Time to Recall Gorby's

May 1991 Vo14, No 5 $4.00 Peace Prize

((0 Liberty! wliat crimes are committea in tfiy nanu!" -Mme !R.gfana Are youcapable,hard-working, anddedicatedto individualliberty? Would you like to take an active role in achieving a freer society LEADERS for yourself and your children? Underits NonprofitManagementProgram,theInstituteforHumane Studies awards fellowships to outstanding men and women to assist their transition from the business or academic world to the AND market-orientednonprofitsector. Supportedby a stipendfrom IHS and working on-site at a suitable nonprofit organization, fellow­ ship recipients gainhands-onexperience innonprofitmanagement DOERS and administration. Think tanks, institutes, foundations, and citizen action groups are constantly on the lookout for success-oriented individuals to fill positions at every level as organizers, fund-raisers, and managers. TO The Institute for Humane Studies is plugged into an extensive network of market-oriented organizations around the world and works closely with them in tailoring each Nonprofit Management WORK Fellowship to the recipient, and in placing fellows in the nonprofit sector. Ifyou want to workdirectly for freedom, aNonprofitManagement Fellowship is a unique opportunity to move in that direction.

Toobtaina fellowship application, writeto: NonprofitManagementFellow­ ships, Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University, 4400 Uni­ FREEDOM versity Drive, Fairfax, VA 22030-4444. Applications accepted year-round.

After graduating from Johns Hopkins, Kris Mauren was on the man­ agement track at a major hotel corporation, based in Hawaii. But he was restless. Today, after an intensive training program under an IRS Nonprofit Management Fellowship, Kris is Executive Director ofthe Acton Institute for the Study ofReligion and Liberty.

When hercountry openedup in the dramatic events ofDecember1989, Maria Valeanu ofRomania determined to find out more about the prosperity ofthe west. A query to the Adam Smith Institute ofLondon led her to IRS, where a Nonprofit Management Fellowship in the summer of1990 prepared herfor setting up the Institute Libertate in Bucharest.

Jo Kwong has a Ph.D. in natural resource economics and could be researching and teaching at a university. But she chose a different route. In 1987 she was awarded the first IHS NonprOfit Management Fellowship andis today helping to direct the AtlasEconomic Research Foundation, while continuing to write andspeakextensively on market solutions to environmental problems. -d L-b t May 1991 InSl e 1 er y Volume 4,Number5

4 Letters on using meat-grinders, not using clothes, abusing language, and disabusing oneselfof nonsense notions. 9 Reflections on Babe Ruth's crimes against civilization, George Bush's rank among Big Spenders, military alliances coming in from the cold, cops and pundits getting what they deserve, putting teachers in their place, and the romance of right-wingers, hot-to-trot. Features 19 Losing Our Heads In the Gulf by R. W. Bradford 20 Two Kinds of Patriotism by Robert Higgs 22 Uberty Triumphs In the Desert byJames Robbins "Victory" in the Gulf 25 No Victory for Liberty by Sheldon Richman vv Hat 1t 1ut:all~ 29 The Peace Movement: RIP byStephenCox 32 Beer, Chips and the Gulf War by Matt Kibbe 33 Give George Bush His Due by Loren Lomasky

35 Journalists and the Drug War While other pundits worry about the press' servile role in the Gulf War, David Boaz considers their much more ominous role in America's longest-running war, the War on Drugs. 38 In the Woods A poemby William Meyer, Jr. 39 The Free Press: Jealous of Its Freedoms, Careless With Ours Unknown to the largely anti-capitalist journalists, the best case for the free market lies right under their noses: their defense of their own industry. Richard Miniter rubs their noses in this odd fact. 43 Something Anarchical In Denmark Benjamin Best visits the "Free State of Christiania," in Copenhagen, before utopia turns to oblivion. 45 In Quest of the Elusive Dr Cepl On a whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe, Ronald Lipp braved a socialist-designed, bureaucrat-run transit system in an almost-vain quest for a mysterious free-market theorist, and found a LOT of trouble. 49 Publish and Perish Lawrence Thompson explores the nature of poetry, drugs, prostitution and totalitarianism in this tale of a dystopian future. 54 Rescind Gorby's Nobel Prlzel The Norwegian Storting has granted Soviet leader Gorbachev the Nobel Prize for Peace. James S. Robbins tells why the august Scandinavian body should take it back. 55 Callfomla's Man-Made Drought California may seem like a hot-bed of capitalism, but its water system is, in fact, a regulated, subsidized, government mis-run mess, rivalling the worst of Soviet boondoggles. Reviews 59 Economy as Ecology The perennial question of man's place in the universe has been raised to new importance by the environmental movement. John Baden takes a new look at this problem and at a breakthough approach to its resolution. 61 Hope for a Troubled Land Scott Reid ponders the plight of that beleaguered nation, Canada, and considers a program for its recovery. 63 On the Side of the Angels Leland Yeager restates the truth about capitalism and one ofcapitalism's most effective advocates. 64 The Brain as Market Peter Reidy reveals the ominous parallels between bad computer science and bad economics. 68 The Paleo-Stalinists In America Richard Kostelanetz questions the privileges of the "politically correct," and uncovers the Stalin in the soul of .... conservatism. "This concern is moot, as it is impossible to abort a pregnancy in the first trimester etters without killing the fetus." That's rubbish. [ L ] It is certainly possible to remove the kid ~======:::::()~ alive-even though death will result due to lack of sustenance afterward. By Dr. Liberty's Regress social problem? Non-aggression is a fine Schendel's own distinction, that's not What has gotten into you? I refer to general moral truth, but it is not a magic "killing." Or, does "She'll die anyway" the steadily declining discussion of the key-some problems just can't be settled mean that it's OK to shove her through a abortion question. by reference to non-aggression, as the meatgrinder? First you published R. W. Bradford long controversy over abortion has dem­ It makes sense to talk about the kill­ (September 1989), who argued that the onstrated. Neither side can convince the ing/letting die distinction in discussing root ofthe problem was the fact that the other, but each can offer devastating crit­ whether parents owe their children care transformation from egg (whose destruc­ icisms of the other's position. and support; such an obligation would bar even "non-feticide" abortions if they tion all agree is not murder) to person It seems to me that the top priority of (whose destruction all agree is murder) both sides is to avoid walking on a slip­ threatened the kid's health. But does Dr Schendel really mean that the mother is gradual. Positing any specific point in pery slope by defining away the contro­ (and implicitly the father) is like a slave this development as the beginning of versy. The anti-abortionists define away in a slave/master relationship? This is a personhood (and the protection of the the controversy by insisting that a micro­ "slavery" where the "master" had pre­ state) is therefore arbitrary in a certain scopic fertilized egg is a human being; cisely nothing to say about setting things sense. But it is no more arbitrary than the pro-abortionists define away the up. Odd, I thought slavery was the other positing a point at which a child becomes problem by insisting that pre-natal life is way around. Or did the kid force the par­ sufficiently mature that he can be held some sort ofaggression. I am not sure that Bradford's solution ents to have sex? (Powerful little devil­ responsible for contracts, something even before being conceived.) which libertarians (and others) have no is the best one, but I believe he made a major contribution by insisting that the The article leaves us with a choice problems with. He concluded with a dis­ that was obvious in the title: we can ad­ cussion ofvarious stages of prenatal de­ gradual development of human life re­ quires that we negotiate our path along mit that it's all right to outlaw feticide, or velopment and the prudence ofdefining we can defend feticide as permissible on one or another as the beginning of per­ the slippery slope. I question your judgment in publish­ its own face. sonhood. This was a sophisticated and Until that choice is confronted, ad­ challenging argument, notable in its ing Schendel's piece. It takes the argu­ ment back to the same silly and futile vancing the killing/letting die distinction avoiding the sophistry that characterizes as a defense of abortion is just a word both libertarian pro-abortion and liber­ level of the 1970s: anti-abortionists offer devastating criticisms of pro-abortion­ game: let's pretend that abortion in the tarian anti-abortion arguments. real world is just letting die, not explicit ists, to be followed by pro-abortionists' You followed that with Ron Paul's killing. discussion ofabortion and the so-called devastating criticisms of the anti­ John Walker "abortion pill" (September 1990). Dr Paul abortionists, neither making any Washington, D.C. wanted to avoid the slippery slope that progress on the issue. Abortions Are Not Eviction Bradford walked across, but was reluc­ Michael Townshend Chicago, Ill. Notices tant to do so because he realized that Eric Schendel's essay is so full of logi­ with modern medical technology, pro­ Gristle for the Mill cal fallacies and historical inaccuracies it hibiting abortion entails a massive inva­ Eric Schendel, M.D., argues that is hard to do it justice in the space of a sion of privacy and a tremendous in­ "Abortion and Feticide Are Not the letter, but I am infuriated enough to try. crease in police power. This was Same Thing," and as he uses the words, All forms of legalized abortion in­ characterized by a subtlety that is seldom "feticide" means actual killing, while volve either poisoning or hacking to piec­ seen in libertarian discussion ofthe issue. "ab0 rt·lon"Imeans on y removal/letting es the prenatal infant. Unless Schendel Now you publish Eric Schendel's die. believes it should be legal for a landlord piece ("Abortion and Feticide Are Not However, if one doesn't believe the to evict tenants after blocking the only the Same Thing," January 1991), arguing preborn are persons with rights, the dis­ exit to his property with a giant meat­ that abortion is morally acceptable be­ tinction is unnecessary. Why agonize grinder, his entire case evaporates like cause "The fetus does not have any in­ over an appendectomy? dew in sunlight. trinsic right to be fed and nourished, be­ And if one is willing to concede pre­ Historically most of humanity has cause such a right would make the natal personhood, the distinction is irrel­ never viewed human life as "sacred." woman its slave," which would violate evant in discussing abortion as it takes Chattel slavery and human sacrifice were "the fundamental tenet oflibertarianism, place in the real world. The events that the universal norm in almost every hu­ the non-aggression principle." This is are actually taking place on operating ta­ man culture (including Greece and Rome just the sort of sophistry that Bradford bles are feticides-dismemberment and at their supposedly "glorious" height). warned against. poisoning. Nor is there a culture that I have found Isn't it time that libertarianism out­ But the article doesn't address per­ that differentiated between abandoning grew its reliance on the non-aggression sonhood. And it sidesteps whether feti­ their children and, say, burying them principle in its analysis of every possible cide is permissible under libertarianism: alive. Schendel's ideal of the "non- 4 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 aggressiveness" of abandonment is his dentally, from God) to enable it to carry longed the Depression by5 years implies own innovation undreamed of by the out its duties of life, but also the rights of that, ifthere had been no war, the pros­ people who practiced it. God, Who would set the child up to car­ perity of 1946 would have occurred in There is no analogy between a black ry out a virtuous and meritorious exis­ 1941. That doesn't seem likely. Higgs says slave refusing to work for his master and tence. I would not care to be in the the GNP jumped nearly 27% between a child conceived through no fault of his "shoes" of an unrepentant abortionist 1945 and 1946. Does he think it would or her own. Obviously, parents who put when he passes to an account of what he have jumped 27% in 1941 if there had a child at risk by bringing him or her into did upon the completion of his life's ex­ been no war? Why? It certainly didn't existence are contractually obligated to istence here. How can he justify himself? jump 27% between 1939 and 1940. Why keep him or her from harm. Edward C. Facey would the next year have been greatly dif­ Mark Horne Hillsdale, Mich. ferent? Oakland Park, Fla. The facts presented here point to a A Ruling on Innocents Notes on the Unemployment slightly different theory: not that the war Dr Tim Gorski commits a monstrous Equilibrium prolonged the Depression, but rather that, error and disparagement of the Catholic Robert Higgs ("The Myth of War although the war years were not prosper­ Church when he writes in his letter (No­ Prosperity," March 1991) convinces me ous themselves, the war changed the vember 1990) that Pope Innocent XI ruled that WWII was not a time of prosperity. economy in some way causing a return to in 1679 that "no abortion is homicide be­ However, the claim that the war pro- prosperity in 1946 and following years cause 'the fetus ... lacks a rational soul and begins first to have one when it is born,''' adding that "the present ban on abortion by the Catholic Church dates only from 1869." How to Subscribe to I invite Dr Gorski to look further into Pope Innocent's "ruling," as I did. Lo and behold, the quoted "ruling" is one of six­ ty-five propositions that were condemned as errors. (Various Errors on Moral Subjects II Liberty] (II) [Condemned in a decree of the Holy Office, March 4, 1679.] [DenzingerD Liberty celebrates the Dr Gorski cites St Thomas saying the diversity of libertarian thought! human "soul [is] created and infused." Liberty tackles the tough problems. Every issue of Liberty presents essays That being the case we must consider not studying current trends in political and social thought; discussions of the only the rights ofthe child but also the strategy and tactics of social change; analyses of current events and challenges rights of God as He purposes the crea­ to popular beliefs. Liberty also offers lively book reviews, fiction and humor. tion. The child and its acts and its proper­ You won't want to miss a single issue! ty (even ifno more than its body) belong Money-Back Guarantee to God. After the child is born it begins a On your request, and at any time during your subscription, we will send you quest for happiness. God has revealed to a full pro-rated refund for any unmailed issues. No questions asked! us what we must do and believe to gain eternal happiness through the Catholic Act Today! Church, not to be confused with the Con­ Liberty offers you the best in libertarian thinking and writing. So don't hesi­ ciliar Church ("Vatican II"). An aborted tate. With our guarantee, you have nothing to lose, and the fruits of Liberty to child will not get this opportunity even gain! Just fill in the coupon below-or call this number: though God would want him to pass the rest of this life and be happy with Him in 1-800-321-1542 the next life.. , The living body at all times has a r------' I'd like to try Liberty. Please enter my subscription, which I understand is soul; you cannot have living matter with­ I Yes • fully guaranteed. I out a soul. St Thomas speculated that the I a One Full Year (6 issues) $19.50 a Two Full Years (12 issues) $35.00 entity was first actualized by a vegetable, (Foreign subscriptions add $5 peryear.) I then animal, then human soul. When the Name _ human soul makes its appearance is not I I relevant (it is now considered at the mo­ Address ment of conception). The safest course is I City, State, Zip _ I to consider it there upon conception: I a My check is enclosed (payable to Liberty) I even if one says the entity may not yet be a Charge my: Q VISA a Mastercard Expiration Date: a human, he may not "shoot" at it as he cannot deny that it may be a human. I Account # _ I So the abortionist not only violates I Signature I the rights ofthe child (which it gets, inci- L. ------Send to: Liberty, Dept. L23, PO Box 1167, Port Townsend, WA 98368 ..I Volume 4, Number 5 that would not have happened if there had been no war. Ifthis is not so, then the question some economist should an­ swer is: why did the GNP jump up 27% in 1946 instead of returning to the de­ pressed level of 1940? As a layman looking at this informa­ Stimulate tion, I can see one rather chilling "accom­ There is a world of good reading in Liberty ... and there has been plishment" ofthe war. It reduced unem­ ever since Liberty began publishing! Whether you want to catch up on what ployment in 1946 and later years from . you missed, stimulate your mind, or complete your collection, now is a what it might have been by removing good time to buy. Enjoy! from the labor force about half a million formerly able-bodied men, namely those Back Issues of Liberty who had been killed or permanently dis­ abled by the war. That's a hell of a way August 1987 to solve an unemployment problem. • "The Films ofAyn Rand," by Stephen Cox Jim Stumm • "Witch-Bashing, Book Burning, and Professor Harold Hill's Lessons in Practical Politics," Buffalo, N.Y. by Butler Shaffer Plus reviews and articles by Ben Best, Ross Overbeek, Murray Rothbard, David Sheldon, None Dare Call It ... Timothy Virkkala, Ida Walters and others; and a short story by Jo McIntyre. (48 pages) Higgs puts me in mind ofa person October 1987 who opens an oyster, examines it careful­ • "The Sociology ofLibertarians," by John C. Green and James L. Guth ly and concludes rightly that it contains • "The Rise of the Statism," by Murray N. Rothbard nothing more than a meaningless speck Plus reviews and articles by Mike Holmes, Tibor Machan, William Moulton, Jonathan of sand. If1939 was a bummer and 1946 Saville, and others; and a short story by Franklin Sanders. (48 pages) was a winner, then it seems reasonable to December 1987 assume that World War II had something • "Libertarians in a State Run World," by Murray N. Rothbard to do with it. • "The Most Unforgettable Libertarian I Ever Knew," by Karl Hess Let's call it a grain of sand, shall we? Plus essays and reviews by Stephen Cox, Walter Block, Mike Holmes, Erika Holzer, Timo­ John R. Carter thy Henderson, Mark Skousen and others; and a short story by David Galland. (56 pages) Earlysville, Va. March 1988 Higgs Responds: To demonstrate that • "Libertarians & Conservatives: Allies or Enemies?" by John Dentinger & Murray Rothbard the war years themselves were not really • "Free Speech and the Future ofMedicine," by Sandy Shaw & Durk Pearson prosperous was the whole point of my Plus reviews and articles by R. W. Bradford, William Cate, Ross Overbeek, Stephen Cox, and others; and a short story by Raul Santana. (64 pages) article. I agree that certain wartime events helped to recreate the possibility May 1988 of genuine recovery once the war ended. • "The ACLU: Suspicious Principles, Salutary Effects," by William P. Moulton • "Nicaragua: A Front Line Report," by Gary Alexander I think I know what some of those events Plus reviews and articles by Nathaniel Branden, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, Sheldon Richman, were--there's material for another story. David Ramsay Steele, David Brown, Ethan O. Waters and others. (64 pages) As for the oyster, when I opened it I July 1988 found it full of human blood. • "Rebel Without a Clue: Lessons from the Mecham Experience," by Matt Kessler Clothed Alone • "Confessions ofan Intractable Individualist," by Jerome Tuccille David G. Danielson's argument for a Plus reviews and articles by Stephen Cox, Ross Overbeek, Murray Rothbard, Tibor Machan, right to public nudity ("au naturel rights," William Moulton and others; and an intelView with L. Neil Smith. (80 pages) March 1991) is flawed by a failure to con­ September 1988 sider the rights ofthose he calls • "Scrooge McDuck and His Creator," by Phillip Salin "prudes." For any communication to take • "Liberty and Ecology," by John Hospers place, both a sender and receiver are re­ • "The Ultimate Justification ofthe Private Property Ethic," by Hans-Hermann HopPe quired. No communication can be con­ Plus reviews and articles by Douglas Casey, David Friedman, Stephen Cox, Douglas Rasmus­ sen, Murray Rothbard and others; and a short story by Erika Holzer. (80 pages) sidered "free" unless both sender and re­ ceiver are willing participants in the November 1988 process. Freedom ofexpression does not • "Taking Over the Roads," by John Semmens • "The Search for We The Living," by R. W. Bradford include a "right" to a captive audience. If Plus writings by Murray Rothbard, Tibor Machan, Leland Yeager, John Dentinger, Walter potential or actual receivers ofcommuni­ Block, Stephen Cox, Jane Shaw, James Robbins and others. (80 pages) cation cannot exercise their collateral· right to shun unwanted messages from January 1989 • "Public Choice: A Useful Tool," by Jane S. Shaw senders, the process, by definition, ceases • "High Noon for the Libertarian Party?" by Chester Alan Arthur to be "free." In other words, my right to Plus writings by Leland Yeager, William Niskanen, John Hospers and others; and a short sto­ avoid unwelcome messages, i.e. to be left ry by Jeffrey Olson. (72 pages) alone, is as sacrosanct as anyone else's March 1989 continued on page 8 • "Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy," by Murray N. Rothbard 6 Liberty Your ind! • "WhatifEverything We Know About Safety Is Wrong?" by John September 1990 Semmens and Dianne Kresich • "Conversations with Ayn Rand (part 2)," by John Hospers • "The Wonderful Wizard ofUberty," by Ethan Waters • "RU 486 and Legal Wisdom," by Dr Ron Paul Plus articles and reviews by Stephen Cox, Jeffrey Friedman, Tibor Plus articles and reviews by Michael Krauss, Stephen Cox, Richard Machan, David Steele, Michael Krauss, and others. (72 pages) Kostelanetz and others; and aficcion by Harvey Segal. (72 pages) May 1989 November 1990 • "Man, Nature, and State," by Karl Hess, Jr • "Opportunities on Freedom's Frontier," by Ronald Lipp • "Public Choice: A Misshapen Tool," by Murray Rothbard • "Up From Armageddonism," by Stephen Cox • "Ayn Rand: The Voice ofBitterness," by Justin Raimondo • "Meanwhile, Back at the Farm," by Leslie Fleming Plus articles and reviews by Stephen Cox, David Gordon, Jane Shaw Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Robert Higgs, Sheldon and others; and a short story by Jeffrey Olson. (72 pages) Richman, Richard Kostelanetz and others, an interview with Ed Crane, and a symposium on investing. (80 pages) July 1989 • "Viking Iceland: Anarchy That Worked," by David Friedman January 1991 • "The Myth of the Rights of Mental Patients," by Thomas Szasz • "Gordon Gekko, Mike Milken and Me," by Douglas Casey • "Nude Dancing in Memphis," by Michael Williams • "Lies, Liberalism and Lip-Reading," by Loren Lomasky Plus articles and reviews by Tibor Machan, John Hospers, R. W. • "A Pole Can Do It," by R. W. Bradford Bradford, Jane Shaw, Leland Yeager and others. (80 pages) Plus articles and reviews by David Boaz, Ralph Raico, Lawrence Person and others; plus special election coverage. (80 pages) September 1989 • "Holocausts and the Historians," by Ralph Raico March 1991 • "My Break With Branden and the Rand Cult," by Murray Rothbard • "Keep the Hot Side Tepid," by R. W. Bradford • "The Theology ofEcology," by Robert Formaini • "The Myth ofWarProsperity," by Robert Higgs Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Loren Lomasky, Gary • "Old Whine in New Bottles," by Jan Narveson North, Jeffrey Tucker, Richard Kostelanetz and others. (72 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Richard Weaver, Jane Shaw, David Daniel- son, William Holtz, Krzysztof Ostaszewski and others. (72 pages) November 1989 • "The Lost War on Drugs," by Joseph Miranda • "Goodbye, Galactic Empire," by J.R. Dunn r------,send me the back issues of Liberty • "Ufe With (and Without) Ayn Rand," by Tibor Machan I Please I have marked. I Plus articles and reviews by Murray Rothbard, Loren Lomasky and (foreign orders, add SOt per issue) others; and an interview with Russell Means. (72 pages) I Aug. '87, $4.00 __ July'89, $4.00 __ I January 1990 Oct. '87, $4.50 __ Sept. '89, $5.00 -- I • "The Death ofSocialism: What it Means," by R.W. Bradford, I Dec. '87, $3.00 __ Nov. '89, $4.00 __ Stephen Cox, Sheldon Richman, and William P. Moulton Mar. '88, $4.00 __ Jan. '90, $4.00 -- I • "The Greenhouse Effect: Myth or Danger?" by Patrick 1. Michaels I May '88, $4.00 __ Mar. '90, $4.00 __ • "The Case for Paleolibertarianism," by llewellyn Rockwell July '88, $4.00 __ May '90, $4.00 -- • "How Rockefeller Soaked the Poor," by Richard Kostelanetz I I Plus articles and reviews by Charles K. Rowley, Richard E. Wagner Sept. '88, $5.50 __ July '90, $4.00 __ and others; and an interview with Barbara Branden. (80 pages) I Nov. '88, $4.00 __ Sept. '90, $4.00 __ I March 1990 Jan. '89, $4.00 __ Nov. '90, $4.00 -- I • "Humanity vs Nature," by John Hospers I Mar. '89, $4.00 __ Jan. '91, $6.00 __ • "Isolating the Error of Isolationism," by Stephen Cox May '89, $4.00 __ Mar. '91, $4.00 -- I • "Mencken: The Man vs the State of Opinion," by R. W. Bradford I Shipping: $1.00 Plus articles and reviews by Richard Kostelanetz, Loren Lomasky, I Total: I George Smith, Leland Yeager and others. (80 pages) o My check is enclosed May 1990 I a Charge my a VISA a Mastercard Exp _ I • "The Decadence ofConservativism," by William P. Moulton • "A Population Crisis?" by Jane S. Shaw I Account # _ I • "Of Smokestacks and Rhinos," by Robert Higgs Plus articles and reviews by R. W. Bradford, Karl Hess, Bill Kauff­ I Signature I man, Richard Kostelanetz, Bart Kosko, Loren Lomasky, Leland Yeager and others; and poetry by Brett Rutherford. (72 pages) I Name I July 1990 • "The Orwellian University," by Charles Thome I Address I • "Conversations with Ayn Rand (part 1)," by John Hospers • "The Conservation ofResentment," by Robert A. Sheaffer I City I Plus articles and reviews by John Baden, Brian Doherty, David State Zip _ Friedman, Bill Kauffman, Sheldon Richman, James S. Robbins, I I Mark Skousen, Terree Wasley and others. (72 pages) a.Liberty,------Dept. B23, PO Box 1167, PortTownsend, WA 98368 ..I Volume 4, Number5 May 1991 Letters (continued from page 6) Value for Value natural product, wood. right to speakhis mind. Christopher Faille (''The Love of Bradford has lost his credibility with Money and the Root of Evil," March me. To allow a tiny minority to engage in Margaret Miller public behavior that is considered unac­ 1991) missed the full force of Rand's Portland, Ore. ceptable by the greater society is to deny "love of money" speech in Atlas the latter its right to be left alone. In a li­ Shrugged. It is not simply that productivi­ Degraded Logic bertarian utopia private property and ty is the root of money, as Faille reads it. I was disheartened at Bill Bradford's market force's will determine where one He missed some key moral premises, lapse into demonizing i~ his otherwise can freely strip, urinate, masturbate, blast elided from the very two AS paragraphs well-argued article. Bin reveals that the se­ boom boxes, or burn the flag. Until then, that he partially quoted, i.e., the princi­ cret motive ofenvironmentalists is "reduc­ a community need not tolerate behavior ple that men must deal with each other ing individual liberty ... Opponents of widely viewed as anti-social any more "by trade and give value for value"; this human liberty have flocked to the envi­ than a theater audience need tolerate a is "that moral principle which is the root ronmental movement... What are the en­ boorish heckler. To suggest otherwise is of money." vironmentalists really seeking? A cleaner to endorse a tyranny ofthe dysfunctional Further in the AS passage: "Money environment? Or control of private busi­ minority over the harmonious majority. rests on the axiom that every man is the nesses? Or maybe just control, period." I wonder: would Mr. Danielson de­ owner of his mind and his effort." Mon­ This is pure projection, psychologizing fend public sexual activity or elimination ey, as'the non-coercive exchange medi­ environmentalists in terms foreign to their of body wastes? It seems to me that the um of traders, rests on a root principle of actual intellectual and motivational back­ logic of his defense of public nudity justice. It is largely in this sense that the grounds. No doubt some so-called "envi­ would defend these as well. novel's character loves money, as an in­ ronmentalists," especially professionals in Phillip Goldstein stitution of just dealing. government or in big green lobbying or­ Brooklyn, N. Y. Ross Barlow ganizations, are in it for power and pelf. Query Sugar Grove, Pa. However, I'd bet that the vast majority of Do you need Robbins' interventionist Quaere those who volunteer their time and money (or risk even more as do Earth First! mon­ perspective ("Peace Had Its Chance," Bravo for Christopher Faille! We March 1991) any more than you need a key-wrenchers and real-life Ragnar Dan­ Rand-bashers will never quit. communist perspective? Why do you suppose her writings neskjolds aboard the Sea Shepherd) are in it mostly for their ostensible reasons: for TomPalven continue to be more popular and lasting Farmington, N.J. than our noble criticisms? love of specific lands and waterways and forests and wildlife threatened with de­ A Better Comparison ... Westley Deitchler struction, as well as out ofa general desire It would be more interesting to dis­ Deer Lodge, Mont. to preserve the integrity and robust power cuss what level of naivete about war and The Value/Recreation the state is displayed in James Robbins' of Earth's life support systems. view that "the Gulf War is a just war." Dichotomy A case in point is the Port Townsend Eric O'Keefe Linda Locke can have her freedom. McDonald's contretemps. Bill got straight Spring Green, Wisc. From my perspective, the only freedom the facts that were fit for newsprint, but you have is the freedom from happiness, the motives and lifestyles he ascribes are Not All Thumbs since it's impossible to have happiness if his own fabrication. I know hundreds of Thumbs down to Higgs, Bradford & you have no values-and riding around probable "environmentalists" from myaf­ Richman. Thumbs up to Robbins. in a school bus isn't a value, it's a recrea­ filiation with Port Townsend's thriving Chuck Esposito tion. Food Co-op, and very few could be de­ Dunwoody, Ga. I love having a nice house, with chil­ scribed as "upper middle class" (too many Vet Another Comparison ... dren to raise, and, along with my wife, food stamps!) or "elitists." They'd hardly The Gulf War marched offto a great earning money as a "free" person, to pay say "to hell with" "the poor and the start with two excellent commentaries­ for the values that I work for. Sometimes young"-heck, many of them are the poor by Robert Higgs and R.W. Bradford. So it's not so much fun-but I never heard and the young! Not being tourists, they why did Liberty want to go on into the that freedom was always supposed to be don't usually sit in "trendy little restau- casualties-by Richman and Robbins? "fun." continued on page 53 Brad Gillespie It was like a new Libertarian Party Webster, N. Y. member who works hard and well for Letters Policy the Party and votes the straight Libertari­ Biodegradable We invite readers to comment on an lineup. But some son of a Bush from How can Bradford tell us with a articles that have appeared in Liberty. the Republicrat Party wins the election. straight face that the impact of styrofoam We reserve the right to edit for length So then the libertarian gives up. It is is less environmentally harmful than and clarity. All letters are assumed to time, he says, to forget our differences, get that of paper packaging? It is obvious be intended for publication unless behind the new president and give him that paper biodegrades easily and harm­ otherwise stated. Succinct, typewrit­ ourfull support for his righteous cause. lessly, while styrofoam lasts forever; it is ten letters are preferred. Please in­ Judas Priest!! Pitiful! also obvious that stryofoam-a form of clude your phone number so that we O.M.Fowle plastic-befouls the environment far can verify your identity. Redondo Beach, Calif. more than paper, which is made from a 8 Liberty Oil slicks vs mass carnage - Is it just me, or reduced oil consumption, a spokesperson explained. The pro­ did it seem to you that prior to the ground invasion, most gram was a success, she said, because it had generated inquir- Americans were more upset by the oil slick on the Persian ies from other dties allover the country. -RWB Gulf and the threat it posed to wildlife than the thousands of L.A. law enforcement - Three police officers grip deaths resulting from the U.S. bombing of Iraq? What does their long billy clubs with both hands and swing as though this say about Americans' sense of humanity? -RWB they are playing baseball, and going for the long ball. But it An honest congressman? - Tommy Robinson, isn't a baseball they are bashing: it is a man lying prone on the returning to farming in Arkansas after six years in the U.S. ground. As they continue to beat the helpless man, twelve oth­ House of Representatives, as quoted by the Newhouse News er police officers circle around, keeping civilians out of the Service: "The country would be better off if Congress was area. abolished.... I'd rather die a broke farmer than be a career It was not a scene of a movie being filmed on location, so member of Congress. My conscience will be a lot cleaner." no Hollywood film crew recorded the action. It was not an ar­ -RH rest staged for the television semi-documentary "Cops," so no videotape crew was there. Mrs O'Connor, call your literary agent But George Holliday was there. He had heard the commo­ - If you know an Objectivist (or Student of Objectivism) tion in the street outside his apartment; he had grabbed his whom you wish to twit, here is some (chuckle) intellectual am­ videocamera and went onto his balcony. For a minute and a munition. Recently the Chicago Tribune published a long fea­ half he stood there, recording the beating. "1 was just amazed ture titled "1000 Years of Progress: The Millenium in Review." at what happened," he said later. He had "a feeling of What One segment by John Blades deals with the ten best and ten the hell could he have done to deserve such punishment?'" worst books of the past millenium. Those on the "best" list The man lying helpless on the city street was a 25-year-old range from the obvious (War and Peace, Hamlet, Moby Dick) unemployed black construction worker and ex-convict named through the dubious (Wysses, the Snopes Trilogy) to the ob­ Rodney King. The police filed a report saying that was driVing scure (The Tale of Genjt1. The "worst" list is even more amor­ 115 miles per hour and that his injuries were the result of his phous and subjective. Be that as it may, number two-the resisting arrest. second worst book of the past ten centuries-is identified as But two days later, George Holliday took his videotape to a Atlas Shrugged, described as the "most protracted, militant and local NBC television affiliate, which ran it in their local news demented expression of Rand's objectivist philosophy." What report. The tape electrified local viewers and was quickly is the very worst book? Alas, it is not Mein Kampf, Capital, or shown on national news programs. It instantly proved that the some deep philosophical work, but Paul Clifford, a forgotten police had lied when they claimed King had resisted arrest: novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Of course, in their grim and the only sign of resistance was a feeble attempt to raise his humorless zealotry the Objectivists will see the whole thing as head, only to have a police officer stomp on it. Very quickly it an attack on values, on all values, on values as such, on values was proven that the police had lied about their original charge because they are values, on reason because it is reason ... oh, against King as well; the manufacturer of his Hyundai pointed to hell with it. -WPM out that its top speed was well below 115 mph, and audio tapes of the pursuing police's radio messages made only one Proof of the viability of mass transit- mention of his speed: a Highway Patrolman said, "They're On March 27, Seattle had its third and final "Oil-Free about 55 miles an hour, I think." Wednesday." On the theory that air pollution results from au­ George Holliday's videocamera recorded the police officers tomobiles, which are used because public transportation is too striking the helpless man a total of 56 times; no one knows expensive, the city of Seattle allowed everyone to ride buses how many times he was hit before Holliday started filming. for free. When it was over, Rodney King was taken to the hospital, his A local television news crew interviewed bus riders, but leg broken, his skull crushed, his eye socket fractured, his face failed to find a single rider who chose to ride the bus because disfigured and partially paralyzed. As we go to press, physi­ it was "Oil-Free Wednesday." Despite the heavy publicity the cians say that the paralysis will likely be permanent. program had received, most riders did not know their ride No charges were filed against him. Los Angeles Police was free until the bus driver refused their fare, and bus rider­ Chief Daryl Gates did, however, suspend the three officers ship was no higher than usual. The experiment cost the city who clubbed and kicked the helpless man. He took no action $80,000 in lost income. It's a mistake to evaluate the program against the sergeant in command, and the other eleven police in terms of increased ridership, reduced automobile traffic or officers who stood by and watched have not been disciplined. Liberty 9 Volume 4, Number5 May 1991 The incident was "an aberration," Chief Gates told the press. and human liberty maximized, but that is generous to the wide Practically every person in America has seen the beating, variety of opinion within that framework. Now I have found thanks to George Holliday's amateur videotape. By all ac­ that there are limits to that tolerance. counts, the public is unanimous in its shock. The viciousness of During the past year, Rockwell has grown increasingly hos­ the beating was simply repulsive. tile to libertarianism. One of his complaints has been that liber­ Everyone was shocked, that is, except for one small voice. In tarians take political positions so unpopular as to place them a syndicated column published in the Los Angeles Times on outside the mainstream of middle-class America. It is bizarrely March 10, self-proclaimed "paleolibertarian" Llewellyn H. ironic that Rockwell has chosen to identify himself as a liber­ Rockwell explained that the beating was a good thing. "[The tarian when he has taken a stand that is reprehensible to virtu­ videotape] is not a pleasant sight, of course; neither is cancer ally every American. surgery. Did they hit him too many times? Sure. But that is not "Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives the issue. The issue is safe streets versus.urban terror." under," H.L. Mencken wrote. Lew Rockwell, however, is actu­ "Today's criminals know that they probably won't be con­ ally proud of his government when it mercilessly beats a man victed, and if they are, they face a short sentence-someday," accused of nothing more than a minor traffic offense. Byad­ he explained. What is needed is police who act on the following vancing the idea that a reign of terror conducted by secret po­ principle: "No matter the vagaries of the court system, a mug­ lice is necessary to the health of society, Rockwell has, I ger or rapist [should] know that he facers] a trouncing­ believe, resigned from more than the libertarian movement. He proportionate to the offense and the offender-in the back of has resigned from decent human society. -RWB the paddy wagon, and maybe even a repeat performance at the iViva la videocamera! - The personal videocam­ era, one of the great products of human ingenuity and capital­ Practically every person in Americtl; has seen the ism, has earned another distinction that every libertarian beating. By all accounts, everyone is shocked­ should applaud: it is the consummate anti-1984 device. In Orwell's 1984, the state watched the people. Thanks to the vid­ everyone, that is, except Llewellyn H. Rockwell, eocamera, the people can watch-and record-the state. who argues that the beating was agood thing. Recently, a man trying out a new camera caught a bunch of white Los Angeles cops in the act of administering a brutal beating to a black man whose only outstanding crime seems to station." Rockwell went on to denounce the fact that "we are be that he was on probation for a past offense. In the end, the seldom shown videos of old people being mugged, women be­ police released the man, complete with internal and external ing raped, gangs shooting drivers at random or store clerks injuries, without charge. The spectacle of cops pounding the having their throats cut." defenseless guy with billy clubs, while other cops watched in Now aside from the fact that the victim of the police beating apparent approval, has shocked decent people everywhere, in­ was accused not of mugging, rape, drive-by shooting, or throat­ cluding many who used to support the police regardless of cutting but of failing to yield to a police vehicle, one has to what they did. People seem to be getting the idea that the only wonder what has happened to such notions as fair trials, inno­ thing unusual about the LA case is that it was captured on cent-until-proven-guilty, and a-government-of-Iaws-not-of­ tape. The bright side is that the next time a cop is tempted to goons. abuse one of us, a voice in his head may remind him that he Rockwell concludes: "Liberals talk about banning guns. As may really be on candid camera. As a libertarian, I'm no be­ a libertarian, I can't agree. I am, however, beginning to wonder about video cameras." liever in government handouts. But if I were, I'd have the gov­ This, I submit, is obscene. ernment issue each citizen a videocamera. All the better to Defending the right of police to beat up those accused of a catch state thugs in the act. Any libertarian who would minor offense on the ground that this is the only way to make apologize for police brutality in the name of making the streets our streets safe is despicable. Suggesting that the police have a safe (0 is a pale libertarian indeed. -SLR right to do so in secret is worse. In this context, the libel of stat­ Rockwell postscript - On March 21, eleven days ing these opinions "as a libertarian" pales into relative after his Original column had outraged. the nation, Rockwell re­ insignificance. vised his column for publication in U.S.A. Today. He excised I have the passage defending secret police beatings of traffic offend­ .. I~ ~~~g an~~ ers and the suggestion that videocameras be banned to prevent . the public's learning of such beatings, replacing them with a :~: .. and tolerant generalized denunciation of violent criminals and defense of ~ policemen, this time explicitly endorsing secret police beatings libe.rtarianiSm . ·U: -a libertari- only of criminals caught in the act of a violent crime. Perhaps anism that is Rockwell had seen the error of his ways. Or perhaps the out­ based on a rage of decent people against his earlier column had intimidat­ common be- edhim. -RWB lief that the power of the Should we laugh or cry? - In mid-January "Don't let Fred bother you - He always makes such state ought to President Bush displayed his humanitarianism by making two a big deal out of April 15th." be reduced noble gestures. 10 Liberty How To Make Yourself Judgment Proof Lawsuit explosion in U.S. makes it mandatory to protect yourself from judgments caused by creditors, customers, patients, employees, the IRS, or even an ex-spouse

