D.J., Waco and

September 1994 Vol. 7, No.6 $4.00 Letterman

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This very limited and unusual coin may be­ ... A VERY LIMITED EDITION. Only fraud. Other world governments were official­ come one of the most famous in numismatic 10,500 coins were ever minted back in 1973. ly notified ofthe existence ofthe newly creat­ - or for that matter, political - history. The entire mintage was sold to collectors. ed island and its government. Landfill opera­ These coins commemorate more than just an Over the past few months, Liberty Coin Ser­ tions were proceeding apace, and recognition historic event; they represent an ideal, a phi­ vice has been able to acquire a few of these had been received from the first ofthe world's losophy, a way oflife. historic coins to offer to its clients. Because of countries when disaster struck. The Minerva coin is a collector's dream our limited supply, we must place a strict lim­ On June 21, 1972 Minerva was forcibly come true. It is ... it offive (5) coins per order. invaded by the Republic ofTonga, its nearest ... HISTORIC. The world's first coin ever ... A SOLI D VALUE. Since it was minted neighbor, 260 miles distant. Unable to effec­ minted in gold andsilver, created and crafted in 1973, the Minerva coin has already in­ tively defend the island, its government was by the famous Letcher Mint. The obverse fea­ creased over 100% in price. This rare, historic forced into exile pending resolution of the tures a sculptured bust ofthe ancient goddess, and beautiful coin can be expected to further conflict. The possibility remains that the Minerva, in brilliant PURE GOLD (24K) appreciate in value over the years as its fame Republic of Minerva may yet reclaim its laid over a background and lettering in among the world's collectors continues to territory and if that should happen, the Mi­ PURE SILVER (.999). spread. nerva coin could multiply in value many But in addition to its historic importance, times over. beauty and the value ofits metallic properties, r------,Please accept my order for the Mi- the Minerva coin is the symbol of a little­ nerva Coins shipped to the follow­ "... the unique hi-metal silver and gold YeS. ing address. I understand that these known attempt to found a new country, es­ piece will always be a signpost in the coins are backed by LCS's guarantee: I may return tablished in 1972 by a group of visionary, calendar of the world, illustrating a them within 15 days ofreceipt for a full refund. ' freedom-loving libertarians. great step in numismatics and a great stride for mankind in finding a garden __ Minerva $35 1973 @ $75.00 = The Republic of Minerva QTY (limit 5 coins) of Eden in this everyday world." On January 19, 1972 the North and South -CoinAge Magazine Postage & Handling: Minerva Reefs (situated 400 miles south of Total Enclosed: Fiji, and previously unclaimed by any nation) were occupied and claimed under interna­ It is only by a stroke ofgood fortune that we tionallaw by the founders ofthe state of Mi­ located a handful ofMinerva coins, and made Name nerva. These men immediately commenced a arrangements to offer them at a price which we bold, sophisticated plan of landfill and sea­ believe offers outstanding possibilities for fu­ Address wall development to literally create from once ture appreciation, as well as present enjoy­ ment. City/State/Zip barren reefs the land needed for a city-state of 30,000 inhabitants. Unconditional Guarantee Phone The Republic of Minerva was dedicated to If you are not completely satisfied with your Liberty Coin Service the principles of capitalism and free­ purchase, you may return these coins within 300 Frandor Avenue, Lansing, MI 48912 enterprise. Its government was limited to the 15 days for a full refund - no questions L Toll Free (800) 321-1542 tr Michigan (800) 933-4720 ~ protection of its citizens against force or asked! September 1994 Inside Liberty Volume 7, Number 6

4 Letters Preaching from the choir. 7 Reflections Liberty's editors discuss baseball, football, tennis, moviegoing, pot-smoking, terrorism, government jobs, and other recreational activities. Plus: O.J. Simpson, Waco, and David Letterman ... the ominous non-parallels, pages 12-14. 19 Medianotes Press droppings. Features 21 The Man vs the Empire State Todd Seavey evaluates the political fortunes of Howard Stern, the Libertarian shock jock out to bring the death penalty back to New York and strippers back into politics. 25 Diagnosis in the Therapeutic State Today, a "disease" is anything that can be treated, and a "treatment" is anything the government will subsidize. Thomas Szasz proposes a higher standard. 29 The Allure of Organized Crime Stephen Cox sheds some light on the overclass problem. 34 Toad Trainers and the American Dream John Briggs confesses why he and his colleagues in American universities turn young people into mindless bureaucrats. 37 The Institutions of Higher Tuition The cost of a college education is skyrocketing; academic quality isn't. Jesse Walker proposes some radical changes. 41 The New Mythology of Rape Wendy McElroy assaults the new sexual myths radical feminists are erecting in place of the old. 47 Libertarian Pragmatism Bart Kosko suggests a new approach to freedom, based not on abstract principles but on messy, fuzzy reality. Reviews 53 Quackery, Left and Right Leland Yeager graphs the economists who trade intellectual integrity for political influence and truck such goofy notions as "supply-side economics" and "strategic trade." 56 The Evolution of an Independent Mind Timothy Virkkala follows a train of thought and finds Friedrich August von Hayek. 58 An Independent American Bill Kauffman examines the mixed legacy of George Wallace, American populist. 61 Rock, Paper, Scissors Brian Doherty explores the world of rock music criticism, from the pretentious to the sublime. 64 Booknotes on conspiracy panic, verses satanic, physics gone manic, poetic invocation, Brazilian innovation, Asimovian information, and how Thomas Sowell vents his frustration.

68 Classified Ads Condensed infomercials for your low-cal lifestyle. 69 Notes on Contributors Who am us, anyway? 70 Terra Incognita The lighter side of the decline of Western Civilization. September 1994

alty, but until there is a consensus [ Let t erS ]_ among the LP membership, the issue ~======:::::::..J stays out of the platform. Closet Com-Symp? nism, and have made something of a ce­ Yet the death penalty is number one on the Howard Stern platform. He is Doug Casey ("Sun, Seegars, and So­ lebrity out of Castro. Was Doug star­ even peddling a greatly expanded ver­ cialism," July 1994) says he's met some­ struck to meet such a "famous" person? sion, extending its application to every one"far more impressive than Bill Clin­ Did he thereafter lose his ability to think case of a crime committed with a gun. ton." I don't find that hard to believe at clearly about what this man has done? The LP rejected the voice of unity in vot­ all. Almost anyone would qualify, but Bryce Buchanan ing against James Ostrowski and choos­ not Fidel Castro. To speak glowingly of Lake Oswego, Ore. ing instead a candidate who openly ad­ Castro as a "man of character" who "be­ Best of All, It's a Vugo mits he is unqualified to be governor. lieves in things" and "takes ideas seri­ After Howard Stern handily defeat­ When comedian Pat Paulsen ran for ously" is absurd. ed James Ostrowski (author of "Back to president in the 1972 campaign, it was Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Chair­ the Libertarian Party," May 1994) as the funny. Stern's candidacy'is not funny. It man Mao, and Pol Pot believed in Libertarian Party's candidate for govern­ is a betrayal. The only beneficiary will be things, too - things like slaughtering or or of New York, I became more con­ Stern. For the LP, it is a disaster. imprisoning anyone who disagreed with vinced than ever that the LP belongs on Joanna Parker them. Don't you see, Doug, that if one of Comedy Central, not CNN or C-SPAN. Ocean Shores, Wash. the things you believe in is that those A funny thing has happened on my way who believe in different things need to to the polling booth, though. Ollie Typo Police be killed, that doesn't speak well of your North, heavily supported by the Chris­ One really shouldn't nit-pick Mark character? tian Right, beat out the IIJeffersonian" Skousen's wonderfully entertaining film. Taking ideas seriously means being economist Jim Miller for the Virginia Re­ review ("Oscar Shrugged," July 1994), open to the evidence for opposing ideas publican senatorial nomination. but he has confused the Anglo-Saxon and open to new ideas. In Castro's case, Where I live, a debate has been rag­ Robin of Locksley with the Hebrew this would mean he could accept the ing for nearly a year about a resolution Rabin of Loxley. mountain of evidence staring him in the John McClaughry condemning the IIgay lifestyle" issued face, that his ossified ideology is leading by the Cobb County Commission. The Ethan Allen Institute his country directly back to the Stone Republican-dominated Commission is Concord, Vt. Age. But no, he marches on with his attempting to curry the favor of suppos­ blinders, carrying the banner of "Social­ From the National edly "pro-family" Christian Rightists by ism or Death" - which for far too many A-Bomb Association targeting the gay community with its Cubans have turned out to bethe same I enjoyed the July issue, especially opprobrium. thing. Matthew Block's "Kid's-Eye View." Per­ Maybe the LP is little more than a de­ The way I see it, the world has its haps in a future issue, Mr Block could ex­ bating society, but I'd rather cast my common criminals whose depravity is plain to his father that "Nuclear bombs conscience for such a party than for the limited to snuffing out the lives and lib­ don't kill people, people kill people." persecuting society of the Christian erties of a small number of people. Then Bill Walker Right and their Republican puppets. you have your "modern government" Ferris, Tex. I thus find myself, like James Os­ criminals who do this on a much larger trowski, going back to the LP. I still have Terra Incompleta scale, e.g., at Waco. But the true scum of doubts about the Party's political effec­ Please, oh please, bring back Terra the earth are the totalitarian dictators tiveness, but I'd much rather be in the Incognita! That one humble page enables whose iron fists have caused death and Libertarians' Yugo than in a Republican lovers of liberty to look upon govern­ suffering across entire nations. Castro is Cadillac hijacked by the Christian Right. ment's absurdities with a smile. How not the worst ofthis group, but he is def­ Sean P. Costello else will we fend off those moments of initely a member. Marietta, Ga. despair when Leviathan has infringed The media have been extremely re­ upon yet another essential liberty? luctant to focus on the evils of Commu- Stern Justice In humor lies our only respite. The death penalty - government­ DiedreDennis sponsored first-degree murder - is an Agoura Hills, Calif. example of something that has become Letters Policy Editor's note: Terra Incognita returns with popular, testimony to the hardening of this issue. We invite readers to comment on articles America. (If you doubt it, witness how that have appeared in Liberty. We reserve many citizens salivated at the prospect Sorry, Wrong Tree the right to edit for length and clarity. All of Michael Fay's punitive flaying.) Granted, government is willing to letters are assumed to be intended for publi­ Among all the Western industrial­ make us do the useless, or even the cation unless otherwise stated. Succinct, ized nations, the United States alone downright harmful, in the name of help­ typewritten letters are preferred. Please in­ continues this barbaric practice. Every li­ clude your phone number so that we can ing us, but Gwynne Nettler ("Trafficking bertarian I know opposes the death pen- verify your identity. continued on page 6 The editors of Liberty magazine invite you to attend ''Liberty in the 21st Century" The 1994 Liberty Conference On Labor Day weekend, 1994, the leading libertarian thinkers of the twenty-first century will meet to explore the future of freedom and celebrate the achievements ofliberty. Join them, help chart a course for individual liberty in the next century, and have the time ofyour life! David Friedman - economist, legal philosopher, physicist, the J. Orlin Grabbe - proponent of chaos in theory and practice, author world's leading advocate ofanarcho-capitalism ... ofbest-selling textbook on international finance, president ofa Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw - health and nutrition researchers, multi-media production company ... authors ofbest-selling books and a Dirty Harry film, leading Scott Reid - research director for Canada's maverick Reform Party, critics ofthe Food and Drug Administration ... prophet ofpolitical devolution, best-selling author ... R.W. Bradford - the mind and impetus behind Liberty, John Hospers - first LP presidential candidate and only Libertarian long-distance motorcyclist, prophet ofthe obsolescence ofthe ever to receive an electoral vote for president, welfare state, celebrant oftoday's libertarian diversity and world-renowned philosopher and author ... tomorrow's libertarian world ... John Bergstrom - brilliant Liberty cartoonist, creator of Bart Kosko - premier theorist ofneural networks and "fuzzy logic," "Libertarian Man," editor at National Lampoofl.; killer engineer, composer, philosopher, mathematician, best-selling ofsmall furry animals ... writer, pioneer of"libertarian pragmatism" ... Fred L. Smith - head of the Competitive Enterprise Pierre Lemieux - Quebecois economist and explorer ofchaos theory, Institute, foe ofNAFTA and environmentalism ... pamphleteer for a free and armed society, clear-headed prophet of Greg Kaza - libertarian Republican state legislator from the computer revolution ... Michigan ... Douglas Casey - gonzo investor, best-selling author, proponent of Bruce Ramsey - former foreign correspondent, now an anarchist revolutions in the Third World, dinner companion to editor at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer . .. both Bill Clinton (whom he despises) and Fidel Castro (to whom -t Clark Stooksbury - the only retired Marine on Libertjs he gave his anarchist book) ... staff ... Ross Overbeek - pioneer in artificial intelligence, researcher on the Jesse Walker - punk-libertarian, japist, radio personality, Human Genome Project, currently involved in exporting libertari­ o foreign policy analyst, trouble-maker ... an ideas to Russia and importing Russian science to America ... TimothyVirkkala - autodidact, philosopher, economist, David Horowitz - Communist turned "libertarian irregular," former Sociable Darwinist ... editor ofAmerica's leading leftist magazine, now editor ofits C­ leading anti-PC publication, thorn in the side ofPublic Question, challenge, talk, argue ... Broadcasting, traitor to the '60s ... Eat, drink, laugh ... Victor Niederhoffer - innovative financial speculator and merchant O banker, former professor at Berkeley who knows more about how Celebrate the future ofliberty! markets actually function than any other scholar Harvard ever The 1994 Liberty Conference will be held in produced, five-time national squash champion, collector ofart and -<•_ Tacoma, Washington, September 2-5, 1994. ideas ... Conference price includes meals, lectures, seminars, Bill Kauffman - acid-penned essayist, novelist, critic ofthe New and workshops. And every night, a party! World Order, advocate oflocal culture and traditions against the onslaught ofmass culture ... Apply today. We'll send you info on hotel Karl Hess, Jr. - anti-war revolutionary in the '60s, today a visionary accommodations, travel, scheduling, etc. Make your anarchist range ecologist ... ~ plans now. This will be a weekend you'll never forget! Robert Higgs - developer ofthe ratchet-theory ofstate growth, Only a limited number ofguests can attend, so apply historian, economist ... quickly: you won't want to miss out! John A. Baden - architect ofthe "New Resource Economics," critic ofenvironmentalist excesses ... .y- ,I want to attend the 1994 Liberty Conference in Tacoma, • Don Meinhausen - government spy on libertarian activities in .. ------Washington, on Labor Day Weekend. Please accept myap-.. the'60s who took drugs and became an anarcho-pagan icon es· pliction. I enclose my payment of $195 ($225 after Aug. 1). I and promoter ofthe counterculture ... I Please also send me information on hotel accommodations. Richard Stroup - innovative free-market environmentalist, I 0 My check (payable to /lLiberty") for $195 is enclosed. economist who learned about government in the Reagan D Charge my: D Mastercard D Visa expires: _ I administration ... Account# _ Jane S. Shaw - journalist, editor, researcher, expert on protect­ ing environmental integrity through private property ... I Signature _ I Brian Doherty - writer, ghostwriter, rock musician, former Name _ editorial assistant at Liberty and managing editor of I Regulation, now Reason magazine's newest editor ... Address _ I David Boaz -leading Washington D.C. libertarian, Cato City, State, Zip _ Institute Vice President, contributor to USA Today, "The I I Rush Limbaugh Show," and other mainline media ... L ---_Send to: P.O. Box...1181,_-----Port Townsend, WA 98368 .I Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 in Numbers," May 1994) is barking up much higher than anyone cares to ad­ positions both too "leftist" (in the sense the wrong tree. We can dispute whether mit. Alcohol may playa role in this kind of being utopian anarchist) and too seat belts save enough net driver lives to of fatality, but it is not because of im­ "rightist" (in the sense of an exaggerated justify the costs of wearing them, but the paired driving ability. deference to an unsustainable natural fact that seat belts save lives is too well­ Nettler presents several good argu­ rights position). established to dispute. ments but blunts his poignancy by do­ A couple of years later I received The simple proof can be found at any ing exactly what he criticizes: assigning something in the mail urging me to join racetrack, where the driver is belted in relevance to the irrelevant. the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus. I to a degree that is only a dream to to­ James J. Baxter thought this was very bizarre. It struck day's safety fanatics. It took no laws to National Motorists Assoc. me that Rothbard in his ideological puri­ get wide use of these belts, just the sight Dane, Wise. ty was unwittingly imitating the Trot­ skyists, who couldn't join a left-wing or­ of a few bodies bouncing down the Paleo Fever: Catch ItI track. For that matter, nearly every­ ganization without forming a faction. Contrary to R.W. Bradford ("Re­ where we look, we see efforts to buckle You can imagine how shocked I was claiming the Truth," July 1994), the Bu­ in those who might bounce around. The to find Rothbard in Chronicles (a maga­ chanan Right is the only significant efficiency of seat belts may not beestab­ zine I like but don't necessarily agree counter-revolutionary force fighting the lished, but their effectiveness is. with), endorsing Pat Buchanan (I can see established order of Cold War liberalism David Carl Argall how a libertarian could respect Bucha­ today, just as the New Left was the only La Puente, Calif. nan, but vote for him? That's tough to ra­ major opposition to Cold War corporate tionalize), and publishing The Rothbard­ Statistically Impaired capitalism in the '60s. It is therefore the Rockwell Report. I enjoy RRR, but it amaz­ Gwynne Nettler was rolling right natural ally of libertarians committed to es me. It's a cranky, reactionary publica­ along and making some good headway the Rothbardian agenda of smashing the tion that in no way can be considered li­ in explaining the fallacies associated welfare-warfare state in the post-Cold bertarian. (Its boundless enthusiasm for with "safety statistics." Then, out of the War era. the Rodney King beating is just plain blue, Nettler states, "Virtually all re­ Lew Rockwell and the Mises Insti­ weird. King was no saint but you don't search on roadway safety agrees on one tute are among of the most important beat the you-know-what out of some­ fact: That somewhere between 400/0 and defenders of the free-market economy body for a Dill and resistance.) 60% of traffic fatalities is produced by and limited government. Pat Buchanan And what is all this endless blather drunken pedestrians, motorbikers, and made paleo themes the centerpiece of about left-wing libertarians? What is that drivers of trucks and passenger cars." his campaign, and has given the leaders supposed to mean? In the late '70s and IfNettler means alcohol impairment of the paleo movement (including Rock­ '80s, 1would have taken it to mean an "causes" 40% to 60% of all fatal acci­ well) a legitimate national stage. anarcho-communist or syndicalist or dents, then he is in deeper water than the By reviving the Old Right, Justin Rai­ perhaps a mutualist. But Ed Crane and seatbelt proponent who claims seatbelt mondo and the paleo movement offer li­ Virginia Postrel are "left-wingers"? Rea­ usage can eliminate 100% of all traffic re­ bertarians an opportunity to reconnect son, which was firmly to the right of lated fatalities. That 40% or 60% of all with Middle America and reclaim our Rothbard's Libertarian Forum, is now traffic accident fatalities have some evi­ rightful place as an important part of "left-Wing"? I honestly don't know dence of alcohol in their systems is sel­ American political.culture. what's going on. Rothbard and his dom provable, and the alcohol is often Norman K. Singleton clique were to the left of the Reason clearly not the reason for the accidents. Arlington, Va. crowd; now they're to its "right." Alcohol impairment has become the Paleo Mysteries And who is Llewellyn Rockwell and why is anyone supposed to take him se­ scapegoat of the '80s and '90s. The neo­ In the summer of 1979 I attended the riously? You've got to admit, it's time prohibition movement has grasped Cato Institute political economy seminar someone wrote an account of this. I can't "highway safety" as its banner-carrier. at Dartmouth. It was a great deal and a be the only one baffled by these develop­ Anyone and everyone looking to deflect lot of fun. Murray Rothbard was one of ments. I'd appreciate your publishing an criticism from themselves screams, "It's the leading lecturers and 1talked with not our fault, leave us alone, and go af­ article on this. him at length. At that time, Rothbard Finally, what is all this bitterness be­ ter the drunks." This bit of self-serving was an unabashed anarchist, who tween Rothbard, Cato, and the Libertari­ pandering only reinforces public mis­ claimed if he could press a button and an Party all about? I remember Ed Crane conceptions about the causes of high­ make the state disappear, he would. being quite fond of Rothbard and David way accidents. (Which I thought and think is nuts.) Boaz being positively sycophantic in his With 600/0 to 80% of the adult popula­ Rothbard also made it clear that while approach to Rothbard. (I argued with tion regularly consuming alcoholic bev­ he respected religion, especially Thomis­ Boaz about Rothbard's interpretation of erages and medications, it stands to rea­ tic Catholicism, he was an atheist. He American history, which strikes me as son that there will be traces of alcohol in was a militant opponent of collaboration ideological and inaccurate. Boaz would the blood of accident victims. The num­ with conservatives, and stressed the li­ hear nothing of that.) Now they appar­ ber of suicides and homicides that em­ bertarian opposition to that hallmark of ently all hate each other. Boaz and Crane ploy vehicles is not known. However, American conservatism, the victimless anecdotal experience suggests that it is crime law. I liked him but1thought his continued on page 18 6 Liberty Rosty's wrongs - The indictment of Ways and try. He has proclaimed that he will "end welfare as we know Means potentate Dan Rostenkowski is the most shocking it." For once, I am confident that what Clinton says is quite lit­ D.C. scandal since ... well, since the last Washington scandal, erally true. -TWV whichever one that was. Maybe I've let some of the nuances Bill Clinton of the case slip by but, as best I can figure, Rosty's main of­ Off the dole and high on life - has promised to "end welfare as we know it." Now that the fense is to have placed on the government payroll some peo­ ple who never turned in any useful work. No, I'm not details of his welfare reform plan have been released, we kidding; this is what the Justice Department lawyers are say­ know what that delphic phrase means: spend more public ing. I trust that the readers of Liberty will display the suitable money on day care, health care, and job-training boondog­ measure of astonishment and righteous indignation in re­ gles. This is considered a "conservative" move, because the sponse to this revelation. -LEL bulk of the new spending will be used to push around those who are on the dole, thus substituting toughness on welfare Whitewater evaporates - The U.S. Senate is a "clients" for toughness on welfare budgets. The response of genuinely comic place. On March 17, its members voted 98-0 congressional Republicans, as usual, has been to propose their to hold hearings on "all matters related to Madison Guaranty own version of the same bill. Savings & Loan Association, Whitewater Development Corp., The theory behind the Clinton proposal is that the alterna­ and Capital Management Services, Inc." In order to prevent tive to relief must be "work" - not necessarily productive la­ those hearings from becoming "a partisan circus," the august bor, just work. If jobs in the private sector can't be found for body voted along strict partisan lines June 14 to limit the the dolees, jobs in the public sector will be created for them; hearings to the conduct of Clinton's aides regarding the spe­ or else the government will bribe businesses to hire them by cial prosecutor's investigation and the death of Vincent paying all or part of their salary. Foster. In sum, the Whitewater hearings will be prohibited In other words, those who are currently getting govern­ from investigating any "matters related to Madison Guaranty ment money called "welfare" will instead get government Savings & Loan Association, Whitewater Development Corp., money called "wages." Plenty more people will be hired to and Capital Management Services, Inc." -eAA administer all the shiny new programs; for some reason, they won't be called welfare recipients either. Speaking power to truth - I am at last begin­ I'm no admirer of AFDC, but today's welfare mothers are ning to concur with Confucius: the "reform of language" may doing something at least potentially worthwhile with their re­ be our most important task. Why? The careless elision of lief checks: raising children. But in the jargon of the secular words in stock phrases, and the consequent redefinition of state, child-rearing is not "work." Unproductive government common words, has gotten out of hand. make-work projects are, because they involve time-clocks, Take the word "discrimination." It used to mean deliberate bosses, and the pretense of doing something socially useful. with a eulogistic meaning of appraisal, careful discernment, wise One of my utopian hopes is for politicians to take on the choice, either in word or deed. But the constant pairing of the largest group for whom "welfare has become a way of life": word with "racial" and "sexual" (et cetera and ad nauseam) led the bureaucrats who make their living creating and adminis­ to a wholly pejorative usage, so that by the ominous year 1984 tering these programs. That is unlikely, though, as it would both major-party American presidential candidates could as­ require spending less - and, as the pundits keep reminding sert with straight faces that "all discrimination is wrong." The us, "It costs a lot of money to end welfare as we know it." Or discriminating voter, of course, voted for neither. define it. -JW Right now "institutional health care reform" is being called "health care," and opponents of this current slog of stu­ I'm sorry, which trimester? - Once the pid ideas on Capitol Hill are routinely branded as being Clinton health care plan is passed, abortion will be free, but "against health care." No, I am not against health care, you you'll have to wait 14 months to get one. -WPM ninnies. Because I am for progress in the medical arts I am against the idiocies of the Clinton administration, the Ladies, your slips are showing - Those Democratic Party, and the minority wimps. (It is hard to be­ who wince at "feminist statistics" must read Christine Hoff lieve that anyone could fall for the cheap rhetorical trick here Sommers' new book, Who Stole Feminism? As an opening shot, being played, but played it is, over and over again, as if it Sommers traces the roots of the well-circulated claim that were trump.) 150,000 women die each year of anorexia. Although several But worse yet are President William Jefferson Clinton's university texts now quote this astronomical stat with gay , yammerings about the provision of state charity in this coun- abandon, when Sommers traced the source of the data - the Liberty.. 7 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

American Anorexia and Bulimia Association - she found signed to a two-hour class in "how to behave when getting that the actual figure was 54 deaths per year. This hardly ex­ arrested." The class includes demonstrations of how to be plodes the myth that women are bad at math. -WM handcuffed, advice not to resist or complain, and information that they might expect to be arrested for such offenses as Fascism and federalism - Reading the fascists wearing "baggy pants," or "acting suspiciously," or because always gives a sense of deja vu. They sound like voices from "someone may have called to complain about the kids' pres­ yesterday's newspaper. ence" - but "no information regarding their Miranda rights, I've found a few illustrations of this in the speeches of or how they should protect themselves if taken into Benito Mussolini. custody." On June 8, 1923, speaking before the Italian Senate, Prime Meanwhile, historians have learned that the failure of Minister Mussolini said, "The Government has been com­ government education accounts for many of history's uphea­ pelled to levy taxes which unavoidably hit large sections of vals. Schools in Massachusetts in the 1760s failed to provide the population. The Italian people are disciplined, silent, and adequate education on the subject of "how to behave when calm, they work and know that there is a Government which British troops tell you to disperse." Schools in Alabama in the governs and know, above all, that if this Government hits 1940s failed to provide classes in "sitting in the back of the cruelly certain sections of the Italian people, it does so not out bus." As recently as the 1980s, schools in East Germany failed of caprice, but from the supreme necessity of national order." to provide sufficient instruction in "how to act while visiting Hear also, from the same speech: liThe measures adopted barriers protecting the people's government from the inroads to restore public order are: First ofall, the elimination of the so­ of decadent capitalism." -RWB called subversive elements.... They were elements of disorder and subversion. On the morrow of each conflict I gave the cate­ The Brady brunch - Some months ago I had din­ gorical order to confiscate the largest possible number of ner with Jim and Sarah Brady. I've known the couple for sev­ weapons of every sort and kind. This confiscation, which con­ eral years, but never spent any real time with them. tinues with the utmost energy, has given satisfactory results." Naturally, the conversation centered on politics in general, It's also useful to read the tyrant-fighters, particularly in and gun legislation in particular. this debilitating atmosphere of the fin de siecle, when most Sarah, who's made the promotion of anti-gun hysteria people cannot distinguish a tyrant from a rocking chair. In into a profession, was surprisingly affable and reasonable, Federalist Paper #62, James Madison wrote, lithe internal ef­ even if very poorly informed on almost all the details - fac­ fects of a mutable policy are ... calamitous. It poisons the tual, legal, and technical- of her life's work. I'd expected her blessings of liberty itself. It will be of little avail to the people to be grim and strident once we got into it, but that just that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws wasn't the case. My conclusion is that, for all the damage be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent she's doing, she's really no more than a simple dupe of the that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed before powers of darkness. they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes It was Jim who was really reactive. Jim continues to recov­ that no man who knows what the law is to-day can guess er from his tragic shooting, sustained when he was President what it will be to-morrow." --PL Reagan's press secretary; he's still got an excellent sense of humor, but it's become bitter and hostile. That's understanda­ Servility, 101- WhenI was a child, I washerded with ble, of course, considering what he's been through, but it's other tykes into the cafeteria of the governmentschool I attend­ unfortunate. Equally unfortunately, Jim came down on the ed and shown a film on "good citizenship." At one point, the anti-liberty, pro-repression side of every single issue we film posed the question, "What makes a person a good citi­ discussed. zen?" It quickly answered with a list of characteristics, the first I can only hope he gets better spiritually, ,as well as physi­ (and presumably foremost) of which being that a good citizen cally. Meanwhile, his attitudes are having a poor effect on so­ pays his taxes cheerfully. I had no political ciety - directly, with the Brady Law, and views at the time, but this struck me as pecu­ Liberty's Editors indirectly, with all the wrong-headed, de­ liar, and I have remembered it ever since. It structive foolishness it has engendered. -DC was my first encounter with the inevitable ten­ Reflect dency for government schools to indoctrinate CAA Chester Alan Arthur The Brady crunch - "I'm rushing the young to be docile and obedient to state RWB R.W. Bradford you this alert to requestyouremergency finan­ power. DC Douglas Casey cial help. Our legal action team must have the A recent newspaper article offers those of SC Stephen Cox funds required to mount a vigorous defense of us who haven't been inmates of government RH Robert Higgs the Brady Law. And because of the enormous schools for a while an opportunity to see the PL Pierre Lemieux costs of litigation, we need help beyond our lengths to which this message is promulgat­ ML Michael Levine regular supporters. We need the help ofevery­ RL Ron Lipp ed today. In Suitland, Maryland, public one who cares about saving the Brady Bill. LEL Loren E. Lomasky schools hold special classes to teach students WM Wendy McElroy "On behalf of the American people, we how to be arrested in a way that minimizes WPM William P. Moulton must not let them get away with this travesty inconvenience for police. CS Clark Stooksbury of justice. Please respond today with an The Wall Street Journal reports that stu­ TWV Timothy Virkkala emergency contribution to help defend the dents in the Washington, D.C. suburb are as- JW Jesse Walker Brady Law." 8 Liberty {olume 7, Number 6 September 1994

That was the desperate plea of an "Emergency Alert" sent among rappers? Why is it easy to accept that Lou Reed writes :>y Sarah Brady to raise funds for the Center to Prevent dramatic monologues, but hard to understand that Ice T does Handgun Violence. It seems that a federal judge in Montana the same thing? Or that "bitch" and "ho" and "nigger" can aas declared part of the Brady Bill unconstitutional- specifi­ mean different things in different contexts? Or, less abstractly, cally, the provision that requires local law enforcement agen­ that Ice T and Ice Cube are two different people? (Yeah, yeah, cies to do background checks at their own expense on all who I know - they all look alike.) attempt to purchase a handgun. A Montana sheriff sued, say­ Imagine a political uproar· over whether·mystery novels ing his department didn't have money to enforce this federal are "pro-violence," or if "the" newspapers are "anti­ law, and arguing that the tenth amendment prohibits the fed­ government," or what painting, as an art form, has to say eral government from forcing a local government to do its about women. There are a lot of gangsta rappers out there, work without compensation. with different things to say, different ways of saying it, and What's curious about Sarah Brady's desperate plea for different degrees of talent, just like any other kind of music. Is money to finance a "vigorous defense of the Brady Law" is that really so difficult to understand? -JW that her group is not involved in the litigation. The sheriff Two years ago, upon defeating Steffi sued the federal government, not Ms Brady's organization. Tainted pot - Graf for the gold medal in tennis at the Barcelona Olympics, The federal government is represented by the Justice teenager Jennifer Capriati became the darling of the sports Department, not by Ms Brady's organization. media, a prodigy, the. rising star and future of American On the other hand, Ms Brady's fundraising specialists women's tennis. In subsequent tournaments, however, those know that the best way to raise funds is to hoist the flag of judgments proved premature; poor performances became alarm, scare thebejesus out of people, and tell them that the commonplace, her weight began to increase, and the spark in only way they can help is by sending in their shekels and that her play that had characterized her charm·when she first truth-in-advertising laws don't apply to them. -RWB joined the circuit disappeared. Last fall, Capriati, a million­ Cubs 21, Kids 9 - Doing what they do naturally aire, was arrested for shoplifting cheap jewelry from a depart­ when protected from the law of the jungle, California's bur­ ment store. She took. an indefinite leave of absence from geoning mountain lion population has begun to intersect tennis, claiming she wanted to finish high school. The latest more with human society. In April, an EI Dorado.woman chapter in her soap opera occurred in May, when she was ar­ paid the ultimate price while jogging on a popular county rested for possession of marijuana. footpath. The offending cougar was identified, tracked, and With the revelation of her arrest, the media's bullshit ma­ killed; she proved to be a lioness with a single cub. chine went into full swing. While various explanations can be A trust form established for the care of the orphaned cub offered for her behavior - e.g., she is a typical moody teenag­ has collected $21,000 to date. A trust fund for the jogger's er who also happens to be a sports star who has missed much children, ages eight and five, has collected $9,000. Draw your of her adolesceI;lce, and dammit she's just not dealing with it well - the emphasis was placed on her use of drugs. She was own conclusions about America's priorities. -RL immediately held up as a tragic example ofa pervasive evil. Beating the rap - Many years ago, Johnny Cash re­ Although two days after the arrest she checked herself into a corded "Cocaine Blues," a terrific song that opens with this rehab center for the apparent use of harder drugs, her reputa­ couplet: "Early one morning while making the rounds/I took tion was dealt a weighty blow for a simple possession of pot. a shot of cocaine, and I shot my woman down." It goes on to Had she never done anything.more potent or dangerous, it describe the narrator's arrest, trial, and imprisonment; de­ wouldn't have mattered. She used drugs, ergo her name is spite the last line's admonition to "let that cocaine be," the tainted, regardless of what type of drug she took. tone of the song is matter-of-fact and unrepentant. So: is the Man in Black a Menace II Society? The asinine debate over "gangsta rap" rests on a founda­ tion of ignorance of music and history. There is nothing uniquely offensive about this relatively new sort of music; country, blues, opera, and rock overflow with violence, sex­ ism, and paeans to drunkenness and drugs. All these genres can also be anti-violent; anti-sexist, and anti-drug, of course. And some songs are simply acts of jour­ nalism - the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" is powerful but value-neutral reportage, as is their "There She Goes Again," a second-person dramatic monologue about a man who beats his girlfriend. Neither angry nor forgiVing, it keeps returning to the line, "You better hit her." If Tipper Gore or Carol Mosely Braun heard that, they'd be crying "Misogyny!" lJr!f1!!.~1~~f:;· But most of us can distinguish between a stark look at do­ __.__ . .-- .- .._...... mestic violence and a call to spouse-beating arms, between a Hl/88FLL AffRtJA/dl1cKr I-/Av'f t~UN1) song like "There She Goes Again" and a nasty ditty from, say, (tJNC.LrJ5f Vii fV1D6'NCc; or A13LACK f((1{...E:' W.A.S.P. Why is it difficult to make the same distinctions A(1#( CH. f(A{,{) -Po)! oIT',a Liberty 9 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

There is a lesson in this saga for those of us who advocate Iy subdued. In Bosnia, killings continue, but the body count the abolition of all drug laws. If a virtually harmless drug like appears to be down. Africa is a mess, but Africa is always a marijuana continues to have such a bad reputation, then have mess. Ditto the former Soviet Union. At home, too, events we really made any substantial progress toward our desired move sluggishly. The White Waters of Arkansas have at least goal? Earlier this year, when Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders temporarily stagnated, so-called health care reform languish­ mentioned that the mere study of legalization might be fruit­ es in committee, and the nation is not (yet?) dispatching ful, it was regarded as a sign of progress when the media troops to Haiti or North Korea or South Central Los Angeles. didn't react hysterically (although Elders' employers felt no The Washington press corps is willing to tell you what the need to hold back). And so it was. But it was a progress that president is doing, but who of good sense wants to know? reminds us just how much work still needs to be done. -ML Other than tawdry episodes of human frailty that titillate much but signify little - Bob Barker's bimbos, O.J. Simpson's Addicted to lawsuits - Remember the guy who bereavement, Dan Rostenkowski's unconventional manage­ was sued by his neighbor for returning with a hole in it a beer ment style - the world appears placid and quiet. Hurrah! bock he had previously borrowed? "1 will prove three indis­ All the more r~ason to turn at this time to what is truly putable facts," the defendant's lawyer told the judge: "First, important: baseball. God didn't create summers so that we my client never borrowed the beer bock. Second, the thing al­ can scrutinize the Congressional Record. Rather, according to ready had the hole in it when he borrowed it. And third, he the not-quite-Authorized Version, on the eighth day He said, returned it in perfect condition." "Let there be Doubleday and diamond!" - and the rest is Well, consistency and logic are as in short supply in the history. suit against tobacco companies that an Americn lawyer is This summer more than others should find my gaze per­ launching on behalf of individuals addicted to tobacco (Wall manently glued to the sports pages, for atop the standings of Street Journal, May 19). the American League East are the New York Yankees. Some Either addiction changes an individual's preferences in will cavil at this enthusiasm, but for nigh unto four decades I such a way that he is not responsible for them anymore, or it have looked to the Bronx as devout Muslims do to Mecca. doesn't. If it doesn't, the suit appears to be just another step When I was a boy I fervently believed that Mickey Mantle in galloping government intervention in people's preferences walked on water. Later I found out that water was not his liq­ under the guise of misconceived rule of law. After all, if indi­ uid. of choice. Still, in a parade of larger-than-life heroes ­ viduals are wise enough to elect legislators and hire lawyers, Aaron, Mays, Williams, the Duke - he stood tallest. And they must be adult enough to decide what to consume. If it come autumn one could count on the leaves falling off the does - well, then, we have a big litigation explosion looming trees and Mantle (and Berra, and Rizzuto, and the rest of the on the horizon, for habits and addictions are everywhere in pantheon) leading the Yankees into the World Series. But that life. Shall there be a class action suit on behalf of husbands was then, and this is now. For a depressingly long time the who are addicted to their wives - or, to be less P.C. and Bronx Bombers have been the Bumblers, and throughout the more realistic, their mistresses? '70s and the '80s I was reluctantly compelled to shift my. at­ In this perspective, it is time we put an end to the most tention to football three weeks earlier than was natural. potent and detrimental addiction of human history, one that By rights, then, I should be captivated by my beloved has produced much death and misery: the habit of counting team's overdue resurrection and mortified by the possibility more and more on political solutions as government tries to of this party being interrupted by a mid-season strike. I organize their lives for them. Perhaps it is time for a class ac­ should be, but - and I admit this with more than a little em­ tion suit against government, on behalf of those people ­ barrassment - the drama barely engages my emotions. I'm like the anti-tobacco lawyers - who have become addicted to finding the baseball season only slightly less stultifying than government power. -PL recountings of the Clintons' financial dealings and sightings of presidential bedmates. Addicted to sex- Thecultof"victimization"reached Well, maybe it's just that I'm getting old. And so, accord­ another absurd height in a new development in the Jennifer ing to my internist and mirror, I am. Still, I can't help but be­ Capriati story. An acquaintance of Capriati's has brought suit lieve that the flagging of this enthusiasm bespeaks more than againsther, alleging that their association has led himback into the purely autobiographical. Rather, I maintain, sports itself drug addiction, bycoercing - yes, coercing - him to use drugs has lost its savor. bymeansofsex. Apparently, whenconfronted withthe alterna­ Not only baseball is in the doldrums. As I write, teams tive of taking drugs and getting laid versus refusing drugs and from Houston and New York are playing for the basketball beingfrustrated, theplaintiffcouldnothelp himself. championship. Several extraordinarily gifted players show up The implication of this argument is that all horny young for the games, but their respective teams are displaying a men - i.e., all young men - should be locked up for their more pathetic brand of basketball than any who have here­ own protection, lest their sexual urges bring menace upon tofore reached this stage of ostensible excellence. Only be­ themselves. The nanny state cannot permit this to happen, cause of an inadvertence on the part of Mr Naismith was any more than it can allow us to smoke cigarettes or ride bicy­ Game 1 not recorded as a loss by both teams. Subsequent con­ cles without helmets. -ML tests have been scarcely better. Meanwhile, the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup. Those who follow the sport Strikeout! - It's a quiet summer in Northwest Ohio will instantly realize just how ludicrous that particular de­ and, apparently, the rest of the world. Headlines are blessed- nouement is. 10 Liberty Crisis Investing for the Rest of the '90s by Original thinker Doug Douglas Casey Casey, with a brilliant 14-year track record, is one ofthe most suc­ cessful - and perhaps controversial - fig­ ures in the financial world.

