James, Most commenters on your site, and you yourself, frequently argue against the positions of that subset of libertarians called Rothbardian Anarchists and in the process smear the rest of the libertarian movement. Rothbardian anarchists have attempted to appropriate the term “libertarian” as well as the term “austrian economics” in order to gain legitimacy and popularity. The reason I’m appealing to you is so that you don’t further Jaundice the libertarian movement because of the behavior of it’s radical anarchic wing. While the anarchic wing is popularizing libertarian ideas, it is also obscuring and discrediting the broader movement’s rational foundation in economics. Classical liberals had to coin the term Libertarian because ‘liberal’ was taken over by socialists. Now they’re in the same position again and trying to find an identity that’s been stolen by the anarchists. Appropriation of identity and ideas by radicals is one of the many challenges faced by moderates and pragmatists. I’m going to appeal to you to use the term “Anarchist Libertarians” or “anarchists” or “rothbardians” rather than to assist in the appropriation of libertarian thinking by the anarchists. BACKGROUND You’re not alone in confusing ‘anarchism’ with ‘libertarianism’. The ‘anarchist’ wing of the libertarian movement has been highly successful in their efforts to appropriate the term ‘libertarian’ for their own use. To such an extent that the rest of us are abandoning it and adopting the term “NeoClassical Liberals”. Over the past few years there has been a bit of back-and-forth banter between CATO’s Establishment Republican Libertarianism, George Mason University’s more NeoClassical Liberal economics, and The Mises Institute’s radical evangelical anti-statists. The Private Law libertarianism of Hoppe’s Property and Freedom Society has far less influence but is where the thought leadership seems to be originating today. GMU has posted about the problem at The Coordination Problem. Lew Rockewell defends his organization by way of attacking GMU at LewRockwell.com. Mises.Org And The Pop Culture Rothbardians I am not necessarily happy criticizing the Mises organization since they are largely responsible for the popularity of libertarian thought, even if it’s too often the pop culture ideology of Rothbard. And I think that promoting pop libertarianism is not a bad thing in this particular era. It has attracted many people to the cause of freedom, and in return some of those who’ve come, will mature into more sophisticated thinkers. Promoting an ideology is by definition a function of appealing to the masses. So I would rather have a lot of ‘Pop Libertarian Rothbardian Anarchists’ and a few classical liberal deep thinkers affecting the political discourse than I would just a few deep thinkers. Libertarians (classical liberals, and now NeoClassical Liberals) do not advocate the extremes that the Anarchists do. If you read Hayek you would understand that ‘Pop Libertariansm’ of Rothbard is just that – ideological anarchism. Hayek on the other hand is a sophisticated political thinker in the tradition of Aristotle, Machiavelli, Pareto, and Weber, who illustrates the various practical realities we consider in political theory once we have a grasp of economics. The Neo Classical Libertarian Movement You are obviously not aware of this ongoing battle for legitimacy, but there is a growing movement among some of us to drop the Austrian/Libertarian label and start calling ourselves “NeoClassical Liberals” in order to escape the “Pop Libertarianism” of the Rothbardian anarchists. The NeoClassical liberals are challenged because they rely upon a skeptical, rational and empirical system of philosophy that suggests ‘we simply do not know’. While the progressive and the anarchists suggest ‘we do know’. Ideologies are always progressive, and certitude is more useful to ideologists than skepticism. Rothbardian libertarianism, and to some degree Misesian Praxeology, are doctrines of certitude. Luddite certitude perhaps but certitude none the less. Some of the people working on this problem are setting up shop at Bleeding Heart Libertarians. Hoppe And Private Government Hoppe’s contribution is that a private government is superior to a state (corporate) government – and he’s stated why it is superior in detail. A private government under the common law is by definition anarchic. The state is an unaccountable, epistemologically impossible abstraction, and that’s the problem with it. It’s as absurd as the other corporate entity we call ‘god’. But that is far too complicated a conversation for people who are motivated by ‘Pop Culture Ideology” regardless of stripe. Rand Is A Doorway Rand is a literary doorway into philosophy for the young and inexperienced. As such she is valuable to philosophy. Rothbard is a great and often underrated historian but a pop philosopher at best. Hayek is a great philosopher that bears reading and re-reading. And Mises is the only saint among economists despite his reliance on an incomplete system of logic he calls praxeology. I hope this is helpful to you. Thanks Curt (NOTE: I have been a participant in Mises.org and have contributed something on the order of 30K to the organization over the years. I also have contributed not insignificant funds the Property and Freedom Society.)