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This offering is endorsed by Entrepreneurs OfAmerica. il Mail to: Enterprise Publishing, Inc. EOA members are entitled a 20% courtesy discount onEnterprise books and other benefits. Jj I 725 N. Market Street, Dept. LI-14F ~. 198~ For complete membership information, call the EVA: 1-800-533-2665. L Wilmington, DE 1-800-533-,2665 -.J F-IOI3 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 First, urging Americans to oppose·abortion, he proclaimed explain to their children what capitalism was. He suggests that a national Sanctity of Human Life Day, calling on "all it might be a good idea for every family to keep a few little arti­ Americans to reflect on the sanctity of human life in all its stag­ facts around as educational tools to help explain to youngsters es and to gather in homes and places of worship to give thanks what the bad old vanished world was like. Examples that he for the gift of life and to reaffirm our commitment to respect the recommends include a little money, a layoff notice, a bourgeois life and the dignity of every human being." newspaper, a toy soldier, and a few other odds and ends­ Second, in the wake of the Red Army crackdown in souvenirs, we would call them. None of these things, of course, Lithuania, Bush condemned the Soviet actions and urged the would have any relevance in the new, perfectly planned Gorbachev regime lito refrain from further acts that might lead society. to more violence and loss of life." It is interesting to note that a recent wire service story re­ At the same time, notwithstanding his deep reverence for ports that in the nations of eastern Germany, Hungary and human life, Bush unleashed the fiercest military attack in histo­ Poland there is a thriving market in the flotsam and jetsam of ry against the hapless Iraqis. Scores of thousands quickly per­ the old order-bits of Soviet uniforms and decorations, secret ished, including professional soldiers, conscripts, and police paraphernalia, Party emblems, little busts of Lenin and civilians-men, women, children, and infants. It appears that other commies, OOR flags, that sort of stuff. Soon, one may some lives have greater sanctity than others. -RH .hope, these mementos will be the only corporeal remnants of What more cruel than a dream betrayed? communism in these lands. The day when it will be difficult for parents to explain to their offspring just what tyranny was like - Bishop Hewlett Johnson, the late Anglican Dean of is on the horizon. Poor Bishop Johnson. I doubt he would find Canterbury, though forgotten now, was in the salad days of the this state of affairs very nice at all. -WPM fellow-travelling phenomenon one of the prize exhibits on the Stalinoid left (nitwit division). I use the term "nitwit" not face­ Fallout from the Gulf- Riding a wave of popu­ tiously, but as a description of a particular type of "soft" larity greater than that of any president since Harry Truman in Stalinophile (the "hards" were the conscious, clear-headed ad­ the euphoric aftermath of WWII, George Bush looks all but un­ vocates of totalitarianism-G. B. Shaw is the archetype.) beatable. Bush's new strength improves the prospects for the Libertarian Party. The most powerful factor working against voting for third party candidates or independents is the "why­ Bishop Johnson is genuinely funny, though nev­ waste-your-vote" argument. With a popular incumbent crush­ er by intention: "Efforts have been made to deny ing an unpopular opponent in the polls, this argument be­ the reality of Russian electoral rights. Some critics, comes far less appealing. In addition, the LP's opposition to both the Gulf War and the Drug War will likely help it. Both for example, point to the fact that there are no op­ wars are sufficiently popular that the chances the Democrats position candidates," "Lenin's personality will nominate anyone critical of them are nil, but enough matched his purpose. He was singularly lovable." Americans are fed up with them that turning to a third party candidate may be very appealing, especially if the election looks like a landslide. Johnson and his ilk saw the Great Soviet Experiment through The Libertarian Party is rather badly situated to take advan­ the gentle eyes of fuzzy-minded, sentimental, naive middle­ tage of this opportunity. Neither of its announced candidates class reformers. They thought the Soviet Union was very nice. have the resources to raise the funds or mount the sort of cam­ They thought Mr Stalin was very nice. They thought the new paign capable of capitalizing on this opportunity. Whenever Soviet Constitution, with its guarantee of at least some forms of the LP has come up with substantial candidates capable of freedom of expression and dissent, was very nice. The fact that mounting such a campaign, it has been faced with a presiden­ there was absolutely no provision in the entire Soviet system tial race in which its prospects were poor because of the percep­ for any means·to enforce or claim these rights would never tion of tightness in the race between the major party candidates have occurred to them. Documents meant what they said, just and consequent devastation by the why-waste-your-vote argu­ as in other nice (but less "advanced") countries such as Britain ment. Ed Clark had to face the Reagan challenge to the incum­ and America. bent Carter, with John Anderson siphoning off protest votes. Bishop Johnson wrote quite a few books about wonderful Ron Paul had to compete in the first presidential election with­ socialist nations-first the big one, then, later, China, Cuba, and out an incumbent in two decades. In 1984, when Reagan was a North Korea. Though I am probably the only one who reads shoo-in, the LP nominated David Bergland, an articulate liber­ them these days, the Soviet books, at least, enjoyed a vogue in tarian, but a man with no national standing, no organization the thirties and forties. At times Johnson is genuinely funny, and no means of raising funds. I suspect that unless the LPcan though never by intention. A few random samples: "Efforts attract new talent, itfaces that same fate in 1992. -CAA have been made to deny the reality of Russian electoral rights. Some critics, for example, point to the fact that there are no op­ Take the money and run. - Every Congressman position candidates"; "Stalin is no Oriental despot or dictator. who's had his nose in the trough since 1980 faces a temptation His willingness to lead his people along unfamiliar paths of de­ next year: if he retires from office, he can keep the campaign mocracy shows it"; "Lenin's.personality matched his purpose. funds he has accumulated during his tenure. But if he is re­ He was singularly lovable." elected, he will have to turn the money over to charity or to an­ A recurring theme in the good Bishop's writings is the sup­ other political campaign. posed difficulty that future generations will have in trying to There's big money involved: Stephen Solarz, for example, 12 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 stands to pocket $1,393,257; Dan Rostenkowski $1,052,462; ship. Given the fact that no one has even suggested that anyone Tom Foley $703,361. All told, this deadwood stands to lay its got an athletic advantage from smoking marijuana, this last hands on about $41 million. punishment is especially inappropriate. How this came about is a nice specimen of how Consider what would have happened if the sports world re­ Congresspeople behave. Among the reforms Congress passed acted to alcohol prohibition the same way it reacted to marijua­ in 1979, in an effort to reverse the public's stereotype of na prohibition. Between 1920 and 1932, the possession and Congressmen living it up on gifts from wealthy "friends," was consumption of alcoholic beverages in the United States, except a provision prohibiting Congresspeople from using campaign under certain very limited circumstances, was a criminal mat- funds for personal purposes. This reform was badly needed, the Congresspeople figured, but it shouldn't affect them; after all, they were elected origi­ It is well-known that many famous athletes reg­ nally on condition that wer could maintain their Congressional ularly violated the earlier Prohibition. One of the standard of living in retirement by tapping the bribes (oops, campaign funds) that they have salted away, and that cutting most flagrant was Babe Ruth, the home run king. them off from this largesse would not be fair. You know, a Ruth was known to drink an entire case of cham­ deal's a deal, and all that. pagne in an evening's partying with a bevy of By 1989, enough new Congresspeople had taken office that prostitutes, and he drank publicly almost every the right to these slush funds seemed like a privilige. So when they gave themselves a huge pay raise that year, they put an day of his career. expiration date on the privilige. Incumbent Congresspeople were allowed to take their accumulated loot into private life provided they retire by 1992. ter, just as the possession and consumption of marijuana is Consequently, some cynics have suggested that a lot of today. Congresspeople will decide not to run for re-election next year. It is well-known that a great many famous athletes regular­ I personally have my doubts. It seems to me that most of those ly violated this law. One of the most flagrant was Babe Ruth, that serve the public in Congress are not motivated by the lu­ the home run king. Ruth was known to drink an entire case of cre. They are not after money: they are after power. And once champagne in an evening's partying with a bevy of prostitutes, they retire, the power is gone. What good is a million bucks if and he drank publicly almost every day of his career. His im­ you don't get the limo, aren't invited to the glitzy parties, can't bibing was, I would think, even more heinous than Haugen's. hobnob with the President, hassle businessmen in For one thing, he often did so publicly, thereby setting a horri­ Congressional hearings, or get to meet Meryl 5treep when she ble example for the youth of the day. Haugen's marijuana use gives her expert testimony on agricultural chemicals? was discovered only by means of a sophisticated medical test; Indeed, many "grandfathers" have self-righteously refused today's youth would not ever have heard of Haugen's violation the loot, suggesting that their preference of power over money demonstrates their strong sense of ethics. "This factor has been overstated," the Hon. Vic Fazio (D-Cal.) says, "because it con­ forms to the worst that most people want to believe about members of Congress." I got news for you, Vic. My worst fear is not that you'd take the cash and party. My worst fear is that you'll raise taxes, pass a bunch of stupid laws that impinge on our freedom, waste the money you collect via taxes, and generally make life miserable. And you did all those things during the past year alone. Personally, I think the $41 million they can grab if they retire would be a bargain. Hell, on one issue alone, their creation of the savings-and-Ioan debacle, they have already cost the taxpay­ er something on the order of $500 billion, or more than twelve thousand times the cost of showing them the door. -EOW Who do you think you are, Babe Ruth? - The boxing world was surprised when Greg Haugen won the junior lightweight boxing title on a split decision over Hector "Macho" Comacho on March 9, at least so I read in the papers. It seems that Haugen is 35 years of age, over the hill by pugilistic standards, and had never been seen as a champion­ ship boxer in the first place. The boxing world got its second surprise when it learned that Haugen had tested positive for marijuana. It is a measure of the pervasiveness of anti-drug hysteria that the Nevada Boxing Commission fined Haugen $25,000, sentenced him to 200 hours of community service, and took away his champion- Liberty 13 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 of the prohibition were it not for the boxfng authorities' testing mechanism that has ensured the United States the most ambi­ him and publicizing their findings. What's more, marijuana tious immigrants in the world. smoking is only semi-criminal: in many jurisdictions it is only a So it would be with the Albanians. Here is a group of people misdemeanor. The Babe's drinking, in contrast, was felonious who want something better for themselves and their families, and actually a violation of the United States Constitution. and are willing to go to extraordinary lengths to get it. What would have happened if the Babe had been treated Shouldn't the United States economy be the beneficiary of their like Haugen? Well, I guess he would have been stripped of his ambition? Ambitions such as these made the United States an achievements and honors. The 60 home run mark that he estab­ industrial power in the nineteenth century, when GNP growth lished in 1927 would be taken away, as would all his home run and immigrationlevels were at unprecedented highs. -JSR titles except one (in 1919, before Prohibition took effect). So Ronald Reagan would his six runs-batted-in titles, his sole batting title, his ma­ The bottom line on Reagan - had been out of office only four months when I began to feel jor league record slugging average (.847 in 1920) and 10 other nostalgia for him. That's all the time it took George Bush to slugging crowns, his major league record for most walks in a wimp out on gun control and the minimum wage, two issues season ... in fact, without the accomplishments of his years of on which Reagan had stood firm. "At last I have found out," I regularly indulging in illegal substances (1920-1933), Babe wrote in these pages, "what it takes to make Ronald Reagan would be a pretty ordinary ball-player for his era: 8 years look good: George Bush." played, 77 home runs, .297 batting average. I just came across another reason to look back fondly at the One thing is certain: those certainly aren't the numbers that Reagan presidency. The Wall Street Journal published a chart get one elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. Maybe the baseball listing for each postwar president the rate of domestic spend­ commissioner should pry Babe's plaque off the wall in ing increases and taxes as a percentage of "Gross National Cooperstown. -RWB Product." Not all naked aggression is bad - U.S.lead­ And which president ranked first? You guessed it: George ers shed many crocodile tears in public because of the atrocities Bush. Domestic spending has increased 10.0% per year under of the Iraqi troops against the Kuwaitis. Lest one jump to the Bush. And taxes as a percentage of so-called Gross National conclusion that the U.S. government is quick to condemn atroci­ Product are higher under Bush than any other post-war presi­ ties against the innocent, one might recall Cambodia. Between dent. Indeed, the ratio of taxes to "GNP" has risen faster under 1975 and 1978 more than a million people perished-and many Bush than any other recent president except Carter, climbing who survived might well have envied them-at the hands of 1.06% per year. the Pol Pot regime. The Khmer Rouge received then, and contin­ And how does Reagan rate? Domestic spending rose at a ues to receive today, the support of the U.S. government. -RH 1% annual rate under Reagan, the lowest of post-war presi­ dents. Taxes as a percentage of "GNP" actually declined under Only in Albania - The internal unrest in the last Reagan. The rate of decline was 0.26% per year, also the best Stalinist state, Albania, has at last begun to flow over its bor­ performance of any president since World War II. ders: Albanians are fleeing to Italy in small boats. I hope that For your information, here are the average annual rates that this indicates that the end of Albanian socialism may be at taxes have increased as a percentage of "GNP" during recent hand. This mass emigration poses a very important question administrations: for Americans: why haven't we thrown open our borders to these people? Average annual tax increases Throughout the Cold War the United States had an open­ as percentage of "GNP" border policy towards the Communist countries. But very few could escape to claim the asylum we offered. During the past few years, the collapse of communism has enabled large num­ -.26% •• bers of inmates of those sad countries to escape. How did the +1.49% u.S. react? By putting immigration restrictions in place. Apparently, refugees from communist countries were welcome -.20% only so long as we knew few could escape. Once again, our pol­ icy gives only lip service to freedom. These immigration restric­ tions don't just hurt the refugees from foreign oppression. They hurt us as well, by denying the country a highly motivated group of people. Of all those fleeing communism in recent years, the Vietnamese came here in the greatest numbers. Have they This chart is really a measure of how deeply the federal harmed this country? Not at all. They have made positive con­ government goes into the pockets of its citizens. This is only a tributions through their hard work and commitment to what partial measure of the growth of government: it does not in­ we think of as traditional American values, but are in fact the clude the growth of regulation and interference. But it is illumi­ values of hard-working, decent, and self-interested people nating. For example, who would have figured that taxes rose worldwide. A self-selection mechanism was at work-those faster under Eisenhower than under ''big spenders" Kennedy who fled were those who had the ambition, drive, intelligence, or Johnson? and wherewithal to flee. The United States was the beneficiary It is also interesting to note that although the only two ad­ of this Vietnamese ''brain drain." This is the same self-selection ministrations in which taxes declined were Republican 14 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 (Reagan and Nixon-Ford), two of the top three tax increasers produce weapons to shoot at the Soviets and weapons for the were also Republican (Bush and Eisenhower). Soviets to shoot back at them. But most of all, it illustrates a critical difference between Have our leaders followed Alice down the rabbit hole? -RH Reagan and Bush:· Reagan actually was able to reduce the level of taxation; Bush has raised taxes at a very rapid rate, despite The rocky road of love - The romance between his "read-my-lips-no-new-taxes" promise. The 1.06% annual in­ the self-proclaimed "paleo-libertarians" and "paleo­ crease in the tax rate under Bush is no small matter: in only ten conservatives," so carefully arranged by Llewellyn Rockwell years of such increases, taxes would rise as much as they did (chief "paleo-lib" Cupid) and Thomas Fleming (chief "paleo­ from Truman to Carter. con"), has survived its first date. Apparently the old adage that "absence makes the heart The occasion was the first "open" meeting of the John Randolph Club in Dallas in early December. Prior to this meet­ grow fonder" is true of politicians as well as lovers. At least it ing, the romance had taken the form of a few private meetings seems to be the case with Ronald Reagan. When he was presi­ between top leaders of each paleo-hyphenate. A genuine politi­ dent, it was easy for those of us who value liberty to focus on cal courtship must involve the rank-and-file, but there were ob­ his failure to cut back the scope of government, his huge bud­ get deficits, his invasion of financial privacy, his idiotic "war on vious problems: while the leaders of both groups were willing to sweep profound ideological differences under the rug for the drugs," his failure to abolish the departments of Education and sake of the romance, it remained an open question whether the Energy. These failures were partly the product of his own pro­ rank-and-file of each group would find their counterparts to be big government impulses. But politics is the art of the possible, ... well, maybe a little too rank. and some of his failures were no doubt the result of the impos­ Paleo-libertarians, for example, might have problems accept­ sibility of getting change through a hostile Congress. ing the sexism of the paleo-cons, or their opposition to free Though I hesitate to call Ronald Reagan the ''best'' presi­ dent of the past half century, I think it is fair to say he is the "least bad" of a bad bunch. -RWB The carefully-arranged romance between the Is the Cold War over? - Yes, the Warsaw Pact is "paleo-libertarians" and "paleo-conservatives" hils history, and the USSR joined with the U.S. coalition in support­ survived its first date. As is typical of first dates ing the use of violence to expel the Iraqis from Kuwait. But many things remain as they were, and some things are just too between the customarily lonely, each seemed to be bizarre to believe. willing to accept the bizarreries of the other, at The USSR, after all, still maintains the largest armed force in least for the time being. the world, and its strategic weapons remain in place, aimed at the same old targets in the West. Despite some cutbacks in mili­ tary forces and procurement rates, the Soviets continue to pro­ trade. Paleo-conservatives, on the other hand, might prove re­ duce weapons at rates far above those of the West. luctant to get in bed with people who advocate free immigra­ Modernization of strategic nuclear weapons continues, as does tion or free speech, not to mention anarchism. the production of new submarines and silos to contain them. In most romances, one party is usually more anxious to Although military production accounts for perhaps 25 per­ make the relationship work; in this case it is plainly the paleo­ cent of the national product, the generals protest that severe libs, whose two major spokespeople, Llewellyn Rockwell and cutbacks are impossible: there's no place to house the soldiers Murray Rothbard, have started a periodical, Rothbard-Rockwell released and no money to convert the factories from bombers Report, in which they have downplayed differences between li­ to borscht. So the Soviet military-industrial complex plows re­ bertarian and conservative values and ideas, and explicitly pro­ lentlessly ahead, monopolizing the best and brightest resources moted the idea of a marriage with paleo-eons. The paleo-lib as the economy crumbles around it. The Ministry of Defense re­ house organ has focused a remarkable amount of its energy on cently released a draft of its 10-year reform plan. The proposed establishing common ground with the paleo-cons by promoting reforms don't cut very deep. In fact, the plan envisions defense sexual intolerance (in the form of gay-baiting and sexual in- costs in the late 1990s above those of the early 1990s. In view of the many facts attesting to the continuation of the Cold War-at least as far as the Red Army and the KGB are concerned-it comes as something of a shock to read in Armed Forces Journal International (January 1991) that the Germans (remember, they're on our side) have agreed to honor the contract wherein the old East German regime agreed to supply the Soviet Army with antitank missiles similar to the ~G~ U.S. Army's TOWs. Let's see if I have this straight. The United States and its NATO allies continue to prepare for war with the Soviet ~t:1~tlE-~~~ Union, and vice versa. Meanwhile NATO member Germany maintains on its territory hundreds of thousands of armed -<' ..:;;;;;::.:5~ Soviet troops, who are not scheduled to leave for years; and the S~(d5 Germans bankroll the building of housing in the Soviet Union 'The ironic part is that I had to step on a lot of toes to get for the troops now in Germany. Simultaneously the Germans where I am today." Liberty 15 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 nuendos ~bout libertarians who support sexual tolerance) and tive in their analysis of some of these questions ... They hadn't racial intolerance, sometimes by implication (repeated ad homi­ really thought through the implications. At one point, Fleming nem attacks on Martin Luther King) and sometimes explicitly made some childish comments about revolution ... [Another (describing segregation in the South in the 1940s as "race rela­ libertarian] and I were going, 'What the hell is this guy talking tions as they were, can be, and should be"). In contrast, the about? I mean, he can't really be serious!' At one point he con­ chief paleo-con journal, Chronicles, has hardly acknowledged demned the idea of civil disobedience as being unsupportable the existence of the paleo-libs, though it has published writing on some philosophical grounds or other, some sort of Russell­ by both Rockwell and Rothbard. Kirkean grounds, but somehow he defended the idea of revolu­ So it was with great interest that I awaited the meeting in tion as being the alternative and he made some sort of 1970­ Dallas. Would the carefully contrived courtship heat up into a type macho statement. I don't know whether it's because these genuine romance? Alas, no invitation was extended to yours guys are sort of pro-Southern secessionism or what or if he was truly. But happily, I managed to interview at length three just doing it to be sort of bratty or shocking. Maybe to conser­ prominent libertarians who did attend, so I report mostly on vatives it is real shocking, but to libertarians who have been what they said. Two of my sources head libertarian think tanks; around twenty years it seems kind of old-hat, goofball. Jesus the third is a member of the board of the Center for Libertarian Christ, what's this guy talking about? It just struck me as being Studies, publisher of RRR. rather juvenile." As at any first date, the two sides were a little infatuated Nor did the CLS board member think much of the pros­ and a little wary, sounding each other out, wondering just pects for wedding bells, though he thought the mating ritual what each other's idiosyncrasies were and whether the ro­ may have been the problem: "There are definitely certain mance could blossom. bridges to be crossed. I think we'd have had a lot more under­ Like the paleo-libs, the paleo-cons attending tended to be standing if we'd have simply been sitting around playing pok­ middle-aged white males. But differences in culture were evi- er and drinking beer." Murray Rothbard, not surprisingly, considers the romance to be heating up and the Dallas meeting to be of "historic" im­ There were two points at which the infatuees al­ portance. "On foreign policy," he said, "there was virtual una­ most went home alone. The paleo-libs were taken nimity," despite the fact that the paleo-libs favor absolute isolationism as a matter of principle and the paleo-cons sup­ aback when paleo-con Tom Fleming claimed, port "conservative nationalism," which includes U.S. interven­ "Lynch law is good law." And many paleo-cons tion in Latin America. paled when a libertarian jested that the Grand One of the libertarian think-think presidents believes the apparent consensus on foreign policy was partly "because it Canyon should be used for landfill. was the first session and there was a certain courtesy and ten­ dency to not question [what was said.] But I do think there was a greater consensus on foreign policy than on drugs, immigra­ dent. "These conservatives were all smoking in this hotel tion, and so on ... The greatest common ground was the ha­ room," the CLS board member told me. "It wasn't a real big tred of the neo-cons, Bush, and national centralization of room and some of them were even smoking cigars toward the power." The romance is going nicely, he told me; the paleo-libs end. Obviously, they thought, 'Well, we're not going to be may successfully introduce libertarian ideas into the conserva­ pushed around by any goddam health nuts or any anti-tobacco tive mainstream. A lot of the credit is due Rockwell, he said, activists.'" who "really tried to play down the libertarian position on im­ There were two points at which the infatuees almost went migration to promote harmony." home alone. The paleo-libs were taken aback when Tom The other think tank president was less optimistic: he Fleming, the very able and intelligent editor of Chronicles, thought the meeting illustrated the lack of common ground be­ claimed, "Lynch law is good law." And many paleo-cons paled tween conservatives and libertarians, and he judged the pros­ when a libertarian jested that the Grand Canyon should be pects for any long-term relationship to be poor. -RWB used for landfill. (Curiously, in his effusive account of the meeting, Murray Rothbard incorrectly credits this bon mot to A teacher's place is in the home? - The Lew Rockwell, whom Rothbard promotes as ''Mr Anti­ welcome policy push for choice in education tends to obscure Environment.") another important development-the growth of home school­ As is typical of first dates between the customarily lonely, ing. Although figures are inexact (partly because it's illegal in each seemed to be willing to accept the bizarreries of the other, some states to teach your child at home if you are not a certi­ at least for the time being. But are wedding bells in the offing? fied teacher), the latest estimate is that nearly 500,000 children Ironically, it was the CLS board member who was most dubi­ are home-schooled, a significant increase over the 1970s when ous about the prospect for nuptials. Indeed, he was downright one estimate was that 15,000 children were taught at home. hostile to most of the conservatives present, describing various Libertarians would do well to endorse this movement, prominent paleo-cons as "goofball" or "manic-depressive" or which represents a last-ditch stand against state coercion. Its "semi-pychotic." (He used this last term to describe one or an­ strongest proponents (more than 90% in one study) are conser­ other paleo-con three times in a IS-minute interview.) vative Christian families, apparently upset with poor perfor­ He was singularly unimpressed with the quality of the dis­ mance and objectionable moral teachings (or lack of moral cussion: "It struck me as being almost like a 1970 libertarian teaching) in the public schools. bull session. [The paleo-cons] seemed to be surprisingly primi- To me, this trend toward home schooling, however small in 16 Liberty INDEPENDENT FROM BUREAUCRACY

ARMS, POLITICS ALIENATION AND AND THE ECONOMY THE SOVIET ECONOMY Historical and Contemporary Perspectives The Collapse of the Socialist Era Edited by ROBERT HIGGS PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS Foreword by WILLIAM A. NISKANEN Foreword by AARON WILDAVSKY

lVith the end of the Iraqi War and the crum­ When Alienation and the Soviet Economy bling of the Cold War and Soviet Bloc, will first appeared in 1971, it argued that any peace dividend be lost in a web of defense socialism was a catastrophic failure already. politics? Now, Arms, Politics and the Now today, the cascade of current events has Economy unravels why military procurement fully vindicated everyone of Paul Craig has remained impervious to reform and how Roberts's most controversial insights into true defense needs can overcome scandal. Marxist theory and Soviet economy. "Arms, Politics and the Economy is a major chronicle "Professor Roberts's explanation ofSoviet economic and critique ofthe defense establishment, a virtual cata­ development is timely . .. The book is beneficial log ofthe defense business. The book is immensely reading for experts and non-experts alike who wish to informative and makes rare sense ofthe 'military­ understand the theoretical Marxian framework within industrial-congressional complex.' " which the Soviet economy grew and declined." -EARL C. RAVENAL -ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI Distinguished Research Professor of Former National Security Adviser International Affairs, Georgetown University "The uncritical acceptance by Western observers of "An immensely timely book! As the international system the supposed achievements brought about by central changes, understanding the domestic political economy planning in the Soviet Union is subjected to a devas­ ofmilitary spending is more important than ever." tating critique in this short but powerful book. ... a -BRUCE M. RUSSETT gem ofa book." Professor of Political Science, Yale University -NATIONAL REVIEW 3 Figures • 16 Tables • Index • 380 pages • Paperback • Item #6060 13 Figures • 1 Table· Index • 145 pages • Paperback • Item #1340 $19.95 plus postage ($2.00/book), CA residents add sales tax $14.95 plus postage ($2.00/book), CA residents add sales tax The ~ INDEPENDENT \ INSfITUTE ORDER TOLL FREE 1-800-927-8733 Credit card orders only. 24 hours a day.

The Independent Institute, Dept. AG6, 134 Ninety-Eighth Avenue, Oakland, CA 94603 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 absolute numbers, offers hope for coping with some social who would like to spend more time with their children. problems. As I have written before, one of the problems facing Could home schooling restore the primacy of the family by women today is that motherhood is often less than a full-time giving mothers (it would be mostly mothers, though it occupation, especially for families with only one or two chil­ wouldn't be limited to them) something worthwhile and chal­ dren. The pull of "careerism" is very strong even for parents lenging to do while staying at home with their children? It's a thought to ponder. William R. Mattox Jr has taken this idea further. Writing in Guest Reflection Policy Review (Winter 1991), Mattox claims that the biggest problem facing American children is not lack of daycare or What they didn't tell you at B-School poor nutrition or even poverty but lack of time with their par­ - Corporations get a bad rap in most news media­ ents. "The American family today lives in a time-pressure cook­ including NPR, PBS, the weekly news magazines, the major er," he writes, supporting this claim with a study (based on networks, movies like Roger and Me and now even in Barron's personal time diaries) showing that in 1985 parents spent 40% (is nothing sacred?), with its violent attacks on Michael less time with their children than parents did in 1965. Milken (by Ben Stein), Jude Wanniski (by Joe Queenan), and What to do? Mattox urges that parents find more time waste management companies (by Abe Briloff). Sound­ through such things as "flexible hours, part-time work, job minded Barron's publisher Robert Bleiberg should fire these sharing, and most especially home-based employment oppor­ wanna-be Woodwards and Bemsteins on his staff. tunities." Furthermore, he says, if this were combined with free But do the masses really listen to the news angle on cor­ choice in education, an array of "part-day" or "part-week" edu­ porations? I doubt it. My theory is that the vast majority of cational programs might emerge. These would allow parents to Americans formulate their anti-corporate bias from a far teach some subjects at home while leaving others to the class­ more virulent and accessible source-fiction. room, and would mean a true revolution in education and a In particular, the Lowest Common Denominator of vari­ big step toward freedom. ous ages watch Captain Planet on Saturday morning car­ True, it's hard to envision real freedom in education, since toons, Dallas on Friday night, and movies like Robocop, Total the political opposition from public school teachers and dis­ Recall, Darkman and a variety of other flicks that portray tricts is intense. But public school education is so poor that de­ business folk as murderers, philanderers, alcoholics, and mands for choice are mounting. Support for vouchers is worse. coming from such mainstream places as the Brookings • The Robocop school of management recommends kill­ Institution, and the recently appointed undersecretary of edu­ ing your customers. cation, David Kearns, wants a voucher program that includes • The Dallas school of management puts a bar and a both public and private schools. Where there is turmoil, there is wench in every office. hope for change, and home schooling may be an important • The Total Recall school of management says to choke part of the result. -JSS off the supply of oxygen to your customers. What a way to run a utility! U.S. taxpayers support the KGB - Late in • The Darkman school of management favors killing all 1990, ostensibly to aid starving people in the Soviet Union, small landowners. President Bush released more than $1 billion in agricultural Very few business people watch these shows, because credits to finance shipments of U.S. farm commodities to the they're too busy working. And what are they working at? USSR. At the receiving end, President Gorbachev assigned the Trying their damnedest to please every customer. No bars, KGB to distribute the food to the needy. no wenches, no murders of their competitors. Only a complete fool would believe that the KGB would re­ This story gets interesting when you consider the litiga­ frain from using the goods to reward itself and its friends and tion explosion, and the proliferation of jury trials of individ­ to augment its already substantial control over the faltering uals against corporations. Who populates juries these days economy. Yet the Bush administration chose to direct still an­ but the LCD-raised on Dallas and Captain Planet, at worst, other subsidy toward U.S. farm interests and to prop up the or the latest PBS shockumentary on polluting businesses, at anti-democratic Gorbachev regime, which is roundly hated by best. most people in the Soviet Union. I just participated in a jury trial of a rich person suing a An enquiry would seem to be in order: either the U.S. gov­ cash-poor corporation. I thought the corporate case was air­ ernment didn't know the KGB would grab the food, which im­ tight, but the jury found in favor of the wealthy plaintiff-a plies that its intelligence is no good; or it did know, which jerk-for $600,000 in back wages and damages. Afterwards, implies that it intentionally transferred resources from U.S. tax­ the clerk in this court told me that he had never seen a jury payers to the KGB. -RH trial in the last five years which found for a corporation de­ fending against an individual. Invincible ignorance at the Trib - It's nose­ My theory is that anti-business propaganda on TV and cret to those who live in the midwest that the Chicago Tribune in the movies is fueling an anti-corporate bias that is totally has drifted to the left in recent years. The one-time bastion of out of touch with the character of most corporations: civic­ small-government, anti-welfare-state Republicanism now rou­ minded, customer-minded, hard-working, caring. They tinely endorses Democrats, supports every new expansion and have to be that way or they lose their most precious re­ intrusion of the state, and denounces the eighties as a "decade source: Customers. -Gary Alexander of greed." To those of us who cut our ideological teeth on the continued on page 34 18 Liberty 1AT h ':3'" ;... Tn £:) ':3 n c "Victory" in the Gulf v v 1 L a l J. l 11Lea Il ~

Losing Our Heads in the Persian Gulf by R. W. Bradford

The quick-and-easy victory It is not at all surprising that libertarians disagree in the Gulf War has unified with one another on the Gulf War. For most libertarians, Americans as has no event in just about the only legitimate function of the state is the repulsion of ag­ recent years. George Bush has gression, and the Gulf War is one of the few state actions of recent years that enjoyed the highest popularity so qualifies. Iraq invaded a helpless neighbor for purposes of plunder, no of any president since the eu­ question about it. Saddam Hussein is a genuinely bad guy. phoria at the end of World War On the other hand, the war has very substantial costs in treasure and lives, II, the nVietnam Syndrome" is not to mention damage to the body politic: it is already being used as a justi­ dead and buried, and Amer­ fication for the U.S. to play the role of world policeman and for other increas­ es in the power of the state. So the issue was a tough call for libertarians like icans can celebrate again. me who believe foreign policy should be motivated by both morality and But should they? prudence. Not according to several of And, of course, some libertarians believe that virtually any foreign inter­ Liberty's editors. But Liber­ vention by the U.s. is morally wrong and should always be opposed. These ty's editors are as much divid­ libertarians are outspoken in their opposition to the war. ed by the War as other So there's no surprise that libertarians are divided on the issue. What is Americans are united by it. surprising-and disappointing-to me is the degree to which the Gulf War has inflamed passions. Judging from the letters and phone calls we have re­ In the next 16 pages, they ceived, many libertarians are so worked up on the issue that they are unable explain what to make of the to keep a level head on their shoulders. Gulf War and the quick-and­ Several readers, for example, have written to accuse Liberty of being horri­ easy U.S. victory. bly one-sided on the issue. Most of these letters consider Liberty to be anti­ war, but some consider Liberty to be pro-war. The truth is that Liberty is nei­ ther. Liberty takes no stand on the issue. Our editors take stands, and because our editors disagree with one another, the commentary on the war that we have published has sometimes supported the war and sometimes opposed it. Mostly the letters characterize the position they attribute to Liberty as thoughtless, idiotic, or worse. Typical of these letters is one from a reader re­ sponding to the four short comments on the war from our March issue. It be­ gins by attacking Robert Higgs' analysis at considerable length, and proceeds to rake over the coals both my own piece and Sheldon Richman's. Naturally, what was most interesting to me was the attack on my piece, which was characterized as "opposing the war." But not a single sentence or phrase in my piece suggested I "opposed the war." Not one. Liberty 19 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

