The INDEPENDENT NEWSLETTER OF THE INDEPENDENT INSTITUTE VOLUME XI, NUMBER 2 C-SPAN Repeatedly Szasz Headlines The Airs Policy Forum Independent Review he Civil Rights revolution was a pinnacle ntil 1917, the federal government played T of American history, freeing African Ameri- Uno role in medicine. Today, we are subject cans from centuries of disenfranchisement. Yet, to a “therapeutic state” in which government according to U. of California-Berkeley linguist dominates medicine not only via licensing re- John H. McWhorter (author, Losing the Race: quirements, pharmaceutical regulation, research Self-Sabotage in Black America), it has also had funding, Medicare and Medicaid, and the War a tragic side effect: as racism recedes as a seri- on Drugs, but also in promoting faddish (and ous obstacle to black advancement, many have often highly dubious) approaches to mental been misled into a self-destructive detour that health and in stifling dissent on medical issues. has dramatically slowed black progress. John McWhorter’s Independent Policy Forum pre- sentation was repeatedly aired on C-SPAN2. At his March 20th Independent Policy Fo- rum address, repeatedly aired on C-SPAN2, McWhorter discussed attitudes in the African American community that he believes have wid- ened America’s racial divide, what he calls “the cults of black separatism, victimology, and anti- (continued on page 3) The Independent Review, Spring 2001. Government intervention is becoming so IN THIS ISSUE: ubiquitous that it may well reduce our health and liberty, argues world-renowned psychiatrist Independent Policy Forums .............. 1 Thomas S. Szasz (Health Science Center, State The Independent Review .................... 1 University of New York, Syracuse) in The In- Independent Institute in the News ... 4 dependent Review (“The Therapeutic State: The Tyranny of Pharmacracy,” Spring 2001). That Every Man Be Armed ................. 5 “We have become a prosperous nation by Giving Through Your Will ................ 7 separating the economy and the state, not by Summer Seminars for Students ........ 8 making the state the source of employment, as (continued on page 3) 2 The INDEPENDENT EXECUTIVE STAFF DAVID J. THEROUX, Founder and President MARY L. G. THEROUX, Vice President ALEXANDER T. TABARROK, Ph.D., Vice President and Research Director BRUCE L. BENSON, Ph.D., Senior Fellow ROBERT HIGGS, Ph.D., Senior Fellow RICHARD K. VEDDER, Ph.D., Senior Fellow K. A. BARNES, Controller PENNY N. BURBANK, Publication Manager CARL P. CLOSE, Academic Affairs Director J. ROBERT LATHAM, Public Affairs Director ROD D. MARTIN, Development Director BOARD OF DIRECTORS ROBERT L. ERWIN, Chairman, Large Scale Biology Corporation JAMES D. FAIR, III, Chairman, Algonquin Petroleum Corp. JOHN S. FAY, President, Piney Woods Corporation ELLEN HILL, former Chair, Hill Rockford Company President’s Letter: PETER A. HOWLEY, Chief Executive Officer, IPWireless, Inc. BRUCE JACOBS, President, Grede Foundries, Inc. WILLARD A. SPEAKMAN, III, President, Speakman Company DAVID J. THEROUX, President, The Independent Institute The Power Politics MARY L. G. THEROUX, former Chairman, Garvey International PETER A. THIEL, Chairman, PayPal, Inc. BOARD OF ADVISORS STEPHEN E. AMBROSE of Electric Energy Professor of History, University of New Orleans MARTIN C. ANDERSON Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution In an age of incredible technological HERMAN BELZ Professor of History, University of Maryland THOMAS BORCHERDING progress and enormous innovation in entrepre- Professor of Economics, Claremont Graduate School BOUDEWIJN BOUCKAERT neurship and competitive markets, one wonders Professor of Law, University of Ghent JAMES M. BUCHANAN why so many people somehow find comfort in Nobel Laureate in Economic Science, George Mason University ALLAN C. CARLSON President, Howard Center for Family, Religion, and Society making the complexities and subtleties of the ROBERT D. COOTER Herman F. Selvin Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley “New Economy” subject to the incompetence, ROBERT W. CRANDALL Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution waste, ignorance, and duplicity of government RICHARD A. EPSTEIN Professor of Law, University of Chicago A. ERNEST FITZGERALD bureaucracies and politicians. Author, The High Priests of Waste and The Pentagonists B. DELWORTH GARDNER Such has been the case with electric power Professor of Economics, Brigham Young University GEORGE GILDER in California and around much of the U.S. For Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute NATHAN GLAZER years, electric rates were set by governments in Professor of Education and Sociology, Harvard University WILLIAM M. H. HAMMETT Former President, Manhattan Institute a cozy relationship with power utilities to give RONALD HAMOWY Professor of History, University