ROTHBARD-ROCKWELL REPORT

and bunco schemes, precisely like

leeches accelerating their vampir-
Why Paleo? ism as their hosts blood gets ever
thinner and less nourishing.
I: TheModal 1989, the year of the glorious
Libertarian
In the January 1990 issue of
revolutionaryimplosion of commu-
nismlsocialism in Eastern Europe
THE EAR
and the Soviet Union, has pre- Neocon Virginia Postrel, edi-
Liberty, Lew Rockwell published
sented us with a totally new world, tor of Reason, is in deep doo-
an article, The Case for Paleo-
with new parametersfor action. All doo. To attack the flourishing
libertarianism, that set the liber-
other ideological groups, conser- paleo alliance, she wrote The
tarian world on its ear. It was the
single most talked-aboutandcon- vatives, liberals, and leftists, have, IdeologicalShufflefor The Wash-
troversial article in the history of with varying success, understood ington Post. In it, besides prais-
that magazine, and indeed in the necessity of meeting the new ing statists Jack Kemp and Newt
many years in the reality by rethink- Gingrich and smearing the anti-
libertarian move- ingtheir focusand statist Rockford Institute, she
ment. their strategies. repeated a lie: that Rockford had
The reason is Only libertarians hosted a party for eco-wacko
simple: the liber- have, as usual, Jeremy Rifkin. The Post had to
tarian world has acted as ifthe real run a red-faced correction.
been sunk, for world does not ex- *****
years now, into ist, and continued Whats happened to the Liber-
torpor at best and heedlesslyto play tarian Party? LP leaders arent
advancing decay their bunco talking, but theres been a pre-
at worst. It has games. cipitous decline in paid member-
been marked by a Amidst this ship. There were, after the Ron
lack of new ideas, pervasive mi- Paul campaign, 9,000 national
of new thoughtsor asma, Lews ar- LPers, but virtually no one is
strategies. In the ticle came as a renewing. Membership is said to
last decade, liber- spark of excite- be 7,500 and sinking.
tarian ideas have ment, a trumpet *****
been advancing call announcing Karl Hess, hippie editor of the
and permeating that there are big Libertarian Party News, has re-
throughout the changes in the signedto write hisautobiography.
world, but apart real world, folks, Karl wants his even-hippier busi-
from the special- and that its high ness partner, the pony-tailed
ized area of free-market econom- time we wake up and do some Randy Langhenry, to succeed
ics, libertarian institutions have hard thinking about what it all him, but Randy is even less liber-
been steadily crumbling and fall- means. For all libertarians not yet tarian than Karl, and he cant
ing into total irrelevancein Ameri- brain dead, Lews article heralded write. Can Karlfoist Randy on the
can culture. Instead of meeting a new dawn of purposive activity LP? Stay tuned.
the challenge of chronic deterio- and creative thinking. *****
ration and decay, movement Unfortunately, such is the par- MeMe King-ballot-access
leaders have huddled around, lous state to which the movement wiz and the only capable person
hunkereddown, and desperately has sunk that almost none of this on the LPs national staff-has
stepped up their host of scams (Cont. next page, col. 3) (Cont. next page,col. 1)
 (THE EAR cont. from P.l) ballot access, the California LP is (WHY PALE0 cont. from P.l)
left for greener pastures (which dead. They can't afford to collect excitement was reflected in the
wouldn't be hard). She's now the zillions of necessary signa- many tedious and uncompre-
working for Howie Rich (of Lais- tures, so they put their hopes on hending comments on the article
sez- Faire Books), who's set up a the state treasurer's race, where in Liberty: almost all of which
company to assist tax-rebellion last time they beat the 2% barrier. were nothing ti0 much as the
ballot measures. Great idea, and But nominee George O'Brien of irritableresponsesof bears being
great hire. San Francisco forgot to file. Ab- disturbedfrom their lengthy slum-
***** sent a miracle, Californiawon't be bers. Indeed, the only intelligent
Former LP NatCom'r Alan Lind- on the ballot, and Marrou will be and thoughtful critique of the
say has left the party over an LP lucky to get 100,000 votes in the Rockwell article appeared not in
fundraising letter about the death rest of the country. Liberty but by Justin Raimondo
of a young soldier in Panama. The in the March issue of the Liber-
soldier's parents
***** tarian Repubkan Organizer.
and fiance have de- The paradig- So why paleo? As one of
nounced the LP matic Washington Lew's critics piit it, why do we
leadership as "vul- State LP is in an need another long word to tack
tures," and Alan uproar over allega- on to the first one. (libertarian-
agrees. tions of grand theft ism)? The standard critical sum-
So LP bigwig involvingthe '87 Se- mary of the paleo position is that
(and public school- attle convention.Ju- we are setting out to "expel" all
teacher) Don dicial commission non-paleos (variouslydefined as
Ernsberger writes head Mike Dunn all non-bourgeois and/or non-
Alan a hate letterfull lays out the charges religious) from the libertarian
of grammatical and in a 100t-page re- movement. This is an absurd
spelling errors, port. State chair- characterization of our position,
MUCH OF IT woman Marla Bot- and seems to reflect a severe
TYPED IN UPPER temiller has re- reading (or thinking) disability.
