FREE LIFE A Journal of Classical Liberal and Libertarian Thought

Number 39 £1.00

BELLA HORRIDA BELLA ET THYBRIM MULTO SPUMANTEM SANGUINE CERNO

Editorial: A Most Uncertain Trumpet 3 Letters to the Editor 9

Plain Thoughts on the Afghan War Review Articles Sean Gabb 4 Sean Gabb on The Joys of Latin 10 What to Do About Israel Sean Gabb 5 David Ellams on Ashley Mote’s Book about the Horrors of the European Union 16 Global Warming, Anti-Capitalism and Tree-Hugging Gloom-Mongers Final Jottings by Brian Micklethwait 19 Marian Tupý 7 A Note on Contributors

Free Life Sean Gabb is the Editor of Free Life. His new book, Dispatches from a Dying Country: Reflections on Modern No.39, November2001 ISSN: 0260 5112 England, has now been published. Please buy a copy. Published by the Libertarian Alliance 25 Chapter Chambers Marian Tupý is a Slovak studying in England. Esterbrooke Street London SW1P 4NN David Ellams is a longstanding supporter of the Tel: 07956 472 199 Libertarian Alliance. Fax: 020 7 834 2031 E-mail: [email protected] Brian Micklethwait is the Editorial Director of the Web: http://www.whig.org.uk/ Libertarian Alliance. LA Web: http://www.libertarian.co.uk/

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Free Life No.39, November 2001 2 A Most Uncertain Trumpet

One of the benefits to be had from studying history is that it own support - for what very little this may be worth - will be gives a permanent sense of déja vu. Whatever happens can be at an end. As I have already said elsewhere, a sensible war seen in the light of whatever similar has already happened. must comprise a demonstration of the West’s power to This present war in Afghanistan is no exception. The general defend itself against terrorist attack, plus a serious attempt to libertarian response is comparable to the liberal response to change those policies that led to the American bombings. the Great War. Liberals then began the July Crisis with a To their credit, the American and British Governments have feeling that war should be avoided, or should at worst be so far tried to keep the war sensible. The problem is that wars limited to a few unambiguous objectives - in the British case have a tendency to set off chains of consequences that cannot to securing Belgian independence. As it proceeded, there was be easily predicted or controlled. If they are not to be led by a division of opinion between those who thought the war a apparently persuasive interest groups into stepping out of bad thing, and campaigned throughout against it, and those their stated course - the only course now open to a speedy who found themselves dragged into supporting its extension return to peace - the politicians in London and Washington into four years of the most terrible bloodshed. must remain clear about their stated objectives. I must confess that I may be in this second category. I One small cause for optimism is that everyone in charge of understand those friends who are denouncing the war. I do the war seems aware of the risk of escalation. The most not like war. I doubt if the bombing in Afghanistan is terrible wars generally start with an underestimate of the risks currently doing more than kill large numbers of Afghan involved. I think particularly of the fatuous claims made in civilians, either directly or by making disease and starvation 1914 that it would “all be over by Christmas”. Otherwise, more likely this winter. At the same time, the American there was the almost childish eagerness with which the bombings were a declaration of war that no civilised nation Athenians began their Sicilian expedition. There was also the could overlook. The most likely suspect is resident in pathetic belief in London back in 1939 that a second war with Afghanistan, and the Afghan Government has refused to Germany could be kept to a few short campaigns on the hand him over for trial in the country where the bombings western front. Most wars that start and end with limited happened. Therefore, the Americans do have a good case for objectives are those in which the projectors are continually fighting; and, so far as the bombings could be extended to aware of the risks. I think now of the Crimean War. This other Western countries, the British Government has a case began with a belief that it would be a conflict between for helping the Americans. Even if - as seems likely - Mr bin Western civilisation and oriental despotism. It ended after Laden may never be brought before a court of justice, there four years, and is now remembered mostly for a pointless is a good argument in favour of putting on a show of force cavalry charge that inspired Tennyson and for the beginning that will not be forgotten. of scientific nursing. Perhaps the apocalyptic fears with This being said, the war is only to be supported so far as it which this war has begun will keep it limited. is waged for these limited objectives. These have the Speaking personally, I cannot help feeling that I have advantage of being achievable. What must not be supported chosen the wrong side in the debate over this war. I opposed is any attempt to widen hostilities to other countries, or to the Cold War, the Gulf War, and the recent Serbian War. I widen the objectives into something that cannot be achieved. wrote some very bitter denunciations of Tony Blair and his I am alarmed by the loose talk in the media about ridding the aggressive policy in the Balkans. Perhaps I should be world of “terrorism” or rebuilding Afghanistan as the sort of denouncing this war. Perhaps I shall come to regret agreeing liberal democracy for which its present culture leaves it with the military action in Afghanistan. At the moment, I can utterly unfitted. The most likely effect of incorporating these only say that this seems to be a different and more necessary objectives will be years of death and chaos in a war between war. I hope that I am not wrong. But I do accept that I may be the West and Islam - a war that no one can want apart from wrong. a few bloodthirsty lunatics on both sides. If the war is allowed to become something of this kind, my Sean Gabb

Free Life No.39, November 2001 3 Plain Thoughts on the Afghan War Sean Gabb

In fighting this war with Afghanistan, the American and British punishment needs to be limited, so that it does not lead to an governments seem – almost uniquely in recent years – to be escalation of violence. But it needs to be overwhelmingly acting wisely. Whether appearance is the same as reality, and, if powerful, and should leave no one in doubt of what modern it is, how long the wisdom will last, are matters beyond my weaponry can achieve. ability to say. What I can do, though, is to give a dispassionate To their credit – and I am writing on the second day of the analysis of the war – of its causes and, assuming a basic bombing offensive – this seems to be the policy of the American rationality among its main projectors, its likely consequences. and British governments. Both Mr Bush and the British Foreign The immediate cause of the war is obvious. It is last month’s Secretary have indicated some willingness to consider a hijack bombings in America. The cause of these seems equally Palestinian state. However admirable these qualities might be in obvious. They were almost certainly not random acts of terror, other circumstances, it is unfortunate for the Israelis that they or the beginning of some Islamic attempt at world conquest. now have a Prime Minister with all the vision and intellectual More likely, they were an exactly measured demand for the subtlety of a Prussian junker. But it is useful for the Americans Americans to change their policy in the Middle East. In one of in terms of public relations. We should also now look for some his statements, Osama bin Laden summarised this policy under change of policy towards Iraq. three heads. The Americans have stationed forces around the As for the war against Afghanistan, this seems to be limited, holy places of Islam. They have used these to fight a war against and does have reasonable justification. That Mr bin Laden really Iraq, and then to continue a blockade of the country in which was behind the American bombings has not yet been fully many thousands of civilians have died from malnutrition and demonstrated. But it is easy to believe that he was somehow lack of medical care. They have given financial, military and involved; and the Afghan Government is refusing to hand him diplomatic support to the state of Israel. over to any credibly impartial court of investigation. Therefore, It is irrelevant to argue whether these policies are morally it is necessary to send in armed forces to arrest him and destroy right or wrong. Millions of words have been written on either the heart of whatever network he has constructed. We can hope side, but they take us nowhere in this present analysis. There are that, once he has been captured or killed or otherwise removed only three considerations that are important. First, the policies from the country, the Americans and British will declare a are not required on any reasonable consideration of the Amer- victory and withdraw. This probably means that the present ican national interest. Second, they give huge offence through- Taleban government will be overthrown and replaced by the out the entire Islamic world – Mr bin Laden is not merely stating Northern Alliance. It is unimportant – though regrettable – that what he thinks, but is acting as a general spokesman. Third, the these people may be much the same wild men with beards as the means have been found to inflict catastrophic damage in Taleban. It is equally unimportant and regrettable that any response to the policies. Modern civilisation is wide open to money they are given to rebuild the country will probably find terrorist violence. No western country needs to fear a military its way into foreign bank accounts and the profits of various attack. But our large cities and extended division of labour American and British armaments companies. All that matters to provide almost unlimited opportunities for terrorism – especially us is that those who are credibly guilty of the bombings should if the terrorists are not themselves afraid to die in their attacks. be punished. Given these facts, there is only one rational course of action Assuming continued rationality among the war’s projectors, for the Americans. two further consequences may be expected. First, they need to pull back from the Middle East. They need First, we can hope that the Russians will be fully accepted to evacuate the Arabian peninsula, and call off the sanctions into the concert of nations. Western policy towards Russia has against Iraq. And they need to pressure the Israelis into offering been unwise for at least the past ten years. The country’s a better compromise peace to their Arab subjects and neighbours established ideology is no longer Communism, but Russian than has so far been offered. Whether the Israelis have behaved Orthodox nationalism. This is incapable of export to the West, as justly as they claim or as unjustly as is claimed against them and does not require any hostility to the West. Therefore, it is again irrelevant. All that is relevant is that American support should have been more completely for Israel of the kind given before last 11th September is no accepted that Russia has an inter- longer sustainable. Bearing in mind the facts of demographic est in controlling its immediate change, Israel was already becoming unviable as a Jewish state neighbours. It was foolish to in- within its present de facto borders. It now has less time than was corporate some of these neigh- expected, and many fewer options, to adjust to this fact. bours into NATO, and foolish to Second, the Americans must inflict a limited though memora- offend it by attacking Serbia. The ble punishment for the bombings. Anyone who claims that these price of Russian support in this were themselves a just punishment, and so do not give excuse present war may be to start regard- for an armed response, is missing the point. Regardless of any ing it as the great power that it is supposed justification, it is not convenient to let this kind of and will remain. attack on a Western city pass without an armed response. That Second, it is probable that the would show weakness, and leave us all open to further attacks British debate on the European – either from the same people or from others. As said, the Union has now been settled at the