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"... I have known Douglas Casey since the mid-1970s or so. In my Area Code - Fax # opinion, he is one ofthe very few original thinkers in the newsletter business - or even in the entire investment world. He also is blessed o Check or money order (payable to Douglas Casey) with afacility for explaining his ideas in an interesting manner." Harry Browne o MasterCard o VISA expiration date: _ HARRY BROWNE SPECIAL REPORTS Card Number "... Crisis Investing,for the Rest Qjtbe '90s. Doug Casey's fourth book, is his best by far. It is a measured assessment oftoday's crazy-quilt in­ vestment arena. What makes it unique and also the best ofDoug's work Signature: _ is that it combines unswerving dedication to individual responsibility, the wisdom ofa hardened veteran ofthe financial markets and the best of For faster service, order by phone: 1-800-527-1500 Doug's irreverent, iconoclastic wit. ..." __ U.S. $22.50 +$4.50 S&H and receive a sample newsletter. John Pugsley JOHN PUGLSEY'S JOURNAL __ U.S. $97.50 + $4.00 S&H. Please send Crisis Investingfor the Rest of the 90's with a 1 yr. trial subscription with 90 day money back guarantee. Crisis Investing for the Rest ojthe '90s made me feel as though I were watching some wild and intense drama. ... Creative metaphors; Mail to: hilarious, pithy anecdotes; innovative graphic analyses; psychological curiosities ... a remarkable array ofanalytic insights. ... Doug Casey Victor Niederhoffer Box 5195 LIBERTY, March 1994 Helena, MT 59604 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

Why do I bother the readers of Liberty with these melan­ other botanical specimens don't fare so well. For these a liber­ choly reflections? Two reasons. First, an overriding concern al regime is barren ground. Professional athletics is, I believe, with matters political is a sign of corruption. Some things are one of them. To the extent that autonomy and profit­ more deserving of attention than the latest permutations of maximization supplant archaic virtues of self-sacrifice and the politicos; sports is one of those things. But second, the de­ loyalty for the sake of the greater whole, the drama becomes cline recounted above is not without implications for the watery and weak. Such, for better or worse, has transpired. more conventional themes of this journal. (Participants in high school and collegiate athletics are un­ Those involved in professional athletics as players, own­ paid, foully exploited functionaries dominated by autocratic ers, agents, and assorted apparatchiks have never had it so coaches. Not coincidentally, sports at these levels retains their good. Once upon a time, ball players were bound to their charms.) teams for life (or until the owner sent them off to fill a hole in The moral, then, is that goods are ineradicably diverse the infield or to get enough cash to payoff a gambling debt). and cannot all be packaged together. When we gain we also Few made more money in one year than a skilled laborer lose. Sometimes the gains compensate for the losses, some­ does over the course of a lifetime. And fans knew from year times they do not. It is indeed a loss when .240 hitters jump to year where they would find their teams. All this began to from team to team as they market themselves for multi­ erode when a man named O'Malley hijacked the Dodgers billion-dollar salaries and deferred payments well into the from Brooklyn to L.A. and Curt Flood successfully litigated twenty-first century; it is a loss when one has to pronounce the demise of the reserve clause's indentured servitude. with a straight face names like "Utah Jazz." A free society jus­ As a card-carrying liberal, I do of course support the right tifies even enormities such as these. Still, I do miss the energy of players to sell their services to the highest bidder, of own­ and fervor and disciplined intensity of a sparkling season of ers to determine the deployment of their personal property, baseball. That, for the uninitiated, is the game of games, and of capitalism to bloom amidst the diamonds and gridirons is best played by 16 teams in two leagues. and hardcourts. And yet ... Ah well. Maybe I'll go hunt for the best tenth birthday ... something has been lost in the process. A recent re­ present this boy ever got, a genuine major league ball auto­ reading of Aristotle's Politics has nudged me into thinking graphed by The Mick. -LEL about what that might be. The agonistic glory of athletics is The murderer as hero? - On June 17, 1994, a for­ ancient, older than the exchange society, even older than the mer football player and current professional advocate of a Greeks who brought it to an Olympian peak. The virtues and rental-car agency was accused in Los Angeles of the brutal principles of athletic achievement are not those of liberal soci­ murder of his form~r wife and her 25-year-old friend. The ety. Indeed, to a considerable extent they are antithetical. A football player fled arrest and was chased. Cornered, he was team's success is built on the loyalty, obedience, and self­ coaxed into dropping his gun and was arrested. sacrifice of the players. It is not reducible to the achievements When news of the football player's flight was broadcast, of the various individuals of which it is comprised. The prior­ the route of the chase was lined by thousands of people eager ity is reversed: one does well as a player insofar as one carries to express their love for him. Many of these people followed out one's assigned role. Within this context the liberal values him to the scene of his final confrontation with the police, of autonomy, self-determination, critical detachment toward where they staged a party in his honor. Meanwhile, people proffered ends, and a propensity to question authority are not on television also expressed love for the "hero," the major virtues; indeed, they are not virtues at all. "American icon," the"fun person," the "kind, generous man" The point? I'm coming to that. who five years previously had been convicted of beating the It is perpetually tempting to suppose that all goods come wife whom he now has allegedly killed. (He was sentenced to together in one tidy package. Or at least that they will so ar­ take therapy by phone.) Some television personalities harped ray themselves if only we play our cards right. Liberals are on the theme of innocent people condemned for crimes they perhaps especially prone to that fantasy. In the free society, did not commit. Many said that their "prayers were with" the we proclaim, a thousand flowers bloom! And so they do. But accused murderer. What provoked the audience's reaction? Sympathy for the underdog? A healthy skepticism about police accusations? Or was it something else? Perhaps it had something to do with religious fanaticism, though not of any traditional American kind. On the same June day, a judge in Texas dealt out sentenc­ es of up to 40 years in prison to members of a religious cult, chiefly for the crimes of purchasing and possessing weapons. The cultists had apparently procured these weapons to de­ fend themselves from government agents. Their apprehen­ sions were realized when government agents invaded their home, provoking a battle, a siege, and the massacre of over 80 people, many of them children, some of them too badly burned to permit a precise body count. A jury acquitted the cult members of the substantial charges against them, leaving 12 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 only those relating to weapons. When the foreman of the jury to escalate, resulting in gory murders of the sort allegedly heard the savage sentences meted out on those charges, she perpetrated by the former football star. One politician ­ broke into outraged tears. Hubert Humphrey, Jr - has proposed broad-based measures The judge, however, called the cult members "terrorists" to deal with the problem, including mandatory overnight jail and likened them to the conspirators who bombed the World sentences of those accused of abuse and taking away from the Trade Center. No crowds formed to protest the sentences. victim of abuse the right to withdraw charges. In other The woman who ordered the final attack on the cultists' words, he proposes to make spouse abuse a crime for which home because she thought they were"child abusers" remains one can be incarcerated without such niceties as constitution­ the much-applauded attorney general of the United States, al rights. despite the fact that she was proved to have thought wrong Among the many obvious complexities overlooked by the about virtually everything that led to the massacre. No phase politicians and media bozos are the unhappy facts that family of the trial was closely followed by the media. No national relations are extremely nuanced and complex, while the hand media time was spent in prayer for the cultists, alive or dead. of government is crude and unsubtle. Police who are reluc­ If there was sympathy for the underdog or healthy suspicion tant to intervene in domestic quarrels are often acting sensi­ about police accusations, it was politely muffled. From the be­ bly, both for themselves and for society. Their intervention ginning, the media had been unremittingly hostile to the only temporarily stops the abuse, which tends to return ratch­ cultists, as the media are to all "violent" people, so long as eted to a higher level. Spouses are often reluctant to press those people are not prominent in sports, film, or charges because their emotions are complicated and ambiva­ government. lent. Very often they remain in love with their abuser. If On June 15, while driving through Los Angeles, I heard Junior Humphrey's program is enacted, victims of spouse an elderly black lady try to explain to a talk show host that al­ abuse will be more reluctant to call the authorities. What though she wasn't sure if O.J. Simpson had killed anyone, good will that do? and she hoped he hadn't, she wasn't very concerned about Spouse abuse may be a problem for which there is no per­ the case. "They're making him out a hero, but he's just a guy fect solution, and one about which government can do pre­ who played football. He's not a hero! Jesus was a hero!" cious little. It is not a simple criminal-victim sort of thing, but She had a point. But the religion of the mob - from the a problem that is shared by both the abuser (who shouldn't be hitting his spouse, or acting like a lunatic) and the abusee Sixpacks on the freeway to the New Agers at the anchor deck (who shouldn't stay in a relationship with an abuser). - is not Christianity, of any kind. Nor is it the American civic In the meantime, I suspect the best way to mitigate the religion of liberty and justice for all. It is the paganism of the damage caused by spouse abuse is for its victims to refuse to football hero, of the kind of person whom the Romans, in be victims. So-called "experts" seem to agree that spouse their dotage, used to deify. -SC abuse seldom takes the form of isolated incidents and that its 0./., Waco, and Letterman David violence usually escalates over time. Ifits victims left the rela­ Letterman has refrained from mentioning O.J. Simpson's case tionship at an early sign of abuse - before it reached felonious on his television show on grounds that "double murders levels - the damage would certainly be far less. aren't funny." I don't want to try to tell Letterman what's fun­ Discussion in the media has pretty much tacitly assumed ny and what isn't, or what to talk about or what to avoid. But that all abusers are male and all victims female. However, just how funny is the invasion of an eccentric religious com­ there are also cases in which a female abuses a male, though munity by government agents that resulted in ten homicides? these often go unreported because the victims fear embarrass­ During the truce between the Davidians and the FBI, ment. But it seems likely that most abusers are men, if only Letterman made nightly jokes ridiculing the Davidians. Is it because men are generally bigger and stronger than women. possible that these jokes might have desensitized Americans Which brings to mind a unique American tool, the IIequaliz­ to the violence that followed, when the FBI renewed its at­ er." The smallest woman holding a Colt .45 has little to fear tack, resulting in nearly 100 additional homicides? How fun­ from the biggest man. ny was that, Dave? I recall hearing Dolly Parton tell a story on David Is it that double homicides are unfunny but mass murder Letterman's talk show about an experience she had on the is hilarious? Or has Letterman learned something from his lit­ street when she first came to New York. She was only 18, and any of anti-Davidian jokes? -RWB she dressed the same way she did back home - i.e., like a hooker. An inebriated man propositioned her, was rebuffed, Silver lining - The one good thing to emerge from refused to take "no" for an answer, and began to assault her. the O.J. Simpson case is that it finally raises public awareness Dolly happened to be carrying a gun in her purse just like she of professional football. -CS did back home, and the man learned to act like a gentleman very quickly. Letterman's audience gasped when she men­ Murder mostfoul - Only a few days have passed tioned the gun - apparently the idea of a teenage girl being since O.J. Simpson was arrested for the brutal murder of his able to defend herself didn't sit too well with them - and ex-wife and her male "friend," but already we have learned Dolly quickly apologized, saying she was young and didn't that the real significance of the episode is that spouse abuse is know any better and of course she would never carry a gun a far worse problem than previously appreciated. Part of the today. problem, we have been told, is that victims of spouse-abuse You have to wonder what would have happened to her if often refuse to prosecute, which enables the pattern of abuse Dolly hadn't been carrying her "equalizer" that day. At the Liberty 13 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 very least, she would have been assaulted, perhaps raped, for the benefit of its financial backers in the Arab nations and perhaps killed. As it was, the man walked away with his tail starts suppressing it for the Israeli oppressor instead. But any between his legs and no one even bothered to report the inci­ step toward peace In that bloody region deserves at least dent to the police. And I suspect that man may have thought some commendation. Surely, the catty, ignorant insults issu­ twice before making unwelcome advances to strangers in the ing from Israel's War Party do no one any good. -JW future. Of course, Baby Huey and his pals in the media are not This C-note gets an F- Senator Patrick Leahy has introduced legislation requiring the recall of all $100 bills, going to propose letting people pack handguns. Nor are they to be replaced by two new designs - one for circulation in going to suggest that victims of spouse abuse should accept the another for circulation abroad. The foreign version of responsibility for their own actions and leave relationships u.s., the $100 bill could not enter the U.S. without being exchanged that become abusive. Every problem has a solution, and at a bank that is regulated by the U.S. This, he states, would every "solution" involves giving the government more pow­ strike a blow to drug dealers. Plus, he figures, many of the er. -RWB outstanding $100 bills would never be turned in, since the Non-sequiturissimo - Sen. Dale Bumpers ex­ drug lords wouldn't be able to explain how they got them. plains his opposition to term limits: "If you lose the institu­ This would make a tidy profit for the government. tional memory of the individuals in Congress, the result will Tell me, have you ever heard anything stupider coming be that Congress will just repeat the same mistakes." Right, from the mouth of a U.S. senator? I know that senators are idi­ Senator, getting new people in will cause Congress to repeat ots, but this has got to take the cake. the same mistakes, but keeping the same old guys around Let's see what's wrong with his idea. First of all, drug forever will bring in lots of new ideas and keep mistakes lords aren't the only ones who will lose because they don't from being repeated. And the way to stop an epidemic is to get their currency exchanged during the six-month exchange send infected people back into the afflicted city. -eAA period he proposes. A lot of Americans have hidden away some savings for a rainy day in the form of $100 bills. Most Slouching toward Jerusalem - That great of them are elderly people, who remember bank failures, and soap opera, the Middle East Peace Process, continues to most are not very well-off. They are precisely the sort of peo­ weave its way toward either cancellation or conclusion. ple who will not hear about the forced exchange, or not trust After decades of refusing to acknowledge each other's exis­ the bank to exchange their money fairly, or forget to get it tence, Israel and the PLO arrived last year at an accord of done in time. Out of the millions of such people in the United sorts: Israel would throw Jewish settlers off their land in States, there will be tens of thousands who lose much or all Gaza and the West Bank if the PLO would suppress the inti­ of their life savings. Does Leahy want to rip off old, poor fada for Israel. But there still remained a few thorny ques­ people? tions - most notably, who would get Jerusalem. Israel and Second, the plan will actually have precious little effect on the PLO both wanted it; both knew the other wanted it; both drug lords. It seems a safe bet that most drug lords keep al­ knew the issue would have to be dealt with eventually. most all their assets in forms other than paper money. They In May, Yassir Arafat made the mistake of calling for a also realize that cash is the one investment guaranteed to lose jihad to attain Jerusalem for the Palestinians. Now, "jihad" money. And they have access to foreign banks, virtually none means "holy war," but in a figurative sense; there are no nec­ of which put restrictions on currency deposits or exchanges. essary implications of violence. Unfortunately, the intricacies It probably won't hurt drug lords in the future either. If of the Arabic language are fre­ they can smuggle thousands quently lost on Israeli and u~[]ffilJ of tons of drugs into the U.S. American leaders, who know 'd-lo"",",'-';''':;;;';;::...=lII~;''';: every year, surely they can damn well that "jihad" means 10 HELF t\ age to make the exchange in bles in the most virulent kind of time? incitement." Fourth, it will be an in­ Most of the time, I see the credible hassle for every emerging peace plan as a cynical person who ever leaves the exchange, in which the PLO stops RAe, fr1dJ(6" It'( fltlll£ U.S., and I'm not just talking channelling the Palestinian revolt 'fdL'f) /1f ,,.( '17) about tourists visiting 14 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

Europe. Hundreds of thousands of people cross the border both have it right - and both have it wrong. Sandy is surely to Canada or Mexico every day, often for visits that last only correct: there are indeed too many laws and regulations in a few hours. Can you imagine the cost and inconvenience if this society. But so is Debber: there has never been nor shall every time anyone enters or leaves the U.S., he has to ex­ there ever be, an advanced society with millions of inhabi­ change any money he is carrying? tants governed by just 100 or even 1,000 laws, as Sandy pro­ But the U.S. government will be the big loser. The U.S. poses. Society, as Debber points out, is just too complicated. dollar is !he world's currency. It is used in almost every But Sandy has it exactly right if she will accept one minor country on earth. The reason it is so widely used is that it is modification to her proposal and one major amendment to of unquestioned value. If it can only be exchanged for money her list of consequences. First, in the place of "laws," say that can be imported into the U.S. at a bank supervised by "legal principles." Second, the chief problem with the current the U.S. government, it will no longer be the super­ system is not the "chaos" Sandy fears, but uncontrolled and convenient, super-liquid form of money it is today. If oppressive rule by a self-perpetuating, unelected bureaucracy Senator Leahy's measure becomes law, demand for u.s. dollars whose power lies in the mind-numbing maze and unfathoma­ overseas will vanish. ble minutiae of the regulatory regime. (The 9,306 pages of the And,this would be a disaster for Americans. At any given federal tax code are the best reason to repeal the income tax.) moment, there are billions of U.S. dollars circulating over­ The ten examples of complex cases that Debber provides seas. The $100 bill that circulates overseas is different from all raise difficult issues of human action and intent - issues the $100 bill that circulates at home: it cannot be used to pay better resolved by tribunals applying general principles of taxes and cannot be used to buy stuff in the U.S., so it doesn't law and justice, not Kafkaesque labyrinths of administrative affect inflation. In effect, every $100 bill that circulates over­ regulations or self-contained bureaucratic netherworlds that seas is like a check you write but no one ever cashes. Every serve only their own perpetuation. -RL $100 bill circulating overseas represents a profit to the U.S. A modest proposal - According to the New York government of more than $99. Times (March 20, 1994), the annual cost per student for public Surely, even the officials of Bill Clinton's Treasury schooling in New York State runs as high as $46,000. Thus, Department can figure this out. over twelve years of schooling, a kid runs up a tab of $552,000 But then, why can't Senator Pat Leahy? -RWB plus interest. This expense is a crime against the taxpayers. Allow me to make a proposal. Take, say, only $40,000 a Ship of Canucks - Why would no cruise ship ac­ cept only Canadians aboard? Because they might suddenly year from the taxpayers, thus saving $6,000 per student per year. Close the schools and sell the property to the highest all flock together to the portside, flipping the ship over. It bidder. Release the students from all obligations to attend could be for any reason - say, for discovering that, in a star­ public school. boardside cabin, there is a revolver that does not belong to a With the school taxes that continue to be paid, invested at policeman or a soldier. Or that somebody there is smoking. interest, a fund will be accumulated for each student that will Or has posted some pornography. reach well in excess of $500,000 by the time a student reaches Canada is really ripe for tyranny. With no revolutionary age 18. At that time the student will be awarded the money, tradition, I fear the people will accept anything the govern­ which will be sufficient, if invested in the stock market, to ment wants to impose on them. Some of them are actually provide an income well in excess of $50,000 per year·on aver­ begging for it. The Canadians have become, as de age forever. No one, not even the person too lazy to work, Tocqueville put it, "a flock of timid and industrious animals, need ever be poor. of which the government is the shepherd." The taxpayers will benefit. The students will benefit, and After he travelled to Quebec City in 1850, Henry David not only financially: they will now be able to control their Thoreau wrote: "We were constantly meeting with soldiers time during the years they would otherwise have been incar- in the streets.... Sometimes they were carrying some kind of military chest on a sort of bier or hand-barrow, with a springy, undulating, military step, all passengers giving way to them, even the charette-drivers stopping for them to pass - as if the battle were being lost from an inadequate supply of powder." I have decided that I am not going to defend Canadian "federalism" against the separatists any longer. From the Trudeau government through the present one, the federal state has succeeded in changing this country in such a way that there is basically nothing left to defend. With a Quebec tyranny, the members of the right tribe (say, my fellow de­ scendants of the coureurs des bois) may perhaps hope to exert some influence in favor of liberty. -PL Ought there be a law?- In their continuing de­ bate over the state of the law Ganuary, May, and July 1994), contributing editor Sandy Shaw and reader Randy Debber 1fiC ~~ 15 "fAf5()) Liberty 15 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 cerated in the enervating and dangerous public schools, and • Libertarians are fun to be around. Devotees favor the de­ they will avoid the ideological claptrap with which they criminalization of marijuana and prostitution. This makes would have been inculcated by the public school teachers. for better parties than getting together to pass the hat for Society at large will benefit, too: the school's physical proper­ the Sandinista Defense Fund. ty and the teachers' and administrators' labor power will be • Libertarians are capable of unusual insights. IfAyn released for productive use. Rand and Nathaniel Branden could come up with a moral What have we got to lose? Only the subsidy we pay to justification for sleeping together right under their spous­ public school employees. So what are we waiting for? -RH es' noses, we should be able to lick world hunger in a week flat. The ill-tempered libertarian - A co-worker • Libertarians make good houseguests. Strong defense of of mine emigrated from Poland in the days when the verb the right to personal property means you'll never have to "to defect" was not just an anachronism. Our conversations worry about coming home to discover that the entire con­ are not always entirely civil: tents of your underwear drawer have been faxed to the Co-worker: I see in the news that Poland elected the left­ White House. wing party. • Libertarians won't ask to borrow taxpayers' money to fi­ Me: Yeesh. Don't those people ever learn? nance their hopes and dreams. IfI have to explain this Co-worker: There was 30% unemployment under capital- one to you, you should be reading another magazine. ism. People were starving. • Libertarians know how to say "no." Far from the Nancy Me: Great, now they can all starve equally! Reagan version of naysaying, this is knowing when and Co-worker: People do not starve under socialism. what to refuse. Mommy, can we nationalize health care? Me: Hahaha! Tell that to the millions of Ukrainians who died under Stalin! No. Mommy, can we repeal the Constitution? No! Mommy, can we nuke the bad guys from orbit? No - oh, Aside from explaining why I have a dwindling number of all right, but don't tell your father. friends, this is a good example of how not to act if you want • No libertarian has ever been elected president. Just to advance the idea of liberty. Don't provoke people. Don't think of the things we can't be blamed for: the federal def­ act like you have all the answers. Use dialectic to allow peo­ icit, the S&L crisis, the EPA, the NSA, the CIA, OSHA, ple to arrive at their own ineluctable truths. "and other assorted abbreviations, including Robert Reich. But provocation is a two-way street, and we have to be al­ -Guest reflection by Patricia Hanson lowed to exercise our freedom of speech when Aunt Dorothea delivers a half-hour monologue at the family bar­ Lew "Ideological Diversity" Rockwell ­ becue about the terrors of acid rain. People may take too long When Llewellyn Rockwell and Murray Rothbard left the to arrive at ineluctable truths. Many a federal budget has mainstream libertarian movement in 1990, they promised that gone colder than vichyssoise while libertarians waited pa­ their new "paleolibertarian" movement would advance liber­ tiently for voters to get the hint. tarian ideas among American conservatives. As nearly as I So I've decided to accentuate the positive. There are can tell, they spent the next four years attacking their former strengths to the libertarian mindset that would make even a allies, usually in lurid terms, and making themselves more liberal with money envious. We should exercise these assets palatable to conservatives by retreating from their own liber­ mercilessly until they crush any skepticism harbored by the tarian views. general public. That is why it was such a pleasure to see Rockwell deliver­ • Libertarians are persistent. It is for this reason that your ing a more-or-Iess libertarian message at the recent National host's chin goes slack whenever someone mentions "gun Review Leadership Conference. His plain intention was to con­ control" within your earshot at parties. While it is unde­ vince conservatives to move in a libertarian direction, bybriefly niably useful in arguments, one would also do well to re­ reviewing the history of opposition to the "consolidated egali­ member that persistence goes a long way toward tarian welfare state," concluding with a discussion of the oppo­ explaining why most Americans still preface Ted sition to the New Deal: "The coalition disagreed on many Kennedy's name with "Senator." matters, but they had better things to do than to try to excom­ municate each other. Every pen and every voice was essential to the cause." Rockwell ended witha clarion call for a "coalition of free enterprisers, traditionalists, and radical anti-statists": The enemy of liberty was to be found, not overseas, but in Washington, D.C. The antifederalists saw what others did not, and sounded the alarm. So did the Southern Republicans and the anti-New Dealers. Each of these groups, built on diversity in particulars but agreement on broad principles, opposed consolidated government. But weren't they all on the losing side? Yes: they had the courage to stick to principle regardless of cost. They knew that the history books might condemn them, yet they looked beyond history, and saw that one day they would face a higher judge than popular or academic opinion. 16 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

It is on the shoulders of these great men that we stand Not if the speeches that followed were any indication. even if we rarely acknowledge it. And. these same men Next to the podium was Karlyn Bowman of the American point the way to a coalition for liberty today. Enterprise Institute, who offered what she called "a very dif­ We face an ominous threat. If Hamilton wanted a too ferent perspective from Llewellyn's." Bowman argued that strong executive, Clinton wants total obedience. If Lincoln the alliance Rockwell proposed "cannot win broad-based suspended legal protections, Ira Magaziner has open con­ political support ... because Americans are profoundly am­ tempt for the rule of law itself. If the New Deal meant the bivalent about the state ... At one and the same time, they passage of the Social Security ponzi scheme, Hillary wants see government as both a problem solver and a problem caus­ to make insurance fraud official government policy with er ... they believe the federal government should do many costs that could eventually dwarf World War II's. That is why we need unity, but with tolerance for diver­ things." sity within that unity as we fight the consolidated govern­ This would have been a pretty good argument against ment of the egalitarian welfare state. We may not win. Rockwell if he had been arguing that a conservative­ Future generations may not even thank us for having libertarian alliance was a good way to grab power. But, of fought. But we will have done what we know to be right. course, he explicitly eschewed this sort of argument. As Patrick Henry said, "We are descended from a people That session of the conference ended with a lengthy talk whose govemment was founded on liberty. Our country is by Newt Gingrich, dearly its most popular speaker. Gingrich great, not because our government is strong and energetic, spent considerable time criticizing Rockwell, even at the price but because liberty is its direct end and foundation." of heaping praise on Franklin Roosevelt. But the most chilling Nothing can be more important than fighting to preserve evidence that liberty has a tough row to hoe in the conserva­ and enlarge that foundation, as our predecessors did in tive movement came from his description of the new laws to 1776, 1787, 1860, and 1932. Surely, we can all agree on be introduced when conservative Republicans gain control of that. the House of Representatives: My first inclination was to wonder whether this is a differ­ Ten bills that will be our contract with the American peo­ ent Llewellyn Rockwell than the one I had come to know. ple, including bills on anti-violent crime, on welfare reform "We need unity, with tolerance for diversity ... a coalition for to require work and to minimize teenage pregnancies out liberty"? "The coalition ... had better things to do than to try of wedlock, to stop illegal aliens from coming in and get­ to excommunicate each other"? "Every pen and every voice ting money from the welfare state, to strengthen our na­ was essential to the cause"? Where is the Llewellyn Rockwell tional defense. who sought to excommunicate those who disagreed with him In short: federalize law enforcement, expand the welfare on peripheral matters? Who has attacked virtually every li­ state, crack down on illegal aliens, and, in a world where the bertarian not affiliated with his paleolibertarian movement? United States already has the most overwhelming military Who denounces "tolerance" as a matter of course? Who habit­ power in human history, achieved at stupendous cost to the ually refers sneeringly to one leading libertarian with the so­ taxpayer, jack up military spending still higher. Nowhere in briquet "Sexual Diversity"? this legislative agenda is a single measure that advances hu­ Is this new openness to difference of opinion a retreat man liberty. Gingrich's enumeration of this agenda brought from the vicious dogmatism of his recent past? Or is cheers from the assembled conservatives. Rockwell's newly discovered love of diversity a purely strate­ Those who want to build a coalition with conservatives to gic pose, a recognition of the political reality that Rockwell's advance the cause of freedom have their work cut out. -RWB paleo views are a tiny minority within the right wing? Is Rockwell's sudden embrace of tolerance akin to the tradition­ Ezra Taft Benson, 1899-1994 - On May 30, al Communist support for freedom of speech only when out Ezra Taft Benson, president of the eight-million-member of power? Time will tell. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, died at the age of Rockwell's lecture included one very peculiar passage: 94. Benson would not have labelled himself a libertarian, and "From the early part of the [nineteenth] century there was Liberty is not a magazine noted for its sympathy for religion­ one glaring exception to economic freedom." Rockwell was ists, so some may find it odd to note the passing of this relig­ not here referring, as one might expect, to the human slavery ious leader in its pages. practiced in the Old South. The outright ownership of one But when Joseph Smith, founder of the LDS (better known human being by another, the brutal treatment, the breaking as Mormon) Church, was asked how he governed his people, up of families, the suppression of life, liberty, and the pursuit he replied, "I teach them correct principles, and they govern of happiness - all this escaped Rockwell's attention. Instead, themselves." These words, often quoted by Ezra Taft Benson, the"one glaring" violation of freedom in the early nineteenth could easily pass as the motto of libertarianism. century was "the northern tariff, designed to protect What did Benson consider these "correct principles" to northern industry against European competition." I suspect be? "The first basic principle," he said, "is agency." Agency is that this oversight may have its origin in Rockwell's the right and duty of all individuals to act for themselves, to persistent efforts to attract southern right-wingers to his be accountable for their own actions, and to accept the conse­ paleo coalition. quences of that agency. Inherent in the freedom to succeed is Could the conservatives gathered at the conference agree the freedom to fail, for without those twin freedoms we are with Rockwell that "nothing is more important than fighting all doomed to an equal mediocrity. to preserve and enlarge that foundation [of liberty]" as For Benson, the family was the place where correct princi­ Rockwell thought they "surely" would? ples should be taught, and he urged parents to teach by "lov- Liberty 17 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 ing example," never through force or "unrighteous domin­ he helped administer his church's far-reaching welfare sys­ ion." He encouraged families to gather together once a week tem, demonstrating convincingly that the needs of the poor for a evening of instruction and activities. "The family unit is can be satisfied t~ough private volunteerism, without gov­ forever," he said, "and you should do everything in your ernment intervention. power to strengthen that unit." Benson believed that if fami­ A tireless opponent of "Godless Communism," Benson lies would do this, there would be no need for intrusive warned against the socialist temptation and prayed continu­ government. ously for the world's oppressive dictatorships to be brought As an Idaho farmboy raised on the realities of hard work down. In his June 4 eulogy, Gordon B. Hinckley noted the iro­ and self-reliance, Benson harbored no sympathy for those ny of the double obituary printed in the May 31 Wall Street who demanded government handouts and protections. As Journal, which listed the deaths of "Ezra Taft Benson, 94, ... secretary of agriculture from 1953 to 1961, he fought in Salt Lake City, and Eric Honecker, East German leader, 81, fearlessly to reverse the legacy of the New Deal's socializa­ who built the Berlin Wall." These two men who died the tion of farms. "We must steadfastly pursue and strengthen same day represent the opposite principles of persuasion and the course which leads toward greater individual freedom force. and self-reliance." One of his first actions as secretary was to Ezra Taft Benson exemplified genuine leadership through begin dismantling the sprawling farm bureaucracy. His be­ encouragment, example and persuasion. His years of service liefs were unpopular, but his logic convincing. brought him little in the way of money or glory, but the But Benson's tough stand against handouts did not mark world is today a freer place than it would have been without him as a man who lacked compassion for the needy. In fact, him. -Jo Ann Skousen