of Alberta, Canada subsidized rates to business and government STEVE H. HANKE Professor of Economics, Johns Hopkins University entities, while shifting the real costs onto the RONALD MAX HARTWELL Emeritus Professor of History, Oxford University H. ROBERT HELLER masses of ignorant, residential consumers. President, International Payments Institute LAWRENCE A. KUDLOW Then in response to competitive pressures Chief Executive Officer, Kudlow & Company JOHN R. MacARTHUR to liberalize power markets, California poli- Publisher, Harper’s Magazine DEIRDRE N. McCLOSKEY University Professor of the Human Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago ticians from both major parties, in conjunc- J. HUSTON McCULLOCH Professor of Economics, Ohio State University tion with the major utilities and other inter- FORREST McDONALD Professor of History, University of Alabama ests, agreed unanimously to reform the sys- THOMAS GALE MOORE Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution CHARLES MURRAY tem not to end the cost shifting but to con- Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute WILLIAM A. NISKANEN tinue with fixed rates for customers while Chairman, Cato Institute MICHAEL NOVAK mandating that all power supplies be sold Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute JUNE E. O’NEILL through the state government on a daily spot Director, Center for the Study of Business and Government, Baruch College CHARLES E. PHELPS Professor of Political Science and Economics, University of Rochester market. Such an inflexible system was de- PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS President, Institute of Political Economy signed to protect utility interests from real NATHAN ROSENBERG Professor of Economics, Stanford University competition, and could not possibly adapt to SIMON ROTTENBERG Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts PASCAL SALIN changing prices amidst growing demand. Professor of Economics, University of Paris, France ARTHUR SELDON Now, burdened by yet another egregious Founder-Director, Institute of Economic Affairs, London WILLIAM F. SHUGHART II example of government folly, what should be Professor of Economics, University of Mississippi VERNON L. SMITH Regents’ Professor, Economics Sciences Laboratory, University of Arizona done? While a predictable chorus of luddites, JOEL H. SPRING Professor of Education, State University of New York, Old Westbury power brokers, and economic illiterates call RICHARD L. STROUP Professor of Economics, Montana State University for even greater political bungling, The In- THOMAS S. SZASZ Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Syracuse ROBERT D. TOLLISON dependent Institute seeks real solutions. Professor of Economics, University of Mississippi ARNOLD S. TREBACH Recent Independent Policy Forums (see Professor of Criminal Justice, American University WILLIAM TUCKER page 1), our books, our quarterly journal, The Author, The Excluded Americans GORDON TULLOCK Independent Review (page 1), our media pro- Professor of Law and Economics, George Mason University RICHARD E. WAGNER Center for the Study of Public Choice, George Mason University grams (page 4), our student programs (page SIR ALAN WALTERS Vice Chairman, AIG Trading Corporation 8), and more demonstrate the power of The CAROLYN L. WEAVER Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute Independent Institute to challenge the real- PAUL WEAVER Author, The News and the Culture of Lying WALTER E. WILLIAMS ity of power politics on all public issues. Professor of Economics, George Mason University CHARLES WOLFE, JR. In so doing, The Independent Institute is Senior Economist, RAND Corporation illuminating the real issues. THE INDEPENDENT (ISSN 1047-7969): newsletter of The Independent Institute. Copyright © 2001, The Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland CA 94621-1428 • 510-632-1366 • Fax 510-568-6040 Email [email protected] • Website http://www.independent.org. The INDEPENDENT 3 Independent Policy Forums: African-American Progress • Privacy • Friedrich A. Hayek (continued from page 1) intellectualism.” Examples, he explained, in- clude black students holding separate college graduation ceremonies, interpreting every in- justice as a case of racism, and labeling aca- demic effort as “acting white.” But perhaps the most destructive attitude is one that is never fully articulated. “That,” said McWhorter, “is the very simple misconception that the fact that there still exists residual racism means that all black achievement is a chance affair, or is some- thing that only extraordinary people can do.” David D. Friedman (Santa Clara University School This common, unspoken assumption has para- of Law) addresses the Independent Policy Forum. lyzed much progress in the lives of many Afri- community we had built in the midst of a com- can