that in Suffolk themselves would never cheat the sys­ dent around here. County on Long Island, where the repu­ tem. They can't imagine indolent civil This means that Midwestern recep­ tation for poor service and blackouts is employees, because they would never tivity to libertarianism can best be en­ so legendary that Midwesterners now loaf on the job. hanced by talking to the people about ask New Yorkers whether their houses This is why the Midwest provides the moral and ethical underpinnings of have electricity, instead of the other way such a fecund environment for Rocke­ the philosophy. Doing otherwise-by around. feller Republicanism: the notion that it's simply underscoring the inherent effi­ So herein lies the problem: if indig­ okay to advocate all the social engineer­ ciencies ofthe marketplace instead ofex­ nant rage is necessarily a prerequisite to ing and economic tinkering traditionally plaining why one way is right and the the public's rising up against advocated by the Left, so long as such other way is wrong has not worked and government bureaucracy, then the enactments are conceived on a smaller will not work. a

Bernstein, "Regulating Children's TV," continued from page 64 worthwhile. Furthermore, even if these long for these reviews to spread across what their children should watch, the parents were able to judge quality, they the country. market can also help them make sure are often not home to make sure their Of course, ACT would not have a that that is what the children do watch, children are obeying their guidelines. monopoly on this service. It has its own even when the parents are not home. Therefore, the regulators argue, Big peculiar political and sociological views We have programmable VCRs-why Brother must step in to make sure that on what is good for children, and it not programmable televisions? A parent only quality shows are on the air for could be that in the economic market­ who works too late to supervise his children to watch. place, ACT would lose out. Strangely child could set the TV to go on at a cer­ As usual, any possibility of a market enough, for example, ACT (to its credit) tain time to a certain channel, and then solution to this problem is dismissed. has filed a legal brief opposing a recent lock in that setting with a key or other Groups such as ACT immediately rush Congressional action banning indecency device. If the kid doesn't want to watch to the government for help. But what if 24 hours a day on TV and radio. My the show his parent chose, he will either ACT-instead of lobbying the guess is that unlike the leaders of ACT, have to sneak over to a friend's house government-would review all shows the average American is more con­ (always a possibility whatever govern­ on at hours when kids typically watch cerned with bad language and sex on ment and parents do) or find some other TV, including those not aimed directly TV than with how much time is spent. activity to engage in. at children, for such things as violence, advertising Care Bears. With the politi­ If activists such as Charren would sex, educational content, appropriate­ cians out of it, parents will decide what put one-tenth of the effort they put into ness for family viewing, commercial criteria they will use to judge what their lobbying into coming up with creative time and type of commercials, etc? They children should watch-for example, a marketplace solutions like the one out­ could then sell these reviews to TV rating system issued by ACT, a rating lined above, individual liberty would Guide and newspaper TV supplements. system issued by the Moral Majority, a not have to be sacrificed to social expe­ If there are many parents who would rating system issued by a private team diency. We could then give our children like a quick, easy way to know what of child psychiatrists, or no rating sys­ both the benefits of quality television, shows are good for their children-and tem at all. and of a First Amendment not watered I'm sure there are-it would not take Once parents can quickly decide down on their behalf. a 66 Liberty Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War, must be silenced. And was. (This sup­ by Paul Fussell. Oxford University Press, 1989, 297 pp., $19.95. pression need not wait until one's coun­ try is fighting. A year and a half before the U.S. entered World War II, Congress passed and the president signed a sedi­ tion bill. The act, wrote the legal authori­ ty Zechariah Chafee "contain[ed] the most drastic restrictions on freedom of speech ever enacted in the United States The War That Was Hell during peace.") The other sense of "front" is that of a fa~ade. The public cannot be told the truth about the war. There must be a false front to preserve morale and pre­ Sheldon L. Richman fought and had to be won." That's all. vent reconsideration. Americans never No more questions. Now go to your want to fight wars anyway and must be room. Paul Fussell has hit a raw nerve. He lied into them; so it wouldn't take much Sherman's phrase "war is hell" is has written a book about the holiest cru­ to cause second thoughts. As the United such a cliche that all meaning has sade, World War II, but without the States was preparing to enter World War drained from it. "Yeh, yeh, war is hell," mandatory respect. Wartime does not II, the public was told that it would be many people react, without thinking argue that the United States (or England) quick and easy, requiring only light about what that really means. Fussell's should not have fought World War II. It weapons and vehicles and men in dash­ book restores the meaning. War is literal­ does not argue that America was no bet­ ing uniforms. As Fussell points out, dis­ ly hell. ter than Nazi Germany. In fact, Wartime patches from the other front never makes virtually no argument at all. It You would expect [Fussell writes] mentioned the many tragedies in which primarily describes-or, more precisely, front-line soldiers to be struck and planes bombed their own troops, or anti­ allows others to describe-how the war hurt by bullets and shell fragments, aircraft gunners hit their own planes, or but such is the popular insulation changed the United States and Great warships fired on by their own forces. from the facts that you would not ex­ The folks back home could not be told or Britain; how it changed the language, the pect them to be hurt, sometimes shown that people get blown apart by art, the psychology, and the lives of the killed, by being struck by parts of people who fought it and the people at their friends' bodies violently de­ bullets, bombs, mines, shrapnel, and the home. tached. If you asked a wounded sol­ like. The dead are always peacefully in­ But that is apparently too much ex­ dier or marine what hit him, you'd tact in the newspaper and magazine amination for some people. And that is hardly be ready for the answer, liMy photos. This front continues long after interesting. buddy's head" ... the war ends. Here Fussell allows him­ The historian Simon Schama, writing Consider the word "front" as it is self a rare commentary: "It [the popular in the New York Times, seems in a panic used in wartime. Of course, it is the war literature] has thus conveyed to the when he writes, "[I]t seems more than point at which two opposing armies en­ credulous a satisfying, orderly, and even ever important not to fool around with gage. But it is something more. There is optimistic and wholesome view of catas­ the kind of moral eqUivalences explored also the home front, and there are two trophic occurrences-a fine way to en­ in such a cavalier way by Wartime. All senses to this phrase besides the official courage a moralistic, nationalistic, and the folly, squalor, self-deception, one. First, it can refer to the war against bellicose politics." incompetence and mayhem exhibited in enemies at home. What enemies? The Thus World War II would seem to the Allied conduct of the war do not for dissidents, the nonconformists, the skep­ have been both a crime against those one minute lessen its moral legitimacy.II tics-anyone who departs from the or­ who fought it and a fraud on the people The New York Times, sounding like an thodoxy as propounded by the back home. Fussell's book is worthwhile irate father asked one too many ques­ government propaganda inill. This ene­ for having pointed this out so vividly. tions, felt compelled to address the book my is not merely-nor usually-a sym­ But is Wartime guilty of being, as in an editorial, "The Good War." "Was it pathizer with the official foreign Schama charges, "ahistorical"? Surely a good war?" asks The Times. liThe ques­ adversary. It is anyone who thinks the the Allied effort is vindicated by its pur­ tion implies that there was a choice. war ill-conceived, obscene, or not worth pose, the destruction of fascism. (Read There was none. World War II had to be the candle. That person is a threat and history a little closer and you find that Liberty 67 Volume3,Number 3 January 1990 competition for markets and colonies Union-not renowned for their hospitali­ all about the experience of past similar was generally of more concern to the al­ ty to Jews. (At any rate, the war did not situations. Note that so much libertarian lies than fascism.) As Fussell points out, save Jews. It doomed them. In 1939 discussion of foreign policy is based on the GIs by and large had a less meta­ Hitler was still trying to get them to hypothetical situations unrelated to any physical view of the war's purpose. emigrate from Germany and Austria.) historical