Free Life No.39, November 2001 4 top. Since the Americans are – at present – acting in the interest of all civilised countries in bombing Afghanistan, it is appropri- For Sale ate for other powers to support them. That Britain is the only power lending military support, while France and Germany offer One pound of salt – £0.50 only moral support, will not be overlooked in Washington. The A piece of wood four feet in length – £2.50 hijack bombings destroyed the notion of American world One English gallon (160 fl oz) of tap water – £1 supremacy. In future, the Americans will need to confine Twelve ounces of apples (wrapped) – £0.75 themselves to their own sphere of influence, and will need One Troy ounce of silver – £8 reliable allies to defend this. Britain is their only reliable ally. Seven grains of vitamin C – £0.30 They pushed us into the European Union with the idea that we would keep the French and Germans securely in the American Interested persons may apply in writing to the Editor of Free Life. orbit. It is now clear that deeper integration into Europe will Following a series of European Union Directives, all enacted into the laws only detach us from that orbit. They pushed us in, and they may of this country, it is a criminal offence to offer goods for sale in English now pull us out. Mr Blair’s mention of the Euro in his speech to weights and measurements. The maximum penalty for disobedience is six last week’s Labour Party Conference can be read as an act of months imprisonment. politeness to the Europeans, but not as any statement of intent. There are some laws that it is our public duty to disobey. Compulsory Looked at from the point of British or English survival as a metrication is one of them. And this advertisement will be varied and nation state, a close American alliance is not in itself desirable. repeated without limit. By the way, it is placed by the Editor of Free Life But it is probably better to have an overlord that speaks our with the knowledge and consent of the Proprietor, and does not necessarily language and shares our own traditions, than to be absorbed into reflect the opinion of anyone else connected with the Libertarian Alliance. an empire based on the Roman law. Of course, I may be wrong in my assumption of rationality. It may be that I have misread the present situation. For example, further terror in the West? If so, we may find ourselves in a I take Mr Blair’s talk last week of a better world order as a general war with a largely unseen enemy. Suppose then that the moralistic gloss to a coldly realistic policy. Perhaps he sees the Chinese take advantage of American preoccupation by invading Afghan war instead as a necessary precursor to his better world Taiwan. Suppose further that the Americans find themselves order. This being so, we can expect yet another war without forced to choose between accepting an humiliation that will rational aims, and therefore an unpredictable escalation. To damage their chance of winning their Islamic war and threaten- know which is the case, we must wait and see. ing a nuclear response to China. Or suppose the riots that have A further problem is that wars hardly ever go as planned. already broken out across Pakistan bring down the military Looking over the past few thousand years reveals a depressing government there, and we find ourselves fighting two enemies picture of wars that begin for limited ends, only to be knocked instead of one. Certainly, it is useful to look at wars as if they wildly out of control by unexpected events. This is particularly were a game of chess, but they do not always unfold as neatly as the case in democracies, where public opinion has a habit of a game of chess. demanding more than is wisely available. In the Peloponnesian But these are possibilities that we must hope can be avoided War, the Athenians repeatedly passed up opportunities for an by a combination of luck and skilful diplomacy. For the mo- advantageous peace, chasing after a victory that turned out not ment, it looks as if the world is on the edge of a return to the old to be possible. In our own case, we passed up opportunities for balance of power diplomacy that worked with conspicuous negotiated peace with a militarily superior Germany in 1916 and success in the century before the Great War. It may strike some 1941. It was only the good fortune – for us, at least – of as odd, but the world is a safer place when nation states pursue American involvement that allowed us to scrape two increas- limited ends in the light of their own narrow interests, than when ingly pyrrhic victories. Will public opinion in America and they go on endless crusades for human rights and democracy. If Britain now accept a clean end to this war? Or will expectations this war is of the former kind, the American and British govern- be raised of Mr Blair’s better world order? ments – for what little it may be worth – have my support. If not, Otherwise, there are those unexpected events. I am assuming we should all get out of the big cities as soon as possible, and that the relevant Islamic leaders are themselves rational actors. look up some of those now quaint Millennium Bug survival Do they accept that they have won their main point, but that guides on how to store food and make our own ammunition. there must also be an armed response? Or will they unleash

What to Do About Israel Sean Gabb

In the article printed above, I suggest that it would be useful to so I think it appropriate to explain what I believe is the most press the Israelis into a settlement of their borders more accept- reasonable Western policy towards Israel. Before I develop this able to Islamic opinion. When published on the Internet last 8th point, however, I will more fully explain my thinking on foreign October, this provoked a flurry of e-mails, some of them policy. accusing me of wanting to throw Israel to the wolves, some even In general, I think the world would be a less violent place if accusing me of anti-semitism. This is a false but serious charge, it mainly consisted of nation states, each acting to preserve its

Free Life No.39, November 2001 5 own borders and other narrowly defined interests. This would I think that setting up the State of Israel was a mistake. If the give a predictability to international relations of the sort that first generation of Zionists had been blessed with foresight, they existed in Europe between 1648 and 1914 – a period in which, would have set aside their emotional preference for Palestine with the arguable exception of those against the French Revolu- and worked for a Jewish national home in some less dangerous tion, hugely destructive wars were avoided. The problem with part of the world. But that is a useless observation for today. moralistic crusades for democracy or human rights, or whatever, The State of Israel does exist. Its citizens mostly have nowhere is that they involve unpredictable actions in support of often else to go. Its existence is precarious; and it does have the unachievable ends. The natural result is unlimited national or limited claim that I have mentioned. ideological hatreds that lead to permanent instability. So what should be the nature of Western support? Certainly, This being said, each nation within a particular civilisation has it includes diplomatic support and some sharing of military a secondary interest in not damaging the survival of that intelligence. It also includes not interfering with those Jews in civilisation. To illustrate this point, I will say that Britain – or other Western countries who want to give financial support, or England, depending on what happens in Scotland – has an even to enlist in the Israeli armed forces – though it might not be interest in withdrawing from the European Union. Once we are convenient for another state to intervene on behalf of any of its out, we have a further interest in breaking up what remains of citizens who are taken prisoner while on active service with the the European Union, and this may involve an understanding Israeli forces. In the absence of any other interest, however, this with Russia to check any remaining ambitions the French and support should not include military guarantees. The Israelis German ruling classes have in dominating Europe. But an would be highly surprised if the British Government were to understanding with Russia is only advisable on the assumption seek their help in keeping Scotland within the United Kingdom. that Russia today is a normal state with its own limited national For the same reason, it is not in itself appropriate for us to interests. Soviet Russia was a different kind of state; and any guarantee the survival of Israel. understanding with it that might have increased its influence in For various reasons, the Americans have given Israel more Europe would not have been appropriate. That would have than the limited support that I have described. So far as I can damaged the civilisation of which we are a member state, and tell, this has not been in America’s national interest as narrowly that would not have been in our own long term interests. conceived. But it was until last month only a moderately In the same way, the Fourth Crusade of 1204 was unwise. The expensive support. However, the hijack bombings have sharply Venetians may have had a legitimate quarrel with the Byzantine increased this expense. It is now possible for those who oppose Empire, but to take Constantinople and divide up the Empire American policy to cause damage on a scale that no civilian into indefensible units was a disaster for Christendom. In the state can afford to ignore. Therefore, American support For short term, it was useful for Venice to control the eastern trade. Israel will inevitably be curtailed. Whether there are moral In the longer term, it removed what had for centuries been the arguments for or against is beside the point. Support will be only obstacle to Islamic expansion into Eastern Europe and the curtailed. Balkans. A more enlightened Venetian policy would have been Unless the expense of giving any support at all to Israel were to gain control of the Empire without weakening its strength to become absolutely prohibitive, the Americans have an interest against other enemies. in not refusing what have become the traditional expectations of Furthermore, it is not enough to refrain from seriously another Western state. There is some value in respecting even undermining other states within a particular civilisation. It is implied treaty commitments, whether or not it was wise to enter also advisable from time to time to perform such good offices as into them. The Americans, therefore, should not radically curtail may not be greatly incompatible with a state’s own interests. their support for Israel, let alone abandon the country. But they Therefore, it was appropriate for the European great powers to do now have a powerful interest in pressing Israel to reach a give limited support to the Greeks during the 1820s in their settlement with its Arab neighbours and subjects that has some revolt against Turkish rule. For Britain to have got itself into a chance of satisfying most people in the region. There are some long and expensive war in support of the Greeks would have Moslems who deny that Israel has any right to exist. But this been against our national interests. But to join in the limited does not seem to be the consensus of opinion. Even Osama bin intervention that ended the Greek War of Independence was Laden, I notice, has only demanded Israeli withdrawal from the justified by our secondary interest in strengthening the European Occupied Territories. civilisation of which we were a part. If I am wrong in this belief, then the Americans might find it Nowadays, our civilisation is no longer specifically Christian useful simply to continue supporting Israel in a more detached or European, or even white. It is the civilisation of the West. manner. Otherwise, though, it would be convenient to insist on This is defined by adherence to a common set of values – the creation of a reasonably sovereign and reasonably viable rationality and the scientific method, and a regard for limited Palestinian state. The argument that there is already a Palestinian government and the maintenance of a private sphere within state called Jordan may or may not be correct. But it is irrele- which individuals may securely direct their own lives. Japan, if vant. What is relevant is that a stable peace in the region seems somewhat eccentric, is part of this civilisation. So is Taiwan. to require at least a partial surrender of the territories held Obviously, so is the State of Israel. Some Israelis – the followers outside the recognised borders of Israel. of the late Meyer Kahane, for example – dispute this, saying I think this explains my position on Israel. Turning to the quite unpleasant things about gentiles and gentile civilisation. accusation made by one correspondent that I am an “Arab But the Israelis on the whole are undeniably a Western people. appeaser”, I will say that I do not just believe in buying off As such, they have a limited claim on the friendship and support further terrorist attacks by pressing for a Middle East settlement. of other Western states. An attack on Israel that threatens its Purely by itself, that would be perceived as weakness, and destruction is to some extent an attack on the West. would be followed by further demands backed by force or the

Free Life No.39, November 2001 6 threat of force. It is the nature of the strong to dominate the effective in proportion to its overwhelming power. And these weak; and it would not be in the interests of any Western two responses – concession in one area, armed force in another country for the main Western power to let itself be seen as ready – must be combined. To rely on either one without the other will to concede whatever was demanded with sufficient firmness. ensure failure. Any concessions must be balanced by an absolutely ruthless I have no doubt that some people will continue to denounce punishment of those who planned or enabled the hijack bomb- me. But I think I have explained myself to reasonable satisfaction. ings. As I said last Monday, military action needs to be limited to those who are credibly guilty, but the armed response will be