Yes, my piece was extremely critical of the Bush administration's handling of the crisis that led to war: I believed then and remain convinced today that if the Bush administration had acted Two Kinds of prudently, Iraq would never have in­ vaded Kuwait in the first place, and that its diplomatic blunders after the Iraq invasion have cost the people of Patriotism the United States dearly. But this does not amount to "opposing the war." by Robert Higgs Even more troubling was the letter­ writer's assertion that our coverage had been one-sided, a criticism I also got from a frequent contributor to Lib­ Genuine patriotism involves something other than loy­ erty, who wrote of his disappointment alty to one's government, willingness to fight its wars, at Liberty's "knee-jerk" reaction against and celebration of its military victories. the war. We have published criticism of the war by Sheldon Richman and Robert Higgs. But I don't think it rea­ sonable to characterize either of their The fighting in the Persian Gulf region prompted nu­ analyses as "knee-jerk." Even more merous manifestations of what is commonly called patriotism, troubling to me was the claim that Lib­ in the form of flag-waving public displays of approval for Operation erty's analysis had been uniformly Desert Slaughter. The people who II anti-war. While it is certainly true that Liberty made a spectacle of "supporting the Har abuse. As usual, an inflamed public troops" seemed convinced that those demands not just Americanism but has published more analysis that can who did not favor the war were giving "one-hundred-percent Americanism," be characterized as anti-war than can aid and comfort to Saddam Hussein which in practice usually boils down to be characterized as pro-war, it is sim­ and betraying "our boys" (and girls). something worse than nativism. ply incorrect to suggest that we have After an absence of nearly twenty This appalling conduct proceeded published only anti-war writing. years, the love-it-or-Ieave-it crowd from little more than herd instinct. Didn't these people-and the others emerged in full force. Many Americans viewed the Gulf con- who wrote with similar complaints­ According to polls conducted during £lict as simply "us" against "them." It read Jim Robbins, Steve Cox, and Le­ the first month of the war, a large ma- seemed never to occur to these self­ land Yeager's writing on the subject? jority of the American public supported righteous folk that the United States This same sort of loss of perspec­ the Bush administration's decisions to may not be God's gift to the planet, di­ tive, it seems to me, is evident in much initiate and continue a fierce military vinely destined to dominate all who in­ of the feedback we have received from assault on Iraq. Moreover, in assessing habit the earth. libertarians opposed to the war: the the credibility of the administration Ironically, those who most visibly most common theme is an indignant and the military as opposed to the supported the war-lower middle class how-dare-you-pubIish-pro-wa roo news media, most Americans ex- whites-stood to suffer the greatest bu11shit. pressed far more trust in the govern- losses, for they are the segment of the ; MyClown guess is that the Gulf War ment's story than in the media's. One population whose members compose has so inflamed the emotions of liber­ poll found 57 percent of the respon- the bulk of the ground combat forces tarians that they have lost their per­ dents wanted more censorship, even and therefore are at greatest risk of spective. In a certain sense, this is not though the news was already being being killed or wounded in a shooting surprising: most Americans have lost controlled to a degree without prece- war. Why did the mothers and fathers perspective. Wars have inflamed pas­ dent in the past forty years. As Knight- of this class seem to relish the prospect sion and destroyed perspective ever Ridder's Dick Polman observed, of their own children's being placed in since the need for widespread public "When public passions run high in jeopardy? support for war became manifest at wartime, skepticism often yields to na- The root of this pathetic behavior is the beginning of the democratic age. tionalism." the confusion in the minds of many But I had thought-hoped, actually­ An impassioned public gives vent to people between the nation and the gov­ that libertarians were better equipped its nationalistic impulses in many ugly ernment that rules the nation. Blind, than. most people to keep their cool ways. Not only were Arab-Americans subservient obedience to the state (re­ during state-induced crises, thanks to and foreign Arabs living in the United member the "good Germans" under their relatively sophisticated tools for States harassed and threatened; Paki- Hitler?) and unwarranted trust in the analyzing state action. Perhaps I was stanis, Koreans, and others mistakenly president's honesty and judgment wrong. 0 identified as "the enemy" suffered sim- caused a multitude to act as if the inter- 20 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

ests of the government coincided with lATh~f-;f n'\a~nc mitment to its flock. their own interests. Our rulers must Although true American patriots take special delight in the enthusiastic "Victory" in the Gulf love what is genuinely lovable about public expressions of patriotism, which vv 11 d { 1 { III ~ d 11 t; their country, they do not do so invidi­ confirm that the government's decep­ ously. There is no need to hoist Ameri­ tions, manipulations, and frauds have ca by shoving down the rest of the achieved the desired effect. Joyful pro­ dety it is the protection of individual world, and only a fool would try to do ducers of cannon fodder-what more liberty. so. could any Spartan state desire? Even a cursory study of American This country can boast of much, but The editors of The Wall Street Journal, history demonstrates beyond question it also lacks much: the cleanliness and who have never met a war they didn't that the greatest sacrifices of the peo­ tidiness of Switzerland, the grandeur like, opined on February 11 that the ob­ ple's liberty and the most savage plun­ of the great mountains of Nepal, the trusive flags and yellow ribbons be­ dering of their pocketbooks have been ancient culture and civilization of speak something deeper in the public associated with the nation's involve­ Egypt, the venerable philosophies and ment in war or events likened to war, mood. In their views denizens of the classic art of China, the music and liter­ such as the Great Depression, which "mainstream culture" were reasserting ature of a dozen European countries, their pride in themselves after endur­ Justice Brandeis called "an emergency the poetry of a hundred alien tongues. more serious than war." The associa­ ing twenty years of post-Vietnam villi­ Fortunately, there is utterly no con­ tion is not mere coincidence; it is a mat­ fication by writers and broadcasters flict between authentic American patri­ ter of cause and effect. inhabiting an effete elite culture. The otism and membership in the world Emergencies, especially wars, lead identity and self-interest of these pro­ community. And there is certainly no most citizens to slacken their resistance fessional naysayers are said to hinge on sense in which Americans are entitled to the persistent efforts of the govern­ constant criticism of America's short­ to make war against others who do not ment to extend its control of economy comings. The intellectuals view worka­ make, or even threaten to make, war and society, including our precious day patriotism as an unjustified and on them. Mass murder is a hideous ac­ civil liberties. Supporting the govern­ even dangerous effusion of ''blue-collar tion, and no one should support it on ment's foreign military adventures that workers, right-wing Republicans and the strength of the accident of having are unnecessary to defend the popula­ been born at a certain time and place, Southern yahoos." tion from attack means voluntarily giv­ The Journal's editors, self-appointed subject to rulers drunk with power and ing up our lives, liberties, and property disoriented by their ambitions. spokesmen for the silent majority, pro­ to those who stand ever ready to take It ought to be a maxim, as Auberon ceeded to ask: 'What about the sum and dispose of them for their own pur­ Herbert declared, that what one person total of daily effort, production, good poses. Citizens who forgo the active cannot do morally, no collectivity of works and individual achievement that employment of their rational and moral persons can do morally, and certainly coexisted alongside the problems ... ?" faculties during wartime transform The question is apt. But not even the themselves into putty in the hands of most affirmative answer to it justifies deceitful and unscrupulous rulers. Citizens who forgo the ac­ or excuses the outburst of pseudo­ Genuine patriotism is something else patriotism. For while the Journal's ques­ altogether. Unlike the chauvinism now tive employment of their ra­ tion speaks quite properly of individu­ passing for patriotism, it has nothing to tional and moral faculties al efforts productions, good works, and do with nationalism, jingoism, and xen­ during wartime transform achievements that one ought to weigh ophobia. It involves a deep familiarity themselves into putty in the against the ills of the nation, the con­ with, special appreciation of, and pref­ clusion refers to "the country's faith in erence for what is uniquely Ameri­ hands of deceitful and unscru­ itself'-as if the whole society were a can-the land itself, the ideals, pulous rulers. purposive entity rather than a concep­ creations, customs and language, the tual abstraction. oddities and gentle perversities. Au­ The truth is that we are some 250 thentic American patriots value toler­ no government can do morally. Ordi­ million separate persons composing a ance, social and religious pluralism and nary Americans have no just quarrel nation, an aggregate with neither heart above all, liberty. with the ordinary Iraqis to whom the nor soul. We agree on very little. The Genuine patriotism does not just U.s. attack brought so many deaths and genius of America-the ideal that has come with the territory. People cannot such vast destruction. \ made it a workable and relatively pro­ genuinely love something about which Even if the war in the Gulf had been ductive society-is a social, political, they are profoundly ignorant. Effort morally justified, it was unwise; it will and constitutional order in which di­ and experience must come first. Having be productive of immense mischief for verse individuals enjoy a relatively worked to know America, its darkness years to come. Among the evil conse­ high degree of freedom from interfer­ along with its light, one may still love quences of the pseudo-patriotic sup­ ence by those who disagree with their it. But an easy, automatic allegiance, ac­ port for it will be immediate and ends or their means. If there is any­ quired at the maternity ward, has no delayed diminutions of American liber­ thing uniquely admirable about this so- more foundation than a sheep's com- ties that an overreaching government Liberty 21 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

might otherwise have been unable to war when he called it upon us, politicians lure the populace affect. Knowing that the populace will Organized pain, a formal agony: with the siren song of war: swallow foreign adventures happily, In war's magnified ache, brilliantly blared, the song that is irresistible: future administrations will resort to The poor mistake their grandeur and their the song that forces men them whenever plausible occasions grief; to leap overboard in squadrons present themselves. Of course, plausi­ Adding their weakness, they affirm the even though they see the beached skulls. bilities can always be trumped up. state .... (from "Siren Song," by Margaret Atwood) No one should forget that war is the (from "Coriolanus and His Mother") Genuine patriots do not encourage health of the state. Delmore Schwartz To distract us from our real troubles their fellow citizens to make that fatal stripped away the glorious mask of and the oppressions they have heaped leap. 0 Liberty Triumphs in the Desert by James S. Robbins

One effect of the war has been the explosion of certain myths, myths that no reasonable person should have believed, though many, of course, did.

Throughout this conflict we witnessed the sad spectacle of isolationist libertarians opposing U.S. intervention in a situation justified by both strategic need and idealist creed. It makes one think that isolationists stand for not much of anything in the foreign policy realm, except blind reac­ tion. An article in the March Liberty quoted pacifist Jeanette Rankin-the was predicted to have prestige, even sight of Palestinians in Amman throw­ same person who alone voted "no" on though Nasser's was ended by the 1967 ing stones at the Iraqi Embassy the day the war resolution with Japan. What loss to Israel. By the time this goes to the pullout from Kuwait was affirmed sort of moral standing does she have? press, Saddam may be the newest pretty much sums things up. Most libertarian literature I came across "Arab martyr." The Arab states opposing Saddam used the same old bromides all the Those states that sided with Saddam were also driven by national self­ other critics were using, bromides that mostly did so for reasons unrelated to interest. Syria and Saudi Arabia are ob­ have been laid to rest, at least tempo­ Arab nationalism. Jordan did so be­ vious candidates, since Saddam threat­ rarily, by reality. cause King Hussein, an alien ruler ened them directly. Egypt got into the The first is that there is something among a mostly Palestinian population, fray in order to boost its own prestige, called the "Arab Nation" or the "Arab had to placate his people. They, and the and assert its claim as the leading Arab Masses." There is an underlying PLO, supported Saddam because he state. The Arab opponents of Saddam (though unintended) tone of racism to supported them-a nice geostrategic were said to be ruling groups out of these claims, a myth reinforced by move from a man who had not previ­ touch with their people. Domestic un­ those who want to see an Arab uprising ously shown much interest (other than rest was predicted. But most of the un­ (e.g., supporters of the PLO) and those rhetorical) in the Palestinian cause. Of rest was in Amman, Jordan (which was

who fear Arab nationalism (John course the PLO made a tactical blunder also the media center for the 1/Arab McLaughlin and Patrick Buchanan not only by backing the wrong horse, Masses" reports). Opposition leaders were very big on this score). But as but by alienating Kuwait and Saudi and fundamentalists were interviewed Faoud Ajami pointed out, the deep di­ Arabia, their major sources for funding. giving their insights into why Saddam visions in the Arab world over the war Yemen sided with Iraq, but Yemen is a should not be opposed. But what else pretty much put to bed the idea of a traditional enemy of Saudi Arabia, so were these people supposed to say? pan-Arab identity. The Arabs, to their that was no surprise. Algeria may have They are the opposition, after all. credit, were not swayed by the irration­ been the purest example of a disinter­ Pan-Arabism has again shown itself al mystique of the "Arab leader," a ested pro-Saddam Arab state, but even to be a mythical force, appealed to in force Arabs were said not to be able to Algeria would not promise the beaten times of calm but unable to stand up to resist. Former Egyptian strongman Saddam sanctuary. And most of Sad­ pressure. It is also, like the Pan-Slavism Nasser was brought up in this context dam's supporters vanished. after his of the nineteenth century, a handy tool ad nauseam, and even in defeat Saddam army was crushed in the field. The for any dictator or demagogue to use 22 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

while furthering his own political ends. lAT'h~.f-;.f- Tno~nc The war settled a debate which had Let us not forget the heartfelt Arab lingered since the 1980s over defense unity displayed on August 2, 1990; Sad­ "Victory" in the Gulf priorities. In the mid-1980s, a school of dam loved Kuwait so much he wanted vv 11 a { 1 { III e a 11 S defense reformers arose which es­ to marry it to Iraq. poused low-tech solutions to the prob­ A related point was fear of Arab­ lems of modern warfare. Citing the cost Israeli conflict. Here again was another war commenced, gasoline prices were of high-tech weapons, these planners irrational fear, namely that Israel only three cents above their August 1, built models showing that cheaper, would retaliate if attacked no matter 1990 level, and this included the addi­ cruder weapons applied en masse what, and that the coalition would then tional five cent gas tax instituted this would achieve as good if not better re­ split apart as the Arab States took the winter. In other words, the price was sults for less money. They also claimed field against the common Zionist foe. lower. Even the destruction of the Ku­ that the "smart" weapons were too But it was not to be. Not only did Israel waiti oil facilities seems to have made complex to work. The war showed restrain itself from responding to Sad­ little impact on world crude prices. I them wrong on both counts. In the first dam's Scud terror-bombings, but even suppose now isolationists will argue place, the weapons worked, and mag­ Syria affirmed the right of Israel to that because of this the war was mean­ nificently so, on land, sea and in the air. mount defensive strikes if it was at­ ingless. So it goes. In the second place, if they had been re­ tacked. Self-interest overcame native The war exploded other myths that placed with dumb weapons, the conse­ hostility, and the Middle Eastern diplo­ weren't espoused by libertarians. One quences for civilians (and thus for U.S. mats showed themselves to be more was that the press corps is the watch­ diplomacy) would have been horren­ than a match for a scenario that caused dog of the people against the govern­ dous. For example, instead of putting American pundits (including myself, I ment. This concept has haunted the one smart weapon through an air shaft must confess) many worried hours. country and inflated the egos of to knock out a bunker, the entire block The course of the war, and the short­ newsmen since the Vietnam era, but would have had to be bombed, World ness of the ground conflict, beat even will no longer. Press complaints about War IT-style. The arguments against the the most optimistic predictions, which restrictions were not echoed by the Strategic Defense Initiative were shown made the most pessimistic seem all the American people, 80% of whom so pathetically wrong by the perfor­ more ridiculous. Unfortunately, liber­ thought more restrictions were needed. mance of the Patriot that the Union of tarians latched onto them, supplanting The coverage was fascinating, primarily rational analysis of warfare with because it was often live, though press doomsday scenarios. Honestly, just be­ priorities were sometimes hard to fig­ We have restored American cause one opposes a policy doesn't ure (e.g., breaking away from an impor­ prestige. If there was any ques­ mean one has to tune out. Thousands tant briefing because sirens had been tion internationally about the of casualties were predicted, yet we heard in Dahran, long after the Scuds barely topped a few hundred. This was had been shown to be impotent against power of the United States, because critics based their numbers on Patriots). And though the reporters there is no longer. Isolationists analyses of the Iran-Iraq war, the worst complained that press briefings were may argue about the utility of example possible. Did these analysts not informative, it was often because expect the United States to send 16 year they either didn't understand what they this, but such a show of force olds against machine-gun nests armed were being told (the reporter who will generally intimidate inter­ with sticks? The type of offensive we thought we were concentrating battle­ national troublemakers. The were going to pursue was obvious as field preparation bombing behind the early as last fall-an envelopment, a re­ lines was a classic case) or asked the world will be more peaceful for play of the 1940 Manstein Plan for the wrong questions. Still, these were peo­ a few years, barring a Soviet invasion of France. Yet still one heard ple skilled at Pentagon reporting, cover­ meltdown. about trench warfare, stalemate, Iraqi ing budget battles, weapon system artillery, and so forth. developments, Defense Department Another bromide was that the price politics and the like; they were not mili­ Concerned Scientists is now trying to of oil would skyrocket, and here liber­ tary specialists. Some took umbrage at a disassociate Patriot from 501. tarians abandoned an earlier, more ra­ sign that appeared outside the Penta­ Those are the myths. But what have tional and market-oriented line, namely gon briefing room welcoming the "tem­ we done? In the first place we have re­ that world oil markets were glutted porary war experts," but their surprise stored American prestige. If there was and prices would not increase. This ar­ at the course of the war showed their any question internationally about the gument was used to oppose U.S. troop limitations. The final act was when power of the United States, there is no deployment; once the troops were on Western journalists were taken captive longer. Isolationists may argue about the ground, arguments had to be craft­ in Basra while trying to cover the anti­ the utility of this, but such a show of ed to oppose the possibility of their use. Saddam unrest, and some national force will generally intimidate interna­ It's sad that objectivity is so easily press organizations demanded we not tional troublemakers, and I expect the abandoned, because the first argument pull the troops out until they were re­ world will be more peaceful for a few turned out to be true. As the ground leased. years, barring a Soviet meltdown. Liberty 23 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991

The Soviet Union has been further ground action (and the liberation ofKu­ cooperation from Syria, a Soviet client marginalized on the world stage, de­ wait) for a week. With the rapid erosion state looking for a new patron. spite its various "peace proposals," of Soviet influence has come unfore­ The United States helped remove a which only accomplished delaying the seen fringe benefits, such as increased dictatorship, or at least render it inef- fective. This is always good in the zero­ t------sum world of governments; one less Don't take my word for it. - I am known to be somewhat skepti­ tyranny is better than one more. We cal about the government's honesty and intentions. So take it from an impeccable also freed Kuwait, at least from Sad­ source, the New York Times (March 3, 1991), where Thomas L. Friedman and Pat­ dam. If it will free itself from its own rick E. Tyler give a blow-by-blow account, based on extensive information pro­ problems, that wouldbe even better. vided by anonymous "senior officials," of the decisions leading to the U.s. war The domestic political fallout from against Iraq. the war is difficult to gauge. Demo­ The lead paragraph reads: ''The Bush Administration began planning an offen­ crats tried quickly to shift attention sive campaign to dislodge the Iraqi forces from Kuwait early last fall even as Ad­ from the war to domestic problems, ministration officials insisted in public that the only mission of United States until their pollsters informed them forces was to defend Saudi Arabia and enforce United Nations sanctions." that they were generating resentment. So the diplomacy, the Baker-Aziz meeting, the get-out-of-town deadlines, and Since then they have fallen back on the all the rest of the hocus pocus was indeed as much a sham as it appeared to be. claim that "votes of conscience" Despite the handwaving, designed to give the President the appearance of "going against the war are out-of-bounds in the last mile" for peace, the administration actually set in motion its juggernaut of future political races. I doubt this will war as early as August and allowed nothing to deter it from its hellbent course. get them very far either, especially if -RobertHiggs there are more examples of the type of duplicity practiced by Senator Kerry, A new record for slaughter - The u.s. triumph over Iraq appears who sent letters to constituents sup­ to set a new record for slaughter in wars between the high-tech West and low­ porting or denouncing the war based tech third-world countries. According to press reports, Gen. Schwartzkopf esti­ on what he thought they wanted to mates Iraqi losses at 100,000, compared to allied casualties of 150. This 667-to-1 hear. However, I also doubt the Re­ kill ratio was achieved by superior U.S. technology and financial resources. publicans will be able to translate the (Those"smart" bombs and missiles cost a lot of money.) war into gains on the local (Congres­ The old record was set by the British on September 2, 1898. A force of 28,000 sional) level, since it is a year and a British and Egyptian soldiers attacked the Sudanese capital of Omdurman, de­ half before the elections, and there are fended by an estimated 50,000 Sudanese, or "dervishes" (devils) as the British many issues to be addressed. George called them. The British were armed with rifles, the "dervishes" with knives and Bush is the biggest winner; few seri­ muskets. But it wasn't the rifle-vs-musket advantage that carried the day for the ous Democrats will be considering a British. Here's how Winston Churchill tells the story: run against him in 1992, unless some "At a critical moment the gun boat arrived on the scene and began suddenly to sort of national crisis interposes. This blaze and flame from Maxim guns, quick-firing guns and rifles. The range was will bring the less viable candidates to short; the effect tremendous. The terrible machine, floating graceful on the wa­ the fore (such as Jesse Jackson, George ters-a beautiful white devil-wreathed itself in smoke. The river slopes of the McGovern and John Silber), further Kerreri Hills, crowded with the advancing thousands, sprang up into clouds of tarnishing the image of the Democrat­ dust and rock. The charging Dervishes sank down in tangled heaps ... The infantry fired steadily and stolidly, without hurry or excitement, for the enemy ic Party. was far away and the officers careful. But presently the mere physical act became The only reservation I have about tedious ... And all the time out on the plain on the other side bullets were shear­ the outcome of the war is that it was so ing though flesh, smashing and splintering bone; blood spouted from terrible successful it has set a tough standard wounds; valiant men were struggling on though a hell of whistling metal, explod­ to meet. I doubt that future wars on ing shells, and spurting dust-suffering, despairing, dying." this scale will be as quick, as clean, and When it was over, the British and Egyptians had lost 40 men. The Sudanese as easy as this one was. Public expecta­ dead were estimated at 11,000. The kill ratio of 275-to-l was a record that looked tions may be raised so high that the like it would hold up for centurries. But, as they say in sports, "all records are normal sort of reverses one can expect made to be broken," and in the U.s. war against Iraq, the technological advantage during warfare would have greater of our high-tech equipment compared to the Iraqi tanks proved even bigger than than usual effect. On the other hand, the advantage of Maxim guns over muskets. whenever the next war is, critics will But the aftermath of the slaughter was the same: the British drove their enemy be in the forefront reminding everyone back to the Stone Age (in fairness, the Sudanese had hardly emerged from it by that it "won't be another Iraq," just as the time of the Battle of Omdurman); the u.S. drove its enemy back to a "pre­ Iraq was to be no Panama, and Pana­ industrial age," as the U.N. delicately put it. General Kitchener, who headed Brit­ ma no Grenada. One thing is certain­ ish forces, became a national hero, just as General Schwartzkopf has. The slaugh­ none of them were"another Vietnam," ter at Omdurman also increased Britain's military confidence and encouraged and we can only hope Desert Storm them to further military adventures, notably its disastrous invasion of the South has put that shameful episode behind African Republic and Orange Free State a year later. -R. W. Bradford us once and for all. 0 24 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

"lAT 'h !:\ f- ; f- 'ft"\ a !:\ n c "Victory" in the Gulf vv 11 a III III e a 11 ~ No Victory for Liberty by Sheldon L. Richman

Most Americans look at the balance sheet of the war, see one hundred American soldiers dead and one hundred thousand Iraqis dead, and are pleased. But if they placed truth, free­ dom and the Constitution on that sheet, they might come to a very different conclusion.

What is there for opponents of George Bush's Gulf War to say now that it has ended swiftly and (at least as of mid-March) decisively? Does the military outcome refute those who counseled against the intervention? Many supporters of the war seem to think so. Republican politicians, newspaper columnists of various stripes and talk-show hosts would chestrated disinformation," a Defense peril our very way of life, and makes a have the dissidents publicly confess to Department spokesman told The Wash- mockery of the Saddam-as-Hitler bun­ gross misjudgment, motivated by a ha- ington Times after the war. The Iraqi combe. Other differences abide: Hitler tred for everything American, before military was said to be the fourth larg- had a world-class military and a large taking a vow of silence and slinking est in the world (a place it held with industrial economy. Saddam Hussein away into the night, leaving them to sev:ral other countries). and very well had ~either; he wa~ simply the ruth­ their boisterous celebrations of what equIpped. Some skeptIcs and oppo- less dIctator of a Thud World country columnist Haynes Johnson calls Amer- nents of the war pointed out that its who beat up ~ small nei~hbor. It hap­ ica's "unalloyed sense of national awesomeness was mostly on paper: pens all the time and Wlll keep hap­ standing." after eight yea:s of war with Ir~, it pening. ~hy did we have to get But not so fast. The military victory m~aged to WIn on~y a small. shce of dragged In. ., does not refute the dissidents not terntory. Moreover, It was mainly out- Thus, the diSSidents are shown to ~h y f th T fitted with Soviet-made equipment. be correct insofar as they doubted that mhan 0 t edm, anywAay.. rue, ose Need more be said? Nevertheless, the the reason for this war was the need to w 0 expec e huge mencan casual-. , , ' B t th Bush hne about IraqI power, partIcular- stop a powerful madman who threat- t les,were t thprovenf wrong. uI e caseh d1 Y about t h e notonous ' Rbi'epu Ican ened CIVI"1'lzation., An d as 1ong as we 're aga:s t e war, ~r manr:op elfa Guard, carried the day. Given this fear- talking about bad predictions, how n10t lng 0 d O,WI~ ledxpec "casua'all~s. some data about Iraq's power, predic- about the warmongers' prediction that t was a pnnclp e antI-lmpen 1St, f h' " ' d· al d· 'd tions 0 eavy casualtIes were not out only a credible preparatIon for war A case. nyway, th e ra lC lSSl ents of I'lne. Nor was the JU' dgmen t that th e and unfl'Inch'lng support for PreSI'dent were not the onl~ones who ex~~cted potential costs were too high to make Bush would maintain the peace? As large-scale Amencan,deaths. Mlhtary any foreseeable benefits worthwhile. Maxwell Smart might have said, people and conservatIves such as Pat- Now we have seen that the Iraq mili- 'Missed it by that much." rick Buchanan did too. (~uchan~n, tary was not all that powerful or even A further word about the small who~ no o~e ~as charged Wlth hati~g vicious. (While Saddam was using the number of American casualties: Stalin Amenca, Said In August that Bush s primitive Scud and no chemical weap- said that one death is a tragedy, a policy had "quagmire written all over ons, the U.S. government was using thousand is a statistic. The American it,") In a subtle way, the error validates such barbaric devices as cluster bombs public seems to have turned that a larger point made by many oppo- and fuel air explosives-known as the around: a thousand deaths would nents of the war. Predictions of heavy "poor man's nuclear weapon"-and have been a tragedy, a few is not. How casualties were influenced by the ad- such barbaric measures as bombing re- much satisfaction should one take in ministration's gross fear-mongering treating bumper-to-bumper convoys.) the fact that, apparently, fewer than about the awesome power of the Iraqi Iraq's impotence gives the lie to Bush's 100 American men and women died in military. "A lot of what was said from hysterical ranting about Iraq's threat to the war? A person can only die once. here [the Pentagon] was carefully or- dominate the Middle East and to im- Each fatality is a major tragedy for the Liberty 25 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

victim and his (or her) loved ones. Re­ The leader of Iraq's Kurdish guerrillas total tonnage dropped was more than servist Christine Mayes of Rochester says 3,000 civilians were killed or was dropped during eight years in Mills, Pennsylvania, was 22 years old. wounded in northern Iraq alone. Vietnam. In fact, it constituted the The day she left for Saudi Arabia she Maybe the United States wasn't target­ most intense aerial bombardment in became engaged; she asked her hus­ ing civilians, but Air Force General history. Buildings were obviously not band-to-be to hold her engagement Merrill A McPeak said that the precise the only things being blown to smith­ ring so she wouldn't lose it. Shortly hits exemplified by those videos at the ereens. It is interesting to note that after getting to Dhahran, an Iraqi Scud military briefings represented less than some of the heaviest bombing of Bagh­ missile hit the barracks she was in and 7 percent of the 88,500 tons of bombs dad came just hours before Bush's killed her. Yes, Saddam Hussein's men dropped. More than 62,000 tons of cease-fire went into effect. Why? And fired the Scud. But that is far from the why has the subject of civilian casual­ whole story. How many Scuds had ties been dropped by the intrepid Saddam fired at Saudi Arabia (or Is­ Perhaps the scariest conse­ Fourth Estate? Lastly, how many rael) before George Bush launched his deaths occurred after Saddam accepted war? And who is responsible for Chris­ quence is to be found in the in­ UN Resolution 660 calling for with­ tine Mayes being in Dhahran? Each of cessant declarations that the drawal? the deaths is a similar catastrophe. Indi­ Gulf War has finally killed the The civilian deaths in the bombing vidualists should not take satisfaction of the Baghdad shelter sparked wide­ in the"small number" ofcasualties. Vietnam Syndrome. Frankly, spread discussion about just-war theo­ The dissidents also expected many I've always been a fan of the ry. The majority view was that Iraqi casualties, and in this they were Syndrome. although the civilian deaths were un­ right on the money. The problem is fortunate, this was war and civilians that most Americans don't care about sometimes die in war. Besides, since enemy casualties. At least 60,000 Iraqi bombs missed-or hit targets said to be Saddam Hussein allowed the civilians conscripts, and probably many more, selected in error. While 90 percent of into the shelter, which the U.S. govern­ died at the hands of the American and the 6,250 tons of "smart" bombs were ment says was a military facility, guilt allied military. The Washington Post said to have been on target, only 25 for the deaths lies with him. Let's ex­ says that heaps of corpses were buried percent of the 81,980 tons of unguided amine this. in mass graves in the desert. The civil­ bombs were on target. at took 790 sor­ I am willing to stipulate that a rea­ ian toll may never be known. Baghdad ties to knock out 33 bridges, according sonable moral code would not con­ and Basra took horrible poundings. to Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf.) The demn someone for killing an innocent

I was a fool for the u.s. Army - A week tary leaders-but we had failed to answer a very important or so after President Bush announced that the Gulf War question: Why did we believe these statements? had ended, I received a letter from a reader of an invest­ Consider the situation during the military buildup and ment newsletter that I write. He quoted from the newsletter the war itself. The press could go only where the military my prediction of "substantial casualties" should the U.S. in­ wanted it to go. It could see only what the military wanted vade Iraq. "I expect this sort of thing from the wacko peace­ it to see. Virtually its only source of information was mili­ nicks but I'm surpised at you and disappointed in you," tary spokesmen. And dispatches from the war zone had to etc. be cleared by military censors. Plainly, the press reported I defended myself vigorously. "1 am sorry that my analy­ what the military wanted it to report. sis was not entirely accurate," I wrote him. "But as I state in And what did our military leaders want the press to tell every issue of [the newsletter], 'all information is derived the American people? Put yourself in their situation. from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy cannot be Would you want to portray your opposition as weaker or guaranteed.' In this case, I based much of my analysis on stronger than it actually was? statements of the U.S. military, and those statements turned If you portray the opposition as weaker, the casualties out to be false. In part this was deliberate: according to re­ will be far more than people expect. Wives, husbands, fa­ ports in the Washington Times and The Wall Street Journal, thers and mothers of the dead soldiers will be notified of the military systematically misled the press and the public deaths they did not anticipate. How will the people back into thinking that Iraqi military strength was far greater home react? Will they support continuation of the war? Or than it actually was." General "Butch" Neal admitted as will they doubt both your credibility as a military leader much: 'We might have created a picture that they had a and the wisdom of continuing the war? better capability than they really possessed." That is exactly what happened in Vietnam. By all ac­ When I read Sheldon Richman. saying something very counts, the turning point in Vietnam was the Tet offensive. similar in his essay on the Gulf War, I suddenly realized As the Vietnamese new year (Tet) approached in 1968, the that Richman and I were were making excuses for our own evening news was full of reports that the North Vietna­ failure. What we explained was true enough-that our ex­ mese and Viet Cong were hurting badly, that they pectations were in line with statements by America's mili- wouldn't be able to fight much longer. In a desperate ef- 26 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

person when it was the only way to lAT'h~f;f 1no~nc cash, services, and equipment). More­ save his own life. What I would like to over, I hope the taxpayers of those know is what that has to do with what "Victory" in the Gulf countries raise hell about their govern­ happened in Baghdad? Before the Unit­ vv 11 a r 1 I III ~ a 11 ~ ments' promises, which were made ed States started the war against Iraq, under duress. There is subtle taxation the Iraqi military was no threat to any without representation in all this. The Americans. It is a moral travesty to resentful of Western intervention. It is whole thing is quite unseemly. start a war without provocation and too soon to say that these predictions Uncidentally, I have had it with the then to claim that the war justifies ex­ were wrong. I believe they will prove Orwellian guff about "our troops" risk­ posing innocent people to the clearly right. The resentment· of the Muslim ing their lives for us. These are people foreseeable risk of injury and death. world, from Rabat to Jakarta, is too who have chosen a profession that One criterion of just-war theory is pro­ strong to discount. punishes them for thinking about what portionality. There was no threat to the Dissident predictions also dealt with they are actually doing. They shoot American people or the integrity of the domestic consequences of the war. whomever they are told to shoot. And their society; thus the U.S. government Here libertarians are particularly well what are we to make of those military should not have been endangering in­ qualified to speak. The war cost lots of parents, men as well as women, who nocents. But, some will say, we were money. How much in total is hard to screw up their children by putting protecting innocent Kuwaitis who say now, but the estimates have run as themselves at the mercy of an employ­ were being subjected to Iraqi atrocities. high as $86 billion. The Congressional er who can order them into war at any What this answer implies is that the Budget Office and General Accounting time and can imprison them if they re­ U.S. government may kill innocent Ira­ Office say $45 billion and $34.4 billion, fuse?) qis in order to save innocent Kuwaitis. respectively. But that is just the begin­ Another domestic consequence of I submit that this is a choice that the ning. There is talk on Capitol Hill about the war will be in the area of energy U.S. government should not be permit­ veterans' benefits and a new GI Bill. Be­ policy. Bush's recent energy proposal ted to make. The basic principle of a fore the war the debt was running at seems to emphasize production, but it decent, not to mention libertarian, for­ $300 billion this year. How soon will it is far from the deregulation we need. eign policy must be the same as that of be before the first tax bill comes up? Oh Anyway, when Congress gets hold of the physician's oath: Do no harm. yes, we are assured that U.S. allies will the Bush proposal, it will probably be­ Many dissidents predicted that there kick in some of the money. I doubt the come a fascistic mandatory conserva­ would be adverse consequences from amount paid will be anywhere near tion program. And we all know how Western intervention in an area long what has been pledged ($53.3 billion in continued on page 28

fort, the Communists made a massive offense against the sumably given the people the resolve to support the war ef­ U.S. Their attacks on U.S. and South Vietnamese positions fort despite the casualties. On the other hand, if casualties were horribly expensive in terms of their own soldiers' are less than you have intimated, how will people react? lives, nearly destroying their ability to continue to fight. Will they say, "You are a fool to have believed the enemy But they did manage to increase U.S. casualties. As was so strong. We need new, competent military leader­ Americans saw reports of the battles on their television ship."? Of course not. They will rejoice that their brothers, sets, saw the body bags being loaded onto planes, and read sisters, sons, daughers, fathers and mothers will all return about losses in their evening papers, they lost confidence in home. They will celebrate. They will declare you to be a their military leadership and lost the will to continue the brilliant strategist, a great hero and a great man. Now I ask you: facing this situation-having total con­ war. By any military measure, the North Vietnamese lost trol of what the press reports and every incentive to overes­ timate the strength of the enemy-what would you do? I think it is pretty plain that only an exceptionally honest Facing this situation-having total control person would overcome the temptation to give the press a of what the press reports and every incentive to less than candid appraisal of the enemy's power. It is also overestimate the strength of the enemy-what pretty plain that politicians like President Bush, Defense would you do? Secretary Cheney and General Powell do not rise to the top because of their candor. Politicians prosper by bending the truth, by talking around the truth, by withholding the the battle. But by destroying the credibility of the American truth-and by lying. military leadership, they had broken the will to fight. Defense Secretary Cheney, General Powell, and Presi­ What happens if you portray your enemy as having dent Bush were in a position where they had every oppor­ greater military power than it actually has? If you have tunity to lie and every incentive to lie. miscalculated, and your casualties are many, the people are Yet I believed them. like most Americans, I was caught prepared. This is what you had told them to expect, and up in the phony news coming from the Gulf. I was a fool. your portrayal of the enemy as a subhuman beast has pre- - R. W. Bradford Liberty 27 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

good Bush is at resisting the Demo­ States fought "with one hand tied be­ anything, except, one would hope, crats in Congress when it comes to hind its back," the military killed about their naive illusions about their gov­ meddling with the economy. two million Vietnamese and dropped ernment. Only George Bush and his Perhaps the scariest consequence is more bombs than in all of World War ll. clique would have lost. (Yes, the war to be found in the incessant declara­ In light of the demands made on Sad­ was about jobs!) In winning the war, tions that the Gulf War has finally dam Hussein, it is revealing that the what do the American people really killed the Vietnam Syndrome. Frankly, U.S. government has yet to give mine win? A more activist government. I've always been a fan of the Syn­ maps to the Vietnamese so they can lo­ Thanks, but no thanks. I'll take a loss. drome, so I'm sorry to see it go. Rep. cate the left-over mines that as recently The upshot is that there is a fundamen­ Dante Fascell (D-FL), a key warmonger as 1989 were still killing people.) tal conflict of interest between the peo­ in the House, said recently, "Right now But is the Vietnam Syndrome really ple and the state. From a libertarian there's no 'Vietnam Syndrome.' It's be­ over? That depends on what we mean standpoint, the war was a bad proposi­ hind us. We know now that the Ameri­ by it. If it means the American people's tion going in and it has remained a bad can people are willing to go to war and reluctance to engage in protracted and proposition. There was no threat to us, to win. And in the rest of the world seemingly purposeless wars that kill and in fact the whole damn thing was there is a great respect not only for the lots of Americans, then it has not been unnecessary. The United States built power of the u.S. but for the Western dispelled. Before the war, a majority of up Saddam Hussein during his war values that we have been espousing for Americans favored fighting Iraq­ with Iran, after encouraging his inva­ so long." (Such as the cheapness of life unless the the cost would be 1,000 casu­ sion in 1980 by channeling reports to as indicated by a policy of leveling cit­ alties or more. Then the majority op­ him exaggerating Iran's military weak­ ies?) According to Evans and Novak, posed it. This war was fast and light on ness. The U.S. then apparently aided burying the Vietnam Syndrome was American deaths. But will they approve Kuwait in its provocative activities be­ one of the biggest motives for prosecut­ a war in the Third World that they be­ fore the 1990 invasion. When the inva­ ing the war. A senior White House aide lieve will be long and bloody? I don't sion of Kuwait came, George Bush told the columnists, "This is the chance think so. But the problem is that many worked overtime to prevent an Arab to get rid of the Vietnam Syndrome. people will conclude that wars with solution and thus to prevent war. In We can show that we are capable of countries bigger than Panama and Gre­ other words, having created the mon­ winning a war." The commanders in nada need not be protracted and ster Saddam when they needed him to this war were junior officers in the fight the hated hostage-takers in Tehe­ Vietnam years. No wonder Bush re­ ran, U.S. policy-makers decided to dis­ buffed every hint of a nonmilitary reso­ If the United States had lost mantle him when that need lution and why the administration's the war, would Iraqis have disappeared. For enlightening ac­ nightmare scenario was an Iraqi with­ counts of American realpolitik in the drawal from Kuwait before Saddam's been patrolling the streets of Gulf since 1972, including treachery military was destroyed. Washington the next day? No, against the Kurds, see Christopher For those wishing to limit the power the American people would not Hitchens' article "Why We Are Stuck of government, there is a danger that the victory will make people think that have really lost anything, ex­ in the Sand" in the January 1991 Harp­ er's and Michael Emery's "How the fighting and winning wars is easy, that cept perhaps their naive illu­ from now on, as Bush put it, "what we sions about their government. u.S. Avoided Peace" in the March 5, say goes." This is true not only because 1991, Village Voice. See also Dilip Hiro's the war was over quickly but also be­ Only George Bush and his The Longest War. These and other arti­ cause it was so sanitized. There was al­ clique would have lost. (Yes, cles in the alternative press, which are most a sense that no one was really the war was about jobs!) invaluable in understanding u.S. for­ dying. Thomas E. Mann of the Brook­ eign policy, demonstrate that in war, it ings Institution said that "the experi­ is rarely the case that one side is all ences of the war are positive beyond bloody, and thus they will be more will­ good and the other all bad. There are our wildest dreams." Democratic poll­ ing to go to war. So the Vietnam Syn­ governments on both sides. Libertari­ ster William Hamilton said, "My gut drome may be weakened. God help us. ans shouldn't have to be reminded tells me this war has been a good thing These obituaries for the Vietnam what that means. for the American psyche. People feel Syndrome got me thinking about what The ultimate questions for any liber­ good that something we did worked." the terms "winning" and "losing" tarian finding himself seduced by the Evans and Novak wrote, "A fearsome, mean. What if the United States had easy victory over Iraq, and its apparent transcendent America is emerging from lost the war? Would the Republican "can-do" lessons about intervention, Bush's flawless conquest of Saddam Guard have been patrolling the streets are these: Is it likely that the power of Hussein." And Rep. Bud Shuster (R­ of Washington the next day? Would the U.S. government will be reduced as PA) said, ''The Gulf is evidence that the Saddam's picture have been hanging in a result of this war? And will the gov­ United States is no longer the wimpish our living rooms? Would my kids be ernment's heralded new prestige ad­ America we thought it was." (Wimpish learning Arabic in school? The Ameri­ vance or choke the remnant of liberty indeed! In Vietnam, where the United can people would not have really lost the American people still possess? 0 28 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

lAT'h~. 1. ,""o~nc "Victory" in the Gulf vv 11 a r 1rIll e a 11 t) The Intellectual Poverty of Opposition to the Gulf War by Stephen Cox "There is I}othing new under the sun." It is even more true that there is nothing new lin the organized "peace movement."