Letters, continued from page 6

hate Rothbard, Rothbard hates them, way of intellectual issues to it, and would want to take me down a peg. But and they all hate the Libertarian Party. where it did, he took the classic "stand surely he could have found a more sub­ What gives? up for the lone heroic individual" ap­ stantive way to do it than this. There is a story here. And I think all proach typical of westerns. Jeffrey Friedman of this is connected. I hate to quote or Marsha Familaro Enright Editor, Critical Review paraphrase R. Emmett Tyrrell (because Chicago, Ill. New Haven, Conn. he's a nitwit), but there is a libertarian Still Enlightening After Bradford responds: How Friedman infers crack-up here. All These Years from my brief note that I didn't read his John A. Kelleher article is beyond me. Perhaps he is con­ I never heard of The Driver until I Summit, N.J. vinced that had I read his article I read R.W. Bradford's "Was Ayn Rand a would have been so mesmerized that I Plagiarist?" (May 1994). It looks as Who Is Garrett Garet? would not have noticed his orgy of self­ though, years after her death, Ayn I have read The Driver, and Justin citation. Rand's genius still enlightens the path to Raimondo's claims ("Reclaiming the Of course, I recognize that when re­ the good works of the past, to be redis­ Right," July 1994) are ludicrous. Yes, the plying to criticism, one might occasion­ covered and enjoyed anew. hero's name is Galt; yes, it's set in the ally need to quote from one's original Michael Bennett business world; yes, it's about a busi­ piece. But it is manifestly possible to re­ Sharon Hill, Penn. ness genius who creates a fantastic rail­ spond without citing oneself as exhaus­ road network, starting from old, Secret Agenda Exposed tively as Friedman, as an examination of bankrupt ideas (not exactly what Dagny In the May "Medianotes," R.W. other responses in Critical Review re­ does); yes, he is harrassed and persecut­ Bradford takes a swipe at me for repeat­ veals. It is also worth noting that a ed by the envious -but the story sure edly citing myself in a recent essay in quarter of Friedman's self-citations are ain't Atlas Shrugged. Critical Review. He neglects to mention not from the essay under consideration. The stories bear only the broadest of that my essay was a reply to an article Although most of Liberty's writers similarities. The same could be said of that criticized a previous essay of mine. agree with most libertarian views, I any number of adventure or mystery To defend the original essay, I had to doubt they do so "breezily" or without novels. That doesn't mean the authors quote from it. Little did I suspect that scrutiny, if we are to judge from their plagiarized from each other; it has more someone might count the footnotes with­ writing in Liberty. Although Liberty's to do with the kind of stories they were out reading the article! But I suppose if focus goes beyond theoretical issues, writing. In broad outlines, the Rand and Bradford took the trouble to actually re­ writers in these pages have challenged Garrett novels are similar, because that search his potshots, Liberty would be a enough libertarian shibboleths - inali­ kind of story makes for a good conflict much thinner magazine. enable rights, the non-aggression axiom, set in the business world. Critical Review critically scrutinizes isolationism, etc. - to be described by To say that Rand intellectually pla­ the doctrines breezily taken for granted Whole Earth Review as "the leading inter­ giarized Garrett is even more ridiculous by many Liberty writers, including nal theoretical journal of the libertarian -Garrett's story had very little in the Bradford. So it's understandable that he movement." 18 Liberty Clift notes - Eleanor Clift, token nitwit of The secession and revolt against tyrannical federal government. McLaughlin Group, had a ready answer when asked what na­ He interviewed David Boaz, who much to most callers' hor­ tional interest is involved in Haiti: All those refugees drifting ror called for legaliZing drugs, and Lew Rockwell, who de­ into Florida. Funny -I don't recall her suggesting an inva­ nounced the Americans with Disabilities Act. Once, Williams sion of Cuba when Florida was inundated with refugees referred to anti-smoking puritan Henry Waxman as "wicked" from Castro. -RWB and "evil," then challenged him to a fight in front of the Capitol in which the congressman would have to try to re­ The tarantula and the widow - Of the move a cigarette from Williams' mouth. many things Richard Nixon was called in his day, my favor­ Williams dishes out strong medicine to the millions of dit­ ite, for its sheer inappropriateness, came from James Brown: tohead faithful. If Rush is an ideological wine cooler, then "funky, funky president." Funky Dick's death has apparent­ Williams is a shot of 100-proof bourbon. -es ly inflated his reputation. Amidst the flood of saccharine sewage the hagiographers have spewed, only Gore Vidal in Pursuing truth at The New Republic ­ The Nation and Hunter Thompson in Rolling Stone managed The editors of The New Republic love truth so much, they as­ to produce the sort of witty, nasty commentary the occasion signed "reporter-researcher" Joshua Shenk to listen to "just a called for. month" of Rush Limbaugh's broadcasting, to seek out "obvi­ Still, the Nixon love-in at least provoked a backlash. ous factual errors." His May 23 article, titled "Limbaugh's When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died, we were to be Lies," reports the discovery of seven such mistakes, one of spared nothing. It's not Jackie O. herself that I don't care for, which was an obvious slip of the tongue. From these seven mind you - it's the sort of nonsense the eulogizers all felt "errors" discovered in examining 75 hours of extemporane­ they had to say about her. Maybe if I'd been alive in 1963, I ous commentary and conversation, Shenk concluded that might better understand how one woman could "bring the Limbaugh "twists facts at whim." nation together" after the "national tragedy" of the Unfortunately, the editors of Liberty do not have a spare Kennedy assassination. Did people really think like that "reporter-researcher" to examine every word published by back then? The New Republic to see whether their record is better than But it is rude, they say, to speak ill of the dead. So: rest in Limbaugh's. But it stands to reason that it would be, since peace, Jacqueline Onassis. You had to put up with a lot in every word published in TNR passes through the computers your time, but you always managed to keep your dignity. of editors, proofreaders, and (presumably) "reporter­ And you were one funky first lady. -JW researchers" before it is laid on the black-and-white of the printed page. TNR's fact-checking ought to be pretty good, All it takes is guts - Substitute hosts on Rush given the high regard in which its editors hold the truth and Limbaugh's radio program are an interesting lot. They range the vigor of its denunciation of the Big Mouth. from the relatively boring Tony Snow and Mary Matalin, Sure. two Bush administration flunkies, to Rep. Robert Dornan of In a page and a half of upbraiding the White House press California, the nuttiest (and most entertaining) member of corps for "snooping into the private affairs" of Bill and Congress. Hillary Clinton, Martha Gellhorn makes the following factual Rush's best stand-in by far is economist and syndicated claims in the June 27 New Republic: columnist Walter Williams. Williams may not be as good an During the Roosevelt administration, "radios cost too much for entertainer as Limbaugh, but he has one thing Rush doesn't: the mass of Americans," so "apart from newsreels, the print press a coherent and somewhat radical point of view. Although had almost a complete monopoly on informing the country." In fact, Limbaugh is often described as an "ultraconservative," he is radio was the most popular news and entertainment medium basically an ideological pantywaist with both feet planted in of that period; 77% of American homes had radios in 1940. the Republican Party. "Nine presidents have come and gone since Franklin Roosevelt Rush can raise hell over something like the Paula Jones died ... These nine men were elected to hold the nation's highest of­ case or the Rostenkowski indictment, he can really give it to fice; the voter's choice and the dignity of the position guaranteed animal-rights activists, and he's pretty good on health care. their personal privacy." There have indeed been nine presidents But beyond that he's on thin ice. I don't think that I have since Roosevelt, but only eight were "elected to hold the na­ ever heard him raise any concern over a federalism or tion's highest office." Gerald Ford, of course, was never elect­ states' rights issue, or criticize the left-wing "conservatism" ed to any office higher (or lower) than representative of of Jack Kemp. He believes that civil rights enforcement is Michigan's fifth congressional district. one of the things that the government does well, and when "In our long, imperfect political story, no acting president has NAFTA was the big issue he supported it without the ever been beset by a rat pack chewing on his private life. Repeat: slightest concern for the sovereignty issues many conserva­ Never before." Two obvious cases overlooked by Ms Gellhorn: tives raised. the press charged Thomas Jefferson with maintaining a In contrast, Williams has used the program to call for lengthy sexual relationship with Sally Hemmings, a black Liberty 19 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

slave; and Andrew Jackson's wife was accused of all sorts of I rode in limousines with police and gawking crowds on moral transgressions. all sides. "In 1947, after ten years of working abroad, I returned to Why did I tum my back on power? America to live and settled in Washington, D.C. Unknowingly, I ... Henry David Thoreau said it and it's never been said rented the house of Helen Gahagan Douglas, the liberal Democratic better, "In the long run men hit only what they aim at." congresswoman who had just been defeated by Richard Nixon in his Now read this excerpt from LP Chair Steve Dasbach's col­ first smear campaign ... After four months ... I decided I did not umn in the June Libertarian Party News: want to live in such a country, and left." In the 1946 election, Karl was a principal author of the 1960 and 1964 Douglas was re-elected to the House of Representatives and Republican platforms. He was Barry Goldwater's speech­ Nixon was elected to his first term. Both were re-elected in writer during Goldwater's presidential campaign, wrote for 1948. It was not until 1950 that Douglas and Nixon ran Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and was an early contribu­ against each other for public office, at which time Gellhorn tor to National Review. He stood at the pinnacle of power. was by her own testimony safely out of the country. Yet he chose to walk away from a bright future within the These are just the "obvious factual errors" I spotted in a Republican Party to join the Libertarian Party. Why? Henry David Thoreau said it best: "In the long run men hit single short article in TNR, gleaned from a quick reading only what they aim at." without any fact-checking or research. If I were to examine the other 200± pages published in a month by TNR, it seems Obviously, Hess has made a strong impression on how very likely I would find more. And if I wanted to be picky, I Dasbach chooses to express himself. One might say that could add another obvious error to my list: Gellhorn's claim Dasbach's column is a very sincere form of flattery. -JW that "there was no TV" during Roosevelt's years (the first A slice ofenthusiasm - As we survey the pros­ commercial television station began operation in 1939) - but pects for the continued growth of the libertarian movement, I won't because, although it is palpably false, it isn't far from middle-aged libertarians like me tend to be upset at the pauci­ the truth; there were practically no TV sets in private hands at ty of libertarian publications written, edited, and published the time. by young people. There was a profusion of such publications I am not going to blame Gellhorn for her obvious errors of in the 1960s and 1970s, but lately it seems there is little en­ fact. She is a very old woman whose memory is certainly slip­ couraging coming from campus presses. ping, and even in her salad days her political prejudices inter­ Of course, there are a large number of campus publica­ fered with her ability to discern fact from fiction. Ironically, in tions subsidized by foundation grants, some of which have the midst of this orgy of falsehood, Gellhorn condemns other substantial participation by young libertarians. But where are journalists - those critical of "the spiritual heirs of the the zines or tabloids or mimeographed sheets of our own Roosevelts" (the Clintons) - for failing in their duty to youth, motivated only by their editors' desire to produce "praise what this young president has already accom­ something of value, something good? And how can our plished," and more broadly for failing "to fulfill its absolute movement prosper and grow without their youthful duty: discover, verify, and report facts" (emphasis hers). enthusiasm? Gellhom may be too senile or addled to verify her facts, Okay, I admit it. I am an old fogey, puffed up with self­ but the editors of TNR are not. They had plenty of opportuni­ importance. Why, back in my time, young punks like me ties to fact-check the piece. It is hard to imagine that any edi­ weren't content just to write for campus conservative publica­ tor at TNR could read the piece and fail to recognize the tions or school newspapers or other subsidized media. We obvious falsehoods it contained. But no one corrected them. went out on our own hook, and told the world what we Gellhorn's obvious errors suggest that TNR is not as com­ thought. We were regular Cyranos - independent, proud, mitted to getting the facts straight as it suggests, and that and tough. TNR isn't really upset with Limbaugh for his occasional factu­ I first noticed this fogeyism a couple years ago, when I al glitch. It's just easier to denounce him as a liar than to deal had a long talk with a college student who had asked my ad­ with his arguments against nlany of TNR's cherished beliefs vice on organizing a student libertarian conference. Before I or the competition he offers in the business of opinion­ could make any suggestions, he told me what he had already mongering. -RWB planned. He would invite three speakers, offer them expenses plus a substantial honoraria. He would rent meeting space in From beyond the grave - Karl Hess inspired a a conference center, and advertise on college campuses in sev­ lot of people during his lifetime. To judge from recent evi­ eral states for students to attend the conference. The students dence, his influence continues even after his death. would fill out applications, and he and a committee of adult Consider these words, released over Hess's signature in a advisors would select those who would attend. The lucky direct-mail package for the Libertarian Party: winners would have their travel expenses, meals, and luxuri­ Though I stood near the pinnacle of power in the ous lodging paid for. The whole project - which would in­ Republican Party, I chose to walk away. volve about 15 students, as I recall - would be subsidized I was the principal author of the 1960 and 1964 Republican with a grant for $25,000, for which he would apply to a well­ platforms. heeled foundation. I was Barry Goldwater's speechwriter when he ran for the I tried to suggest that it might be a better idea to organize White House. the conference less opulently, using his own resources and I was an early contributor to National Review. I wrote speeches for Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. continued on page 69 20 Liberty Dispatch

It's politics. It's entertainment. It's the biggest party-crash since J. Edgar Hoover put on his mink stole and red pumps to upstage Tallulah Bankhead.

Howard Stern signed the Libertarian Party of New Yark's membership pledge on the air on March 28, 1994. Stem's assistant, Robin Quivers, noted that the freelancer who photographed the occasion was allowed to do so because "he was the first person to ask," and "we Libertarians reward initiative." It was the giddy climax of a week of strange on-air negotiations between my $15 membership fee and even and the much larger number of peo­ Stern and members of the Libertarian made a pro-Stern statement at an ple who hold the philosophy of liber­ Party that began when the controver­ emergency meeting of the LP's state tarianism but consider the Party a sial talk radio host decided he would committee. Sure, I thought, it will secondary, or even embarrassing, way run for governor of New York. probably all end in embarrassment of spreading the message. The disc jockey has a simple, and disaster, but it's bound to be an Several Nobel Prize-winning econ­ three-point campaign platform: entertaining story. And after all, Stem omists are libertarians - Milton 1. Reorganize the tollbooths on promised to bring strippers to the Friedman, James Buchanan - but few roads approaching Manhattan to party convention. such luminaries are deeply involved make them more efficient and less of a in .Libertarian Party politics these hassle for Stern when he drives to King of the Oddballs days. And in the 1980s, many promi­ work. There was a time when the ideas nent Libertarian Party members, in­ 2. Reinstitute the death penalty. of free markets and individual rights spired in part by the Reagan admin­ (On a recent broadcast, Stern listened had such spokesmen as James istration's apparent free-market lean­ to Quivers read reports of violent Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and ings, left the Party to join libertarian crimes and muttered, "They'd be dead Patrick Henry. Some might say it's think tanks, most based (amusingly) in my state.") something of a step down from being in Washington, D.C. 3. Fill New York's potholes, possi­ a philosophy central to the American Having taken pains to build up bly with the remains of the executed Revolution to being a running gag on credibility at universities, magazines, prisoners. (Road crews would work at The Howard Stern Show. and such think tanks as the Cato night.) Stern's candidacy has brought out Institute, the Institute for Justice, and I haven't been a member of the more tensions within libertarianism the Reason Foundation, some of the Party in. the past, but the prospect of - and more feelings of insecurity ­ prominent libertarians - the Big finally having a charismatic, visionary than most.of the general public realiz­ Whigs, if you will - would prefer to leader inspired me to join. As Hillary es. In addition to the conflict between keep their distance from the oddballs Clinton said, we need a "politics of long-time party activists and Stem left behind in the Party. meaning," and Stern·is a candidate fans that was so apparent at the con­ Stern's nomination, then, can be who speaks to· the deeper spiritual is­ vention, there's the tension between seen either as a wonderful boost to sues on American minds - strippers big-L Libertarians and small-llibertar­ the movement or as the final confir­ .and potholes, for instance. ians - that is, between people who mation of the more uppity libertari­ So on Saturday, March 26, I paid are .actually members of the Party, ans' suspicions: that the Party is at Liberty 21 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

best a goofy publicity stunt. Then there Party - he likes the publicity Stern is tration Belzer would be perfectly free to are those like me who feel that if the generating, but worries that at a whim start his own relief organization. Stem Party functions mainly to attract atten­ from this completely unpredictable and Belzer then went on to debate tion to libertarian ideas rather than to media personality, it could all vanish 'whether Superman could have sex with win elections (with the think tanks, or turn into an anti-Libertarian joke. a normal human female without injur­ journalists, and economics professors It's very much like trying to play ad­ ing her. (For a more thorough analysis probably having more practical im­ visor to a mad king. of that topic, see Larry Niven's essay, pact), the Stern campaign is perfectly Naturally, I'm having fun. It has "ManofSteel, Woman of Kleenex.") in keeping with the Party's purpose. been a joy to listen to Stern's radio It's not exactly high-brow analysis, Yes, Howard Stern's campaign is at show - along with his millions of fans but then, how much can one reason­ least partly a joke - but that needn't - and wonder how many coherent ably ask from pop culture? When com­ points about economics and politics plex ideas about free markets and will poke through the jokes about les­ individual rights are let loose in the bians, stutterers, and professional arena of popular media, you can't ex­ Stern became the first wrestler Terry "Hulk" Hogan. Hogan pect perfect results. gubernatorial hopeful to be apparently has a television show in If the Big Whigs honestly hope to endorsed by a cartoon which he plays a black-clad adventurer see the genie of their ideas escape the chihuahua. in a high-tech speedboat who cruises bottle of academic think-tanks, they the tropics fighting pirates and Cuban will have to be prepared for strange, soldiers - but forgive me, I'm getting even embarrassing standard-bearers. sidetracked from the real issues: pot­ Today Howard Stern, tomorrow a re­ obscure the libertarian message about holes and strippers. spected college president, the next day the larger joke, which is government Stern seems to be making an honest a parade of nudist anarchists in Cen­ itself. effort to support libertarian principles, tral Park - there are no guarantees. But Stern argues that he isn't all that Liberty on the Air? even if they're presented as shtick. A high point was the March 28 broadcast, ridiculous when compared to "real" I haven't been a Howard Stem lis­ when Stern and his staff all signed their politicians, noting the potential Virginia tener in the past, but I tuned in to hear membership pledges, with Stem alter­ Senate race between Oliver North and his pre-campaign conversations with nately saying he wants "less govern­ Chuck Robb. Reluctantly caving in to LP members. Joe Brennan, 1993 LP ment" and saying things like: "My fans Richard Belzer's insistence that North mayoral candidate in New York City, was a CIA drug-runner, Stern contrast- acted as Stern's on-air liaison from the don't care - they want a leader!" Actor New York LP. The state party chair­ Danny Baldwin (brother of William and Alec) quickly phoned in an endorse­ man, Ludwig Vogel, acted as more of Stern's campaign is at least an on-air punching bag. ment, urging "all the fans of all the The low point for the less-than­ Baldwins tojoin the Libertarian Party." partly a joke - but that media-savvy chairman may have been Later in the show, comedian needn't obscure the libertarian Richard Belzer tried to warn Stern when Stern asked Vogel, a first­ message about the larger joke, generation German-American, if his fa­ away from the Party. "Correct me if ther had been a Nazi. Vogel's timid re­ I'm wrong, but the Libertarians want which is government itself sponse was thathis father "wasn'tin the to reduce the government to just a party." Stern has also mocked the oppo­ standing army and the police, and sition within his own party, complain­ everybody else just fends for them­ ed himself with North and Robb, point­ ing that more straight-laced Libertar­ selves." ing out that you wouldn't see him in­ ians are "jealous" of his newstatus. "It's called capitalism," responded volved with drugs, nude rub-downs, On one broadcast, a nervous­ Stern. When Belzer argued that liber­ and lying to Congress. sounding Joe Brennan phoned Stern to tarianism would throw some 60 mil­ After thinking it over, Stern admit­ assure him that the Libertarians who lion people out of work, Stern de­ ted that the women who had recently were manning the Party sign-up booth manded to know who all these people given him a rub-down were not, in in front of Infinity Broadcasting - and are. "The retarded! The mentally defec­ fact, wearing g-strings. He also admit­ who were overheard telling people tive!" insisted Belzer. "We're not here ted to using drugs in the past, and he that they could join the Party to vote to talk about your relatives," shot back still calls for the repeal of drug laws. against Stern at the nominating con­ Stem. Belzer remained unpersuaded, Still, he concluded, "I haven't lied to vention - were "just joking." noting that "Some drooling guy on the Congress ... yet." I think New York "The whole thing is so fragile," street corner with snot coming out of may well send him to the statehouse. Brennan told me the day of the emer­ his nose isn't going to just turn around And even if Stern never becomes gency state committee meeting. "I've and get a job." governor, it will be educational to been shaking all week." Brennan has Quivers, in her usual role as Stern's watch him become involved in the po­ long been a Stern fan. Like many in the better-informed straightwoman, calmly litical process. He and Quivers have re­ Party - pardon me, many of us in the noted that under a Libertarian adminis- peatedly pointed out the absurdity of 22 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

Equal Time laws that require stations Rosquet had informed us that the from the entourage, even the intelli­ broadcasting Stern to give equal air Stern people, including a stripper gent-seeming production intern time to all other gubernatorial candi­ named Tempest and 'other women with named Christine, displayed their navel dates. They note that incumbents al­ large breasts, were partying by the ja­ rings to the patrons. ready have all the press access they cuzzi at the Omni. Our group inadver­ Nearby, an odd man from Nevada, want, while small parties like the tently crashed a high school prom at who had arrived with national LP mar­ Libertarians go ignored. the Omni before finding Rosquet, who keting director Tamara Clark, walked It would be nice if Stern were the around the bar clad in snakeskin boots rough prototype for a new era of politi­ and fur, hawking copies of a paper cal rhetoric, one that values humor called The Libertarian Journal. When above false piety or misguided com­ those sold out, he began pitching passion. In that regard, shortly after NativeAmericanjewelry. Stem's decision to run, the New The jewelry salesman was one of York LP erected a sign-up booth several odd factors complicating the at the Chuckles comedy club, weekend for Clark, who had her where, in effect, they opened for b hands full just dealing with the Stem Jackie Mason. ~ crowd. By Saturday night, Clark ~ ~ would manage a very strange (\ ~ Of Chihuahuas, Jaws, :). ... convention, misplace a hundred- and Zoroaster the Subliminal I~~" dollar bill, and have to put up Not unlike the hordes of Stem fans ~ tit. with an unexpected roommate who arrived in Albany on the weekend ~J ~ from the Stern entourage, 18-year- of April 22-24, I joined the Party main­ :!J old street cartoonist Alfredo ly to see the Stem juggernaut up close. Colomer (the Puerto Rican in As Stern and his entourage disem­ Stern's coalition). Joel Rosquet barked at the convention, he effectively spent part of Saturday night toy­ became the first gubernatorial hopeful \\ ing with plans for taking the to be endorsed by a cartoon chihuahua. \ pressure off Clark, including a Entourage member Bill West, the voice scheme to get Colomer to sleep of television's Ren and Stimpy, spoke in Chairman Vogel's Aerostar. to the crowd in Ren's asthmatic, Peter To make matters worse, Lorre-like rasp: "Eef you don't vote for there were rumors that the jew­ Howard Stern, you're an eediot!" elry salesman had begun to suf­ Most of the convention-goers were fer strange delusions since the staying at the Ramada. David Peel, the beginning of the Stem campaign yippie folk singer who wrote Stem's - though in a desert-dwelling campaign song, is reported to have Zoroastrian, such things are not shown up at the Ramada front desk always easy to spot. I was skeptical asking for a "courtesy room," under when he told me that he had heard a the impression that the Libertarians speech of mine broadcast on Stern's had rented enough to spare. radio show. Only later did I hear that I was with a group that included had somehow secured an extra room at he also believes the Stern show, spe­ gubernatorial hopeful (and Stern liai­ the hotel. We learned that Stern had re­ cially re-edited for western markets, son) Joe Brennan. Joel Rosquet met us tired for the evening (which is under­ has been broadcasting subliminal mes­ at the Ramada. Rosquet is something standable, since his broadcasts begin at sages to him, in one case offering to of a professional groupie, and his claim 6:00 a.m.) and that much of his entour­ provide him with a car. to fame this weekend was his member­ age was in the bar, which is where we ship in Stern's five-man "ethnic coali­ headed. On the way we were joined by The Formal Politicking tion," assembled on the air one day to Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling, the Commences demonstrate Stern's broad appeal. The rapid-fire joke writer who scrawls one­ The next day, the main meeting of coalition had consisted of a Cuban liners on cue cards for Stem during the convention was held at Albany's (Rosquet), a Puerto Rican, two blacks, broadcasts (and, as it turns out, during Italian-American Community Center. and a midget. The original plan had political conventions). Stern's name was put in nomination by called for Stern's producer, Gary In the bar, I asked Dell'Abate, Stern regular Fred "The Elephant Boy" "Bababooey" Dell'Abate, to find an sometimes called "Monkey" because of Schreiber, so nicknamed because of a Asian instead of a Cuban, but Rosquet, his protruding jaws, whether he ex­ speech impediment that makes him encountering Dell'Abate in front of pected a cabinet position in a Stern ad­ sound like the deformed title character Stem's Infinity Broadcasting HQ, had ministration. "Yes," he replied: "Sec­ in David Lynch's film The Elephant convinced him to change the plan. retary of Teeth." Meanwhile, women Man. Stern cringed in the back of the Liberty 23 Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

hall during Schreiber's impassioned Brokaw, had by now been transformed had the vote been delayed until but nearly incomprehensible speech, into a virtual Stern groupie, and an­ Sunday, but I can hardly claim that the pleading with producer Dell'Abate to nounced that Dworkin would be com­ tactic of delay would have been any

II IIget him off - give him the hook." ing to her home to discuss libertarian more democratic" than the rapid vote Stern's nomination was seconded philosophy and have some homemade on Dworkin. And the vote did techni­ by Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, another bread. As Vogel told me later: III have cally conform to parliamentary rules ­ Stern regular, known for such strange no reason to believe Dworkin would be despite screams of anger from abilities as the power to make cigarette rude to Dottie-Lou." So Dworkin prob­ Libertarians in the hall and a comment smoke come out of his ears. Kallen­ ably will talk with the Libertarians, butI from Robert Goodman, the Party mem­ bach briefly praised Stern, then men­ can't help feeling he'll only IItalk with" ber who first suggested to Stern the tioned that he'd had very little sleep. III them the way any politician IItalks possibility of running as a Libertarian, took a shower this morning. I fell out that the meeting should be adjourned of the tub, I was so excited," he said. until the vote could be conducted in a Next, he complained that he had been more organized manner. unable to get a turkey sandwich at the When complex ideas about When it was over - when Stern's convention. liDo you want to see my free markets and individual strippers were done dancing on the dildo?" he asked, pulling out a sex toy rights are let loose in the arena dais and his fans, looking like heavy­ metal groupies compared to the nerdy as Vogel ordered him off the stage. of popular media, you can't lIyou should see the looks on the Libertarians, poured out into the park­ faces of the hard-liners," commented expect perfect results. ing lot to hear Stern announce his vic­ Dell'Abate into his headset, keeping tory to the world -I noticed Stern updated on the state of the Ostrowski walking slowly to his car. crowd. Dell'Abate observed that the IIS0 what do you think?" I asked. with" trade unions or Elks lodges he's "It's Molsen time," said Ostrowski. Libertarians lIare very angry people. trying to winover. The last speaker called this 'the Evil At the beginning of the day, some Let the Disruption Begin Empire State of New York.'" Of would­ old, pre-Stern Libertarians were hop­ On Sunday, Vogel, already seen as a be gubernatorial candidate Norma ing to delay the vote for lieutenant bumbler by many in the Party before "Make It Legal" Segal, Dell'Abate governor until Sunday, when most of the convention, was defeated in his bid noted: "She had buttons left over from the Stern groupies probably would for re-election as chairman. That day's her last Senate campaign, so she just have left. But in a back-room meeting business meeting, much smaller than put a sticker over 'Senate' that says during the vote for governor, Stern ex­ the Saturday circus, was conducted 'Governor.'" (Since Stern went on to plained to the other candidates that he back at the Ramada. New party officers win the gubernatorial nomination and had no intention of letting Dworkin were elected, including such mainstays Segal got the Senate nod, she may since lose the nomination, that he would get as Ostrowski and Brennan, but also a have removed the stickers.) his people to stay until Sunday if nec­ newcomer, a die-hard Stern fan named During the question and answer pe­ essary, and that he promised to put Gerard Lewis. The chunky, unshaven riod, I asked Stern to explain the views Libertarians in high-level cabinet posi­ Lewis looked like the old-timers' worst of his running mate, former Democrat tions when he was elected governor. nightmare, someone involved in the Stan Dworkin, but Stern insisted that Persuaded more by the time con­ Party just as a prank, but he quickly the fact that he had picked him was straints on the convention (and the proved himselfwilling to pitchin, offer­ enough. "Trust me. If I tell you he's much smaller facilities reserved for ing to distribute what Vogel described good, he's good." Dworkin's vague Sunday) than by the promise of shar­ as "several hundred pounds of Liber­ comments about how we were "gonna ing power in an unlikely Stern admin­ tarian propaganda outinmy van." win this one for the Libertarian Party" istration, Chairman Vogel bowed to Vogel later told me that he had ex­ and "makelife better for every citizen of the inevitable. Once Stern's victory in pected to lose the chairman position New York" made him sound like a text­ the gubernatorial vote was announced, (there had been talk of impeaching him book case of a transparent, govern­ Vogel sloppily railroaded a vote on even before the Stern campaign ment-as-usual politician. Dworkin was Dworkin as the running mate, without began), but that he was pleased by the the greatest sore spot in the proceedings much comment from the other candi­ election of Gerard Lewis. "Lewis' elec­ for thenon-Stern-groupie Libertarians. dates, except for James Ostrowski, who tion holds hope for a good-faith ballot Tamara Clark, who had expressed complained about Vogel's bungling of access petition drive." In other words, concern that Dworkin was no libertari­ parliamentary procedure, and Dottie­ with Lewis on the state committee to an, helpfully told Dworkin that he Lou Brokaw, who actually seconded report any anti-Stern sabotage back to could not be nominated for lieutenant Stern's nomination of Dworkin. Stern, anti-Stern officers will be some­ governor until he signed the Party As Brennan told me later, Stern's what constrained. And there are anti­ pledge, which he did quietly on stage man would have won eventually, and Stern party members who still wish the while Stern spoke. little could have been gained by pro­ OJ would go away. Another gubernatorial hopeful, the longing the proceedings. I couldn'thelp On June 19, Vogel and Peel called a warm and matronly Dottie-Lou wondering what might have happened continued on page 28 24 Liberty Forensic Diagnosis in the Therapeutic State by Thomas Szasz

"... to require medicine, said I, not merely for wounds of the incidence of some seasonal mala­ dies, but, because of sloth and such a regimen as we described, to fill one's body up with winds and humors like a marsh and compel the ingenious sons of Asclepius to invent for diseases such names as fluxes and flatulences - don't you think thatdisgraceful?" -Plato, Republic 1

Nosology - the scientific classification of diseases - is less than 200 years old. It began with physicians dissecting corpses, comparing the abnormal organs of persons who died of diseases with the normal organs of persons who died in accidents or as a result of violence. And it was put on a scientific - physical- chemical - foundation by Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902), whose defini­ At the present time, the identifica­ This shift in nosological focus - from tion of disease as a disturbance in the tion of bodily abnormalities in living the human body to the body economic structure or function of cells, tissues, persons is a highly developed science, and body politic - is but one symp­ and organs became the basis of classi­ making use of an array of sophisticat­ tom of the pervasive politicization of cal nosology. ed tools. As a rule, making a clinical medicine, redefined as "the delivery of Until recently, the pathologist's di­ diagnosis - that is, finding the le­ health care." Reviewing the changing agnosis, which always trumped the sion/disease (if there is one) to ac­ criteria for diagnosis, Alvan R. clinician's, was considered to be the count for a living person's/patient's Feinstein emphasizes the divergences correct name of the disease that ailed complaints/symptoms - is a techni­ among the ICD (International Classifi­ or killed the patient. However, the cal routine requiring a standardized cation of Diseases), the POR (Problem­ pressure of post-war developments in interpretation. Fifty years ago, some Oriented Record), and the DRG sys­ both medical technology and the poli­ physicians were sought after because tems, and states: "After magnificent tics of health care shifted the focus of they were known as "great diagnosti­ scientific advances in etiological expla­ nosology from post mortem to ante mor­ cians." Today, there are no great diag­ nation and therapeutic intervention tem diagnoses, and from the patient's nosticians. The sought-after phy­ during the twentieth century, clinical body to the body politic. sicians are now the "great therapists" medicine seems ready to enter the The scientific diagnosis of live pa­ tients is, for the most part, a recent - typically virtuoso surgeons or wiz­ twenty-first centurywith a fundamental technological development. The first ards of psychopharmacology. scientific defect in one of its oldest, most diagnostic method, percussion, was Save for the so-called functional basic activities: the system used to "discovered" in 1761 by Leopold mental illnesses, classic, Virchowian identify and classify diseases."2 Auenbrugger, the son of an innkeeper nosology was the province of the pa­ The problem to which Feinstein in Graz. As a youngster he learned to thologist, the expert on the post mortem points is not a scientific defect but a tap caskets of wine to determine the examination of cadavers. In contrast, moral one. Many of the current disease quantity of liquid in the container and contemporary clinical nosology is the taxonomies are not intended to be, and applied the technique to the human province, partly, of the medical admin­ often do not even pretend to be, scien­ chest. The systematic measurement of istrator, the expert onDRGs (Diagnosis tific (descriptive). Instead, they are po­ body temperature dates from 1852. Related Groups); and, partly, of the litical (prescriptive): Their purpose is The sphygmomanometer was invent­ medical-political activist, the expert on to achieve a practical, social goal- for ed in 1896. The more sophisticated the costs and consequences of behav­ example, validate certain chemicals as tests used today are all twentieth­ iors deemed to be "diseases" and of safe and effective therapeutic agents, century developments. procedures deemed to be "therapies." reduce healthcarecosts, orextendgov- Liberty 25 Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

ernment subsidies to hitherto unsubsi­ him to be more creative. He did not approved-and-reimbursable." Gore's dized individuals and groups. Indeed, claim, however, that the beneficial effect protest is superfluous. As everyone Ganesh G. Gupta has called attention to of nicotine is evidence that the smoker knows, the pursuit of happiness by the fact that a nosology based on DRGs suffers from a disease (for which nico­ -means of government-disapproved addresses "the chaos of payment [for] tine is a treatment). The claim for disease drugs is now punished more severely health care" and warned: "Nosologies status for depression and schizophrenia, than violent crime. The minimum pen­ [in the past] never tempted individuals based on the subject's (alleged) response alty imposed by U.S. federal law for "at­ to compromise medical ethics. The to drugs, rests on precisely that logic. If tempted murder with harm" is 6.5 greatest danger with DRGs may result giving a particular drug is authoritative­ years; for possession of LSD, it is 10.1 from linking monetary gain to the classi­ ly classified as a "treatment," the subject years.ll In addition, possessing an ille­ fication system, an idea supported by as a "patient," andhis post-treatmentbe­ gal drug is presumptive evidence of the current literature."3 In my view, the havior as an "improvement," then, ipso using it, being addicted to it, and hence new nosologies pose a much graver facto, he had (has) an illness. Thushas re­ having a disease as well. sponse-to-treatment become one of our Defining the use of drugs disap­ diagnostic criteria. proved by the state as a disease (sub­ The popularity of Prozac is thus stance abuse, chemical dependency, Today, there are no great di­ viewed as evidence that depression is addiction), and the use of drugs ap­ agnosticians. The sought-after common, and the approval of this and proved by the state as a treatment (an­ other "antidepressants" by the FDA tabuse, methadone, Haldol), illustrates physicians are the "great ther­ proves that depreSSion is a disease. In the radical politicization of both nosolo­ apists." the absence of objective methods for di­ gy and therapy.12 As a result, if the gov­ agnosing depression, there is heated de­ ernment validates a drug - by bate about who should take antidepres­ bestowing on it FDA approval for the sant drugs. Here is the politically cor­ treatment of, say, X- then, ipso facto, X threat: By authoritatively validating the rect answer to this question: is accepted as a disease (clinical depres­ politicization of medicine, they remove [U]nlike, say, high cholesterol levels, sion, panic attack, schizophrenia). After the last barriers against the medicaliza­ which show up in laboratory tests, all, if there is a drug to treat "it," "it" tion of (deviant) behavior and thus pave the diagnosis of depression is often must be a disease. Illustrative is the re­ the ground for the unopposed, and un­ subjective. What do you use as crite­ port of the Johnson & Johnson pharma­ opposable, rule of the Therapeutic State. ria? ... Maybe an individual is not ceutical company having "won federal Consider the following examples. clinically depressed, but he or she approval for its schizophrenia drug In November 1993, a group of inves­ still feels depressed and goes to the tigators, supported in part by the Eli physician 15 times a year and misses Lilly pharmaceutical company, estimat­ 30 days of work. ... If the individual ed "that the annual costs of depression takes the drug and doesn't go to the Many ofthe current disease in the United States total approximately physician and doesn't miss any taxonomies are not intended to $43.7 billion."4 Since then, this figure work, the benefit to the total health 8 has been frequently cited by advocates care cost would be there. be scientific. Instead, they are of mental health, as if it proved that de­ In a similar vein, the New York Times political: Their purpose is to pression is a disease. For instance, informs us that "At least 11 million achieve a practical, social goal. Tipper Gore, mental health advisor to Americans have a bout of depression President Clinton's Health Care Task every year, and only about 30 percent Force, asserts that "depression alone currently get medication that could help costs society $43.7 billion annually."s them. ... Many millions more whose Risperdal, which has caused a stir Psychiatrist Jose M. Santiago explains: symptoms don't amount to clinical de­ among doctors and patients seeking "[D]epression is an illness that merits pression might also look to such new treatments for one of the most urgent attention by health-care policy drugs."9 The adjective "clinical" is a devastating and expensive of all illness­ reformers as its costs to society are con­ code word justifying drug treatment es. ... The disease costs $33 billion an­ siderable."6 Citing the (fictitious) socie­ (and involuntary psychiatric interven­ nually in the U.S."13 tal cost of depression exemplifies the tions). The fact that not a single text­ Brandishing such enormous costs use of this novel criterion for classifying book of pathology recognizes depres­ makes it a taboo to question whether it as a disease. sion and schizophrenia as diseases has schizophrenia is a disease and whether Lithium, Gore adds, "has saved the not in the least dampened popular and antipsychotic drugs help patients. At economy billions of dollars over the past political enthusiasm for their diagnosis the same time, the dogmatic view that two decades, and clozapine now allows and treatment.l° Not surprisingly, Gore mental diseases are brain diseases, many of the most seriously ill to live insists that "antidepressants such as treatable with chemicals, dehumanizes their lives productively."7 The idea that Prozac have been developed for the the denominated patients. Individuals certain chemicals enhance productivity treatment of diagnosable mental illness­ diagnosed schizophrenic and their be­ is hardly new. South American Indians es, not the casual pursuit of 'happi­ havior disappear into a fog of literal­ have long chewed coca leaves for this ness.'" The term "diagnosable," another ized metaphors: "One psychiatrist who

reason. Freud felt that smoking enabled code word, means "government- studied Risperdal," we learn, 1/said his 26 Liberty " Voila logic!" -~ J. 0' ROURKE

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1000 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001 • (202) 842-0200 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

research found it treated schizophre­ cians, endorsing neuromythological cer, [because doing so] can greatly in­ nia's delusions better than haloperi­ fantasies about mental illnesses,17 join crease productivity at work."IB dol, one of the most widely used the mindless political chatter about (fic­ Current nosology no longer en­ antipsychotic drugs."14 titious) market forces in medicine. In codes the objectively verifiable condi­ Who cares that "schizophrenia" short, we are in the process of replacing tion of the patient's body. Instead, it cannot have any delusions? That hav­ the classic pathological criteria of dis­ reflects the attitudes of his family and ing delusions is not like having dia­ ease with new economic and political society to his dependency and unpro­ betes, because what the observer calls criteria of it. Perhaps unwittingly, Jose ductivity, and their justifications for "delusion" the subject calls "belief"? M. Santiago acknowledges that he rec­ the interventions they want politicians That anti-schizophrenia drugs, eagerly ommends recognizing depression "as a (and psychiatrists) to legitimize and embraced by the patients' familial ad­ legitimate and serious medical condi­ provide for (and perhaps impose on) versaries, are regularly rejected by the tion, like hypertension, diabetes, or can- him as therapy.19 0 patients whose suffering they alleged­ ly relieve? Declared Laurie Flynn of 1. Plato, Republic (trans., Paul Shorey), in The Saunders, 1989; R.A. Crawson, A. W. the National Alliance for the Mentally Collected Dialogues ofPlato, Including the McCracken, P.B. Marcus, and G.S. Zaatari, Ill: "This new drug means a whole Letters, Edith Hamilton and Huntington Pathology: The Mechanism of Disease, sec­ new group of people will have an Cairns (eds.). Princeton University Press, ond edition, Mosby, 1989; E. Rubin and opportunity to return to productive 1961, p. 650. J.L. Farber (eds.), Pathology, Lippincott, 1988. Not one of these texts mentions de­ life...."15 Who cares whether this a se­ 2. A.R. Feinstein, "lCD, POR, and DRG: Unsolved scientific problems in the nosol­ pression or schizophrenia in its index, rious forecast or a self-serving ogy of clinical medicine,"Archives of much less presents them as diseases. exaggeration?16 Internal Medicine 1988: 148: 2269-2274, em­ 11. D. Cauchon, "Attack on the Deadheads Is Before World War II, few diseases phasis added. No Hallucination: Band's Followers were treatable, but nosology was an 3. G.G. Gupta, "Diagnosis-related groups: A Handed Stiff LSD Sentences," USA Today, honest enterprise. Now, many diseas­ twentieth-century nosology," The Pharos December 17, 1992, A6. es are treatable, but nosology is a dis­ 1990: 53: 12-17. 12. See Thomas S. Szasz, Our Right to Drugs. 4. P.E. Greenberg, L.E. Stiglin, S.N. Finkel­ Praeger, 1992. honest enterprise. The old nosology, stein, and E.R. Berndt, "The economic bur­ 13. M.W. Miller, "FDA Clears J & J Schizo­ whose aims were empirical validity den of depression in 1990," Journal of phrenia Drug," Wall Street Journal, and scientific respectability, was Clinical Psychiatry 1993: 54: 405-417. January 4, 1994, p. B3. unconcerned with the treatment of 5. Tipper Gore, "The High Social Cost of 14. Ibid. diseases. The new nosology, whose Mental Illness," Wall Street Journal, 15. Ibid. aims are political favor and profes­ January 12, 1994, p. All. 16. For evidence that anti-schizophrenia sional profit, rests on arrogant claims 6. J.M. Santiago, "The costs of treating de­ drugs do not help the patient, see S.E. pression," Journal ofClinical Psychiatry of treatability as a criterion of illness. Finn, J.M. Bailey, R.T. Schultz, and R. 1993: 54: 425-426. Faber, "Subjective utility ratings of neuro­ Virchowian nosology was an off­ 7. Ibid. leptics in treating schizophrenia," spring of nineteenth-century science 8. H. Blissenbach, quoted in M. Freuden­ Psychological Medicine 1990: 20: 843-848. and the free market. Except for psychi­ heim, "The Drug Makers Are Listening To 17.m the United States, more than eight out atry and public health, medicine was Prozac," New York Times, January 9,1994, of ten prescriptions for psychotropic then economically and politically inde­ p.E7. drugs are written by non-psychiatric pendent of the state. Today, the defini­ 9. Freudenheim, Op cit. physicians. tions of disease and treatment are 10. The following texts have been consulted: 18. Santiago, Op. cit. J.M. Kissane, (ed.), Anderson's Pathology, 19. See P.E. Greenberg, L.E. Stiglin, S.N. controlled by a monopolistic alliance ninth edition, Mosby, 1990; R. S. Cotran, Finkelstein, and E.R. Berndt, "Depression: of medicine and the state; health care is V. Kumar, and S.L. Robbins, Robbins a neglected major illness," Journal of viewed as an.entitlement; and physi- Pathologic Basis of Disease, fourth edition, Clinical Psychiatry 1993: 54: 419-424. Seavey, "The Man vs the Empire State," continued from page 24

meeting in the public atrium of the for the gavel. Vogel reportedly contin­ "I'm not sure you're even thinking Citicorp Building in Manhattan, for the ued the meeting, in diminished form, at like a libertarian any more," responded purpose of forming a breakaway group, his apartment, and has already drawn Chris Whitten, managing editor of the the New York County Libertarian Par­ up the newparty'sby-laws. Laissez Faire Books catalog and a re­ ty. About eight people showed up. A Meanwhile, back at the real LP, cent addition to the Party. "I think vote to adjourn soon followed, and Stern's candidacy was still producing you've just turned into a Sternie." Vogel becameenraged whenState Party ripples. Derek Rose, a reporter from That, in a nutshell, will be the dilem­ Secretary Lisa Clark (an Objectivist un­ Massachusetts, traveled all the way to ma throughout the campaign: trying to happy with Stern and even more un­ Albany to vote for Stern, using his New make this a libertarian event instead of happywithVogel) attempted to reclaim York LP membership from his days at just a Howard Sternevent. Regardless, I Vogel's gavel as Party property. A scuf­ Vassar (an institution he now says think the political process will have fle ensued, and the entire group was should be destroyed). "We've got to been beneficially disrupted. And with­ thrown outby Citicorp security, despite rally behind Howard!" he shouted after out question, I will have been greatly Clark's insistence that she had a receipt the business meeting, his fist clenched. entertained. 0 28 Liberty Criminolo9Y-

The Allure of Organized Crime by Stephen Cox

Our streets have been rendered unlivable by a morally bankruptcriminal class.

