One observer of matters libertarian remarked recently that there are only twelve true anarcho-caps in the world. The rest of the claimants are poseurs, trolls, or bots. I'm happy to be part of such a narrow elite! I wonder what we twelve should call each other? The Dirty ... uh, it's been done. The Ditzy Dozen ... closer to the mark, but gives up too much. Twelve Angry Men ... been skipping out on those diversity classes? Hoppe's Last Hopes! There ya go. For the uninitiated, that's a photo of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, who might reasonable be considered the leader of the twelve, above.
Posts
George H. Smith is a well-known atheist and libertarian writer, born in Japan in 1949. Smith is perhaps best known for Atheism: The Case Against God (1974) . I remember reading this long ago because it had a chapter combining and (unintelligently criticizing) two of the authors I most admire, Blaise Pascal and William James. Smith has become part of a heated controversy in recent days that involves ideas about liberty and feminism, and quite personal accusations involving a thinker/writer who describes herself as working “within the individualist-anarchist tradition,” and a person with whom Smith once had an intimate and a professional relationship, Wendy McElroy. McElroy, pictured here, has become very public in recent months as an opponent of the whole notion of a “rape culture” on campus, and the attendant notion that colleges as social micro-cosmos' have to ‘do something.’ Her advice to victims? “ Rape is a criminal offense, go to the police.” Pending the...
On a message board, I recently encountered the following question, addressed to free market advocates such as myself: "Of all the arguments against the libertarian or free market position, in your opinion, which one do you think is the most persuasive or simply the best." Fair enough. I received some training in advocacy once upon a time. I should be able to argue against even my deepest convictions. So I wrote this: The most intuitively powerful arguments in favor of statism, planning, etc., all involve long thin and useful things. Roads, railroad lines, pipelines carrying anything from fresh water to human waste to natural gas, and electrical wires all share these properties: long, thin, useful. We tend to think of real estate as rectangles, maybe even squares, of claims on the surface of the ground extending both up and down from there indeterminate distances. To satellite orbits? to the earth's core? Anyway, if we do think of RE in this way, then all those ...
I've annoyed a semi-famous person. I'm stoked. Bruce Bartlett is a veteran Republican guru -- and, often, a staffer for successful Republican politicians. He was a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan, and a senior policy analyst in the White House under George H.W. Bush. Since leaving the White House, he's been known largely as a pundit and scold in intra-Republican matters. He is the author for example of IMPOSTER (2006), a broadside at what he saw as the ruinous policies of Bush the younger. Bartlett since has built something of a reputation as a pundit engaged chiefly in those intra-Republican battles. He is unhappy in particular with certain libertarian institutions and websites. This is where I enter the picture. Soon after 9 AM Tuesday morning (all my times here will be eastern time), Bartlett tweeted "Ron Paul's favorite website attacks the transcontinental railroad. Way to stay relevant, guys." This was a reference to something on ...
I'm an anarcho-cap, not a "libertarian" in the usual sense of the term (that is, not a minarchist). But I sympathize with the libertarians, I was active in the LP myself for a time, and I would like to see them prosper. One of the online journals of opinion that does some good toward that end is LewRockwell.com. It proudly describes itself as "anti-state, anti-war, pro-market." Bravo on all three counts. But I do wish they would stop running pieces by wolves in sheep's clothing, by social conservatives like the imbecile Fred Reed. Here's a further explanation of why .
Walter Block is one of my favorite free-market oriented scholars. He is the author, most notably, of a sparklingly iconoclastic book called Defending the Undefendable , the various chapters of which say positive things about: pimps, drug pushers, drug addicts, blackmailers, ticket scalpers, and dishonest cops! The argument in favor of legalizing blackmail has been especially influential: not because there has been any groundswell of support for such a policy change but because the academic reception of that chapter has shown that Block hit a nerve, among free market advocates. Block's case for legalizing blackmail drew responses in particular from Robert Nozick, Richard Posner, Richard Epstein, and James Lindgren, an honor role of libertarian theorists. Each gave his reasons why he was unpersuaded. Block has responded. Note that blackmail (for purposes of this debate) is different from extortion. Blackmail is the threat to do something you would otherwi...