One of the most s~lient images of the Gulf War originated not in the deserts of Arabia but in the deci~uous campus of the University of California, Berkeley. It was a picture of six or seven war protestors lying on the ground, pretending to be dead. They were surrounded by a mob of at least 50 journalists and ca~eramen- an enormous, many-eyed m~nster toil- Notice-I didn't say: because they ed to decide, for instance, that thank ing desperately to perceive ,nd repro- hadn't an issue worth arguing about. God these protestors aren't up to some duce. . There may well have been such an issue real mischief, that at least this idiotic When I saw that pictu~e, I knew in this war, but the issue didn't emerge. form of protest keeps them down on that the anti-war movement Iwas dead, And those among my conservative and the pavement. even though publicity still fep on it. libertarian friends whose anti- It's hard, therefore, to decide wheth- I knew it was dead, no~ because I interventionist principles led them to er one's intelligence is being flattered saw that so few people turried out for make common cause with the mainly or insulted by the latest example of the it, but because I saw that its ~rguments left-wing war protestors should notice educated classes' attempts at persua­ had died. . what a peculiar spectacle these people sive argument. It's easier just to ignore An anti-war movement,lat least in made of themselves and the honorable it all, trying not to worry about the ed­ America, is not an organi~ation that cause of peace. ucational system that turns out people goes out and does things that might ac- This is brutally evident, of course, in whose idea of discourse with their fel­ tually stop a war. An anti-war move- the case of the upper middle-class thea- low-citizens is to lie around playing ment is an organization tqat argues. ter piece that I have just described: the dead. Although arguments may lbe louder die-in. A die-in is intended to acquaint But this is the discourse of gesture. when voiced by 60,000 peoRle than by people with the strange fact that in a What about real discourse, the argu­ six, they aren't necessarily ~tronger or war, people die. The die-in's motivating ment of words? more effective. assumption is that its audience is too Here, there's nothing much to re- In 1967, I called the Qetroit Free stupid to discover this fact in any other port. We've heard it all before. That Press to announce that an attti-war or- way, but not so stupid as to miss the doesn't make it wrong, but it does ganization of which I was la member die-in's curious logic. The audience is make one wonder about the idiotic would soon gather at tlie Federal expected to understand immediately form in which it's now being present­ Building to protest the Vietnam War, that a bunch of healthy, self-confident, ed. and wouldn't it be nice if th¢ Free Press would-be politicians lying around in My general assumption is that in decided to cover the event? lbe guy on jogging clothes in front of the Biology any given argumentative situation, the other end of the line responded Building actually represents an equal people want to bring their best argu­ only by giving me permiss}on to "go number of poor mutilated human be- ments forward. So, what pacifist slo­ make a fool of yourself if yo* want to." ings lying dead in the ruins of a third- gan was rejected as less than the best No coverage. world city. when, last summer, the bumper stick-

But the Gulf War protest~ were cov- FurtherI the audience is expected to ers on anti-war Volvos suddenly blos- ered by the media down to the last six be both sophisticated enough and sym- somed with declarations to the effect participants. And they meatjlt nothing. pathetic enough to derive precisely the that "You Cannot Simultaneously Seek They meant nothing becaus~ they had right set of political attitudes from the Peace and Prepare for War (Albert Ein­ nothing serious to argue. performance. Passers-by are not expect- stein)"? Have the displayers of such Liberty 29 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

signs ever considered what they might were readily available: old pro-war argument. Sorry. The form' say if anyone ever took them seriously 1. Iraq invaded and destroyed its of pro-war and anti-war arguments is enough to reply, "Well, why can't neighbor. sometimes so similar that one forgets you?" 2. Unpunished actions of this kind where one is with them. Of course, the Einstein sticker and create precedents for invasions of other But "No Blood for Oil" is less simi­ the "Arms Are for Hugging" sticker countries, particularly by the original lar in content to any of these slogans and all the rest of them are the devices aggressor. than it would be to "No Blood for of generic pacifism, the kind of thing 3. When Iraq invaded and destroyed Clothes" or "No Blood for Food." And you see even when the country is not its neighbor, it took control of oil re­ again, what if you responded: ''Well, turning its plowshares into swords sources that are important to the Unit­ why not?" quite so briskly as it was during the ed States, and it threatened other Well, why have I been dwelling on past few months. They are the last, sad resources in the neighborhood.. the small change of argument, on slo­ 4. Only the United States had the gans and bumper-stickers? Why don't power and determination to lead a I talk about those hours-long speeches UNo Blood for Oil!" I find campaign against Iraq. that people still deliver at the better this a particularly daring argu­ As I say, one doesn't have to agree antiwar rallies? Part of the reason is ment against the war, especial­ with these explanations. One can cer­ that during the last war I was often a tainly come up with arguments against participant in such affairs, and I never ly when it appears on the rear them. But if the anti-war movement knew, even then, even one person who end of an oil-burning vehicle had good counter-arguments, why did was argued into an anti-war position conveying an anti-war activist we hear so many of its spokesmen al­ by an anti-war speech. By anti-war ar­ leging that the administration had ticles, yes; by speeches, never. to work. "never given any clear account of why But the anti-war articles with which we are there," and that the administra­ the "establishment" press was recently tion "veers from one argument to an­ pieces of intellectual wreckage left by filled were all, as far as I could see, just other-first they say we're in the Gulf the pacifist movement, a movement to rhetorical variants of slogans and stick­ to punish aggression, then they say which the modern world owes much ers such as the ones quoted above­ we're there because we need the oil, of its moral sensitivity, a movement and as for the speeches, well, as far as I that has been sinking slowly, over long and then they say we're there to pro­ could tell, they were worse than the years, into utter imbecility. In so far as . tect other nations. What can you do Vietnam speeches. anti-interventionist principles are with all these contradictions?" The extended verbal arguments based on pacifist principles, I am This gives us all fair warning of the seemed to come in four major varie­ afraid that they have been ship­ care we need to use in conversing with ties: wrecked, too. anti-war activists. H you ever talk with 1. "This war is bad because it's an But let's leave the wreck of generic such a person, make sure that you say anti-feminist, anti-gay, anti-black, anti­ pacifism and consider the arguments only one, very simple sentence, and homeless-people war." This is the non­ used specifically against the Gulf War, that you say it over and over, using the war anti-war argument, the argument arguments that are often echoes, not of same words every time. Don't be that has nothing to do with the war. grand pacifist hopes (and naivetes), caught remarking to the activist that it 2. 'This war is bad because the but of the shrewder, though smaller, might be nice if he stopped over to American people are going to rise up skepticisms of earlier epochs. your house, and had a drink, in order and protest and kick ass and make the One of the arguments most fre­ to get better acquainted and to meet politicians run for their lives and occu­ quently hurled against the recent war your friends and to discuss world af­ py the Chancellor's office and call off was the "Why the hell are we there, fairs. He'll tell you that you're veering classes and really kick ass." This is the anyway?" argument, which was used crazily from one idea to another, and pro-war anti-war argument. It's not so tellingly against World War I and that if you're not insane, you're a crim­ compatible with any pacifist argu­ Vietnam. It's a specific argument, inal. ment, but the thought is, I guess, that meant for those specific situations in Or maybe he'll simply scream con­ maybe nobody will notice. In any which we don't even know why we're tinually: "No Blood for Oil!" I find this event, we're expressing ourselves. there. But this year, any argumentative a particularly daring argument against 3. "This war is bad because young hose fits any historical nozzle. Appar­ the war, especially when it appears on Marines [who in daily life are normal­ ently, the assumption is that if the Viet­ the rear end of an oil-burning vehicle ly hated and feared by the protesting nam War wasn't adequately explained, conveying an anti-war activist to work. classes] will be coming home in body the Gulf War probably isn't being ade­ It's similar in form to the slogans of bags oozing blood in quantities suffi­ quately explained either. previous war eras: "No Blood for Brit­ cient to prove how horrible a thing Now, you may agree or you may ish Interests"

that no one before this minute has ever lAT 'h '=' f- ;... n"\ £:) '=' n c lectual trouble. considered the idea that war has If you are not sincere, then you are human casualties, and for its determi­ "Victory" in the Gulf not the only one who realizes this nation to deny even a shred of imagis­ vv 11 a { 1 { III e a 11 S about you. Almost any audience tic dignity to those casualties. would have strong suspicions-almost 4. "This war is bad because we gave But seriously, folks: Do you really any audience except the people whose Saddam Hussein some weapons, and expect people to believe that if I'm stu­ politics or personal interests will lead now we realize what a mess we've pid enough to sell a gun to the lunatic them to agree automatically with any caused, so we're trying to clean it up." down the street, then for this reason I anti-war argument you care to fling at This is the there's-no-time-like-the-past shouldn't try to rescue one of his vic­ them. But these are the people who argument. There's another like it: "This tims, after I come to my senses about don't need any of your arguments. war is bad because we didn't intervene the situation? And do you really expect Your arguments imply something, in Lithuania, so why should we inter­ people to believe that just because I not just about your own sincerity, but vene anywhere else, I ask you." These don't pick a fight with the James Gang, also about the way in which you view arguments, which would teach the I shouldn't fight with the guy who's your audience. They imply that your present to live supinely in thrall to the trying to mug my little sister? view is not very favorable. They imply past, are akin in their effect to that The rest of what I have to say is an that you believe that your audience is changeless staple of anti-war oratory: open letter to the libertarians who re­ one for whose sake intelligent argu­ "War never solved anything!" Well, it cently joined anti-war coalitions and ments need not be developed. solved Hitler. It solved Xerxes. It who adopted, or at least tolerated, And this is really too bad. After all, solved Jefferson Davis. It solved, but such arguments as I have mentioned. the country might need some intelli­ for our intervention, the Iraqi problem H you are sincere when you argue in gent arguments against war, the next with Kuwait. this way, then you are in serious intel- time a war comes around. 0

Gassing his own people - In the last issue of nian bombardment that had actually killed the Liberty, Sheldon Richman reported that "three analysts at Kurds." (p 52) the U.S. Army War College have concluded after exhaus­ During (and since) the war, it seems to me that hardly a tive study that Iraq did not gas the Kurds." Several readers day went by when I did not hear on the television news the and at least one editor of Liberty wrote to express disbelief claim that Saddam gassed his own people. It is apparent in Richman's statement, asking that he be required to put that this "fact" was of crucial importance in selling the up or shut up. American people on the proposition that Saddam was a So I called Richman for the source of his claim. Within monster who had to be removed. five minutes, he faxed this back to me: This "fact" has a lot in common with the "facts" that To get the study rebutting the charge of Iraq's gas­ helped sell America on World War I and the Vietnam War: sing the Kurds, write to Stephen C. Pelletiere, Strate­ although it was widely believed and had tremendous moti­ gic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, Carlisle vating force, it just wasn't true. The "fact" that got the U.S. Barracks, PA 17013. It is called "Iraq Power and U.S. public worked up in support of World War I was the cruel Security in the Middle East" (1990) and it is free. An and unjustified German torpedoing of the Lusitania in excerpt: 1915, a passenger ship serving no military purpose, and the "Having looked at all the evidence that was consequent death of 1198 innocent people including 128 available to us, we find it impossible to confirm Americans. After the war, the U.S. and British acknowl­ the State Department's claim that gas was used edged that the Lusitania secretly carried 4,200,000 rounds in this instance [against the Kurds after the Iran­ of ammunition; many authorities believe it was the explo­ Iraq war]. To begin with there were never any sion of this ammunition that caused the ship to sink so rap­ victims produced. International relief organiza­ idly at the cost of so many lives. Congress first authorized tions who examined the Kurds-in Turkey U.S. military action in Vietnam after the military reported where they had gone for asylum-failed to dis­ an attack on an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. Sub­ cover any. Nor were there any ever found inside sequent investigation revealed that the attack consisted of Iraq.... In March 1988 [during the war] the some Americans seeing something that might have been Kurds at Halabjah were bombarded with chemi­ torpedoes coming their way, but then again might not have cal weapons, producing many deaths. Photo­ been. graphs of the Kurdish victims were widely What ought we conclude from this? I am not really sure. disseminated in the international media. Iraq At the very least, we should remember to take the state­ was blamed for the Halabjah attack, even ments of our government and military leaders with a grain though it was subsequently brought out that of salt, especially when they incite us to war. Or maybe a Iran too had used chemical weapons in this op­ mountain of salt. eration, and it seemed likely that it was the Ira- - R. W. Bradford Liberty 31 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

Beer, Chips and the Gulf War by Matt Kibbe

"War is hell." Or maybe war is a football game ... the Super Bowl, only bigger, with even neater instant replays and bigger tailgate parties. And weren't those Nintendo pic­ tures of bombs homing in on their targets neat?

"Truth is the first causality of war." This little news-bite of wisdom appeared, ad nauseam, throughout the networks' coverage of the Persian Gulf conflict. Broadcast journalists in Dhahran, smartly dressed in their best Banana Republic nouveau-military combat fatigues, would continually mouth the phrase, as if doing so some­ how released them from the burden­ hourly press events, and chalkboard per-view experts each sat by, ready at some task of actually uncovering and strategy sessions. All of the elements of moment's notice to reinterpret techni­ reporting the truth. a good ball game were right there on cal military jargon into common Eng­ Instead of a hard-nosed, honest the screen. Plenty of Scud intercep­ lish and second guess the opinions and look at the war, the American viewing tions; tens of thousands more sorties predictions of some other "expert." public was treated to a 24-hour-a-day completed. The Patriots were having a Some even had chalkboards, ala retired media extravaganza seemingly more very good season. NFL coach and sportscaster John Mad­ appropriate for a professional football Multi-colored charts illustrated cas­ den, with which to hash out potential game. Call it the Gulf Bowl. ualties with little Iraqi jets and tanks war strategies. Would we go with the At any time of the night or day, re­ stacked up against little U.S. jets and long bomb orflank left into Iraq around gardless of whether I chose to watch tanks. Happily, in both cases our stack Saddam'selite Republican Guard? ABC, NBC, CBS or CNN, I could flip was much, much smaller than theirs. Just about everyone seemed to pick on my set to see the same large, three­ Everyone understood that each one of up on the sports motif. "ll this was a dimensional letters slowly unfold those Iittle jets and tanks represented real football game," said one Air Force big jets and tanks that had contained Sergeant stationed in the Saudi desert, across the screen. WAR IN THE GULF real live people, now probably dead, "we'd probably be winning fifty to they would read, accompanied by the but it was easy to lose the human con­ nothing." Reflecting on the quick suc­ same sort of portentous music usually text and get caught up in the slick pres­ cess of the ground war, Desert Storm reserved for the Olympics and the entation of the data. Commander Norman Schwarzkopf tri­ Super Bowl. Slicker still, the networks had in­ umphantly observed: "Once we had I have to admit that I was one of the stant replay. Thanks to the modern taken out [the Iraqi Air Forcel, we did nervous types, more concerned with technological wonders of warfare, what could best be described as the the potential loss of American lives Americans everywhere watched as the 'Hail Mary' play in football." and the potential wholesale transfer of cross hairs of smart missiles coldly con­ Even President George Bush, Head power to the state than I was with the verged upon the front doors of Iraqi Coach of the Coalition team, got into potential price of gasoline. I fully ex­ buildings. Then, black. "A clean hit," the spirit of the game, promising to pected U.S. military involvement in the the attendant representative of the mili­ kick Saddam Hussein's ass all the way Gulf to devolve into a pointless massa­ tary might have observed. " ... Let's back to Baghdad. It was a hyperbolic cre, ultimately resulting in the further see that play again." And we did, doz­ victory unmatched by anyone, includ­ de-stabilization of an already schizo­ .ens of times, during hourly ritualistic ing the Iraqi dictator himself. Never phrenic region-regardless of whether press conferences in which nothing of mind that Bush would not lose a drop Coalition forces won or lost. substance was ever conveyed. Like of sweat, let alone a drop of blood, But what I saw on my TV screen Saddam's rhetorical blather, it was all fighting. He had delegated that unfor­ wasn't hellish at all. Heck it was al­ very Orwellian. tunate task to other, apparently more most fun. Cold Bud in hand and a bag Every network had at least one re­ expendable, Americans. of chips at my side, I could just sink tired general or admiral on the payroll, The only important media incident back with the remote control and flip adding institutional color to the play­ occurring during the war that was not through the endless flow of game stats, by-play combat coverage. These pay- treated as a major sports event was the 32 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

major sports event of the season-the lAT 'h !3'" ;... 'In 0 !3 n c and beautiful. The Middle East in gen­ Super Bowl. It was transformed into eral will be free of senseless violence one big Persian Gulf pep rally. The "Victory" in the Gulf and omnipotent governments. only thing missing was Bob Hope's vv 11 a I 1 I III ~ a 11 S H all goes as promised, the sup­ monologue. Instead of asking ques­ posed benefits of the Persian Gulf war tions relevant to the game, network re­ will far outweigh any costs incurred porters with apparently nothing better oppression, and no more injustice in the during the battle. to do asked the ball players to analyze world. Our teammates in the Gulf Or will they? "Our liberty," the war, which they did. Now I have Bowl, particularly the governments of warned Thomas Jefferson, "depends absolutely nothing against professional the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia, Syria on freedom of the press, and that can­ football players, but as a group they and Kuwait will all have stopped their not be limited without being lost." The are better known for cameo appearanc­ own oppressive ways and replaced government may have won the war, es in Lite beer commercials then they their ugly dictatorial regimes with but the American people have paid are for their keen geopolitical insights. something decidedly more democratic dearly in both lives and liberties. 0 In all fairness to the broadcast media, the war-as-football theme prob­ ably originated with the United States government. What the viewing public back home would see and more impor­ Give George Bush tantly what they would not see, was strictly regulated by U.S. military cen­ sors in Saudi Arabia. It had to be that way, it was claimed. Saddam was His Due watching CNN. As a result, every re­ port you and I watched or heard had by Loren E. Lomasky already cleared the stringent test of the Joint Information Bureau (Jill). Or was that the Ministry of Truth? Of course, the main reason for the I am not alone in having used these pages to reprove censorship was political spin-control. and burlesque George Bush. Indeed, I don't recall his receiving As one Air Force doctor who had treat­ many plaudits in Liberty from anyone. But it would be churlishly obstinate ed wounded soldiers in Vietnam put it, now not to give him his due. Bush's Desert Shield/Storm policy was energetically "two things people should not watch formulated, insistently pursued, brilliantly executed, and has made America and are the making of sausage and the the world a more secure place in which to live. making of war. All that front page Libertarians don't like war. (Let's hope that, at least in this one regard, we are blood and gore hurts the military." not a minority.) We hate the cheapening of life it necessarily embodies, and histo­ Unlike Vietnam, play by play cov­ ry affords us good reason to fear the degradation of freedoms that typically ac­ erage of this war was seldom, if ever, companies calls to arms. For all that, sometimes going to war is justifiable. All muddied by the bloody human costs except extreme pacifists concede that one may permissibly defend oneself against being incurred during battle. Personal­ overt acts of aggression. That right to exercise self-defense is simple in principle ly, I did not see a single dead or but complicated when the contending parties are states. There does not yet exist a wounded American soldier. Not one. well worked-out libertarian theory of when countries as such-rather than indi­ Ignorance is strength seemed to be the viduals acting singly or in voluntary confederation-may permissibly pick up the Jm's operational rule of thumb. sword. Instead, libertarians too often retreat to a seductive purity of decrying all With all content removed for strate­ gic purposes, the media was left with nothing to do but stack toy planes. The Only one firmly determined to keep blinkers in place come big question is: Why did the networks what may can fail to acknowledge that Operation Desert Storm accept their new assignment as gov­ was, on balance, a decisive victory for liberty and global civility. ernment lap dogs with such zeal? Their war coverage was at best a su­ perficial treatment of what I suspect action that carries the imprimatur of governments. In our best of all possible most of us would consider a dead­ worlds there would be no governments or, if there were, these would have the serious issue. character of voluntary protective associations. Actual governments are thorough­ As you read this, the New World ly contaminated by their coercive excesses. It follows that any state activity is to Order promised by President Bush­ be condemned, mobilization for war most of all. the stated raison d'etre behind the This is easy-too easy. We do not live in our best of all possible worlds, and I war-ought to be dose at hand, if not don't expect we ever shall. We can, though, continue to theorize about what such fully realized. No more death, no more a utopia would be like. The activity is worthwhile because, if nothing else, it Liberty 33 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

keeps us sensitive to injustices that are not widely per­ alties--not, alas, only those who thoroughly deserved to ceived to be such. (Someone ought to keep shouting that So­ find themselves at the business end of a Tomahawk missile. cial Security and Wars on Drugs are vicious!) But if, utterly A different sort of cost was the political necessity of em­ enamored by these ideal constructs, we decline to think bracing Syria's odious Assad, a butcher of no mean accom­ hard about how reasonably to evaluate choices between plishment in his own right, and of having to defer to the admittedly flawed alternatives we neuter ourselves, we be­ theocratic strictures of a Saudi Arabia that still has one foot come ideologues who cannot be taken seriously in practical firmly planted in the Islamic High Middle Ages. And, if yet matters. one more chorus of the nagging refrain is needed, the Ku­ Iraq, both before and after devouring Kuwait, had dis­ wait that has now been liberated never was and probably tinguished itself as the most thuggish and dangerous resi­ will not soon become anything close to a liberal democracy. dent of a neighborhood in which barbarism has long been Still, only one firmly determined to keep blinkers in the rule. Its deeds were bloody and it aspired to worse. De­ place come what may can fail to acknowledge that Opera­ struction of its war-making capabilities was a consumma­ tion Desert Storm was, on balance, a decisive victory for tion devoutly to be wished. That has now occurred, and liberty and global civility. (Please, though, can't we come sensible people should be delighted. We should positively up with a more digestible term than "New World Order"?) exult in the fact that this result was achieved at a cost or­ So, hats off to a president whose penchant for prudence ders of magnitude lower than could reasonably have been did indeed this time yield a bonanza, to troops who fought predicted. gallantly and well, and to a country whose citizens over­ Nonetheless, costs there were. Some 100 American and whelmingly realized that this was the right battle for the allied soldiers perished. That total is dwarfed by Iraqi casu- right reasons at the right time. 0

Moulton, "Invincible Ignorance," continued from page 18

old Tribune, the change has been as disconcerting as it helped to inspire the American Revolution. Trenchard and would be if Our Sunday Visitor turned its back on Holy Gordon chose the pseudonym Cato after one of Marcus Mother Church and endorsed Seventh-Day Adventism. Porcius Cato's descendents, a fellow remembered as an ex­ Even so, I was shocked by the March 17 inaugural col­ amplar of resistance to despotism, because he chose suicide umn of the Tribune's new financial editor, John McCarron. rather than submission to Julius Caesar. "Cato" has, in both After giving an account of the volume of junk mail that a the French- and English-speaking worlds, long been used new editor receives, he singles out one category that he as a pseudonym by people writing on behalf of liberty. finds "enormously entertaining"-the studies (he puts the This passed right over McCarron, which I suppose word in ironic quotes) sent out by free-market think tanks. shouldn't surprise us. Except for one thing: every issue of Although he finds them all contemptible, he singles out for The Cato Journal, the Cato Institute's major publication and special abuse the Cato Institute. McCarron begins his at­ the subject of McCarron's glee, explains why the Cato Insti­ tack on Cato, which he sarcastically terms "my favorite" tute chose its name. among these groups, with a diatribe against the life and In any event, the new financial editor of the august Trib views of Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, a Roman Senator doesn't like the policy prescriptions of any major free­ of the second century B.C. best remembered forms role in market institute. After subjecting their every recommenda­ instigating the destruction of Carthage; apparently McCar­ tion to ridicule (without, however, providing any argumen­ ron is under the impression that the modern institute is an­ tation; typically, he simply dismisses the Laffer Curve as imated by the values of this particular ancient Cato. The "bunk"), McCarron then suggests that the academics at problem is, the Cato Institute was not named for Marcus these think tanks are merely insincere hacks on the lookout Porcius Cato. It was named for Cato's Letters, a series of for cushy positions, but has second thoughts: "Then again, pamphlets with libertarian themes written by John Tren­ it could be that the supply-side academics who lend their chard and Thomas Gordon in the early 18th century that credibility to these organizations believe this stuff. Legalize freedom, and all that." Finally, he wonders when lithe Heartland, the Heritage, the Reason, the Cato or the Some­ body [will] explain why deregulation and lower taxes didn't spare us from Michael Milken, the savings and loan ripoff, the wreck of the single-hulled Exxon Valdez ... and a few other legacies of laissez faire." To have a person of leftist inclinations and total eco­ nomic ignorance in a responsible position at a major news­ paper is by now commonplace. For him to be financial editor, and for his articles to appear in the paper's business section, is, one hopes, much less common. Would it really have been too much of a strain for the Tribune to have found, for this job, someone whose understanding of eco­ "The story you are about to hear is sort of true ... " nomics rises above puerile left-liberal cliches? -WPM 34 Liberty Commentary

Journalists and the Drug War by David Boaz

Before the press enlisted in the Gulf War, it was enrolled in another, more protracted, war.

"War is the health of the state," wrote Randolph Bourne in 1918, explaining why wars, destructive as they are, are often popular with those who run the state. War has always been, for instance, an ideal reason to raise taxes on an otherwise recalcitrant citizenry. Indeed, Thomas Paine said in The Rights of Man that the British government didn't raise taxes to fight wars, it fought wars to raise taxes. Here Foot has put his finger on it, to media that the citizenry must be ral­ Throughout American history gov­ mix a metaphor: Outside of wartime it lied, and so it is essential that the ernments have used the exigencies of is very difficult, indeed impossible, to media not confuse the issue through war as an excuse to constrict the con­ rally millions of free citizens around a debate and dissension. As Paul Fussell stitutional liberties of American citi­ common aim. writes of World War IT in his recent zens. Among the extensions of federal The American socialist Michael book Wartime, "Because in wartime authority conducted under cover of Harrington also hailed the efficient the various outlets of popular culture wartime are conscription, standby cen­ planning and social justice practiced behaved almost entirely as if they sorship authority, the Trading with by the American government during were the creatures of their govern­ the Enemy Act, the income tax, tax World Wars I and ll. Unlike some ments, it is hardly surprising to find withholding, wage and price controls, more bloodthirsty rulers and court in­ that they spoke with one voice. rent control, and Prohibition, which tellectuals, collectivists such as Foot Together with skepticism, irony, and really began with the Lever Act of and Harrington don't relish the killing doubt, an early casualty was a wide 1917. Not to mention the imperial involved in war, but they love its do­ variety of views about current events." presidency. mestic effects: the centralization and But wars are dangerous in the nu­ Advocates of extensive govern­ extension of government power. clear age, and ever since Vietnam ment recognize the truth of Bourne's The connection between war and we're not even sure we'll win. So insight. When the British scholar overweening government was also today--or at least until the election of Michael Foot was leader of the Labor noted by conservative William F. President George "Old Death and Party, he was asked for an example of Buckley, Jr., who wrote at the dawn of Taxes" Bush-the government looks the kind of socialism he favored. He the Cold War that "we have to accept for crusades that may be designated replied, "The best example that I've Big Government for the duration-for metaphorically as wars, or as the seen of democratic socialism operating neither an offensive nor a defensive moral equivalent of war, a term origi­ in this country was during the second war can be waged ... except through nated by William James, who wanted world war. Then we ran Britain highly the instrument of a totalitarian bureau­ to conscript American youth into a efficiently, got everybody a job. . .. cracy within our shores." vast social-work army to "get the The conscription of labor was only a The media, of course, play an im­ childishness knocked out of them." very small element of it. It was a dem­ portant role in the modern state's war­ Now this isn't all bad; better meta­ acratic society with a common aim." making abilities. It is through the phorical wars than real wars. But Liberty 35 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

metaphorical wars do have a lot of the 'round the general may explain why choice: He praised Martinez for haVing unfortunate consequences of shooting there was no media criticism of "signed more than 130 death war­ wars. Bennett's statement on ''Meet the rants" and thus having earned a "bat­ The modern era of metaphorical Press" that we need to move beyond tlefield promotion.") wars probably originated with the War beheading drug dealers to start execut­ Concern over drugs rose from 10 on Poverty, which began about the ing bankers who "trade in drug percent to 60 percent in national polls same time as the Vietnam War and cash"-virtually every banker in in less than a year-while reported ended about as successfully. There was today's world. drug use was falling. Why? It might great media acclaim for the War on Who would have thought that a have something to do with the con­ Poverty and little real debate. It was a generation of journalists who laughed stant media hype about drugs-Time war, after all, and America could do at Reefer Madness in college would have and Newsweek covers, nightly network anything if she just put her mind to it. enlisted so readily in the War on coverage, whole shows devoted to Later we got President Jimmy Drugs? Yet every television network drugs. The media's stance in the drug Carter's Moral Equivalent of War-the and major newspaper enthusiastically war, so reminiscent of Paul Fussell's energy crisis, with its Jamesian empha­ became part of the propaganda ma­ recollections about World War IT, was sis on government direction, sacrifice, chine. Newsweek runs cover stories on summed up by Associated Press senior and reduced living standards. This too "The War in America's Cities" and columnist Walter Mears: "In President was warmly embraced by the national promises to cover it "as aggressively Bush's renewed war on drugs, there's media. Establishment liberal columnist and ... as regularly as we did ... the no political argument about the war in Vietnam." And it did: eight enemy, the objective or even the weap­ cover stories in 1988-89, articles on the ons." Not much for journalists to do drug war in 29 issues during 1989 but get the word out, then. Who would have thought alone. Drugs are an epidemic, Journalists always have a weakness that a generation of journalists Newsweek says, "as pervasive and dan­ for terrifying statistics-Paul Ehrlich's who laughed at Reefer gerous in its way as the plagues of population projections, Mitch Snyder's Madness in college would medieval times." U.S. News and World homelessness numbers-and the drug Report calls drugs "the nation's No. 1 war provides plenty of them. Crack­ have enlisted so readily in the menace." CBS News has a running seg­ addicted babies have become a genu­ War on Drugs? ment called "One Nation, Under inely frightening media story, with col­ Siege," and the Washington Post re­ umnist Jack Anderson and former New ports on Washingtonians who are "on York Times editor A. M. Rosenthal lead­ Joseph Kraft wrote that President the front lines." ing the pack, warning that 375,000 Carter must "generate a sense of ur­ When Drug Czar-and what a war­ crack-addicted babies were born last gency" about the crisis, while estab­ like term that is-William Bennett un­ year. What's the truth? It's hard to say. lishment conservative George Will veiled his battle plan at the National But considering that the 1988 House­ headlined his column, "Hit Us Hard, Press Club, the club's president, Peter hold Survey on Drug Abuse reported Please, Mr Carter." Holmes of the Washington Times, who that some 484,000 people used crack on Time gushed over Energy Secretary presided over the event, selected only a monthly basis, it would seem unlike­ James Schlesinger, who "views the en­ softball questions from those submit­ ly that 79 percent of them had babies. ergy crisis as a blessing in disguise, a ted by the audience (including two ta­ Bennett's official strategy document beneficial testing of the nation's spirit bles full of oppositionists). There were claimed "as many as 200,000 babies are and ability to cope. In his estimation, tough questions submitted about the born each year to mothers who use the crisis, if handled properly, will pro­ efficacy of Bennett's strategy, the past drugs" as well as "100,000 cocaine ba­ vide the opportunity for the American failures of alcohol and drug prohibi­ bies are born each year." Bennett told people to recapture the old virtues of tion, and so on, but the hardest-hitting Ann landers' 90 million readers that sacrifice and a sense of shared desti­ one put to him by the National Press 100,000 babies each year are born to ny." Schlesinger no doubt would have Club was, "Do you think bureaucratic mothers who use crack-upping the considered it defeatism to point out turf wars will interfere with your ante from simple cocaine. that a simple lifting of price controls strategy?" The only hard number is a report of would end the energy crisis, as indeed (Bennett, of course, has been re­ 8,974 "crack baby cases" in eight cities. it did just four years later. placed by ousted Florida governor Bob Drug researcher Dale Gieringer sug­ And then we got the war on drugs. Martinez, who has little to recommend gests that that makes Bennett's 100,000 Much more than Carter's Moral him for the position except, apparent­ figure plausible, though it seems likely Equivalent of War, this one has it alI­ ly, President Bush's feeling that Re­ that New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, a well-defined enemy, threats to chil­ publican chief executives who violated Miami and four smaller cities would dren, gun battles, bodies in the street. their campaign promises not to raise have a lot more than 9 percent of all Like shooting wars, it brings with it a taxes should stick together. But in the crack babies in the United States. lot of deaths and a lot of civil liberties keeping with our theme, it's interesting Newsweek quotes a researcher as abuses. War fever and the need to rally to note Bush's stated reason for his saying, "It's as if the part of the brain 36 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