Under the leadership of President Clinton, America has embarked on yet an­ other crusade against crime - a crusade that is doomed to fail, despite the president's high moral rhetoric and his blustering demands for legislative solutions. It is time we understood that social problems cannot be solved simply by laws and rhetoric. We need to realize that social problems may have social roots, that I refer, of course, to the political or to derive any profit from education. they may be traced to problems of so­ governing class. Although some may have begun life cial class. The life of this class is character­ with normal intelligence, the human By "class," however, I mean some­ ized by emotional vacuity and fever­ brain cannot easily withstand years of thing quite different from anything ish physical activity. It is a social class addiction to regular injections of polit­ that the president means when he re­ in the most basic meaning of the term: ical power. There is no evidence that fers to the connection between crime its activity is never anything but so­ mature members of the political class and poverty. cial. Its members are incapable of en­ have ever read a book. True disciples Most of the really serious crime in joying the bliss of solitude and quiet of popular culture, they derive all this country originates in a relatively self-reflection. They are never alone. their impressions of the world from a small but easily identifiable group of They spend their days hanging out in steady diet of television and cheap people, a group distinguished from the corridors of public buildings, "news" magazines. Their talk among all other groups by a lack of personal many of which their filthy habits have themselves is mainly the boastful lan­ values of any but the most rudimen­ rendered unfit for any legitimate use. guage of the street, designed to intimi­ tary kind. People in this group sel­ But wherever there is trouble, these date potential rivals. When they are dom engage in productive work. people are sure to appear. When a required to mix with people who are They subsist largely on the unmerit­ civil disturbance or natural disaster not part of their gang, they make pa­ ed largesse of the working popula­ occurs, they descend on the neighbor­ thetic attempts to overcome their tion, whom they intimidate into hood in the company of armed sense of inferiority by shouting a se­ contributing to their welfare with guards, prepared to extort money for ries of catch phrases generally misun­ threats of violence. Enjoying the ben­ "protection" from as many demoral­ derstood and misapplied. efit of universal compulsory educa­ ized victims as they can find. Often Living only for the moment, they tion, they are steeped, nevertheless, they instigate violence for the mere naturally put an almost absolute faith in primitive ignorance; and they pass purpose of whiling away their useless in luck. Should one of them discover on their culture of dependence and lives. that a favorite scheme has resulted in aggression to their children and The mental attainments of this disaster, he will persist in that grandchildren. It is this class that class are truly pitiable. Their attention scheme, convinced that by next Nov­ spreads terror through our inner cit­ spans are too brief, their command of ember some unknown power will res­ ies and even our suburban and rural language is too limited, and their curi­ cue him from the consequences of his areas. osity is too atrophied, to allow them deeds. Ignorance begets superstition. Liberty 29 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

Many of these people believe that they ing their neighbors to desist from any ticularly businessmen, have also suc­ can obtain virtually absolute power by pleasurable activities that the gang has cumbed to gang control, seduced by writing their names on pieces of paper declared taboo. Sometimes the servile promises of underworld profits. containing certain magical words. population is compelled to erect But children are the most tragic vic­ They are convinced, for example, that strange and repellent monuments to its tims. Boys and girls are regularly em­ they can heal the sick, create money, own subjection, rendered in a style that ployed by the gangs as accomplices. and ensure universal happiness by is euphemistically known as that of Some slave in "political campaigns"; merely affixing their signature to docu­ "public art." Frequently, higher trib­ others are abducted and made to ments decreeing that such things will utes are exacted. People have allowed march in "demonstrations"; still others happen. their cities to be destroyed (in gang are hypnotized and transported to Superstition is particularly evident parlance, "redeveloped"), their life sav­ Washington, D.C., where they are in­ in what passes for spiritual life in the ings to be plundered ("socially se­ duced to "testify before Congress" in cured"), and their sons to be sacrificed support of any vile program currently ("conscripted") for no other purpose being advocated by the political class. They spend their days hang­ than to flatter the superstitions of gang The leaders of this class understand leaders. that children can commit antisocial ing out in the corridors ofpub­ Because these leaders are incapable acts with virtual impunity. If they are lic buildings, many of which of self-reflection, they are necessarily caught in some flagrant crime, they their filthy habits have, ren­ self-aggrandizing and self-righteous. will usually escape with only a slap on None has ever been known to confess a the wrist. When apprehended in bad dered unfit for any legitimate sin, and few have ever been known to company and returned to the shelter of use. confess a fault. In some circumstances, homes in which traditional values are those in which the savage mentality respected, these young victims of feels that "face must be saved," they abuse often run back to the gang. A political class. The class has divided it­ participate in a ritual known as "taking few such children have grown up to self into numerous competing gangs. responsibility." These ceremonies nor­ become gang leaders. At the beginning of any serious dis­ mally take place immediately after a Leadership, however, stays largely pute among these gangs, their wise gang leader has committed some par­ in the extended families of the political men and priests stand in public places ticularly stupid and dishonorable act. class itself. In some parts of the coun­ and hurl spells at one another. These On such occasions, the leader address­ try, ordinary people have become so spells, or "rival legislative programs," es his followers with great solemnity accustomed to the dominance of this as the priests call them, are meaning­ and reasserts his power. He declares class that they will vote automatically less to outsiders, but they are capable that he possesses "responsibility" for of inciting credulous gang members to everything that happens, whether acts of nearly incredible savagery. At good or bad. His followers first emit a Because they are incapable intervals of two or at most four years, few murmurs of assent and then loud­ rumbles of this kind convulse gangs ly congratulate him on his "exercise of of self-reflection, they are nec­ throughout the country. courage." Once the ceremony has been essarily self-aggrandizing and There would be little danger to re­ performed, no further investigation of self-righteous. spectable citizens if such outbreaks of rights or wrongs can take place; the violence could be confined to the past has been ritually killed; all contro­ gangs themselves. Unfortunately, versies have been symbolically "laid to however, the point at issue in these rest," and the survival of the leader has for anyone who is a son or daughter, wars is normally the right to gain been magically ensured. nephew or niece of a political don. wealth and obedience from the sur­ So strong an influence do such be­ They apparently do not care whether rounding population. Two or more liefs exert on primitive minds that most or not these candidates are fronts for gangs may claim the right to prey would-be missionaries have despaired gang interests, so long as they can "get upon (or "represent") all members of a of the possibility of converting the po­ things done" in some nefarious way. particular ethnic or occupational litical class to any higher, more philo­ Other candidates are favored because group. Others, more ambitious, may sophic faith. In recent years, indeed, they have married into an underworld claim the right to "govern" everyone political superstition has shown a con­ family or have been inducted into it by who lives on their turf. When one siderable capacity to diffuse itself in the the ceremonies of blood-brotherhood gang gains victory, it recovers the cost general population. It takes hold espe­ performed at the so-called "colleges" of its wars by compelling everyone cially among the weak-minded and in­ and "universities" in which the politi­ whom it "represents" to pay tribute in secure, the very old, and the very cal class performs its initiation rites. the form of so-called "taxes." young, all of whom are susceptible to Most initiates are so thoroughly in­ With their livelihood secure, the vague and wistful hopes for "change" doctrinated that they are incapable of priests and warlords of the gang extort by some miraculous means. Many sup­ breaking with the underworld, even if respect for their superstitions by forc- posedly enlightened civic leaders, par- they obscurely want to do so. Leaving 30 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

the gang would bring disgrace, ostra­ tually lead devastated lives. Don't term-limitation laws may actually learn cism, and the necessity of finding a share those lives, even if something as to engage in productive occupations. productive job. Dialogue with normal seemingly innocuous as a health care 4. Take back your neighborhood, bit people is often of limited usefulness in plan is offered you "for free." Anyone by bit. Once a political gang has been helping members of the political class who offers you something like that is expelled from one part of its turf, it will recover their self-respect. After all, "di­ not your friend. He wants to take your be easier to expel from the next. Locate alogue," in the form of pointless chat­ money, and your soul. the areas in which your local gang is ter, is one of the self-affirming rituals of 2. Withdraw all psychological sup­ most vulnerable, the places where it the class itself. port from antisocial behavior. Mem­ cannot live in the light of day but must Of course, internal stresses some­ bers of the American political class restrict its activities to the midnight times destabilize antisocial groups and need constant emotional reinforce- hours. Install better lighting in these set their·psychological prisoners free. spots, and you will expose the secret The political cult that formerly operat­ betrayals, the tawdry ''business'' deals, ed in Moscow met its doom in that the legislative murders by which politi.. way. But addictive behavior may per­ Children are the most tragic cians operate when they are not yet sist even after its most obvious social victims. Some slave in "politi­ strong enough to act with brazen assu­ rance. With careful planning, con.. supports have been destroyed. Former cal campaigns"; others are ab­ cerned citizens may be able to Russian Communists quickly discov­ ducted and made to march in eliminate some of ·the gang's weaker ered or created other cults. A similar (but very profitable) enterprises ­ pattern appears in the behavior of for­ "demonstrations. " NASA, Social Security, monopolized mer SDSers, Rockefeller Republicans, public education - and then move on and followers of Ross Perot. to others. Civic-minded people should not mente An open, self-confident denial of 5. Your own morale is tremendous­ wait, therefore, until some unforesee­ their illusions can sometimes bring on a ly important. Don't try to do every.. able convulsion allows them to escape crisis of morale. I have seen members thing by yourself; in that direction lies from the clutches of the political class. of this class break into tears when I despair. Join a support group, or form To do nothing is to surrender every­ politely. questioned the need for one.· When your father tells you how thing. We must do now whatever we national action to protect certain much Franklin D. Roosevelt did for the can to free ourselves. groves of "old-growth forest" that the old people, and your sister-in-law in.. It won't be easy - but just take it political class regards as sacred. It's forms you that health care is a right, one step at a time. Here are some tough to make a grown man cry, but and your husband tells you what a suggestions. remember, you'll be doing it for his good speaker Al Gore is, it's easy to 1. To start with, protect yourself. own good. think that you're all alone. But millions Just say no! (I'm speaking especially to 3. If withdrawing moral support of caring people are suffering just as you young people.) The political class doesn't work, punishment may. When you do. Reach out to these people, and may seem fun and glamorous, but re­ a member of the political class is seized work together with them to find solu­ member that it's really not. The folks by the electorate and imprisoned in the tions to this terrible social plague. you see riding in limousines and shak­ boot camp of civilian life, recovery 6. Never give up. After all, we're ing hands on streetcorners, acting as if sometimes takes place. Some persons smarter than the politicians - aren't they didn't have a care in the world, ac- sentenced to retraining under the new w~ a

1(1.1 1JIt lRDl>U(:rof Al~UN otJ'lIlJ, lE1"w,,~~ lSlLL"IJ(KLEJ 6l~,~ SI~INfM, LJJEK~~,~tJ MAN WAS 1>£Sl1NEJ) fl> ~~l~1>~f))

Liberty 31 "On February 7th, when Iwalked out of that Court House... Icould barely keep my excitement from making me skip down the steps. I know, first­ hand, that this knowledge is Real Power. I also know that we are on the road to Individual Freedom that will take us anywhere we want to go." - Harry Plott, World Network Holdings, on reorganizing his business as aTerra Libra Trust. HOW TO LIVE FREE ALMOST ANYWHERE My name is Frederick Mann. In 1977 I became a Free Sover­ UNSOLICITED TESTIMONIALS eign Individual. Since then I've lived largely free from government "The American people possess that loathsome and deplorable coercion in many parts of the world. I've learned what I call Free­ custom of blind obedience and servility to those in power or stationed dom Technology: the practical knowledge, methods, and skills for in high office. History demonstrates that we should distrust politi­ cians, not worship them. I have received and briefly reviewed your living free - the street-smart know-how to outwit freedom-violators manuscripts, and find them well written and full of information. I at every turn. Freedom Technology makes it possible for us to congratulate you on your work. I hope that your works get wide legally, elegantly, and safely exit coercive government systems and circulation because they look excellent." to live free. Freedom Technology includes the practical means to Lowell H. Becraft, Jr. - Attorney - Huntsville, Alabama protect yourself, your income, and your assets against attacks from freedom-violators. Ultimately, Freedom Technology also includes "WOW! Your Terra Libra concept is a mind-blower... and a the means to blow away the bogus power of the freedom-violating winner whose time is NOWI The info you sent brought the greatest elite. excitement about the possibility of freedom in my lifetime I've ever We apply Freedom Technology to increase our personal power, known. Thru Terra Libra you're providing an exciting possibility: Be wealth, and health. We engineer a massive shift of resources from free now, working within and around our present oppressive govern­ the freedom-violating elite to the Free Sovereign Citizens of Terra ment, leaving it to collapse of its own weight while we simultaneously Libra. create alternative systems that'll be in place to replace those of the AMERICA: LAND OF ECONOMIC RAPE tyrannical government when it withers and dies as in the USSR. In 1988 I moved to America - "the land of the free and the Fascinating stuff! Dr. Howard Long - Dentist - Carnelian Bay, California home of the brave." To my horror I soon discovered that America and Americans were being economically raped. I researched the "For the last 25 years I've been reading about "what's wrong!" specific mechanisms of the economic rape and identified the key I've been amember of "The John Birch Society" and "Neo-Tech" and economic rapists. Iwrote the book The Economic Rape ofAmerica: I've never found anything as well written as your Terra Libra Manu­ What You Can Do About It. als." After more research and discussions with many, I concluded Duane F. Campbell- Developer - Kent, Washington that Personal Power was an important ingredient of the solution, so I wrote a second book Wake Up America! The Dynamics of Its inhabitants are Free Sovereign Citizens. Human Power. Terra Libra is the means to replace human failure programs HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE with human success programs. During the coming decades Terra PRACTICING AND SPREADING FREEDOM Libran free-enterprise entrepreneurs will apply Freedom Technol­ As a professional consultant I've worked with computers for ogy to move society from what is to what could or should be. In the many years. Among other companies, I've studied Microsoft to process many will become millionaires and billionaires. The Terra determine why it has been so successful. 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In fact, Terra Libra does not threaten or Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates became a billionaire and the richest challenge the authority of any legitimate governments. man in America. The bogus power of illegitimate freedom-violators depends on In human affairs there is also a gap between what is and what the support of their victims. Terra Librans find practical ways to could be. We suffer from "human failure programs" (like govern­ legally, elegantly, and safely withdraw their support. The power of ment!) that keep us as society stuck at a low level. The gap illegitimate freedom-violators is tenuous - flimsy, fragile, and of between what is and what could or should be represents potential. little substance. Understanding the dynamics of human power This potential is vastly greater than the potential that enabled enabled Mohandas Gandhi to defeat the armed might of the British Bill Gates to become the richest man in America. Empire without firing a shot. The armed might of the East German TERRA LIBRA freedom-violators, backed by 300,000 Russian troops, could not Terra Libra is a phenomenal societal breakthrough for taking keep the Berlin wall standing. When the victims of the soviet advantage of the gap between what is and what could or should be. freedom-violators withdrew their support, the Soviet Empire col­ Terra Libra is a worldwide free country that extends across national lapsed overnight. borders. It's an information-based rather than a territorial country. Because of currency debasement (inflation), huge budget deti- cits, property seizures, Nazi-like terrorism, and other criminal viola­ Libra Trust and declared itself a Terra Libra Territory. tions, many freedom-violators are destroying their own coercive •A company has been established to create a worldwide economic power systems. They are rapidly losing control. system with a 1QQ%-gold-based currency. 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Toad Trainers and the American Dream by John Briggs

It's hard to teach excellence when you've settled for mediocrity.

After a week or so of class, when the first essays have appeared, I often have an uncharitable urge to cut most of the students and send them at once to their law firm or ad agency, their flourescent lives of sanctioned pilfering. The basketball and football coaches have the authority to cut, and that accounts in part for their burly, whistle-blowing confidence. "You are clumsy," they can say. "You sonally theorized. In our collective means that "higher" is merely a slight are weak. You have slow feet. Get out identity, our institutional clusters, we rise on a barren plain. of here!" are unwilling to declare anyone unfit Our People's Colleges have been Coaches offer their own marvels of to sit in a college classroom. We wel­ opened, demystified, and equipped cant, but they work at excellence, as come all breathers, having delivered with reading ramps and easy-access we who cast the humanities for a liv­ our judgment into the hands of uni­ fountains of knowledge for the intel­ ing generally do not, though we versity administrator-clerks. No mat­ lectually challenged. We have from mumble the incantations. We long ter that many of the students bring classroom necessity democratized our ago made our bargain: in return for a into the college classroom the yawn­ canon of literature, broken into chewa­ long-term job and a name-plate on ing impatience that left them buffoon­ ble fragments our study of history, our door, we would agree that all our ish after twelve years of school; we added smiling cadres of specialists in students are worth educating and accept the bodies parceled to us by remediation, graduated populations of stop .making distinctions the Admis­ the computer, accepting too the prem­ idiots - and we profess bemusement sions and Retention Committee find ises, rarely debated, that in the hu­ that the tone ofthe broad culture is thin invidious. For a paycheck, we would manities the determination of excel­ and ugly, or that television pitchmen agree that sneering George - a col­ lence is impossible or impractical or, have preempted the look ofsincerity. lege junior still unclear on the dates of somehow, vaguely wrong. We accept and expect weakness in the Civil War, still incapable of creat­ As though we were querulous rev­ our students, noting with a pimpish ing a clear, original sentence, and bel­ erends, we have as a group come to wink that those bodies pay our sala­ ligerently outspoken on the unfair­ pride ourselves on our capacity for ries. We have promoted academic ness of long reading assignments ­ understanding, dispensing generous­ opportunists to administrative gene­ has as valid a claim on our energies as ly euphemisms for ignorance and lazi­ ralship of the universities, and they any other student. Except over a beer ness and stupidity and sleaziness have done with them precisely what with a disgruntled colleague, we are with a Unitarian weepiness of lan­ Carlyle warned a century ago that afraid to identify him as what he is: a guage. Our traditional goal of nurtur­ they would do - turned them into waste of time. ing excellence has been altered, and demotic social clubs. Having allowed It is true that many among us do we wish now to "retain" students, to the thoughtless to take over the uni­ have limits, a line of inanity over save them - though universal access versities, rather than easing them into which we will not comfortably cross. to higher education, which no right­ the streets and malls and corporate When so, however, the limits are per- minded person will publicly oppose, clerkships and movie theatres where 34 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

they belong, we are bewildered that of two minds. His indiscretion was cul­ Insincerity, unfaithfulness, impiety:­ they have no respect for us and that pable. He had been around long careless tumbling and buzzing about, everywhere we have only a residual enough to know that reporters are un­ in blind, noisy, pleasantly companion­ able "swarms," instead of solitary social force. trustworthy; he should have foreseen questioning of [ourselves].... Teachers are weightless because we that the joke would be interpreted by have become, in general, wimpish deal­ the Brokaws of the day as a revealed an­ Each time we publish merely to ers in philistinism, catering to aspirant imus toward blacks - the philosophy demonstrate our professionalism, or vulgarians. Many among us reward ar­ animating the administration's social give a predictable talk, or suffer cant in tistry, intelligence, and diligence, which policies. He deserved firing, for naivete. silence, or applaud in annual faculty is fine, but while we recognize the Still, though he was likely just re­ meetings the inanities of politician­ good, we devalue it by accommodating peating a joke he had heard in some administrators, or weaken a syllabus to the bad, the dullness and stupidity and Republican dive, he had been tickled avoid an exodus of students from our laziness - though we shrink from ex­ by the incongruity between "pussy" class to that of a truckling colleague amining the implications of that accep­ and the expected response to queries down the hall, or award a C- to a tance. Acutely aware that our mall­ regarding black desires: "What do George when he should be flunked ­ each time we bow to the autocracy of bound students must be retained, we blacks want? Blacks want [hand over convenience - we devalue our profes­ fraudulently certify them as competent; heart] social justice, self-respect, the sion. When we are cowards, we can we shorten the race for them, lower the dignity arising from recognition of teach only cowardice, no matter which hurdles, abridge our ideals into a Phil their essential humanity...." To the ex­ books we fondle. Donahue version of the American tent that Butz appreciated the joke be­ Dream. As we dispense it, an "educa­ cause he appreciated the incom­ (iii) tion" is the key that unlocks shop pleteness of pieties about blacks, I re­ We who teach complain endlessly doors, promising credit cards, cars, gretted his departure. Droll bureau­ of grade inflation and lowered stan­ and, for the gapers from the suburbs, a crats should in general be retained. dards and our apparently failing cul­ ferny future surroundedby people who At any rate, and more to the point, ture; simultaneously, we gauge the look good inswimming suits. Butz's little joke is not at heart anti­ success of the schools in which we teach Unfriendly as it sounds, the notion black; it might be generally employed. by the percentage of our graduates who of equal access to education is intrinsi­ What are Republicans after? What mo­ manage to attain a measurable portion cally fraudulent, except as "education" tivates the top management of General of Earl Butz's American Dream. has been reduced in scope to that which Motors? What was the essence of the The American Dream that students formerly was called "training." Equal New Deal? What is the American bring to college is of loose shoes, tight access to education should logically Dream? Why do we teach? What do pussy, and a warm place to shit, and properlybe a "right" that diminish­ our students want? (Women who re­ es as each student ages. Those who are sent the male orientation of the above incompetent must assume the responsi­ hilarities must create their own re­ Universal access to higher bility of their own salvation, though we sponse, beginning, if symmetry is to be might expect that such a requirement preserved, with the word "thin.") education, which no right­ would cause them to feel abused. What does George, who so dislikes minded person will publicly (ii) reading, want? He wants what Butz oppose, means that "higher" is A few years ago, Earl Butz, a blunt­ said blacks want, though translated merely a slight rise on a barren mouthed Republican, lost his position into acceptable Americanese. I suggest as Secretary of Agriculture by joking to that our willingness to tolerate George plain. gossipy reporters that all that blacks and his soulmates in our humanities want is "loose shoes, tight pussy, and a classrooms is ipso facto a demonstration warm place to shit." Despite the purs­ of having been unnerved; each such though as vulgarians they instinctively ing of lips and sad condemnations by person we pass along diminishes our fluff up their goals with chatter of numerous social-discourse monitors, self-respect, leaving us limp techni­ "personal growth" and "meaningful the joke was widely repeated, and I cians to his Playboy reveries. As a contributions." If our function truly is suspect that many who are not black tweedy aggregate, we have surren­ to train young people to follow orders, chuckled at it; its bite was its casual dered to blank, hostile eyes such as his; let us do it well and make of the uni­ destruction of then-current sanctimo­ we merely hope for the best, absolving versity a Marine boot camp; if we are nies regarding black aspirations. It re­ ourselves of responsibility. We have al­ more interested in team-work than eth­ animated abandoned and discredited lowed our individual voices, if we re­ ics, let us follow the methods of Jerry stereotypes of black indolence and cul­ tain them, to be stifled in committee Tarkanian. If we were to train students tural inadequacy, and restored a com­ chatter, and, as Carlyle wrote in to the far borders of his platitudes, we fortable image of Kingfisher slapping Shooting Niagara: And After?, the dan­ might at least graduate to Dow and to down the Saturday-night pavement in ger here, "the poison NBC and to General Motors competent two-tone shoes and a Panama hat. ... is not intellectual dimness chiefly and efficiently self-effacing automa­ Should Butz have been fired? I was but torpid unveracity of heart. ... tons, happily ignorant of poetry and Liberty 35 Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

history, functionally literate, acquaint­ you've hit on a great truth. Your com­ fit comfortably into Kingfisher's easy ed with but group integrity, unskepti­ pany is not interested in literacy, and it world. cal, uncritical - thus, well-prepared does not want integrity; it recruits Excellence! Excellence is so much and well-educated to be office func­ docility. dangled as the purchasable that a teach­ tionaries recording lifelong sterile But such sarcasm, employed as a er's insistent proclaimed yearning on numbers on sterile forms. rhetorical spur to excellence, will not behalf of his students must strike them Properly, however, we are not work. Carlyle and Austen are dull to as mundane. And few of us, I think, shopkeepers with a commercial inter­ George because they are incomprehen­ seem to embody fearlessness or seem est in placation, endlessly grinning and sible to him. He has had successively much to have lived life at its richest. We capitulating. We have no interest in as­ thicker Dolphin Readers throughout teachers may seem even less attractive suring George that his weakness is our school, has heard pious inducements than those we urge our students to dis­ fault or our responsibility. He must to "excellence," and he knows the tone dain. We have learned the rewards of find his assurances of worth in church and knows that in the end (semester's compromise, and students like George or from his gaping friends; his pitiful know weakness when they see it. When sensibilities must not be sanctioned by we speak of excellence, George knows those of us who would be teachers. Our People's Colleges have we are blustering. Our students arrive and leave asking been opened, demystified, and We teachers of literature and histo­ why they must read this stupid Carlyle equipped with reading ramps ry and writing, dealing in what people or Gibbon or Thucydides or old­ have done, dabbling in excellence, are fashioned Jane Austen. "Her sentences and easy-access fountains of properly uneasy when we ponder our are too long." "When I go for a job knowledge for the intellectual­ proper role. If it is to train George so they're not gonna ask me about ly challenged. that he can make his product and re­ Carlyle." Nope, George, they're not. turn to his predictable suburban home They want you to spend your working without killing anyone or defecating life applauding the product, finding on the sidewalk, then we are in no end) he will be passed through if he your spiritual satisfactions in new de­ way concerned with excellence, but just shuffles appropriately and gets vices for the kitchen and daydreams of with sufficiency; we are trainers, no two-thirds of his papers in more or less more, mere agents of the present Sharon Stone. If they know of him, on time. they are contemptuous of Carlyle, or of culture, subservient to those with Perhaps we teachers wish secretly to Roethke, in Dolor: more authority - and as such we nurture rogue essayists with clear eyes ... I have seen dust from the walls of have no business even mentioning and untainted purpose who will write Jane Austen or Melville or Nabokov in institutions, beautifully and uncompromisingly Finer than flour, alive, more a classroom. their observations, caring little for pros­ dangerous than silica, If we are toadying self-seekers our­ Sift, almost invisible, through long perity or job security: Errol Flynns of selves, we have no business introduc­ afternoons of tedium, high purpose. If so, we are whistling in ing to classrooms of incipient toads ­ Dropping a fine film on nails and the wind. No Thoreau, no Thucydides, toads-in-training - those who have delicate eyebrows, no Pater would sit for long surrounded exemplified excellence, as though we Glazing the pale hair, the duplicate bysuch dolts as we tolerate. superintend them or have somehow gray standard faces. We expose students to excellence as mastered them. We taint the Excellents You're right, George. Though only though it were one more commodity. with our familiarity and are as pathetic 20 and unacquainted with other than Fantastic new sudsers of soiled clothes, as those yokels at writing conferences the dark alleyways of the present, great movies, world-class pizzas, sexy who, after a handshake, treat the fa­ ,~ Pepsi, and excellent mous author as an old friend and call - .::.--~~.~ Carlyle. Carlyle him by his first name. ~-:~-mt:* ' ~.:.~~ though, does not fit. Much better, if we are such a teach­ ~~~ He is not attractive er - a trainer-toad - to abandon all ~~- or accommodating. suggestions of excellence and teach - Unlike Lee Iacocca, what we exemplify. The canon is vast: he does not want Dale Carnegie, Babbitt as Hero, Movies as you in his shop, and Literature - and because we speak all the pearly study with authority and because the subject questions in all the is clearly relevant, even George will readers in all the col­ pay attention and learn readily: to be a lege bookstores will part of the swarm, to accept ugliness as not alter him or beauty, pieties as wisdom, meretri­ make Jane Austen ciousness as excellence, and, most im­ ...... __ .-.. ~~,,".,.. ,..:':..... less subtle or cause portantly, that the pilfering spirit of the J'l7;r'·~- Roethke somehow to advertiser is the human spirit. CJ 36 Liberty Analysis The Institutions of Higher Tuition by Jesse Walker

With the costs of a college education spiralling ever higher, it's time to bring the Ivory Tower down to Earth.