context. As a student of Even Ernie Pyle, the famous war corre­ ''The war seemed so devoid of Objectivism told me during a conversa­ spondent, wrote, "When you figure ideological content," writes Fussell, "that tion about World War II, "1 don't care how many boys are going to get killed, little could be said about its positive pur­ about history." what's the use of it anyway?" To judge poses that made political or intellectual But history is experience, and most of from what they were writing and say­ sense, especially after the Soviet Union us (including my fellow Objectivists) are ing, they were fighting, first, to avenge joined the great crusade against what un­ empiricists in that we believe that knowl­ til then had been stigmatized as edge begins with the evidence of the totalitarianism." senses. We need to know more than that Then again maybe some of the cyni­ Hjtler was evil before deciding what ex­ It was hard to muster ideal­ cal GIs got wind of how the British ini­ actly to do about it. Of course he did not ism when your fighting ally tiated terror bombing of civilians and respect natural rights, but from this we was Uncle Joe Stalin, who had how the Allies leveled cities having no d~re not blithely assent to the murder, strategic value. Allied conduct at the conscription, and theft that were indis­ starved and purged tens of war's end also would not have inspired pensable to American participation in millions in the previous decade idealism: the barbaric and unnecessary the war. (I wonder how libertarians and who had attacked Finland, atom-bombing ofJapan, the uprooting of think it could have been fought without millions of Germans from eastern taxation and the draft.) As the revisionist the Baltic countries, and, as Germany and the Sudetenland, the C. Hartley Grattan wrote of the debate Hitler's ally, Poland itself. forced repatriation of Soviet escapees. before American entry into the war, These are the big atrocities on the Allied those who "emphasize the menace of side, as if the little atrocity of merely fascism-which is real- ... under­ forcing an individual into the hell of emphasize the menace of war, which is Pearl Harbor and, second, because the equally reaL" Japanese aren't white; and they were combat were not bad enough. A war that kills more civilians than To illustrate the two approaches to fighting for the privilege of ending the foreign policy-let's call it rationalistic war and getting back home to their girl­ servicemen (50 million people in all died) is not the stuff of idealism. The moralism versus moral realism­ friends and hotdogs. The first reason is consider Finland. In 1948 Finland signed New York Times valiantly tried to sal­ less than inspirational, especially con­ a Treaty of Friendship with the Soviet vage something, writing, ''True the Red sidering the dubious circumstances Union. The rationalistic moralist might Army's triumphs gave Stalin a chance to leading up to the attack on Pearl have denounced the treaty as a compro- Harbor. The second reason lacks a cer­ impose Communism in Europe and ad­ tain logic. vance it in Asia. But no nation sustained Not that one could blame them for heavier casualties than the Soviet Union, not having loftier motives. After all, and without Soviet blood there could Sherman's phrase "war is their fathers only two decades earlier have been no victory. The evil of had been through the monumental disil­ Stalinism was its betrayal of civilized hell" is such a cliche that all lusionment known as the Great War. values; Hitlerism denied their exis­ meaning has drained from it. That generation of young Americans, tence." There's a distinction that escapes "¥eh, yeh, war is hell," many full of Wilsonian idealism, shipped out me. to Europe to fight the war to end war In judging a book like Wartime it is people react, without thinking and to make the world safe for easy to fall into a kind of rationalism. about what that really means. democracy. What they unwittingly pro­ The process works this way: Hitler and Fussell's book restores the duced were Bolshevism, fascism, and fascism are evil. Evil has no rights. Thus the seeds of their sons' war. So maybe whatever it takes to defeat them is meaning. War is literally hell. FOR and Churchill's Atlantic Charter justified and maybe imperative. Some li­ didn't have the moving power it was bertarians are prone to such rationalistic supposed to. moralizing. The fallacy is in the belief mise with evil. But that course could And maybe it is hard to muster ideal­ that a moral principle yields the same have led to the crushing of Finland and ism when your fighting ally is Uncle Joe prescription whether applied to a bully possibly another world war. The course Stalin, who had starved and purged tens in a school yard or to an abominable the Finnish people chose has brought of millions in the previous decade and totalitarian nation (which may have forty prosperous years of liberty, capital­ who had attacked Finland, the Baltic legitimate grievances and fears). The ism, and peace. Yes, they promised not countries, and, as Hitler's ally, Poland it­ simplicity of the first situation cannot be to aid an attack on the Soviet Union. But self. And if the average GI felt for the assumed in the second. This rationalism which course served the rational self­ Jews, maybe he found it odd to come to leads one to care only about concrete sit­ interest of the Finns (not to mention the the defense of Poland and the Soviet uations and general principles and not at rest of us)? 68 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 The war and its prelude did great vi­ In Pursuit ofHappiness and Good Government, olence to the United States beside the by Charles Murray. Simon & Schuster, 1988, 341 pp., $19.95. obvious. As Charles Beard pointed out, they radically changed America's limit­ ed, constitutional government without a vote by setting precedents for secrecy, gross deception, and the assumption of autocratic power by a president. Life, Happiness, and the National security became the gaping loophole through which virtually any Pursuit ofPolicy violation of rights could scurry. But these debits are rarely entered in the war ledger. The history of war teaches much if we are willing to learn: that no one can David Gordon good pursued as a means to an end is conquer the world; that war serves the valuable not in itself but because of what securing it will help one achieve. If I policymakers, not the people; that liber­ How should social policies be evalu­ wish to go on a diet only in order to lose ty loses; that war is the health of the ated? One obvious procedure measures weight, then dieting is for me not a good state. It is those who failed to under­ the results of a policy against the goals that is valuable in itself. But what about stand this, not Fussell, who are ahistori­ that its advocates profess. The details of losing weight? This might be something cal. The classical liberals, such as such demonstrations do not here con­ I value for its own sake or something Richard Cobden, had a more realistic, cern us: what is important in this context sought for yet another goal. Murray and moral, attitude about war. Part of it is the method used. To reiterate, the crit­ maintains that there must rationally be a is well captured by Sydney Smith in his ic issues no challenges to a policy's stopping point in the pursuit of things letter of 1832 to Lady Grey: goals: he does not, for instance, question valued as means: something must beval­ whether the state should try to make For God's sake, do not drag me into ued for its own sake, if the entire process another war! I am worn down, and workers better off. is to have a point. worn out, with crusading and de­ Internal criticism of socialist and in­ So far, so good. But Murray comes to fending Europe, and protecting terventionist proposals has been the grief in concluding that there must be mankind: I must think a little of my­ characteristic procedure of free market self. I am sorry for the Spaniards-I some one thing-happiness-that is the economists. Charles Murray has been a goal of all rational endeavor. It simply am sorry for the Greeks--I deplore notable contributor to this tradition. In the fate of the Jews; the people of does not follow from the fact that m.eans his controversial 1984 work, Losing the Sandwich Islands are groaning require ends, that there is one end at under the most detestable tyranny; Ground, Murray exposed to withering which all means aim. The fallacy is exact­ Bagdad is oppressed; I do not like cross examination the major claims ad­ ly that involved in concluding from the present state of the Delta; ThiOOt vanced on behalf of the welfare state. "Everyone has a father" to "Someone is is not comfortable. Am I to· fight for In Pursuit of Happiness he follows a the father of everyone." In brief, Murray all these people? The world is burst­ different course, at once more funda­ has failed to show that everyone has a ing with sin and SOrrow. Am I to be mental and less clearcut in its results highest end, as the rest of his argument champion of the Decalogue, and to than his internal criticism of the welfare requires. be eternally raising fleets and armies state. Here Murray's key question is: to make all men good and happy? Let us put aside this objection and as­ "What constitutes 'success' in social poli­ sume that everyone does have a single We have just done saving Europe, cy?" (p. 23, emphasis removed). He does and I am afraid the consequence highest end. It does not follow from this will be, that we shall cut each oth­ not take as given the aims of those who fact that someone has such an end that er's throats. No war, dear Lady defend the welfare state. Quite the con­ the goal in question is his own well­ Grey!