Global Warming, Anti-Capitalism and Tree-Hugging Gloom-Mongers Marian Tupý

Unlike the youngsters coming to University this year, I am believe that industrialisation of the world and a departure from slightly older. Not by much, but enough to remember that in the the bliss of agricultural lifestyle were to humanity’s detriment early 1980's, when I was at primary school, the dominant and then there are those who believe that the greatest tragedy scientific view of the future of humanity was a gloomy one. The that happened to the world is the very existence of humanity Soviets competed with the Americans in the production of itself. But, they are all tied together by one goal – destruction of nuclear weapons in order to make doubly sure that each of them the free market capitalism, which they blame for all the prob- was capable of destroying the world many times over. The Cold lems and imperfections in the world. The hey-day of these War arms race, as it was then known, was of human making and groups came in the 1960's, when the upsurge of revolutionary could thus be avoided [as it indeed was – hence me writing this student movements protesting the US involvement in Vietnam article]. The true gloom had to do with a natural phenomenon truly did threaten the survival of the Western way of life. that was beyond human ability to stop. This was called, I am not Vietnam was a period in history that most Americans would kidding, global cooling. Into the late 1980's, humanity was rather forget, but no matter how ill-advised the US involvement convinced, thanks to our infallible scientists and environmental there was, the students in the 1960's were profoundly wrong in activists, that the planet was cooling. The planet, it was rea- assuming that the natural alternative to the USA, Soviet commu- soned, goes through cyclical periods of warming and cooling nism, was in any way “better”. The 1960's glorification of and we were in for that period of recurrent cooling, the so-called terrorists, such as Che Guevara, terrorist groups such as the Red New Ice Age. Brigades and Red Army Faction, and tyrants like Lenin, Mao Within ten years, everything got turned upside down. Sud- and Castro was naive. It was almost as naive as their belief that denly we were no longer going to freeze to death. Now, the Ho Chi Min was just another Vietnamese patriot, that the Soviet infallible scientists told us, we were going to fry to death. Amaz- Union cared for the well-being of its people and that the people ing what difference ten years can make! Except now, we could behind the Iron Curtain wanted to remain behind it. do something about it. We could, for example, limit our usage The 1980's saw dramatic changes as the reforms of Reagan of electricity, cars and all other technological innova- and Thatcher re-invigorated Western values of tions that the West has so labouriously produced democracy and free markets. Before the end since the Industrial Revolution. Progress, in of the decade, the people of other words, became an enemy Eastern Europe took to the and therein rests the problem. streets and send their com- Were the debate to continue munist dictators packing. on a purely scientific level, These seismic changes all would be fine. But, were re-affirmed by the instead, the scientific Washington Consensus, debate regarding the which stipulated that the planet’s climate got two pillars of the West- taken over by groups with ern way of life, govern- a political agenda; this ment by the people and political agenda is enterprise economy, were anti-capitalism. indeed the ways for humanity Anti-capitalism around the world is to move forward. One thing was constituted of a multifaceted and truly overlooked, though. The very same international body of greatly diverging people, who in the 1960's protested groups. Some are concerned with do- against all that the West had stood mestic inequalities in wealth posses- for, were now in the position of sion, while others are concerned with uneven power. They occupied important political posi- distribution of wealth on a global scale. There are those who tions, influential professorial chairs and, most importantly,

Free Life No.39, November 2001 7 editorial posts in major newspapers and on TV. Communism welfare of nations that depend primarily on agriculture. Colder was dead in Eastern Europe and Russia, but it was alive and periods have caused crop failures, and led to famines, disease, and well in the minds and hearts of many of our decision-makers. other documented human misery. We must, therefore, remain Environmentalism and the apparent threat of global warming sensitive to any and all human activities that could affect future climate. was, therefore, a Godsend. It has provided our Marxist elite with a perfect excuse to curtail the free markets under the false However, based on all the evidence available to us, we cannot pretexts of imminent danger to humanity. But, is global warming subscribe to the politically inspired world view that envisages truly as dangerous? According to the TV and newspaper reports, climate catastrophes and calls for hasty actions. For this reason, it is. Apparently, the “scientific consensus” has been reached we consider the drastic emission control policies deriving from the and that is it - debate is finished; game over. Not so fast! Kyoto conference - lacking credible support from the underlying The International Symposium on the Greenhouse Controversy science - to be ill-advised and premature. that took place in Leipzig in 1995, for example, maintains that global warming is a hoax! Unbelievable? No, you have just This document was signed by 80 scientists from around the never heard of it. Why not? Remember what I have said about world. They include, professors from renowned universities of certain people dominating the Western media and intellectual Oxford, London, Nurnberg, Kiel, Stockholm, Vienna, Berlin, debate? That is why! The views of the scholars at the Leipzig Tubingen, Jena, Gent, Moscow, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Rice, Conference simply do not conform to the dominant paradigm. Yale and Penn State as well as meteorologists from all over the So, what did these scientists say? Let the text of The Leipzig USA. One such signatory is Professor S. F. Singer, the President Declaration on Global Climate Change speak for itself: of the Science and Environmental Policy Project in Fairfax, Virginia. According to Singer, humanity is called upon to make As independent scientists concerned with atmospheric and climate sacrifices that “are supposed to save the world from a global problems, we - along with many of our fellow citizens - are warming catastrophe that exists only in non-validated computers apprehensive about emission targets and timetables adopted at the models and in the vivid imagination of environmental zealots”. Climate Conference held in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997. This “Despite 50 percent increase in atmospheric green house gases gathering of politicians from some 160 signatory nations aims to in the last 150 years”, Singer continues, “the climate refuses to impose on citizens of the industrialized nations, - but not on others show the warming trend predicted by theoretical computer - a system of global environmental regulations that include quotas models. The only truly global data, available since 1979 from and punitive taxes on energy fuels to force substantial cuts in energy use within 10 years, with further cuts to follow. Stabilizing weather satellites circling the Earth, actually show a slight atmospheric carbon dioxide - the announced goal of the Climate cooling trend”. Treaty -- would require that fuel use be cut by as much as 60 to 80 These facts are, of course, ignored by the report published by percent - worldwide! the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is significant that this report, which forms the basis of Energy is essential for economic growth. In a world in which environmentalist assertions, silently underwent some profound poverty is the greatest social pollutant, any restriction on energy changes. While at the time of the Rio summit the IPCC claimed use that inhibits economic growth should be viewed with caution. that global climate changes were consistent with the com- We understand the motivation to eliminate what are perceived to be the driving forces behind a potential climate change; but we puter-model predictions, by 1996 the panel abandoned this believe the Kyoto Protocol - to curtail carbon dioxide emissions claim. Moreover and contrary to the assertions made in the from only part of the world community - is dangerously simplistic, media, the IPCC is not constituted of 2,500 scientists and quite ineffective, and economically destructive to jobs and although it is true that the report “lists” hundreds of names as standards-of-living. More to the point, we consider the scientific “contributors” and “reviewers”, it does not show whether they basis of the 1992 Global Climate Treaty to be flawed and its goal agree with the report’s conclusions. It is also important to note to be unrealistic. The policies to implement the Treaty are, as of that the IPCC summary does not actually claim that temperature now, based solely on unproven scientific theories, imperfect will rise between 1.8 and 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the next computer models - and the unsupported assumption that cata- strophic global warming follows from an increase in greenhouse hundred years. These numbers are results of hypothetical gases, requiring immediate action. We do not agree. We believe scenarios and, again, computer-generated models. In fact, the that the dire predictions of a future warming have not been report “specifically disclaims that studies of climate patterns can validated by the historic climate record, which appears to be quantify the magnitude of a greenhouse gas effect on climate”. dominated by natural fluctuations, showing both warming and Another profoundly misunderstood phenomenon is the level of cooling. These predictions are based on nothing more than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. With all the talk about theoretical models and cannot be relied on to construct far-reachi- “dangerous levels” of carbon dioxide it is easy to forget that no ng policies. one has the faintest idea about what level is and what level is not As the debate unfolds, it has become increasingly clear that – dangerous. “Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide”, Singer contrary to the conventional wisdom - there does not exist today contents, “may well be beneficial” a general scientific consensus about the importance of greenhouse Higher level of carbon dioxide is certainly one explanation warming from rising levels of carbon dioxide. In fact, most climate for the improvement of tree growth and agricultural produce we specialists now agree that actual observations from both weather have seen in the past. Similarly, the scare concerning the satellites and balloon-borne radiosondes show no current warming greenhouse effect on the sea levels is misplaced. “Ocean whatsoever - in direct contradiction to computer model results. warming leads to more evaporation and subsequent precipitation and ice accumulation in the polar regions that cause a drop in Historically, climate has always been a factor in human affairs - with warmer periods, such as the medieval “climate optimum,” sea level - not a rise”. playing an important role in economic expansion and in the I cannot but contend that some members of our society, especially those who are responsible for perpetrating the above

Free Life No.39, November 2001 8 myths, have a kind of Freudian death wish - a constant need to global warming. I hope that you will see through the global believe that the world is coming to a terrible end. These people, gloom-mongers’ agenda and appreciate that they are not immune it is apparent, can only strive on crisis and crisis is what gives from ideological bias - a charge they so often levy against credence to their crackpot ideas that would normally have no others. place in a rational debate. And so, before you join yet another [You will find the text of the Leipzig Declaration at the follow- feel-good activist group at the University of St Andrews, I hope ing URL: www.sepp.org/leipzig.html] that you will remember that there are two sides to the story of

Letters to the Editor

Sir, Party to be less feeble on the tax agenda (you cannot free Usually I read your articles with much interest and value many individuals when the state continues to tax and spend almost of the points you make. However on this occasion, rather than half of GDP), more robust on Europe, explain that education have any objective viewpoint on why we in the Conservative and healthcare as currently delivered is a disaster and only the Party lost (I was the Conservative candidate in the target seat of introduction of the private sector, using the state a revenue Stretford and Urmston) you embarked on a ludicrous rant about providers will give Britain the public services we deserve. William Hague. (“Why Did the Tories Lose the General Elec- Finally we need to preach less and liberate more. Become tion?”, Free Life No.38, July 2001) Liberal Tories in the true context of laissez faire. For what it’s worth I think the Conservative Party lost for The leadership election will determine which way we go, three principal reasons. Firstly William Hague was not seen by although there is one candidate who I feel is acknowledging the the electorate at large as Prime Minister, no matter what policies agenda of tax cuts, and liberalisation. If he is elected I am we had people just didn’t see William as leading the Country. confident that at the next election we will be returned. This is extremely sad as he would make a far better Prime I look forward to your future articles when you have regained Minister than Blair, and indeed many others who went on to some of your usual equilibrium. hold the highest office. However the electorate cannot be bucked. Best wishes, Secondly, we fought on completely the wrong grounds. The Jonathan Mackie European issue is hugely important. To me the keep the Pound [email protected] message is right, for all time not just for the next parliament. Similarly we should be looking beyond the EU and towards true Sir, internationalism (if I can borrow a phrase) which has always I echo Chris Tame’s comment that this is a brilliant analysis been the UK’s historic mission. Asylum again is a hugely (“Why Did the Tories Lose the General Election?”, Free Life important issue and we were on the right lines. No.38, July 2001). More relevant is whether there is truth in it. Where I differ with the Party is the tactics. These are not As Sean Gabb knows, an intelligent observer from the Left General Election issues and we were outflanked completely. On could construct an equally fascinating but quite different no occasion was Europe or Asylum raised to me on the doorstep analysis of late 20th century British politics. Such ‘histories’ are or during walkabouts. I spoke to literally thousands of people very useful for justifying and motivating a particular political and yes when prompted they all, or the vast majority, wanted to ideology, but they rest entirely on acceptance of the political keep the pound and for Britain to be a safe haven but not a soft ‘labels’ they use. Some people, rightly or wrongly, wouldn’t touch. recognise them. In spite of this the Party became monomaniacal, almost a And that is where the problem lies in reversing what I agree single issue pressure group. We had innovatory policies on are the negative political trends we have all witnessed over the schools and hospitals, where they would have been freed from period covered. Academics can construct, in hindsight, a municipal control and the deadening hand of the state. Yet we plausible Machiavellian theory of political history. But how can chose to fight not on these issues but in the last week on Europe, we get the public to recognise, accept, and act upon such which was not the ground staked out for this election. History theories? Even if they did recognise them, it seems the majority tells us that elections are won and lost on economic issues and can willingly give their support to the “Enemy Class” and the public services. Even John Major’s famous Save the Union “Quisling Right”. I sense an underlying feeling from the article election of 1992, was fought on economic grounds and not that Sean would like us to get a new public. After all, the lines constitutional. of Blair’s legitimising plastic army behind him in the Commons Thirdly, there is the British sense of fair play. The thought are now largely unthinking MPs drawn indiscriminately from the that they had 18 years we’ll give the other lot another four years ordinary ‘plebs’ [my phrase]. and then judge. Do not under estimate this point, it was a While acknowledging much of Sean’s objections to political powerful message which came over. policy over the years, its characterisation into a perpetual war Where does the Conservative Party go from here? Well I think between ‘them’ and ‘us’, what is evil and what is not, is we are on broadly the right lines. We are talking about freeing dispiriting. the individual which is true Toryism, allowing people to There are a variety of political ideologies. Sean says the determine their own way in life. Personally I would wish the Conservative party much of the time has been following the

