All
evidence points to the superiority of the libertarian ideal
private property, capitalism, international trade, laissez-faire
but something is keeping the world from embracing it. That
something is wrong-headed ideology, some philosophical error grown
into a massive system of thought, an agenda that if unleashed
would mutilate and crush civilization as we know it.
Murray Rothbard
had a nose for such error. And when he smelled it, he wrote it
up, exposed its underside, refuted its logic, and obliterated
its intellectual foundation. That's why he was so hated
and so loved. He is so relentless that it makes the reader squirm.
But he also teaches and inspires.
Consider,
for example, "anarcho-socialism." Here is an ideology
that hates the state. Fine so far. Problem: it is an ideology
that hates private property even more. In fact, these people believe
that the state is the only reason private property exists. Rothbard
writes:
"They
totally fail to realize that the State has always been the great
enemy and invader of the rights of property. Furthermore, scorning
and detesting the free market, the profit-and-loss economy,
private property, and material affluence all of which
are corollaries of each other Anarcho-Communists wrongly
identify anarchism with communal living, with tribal sharing,
and with other aspects of our emerging drug-rock 'youth culture'."
Or here's
another: those people who are forever complaining about the "ugliness"
and "brutality" of urban commercial life. Rothbard
writes:
"My
own observation is that most of the bellyachers about the ugliness
of our cities and singers of paeans to the unspoiled wilderness
stubbornly remain ensconced in these very cities. Why don't
they leave? There are, even today, plenty of rural and even
wilderness areas for them to live in and enjoy. Why don't they
go there and leave those of us who like and enjoy the cities
in peace. Furthermore, if they got out, it would help relieve
the urban 'overcrowding' which they also complain about."
And we've
all heard about oppression of women under marriage. Well, listen
to Rothbard's take on it:
"The
women militants who complain that they are stuck with the task
of raising the children should heed the fact that, in a world
without marriage, they would also be stuck with the task of
earning all the income for their children's support. I suggest
that they contemplate this prospect long and hard before they
continue to clamor for the abolition of marriage and the family."
And what
of those who say parents should just let their kids do whatever
they want and to discipline them is a violation of their rights?
Thus saith Rothbard:
"The
overriding fact of parent-child relations is that the child
lives on the property of his parents. The child lives either
in a house owned by his parents or in an apartment rented by
them. Therefore, as in the case of any other 'guest' living
on someone else's property, he must obey the rules set down
by the property owners for remaining on that property. In short,
the parents have the perfect legal and moral right to lay down
the rules for their children, just as they would have the right
to lay down rules for the behavior of their longstanding house
guest, Uncle Ezra."
So it goes
through this wonderful book called Egalitarianism
as a Revolt Against Nature, and Other Essays. It might
just be the wildest Rothbard romp ever. Fully armed, he slices
and dices crazies of all sorts, from those who would level all
incomes to those who would free all people's of the world through
bombings and nuclear war. This is Rothbard providing the reader
a strong does of sanity against the hordes of ideological fanatics
who care not a knit for reality or reason.
But Rothbard
is not one of those thinkers who, like Russell Kirk, conclude
that ideology is itself a bad thing. On the contrary, Rothbard
believes that ideology is critical for the defense of liberty:
we must organize our ideas to make sense of the world and to have
an agenda for the future.
Thus does
this book also include outstanding pieces of positive theory,
including "Justice and Property Rights," "War,
Peace, and the State," and "Left and Right: The Prospects
for Liberty." It concludes with his rallying cry: "Why
Be Libertarian?"
With all
the political books out there, each with a partisan spin, it's
wonderful to read a thinker who doesn't fear exposing the errors
of left and right, measuring anyone and everyone against the great
benchmark of the idea of liberty.