-No eloquence; but apathy, trary, he endeavors to respond to the being. If happiness is "the self­ selfishness, common sense, arithme­ question he has posed by coming to sufficiently good in itself," then someone tic! ... If there is another war, life grips with the deepest problems of eth­ who believes that he ought to stamp out will not be worth having.... ics. In Murray's opinion, it is self-evident all desires for personal enjoyment in or­ War stripped of its propaganda ex­ that everyone's highest goal is happi­ der the better to sacrifice himself for the poses the essence of the state most stark­ ness, since by "definition ... happiness welfare of others has the goal of happi­ ly. Fussell helps us to see this. And is the only thing that is self-sufficiently ness, exactly the same way as someone through the mythology of war the state good in itself and does not facilitate or with more conventional views. All that maintains its grip: it must have us be­ lead to any other better thing" (26). You Murray's definition of happiness re­ lieve that without it we'd have long must adopt happiness as your highest quires is that someone have a highest been conquered by the barbarians. If we goal because happiness just means your end. Whatever this end consists of is wish to delegitmate the state, we will highest goal. "happiness." find no better strategy than to turn to Unfortunately, the point is less evi­ For most of the book, however, historical revisionism and the demythol­ dent than Murray believes. Following Murray adopts a different characteriza­ ogizing ofwar. a Aristotle, Murray correctly notes that a tion of happiness: "the working defini- Liberty 69 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 tion I [Murray] will employ is lasting son to pursue happiness. The first policy excellent and the importance of his anal­ and justified satisfaction with one's life he convincingly rejects as a pipe-d.ream: ysis for public policy is at once evident. as a whole" (44, emphasis removed). I it is the second that he adopts as proper. There is however one point at which have no objection to this definition and But, so far as one can discover, he of­ Murray's presentation goes wrong. As am far from denying that most people fers not the slightest reason for thinking he sees it, "a measure of the core concept do want happiness as thus character­ that the state ought to provide people underlying self-respect" is the degree to ized. But even if one accepts Murray's with the conditions enabling them to which someone feels himself responsible quasi-Aristotelian argument that every­ pursue happiness. All that the ethical dis­ for what happens to him (124-125). one seeks happiness as an ultimate end, cussion in Part One shows, assuming the Murray suggests that the I-E scale, a psy­ it does not follow that everyone seeks complete success of Murray's argument, chological test that measures this "locus happiness under the new definition. is that each individual ought to seek his of control," ought to be interpreted as a or her own happiness. How does it fol­ measure of self-respect. (Incidentally, a low from this that persons have claims strength of the book is Murray's exten­ against others for what is required to en­ sive knowledge of experimental Of course, one must have able them to pursue this goal? psychology.) food and shelter in order to Murray's discussion, it seems to me, But self-respect, as Murray and Sachs survive, but once a modest is considerably more successful in Part have characterized it, has little to do Two. Here the dominant theme is that with "locus of control." It concerns one's threshold is reached, happiness the conditions enabling people to lead self-regard as a person of moral stature and wealth are less closely cor­ happy lives are most decidedly not to be and does not entail either one's being in related than one might at first equated with the unlimited possession of control of the principal events of one's material goods. Of course, one must life or the belief that one is. Probably it assume. have food and shelter in order to sur­ would be difficult to maintain self­ vive, but once a modest threshold is respect if one's life were entirely at the reached, happiness and wealth are less mercy of others; but it hardly follows Murray has not shown that the new defi­ closely correlated than one might at first from this that the degree to which one is nition encapsulates the only rationally assume. Murray supports this part of his "in control" measures self-respect. justifiable ultimate end. argument with both statistical data and Turning at last to public policy, the The situation confronting Murray is "thought experiments," including one in direction of Murray's argument is clear. not so black as I have so far painted it. If which the reader is asked to imagine If enabling everyone to pursue happi­ the foray into ethics that forms Part One himself suddenly transported to a poor ness is the proper goal of public policy, of the bookis placed to one side, Murray Thai village. Murray's own experience as and happiness depends less on the pos­ might still reasonably maintain that a fieldworker in Southeast Asia brings session of wealth than on "intangibles" most people do in fact wish to attain ra­ this section ofthe book vividly to life. such as self-respect, then the policies of tionally justified satisfaction with life. If happiness does not require much the welfare state stand condemned. Murray's definition is much more satis­ in the way of wealth, what does it de­ factory when used as a working hypoth­ pend on? Murray enumerates a number esis than when elevated to a rational of enabling conditions, including safety NSelf-esteem" depends on demonstration. and creative work: but probably the one Having established, to his own satis­ he regards as of primary importance is the relation between expecta­ faction at any rate, the ultimate goal of self-respect. tions and achievements and is action, Murray in Part Two discusses the A person with self-respect regards by no means always a virtue. conditions under which this goal may be himself as someone of value: he believes advanced. Part Three applies the results himself entitled to dignified treatment Many people have too much of this investigation to public policy is­ and will not willingly allow others to self-esteem. sues. Highway speed limits and salaries trample on his moral rights. Following for teachers are in particular discussed Professor David Sachs of the Johns in a highly original way. Before we turn Hopkins Philosophy Department, These policies provide money but ignore to these sections of the book, however, a Murray usefully distinguishes self­ the factors leading to happiness which respect from self- esteem. "Self-esteem" further problem confronts us. Murray has been at such pains to set out. means thinking highly of oneself. It de­ Murray finds the key to public policy Do not programs that make people en­ in a famous phrase of the Declaration of pends on the relation between one's ex­ tirely dependent on public largesse Independence, "the pursuit of happi­ pectations and achievements and is by strike at the heart of self-respect? How ness." He provides valuable historical no means always a virtue. Many people can perpetual subsidies for unemploy­ discussion of the way in which eight­ have too much self-esteem: probably eenth-century writers used the term everyone has encountered someone who ment enable people to obtain the creative "happiness" and distinguishes with con­ "thanks God that he is not as other men work that Murray argues is essential to siderable care between the view that se­ are." As Sachs points out, it is by con­ their happiness? These and other vital curing each person's happiness is the trast not possible to speak of having too questions Murray discusses in thorough goal of public policy and the position much self-respect. fashion. that the state ought to enable each per- Murray's discussion of self-respect is The last part of the book descends to 70 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990