Free Life No.39, November 2001 9 wrong ones. But it is a little harsh to condemn the party as a agree there are many within the party’s “broad church” who whole, particularly if there is no conspiracy. Surely disappoint- believe fundamentally in Sean’s ideological principles. But ment with 60 years of Conservative policymaking must bring perhaps there aren’t enough at present to share Sean’s ideas of into question what “Conservative” really means, or at least which policies are “right” and which are “wrong”. I’m quite “Conservative Party”. Can a party be in denial for so long? If happy with entryism to rebalance the party toward the ideologi- there is no grand conspiracy for “quislings” to run the Conserva- cal policies that he favours (I might favour some such policies tive party then perhaps the Conservative party is “just what it too). But getting people to join the Conservatives, or any party, is”. Given Sean’s eloquent description of how the party has that’s an uphill struggle. departed from the policies he favours over so many years I Sean ‘might’ draw some comfort from the candidate’s doubt that such policies are ‘necessarily’ the province of the statement from Iain Duncan Smith today (or is he a “quisling Conservative party, it is just that it is the party most likely to quisling quisling Right”?) adopt them at times. I would also be interested to know where Sean places Gary The problem seems to be that Sean sees the Conservative Streeter in his description of how the Conservative party failed party as the only practical (electable to government) vehicle for to win the last general election. the policies he favours; his disappointment is that it hasn’t followed them. His belief is that only these policies reflect true Jeremy Stanford Conservative ideology. I suggest this isn’t necessarily true. I [email protected]

Reviews

Oxford Latin Course To this argument, I can raise three answers. The first is that Maurice Balme and James Morwood the Romans produced a literature that is intrinsically beautiful. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996, It is also beautiful in a special way. For while both Classical 175pp, £11.00 (pbk) Greek and English in all its stages are naturally beautiful (ISBN 0 19 9122261) languages, and are easily fitted to the creation of a great literature, Latin was until quite late in its development a rough At the beginning of the 21st century, I suppose it is necessary to and unexpressive language. The literature that the Romans explain why Latin is still a language that anyone but a rather developed purely by themselves was most emphatically not specialised scholar should think worth learning. It is arguably beautiful. Their earliest law code, the Twelve Tables, and the now both dead and useless. A thousand years ago, it was the scraps of poetry that have come down to us show a serious turn only educated language of Europe. When even the most of mind that explains much of their future greatness, but have polished vernacular languages were still semi-barbarous and nothing else to recommend them. However, from about the wholly local dialects, Latin was the natural mode of expression fourth century before Christ, they came into close contact with for religion and philosophy, for law and administration. Five the Greeks, and had the good sense to recognise – to an extent hundred years ago, with the rediscovery of classical antiquity, it unmatched by any other Mediterranean people – a higher was the means of entry into a more enlightened world of secular reason. Three hundred years ago, it was still the universal language of debate on religion, philosophy and the natural sciences, with Locke and Newton publishing at least some of their more important works in Latin. Today, it is of no practical importance. English is the new universal language. It has a literature that in range and power is probably inferior only to Greek. Its scientific literature is superior to any that has ever so far existed. For hundreds of millions who will never visit England, English is now the language that enables escape into a world of light and science. Latin has vacated that position. Indeed, where once translations from Latin once required the coining of new words in the modern languages, any translation into Latin now requires the coining of so many new words that the result would be utterly foreign to Cicero. What is the Latin for electric light? For compact disc? For laser printer? For windscreen wiper? Who would even wish to know? As said, for anyone who wants directly to understand the history and culture of Europe before about 1700, Latin remains essential. For anyone else, however, it is at best an affectation and at worst a use of time that would be better spent on learning how to build and maintain personal computers.

Free Life No.39, November 2001 10 civilisation. The Jews took over Greek logic, and used the Greek Virum mihi Camena, insece uersutum language as a means of communication. Individuals from other (Tell me, o Muse, about the cunning man (this nations dropped their own ways and made themselves so far as being Ulysses)) they could into Greeks. But the Romans alone decided to keep their national manners while reshaping them to Greek standards. It is also how much Latin poetry was often written after the fall Of course, they did not take over every Greek standard. They of the Western Empire – for example, these lines from the retained, or acquired, a taste in public entertainments that Carmina Burana, which are in stressed trochaic senarius, the revolted many Greeks – and that vanished from their Empire third foot hypermetric and followed by a strong hiatus: only when Greek civilisation, reinforced by the Christian faith, was able to triumph in the fifth century. Nor did they ever show Meum est propositam in taberna mori, Ut sint vina proxima morientis ori. much enthusiasm for Greek philosophy. They appreciated the Tunc cantabunt laetius angelorum chori: Stoic school, as it gave a rational underpinning to their own ‘Sit Deus propius huic potatori’ sense of duty; and it had a large influence on the development (I want to die in a tavern and humanisation of their law. But they never shared the Greek With wines near my dying mouth. passion for abstract reason. One of their earliest encounters with Then choirs of angels will happily sing: Platonism was when Carneades, the great sceptic, visited Rome ‘Let God be closer to this drunk’) on an embassy in the third century before Christ. He fell into a sewer and broke his leg, and had to stay longer than he ex- In Classical Greek, however, there was no stress accent. There pected. To amuse himself while recovering, he gave a series of was instead a tonic accent, which was heard by a trilling of the lectures. In one of these, he demonstrated, with what seemed voice. This evolved during the middle ages the stress accent of irrefutable logic, that there was a natural law governing the modern Greek. But while it gave a musicality to Greek poetry universe and all human relationships. A day later, he gave that we can no longer appreciate, it had no discernable effect on another lecture, demonstrating, on what seemed equally strong the metre, which was based on patterns of long and short grounds, that there was no natural law. The Romans were so syllables. The most famous of these metres is the dactylic shocked by this apparent disregard for the truth, that they hexameter, which consists of six feet that can be either dactyls banished all the philosophers from Rome. They let them back, (-FF) or spondees (--). This was the metre used by Homer and but never themselves excelled in philosophy. It was only in the by every other epic poet, and it was considered the natural metre later middle ages, with writers like Peter Abelard and Thomas for any serious poem. Aquinas, that Latin acquired the vocabulary for a competent It is true that Latin has the same distinction between long and philosophical discourse. short syllables, but this seems not to have been heard as obvi- What the Romans did uncritically take from Greek civilisa- ously as stressed and unstressed syllables. Therefore, it was tion, though, was its literature. It is one of the strangest facts in necessary for the Romans to try their best to hear length rather history that a people so practical in their ways could have fallen than stress in the poetry they composed. The result was lines so absolutely in love with the sound of words. Yet they did. like: “Graecia capta ferum uictorem cepit” said Horace – “Greece, though conquered, led its fierce conquerors in chains”. For all Cum tantum sciat esse basiorum they affected to despise the softness of the Greeks and the lack (When he knows how many kisses there are – Catullus) of team spirit that had led so easily to their fall, the Romans wanted their own place in the sun of Greek civilisation. This is a Phalaecean hendecasyllable, scanning Much of this project involved giving themselves a literature that reproduced Greek styles of composition in their own FF F F language. This was a much harder task than it sounds. For while --|- |- |- |-- Greek and Latin are grammatically similar – so similar that learning one language today is a good introduction to the other It is spoken, however, as – there were at first what must have seemed insuperable difficulties to writing Greek poetry in Latin. -`|-`-|`-|`-|`- The first of these difficulties is the different sound of the languages. Latin has always had a stress accent like English. which must have presented difficulties to any reader or listener That is, its natural poetry is made up of patterns of syllables who had not received a careful education.1 Often, Roman poets spoken with varying degrees of force. Take these lines from Dryden: 1 Though he makes stress and quantity coincide, we can see something Of these the false Achitophel was first, of the effect this must have had by looking at these hendecasyllables A name to all succeeding ages cursed. written by Tennyson: In friendship false, implacable in hate, Resolved to ruin or to rule the state.... O you chorus of indolent reviewers, Irresponsible, indolent reviewers, The metre is rhymed iambic pentameter. Each line consists of Look, I come to the test a tiny poem, five groups – or feet – of two syllables with a stress on each All composed in a metre of Catullus. second syllable. So far as I can tell, that is how early Latin During the 1980s, I turned my own hand to writing poetry in the poetry was written. For example, take this line translated from classical metres. All of this was very bad, and I have destroyed it. But Homer by Livius Andronicus around 250BC: a few lines remain in my head. Take these from a parodic elegy I wrote

Free Life No.39, November 2001 11 would make some concessions to their listeners by allowing Virgil: stress and quantity to coincide. I am not learned enough to discuss all of these, but the most obvious is at the end of Infandum Regina iubes renouare dolorem hexameter lines, where the last two feet generally are made to (You command me, o Queen, to recall the un- sound as they are scanned – for example: “morte quievit”, or speakable sadness) fictor Ulixes”, where the scansion |-FF|--(F) sounds like `--|`-. This, however, solved only one problem. There was also the Translated literally, this reads: “The unspeakable o Queen you second to be overcome. command to recall sadness”. Now, Latin is a heavily inflected This is the lack of naturally short syllables in Latin. The language, and it does not require the fixed order of words Greeks appear to have developed their metres for their own needed to make sense in English. The words quoted above make language, and so they are perfectly adapted to its peculiarities.2 sense because their relationship is shown in the terminations – When the Romans took over these metres, they had to strain because “infandum” and “dolorem” are both words in the their language to breaking point to write in them. This explains accusative case, we can know that the adjective qualifies the the convoluted order of words in their poetry. Take this from noun. But while Greek also is inflected, its poetry is not on the whole so convoluted. Take this couplet written by Simonides on the Spartan dead at Thermopylae: in 1987: Î !? w ;  # ?#+ µ- -“  ? -#¥+ ? 7 ·=) %C # O mourn for Liberace, who, born to the ivory keyboard, (Go, stranger, tell the Spartans Now to the grave is borne, though to reside in heaven. That, obedient to their will, here dead we lie)3

