Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Nature
Brudnoy, David
"Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Nature" Professor Rothbard is a little engine that could. He is young (as philosopher giants go), brilliant, tireless, generous, and open. He has a couple of great works under his belt—Man, Economy and...
...There is a striking quality to this collection of Rothbard's recent essays, which may have for others an effect of shaking up previous beliefs like that a collection of la Rand's essays had upon this reviewer long ago...
...It helps when you're a libertarian in 1984 minus nine...
...But what fun he is...
...Someone fed up to here with statist jargon and altruist preachments, coming upon Egalitarianism, might recognize it as a welcome assault on the reader's present view of the world, and dash on from there into the rich vein of libertarian and conservative writings available to those who will push beyond their school reading lists and locate the stuff...
...But might not even these passionate abolitionists wreak havoc, "powered by justice" ? One hopes not, but zealotry is off-putting, and I reach for the Bufferin after reading manifestoes, libertarian or otherwise, by nutties as well as by my sweet friend Murray...
...but it tried to achieve these ends by the use of incompatible conservative means: statism, central planning, Lommunitarianism, etc...
...He seeks no detente with the traditionalist Right, and for those who so categorize themselves, this essay will hurt...
...Murray Rothbard evokes in me the image of Garrison, whom he quotes: "I have need to be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice about me to melt...
...He ranges wide, and insists on pushing things back to first causes, examining problems constantly interms of principles with scarcely a graceful bow to practicalities and suchlike impedimenta...
...He has a couple of great works under his belt—Man, Economy and State and For a New Liberty—as well as numerous other seminal books and countless provocative articles...
...On these matters he resembles more his enemy the traditionalist conservative than the beacon of freedom he would wish to be considered...
...but he simply does not comprehend (and seems silly when pooh-poohing) the sounder insights of that movement...
...But he is too harsh in "The Great Women's Liberation Issue" (Individualist, 1970): he demolishes Chick Lib insanity, fine...
...Is he so unlike bushy-tailed radicals,leaking-aorta liberals, and God-CountryMotherhood conservatives, that he is not wont to fanaticism when the moon is full and the conditions are appropriate...
...But I wonder...
...Whatever its guise, he attacks statism, of which he finds a surfeit on the Right as on the Left...
...on the fallacy of the public sector...
...What a delight to watch Rothbard start by saying A, marchto B, then gallop on to X, Y, Z: on war, peace, and the state...
...But then, who's perfect when he's furious...
...what a nuisance is this guy who—politely, sure—offers at best an up yours to those who would contain him within their limited purview...
...For all his tendencies to radical a-priorism now and again, Murray Rothbard respresents the best of today's libertarianism, and exemplifies a quality rare among libertarians, who, next to Stalinists, are generally the most humorless of men: a keen wit...
...sputtering comes easy to rightists these days...
...But why libertarianism...
...He doesn't merely sputter...
...His multi-volume history of these United States is up-coming...
...you can bet your bottom funny-money that a Rothbard history isn't going to sound like warmed over Blum-Catton-Woodward-Schlesinger and Co...
...In the title essay (from Modern Age, 1973), he offers what may well be the neatest libertarian critique available, without technical and obfuscatory jargon, on the doctrine of equality...
...And what saucy stuff is an essay like "Kid Lib" (from Outlook, 1972), brutal but sound as a tight drum on the "rights" of kids, the "duties" of parents, and a civilized interplay of the two, albeit Pandoran in opening up more questions than finishing them off...
...Rothbard insists, a libertarian must exemplify a "lifelong dedication to liberty" which "can only be grounded on a passion for justice"—a radical temperament, an abolitionist one in fact, to "abolish instantaneously all invasions of liberty...
...He won't stay pigeonholed as academic high priest of his anarcho-capitalist subcult of the dismal science...
...What a nuisance he is, too...
...It is a smashing piece, as are several others herein...
...Egalitarians do not have ethics on their side unless one can maintain that the destruction of civilization, and even of the human race itself, may be crowned with the laurel wreath of a high and laudable morality...
...So there we have it...
...indeed, he has no real understanding of the prevalence of sexism in this society...
...Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty" (from Left and Right, 1965) is disquieting...
...Are we to suppose that, of all manner of men, the libertarian alone is not subject to the lures of power, is not prone to the perversions of force...
...Goodness knows, we're in lousy shape now, what with collectivism racing (no longer creeping) to overtake us all...
...It should be obvious where that sort of reasoning leads when he turns his gaze on conservatives...
...powered by justice, he cannot be moved by amoral utilitarian pleas that justice not come about until the criminals are 'compensated...
...He doesn't give away the battle by conceding, as many do, that the Left is right in theory, just impractical...
...Socialism, like liberalism and against conservatism, accepted the industrial system and the liberal goals of freedom, reason, mobility, progress, higher living standards for the masses, and an end to theocracy and war...
...Well, Dr...
...on much more besides...
...on anarcho-communism...
...If the major ideological enemy is authoritarianism, the major enemy agency (as eviscerated in "The Anatomy of the State," from Rampart Journal, 1965) is: the State—coercive, parasitic, voracious, seemingly uncheckable, at least thus far, at least, he would have us believe, until libertarianism reigns...
...Murray Rothbard wants no truck with contemporary glibness...
Vol. 8 • March 1975 • No. 6