the specific. Murray suggests in a very In a provocative chapter on educa­ ing to teach at lower salaries. careful discussion of the 55-mph speed tion, Murray opposes higher salaries for Murray's picture certainly violates limit for automobiles that the subject teachers. In his view, the best teachers the "conventional wisdom," but it is needs to be analyzed in a different way are primarily motivated by devotion to none the worse for that. The problem lies from the customary. As most policy ana­ their work. Though well able to compete not in what Murray says but in the atti­ lysts see matters, to lower the speed lim­ for high salaries, they willingly forego tude he takes toward it. Murray's ac­ it will save a certain number of lives. large incomes in order to secure the non­ count of the dedicated private teacher is Against this fact, people do not want to material satisfactions of teaching. The no doubt correct in some cases, but is it be inconvenienced by being compelled low salaries offered by most private in fact the way things usually happen? to travel more slowly than they wish. schools keep out those without the req­ To answer this, evidence is required How can these two considerations be uisite dedication. rather than the ,,}ust So" story that balanced? A raise in teachers' salaries will up­ Murray has provided. Whether his ac­ This is in Murray's opinion the set the careful balance of material and count of matters is correct, or whether wrong question to ask. Instead, one non-material satisfactions worked out teachers are influenced by money to a ought to ask: what are the benefits and through agreements between the teach­ greater extent than Murray imagines, is a costs to each individual of having a low­ ers and local communities that employ matter that can be resolved only by em­ er speed limit? If one takes Murray's ad­ them. Higher salaries will attract those pirical investigation. This Murray fails to vice and considers the individual rather who find the new monetary rewards at­ offer. than total benefits and losses to society tractive. Those who sacrifice money in Murray's work is worth careful as a whole, then the case for the 55-mph order to dedicate their lives to their stu­ study. He does not respect the usual pie­ speed limit appears to dissolve. dents will be pressured out through ties but thinks things out for himself. According to Murray's figures, an indi­ competition from those motivated by Although sometimes wrong, his work is vidual can gain only the minutest in­ money. These, once more, Murray re­ always original and carefully crease in safety through following a gards as less competent than those wiU- considered. a lowered speed limit. But is each person concerned only Ideal, a play by Ayn Rand, with his or her own safety? What if "you The Melrose Theatre: Jamie L. Allen & Janne Peters, producers; Michael want to save the lives of others even if Paxton, director; Jeff Britting, music;Janne Peters stars as Kay Gonda. your own is not at risk-the value of the 55-mph limit is not just the good it does for you, but also the good it does for others" (193). Murray responds by not­ ing that any individual who wishes the Ayn l{and Is safety benefits of a lower speed limit can secure these for himself by driving more slowly: to impose the lower limits Alive and Well and Living whether or not others wish it is paterna­ listic. Murray also claims that individu­ als are not put much at risk, should they in Los Angeles choose to decrease their speed, by the fact that others drive faster. Murray's stimulating argument does Charles Ziarko of them seem! Even Rand's admirers of­ not strike me as altogether convincing. If ten overlook what a successful, savage someone wishes to have a 55-mph speed Well, not exactly: her ideas are alive social satirist she was, Swiftean in her limit so that a certain number of lives and well on the stage of a chic, cozy 49­ scorn, but when her most appalling tar­ gets jump from the printed page to may be saved, then his goal is not the seat playhouse in an industrial area of paternalistic one of compelling people three-dimensional life, as they do here, it Hollywood, the Melrose Theatre on to choose a lowered risk of death against is impossible to ignore just how skillful North Seward Street. their wishes. Lowering the speed limit were her comic gifts, as well as her dra­ By the standards of today's intellec­ has as its aim the saving of lives: and matic ones. this no one person is in a position to tually-comatose professional theatre, The "world premiere" of the full­ bring about through reducing his own Ideal would seem mired in the conven­ length version of the text, which Rand speed. True enough, if the speed limit is tions of craftsmanship of the earlier age never published, is a long evening-two lowered, some people will have to drive in which it was written, at age 29, by a and three quarters hours from first cur­ more slowly than they wish; but the rea­ Russian emigre who was finding her tain to stage-spanning curtain call-but son for this is not paternalistic. (Of way with·the English language just as a rewarding one, as the audience fol­ course, I do not advocate government she was finding her way within the film lo\tVS film-star Kay Gonda in her great­ road regulation; but I recognize that the business. But what ideas they are, and est "real-life" role. She is a problem of safety regulation would not broad as the brush-strokes may be, how contemporary Diogenes in search of the be ended automatically if roads were refreshing to hear them anew, and to one true believer whose protestations of privatized.) discover just how contemporary many devotion turn out to be honest when Liberty 71 Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 put to the test of real life. After entering noon, a glaring error, if ever there was Century (8:30). At 9:00 is The Road to War, and exiting five lives during the course one. The direction of Michael Paxton is followed at 10:00 with The Vietnam War. of one very busy night, and finding more than a bit muddled, not in inter­ Over time series will come and go, but them all lacking the inner resources pretation of character, but in staging, the basic theme of Wednesday's lineup that she hoped to discover, she finally which tends to random roamings about on A & E remains the same. For the true finds her "hero," a cheerful martyr the stage. These "keep the play moving" addict, the entire three hours of blood, whose supreme gesture of devotion in a baffling circle. guts, and martial music is repeated be­ proves to be, cruelly, a useless and As for the cast: Janne Peters is a bit ginning at midnight. needless one. angular for a screen sex-goddess, but her Thursdays on A & E features a prime Complementing the script is some intensity is as tight as her accent; she's time lineup of Victory at Sea (8:00 P.M. remarkable production design. Instead not to blame for the moments when Kay Eastern) followed by The Eagle and the of trying to cram a postage-stamp stage is reduced to a cipher and her "fans" Bear (8:30). Also of interest on A & E is with period furniture or to reduce the take center stage. Notable are the sup­ Profiles (M-F, 6:30 Eastern), Battleline text to a series of abstract black back­ porting performances of Michael (Sunday, 8:30 A.M. Eastern), and drops, Grant AIkin places each scene be­ Richard Keller (who delivers two hilari­ Biography (Sunday and Tuesday, 8:00 fore a life-size black and white "pencil ous caricatures), Melanie Noble (who P.M. Eastern). sketch" of what the set might like, an ab­ splendidly doubles as a Victorian spin­ So you abhor war but have a passion stract conception ideal-Iy suited to the ster and a blowsy, uninhibited evangel­ for nature? Well, currently re-running abstract nature of the text. The effect is ist), and Keith MacKechnie, an inspired the public television circuit is David electrifying. choice for martyrdom. Attenborough's series, The Living Planet. Unfortunately, the level of imagina­ One hopes that this unexpected and As always with PBS, check your local tion and intelligence is not uniformly worthy production of Ideal generates in­ guide for time, date, or (God forbid) maintained: the lighting, by Marty terest in bringing other Ayn Rand stage availability. A & E also does some na­ Schiff, is poor; the stage is over-lighted scripts back to life in the theatre where ture oriented stuff (earlier this fall they to remind us of a McDonald's at high they belong. 0 did a cut-up version of Attenborough's Living Planet). The Discovery Channel is basically renowned as the nature chan­ There is more on the boob tube than dreck for the booboisie. nel, where you can find every cheap, tawdry nature show ever produced. For true intellectuals, PBS is airing The Day the Universe Changed by· James Burke. This is an outstanding voyage through human history. Burke is lucid, witty and iconoclastic. Moyers: The Public All That's Fit to Watch Mind, is a new PBS series; as usual Bill Moyers attacks contemporary Republican strategies and values with left wing muckraking artfully disguised as unbiased journalism. Surely Moyers Andrew Roller a panoply of other personalities all eager ranks with Joseph Goebbels in the to shoot the bull. Robert Krulwich, of Propaganda Hall of Fame. Recently TV Guide praised CNN's CBS This Morning, drops by now and William F. Buckley Jr. has mercifully then as well. Nightwatch is two hours Larry King Live (M-F, 9:00 P.M. Eastern) cut his Firing Line program to only half long, so there is always something on an hour, and at this length it is digesti­ as an outstanding program for the intel­ each program to engage your interest. ble. It's on PBS, of course. ligent viewer "dry gulched" in prime The smart libertarian will have taped Viewers oriented to "Horse Race" time. In fact, Larry King Live is abysmal, Nightwatch while he slept, giving him an politics will want to be sure to tune in to full of salacious gossip, flaming femi­ enjoyable and rewarding after dinner The McLaughlin Group, carried by many nists, "abused" females of all ages and viewing experience without Larry King PBS stations. Loud, brash, nerdy John varieties, and stern law-and-order types or Roseanne Barr. McLaughlin is there, along with "Good eager to pronounce judgment and pun­ Perhaps, however, you're not into Ole Boy" Pat Buchanan, "Babyface" ish. So what is the intelligent libertarian, "talking heads." You prefer to see peo­ Mort Kondracke, and well, obese Jack "dry gulched" in prime time, to watch? ple getting blown up. Yet you're just Germond. Fred Barnes is a newcomer to The "King of the Night" is not smart enough that the A-Team or its the show, the result of a terminal spat Johnny Carson, but Charlie Rose, host of present incarnation doesn't cut it. You between McLaughlin and Robert Novak. CBS News Nightwatch (M-F, approx. 