Topic: Libertarianism
WFB, RIP Farewell to a Notable Anti-Statistby Random Outlier
(libertarian)
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Whatever else he may have done, William F. Buckley penned the most compassionate of obituaries.
He wrote many times that he and his "National Review" attempted to say all of their public farewells with grace and generosity.
Let us try.
Buckley, scion of a Croesus-rich oil family, was no libertarian, but he was the next best thing, a dedicated anti-statist. That he had, by our lights, blind spots is cause for a certain disappointment, but not condemnation.
If, when running for mayor of New York, he tortured logic to deduce that the Staten Island Ferry should continue to be subsidized in order to maintain the five-cent fare, he did it with the tip of a tongue in cheek, a parody of politics as an exercise in which each voter lusts most for the promise of a chicken in his personal pot.
If, more regrettably, he endorsed foreign adventurism whose cost was measured in American blood, at least he could go beyond populist cant about the glory of the Flag and supporting the troops.
A few times in his era Russian expansionism did plausibly threaten our borders, and it was not unreasonable to consider defending our republic in other realms. No one excelled like Buckley in articulating those reasons.
I know too little about anything to summarize what we should learn from the Buckley life, with one exception. He gave us a model for taking joy in the debate, no matter how serious the issues.
P.J. O'Rourke wrote that the defining trait of the American left is sanctimony. He may have been inspired by the elan of the Buckley grin facing down all the sour visages of the outraged left as they snarled at the world's injustices, all created by the dupes of Goldwater through Bush, inclusive, most especially inclusive of Buckley of Connecticut.
We should do so well, laughing every step as we go inveighing for a cause bearing important similarities to his own.
---
"MR. BUCKLEY, MAY I PRESENT GOD?"
Dead early this morning at his Stamford home, one presumes his family believes he is at this moment engaged in dialog with his Deity, and perhaps he is.
I wouldn't know, of course, but the subject is relevant to any thoughts on his life because the question of religion pervades the relationship between Buckley and the libertarians.
After all, his first fame was generated by his book, "God and Man at Yale," and in it he came down firmly in favor of God. He never changed his mind.
Years later, in perhaps one of the more historic moments of modern anti-statism, Buckley and Ayn Rand sat down to lunch, their first meeting, arranged by mutual friends. It is reported that Ms. Rand opened the discussion with: "You are too intelligent to beleefe in God."
As social icebreakers go, it was a flop, and friendship did not flower. You need not read everything Buckley wrote to find a good handful of jibes at Rand's expense.
Notably, in a column on the efficacy of financing some public works with public money, Buckley wondered, "Who but Ayn Rand would charge a copper for the use of a sidewalk?"
(Answer: "Me, for one, generations hence when all the more important elements of freedom are in place.")
In the early 1960s a Rand acolyte, perhaps Nathaniel Brandon before their split, reluctantly endorsed Barry Goldwater as a man to buy time for the libertarian (or objectivist, Rand would insist) ideal to take hold. But he castigated Buckley for, he avowed, basing his entire concept of freedom on his personal religious beliefs.
That went too far, and some of the evidence is inherent in the close friendship and political alliance between Buckley and Goldwater who was not a notably religious man.
Many libertarians are suspicious of sacred writings and revealed knowledge as the basis for organizing a free society. I share the suspicions, but that is no reason to devalue the contributions of the most devout to the anti-statist cause.
Buckley was unquestionably devout, to the point of wishing to enshrine Roman Catholic thought on abortion as public policy. To the point of once repudiating bans on state-authorized prayer in the public schools. And others.
But at his core Buckley was less than a theocrat and more than a mere conservative. He was by temperment, by his own statement, an anarchist, albeit an anarchist who recognized that the chaos must be minimally controlled by a power beyond the self, a power to be wielded by the regrettably necessary state.
It is quite possible to read virtually every serious Buckley work as his personal quest to understand the moral imperatives inherent in such a free and yet civilized society.
And that is a worthy endeavor. May we do likewise, taking pleasure in the long campaign with, just every now and then, a nod to the memory of Bill Buckley, the enemy or our enemy.
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article are those of Random Outlier only and do not represent
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Beautifully written tribute to the life of a brilliant man. Growing up, I enjoyed watching him on Firing Line, a suave combination of laid-back manner and deadly wit. Though, his religious views were often infuriating, I enjoyed that anti-statist side that clashed with the very conservatives of the movement he is attributed with creating. A most interesting and forever charming figure - he will be missed.
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