A mere ten days ago, public awareness of Hayek’s classic, The Road to Serfdom, exploded. The Mises Academy, with the reflexes and nimbleness that you’ll only find with an online, consumer-driven university, has turned on a dime to seize the moment.
In the weeks that follow, thousands of conservatives will be receiving a moving and powerful libertarian classic in the mail. They’re going to have questions (it’s not the easiest read in the world), and many of them will be wishing they had some kind of helpful guide to the text.
This summer, Thomas DiLorenzo will be available to serve as just the guide they need, in his online Mises Academy course, “The Road to Serfdom: Despotism, Then and Now“, which will run from July 5 through August 6.
If we can get the word out to the Tea Party movement, hopefully hundreds from all over the country will sign up, and be shown by Professor DiLorenzo why big-government conservatism should be rejected just as firmly as the big-government left.
And hopefully a great many of you wonderful libertarians also will sign up. This course will give you a deeper understanding of a beloved classic, and it is also a great opportunity for you to educate your fellow students in the course discussion forums and chatrooms, thereby contributing toward steering the Tea Party back toward the path of freedom.
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Wait, you mean to say this proposal didn’t have to get through 11 committees, 6 deans, 2 vice-provosts and a provost?! This will only lead to chaos and confusion!
Effing brilliant. Spread this far and wide, and see how many of our die-hard conservative friends we can turn into libertarians. Double points for any anarchists we get out of it.
Funny, your guy from Auburn turned us down when we ask for a speaker at our Fairhope Tea Party
They do not usually do direct lobbying. Unlike the Tea Party Crowd, they are not trying to change the way the government behaves, they think the government is an illegitimate institution.
Man, i hope the message about this course spreads to Glenn Beck watchers who ordered the book…I wonder what the best way to spread this is? I guess if you’re in a 912 group that would be a good way.
I think most people who bought the book would be interested in this course…but im just concernrd that most of thrm wont hear about this.
We need to get more people out there like Ron Paul who doesn’t sound like a ranting, racist, lunatic. If we dont, we will never get the point across. Glenn Beck is more of a detriment to the cause than a benefit because even my most conservative friends think he is a moron. The Tea Party movement will ultimately fail by losing the the moderate independents. They are incredible hypocrites and lack any command of the rules of logic.
I am not sure to what extent the Tea Partiers are ready for a pure Austrian approach to solving problems. I know at least some of them are under the impression that Rotbard is a lunatic. Hayek is more palatable. I know for myself that he was the stepping stone into the Austrian Worldview.
I couldn’t agree more. Hayek’s philosophy is incredibly reasoned and he certainly has the credentials. The only problem is a lack of exposure and education. This is where we have to start.
I like the approach that LMvI is taking here. Start with a course on Hayek and then maybe cross sell and/or up sell? Once they are in, there are so many avenues open. Each according to his/her own tastes.
You would be surprised on how well some Tea Party/9-12 groups can be receptive to the libertarian approach to government once they realize it means it will be essentially all hands-off, lower taxes and more choice for them as a consumer of goods and services. But the language used must be carefully chosen. There are some who are trying to use the government to put their own rules of conduct in place of the liberal/statist agenda. They need to have their eyes opened that their path of “doing good” eventually gets twisted into the statists agenda. Less government all around is the main point. Not trying to do good through government.
This is a good way to give the Tea Party movement some of the direction the politicians and newsies keep saying it lacks. The key is what was already mentioned: once social programs, defense, and the whole laudry list of other stuff antagonistic to true prosperity has been eliminated or severely curtailed (severely being 50% or more, not the 1.5% cuts here and there politicians brag about) it should be replaced with absolutely nothing. That will take a great deal of level-headed pursuasion of the voting public (including within the Tea Party itself), because all it takes is for politicians to show off half a dozen people with sob stories to get billions flushed down the drain. Again. The habit in D.C., as we are all aware, is that cuts just turn into reallocation. The net is still negative.It’s nice that there is a fairly serious movement at least ostensibly behind cutting government, but I am a long way from attributing the messaianic qualities some have to the Tea Party. I am cautiously optimistic, but that’s it.
I’m all for liberty and limited government. However, if the USA disarmed we would be attacked by those very enemies of liberty I least respect. Socialism, fascism and Islamic Jihad is at war with western civilization. And if you don’t believe Israel has the same rights as the rest of us, I am not your friend.
Then I guess we are not friends.
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Dissent/Einstein_NYTimes_Israel.html
A modest proposal. Rather than trying to convert masses of conservatives/Tea Partiers into libertarians wholesale, focus on the most basic evil – fiat money. Eliminate fiat money and a lot of big government mischief goes away, because they can’t pay for it by robbing the people and the future. Pure Libertarianism turns off a lot of conservatives, but a lot of libertarian goals would be accomplished by changing to hard money.
Maybe a big part of what turns a lot of them off is the idea of not being able to rob us to help their precious Israel.
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