2:00 need the Arts and Entertainment CNN's political talk show Crossfire A.M.). Rose is handsome, affable, in­ Network (A & E). A & E airs educational (M-F, 7:30 P.M. Eastern) also has a new formed, and humorous. He begins each war series throughout the week, but the member. Michael Kinsley has replaced broadcast with an interview covering big night is Wednesday. Currently Tom Braden. Crossfire has been running the headline of the day. From there Rose Wednesday begins with World War I (8 for years, and somewhere in the past moves on to authors, sportswriters and P.M. Eastern), followed by The Twentieth you may have tuned out. Braden was 72 Liberty Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 undeniably boring. But Kinsley is sharp, seeing. Victory Garden, with Peter LIMITED TIME, ORDER 2 aggressive, and very endearing. He and Seabrook, is true cult fare. Ofcourse it's a SHIRTS, GET 3rd FREE! long-time co-host Pat Buchanan make an great show for gardeners too. 0 T-Shirts - sa outstanding couple. When Buchanan is Sweatshirts - $16 absent he is often replaced by Novak, Bumperstickers ­ $2 each or 4 for $5 and then the program is even better. Also Available: •I• So who is this twice mentioned Capitalism • Who is Robert Novak, anyway? He is the co­ John Galt? • John Galt for host of CNN's Evans and Novak Booknotes President • Escape the fog: Objectivism • (Saturday, 12:30 P.M. Eastern). It's pretty I Think: Therefore I can't be a Socialist • Silk screened with top quality Materials b~ring. Novak has a better forum for his Sizes: M,L,XL Blue or Pink antics on The Capital Gang. Please add $2.50 postage and handling for Yes, friends, The Capital Gang is Choosing sides on Deicide ­ T-shirts and sweatshirts; S()¢ for stickers God is making appearances in science For more information and quantity price list, where you can hear Mark Shields send stamped, self addressed envelope to: scream obscenities (literally) when fiction with increasing frequency. It used Individual Concepts Robert Novak asks why the Democratic to be that even the most religious au­ P.O. Box40486,Redf~d,MI48240 Please allow 2 to 4 weeks for delivery. Party permits itself to be held hostage by thors of fantastic literature put God at the gay lobby. Pat Buchanan is here as arm's length, perhaps out of piety, per­ well (yes, he's on three talk shows per haps out of prudence. (In C.S. Lewis's week). So is Al Hunt of The Wall Street Space Trilogy, for instance, the closest Journal. This "Gang of ~our" (as they call we get to God are the "Oyarse," or plan­ themselves) always has an important et-ruling angels.) Well, things have CHINA HAS guest who also takes part in the changed considerably, at least since "Gang's" weekly exchange of insults Kingsley Amis dropped God into The and diatribes. "Political Pornography for Green Man-to the salvation of the book the Mind" sums up this show best. as well as its hero. God has played mem­ This Week with David Brinkley (ABC, orable roles in numerous recent works, MAKE A STATEMENT! Sunday morning) is a more staid version John Varley's Millennium being a good Order your bright red & white of the political talk show format, with­ example (unfortunatley He did not durable vinyl bumper strip today out being a total bore like PBS's infa­ deign to appear in this summer's film $2.00 each plus mous "wake me when it's over" version, which needed a deus ex machi­ SO¢ postage/handling Washington Week in Review. David na-or something, at least-to save it $1.50 each (10 or more) plus Brinkley and George Will are the main from Kris Kristofferson). Now $1.50 postage/handling draws. Sam Donaldson is so slow he Nietzsche's madman has forsaken the Send check & order to ought to be bottled and sold as medica­ seminaries for the science-fiction con­ Libertarian Party of Brevard tion for hyperkinetic children. The best ventions, and the "death of God" is all 218 Ash St. • Melbourne, FL 32904 part of David Brinkley is the discussion the rage--science-fiction authors are between the hosts that occupies the lat­ aligning the Almighty in their cross­ ter part of the program. hairs. Okay, okay, so you just want a nice How do you kill God? Well, if we are little show with flowers, turnips, and to 'believe several recent books on the happy people. "Tend your garden," as subject, the answer is: with a blunt instru­ Voltaire said. PBS's Victory Garden is the ment. In Victor Koman's The Jehovah answer for you, my friend, especially Contract (reviewed in Liberty, Sept. 1987) now that Peter Seabrook is back with a it was with Wiccan magic and modern new series of reports from far-flung for­ mass communications; in Ted eign gardens, displacing "mush mouth" Reynolds's The Tides of God (New York: yuppie farmer Roger Swain. Seabrook is Ace Books, 1989,247 pp., $3.50) it is with a slender, silver-haired chap from the an alien spaceship and future firepower. British Isles who always wears a proper Of course, the real blunt instruments are suit and tie as he tours a garden, often the books themselves, books that do not with his "brelly" in hand to guard succeed in treating their subjects with, against the occasional downpour. Victory well, due respect. Koman's book was ba­ Garden can be deadly when Seabrook is sically a dumb idea; Reynolds's book is absent, but the show takes on a whole hampered by an inadequate novelistic new air when his delicate inquisitive fig­ technique, chiefly by organizational ure comes bounding into view. Seabrook problems, but also by a distracting ad­ really hits his stride when he is not bur­ diction to displays of cleverness and Dr. Robert B. Clarkson dened with interviewing some proprie­ cuteness and a penchant for playing 515 Concord Avenue tor about a garden, but instead gets to pointless tricks on the reader. Anderson, SC 29621 explain to you, the viewer, what he is Still, Reynolds's book is the better of (803) 225-3061 Volume 3, Number 3 ]anuaryl990 the two. He at least has a magnificent ing threw me for a loop, and his real tween traditional conservatism and li­ premise, and attempts to do it justice. opinions on any of the book's important bertarianism; it has been praised and The setting is the future, after the aliens subjects remain obscure. It almost makes damned, and continues to provoke re­ have "made contact" with our civiliza­ me wonder what Entity has been patrol­ sponse." And he can be provocative: on tion. They like our music, and trade their ling the waters of his mind-scape. John Courtney Murray's We Hold These technology (but not their science) for our -Timothy W. Virkkala Truths he says, "Murray's argument, cultural achievements. But their most that the American political tradition is stupendous gift is a huge starship, for What is Right? -. The conserva­ consonant with the Catholic understand­ which they demand humans to perform tive movement, broadly defined, has ingof natural law, is of importance for one task: kill "God." grown enormously in three decades. It non-Catholics, since it denies the myth Now, this "God" is not quite the one began as a reaction against New Deal of a modernist, Lockean America." you will read about in any sacred text.·lt statism and imperialism; it now includes Wolfe discusses books about law, ec­ ("He" doesn't apply) is not omnipresent, New Dealers whose sole interest is an onomics, international politics, commu­ but instead makes a circuit ~hrough the expansionist foreign policy. The move­ nism, liberalism, religion, crime, and stars, and by some sort of telepathy in­ ment as it stands today is a hodgepodge much more. Around 500 books are anno­ fluences sentient beings when It moves of contradictions. tated here, and he gives lots of attention through their stellar vicinity. This influ­ The best and most comprehensive to the libertarian variant within the con­ ence is almost wholly perverse: against guide to the American Right available servative tradition. reason, tolerance, and any sense of pro­ today is Gregory Wolfe's RightMinds: A Wolfe gives short biographies of ma­ portion. As the humans in the starship Sourcebook of American Conservative jor thinkers and works, covering every (The Hound of God) move closer to their Thought (Chicago: Regnery Gateway, era from the revolutionary war to the target, reason almost totally breaks 1987, forward by William F. Buckley, present. The lives of Mencken, Nock, down: the crew embraces sectarian war­ 250pp, $16.95). It is an invaluable refer­ Sumner, Burnham, Chodorov, Gilder, fare and sinks into bloody chaos. ence book for anyone who works in the Hazlitt, Buckley, Mises, Hayek, This is, of course, a rather simple­ opinion industry. Rothbard, Strauss, Meyer, Kirk, Kristol, minded, village-atheist vision of relig­ The coalitions of the Reagan years and others are covered in biographies ion; still, it is impressive. Fiction can sur­ have helped to gloss over the differences that average 300 words. vive quite a bit of crudeness, as the between, for example, the libertarians, The book includes a section that lists success of Dickens can attest. the paleoconservatives, the neoconserva­ conservative or conservative-like organi­ Amazingly-though not quite believa­ tives, the theocrats, the traditionalists, zations, their histories, functions, and bly-the novel's denouement transcends and the Southern agrarians. Wolfe him­ addresses. its rather juvenile viewpoint, and the au­ self is a paleocon of the Buckleyan varie­ Most readers