Brilliant as the man was he was blinded by his passions and fears as are so many when it comes to roadblocks to constructive political acts. by Jahfre Fire Eater
(libertarian)
Friday, January 27, 2012
Imagine a world where Sir Isaac Newton, after getting bonked in the head by an apple, proclaimed, "Gravity is the ENEMY!"
Imagine a world where, from that initial proclamation, legions of potentially highly constructive, productive beings devoted their lives (time) and resources to shouting down and vilifying the enemy, gravity. Imagine if those folks pursued the ultimate defeat of the force of gravity and its continuous imposition on our worldly experiences. What kind of person could actually construct a life that revolves around the faith that gravity can, and should, be defeated and eliminated? I don't think it really takes any special characteristics beyond the pre-existing built-in human tendency to react to challenges to faith with blind outrage and definace, even in the face of reason which obviously exposes the futility of such wastes of the most precious resource any individual possesses, their time here on earth.
Fortunately, Newton did not paint gravity as the enemy...but as a force that exists in our reality that we can learn about and understand. Science then set about understanding gravity and it's interactions with the rest of our experience.
Murray Rothbard on the other hand, after some metaphorical bonk on the head by consequences of government proclaimed THE STATE is the ENEMY! From that day forward his sycophants have wasted their potential trying to defeat that 'enemy.' If Rothbard had been as wise as Newton, he would have recognized, as L.v. Mises had decades before, that the State is a force that exists in our reality as a consequence of the law of human action. It is a permanent, pervasive force that can be understood and dealt with through constructive human action to either amplify it's effects or to dampen those effects. Rothbard's faith that government was the enemy and could be defeated blinded him to the Misean view that government/bureaucracy exists as a result of the interactions of humans through the law of human action. As long as 2 or more individuals are vying for control of the same limited resources there will be government. In other words, always.
Mr. Rothbard was dead wrong and blind to it. Sadly, horrifyingly, his err has cost the defense of liberty dearly as an entire generation or more of potentially constructive political defenders of liberty have wasted their potential on shouting down a boogeyman. Many have devoted their resources and time to this futility politically by abandoning GOP into the hands of those whose driving motivation is to INCREASE the force of the state in an ever-accelerating manner. Abandoning the most powerful tool for limiting the growth of the state is an ridiculous strategy for the defense of liberty. Murray Rothbard was wrong about that, too.
The State is no more the enemy than is gravity.
The unlimited growth of the state is the enemy; just as unlimited growth of the force of gravity would spell doom, so to does the unlimited growth of the state.
Wasting decades fighting the wrong enemy is a burden Mr. Rothbard's legacy will bear forever. In the long run I think it is likely his great economic thinking and wonderful writing style about vast topics will be overshadowed by his personal responsibility for the damage government has done to liberty for the past several decades and for many more to come.
~ Jahfre Fire Eater
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