Shortly after I graduated from the University of Michigan, my alma mater an­ nounced that it would be increasing tuition. That in itself was no surprise - they raise tuition every year - but that year's excuse seemed a little bizarre. Tuition must be increased, they said, in order to meet the demand for financial aid. It takes a lot of gall to say you're subsidizing something when you're ias while better, cheaper food is being eting tuition by asserting that the in­ really raising its price. But universities provided privately all over town. creases have been made necessary by are long on gall these days. When the All of this has attracted some com­ "rising costs." But as Thomas Sowell same campus got its own little depu­ plaint, but the worst of the academic has pointed out, this poses more ques­ tized police force two years before, porkbarrel still goes unchallenged. tions than it answers. "Even if not a Executive Director of University Re­ The University of Michigan -like al­ single price except tuition had lations Walter Harrison asserted that most all American universities, public changed anywhere in the entire econ­ Michigan would save money on the and "private" - is itself a monument omy, 'costs' would still have risen, as deal. Only those who read the fine to out-of-control bureaucratic growth. costs are defined in academic discus­ print discovered that Harrison expect­ Shielded from market discipline by sion," he writes. "Whatever colleges ed a significant increase in funding monopolistic privilege, our public col­ and universities choose to spend their from the state legislature - far higher leges have little incentive to efficiently money on is called a cost." That in­ than it had given anytime recently ­ serve their customers. Instead, educa­ cludes superfluous campus cops, before any money was actually saved. tional monies are allocated according presidential mansions, and academic Lo and behold: a year later, to political power - clout in the halls pork. It includes junkets for university Michigan's subsidy was cut instead. of the state legislatures, in the wind­ officials and higher salaries for top By then, of course, the amateurish ing corridors of the academic guilds, bureaucrats. It includes all the pro­ safety patrols were a jait accompli. in the grant-spewing chambers of the grams that have raised the ire of crit­ And by then, hardly anyone was federal government, in the red-tape ics Left and Right, from weapons batting aneye at the president's expen­ jungle of America's university bu­ research to P.C. pseudoscience. It in­ sive, university-subsidized mid­ reaucracies. The inevitable losers are cludes vast bureaucratic expansion. campus mansion, despite the fact that the payers of taxes and tuition. And yes, it even includes financial its putative resident actually lived in Only basic, radical change - abo­ aid. another part of town. There was a pub­ lition of monopoly control of higher Sowell's conclusion: "it is the lic outcry when his wife was hired to education and the professions - can amount of money that colleges and continue her fundraising duties, "for­ undo this hopeless mess of pork and universities can get - from tuition, malized" into a job netting $35,000 a privilege. endowment income, donations, etc. ­ year; .she now once more works for which determines how much their free. But dorm residents are still Packaged Deals spending or costs will go up, not the trapped in a much bigger boondoggle: Colleges and universities usually other way around, as they represent it beingforced to subsidizedorm cafeter- respond to complaints about skyrock- to the public. To say that costs are Liberty 37 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

going up is no more than to say that their presence. College education is a to those who passed; presumably, the additional intake is being spent, seller's market. teachers would be hired to spend rather than hoarded" ("The Scandal of Indeed, among the country's lead­ part of their time writing and grad­ College Tuition," Commentary, August ing universities, the name of the game ing such examinations. Another 1992). is not competition but collusion. For might perform clerical functions, printing a course catalogue listing When a student purchases a college three and a half decades, representa­ courses that were being offered and education, she provides the money, tives from MIT and the Ivy League their prices. ... There might be but the university decides in large part schools met each year at a gathering groups publishing and selling evalu­ how that money will be spent. History called "Overlap," to determine how ations of teachers and courses. ... majors subsidize the drama depart­ much money they would charge each (The Machinery of Freedom, p. 66) ment. Physics students underwrite the individual student who had applied to Once you start thinking along these more than one of the participating uni­ lines, it's hard to avoid getting still versities. Differences between each more radical. Why must the university school's nominal tuition rates were Students are putting up be an ivory tower, separated from the ironed out by financial-aid offers. The surrounding community? Is there any vast sums of money with little Overlap meetings ceased in 1991, reason, for example, to give specific say in how it is spent, while when the Justice Department threat­ buildings over just to classrooms and ened an antitrust suit; of the cartel, the administrators who do auditoriums? Many courses, particu­ only MIT was willing to defend itself larly those with very specialized ap­ have say have little incentive in court. It did pretty well, eliciting a to economize in their spend­ peal or application, could easily meet ruling in favor of such "cooperative fi­ in the instructor's home. Others could ing. nancial aid agreements." rent rooms in office buildings, or ·ar­ None of this would be possible in range to meet in the local library. an open educational marketplace. But Many - perhaps most - would be an open marketplace is one thing more akin to study groups than tradi­ hockey team. Dorm residents who eat American higher education is not. out still pay tribute to the dormitory tional one-teacher/ many-students ar­ cafeterias. And every tuition-payer and The University As Bazaar rangements. Advanced study, after all, is apt to be small-group-oriented and taxpayer pays the salaries of a host of Most critics of the educational es­ cooperative. And mere freshman lec- administrators. Means of allocating tablishment have trouble imagining al­ funds vary from school to school, of ternatives to the collegiate status quo. course, but every major college in the Sowell, for example, can only recom­ nation suffers from this same basic mend antitrust action to stop orga­ As of 1991, only 60% of problem: students, their families, and nized collusion like the Overlap case. American college students the taxpayers are putting up vast sums That is to say, he advocates more gov­ of money with little say in how it is ernment intervention. Surely, free­ were enrolled full-time, and spent, while the administrators who do marketeers can do better than that. only 15% of all undergradu­ have say have little incentive to econo­ Far more imaginative is David ates received their degree in mize in their spending. Friedman: Yes, universities are disciplined the familiar four-year period. In a free-market university ... the somewhat by consumer demand, but present corporate structure would be this discipline is corrupted by heavy replaced by a number of separate or­ political interference. Since the great ganizations, cooperating in their mu­ turing can be done more efficiently portion of public universities' operat­ tual interest through the normal and as effectively on video. ing budgets comes from state govern­ processes of the marketplace. These And how many subjects now ments, and since public and private presumably would include one or taught in the universities might be bet­ colleges alike are partially dependent more businesses renting out the use ter learned in apprenticeships, or on federal grants, the customer with of classrooms, and a large number of through self-directed study? How the most pull in the collegiate market is teachers, each paying for the use of a much is useless duplication of on-the­ the government, which rarely misses classroom and charging the students job training? In the present protected an opportunity to issue a "mandate." who wished to take his course what­ market, it's difficult to tell. Students make themselves felt by ever price was mutually agreeable. There are advantages, of course, to The system thus would be ultimately choosing where to go to college, and some sort of corporate university struc­ supported by the students, each there is competition between schools to choosing his courses according to ture. Some students might prefer to attract certain kinds of "desirable" stu­ what he wanted to study, the reputa­ pay for a common library, computing dents - prodigies, gifted athletes, ra­ tion of the teacher, and his price. center, pretty campus, etc. Some might cial minorities. But for most applicants, Other organizations might coexist desire the warmth and guidance of a the competition is with other students with these. There might be one that very organized program. Others may for a place in the college of their choice, did nothing but give examinations in appreciate a particular sort of student not between colleges for the honor of various subjects and grant degrees body - an all-male or all-female acad- 38 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

emy, a blacks-only Afrocentric institu­ education. Eradicate it, and the univer­ While the liberal arts suffer from the tion, a specifically Christian environ­ sity porkbarrel will come crumbling opposite problem - grade inflation­ ment, or the like. So long as there is down. many science classes, especially in sufficient demand for such places, they The licensed profession is the mod­ medicine, maintain the barbaric cus­ should exist - as private colleges, de­ ern equivalent of the medieval monop­ tom of grading students in relation to pendent entirely on tuition and/or olistic guild. Licensing systems are one another, rather than against an ob­ endowments. nearly always controlled by the profes­ jective standard. Thus, a student who But Friedman's open university, sion that is being licensed; for that rea­ gets 85% of a test right, but has a low like the medieval universitas it resem­ son, accreditation processes naturally score relative to the rest of his class, bles, seems both more practical and evolve to overly restrict the number of fails. Fierce competition is fomented less costly. Friedman does not discuss people who may practice. With supply for an artificially scarce prize; qualified the tuition-rates issue in his book, but men and women are weeded out. the lowering of costs is an obvious, Imagine a world where baseball positive by-product of his proposal. What is the purpose of a teams graduated the same number of The student at the education bazaar is players to the majors each year, award­ 1/degree" in literature or histo­ paying for what she desires for her edu­ ing them places according to how good cation, not what administrators desire ry or women's studies, other they are in comparison to other rook­ for their institution. She is not paying than permission to teach other ies, rather than in accordance with for departments she will never take people classes that will, in broader requirements of skill. That's courses from, bureaucratic programs the spirit that animates the gatekeepers of dubious merit, or crappy cafeterias turn, enable them to earn to the medical profession. - unless she wants to. 1/degrees"? The situation in the humanities is in many ways worse. Medicine, law, and Aristocracies of Knowledge the like at least exist as recognizable For now, alas, a college education is thus prevented from rising to meet de­ occupations in the outside world. But a package deal. More and more stu­ mand, prices are driven up. what could possibly justify the liberal­ dents, though, are treating it as though Some defend this system as a rea­ arts guilds, cartels to limit access to po­ it were not. Most have jobs, and many sonable trade-off: the professionals get sitions within the very institution ­ take time off between semesters to their monopoly, the rest of us get com­ the university - that maintains the make enough money for the next petent service. But it rarely works out cartels? If they are less powerful than % round of classes: as of 1991, only 60 that way. Many incompetents survive the medical or legal hierarchies, they of American college students were en­ the accreditation process, while thou­ more than make up for that by having rolled full-time, and only 15% of all un­ sands of qualified people do not. so little reason to exist. What is the dergraduates received their degree in Consider the universally reviled purpose of a "degree" in literature or the familiar four-year period. Most trial-by-fire system of medical intern­ history or women's studies, other than commute to college from their homes. ships, in which interns must work con­ permission to teach other people class­ Nearly half are over 25. secutive stress-filled 20-hour days, es that will, in turn, enable them to Why are these career-oriented often making life-or-death decisions earn"degrees"? "nontraditional" students attending with no sleep at all. Obviously, this This does not guarantee academic school, if not for the fabled four-year does nothing to protect the safety of excellence. It guarantees academic in­ liberal-arts experience? To attain spe­ the patients. It isn't very good for the breeding. And insular guilds are pro­ cific knowledge and skills, of course­ prospective doctors either. Many drop tected by solid disciplinary walls. That and to acquire the credentials that out, unable to take the stress of work is why so few philosophers know eco­ allow them to practice within a profes­ or the havoc it wreaks on their psyches nomics, so few economists know an­ sion. It is this credentialism that main­ and their private lives. Men and thropology, and so few political tains the current system of higher women who might have become very scientists know anything. Perhaps the good doctors, don't. The worst consequence of this is the iron supply of medical practi­ curtain that separates C.P. Snow's Thomas S. Szasz Award tioners is capped, fees "two cultures," the sciences and the August 31 is the deadline for nominations for the Thomas stay high, and the mys­ humanities, producing legions of S. Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Cause of tique of the medical learned idiots convinced that half their Civil Liberties. This award is conferred annually by a commit­ tee headed by Andrea Rich, of Laissez Faire Books. Past recip­ priesthood goes up a cranial capacity is for the apes. ients have included Karl Hess, Richard Epstein, and Richard notch. (Less hazardous Vatz. The award - which includes a plaque and a $1000 prize - is granted to "the person or organization. American or for­ initiation rites, such as AWay Out? eign, judged to have contributed in an outstanding degree to the hazing, are illegal in Into this maze of guild privileges cause of civil liberty" - civil liberty. that is, understood in the most of the country.) and bureaucratic pork-barrel come the libertarian (and Szaszian) sense, as grounded in the rights of "private property and voluntary exchange, the rule of law, and No less dramatic but aforementioned nontraditional stu­ the open society." Nominations should be sent to: nearly as harmful is the dents, poorer on average than their Szasz Award Committee, Laissez Faire Books, 73 Spring Street, #507, New York, NY 10012. use of the bell curve. schoolmates, on campus to learn partic- . Liberty 39 r------, Se tember 1994 ular skills. They want to purchase the education they think they need, but a bureaucratic system forces them to sub­ Early Liberty ~ sidize a package of extra costs and a Indulge your mind with the pleasure and stimulation of early Liberty. Or guild system gives them plenty more complete your collection of the most exciting libertarian magazine. The first hoops to pay for the privilege of jump­ issue is a reprint; all others are original printings. Enjoy! ing through. Enter also the bohemian seekers, August 1987, 4Bpp., $4.00 terview with L. Neil Smith • David less interested in earning a degree than • "The Films of Ayn Rand," by Stephen Ramsay Steele on Robert Anton Wilson in learning for its own sake. These are Cox • "Life or Death in Seattle," by • "Rand-Bashing: Enough is Enough,'; by Ross Overbeek Plus Stephen Cox, Tibor the sort of people who would as soon Murray Rothbard • "The Mystery Man of go to the library or join an informal the Libertarian Movement," by Ben Best Machan, Bill Kelsey, and others. study group as go to class, if that seems Plus Ross Overbeek, Butler Shaffer, Ida September 1988, BOpp., $7.00 Walters, Timothy Virkkala, and others. the better way to pursue their particu­ • "Scrooge McDuck andHis Creator," by lar interests. October 1987, 4Bpp., $6.00 Phil Salin • "Liberty and Ecology," by John Hospers • "The Ultimate Foundation All these students are a natural con­ • "The Sociology ofLibertarians," by 1. C. stituency for a free-market university. Green & J. L. Guth • "The Apostasy of of Private Property Rights," by Hans­ Robert Nozick," by Ethan O. Waters Hermann Hoppe But thousands upon thousands of them • "The Rise of the State," by Murray November 1988, BOpp., $4.00 go into debt attending more familiar Rothbard Plus Stephen Cox, William P. corporate structures instead - or else • "Taking Over the Roads," by John Moulton, Jonathan Saville, and others. Semmens • "The Search for We the cannot afford to go to college at all. December 1987, 56pp., $3.00 Living," by R.W. Bradford • "Cooperation And while sensible, "reinventing gov­ • "The Most Unforgettable Libertarian I Ever vs Envy," by John Dentinger Plus Walter ernment"-style reforms can be made in Knew," by Karl Hess • "Libertarians in a Block, Stephen Cox, and others. those schools, bringing them closer to State-Run World," by Murray Rothbard January 1989, 72pp., $4.50 the agoric ideal, real change won't • "Easy Living in the Bahamas," by Mark • "AIDS and the FDA," by Sandy Shaw come until the academic and profes­ Skousen Plus Walter Block, Erika Holzer, • "Ronald Reagan's 'Revolution,'" by sional guilds lose their privileges. In a Stephen Cox, and others. William Niskanen Plus John Hospers, world without occupational licensing, March 1988, 64pp., $4.00 Leland Yeager, Jane Shaw, and others. colleges and universities would no • "Libertarians & Conservatives: Allies or March 1989, 72pp., $5.50 longer enjoy government-granted gate­ Enemies?" by John Dentinger & Murray • "Ronald Reagan: An Autopsy," by Murray keeping powers for so many careers. Rothbard • "Free Speech and the Future of Rothbard • "What IfEverything We're And then real competition could Medicine," by Sandy Shaw & Durk Told About Safety Were Wrong?" by John emerge, offering students more alterna­ Pearson • "The Majority vs the Semmens and Diane Kresich Plus writing tives and pressuring universities to Majoritarian: Robert Bork on Trial," by by Jeffrey Friedman, David Ramsay Steele, Sheldon Richman Plus R.W. Bradford, take genuinely radical steps - e.g., pri­ Sheldon Richman, and others. William Cate, Stephen Cox, and others. vatizing classes. May 1988, 64pp., $4.00 May 1989, 72pp./ $4.00 For now, guild featherbedding and • "Man, Nature, and State," by Karl Hess, uncontrolled bureaucratic spending • "Ayn Rand: Still Controversial After All Jr. • "The End ofthe Secular Century," by These Years," by David Ramsay Steele & will go on. Students will continue to Murray Rothbard Plus David Gordon, David Brown • "The ACLU: Suspicious cough up extra tuition· dollars to pay Justin Raimondo, Stephen Cox, and others. Principles, Salutary Effects," by William P. for services they neither want nor will Moulton • "The Two Libertarianisms," by July 1989, BOpp., $6.00 ever see. Taxes will keep spiralling up­ Ethan O. Waters Plus Gary Alexander, • "Viking Iceland: Anarchy That Worked," wards. Access to the professions will Nathaniel Branden, Erika and Henry Mark by David Friedman • "The Myth of the still be artificially restricted. Academic Holzer, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, and others. Rights ofMental Patients," by Thomas excellence will continue to give way to July 1988, BOpp., $4.00 Szasz Plus Tibor Machan and others. mediocrity on the one hand, and artifi­ • "Confessions of an Intractable For information on later back issues, see ad- cial elitism on the other. Universities Individualist," by Jerome Tuccille • An in- vertisement on back cover. will drift further out of touch with the ,. With any other purchase, buy the December 1987 issue for only $1.001 rest of the world. Circle each issue you want, and add $1.00 shipping & Our best hope is the rising number handling per order (foreign orders add 50¢ per issue). Q My check is enclosed Fill in the appropriate infonnation below. of nontraditional, career-oriented stu­ Charge my: dents. 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The New Mythology of Rape by Wendy McElroy

No woman is safe when personal responsibility is undermined.

Rape is an abomination that no civilized society can tolerate. In the '60s, feminists broke down the old, puritanical mythology of rape. They shattered the presumption that only bad girls who walked alone at night got raped, and exploded the notion that all rapists were seedy men who lurked in alleys. In fact, every woman, from infancy to used to be considered a crime, a viola­ the grave, is vulnerable to attack, even through the family, binds her to in her own home. And rapists can be tion of normal life. Then, in the '70s, a him as wife and mother to his chil­ hard-working husbands or apple­ theoretical groundwork was laid to dren. He has kept her helpless and cheeked boys next door, not just hard­ place rape at the very heart of our cul­ dependent, forcing her to work ened criminals and psychopaths. ture. For the new feminists, rape was when he needed her labor, isolating Indeed, the victim usually knows her an expression of how the average man her (physically and psychological­ assailant. viewed the average woman. By the ly), and as a final proof of his power In the place of the old mythology mid-'80s, rape had become thorough­ and her debasement as a posses­ of rape, '60s feminism offered facts ly politicized: it was now viewed as a sion, a thing, a chunk of meat, he and practical help for women in pain. major weapon - perhaps the major has raped her. The act of rape is the Their hotlines and crisis centers did weapon - by which the patriarchy logical expression of the essential something neither the legal system keeps women in their place. relationship now existing between nor new research could: they talked to The New York Radical Feminists' men and women. (Quoted in Rape: raped women, and let them know manifesto exemplifies this change: The First Sourcebook for Feminists by they were not alone. It is no accident that the New York Mary Ann Manhart, p. 215) Radical Feminists, through the tech­ As a woman who has been raped, Rape was no longer a crime com­ nique of consciousness-raising, dis­ lowe a debt to '60s feminism. I mitted by individuals against individ­ emerged from the experience in one covered that rape is not a personal uals. It had become part of class piece largely because of the ground­ misfortune but an experience analysis. work feminists had already created shared by all women in one form or In the conclusion to Rape: The First for rape victims. I learned that I had a another. When more than two peo­ Sourcebook for Feminists, Mary Ann right to be angry, not only at the man ple have suffered the same oppres­ Manhart remarked on this shift: who raped me, but also at the laws sion the problem is no longer and cultural attitudes that sheltered personal but political - and rape is [T]he initial step in the feminist pro­ him and not me. From feminism I a political matter.... [M]an is al­ cess is consciousness-raising and learned an irreplaceable lesson: What ways uneasy and threatened by the the final step is political action.... happened to me was not myfault. possibility that woman will one day Consciousness-raising is a political But in the past two decades, a dis­ claim her full right to human exis­ act, and in turn, political action be­ turbing change has taken place in tence, so he has found ways to en­ comes consciousness-raising.... In feminism'sapproach to rape. Rape slave her. He has married her, and a sense, rape is not a reformist but a Liberty 41 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

revolutionary issue because our ulti­ Will is a watershed book, one which sure. There is a constellation of possi­ mate goal is to eliminate rape and has been said to "give rape its history." ble motives for sexual assault, which that goal cannot be achieved without Its radical thesis is that rape is the pri­ become further blurred when you in­ a revolutionary transformation of mary mechanism through which men troduce drunkenness or other drug use our society. It means a transforma­ - as a class - perpetuate their domi­ to the equation. tion of the family, the economic sys­ nation over women. According to Eldridge Cleaver defined his rape tem, and the psychology of men and Brownmiller, all men benefit from the activity as "an insurrectionary act. It women so that sexual exploitation fact that some men rape. delighted me that I was defying and along with economic exploitation be­ I understand how compelling this trampling upon the white man's law comes impossible and even unimag­ view of rape can be. At times, I've upon his system of values and that I inable.(p.249-250) wanted to blame all men for the vio­ was defiling his women.... I felt I was In her near-legendary essay, "Rape: lence I experienced. Certainly, I was getting revenge." (Soul on Ice, 1965, p. The All-American Crime," radical fem- angry at all men. 28). Contrast that with this comment in But Brownmiller's theory of rape is The Crime and Consequences ofRape: wrong. And it is damaging to women. Brownmiller makes three basic and In acquaintance rapes, the brutality As a woman who has been interconnected claims: and violence ... are usually absent. raped, I will never downplay Since sex is the primary motivation • Rape is an arm of patriarchy; in these cases, any classification of its trauma. But being raped • Men have created a "mass the motivation for rape would have was not the worst thing that psychology" of rape; and to include sex in addition to power, ever happened to me ... • Rape is a part of "normal" life. anger, and sadism as motivating fac­ I dispute each of these. tors. (p. 44) Is rape an arm of patriarchy? This is Feminism needs a theory that rec­ perhaps the most basic new myth onciles Cleaver's rapes with those of a inist Susan Griffin makes what no about rape, that it is a crime with one drunken frat brother. We need a theory longer sounds like a radical or unusual cause: the general oppression of that explores the complexity of the claim: women by men. It is no longer politi­ issue, not one that oversimplifies it for Indeed, the existence of rape in any cally correct to conduct studies on the form is beneficial to the ruling class causes of rape, because - as any right­ of white males. For rape is a kind of thinking person knows - there is only terrorism which severely limits the one cause. ... and I have recovered freedom of women and makes Decades ago, in the heyday of liber­ from it. Feminists who say women dependent on men.... This al feminism and sexual curiosity, the oppressive attitude towards women approach to research was more sophis­ otherwise are paying me a finds its institutionalization in the ticated. The Kinsey study of the 1950s disrespect. traditional family. (Rape Victimology, classified seven types of rapists - as­ Leroy G. Schultz, ed., 1975, p. 3) saultive, amoral, drunken, explosive, Rape had found its niche within a double-standard, mental-defective, and the sake of a political agenda. Instead, political ideology with a revolutionary psychotic. And as recently as 1979, in radical feminists offer book after book agenda. No longer simply an abomina­ Men Who Rape: The Psychology of the of anecdotal, biased studies full of un­ ble crime, it had become an accusation Offender, A. Nicholas Groth made a proven blanket assertions that have ac­ to be thrown wholesale at "white male statement that sounds almost jarring to quired the status of truth through culture" and all men. today's ears: "One of the most basic ob­ sheer repetition. By politicizing and collectivizing servations one can make regarding Armed with such ideological arro­ the pain of women, radical feminism is men who rape is that not all such of­ gance, radical feminists jettison all sci­ reversing the gains of the '60s, when fenders are alike" (p. 12). entific method from their research. the myths about rape and the barriers Such studies are no longer in fash­ Susan Brownmiller asks, "Does one between men and women had a chance ion. It is no longer proper to suggest need scientific methodology in order to of being dissolved. Today, new myths that there can be as many motives for conclude that the anti-female propagan­ and new barriers are being erected. rape as there are for other violent da that permeates our nation's cultural crimes. output promotes a climate in which acts New Myths for Old People murder for money, for love, of sexual hostility directed against Any look at this new mythology out of jealousy or patriotism - the ra­ women are not only tolerated but ideo­ should begin with Susan Brown­ tionalizations come in all colors and logically encouraged?" (p. 395) Her an­ miller's seminal book of 1975, Against shapes. Rape is every bit as complex. swer to the rhetorical questionis plain. Our Will, which charts the history of Men rape out of sexual hunger, from a And that answer is wrong. One rape from Neanderthal times to mod­ need to prove themselves, from hatred needs scientific methodology to verify em days, placing great emphasis on of women, from a desire for revenge, any empirical claim. Otherwise, all dis­ periods of war and crisis. Against Our as a political statement, from peer pres- cussions devolve into opinion. Or 42 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

worse, they become a barrier to real re­ rapists. In the preface to their 1991 deliberate, hostile, violent act of deg­ search conducted by people willing to book Acquaintance Rape: The Hidden radation and possession on the part reach conclusions based on data, not Crime, editors Andrea Parrot and of a would-be conqueror, designed prejudice. Inconvenient issues like rape Laurie Bechhofer offer a common sta­ to intimidate and inspire fear, we committed against men are also ig­ tistic: "Approximately one in four must look toward those elements in nored, or sidestepped; all victims are women in the United States will be the our culture that promote and propa­ considered, for political purposes, to victims of rape or attempted rape by gandize these attitudes, which offer be women. This is rather like the televi­ the time they are in their mid-twenties, men ... the ideology and psycholog­ sion interview in which Stokely and over three quarters of those as­ ical encouragement to commit their Carmichael divided the world into the saults will occur between people who acts of aggression without awareness, white oppressor and the black op­ for the most part, that they have com­ pressed. When asked about the huge mitted a punishable crime, let alone a global population of Asians, he re­ The issue of rape has been moral wrong. (p. 391, emphasis in plied, "Consider them black." diverted into a political tangle original) Brownmiller's second myth is that Such a theory allows for no contra­ men as a class have created a mass psy­ of class theory and ideology. It dictory evidence. There is no possibili­ chology of rape - that all men are rap­ is time to return to the basics: ty - through action, thought, or word ists at heart, and all women their consent and coercion. - for a man to escape the charge of natural prey: rape. It becomes axiomatically true. Man's discovery that his genitalia The third myth Brownmiller pro­ could serve as a weapon to generate pounds is that rape is part of normal know each other" (p. ix). This stunning fear must rank as one of the most life. Yet her book examines rape pri­ figure is supported by FBI records. important discoveries of prehistoric marily during times of war and politi­ In looking at such terrifying statis­ times, along with the use of fire and cal crisis. This allows for some valuable tics, women have a natural tendency to the first crude stone axe. From pre­ scholarship, but it leads to some shaky overlook a vital aspect of what is being historic times to the present, I be­ conclusions. According to Brownmil­ said: three out of four women will not lieve, rape has played a critical ler, because men rape in times of war be raped. Even assuming that there is a function ... it is nothing more or less and social turbulence, they are normal­ one-to-one correlation between victims than a conscious process of intimida­ ly rapists; rape is the norm. and rapists - a generous assumption, tion by which all men keep all This requires a leap of logic. The since many rapists commit serial women in a state of fear. (p. 14, em­ circumstances Brownmiller highlights crimes - this means that 75% of all phasis in the original) - war, riots, pogroms, revolutions ­ men will never commit this brutal act. Leaving aside the question of how are expressions, not of consistent social Indeed, many men would come imme­ Brownmiller comes by her amazing in­ attitudes, but of social breakdown. Yet diately to the defense of a woman formation about prehistoric psycholo­ in chapter after chapter, Brownmiller being attacked. gy, her message is clear: men are uses horrifying accounts of rape from This observation may seem obvious inherently rapists. such periods of crisis to make claims or facile. But in the face of astounding To back this up, Brownmiller plays about the attitudes and behavior of the and unsupported claims like "all men fast and loose with anecdotal accounts ordinary man-on-the-street. Arguing are rapists," it becomes necessary to and passages of fiction, her selection of from the extreme, Brownmiller draws state the obvious. If another group of evidence revealing tremendous bias. conclusions about the normal. radicals claimed that all whites or At one point she states, "People often There is no doubt: in times of war ask what the classic Greek myths re­ Protestants or bisexuals were sadists, and social upheaval, the frequency of veal about rape. Actually, they reveal yet the statistics they provided indicat­ all violence increases. But this says ed that at least 75% were not, no hon­ very little" (p. 313). Yet these myths are nothing about regular life. Nor does it widely held to be archetypes of human est observer would accept their indicate whether the violence is caused psychology. If Brownmiller wishes to argument. But when the radicals are by society or by the forces ripping soci­ maintain that there is a continuum of sexually correct feminists, their incredi­ ety apart. Men kill in war, but that male oppression that extends from ble statements are swallowed whole. doesn't make the accountant feeding man's first recognition of his genitalia And lest a single man try to slip his parking meter a murderer. as weapon through this very moment through the net of accusations by Even when Against Our Will moves she must, in honesty, consider Greek pleading that he has never raped or away from the agonies of war and re­ mythology. She can't just pick and even contemplated doing so, Brown­ volt, it still focuses on situations of po­ choose the evidence that supports her miller explains how good intentions larization and conflict.· After the position. and good behavior do not excuse a chapters titled "War" and "Riots, Pog­ Yet even dipping into history and man from the charge of rape: roms, and Revolutions" comes "Two fiction when and where they choose, Once we accept as basic truth that Studies in American History." These radical feminists' evidence still doesn't rape is not a crime of irrational, im­ studies involve the history of rape as lead to the conclusion that all men are pulsive, uncontrollable lust, but is a applied to American Indians and Liberty 43 Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

slaves. Again, Brownmiller offers some recognize force or struggle as an in­ consent or coercion for radical femi­ valuable insights - but with much tegral component of the sexual nists. Consider a recent definition of narrower application than she is will­ courtship (as in the battle of the sexual violence offered by Liz Kelly: ing to accept. sexes) it follows that the sex act itself Sexual violence includes any physi­ is only a less emphatic expression of cal, visual, verbal, or sexual act that Redefining Rape all those elements that make up is experienced by the woman or girl, Years ago, I watched a television in­ criminal rape. (Rape: The First at the time or later, as a threat, inva­ terview in which a Russian sociologist Sourcebook for Feminists, p. 88) sion, or assault, that has the effect of claimed there was no rape in Soviet That view is, of course, an extreme. hurting her or degrading her and/or Russia. Pressed on the point, the But today's crusade against date rape takes away her ability to control inti­ woman explained, "No word for rape is well within the feminist mainstream. mate contact. (Surviving Sexual Vio­ exists in the Russian language; there­ No one can condone rape in the lence, 1988, p. 41) fore, there is no rape." guise of dating. But for many femi­ This, in one form or another, has I have no idea whether her linguis­ nists, "date rape" - as a concept - is become a common guideline for identi­ tic claim is true, but her methodology much more than a stand against fying sexual violence. And it is a dan­ is familiar: By not naming a problem or drunken frat brothers assaulting fe­ gerous one. reclassifying it, it is supposed to go male students. In their 1989 book The According to this standard, a away. A similar sleight of hand seems Female Fear, Margaret Gordon and woman need not have felt threatened to be at work right now, only in re­ Stephanie Riger come close to denying during the sex act itself to have been verse. Through a semantic shell game, the possibility of consent within dating raped. Consider Kelly's words: "Sexual rape is being redefined out of recog­ itself: "The American dating system, violence includes any ... sexual act nizability. which constitutes a primary source of that is experienced by the woman or In their essay, "The Psychology of heterosexual contacts, legitimizes the girl, at the time or later" as violent. In the Rapist and His Victim," Lilia consensual 'purchase' of women as retrospect and in light of other experi­ Melani and Linda Fodaski virtually sexual objects and obliterates the cru­ ences, the woman might decide that equate heterosexual sex with rape: . cial distinction between consent and she had been coerced. But everyone Once we accept the relationship of nonconsent" (p. 60). makes mistakes. Regret is not a bench­ aggression and submission; once we It is difficult to tell what constitutes mark of consent.

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And how can anything "experi­ sities and colleges had suffered sexual from them. enced by the woman or girl" as violent abuse. Their survey descended into a In dramatizing the pervasiveness be de facto violence - especially when maelstrom of controversy when it be­ of rape, radical feminists have told verbal or visual "violence" is·included? came known that the researchers de­ young women that before they have The crucial link between coercion and fined "abuse" to include taunts and sex with a man, they must give con­ the use or threat of force has been brok­ insults during quarrels. sent as explicit as a legal contract's. en. Tangible evidence of violence­ InMen Who Rape, Grothprovides the In this way, young women have bJ;uises, witnesses, explicit threats - is essential distinction between·rape and been convinced that they have been no longer needed for a man to be con­ sex that occurs under pressure or per­ the victims of rape. (Sex, Art, and sidered guilty. A woman need only feel suasion: "The defining characteristic of American Culture, 1992, p. 49) threatened, invaded, or assaulted by forced assault is the risk of bodily harm The pivotal difference between in­ him. to the woman should she refuse to par­ dividualist feminists and radical femi­ Such subjectivity makes a mockery ticipate in sexual activity. All noncon­ nists lies in the concepts of coercion of rule of law. The issue of rape has senting sex is assault. In the pressured and consent. For individualist femi­ been legally skewed in favor of the ac­ assault, the victim is sexually harassed nists, these concepts rest on every cused for so long that women have re­ or exploited. In forced assaults, she is a woman's inalienable right to her own acted by swinging the balance too far victim ofrape" (p.3). body. If a woman says "yes" (or if her in the other direction. By eliminating the distinction be­ behavior clearly implies "yes"), con­ By expanding the definition of tween force and persuasion, important sent is present. If a woman says "no" rape with such wild abandon, radical sexual lines are erased - such as the (or clearly implies it), coercion is feminists have blurred all clear lines on line between rape and seduction. present. this issue. Rape used to be forced sex Camille Paglia offers a refreshing For radical feminists, on the other - a form of assault. Today, the focus contrast to the obfuscations other femi­ hand, the distinction is little more than has shifted from assault to "abuse." A nists are weaving around rape: a muddle. recent survey by two Carleton Univer­ [F]eminism, which has waged a cru­ sity sociologists, financed by a $236,000 sade for rape to be taken more seri­ Feminism's Final Frontier government grant, revealed that 810/0 ously, has put young women in Radical feminists are trying to of women attending Canadian univer- danger by hiding the truthabout sex create a virtual utopia of safety for

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women. In Paglia's words, "The point sexual violence short of adopting their because they don't believe they should is, these white, upper-middle-class entire social, economic, and political have to. Because they should be able to feminists believe that a pain-free world agenda. No other bridge of under­ ~eel safe, they refuse to take steps that is achievable. I'm saying that a pain­ standing or trust may be built between would so dramatically acknowledge free world will be achievable only men and women. how unsafe they truly are. under totalitarianism" (p. 64). Nor does radical feminism seek to Feminism needs more women like But the fact thatwomen are vulnera­ help women on an individual basis. Paxton Quigley, author of Armed and ble to attack means we cannot have it Even the supposedly definitive work Female. After a friend of hers was bru­ all. We cannot walk at night across an on rape, Against Our Will, gives only a tally raped, Quigley went from agitat­ unlit campus without incurring real cursory nod to the idea of individual ing for gun control to teaching women danger. These are things every woman women healing, or learning to defend how to use handguns. should be able to do, but "shoulds" of themselves. Instead, those who have Quigley uses an effective technique this sort belong in a utopian world. been raped are told that they will to break through women's tendency to never recover from the experience, shy away from guns. Her beginner's that rape is the worst thing that can course includes a tape of a 911 emer­ Feminism needs a theory happen to a woman. As Paglia ob­ gency call that was made by a Kansas that explores the complexity of serves, "The whole system now is de­ rape victim as her attacker was break­ signed to make you feel that you are ing into her home. As he appears at her rape, not one that oversimpli­ maimed and mutilated forever if bedroom door, she screams: /lWho are fies it for the sake ofa political something like that happens.... [T]he you? Why are you here? Why are you agenda. whole system is filled with these cli­ here? WHY?" ches about sex" (p. 63). Once they've heard the tape, As a woman who has been raped, I Quigley's students are more willing to will never downplay the trauma it learn such techniques as how to shoot They belong in a world where you drop brings. But being raped was not the lying down and how to aim for the your wallet in a crowd and have it re­ worst thing that ever happened to me, head. turned, complete with credit cards and and I have recovered from it. Feminists cash; a world in which unlocked If there is a solution to rape and who say otherwise are paying me a other violence against women, it is Porsches are parked in downtown New disrespect. York, and children canbe left unattend­ self-defense. Politicizing women's pain ed inthe park. This is not the reality that The issue of rape has been diverted has been a costly diversion from the confronts andconfines us. into a political tangle of class theory hard work necessary to create real safe­ Paglia has introduced some reality and ideology. It is time to return to the ty. As one of the women who took into the discussion: "Feminism ... basics: consent and coercion. Quigley's course told The Wall Street keeps telling women they can do any­ So far as consent is concerned, the Journal, "Girls grow up believing that thing, go anywhere, say anything, crucial question must always be, Has a they're going to be taken care of, but it wear anything. No, they can't. Women woman agreed to have sex? It is not Has just ain't so." will always be in sexual danger.... she been talked into it, bribed, manipulat­ Rape is a crime committed against Feminism, with its pie-in-the-sky fanta­ ed, filled with regret, drunk too much, or individual women, and the remedy sies about the perfect world, keeps ingested drugs? And in an act that must be an individualist one as well. young women from seeing life as it is" rarely has an explicit /lyes" attached to Women who are raped deserve one­ (p.50). it, the touchstone of consent has to be on-one compassion and respect for the Radical feminism paints a schizoid the presence or absence of physical unique suffering they experience. Too picture of women. We are supposed to force. much emphasis has been placed on the be free and complete sexual beings ­ On the question of coercion, I think commonality of reactions among raped who live in a state of siege. We are sup­ feminists desperately need to change women: it is equally important to treat posed to be empowered sisters - terri­ their focus from the man to the these women as distinct human beings fied to open our doors at night. The woman. They should be crying out for and respect their differences. picture of men is no less confusing: every woman to learn how to say "no" By the same token, women in fear even the kindest, gentlest husband, fa­ as effectively as possible - with deserve one-on-one training in how to ther, and son is supposed to benefit deadly force if necessary. The true way defend themselves. Theories of how from the rape of women they love. No to empower a woman, to make her the Neanderthal man was sexist do not ideology that makes such vicious accu­ equal of any man who would attack offer women safety in their own sations can heal any wounds. It can her, is to teach her to defend herself. homes. Women deserve to be empow­ only provoke hostility. Women should be able to live un­ ered, not by having their pain and fear This antagonism may serve an un­ threatened by the specter of rape ­ attached to a political agenda, but by pleasant purpose. Radical feminism is just as they should be able leave their learning how to use force to their a cry for revolution, and revolutions apartments and car doors unlocked. advantage. are not built on conciliation. For radi­ Yet women who bolt their doors every Self-defense is feminism's final cal feminists, there is no solution to night often refuse to learn self-defense frontier. Cl 46 Liberty Tractate

Libertarian Pragmatism by Bart Kosko

The politics of fuzziness, the fuzziness of politics.

Libertarian pragmatism holds that you judge a social policy more by how it af­ fects personal liberty than by how it fits or clashes with abstract principles of liberty. It favors facts over logic but uses them both. It is reasonable without being rationalistic. Libertarian pragmatism is a meth- od. It is not a doctrine or set of beliefs about how the world is or how we abstract truth that doesn't express self. That is why we may not accept a itself in a difference in concrete fact should act. We all use the method to new fact or theory or the latest citing and in conduct consequent upon some degree. The libertarian pragma­ of a UFO. It may uproot more strands that fact, imposed on somebody, tist just uses it to a higher degree than than it is worth. somehow, somewhere, and some­ he uses abstract principles of right­ Facts and experience challenge when. ness or rationality or duty or utility. and change the many edge strands in His pragmatism seeks the cash-in James saw this toolbox method as a belief web. Scientific theories help value of social policy. His libertarian­ a way to use both principles and facts group these and middle strands into ism cashes those policies into the coin to cut through the thick Hegelian met­ tree branches. New math theories of freedom. He. has an eye for facts aphysics of his day. This let him take (like chaos and fuzzy logic) challenge and a taste for liberty. the best of the old camps of rational­ the logical roots and can shake or ism and empiricism without joining color the whole belief web. The march The Case for Pragmatism: either one. Take a claim and try to of science does not proceed a strand Do Numbers Exist? predict where it leads and retrodict at a time as the logical positivists The best case for libertarian prag­ where it might have led. Use whatev­ claimed. The plastic unit of knowl­ matism may be the case for pragma­ er works best to trace down a "con­ edge is the whole of science and math. tism in general. Psychologist William crete consequence." Now consider the old question of James made the first popular case for James went on to make a theory of metaphysics: Do numbers exist? Yes pragmatism in his 1907 book Prag­ truth out of the method and came up or no? Platonists say yes and fail to matism: short. The testable effects of a state­ point to a number anywhere in the What difference would it practical­ ment do not exhaust its truth content. space-time continuum. Nominalists ly make to anyone if this notion The statement "Grass is green" is true say no but fail to explain why a mere rather than that notion were true? If to whatever fuzzy degree it is trueeven convention is an infinite set of inter­ no practical difference whatever ifwe or computers or super-aliens can­ locking theorems. And they have to can be traced, then the alternatives notfigure out all theways to test it. say that scientists are wrong when mean practically the same thing, Modern logician Willard Van Or­ they use math (and quantify over it) and all dispute is idle.... It is man Quine has firmed up the case for when they speak of the world. astonishing to see how many philo­ pragmatism by applying it to the Neither position holds up l,.tnder criti­ sophical disputes collapse into in­ significance the moment you whole of science and math. "Grass is cism. That suggests that the yes/no subject them to this simple test of green" is on the evidential edge of a question poses a false binary split if it tracing a concrete consequence. huge web of belief that has math and poses anything at all. There can be no difference any­ logic at its core. The logic strands Quine and others resolve the ques­ where that doesn't make a differ­ shade into the fact strands at the edge. tion with a system-wide pragmatism. ence elsewhere - no difference in You test no strand or statement by it- Inside the system of math it makes Liberty 47 Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

sense to ask if numbers exist and the and that on net libertarianism gives The name "scientific libertarian­ answer is yes. Outside of math we ask them more of both than do its statist ism" was a shot at Marx's "scientific questions about the system. Here to say competitors. We can use all the facts socialism" and an attempt to take liber­ that numbers do or do not exist does and principles we can muster. In the ty straight as a naked value judgment not make sense just as it does not make past some have called this view utili­ and not to rest the case for it on God or sense to say that of an inch or a pound. tarian but that is mistaken. The prag­ philosophy. This brings up two hard We can ask pragmatic questions about matist makes no claims about facts. the use of math and its effects. We can measuring happiness or utility and The first fact is that science and ask if math is a tool worth using and need not accept outcomes that favor math and the world they describe are the answer so far has been yes. the majority at the expense of some mi­ all amoral. No one has produced a true What goes for the concept space of nority. A pragmatist may hold a mixed math goes for them all. We use them strategy of utility and duty or of utility because it pays and only because it and right or of something else. Most The philosophical libertari­ pays. Other forms of intelligence may doctrines have some degree of value. use something else that pays better for We don't have to accept them all or ans did a great service for lib­ them. We get mixed up in our words if none - and we can embrace as many erty and their place in its we say our tools exist or are right or or as few of them as we choose. history is secure. But it is time provable. We may not see this if we For those in the libertarian move­ look at just one scheme or concept ment it offers a way to explore new op­ to drop the crutch and move space or part of it by itself. This led the tions as well as a way to debate those on. logical positivists to assert their "prin­ options with non-libertarians and with ciple of verifiability" and so to paint one another. We have limited time and the whole web of belief with the same energy. All sides of the debate know or false statement of value. No one has brush of sense data. But verifiability is that drug legalization favors personal derived "ought" from "is" and no one a matter of degree and holds more for freedom. The hard part is to show how is likely to. Claims like "Profit is evil" star light than for quark tracks in a a partial free market in drugs would or "You should not cheat" or "Green is unfold in time and to make these ef­ better than blue" match no chunk of fects concrete. That is why there are the space-time continuum or of any im­ Libertarian pragmatism is a tens of thousands of science-fiction agined one. They are not testable in method. It is not a doctrine or writers but only a handful of these can principle. We have to start with this secure book contracts and only a hand­ fact even if it hurts. set of beliefs about how the ful of these writers achieve wealth and Past libertarians tried to ground world is or how we should act. fame. Extrapolation is an art but one freedom in theology or metaphysics. that improves with practice. Socialist atheists made short work of Before I show how a libertarian the old liberal claims that freedom bubble chamber or for cosmic strings pragmatist can deal with an abstract came from God. In tum libertarian cast in terms of abstract group theory. and a practical problem of liberty I atheists like Ayn Rand and Murray At some point we have to stand want to pause and look at the recent Rothbard met them blow for philosoph­ back and see our interests or questions history of libertarian pragmatism. The ical blow and then went on to put forth as part of a system and perhaps see lesson is that you can use ethics and their own species of rationalism. Rand's that system as part of a larger system philosophy in your life as you see fit. "Existence is identity" somehow replac­ and so on up the chain. The final meta­ But they will fail you in a fight. es Marx's "dialectical materialism." questions about the systems are prag­ Both views are as reasonable and as matic. Logic might show that some The Recent History of untestable as the other. Rand turns to systems are simpler or imply other sys­ Libertarian Pragmatism Aquinas and Aristotle for support. The tems. Facts might better match more A decade ago I called this position best argument for Marxism was al­ parts of some systems. Or some sys­ "scientific libertarianism" in an article ways a gun. tems might lead to more facts or prom­ by that name in The Pragmatist. The The next hard fact is that philoso­ ise to lead to them. How we vote has to title and history of that journal makes phy is just a playpen of words. It does do with how the systems payoff by clear that some form of libertarian not rest on logic or fact though it can our lights. As James said we want our pragmatism has been afoot for at least use both in its word-schemes. Phi­ word schemes to get us in satisfactory a decade. losophy does not sit above science as relations with our experiences. Scientific libertarianism deals with some ultimate tribunal of thought. Libertarian pragmatism works this arbitrary means to a valued end. The Facts don't answer to words. And sci­ way at two levels. For those outside of end is the pure end of libertarianism. It entists don't take orders from philoso­ politics it offers them libertarianism on is to maximize personal and economic phers. August Comte got it right when its social merits. We can argue that freedom. We favor means that help he said large systems of knowledge ad­ most people in most cultures want achieve this end and disfavor those vance from theology (astrology) to phi­ more wealth and the freedom to use it that do not. losophy (celestial substance) .. to science 48 Liberty "Behind Your Back: What Do Other People Really Say About You Be Your Libertarian Ideas?"

