Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Murray Rothbard on the Power of Ideas; Should Libertarians Be Gloomy?

Murray Rothbard discusses the power of ideas in relation to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

 
  
-Robert Wenzel 

11 comments:

  1. But if we only imported more crappy people with low IQ's and different cultures, magic dirt will turn them into property rights loving and NAP practicing individuals.

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    1. Re: The Lab Mismanager Who Fantasizes About Norwegian Schlongs.

      --- magic dirt will turn them into property rights loving and NAP practicing individuals. ---

      That's the power of good ideas, He-Who-Fantasizes-About-White-European-Males. They seem like magic for the easily-impressed.

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    2. You are such an amazingly contemptible idiot. White Europeans came up with libertardianism.

      Africans are mostly stupid like you. Look, you can always find some Africans on the down low. I know you like them a lot in an unpleasant way.

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  2. I just want to know if LM would prefer to live in Silicon Valley or rural white West Virginia

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    1. Probably WV though the climate is better in SV. Besides, SV really thinks a bunch of turd worlders have anything to offer.

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  3. This is not evidence of the power of ideas. The USSR broke apart because after 80 years of trial and error the citizens own suffering convinced them something new had to be tried. To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin: "Experience is a harsh teacher but a fool will have no other."

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    1. Re: Brian Erickson,

      --- after 80 years of trial and error the citizens own suffering convinced them something new had to be tried. ---

      That 'something new' didn't appear ex nihilo. That was an idea people were able to compare with, the idea of liberty and free markets.

      Do you think the people from East Germany were simply pushing through a wall because they wanted to receive more sunshine, like weeds? They acted upon an IDEA.

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    2. They were motivated by the desire to ease their own discomfort as all human beings are. If they understood the idea of individual rights why, after Germany was reunited would they empower the former communist bureaucrats like Andrea Merkel?

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    3. Re: Brian Erikson,

      --- They were motivated by the desire to ease their own discomfort as all human beings are. ---

      How would they know? Doesn't that require AN IDEA???

      --- why[...] would they empower the former communist bureaucrats like [Angela] Merkel? ---

      First, who is "they"? Second, Angela Merkel governs by coalition, which means it is not like the whole German people suddenly forgot about individual rights.

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  4. Reality is not optional, even though statists tend to believe it is; the collapse of the Soviet Union is just one illustration of this fact (business cycles are another). Because Austro-libertarians understand this, we tend to arrive at correct conclusions about eventual outcomes well in advance of everyone else, as Mises did in the 1920s and Ron Paul has for years with his anti-war commentary.

    I'm often tempted to print up a T-shirt saying "Libertarians get there faster," but am not sure how this would play out in the romantic relationship context ...

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    1. I say go for it. I can count the number of times on the invisible hand that my libertarian creds got me laid (and I used to go to booze filled Koch funded seminars).

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