The lines form an elegiac couplet, scanning These lines follow an unforced order of words. So it is with most other Greek poetry. Any complexity here is in the gram- FF FvF FF FF --|- |- |- |- |-- mar, of which Greek has far more than English or even Latin. In v -FF|--|-| -FF|-FF|F order to fit Latin words into Greek metrical patterns, the Romans had largely to abandon simplicity of arrangement. They Read according to the stressed accent of English, they sound also had to introduce a regular elision into their poetry which I

v do not think they carried into prose. This allowed words to go -`|-`-|`- -|`--|`--|`- into a line of poetry that would not otherwise have fitted. Take v `--|`-|`| `--|`--|- this from Virgil:

As with Latin verse, there is a discord between spoken accent and Di quibus imperium est animarum umbraeque silentes quantity in the first half of the hexameter, and increasing concord in the (O gods to whom are both the empire of souls and second half. According to spoken accent, for example, the first three silent ghosts) syllables of the word group “for Liberace” is an amphibrach (F-F), but FF are a dactyl (- ) according to quantity. In the pentameter, there is a This becomes an hexameter by eliding the words to: general concord, though the final syllable is light and unstressed, which gives a falling effect. Though the great Roman poets did it far better, I Di quibus imperium’st animar’ umbraeque silentes do produce the same kind of sound as can be heard in a Latin elegiac couplet. For those who are interested, I tried here to apply the classical rules What I have said for poetry applies broadly the same to prose. of quantity to English – at least as pronounced by the middle classes in That also had to be tamed so it could stand comparison with southern England. A long syllable is one that contains a long vowel, or Greek. It is not surprising that it took the Romans about three that ends with two consonants, even if the second consonant starts the hundred years to force their language into the shape they next syllable. Thus, the “is” in “is borne” is short by nature, but long by desired. It took ages of experimenting to discover when and position. All other syllables are short. Since quantity is harder to when not to make accent coincide with quantity, and what determine in English than in Latin, and since our grammar does not ordering of words could be made to sound poetic, and what allow the same oddities of word order, I eventually gave up the effort of writing in quantitative metres, and took to rhymed iambic tetramter. elisions were acceptable and what ugly. They also had to coin Needless to say, I am a bad poet, and am unlikely to inflict any more of thousands of new words – either taken directly from Greek or my poetry on a world that has already suffered a million words of my developed from their own language. prose. But in the end, they got what they wanted. In the two centuries around the birth of Christ, there was a flowering of literary 2 As an aside, I read somewhere that these words were found on a wall genius at Rome. Catullus finally adapted the lyric metres of inside an Egyptian tomb: Greek poetry to Latin, and his works can still burn their way off the printed page two thousand years later. Virgil completed the Santi kapupi wayya jaja minti lalakali and are explained by the writer as a curse in a language of “the barbarians beyond the sea”. These might be words from the unknown 3 This is echoed by A.E. Housman in one of his Last Poems: language of the Minoans, and they might scan as a dactylic hexameter. If so, the Greeks took more than just the Minoan alphabet for the Here dead we lie because we did not choose earliest stage of their civilisation. But this is purely conjecture, and it To live and shame the land from which we sprung. is undeniable that they developed the more complex metres by Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose; themselves. But young men think it is, and we were young.

Free Life No.39, November 2001 12 adaption of Latin and the hexameter to each other to create So much for the intrinsic beauty of Roman literature. I turn rhythmical sonorities quite different from anything in Greek, but now to the second argument in favour of learning Latin. This is which have shaped the western mind perhaps more profoundly the nature of how it survived. It is often believed that the Roman than any other literature. For Tennyson, he was Empire – or at least its western provinces – collapsed under the twin assaults of barbarism and Christianity. The cities were Wielder of the stateliest measure pillaged, the libraries burnt, and Europe settled into a thousand Ever moulded by the lips of man. years of darkness, until some Italians dug out the remaining manuscripts that had lain unregarded in various monasteries, and And there are many other writers of both prose and poetry civilisation could begin again. This is an entirely false picture of whose genius is beyond translation and can only be appreciated what happened. in the original. Books in the ancient world were all copied by hand. Until The Greeks, with their usual – and often justified – vanity, about the fourth century after Christ, they were copied onto never appreciated Roman literature. They seldom learned Latin, sheets of papyrus which were then glued into scrolls about 20 except for purely utilitarian purposes – as when they took up the feet long. Obviously, copying by hand was a slow and difficult study of law. In one of his letters, written in the second century business. Worse, papyrus was both expensive and delicate com- after Christ, the younger Pliny boasts that some Greeks had told pared with paper. It is said that, even in Egypt, one sheet of him they were learning Latin so they could read his poetry. If papyrus, about 10 by 15 inches in size, would have cost about they were not joking, he must have done them a considerable £50 in our purchasing power. Outside the dry climate of Egypt, service – especially since he was not much of a poet. In the a book might last a hundred years at most before it fell to pieces eighth century, when the Western Empire had fallen, and the and had to be replaced. eastern provinces that remained had reverted to Greek for their These facts meant that, with few exceptions, books never language of law and administration, an Emperor in Constantino- existed in large editions; and even the works of the best writers ple could assert without challenge that Latin was a language of were often in danger of perishing. If a writer went seriously out the barbarians. Even in the fifteenth century, the Byzantine of fashion, his works would certainly perish. In the late fourth scholars who took asylum in Italy after the fall of their empire century, for example, the Emperor Julian exulted in one of his to the Turks continued to swap contemptuous epigrams about letters that the works of the sceptical and Epicurean philoso- Cicero and Virgil. But they were wrong. The Romans had phers had already disappeared. So far as there were enough of created a great literature. these in Latin versions for Augustine to read a generation later, As said, is was not a natural growth. Its beauty is like that of he was exaggerating. But their cool rationalism was against the a garden planted on sand, and made to bloom only with endless spirit of the age, and they were mostly not preserved. None of attention and training. It was never understood outside the the 300 books that Epicurus wrote has come down to us. The educated classes. It must have sounded to an ordinary Roman best account of his philosophy is contained in the Latin poem like the poetry of Milton does to an uneducated English reader. written by Lucretius. For the sceptics, we have only those philo- On this point, I recall a story told I think about Augustine of sophical works of Cicero that survived for their style and a dry Hippo. He was preaching one day to his congregation in the summary made by an Athenian doctor called Sextus Empiricus. simple Latin of the people, when a friend came suddenly into the From the fourth century, there was a general switch from the church. Immediately, Augustine switched into the classical papyrus roll to the parchment book. Since parchment lasts language, and lost his audience in the resulting stream of oratio almost forever, even in damp climates, this might have pre- obliqua. But, while unnatural, it vented any further losses due to is a beautiful literature; and far time. However, parchment was more than their conquests and still more expensive than papy- the buildings they constructed rus, and the ancient world was throughout their empire, it shows entering its terminal crisis. the strength of the Roman will. Heavy taxation, to pay for wars They wanted a classical litera- against both the increased weight ture, and by sheer hard work of the northern barbarians and a over many generations, they got revived Persian Empire, sucked one. The achievement of the wealth out of the cities where th English writers of the 16 and books were copied and main- th 17 centuries is nothing by com- tained. At the same time, the parison. They started with a lan- malnutrition that taxes seem to guage that was already beautiful, have caused in the countryside and the French and Italian mod- led to a gradual decline of popu- els they imitated were in lan- lation that was hastened from guages not so radically different. time to time by epidemic diseases It would be a shame if this singu- that also swept through the cities. lar achievement were now to This is perhaps why the western perish simply because hardly provinces – always less populous anyone can take the trouble to and wealthy than the eastern – learn how to understand and ap- fell so easily to the barbarians: preciate it. they did not so much break in by

Free Life No.39, November 2001 13 force of numbers as find themselves pulled into a demographic east, we have lost a greater proportion of Roman than of Greek vacuum. And it may explain why so much ancient literature was literature. Speaking only of Latin, two thirds of Livy have lost. There was neither the money nor the personnel to keep up perished, and at least half of Tacitus. Perhaps all we have of the libraries. Catullus is a brief selection made almost at random. Even The really great disaster seems to have come in the sixth substantial works by Cicero are missing. We know there was a century. Until then, the big libraries in Rome, both public and second flowering of Roman literature in the second century after private, had probably avoided the effects of declining wealth Christ. We hardly know even the names of the writers we have and population seen elsewhere in the west. Though under lost from the period. barbarian rule since 476, life in Rome went on much as it had What has survived, though, did not survive entirely by before – King Theodoric keeping up the old administrative accident. As soon as peace returned in Rome, and the worst of machinery and even keeping the monuments in good repair. In the plague had run its course, the priests and monks began the 540s, however, the Emperor Justinian reached out from sifting though the rubble of the old libraries. Those books that Constantinople to regain Italy for the Empire. Though he suc- had escaped intact were gathered up and taken into new librar- ceeded, it was only after years of devastation. Naples and other ies, safe inside the religious buildings. We still have some of cities were taken and destroyed. Rome itself was taken and these – for example, a fine manuscript of Virgil from the fifth retaken in five different sieges. At one time, the whole civilian century. Others were water-stained or charred. These also were population was invited to leave the city so it could be defended gathered up and taken into safety. That is perhaps how the more easily. The Senatorial aristocracy that had survived the fall fragments of Tacitus came down to us. Many others may have of the Western Empire with its wealth and status intact, was been still written on papyrus rolls; and in the open air of Italy, largely massacred: and those aristocrats who survived crept back they would have been as fragile as wet toilet paper. These had to their shattered, silent palaces with nothing but the clothes on to be copied onto parchment before they entirely disintegrated. their backs. There would not have been the resources to rescue everything. Added to war were the effects of the great plague of the 540s. We must imagine the painful choices that then had to be made. We are reasonably sure that this killed a million people in Some would have been gathered up and saved for the world. Constantinople alone. It may have killed 60 per cent of the Perhaps many more would have been left among the rubbish. Mediterranean population. This tremendous mortality would On the whole, the Church did a good job. Though countless have had different effects across society. Shortages of slaves beauties perished, it is hard to say that we are entirely deprived. and peasants and unskilled labourers could be handled by a There is perhaps no Roman author of the first rank whose works change in relative prices and a selective abandonment of have not survived in some degree. We may despair over these previously habited areas. Losses within the educated classes fragments, but enough has survived to let us appreciate what we could not be so easily handled. It was now, I think, that Greek have lost. domination in Syria and Egypt came to an end after a thousand Nor was this all. Once the first act of rescue was over, there years, and the vacant administrative and educational positions in had to be an endless copying and recopying to ensure continued the cities were filled up with semites entering from the survival. This again was the work of the Church. With few countryside, who in the next century would welcome first the exceptions, our earliest manuscripts date from the eighth and Persians and then the Arabs. In the west, Latin ceased to be a ninth centuries, and from places far away from Rome. The work living language. The texts surviving from after the plague are of transmission may largely have begun in Rome, but it was either in a radically degraded Latin half way to Italian and the continued, from generation to generation, all over western other Romance languages, or in the untroubled purity of a dead Europe – in Germany, in the north of England, even on the west language. It was now also that the bulk of Roman literature coast of Ireland. Wherever the Church established its sway, disappeared. there were monasteries and schools and libraries, and a contin- Imagine a future in which much of our classical music has ual round of copying what had been rescued from the shipwreck been lost. There is most of J.S. Bach and Haydn, and a lot of of classical antiquity. It was now that the modern style of later Mozart – though The Marriage of Figaro is known only writing was developed. The ancients wrote in what we know as from a fragmentary piano arrangement and the brief quotation block capitals, had no spaces between words, and had no in Don Giovanni. All of Beethoven is lost except the Fifth and punctuation. Reading could never be fast, and the end of a Ninth Symphonies, and most of Schubert. All of Brahms has sentence was known only by its grammar and sometimes by survived except the piano music and songs, though less of prose rhythm – another subject of which I am mostly ignorant. Wagner and almost nothing of Mahler. There is nothing of The Church was not a passive, let alone an ignorant, transmitter Italian opera, except The Barber of Seville and Aida. At the of this heritage. It saved that heritage, and kept it saved, and same time, the complete works of secondary composers, like even improved on it in the technical sense of reproduction, until Chopin and Mendelssohn, exist in multiple copies. Worst of all, the printers of the fifteenth century could place it as far beyond the whole of Schoenberg and the second Austrian school has loss as any human work can be. survived, together with the signed manuscripts of Harrison Therefore, when we take down a Roman author from the shelf Birtwhistle. To say the least, this would leave the music lovers and open him, we are not looking at the same kind of sterile, of that future age inconsolable at their loss. It would also give an unassociated text that is what we have had since the invention unbalanced view of our musical heritage. of printing – where only the compositor and proofreader stand That is something like the position we are in with regard to the between us and the author. Every word of Virgil and Cicero that literature of the ancient world. We have lost at least nine tenths we have has passed to us through a multitude of copyists. Some of what would have been known to an educated man of the of these, no doubt, were fat monks whose only excitement was fourth century; and because the west suffered worse than the the arrival of a few pilgrims back from Rome or the Holy Land.