CASE. Donisaone- signed. They're In the first place, aside from
man argument for running around like the Libertarian Party, there is no
private education. pidgeons with their membership-typeorganizationin
There's been na- heads cut off. In the movement from which we
tional publicity, and other words, busi- could expel anyone. And as for
there may be a law- ness as usual. the LP, most of us have left it in
suit. And Ear hears body and all of us in spirit. And
that buddies from
**** secondly, how can a small mi-
the soldier's former California LPer nority (paleos) "expel" a vast
battalionwill visit the Dick Boddie is a majority?
LP personally. No wonder Chair- man with, as the first R says, "no
man Dave Walter, as one news- visible means of support." During Separating Out
paper noted, "would give his ad- the '84 Bergland for President So the point has been se-
dress only as eastern PA." campaign, Dick-one of the few verely missed. The point of the
blacks in the LP-was a full-time new paleo movement, including
***** fundraiser. A typical Libertarian, the designation, is to separate
As California goes, so goes he cost the campaign more than ourselves out of the broader
the nation, at least for the LP. Cali- he raised. Now Dick says he may movement, to find and inspire
fornia has more votes, members, run for prez in '92, although he'd other paleos, ,and to form our
and contributors than most other accept the veep slot under Andre own separateand self-conscious
states put together. Without Cali- Marrou. What a team! movement.
fornia, the LP is dead, and without - S.B. p n r . P. 3, cor'. 1)
1 May 1990
(WHY PALEO, Cont. from P.2,
We are saying, in short, that
liberty is great and we dont wish
to weaken or dilute it by one iota,
but that for us, at long last, its
simply not enough. We are still
hard-corelibertarians,butwe now
are not willingto settle, as a move-
ment, for liberty alone. We insist
upon liberty plus.
We have said that a certain
cultural matrix is essential to lib-
erty. I can understandwhy liber-
tarians might be edgy at this sort
of formulation; for example, the
Oxford politicaltheoristJohn Gray
has, in recent year, marked his
defection from classical liberal-
ism (alreadyawatered-downform
of libertarianism)by talking about
the need for a certain culture in
addition to liberty: this sort of talk
is almost always the prelude to a
call for State power-certainly in
Grays case.
But that is not the point, al-
though l agree that liberty will
tend to flourish most in a bour-
geois, Christian culture. I am
willing to concede that you can
indeed be a good, hard-core lib-
ertarian and still be a hippie, an
aggressive anti-bourgeois and
anti-Christian, a drug addict, a
moocher, a rude and intolerable
fellow, and even an outright thief.
But the point is that we paleos
are no longer willing to be move-
ment colleagueswith these sorts
of people. For two separate and
powerful reasons, each of which
would be good enough reason to
form a separate and distinct palea
movement. One is strategic: thal
these sorts of peopletend, for ob-
vious reasons, to turn off, indeed
to repel, most real people,
people who either work for a liv-
ing or meet a payroll, middle class
or working class people who, in
the grand old phrase, enjoy vis-
ible means of support.
In the Libertarian Party, the
prevalence of these sorts of
people has kept the membership
and the votes low and even de-
clining. But also in the broader
movement, these luffmensch-
types have almost succeeded in
making the glorious word liber-
tarian a stench in everyones
nostrils, synonymous with nut or
libertine. At this stage, the only
way to save the glorious word
and the concept of
libertarian is to af-
fix the word paleo
to it, and thereby
maKe the distinction
and separationcrys-
tal clear.
But our reasons
are not only strate-
gic. For among the
people repelled are
we ourselves, and
although obviously
we have a high tol-
erance level, it has at last been
exceeded, and it is with a sense
of joyous relief that we scrape the
detritus of the standard, or
modal,libertarianfromthe soles
of our shoes.
When, in the Libertarian f o -
rum, I used to fulminate against
the unreal people and the cra-
zies, later dubbing them luftmen-
schen, I was treated as either a
lovable or an odious crank, but
the point is that these cultural
positions were not taken as in
any way relevant to my libertar-
ian doctrine. They are relevant,
though on a different plane, than
the doctrine itself. But the point is
that it can no longer be accept-
able to neglect the paleo part of
the equation.
But if we are the paleos, who
are the other guys? Since the
terms are on a different plane of
discourse, the simple word liber-
tarian cannot suffice. I have
therefore dubbed the other guys,
our oppositionso to speak, as the
nihilo-libertarians or nihilos,
with the remainder of libertari-
ans, perhaps in the majority,
confused in-betweenerswho are
not yet aware of any such distinc-
tions. Many of these are instinc-
tive paleos without being aware
of it.