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(astronomy). Philosophy is an epiphe­ grant a casual favor in exchange for a this case at the principle of nonaggres­ nomenon of science in the same sense prayer. As Bertrand Russell said: phi­ sion or in general at politics. It is not a that Santayana said mind was of brain: losophy is the no-man's-land between doctrine or some new truth and you "a lyric cry in the midst of business." science and theology. . need not be a libertarian to practice it. That leaves libertarianism without The best libertarian pragmatist may philosophy. We may not like that but Two Pragmatic Examples: well be a computer program. we have to make the best of it. The Nonaggression and Taxes The principle of nonaggression is philosophical libertarians did a great Pragmatism offers a way to argue both simple and rich. It grounds a service for liberty and their place in its for liberty without making nonscientif­ wide range of legal prescriptions history is secure. But it is time to drop ic claims for it. Pragmatism can help against fraud and assault and forced the crutch and move on. shape our political webs of beliefs. takings. Most of all it fits well with per­

The term IIscientific libertarianism" Near the center we seek principles sim­ sonal ethics in all cultures. Human na­ wove all these threads into' the same ple in their logic and rich in their effect ture has evolved a deep vengefulness banner. But the term did not stick. It on actions and beliefs. The best princi­ that feels the need to repay even the did not seem to name a thing that most ple grounds the other principles with­ slightest jab or jest between friends. libertarians could endorse. George out conflict and grounds the social We can argue that most people apply Smith once said in a debate with David actions that can follow from these prin­ the principle of nonaggression in their Friedman that no freedom fighter ever ciples. Near the edges of the belief web own lives. We can suggest polls and has or will go to battle with a flag that we seek the effects of the principles on studies that might test for how often reads "Pareto Optimality!" human action past and future. we use the principle in practice and Still when pushed or shoved we The principle of nonaggression is a can speculate on the principle's evolu­ have to defend libertarianism. We want candidate grounding principle. It tionary track record in prehistory and to say more than that it just tastes in more recent times. good. We want to give reasons for our The principle seems borne out by beliefs and tastes. Philosophy tempts No freedom fighter has ever the new theorem in game theory that us here with its promise of logical the tit-for-tat strategy (first cooperate proof and a knock-down-drag-out-30­ gone to battle with a flag that and then reciprocate) is an optimal or second syllogism. But all you can reads "Pareto Optimality!" stable strategy in a world of egoists. prove is a tautology like "A is A." This optimal strategy is not unique From that no fact follows. You don't es­ since always cheating or "defecting" is tablish a fact with logic or words. You states that what is wrong is the first use stable too. The frequency that players do so with evidence and that is the job or threat of force. What is wrong is fall into a stable tit-for-tat equilibrium of science. starting the fight. In this sense it is depends on the odds that they will The best logic and philosophy can more the principle of anti-aggression. have to deal with one another in the fu­ do is help sharpen our wits and help A pragmatic thing to ask is how ture. We treat our neighbors and office­ sort out what we claim and where our would the world change if everyone mates better than we treat strangers in claims lead. Logic and philosophy will (or no one) acted on the principle. the check-out line or in distant airports not do what we want them to do. They Imagine U.S. and world history if the just as we treat our own car better than will not ground our value judgements Constitution stated the principle in its a rental. The defection strategy beats tit in logic or fact. They will not convert opening line as the foundation of a free for tat in an infinite crowd of strangers. taste to math theorem or causal truth. and just society. Imagine Stalin at the The principle of nonaggression also Asking them to do so can only confuse height of his power and terror switch­ implies that taxation is theft. Modern heart with head. And it smacks of an ing his beliefs to fit the principle and liberals shrink from this and reject the adult way of still asking the Lord to reshaping the Soviet Union to reflect it principle as if the result were a reductio just as the ancient ad absurdum. Here the libertarian prag­ Indian king Ashoka matist can point to the logic strands in one day converted beliefwebs as well as to the fact strands. to Buddhism on a He can demand logical and legal consis­ battlefield. How tency with the liberal's belief in a per­ would things be dif­ son's nonnegotiable civil rights and can ferent? What would argue for less aggressive ways to fund be the cash-in value the state or argue for less costly state of the principle in ends and means. He can do the same terms of facts and when the liberal objects to how the prin­ beliefs? In this sense ciple implies that the military draft and libertarian pragma­ forced jury duty are forms of slavery tism is just a meth­ and that eminent domain is wholesale od of inquiry or theft. Nowhere need he claim more for way of looking in liberty than his taste for it. And again he 50 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

could argue the pragmatist case even if Special interest groups would have a people ask why they have to pay their he lacks the taste. stake in passing it into law so that they money to these categories in the first Taxes are unique among a libertari­ could attract state funds straight from place. an's complaints. Taxes both harm the the source. And the name "fuzzy" gives The deeper pragmatic argument person the state takes them from and the proposal a sense that it springs traces down aI/concrete consequence": pay for the state to keep taking them more from the forefront of science and A fuzzy tax form could fund research from him. Cutting them cuts this posi­ machine intelligence than from a politi­ contests for large cash prizes. Society tive feedback loop. A citizenry with in­ cal point of view. In time a fuzzy tax gets what it rewards for. So reward re­ finite wealth could grow an infinite form could change the structure of the searchers for breakthroughs. The latest state. And taxes come in so many state and the society that the state trend is to punish them if they fail to forms and with so many time horizons shapes. It might even make enough come up with a breakthrough. That that to cut some and not others might give up more liberty than it gains. At a given time taxes are conserved. The state makes up for lost revenues here by taking them there or by borrowing The Disloyal Opposition them from future subjects. It Came From Arkansas, Libertjs new book on the Clinton administra­ Libertarian pragmatists have long asked how the state would change if tion, is a delightful way to share the wealth oflibertarian thinking ... we abolished the income tax. The ques­ Never before has a new administration gone so wrong so quickly! tion has lost its radical flavor since the Never before has a new administration been subjected to such sear­ income tax now makes up less than ing, devastating analysis! half the state's revenue in the United States. Other third parties now adopt Doug Casey, David Boaz, the proposal just as they have adopted R.W. Bradford, Karl Hess, ----~'l~~~ the libertarian call to abolish victimless Harry Browne, Sheldon .------... crimes. To abolish the income tax in the Richman, Randal O'Toole, future may yield no more than a sym­ Durk Pearson, Sandy Shaw ... bolic triumph and may risk taking the these are just a few ofthe writ­ ~ blame for the huge state that remains. ers who make sense ofthe A flat tax may suffer the same fate. newest threat to freedom. I have proposed a "fuzzy tax form" You can purchase a copy to bring some personal choice into how for $12.95, plus $2.00 the state spends whatever taxes it takes shipping and handling per from its subjects. Current tax forms are order. Use the coupon below, binary in the sense that all the money or call you pay goes to general revenues. The 1-800-854-6991 state then spends it as it sees fit. Everything is a matter of degree in the with your Visa or MasterCard fuzzy world view. So let half the money information. go to general revenue as before. That It Came From Arkansas is way politicians can't balk about their great reading, and the ideal need to fund spot measures. The other book to pass around to your It £ute Fro. Arkll8l8 half goes to some degree to broad cate­ friends. Buy one book, or two, The um Oinhtu Su-ry gories of your choice. You may list on or three ... you are under at­ UlrIJ hU_ ~b"•• fna Mklru," u~ftlli Iii Pnidll • i1'ca" Gill, d '111'" Bli, tack from the Clintocracy, so '.p the form that you want 50% of it to go IIIiJJ "liD" Gi~l lit..~.. en lilt"hri" Re~. 8. "IIss" Fn,., Ieul,filin Screa,iJ'J{llrlltr. LI. to debt relief and 30% to AIDS research you'd better reach for the best lrallt flrrJ Inll ~.I., •• '~YII.sky,RaiJ 11I~e of Iditluu.lhIi 'll.1ritr. lUet 'J and the last 20% to some miscellaneous ammunition. Reach for It Lt. hili lIeciin InicrJalalI. Iule,~ tiklllillUI'J.I" 1f11i1~fii(ll' IU "'1 cause. Or you could fill in all zeroes or Came From Arkansas! leave the form blank and so get back the binary tax form as a special case. r------, o My check is enclosed Send me copies of It Came From You would have that choice. YeS'• Arkansas at the address below. I put forth the fuzzy tax form as a Charge my: fuzzy theorist. I argued for it as a liber­ o VISA 0 Mastercard Name tarian pragmatist. The obvious argu­ Address ment is that it gives a say to those who Signature pay and favors the pop democracy of City the media and op-ed columns. It is Account # State ______Zip _ hard to believe a politician would Expiration Phone # argue against it on the air or in public. L Send to: Liberty, Dept. CB42, P.O. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368 ~ Volume 7, Number 6 Se tember 1994

does not condition the same social re­ Located outside the hurricane belt servatism, populism, and liberalism. flexes. California now requires a mini­ in international waters east of No arguments could compete with mum number of electric cars on its Panama, our floating city will have such direct experience. Libertarianism streets by 1998. It wants 2% or more of small parks, theaters, schools, shop­ may stand or fall on its VR cash-in the cars sold there in 1998 to emit no ping, sports facilities, and ports for value alone. pollutants. But in June of 1993 STOL aircraft, helicopters, and ships. Books and films have been the poor Whirlpool won $30 million for the This sea city will be the first in the man's VR of the past. Ayn Rand and new sovereign country of cleanest and most energy-efficient de­ Robert Heinlein painted bestselling vi­ OCEANIA. Our painstakingly de­ sign of a new refrigerator (which just sions of their libertarian worlds in their tailed constitution and laws will en­ novels. Some of the many libertarian happened to use fuzzy logic to control sure that current and future gen­ its compressor). Twenty-four electric erations will enjoy the same liberty worlds of scientific fiction stand to pass utility companies put up the money in as the founders. into films with the new advances in what may be the start of a new trend. digital special effects. Oliver Stone's TV The same architectural firm that de­ So put up a few million dollars for the series Wild Palms showed a cyberpunk best electric car or the best way to signed a real floating hotel over world where a fascist state controls the clean up oil spills. Put up a billion dol­ Australia's Great Barrier Reef has since media of the future and tries to sup­ lars or 10 billion dollars or 100 billion press the explicitly libertarian under­ dollars for a cure for lung cancer or ground (as in many of Heinlein's AIDS. A fuzzy tax form would not just Moore's Law means that worlds). Stone's 1991 film IFK put forth help society get what it pays for but every dog will have its day and an 1/alternative myth" to that of the would let it pay for what it wants to Warren Commission. Pundits of all get. sooner than we think. Soc­ stripes attacked this anti-statist movie ialism and Communism have for its denunciatory tone and its stark The Virtual Future of had their day. Libertarianism what-if questions. But in the end it Libertarian Pragmatism forced the CIA to open some of its files Libertarian ideas and policies have will have its day. on the Kennedy assassination. The film come a long way in the last two dec­ did in three hours what hundreds of ades since the Libertarian Party books and articles and TV stories had formed. Some ideas have sold better designed a small model of the floating failed to do over the past quarter­ than others have and some policies city. Cost estimates start at a billion century. It made the state give a little. have worked better than others have. dollars. This suggests the powerful effects liber­ Drug legalization has entered public The next century may see many tarian VR worlds can have on future discourse. But polls show that most such social experiments. They may hearts and minds. Americans are not that worried about float at sea or orbit the Earth or Sun or The Information Age runs on their taxes. They worry more about lie on or in the Moon or Mars. The very Moore's Law: Computer chip density crime. So libertarian policies of restitu­ idea and scale of such libertarian pro­ doubles every 18 months. The amount tion and private justice may come into jects helps erode the old statist notions of information in society almost dou­ their own in the future. And a green­ of sovereignty and citizenship and bi­ bles from the time a candidate an­ nounces he will run for president to the ing of libertarianism seems sure to nary property rights. Their designs come with the growing joint concerns time he takes office. There is no prece­ and visions and conflicts will work of the environment and of a world dent in history for this MTV rate of cul­ their way into public debate just as population that adds an extra 80 mil­ tural acceleration. And it stands to drug legalization and city privatization lion babies a year. We can step back as continue well into the next century if have in this decade. The new ideas and we near the end of this century and not far beyond it. The past grows more dreams they supply will create and guess at the ideas and policies that and more rapidly. It is both the grave­ may fare best in the next century. feed their own demand. yard of failed ideas and the birthplace The future of libertarian pragma­ Virtual reality (VR) can speed both of new and untried ones. tism lies in tracing down more con­ the supply of new libertarian visions Moore's Law means that every dog crete consequences in new media. By and the demand for them. Future VR will have its day and sooner than we far the boldest pragmatic idea is the systems will let us trace down concrete think. Socialism and Communism have Atlantis Project. It seeks to build a consequences by directly experiencing had their day. Libertarianism will have floating city in the free blue waters of them. The old pragmatists thought the its day. Facts and logic will playa role the Caribbean Sea: best we could do was work them out in this. But at root they are subtle forms in our heads. Today the VR game Is true freedom possible? We at the of coercion. Facts and logic may have Atlantis Project are tired of arguing SimCity lets us design our own cities. little to offer the ultra-couch-potatoes about it, so we're going to find out. The VR games of the next century will of tomorrow. The best we can do is We're going to build a floating city let us live in them as well. Think of the paint some of the pictures on some of in the Caribbean, founded on the poll results when subjects spend a day their VR channels and let nature and principles of free thought and free each in the four VR test cities cast as machine intelligence take their course. enterprise. extreme models of libertarianism, con- The future lies in examples. Q 52 Liberty Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age ofDi­ during the Reagan years, supply-siders minished Expectations, by Paul Krugman. Norton, 1994,303 + xvi pp., $22.00. preached optimism about tax cuts, of­ ten without due attention to cutting government spending as well. Some­ times, apparently motivated by politics, they made excuses for government budget deficits, or wrote about deficits and even inflation with a tone of com­ Quackery, Left & Right placency. They trumpeted "growth" as the way out of economic difficulties, or out of difficulties with their own policy positions. Sometimes they played fast and loose with statistics. Leland Yeager mens of policy entrepreneurs of the Is the chronic government budget Right. Supply-siders he mentions in­ deficit of the Reagan and post-Reagan clude Robert Bartley (editor of The Wall period leading us toward catastrophe Paul Krugman, a young academic Street Journal), Jude Wanniski (some­ or is it harmless? Does it even, as a few superstar, classifies himself as left of time Journal editorial writer, author, unreconstructed Keynesians suggest, center. He finds the divide between consultant), Paul Craig Roberts (profes­ provide beneficial economic stimulus? Left and Right less important, however, sor, columnist, think-tanker), Alan Krugman gives an intermediate than "the fault line between serious ec­ Reynolds (writer, think-tanker), and answer, leaning more toward compla­ onomic thinking and economic patent Arthur Laffer (consultant, part-time cency than I myself do. medicine, between the professors and professor, napkin-doodler). Though not Supply-siders may complain that the policy entrepreneurs." Although sharing all the characteristics of this Krugman has not supported his charg­ the policy entrepreneur is an intellectu­ group, Robert Mundell, an eccentric es with sufficiently detailed citations of al, he occupies the fringes of the profes­ Columbia professor, somehow became chapter and verse. Not each of them is sion. Krugman defines him as "the their guru. guilty of each charge. Still, my own (ad­ economist who tells politicians what Krugman does not deny the impor­ mittedly incomplete) acquaintance with they want to hear" (p. xiv). tance of the supply side of markets, of them and their writings tells me that A few professors do try to play en­ course: no amount of demand can sub­ trepreneur, seeking the rewards of stitute for capacity and willingness to money and a heightened sense of im­ produce goods and services. Nor does portance. Those who manage to tran­ Getting rid of bad ideas is he deny that opportunities, prices, tax­ scend the constraints of professorly like flushing cockroaches down es, and regulations can be powerful in­ ethics, however, "cease to be profes­ centives or deterrents to production. a toilet: they come back sooner sors, at least in the minds of their col­ But this message is scarcely new, and leagues. And in general it seems that it or later. is easiest to become a policy entrepren­ preaching it is hardly what separates eur if your mind has not been clouded supply-siders from mainstream econ­ omists. by too much knowledge of economic Krugman's criticisms are pretty much What distinguishes supply-siders is facts or existing economic theories ­ on target. One should be fastidious in their intellectual style: They come off as only then can you be entirely sincere in choosing intellectual allies. Not every­ cranks, as slightly nutty outside chal­ telling people what they want to hear. one who claims to be a free-market As a result, most of our influential eco­ lengers of scientific orthodoxy. They economist is an asset to the cause. nomic policy entrepreneurs, right or underplay the importance of demand­ left, have their professional roots in side issues and of the money supply. Strategic Industrial Policy journalism or law rather than Some of them blamed the Great One especially enjoyable aspect of economics" (12). Depression largely on the Smoot­ Krugman's book is that it is at least as Hawley Tariff of 1930. One of them hard on policy entrepreneurs of the A Walk on Supply Side (Laffer) has maintained that currency Left as those of the Right. Just as he ex­ Krugman examines "supply-side devaluation never does any good but amined "supply siders" as specimens economists" as contemporary speci- merely feeds inflation. Just before and of policy entrepreneurs of the Right, he Liberty 53 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

focuses on a group of policy entrepren­ portance of raising productivity. An ed­ and cited by the president. Thurow's eurship of the Left: the academic vogue itorial assistant insisted that he "ex­ appearance on Krugman's list of unad­ of "new" or "strategic" trade theory, to plain" why we need to be productive: mired persons is a delicious irony: which Krugman himself has contri­ "to compete in the global economy." Thurow is business school dean at buted. Bill Clinton offered the same explana­ MIT, the very university where Krug­ This new theory - not so new, real­ tion in February 1993 when trying to man teaches. ly, except in its specific details and ex­ justify his tax-hiking economic pack­ Alan Blinder, in his 1987 book Hard amples - invents hypothetical, curious age. But the supposed explanation is Heads, Soft Hearts, states Murphy's Law cases in which shrewdly applied subsi­ wrong. "We need to be more produc­ of Economic Policy - "Economists dies and trade barriers could conceiva­ tive in order to produce more, and this have the least influence on policy bly snatch the profits of imperfect would be true even if the United States where they know the most and are competition away from foreigners for were completely without foreign com­ most agreed; they have the most influ­ the benefit of the home country. Intel­ petitors or customers" (268). ence on policy where they know the lectual gymnastics like this have their Refreshingly, Krugman admits that least and disagree most vehemently" he does not have the definitive explana­ - and O'Connor's Corollary: "When tion of the slowdown in U.S. productiv­ conflicting economic advice is offered, If "you hear someone say ity growth. The slowdown worries him only the worst will be taken." Similar­ something along the lines of not because of any supposed problem ly, Krugman explains that bad policy of global competitiveness, but because ideas tend to drive out good ones. Like 'America needs higher produc­ productivity and production are deci­ the conservative professors who tivity so that it can compete in sive for the standard of living. What backed Reagan in 1980, today's liberal counts is overall productivity, so pro­ professors cannot believe that what today's global economy,' ... he they perceive as the silliness of Demo­ might as well be wearing a ductivity growth is more important in large than in small sectors of the econo­ cratic policy entrepreneurs will be al­ flashing neon sign that reads: my, whichever kinds of competition lowed to govern policy. Both groups have been proven wrong: "If there is 'I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALK­ they may be facing. If, instead, "you hear someone say something along the any underlying trend in ideology, it is ING ABOUT.'" not to right or left but toward a sort of lines of 'America needs higher produc­ non-partisan dumbing-down" (19). tivity so that it can compete in today's Here's how Gresham's Law of poli­ global economy,' never mind who he legitimate place, provided the gymnasts cy ideas works. Once an administra­ is, or how plausible he sounds. He understand and explain what they are tion accepts bad ideas in one area, they might as well be wearing a flashing Q-oing. But leftist policy entrepreneurs "drive out good ones even in seeming­ neon sign that reads: 'I DON'T KNOW have latched onto these theories as ly unrelated areas" (290). One of Krug­ WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT'" (280). though they could successfully apply man's examples focuses on Ira Mag­ Two people as good as wearing this them to correctly identified opportuni­ aziner, head of the Clintons' health­ sign are Robert Reich and Ira Magazin­ ties in the real world. They imagine that care task force. Professional econo- they have a case for an activist trade er, both of whom attended Oxford with policy - and, in general, for industrial Bill Clinton and developed their ideas policy, which means government iden­ over years of conversation with the fu­ tification of industries meriting special ture president. Reich, originally a law­ Bad policy ideas tend to favor and industries to be eased into de­ yer and now Clinton's secretary of drive out good ones. cline. Their key idea is that, "for a coun­ labor, began advocating a U.s. industri­ try to prosper, it must establish a al policy in op-ed pieces and magazine leading role in the right sectors, some­ articles and books; he portrayed him­ mists had humiliated Magaziner on the how defined" (251). self as a second Adam Smith by titling issue of industrial policy at a confer­ Interestingly, "strategic trade has his 1991 volume The Work of Nations. ence in 1983, and he was severely criti­ nothing to do with traditional liberal But he "was isolated from his col­ cized around the same time by concerns about equality and social jus­ leagues at Harvard, who conspicuously economists from the Brookings Institu­ tice" (249). It takes a management con­ refused to change his title from Lectur­ tion. Subsequently, he excluded Brook­ sultant's view of the U.S. economy and er to Professor, a serious academic ings economist Henry Aaron from his its problems, applying concepts of busi­ snub" (249). Meanwhile, Magaziner medical-reform deliberations, along ness strategy to the economy as a whole summed up his views on international with virtually anyone else with a back­ - concepts which are going out of fash­ competition in the title of his 1990 ground in health-care e~onomics, de­ ion in the business world itself. Still, the book, The Silent War. spite Aaron's recognized expertise in public "finds the simplicities of strate­ Other sign-wearers include Robert the field and his left-liberal and pro­ gic trade much more palatable than the Kuttner, The New Republic's house prop­ Clinton credentials. subtleties of the professors" (18). agandist for industrial policy, and Lest­ In short, "when a government is In 1992 Krugman wrote an op-ed er Thurow, whose book on economic committed to an ideology that all real piece for the New York Times on the im- rivalry, Head to Head, has been flaunted experts know to be wrong, this tends to 54 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 exert a chilling effect on its ability to get theoretical fad illustrates how the inter­ promISIng monetary and macroeco­ anything else right, even in areas in nal dynamics of the academic game nomic doctrines that, in fact, it nearly which that ideology seems to have no tend to displace contact with reality. crowded off the scholarly scene for sev­ bearing" (290). Or, more precisely: Although Krugman comes across as eral decades. These doctrines are now If there is an economic dogma that is a pretty accurate commentator on per­ being independently rediscovered, re­ simply, flatly, demonstrably wrong, sons and doctrines prominent during fined, and extended in a line of re­ then good economists are likely ei­ his own professional lifetime, he be­ search misleadingly labeled the "New ther to have said that it is wrong or comes unreliable when describing earli- Keynesian Economics." Krugman sym­ to be associated somehow pathetically sketches some of with other economists who its main themes. If Krugman have said that it is wrong. If and some of the New Keyne­ this wrong-headed dogma is sians consider the history of then adopted as the official economic thought too unim­ ideology of an administra­ tion, it therefore tends to portant to be worth getting drive out good economic ide­ straight, I can't help but won­ as in general, even where der why they bother men­ they do not on the surface tioning it at all. conflict directly with the dog­ On the other hand, Krug­ ma. ... [Early indications man does do a good job criti­ are] that the foolish simplici­ cizing one famous policy ties of strategic trade were entrepreneur of the past. damaging the ability of the Readers should relish his dis­ Clinton administration to make good policy decisions section of John Kenneth across a surprisingly broad Galbraith, accurately regard­ front. (291) ed by his academic col­ Getting rid of bad ideas is leagues as more media like flushing cockroaches down personality than economist. a toilet, Krugman recognizes: Although the popular press they come back sooner or later. reviewed his The New Indus­ But it would be wrong to give trial State rapturously, the ac­ up the struggle. ademics rightly treated it with indifference. Galbraith Implications and then "turned to increasingly Conclusions bitter attacks on his fellow Before drawing implications, professors.... John F. Kenne­ I'll hail Krugman's soundness dy brought him into his ad­ on some strands of academic ec­ ministration~ but literally put onomics that lack direct policy THE WORKING MAN him as far from economic relevance. Recognizing that pro- policy as possible by making fessors are an "inherently faintly ridic­ er doctrines. Most notably, he inter­ him Ambassador to India" (14). ulous" species (8), he understands how prets Keynesian economics as empha­ Perhaps unintentionally, Krugman the incentive structure of the academic sizing the importance of· effective gives libertarians new reasons and ar­ world rewards clever technique more demand, of money, and of wage-and­ guments for fighting ambitious gov­ than plodding research into how the price stickiness. These elements are in­ ernment management of the economy. economy actually works. He duly takes deed central to macroeconomics, but We already had the main economic to task the "new classical economists," recognizing them was not the defining reasons, developed in the Mises-Hayek believers in rational expectations and innovation of Keynesianism. On the analysis of socialist calculation and equilibrium-always who attribute such contrary, they characterize old­ borne out in the worldwide collapse of preposterous near-perfection to mar­ fashioned (e.g., Clark Warburton's) socialism. The Public Choice school de­ kets as to risk drawing ridicule onto monetarism, with which Krugman veloped political reasons, explaining free-market economics in general. shows no acquaintance. He also says how an activist government tends to Despite its "unrealism bordering on sil­ that Keynesians as well as monetarists be perverted, in John Gray's words, liness" (52), their business-cycle theory saw the Great Depression as largely a into a key weapon in a Hobbesian war apparently gained some appeal from monetary phenomenon; this, of course, of all against all. Now Krugman gives its conservative political implications. is false. Krugman also makes historical us his Gresham's Law of ideas, ex­ Similarly, Krugman is duly scornful of slips regarding two technicalities, the li­ plaining how bad ideas in one area of "real-business-cycle" theories, which quidity trap and the real-balance effect. application infect other areas. Peddlers exclude monetary causes from their ex­ It is ironic that Krugman pretty of bad ideas, once they have gained in­ planation of cyclical fluctuations. This much assimilates Keynesianism to the fluence, act to protect themselves Liberty 55 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 against being shown up; in· doing so, classifying thinkers into two groups, must lead to complete unbelief" (41). they surround themselves with people good guys and bad guys. Some appar­ • Contrary to rumor and suspicion, like themselves. Furthermore, Krugman ent allies, like the supply-siders, may Ludwig von Mises failed to obtain a demonstrates this in a well-written turn out to be embarrassments. And post at the University of Vienna not book that is enjoyable to read. some self-styled (left) liberals and Key­ out of anti-Semitism (Mises was a Jew), Libertarians should avoid hastily nesians may have much to teach us. 0 but because the Jewish members of the faculty hated him (Mises was an anti­ Hayek on Hayek: An Autobiographical Dialogue, by F.A. Hayek; Stephen socialist; they were all socialists). Kresge and Leif Wener, eds. University of Chicago Press, 1994, 170 pp., $27.50. • Hayek was a mo~tain-climber, and this fact about him - not any con­ tribution he made to economics - was what primarily interested Cambridge economist A.C. Pigou. • Despite John Maynard Keynes' The Evolution ofan and Hayek's disagreements over eco­ nomic theory - Hayek figured that Keynes had spent no more than a year Independent Mind studying economics, and that Keynes' knowledge of economic theory was pretty much limited to that of econo­ mists of Cambridge, where Keynes taught - the two were actually pretty Timothy Virkkala ignorant of any economics whatsoever" (p. 83), and did not write the most im­ good friends. portant parts of his famous book on un­ • Though Keynes prided himself "I've a theory that all economists employment (the book that brought on his political influence (he described who serve in government are corrupted Keynesianism to the unwashed masses himself as "Cassandra"), he was un­ as a result of serving in government," of politicians). He once wrote, after able to get the British government to Friedrich Hayek once said. "lowe my much counselling by Hayek on the na­ go along with his and Hayek's plan to own independence [to the fact] that I ture of inflation, "But unfortunately, as fund the war effort in a non­ cleared out of every country as soon as Professor Hayek has discovered [!], an inflationary way. (Could Hayek's sup­ they started using me for governmental port of the scheme have been the jinx?) service." This is one of the many little increase in the quantity of money tends to drive up prices" (84). For the half-dozen or so people ob­ gems in Hayek on Hayek, edited by Ste­ sessed with trivia about economics and • "Harold Laski was a pathological phen Kresge and Leif Wener, a light ad­ economists, this book is a gold mine. problem. Even among his friends to­ junct to "The Collected Works of F.A. For those trying to make sense of the day, they recognize he was a pathologi­ Hayek." two most important anti-socialist Hayek on Hayek opens with an excel­ cal liar" (82). lent biographical essay by Kresge, • Hayek saw the great economist which contains some interesting infor­ Carl Menger only once, and in a later mation I have not seen elsewhere - for tribute described the founder of the The appeal of this book, I instance, Hayek's divorce and second Austrian School of Economics as "tall." readily admit, is all the gossip marriage, and its relation to his move to This one bit of personal observation in America. But the bulk of the slender a generally scholarly account was, in in it. Ofcourse, since much of volume consists of memoirs by Hayek, fact, the only inaccurate statement: this is old gossip, and about fa- interspersed with interviews expanding Menger was actually "quite medium­ -mous people, it qualifies as thoughts and subjects covered in the sized" (54). Hayek, impressed by Men­ memoirs. It also includes a radio "de­ ger's bearing, and perhaps overawed history. bate" that Hayek subjected himself to in by his intellect, simply overestimated the wake of the popularity of his Road to his physical stature. Serfdom. This "round table" discussion • Though by age 15 a convinced ag­ thinkers of our socialist-drenched age, with two American com-symps - er, nostic, Hayek's "position vis-a-vis the Hayek on Hayek is also helpful. We get a "progressive socialist-liberals" - is a different Christian churches was some­ lot of Hayek here, but alas not much gas. As is the whole book. what ambivalent." As Hayek confesses, Mises; if you want Hayek's more stud­ The appeal of Hayek on Hayek, I he "felt that if somebody really wanted ied thoughts about his mentor, you'd readily admit, is all the gossip in it. Of religion, he had better stick to what best consult Volume IV of the Collect­ course, since much of this is old gossip, seemed to be the 'true article,' that is, ed Works, The Fortunes of Liberalism and about famous people, it qualifies as Roman Catholicism. Protestantism al­ (1992), which contains a fascinating history. But it is not the kind of history ways appeared to me a step in the pro­ chapter on the older economist. professors dole out to their students: cess of emancipation from a super­ For my part, I was looking for anex­ • Lord Beveridge "was completely stition - a step which, once taken, planation of how a major intellectual 56 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 figure like Hayek could recapitulate being only the most obvious. These most of the major ideas of one of his similarities suggest some sort of influ­ most influential predecessors, Herbert ence. Perhaps Hayek got Spencer's ide­ Spencer, without ever mentioning him. as through others. Menger and Fried­ Learn at Was it a case of politic careerism? It is rich von Wieser are two good possibili­ difficult to come up with a thinker as out ties: Menger is the most important of favor as Spencer was during the time post-Spencerian "spontaneous order" Hayek was building his reputation. But theorist, and Wieser turned away from once that reputation was established, he history and toward the more abstract IILibertyl1 would have little reason to slight an un­ social sciences primarily because of P.c. antecedent. And Hayek, the con- Spencer's work. Mises, who cited Spen­ Are you interested in work­ cer as a precursor, is also a possibility for such indirect influence.) ing as a journalist? Would you Hayek felt that if somebody Of course, the filiation of Hayek's like to improve your writing really wanted religion, he had ideas is the prime interest in a book like and editing skills? this. Happily, it adds to our stock of Liberty offers full-time, paid better stick. to what seemed to knowledge on this subject. For instance, internships at all times ofthe be the U true article," that is I the similarity between Hayek's thought year. Interns are involved in all and Immanuel Kant's is treated nicely Roman Catholicism. aspects ofediting and publish­ (and, thank the Invisible Hand, concise­ ly). Appropriately, Hayek discusses his ing Liberty. affinity with Karl Popper's work at For information, write: summate historian of ideas, was never greater length. Though this book is no reticent aboutgivingcredit. R W. Bradford, Editor substitute for the more thorough treat­ Liberty But I found no smoking gun in Hayek ments of this subject available, it is P.O. Box 1181 on Hayek. Instead, I found quite a lot of good to have a primary document, Port Townsend, WA 98368 evidence suggesting that Hayek's simi­ something parallel to Ludwig von Mis­ larity to Spencer is a case of convergent es' Notes and Recollections and Margit evolution, of a later species evolving to von Mises' wonderful and peculiar My fill the niche left by an extinct one. Few Years With Ludwig von Mises. Like these things are more certain than that during books, it imparts a sense of the subject's the middle 40 years of this century, the years of Hayek's flourishing, Spencer­ personality. It also draws a picture of ianism was as extinct as the Dodo. the evolution of Hayek's thought - of The best evidence for Hayek's inde­ its integration, its increased sophistica­ pendence is found in his work in psy­ tion, and (of course) its divergence from IN THE CURRENT ISSUE mainstream twentieth-century ideas. Hayek vs. Oakeshott chology. In these memoirs, Hayek takes Jacob Segal pains to relate his early work on the Hayek on Hayek is elegantly designed, with photographic plates and a typeset­ psychology of sensations to his grow­ John Gray vs. Liberalism ing dissatisfaction with the ideas of ting style worth noting: the memoir por­ Ryszard Legutko Ernst Mach and the Vienna Circle. His tions are typeset in standard book style, solution to the problems of sensation, while the interview portions are in a Central Banking memory, and concept-formation may sans-serif type, without right justifica­ Kevin Dowd tion. The index is also helpful, with be Spencerian, but it is apparently the Government-Induced Market Failure: short biographies and bibliographies of result of original research. Readers curi­ Origins of FHA Mortgage Insurance ous about the development of Hayek's all the personages cited in the text. Alas, Robert E. Lloyd psychological theory or its fruition in here I detected two small errors: the least famous of his great works, The 1) Carl Menger is described as an After Libertarianism: A Symposium Sensory Order (1952), will be pleased "economist and mathematician." Joseph Agassi, David Brooks, with its extensive treatment in Hayek on Though Menger likely knew math, he Jeffrey Friedman, Ingrid Harris, Raphael Sassower, Bill Woolsey Hayek. It appears that any similarity be­ is infamous for not having used it in his tween The Sensory Order, regarded by economics. It was his son, Karl Menger, FORTHCOMING: some scholars as ahead of its time, and who was the professional mathe­ free-market environmentalism Spencer's Principles of Psychology of matician. bureaucracy 1855 and 1870, is coincidental. 2) Surely the editors could have rational choice theory (There are more spectacular similar­ found the date of death of Hans Mayer, nationalism ities between the two thinkers ­ who succeeded Wieser at the Universi­ 1 year (4 issue) subscription: U.S. $29, foreign $35, "spontaneous order," social evolution, ty of Vienna. The citation (p. 166), reads students $15 with copy ofID, institutions $54. Send group-selection theory, and a sophisti­ "Hans Mayer (1879-?; Austrian eco­ check/m.o. in U.S. dollars, or Visa/MC no.and expo date to: CRITICAL REVIEW, P.O. Box 25068, Dept. 5L, Chicago, IL cated opposition to social engineering nomic historian. Author, Die Wirtschaft,.. 60625, USAphone(312) 348-2960; fax (312) 348-3201. (lssN 0891-381 I) Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 slehre der Gegenwart (1927-1932))". For this book, and I hazard that he should Chauncey Sparks, a fellow Barbour the record, Mayer died thirty-seven be judged independently of Spencer, County resident. In 1946, at age 27, he years before Hayek, in 1955. Mises, and Mayer. And editors Kresge won a seat in the state legislature, But these are minor flaws. It is and Wener have been careful not to err, where his primary goals were reducing Hayek who is the center of attention in regarding his life, or his opinions. Q the sales tax and establishing technical and vocational schools throughout the state. (He was successful at the latter; by Stephan Lesher. Addison-Wesley, George Wallace: American Populist, three schools for whites and two for 1994, 587 pp., $23.95. blacks were created in 1947.) In 1952 he was elected to the circuit court, where he earned the sobriquet "the fighting little judge." During this time, Wallace was a wary ally of the entertainingly An Independent American eccentric populist Jim Folsom, who dominated Alabama politics in the 1950s; like Folsom, he was regarded as supportive of black interests. (Wallace - but with the exception of Ross Perot, asked for, and got, appointment as a Bill Kauffman they all liars. trustee of Tuskegee Institute.) Stephan Lesher's fine new biogra­ In 1958 Wallace lost his first race for In 1968, a curious voter had to trav­ phy, George Wallace: American Populist, governor to Attorney General John Pat­ el far west, across the Death Valley of ought to occasion reassessment of the terson, an arch-segregationist. Marshall Time and Life and The New Republic, all most reviled public figure of our time. Frady, the purple-penned New Journal­ the way to the New Left monthly Ram­ (It won't, but that's another matter.) ist (imagine James MacGregor Burns parts to find a single sage observation Lesher covered Wallace for Newsweek; under the influence of Tom Wolfe) who about rebel third-party presidential he is a Southern liberal who reminds wrote the cheap shot biography Wallace candidate George Wallace. Journalist us, whenever the picture gets too rosy, (1968), claimed that Wallace vowed af- Pete Hamill, while genuflecting enough which side he was on in the civil rights to keep from getting expelled from the struggle, but his book is noteworthy for church, keenly noted that "Wallace and its fairness to a subject who doggedly the black and radical militants ... share refuses to be lovable. In a sane world Creedence some common ground: local control of George Corley Wallace was not the Clearwater Revival would've schools and institutions, a desire to rad­ reading kind, but he did have some un­ played "Fortunate Son" at ically change America, a violent dis­ derstanding of Southern history and his trust of the power structure and the role in it, so it's meet that he was born Wallace rallies, but as it was establishment. In this year's election, in Clio, Alabama. As a boy he accompa­ the Alabama bantam's show­ the only one of the three major nied his physician grandfather Oscar biz supporters were limited to candidates who is a true radical is on his rounds in the country. George's Wallace." father - sickly, ineffectual, and irrita­ Chill Wills, Walter Brennan, Alas, the two healthiest factions of ble - lost through foreclosures most of and George "Goober" Lindsey. '60s politics - the Wallace populists the land Oscar had accumulated. and the New Left decentralists - never George was a popular, pugnacious surmounted the cultural barriers that kid, twice an Alabama Golden Gloves ter this loss, "Boys, I'm not going to be separated them, preferring to lob male­ champ (at 115 and 120 pounds). Unlike out nigguhed again." Frady's story be­ dictions over the fence: "fascists," "pin­ the populist poseur Harry Truman, who came a canker of Wallace folklore, but kos," "dirty beatniks" (an archaism as a child was a sissy and a pipsqueak, Lesher finds no evidence that Wallace Wallace loved) ... the whole dispiriting George Wallace was a scrawny but ever said such a thing. (The funniest sto­ witless list. In a sane world Creedence tough kid who played quarterback in ry in Lesher's book concerns the '58 pri­ Clearwater Revival would've played high school. He worked his way mary. Candidate Shorty Price, a state "Fortunate Son" at Wallace rallies, but through the University of Alabama and legislator, was arrested for urinating on as it was the Alabama bantam's show­ its law school before enlisting in the a fire hydrant one boozy night. Price biz supporters were limited to Chill Army Air Corps (his bomber crew flew complained that his arrest showed that Wills, Walter Brennan, and George the improbably named Little Yutz); in he didn't even "have as many rights as a "Goober" Lindsey. wartime, he married 16-year-old Lur­ damn common dog.") Wallace revived American popu­ leen Burns, who worked behind the Wallace was elected governor of Al­ lism after its 3D-year New Deal- and cosmetics counter in Kresge's in abama in 1962; he delivered a memora­ World War II-induced slumber, and for Tuscaloosa. ble inaugural address, vowing, "I draw that, I for one am eternally grateful. Discharged, broke, and ambitious, the line in the dust and toss the gaunt­ "They all saying today what I was say­ Wallace secured a sinecure as assistant let before the feet of tyranny, and I say: ing back then," Wallace noted recently attorney general from Governor segregation now, segregation tomor- 58 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 row, segregation forever." (This speech coming "a man who opposed federal Governor Regent (wife Lurleen was was largely ghosted by Asa Carter, a intrusion into everyday life, not a man keeping the seat warm) sound like a white supremacist who under the pen who opposed blacks." When he scared hookworm-addled cracker with moon­ name Forrest Carter wrote the charm­ the hell out of the Democratic establish­ pie smeared over his inbred, cross-eyed ing Cherokee coming-of-age novel The ment by running strongly in a handful face, quoted the Dangerous Fascist: Education of Little Tree, as well as Gone of primaries in 1964, Wallace deftly "The biggest domestic issue for 19681 to Texas, the source of Clint Eastwood's muted his racism and took his stand on I'll tell you. It's people - our fine masterpiece The Outlaw JOsey Wales.) the original federal principle: "A vote American people, living their own In his first year in office Wallace be­ for me in Wisconsin is not a vote for lives, buying their own farms, working came a snarling symbol of white intran­ segregation. It is a vote for the right to the way they like to work, and not hav- sigence when he "stood in the run your schools, your business, your schoolhouse door" in defiance of the lives as you and you alone see fit." Justice Department's demand that the Then came 1968. Go back and read University of Alabama admit two Wallace's press from that campaign. A safe rule of thumb when (well-qualified) Negro students. He The corporate media feared and reading our stateside Pravdas claimed to represent the historic rights loathed him as they have no postwar is that a "demagogue" offering of localities against the encroaching na­ politician with the possible exception of "simplistic solutions" and tional leviathan; he decried President Ross Perot. (It is my firm conviction Kennedy's federalizing of the Alabama that had Perot not stupidly aborted his baring a "dark side" is, hands National Guard as part of the "trend to­ candidacy to save his daughter the down, the best and most inde­ ward military dictatorship in the shame of those doctored photos of her country." in a Sapphic clinch, the Texarkana pop­ pendent man in the race. He explained himself on Meet the ulist would've been shot with Bremer's Press: "I think it is a dramatic way to bullets. A safe rule of thumb when impress upon the American people this reading our stateside Izvestias and Prav­ ing the bureaucrats and intellectual omnipotent march of centralized gov­ das is that a "demagogue" offering morons trying to manage everything ernment that is going to destroy the "simplistic solutions" and baring a for them. It's a matter of trusting the rights and freedom and liberty of the "dark side" is, hands down, the best people to make their own decisions." people of this country if it continues, and most independent man in the race.) (National Review founder William F. and we in Alabama intend to resist this Wallace, we were told, was a crude Buckley, Jr. disdained Wallace as an un­ centralized control, where they now tell and malevolent force, an unthinking couth "country and western Marxist" us whom you can eat with and whom vessel of evil who spoke to the brown­ - but then Buckley and his dear you can sell your house to. This is the shirt in the mill, the Klansman on the friends Roy Cohn, Allard Lowenstein, great constitutional principle upon beat, the bully in the shop, the bigot and John Kenneth Galbraith were not which we stand in Alabama." with a mop. The candidate was present­ exactly habitues of the Grand Ole He used the same vocabulary - li­ ed to easterners via a series of articles Opry.) bertarian, particularist, high-minded ­ by housebroken southern journalists Wallace was sharp enough to realize in denouncing the Civil Rights Act of whose common treasonous ambition ­ that Humphrey and Nixon were the 1964, which he warned "will extend often realized - was to work for the same monster; he called his makeshift federal control over business, industry, New York Times and piss on their ances­ organization the American Indepen­ and individuals." He raised the specter tors' graves. Right-thinking people eve­ dent Party, a name that sums up every­ of "a welfare state where government rywhere breathed a sigh of relief when thing his opponents were not. The referees all rights and the individual is on election night Walter Cronkite an­ insurgent memorably described our subject to the caprice and whim of an nounced in his pompous, dim-witted one-party system back in 1966: "You autocratic, all-powerful government way, "George Wallace has gone down can put LBJ in the sack. You can put structure." to ignominious defeat." (Well, not HHH in the sack. And you can put Rob­ As Lesher notes, Wallace was be- quite: he won 9.9 million votes, or ert 'Blood-for-the-Vietcong' Kennedy in 13.5% of the total the sack. You can put Earl Warren in cast, and five the sack; Warren doesn't have enough states worth 46 legal brains in his whole head to try a electoral votes.) chicken thief in my home county. You r/ , \ So what did can put wild Bill Scranton and the left­ r:;:...~ " this boiling caul- wing Governor Romney and Nelson t (I I ,, ,'\ dron of hate Rockefeller, that socialist governor, in ~ _I.. want? JamesJ. Kil- the sack. Put I em all in the same sack, "------~ \ patrick's sneering shake 'em up. I don't care which one profile of Wallace comes out, you stick him back in - be­ in National Review cause there isn't a dime's worth of dif­ (April 18, 1967), ference between them." "Gandhi was not a wimp!" B"I.. which made the Wallace's -faith in The People was Liberty 59 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 complete. "This is a people's awaken­ delight in castigating that red-yellow regation orders and civil rights initia­ ing," he explained in 1968. "Those plu­ devil "Mousey Tongue"). Though not tives would've been defunded and perfect hypocrites in Washington don't in the resplendent Tom Watson/Huey rescinded, but the dollars would have know what's coming over you. Well, if Long tradition of rabble-rousing south­ poured like Niagara into road mainte­ they'd gone out and asked a taxi driver, ern anti-imperialism, Wallace was a far nance and park cleanup and other a little businessman, a beautician or a less sanguinary internationalist than public-works jobs. Paradise, no, but barber or a farmer, they'd have found Humphey or Nixon. He was the last fewer American boys would die in ali­ out. But no, they don't ask those folks American politician to make the Old en jungles, and some Americans - for when they make their decisions. They Right bugbear of foreign aid a major is­ instance, the good people of South Bos­ ask some pointy-headed pseudo­ sue: "The average citizen is fed up with ton - would have been significantly intellectual who can't even park his bi­ this foreign aid ... to countries from freer in their daily lives. cycle straight when he gets to campus, Afghanistan to Zanzibar." He urged Wallace was a politician, which is burden-sharing on the nations of Eu­ to say that as a man he was (or is; how rope, Asia, and every established hege­ "ghostly he seems already) a virtual nul­ the Vietnam War was not mony. If the Vietnam War was not lity. His personal life is a depressingly If familiar story of ornamental wives, ne­ winnable with conventional winnable with conventional weapons within 90 days of his taking office, Wal­ glected children, corrupt cronies, and weapons within 90 days of his lace pledged an immediate withdrawal the occasional shiv in the blades to a friend no longer useful. (Idea for an taking office, Wallace pledged of our troops. liThe hell with it," Wal­ lace aides said of Vietnam to Pete Ha­ unpublishable essay: the emasculatory an immediate withdrawal ofour effect of image-conscious second wives mill. (His disastrous choice of vice­ troops. presidential candidate General Curtis - Cornelia Wallace, Elizabeth Dole, Nancy Reagan - on contemporary "Bomb them back into the Stone Ages" American politicians.) LeMay - a self-described "moderate Yet George Wallace had a genuine that's who they ask. But they're not ig­ Republican," by the way - obscured feeling for ordinary folk, and he voiced noring you now. You're 'tops. You're his relative sensibleness on peace their grievances with wit and fire. He the people." matters.) His was an agrarian populism that was .also far-sighted in his prediction On May 15, 1972, at the Laurel harnessed a Jeffersonian vision of a that civil rights laws would become Shopping Center in Maryland, a wacky country of landed freemen to a post­ Big Brother's cudgels. The public ac­ cipher named Arthur Bremer pumped New Deal conception of the role of gov­ commodations provisions of the Civil five shots from a .38 caliber revolver ernment in the national economy. Un­ Rights Act of 1964 did violate on a into Wallace, permanently crippling the derstanding that "the abnormal growth governor and ending his threat to the of ... urban centers has created and managers and owners of the American compounded many of our socioeco­ "A vote for me in Wiscon­ nomic problems," Wallace proposed a state. Another lone gunman, straight series of incentives to lure industry to from central casting: this one was even sin is not a vote for segrega­ rural America, in part to disperse popu­ thoughtful enough to keep a hilarious tion. It is a vote for the right to lation and encourage those poor whites Diary of a Mad Utterly Solitary Assas­ run your schools, your busi­ and blacks of the Southern diaspora to sin. Bremer's rambles were later pub­ trade the ghetto for birdsong and sun­ lished; Gore Vidal has speculated that a ness, your lives as you and rise. As he told Tom Wicker, "I don't pro ghosted this bizarre memoir, and you alone see fit. " think God meant people to be all that the Wallace hit was not as random jammed up in cities. No courtesy, no as our intrepid seekers of the truth in­ time, no room - that's all you get in sist. (See "The Art and Arts of E. Ho­ massive scale the right of restauran­ cities." ward Hunt" in Vidal's Matters of Fact teurs and hostelers and other business­ His most incendiary proposal was and Fiction, 1978.) men to serve (or not serve) whomever to tax the foundations endowed by A Wallace presidency would've they please. This is, admittedly, a vex­ "multibillionaires like the Rockefellers been a strange interlude. In 1971, wool­ ing matter, and one on which there and the Fords and the Mellons and the gathering with a reporter, he suggested seems to be a good deal of dissimula­ Carnegies," as well as the commercial that a Wallace Cabinet might have Mil­ tion (and judicious silence) on the part property of churches. He also promised ton Friedman as treasury secretary ­ of respectable critics who understand to compel the employees of the Depart­ and George Meany as secretary of la­ which cattle may be slaughtered and ment of Health, Education, and Welfare bor. He'd have eliminated foreign aid which must be worshiped. Few things to "throw their briefcases in the Poto­ and reduced our commitments in exot­ rankle like petty racism, but the Ameri­ mac River." ic corners of the world. He'd have shift­ can response to a Lester Maddox bar­ Far from being the saber-rattling jin­ ed the tax burden upward, off the ring blacks from his chicken joint go of the Big Bad Wallace myth, the beleaguered middle and working class­ should be boycott, ridicule, and ostra­ candidate advocated a foreign policy of es and onto the wealthy and whichever cism, not calling in the Justice Depart­ prudence and sobriety (though he did corporations he disliked. Federal deseg- ment. 60 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