Free Life No.39, November 2001 14 Many others were less fortunate. Racked by farming it with imported slaves, and corrupted cold and illness, in permanent fear of Viking the constitution, and tyrannised over their raids, believing – and not without reason – that conquered subjects. Anyone who got in their the end of the world was at hand, the copyists way – the Gracchus brothers, for example – was carried on their slow, steady work of transmis- ruthlessly stamped on. sion. This is the background to Cicero’s great Then came the work of the great scholars – of prosecution speeches In Verrem. In the 70s BC, Scaliger and Bentley and Housman, among Gaius Verres was made Governor of Sicily. He others – who identified and rid the classics of plundered and misgoverned his province on a the mistakes and accretions that had inevitably massive scale. He behaved perhaps no worse crept in during a thousand years of manuscript than others of his kind. It was accepted that the transmission. surest way to get rich was to squeeze money And then there is the meaning that these from the provinces. What made Verres different works have had for centuries of readers, and the was that some of his surviving victims went to influence they have had in shaping the minds of Rome and appealed for justice. Their case was those who shaped our own minds. The literature taken up by Cicero, then a young man recently of classical antiquity was produced by men very arrived in Rome from a provincial town in Italy. different from ourselves. Their morals and Verres had many powerful friends in Rome, and religious views and even basic assumptions he expected that they would stand by him in a about the world were different from our own. pure formality of a trial. At worst, he thought he But we saved that literature, and it belongs to could bribe an acquittal from the jury appointed us. to try him. Instead, Cicero got the case into I now come to the third reason for studying court and unleashed a flood of words that have Latin – and I appreciate that those readers who never been equalled in their damning force. His have stayed with me through this long and often technical first speech alone was enough to destroy Verres – he was review will be expecting some political message. A knowledge abandoned by his friends and even by his defence lawyer, and of Latin allows direct access to the minds of some of the greatest went into exile to escape punishment. The second speech was men who ever lived – men who are describing and commenting never delivered, but was published, and it made Cicero into the on and trying to hold off the death of the world’s first attempt at foremost advocate of his day. In its force of language, and its a liberal civilisation. piling of atrocities one on the other, it still shocks. It contributed The Roman Empire did not grow because the Roman people to a new Roman view of empire. No longer an agglomeration of wanted it. Most of them wanted to live in peace and look after territories to be pillaged by those lucky enough to be set over their own affairs. They were willing to fight in the army in them, the Empire was to become one – at least in theory, if not defence of their own country, but had no settled taste for always in practice – of universal justice. The Greeks, said Virgil extended conquest. Rome grew partly because it was sucked into in the next generation, might excel in the arts and sciences; but the power vacuum that followed the destruction of Carthage and the Roman mission was the decline of the Hellenistic kingdoms. But it also grew because the Roman aristocracy acquired a taste for wealth that could Parcere subiectis et debellare superbos only be satisfied by plundering the whole ancient world. (To raise up the humble and restrain the proud) We can see this clearly expressed in the fourth decade of Livy’s History of Rome. By 200 BC, the Carthaginian invaders For the rest of his life, Cicero gave himself to trying to save the had been cleared out of Italy, and there was no danger to Rome. dying constitution of Rome. In the words of one of his biogra- The people wanted peace. The aristocracy, however, wanted phers – I forget which – he passed his life “holding off the another war – this time with the King of Macedon. There was a future behind a palisade of words”. He failed. He was murdered long debate in the public assembly, and the Consul Publius in old age – the most eminent victim of the purges that finished Sulpicius Galba finally got approval for the war with a speech off the Republic. But his surviving works stand among the that will sound familiar to any modern Briton or American. classics of the western conservative and liberal tradition. Macedon was an expansive power, he explained. It had been The Republic collapsed in a generation of civil wars, and was allied with Carthage, even though it had taken little part in that succeeded by the rule of one man. Augustus was a great man, war. Its present activities in Greece were surely a prelude to an and he knew how to disguise his power behind the forms of a invasion of Italy. Better go to war now, he concluded, than later, republic. He ended many abuses, and restored the prosperity of when Macedon would dominate the whole of Greece and be the ancient world. In his lifetime, he was worshipped in the able to gain allies in the east to become overwhelmingly eastern provinces as a god. After his death, he was declared a powerful. “Uti rogas” – “as you command” – the people cried, god throughout the whole Empire. His reign and those of his and Rome plunged into a round of foreign wars and conquest immediate successors were described a century later by Tacitus. that would only end with Roman garrisons on the Rhine, the Like Suetonius, writing around the same time, he exposed the Danube and the Euphrates; and that would deprive the Roman vices of the Caesars to the inspection and contempt of all people of their real birthright and put in its place the illusion of succeeding ages. But his analysis goes deeper than a narration a world empire governed in their name. of what Tiberius did on Capri, or how Claudius was tricked into The higher classes benefited immensely from the next few disinheriting his own son in favour of a second Caligula. He centuries of aggression. They acquired power and riches beyond shows how the Romans of the first century found themselves their dreams. They dispossessed the Roman people of their land, living under an absolute despotism because that was all they

Free Life No.39, November 2001 15 were fitted for. A free constitution is more than a set of rules for at least Latin is worth learning in terms of its intellectual reward. election and the division of power. It is something that rises out But we may also be on the verge of a time when its study will of the customs and habits of mind of a people. Let the people be again lead to positions of considerable emolument. corrupted, so they no longer believe as their ancestors did, and what once seemed the most solid restraints on power will Sean Gabb become but a “covenant without swords that bindeth not”. Between Cicero and Tacitus, Rome went through the same constitutional death as we are beginning to suffer in the English- Vigilance: A Defence of British Liberty speaking world. We benefit from a study of these writers Ashley Mote, because we can see the whole process of decay from start to Tanner Publishing, Petersfield, Hampshire, finish. What they described we can see as if looking out of an 2000, 279pp, £12-95p (pbk) aeroplane window over a whole country; while what we are now ISBN 0 95401 0 2 living through we see as a traveller might who is walking over unfamiliar hills and valleys, unable to know for sure what is The EU has taken upon itself the roles of legislator, enforcer, coming next. We benefit also because, unlike most of our own investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner, all in one – writers, these had no illusions about what was happening to their as clear a case of violation of the rule of law as you could ever civilisation. imagine. And so, I commend this book to my readers. Learning Latin, I must confess, is not an easy business. The Oxford Latin So writes Ashley Mote in his book Vigilance: A Defence of Course makes the first steps in it as attractive as it can be made, British Liberty. If ever there was any doubt about the intentions only introducing as much grammar as is essential to understand- of the European Union, this book removes it completely and ing basic Latin. After about 150 pages of careful study, a reader finally. should be able to understand the following: For anyone who is neutral about the EU or knows little about it, this book is an excellent introduction to the subject. While for Cicero epistolas dictat scribae suo Tironi. Subito aliquis ianuam someone like myself who has spent some considerable time pulsat. Incurrit servus. “Domine” inquit, “nuntium valde bonum studying this particular beast, this book is well worth reading. tibi fero. Terentia filiolum peperit et mater et infans valent.” In this review I propose to cover several areas that I believe Cicero “re vera” inquit, “nuntium bonum mihi portas. Tiro, servos are of particular interest to Libertarians. Ashley Mote takes a iube equos parare. Debemus ad Terentiam festinare.” (p.142) very constitutional approach to the EU. He is concerned for the protection of the rights of the individual under Magna Carta and (Cicero is dictating letters to Tiro, his scribe. Suddenly, someone the Declaration [Bill] of Rights. Other than the Magna Carta knocks on the door. A slave runs in. “Master”, he says, “I bring you very good news. Terentia [your daughter] has given birth to Society, I have not found any other writer who so stresses a daughter, and mother and child are doing well.” “Indeed” says individual rights and the Libertarian nature of our society in Cicero, “you bring me good news. Tiro, order the slaves to get relation to the EU. horses ready. We must hurry to Terentia.”) The first of those areas I want to discuss is Magna Carta. Mr Mote makes the point that this charter did not grant any new Sadly, this is not enough for actually reading Cicero. Though rights, rather it recognised those that already existed. He writes grammatical, the Latin is simple, far closer to modern French or Spanish than to the language of the great Roman authors. There Magna Carta began the process of formalising English common are no participles or gerunds or subjunctives – no attempt at law, but it was based on custom and practice that went back into oratio obliqua or periodic sentence structure. Much more effort the mists of recorded history…..Even by the time of King Alfred, what we now know as common law was well established. There will be needed before Cicero can be understood. Still more are many recorded instances of Saxon trials in Mercia that used effort will be needed before it is possible to write grammatical the concept of trial by jury for example… Latin. Remember, it is largely an artificial language, and was beyond the understanding of most Romans. Equally to be So the Barons who wrote Magna Carta did not invent common remembered, though, it is worth learning. law. Their great achievements were to have common law recog- I will make one final point. The study of Latin is becoming nised formally as the law of the land, and they established that more popular in the independent sector. Some people claim that nobody, including the sovereign is above the law… it improves learning ability. Perhaps it does – though some very stupid people have also been very good Latinists. My own belief The continental countries are quite the opposite to us in this is that rich parents are beginning to see the classical languages regard. The life of the individual is assumed to be the property again as a means of differentiating their class from the masses. of the state or collective. That is why I suspect our relationship Early in the last century, the wealthy classes began to differenti- with the EU has always been an uneasy one, and consequently ate themselves by their patronage of the modern movement in our membership has never been wholeheartedly accepted by the the arts. Because the works of Schoenberg and Picasso were British people. beyond common understanding, they were thought to serve the Magna Carta throws up some very interesting issues. One of same social purpose as the classical languages had – without all them is the obligation of allegiance to the monarchy supposedly the sweat that learning Greek or Latin had involved. But the owed by every British subject. Apparently this obligation cannot modern movement is now revealed as a big artistic fraud, or – be repudiated, which is hardly consistent with Libertarianism. perhaps worse – has been taken up by the masses. And so there The other side of this coin is that the monarch is supposed to be is a return to the classical languages. the guardian of the rights of the individual. The Queen has taken I think I have already explained to the best of my ability why advice from her ministers and acquiesced in Britain’s member-