that makes us human beings capable of at most. Arkansas personally to lead a nation­ discussion or reflection is wiped out." The media have also credulously wide series of raids on marijuana But in fact two out of three crack­ reported assertions by Bennett and fields, former attorney general Edwin exposed babies show no obvious prob­ other drug warriors about the effects of Meese ITI got his picture in every paper lems at birth, and Dr. Ira Chasnoff, di­ drugs on worker productivity: drug in the country-ironically wearing his rector of the National Association for abuse costs the United States $34 bil­ Adam Smith tie as he raided small Perinatal Addiction Research and Edu­ lion-or maybe $60 billion-a year, businesses. Perhaps the high point of cation, says that crack babies develop drug users are 3.6 times as likely to in­ media hype for the DEA was NBC's "within the normal range for cognitive jure themselves or another worker in three-night miniseries "Drug Wars: development and are not, as some peo­ the workplace. "Drugs: Silent Killer of The Camarena Story," featuring Tom ple have stated, braindamaged." Profits," headlines the Boston Globe. Brokaw as himself. It's also unlikely that anyone would These figures seem to stem from two These days the media seem willing have figured out from the media cover­ "studies," both of which have been age of crack babies that women have thoroughly discredited by John P. four times as much risk of delivering Morgan of City University of New One purpose of the drug low-birthweight babies if they use co­ York Medical School. A Firestone Tire caine throughout pregnancy, com­ and Rubber Company study was never war is to give liberals a chance pared to three times as much risk if published, just discussed in an in­ to demonstrate their tough­ they use tobacco regularly. Occasional house newsletter, and in any case drew ness. Liberals who were never cocaine use creates a risk factor of 1.8, its conclusions from interviews with about the same risk created by haVing workers who had sought or been re­ very keen on fighting commu­ three drinks a day. ferred for treatment-hardly a random nism have been gung-ho about Journalists and politicians have sample. A Research Triangle Institute invading Colombia, assassinat­ swallowed whole the most alarming al­ study found that households contain­ legations about the danger and addic­ ing someone who had ever been a reg­ ing Panama's tinpot dictator tiveness of crack. Peter Jennings said on ular marijuana user had lower incomes Manuel Noriega, and using the the ABC Evening News that using than other households-thus the lost­ military to keep out drugs. crack "even once can make a person productivity claim. But it showed noth­ crave cocaine for as long as they live." ing about current marijuana use, and it failed to account for the possibility that to blame everything on drugs. The marijuana use might be more preva­ bombs mailed to federal judges were For journalists the silver lent among those with lower economic immediately blamed on drug defen­ lining in the unprecedented opportunities. (And as drug policy re­ dants-until a civil rights lawyer re­ searcher James Ostrowski has pointed ceived one. KPIX-TV in San Francisco flow of drugs into the United out in a major study for the Cato produced a segment, also broadcast on States is the opportunity for Institute, 80 percent of the RTI study's KING-TV in Seattle, saying that mari­ great photographs of Drug estimated social costs of drug abuse juana caused cancer. Other than the are more properly described as the California doctor who made the Enforcement Administration costs of drug prohibition.) charge, no one has offered any evi­ agents or local law-enforce­ For journalists the silver lining in dence of such effects by a drug that ment personnel with huge the unprecedented flow of drugs into was described by administrative law the United States is the opportunity for judge Francis L. Young of the Drug quantities of captured cocaine. great photographs of Drug Enforce­ Enforcement Administration as "one of ment Administration agents or local the safest therapeutically active sub­ law-enforcement personnel with huge stances known to man." Journalists at Pat Buchanan declared on CNN's quantities of captured cocaine. It seems first even fell for President Bush's tele­ "Crossfire" that "I've talked to people that not a week goes by without a re­ vised claim that drugs are sold in in the drug war, and they say ... port of "New Hampshire's biggest Lafayette Park, across the street from crack-if some kid gets involved in drug bust," "the biggest drug bust in the White House. (Though considering that and gets hooked on that, in a middle Georgia history," "the largest more recent reports of journalists being coupIe of weeks you can finish off a drug bust ever in the United States out­ offered drugs in Justice Department human being." Rep. Patricia Schroeder side of Florida," "the second-largest corridors, that one may not seem so (D-Colo.) asserted on PBS's "Firing drug bust ever by European law en­ unlikely.) One might even point out Line" that crack has a 70 percent addic­ forcement," and-drum roll, please­ the frequent use of the term "drug­ tion rate. Yet the government's own "the largest drug bust in history." related murders" when every cop on figures report that about 2.4 million Dollar figures are always provided by the beat knows that such murders are a people have tried crack while only helpful police flacks--cocaine with a result of drug prohibition, not drug 484,000 have used it in the past street value of $3.3 million, $20 million, use. month-an addiction rate of 20 percent $73 million, $2 billion. By going to One of the biggest distortions of the Liberty 37 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

media war on drugs is the emphasis States." A year later a Drug by making its villains South African on illicit drugs rather than alcohol and Enforcement Administration agent ac­ drug dealers. But South Africa, abhor­ tobacco. Newsweek's 29 stories on knowledged to Inquiry magazine that rent as its political system is, is not real­ drugs in 1989-many of them multi­ the flood never arrived. ly very threatening to Americans, so parters--eompared with 5 stories on Drug legalization, the moral equiva­ drug dealers will have more staying alcohol. Nobody covers alcohol or to­ lent of the anti-war movement, has been power-though Japanese businessmen, bacco regularly as "a plague upon the relegated to fringe television time and "invading" our shores with cars and land." Yet tobacco kills about 390,000 occasional op-ed articles. Politicians and VCRs, may yet edge out the drug deal­ Americans a year, alcohol about their handmaidens in the media have ers. And most recently, of course, we 150,000, while total deaths from illegal scared people so much that they're have discovered another Hitler in the drugs are about 5,000 a year. Accord­ ready to jettison the Bill of Rights­ Persian Gulf, and the outbreak of a ing to Ostrowski, "for every death perhaps, for some officials, the real shooting war has made even a War on caused by the intrinsic effects of co­ point of the drug war. Drugs seem uninspiring. caine, heroin kills 20, alcohol kills 37, Rep. Charles Rangel, the Harlem Another purpose of the drug war is and tobacco kills 162" (assuming the Democrat who heads the House Select to give liberals a chance to demonstrate same number of users). There are ap­ Committee on Narcotics Abuse and their toughness. Liberals who were parently no deaths traceable to mari­ Control, illustrated the wartime mentali­ never very keen on fighting commu­ juana. Alcohol is clearly the drug with ty in his response to former secretary of nism have been gung-ho about invad­ the most social costs in terms of acci­ state George Shultz's call for legaliza­ ing Colombia, assassinating Panama's dents, violence, lost productivity, and tion. Such a policy, Rangel said, would tinpot dictator Manuel Noriega, and effect on babies. But you wouldn't be a "declaration of defeat," and even using the military to keep out drugs. know it from watching the evening discussions of it "do not belong in any Finally, like everything in Wash­ news. true forum for national policy making." ington these days, the drug war feeds Media credulity about drugs didn't Jesse Jackson makes the wartime analo­ the tax lust of the establishment, in­ begin with the Bush years, of course. gyexplicit: '1f someone is caught trans­ cluding both the permanent govern­ Why did Washington Post editors and mitting the death agent to Americans, ment and the media. Lesley Stahl of Pulitzer jurors believe Janet Cooke's that person should face wartime conse­ CBS News couldn't wait for Bennett to pharmacomythological tale in 1980 quences." President Reagan's assistant finish explaining his drug program so about an eight-year-old heroin addict? secretary of state for narcotics, Ann B. she could ask him breathlessly, Because they knew almost nothing Wrobleski, declared Eli Lilly & Co. "Doesn't this mean we'll need a tax in­ and believed almost anything about "AWOL" in the war on drugs when it crease?" Democrats and network jour­ drugs. That same year the media were declined to sell the government a herbi­ nalists joined in the chorus for a tax up in arms about an invasion of heroin· cide to be sprayed on coca crops in Peru hike to fight the drug war. After from Iran; "Mideast Heroin Flooding and Bolivia. Budget Director Richard Darman con­ Europe," the New York Times warned, The drug war serves several related ceded to a congressional committee while the Los Angeles Times chimed in purposes right now. One is to provide a that yes, the Bush administration with ''Iran Heroin Flooding U.S., new national enemy as the Cold War would support a tax increase in case of Agents Report," explaining that "more winds down-a reason to keep the mili­ war, conservative economist Herbert than 10 times the amount available in tary budget up. The movie Lethal Stein rejoiced; well, then, he said, how the late 60s may end up in the United Weapon 2 jumped on two bandwagons about the war on poverty, the war on il­ literacy, the war on drugs, whatever, let's get on with it. Politicians have only to say the magic word war to get journalists en­ In the Woods listed in their latest crusade. Maybe if the word were banned from political Sundays my father silently drove discourse we could rediscover the tra­ from town to the church where he sometimes dition of adversary journalism that was awakened during the Vietnam War, the loudly preached. Mostly I came along tradition by which journalists hold gov­ to see the dead black clock ernments accountable for their actions. against the high back wall, Journalists gathering at the National resting on knotted wood floors, Press Club to debate changing the name of the H. L. Mencken Library, and to hear the bell clang high while people die a few blocks away in outside, high amid the green an unwinnable war, would do well to branches of the terrible high pines. recall Mencken's words: ''The function of a newspaper in a democracy is to stand as a sort of chronic opposition to -William Meyer, Jr. the reigning quacks." 0 38 Liberty Argument

The Press: Jealous of Its Freedoms, Careless With Ours by Richard Miniter

The press benefits from the wide-open, unrestricted free market more than any other profession. So what have journalists got against free markets?

Journalism is the freest of all trades or professions. Indeed, the print media suf­ fers from practically no government regulation at all. Neither federal nor state governments censor the press, with certain very narrow exceptions. And courts have protected the press from licensing and other regulations that restrict entry into the field, or otherwise hamper free operation. mandated test or hold a degree from a suffered. In order to raise the stan­ Part of what sets the newspaper in­ trade school or college to be a journal­ dards of their craft, newspapermen dustry apart from other businesses is ist. In fact, until ten years ago, most have formed a plethora of voluntary the First Amendment. The nation's working reporters didn't have college associations, ranging from the Society founders thought the freedom to degrees, and even today, few hold de­ of Business Editors to the Society of speak one's mind so important that grees in journalism. While credential­ Environmental Journalists. And they they sought to safeguard this liberty ism is creeping into the print media it publish trade journals, such as Editor explicitly in the Constitution. In fact, has yet to exercise the kind of control & Publisher and The Columbia Jour­ the First Amendment is so unambigu­ it enjoys over most professions. To be nalism Review, to disseminate new ous and the press has been so vigor­ hired at any newspaper, large or ideas and techniques. What's more, ous in the defense of its rights that it is small, one merely has to prove one's these societies and publications confer much freer now than it has been at merit. Usually this is done by supply­ awards to particularly talented practi­ most times in our nation's history. ing clips of previously published arti­ tioners of their craft, further boosting There are few legal constraints regulat­ cles and personal references. High the quality of journalism by introduc­ ing what a journalists may write, and school and college newspaper posi­ ing another form of competition into no state-imposed barriers to securing a tions are easy to come by, yet experi­ the marketplace. This is regulation as post at a newspaper or launching a ence in these positions is more help to it occurs in the free market: regulation new publication. Obscenity, as af­ an aspiring journalist seeking his first by example, competition and persua­ firmed in Miller v. California, is now professional job than is a journalism sion; that is, regulation without com­ defined so narrowly that obscenity degree. A novice can talk his way into pulsion. laws are virtually ineffectual. Sim­ a job at a mid-sized newspaper by There are no restrictions to starting ilarly, libel and slander claims have passing a grammar and editing test newspapers. The only qualification for been severely restricted by the courts. and can work his way into writing in a a newspaper publisher is sufficient Since 1966 the Freedom of Information manner of months. I know-I did. funds. Many small town newspapers Act has given the press access to most Nor are newspapermen subject to set up shop with little more than a government files. state regulation, which is not to say computer, an eager staff, and a few One need not pass a state- that their professional standards have well-thumbed reference books. There Liberty 39 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

are practically no restrictions on news­ clined, the remaining city papers have changed and so have the newspapers paper ownership.* picked up new readers. The New York they buy. Newspapers receive no state subsi­ Times had about half of one million The de-centralization of informa­ dies, benefit from no tariffs, and rarely readers in 1950 and can boast over one tion has led to a transformation from a lobby for special privileges. They func­ million today. This is an example of cluster of outlets in large cities to a tion within the free market. And their what economists call a market broad array of urban and suburban revenue comes from their customers: consolidation. newspapers. And with this change advertisers and readers. Another cause of declining city came the end of the "city outlook" of newspaper circulation is that many the majority of the mass media. So The "Decline" of the people rely exclusively on television some of most famous newspapers of Newspaper and radio for news, drawing down de­ this century are no longer in print. But There are those who believe that mand for newspapers. The growth of a greater public good has been served. journalism is not healthy today. They television news is obvious to anyone. As the market process corrected what note that many newspapers are dead But it is not the whole story. Forty one could hard-heartedly call a "sur­ years ago, you could get week old plus" of newspapers, newspapers news in magazines, day old news in emerged that could better serve the . newspapers, and a superficial report of public. Suburban papers grew and Freedom of the press is the hours-old news on radio or television. urban papers adapted. Even mammoth cornerstone of·the foundation Today, cable television offers a variety newspapers such as the New York of a free society and it's the of news reporting around the clock, Times have added sections to appeal to ranging from the general (CNN, CNN the concerns of non-urban residents. building block that's most Headline) to the highly specialized That would have been unthinkable in the 1950s. nearly intact. The press is the (ESPN, FNN), and anyone with a home computer can get up-to-the-minute And not only have suburban news­ ultimate liberal institution, papers benefitted from the transforma­ news on an incredible array of subjects (mostly) self-governing and tion of the newspaper industry. The by tapping into sophisticated informa­ 1980s witnessed an unprecedented self-critical, evolving as society tion systems. number of magazine start-ups. Most of The flight from city to suburbia has evolves. What works well for these new journals were directed at a journalists could work equally also fundamentally altered the market for news. Considering that thousands well for other professions. of newspaper readers just up and moved from city to country, the circu­ One need not pass a state­ lation decline of major metropolitan or dying, and that press lords are can­ newspapers is not mysterious. It is sim­ mandated test or hold a degree nibalizing the rest. Surely, they would ply a matter of people preferring their from a trade school or· college to insist, the press is suffering in the free hometown paper to a distant city pub­ be a journalist. A novice can market. lication. As the readership of city pa­ talk his way into a job at a It is true that large urban daily pers fell off, causing some failures, the newspapers are fading away. In 1950 circulation of suburban newspapers mid-sized newspaper by pass­ New York City supported 12 major rose sharply. Newsday, a Melville, New ing a grammar and editing test newspapers and New Yorkers pur­ York-based daily, grew from 96,000 and can work his way into chased 6 million more copies than they readers in 1950 to over 700,000 in 1990; do now. Newspapers such as the New it is now the largest suburban newspa­ writing in a manner of York Herald Tribune and The Sun have per in the New York area. The Asbury months. disappeared, and evening newspapers, Park Press (Neptune, N.J.) had only once ubiquitous, are rare today. Even 22,000 readers in 1950 but attracts al­ once-successful major city newspapers most 160,000 today. The Times-Herald specialized readership or niche mar­ face declining circulation. In 1949 New Record

Since newspapers exist in one of in society. Murdoch and those before undergone an electronic revolution. the freest markets in America, they him created jobs, spurred innovation, True, Murdoch invested in his new could not help but adapt to a changing bankrolled necessary capital improve­ plant and equipment because he was readership. The problem was not sim­ ments, and created new forums for in­ after "greater freedom and flexibility, ply that too many newspapers were formation. Indeed, Murdoch is single­ and higher profits." He wasn't seeking chasing an ever-shrinking number of handedly responsible for bringing the a renaissance of British journalism. But urban readers, but also that the total British press into the modern era. that's what happened: with new tech­ amount of national advertising gar­ ''Incredibly, as recently as four years nology it became a lot cheaper and eas­ nered by newspapers fell sharply. In ago, British newspapers were still print­ ier to start a newspaper; and since 1950 national advertising accounted ed with hot lead, a process that had 1986, several new British newspapers for about 25 percent of newspaper rev­ changed only by degrees since Guten­ have sprung up. Murdoch didn't know enues; by 1978 it had dropped to about berg's day," Murdoch told the he would inspire an information revo­ 14 percent. This really hurt. Since the Manhattan Institute last November. lution. But he does realize that the late 19th century large, urban newspa­ Since Murdoch opened his high-tech market operates in mysterious ways. pers had held a major share of the na­ printing plant in 1986, Fleet Street has ''When the beaver gnaws down a tree, tional advertising market. But this is not the case of journalism suffering as an industry. It is a case of an industry in the midst of a wrenching transition. Spend a week discussing Some firms will adapt and prosper and others will wither and die. That's nor­ mal and healthy. the ideas of liberty! Newspaper bankruptcies are not new in America. William Leggett, leg­ "A perfect vacation, endary editor of the New York intellectually stimulating, Evening Post in the 1830s, earlier edit­ demanding, and challenging, ed three other newspapers, each of in a beautiful environment./I which failed. He speculated that the -Mike Rosenhouse, Rochester, N. Y. causes of the bankruptcy of these jour­ nals had less to do with demographics "A stunning collection of free­ than with the political leanings of his market defenders. I greatly would-be readers: "He who strives to appreciated the willingness of be a reformer, and to discharge his the lecturers to discuss ideas on high trust with strict and single refer­ a one-to-one basis./I ence to the responsibilities of his voca­ -Michele Schoenfeldt tion, will be sadly admonished by his University of Arizona dwindled receipts that he has not cho­ sen the path of profit, however much "Truly captivating-a concise he may be consoled by knowing it is but thorough presentation of that of honour." In other words, one the philosophical, historical, cannot keep a newspaper going that and economic foundations of people simply do not want to read, no liberty./I matter how noble it is. he Cato Institute's annual Summer -Thomas Stone, Birmingham, Ala. On the other hand, not all editors T Seminar in Political Economy, held at must choose between profits and re­ picturesque Dartmouth College June 30­ "I wish that in all my years as forming editorials as Leggett did. Most July 6, offers you an opportunity to par­ an undergraduate and then strike a balance between the two and ticipate in what one attendee called "the graduate student I had had the manage to make money. Fortunes have most intellectually stimulating and chance to hear lecturers as been made in the newspaper busi­ rewarding experience I have ever had." erudite and dynamic as the ness-from William Randolph Hearst Think of living, working, and playing with ones you assembled./I to Rupert Murdoch. a group of people from all over the world -Roger Wells, Buchanan, Va. who really share your values ... of meet­ ing and talking with scholars whose books The Myth of the Malignant For an application form contact you've read ... of expanding your knowl­ Meredith Copeland, Cato Insti­ Monopolists edge of all aspects of political economy. tute, 224 Second St. S.E., Washing­ The widespread denigration of Speakers include Ralph Raico, David ton, D.C. 20003. (202) 546-0200. Hearst and Murdoch as "press lords" Kelley, Ted Galen Carpenter, George H. Fax (202) 546-0728. Deadline for and "greedy monopolists" is a sign of Smith, and Edward H. Crane. receipt of applications is May 31. anti-capitalism, not of understanding how the newspaper industry functions ------GID­HNSTfTUTE Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

he is not thinking of his vital ecological tax and have special prOVisIons in knowledge about anyone thing, the role. Nevertheless, he has one," he their child labor laws to exempt news­ only way to discover truth is through observed. paperboys). Because of the First the clash of opinion. If knowledge is Calling Murdoch or anyone else a Amendment, entry into publishing is limited, then government action should "monopolist of the media" is a corrup­ practically without restriction, and always be suspect. For as surely as no tion of language. As wealthy as he is, competition has been heavy. Indeed, man possesses perfect knowledge, no Murdoch does not own every media growing appreciation of the First government agency has special access outlet in New York, London, or any­ Amendment has actually increased the to Truth. A big, centralized state with where else. Nor could he; the ease of press' freedom to publish. limited knowledge has the capacity to It is the press alone, among our make big mistakes. Reporting the mis­ civil institutions, that remains largely steps of the Leviathan should be the free of government control. Indeed, the bread and butter of reporters in a dem­ Most reporters seem blind history of almost every other sector of ocratic society. This insight, grasped by to the benefits of competition. civil society is the story of a continual, earlier generations of reporters and edi­ The same reporter who frets incremental surrender of liberty. Gun tors, has been lost on ours. control, compulsory schooling, peace­ About the only criticism of govern­ over H cut-throat competition" time conscription, racial quotas, immi­ ment that most reporters are liable. to in the industries he writes· gration quotas, land use laws, and the voice is that government does not have about fails to appreciate the income tax were unknown until this enough power-power over non­ role it plays in his own. century. Journalists often appreciate journalists, that is. Investigative report­ the blessings of their own liberty. ers, a term once thought redundant, Competition tests ideas; it's Ironically, they seldom are much inter­ today preoccupy themselves with that what makes The Wall Street ested in securing the blessings of liber­ ever-shrinking segment of society the Journal superior to Pravda. ty for others. state has yet to fully police. The "story" Most reporters seem blind to the is that the State is not "helping" certain benefits of competition. The same re­ people as much as it should, or that the porter who frets over "cut-throat com­ entry into publishing makes monopoly ideals of social democracy have been petition" in the industries he writes practically impossible. Even if a single betrayed. firm owns all the newspapers (or the about fails to appreciate the role it It wasn't always like this. Once re­ single newspaper) in a given market, it plays in his own. Competition tests porters were skeptical of government cannot exploit its position: competition ideas; it's what makes The WaU Street enterprise, rooting out corruption and quickly arises in the form of suburban Journal superior to Pravda. It's ironic incompetence among bureaucrats and papers, "free" weekly papers, broad­ that competition has such a bad name politicians. What journalist today cast television, cable, electronic net­ among journalists-members of a pro­ would write, as H. L. Mencken wrote works-if not in the form of a daily fession in which competition is usually early in this century, ''The ideal govern­ newspaper. So long as entry into pub­ friendly and collegial. One thing is ment of all reflective men, from lishing is unrestricted, monopoly is not clear: if reporters properly understood Aristotle onward, is one which lets the a problem. the principle and workings of competi­ individual alone-one that barely es­ The reason we have one-newspaper tion, they might look at government capes being no government at all"? towns nowadays is that people receive monopolies in transportation and edu­ Freedom of the press is the corner­ news from a myriad of other sources­ cation differently. stone of the foundation of a free society even in small towns newspapers com­ Most journalists are indifferent-or and it's the building block that's most pete with radio· and television sta­ downright hostile-to the principles of nearly intact. The press is the ultimate tions-and the demand (both in the free market. Yet they understand liberal institution, (mostly) self­ advertising and readers) for a second the principle of free speech, if only governing and self-critical, evolving as newspaper is not great enough to sup­ because it allows them to perform their society evolves. The freedom enjoyed port one. The sole newspapers of St. vocation with the smallest hindrance. by the press is both a case study of how Louis and Kansas City were both chal­ There seems to be an implicit un­ liberty works and a vision of how liber­ lenged by new papers recently, but derstanding on the part of many. jour­ ty would operate in other lives and oc­ both rookies struck out. nalists that free speech is important cupations. What works well for because knowledge is necessarily limit­ journalists could work equally well for Freedom in the Press ed. They realize that only when the other professions. The news media have operated in broadest diversity of views is present­ The freedom that the press enjoys an environment with less government ed can something akin to truth be offers the best case study for a free soci­ interference and more freedom than transmitted. Few journalists, however, ety. If journalists came to understand virtually any other enterprise. They understand the implications of the gen­ this, they might be more friendly to lib­ have been exempted from many taxes eral principle of limited knowledge. eral ideas. Or, anyway, they might stop and regulations (for example, most Because no one person or group of peo­ warning us about the horrors of de­ states exempt newspapers from sales ple can ever possess all the requisite regulation. 0 42 Liberty Exploration

Something Anarchical in Denmark by Benjamin Best

On his recent tours through Europe, Benjamin Best smelled something pecu­ liar in Denmark. Perhaps it was freedom. You be the judge.

Christiania is a functioning anarchist community covering 85 acres, surrounded by Copenhagen. About a thousand utopian socialists and anarchists, hippies, drug-freaks, bikers and down-and-outs call it home. The laws of Denmark and Copenhagen are not applied to Christiania, and the police rarely enter the area. Most "CA-nits" (as the inhabitants 1111111 I I 11111111 are called) do as they please without continue for another three years. quate, but so far has not cut off utili­ concern for government regulations. By 1976, government opinion had ties. Christiania has its own flag (three yel­ soured, and the supreme court de­ A monthly meeting of representa­ low circles in tandem on a red back­ clared that the inhabitants of tives from the co-ops and the nine ground) and its own radio station, Christiania should leave "without un­ areas distributes the common fund to along with many shops, cafes, busi­ necessary delays." The inhabitants a health house, "garbage gang," radio nesses and co-operatives. did not budge, and government au­ station, kindergarten, community For hundreds of years, the site of thorities were still unwilling to take newspaper, post office, etc. General Christiania was a military compound the steps a forcible eviction would re­ meetings of CA-nits represent the consisting of the large barracks and quire. Christiania continued to exist in highest authority in the community. parade area adjoining a series of bas­ this legal limbo for eleven more years. Christiania does have rules. Cars tions that jut into Stadsgraven, a body The "Free State" is divided into and weapons are not permitted. Hard of water that acts as a moat. The nine physical areas, and is organized drugs are prohibited. Christiania Danish military abandoned. the com­ by co-operatives, which regularly residents addicted to hard drugs are pound in 1971, with no immediate meet to discuss common problems. moved outside the community for re­ plans for it. Some hippy squatters No taxes are paid to Denmark, though habilitation. Hashish is sold openly, moved in, publicizing their find with residents do pay "rent" to their local but is mainly restricted to a single a photo-tour that appeared in an un­ co-op. The payment of "rent" is en­ street, rechristened "Pusher Street" derground newspaper. Would-be forced only by social pressure, and by residents. It is the main thorough­ settlers came in droves, and declared many residents do not pay. Revenues fare. their new land the "Free State of from "rent" are divided into three Many "visitors" to Christiania ar­ Christiania." No government official funds: water/electricity, area fund rive at the front gate in a taxi-cab, was prepared to evict the squatters and common fund. CA-nits send a make a beeline to Pusher Street, and forcibly. In 1973 the government offi­ yearly check to the Ministry of then return to their cab with their cially acknowledged the existence of Defense, which holds legal title to the merchandise. When I visited in 1987, I Christiania, declaring it a "social ex­ land, for water and electricity. The was taken aback by all the signs that periment" which would be allowed to Ministry deems the amount inade- say "no cameras, " but when I visited Liberty 43 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

last summer, I learned that this only seemed to me they played the role of watched a forklift truck unloading a applies to Pusher Street. A hash dealer the Colt 45 in the Old West: personal pallet of building supplies off a flat­ who is being photographed may well self-defense. I walked through bed truck. I was amazed to see that destroy your camera. Christiania several times, observing the front of the bicycle factory was As Karl POln~1" has observed, the the people, the dogs, the stores, the made of large glass panels. Obviously, "paradox of to.lcj" ... lce" is that toler­ bars, the restaurants and the buildings the owner has no fear of break-ins or ance often allows free rein to some (some of which were graced with fab­ thieves. very intolerant people. A motorcycle ulously beautiful psychedelic art­ I spoke to a man who had been liv­ gang known as the "Bull Shit" claimed work). I felt the fear and fascination of ing in Christiania since the beginning, Christiania as part of its turf, and be­ being in the midst of what was either one of the principal operators of the came engaged in a gang war with the anarchy or a pirate community­ well-known IIFaggot House" theatre­ particularly at night, when the dogs cafe. He described Christiania as "80% became abundant and savage dog­ Klondike, 20% Utopia." He resented Christiania seemed like a fights were frequent. the fact that the capitalistic drug mer­ I didn't see much evidence of the chants on Pusher Street earn a large microcosm of anarchy in a parliament's IIcontrol group." As far as amount of money that does not bene­ world of statism. I could see I could determine, the only actions the fit the Christiania community as a drugs being sold openly, and "control group" had taken were to re­ whole. He was, nonetheless, proud quire the licensing of bars and cafes that Christiania had never become a there were public baths where serving liquor and to prohibit the on­ haven for prostitution or gambling. naked men, women and chil­ premise selling and consumption of I attempted to explore some of the dren bathed together without drugs at those establishments. Some barracks residences, but found that a bars have complied with the anti-dope door on each floor locked out strang­ inhibition. Big dogs were com­ requirement. But others have not, and ers such as myself. Although all prop­ mon, and it seemed to me they in many such cases the police have erty in Christiania was originally up played the role of the Colt 45 conducted raids, confiscating every­ for grabs, most CA-nits now have a in the Old West-personal thing that wasn't nailed down. I visit­ clear idea of where the boundary lines ed a couple of these cafes; they are drawn between what belongs to self-defense. contained little else than dilapidated them and what does not. The squat- wooden furniture and a bunch of peo­ ple sitting around with drinks and Danish chapter of the Hell's Angels. In dope. Dope is also smoked fairly open­ 1987, the body of a murder victim of lyon the streets of Christiania. Christiania is moderately in­ their turf war was discovered en­ Vast sections of "rural" Christiania dependent of its surroundings. tombed in concrete. lie along the Stadsgraven. Here there Hash is sold openly and no one Most of the residents of Christiania are many farm animals, tents and odd­ co-operated completely with Copen­ looking structures that were never pays taxes. Most inhabitants hagen police in the removal of the built to conform to any building code. do as they please without con­ corpse and the removal of the "Bull I also saw an enormous greenhouse­ cern for government regula­ Shit" from Christiania. Undoubtedly and can only speculate on what is this incident, along with repeated grown inside. tions. Christiania has its own complaints from the governments of In the beginning, a large number of flag and its own radio station, Norway and Sweden that Christiania CA-nits lived on government welfare. along with many shops, cafes, is a major conduit for drugs arriving in Others commuted by bicycle to jobs or Scandinavia, led to a new decision by schools in Copenhagen. But as in businesses and co-operatives.

the Danish parliament. A IIcontrol North America, the hippies of the '60s group" was established (by parliamen­ and '70s became the entrepreneurs of tary majority), with a mandate to the '80s and '90s. The community has ters have become de-facto owners of adapt Christiania to its surrounding grocery stores, repair shops, a bakery, their rooms and rural lands. society without destroying its special an art gallery, a print shop ... all of To me, Christiania seemed like a

characteristics. which operate without government microcosm of anarchy in a world of I So when I visited Christiania last taxation or regulation. The Spiseloppen statism. How long it will retain its summer, things had changed since my restaurant, near Christiania's front character, I am not certain. In 1991, visit three years earlier. The motorcy­ gate, has a reputation of being one of after 20 years of occupation, the squat­ cle gangs were gone. But drugs were the best eating establishments in ters will become legal property owners still sold openly, and there were public Copenhagen. I was escorted past bark­ under Danish law. Will legitimization baths where naked men, women and ing dogs and clutter into a new plant of ownership become a pretext for tax­ children bathed together without inhi­ shop where I bought a cactus. At ation and government regulation of bition. Big dogs were common; it Green Hall, a large warehouse, I CA-nits? 0 44 Liberty Travel

In Quest of Dr Cepl by Ronald F. Lipp

Seeking one of Czechoslovakia's leading free marketeers, Ron Lipp felt as though he had entered a twilit zone, a domain unfamiliar to him, though per­ haps not to Franz Kafka.

Everybody told me to talk to Dr Cepl. The attache at the American Embassy had urged me to. Dr Jezek in the Ministry of Finance was more emphatic. "Go see Cepl. He is the most important guy in Prague for you. If you see nobody else, see Cepl." Dr Cepl is the Vice Dean of the Law Faculty at Charles University, the principal Czech law school. Since the line to Prague. No answer at the Law port, bought a ticket on the next shut­ Dean, Ivan Mucha, is a sociologist, School. Then I remembered. It was a tle with United or U.S. Air and been in you might say that Cepl is the leading Czech holiday. I asked the operator to Cepl's office a couple of hours later. Czech legal academician. He is also an try Cepl's home.. The line to Prague Exhilarated at connecting with advocate of capitalism and freedom, a was busy. Cepl, I grabbed a quick breakfast with supporter of the anticommunist move­ On Thursday morning, I tried my daughter Stacie and set off with ment, and a scholar of property rights. again-a breakfast-time call to catch her to make arrangements. Lar and Unfortunately, he was in England dur­ Cepl when the law school opened. The CSA, the Polish and Czech national ing my week in Prague. Dean Mucha operator rang through. A baritone airlines, provide the only air service­ told me Cepl would be back the next voice said "Hello." "Dr Cepl, please." one or two flights a day in each direc­ Monday and gone again to Venice on "Speaking." I explained my mission tion. The hotel receptionist told us that Sunday. No wonder Cepl had with­ and my keen desire to see him before I the nearest Lar office was at the stood the Communist regime. He was left for the States the following week. Forum Hotel, a 10 minute walk. never in town long enough for them The voice replied, "I go to Venice At the Forum, the LOT agent said really to oppress him. Sunday and I must prepare my lecture that a flight would leave for Prague at Before I left Prague for Poland, on Saturday. I have a little time tomor­ 4:00 that afternoon, with a return Mucha had given me Cepl's telephone row, but tonight would be best. You flight to Warsaw scheduled for 8:20 numbers, both at Charles University can stay over so we have time to talk." the next morning and that space was and at home. I began calling from "1 will try my best to come tonight, available on both. After an extended Warsaw on Monday afternoon, asking unless the arrangements are impossi­ struggle with a computer keyboard, the hotel operator to try both num­ ble. Otherwise, tomorrow for sure." which she approached with some trep­ bers. The phone lines to Prague were Cepl promised to be in his office from idation-punching at each key experi­ busy. For the next two days I tried to 1 to 2 p.m., so I could call with the de­ mentally as though it might explode­ call between appointments and in the tails of my arrangements. she was able to reserve space for me. evenings. The lines stayed busy. The Now all I had to do was get there. "But," she said, "tickets can only be is­ operator was beginning to recognize Prague is a scant 300 miles from sued at the Lar office near the my voice. We were not developing a Warsaw, 50 minutes by air; about like Marriott Hotel. And you will need a close relationship. a trip from San Francisco to LA. At Czech visa to get into Prague and a On Wednesday, I finally got a free home, I would have driven to the air- new Polish visa to get back into Liberty 45 Volume 4, Number5 Ma 1991

Warsaw. Oh, and I think the visa office his visa at the border. But it would cost building and another queue. By 11:45, at the Czech Embassy closes for the him more and, being German, he I was before the visa officer, who ex­ day at 11 a.m." would have to pay in Deutschmarks. I plained that I must complete a lengthy Stacie and I ran for the door and had some left from a stopover in form, go to a bank for a visa voucher, hailed a cab. IIFifty thousand zloty if Frankfurt. We struck a bargain at which would cost me 130,000 zloty, you get me to the Czech Embassy right 40DM and I took over his position. My and return with a voucher receipt. away!" The cabby gave me an enthu­ prospects were looking considerably I left Stacie at the station to com­ siastic smile, stripped the gears, and better. I was now second to a young plete the form while I set out to find shot down the street. Perhaps my offer Japanese girl. "I wish I could help the nearest bank. At the corner, an eld­ had been excessive. you," she said, "but I have a train res­ erly Polish gentlemen who spoke ex­ We arrived at the Embassy at 10:15. ervation for today." cellent English offered directions. Take A queue of a dozen or so stood before At 10:57, a visa clerk appeared. "No a right, go two blocks, and turn right the visa window. Most of them looked more today," he declared and retreated again. The destination turned out to be to the back office. The crowd erupted. an apartment building. No bank. I Several applicants began shouting and stopped a young man. He had no UFifty thousand zloty if you. someone banged his fist on the glass English, but spoke French. I should partition of the visa window. have gone left, he told me, not right. get me to the Czech Embassy The clerk returned, accompanied By Warsaw standards, the bank right away!" The cabby gave by an older woman who seemed to be was a breeze. After a short wait at the me an enthusiastic smile, his assistant. The crowd crushed information window, the clerk direct­ stripped the gears, and shot against the window. "No more. Come ed me to the voucher window. Only back tomorrow." three customers stood ahead of me. At down the street. Perhaps my As the clerk neared the window, I my turn, the voucher clerk completed offer had been excessive. shouted with as much authority as I the form and sent me on to the cash­ could muster: "I have an urgent meet­ ier's window, where I paid for the ing at Parliament tonight in Prague. voucher and got my receipt. Less than like students. All of them looked un­ You must issue this visa." The half an hour altogether. I felt happy. Someone passed back a blank Japanese girl poked my ribs with her lightheaded. visa application from a stack near the elbow. "And this young lady is with Back at the police station, Stacie window. "You need to fill this in. You me." I thrust my hands through the and I rejoined the queue. When my also need two photographs and $17 in window. In one hand I held my LOT turn came, I entered the visa office and cash. Hyou're American, it has to be in reservation slip for the afternoon flight produced the receipt and the applica­ dollars." and the calling card of a prominent tion which Stacie had completed for I always carry a stash of small U.S. Czech legislator I had visited a few me. bills when I travel; sometimes they days before. It was the most intimidat­ "Good. Return tomorrow for your open doors when nothing else will. ing card I could find in my wallet. For visa." And before starting the trip, I had en­ once, I figured the abominable Polish "But my plane leaves in three tertained the fantasy of somehow get­ telephone system would work to my hours." ting into Lithuania, so I had stuck a advantage. The was no way the clerk 'This is for today?" couple extra visa photos in my wallet. would call Prague to verify my story. ''Yes.'' Now my only problem was the clock The clerk took the papers and ex­ "Wait outside." and the line in front of me. amined them with his assistant. They The hall outside was a long, win­ There seemed to be two clerks exchanged anxious glances. Abruptly, dowless corridor of faded, greasy­ working the visa window. From time he grabbed the visa papers from my looking walls faintly lit by greenish to time, one of them appeared, accept­ other hand and strode from the room. fluorescent bulbs. The walls were ed an application, and retreated into a A few minutes later, he returned broken by seven or eight doors, all of back office. A few minutes later, he with the precious visa. "What about them closed. I noticed that all the would emerge with the stamped visa my companion?" The clerk looked first doors, except for the one to the visa of­ and the queue would shorten by one. at one of us, then the other. His lips fice, were padded and covered with At 10:55, there were still eight or curled into a contemptuous smile. "No shiny vinyl. I remembered stories nine people in front of me. This wasn't more today; come back tomorrow." He about rooms with such doors. I decid­ working. "I have an urgent meeting in slammed the window shut. "I'm sorry; ed not to think about them. The clerk Prague tonight," I announced to the I tried," I told her as I retreated from appeared from the visa office carrying crowd. 'Would anyone like to sell his the office. my forms. She went by me without a place in line to me?" The group turned It was now 11:15. The only police glance and tried one of the doors. It to look at me, rather startled. A office in Warsaw which extends visas was locked. So were the others. My German youth, second in line, ex­ is located across the Vistula River on watch showed 12:30. Lunch time. She pressed interest. He was going to the other side of town. A cab delivered disappeared up the stairs at one side of Czechoslovakia by land and could get Stacie and me to a drab barracks-like the corridor. The building was silent. 46 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