Theme: Governance
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American Conservatism Is Not An Ideology
The purpose of an ideology is to assist a group or class in obtaining political power. The purpose of American Conservatism is to prevent groups or classes from obtaining political power. It’s that simple.
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Stiglitz: To conservatives, freedom is the goal itself. The willingness to prote
http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3175Criticizing Stiglitz: To conservatives, freedom is the goal itself. The willingness to protect that freedom is infinite. Revolt works from both directions. The left is willing to create the totalitarian redistributive society by class warfare and destruction of the western identity. The right is wiling to bankrupt what they see as a corrupt government in order to preserve it’s identity. The fact that one monetary or
Source date (UTC): 2011-07-10 00:15:00 UTC
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Understanding Libertarianism As A Technical Philosophy
Over On “League of Ordinary Gentlemen” there is a very long thread fitfully attempting to be critical of Libertarianism. It’s interesting how almost no one on the thread understands anything other than what they’ve read in the popular press about libertarianism. Which is common, because like any doctrine, people adopt it because of the appeal of it’s general sentiments, not because they actually understand it. And they propagate the sentiments very simplistically. Then, those who have adopted other doctrines because those doctrines appeal to their own sentiments, react to these simplistic statements of sentimentality, rather than to the libertarian doctrine itself –and all potential opportunity for rational discourse is lost in the chaos. A TECHNICAL, EMPIRICAL PHILOSOPHY But Libertarianism is a technical philosophy that can be rationally articulated. It is often, for historical reasons, articulated as a moral philosophy as is most western ideology. THis is because the French enlightenment philosophers ‘Catholicized’ what was an empirical Anglo philosophical system and converted it to sentimental, moral, and rational system of thought. It was this moral, rational, and sentimental French framework, not the empirical Anglo framework that was popularized by continental philosophers and through their writings, distributed to the world in printed literature — thereby removing precisely what made the Classical Liberal economic political program innovative: that it was procedural and empirical rather than rational. HISTORY The term “Libertarian” was coined by Classical Liberals because the left appropriated the term “liberal” for their Moral political program. PRINCIPLESFirst Principle: Economics Libertarianism relies on economics.
So, in any political discourse, given a multitude of possible choices, libertarians ‘err on the side of liberty’ because they believe liberty will have the most positive and the least negative side effects. Second Principle: Anti-Bureaucracy Libertarians use the term government as a synonym for bureaucracy. They use anti-authoritarian arguments. Anti authoritarian arguments are Moral and rational arguments. Anti-bureaucratic arguments are rational and empirical arguments: meaning that the evidence is that bureaucracies universally consolidate power and abuse it because of the processes and incentives necessary for humans to operate in a bureaucratic organization. (See Michels and Mises). Libertarianism then, is an anti-bureaucratic rather than anti-government philosophical framework. It suggests that people can and do organize into groups we call governments. It suggests that in almost all cases, privately owned, market-driven service providers will provide better services at lower cost with less danger of bureaucratic abuse of group members than the alternatives. Third Principle: Voluntary Transfer Libertarians use moral arguments to criticize involuntary transfer of property. However, the rational and empirical argument is that only voluntary transfer allows people to ‘calculate’ positive social ends together by making use of their collective knowledge, rather than the supposed knowledge of one or more bureaucrats – and that ‘externalities’ (the secondary effects) are beneficial when transfers are voluntary. The single moral property that defines all libertarian philosophy is that individuals have a monopoly on the use of their minds, bodies and property. LIBERTARIANISM Libertarian is a middle class (commercial) philosophy. It consists (largely) of two wings:
- Classical Liberal
- (This is the important part that is lost on everyone – libertarians included. It is an empirical system of government.)
- Anarchist
THE VALUE OF LIBERTARIANISM The libertarian research program has contributed significantly to political discourse because it has:
CONCLUSIONS In the end, the combination of poor data collection, fiat monetary policy, use of the DSGEM in economics and it’s ‘static’ limitations, undermining the constituion’s implied but unstated empirical nature, and the democratic rather than class-based process of debate, have put us in a position where it is not possible to make rational economic and political judgements. Thanks to Libertarians, we know that whether or not we have moral ambitions, we cannot currently make rational decisions in our form of government with the information at our disposal. And that is profound.