will have complaints thor strains for something.more than the ty. Here, though, he takes an ecumenical about Wolfe's book. Mine is that he left ultimate in Revenge. approach· without whitewashing the out the libertarians among our founding The most interesting aspect of the differences. fathers suitable for framing, $5.00. Any Brittan is not, however, a libertarian. formation. Includes alphabetical list of two $7.50, three $10.00. Available in shrink­ Though the word "libertarian" crops up associated persons. $3 postpaid, $4 overseas. Jim wrapped matte frame, add $5.00 each. When or­ Stumm, Box 29-LB, Hiler Branch, Buffalo, NY occasionally as an adjective, it is only in dering, identify by punch line and/or subject 14223. the postscript that he discusses the and issue of Liberty. Bob Ortin Baures, 2351 Attention Objectivist Writers: Publishing China Gulch Road, Jacksonville, OR 97530. Maddox-Lillie diagram of the political house seeks manuscripts for anthology of spectrum (well-known to libertarians as Walter Williams - Libertarian for ObjectiVist-oriented fiction, short stories, plays, President '92 - Quality Red, White, and Blue the "Nolan Chart") with its four-fold or poetry. Send to Decca Press, 4808 SW 75th buttons with picture of Williams, Postpaid: Each categories of Conservative, Populist, Avenue, Miami, Florida 33155-4437. $2,3/$5,7/$10, 16/$20. Dept LI, 1239 Kenyon St Left-Progressive, and Libertarian. But Imagine Freedom from Governments and NW, Washington, DC 20010 (Please make checks Brittan does not pursue this opportuni­ Churches. stormy MON, editor. 10th payable to: J. Brown. ty to discuss the modern libertarian Anniversary, Revised Edition: illustrated, contro­ versial. 188 pp. $10, international $12 Libertarian Periodicals movement. He prefers his own Library, Box 24269-H, Denver,CO 80224. (British?) term for this movement-the Bigger print now in The (Libertarian) "New Economic Right"-and never Literature Connection, open-forum magazine since 1968. once mentions its most prominent insti­ Subscribers may insert one page/issue free, un­ Don't Procrastinate! The time to stop the edited. Lots of stimulating conversation. Eight is­ tution, the Libertarian Party. This last, I anti-drug insanity is now! Send $5 for your per­ sues (one year) $20. Strauss, Box 3343Z, Fairfax, think, is more than a snub; it is a mis­ sonal freedom manual before it's too late! VA 22038. characterization of the American freedom Meyer's-7 Box 166979, Irving, TX 75016-6979. Freethought Today, newspaper for atheists, movement, motivated I suspect by Libertarian Anti-Abortion arguments: $3.00. agnostics. $20 annually or send $2.00 for sample Brittan's dislike of its more radical (Information only: SASE) Libertarians for Life, copy. PO Box 750, Madison WI 53701. tendencies. 13424 Hathaway Drive, #22, Wheaton, MD Panarchy: Government by choice, not chance. His own version of liberalism is 20906. People-oriented Government not government­ Pirate Radio. SASE to Box 1087-L, Sun Valley, Hayekian, and is "compatible with re­ oriented people. Idea whose time has come. CA91352. Investigate a political system offering both distribution of the income and wealth Free-Market Environmentalism offers Freedom and security. Ultimate Libertarianism and may require government action to ways to protect the environment without adding Newsletter. $8 year or $3 sample. Checks to ensure that the market transmits peo­ to the power of the state. For information write LeGrand E. Day, Editor, Panarchy Dialectic, Box ple's preferences effectively" (212). Jane Shaw, Political Economy Research Center, 353 Reseda, CA 91333. Liberty 7S Volume 3, Number 3 January 1990 Perhaps only in America could a class B are familiar with those portions of his regrettable (vital ideas are supposed to actor they call "the Gipper" become Prez book that we have excerpted-the pieces be continually refined and restated), and gain the wide-spread popularity on Viking Iceland and problems for liber­ lack of strong competitors surely does that few presidents have enjoyed. And tarian theory. What they should note is not detract from the book's value. perhaps only a collection of political car­ that there is more new material (all ex­ Friedman does not strive for a seri­ toons can relate the history of such a po­ pressly written for libertarians) that we ous tone. Though this may be seen as a litical system so well. did not print-including a brilliant sec­ defect by some, it is really one of his ma­ After reading this collection of car­ tion on his answers to the problems he jor assets. Most people are turned off by toons, I am certain that it wasn't the posed-not to mention all the good stuff politics and economics unleavened by Christian Right or the ultra­ in the first edition. humor. For these people Machinery is conservatives who loved Reagan the I have long been fond of this book. It ideal; his exposition of libertarian ideas is the second libertarian book I ever read most. It was the cartoonists. is very easy, to take, as well as under­ (the first was Nozick's Anarchy, State and -Rodney E. Mood stand. Though perhaps best-suited for Utopia), and I found it a lot more con­ novices, the book is a pleasure to read vincing than all the standard (and con­ The Machinery of Friedman: over and over again. I have been quot­ fusing) stuff about natural rights and An Appreciation 'David morality. Though my main interest is ing Friedman's elegant little formula­ Friedman's spirited exposition of anar­ ethics, Friedman cuts the Gordian Knot tions and witticisms for years-without, cho-capitalism-The Machinery of of Ethics by concentrating on the I admit, always crediting him. Also, I Freedom: A Guide to a Radical practical side of politics. He does this cherish his wonderful bit of doggerel Capitalism-is one of the most enjoya­ with wit and a sense of good fun, as well (the poem "Paranoia") for its arch wit. I ble discussions of libertarian ideas yet as with his "machinery" of economic suppose that, since tastes in humor vary written. The second edition (La Salle, IL: analysis. His writing is clear and forceful, so greatly, I should be a little more cir­ Open Court Publishing, 1989, 267 pp., and a better case for "anarchy" (that is, cumspect in my praise-but, surely, $32.95 hc, $14.95 sc) is now out, and for agencies of defensive and retaliatory anyone who could ask whether Bill should be bought by anyone who likes force competing in the marketplace) has Buckley is a contagious disease has playing with ideas. Readers of Liberty yet to be made. Though this is in a sense something going for him! -TWV

Branden Interview, continued from page 57

crucial ones is how she applied her distinction between er­ an Objectivist but in no other. Iftoday Objectivism means rors of knowledge and errors of morality. wild fanaticism then I am no part of that. Liberty: Rand attaches a lot of importance to this distinction. Liberty: That seems to be what it means, with the current peo- Branden: It is s a very important concept, philosophically and ple who apparently own the term "Objectivism." psychologically. There are times when you can sayan action Branden: I am not willing to grant them that term. is so atrocious that there's no accounting for it except by eva­ Liberty: What do you think of the current Objectivists? sion, by the actor's refusal to understand what he is doing. Branden: Oh, dear! Do you mean the people around Leonard But in most cases we cannot see into somebody else's mind [Peikoff]? and it's incredibly presumptuous to say we can. It's all we Liberty: Yes. can do in most cases to know about ourselves, to know Branden: I was going to say that the current Objectivists of sig­ whether a mistake we made was an honest one, whether we nificance ... many of them I admire very much and I am de­ might have known, should have known, or could have lighted to see that they are creating their own lives away from known better ... It's immensely difficult to one's own be­ the need for Ayn or Leonard or Nathan or anybody. And havior. And I think very often it's not even necessary to try. many of them are doing just wonderful things and it pleases We made a mistake, okay, we pick up and try not to do it me very much. They are going their own ways intellectually again. and that's just a delight to me because that's what should But there is a presumptuousness, an arrogance in attempt­ happen. ing to judge what's going onin somebody else's mind in The people around Leonard-and to my knowledge there that subtle a respect. It is very dangerous; it does a lot of are about two and a half ofthem because everybody decent is damage and simply cannot be justified. long gone-they are true cultists, fanatics. But I don't think But a terrible, terrible problem came out of the way Ayn they are of the least importance. They are talking to them­ herself misapplied this distinction. She was too quick to find selves, and themselves get to be smaller and smaller in num­ errors of morality in other people, anda lot of students of ber all the time. It's just unfortunate that that's the entrance of Objectivism picked up from Ayn her way of dealing with it many people to Objectivism. I wish it weren't. and the number of moral charges against people, the fear on As far as what Leonard is doing with Ayn's estate, I think the part of individuals that maybe they were making a mo­ it's simply horrendous. He's selling it off bit-by-bit. Her pa­ ral error, was just insane, insane and terribly tragic. pers should be in a university where they belong, not pub­ In fact, anything in her philosophy that impinges on psy­ lished in little bits and pieces with some of the philosophical chology is really a disaster. Even within the philosophical things edited by Leonard which is just insanity. It destroys all system there are things that don't make sense to me. But the value they might have. His handling of her estate is none of them are basic. So in that sense I would call myself appalling. 0 76 Liberty , Notes on Contributors

