Lew Rockwell has a curiously perceptive yet blind post out yesterday (The Unthinking Right, Friday, January 7) on how far the Right has drifted from its principles on matters of “Defense”; he fails to see the glaring dynamic of “defend America” corporate statism involved. This oversight is not surprising, as it is reflected in the role that most of the libertarian community plays in defending our corporate-statist complex on environmental and other matters.
I tried to leave the following comment on the LvMI comment thread for Lew’s post (but curiously don’t see it posted [I see it up now]) (emphasis and embedded links added):
Lew, a great piece, but your ending is feeble and unenlightening.
You say that ‘”it is hard to make sense of why people on the Right are so solidly proimperialist” and can come up with only two possible explanations – explanations that barely scratch the political economy/statism/kleptocracy surface and ignore our tribal proclivities and ability to self-deceive.
The Right loves “defense” because it’s a great tool of theft by those in power and the military-defense kleptoelites who support them; great because it allows them to deceive themselves and voters on the Right that they are defending all that’s good and holy while ripping us all off.
But it’s not surprising that you and others on this comment thread miss this; it’s of a piece with the reflexive defense by you and other libertarians of BP and fossil fuel interests while attacking ‘enviro-fascists’, scientists, and common folk who are injured/threatened by statist corporations that, via the grant of limited liability of shareholders, embody moral hazard that has fuelled the growth of a regulatory state that corporations have since captured.
E.g.:
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2011/01/05/does-the-lrc-post-on-quot-when-goliath-is-the-victim-quot-refer-to-the-us-empire-or-to-bp.aspx
Sincerely,
Tom
I left the following comments recently at Thomas L. Lorenzo‘s December 15, 2010 Mises Daily post, The Great Centralizer: Lincoln and the Growth of Statism in America:
So I wondered when I saw William Grigg’s “When Goliath Is the ‘Victim’” post at LRC last month.
The first paragragh hinted at the answer, while leaving me hopeful:
How does one simultaneously swagger and simper? Is it possible for someone to beat pridefully on his chest, even as his lip quivers in self-pity? Apparently so, given the evidence provided in Charles Krauthammer’s column today (December 3).
A little more reading left me disappointed, as I couldn’t help recalling the sympathies expressed by Lew Rockwell and Stephan Kinsella for poor li’l BP:
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2010/05/09/risk-shifting-bp-and-those-nasty-enviros.aspx
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2010/05/09/stephan-kinsella-on-bp-if-we-close-our-eyes-tightly-enough-we-can-make-the-government-role-in-generating-corporate-risk-shifting-and-moral-hazard-go-away.aspx
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2010/06/20/more-about-quot-the-biggest-victim-quot-bp-and-how-we-can-help-it-end-its-quot-victimization-quot.aspx
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/archive/2010/06/18/341436.aspx
http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/search.aspx?q=BP+gulf
But I keep forgetting that we love statist corporations here, and hate the foolish “enviros” and other citizens who think that their only recourse against them is a bigger government.
Will I ever learn? Here’s to hope in the New Year!
I’ve discussed previously other pieces of commentary by Harvard Law professor Larry Lessig (now director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard; formerly internet guru at Stanford Law School). Lessig is now focussed on how corporate influence is skewing our reporesentative democracy.
This time I note his October 16, 2010 presentation at TEDxSan Antonio, which was recently posted on YouTube; I recommend it to readers:
[View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz3RdkO824A:550:0]
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