After what seemed a very long Another read a magazine. A third con­ tions. These days the hotels are over­ time, the clerk returned with my pass­ versed with her neighbor. The queues whelmed by the onslaught of tourists, port, bearing a new visa stamp. She waited for the half hour to go by. At businessmen, foreign government dele­ handed me a blank form titled "Visa 2:30, the new shift started. The clerk gations, and assorted passers-through. Application." "You must complete took my reservation slip and processed I didn't much care for the thought of this form and present it at the airport my ticket. I then joined the queue at finding a room if Stacie hadn't connect­ passport control before leaving the the cashier's office. At 3 o'clock, I ed with Cepl. country." I glanced at the application. emerged with a ticket and hurried The law school at Charles It asked the same questions as the back to the hotel. University is housed in a cavernous ne­ form I had already completed for her. Stacie had still been unable to reach oclassic stone building with the air of a I was about to ask about this, but Cepl. I threw the notebook containing mausoleum. The building was nearly something told me not to. I took the all my notes and addresses and a deserted when I entered. A few stu­ application and said ''Thank you." We change of clothes into a small bag. I dents scurried out the main door. I as­ left the building. asked her to keeping trying him at the cended the steps of an enormous We returned to our hotel after 1 office and at home and headed for the p.m. I placed a call to Cepl to give him airport. the good news. There was no answer. I The international terminal at the I realized for the first time gave Stacie Cepl's office number and Warsaw airport is a study in controlled I I the home number which Dean Mucha chaos, filled to the bursting point with that was really alone. could had given me, and left her to continue milling crowds of East Europeans, not imagine that the Dean had trying Cepl while I went to buy my Germans, French, Pakistanis, Japanese, simply abandoned me here, but airline ticket. Egyptians, and black Africans, with as­ he had been gone a very long I arrived at the LOT office near the sorted trunks, suitcases, duffels, and Marriott hotel and joined a long queue shopping bags, trying to find the right time. And what did I really the International Ticket window. It queue for check-in, passport control, know about this man? was 1:30 p.m. By 2 o'clock, I had made customs, security, or transit bus to be taxied to their planes. Somehow it all The law school at Charles seems to come together, although one entrance hall to the main floor which very distinguished looking orthodox contained the faculty offices. No lights University is housed in a cav­ gentlemen seemed to be in some diffi­ were burning. A faint twilight suffused ernous neoclassic stone build­ culty with the authorities over his pass­ the building from windows in the pe­ ing with the air of a port, an Indian family was engaged in rimeter and a kind of skylight above a heated discussion with a customs the central staircase. mausoleum. No lights were agent over something in their luggage, I wandered down the corridors, ex­ burning. A faint twilight suf­ and an irate German couple was res­ amining the names on calling cards fused the building from win­ cued at the last moment from boarding placed on each office door. The type­ a plane bound for Sofia instead of their dows in the perimeter and a written letters were barely legible in intended flight to Paris. the dim light. I found Cepl's office and kind of skylight above the cen­ After the day's tensions, I relished knocked. There was no response. I tral staircase. for a change the tedium of the slow pounded the door harder. The sound progression through the snakelike echoed off the stone walls of the corri­ queues, knowing that I had papers and dor. Then there was only silence. it to the front of the line. I waited to passage in hand. In due course, the In my earlier visit to the law give the clerk my reservation form, transit bus took us across the tarmac to school, I had met with Dean Mucha in but couldn't catch her eye. I then no­ the LOT Tupelov. The half-empty his office, a spacious chamber that en­ ticed that she and the clerks at the plane took off on schedule and arrived tered off his secretary's office. I had other two positions had quit attending without incident in Prague at 5:30. written down her number: room 54. I to customers and seemed to be clear­ As I rode in the cab from the worked my way through the corridors ing away their papers. I tried to ask Prague airport to the city center, I sa­ until I found the number. The place the clerk at my position for help get­ vored the prospect of my return. There card announced: secretary to Dean ting a ticket. She ignored me. A Polish is a magic to Prague, especially in the Mucha. I tried the door knob. It was man in the next line explained that the old town with its endless winding locked. I pounded on the door. No re­ shift had just ended. But where, I medieval streets, all the more tender sponse. I began to feel very tired. asked, were their replacements? "Oh," for their long neglect. And I was re­ I walked down the hall to the next he said, "the next shift won't start till turning with the comfort of one who at door. This should be about the location 2:30." least superficially knew his way of the Dean's own office, although I Three other women drifted in be­ around. On the other hand, I had had didn't remember such a door during hind the counters. They hung up their first-hand experience with the folly of my earlier visit. I turned the knob and coats. One of them polished her nails. arriving at night without accommoda- pushed on the door. It swung open, Liberty 47 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

pulling me into the office where Dean at my watch. It was 7:00 pm. for the interruption, and hung up the Mucha sat around a table with several By 7:30, the light was growing too receiver. students. dim to write by. It occurred to me that I now realized that my last link to The Dean sprang in surprise from through this whole experience, not a Cepl and Mucha was broken. I was on his chai~. The students looked up in light had been turned on in the school. my own. I remembered that the Inter­ amazement. One of them dropped his I walked into the Dean's office. It was continental Hotel was across the street papers on to the floor. My cheeks empty and dark. A door on the far side from the school. They might have a turned hot. lead to a vast conference room, equally room or know where one was to be "We are conducting a seminar," the dark and silent. I returned to the had. In any event, they had a secretarial Dean announced, rushing over to me. I Dean's office, opened the door to the service which had been marvelously blurted out my story. The Dean took corridor. The hall was nearly in black­ helpful in deciphering the strange hier­ me by the arm into his secretary's of­ ness, a faint light coming from a sky­ oglyphics of the Prague phone book; fice and led me to a couch. "1 will light above the entry well. perhaps they could find Cepl's real check on Cepl." The Dean returned to I realized for the first time that I phone number, if he was listed. his office in a state of agitation and was really alone. I could not imagine I decided to go to the Intercon­ that the Dean had simply abandoned tinental. I was loathe to leave my bag me here, but he had been gone a very with my notebook and clothes, but if I I found Cepl's office and long time. And what did I really know took them, Dean Mucha might return about this man? Did his agitation re­ and think I had left for good. So I knocked. There was no re­ flect concern for my situation or out­ turned on a light in the room, extracted sponse. I pounded the door rage at my unseemly intrusion? I my notebook, and left my bag with a harder. The sound echoed off decided it was time to take matters in note propped against it. "Dean Mucha. my own hands. I have gone to look for you. Please the stone walls of the corridor. I went to the phone at the secre­ don't leave without me." I stepped into Only silence. tary's desk. It was a multi-line instru­ the corridor, trying the door from the ment. I had no idea what code was outside. The last thing I needed was to necessary to get an outside line. I tried be locked out in the hallway. The door­ Cepl's home number. A man an­ knob turned. I left it ajar anyway. I de­ began speaking into the phone. He swered, sounding somewhere between scended the stairs of the main entrance then rushed from his office into the hall and walked to the front doors of hallway, leaving by the same door I drunk and half asleep. He spoke in a the building. They were locked. All of had entered. A few minutes later, he slurred Czech. "Prosim, Dr Cepl," I them. I walked around to the ground returned and came into the secretary's said. The attempted dialogue, between floor windows, hoping to slip out one. office in an evident state of agitation. his slurred Czech and my few words All had heavy metal bars. The side "It seems Cepl is in the building, but of phrase-book Czech and German and doors were also locked. he cannot be found." He again began useless English, established that he I stood in the main entrance hall, making calls on the phone. was not Dr Cepl, did not speak barely able to see the stairs in front of The calls were to no avail. The German or English, and wished that I me in the fading light. I imagined my­ Dean replaced the telephone receiver, would do something I was glad I could self a few hours earlier in the Czech still obviously agitated. I pressed my not quite understand. I hung up. Embassy in Warsaw desperately strug­ apology on him for the disruption I Perhaps a wrong number. By the third gling for a visa to bring me to this had created and urged him to resume attempt, reaching the same fellow, I re­ place. I felt somehow transparent. his seminar. alized that the home number for Cepl, As I ascended the stairs to return to The Dean returned to his office. I given to me in Mucha's hand, was Mucha's office, I was overcome with sat down on the couch in his secre­ wrong. And this was the number that the silliness of my reactions. I have al­ tary's office. Through the open door Stacie had been trying all day from between the offices, I could hear the Warsaw. ways thrived on challenge and adven­ proceedings, but not quite see the as­ By some odd impulse, I rang ture. So here I was. Maybe the trip would be for nothing. At worst, I sembled group. I removed the note­ Mucha's home number. Perhaps I would spend a cold night in a strange book from my bag and began could find out if he had gone home. I recording the events of the day. rehearsed the speech, should it be his building. Every few minutes, a student voice which answered the phone, by On the way up the stairs, I came by a men's room. One necessity accounted passed within sight through the open which I would demand to know what doorway and exited into the hall. With was going on. His wife answered. She for. On returning to Mucha's office, I each departure, the conversation in the too spoke only Czech. I tried to explain decided, like Robinson Crusoe, it was adjacent room grew quieter. After a that I was in Dean Mucha's office, that time to take inventory of my resources. while, the Dean appeared in the door­ he had left, and that I was trying to get It was dark outside, well past 8 o'clock, way, glanced in at me and, without a Dr Cepl's home number. She grew so I began turning lamps on in the word, disappeared into the hallway, very excited and our conversation offices. Against one wall of the closing the door behind him. I looked lapsed into incoherence. I apologized continued on page 58 48 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991 Fiction

Publish and Perish by Lawrence Thompson

Wilson Standish drained the contents of his glass and placed it down on the table. The man sitting before him personified every­ thing wrong in his life. Hans Prendergast, his partner, had mar­ ried the woman he loved and corrupted their magazine, The Elemental, into highly profitable, commercial pap. He had long ago reconciled him­ self to the realization that Mary was beyond his reach. He knew it when they started The Elemental together twenty years before. He didn't have to like it, though. And he would never reconcile himself to the shame of his own failed poetry. Never. "You're cheating on Mary," Standish accused coldly. He gripped the glass while slowly Swirling the amber fluid within. Prendergast wrung his hands nervously. "Yes, goddammit!" Prendergast glanced furtively about the Club, as When the State polices though he feared they were being overheard despite the hush fields sur­ speech, is there any rounding the booth. /lHow did you know?" "You just referred to an Anonymous as 'she' and in the twenty years consolation in thought I've known you, you've never done that. You're publishing your lover's and art? Alas, the work, aren't you?" ''My God, Wil, don't tell anyone," whispered Prendergast desperate­ Muse of Poetry may be ly. /II have my reputation to worry about." more indifferent than Standish grimaced. "Why do you do this? Why do you see other women behind Mary's back? Why not just leave her?/I benevolent, and in a "And ruin my career? You know very well she held onto fifty-one world of malevolent percent of my share in the firm. It's not fair: before I came, all you and Mary had was a half-assed poetry journal. It's been twenty years, Wil, politics, where is the twenty years since you introduced me to Mary... a lifetime. I was the respite? one who popularized the magazine. I steered us into publishing on the public net. If it weren't for me, the firm probably wouldn't be here to- day./I Prendergast slugged back the remainder of his drink. Wiping his mouth with his hand, he added "You've never been married ... you don't know what it's like to be a prisoner." ''You're right." Standish glared with disdain at his partner and add­ ed sarcastically: /II wouldn't know anything about that." Prendergast made him feel bland and ordinary, emphasizing a life devoid of excite­ ment or adventure: a life without poetry. It had come again, though. Out of nowhere, a poet of such honesty and strength as Standish had not encountered in many, many years. The poems were listed as Anonymous but unmistakable in their genius. Their themes, liberty and enslavement, spoke directly to Standish. Hundreds of others had felt the same, inquiring over the net and in per­ son as to the identity of the poet. He had to know for himself. He had to find her. Liberty 49 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 ''Who is the woman?" anonymous verse he had seen appear over the past weeks in his "A prostitute. She advertises in The Elemental. After I began to own magazine: the poems of Laura Freeman. Recalling them, see her, I agreed to publish some of her poems in return for ... " he felt again the innocent force of the words that recoiled He paused and looked knowingly at Standish. "Additional fa­ against the locks and bars of some unknown, unseen prison. He vors." Standish's expression soured further. could almost feel the extraordinary light illuminate his face and "How could I have known that her poems would be popu­ body, freeing him from a gray world of shattered dreams. lar?" exclaimed Prendergast. He fell silent as a serving girl set A taxi floated momentarily between Standish and the sun­ another drink on the table. Mter she moved away, Prendergast set, casting a shadow over him. The snake-like hiss of hover re­ leaned forward and whispered fearfully, "Government men pulsors assaulted his ears as the craft settled gracefully to the were asking about her." ground. A door slid open to allow him entry. The grubby pas­ "What did you tell them?" He tensed for the answer. senger compartment was spartan and contained only a single "Everything, of course." bench-type seat and a window too dirty to see through. The Standish closed his eyes and spat, "You ass!" face of the cabbie appeared on a screen set into the wall before ''What was I supposed to do?" whispered Prendergast furi­ him. ously. "1 don't want to be jailed for sedition. The Government 'Where to, mac?" The tired face hadn't seen a razor for two could ruin us both." or three days. ''What's her name?" "422 Flanders Row in the Arcade." ''Why should you care? You have nothing to do with this "'Flanders Row ... where the poppies grow'? You sure you matter." want to go there, bud?" Standish gritted his teeth and said, "Perhaps I just want to "Quite sure," sniffed Standish indignantly. find out if she thinks you're a bastard for the same reasons I do. "Your funeral." The uncaring face vanished from the screen, Now give me her name." leaving Standish on his own for the journey into the city core. The taxi began to rise unsteadily, as the repulsors cut in and Laura Freeman's infocell on the net read, "For sugar and spice out. The vehicle jerked into motion and the engine wailed omi­ and any device, try this little gir!." Standish felt somewhat nously. My funeral indeed, thought Standish nervously. soiled as he keyed in the same access code used, doubtlessly, by After some minutes, he heard the distant rush of the repul­ countless others before him. The screen strobed as the vidphone sors. The cabbie appeared on the screen again. He plucked a rang at the source. It flashed for a long time. He was about to cigarette out of his mouth and said, "Okay, 422 Flanders Row. give up when the face of a young woman appeared on the Are you sure this is where you want to be?" screen. She squinted back into the screen through hair that float­ ''Yes, thank you," he insisted, and paid the charge by run­ ed about her face in straggly waves. ning a credit disk through a slot. ''Yeah, what?" She yawned audibly. "Ah, yes," stammered Standish, "1 would like to set an ap­ pointment ... ifpossible." '''Set an appointment', eh?" She grinned wearily and raised He watched the breath-taking orange glow of her baby finger in a mock gesture of civility. "Sure, no problem. the sunset illuminate the skyline. Pollution sun­ Come on over. I'll get out the silverware and put the tea on." sets, he had heard it said, were the most beautiful Her laugh tinkled across the net like breaking glass. There was a pause. The screen blurred and crackled. Standish struck the and spectacular. Long ago, it would have inspired dented frame of the vid-unit and cleared the interference. a poem ... "Come to 422 Flanders Row. Apartment Zero." He. saw that her eyes were large and sharp. The pupils were condensed to min­ uscule pinpoints. The wild eyes made him feel as though she Standish stepped out of the cab onto Flanders Row. Garbage couldn't really see him, as though she were in a religious lay strewn over the crumbling pavement. Glancing a short dis­ ecstasy. tance, he could see a fallen structure blocking the old road. 'Which sector?" The screen began to stutter again. There were no pedestrians anywhere to be seen. Unnerved by "It's in the Arcade. See ya later, honey." The transmission the eerie silence, he climbed the steps and entered 422. died with a flurry of electronic hisses and wails. Standish Inside the antechamber, Standish regarded a panel of num­ blinked, and then stepped out into the acrid summer air of the bered buttons. The screen had been smashed but there must city. An impatient man, who had been waiting for the vidbooth, have been a viewer hidden somewhere inside the room, for the swore at him as he stepped by. main door slid open when he buzzed. Moving through the lob­ Standish walked the short distance to a taxi stand and by, he nodded nervously to a crazed old man sitting on an over­ tripped the electronic hailer. It failed. He flipped open the panel turned crate. A mangy cat shot past as he approached Laura for the telephone back-up. In a nasal whine, the operator told Freeman's door. He knocked and listened to the soft, quick pat­ him a taxi would arrive momentarily. ter of bare feet. While waiting for the cab to arrive, he watched the breath­ 'Who is it?" asked a muffled, feminine voice. taking orange glow of the sunset illuminate the skyline. Standish cleared his throat nervously. '1 called earlier." Pollution sunsets, he had heard it said, were the most beautiful The door flew open to reveal a youthful girl with auburn and spectacular. Long ago, he thought it would have inspired a bangs and a saucy smile. A shabby apartment framed her slight poem; one that might have been filled with beauty, elegance, form. A large bed was pushed against the wall near a tiny kitch­ simplicity and a little bit of sadness. Poe_ms like the mysterious enette. A worn-out sofa and chair dominated the center of the 50 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 small room. box and a bottle of cheap liquor. Flipping up the lid of the box, "Come on in," Laura beckoned with a wicked grin. She she retrieved a syringe and a small glass flask of clear liquid. moved ahead of him into the center of the room. She wore only She talked as she prepared the injection. "1 don't see what's so a white T-shirt and baggy oriental pants, tied at the waist. hot about the creative urge. It builds up in me like a volcano Turning to him, she folded her arms and stuck a business-like and when it explodes I see myself for who I really am ... not a stance. pretty sight. When I'm stoned, I become ordinary." "I take MasterCard, Amex or debitdisk. And cash, of course. ''You're wrong," protested Standish. ''Your poems are bril­ One fifty, and I'm yours for the night. Anything else, more or liant and you don't even have to make an effort. What more less, can be negotiated." could you want?" "That is acceptable," replied Standish, dropping a wad of "I want what you and everyone else have. I want diamonds cash on a side table. They stood staring at each other for several and money." She glared at him, her tiny face outraged. ''I want moments until, impatiently, Laura spread her arms and asked, to be able to buy boys and girls! Whenever the poetry comes on, "Where do you want to start?" it reminds me of everything I'll never have: a mother, a father. He nodded toward the overstuffed sofa. She began to work I'll never get to grow up like normal kids. I'll never live in a at the knot holding up her pantaloons, but he stopped her with house in the country. Those are ordinary things for ordinary a gesture. "There is no need to remove your clothing. If you are people. I may be extraordinary but I'll never be free. So don't comfortable the way you are now, that is fine." She shrugged you tell me about what I need." Tying a rubber hose around her and slumped into the chair. He sat opposite her on the couch, upper arm, she held up the syringe, then filled it with the drug, uncomfortable and out of place. tapped it and punctured the needle into her arm. Standish "So, what's the score?" she asked brazenly. flinched at the sight but Laura made no expression at all. "I just want to talk for a while." "Hey, that's two nights of talking in a row. Last night it was some lady. Okay, let's shoot the shit." "For sugar and spice and any device, try this "Poetry," replied Standish in a measured voice. "I want to talk about poetry." little girl." Standish felt somewhat soiled as he "This is very weird," intoned the girl. "That rich lady yester­ keyed in the same access code used, doubtlessly, by day? She wanted the same thing. What's happened, anyway? countless others before him. Doesn't anybody like sex anymore?" "The man you gave your poems to? He's Iny partner." "Yeah, he's one of mine: a big-time netman. He said he ''What is it you want to be free on" asked Standish, shifting would publish them. I'm kind of surprised that he did. I don't nervously in his seat. know why anyone would care about that stupid poetry. Why is "Look around you," she answered wryly, pulling the needle it worth a hundred and fifty bucks to you?" from her arm, the drug gone from the syringe. Unscrewing the "Have you been reading the underground papers recently?" lid of the bottle, Laura popped a pill into her mouth and "No, they just fire me up and then depress me." slugged back a mouthful of alcohol. "Your poetry is being voiced by the revolutionaries and an­ The effect of the drug visibly dulled her moments after she archists. You seem to have struck a chord with them." took it. ''Honeydew,'' sighed Laura, lolling in the exquisite ec­ She sat bolt upright. "Oh shit! Does the Government know stasy of the drug. "The milk of paradise: that's what the woman that it's me who wrote them?" yesterday said. About my poems, not this stuff." She waved her "Most certainly. Prendergast told them." hand over the narcotics paraphernalia and laughed. "The whole "That sonofabitch! If I ever see him again, I'll castrate him." world has gone crazy." She grinned like a lunatic. 'Why did Laura slumped back into the chair as the rage drained out of you come here? Not just to tell me that you love my poetry, un­ her. She looked pale and tired,like someone who had had noth­ less you're as crazy as the rest of the world." ing but bad deals in life. '1 guess that means I'll have to split Standish drew in a deep breath then let it out slowly before again." She put her hands to her head and groaned. ''Why, speaking. ''Many years ago, I tried to be a poet but I failed to why, why?" write good poetry." He paused and laughed softly. "I suppose "Because the poetry you have written is some of the best I that makes me a bad poet, then. There was a woman and she have read in a long time. You have a tremendous talent. You're loved my poetry." extraordinary. You should be thankful." IIAnd you loved her?" asked Laura. Laura laughed. "Oh, this is special. Some guy shows up, He smiled. '1 suppose I did. We started the magazine togeth­ tells me I'm in bad with the Government and that I should be er. Then she married Prendergast and he took over." thankful?" She shook her head. "I've got nothing to be thankful Laura reclined further back in the chair. liThe same one who for now." ratted on me?" "That's not true," replied Standish in dismay. ''What you "Indeed. The same." have, your gift, is very special. Some people would kill to have She shrugged. ''What can you expect ... " it." "Have you ever been in love, Laura?" Laura furrowed her brow in thought. "I don't have a gift. "Every night, mister. Every night." She smiled at him in a It's an urge. A compulsion. A curse. Once I heard that people way that made him blush. "Some nights are more wild than oth­ took drugs to bring on creative urges. I do the opposite. I drug ers, though." She stood slowly, breezed like ether across the up to shut down the urges. Which reminds mc~ ..." Laura stood space between them and slumped down beside him. Pressing and bolted across the room. She returned with a small, black herself close to him, she took his hand. Standish placed an arm Liberty 51 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 around her awkwardly. She melted to his side, drifting away Standish testily. into a deep sleep. For two hours she drowsed in narcotic bliss, "1 believe you, Mr.Standish. Do you know why?" Standish awakening to find Standish holding her just as he had when did not respond. "Because yours was the only name in her book she dozed off. "Jesus!" she exclaimed sleepily. "Sorry about that was not in code." Hollow smiled grimly. "She was a bright that. It was the drugs that did it. You're not getting much value girl. Our people in cryptology were impressed." He pulled the out of this body tonight." She rubbed her eyes. "Feel like doing shroud back over her face and shoved the slab back into the some damage to each other yet?" He shook his head. She cooler. The sound of the fridge door slamming shut resonated gripped his chin with her hand and shook it. throughout the death house with a horrible finality. "Okay, lover, but I'm starting to feel a bit slighted." She lift­ "She's free at last," whispered Standish. "For she on honey­ ed herself up and kissed him. ''You can know me better than dew hath fed, and drunk the milk of paradise." anybody if you want." She grinned. "I'll even make poetry for "What was that you said?" you." Standish slipped from her side and stood, his face flush "Just something Laura told me when I met her. I only want­ and red. ed to help her." ''You tried," offered Hollow. "That sets you apart from al­ most everyone else in the world." Laura furrowed her brow in thought. "I don't "Do you know where she came from or who her parents were? What's her story?" have a gift. It's an urge. A compulsion. A curse. "I thought maybe you would know. She came out of no Once I heard that people took drugs to bring on place special and she's vanished back into it. I suppose you and creative urges. I do the opposite. I drug up to shut I make up the beginning and end of her story." Standish nod­ ded. For Laura, he was her alpha and Hollow, her omega. down the urges. "What is to become of her body?" Hollow shrugged. "Incineration is the standard procedure. "No telling when the Government men will get here," she It'll be done later today." remarked, folding her arms. "Today. Tomorrow. Maybe never. "No," stated Standish firmly. "Would it be possible for me But you got to make up your mind tonight." Laura stood and to take possession of the body. I wish to have it buried crossed over to him, swaying slightly. Her face held an expres­ properly." sion of mild annoyance, as though she had had an offering Detective Hollow stared at Standish with sad eyes. "Sure," thrown back in her face. "Maybe I should just split now." he said. "No problem." ''You don't have to run. I will take you into my protection. As they walked into the stale city air outside the morgue, You can stay with me." Hollow grabbed Standish by the arm and thrust a wad of pa­ "Come off it," exclaimed Laura. "I'm sixteen and you've got pers and notebooks into his hands. "These were amongst her to be forty. I'm supposed to be the naive innocent and you the personals. You may as well have them." worldly cynic, not the other way around. I guess that comes "Her poetry?" asked Standish softly. Hollow nodded. with being so damned extraordinary. I've been wanting to get "It would be best if you didn't mention how you got those out of town anyway. It stinks." She took his hand in hers. poems. I know what they're all about." ''You can have more money if you need it," he said. "I thought you might be Government," confessed Standish "I won't turn it down. What I want to say is this: if you suddenly. "I thought this might be a trap." want to do it with me right now, I would really like that." She Hollow shook his head. '1'm MainForce. I'm a cop. But ac­ took his hand and placed it against her chest. Beneath her cidents still happen to people like me. See that those get pub­ breast, he could feel the gentle meter of her heart. lished but be carefu1." The gray figure of Detective Hollow turned on his heel and began to walk away. Turning back, he "Do you recognize this girl?" The sad-eyed detective stared asked: "Do you think she'll be famous someday?" inquisitively at Standish over the body of Laura Freeman. The Standish replied, 'Without doubt!" blinding whiteness of the walls, floors and sheets in the "Isn't it always the way?" He smiled sadly, shook his head morgue was broken only by the dismal gray of Detective and disappeared around a corner. Hollow's long raincoat and the dull blue pallor of Laura's skin. Standish slumped a little when he saw her lying there. Waves Wilson Standish occupied the front pew of the empty cathe­ of hair framed her head, making her look as though she floated dral. The priest mouthed the last prayers of the funeral rites in water. The slackened jaw and the bulging eyes ... It remind­ over the flower laden casket of Laura Freeman. Some had won­ ed Standish of Laura's own description: volcanic. He felt tired dered why Standish had made such grand arrangements for a and frustrated, as though the world were whirling madly out common whore. All he would say to them was that the passing of control and, for all his efforts, he could change nothing. of such an extraordinary individual should be marked by an ex­ Certainly it was too late to do anything for Laura. The muses traordinary funeral. had taken her in the final ecstasy. Ashes and dust, he thought. And yet, the sadness had "Her name is Laura Freeman. She was a poet." passed. Laura had found release from the prison of her genius "Among other things, perhaps," replied Detective Hollow and now he could notbut thank God that he was not possessed wryly. "She overdosed," he added casually. All routine. of that same destructive, volcanic force that had consumed her. "Pa1caline and IXT. A very deadly combination, as you can see. Laura had written and died in the false love of a thousand May I ask about your relationship with the deceased?" strangers and in the unattainable dream of normalcy. "I wasn't her client, if that's what you mean," retorted He had tried to help her. In return, perhaps unwittingly, she 52 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 had given him a great boon. An ordinary man in a world with­ son I did." out love, Standish for a fleeting moment had been touched by Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a shadowy figure lurk­ the extraordinary. He felt it first in traces when he read her ing in the darkness at the rear of the cathedral. Turning, he poems then, most powerfully, in that rundown apartment on tried to penetrate the shadows but the figure had vanished. Flanders Row. The warm glow of the extraordinary had not left The look in Mary's eyes showed that she had seen itas well. him. She was still with him in her poetry. Standish nodded and followed her gaze back to the coffin. The ceremony ended. The priest folded his vestments and "Must italways be so? Must they always perish?" placed them on the altar, gently and carefully smoothing out "She has not perished," expressed Mary with soff-spoken the wrinkles. Shaking hands with the padre, Standish noticed passion. "The Government would have to wipe her poetry for the first time a rack of candles near the entrance. A single from each of our memories before they could wipe her away flame flickered amongst the assembly of tallows. completely." She walked up to the coffin and laid a single yel­ ''Who lit that?" he asked. low rose upon it. Her fingertips brushed gently along the "1 did." He turned quickly to find Mary Prendergast stand­ smooth wooden surface of the box. She turned away and put ing behind him. Tall and attractive, Mary wore a black dress her arm through Standish's. They walked slowly down the suit and sad smile. "You went to seek her out for the same rea- aisle away from the altar. 0

LettersI continued from page 8 rants" sipping non-refillable Perrier bot­ The article also notes that, although a that opponents of human liberty have tles; instead, from what I see, they usually foam cup is made entirely ofhydrocar­ flocked to the environmental movement buy foods with a minimum of packaging bons (oil and gas), the manufacture of is a factual claim, having nothing to do and processing, eat at home, and dispose each papercup uses morehydrocarbons with the motives ofenvironmentalists. It of their wastes through composting, than does a foam cup, and thebalance is is a claim easily substantiated by simple reuse, and recycling. Bill's "upper class" tipped further in favor offoam ifthe observation. jibe may have some basis in terms of the paper cup is lined to make it resistant to Mr Schumacher is on firmer ground in average education and intelligence of liquids. An unlined papercup uses 28% his criticism of my claim that environ­ members of the co-op, but a lot of them more petroleum, 33 grofwood vs 0 for a mentalists are really seeking"control, pe­ live their lives of voluntary simplicity re­ foam cup, and 36 times as much other riod," as opposed to a cleaner garding resource consumption. chemicals. It also consumes about twice environment. I think his case that the significance of as much steam, six times the electricity, I would hope that my meaning was CFCs has been blown all out of propor­ and emits far more pollution into theat­ clear from the context (which Mr tion is very convincing, and I bet that if mosphere and ground water. In sum, it Schumacher does not quote): I was refer­ this case were presented calmly and sym­ appearsthe environmental impact ofa ring to environmentalists who first pres­ pathetically to the environmentalists that I paper cup is far greater than the impact sured McDonald's to use foam packaging know, it would receive a fair hearing and ofa foam cup. ("Paper Versus Poly­ and then pressured them to use paper be grudgingly accepted. styrene: A Complex Choice," byMartin packaging. Steve Schumacher B. Hocking, Science, Feb 1, 1991, pp504­ In retrospect, I ought to have put a Port Townsend, Wash. 5.) qualifier in the question asked at the be­ It notes, without comment, that a ginning of my final paragraph, so that it Bradford responds: Ms Miller's letter il­ paper cup costs about 2.5 times as much asked, "What are these environmentalists lustrates the folly of relying on so-called as a foam cup. This is not surprising: all really seeking?" This would have elimi­ "common sense." Shortly after my article the extra electricity, water, wood, petro­ nated any possible ambiguity. I am was published, Science published an elab­ leum, and other chemicals that go into convinced that while many in the envi­ orate examination of the environmental manufacturing a paper cup cost money. ronmental movement are ill-motivated, impact of polystyrene cups versus paper This suggests a sensible rule ofthumb: many

Honorable Members of the Storting: You awarded Mikhail Gorbachev the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize for his "leading role in the peace process which today chara<;terizes parts of the international community." Although there was some merit to your decision at the time, recent events have demonstrated that rather than playing a "leading role in the peace process," Gorbachev has increasingly taken belligerent actions de­ structive of peace both within the various Soviet Republics and within the larger community of nations. Itis true that Gorbachev made some notable accomplishments: for example, finally allowing the Eastern Europeans to chart their own destinies. But the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the former Warsaw Pact has not been smooth, and the Soviet Union has taken the opportunity to leave trouble in their wake, such as fueling antagonisms between Czechs and Slovaks in Czecho­ slovakia. You also cited the "greater openness he has brought about in Soviet society" which "helped promote international trust." But you chose to overlook the first Baltic crackdown and the bloodshed in Azerbaijan in which Soviet troops hacked demonstrators to death with entrenching tools. Since then Gorbachev has made a second move against the Baltics, and political unrest on the Soviet periphery has continued. New restrictions have been placed on the Soviet media (overt restrictions, not the subtler forms such as denying newsprint to the opposition papers), and some independent publications have been shut down. Criticism of Gorbachev is illegal-even unconsti­ tutional-and the situation grows worse daily. Of the Soviet economy not much needs be said; Gorbachev certainly won't be awarded a prize for economics. Gorbachev was the second Soviet citizen to win the Nobel Prize for Peace, following Andrei Sakharov, who won in 1975. Sakharov, the father of the Soviet H-bomb, was punished for his op­ position to the war in Afghanistan, reflecting the spirit of munitions manufacturer Alfred Nobel. Freed from internal exile by Gorbachev, Sakharov was also one of the first victims of the contrac­ tion of glasnost when his criticisms of Soviet policy began to be "edited" from electronic and print media. Gorbachev himself muzzled Sakharov on the floor of the Congress of Peoples Deputies. How can you recognize both Andrei Sakharov and Mikhail Gorbachev as forces for peace, when one strove to repress the other? On March II, 1991, the largest anti-government demonstrations since 1917 were held across the Soviet Union, the demonstrators united by a common theme-the ouster of President Gorba­ chev. On the same day, you awarded Lithuanian President Vitalis Landsbergis the Norwegian Peace Prize, indicating that you yourselves recognize the importance of his opposition to Gorba­ chev's repression of the legitimate aspirations of the Lithuanian people. How can you recognize both President Landsbergis and Chairman Gorbachev as forces for peace, when one is striving to repress the other? Of course, Gorbachev's mixed record does include some important steps towards the resolu­ tion of conflicts. But to say "things might be worse" does not recommend Gorbachev for this im­ portant award. A Nobel Laureate should be held to a higher standard of scrutiny, one of unimpeachable motives and unqualified results. Mikhail Gorbachev has failed on both these counts. It would be impractical to get Gorbachev to return the $710, 000 awarded with the 1990 Peace Prize. But the title can be easily revoked, and in light of his record, it should be revoked. I therefore beseech you to consider taking this historic step, to rescind the honorific Nobel Laureate that was given to President Gorbachev. Sincerely, James s. Robbins Assessment California's Man-Made Drought by Richard L. Stroup

Like the Soviet economy, California's water has been managed by govern­ ment for years. And like the Soviet economy, California's system of water man­ agement is breaking down. But solutions to California's man-made drought are at hand-if only we can transcend Soviet-style thinking.