Stephen G. Barone is a writer who lives in Sheldon L. Richman is director of public affairs at Platteville, Wisconsin. the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason David Bernstein has entered his second year at University. Yale Law School. He has written articles for Human James S. Robbins is a doctoral candidate at the Events, the Boston Herald, and other periodicals. Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts R. W. Bradford is editor of Liberty. University. Stephen Cox, a senior editor of Liberty, is Llewelyn H. Rockwell, Jr, a journalist and think­ Associate Professor of Literature, University of tank director, has been active in the conservative and California, San Diego. libertarian movements for more than 30 years. David Gordon, an Adjunct Scholar of the Ludwig Andrew Roller is a former launch officer for nu­ von Mises Institute, has written numerous reviews clear missiles in the United States Air Force. He cur­ and essays for diverse journals. rently lives in Sacramento, California, with his finger on very different sorts of buttons. Karl Hess, a senior editor of Liberty, is also the editor of Libertarian Party News. Murray N. Rothbard, a senior editor of Liberty, is Richard Kostelanetz is a writer and artist living in the author of numerous books and articles. He is S.J. New York City. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Lawrence Ludlow's practice of cheese hoarding is a Professor of Economics has emptied his bank account and overburdened the Charles K. Rowley, Jr at George Mason University. ventilation system in his Jersey City, N.J., apartment building. In disgust, his wife is filing for divorce. Jonathan Saville is Associate Professor of Drama She will not be pursuing her community property at the University of California, San Diego. rights. Jane S. Shaw, formerly Associates Economics Rex F. May is a cartoonist ("Baloo") whose work Editor at Business Week, writes from Bozeman, appears in The Wall Street Journal and other Montana. periodicals. Jeffrey A. Tucker is the managing editor of the Patrick J. Michaels is Associate Professor Ludwig von Mises Institute's The Free Market. Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia. Timothy Virkkala is assistant editor of Liberty. Rodney E. Mood is flying high (academically) Richard E. Wagner is a Professor of Economics at through college life in West Lafayette, Indiana. Florida State University. William P. Moulton deals in antiques and antiqui­ Ethan O. Waters has few friends in the libertarian ties in northern Michigan. movement, and seems not to feel deprived in the Bob Ortin lives in southern Oregon, where he least. surveys commercial applicants for insurance compa­ Charles Ziarko is an assistant director in nies and bureaucrats for free-thinking non-parasites. Hollywood, California.

In the Next Liberty ... • The Case Against Extreme Isolationism - Stephen Cox argues that knee-jerk isolationism is for jerks. • Humanity vs Nature - John Hospers explores two popular views of how people should treat animals, and shows how one refutes the other (the winner is not the "animal rights" position). • Pozner the Poseur - Richard Kostelanetz visits Phil Donahue's favorite communist in his Moscow apartment, autographs a book, and discovers that there is more to the Soviet PR specialist than meets the eye. • Libertarian Intellectuals as Government Lackeys - George H. Smith argues that liber­ tarians who accept employment from the state don't simply harm their own souls: they harm other libertarians as well. Rockford, Ill. Tacoma, Wash. Advance in gender studies, by Thomas Fleming, editor of Another victory in the War on Drugs, as reported by KOMO-TV Chronicles, the leading paleoconservative journal, in its December News: 1989 issue: Heavily-anned soldiers backed up by two annored personnel carriers "History and physiology teach the same cynical lessons: men are invaded a fann in rural Piece County which the police suspected was built to inflict pain, women to endure it." used for producing illegal drugs. The invaders met no resistence, perhaps because the property-owner was already in police custody. A thorough Orlando, Fla. search revealed no drugs or drug paraphrenalia, police announced that The irony of investment analysis, explained by R. E. Veitia, they had discovered evidence of drugs: two shotguns and three four­ president of Strategic Communications, Ltd, in an announcement of a wheel drive motor vehicles. new publication: "We're a serious company that publishes conservative, rational eco­ Sacramento, Calif. nomic thought, and carefully researched recommendations, [yet] ...'we Interesting new pastime from the Golden State, as reported by are bringing out Psychic Forecaster-the world's first periodical that Gannett News Service: offers mainly astrological and psychic investment advice." "Good Steward," a Monopoly-type board game for Christians, is Hartford, Conn "wholesome" and "teaches good principles," according to its designer, Insight into the right to privacy, as reported in the New York William Parker, a juvenile delinquent counselor for the California Youth Authority. Times: Each player starts with $2,700 in paper money, and can buy, sell and "The right to privacy is not what we seek to pierce," said Lester J. develop properties and "withdraw" money from their "heavenly bank ac­ Forst, Chief of the Connecticut State Police, "rather it is the right to be count." Players are encouaged to tithe--donate 10% of income to their secure that we seek to protect." Forst promoted a state law to allow po­ church-and do missionary work. They receive "blessings" and are chal­ lice to tape record conversations in public places like restaurant tables, lenged by "difficult and trying circumstances." and installed equipment that routinely recorded all calls by defendants to their attorneys made from State Police offices. Infonnation learned New York from the clandestine eavesdropping was "absolutely never" used im­ properly, a State Police spokesman added. Evidence of the trustworthiness of sports journalists, demonstrat­ ed by Bob Considine, longtime friend of home run hero Babe Ruth and Jerusalem co-author of Ruth's autobiography, as recalled by Hall of Fame baseball Latest advance in the science of marketing, as reported by the player Henry Greenberg in his autobiography The Story ofMy Life: Detroit News: "Babe Ruth had cancer of the throat and wouldn't see anybody; he The Israeli Manufacturers' Association announced that it had filed wouldn't even answer the phone. Bob Considine finagled us in to see the a complaint with the police against the AI Ghazel Macaroni Co. of Babe by saying 1 wanted to stop in and shake hands with him. So Babe Bethlehem, whose packages of spaghetti are red, white, black and was nice enough to invite us to his apartment. Babe showed me all his green-the colors ofthe Palestinian flag. trophies and he couldn't have been nicer. He gave me a picture of him­ Los Angeles self that has hung in my house ever since. That's the last time I saw Babe, [who] died in August ofthe following year. Proof that violent crime is no longer a serious concern, as "rveneverforgotten that Considine was rummaging around the apart­ reported by the Los Angeles Daily News: ment, swiping snapshots and clippings, and Babe didn't know it ..." Vice squad officers who staked out a bowling alley in Granada Hills arrested Sandy Scholnik, Anne Barnette, Esther Martinez, Pamela Cleveland, Ohio Waizenegger and Olga Shores on charges of gambling. The suburban Advance in the administration of justice, as reported in the housewives were observed making bets totalling $8 during their weekly NewYork Times: bowling match. On trial for stealing a bag of dogfood from a pet store, Carl Stokes London explained that he had intended to pay for the dog food, but he could not Further evidence that the British are more civilized than their find a clerk, and had to rush off to an "important meeting." Stokes, a American cousins, as reported in The Wall St Journal: judge and fonner mayor ofOeveland, was found innocent by the court. Under a recently enacted law, residents of England will have to ap­ ply for and receive a license from the government in order to attend San Francisco soccer matches. Latest development in liberation theology, as originated by Lyle Miller, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church for NorthernCalifor­ Fallon, Nev. nia and Northern Nevada, and reported by the Los Angeles Times: Inspiring demonstration of the ability of the armed forces to "1 want to protest against the earthquake. When innocent people die, I minimize impact on civilian life, as reported in the New York Times: want to protest. When nonnallife becomes chaos, I want to protest." During a two week period, the Navy located and either detonated or removed 2,000 bombs that its bombers had dropped on public or pri­ (Readers are encouraged to forward newsclippings or other docu­ vate land outside its target range, missing their 22,000 acre target. ments for publication in Terra Incognita.)

