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With wars raging in the Middle East, it seems like a good time to revisit a classic work by Murray Rothbard (1926–1995), the economist, historian, and political philosopher who had a lot to do with the birth and evolution of the modern libertarian movement. His “War, Peace, and the State” is something that all peace advocates — not just self-conscious libertarians — ought to be familiar with.
I love the way Murray opened this essay, originally published in 1963, during the Cold War. (It was later included in his collection Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays in 1974.) He began by agreeing with conservative magazine editor and author William F. Buckley, who had reprimanded the libertarians of his day for spending more time on how to “demunicipalize the garbage collectors” than on big issues like war and peace. Buckley had a point, Murray said, but not quite in the way the conservative icon ...
I went to a baseball game last night in Baltimore. The Orioles were playing the Washington Nationals. I couldn’t help but notice what a good time everyone was having, and in spite of the fact that the home team was losing the entire game.
I thought to myself: This is what life is all about. Notwithstanding the heartaches in life that everyone experiences at one time or another, life is about pursuing happiness and enjoying life, each in his own way.
That is what the United States was once all about. The game of baseball, which was invented in the 1800s, reflects that.
Now, let’s place a reality overlay on that baseball game last night: The war on terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan, bombs, drones, assassinations, torture, death, injuries, destruction, detention, kidnapping, incarceration, NSA, surveillance, TSA, searches, seizures, spying, monitoring, and denial of due process.
Not very pleasant, is it? In fact, it’s all become a dark side to American life, one that is as ...