While the bombs were falling on Kuwait and Baghdad, The Economist took time out to discuss Uanother desert war," the one in California over water. The Economist correctly understood that California's crisis is not meteorological, but rather institutional. California's five-·year drought has merely brought to the surface, and to public visibility, problems that stem from political and bureaucratic control media attention by bad-mouthing us." 6 million acre-feet of heavily­ of a natural resource. Such facts as these are fueling the subsidized water per year---enough to In the West, water is wealth. war over water in California: put the entire state of Connecticut Because politics controls water in Cal­ • Federal water delivered to farm­ under 2 feet of water. Even with the ifornia, the result is the equivalent of ers is so heavily subsidized that farm­ huge water subsidy, the farmers are war-fighting among all the factions ers pay about 15% of the capital cost, not competitive on the world markets: seeking politically controlled wealth. and none of the operating cost, on the rice farmers have been paid up to 3 Normally, special interests as pow­ Federal water they get. (That doesn't times the market price for their prod­ erful as California farmers are able to mean that all the current farm owners uct and cotton farmers 1.5 times the enjoy a windfall; many of them market price, thanks to government get their way in the political setting. bought the privilege of "cheap" water price supports. This is not surprising: But a drought is different. Populist by paying the full capital value of this rice is a monsoon crop and cotton is forces-in this case, an uninformed privilege from the previous land­ traditionally grown on moist Missis­ citizenry stirred up by the media and owner.) sippi delta land; neither crop is usual­ environmentalists antagonistic to di­ • More than half the federally irri­ ly grown on dry desert land. version projects in the first place­ gated land in California is devoted to • Farmers pay far less for water shed a glaring light on the special ad­ crops that are in surplus, are heavily than municipal users: federal water vantages of the farmers, and the pen­ subsidized, and probably would not prices to farmers in the Central Valley dulum starts to swing the other way. be grown there without subsidy. Project are $1.50 to $8.00 per acre-foot Currently, the State Water Project • Cows get far more' later than all while urban California users pay is cutting off all its farming customers, the people and non-agricultural indus­ roughly $200 per acre-foot. and the federal Central Valley Project try in California. Irrigated pasture and • During the drought, some water­ is cutting deliveries by 65%. One farm­ alfalfa for livestock consume 8.3 mil­ short municipalities have made gar­ er quoted by the Associate Press said lion acre-feet of water annually, while dening by homeowners illegal. A pic­ that the farmers are "really frustrat­ municipal and industrial uses together ture in Time in February showed a Los ed." After all, 'We're good conserva­ represent less· than 4 million acre-feet. Angeles resident being apprehended tionists. We take care of our grounds. (An acre-foot is enough water to cover for the crime of watering his hedge. We deal with the insects, the pesti­ an acre of land with a foot of water, or Water wars pit every water-using cides and the politicians. And then we 326,000 gallons.) faction against every other. City have folks who have captured the • Rice and cotton farmers use over dwellers are angry with farmers for Liberty 55 Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

using too much water, while farmers kets were allowed, federal analysts, en­ by diverting it from a stream or river. H are angry with environmentalists for vironmentalists and economists agree, you claimed it the water was yours to opposing dams, and "no-growth" ad­ water in California could be reallocat­ use, and you had that right as long as vocates don't want water for cities, ei­ ed so that all classes of users would you used the water. ther. Eut once the rain falls, the issue gain-and many would reap huge The problem today is that the right will disappear from the headlines and gains. Only a small percentage of the to water is not always firm and often is the ,Political battles almost surely will water would change hands and virtu­ not freely tradeable. To begin with, the again be won by the farm lobby. They. ally no water users would lose. Threats right never was a complete one-only may quietly wring additional huge to the environment (and to taxpayers' a usufruct right, that is, a right to "use" taxpayer subsidies (to "make up" for wallets) from proposed new projects water. Title to the water itself remains current reductions in water del­ would evaporate. with the state. In addition, trades are iveries). About 85% of the water in Property Rights to the Rescue California is used in agriculture, which produces 3% of the state's economic Firm, tradable property rights to Federal water delivered to output. All non-agricultural users water would bring a quick cease-fire to so could increase their use of water by farmers is heavily subsi­ this war and slow down the further more than 35% if willing agricultural dized that farmers pay about legislative thefts that are likely to come water users sold them 6% of their when the voters' backs are turned. 15% of the capital cost, and When property rights are recognized water. Since much crop water is wast­ none of the operating cost, on and voluntary exchange is allowed, it ed today (because of political restric­ the Federal water they get. is in everyone's interest genuinely to tions), a 6% decline of agricultural "reason together" about water or any water would have a small effect on ag­ other commodity. H your rights to the ricultural capacity. Indeed, it would be virtually unnoticed if some of the reve­ regulated by the state. This is rational­ water are secure and you can easily ized (and to some extent justified) by transfer them when you wish, I must nue received by farmers were plowed back into more efficient irrigation the need to account for return flows, learn what you want and modify my protecting those who had a right to offer to you until I gain your voluntary schemes, better use of replenishable groundwater, and less-water-intensive those flows. (Indeed, only the con­ agreement. You, too, have every incen­ sumed portion of a diversion right, not tive to be reasonable and no cause to cropping patterns. Today, however, California water any return flow, should be tradeable.) be fearful of my taking something in­ Once the government, especially voluntarily from you. allocations are tightly controlled by California politics. And this leads to but not exclusively the federal govern­ war. After all, I may be able to get your ment, took charge of damming rivers water, or force you to use it as I wish, and diverting water, joint ownership It is not surprising that rice via political manipulation. H I can suc­ by irrigation districts became common, and cotton farming require cessfully portray you as greedy and and the right to trade at all came under huge subsidies in the form of unworthy, you may lose politicallegiti­ tighter political control. What might macy (as some farmers feel is happen­ have been a natural evolution to more cheap water and price sup­ ing to them right now). Or I may join complete property rights, as water ports: rice is a monsoon crop in a coalition that simply overpowers rights became more valuable, was blocked by government control-that you politically. Winning such battles and cotton is traditionally is, by politically dominant factions. grown on moist Mississippi may allow me to get what I want with no compensation to you whatever. Solving the Problem delta land; neither crop is usu­ Both the winner and loser pay in The solution to the problem is not ally grown on dry desert land. time, effort and money to fight the bat­ inherently difficult. It is not even nec­ tle, but as long as political control essary to stop or reverse the subsidies reigns, the loser can plot to gain back currently in place, to settle disputes In a market, the winners of a specif­ what the winner has won. You cannot and get water into the hands of people ic water allocation pay for what they buy a political result-you can only who want it the most. By enabling the get, while those who "lose" (that is, bid rent it. The war never really ends. Any same factions that cause such bitter­ too low) save their purchasing power victory is temporary. ness and harm in a political setting to for other opportunities. Bids lead to Of course there are, in a sense, pri­ operate in a market, no water-users voluntary cooperation, and higher vate property rights to California will be hurt and virtually everyone prices (because all interested parties water. Under the traditional"appropri­ will be better off. are free to make bids) spur entrepre­ ation doctrine" (which developed in The federal government and the neurial innovation in conserving much of California and the West be­ state of California should simply allow water. cause of the relative scarcity of water), those with rights to the special water In spite of low levels of rain, there the initial claimant established owner­ allocations to sell their rights when is plenty of water in California. H mar- ship of the right to the use of the water they so desire. Past subsidies need not 56 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5

be taken away; a farmer who is offered Politics also provides "standing," $80 for an acre foot of water will treat it in what sometimes becomes a kanga­ Ayn Rand and as worth that much, even if he only roo court, to anyone with a voice or Her Movement pays $8 for the water. Transferable political clout. Unlike the common property rights could also serve the law courts, those seeking to control In an exclusive interview, Barbara growing demand for amenities. In­ others need not provide evidence that Branden reveals intimate details of stream flows can receive additional life inside Rand's circle. The they personally have a legitimate fascinating topics include the weird protection if fishing groups, for exam­ stake in the issue (such as experienc­ psychological manipulations within ple, are allowed to bid for water rights. ing direct harm). Politics generally de­ the group, the expulsion of members Environmental groups also could di­ mands no rules of evidence. The mere in kangaroo courts, the glaring errors rect some of their immense flow of suspicion of harm can (and does) lead in Nathaniel Branden's memoir about funds-the top ten groups now spend to draconian requirements. his affair with Rand, and Rand's fight $500 million per year-to this purpose. The lessons from California's in a posh Manhattan restaurant with In the process, some people will be­ drought should be applied to natural Alan Greenspan. This account, expanded from its come wealthy. Farmers receiving water resource management and conserva­ at a few dollars an acre-foot will sell it original printing in the January 1990 tion generally. We have seen how and Liberty, includes information that for hundreds. But no one will be hurt, why political control of a resource cannot be found in any other source. and they will be selling value that sim­ necessarily leads to distorted prices, And it is available only from Liberty ply doesn't exist now, while the trades hampered trade, reduced efficiency, Publishing. $4.00 per copy, ppd. are prohibited. inequities and endless, unnecessary The federal government is on record strife. The individual voter simply Liberty Publishing as officially favoring water trades, in cannot be counted on to monitor and POBox 1167 Port Townsend, WA 98368 principle, and a few trades of this sort control politics effectively in the pub­ have. actually occurred in California. lic interest. Each voter, knowing that But principle seldom overrides prag­ he or she will not cast the decisive matism in politics, and it's not clear vote in an election, remains largely ig­ that any politician has the incentive to norant (though often with strong push ,what is in fact a "win-win" situa­ opinions) and often doesn't even both­ Learn, work, tion. the idea of free trade is almost al­ er to go to the polls. Liberty-the right ways disturbing to people who have to act unless others are illegitimately Get on Track operated in a protected setting; farmers harmed-and economic progress are Liberty offers full-time intern­ are fearful that they will somehow lose the resulting victims. ships to students of all majors in­ their rights if trading is allowed, and By contrast, the same voter's pur­ "fairness" critics think that farmers terested in journalism, writing, chase of a product or a share of corpo­ shouldn't get rich on taxpayers' money political philosophy or public rate stock is entirely decisive. The (even though they are already using the policy. Positions are available at buyer will be stuck with the purchase, all times of the year. and pay for it personally. Thus, both For further information, Urban users, some of whom products and investments are selected write Liberty, PO Box 1167, Port and monitored with far more care Townsend, WA 98368. have been arrested for the than are politicians, their policies, and their appointees. We should trust re­ IIcrime" of watering their gar­ sources more to such markets, and r------,' dens I are forced to pay a price less to the political "market." HThey that can give up essential liberty more than 125 times as high as What would have resulted, had to obtain a little temporary safety farmers in the Central Valley. this been done much earlier with deserve neither liberty nor safety. " California water? Many dams could -Benjamin Franklin have paid for themselves privately, (back) and those who paid and claimed the same taxpayers' money and not neces­ IDEALOGO™ sari!y getting rich). water would probably own them in a presents: Whether politicians or bureaucrats way which would now hold them per­ can buck this opposition remains to be sonally accountable. The rest of the • sizes S,M,L,XL seen. The lack of property rights in pol­ water supply projects should not have • white T-Shirt itics means a lack of entrepreneurial been built. The California agricultural • 100% cotton authority and incentive. Change is al­ economy might be less frenetic, but • heavyweight ways difficult and costly, and to ask a more solid. Taxpayers inside and out­ Indicate size and send check or money politician to bear the cost-personal side California would be privately order for $12 per shirt plus $2 shipping to: and political-of bringing about financing other, more productive pro­ IDEALOGO™ • PO Box 897T change, without the promise of large jects. The "other desert war" would Mountain View, CA 94042 personal gain, is to ask too much. never have been fought. 0 Please allow 2to 3 weeks for UPS delivery. Orders are shipped L. promptly,------and your satisfaction is unconditionally guaranteed...J Volume 4, Number 5 Ma 1991

LiPPI "In Quest of Dr Cepl," continued from page 48

conference room I noted a long leather you who have betrayed me. You have of making arrangements in advance. couch. It would do nicely as a bed. An conspired with the phone system to de­ An hour later, I sat in a warm, cozy annex off the secretary's office includ­ feat my mission." kitchen over supper and a glass of ed a small kitchen with fixings for cof­ "In Czechoslovakia, no such con­ Moravian wine, chatting with Cepl' fee and, in a small refrigerator, a half spiracy is necessary. The telephones and his wife. We adjourned to his par­ filled bottle of wine, a roll, a piece of manage this obstruction quite well on lor and talked long into the night cheese, and a tin of pineapple. Not ex­ their own." about communism and repression, actly a sybaritic feast at the Hotel He told me he had received a call about intellectuals condemned to years Pariz, but I wouldn't go hungry. I sat from Mrs Mucha who was beside her­ in prison or exile or shoveling coal for on the couch and resumed writing my self and had the impression the Dean factory furnaces, about the under­ accounts of the day. had become a missing person. I tried to ground and the students' revolt, about And then Mucha returned. "1 think explain my earlier conversation, speak­ the new Prague Spring and whether it we must try Cepl at home." He opened ing to both men at once, but Mucha's would last a little longer this time. his address book to look up the num­ manner became all the more agitated. When weariness at last overcame ber. I observed over his shoulder that it Cepl proposed that I should take us, he gave me a cot in an adjacent differed by one digit from the n\lmber the subway to his stop, where he room to catch a few hours rest before I had been trying all day. Mucha en­ would meet me. I should take supper my early morning plane back to gaged in an animated telephone con­ and stay the night. We could talk at lei­ Warsaw. I lay there, revisiting the versation in Czech, then handed the sure. "You will know me. Look for a day's events. I had gone through so receiver to me. tired, old Czech peasant who is quite much to get to this evening's conversa­ "This is Cepl. I think you have be­ tall." tion. And it was such a trifle against trayed me-you have appealed to Mucha escorted me through the what the Czechs and the Poles en­ higher authority." The voice was a building, unlocked a door and told me dured every day. I would go to scratchy baritone with an unmistaka­ he regretted he could not join Cepl and Warsaw in the morning and to ble mirth lurking beneath the syllables. me. I apologized again and told him California in a week. But I would be "On the contrary," I rejoined. "It is that next time I would do a better job back. 0

Abortion is Unlibertarian.

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Libertarians for Life 13424 Hathaway Drive, #22 Wheaton, MD 20906; (301) 460-4141 Doris Gordon, National Coordinator Bionomics: The Inevitability of Capitalism, advantage of special interests. The Con­ by Michael Rothschild. Henry Holt, 1990, 423 pp, $24.95. stitution that they wrote is an attempt to minimize plunder by the state. And, judging from the predation that charac­ terizes most states in the world today, it is a fairly successful attempt. The Founders' understanding of po­ litical economy remains unsurpassed. Economy as Ecology The Federalist Papers stands as one of the greatest works of political philosophy. It is a powerful intellectual tool and provides a science of politics. In my judgment, it a genuine classic of politi­ cal economy, ranking alongside The tion of the Founders, I found myself Wealth ofNations. John Baden thinking about our Constitution and Such classics are, of necessity, most the men who wrote it. The Founders rare. They integrate important and dis­ From 1971 to 1978, I was with the understood that nearly all polities are parate findings into a new perspective, Environment and Man program at predatory: governments normally work enabling us to understand patterns and Utah State University in Logan, Utah. as engines of plunder. The only reason relationships that were previously un­ Since my home was a ranch near Boze­ that people prefer the predatory state to seen. Discovering such a work is like man, Montana, this involved a regular anarchy is that it economizes on vio­ finding glasses for a 3-D movie: we commute, affording me plenty of op­ lence, freeing people to specialize in glue them to our corneas and the world portunity for observation and reflec­ production rather than looting or self never again looks the same. tion. defense. James Buchanan and Gordon Tul­ My route took me through the little People use politics to gain control of lock's The Calculus of Consent (1962), town of Preston, Idaho. There was a the coercive power of the state. Political which introduced economic logic to billboard on the edge of town with a entrepreneurs arise promising order in public sector decision, is an example of single, straight forward declarative exchange for the opportunity to admin­ such a work of scholarly origin. Marion sentence: ister justice-and for a claim upon a J. Levy's Modernization and the Structure The American Constitution portion of the society's wealth. Whatev­ of Society (1966) is another. Both these Is Divinely Inspired. er their initial motives, the temptation revolutionary books are the work of so­ I saw that sign dozens of times and to plunder normally follows and even­ phisticated scholars. Not surprisingly, always wondered: how do they know? tually dominates political decision works by those innocent of the formal I have immense respect for our Consti­ making. Triangles of special interests, academic process normally lack the so­ tution, but I couldn't think of an empir­ administrators and elected politicians phistication of those that pass through ical test of its divine origin. Yes, the work creatively to tax, regulate and peer review filters. Founders gave our nation the recipe for take from some to give to others. This the world's most successful large-scale pattern is highly persistent. It provides The Political Economy constitutional experiment. But success some measure of regularity, making an­ Book of the 90s? is hardly conclusive proof of divine ori­ archy nearly everyone's last choice. Michael Rothschild's Bionomics is gin. Luck or great intelligence could To the degree that order fosters my early nomination for the 199Os' lead to the same end. The socialistic wealth creation, this exchange has a book-that-matters in political economy. Hutterite communes of the Northern positive sum. Exploitation, however, is It is a challenging and eye-opening Plains have been highly successful for inherent to this system. The Founders' look at both nature and society, an im­ over a century while the Mormon's major intellectual problem was to de­ portant expansion of our understand­ United Order failed in less than a dec­ sign a constitution, a set of rules for ing of political economy. It is all the ade. Yet few in Utah believe that the making rules, that gave the state suffi­ more remarkable because Rothschild Hutterites are the Chosen. cient power to maintain order while has written a brilliant and sophisticated Although I never figured a way to constraining opportunities to use the work without any formal training in prove or disprove the divine inspira- coercive apparatus of the state to the economics. Liberty 59 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991

Rothschild's approach is unconven­ major urban areas with their great eco­ economy isn't simple. Identifying the tional, in that it lacks the highly sophis­ nomic diversity parallel the ecological economy's true parasites and writing ticated formal proofs that characterize diversity of the rainforests. And gov­ laws that destroy their hooks requires the work of professional economists. ernmental suppression of economic ac­ a bionomic perspective. (292) The absence of such proofs, while po­ tivities (through, for example, price Rothschild understands thatour tentiallya weakness in the eyes of pro­ controls) replicate the destruction of the economy and our ecology share more fessionals, is perhaps one of Bionomics' rainforests. than the Greek root ouma (eco). The strengths. It makes Bionomics acceptable The problem with contemporary ec­ economy is better understood as an eco­ to those whose natural sympathies lie onomic theory, Rothschild argues, is logic system, as opposed to a machine more with St. Francis than with Milton that it misses the essential evolutionary isolated and insulated from the environ­ Friedman. feature of capitalism. Natural selection ment. Economy and ecology are linked The prime failure of economics, is analogous to economic competition in a potentially positive-sum game Rothschild argues, is that it "remains among firms. Only when the spon­ where nature bats last. But only when taneous coordination of the market is our legal and economic arrangements permitted expression, he argues, can tie the right to act with a responsibility prosperity and freedom replace com­ for the action's outcome can we expect a Our economy and our ecolo­ mand-and-control impoverishment. positive-sum game. gy share more than the Greek (Essentially he discovers for himself Rothschild has it right. Though not root oikos (eco). The economy what Hayek explained in his classic es­ exposed to important fields such as say, '7he Use of Knowledge in Socie­ is better understood as an eco­ public choice theory, he has rediscov­ ty.") Hence, progress is dependent ered and integrated many subfields of logic system, as opposed to a upon how political and economic insti­ economics. His vision, while profound­ machine isolated and insulated tutions utilize or ignore knowledge. ly effective, however, is not without This process is the time-lapsed analog from the environment. precedents. to biological evolution. When economic For example, public choice theory dynamics are misunderstood "momen­ emphasizes the importance of institu­ tous policy decisions hinge upon politi­ tions and how the information and in­ cal mood swings and raw intuition, wedded to the classical Newtonian centives they create affect opportunistic unaided by any deeper comprehension behavior (e. g., The Calculus of Consent, paradigm of a mechanistic model" of of how an economy works." This is the 1962). Austrian economics emphasizes the world. "Sadly," he writes, "several fundamental problem of democratic spontaneous order and the impossibili­ generations of economists have spent capitalism. ty of wide-scale planning (e. g., Thomas the last century elaborating a system of Rothschild applies his understand­ Sowell's Knowledge and Decisions, 1980). thought that tries to explain the intri­ ing to vexing problems of education "Law and economics" stresses the im­ cate relationships of economic life with and human capital development, pov­ portance of secure property rights to concepts invented to describe the mo­ erty, capital investment, pollution, and achieve progress. All reject the mechan­ tion ofplanets" (44). parasitism in the corporate and govern­ istic approach that Rothschild holds in In Rothschild's view, the cost of mental arenas. His proposals for reform disdain. mathematical elegance is insulation are prudent, temperate and modest. He Aside from Milton Friedman, whom from the real world of economic evolu­ sees America's public school education Rothschild quotes once, the leaders in tion. Science's mechanistic models are system, for example, as the functional the development of this sort of non­ inappropriate for organic, creative sys­ equivalent of the Soviet agricultural mechanistic economic thinking have es­ tems like the economy. By simplifying system. As a solution Rothschild advo­ caped his notice; his endnotes and index assumptions, he argues, mathematical cates removing the "parasitic hook" of and econometric models exclude pre­ public school bureaucracies. "Students contain no reference to Alchian, Bucha­ cisely those features that make an and parents," he says, "like sharehold­ nan, Coase, Demsetz, Epstein, Hutt, Kirzner, Mises, Niskanen, Olson, Posner economy vibrant. ers, must be granted the power of For him, the ecosystem, not the ma­ choice" (312). While his conclusion is or Tullock. chine, is the appropriate model for an. not original (most political economists Clearly, political economy incorpo­ economy. In an ecosystem, he ex­ support such proposals) Rothschild's rates a far richer, more subtle and so­ plains, resources flow up the value­ use of the "parasitic hook" of biology is phisticated body of knowledge than added chain like energy moving up compelling. His discussion of parasit­ Rothschild realized. And as a Harvard­ through tropic levels of an ecological ism would fit well into The Federalist trained J.D. and M.B.A. the odds are system. Instead of replicating their Papers: small that he would have been exposed genes in progeny as frogs make tad­ to the views of public choice or Austri­ To create an environment where poles, firms convert resources into cooperation flourishes, the elimina­ an economics. Which makes his work products. Hence "products are like the tion of exploitation in all its forms all the more remarkable. sea shells abandoned by molting should be the chief objective of a soci­ I applaud the development of a "bio­ crabs-shaped by the genes, but not ety's laws. But keeping antiparasitic nomics" paradigm that harmonizes lib­ alive" (215). The analogy goes further; laws in step with a rapidly evolving erty, prosperity, and ecological 60 Liberty Volume 4, Number5 May 1991 integrity. The greatest value of Bionom­ economic forces and how they may be inces have all been adopted in the ics, however, will come when people un­ harnessed to achieve policy reforms name of keeping the country from derstand the pervasive reality of that foster liberty and prosperity. 0 splitting apart on ethnic lines. Judging from the current state of public opinion in Quebec, where polls show that The Trouble with Canada, by William Gairdner. Stoddart,1990, 470pp., about two-thirds of the population fa­ $29.95 [Canadian]. vor independence, these efforts have not been enormously successful. What­ ever their success, Gairdner notes, these efforts have been expensive. He calculates that the bill for official bilin­ gualism was $350 million in 1987 and Hope for a Troubled Land that multiculturalism cost $53 million in 1986-88. This is big money in a coun­ try whose population is smaller than that of California. But this is only part of Canada's It was this book that inspired Stanislaw problem. Canadian public policy has Scott J. Reid Tyminski to write Sacred Dogs, the book concentrated on issues of social "jus­ that launched his campaign for the tice" (i.e. wealth redistdbution), the In Canada, the publication of a ma­ Polish presidency. Tyminski was new protection of uneconomic industries jor book offering a libertarian analysis to libertarian ideas when he ran for through high tariffs and stifling regula­ of the political system is a pretty rare president, and it seems likely that most tion, and the pre-Thatcher British-style event. The classical liberal paradigm is of his knowledge of libertarian philoso­ nationalization of sectors of the econo­ so alien to Canada's intellectual class phy at the time of his election bid was my viewed as being too important to that William Gairdner's The Trouble based upon his reading of Gairdner's leave to the businessmen. with Canada is only the second book­ polemic. Not surprisingly, these programs length attempt in living memory to The Trouble with Canada is on the have resulted in the creation of a whole look at Canada from a classical liberal whole easy and pleasant to read, and range of new special interests, and point of view. its relaxed and conversational tone have transformed the political system As might be expected in an intellec­ may do much to help it achieve its au­ from a relatively open English struc­ tual climate as stifling as ours, The Trou­ thor's stated goal. It is neatly divided ture to a byzantine "French" bureau­ ble with Canada is not the product of a into two sections of equal length. The cratic model, in which only well­ professor of Canadian Studies. Its subti­ first is essentially an introduction to li­ organized pressure groups have access tle "A Citizen Speaks Dut" suggests its bertarian thought, chock-full of refer­ to the political leadership. Consequent­ homely origins, which are borne out by ences to people like Thomas Sowell, ly, the system is vulnerable not only to its contents. For example, Gairdner in­ Milton Friedman, Charles Murray, pressures from the original series of sists on referring to the parliamentary, Walter Williams and F. A. Hayek. It is conflicting interests, but also to lobby­ common-law system of government as a depressing comment on the ideologi­ ing by a wide variety of special inter­ the "English" model, and to the bu­ cal climate in Canada that such a sec­ ests created by the system itself. As reaucratic, centralized system as the tion would be considered necessary in these groups achieve success in encour­ "French" model. These designations a book that is, after all, about public aging new spending programs, taxes have something to do with the contrast policy, not philosophy. have soared relative to levels in the between the British constitutional mon­ The second half of the book holds United States, funding for the original archy and the regime of Louis XN. But greater interest. for those already con­ transfer programs has been redirected, they don't particularly relate to Cana­ versant with libertarian theory. Here and the country has been left with a da's present-day French-English cleav­ Gairdner focuses on showing how Can­ system in which economic growth has age. Given the contempt with which ada has been led from prosperity to rel­ been sacrificed in order to transfer the "French" model is treated in the ative impoverishment by the policies of wealth from the politically weak to the book, it is all too easy for the casual a government more intent upon solv­ politically strong, with no noticeable reader to consider the book to be anti­ ing ethnic tensions than with making benefit to the underprivileged or to the Quebecois. the economy work. An enormous cause of national unity. "This is a book," Gairdner declares amount of money has been spent on Gairdner spends much of the sec­ on the opening page, "designed to what Canadians like to call "national ond section exploring the dynamics of change minds." It would not be wise to unity." Official bilingualism, "multicul­ some of these interest groups. One of speculate whether The Trouble with Can­ turalism" (i.e. . subsidies for self­ the more perverse, and one in which he ada will have any impact upon the proclaimed ethnic minority leaders), has a special expertise, is the state­ drugged Canadian masses, but it has and intergovernmental transfer pay­ supported system of amateur athletics. certainly influenced one man's career. ments to Canada's less wealthy prov- (Gairdner is a former Olympic decath- Liberty 61 May 1991

lete.) State funding of amateur athletics the notion that we should reform our Liberty Wants You! was started as a way of raising the na­ political system on the basis of recom­ Liberty Publishing is looking for an tional consciousness and sense of na­ mendations originally proposed for the entry level editorial/office worker to help tional pride of Canadians. Hour pariah of nations. Following Louw and in the business of publishing the very athletes could take on the world, it Kendall, he advocates the adoption of a magazine you now hold in your hands. would show that Canada is capable of highly decentralized federal system in Exciting Opportunity playing an important role on the which governments would be forced to world's stage. In fact, however, Cana­ compete with each other to gain and Live in beautiful Port Townsend, da's Olympic athletes have become a keep IIcustomers" (residents and inves­ Washington, and participate in the vigor­ national embarrassment. The Ben John­ tors). A properly structured decentral­ ous world of libertarianjournalism! son scandal-he and his teammates ized system might also overcome Contact: doped up at the taxpayers' expense-is Canada's ethnic divisions without the R W. Bradford PO Box 1167 only a symptom of the whiningly self­ expense and futility of nationwide Port Townsend, WA 98368 indulgent attitude adopted by Canadi­ official bilingualism. He also recom­ an "amateurs." Gairdner describes a mends the use of popular initiatives as meeting of Olympic athletes which he a way of limiting the legislative and The Liberty Poll attended in the early 1980s: What Libertarians Think [A] serious suggestion was put forth that hundreds of these athletes had Thefirst detailed study of what libertar­ been "deprived" ofeducation because Canada has been led from ians think about life, government, God, they were competing for Canada. sex, heroes ... and how they would deal They were demanding "compensa­ prosperity to relative impover­ with some serious moral problems. Now tion for lost education." In a recent complete with data from the original poll ishment by the policies of a newspaper article, [a professor of to Liberty subscribers and the poll of Li­ government more intent upon physical education] ... lobbied for a bertarian Party members. $4.00 each, pp.; minimum salary for international ath­ solving ethnic tensions than $3.00 each for 5 or more copies. letes at $32,000 per annum ... We are with making the economy Liberty Publishing told that training is a full-time occu­ PO Box 1167 pation today. But this is nonsense .... work. Port Townsend, WA 98368 No one is physically capable of real training more than four hours a day-and of this, very little, at most half, can be all-out training. Beyond budgetary discretion of the politicians. this, there is only high-class athletic This sort of thing is old hat in the U.S., The Sociology of pampering, or time-wasting. What but in Canada the idea of direct democ­ are they doing with the other twenty racy is practically revolutionary­ the Ayn Rand Cult hours each day? I suspect that Parkin­ should Gairdner's suggestion gain Murray Rothbard's controversial monograph son's Law sets in, and the job fills the much popularity, we can expect shrill on the nature of the Rand Circle in its hey­ time allotted. (383-4) warnings about the dangers of consult­ day. Must reading for anyone interested in The analysis in the second part of ing the unwashed on matters of state Objectivism, cultism, or the history of the li­ The Trouble with Canada is backed up from the various beneficiaries of the bertarian movement. with a 33-page section containing an­ status quo. $4.00 per copy, ppd. notated graphs of economic statistics. In America it would seem naive for Liberty Publishing At first I found it disconcerting to have an author to present such a series of PO Box 1167 to refer back to this section, instead of constitutional proposals for serious con­ Port Townsend, WA 98368 finding the graphs embedded in the sideration. Canada, however, is going text in the usual manner. But this sec­ through a period of internal crisis, and tion does have an advantage: it pro­ new sets of proposals are being set forth vides a quick and ready reference to continually. Most are drafted by bu­ consult after the book has been read. reaucrats and politicians with an un­ Gairdner's policy recommendations healthy stake in the status quo. (Even are interesting, and I regret that he did the authors of a recent report of the not devote more time to fleshing them Quebec Liberal Party recommending de out. He recommends that Canada facto independence for their province adopt the sort of decentralized federal cannot bring themselves to recommend system described in, of all places, Leon an end to those delicious intergovern­ Louw and Frances Kendall's South Af­ mental transfer payments!) H Canada's rica: The Solution. Gairdner's recom­ renewal is to be successful, there will be mendations do have merit, although I need for more genuinely original and can't imagine the Canadian intellectual different proposals of the sort set forth elite being favorably impressed with by Gairdner. a Volume 4, Number5 May 1991

Capitalism, by Arthur Seldon. Basil Blackwell, 1990, xiv + 419 pp., $29.95. verse voluntary transactions. He ex­ plains why political control of economic affairs favors the elite, the wordsmiths, the maneuverers and schemers, and the seekers of government-eonferred advan­ On the Side ofthe Angels tage, over ordinary people. It is not sur­ prising that intellectuals number among the last-ditch defenders of quasi­ socialism, grudgingly conceding the tives. "The real or supposed defects of market's virtues but now hoping to en­ Leland B. Yeager capitalism ... are not endemic: they are list them as an instrument of govern­ largely the results of overgovernment ment control. Born in 1916 in London's East End, or mis-government. They can be re­ The banal expression IIon the side of raised in near-poverty, a First Class moved. The real defects of socialism­ the angels" that heads this review ex­ Honors graduate of the London School suppressed unemployment and infla­ presses a judgment. In championing of Economics, Arthur Seldon has been a tion, widespread privation and injus­ capitalism and rejecting socialism, Sel­ university economics tutor, economist tice, overweening authority, suppres­ don is right, aggressively right, magnifi­ in the brewing industry, adviser to the sion of freedom in economic activity, cently right-but tedious. His book will Australian government, and vice presi­ political rights and cultural life, in­ disappoint those who trusted several dent of the Mont Pelerin Society (a grained nepotism and jobbery, and rave reviews. Readers will indeed find group of liberal-oriented scholars, busi­ much else-are endemic. They are parts many new or freshly phrased ideas and nessmen and activists that first met at of the system; without them socialism is observations, but perhaps not enough to Mont Pelerin, Switzerland in 1947). He unworkable" (218-219). justify all they must slog through to find is now retired with the title of Founder them. The book is overlong, repetitious, Seldon answers the moral case President of the Institute of Economic and disorganized. Many sentences ram­ against capitalism made by clerics and Affairs, which he and Ralph (now Lord) ble on at Germanic length. Seldon other intellectuals-and by those "High Harris established in London in 1955. wastes space challenging the neglectable Tories" who look down their noses at The lEA has published hundreds of pronouncements of even the least in­ what they see as the grubbiness of capi­ books and pamphlets meeting high aca­ formed and least insightful critics of talism. What these critics call greed, he demic standards, many written or edit­ capitalism. He uses the book as a vehicle thinks, might better be called the urge ed by Seldon himself, applying classical for numerous asides, repeatedly, for ex­ to improvement and responsibility to liberalism to a wide range of policy ample, criticizing The New Palgrave Dic­ self, family, friends, and associates. He issues. tionary of Economics (published in 1987). compares how "greed" operates and Now Seldon gathers the fruits of a He engages in name-dropping far be­ lifetime of observation, study, reflec­ how well or poorly it is disciplined un­ yond giving credit for ideas or referring tion, writing and, evidently, personal der capitalism and socialism. the reader to other publications. Many contact with participants and controver­ As an example Seldon cites the de­ autobiographical remarks concern the sialists on all sides of public issues. His bate about a market in transplantable circumstances in which he encountered words carry conviction when he says organs. Many people feel "a sense of re­ or expressed particular ideas or made that the purpose of his book is the "de­ vulsion against the use of the human particular observations. fence and assertion of the common pe0­ body for monetary gain." But what is so Those who might be swayed from ple, especially the poorest in every moral about condemning patients to socialism will not, I fear, find Seldon's continent" (p.96). death by suppressing the voluntary book persuasive. They will be repelled Seldon defines socialism and capital­ transactions that could have supplied by its tedium, its oracular tone, and its ism by their reliance predominantly on the necessary organs? (Or do the moral­ apparent reliance on appeal to the au­ the state or on the market for economic izers recommend compulsion1) '1s the thority of the many right-thinkers organization. He shows socialism's ultimate political value to be that the mentioned. poor performance, reviewing both theo­ antipathy to commercialism shall pre­ On balance, though, the book de­ retical arguments and the actual experi­ vail in order to buy votes on the cheap? serves praise. Seldon's insights into the ences of recent decades. He argues in Is nothing safe from the political contrast between the rival systems has convinci~g detail that capitalism could process?" (309) many dimensions; his analysis of how have performed even better than it has Seldon is perhaps at his best in ana­ well they expose poor performance to if only the state had not preempted or lyZing government. If political democra­ monitoring and correction is especially interfered with private enterprise and cy is good, many people seem to feel, impressive. He understands the implica­ inventiveness, as in education, medi­ then applying it to more and more as­ tions of intrusion of the political process cine, housing, and retirement programs. pects of life is good also. Invoking the into the everyday lives of ordinary peo­ Environmental problems, also, could theory of public choice, Seldon gives ple. Capitalism is a valuable compendi­ have been handled more successfully many reasons why people's preferences um of capitalist arguments and of by better definition of property rights get registered much less accurately socialist errors held up to critical exami- and fuller enlistment of market incen- through the political process than in di- nation. 0 Liberty 63 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991