78 Liberty Attend The Ludwig von Mises Insti- the economics. There will also be a tute's O. ~ Alford III Center again seminar on effective writing. presents the ultimate Aus-"L d · The "Mises University" trian economics week. At . U WIg includes world-class teach- Stanford University in Palo ing; dormitory housing; Alto, California, from Jul~ • _ three excellent meals a day; 7-14, 1990, a 14- '~on study materials; li- ~ ses member Misesian de- V brary privileges (4.5 partment will teach U. '.ty" million volumes); ex- under the direction of ill' ~e~Sl tensive cultural, rec- the leading Austrian _ V ~ ~ I reational, and athletic economist in the facilities; and a mag- world, Professor Murray N. Roth- nificent climate. bard. The fee is $695; students are Students will be able to "spe- $100. Some full scholarships and cialize" and programs will be avail- travel grants are available. able at the introductory, interme- For more information, write the diate, and advanced levels. The 56 Ludwig von Mises Institute, Au- classes range from the history of burn University, Auburn, Alabama thought to the future of Austrian 36849, (205) 844-2500.

~\\';1G ~~ INSTITUTE Auburn University. Auburn, Alaban1a 36849 • (205) 844-2500 Stimulate Your Mind! One way to make those winter days less dreary and those winter nights more fun. is to stimulate your mind. There is a world of good reading in Liberty ... and there has been ever since Liberty began publishing! Happily, copies of all editions of Liberty are available at very reasonable prices. Whether you want to catch up on what you missed, stimulate your mind, or complete your collection, now is a good time to buy. The first issue is a reprint; all others are original printings. Enjoy! Back Issues of Liberty August 1987 • "Perestroika and Economic Freedom," byJames Robbins • ''The Films of Ayn Rand," by Stephen Cox Plus a symposium on Hoppe's Argumentation Ethics featuring David • 'Witch-Bashing, BookBurning, and Prof. Harold Hill's Lessons in Friedman, Murray Rothbard, Tibor Machan and others; plus writ­ Practical Politics," by Butler Shaffer ings byJohn Dentinger, Walter Block and others. (80 pages) Plus reviews and articles by Murray Rothbard, Ida Walters, Ross January 1989 Overbeek and others; and a short story byJo McIntyre. (48 pages) • ''TV Advertising and Minor Party Campaigns," by R W. Bradford October 1987 • "Public Choice: A Useful Tool," by Jane S. Shaw • ''The Sociology of libertarians," by J. C. Green and J. L. Guth • "High Noon for the Libertarian Party?" by Chester Alan Art!tur • "The Rise ofthe Statism," by Murray N. Rothbard Plus writings by Leland Yeager, William Niskanen, John Hospers and Plus reviews and articles by Mike Holmes, Tibor Machan, William others; and a short story byJeffrey Olson. (72 pages) Moulton and others; and a short story by Franklin Sanders. (48 pages) March 1989 December 1987 • "Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy," by Murray N. Rothbard • "Libertarians in a State Run World," by Murray N. Rothbard • "What if Everything You Knew About Safety Was Wrong?" byJohn • ''The Most Unforgettable libertarian I Ever Knew," by Karl Hess Semmens and Dianne Kresich Plus essays and reviews byStephen Cox, Walter Block, MarkSkousen Plus articles and reviews byStephen Cox, Jeffrey Friedman, Tibor Ma­ and others; and a short story byDavid Galland. (56 pages) chan, David Ramsay Steele, Michael Krauss, and others. (72 pages) March 1988 May 1989 • "Libertarians and Conservatives: Allies or Enemies?" byJohn Denting­ • "Man, Nature, and State," by Karl Hess, Jr er and Murray Rothbard • "A Conspiracy of Silence: Uncovering the Media's Election Night • "Free Speech and the Future of Medicine," by Sandy Shaw & Durk 'Coverage' Policy," by Margaret M. Fries Pearson • "Existentialism and Liberty," byDavid Gordon Plus reviews and articles by Ross Overbeek, Stephen Cox, and others; Plus articles and reviews by Murray N. Rothbard, Stephen Cox, Justin and a short storyby Raul Santana. (64 pages) Raimondo, Phillip Salin,Jane S. Shaw and others; and a short story byJeffrey Olson. (72 pages) May 1988 • ''The ACLU: Suspicious Principles, Salutary Effects," byW. P. Moulton July 1989 • 'Nicaragua: A Front Line Report," by Gary Alexander • "Viking Iceland: Anarchy That Worked," by David Friedman Plus reviews and articles by Nathaniel Branden, Jeff Hummel, Sheldon • ''The Myth of the Rights ofMental Patients," by Thomas Szasz Richman, David Steele, David Brown, and others. (64 pages) • "Puritanism Comes Full Circle," by Jeffrey A. Tucker Plus articles and reviews by Tibor Machan, John Hospers, RW. Brad­ 1988 July ford, Murray Rothbard, Jane Shaw, and others. (80 pages) • "Rebel Without a Clue: Lessons from the Mecham Experience," by Matt Kessler September 1989 • 'Nicaragua: An End to Intervention," by William Kelsey • ''The Taboo Against the Truth: Holocausts and the Historians," by Plus The Liberty Poll; Also: reviews and articles byJerome Tuccille, Ste­ Ralph Raico phen Cox, Murray Rothbard, David Ramsay Steele, and others; and • "My Break With Branden and the Rand Cult," by Murray N. Rothbard an interview with L. Neil Smith. (80 pages) • "Simple Principles vs the Real World," by David Friedman September 1988 Plus articles and reviews by Richard Kostelanetz, Loren Lomasky, Gary • "Scrooge McDuck and His Creator," by Phillip Salin North, Jeffrey A. Tucker, Timothy Virkkala, and others. (72 pages) • "Liberty and Ecology," byJohn Hospers November 1989 Plus reviews and articles by Douglas Casey, David Friedman, Stephen • ''The Lost War on Drugs," byJoseph Miranda Cox, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Douglas Rasmussen, Murray Rothbard, • "Goodbye, Galactic Empire," byJ.R. Dunn and others; and a short storyby Erika Holzer. (80 pages) • "life With (and Without) Ayn Rand," by Tibor Machan Plus articles and reviews by Murray Rothbard, Loren Lomasky, Richard November 1988 Kostelanetz, Krzysztof Ostaszewski, Michael Christian, James Rob­ • ''Taking Over the Roads," byJohn Semmens bins, and others; and an interview with Russell Means. (72 pages) • "The Search for We The Living," by R. W. Bradford , r------I Please send me the back issues of Liberty I have selected below. ·. o My check is enclosed (payable to Liberty) Aug. '87, $4.00 __ Nov. '88, $4.00 __ I I 0 Charge my 0 VISA 0 Mastercard Exp _ Oct. '87, $4.50 __ Jan. '89, $4.00 __ I I Account # Dec. '87, $3.00 -- Mar. '89, $4.00 __ Signature Mar. '88, $4.00 _ May '89, $4.00 __ I I May '88, $4.00 __ July '89, $4.00 __ I Name July '88, $4.00 __ Sept. '89, $5.00 __ I Sept. '88, $5.50 __ Nov. '89, $4.00 __ I Address Shipping: $1.00 Send to: Liberty, Dept B15, PO Box 1167, I I Port Townsend, WA 98368 Total: L. ------City State/Zip ..I