Paleolibertarianism

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Paleolibertarianism is a school of thought within American libertarianism founded by Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard, and closely associated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute. It is based on a combination of radical libertarianism in politics and cultural conservatism in social thought. Austrian economics, anti-federalism^[1], and anarcho-capitalism heavily influenced the movement's attitudes toward ideas on trade, commerce and statecraft.

Contents 1 Principles 2 Divergence from paleoconservatism 2.1 Voluntary armies 2.2 Buchanan and markets 3 Selected articles 3.1 Critical views 4 Notes 5 External links

[edit] Principles

The description as paleolibertarianism emphasized their differences with what they call neolibertarians, who, in their view, sacrifice libertarian ideas for political expediency. "Neolibertarianism" is characterized by these groups as a corruption of libertarian thought by policy think tanks and political parties which failed to offer principled opposition to the consolidation of federal power and interventionism in foreign policy (however, see the article on neolibertarianism for an important note about the shifting nature of the term). They make a similar critique of mainstream conservatives, the Republican Party, Religious Right and Mainline Christians.

Lew Rockwell characterized paleolibertarian thought by saying:

Paleolibertarianism holds with Lord Acton that liberty is the highest political end of man, and that all forms of government intervention — economic, cultural, social, international — amount to an attack on prosperity, morals, and bourgeois civilization itself, and thus must be opposed at all levels and without compromise. It is 'paleo' because of its genesis in the work of Murray N. Rothbard and his predecessors, including Ludwig von Mises, Albert Jay Nock, Garet Garrett, and the entire interwar Old Right that opposed the New Deal and favored the Old Republic of property rights, freedom of association, and radical political decentralization. Just as important, paleolibertarianism predates the politicization of libertarianism that began in the 1980s, when large institutions moved to Washington and began to use the language of liberty as part of a grab bag of 'policy options.' Instead of principle, the neo-libertarians give us political alliances; instead of intellectually robust ideas, they give us marketable platitudes. What's more, paleolibertarianism distinguishes itself from left-libertarianism because it has made its peace with religion as the bedrock of liberty, property, and the natural order.^[2]

Paleolibertarianism is commonly distinguished by:

• Political alliances with paleoconservatism. The two groups are closely related, although they sometimes quarrel over the virtues of free trade, Wal-Mart and other issues. For example, paleolibertarians tend to praise Patrick Buchanan for his stances on foreign policy, yet accuse him of protectionism. Conversely, paleoconservative Sam Francis argued that big business should serve the interest of middle America [1]. Both sides prefer to attack their mutual opponents than each other, however.
• Disaffiliation from the post-Cold War-era alliance between libertarians and the New Left. This trend has been checked by the influence of Murray Rothbard. Also, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the War on Terror, the paleolibertarians' antipathy with the conservative movement, other than distinctly paleoconservative types, rose tremendously.
• Sharp opposition to neoconservatism and interventionist foreign policy.
• Radical decentralization in politics; most paleolibertarians subscribe to some form of anarcho-capitalism and do not associate with any political party.
• No universal consensus exists with paleolibertarians on the debate of what, if any, role the government should play on the issue of regulating immigration and the borders. While practically all paleolibertarians subscribe to a philosophy of anarcho-capitalism, they differ with what a society with a state (i.e., a state that controls and "owns" property and has a welfare system) should do. However, paleolibertarians are slightly more inclined than not to support some kind of border enforcement and immigration regulation. (See notes for further elaboration.^[3]) This is in contrast to the generally held view by libertarians who subscribe to open borders and unregulated immigration.
• Commitment to a natural law approach to libertarian theory, and intense opposition towards utilitarian approaches.
• Appreciation for classical American anti-federalism, even criticizing Abraham Lincoln^[4] for leading America toward a centralized, managerial state.
• Appreciation for traditional values and customs, along with churches and voluntary associations, as an alternative to state-backed social engineering and managerial public policy. The paleos express frustration over other libertarians who stress what they see as positive rights (such as gay rights, abortion rights and sexual freedom) rather than fight state coercion on life, liberty and property.

Justin Raimondo's 1993 book Reclaiming the American Right^[5] links paleolibertarianism with the anti-interventionist American old right. In Democracy: The God That Failed^[6] by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Hoppe argues that "conservatives today must be antistatist libertarians and, equally important, [that] libertarians must be conservatives". (Page 189.) He argues that to obtain cultural conservatism one must embrace radical paleolibertarianism. (See selected article "The Intellectual Incoherence of Conservatism" by Hans-Hermann Hoppe.)