Free Life No.39, November 2001 16 ship of the EU. In the process the rights of the individual have 1. that the individual owns his/her own life; simply been swept away. Even when one party to the bargain of 2. that the individual has the right of self defence, which includes Magna Carta repudiates it, it still stands apparently. Our only the right to keep and bear arms; way to gain redress of our grievances is to ask twenty five 3. that neither the individual nor any group has the right to initiate the use or threat of the use of force against any one else; Barons to petition the Queen. From receipt of such a petition, 4. that each person and organisation is subject to the common law; She has forty days in which to resolve the problem. If she does 5. that taxation is contrary to the common law and illegal; not we are entitled to harass her until she puts the situation right. 6. that the individual has the right to seek to trade freely with any Besides Magna Carta and the common law, the third support one else; of our liberty in Britain is the Declaration of Rights of 1689. 7. that the state/monarchy does not have the power to restrict the Although it was enacted in that year as part of the Glorious freedom to trade; Revolution, the Declaration of Rights is like Magna Carta a 8. that the state planned economy is contrary to common law and treaty between the Crown and the subjects. Parliament has illegal; 9. that the individual has the right to freedom of speech; neither power to amend not abolish either of them. This provides 10. that the individual has the right to ingest any substance(s); some problems for Libertarians. 11. that the government is specifically prohibited from any attempt The Declaration of Rights allows only Protestants to be to regulate trade armed, not Catholics, nor members of any other religion, nor atheists. But of course there is only one problem with this, does the The two basic premises of Libertarianism are self-ownership Crown still have the power to enter into a treaty with the and self-defence. Neither Magna Carta nor the Declaration of subjects? If any constitutional lawyer can answer this one, I Rights specifically supports these two premises for all of the would be obliged. British people. If we are to throw off the EU tyranny we can Like the rest of the country, the British Libertarian movement only do so by advocating a rational, consistent code of individ- is split over our membership of the EU. The one issue that ual rights. Appeals to Magna Carta and the Declaration of should make up everyone’s mind is in my view Corpus Juris. Rights should be of some assistance in this, but they might not For the benefit of those who do not know it, the EU is attempt- prove sufficient. ing to abolish the legal systems of the member states, so that it Not many writers who are interested in the EU make any can substitute Corpus Juris. Their intention is to turn the EU mention of the problems posed by the Vatican, which, according into a single judicial area. to Mr Mote, is using the EU to serve its own illiberal agenda. He Of the fifteen member states Only Britain and Ireland have analyses Britain’s relationship with the Vatican, starting in 1215 trial by jury. Mr Mote spends some time talking about the with King John’s desire to repudiate Magna Carta. He appealed advantages of being tried by one’s peers. He cites Bushell’s to the Pope and within ten weeks of the sealing of Magna Carta, Case (1679) in which William Penn was tried for contravening Innocent III had replied saying that the priests who had played the Conventicle Act by preaching Quakerism. The Church of a part in it had done something “abominable”. England version of religion was the only one allowed under this In Mr Mote’s view the Vatican sees British Protestantism as act. “unfinished business”. The Papacy claims superiority over every The jury were put under pressure for several weeks to convict King, Prince, and other type of ruler in the Christian world. So Penn, but refused. That says Mr Mote is the strength of the jury we heretics are to be brought back under the control of Rome. system. If a juror disapproves of a law because it is unjust, then Mr Mote takes the position as advocated in the Declaration of all he needs to do is to vote not guilty. Given enough acquittals, Rights when he says eventually even the most stupid government will repeal such laws as this. The jury system can bring about peaceful change The reason for not having a Catholic monarch is clearly spelled for the benefit of everyone. out in the Declaration of Rights…..It is inconsistent with the If implemented, Corpus Juris would abolish all of the legal safety and well being of this Protestant Kingdom. safeguards that we have enjoyed since Saxon times. Trial by jury would go, along with the presumption of innocence, the To some extent he has something of a point as he also writes rule against double jeopardy, and Habeas Corpus.

…In more recent times, Britain has been in a Catholic nutcracker, In their place would be the whim of the European Public squeezed between pressure from the EU on the one side and the Irish Republican Army …on the other. When the IRA terrorists Prosecutor. He would have the power to have any one arrested were bombing London in 1996, the Pope positively refused to even in the absence of evidence that a crime has been commit- condemn them. The Vatican was loudly condemning the Hamas ted. The victim could then be deported to any part of the EU and bombings in Israel at the time, but the Vatican press office refused held in prison for the rest of his/her life, in the company of aids three times to condemn the bombings in London, when asked to infected rapists and such other types. do so by the Wall Street Journal Europe. The Kafkaesque nature of Corpus Juris is shown by Mr Mote in this quote: I am sure that no Libertarian wants to be involved in a re-run of the religious wars of the 17th century. If Mr Mote is correct then A West Country journalist trying to obtain a copy of the EC’s even our leaving the EU will not change Vatican policy in explanatory booklet on Corpus Juris was first told it did not exist, relation to the “heresy” of the British. then asked why he wanted it and finally given one when he said he One solution for all of these un-libertarian features of our understood it was a super proposal that furthered European legal system might be a revision of Magna Carta and the integration. Declaration of Rights. It would have to include as a minimum the following statements: For some time the British political establishment has been claim-

Free Life No.39, November 2001 17 ing how expensive our legal system is and how restricting trial by jury would save a lot of money. The chattering classes have also been wittering on about altering the double jeopardy rule so those accused of the murder of Stephen Lawrence can be tried a second time. The purpose behind all of this nonsense is to soften us up for the imposition of Corpus Juris. The extent of the corruption of the English legal system by the Europhiles is exposed by Mr Mote in a couple of chilling examples.

The Single European Act and Final Act, 1985 were steered through Parliament by a subterfuge worthy of the EU itself. The words “Final Act” did not appear. Its passage was by a tiny sub-clause in a minor Foreign Office Bill debated by a handful of MPs. The Clause itself was never discussed.

To get the Bill through the House of Lords, the government [emphasis added] issued two order papers for the same debate. The order paper with the correct date went to peers known to be sympathetic. The other, with an incorrect date, went to all the rest. The Bill passed.

And who was the Prime Minister at that time? The second example is as follows:

Unfortunately when individuals have attempted to take direct action through the courts their efforts have been circumscribed in recent years by the pretended power that the judiciary have awarded themselves to declare individuals to be “vexatious litigants”. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany is now well on its way to restoring its historic spheres of influence in the Balkans and Ultimately of course, the remedy should lie with Parliament itself other parts of eastern Europe. That is why it is so keen to expand or with the Crown. But today another problem arises. Petitions to the EU to the east. the House of Commons should be debated. In recent times, however, the House of Commons has routinely passed petitions to Mr Mote also goes through the history of how the EU is based the department which is the subject of complaint for them to on the Nazi plans for a European Economic Community. They answer. This is manifestly wrong both in law and logic. It breach- es the common-law prohibition of sitting in judgement in one’s left a planning team behind in Madrid after the Second World own cause. [emphasis added]. War with the finance to bring about their dreams of dominance over Europe by stealth and economic as opposed to military As if that was not bad enough the EU also intends to unleash a means. Mr Mote believes that we are approaching the end game band of armed thugs upon us who would have diplomatic of that strategy. immunity. They are called Europol. They would be allowed to With this book Ashley Mote proves that the EU is dictator- shoot anyone and unlike under English law they would not be ship. Its leaders are a squabbling collection of thieves, thugs, held accountable for such an act. They are already setting up and politicians all helping themselves to large amounts of files on political dissidents, i.e. anyone who questions or criticis- taxpayers’ money. They all have a pathological hatred of reason, es the EU. Their headquarters is a building in the Hague that individualism, and free markets. Their various conflicting was used by the Gestapo. And some think the EU is humourless. interests can only destabilise and impoverish Europe, as indeed Corruption and dictatorship go hand in hand. Why was I not the Yugoslavs can testify. surprised when I read an article in The Daily Telegraph on 2nd Mr Mote has proved that British membership of the EU is June 2000 that said that Europol was under investigation by the contrary to common law, Magna Carta, and the Declaration Dutch Police for money laundering! [Bill] of Rights, and common sense. Perhaps the majority of the Contrary to the claims that European integration will promote people on the continent are of a collectivist mind set and do not peace and harmony among the member states each of them tries understand the basic human need for individual liberty. How- to use the EU to further their own foreign policy objectives. Mr ever, all previous attempts at uniting Europe have been based on Mote states: the initiation of the use of force, and they will eventually find out that this one will prove no different in the end. Germany’s unilateral recognition of Bosnia started the destruction After reading this book, no rational person can honestly of the Yugoslav federation. In 1990 despite strong opposition believe that the European Union is based on a noble ideal. On from the rest of Europe, and from the UN, the USA and Great the contrary it is utterly irrational and contemptible. I commend Britain, formal diplomatic recognition was given by Germany (and this book to everyone because it is a splendid defence of our the Vatican) to Slovenia and Croatia, both keen supporters of the liberty Third Reich some 50 years before. The immediate result – civil war in both “countries”. David Ellams