Mind Over Machine, California at Berkeley; Stuart teaches by Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus. The Free Press, 1986. $10.95, 23Opp. engineering and operations research The Improbable Machine, while Hubert (who seems to have had byJeremy Campbell. Simon and Schuster, 1989. $19.95, 334pp. the larger hand in the book) teaches philosophy, in which capacity he has been making enemies in AI since the mid-sixties. His battle memoirs are among the most entertaining passages of this and his earlier book, What Com­ The Brain as Market puters Can't Do. A strength of both his books is his grasp of intellectual histo­ ry; he understands that most ideas have a longer ancestry than their promoters realize. Keynes once observed that the world than anybody had thought. most stridently unintellectual people Peter Reidy are usually "the slaves of some defunct Connectionism is, briefly, the recog­ economist." Ironically, the economist in nition that the brain is not a single tum is usually in debt to some even According to an ancient and de­ "processing unit" addressing passive longer-dead philosopher. 'The Dreyfus­ structive delusion, human thought and memory the way a computer does. es trace the rationalistic prejudice back action work by the conscious applica­ Physiologically, psychologically and to Plato (who was also the inventor of tion of explicit rules. Finding and stat­ epistemologically, its activities are dis­ social engineering), forward through ing these rules is thus seen as the task persed among distinct, interacting neu­ Descartes and Leibniz to Husserl and of legitimate science and as the key to rons; thought is the activity of patterns down to today's propeller-heads. The our practical mastery. Though this no­ of interaction in ways the processor­ opposing strain descends from Socrates tion has never yielded much by way of and-memory model can't capture. This and Aristotle through Pascal, Wittgen­ results, its believers have not given up is why AI has never lived up to its stein and Merleau-Ponty. The Dreyfus the faith-but then, this is to be expect­ promises and has never caught on in brothers' view of Socrates was new to ed: hard-as-nails rationalism, for all its industry, medicine or education. Mind me: the point he was really trying to pretensions, has always been a faith, Over Machine quotes one piece of not a science. breathless hype: 'The rationalists' critics tried to tell them that they'd gotten it wrong from What will happen when we face new options in our work and home, where the start·and that their failure was not The brain-described physi­ more intelligent machines can better cally or psychologically-.·faces a mandate to work harder. No amount do the things we like to do? What of tinkering would come up with the kinds of minds and personalities information costs and finds its "right" rules, and no new technology should we dispense to them? What most efficient path to its would make the theory work, because kind of rights and privileges should it fundamentally and fatally miscon­ we withhold from them? Are we objectives. ceived the subject matter. 'The way to ready to asksuch questions? (p. xvi) understand the action of an orderly in­ -and anybody who has followed the telligence, the critics said, is to under­ popular press since the late 1940s has make by confounding and confusing stand that orderliness as the outcome, seen plenty more like it. Ironically, one his contemporaries was that the clear­ rather than the deliberate rationale, of of connectionism's accomplishments cut definitions and knock-down argu­ countless acts undertaken without re­ so far has been "neural net" comput­ ments with which they started were gard for that outcome. ing, which, by rejecting AI's traditional inappropriate at the borders of under­ One of the most recent forms the ra­ machinery and assumptions, has made standing. His interlocutors' pomposity tionalist delusion has taken is the disci­ progress on just those problems of rec­ came from their having reached the pline of Artificial Intelligence, now ognition, generalization and common stage of adult conceptual thought approaching its half-eentury mark. H sense that computers have notoriously without having mastered its applica­ you thought I was talking about eco­ failed to solve. tion. Compare this to Hayek on the Re­ nomics, that is the point of this review: The two books take different but ligion of the Engineers, which he the parallels between the "connection­ compatible approaches. Mind Over Ma­ makes out as the nineteenth century's ist" model of intelligence and the ac­ chine is an overt polemic, as well as a misapplication of its new-found tech­ companying critique of AI on the one work of philosophy. The Improbable Ma­ nological mastery. hand, and free-market economics and chine, the work of a science writer, is The authors of both books are con­ its critique of central planning, on the given more to exposition and sugges­ versant with several scientific fields, other, are too striking to ignore. The in­ tion than to argument. not just computer science and brain re­ sights of Adam Smith and Friedrich The Dreyfuses are brothers and are search but statistics, logic and experi­ Hayek capture a bigger piece of the both professors at the University of mental and educational psychology as 64 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 well. One pleasure of reading them logically-faces information costs and goods, our "judgments" affect those side-by-side is witnessing their differ­ finds its most efficient path to its objec­ markets all they need to. Elsewhere in ent but mutually consistent treatments tives. This path may not be what an the book, Campbell mentions Hayek of the same experimental evidence. 1 outside observer, going perhaps by and quotes him thus: was also pleased to see them answer some quite sophisticated rules but [Economic knowledge] never exists both of the common objections to in concentrated or integrated form, connectionism. but solely as the dispersed bits of in­ The first objection is that the anti­ Remember the Fifth Genera­ complete and frequently contradicto­ rationalist (not anti-reason) position is ry knowledge which all the separate unscientifically "mystical" or "soft." tion that was announced with individuals possess. The most signifi­ cant fact about this systemis the econ­ They point out that what they have to such fanfare in the early eight­ omy of knowledge with which it say about thinking is already estab­ ies, a grandiose scheme by operates, or how little the individual lished science about several systems in which the government­ participants need to know in order to inanimate nature-that they are holis­ be able to take the right action. (187) tic: their observable properties are industry partnership was final­ The price we pay for the brain's properties of the whole qua whole and ly going to make Artificial In­ speed and adaptability is its tenden­ not subject to ordinary mechanical telligence work? The last I cies to stereotype and to jump over analysis. Holograms are of this nature, gaps to conclusions that are sometimes and so are soap bubbles. This passage heard, they were calling it a wrong and sometimes right but not from Mind Over Machine reads like success because it had pro­ (yet) justified. Campbell explains such something out of Austrian economics: duced so many useful side­ habits as side-effects of its tendency to [Neuron nets] function like a soap effects on the way to nowhere. find order in its world and, where it bubble-an entity composed of mole­ can't find it, to supply it. He even cites cules each physically attached only to a theory of dreams in evidence. By the its immediate neighbors and sensitive psychoanalytical account, the sleeping only to local forces--which is never­ lacking the data available to an indi­ mind encodes repressed knowledge theless formed by the interaction of vidual actor, would have chosen. One with an eye to making it unintelligible all the local forces so that the whole to us. On the new theory of Allan of Campbell's chapters uses the myth J. determines the behavior of the local Hobson, the dreaming mind, like the of "The Reporter in the Corridor" to elements. (p. 92) waking one, makes sense of things, the The second objection is the tech­ describe the relation of consciousness "things" being random electrical dis­ noids' claim that the brain is so cum­ to the neural events that underlie it: charges from the lower brain. bersome and fallible as to be If a connectionist network is like a Campbell's determination to follow downright inferior to computers for huge parliament or congress in the through on his theme leads him, how­ any purpose of rational calculation, throes of debate, then the alert, con­ ever, to some weird philosophical and so experiments have shown. Have scious mind is like a newspaper re­ judgments. I doubt that Kant would porter hanging around outside the they? the authors wonder. H you ask welcome the news that experimenta­ locked chamber, notebook in hand, people to solve by intuition the sort of tion bears him out on causality, be­ problems whose precise solution re­ waiting to be told what happened. The reporter is not allowed inside the cause he didn't think empirical quires the sentential calculus or Baye­ evidence could bear one way or anoth­ sian probability, people will usually room while the debate is in progress. All the ferment and frenzy of individ­ er on the sort of philosophy he was get them wrong. They rely on contex­ uals exciting and inhibiting one tual clues (which aren't necessarily ex­ another, forming coalitions, plicit statements) and make the most sending messages back and of whatever information the experi­ forth, takes place behind closed menter supplies; what they make of it doors. When we recognize our is usually too much. But by analyzing grandmother wearing a new case after case from the experimental hat, we are aware of the fact that it is she and not our aunt or sis­ literature the writers show that what ter, but we have no idea how makes for weakness in a contrived la­ that decision was reached. (201) boratory situation is a strength in the real world, where filling in gaps, going A more familiar way of mak­ by experience and knowing more then ing the same point is by an we realize are our salient strengths. analogy to the consumer mak­ Campbell calls this set of abilities ing buying decisions. Most of the brain's "worldliness." Readers con­ us don't follow the intemation­ versant with economics will want to allabor, commodity and capi­ put this another way, saying that the tal markets, yet when we brain-described physically or psycho- spend money on consumer "I prefer to think ofmyself as neo-apathetic." Liberty 65 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 trying to do. And Aristotle's doctrine of Itis not only the Left that reserves for itselfthe privileges ofthe "politica"y correct." categories isn't a mistaken psychology. It isn't psychology at all. The history of AI, as the Dreyfuses tell it, amply confirms the parallels to so­ cialism. Constructivist-rationalist AI, like constructivist-rationalist socialism, The Rise of faces up to its spotty record from time to time with something to theeffect of, "Up until very recently, our opponents had Paleo-Stalinism more on the ball than we admitted, and we should have taken them more seri­ ously. But that was then. THIS time must be hewing to lower, grade­ Richard Kostelanetz we've got it licked." The cycle between schoolish standards. What would the two such declarations by socialism's editors of Chronicles think of a purport­ apologist used to bea couple ofdecades. Several months ago, I submitted a ed review that dismissed their magazine For AI, it takes about five years. Pra~ti­ letter to the editor of Chronicles, which without ever having seen it? Do they tioners of go-by-the-rules social plan­ had previous published my writing wish to define a "paleoconservative" as ning have always made the most of and had a new piece in its editorial in­ someone who would "never fall for the what little they had to show for it and ventory. The letter has not yet ap­ Golden Rule"? Or is it their point that peared in pages, and I think loved to tout their "Potemkin Villages" Chronicles' Ms Sprinkle is not entitled to scrupulous its subject is an important one, so I to anyonewilling to be taken in,cultivat­ review, given her background, just as shall summarize it here. ing a pressthat was eager to be cultivat­ some might think Chronicles is disquali­ On page 51 of the May 1990 issue of ed. Mind Over Machine is rich in stories fied from such considerations, given its Chronicles, amidst signed notices, is an of how educators, academics and the "conservative" outlook or yahoo (i.e., unsigned purported review of recent midwestern) origins? military have ridden the AI bandwagon performances by the sometime porn The next question raised by this in­ to tax-supported fortunes. Remember starlet Annie Sprinkle and, by exten­ fraction is how many other reviews in the Fifth Generation that the Japanese sion, of the National Endowment for Chronicles are similarly uninformed. announced with such fanfare in the ear­ the Arts' grant to the Kitchen, the Man­ 10%, 30%, 50%, 100%? (H the last, ly eighties? Hyou don't, Q. E. D. It was a hattan cultural center presenting her. particularly grandiose and well­ There is no evidence that the anony­ wouldn't Chronicles earn the "literary" publicized scheme by which the gov­ mous reviewer had witnessed the per­ distinction of being the first American ernment-industry partnership was fi­ formance in question-no descriptions, opinion journal to be wholly fictive?) nally going to make AI work. The last I no specific impressions; indeed, it is Since I knew about Ms Sprinkle, I could heard, they were calling it a success be­ reasonable to suspect that he or she (or cry "foul"-but what about all those re­ cause it had produced so many useful it) has never seen Ms Sprinkle. Far be it views of subjects I .know nothing side-effects on the way to nowhere. from me to defend Ms Sprinkle, who is about? Connections between the intracrani­ not without literary wit (and therefore And this is not an isolated incidence. al and the social are there for the capable of defending herself) or the A few years ago, I caught frequent taking, yet I suspect that some funda­ grant to the Kitchen (which has come Chronicles contributor Jacob Neusner mental insight, which would put them to epitomize the modish mediocrity fabricating quotations in its august pag­ all into a single scheme, still awaits dis­ and inefficiency favored by govern­ es. Since the quote in question­ covery. One of my reasons for recom­ ment cultural funding). I wish, instead, purportedly from Chronicles itself!~was mending these books is the hope that to limit myself to one issue, which I'll attributed to me, I could expose it as some reader will. find it. 0 identify by a maxim: reviewing what you surely false. But this misquotation was do not know is intellec­ never acknowledged in those pages: no , tuaUy impermissable. apologies, errata, or anything of the (;) When I was an kind. undergraduate (at As Chronicles continues to publish e Brown, 19~2), stu- Neusner, it is hard not to assume that dents who reviewed certain (perhaps all) Chronicles contribu­ Q what they had not tors are allowed to fabricate evidence read, instead relying and examples, with full editorial bless­ on secondary sourc­ ing. You either have integrity or you es, were customarily don't; the road between is called flunked. No one opportunism. 1l~'" would dispute the The fact that Neusner teaches at "Sometimes I wonder about PBS - a four-hour special conclusion that Brown prompts the thought that per­ on 'the History ofBoredom.'" Chronicles' editors haps the observed decline in standards 66 Liberty Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 there should be blamed not upon the frame which is a calculated insult to the fashion for expressionist esthetics, students but upon professors' setting its own existence. described in the fourth sentence, bad examples as well as evident lapses Now, apart from the vulgarity of expired by 1964, some two decades be­ in effective policing of their abuses. generalizing about a profession full of fore Berman writes. The snide remark ("Call the campus cops, honey, he's do­ individualists (with the kind of encom­ about museums does not begin to un­ ing it again.") passing terminology that Berman derstand why they have been, and I cannot help but wonder about would eschew for, say, "the academ­ would continue to be, selective in their Chronicles' editorial policy: do the edi­ ic"), this is wholly wrong on general exhibition of allegedly ''blank'' (i.e., tors feel that contributors must be terms. I should know, because I live monochromic) canvases, or even why permitted vulgarities commonly asso­ among thousands of artists, in New they should be. ciated with the looniest left? Or perhaps York's Soho, where the general senti­ The riot of ignorance in this para­ they simply assume that card-carrying ment is that they (we) have all become graph is out of control. Even worse, paleoconservatives are entitled to "priv­ too bourgeois, in part because so many following the example of Professor Ber­ ileges" not available to other intellectu­ more of them (us) than before are now man, Ph.D. (Yale), in generalizing from als. They should recognize, however, able to live off their work or from such insufficient examples, one could say that this amounts to the Stalinist posi­ closely related jobs as teaching art. that all professors-turned-government­ tion that loyalists, whose "politics are Secondly, very few artists (less than cultural-officials talking about contem­ correct," need not observe human nice­ 10% for sure, probably less than 5%) porary art are slipshod in formulating ties reqUired of the unenlightened. think of themselves as political revolu­ their critical ideas and grossly ignorant Or perhaps the "con" in "paleocon" tionaries, for better and worse. Thirdly, in their use of evidence. actually refers to covert lefties working overtime to discredit the intellectual Right? As a sometime contributor to Chron­ icles, this worried me enough to present IClassified Advertisements its editors with the above facts and speculations. Not only did they not re­ ply, but they failed to deal with any of Classified Advertising is available for 25( perword, plus $1.00 per insertion. 10% discount for six or more insertions. Payment must accompany order. Please specify classification. the questions within the magazine it­ self, implicitly confirming that, in their considered judgment, the worst suspi­ Directory of Libertarian Periodicals, up­ cions must be correct-that Chronicles, Books dated latest edition, lists around 150 titles, all be­ "a magazine of American culture," is Free list of used books for sale. Subjects include lieved to be presently publishing, all with Ayn Rand and H. 1. Mencken, First Editions, addresses, much other information. Includes not paleo-con but paleo-Stalinist, wish­ Anarchism, Atheism and Capitalism. Lists is­ lists of organizations and persons. $3.00 post­ ing to control more than it should, be­ sued irregularly. Dunn's Libertarian Books, 251 paid, $4.00 overseas. Jim Stumm, Box 29-LB, Hil­ ginning with dissent from itself-or, at Baldwin Ave, Meriden, cr06450. er Branch, Buffalo, NY 14223. the very least, neo-opportunist. (How Competitive co-existing governments, wave of Inside the Men's Club: Secrets of the Patriar­ politically adrift it must feel to be paleo­ the future (Multi-governments, many chiefs, Pa­ chy. Ruling class sex & violence in secret socie­ Stalinist today-sort of like a Monar­ narchy, etc). The Primer LeGrand Day's A New ties (56p.) $5.00. ANDlOR FREE ruling class Dimension of Freedom now in paperback: $6.00. research catalog. A-A, Box 20273, Ferndale, MI chist after the fall of the Romanovs!) MG Publications, Box 2108, Reseda, CA 91337­ 48220. The whole episode reminds me of 2108. an earlier example of foot-in-throat Merchandise abuse that appeared in the tome Culture Business Financial Privacy. Workable, effective meth­ and Politics, by the sometime chairman Join Life Extension authors Pearson and ods. Tested and proven. Video $20; audio $5; of the NEA's sister institution, the Shaw, in this· profitable business opportunity. book $5. Clarkson's No Checks, 515 Concord Brain nutrients, energy drinks, growth hormones Ave., Anderson, SC 29621 (803) 225-3061 National Endowment for the Humani­ and much more that this dynamic young compa­ ties, Ronald Berman, who has also con­ ny has for a virtually untouched national Periodicals tributed to Chronicles. On page 128 he market. 1-800-553-3215. Living Free newsletter. Forum for debate writes: Mailing list for rent! Rent the list of attendees among freedom-seekers, survivalists, libertari­ But if art has become bourgeois, the and delegates of the 1987 Libertarian Party Presi­ ans, anarchists, outlaws, since 1979, now in­ cludes news summary: limy libertarian mail." artist has not. The artist thinks of him­ dential Nominating Convention. Call (206) 385­ 5097. $8.00 for 6 issues, sample $1.00. Box 29-LB, Hiler self as a political revolutionary. The Branch, Buffalo, NY 14223. function of his art is to express a posi­ I..,iterature Read Mark Frauenfelder's subversive, snot­ tion on public issues and to serve ide­ Don't Procrastinate! Stop the anti-drug insan­ nosed 'zine, bOING bOING, to see what you as. Also, to embody a particular kind ity now! The 10 page personal freedom report have been missing. If you .happen to live in of alienation, and to show that the aes­ that shows you how is now only $2. Meyer's-7 North America, send $14 for four issues; if you thetic object is less important than the Box 166979, Irving, TX 75016-6979. live elsewhere, send $19 in U.S. funds (you Ca­ personality shaping it. The two sets of Libertarian Al1lti-Abortion Introductory in­ nadians aren't excused from sending U.S. funds ideas are contradictory but not exclu­ formation only: SASE; literature packet: $3.00. li­ either!). If you are a cautious person, you may sive; the most established of museums bertarians for Life, 13424 Hathaway Drive, #22, send a measly $4.00 for a sample (outside N.A will exhibit the blank canvas or empty Wheaton, MD 20906. send $6.(0). PO Box 12311, Boulder, CO 803m. Liberty 67 Volume 4, Number 5 May 1991 Several pages later, Berman approv­ In the "Destruction of Art" sympo­ editorial, and governmental cultural po­ ingly quotes Daniel Bell, the Henry sium held in the Judson Church in sitions into licenses to display patent id­ Ford II Professor of Sociology at Har­ New York in 1968, one of the partici­ iocy, shaming not only themselves but vard and a professional know-it-all (Ph. pants suspended a live white chicken our culture. D., Columbia), deb'.':ribing: from the ceiling, swung it back and How would you, a reader of this forth, and then snipped off its head At the Cinematheque in 1968 the with a pair of hedge-clippers. He then magazine, feel ifcharacterized by some­ German artist Herman [sic] Nitsch placed the severed head between his one you did not know, whom you had disemboweled a sheep onstage, legs, inside his unzippered fly, and not even met, as, say, "a notorious veg­ poured the entrails and blood over a proceeded to hammer the insides of a etarian." What would you think if the young girl, and nailed the carcass of piano with the carcass. purported expert on your activities was the animal to a cross. With good reasons for doubting a "politically correct" reviewer for I object to this because I was there; Bell's veracity, I called Jon Hendricks, Chronicles? A Harvard professor? The I saw the performance (which I didn't the art archivist who organized that sometime chairman of the NEH? What much like) on March 2, 1968. Since 1968 Judson Church event. He told me would your judgment be of the pur­ there was no stage but a single-level that the chickens were not killed; they portedly intelligent human beings re­ space, it is also clear that Daniel Bell were rescued by Michael Kirby, who sponsible for selecting Chronicles' not only was not there (perhaps in­ confirmed that fact. The first part of reviewers? Harvard professors? The stead out carousing with the Chronicles Bell's second sentence describes a Ralph chairmen at the NEB? The problem is reviewer) but that he did not have suf­ Ortiz performance piece done not in not just the fabricating of evidence and ficient literacy to understand the point New York City but in London; the sec­ experience; what we see is a riot of irre­ of the performance or the tradition of ond part of that sentence about destroy­ sponsibility as profound, because root­ "Vienna Actionism" in which Her­ ing the piano describes a private ed with those invested with authority mann Nitsch worked. Immediately performance done not at Judson but (not enlisted men but officers), as that prior to this remark, Bell, as quoted by elsewhere in New York City and then ever instigated by "radical students" in Berman, deprecates an event I had not exclusively for a film. the 196Os. And so decadent are our seen: Hendricks then added that in the times, there are few to expose and op­ Nitsch performance, the sheep was not pose it. "disemboweled," because it was legally One problem of academic stars or Up from Libertarianism impossible to purchase in New York conservative reviewers writing about by D. G. Lesvic City a sheep still containing its intes­ things they know nothing about is simi­ tines, and that as the lamb was held up lar to that of star athletes using illegal by two men other than Nitsch, pseudo­ drugs-they set a bad example for the blood was poured down on Hendricks children; and perhaps some of the rem­ himself, who was not "a young girl." edies now used upon drug-abusing ath­ ...answers the Austrian School economists Were Bell a baseball player, we'd say he letes might be applicable to members of with their own words! was not fielding, at the risk of an occa­ professions that, if only to preserve col­ sional error, but hitting, striking out lective reputation, must keep higher The Political Economy Club of Los Angeles many times over. What would the con­ standards than sports (mere "games"). 5668 Cahuenga Blvd., #313 North Hollywood, CA 91601 servative wings of the UCSD English I'm not a great believer in the efficacy department think, what would the Har­ of punishing adults (such as profession­ $4.00 ppd. vard sociology department think, what al athletes) for victimless crimes; but if a would the editors of Chronicles think, if couple of these fakers were suspended either were described in print as "a for a year without pay (a true paleo-eon Celebrate the 1991 pack of bulldykes in drag"? (Oops, solution, if ever there was one), dollars there I go invoking that damn Golden to donuts there would be a noticeable Rule again.) improvement in our cultural climate. Bill of Rights For evidence of "distinguished Until these malefactors become more ef­ scholars" who do fake research, and for fective at self-policing, anyone reading Bicentennial dunces who then recycle ignorance with them should remember what they approval, we need go no further than a would in any lawless environment­ .•.with an IDEALOGO chaired professor of Harvard and his caveat emptor. Bill of Rights T.. Shirt! admirer, the former chairman of the Most of us publicly caught making NEB, now a· Professor of English not in such egregious mistakes would ac­ Heavyweight 100% cotton, U .S.,made T,Shirts in parchment color (light beige). the privately financed Ivy League, knowledge them (initially by publish­ Original manuscript on front. The ten thankfully, but the state-supported Uni­ ing letters exposing them) and then ratified amendments on back. Available in _S, _ M, _L, _XL sizes. versity of California at San Diego, both rush to apologize profusely; but then holding hands in intellectual purgatory about issues of intellectual integrity and Please indicate size and send check or money order for $12 per shirt plus $2 shipping to: with the anonymous Chronicles review­ professional humility, most of us are er. These subversives are transforming more conservative than these paleo­ IDEALqGO"IM· PO Box 897T· Mtn View, CA 94042 Please allow 2to 3weeks for UPS delivery. Orders are shipped not only the Ph.D. degree but academic, Stalinists. a promptly, and your satisfaction is unconditionally guaranteed. r Notes on Contributors

Gary Alexander is a writer and editor living in Virginia. Loren E. Lomasky is Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Chester Alan Arthur, political correspondent for Liberty, Green State University, and author of Persons, Rights, and the should not be confused with the dead president (or any presi­ Moral Community. dent, for that matter). William Meyer Ir is a free-lance artist and writer living in John Baden is chairman of the Foundation for Research on Beaumont, Texas. His art and essays have appeared in nu­ Economics and the Environment in Seattle and Bozeman, merous journals in the U.S. and Canada. Montana. His review on page 59 is an expansion of a review Richard Miniter is an Environmental Policy Analyst for prepared for The Wall Street Journal. the Competive Enterprise Institute. His writings have ap­ "Baloo," "Shiong," and "Holle" are noms de plume of Rex F. peared in The Freeman, The World & I, The Christian Science May, a cartoonist whose works frequently appear in The Wall Monitor, and other periodicals. Street Journal and other publications. William P. Moulton limits his activity, though not his vi­ Benjamin Best is a computer programmer and globe­ sion, to Northern Michigan (which is not the same thing as trotter living in Toronto. the Upper Peninsula). David Boaz is executive vice president of Cato Institute Scott I. Reid is vice president of a Canadian department and editor of several books, including The Crisis in Drug store chain. Prohibition. R. W. Bradford is editor ofLiberty. Peter Reidy is a software engineer with Xerox. He re­ ceived a B. A. in philosophy at UCLA. Stephen Cox is Associate Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. Sheldon L. Richman is a writer living in Virginia. Mark Frauen/elder is a cartoonist living in Colorado. He James S. Robbins is a writer and foreign policy analyst liv­ also edits baING, baING. ing in Massachusetts. Robert Higgs is Thomas F. Gleed Professor of Business Jane S. Shaw is a parent living in Bozeman, Montana. Administration at the Albers School of Business, Seattle Richard L. Stroup is a Senior Associate of the Political University, and the author of Crisis and Leviathan. Economy Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, and co­ Matt Kibbe, formerly Senior Economist at the Republican author with James D. Gwartney of Economics: Private and National Committee, is a freelance writer and disaffected. Public Choice. economist in Washington, D.C. Lawrence Thompson is a science fiction and fantasy writer Richard Kostelanetz is the author of many books and arti­ living in Ottawa, Ontario. cles. His books for 1991 include (but are not limited to): The New Poetries and Some Old, Politics in the African-American Ethan O. Waters, a new star of the gossip circuit, prefers Novel, and On Innovative Art(ist)s. his life to be private and his statements to be true. Ronald F. Lipp, an attorney practicing in Sacramento, Leland B. Yeager is the Ludwig von Mises Distinguished California, often travels to Eastern Europe. Professor of Economics at Auburn University, Alabama.

Coming in Liberty:

• What's Wrong with Mises and Rand -MilfonFriedman examines the dark side of two libertarian demigods.

• The Passing of John Gray- Loren Lomasky finds the lessons in scholar John Gray's recent repudiation of classical liberal political philosophy.

• Tools vs Philosophy- jr

PIus: A new look at natural rights, reviews of new books by Mark Skousen, Ludwig von Mises and others, and-as always-insightful perspectives on the passing scene and the persisting State ... r

Annapolis, Md. Cleveland Unique campaign tactic employed in the Maryland Free State, as Interesting explanation of why the U.S. was spared chemical reported by the Chicago Tribune: warfare in the Gulf, as reported by Reuters News Service: When Gov. William Donald Schaefer saw a passing motorist give Six Sioux Indians, including two medicine men, flew to Arabia to him the "thumbs down" sign during his re.-election campaign, he conduct peace rituals in the desert. "The trip was prompted by visions tracked down the name and address of the motorist and wrote her a let­ ofthe Earth's destnlction. The medicine men say their visions showed a ter advising her that her"action only exceeds the ugliness ofyour face." chemical or biological weapon that the United States doesn't know any­ Gov. Schaefer was re-elected with 59.6% of the vote thing about." Channelview, Texas Halifax, N.S. Evidence that at least some parents are still willing to make sac­ Dedication to the future of freedom, as revealed in Canadian rifices for their children, as reported by the Detroit Free Press: higher education, according to the Halifax (Nova Scotia) Chronicle­ Wanda Webb Holloway has been accused by police ofattempting to Herald: hire a hit man to murder Vema Heath, "for the purpose of enhancing Dalhouse University's main library has censored a banned book dis­ the probability of her daughter being elected cheerleader" at the John­ play for Freedom to Read Week. It replaced the banned book with a son Junior High School. Mrs Webb, described by police as a "mother book fonnerly banned. who would go to almost any length to further the career and popularity of her daughter," believed that the murder of her daughter's competi­ Ottawa tor's mother would so upset the girl that she would withdraw from the Defense preparation in the Great White North, as reported by cheerleading competition, clearing the path for her own daughter. She Macleans: Canada's Weekly Newsmagazine: originally offered $7,500 for the murder of both mother and daughter, but later revised her offer downward to $2,500 for the murder of the Work crews in Ottawa welded manhole covers shut to prevent Iraqis mother only. using sewers in battle against the Canadians. Raleigh, N. C. London Advance in the status of animals in the Tar Heel State, as report­ Britain prepares for war, as reported in The Wall St Journal: ed in the New York Times: The British Broadcasting Corp banned the Beatles' song "Give Peace a Elijah Lawrence was sentenced to one year in prison for kicking a Chance" as "too controversial." police horse. "I can't condone assault on a law officer," said Judge James Fullwood, announcing the sentence. West Palm Beach, Fla. Columbus, Texas Penological innovation, as reported in the Palm Beach Post: Evidence that marksmanship is one of the more important crite­ Judge Mary Lupo sentenced a robber to write 50 "handwritten, indi­ ria for law enforcement employment, as reported in the Houston vidualized notes" to servicemen in Saudi Arabia. Chronicle: Keithville, La. Police Chief P. K. Reiter will be allowed to keep his job, despite his Note on the ethical treatment of animals, as reported in the Maui conviction for shooting a deputy sheriff in the buttocks, in an alterca­ (Hawaii) News: tion that developed when the Chief found the deputy in his estranged wife's bed. The charge against Reiter was reduced to a misdemeanor. A group of game wardens, sheriff's deputies and wildlife biologists spent nearly eight hours trying to rescue a black bear caught in a pine Windhoek, Namibia tree, so they could remove it to the Big Lake Wildlife Management Evidence of an alanning increase in Third World litigiousness, Area. After spreading a net below the tree, a veterinarian fired several as reported by Reuters·News Service: tranquilizer darts into it. But the beardidn't budge, so the authorities re­ A number of Namibians were denounced as unpatriotic by the Cabi­ luctantly decided to cut down the tree. They discovered they were res­ net for criticizing President Sam Nujoma's bodyguards' policy of cuing a plastic bag filled with garbage. shooting passing motorists to clear a way for a high-speed presidential Lt. Dalton Green of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, was motorcade. Among those denounced was Helmut Goldbeck, a fanner, convinced that the large black object was a bear, although he did admit who was shot in both legs during one such incident on Jan 1. that "in 20 years with Wildlife and Fisheries, I've never heard of one in this area that was confmned. They've had a lot of sightings reported, Flagstaff, Ariz. but we've never even found a track." Evidence of educators' ability to make acute distinctions, as re­ ported in the Arizona Daily Sun: Olympia, Wash. A public fomm has concluded that a "fonnal policy of open enroll­ Proof that at least one politician has a sense of priorities, as re­ ment wouldn't be appropriate for Flagstaff's schools." Pam Brown of ported in the DetroitNews: Northern Arizona University "warned that choice could destroy the Ralph Munro, Washington's Secretary of State, modeling a kilt American way of life. It's not appropriate in Flagstaff or the United made of his favorite plaid, explaining why the state should declare an States." "official state tartan": "It's just as important as a state rock." "Choice allows a parent to choose their children's school. Education should benefit both the individual and society. Choice only benefits the (Readers are invited to forward newsclippings or other items for publi­ individual, she said." cation in Terra Incognita.) 70 Liberty Silver Coin Breakthrough!

Mint State 1964 Kennedy Silver Half Dollars ••• Less than $2.50 The Kennedy Half Dollar of 1964 was the last half dollar ever issued by the U.S. Mint made from the high grade .900 silver. As such it has been prized by in­ vestors and collectors, trading at prices as high as $13.00 each ... Today, you can buy them for as little as $2.45 per coin!

Last of the Silver Coins! 1964 Kennedy half in Mint State condition has sold at On June 3, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson sent a histor­ prices as high as $13.00 each. The price has fallen off ic message to Congress: the United States would no longer somewhat in recent years, but the 1991 edition of the au­ mint coins of 90% pure silver. Thirty-five years of inflation thoritative Guidebook of u.s. Coins (or "Redbook") lists had driven down the value of the U.S. dollar to the point mint state specimens at $6.00 each. where the Treasury could not afford to make our coins of A few weeks ago, we had the good fortune to acquire high grade silver. several bags of 1964 Kennedy halves in original Mint That meant that the 1964 half dollars, featuring the new State condition. And we acquired them at such a bargain Kennedy design, would be the last U.S. half dollar of high rate, that we can offer them to you, in beautiful Mint State grade silver ever issued. rolls of 20 coins each, at prices as low as $2.45 per coin! Act today! Our supply of the last high purity silver half One Year Type Coin dollars is limited, and we cannot guarantee our price once As a result, the 1964 half dollar is not only the last U.S. that supply is sold. All orders will be sold on a first-come, high purity silver half dollar issued, but it is also a unique first-served basis. coin: the only Kennedy half made of high purity silver. To reserve your purchase, call us toll-free at 1-800-321­ 50 1964 became the first and the last year of high purity 1542. (Local residents call 351-4720; other Michigan resi­ Kennedy half dollars, or what numismatists call a "one dents call1-BOO-933-4720.) Or return the coupon below. year type coin." It thus joins such famous rarities issued one year only, as the 1909 "V.D.B." Lincoln cent, the 1883 Please send me the rolls of 1964 Kennedy HaH Dollars in JJNo Cents" Liberty nickel, the 1796 JJSmall Eagle" quarter, r------,Mint State condition that I have indicated below. I un- I the 1907 IJHigh-Relief" 5t Gaudens $20 ... all treasured by I YeS • derstand that every coin is in Brilliant Uncirculated condition. collectors as one year type coins! I ' I Huge Meltdown! 1-4 Rolls @ $54.00 each = _ The initial mintage of the 1964 Kennedy half dollar was I 5-9 Rolls @ $52.00 each = __ I quite large, but in the silver boom of 1980, many of these 10-49 Rolls @ $50.00 each = _ high purity silver coins were melted. No one knows exact- I 50 Rolls @ $49.50 each = _ I Iy how many 1964 Kennedy half dollars were melted I 100 Rolls @ $49.00 each = _ down, but some experts estimate that millions were melted I for their silver value. I Shipping & Handling: $5.00 As a result, the 1964 Kennedy half dollars are much Total: _ I scarcer than their mintages indicate. I I Silver Content ------Each 1964 Kennedy half dollar contains 11.25 grams of I _N~AME ------I ADDRESS silver-that's 14% more silver than the U.S. silver dollars I...... ----..------~ I issued in the 1970s! OTY/STATE/ZIP__------I=-~------I Uncirculated Bargain! PHONE For all these reasons the 1964 Kennedy half dollar has Liberty Coin Service 300 Frandor Ave, Lansing MI 48912 I long been treasured by collectors. So it is no wonder the I ..•...... National: 1-800-321-1542...... 'l'JI!I!!'l!!'II' Michigan: 1-800-933-4720 __L• L. WHY SHOULD YOU BE READING FREEDOM DAILY?* +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1990·91 ISSUES OF FREEDOM DAILY (PHOTOCOPIES) AND ADDITIONAL ESSAYS-One Dollar Each

1 January: "An Introductory Message 8 August: "The Sanctity of Private Prop­ 16 April: "Reflections on National Service" from Jacob G. Hornberger"; "An Introductory erty" by JGH; "Is Liberty Too Extreme?" by by JGH; "Politically Correct Thinking and Message from Richard M. Ebeling"; "Self­ RME; "The Income Tax: Root of All Evil" by State Education" by RME; "Are Compulsory Reliance" by Ralph Waldo Emerson; and Frank Chodorov; and RME's review of Tell School Attendance Laws Necessary?-Part 2" RME's review of The New Realities by Peter the World: What Happened in China and Why by Samuel L. Blumenfeld; "Why Not Separ­ F. Drucker. by Liu Binyan. ate School and State?" by Leonard E. Read; and RME's review of Economics on Trial by 2 February: "Fighting Plunder with Plunder 9 September: "Letting Go of Socialism" by Mark Skollsen. in Poland" by JGH;· "Free Market Money­ JGH; "The Impossibility of Socialism" by Instead of Political Manipulation" by RME; RME; "Sinking in a Sea of Buts" by Leonard 17 May: "Gun Control, Patriotism, and "Visions and Ideals" by James Allen; and E. Read; and RME's review of The Awa­ Civil Disobedience" by JGH; "Something RME's review of Discovery, Capitalism and kening ofthe Soviet Union by Geoffrey Hos­ Must Be Done!" by RME; "Are Compulsory Distributive Justice by Israel Kirzner. king. School Attendance Laws Necessary?-Part 3" by Samuel L. Blumenfeld; and RME's review 3 March: "Forget the Alamo (and the 10 October: "Racism, Control, and Rock of This Hemisphere of Liberty by Michael Flag)!" by JGH; "On the Edge of Hyper­ and Roll" by JGH; "Racism and the Market Novak. inflation in Brazil" by RME; and RME's Process" by RME; "Discrimination" by EA. review of Free Persons and the Common Harper, and RME's review of Preferential ADDITIONAL ESSAYS BY Good by Michael Novak. Policies by Thomas Sowell. JACOD G. HORNBERGER 4 April: "The U.S. Govemment-Guilty as 11 November: "The Vietnam War" by -One Dollar Each Charged" by JGH; "The Economics of the JGH; "Foreign Policy and Foreign Wars" by 18 "The Compromise of Silence" Drug War" by RME; "The Morality of Drug RME; "Conscription" by Daniel Webster; and 19 "Principles and the Constitution" Controls" by Thomas Szasz; "An Open Letter RME's review of Rock Around the Bloc by 20 "An Open Letter to Russell Kirk" to Bill Bennett" by Milton Friedman. Timothy W. Ryback. 21 "How Bad Do You Want to be Free?" 22 "War for Peace in the Middle East" 5 May: "Dying for Freedom in Panama" by 12 December: "Christianity and Freedom" 23 "Conscience, Patriotism, and the Persian JGH; "Panama and the Canal: Children of by JGH; "Yes, Virginia, There is No Santa Gulf War" American Imperialism and Socialism" by Claus" by RME; Charity: Biblical and Poli­ 24 "Omnipotent Government and the Per­ RME; "The Conquest of the United States by tical" by Russell 1. Clinchy; and RME's sian Gulf War" Spain" by William Graham Sumner; "Patri­ review of The Ethics of Redistribution by otism" by Herbert Spencer. Bertrand de Jouvenel. ADDITIONAL ESSAYS BY 6 June: "Democracy vs. Constitutionally 13 January: "The Sanctity of Private Prop­ RICHARD M. EBELING Limited Government" by JGH; "Freedom's erty-Part 2" by JGH; "Free Trade vs. Pro­ -One Dollar Each Greatest Challenge" by RME; "The United tectionism" by RME; "The Tariff Idea" by 25 "Europe's Future in the 1990's" States and the Roman Empire" by Lawrence W.M. Curtiss; and RME's review of Free 26 "The Political Economy of the French Reed; "We Have Socialism, Q.E.D." by Mil­ Market Morality by Alexander H. Shand. Revolution" ton Friedman. 27 "Education, Businessmen and Economic 14 February: "The Preservation of the Bu­ Freedom" 7 July: "The Forgotten Importance of Civil reaucracy" by JGB; "Democratized Privilege: 28 "Lithuania: Stalin's Victim Wants a Free Liberties" by JGB; "The Heritage of Eco­ The New Mercantilism" by RME; "The Roots Market Future" nomic Liberty" by RME; "The Bill of Rights" of Limited Government" by Alan Barth; 29 "Down a Slippery Slope of Kuwaiti Oil: by Hugo Black; "Give Me Liberty" by Rose "Thought and Purpose" by James Allen; and American Military Intervention in the Wilder Lane. RME's review ofCapitalism by Arthur Seldon. Middle East" 15 March: "Why Americans Won't Choose 30 "Inside Lithuania" Freedom" by JGB; "The Origin of Democ­ 20 or more ratized Privilege" by RME; "Are Compulsory One-year Subscription School Attendance Laws Necessary?-Part 1" selections: $20. by Samuel L. Blumenfeld; and RME's review To Freedom Daily - $15 of UnfinishedBusinessby Clint Bolick. ($20 Foreign) *WE DON'T COMPROMISE.

o Enclosed is $15 ($20 foreign) for a one-year subscription to Freedom Daily. MC/VISA # Exp. _ o Enclosed is my payment for the following 1990-91 issues ofFreedomDaily NAME _ (photocopies) and essays by Jacob G. Hornberger and Richard Ebeling (One dollar each or $20 for 20 or more selections): ADDRESS------1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 2 6 10 14 18 22 26 30 CITY/STATEfZIP ------­ 3 7 11 15 19 23 27 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 Mail to: FFF, P.O. Box 9752, Denver, CO 80209 (303-777-3588).