Prominent paleolibertarians include Lew Rockwell, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Thomas DiLorenzo, Joseph Sobran and Thomas Woods. Closely affiliated institutions include the Ludwig von Mises Institute, the Center for Libertarian Studies, and the Property and Freedom Society.

[edit] Divergence from paleoconservatism

[edit] Voluntary armies

Thomas Fleming claims Lew Rockwell became “dangerously muddled” after Murray Rothbard’s death. He says some paleolibertarians went off the deep end:

They hate not just war but the military itself. They reject not only imperialism but also patriotism; they are not merely opposed to nationalism but reject the concept of the nation.[2]

Fleming debated paleolibertarian Thomas Woods over whether laissez-faire meshed with Roman Catholic orthodoxy.[3] He claims the “last straw” was a 2003 article by Jeffrey Tucker of the Mises Institute, whom he said defends “desertion as a legitimate career move for a disgruntled soldier.” Tucker had argued that the concept of a “voluntary military” was a myth because the penalty for desertion is death. He said that soldiers “die for exercising their God-given right to walk away.”[4] In the article, Tucker also wrote:

[One] wonders how much the ranks of the militarily employed would shrink in absence of anti-desertion enforcement. If modern presidents had to recruit the way barons and lords recruited, and if they constantly faced the prospect of mass desertions, they might be more careful about getting involved in unnecessary, unjust, unwinnable wars, or going to war at all. Peace would take on new value out of necessity. When going to war, they might be more careful to curb their war aims, and match war strategies with those more limited aims.[5]

[edit] Buchanan and markets

Murray Rothbard declared in 1992 that “with Pat Buchanan as our leader, we shall break the clock of social democracy.”^[7] Three years later, he said Buchanan developed too much faith in economic planning and centralized state power.[6] Rothbard’s paleolibertarian heirs frequently say the commentator promotes mercantilist economic views, even as they praise his anti-interventionism.

For example, Buchanan said in 1998:

As you may have heard in my last campaign, I am called by many names. 'Protectionist' is one of the nicer ones; but it is inexact. I am an economic nationalist. To me, the country comes before the economy; and the economy exists for the people. I believe in free markets, but I do not worship them. In the proper hierarchy of things, it is the market that must be harnessed to work for man - and not the other way around.[7]

Rockwell says that “paleoism” is not dead, but that Buchanan is not the right person to lead a middle class revolt. He wrote:

The libertarian faction of the [paleo] movement saw that far too many compromises were being made to accommodate Buchanan's increasingly idiosyncratic and statist political views. His anti-free market, pro-trade union bias was now out of the bag; indeed, it became a central theme of his campaign. The idea behind the paleo turn was to decry ideological sellout, not follow some ambitious politician down the same road![8]

[edit] Selected articles

• "Big Government Libertarianism" by Murray Rothbard
• "Libertarianism and the Old Right" by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., LewRockwell.com, February, 1999.
• "The Case for Paleolibertarianism", by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., Liberty, January, 1990.
• "What I Learned from Paleoism", by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., LewRockwell.com, May 2, 2002.
• "Born to be Paleolibertarian" by Brad Edmonds, LewRockwell.com, December 31, 2001.
• "The Intellectual Incoherence of Conservatism", by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Mises Institute, March 2005.
• "What Libertarians and Conservatives Say About Each Other: An Annotated Bibliography", by Jude Blanchette, LewRockwell.com, October 27, 2004.
• "Wrong, Pat, wrong" by Karen De Coster, WorldNetDaily, January 30, 2002.
• "How to Lose Your Job in Talk Radio", by Charles Goyette, American Conservative, February 2, 2004.
• "Neoconservatism: a CIA Front?", by Gregory Pavlik. The Rothbard-Rockwell Report, 1997.
• "Buchanan and Market", by Jeffrey A. Tucker, LewRockwell.com, March 23, 2002.

[edit] Critical views

• "The Death of Manufacturing", by Pat Buchanan. American Conservative, August 11, 2003.
• "Capitalism the Enemy", by Samuel Francis, Chronicles, April, 2000.
• "Libertarians: Chirping Sectaries", by Russell Kirk. Redeeming the Time (Wilmington, Del., ISI Books), 1996.
• "The Missing Case for Free Trade", by Paul Craig Roberts, VDARE.com, March 15, 2004.
• "The Libertarian As Authoritarian", by Wirkman Virkkala, Liberty, March 1990.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• LewRockwell.com, Daily paleolibertarian commentaries.
• Antiwar.com, Old right anti-interventionism.
• The Ludwig von Mises Institute
• The Property and Freedom Society
• Charles Goyette, Phoenix-based paleolibertarian radio talk show host.
• Sobran's: The Real News of the Month
• The Last Ditch