Free Life No.39, November 2001 18 Final Jottings Brian Micklethwait

rules of the free market) were also followed by the people One offering less thinglike things, such as “security”, “order”, “law”, “peace”, “protection”, “stability”, even “new world order”, then Until now there have been two kinds of Free Life writings. great new things could and would get done. The free market There have been the Free Life Commentaries, all by Free Life already supplies quite a lot of security, order, law, world order, Editor Sean Gabb, which have been posted direct to the Internet, etc., despite all the political restrictions and interferences and and which may or may not later be included in the official politically financed intrusions it is subjected to. It could supply “published” version of Free Life. And then there have been the much more. other pieces that have been published (for the first time) in the So no (moan), I do not like my moans and hurrahs slashed paper version of Free Life, written not by Mr Gabb but by down only to moans. And now (hurrah) they won’t be. Hurrah others. So this piece is a first. This is a Free Life piece not also for the Internet, a fine example of a complicated and written by Mr Gabb, but pre-published, so to speak, on the unthinglike thing, of just the sort that the opponents of the free Internet under the banner of Free Life. Perhaps others will market routinely claim that the free market can’t supply, but negotiate a similar arrangement with Mr Gabb to the one I have which it has. asked for, and have got. This arrangement solves a problem I’ve long had with my jottings. I have been jotting away since Free Life 23, issued in Two August 1995. Some of the jottings have sometimes been cut to enable those remaining to fit the space available in Free Life. I Re-reading earlier jottings teaches me that I should not make haven’t liked these cuts but I have always understood that Mr promises about future tasks that the Libertarian Alliance’s Gabb has had to inflict them. Journals published on paper, or leaders merely intend to do or hope one of us might be doing, published on the Internet as if on paper, cannot expand like Real Soon Now. Previously jotted promises have mostly proved elastic. If only one page remained for my jottings, then only one empty. Only reports of actual achievements have stood the test page it had to be. But the Internet itself is more accommodating, of time, such as reports of already published publications, by the and now my jottings can sally forth unscathed. Mr Gabb can Libertarian Alliance and by others. So let me report yet again later select this jotting but not that one, these but not those, as he that the reason for my recent silence as a libertarian writer, and sees fit, for the further accolade of being in Free Life itself, so for the slowness with which the last Libertarian Alliance mailing to speak. was put together is that, with Mr Gabb’s Webmasterly If you’ve read some of my previous jottings you may be co-operation, I have been concentrating on putting Libertarian wondering why I am making such a prima-donna-ish fuss about Alliance material on the Internet (www.libertarian.co.uk), and what are often little more than thinkings aloud. Well, consider have now pretty much (i.e. there are about a dozen tricky ones my previous jottings, in Free Life 38. In their original form, still to do) done all of it, although so far only in Adobe Acrobat after (1) a short jot on the absurdity of compelling teenagers to form. Not everyone likes Adobe Acrobat, and it is our hope that do voluntary work, these then consisted of (2) a moan about we will, Real Soon Now, put everything up also in html form. modern jazz and then of (3) a hymn of praise to my wonderful But now I’m straying into promise mode, which I promised new TV, to my wonderful new DVD machine, and to my myself I wouldn’t. Anyway, whatever happens on the html front wonderful new miniature computer keyboard without which, the Acrobat stuff is a reality. what with my new TV and my new DVD machine, I’d have no Almost as labourious, as part of the Acrobat operation I have desk space left for anything other than a non-miniature computer also reprinted (with updated information on the front cover keyboard. Hurrah for the free market. Well, you can guess what concerning the Libertarian Alliance’s personnel and Internet happened. Mr Gabb is one of life’s moaners, so the moaning, details) all the artwork, and it took me far longer to glue all that even if only about modern jazz instead of about the new world together than I expected. I only a few days ago finished doing order, the evils of Blairism etc., stayed. But hurrahs for the free this. Thus my further failure to do much else recently for the market he tends to regard as superfluous, what with the free cause of liberty beyond reading Libertarian Alliance Forum e- market having supposedly “won the argument”, so out went all mails, and holding my regular last Friday of the month meetings mention of TVs and keyboards. Only the moaning remained. (which, thanks to me finally using an e-mail list to publicise By the way, putting the celebrations first and only having them properly, have been going decidedly well of late). moans at the end didn’t work. I tried that. If any cuts were required, it was still the celebrations that went and the moaning that stayed. Three But one of the central purposes of my jottings is to celebrate the fruits of freedom, not just to bitch about government One libertarian duty I did recently perform, however, was to infringements of or attacks on it. Successful propaganda cannot attend and speak at a conference of historians in Manchester, only consist of complaint. There must be celebrations of a organised by libertarian historian Steve Davies. For me this was preferred alternative. Wherever freedom and the free market is the kind of experience which I am glad to have had, but which allowed it results in great things, even if they are nowadays I did not much enjoy while it was happening. Frankly, I felt out mostly, you know, things. Like DVDs and keyboards. But the of place. My central error was that I didn’t present a paper, I subtext - and sometimes, as here, the text itself - is that if the merely gave a talk, which doesn’t count with historians. rules followed by the DVD makers and keyboard makers (the My personal sense of irrelevance aside, the thing had its

Free Life No.39, November 2001 19 moments. There was an interesting talk right at the start (by 3.2% and 0.1%, not 32% and 01%. I don’t want to be “beastly to Blair Worden) about the way that Whiggism mutated from the Germans”, and it gives a misleading impression to say that religious fundamentalism to what many of the readers of this nearly a third of them voted for fascism. Could you please alter it would now call Gabbism. Whiggery ended the seventeenth in future printings. century as violently and self-righteously puritanical disgustingness and religious mania, but then, by suppressing the I also unleashed (aided by LA Director Dr Chris R. Tame) nasty stuff and inventing or dragging out of obscurity lots of confusion about the spelling of Thomas Babington other stuff, it became the civilised thing that we know it as (“Babbington” being wrong) Macaulay. today, those of us who know of it at all. Whiggery did to itself, And, I got in a twist about a couple of members of the House in other words, what we all now hope Islam will do to itself in of Lords by calling Earl Howe, or the Earl of Howe or whatever ie the next few years. the hell he’s called, Lord Howe of Aberfan – , I mistakenly There was also an excellent talk by Peter Riley about assumed that the Conservative front bench spokesman for health Kropotkin. Peter provided me with some of my few truly in the House of Lords was the former Sir Geoffrey Howe, rather pleasurable moments at the conference, by being willing to than some other old geezer. argue with me about this and that and much else besides. I My first reaction was to blame myself and to apologise missed the talk given by Paul Mulvey on Josiah Wedgwood, but profusely to Tim Evans and Helen Govett, whose Legal Notes Big Mother’s Deadly New World: How The Govern- his conversation revealed him to be (a) another very intelligent No. 36 ( ment Is Going To Destroy Patient’s Health Records And Kill libertarian academic whom (b) I’d never before heard of. E-mail People contact is, I hope, being re-established even as I jot. ) was thus disfigured. Mature reflection, however, caused My thanks to the Steve Davies household for putting me up me to re-realise (for I have long known the truth of the jotting for the duration, and for the communal dinner they shared with that follows) the truth. me on the evening of my arrival, which was like a real-life episode of Coronation Street. It was good also to read some of Five Steve’s books, in particular one called Bowling Alone, by Edward Putnam, which I’ve been wanting to look at for some time, and which is about the “collapse of community” we’ve Which is: that the real culprits are the stupid twats themselves been suffering from in the last few decades. Although Nigel who occupy the House of Lords, for insisting on all calling Ashford, also present on day two of the conference, said it’s all themselves “Lords”. This results in all manner of confusions and nonsense, what collapse?, etc. Come to think of it I actually mistaken identities, for which, as I say, the rest of us are still enjoyed myself quite a lot, especially when, on day two – the inclined to blame ourselves rather than to go around at least third and last day of my stay – it finally stopped raining. verbally skewering the true culprits. But now here’s a weird thing. Here were all these historians, When Sir Geoffrey Howe MP stopped being an MP – a reading papers to each other about history – haystack burning in Member of Parliament – and became a member of the House of Cornwall, people trying to stab King George the Lords, he should have become not “Lord Howe of Aberfan” but Something-or-Other in his carriage, early twentieth century “Sir Geoffrey Howe MHL”. And the same goes for Kevin feminism, the Bolshevik front origins of the National Council Drudge MP who mutates into Lord Drudge of Somewhere-- for Civil Liberties, you name it – and there’d been this huge Nice-I-Once-Went-To-On-Holiday, and who thus becomes eruption of history just a couple of days earlier right in their indistinguishable from his elder brother, the former Barry faces, on worldwide television. (The conference dates were Drudge MP who is now Lord Drudge of Another- September 13-14.) Yet they hardly gave these dramas an official Spot-With-A-Nice-Sounding-Name, and their uncle Lord mention. It was as if President Bush had said on the afternoon Drudge of Some-Other-Stupid-Place-Of-No-Possible-Rele- of September 11: well, these things happen, what can you do?, vance, to say nothing of John Drudge (now Lord Drudge of just keep on keeping on I guess. These historians just kept on, Yet-Another-Bloody-Place) who is of a quite different political talking about whatever they’d fixed to talk about. Odd. persuasion and no relation whatever to the other Drudges. And this is not even to mention the Earl of Drudge, whose ancestors got their Earlship fair and square by burning monasteries. Four The hereditaries should keep their titles, if only because a lot of them aren’t any longer MHLs and this would clarify the distinction perfectly. But the rest of them? Bollocks. We should The misprint file associated with the last Libertarian Alliance simply call them all by their real names and shower contempt on mailing was more than usually dramatic. The worst blunder was them whenever they try this Lord Drudge of X crap. Kevin in one of Roderick Moore’s pieces. LA subscribers among you Drudge MHL. Sir Geoffrey Howe MHL. Barry Drudge MHL. may recall that I inserted some slightly tetchy introductory notes Fiona Blairbabe MHL. Sir David Failed-Tory-Minister MHL. to a couple of Moore pieces, to the effect that Mr Moore, not Simon Lobbyfodder QC MHL. Justin Idiot-Liberal MHL. This being a mainstream libertarian, shouldn’t write as if his own way, all who care can keep track of these people and continue views were the views of “us”. (He dissents on sex and drugs, to jeer at them accurately for their past stupidities, duplicities and is also a relentless EUrophobe, which most British libertari- and non-achievements. (Which, by the way, is why lots of the ans are also, but this is not the same thing as libertarianism.) I non-hereditaries would hate what I’m saying. Tough.) expected a Moore response, and sure enough a letter soon The nice thing is that this is one of those changes that we can arrived in the spiderishly accurate Moore handwriting, and I all just do. No Act of Parliament is needed, any more than you thought here we go. But there was no mention of my intros in need an Act of Parliament to allow you to muddle up “infer” and Mr Moore’s letter. His complaint was very different: “imply” or to use the word “cool” as an entire sentence meaning Thank you for the latest mailing, but could I just draw your “this is now agreed and is satisfactory”. You agree? Of course attention to a small but important point on p. 4 of Historical Notes you do. Cool. Do it. No. 39. The figures for the share of the vote gained by fascists in Britain and Germany [ie now, not before WW2 – BM] should be

Free Life No.39, November 2001 20