Sunday, November 25, 2018

A Question (And a Suggestion) for Walter Block

I recently posted a very kind email that Prof. Walter Block sent Prof. Dominick Armentano and me regarding the Armentano-Wenzel debate on Trump v. Hillary, titled Walter Block Enters the Armentano v. Wenzel Fray

Dr. Block, in the end, took Prof. Armentano's position in the debate.

He wrote:
Although I think you, Bob, make excellent points, I side with Dom on this one. Perhaps this is due to the fact that both he and I are, were, college professors and you were not. This is NOT an ad hominem argument. Rather, it is due to the fact, perhaps, the Dom and I have had our noses pushed into political correctness to a far greater degree than your nose has been pushed in this direction. If there’s one thing you’ve gotta admit, Bob, Hillary is PC personified, and Donald, bless him on at least this one issue, is the very opposite.
I can sympathize with Dr. Block's view. I must emphasize once again, though, that the most significant problem I see with Trump is that he is pushing the youth away from free-market thinking and toward socialism.

I hasten to point out that Murray Rothbard in his unpublished paper on strategy even dedicated specific suggestions in terms of methods to attract youth to libertarianism. Attracting the youth is extremely important.

Thus, I find Dr. Block's position curious as to how he sees the crude non-political correctness of Trump as a strategic edge via Hillary. As Dr. Block seems to suggest, Trump is pretty bad on most issues beyond his rejection of political correctness. Sure we can enjoy his comments that send the politically correct crowd into shock but his style is decidedly not helping us convert students in the direction away from political correctness.

I must ask Dr. Block this:

How exactly do you see the benefit of Trump's crude non-political correctness going on campus when now in the Age of Trump students have taken to politically correct boycotts of your classes and any other events you are a part of?

For sure, things might not be better on campus with Hillary on the throne but I don't think any of us would be looking for microscopic positions to justify Hillary's presidency. We would all be in attack mode. This is another major problem I see with Trump. He is sucking up the energy out of libertarians, as many look to find ways to justify his horrific reign.

It is truly sad that in this Age of Trump students are boycotting Dr. Block, who is truly one of liberty's most important communicators and thinkers. Just take a look. It is a loss for all of us in the liberty movement when he is boycotted. But maybe a more aggressive vociferous move away from Trump by Dr. Block on the points where Trump is wrong might help.

Perhaps, it is time for Dr. Block to adopt a jiyu kumite position.

So in addition to the above question, I have a suggestion for Dr. Block. He should deliver a lecture open to all Loyola students, titled: "Why Trump is an Ass".

See if the kids boycott that one.

-RW 

3 comments:

  1. Regarding Non-PC and youth:

    While the news seems to highlight easily triggered, snowflake trigglypuff students, my experience has been quite the opposite. Whenever I break the "PC ice" around these younger folks (I'm 33), I feel/witness an immediate sense of relief in the group.

    Trump's performance at the Acosta presser was inspiring. Strange to say, I felt "freer" after that one. I'm less afraid to speak up around nincompoops, as I saw on display how Trump leave them speechless - at least in the moment (remember the woman that asked him about white nationalism during that same presser?).

    Edge to Trump. Thanks to him, I see that speaking your mind actually works. I see that liberals and leftist don't have hegemonic control of the national conversation; in fact, they are impotent to someone with balls. I'm sure my experience is the same with others.

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  2. Trump has no philosophical base to stand on and so has been "all over the place" in his thinking and will remain so. It is always a roll of the dice if we will get something good coming from him.

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  3. I disagree that it is Trump who is pushing the youth away from free market ideas and toward socialism. This pushing process has been in place well before Trump and, by the way, would not have slowed or stopped had Clinton been elected. This process, as the Marxists understand, is essentially a cultural and moral phenomenon and has been in place for some time. The cultural leftists obliterated the notion of "rights" so, guess what, health care became a "right". Nothing to do with Trumpism. They obliterated the morality of profit, of personal achievement, of wealth accumulation, of voluntary contracting, etc. and held up, instead, the moral necessity of gender equality, of shutting down "offensive" speech (Dr. Block, call your office) of moving what remains of "capitalism" toward a fascist progressiveism. As I have previously argued, this process begins in grade school (where the school projects are why climate change is bad and recycling is good...with no discussion of prices and costs) and continues on up through college with economically illiterate professors in almost every discipline, even the so-called hard sciences and business majors. And, of course, it has now worked its way through the court system which legitimizes all of the legal changes required to put a stake through liberty. You can blame Trump if you want but the process corrupting the "youth" goes far deeper than anything that Trump has said or done.

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