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Conservative Strategy Since 1980
The Leftist blog Economists View posts that Stiglitz writes that there is an ideological crisis in western capitalism. by which he simply means the “right is wrong”, and Stiglitz is right. Really. That’s all he says. And, of course, Stiglitz’s analysis is a straw man. CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY The conservative strategy since 1980 has been: 1) Defeat ideological communism as a threat to the international order, and to American trade interests – and to borrow any amount of money to do so. 2) Dismantle the left wing “great society’ movement, and if possible privatize education, social security and medicare as a means of starving and de-politicizing the government. 3) Starve the government either by over commitment or over extension, forcing either the dismantlement or privatization of ‘socialist’ programs. 4) Support of the entrepreneurial class, and increase home ownership in order expand conservative sentiments. UNEXPECTED a) The replacement of ideological communism with ideological Islam was an unexpected threat and a high cost. b) The christian whites have become a minority was faster than they expected, and the transition of christian whites into a political block that acts like an minority was also unexpected. Therefore the conservative movement has not been able to ideologically adapt to this change fully – they still remain attached to the Classical LIberal Constitutional model, despite the obvious evidence that the model has failed them and (per Epstein) attacks on constitutionalism by the courts and leftist cultural indoctrination by the schools has been largely successful. The next development in conservatism will be to acknowledge that failure and to become a more consistently adversarial, entrenched and likely racially or culturally identifiable block. RESULTS The end result is : a) that the country remains center-right, and will continue to remain center-right for any politically actionable period of time. b) the process of converting the rest of the world to some form of capitalism, albeit, totalitarian capitalism, or social democratic capitalism, is complete, outside of Islam, which now only needs one or more likely two core states to emerge – neither of which will be an expansionist and militant Iran. c) the country is fragmenting into permanent regional blocks opposed to one another. Family moving patterns suggest that this trend will continue to create stronger divisions, further amplifying the effects created by the end of southern conservatism’s association with the Democratic party. d) the attempt to move people into home ownership as a means of encouraging the conservative sentiment has failed and was an unwise plan in the first place. THe lower class population needs to be mobile and increasingly urbanized to compete. e) the right will claim that the constitution has been sufficiently undermined that it no longer holds sway, and that the left will simply use temporary political power to circumvent it, and there the right will develop the mantra that ‘it’s just mob rule’ and that the constitution is simply ‘how we conservatives shackle each other and give the left time to undermine freedom.’ This will be the next political movement for the right. It is only logical. f) it may be true that Chicago monetarism has been undermined, but it is also true that almost all quantitative DSGEM theory has been undermined. But the institutional investment in academia in the failed doctrine will continue to persist until a radical paradigmatic changes has been developed elsewhere. TRENDS The general trend that will drive support for conservative sentiments will be: 1) the regionalization and fractionalization of domestic culture due to demographic concentrations. and the eventual exhaustion of the population’s tolerance for discord. It appears from the data that our urban centers are headed toward the south american model of an elite urban (white) center, surrounded by a ring of poverty, and a (white) conservative rural culture. 2) the increase in small businesses due to repositioning of the US work force in the global economy. 3) the increase sense of threat from weakened US strategic and economic power. 4) the extended economic stress that will likely lose a generation of permanently displaced workers. STRAW MAN So, Stiglitz simply does not understand conservative strategy or motivations and is arguing against a straw man by assuming that conservative and liberal goals are the same. FREEDOM IS A GOAL IN ITSELF To conservatives, freedom is the goal itself, and freedom is incompatible with the left’s agenda. And the willingness to protect that freedom is infinite. Revolt works from both directions. The left is willing to create the totalitarian redistributive society by class warfare and destruction of the western identity. The right is wiling to bankrupt what they see as a corrupt government in order to preserve it’s identity. The fact that one monetary or economic policy or another was used to accomplish this is immaterial.
