Buckley
Revealed
by
Murray N. Rothbard
The
following, brought to my attention by Rothbard archivist Joseph
Stromberg, historian in residence at the Mises Institute, is
from one of Murray’s early newsletters, The Vigil. Note that
Murray was 26 when he fingered Buckley. ~LR
BUCKLEY
REVEALED: Review of William F. Buckley, Jr., "A Young Republican
View," The Commonweal, January 25, 1952.
Buckley’s
article in the recent issue of this Catholic magazine is significant
in its revelation of the full extent of Buckley’s views. As a result,
we congratulate ourselves for treating the Buckley Boom on the intellectual
Right with considerable skepticism. The article is completely deplorable,
and reveals the morass into which the individualists of today have
sunk.
The
brief article begins splendidly, with the affirmation that our enemy
is the State, and excellent quotations from such great individualists
as Albert Jay Nock, Herbert Spencer, and H.L. Mencken. Buckley declares
that the great issue of our time is freedom vs. Statism, and sides
with Spencer that the State is "begotten of aggression and
by aggression." He goes on to castigate the Republican Party
for offering no real alternative to the Statist power-drive. It
begins to appear that young Buckley is indeed a welcome newcomer
to the libertarian ranks.
But
such an illusion is not destined to remain very long. It soon appears
that Buckley is really, in 1952 terms, a totalitarian socialist,
and what is more, admits it.
He
admits that his opposition to Statism, eloquently expressed at the
beginning, is merely romantic academicism. For Buckley favors: "the
extensive and productive tax laws that are needed to support a vigorous
anti-Communist foreign policy," and by implication supports
ECA aid and 50-billion dollar "defense" budgets. He declares
that the "thus far invincible aggressiveness of the Soviet
Union imminently threatens U.S. security," and that therefore
"we have got to accept Big Government for the duration–for
neither an offensive nor a defensive war can be waged...except through
the instrumentality of a totalitarian bureaucracy within our shores."
Therefore, he concludes, we must all support "large armies
and air forces, atomic energy, central intelligence, war production
boards and the attendant centralization of power in Washington–even
with Truman at the reins of it all."
In
the light of this errant nonsense, Buckley, considered by practically
everybody (and, saddest to relate, by himself) as an "extreme
individualist" must be classified as a defacto totalitarian.
This
unhappy incident reveals that individualism is practically non-existent
in present-day America, and that the biggest and most important
defection stems from the uncritical support given to the wasteful,
dictatorial policy of military-socialism that now prevails. It spurs
us on to continue our analysis of foreign policy and formulate a
program in that field. But it is certainly clear that our foreign
policy must not be aimed at holy crusades against Communist infidels.
Neither should it be based on a policy of blithely and enthusiastically
taxing the American citizen in order to pile up useless armaments.
Freedom and peace are inherently intertwined, and the way to preserve
peace is to avoid war, not to go out of your way to seek one. The
best rule for foreign policy is still the great Richard Cobden’s
"Peace and Retrenchment."
Copyright
© 2001 Ludwig von Mises Institute
Murray
Rothbard Archives
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