In 1966 Wallace told Tom Wicker, Has anyone ever offered a pithier defi­ technical skill? Is the historical and so­ "The real problem ain't race. The real nition of the civil rights mess? George ciological commentary, hagiography, problem is these intellectual liberals Wallace, American Populist, was also and criticism in these books necessary who take power and oppress people." George Wallace, American Prophet. 0 or valuable? Rock's value as folk art does not, I hope, require an extended defense. It The Penguin Book ofRock & Roll Writing, edited by Clinton Heylin. stands as late-twentieth-century Amer­ Viking, 1993, 682 pp., $27.50. ica's grandest contribution to the musi­ From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-Punk Historyfor a Post-Punk cal and literary vocabulary of the world's popular culture. Opera is the World, by Qinton Heylin. Penguin, 1993,384 pp., $14.00. only form that even approaches rock in Ranters and Crowd Pleasers: Punk in Pop Music, 1977-92, by Greil its coherent combination of the physi­ Marcus. Doubleday, 1993,438 pp., $22.00. cal and emotional immediacy of music, Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana, by Gina Arnold. Sl Martin's Press, grand theatrical gesture, and the bal­ 1993, 228 pp., $12.95. ance, beauty, and insight of the written and sung word. Rock can communi­ cate on more aesthetic levels than mu­ sic or poetry alone. But for them who lack ear to hear, the intellectual tradition of rock criti­ Rock, Paper, Scissors cism as represented in the Penguin col­ lection is ill-equipped to enlighten. True, the writing is almost uniformly interesting, emotionally vivid, and col­ that surrounds it. (Or, in some cases, loquial, as befits its subject. It address­ Brian Doherty love of an easy, sleazy way to grub a es almost every aspect of modem rock meager living licking the butts of cre­ as art and business: obituaries of musi­ Of all popular art forms, rock music tins and spreading received opinions cians, commentary by rockers on their may seem the least worthy of extended about the worst sorts of commercial music and lives, criticism that both literary or critical commentary. It is tripe.) adores and reviles. But a problem re­ both a folk art and a commercial art, Such love, combined with the insu­ mains, one diagnosed long ago by Ezra and its appeal, even in the sober mus­ larity of fandom and the difficult intel­ Pound: "We talk about the odor of mu­ ings of professional critics, often lectual work involved in writing what sic and the timbre of a painting be­ depends more on the enthusiasm, emo­ one is really trying to say about a non­ cause we think we suggest what we tionalism, and hyperbole of the fan than narrative art like music, often makes mean and are too lazy to undertake the the quiet, reflective intelligence expect­ for essays thick with jargon and depen­ analysis necessary to find out what we ed of the critic or historian. dent on a ready collection of de­ do mean." Elvis Costello's snide com­ The recently deceased composer scriptive cliches. Clinton Heylin calls ment that "writing about music is like Frank Zappa - who was generally this lingo "rockspeak," and The Penguin dancing about architecture" is appo- marketed as "rock," though he had Book ofRock'n'Roll Writing, which he ed­ nothing but contempt for the form, be­ ited, is full of examples of it: "drive," cause he insisted on yoking his modern "aggression," "raw, basic," "hard, jazz and classical compositions to lyrics tough, edgy," "fierce, self-destructive." Too often, rock writing con­ dependent on sophomoric toilet humor But the essential quality of good sists of cries of enthusiasm or - had a famous quip about rock jour­ (and much bad) rock criticism is its atti­ approbation that work only on nalism being "people who can't write tude toward rock music and rock cul­ interviewing people who can't talk for ture. As Caroline Coon writes in an emotional level. people who can't read." Heylin's Penguin collection, "The audi­ The jibe is funny, but inaccurate. The ences are revelling in the idea that any best rock journalism is not chatting with one of them could get up on stage and site, and more so for rock than any oth­ performers, but history, criticism, and do just as well, if not better, than the er genre. analysis by aware and intelligent fans. bands already up there. Which is, after Too often, rock writing consists of Rock writing usually appears only in all, what rock & roll is all about." Some cries of enthusiasm or approbation that ephemeral magazine and newspaper version of this idea of rock as a neces­ work only on an emotional level. It form, and only rarely finds itself be­ sarily demotic art is expressed by many might be understood but cannot be ex­ tween book covers; its professional re­ of the dozens of authors in the Penguin plained; it's more like sloppy poetry wards, in prestige or cash, are slight. book. than criticism. In many cases, it aspires Rock writers must of necessity be moti­ What, then, have scriveners to add to the off-kilter emotional suggestive­ vated, at least initially, by love of the to our understanding of this scrappy ness of its subject rather than the preci­ music or the community and way of life folk art that requires so little formal or sion of the critic. And to the untrained -Liberty 61 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 or unappreciative ear, rock really can world could remain the same when it's make money, nor a commercial under­ sound like just a lot of noise, especially over." taking that sometimes became art. Its the more harsh and underground punk The fan knows that rock's combina­ art was synonymous with its busi­ rock discussed in these books. So there tion of volume, repetition, simple me-, ness." He later writes that "the compa­ is some explaining to do. The Western lodic devices, speed, and direct verbal nies that produce it and reap its profits musical tradition's values of structure, meaning can indeed make life seem have never understood it," thinking elegance, modulation, melody, and har­ this way sometimes; that rock can gal­ that this makes rock'n'roll unique. mony are often irrelevant to, subverted vanize, inspire, excite, and even edu­ Actually, in a world of international by, or stomped on in rock. And even cate; that it is a uniquely powerful megacorporations owning interests in when it pays homage to those verities, mode of communication. every part of commodity culture, this it usually does so in such a simple and In an essay explaining why an au­ is a necessary part of modem capital­ repetitive manner that the experienced thor might have chosen to use Rod ism, and its effects can be both malign musician can well sneer. Stewart's excellent song "Every Picture and benign. But the dark side is obvi­ Rock's social role as an accompani­ Tells A Story" as an element in her ous: in modern radio and record pro­ ment to the cretinous or foolishly ebulli- short story, Marcus writes: "I some­ duction, it can limit the public's times wonder how good a song has to exposure to a wide range of music, de­ be to make its way into fiction like that nying listeners pleasure and corpora­ Opera is the only form that - into a life like that." He goes on to tions revenue. approaches rock in its coherent define a good record as· "one that car­ The mass distribution network has ries surprise, pleasure, shock, ambigui­ let rock as an art form down. The best combination of the physical ty, contingency ... each with a faraway music is not being heard beyond a and emotional immediacy of sense of the absolute; the sense that ei­ small core of what performer/critic Joe music, grand theatrical ges­ ther for the whole of a performance ... Carducci in the Penguin book calls or more often for a stray moment, "the real rock music audience ... part ture, and the balance, beauty, someone ... wants what he or she hipster, part record collector, part mu­ and insight of the written and wants, hates what he or she hates, fears sic fan, part groupie, part misfit." This sung word. what he or she fears, more than any­ is accurate, and it is depressing, except thing in the world ... one that, entering to those hipsters whose self-image de­ pends on a self-imposed, self­ a person's life, can enable that person indulgent, and phony cultural margi­ to live more intensely." Marcus' impas­ ent activities of adolescents assembled nality. Carducci's essay, the only ex­ sioned and far-ranging book makes the in clubs, dances, and parties is also tended and thoughtful attempt to case that rock music is as worthy of at­ well-known, and doubtless hinders define rock in a limited sense in music­ tention, and is as capable of serving the rock's prospects for critical acceptability ological and aesthetic terms, cheers the function of art, as poetry or more "cul­ among the intelligentsia (who rarely divorce of rock from mass popularity. turally privileged" musics from the Eu­ seem to understand it even when they He steadfastly assumes that rock is ropean classical tradition. He assumes try). So what makes late-middle-aged rock and pop is pop, and never the professional intellectuals like Greil Mar­ from the outset that this is true; there is cus and Clinton Heylin so obsessed no stench of apologetics in this book, with rock? merely the assurance and urgency of a Marcus attempts to address this writer certain of the vital importance of Rock's art is synonymous question, without directly acknowledg­ his subject matter. with its business. ing its importance, in some of the col­ Of course, a professional violinist lected magazine journalism that makes earning union scale in a modern sym­ up Ranters and Crowd Pleasers. He ex­ phony orchestra reading about the lat­ twain shall meet. His bluster is enter­ presses his love for Bruce Springsteen, est shenanigans of an Axl Rose may taining and impassioned, but I feel he is Elvis Costello, Gang of Four, the Au well wonder who's culturally privi­ barking up an irrelevant tree. Rock is Pairs, Sonic Youth, and others in lan­ leged: the one earning millions or the popular music in the sense that it is not guage that attempts to harness this one with the dubious honor of being art music, not chamber music, not jazz noise, these little popular song-poems, embraced into a highbrow canon. Rock music (which was itself popular in the to political, social, and emotional reali­ is a big business and a huge cultural beginning). It is pop in the sense that it ties that the cynical might assume are presence, whether intellectuals take it is made in hopes of mass sales to a far beyond the power of the music to seriously or not. The Penguin book rec­ mass audience, even when it comes out reach. But fellow fans realize that Mar­ ognizes on and off the necessity of con­ in vinyl pressings of 300. In general, cus is indeed onto something, even sidering the business as well as the rockers limit themselves only when when he slips into seemingly absurd music in trying to understand or ex­ they feel that popular taste limits them. hyperbole - for instance, his claim that plain rock music. When they catch a clue that the masses the Clash's music inspires "disbelief As Michael Lydon writes in his es­ might love them, they almost always that mere human beings could create say "Money: Rock for Sale," rock "was throw themselves at the masses. Wit­ such a sound, and disbelief that the never an art form that just happened to ness the speed with which so many for- 62 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 merly independently-distributed bands sions of their own innovations.) POWER INVESTING have signed with major labels in the Route 666 is a more personal me- wake of Nirvana. moir of what punk rock as an economic THE COLLECTIVISTS ARE KILLING Heylin's From the Velvets to the Void- and philosophic force turned into: "in­ THE ECONOMY. BUT YOU CAN oids and Gina Arnold's Route 666 are ex- die" (independent) rock. Arnold is now PROSPER WITH THIS FAST TRACK tended explorations of the music and a professional rock critic, but in San INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY. communities that Carducci's hipsters Francisco during the 'BOs she played a built as rock evolved from a cog in a role no less important to the function­ A professional futures market mass-production machine into a more ing of independently produced and dis­ speculator (and writer on Objectivism personal and communal folk art, one tributed rock music: that of "scene and Libertarianism) will soon offer whose pursuit of artistic values didn't queen," the woman at whose house all private managed accounts to quali­ necessarily depend on becoming a the traveling musicians could stay and fied investors. No minimum account chart-topping popular sensation. (As be treated kindly, fed, and allowed to size. Fees based on percentage of amazing as such early rock artists as shower without having to expend their profits. Original, sophisticated, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Rich- razor-thin profit margin on hotels. highly-leveraged trading system; fully ard, and Jerry Lee Lewis were, and as (This hospitality, despite what the prur­ computerized; massive database; much as they loved the sounds they ient might think, did not necessarily in­ thirty-five years of experience. made, finding a place for southern mis- elude sexual favors; Arnold makes fits to make money, fame, and specta- clear that the alleged easy availability You still have time to preserve and cles of themselves was central to their of sexual conquests for musicians who enhance your capital base with our careers in a way that would seem alien are not quite yet stars is largely a unique recession-proof and de­ pression-proof investment program. to later self-conscious white urban bo- myth.) If buying records and writing Extensive documentation is available. hos like Pere Ubu or Sonic Youth. But about them is vital to the survival of then again, neither Ubu nor Sonic this independent American folk art, GOLDEN HARVEST Youth rejected major-label deals when helping the artists stay alive and cared FUTURES RESEARCH offered them, and both are seeking as for while out on the road plying their 6190 Spring Arbor Road much success as they can within the trade is at least equally important. Jackson, Michigan 49201 limits of their aesthetic.) Arnold's enthusiasm for the role, 517-750-2500 From the Velvets to the Voidoids is a for the second-hand glamor and news thorough and workmanlike (though of the outside world the traveling musi­ dry) history of the arty and primitive cians brought, shines through admira­ bands that paved the way for the rise of bly. Yes, the book is filled with the l.Jibertarian punk rock as a semi-mass phenomenon overwrought emotionalism and critical Republicans in the late '70s. Written like a hypertro- howlers of which enthusiastic fans are phied magazine article, the book's nar- prone. But for someone who finds it Subscribe to rative is constructed from musicians' hard to believe that this music and life­ and hangers-on's reminiscences about style can be healthy, vital, and energiz­ the early years of such bands as the Ra- ing, that it represents a hidden font of 1?spu6Bcan Li6erty mones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Pere the most skilled and passionate popu­ Wi· ~:~: :.~"».:...~O::;h,=~~~i~:~~~r..;Q.~ Ubu, the Dead Boys, Television, and lar American songs, Arnold's open­ GOP Campaign & Election News Devo. The book's key contribution to hearted and naive diaristic/journalistic Virginia Republican Convention the historical/critical record is its Brit- account is instructive. Miller Vs. North ish author's recognition of the primacy Arnold profiles record label heads, of American bands in this musical revo- radio programmers, and musicians Battle with Religious Right lution. (The Sex Pistols' successful self- from the late '70s to now, from Jello Bi­ at Texas GOP Convention promotion has fooled many into think- afra of the early San Francisco punk Generation X Republicans ing of punk as a British invention. Not band the Dead Kennedys to the recent­ so. In a familiar pop pattern, the British ly deceased Kurt Cobain of Aberdeen, Libertarian Republican Conference sold back to Americans stylized ver- Washington's Nirvana, the band whose Set for Tennessee, Nov. 11/12 ~ multi-platinum success in the News on Barry Goldwater, Bill Weld );(..3 I early '90s leads Arnold to be- Jack Kemp, Jeb Bush, & Fred Thompson : ..,q p.. lieve that the values of the ·.r. Plus Interviews, Book Reviews, ..'. rock underground have finally Editorials, and Activist News "won." That curious belief casts One Year (six issues) - $15.00 shadows on the rest of her Send to: book, and makes its central Republican Liberty Caucus theme murkier and more ques­ 1717 A~alachee Parkway, Suite 434 tionable. First of all, what are allahassee, FL 32301 "For richer or for what?" the "values" inherent in the Questions? (904) 552-2424 paidpolitical adby RLC Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 music she loves? "It's not merely that play shows where fans of all ages can­ the world of the music industry, is I'd rather hear good music on the radio not attend. The punk values Arnold is mistaken. than bad," Arnold writes. "It's that I celebrating have something to do with The last innovation rock brought to think people liking good music is indic­ community, lack of pretension, a do-it­ the music industry was the notion of ative of better things." As sociology, yourself ethic, a small-business capital­ the band as a self-contained artistic fac­ this is nonsense. It leads Arnold to con­ ism based on personal.relationships ­ tory that could write and perform its fusedly write that when Nirvana's song as well as great, personal rock music own songs. Since then - well, Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit" reached num­ made for the love of it, not the money. is getting the same piece of the wealth ber one, she realized the success of a Making money doesn't have to kill created from their songs as, say, Garth song whose first line was "Load up on the love; but Arnold quotes another of Brooks. Most of the money from their drugs and bring your friends" meant her heroes, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam music went toward making billionaire that George Bush would not win reelec­ - a band whose music this punk fan David Geffen, owner of their record tion. To my ears, this intentionally her­ finds unconnected in any way with the company, even richer. And who is this metic tune's first line always sounded musical and business traditionrepre­ a victory for? like "Load up on guns and bring your sented by that hoary term - as saying Rock is a popular folk art, in the that, as their success has grown, "The sense that anyone can do it with love, audiences are suddenly getting bigger. enthusiasm, and a small gift of talent. Real punk rockers stand for And when they get bigger, I get small­ The emotional impact of its peculiar er." Wealth and huge audiences are not combination of sound and sense can community, self-reliance, and a victory for punk orunderground rock inspire writing that is insightful and creative integrity, values that - necessarily. And if you want to think brilliant - or overwrought and ridicu­ have nothing to do with world­ of it as "indie rock," it necessarily kills lous. These qualities nestle uneasily it. Except for Fugazi, every under­ side-by-side in all of these books. 0 ly success or huge audiences. ground band whose success begins to burgeon feels it necessary to yoke themselves to an international mega­ friends," a less Clintonian message, but corporation for the marketing, produc­ no matter: Bush still lost, and would tion, and distribution - and ownership have with or without Nirvana. - of their music. The liner notes to Nirvana's follow­ Heylin concludes From the Velvets to Booknotes up LP demanded that anyone in their the Voidoids with a similarly problemat­ audience who didn't share their pro­ ic statement confusing career victories gressive attitudes toward women and for specific individuals with a victory gays not see their shows or buy their for good underground rock. He wraps records. In other words, Cobain begged up his volume with an overview of to return to the level of audience and what all the musicians he has discussed Very Free Speech - Fans of fringe wealth he would have had if he'd are doing now, and in almost every literature and conspiracy theories will stayed on the independent label and case it is continuing a career in the mu­ probably enjoy Jim Keith's Secret and club circuit. But he still cashed the sic industry long, long past the point Suppressed: Banned Ideas & Hidden checks the uncaring Middle American where the music they are creating is History (Feral House, 1993, 315 pp., lunkheads he excoriated tossed his valuable or interesting. But Heylin $12.95), a compilation of bizarre specu­ way. His awareness of this contradic­ thinks this is some sort of spiritual or lations on everything from the Jones­ tion was probably among the thoughts artistic triumph, just as Arnold seems town massacre to the death of Jim that compelled him to pull the trigger to think it a triumph for her pals in Nir­ Morrison to "subliminal images in Oli­ on himself. (Anguished self-importance vana to become millionaires many ver Stone's JFK." What sets this book is a long-established rock tradition, times over selling their music to an au­ apart from the typical anthology of with Pete Townshend as its king.) dience that they hate and that hates the paranoia is the editor's ever-present If Arnold merely means that music economic, political, and social attitudes sense of irony, shared by some (though she likes is selling in enormous quanti­ they thought they stood for. not all)· of his contributors. "On occa­ ties and making a lot of money for the It is ever thus when art and busi­ sion," Keith writes, "I have included a musicians she admires, that is one ness collide - or, as with rock, when particular piece in this volume not for thing, and it is a victory not be sneered the business and the art seem insepara­ its absolute validity, which is often at. But throughout the book she ble. But real punk rockers stand for nigh-impossible to determine, but for presents herself, her friends, and the community, self-reliance, and creative its quotient of unacceptability in the re­ bands she loves as standing for some­ integrity, values that have nothing to ality tunnels of the mainstream. ... thing more than merely good rock mu­ do with worldly success or huge audi­ Please do not confuse the map with the sic; her heroes are Fugazi, a D.C. band ences. When success comes, the people territory, nor the editor or publisher that refuses to associate themselves sharing in it should well cheer. But to with the contents of the book." with large corporations, to charge more assert that the success of former punks The result is a very odd volume in.. than $5 for tickets to their show, or to has forever changed the world, or even deed. Some readers will find it fright- 64 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 ening, others aggravating, others just Loving, distractedly, for she was Are you peripatetic? plain weird. It is all of these things. Soft with warmth melting the Ifyou move around a lot, it is likely that you And it's a lot of fun. -Jesse Walker river's ice; have problems receiving your subscription to He felt a thawing at his core Liberty. It is simply a fact of life that we must A jarring bump and she was sliced receive your new address four weeks before you Hallowed Without Nonsense move. Please send your new address (along with - Daniel Sundahl, the author of Loss in pieces. your current mailing label) to: Liberty, P.O. of Habitat (Mellen Poetry Press, 1993, There is also a reaching beyond ter­ Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368. 63 pp., $12.95), is a professor at Hills­ ror to grasp certain implications about Ifyou don't send us your notice on time, the the largest patterns of life. Sundahl de­ Post Office is likely to rip off the cover of the dale College, which has the distinction magazine you paid for, and send it to us with of being one of the very few colleges in velops these implications as they ought your address correction - several months late. this country that does not accept mon­ to be developed, by movements and It is not uncommon for us to receive from the repetitions of images that the reader Post Office two or three covers from one sub­ ey from the government. In fact, in the scriber in one week! century and a half since Hillsdale Col­ can slowly put together for himself as if lege was started by independent watching churchmen and abolitionists, it has nev­ Passing clouds draw patches of sun er accepted money from the govern­ across How To Answer Those ment. Alfalfa fields or chutes of sun Daniel Sundahl is as independent as bursting Tricky Questions Through clouds. the college he works for. He is a poet by Bill Tomlinson who has done what we often hear that To summarize the implications of A practical, hands-on guide for Liber­ poets no longer do. He has written an Sundahl's poem would be to deny the tarian activists and candidates. 80 pages extended work (63 pages) that tries to full artistic experience from which they of invaluable advice and answers. $8.00 find the truth about serious issues (par­ emerge. Suffice it to say that Sundahl including postage & packing. ents, children, death, religion, work). believes that poetry This seems odd. tries to be exact, Cameo Press Odder still is the fact that Sundahl Even hallowed, to be without non­ Box 1311 - 1124 Lonsdale Ave. has not merely imitated, say, the Victo­ Sense North Vancouver, B.C. V7M-3J5 rians' way with the long poem. Loss of and that his poem approaches this CANADA Habitat is a long poem written in many ideal. -Stephen Cox and various parts, with constant varia­ Those who attempt tion of poetic form. Rio? Bravo/ - to demonstrate that privately-run busi­ Sundahl's scheme allows him to move easily from one means of expres­ nesses are superior to their govern­ sion to another. There is a formal and ment-run counterparts are often Tired ofgovernment beating up on summary statement: stymied by examples of private compa­ law-abiding citizens, robbing taxpayers nies that rival government agencies in ofconstitutionally guaranteed personal I know it will be well for me Will be well a year and more than a their zeal to stifle individual initiative, and property rights? year reward mediocrity and conformity, en­ Join the legal foundation that stands Years in which I live my life on force senseless rules, invade employee up and fights for YOUR rights. Slope of earth under slant of sky privacy, and generate layers of waste­ Desiring no less than I deserve. ful bureaucracy. Yes, government uses Northwest Legal Foundation There is plain but striking description: its considerable economic and coercive Established in 1987, NLF has Someone's son sees clout to remake private businesses in its repeatedly beaten back government Glowing yellow filaments of owl's own image, but most people fail to abuse of power. We're the lawyers who: eyes. grasp this connection, and consider pri­ • stopped illegal government searches There is narration, usually of an elegiac vate corporations' bureaucratic bun­ • got six-figure refunds for property kind: gling to be part of the "free market" in owners saddled with illegal fees My mother calls to say she's sold action. Without specific examples, mov­ • dismantled over zealous the farm, ing beyond theory to demonstrate how environmental restrictions Her voice a nervous lilting rising a business can succeed by applying • even sued bureaucrats personally and English and Norwegian tangle market principles within the workplace won punitive damages. saying is a difficult chore. Farms have failed, NLF Fights for You Stores have closed, Ricardo Semler's remarkable new Empty elevators jut mortality book, Maverick (Warner Books, 1993, NLF is a non-profit, tax-exempt, against the sky. 352 pp., $22.95), gives us an idea not member-supported organization. Join And there is pure terror: only of what such a business would be us today: $25 to $2000 memberships. Quarterly newsletter & legal consulL Once ago in our town, an elder like, but how one is able to prosper farmer plowed even in the hostile economic environ­ Northwest Legal Foundation His spring-time fields and held his ment of Brazil. Its 35-year-old author 557 Roy St., Ste 100 • Seattle 98109 infant granddaughter heads Semco, a company in which em- (206) 283-0503 Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994