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Conservative Strategy Since 1980
The Leftist blog Economists View posts that Stiglitz writes that there is an ideological crisis in western capitalism. by which he simply means the “right is wrong”, and Stiglitz is right. Really. That’s all he says. And, of course, Stiglitz’s analysis is a straw man. CONSERVATIVE STRATEGY The conservative strategy since 1980 has been: 1) Defeat ideological communism as a threat to the international order, and to American trade interests – and to borrow any amount of money to do so. 2) Dismantle the left wing “great society’ movement, and if possible privatize education, social security and medicare as a means of starving and de-politicizing the government. 3) Starve the government either by over commitment or over extension, forcing either the dismantlement or privatization of ‘socialist’ programs. 4) Support of the entrepreneurial class, and increase home ownership in order expand conservative sentiments. UNEXPECTED a) The replacement of ideological communism with ideological Islam was an unexpected threat and a high cost. b) The christian whites have become a minority was faster than they expected, and the transition of christian whites into a political block that acts like an minority was also unexpected. Therefore the conservative movement has not been able to ideologically adapt to this change fully – they still remain attached to the Classical LIberal Constitutional model, despite the obvious evidence that the model has failed them and (per Epstein) attacks on constitutionalism by the courts and leftist cultural indoctrination by the schools has been largely successful. The next development in conservatism will be to acknowledge that failure and to become a more consistently adversarial, entrenched and likely racially or culturally identifiable block. RESULTS The end result is : a) that the country remains center-right, and will continue to remain center-right for any politically actionable period of time. b) the process of converting the rest of the world to some form of capitalism, albeit, totalitarian capitalism, or social democratic capitalism, is complete, outside of Islam, which now only needs one or more likely two core states to emerge – neither of which will be an expansionist and militant Iran. c) the country is fragmenting into permanent regional blocks opposed to one another. Family moving patterns suggest that this trend will continue to create stronger divisions, further amplifying the effects created by the end of southern conservatism’s association with the Democratic party. d) the attempt to move people into home ownership as a means of encouraging the conservative sentiment has failed and was an unwise plan in the first place. THe lower class population needs to be mobile and increasingly urbanized to compete. e) the right will claim that the constitution has been sufficiently undermined that it no longer holds sway, and that the left will simply use temporary political power to circumvent it, and there the right will develop the mantra that ‘it’s just mob rule’ and that the constitution is simply ‘how we conservatives shackle each other and give the left time to undermine freedom.’ This will be the next political movement for the right. It is only logical. f) it may be true that Chicago monetarism has been undermined, but it is also true that almost all quantitative DSGEM theory has been undermined. But the institutional investment in academia in the failed doctrine will continue to persist until a radical paradigmatic changes has been developed elsewhere. TRENDS The general trend that will drive support for conservative sentiments will be: 1) the regionalization and fractionalization of domestic culture due to demographic concentrations. and the eventual exhaustion of the population’s tolerance for discord. It appears from the data that our urban centers are headed toward the south american model of an elite urban (white) center, surrounded by a ring of poverty, and a (white) conservative rural culture. 2) the increase in small businesses due to repositioning of the US work force in the global economy. 3) the increase sense of threat from weakened US strategic and economic power. 4) the extended economic stress that will likely lose a generation of permanently displaced workers. STRAW MAN So, Stiglitz simply does not understand conservative strategy or motivations and is arguing against a straw man by assuming that conservative and liberal goals are the same. FREEDOM IS A GOAL IN ITSELF To conservatives, freedom is the goal itself, and freedom is incompatible with the left’s agenda. And the willingness to protect that freedom is infinite. Revolt works from both directions. The left is willing to create the totalitarian redistributive society by class warfare and destruction of the western identity. The right is wiling to bankrupt what they see as a corrupt government in order to preserve it’s identity. The fact that one monetary or economic policy or another was used to accomplish this is immaterial.
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propertarian analysis of patriotism. (FWIW: I’m an anti-statist, but an advocate
http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3158A propertarian analysis of patriotism. (FWIW: I’m an anti-statist, but an advocate of minimal, constitutional, private government.)
Source date (UTC): 2011-07-06 22:16:00 UTC
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bit profound for a statement about patriotism. But valuable if one seeks to unde
http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3150A bit profound for a statement about patriotism. But valuable if one seeks to understand it.
Source date (UTC): 2011-07-05 23:23:00 UTC
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left’s hollow fantasy in a Center Right Society
http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3119The left’s hollow fantasy in a Center Right Society.
Source date (UTC): 2011-07-03 09:40:00 UTC
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origins of conservatism
http://www.capitalismv3.com/?p=3081The origins of conservatism
Source date (UTC): 2011-06-30 10:43:00 UTC