Tributes to Murray N. Rothbard are often taken up with a listing his accomplishments. This is because he was so astonishingly prolific that there seem to be many scholars with that name.
As soon as you describe him as an economist, you recall that he wrote some ten large volumes on history. But describe him as a historian and you suddenly recall that he made large contributions to political philosophy. But as soon as you begin talking about his libertarianism, you recall again that he wrote vast amounts of technical economic theory.
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The specifications of the moral standard of “not giving in to evil, but resisting ever more boldly” are different in 2010 than they were in 1960. In the near future, Misesian and not merely Rothbardian heroism may be asked of us. Certainly materially, at least, our movement has much more to lose today than it did in the earlier half of Rothbard’s career. The educational treasure-trove that is the Mises Institute would be at risk should it ever imprudently fail to discriminate against, to exclude from its ranks and associations, to censor in its publications, anyone who would, say, draw the unwanted gaze, if not also ire, of the ADL or the SPLC. It would face consequences more dire than, say, no longer being invited to write for National Review. Ironically, however, some libertarians today may have to replicate Rothbard’s heroism in the face of the exclusion that some of his intellectual heirs are tempted to practice against them. The irony is compounded when the motivating reason for the exclusion is that he or she expresses views on certain subjects (and I don’t mean business cycle theory) that were virtually Rothbard’s own. Such un-Rothbardian behavior is triply odious when it practiced by people who know better, because they knew Murray.
Please don’t call libertarianism “our movement.”
Any reason? Is the libertarian movement in general (and Austro-Libertarianism in particular) not something about with which more than one reader of this forum might identify, thereby justifying that possessive pronoun?
Odd that no one thought to comment on my claim of selective un-Rothbardian self-censorship.
i agree wholeheartedly. it saddens me to see people pull their punches. but i understand the stakes have never been so high. even rothbard held back publicly on certain issues, though his interest became a sort of insiders’ joke.
the reference is to mnr’s surprise 60th birthday party:
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/fields_pclib_lte.htm
the joke refers to this classic work:
http://bit.ly/eqhNYu
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