ployees set their salaries, dress as they curiosity was renewed. (I was especial­ Critics play an Ayatollah role when please, often work at home, periodical­ ly amused by a quotation from John Le they deride more thoroughly fictive ly evaluate their bosses, have a major Carre: "Nobody has a God-given right writing. The ritual belittling of whole say in corporate policy, and are re­ to insult a great religion." Except, of categories of fantastic literature often quired (!) to take 30 days vacation each course, Jesus of Nazareth.) So 1 tried it amounts to little more than puritanic year. In conventional terms, this again. moralizing about the propriety of cer­ sounds like a recipe for a quick corpo­ After getting over my original dis­ tain types of lying. rate demise, yet Semco, which manu­ taste, I found the writing both clear So add this lesson to the more bally­ factures industrial equipment and and amusing. Rushdie may be no Nab­ hooed morals that the Salman Rushdie employs several hundred people, has okov, but he is not overrated Pynchon affair has provided jaded Westerners. grown 600% in ten years. either. And he gives the reader some­ The moral balance sheet of your aver­ Semler writes with a breezy, infor­ thing that neither reputed genius of­ age Western literary critic is darker than mal style and delights in overturning fers: sympathy for his protagonists. you think. And the future of fiction is, nearly all the sacred cows of traditional I initially pigeonholed the book as well, brighter. -Timothy Virkkala corporate policy. He describes how an odd example of Magic Realism. But company officials and employees at as the supernatural elements piled up, I Like Ike - Liberty editor Bill Brad­ every level are treated as responsible, achieving effects with little relation to ford and I have had many a friendly but productive human beings. Conspicu­ the wondrously evocative or the beau­ heated debate over the question of ously missing are the paternalism and tifully mysterious - and as these ele­ whether Isaac Asimov, the late mega­ adversariallabor-management relation­ ments became too integral to the plot to prolific author of science fiction, popu­ ships that are rampant in most other be interpreted as a series of flourishes lar science, mysteries, history, literary Brazilian (and American) companies. - 1 decided that Rushdie's novel had analysis, dirty limericks, and yet more, The company's books are open to eve­ more in common with what publishers qualified as a "hack." Bradford defines a ryone, as is information on each em­ bill as fantasy than anything by Gabriel hack as one who writes without love or ployee's salary. The company has Garcia Marquez. concern for the material, but merely for ; implemented dozens of policy innova­ So I wasn't surprised to learn that the money - or, as we agreed in Asi­ tions, all serving to eliminate rules, Rushdie once entered a novel in a mov's case (I think), for the glory of slash corporate bureaucracy, and science-fiction contest. It was returned racking up numbers in one's bibliogra­ achieve a high degree of employee par­ with a note saying that it was very phy. I took these arguments personally, ticipation. "We have been allowed to good, but not science fiction. But how for Asimov's role in my life is central; he innovate - to let our employees inno­ could they tell? Science fiction, fantasy, is a man 1never met who 1nevertheless vate," says Semler. "We are all freer." horror - the lines between them blur, consider not only an intellectual influ­ -Charles Barr and none of these monsters will stay ence and advisor, but a friend. Indeed, put. Beyond realistic fiction, what C.S. like Martin Amis, after having read both The Devil You Say - Like so Lewis called the "armies of the weird volumes of Asimov's first attempt at au­ many other people, I bought a copy of and beautiful" gather, co-mingling, tobiography in the late '70s and now the Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses making up the vast movement of what posthumous I. Asimov:A Memoir (Dou­ (Viking, 1989, 547 pp., $19.95 hc, $10.00 might be called uitrafiction. bleday, 1994,562 pp., $25.00), 1can say 1 sc) when the Ayatollah Khomeini sen­ Critics should admit that the fantas­ know more about him than any other tenced its author to death for "blasphe­ tic in literature cannot be herded into human being on Earth, including my my." And, like so many others who ~eat little categories. And ultrafiction family and closest friends. Itis improba­ bought the book, 1 did not read it. I just should certainly not be despised as less ble, unless your companions or family couldn't get past the first few artistic, a priori, than more realistic fic­ are frighteningly voluble or self­ sentences. tion. If Salman Rushdie is admitted centered, that you've heard them ex­ But Atlantic Monthly ran a fascinat­ into the realm of Legitimate Literary pound for nearly a million words about ing article on Rushdie's friends and en­ Authors, why not, say, Gene Wolfe? their lives, times, and work. emies in its March issue, and my Fiction is, after all, a morally permissi- By normal standards, one would ex­ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:-Ible form of lying, de­ pect this book - which is a shorter Libertarians: liberate untruth­ overview of Asimov's whole life, cover­ ing both the material in the earlier telling. Realists tell STOP COMPLAINING - START BUILDING books and beyond, even unto his death­ probable tales; ro­ Governments come and go. Boundaries change. New nations bed - to be frightfully dull. As Asimov emerge. We can influence this process - ifwe dO our homework. manticists, fabulists, Previous attempts to create libertarian countries have failed admits, and as would be clear to any­ because not enough groundwork was done before the flags were fantasists, science­ one who thinks about it, a life spent hoisted. The Free Nation Foundation works to develop crear and fiction writers, and believable descriptions of the critical institutions of. a libertarian from around age 35 to death sitting·ten­ nation, and to build a community ofPeople who share confidence the rest tell improba­ plus hours a day, seven days a week at in these descriptions. Once credibility is built, People and capital ble or impossible a typewriter makes for little drama. But will follow. tales: All forms of Asimov's unparalleled ease with words Membershi~ $3q Pel' year. Newsletter only: $10. fiction can be artisti­ and exposition, his wit, his warmth, Free Nation Foundation cally rewarding. and the scope of his interests, anec- 111 West Corbin Street, Hillsborough NC 27278 Volume 7, Number 6

dotes, friends, and ideas make every­ Tom for opponents on the Left. Sowell thing he writes - without exception ­ is a first-rate scholar and writer who a sheer delight to read. There is never deserves better. How to any barrier between his thoughts and An economist by training, Sowell your brain; his writing slips in as if he has published books on ethnic history, were whispering in your ear. In this political philosophy, and education. Subscribe sense - and it is important - he may But most readers know him from his be the finest writer I've ever had the syndicated newspaper column, where to pleasure to read, as well as a sentimen­ some of his best, most straightforward tal favorite. writing has appeared. / That is why - despite an unlovely One of Sowell's particularly engag­ Liberty / interest in bibliography-packing in the ing qualities is his persistent cranki­ last decade of his life, counting as ness: he never stops giving the books he wrote over a hundred anthol­ impression that he has heard far too Liberty takes individual

ogies he IIeditedII with the help of usu­ much crap in his life, and will not suf­ freedom seriously ... and ally two other people -I refuse to fer fools gladly. In the most recent an­ the status quo with more agree with Bradford that he could ever thology of his columns, Is Reality than one grain of salt! be thought of as a hack. His love of ex­ Optional? (Hoover Institution Press, plaining is the only thing that can ex­ 1993, 192 pp., $14.95), he ably attacks Liberty tackles the tough problems. plain his ability to make everything he those convinced of their own moral su­ Every issue of Liberty presents es­ wrote flow with such supple grace. As periority and their ablity to run other says studying current trends in his love shone through, his readers people's lives, as well as those commit­ political and social thought, discus­ could not, I think, help but love him in ted to following every fad or fashion no sions of the strategy and tactics of return. (As an interesting aside, he al­ matter how absurd. His attacks on the social change, analyses of current lows subjective crankiness to show ''busybody addicts" who urge on the events, and challenges to popular through here too, far more than in his drug war is typical: lithe morally an­ beliefs. Liberty also offers lively first two autobios. One wouldn't have nointed, whether liberals or conserva­ book reviews, fiction, and humor. suspected the depths of his disdain, an­ tives, will never give up their attempts You won't want to miss a single noyance, and disappointment toward to tell others what to do - and to get issue! the likes of his son, his first wife, his the government to impose their beliefs Act Today! on others. But the rest of us ought to mother-in-law, or Robert Heinlein from Liberty offers you the best in liber­ any of his previous output.) start thinking about the ever-growing tarian thinking and writing. So The final scenes of this book, as he cost of our futile drug laws and how don't hesitate. You have nothing to succumbs at age 71 to a series of gro­ the whole society seems to be unravel­ lose, and the fruits of Liberty to tesque and disturbing bodily debilities, ing as a result." gain! brought tears to my eyes. I was reading Highlights include Sowell's defense about the passing of a man who is not of the Mercator Projection against its Use the coupon below or call: only a hero, but became, through his politically correct opponents, his four­ hundreds of pages of discussions of his part expose of IIAha Statistics," and his doings, his friends, his wives, and his collection of random thoughts. This last 1-800-854-6991 achievements, a more fully realized section· is culled from his occasional man (in the human, not the macho "Larry King"-style columns - Le., col­ sense) in my eyes than anyone else. lections of random and unrelated ... ------, Please enter my subscription... Anyone who has ever loved any of thoughts like, "Whenever people refer YeS • to ,Liberty immediately! Asimov's books will probably love this to me as someone 'who happens to be Q Six issues (One Full Year) $19.50 one too. Reading this volume made me black,' I wonder if they realize that Q Twelve issues (Two Full Years) $35.00 miss Isaac Asimov all over again. Not a both my parents were black. If I had Add $5 per year for foreign subscriptions. day goes by when I haven't had occa­ turned out to be Scandinavian or Chi­ sion to think a thought inspired by nese, people would have wondered name what the hell was going on." And: something I learned from him. address -Brian Doherty "What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood city, state, zip Optional Reading - The trage­ and treasure of the human race?" (J I enclose my check (payable to Liberty) dy of Thomas Sowell's career is that he There are problems with this book. Q Charge my Q VISA Q MasterCard is usually known simply as a liblack Like many collections of newspaper conservative," a classification that too columns, it is repetitive: On page 28 often reduces him to look-we're-not­ there is an article entitled lithe Chump signature racist window-dressing for activists on Society" that describes, among other account # expires the Right and an easily dismissed Uncle things, beggars in Paris; eleven pages Send to: Liberty, Dept. L42, P.o. Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368 .I L ------Volume 7, Number 6 September 1994 later we find a column called "Beggars ty to write massive multi-volume I do still bother, after my fashion, in Paris." And some "readers" might be summations of the extant state of and the existence of Fear of Physics: A "annoyed" by Sowell's "tendency" to knowledge of various sciences, and per­ Guide for the Perplexed by Lawrence put so many "words" in "quotes." sonal observations and musings there­ M. Krauss (Basic Books, 1993, 206 pp., -Clark Stooksbury on, are long gone. The march of $20.00) shows that other folk out there progress, even as it expands human as­ are trying as well. There is still room Physics for Dilettantes - The pirations in many areas, destroyed for this sort of limited popularization days when a learned gentleman could them in this. If one is doomed to be a to appeal to those who still hope - all aspire to the Victorian energy and abili- dilettante, ought one even bother? in vain, all in vain - that they can "keep up" in some meaningful way with the sciences. Over the past twelve years or so I've probably read as many of these sci­ ence popularizations as any American, Classified Advertising is available for 35¢ per word, plus $1.00 per insertion. 100/0 discount but I still found this book, well, per­ for six or more insertions. Payment must accompany order. Please suggest classification. plexing. It lacks the hand-holding and wondrous good will of the average Business/Investments makes the Libertarian position inescapable! $3 each, $2.50 each for 10+. Postage included. Mares­ quantum physics popularization and Discover the secrets of dual nationality ca, 800 Flying Hills, ThousandOaks, CA91360. the steady, sensible elocution of an and obtain ultim,,-te privacy for yourself and IIPrivate Schools for All," by O.B. Johannsen, Isaac Asimov. It covers some of the your assets. Learn how to avoid taxes, wars, cur­ Ph.D. Provocative essay on why education more contemporary areas of theoretical rency controls, and red tape. Also hundreds of should be conducted as private enterprise. $1.00 other explosive facts and insights are revealed to physics, so it's not just a rehash of the per copy. COMMITTEE OF ONE, 825 Walnut make you richer and more powerfuL Yes t/ I old Schrodinger's Cat/Niels Bohr/ Street, Roselle Park, NJ 07204. would like to receive a free brochure and privacy Bell's Theorem roundelay of your typi­ newsletter that reveals all! Write to Scope, Box Terra Libra! Freedom-boggling breakthrough! Free and enrich yourself with Freedom Technol­ cal pop physics book; but despite its no. 4167, 62 Murray Road, Waterlooville, UK avowed intent, it doesn't treat the ill­ P08 9JL. Tel: 44 705 592255. Fax: 44 705 591975. ogy. Personal Power beats bureaucrats. Free Details. ZENO Press. Box 170-L, Sedalia, CO educated (as I think probably all of us Collectlhles/Merchandlse 80135. without advanced degrees in the topic Folk Flutes/Pan Pipes, mathematically opti­ Why Abortion Violates Rights. $1.00 and ought to think of ourselves) with the mized, no moving parts, over 300 varieties. Cata­ SASE, please. Libertarians for Life. 13424 Hatha­ ginger care we require. log $3. Lew Price, Box 88(L), Garden Valley, CA way Drive, #22, Wheaton, MD 20906, 301/460­ This book is concerned more with 95633. 4141. Doris Gordon, National Coordinator. elucidating the method of physics ­ Liberty is directly proportional to commu­ Periodicals how physicists think - than with daz­ nication and inversely proportional to uniformi­ ty. Can you imagine the uniformity imposed by Cross verbal swords in The (Libertarian) Con­ zling us with counter-intuitive mysta­ suppressing the knowledge of just one physiolog­ nection, open-forum magazine since 1968. Sub­ gogic results, but it does take swings at ical fact? They do! Please write for free bumper scribers may insert two pages/issue free, explaining such peculiarities as super­ stickers (supply limited): DOlT, P.O. Box 428, Co­ unedited. Lots of stimulating conversation. Eight conductivity, scale-dependence, and rinna, ME 04928. issues (year) $20. 101 South Whiting #700Z, Alex­ andria, VA 22304. symmetry and their importance in con­ Literature temporary physics. (The key to think­ Directory of Libertarian Periodicals, updat­ Association of Libertarian Feminists, send ed latest edition, lists around 150 titles, with ad­ ing physics, according to Krauss, is SASE for literature list. Membership/ newsletter dresses, other information. All believed to be abstracting out certain complicating de­ sub, $10/year. ALF, Box 20252, London Terrace presently publishing. $3.00 postpaid, $4.00 over­ tails and ignoring them; he traces the P.O., New York, NY 10011. seas. Jim Stumm, Box 29LB, Hiler Branch, Buffa­ triumphant beginning of this mode of BYOB - Brew Your Own Beer Easy. Com­ lo, NY 14223. plete book only $10. S. Brennan, P.O. Box 4561, thought to Galileo's discovery of the For liberty, double-plus good. Since 1990, The laws of motion through imagining Whittier, CA 90607. Western New York Freeman. Twelve issues, $10. The Constitution and Bill of Rights need TWNYF, P.O. Box 55, Springbrook, NY 14140. intitially that no outside force interferes teeth to bite politicians. Join Committees ofCorre­ with motion, even though we all know spondence and help sharpen those teeth. Send Living Free newsletter discusses practical meth­ ods for increasing personal freedom. Forum for they do. Readers trained in SASE to: Nick Hull, 2702-L Kimbrell Rd., TN 37771 or call: 615-856-6185. freedom-seekers, libertarians, survivalists, anar­ economics might recognize the chists, outlaws, since 1979. Lively, unique. $9.00 Danger Ahead: Seven Major Problems method.) for 6 issues, sample $1.00. Box 29-LB, Hiler With Clinton Economics. A must read spe­ The book covers much amazing ­ Branch, Buffalo, NY 14223. cial report. Send $3 to the Institute for the Study of and vitally important - ground, but I Economics, 13237 Montfort, Suite 544-L, Dallas, The Voluntaryist Sample copy for two first­ think it's an even bet whether you will class stamps. Box 1275, Gramling, SC 29348. TX75240. complete it educated, intrigued, and Free article on theories of natural rights. Don't say you have rights unless you can prove it. Taxes eager to learn more or befuddled and Spooner Press, P.O. Box 1165, Grand Island, NY Must you pay income tax? It depends on willing to cease thinking about the top­ 14072. which citizen you are. Call 1-800-350-8926 for ic entirely. Frustrated persuader? 27-page pamphlet more information. -Brian Doherty 68 Liberty Volume 7, Number 6 Medianotes, continued from page 20 those of the other members of the stu­ dent libertarian organization he head­ Notes on Contributors ed. That way they could invite the speakers they wanted and run the con­ ference without regard for the IIsugges­ tions" of their backers; that way, they Chester Alan Arthur is Liberty's politi­ Michael Levine is Liberty's spanking­ could be sure that those attending cal correspondent. new editorial intern. would be there because of their interest IIBaloo" is cartoonist Rex F. May in Ron Lipp is an attorney practicing in and passion, and not because an all­ disguise. Sacramento. expenses-paid weekend at a luxury ho­ Charles Barr is a longtime libertarian writer and activist. Loren E. Lomasky is author of Persons, tel sounded like fun. He would have Rights, and the Moral Community none of it. It 'turned out that what he John Bergstrom is special projects edi­ and coauthor of Democracy and really wanted was to enlist me in help­ tor at National Lampoon. Decision. ing him obtain the funding. R. W. Bradford is editor and publisher Wendy McElroy is a "fellow" at the So there I was, giving him the same of Liberty. Independent Institute. when-I-was-your-age-I-walked­ John Briggs has written for The Iowa barefoot-five-miles-to-school-in-the­ Review, Religious Humanism, and William P. Moulton is Liberty's roving snow routine my father gave me when I other journals. Traverse City correspondent. was a kid. And to the same effect. I was Douglas Casey is author of Crisis In­ Todd Seavey has written for Reason, more than ever conscious of my middle vestingfor the Rest ofthe '90s and Chronicles, and The Exchange. His age. And more worried about what's­ other books and articles. National Review article on Howard this-younger-generation-coming-to. Stephen Cox is Professor of Literature Stern appeared in its June 13 issue. at the University of California. Happily, a few weeks ago I received Jo Ann Skousen, past organizer of the a sample issue of Guillotine, subtitled Brian Doherty is a journalist and Eris Society Convocation, is an edi­ "A Slice of Reality." It is the genuine musician. tor and writer living in Florida. article, a student-published, student­ James Gill, the cartoonist, recently re­ written, student-financed, and student­ turned from Europe. Clark Stooksbury is assistant publish­ er of Liberty. edited libertarian tabloid (albeit with Patricia Hanson is a writer living in some reprinted adult writing thrown Canada. Thomas Szasz is author of numerous in). It is full of the vigor and enthu­ Robert Higgs is editor of Arms, Poli­ books and articles. His most recent siasm of the student publications I re­ tics, and the Economy and other is Cruel Compassion. call from my college days. It also con­ books. Timothy Virkkala is managing editor tains some very good writing. Bill Kauffman is author of Every Man of Liberty. The first copy of Guillotine I received a King, Country Towns ofNew York, had no information about subscribing, Jesse Walker is assistant editor of and the forthcoming Nativist Sons. Liberty. so I wrote the editors. One promptly Bart Kosko is author of Fuzzy Think­ called me and told me that they didn't ing and other concise and readable Chris Whitten is managing editor of really have subscription rates, and that tomes. theLaissez Faire Books Catalog. so far, thanks to desktop publishing and Pierre Lemieux is a Visiting Professor Leland Yeager is Ludwig von Mises using a cheap printer, they had managed of Economics at the University of Distinguished Professor of Eco­ to finance the venture out of their own Quebec at Hull. nomics at Auburn University. pockets. Personally, I think any enter­ prise gets valuable feedback by offering Illustrations its productin the marketplace, and I sup­ 9), O.}.!" 12), 14), I "Chicago Black-Hole" p. "Go (p. "Eerie Parallels"(p. "The Torch pose wish they'd start operating their Is Passed" (p. 15), "Embarrassing?" (p. 16), and "Beatnik Beowulf," (p. 36), by John tabloid ona more business-like basis. Bergstrom; "Statue of Stem" (p. 23) by Chris Whitten; and "Robert Reich, the Work­ But it's their venture, and who the ing Man" (p. 55) by James Gill. hell am I to tell them how to run it? Anyway, if Guillotine sounds inter­ esting to you" I encourage you to write for a sample copy, or even a subscrip­ Coming in Liberty: tion. Its address is P.O. Box 50000, Bing­ • "Where Taxes Rise Fastest" - R. W. Bradford on the geography of tax hamton, NY. 13902. You also might hikes and legal plunder. want to send them a donation of a dol­ • "Talking Sex, Not Gender" - Wendy McElroy on the uses and abuses of lar or two for your sample, or ten or so pornography. if you decide to subscribe. There's no • "Deep Ecology Meets the Market" - Gus diZerega on libertarianism's reason for us ex-young-libertarians to final frontier, radical environmentalism. be a financial burden on the new gener­ ation of libertarian radicals. -RWB • /lIs it Free? Is it Trade?" - Fred L. Smith on the World Trade Organiza­ tion, the latest protectionist device to pose as a tool of "free trade." /

lncognifll ~-.::::======-.::::::::,,~~ York, England Wall Street Clashing cultures in the British Isles, as reported by the Dispatch from the war against sexism and discrimination, Times ofLondon: from the Detroit News: Yin Yin Man was fined $1,075 for throwing hot water at trick­ Joanne Flynn, a former vice president at Goldman, Sachs & Co., or-treater David Cooper, burning his face, chest, and back. Unaware sued the company alleging that she was denied a promotion and then ofHalloween, the immigrant assumed Cooper was a ghost. fired because of her gender. The person who got the promotion and who eventually booted Flynn was Doris Smith - another woman. A Harvard federal jury found the firm guilty ofgender discrimination. The cause of inflated legal bills, as reported in the Detroit News: Washington, D.C. Harvard superlawyer Laurence Tribe billed a client $625 for a Another Congressional perk, as reported in Newsweek: one-sentence letter written by one of his law students. "It was a very Though the public is not permitted to check books out of the Li­ long sentence," he explained. brary of Congress, legislators may remove the library's books for as long as they want. As a result, many volumes have been missing for Chico, Calif. decades; an estimated 30,000 of the library's 16.4 million books are Rule of law in California, as reported by the Chico News & gone and considered stolen. Among the missing: two $7,500 collec­ Review: tions of nineteenth-century Italian architectural drawings, a $6,000 nineteenth-century treatise on cactuses, two $1,500 volumes on Na­ In order to fight graffiti,'Chico's police chief wants to make it il­ vajo rituals, and Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book. legal for a minor to be in possession of an indelible ink marker "for other than a legitimate use." New York Washington, D.C. Literary note from Larry King, from his column in USA Avant-garde welfare reform, as reported on National Public Today: Radio: "I read Henry Kissinger's new book Diplomacy and found it fas­ cinating. Maybe his best work to date." The Clinton White House floated a plan to fund government job training programs by taxing welfare benefits. Alamogordo, N.M. Portland, Ore. "Zero tolerance" in action, as reported by USA Today: Bargaining with criminals pays off in the Pacific Northwest, A man who bought a truck at a police auction found 20 pounds of as described in the West Sound Sun: methamphetimine in the dashboard. A man claiming to have a bomb and demanding $25,000 held Opelousas, La. police and FBI at bay for more than two hours at a downtown U.S. Bank Branch. The incident ended when he bargained down his de­ Reliable sources in action, as reported by the Associated mand to a cigarette and a cup of coffee. Press: A city police simulation of a post-office frrefight turned surreal Los Angeles when a police spokesman who didn't know it was a drill told TV re­ Further progress in the fight for civiI rights, as reported by porters that 14 people were wounded, one man was in custody, and USA Today: shots were still being frred. An adult nightclub was ordered by city officials to remove its Luxembourg main attraction - a large shower enclosure - because disabled Advance of culture in the European Union, according to a nude dancers wouldn't be able to get their wheelchairs into it, thus survey by Euro Time: denying equal work opportunities to persons with disabilities. The favorite leisure activity ofcitizens ofLuxembourg, the small­ Philippines est member state of the European Union, is sleeping. The second fa­ Advance in family planning, as reported by the Times of vorite activity is resting. London: U.S.A. Alarmed by birthrates in northern provinces, Filipino President Advance of culture in the New World, according to a survey Fidel Ramos gave all northerners free cable TV to give them some­ by 20/20, a consumer research firm: thing else to do. Some 38% of American men say they like cars better than they Atlanta, Georgia like women; 8% of American women say they find men who drive Impressive evidence of the progress of Austrian Economics, nice cars to be more appealing; 15% of all Americans name their as reported by the Ludwig von Mises Institute: cars. The most popular names are Betsie, My Baby, and Angel. "At a Plantation Supper at magnificent Stone Mountain, econo­ mist and historian Murray N. Rothbard will be honored by the Sons (Readers are invited to forward newsc1ippings or other items for ofthe Confederate Veterans amidst a color guard'and stirring music." publication in Terra Incognita.) 70 Liberty February 1993 StiInulate Your Mind! • "A Feminist Defense of Pornography," by Wendy McElroy with Liberty back issues • "Perot's 200-Proof Populism," by Bill Kauffman (continued from back cover) • "How to Secede in Politics," by Scott Reid Plus election coverage, and articles and reviews by R.W. Bradford, John Hospers, James Ostrowski, Jesse Walker, and others. (80 pages) • "Depolluting the USSR," by James Robbins Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Loren Lomasky, Sheldon April 1993 Richman, Karl Hess, Richard Kostelanetz, and others; and Mark • "How to Cut Your Taxes by 75%," by R. W. Bradford Skousen's interview with Robert Heilbroner. (72 pages) • "Isn't Multiculturalism a Good Thing?" by Stephen Cox • "Peter Drucker: The Other Austrian," by Mark Skousen Plus articles and reviews by John Hospers, Douglas Casey, and others; Volume 5 and an interview with Roy Childs. (72 pages) September 1991 June 1993 • "Stalking the Giant Testes of Ethiopia," by Robert Miller • "Who Benefits from the Clinton Program?" by Harry Browne • "GNP: A Bogus Notion," by RW. Bradford • "Holocaust in Waco," by RW. Bradford and Stephen Cox • "50 Really Stupid Ways to Save the Earth," by Karl Hess • "Understanding the State," by Albert Jay Nock Plus articles and reviews by Bart Kosko, Frank Fox, John Hospers, • "VAT Out of Hell," by Chester Alan Arthur James Taggart, Mark Skousen, and others. (72 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Leland Yeager, Jesse Walker, Bart Kosko, November 1991 Randal O'Toole, and others. (72.pages) • "The Road to Nowhere," by David Horowitz August 1993 • "Women vs the Nation-State," by Carol Moore • "The Ungreening of the Media," by Jane Shaw • "Thelma and Louise: Feminist Heroes," by Miles Fowler • "How Do I Hate NPR? Let Me Count the Ways," by Glenn Garvin Plus articles and reviews by Robert Higgs, Leland Yeager, and others; • "What Happened in Waco?" by Loren Lomasky and RW. Bradford and a short story by J. E. Goodman. (80 pages) • "Somalia: Operation No Hope," by Jesse Walker • "Lies, Damn Lies, and AIDS Research," by Brian Doherty January 1992 Plus articles and reviews by David Boaz, John McCormack, Stephen • "The National Park Disgrace," by RW. Bradford and Karl Hess, Jr Cox, and others; poetry by Marc Ponomareff; and fiction by J. Orlin • "Clarence Thomas and Zora Neale Hurston," by Bill Kauffman Grabbe. (72 pages) • "America's Bipartisan Apartheid," by Brian Doherty Plus articles and reviews by Leland Yeager, David Friedman, Henry Veatch, Jane Shaw, Richard Kostelanetz, and others. (80 pages) Volume 7 March 1992 October 1993 • "Albert Jay Nock: Prophet of Libertarianism?" by Stephen Cox • "The Real Health Care Crisis," by RW. Bradford • "P.C. or B.S.?" by Meredith McGhan • "Crackdown on the Electronic Frontier," by Brian Doherty • "Acid Rain and the Corrosion of Science," by Edward C. Krug • "Anarchy in Salt Lake City," by Chester Alan Arthur • "Who Really Wrote Little House on the Prairie?" by William Holtz • "The Supreme Court vs the American Police State," by Stefan Herpel Plus articles and reviews by Karl Hess, Jane Shaw, Randal O'Toole, Plus articles and reviews by Greg Kaza, Stephen Cox, and others; and others; and an interview with Pat Buchanan. (72 pages) aphorisms of Isabel Paterson; and an index to Volume 6. (72 pages) May 1992 January 1994 • "Hong Kong: Free Markets, Full Employment," by Mark Tier • "First They Came for the Fascists..." by Gerry Spence • "The Cost of Kids," by Karl Hess • "My Dinner With Slick Willie," by Douglas Casey • "Bill Clinton, Super Statesman," by Chester Alan Arthur • "The Inevitability of the Welfare State," by Todd Seavey Plus articles and reviews by Eric Banfield, David Horowitz, Daniel • "Feminists Against Choice?" by Wendy McElroy Klein, and others; and fiction by J. Orlin Grabbe. (72 pages) Plus articles and reviews by RW. Bradford, Jesse Walker, Ross Over­ beek, and others. (72 pages) July 1992 • "Christians and Libertarians in a Hostile World," by Doug Bandow March 1994 • "Returning America's Roads to the Market," by Terree Wasley • "Chaos and Liberty," by J. Orlin Grabbe and Pierre Lemieux • "The 'Lock' on the Electoral College," by David Brin • "Secession as a' First Amendment Right," by Robert Nelson • "The Myth of (Heavy) Metal Illness," by Gracie & Zarkov • "Partial Recall: Manufacturing Child Abuse," by David Ramsay Plus commentary on the L.A. Riots, and articles and reviews by David Steele Kelley, Leland Yeager, George H. Smith, and others. (72 pages) • "Surviving the Next Financial Crisis," by Victor Niederhoffer Plus articles and reviews by John Hospers, R.W. Bradford, and others; and a short story by Richard Kostelanetz. (72 pages) Volume 6 May 1994 September 1992 • "A Whitewater Primer," by Chester Alan Arthur • "War on Drugs, War on Progress," by James Ostrowski • "Trafficking in Numbers: The Seat Belt Scam," by GWYnne Nettler • "If Execution Is Just, What Is Justice?" by J. Neil Schulman • "The Aristocratic Menace," by David Brin • "Stupid About Schools," by Martin Morse Wooster Plus articles and reviews by RW. Bradford, Jane Shaw, James Ostrow­ Plus articles and reviews by Jane Shaw, Murray Rothbard, William ski, and others. (72 pages) Mellor III, and others; and an index to back issues. (80 pages) July 1994 November 1992 • "Hillary's Trades, Hillary's Lies," by Victor Niederhoffer • "The First Time: I Run for the Presidency," by John Hospers • "Inside Cuba Today," by Douglas Casey • "Europe's Familiar Money Mess," by Leland Yeager • "Remembering Karl Hess," by RW. Bradford • "Inside Congress: The Grunting of 535 Pigs," by Jesse Walker • "Who Profits from the Clinton Health Plan?" by Richard Fisher • "Remembering John Cage," by Richard Kostelanetz Plus articles and reviews by Leon T. Hadar, Justin Raimondo, Bruce Plus articles and reviews by David Kelley, Daniel Klein, Loren Loma­ Ramsey, and others. (72 pages) sky, Gregory Johnson, Ben Best, and others. (80 pages) Information concerning the first two volumes of Liberty canbe found on p. 40. Stimulate Your Mind! There is a world of good reading in Liberty! Whether you want to catch up on what you missed, pro­ vide intellectual relief to your friends (or enemies!), or complete your ~ollection, now is a good time to buy. Enjoy! Volume 3 March 1990 • "The Case Against Isolationism," by Stephen Cox September 1989 • "H.L. Mencken: Anti-Semite?" by R.W. Bradford • "Holocausts and Historians," by Ralph Raico • "Libertarian Intellectuals on Welfare," by George H. Smith • "My Expulsion from the Ayn Rand Cult," by Murray Rothbard Plus articles and reviews by Sheldon Richman, Richard Kostelanetz, • "Abortion Without Absurdity," by R.W. Bradford John Hospers, Loren Lomasky, and others. (80 pages) • "Liberty and the Avant-Garde," by Richard Kostelanetz Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Loren Lomasky, Gary May 1990 North, Jeffrey Tucker, and others. (72 pages) • "Conservativism in Its Latter Days," by William P. Moulton • "A Population Crisis?" by Jane Shaw November 1989\ • "Killing as Therapy," by Thomas Szasz • "The Lost War on Drugs," by Joseph Miranda • "The Death of Thinking in the Schools," by Karl Hess • "Life With (and Without) Ayn Rand," by Tibor R. Machan Plus articles and reviews by Bill Kauffman, Richard Kostelanetz, Robert • "Goodbye, Galactic Empire: Libertarian SF," by J.R. Dunn Higgs, Bart Kosko, Loren Lomasky, and others. (72 pages) Plus articles and reviews by Loren Lomasky, Richard Kostelanetz, R.W. Bradford, Michael Christian, and others; and an interview July 1990 with Russell Means. (72 pages) • "Conversations with Ayn Rand (part 1)," by John Hospers • "IfYou Believe in Dentistry, Why Should You Mind Having Your January 1990 Teeth Knocked Out?" by William P. Moulton • "The Greenhouse Effect: Myth or Danger?" by Patrick J. Michaels • "The Orwellian University," by Charles Thome • "The Case for Paleolibertarianism," by Llewelyn Rockwell • "Strange Subcultures of the Right," by John A. Baden • "In Defense of Jim Baker and Zsa Zsa," by Ethan O. Waters Plus articles and reviews by David Friedman, Bill Kauffman, James • "The Death of Socialism: What It Means," by R.W. Bradford, Murray Robbins, Mark Skousen, and others. (72 pages) Rothbard, Stephen Cox, and William P. Moulton Plus writing by Andrew Roller, David Gordon, and others; and an in­ Volume 4 terview with Barbara Branden. (80 pages) September 1990 • "Conversations with Ayn Rand (part 2)," by John Hospers send me the back issues of Liberty • "The Pro-Life Case for the Abortion Pill," by Dr Ron Paul r------I Please I have marked. • "Is Environmental Press Coverage Biased?" by Jane S. Shaw -­ Plus articles and reviews by Michael Krauss, James Robbins, Richard I Kostelanetz, and others; and aficci6n by Harvey Segal. (72 pages) __ Sep. 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'94, $4.00 __ Plus articles and reviews by Michael Christian, Ralph Raico, Loren Lo­ __Sept. '91, $4.00 __ --Mar. '94, $4.00 __ masky, and others; plus special election coverage. (80 pages) I __Nov. '91, $5.50 __ --May '94, $4.00 __ I March 1991 -- July'94, $4.00 __ • "The Myth of War Prosperity," by Robert Higgs Shipping: ~ • "The Life of Rose Wilder Lane," by William Holtz I foreign buyers add 50( per issue Total: I • "The Strange Death of the McDLT," by R.W. Bradford o My check is enclosed Plus articles and reviews by Jan Narveson, Jane Shaw, Richard Weaver, I Charge my 0 VISA 0 Mastercard Expires: __ I Linda Locke, Krzysztof Ostaszewski, and others. (72 pages) Account # _ May 1991 • "Christiania: Something Anarchical in Denmark," by Benjamin Best I Signature I • "Journalists and the Drug War," by David Boaz • "California's Man-Made Drought," by Richard Stroup Name Plus writing by John Baden, Scott Reid, Leland Yeager, and others; and I Address I a short story by Lawrence Thompson. (72 pages) City July 1991 • "Say 'No' to Intolerance," by Milton Friedman I State __Zip Phone _ I • "I Am a Casualty of the War on Drugs," by Stuart Reges Liberty, Dept. B42, PO Box 1181, Port Townsend, WA 98368 .- L ----.- ---- (continued on previous page)