There is no
way of knowing
the precise num-
bers, but after
almost forty-five
years as an activ-
ist in the libertar-
ian movement, I
am certain of one
thing: that the ni-
hilos, whether or
not a numerical
majority, are un-
fortunately the
typical, or modal libertarians.
(The mode is a concept in sta-
tistics designating that class or
category which has the highest
frequency of members.]
Lew Rockwelland myself have
been severely critical of the Lib-
ertarian Party, especially since
the debacle at the Philadelphia
national convention in Septem-
ber of last year. But while the
Libertarian Party is indeed irre-
deemable and has in fact not yet
been subject to enough of an
expose, the Party is not the sole
problem. For the Party is simply
the most visible, and most organ-
ized, institutionof the movement.
The sickness of the Party is only
the visible reflection of the under-
lying rot of the movement as a
whole.
May 1990 3
 That is why Lew and I are not lrom reality. As a result, the aver- or a worshiper of crystal-power
callingfor a new LibertarianParty age rank-and-file member of the or some otheir New Age hokum,
or for an immediate replacement most ineffectual Trotskyite sect and that person will be treated
as a substitute mass institution knows far more about world affairs with great tolerance and respect.
for the movement. The disease than all but a tiny handful of liber- It is only Christians that are sub-
cuts far deeper, and so the solu- tarian leaders. ject to abuse, and clearly the
tion must be far more radical, and The MLdoes not, unfortunately, reason for this difference in treat-
unfortunately must take longer hate the State be- ment has noth-
than another quick fix. The first cause he sees it as ing to do with
step is to separate out, and to the unique social atheism. But it
form our own paleo-libertarian instrument of or- has everything
organs and institutions, begin- a n ize d ag gre s - to do with reject-
ning, of course, with RRR itself. !;ion against person ing and spurning
;md property. In- bourgeois
Portrait of the Modal stead, the ML is an American cul-
Libertarian adolescent re be I ture; any kind of
It is easiest to begin our defi- against everyone kooky cultural
nition of paleo by explaining around him: first, cause will be
what we are not, what we are de- against his parents, encouraged in
termined to get away from. And second against his order to tweak
the easiest way to explain that is family, third against the noses of the
to limn our portrait of the Modal his neighbors, and hated bourgeoi-
Libertarian, his nature and his tinally against soci- sie.
attitudes. ety itself. He is es- In point of
And the Modal Libertarian peciallyopposed to fact, the original
(henceforth ML) is indeed a he, institutionsof social attraction of the
because the movement has al- ;and cultural author- ML to Randian-
ways, of course, been over- ity: in particular ism was part and
whelmingly male. And unfortu- against the bour- parcel of his
nately, the few female libertarian geoisie from whom adolescent re-
activists suffer from much the he stemmed, against bourgeois bellion: what better way to ration-
same syndrome as the males. norms and conventions, and alize and systematize rejection
The ML was in his twenties against such institutions of social of ones parents, family, and
twenty years ago, and is now in iluthority as churches. To the ML, neighborsthan to join acult which
his forties. That is neither as then, the State is not a unique denounces religion and which
banal, nor as benign as it sounds, problem; it is only the most visible trumpets the absolute superior-
because it means that the move- and odious of many hated bour- ity of yourself and your cult lead-
ment has not really grown in geois institutions: hence the zest ers, as contrasted to the robotic
twenty years; the same dreary with which the ML sports the but- second-handers who suppos-
peoplehave merely gottentwenty ton, Question Authority. edly peoplethte bourgeoisworld?
years older. The ML is fairly And hence, too, the fanatical A cult, furthermore, which calls
bright, and fairly well steeped in hostility of the ML toward Christi- upon you to spurn your parents,
libertariantheory. But he knows anity. I used to think that this family, and bourgeoisassociates,
nothing and cares less about his- militant atheism was merely a and to cultivatethe alleged great-
tory, culture, the context of reality function of the Randianism out of ness of your own individual ego
or world affairs. His only reading which most modern libertarians (suitably guided, of course, by
or cultural knowledge is science emerged two decades ago. But Randian leadership).
fiction, on which the ML is an atheism is not the key, for let There is a certain raffishcharm
expert, and which manages to someone in a libertarian gathering to adolescent rebels at twenty; at
keep him very nicely insulated announce that he or she is a witch forty however,thesameattitudes
4 May1990
 and outlook become odious. The opportunity and to go on at great Basta! Enough! We have had
charm has gone. Lew Rockwells length about his own particular it up to here and were not taking
critics conveniently leap to the great discovery or about his any more. As I will point out in a
assumption that what he and I mighty manuscriptwhich iscrying future installment, the glorious
have been attacking is noticea- out for publication if only it hadnt events of 1989 have ended the
bly hippie hair, manners, and been suppressed by the Powers Cold War and have made an alli-
clothing. But this is a highly That Be. He is, like all fanatics, ance with paleo-conservatives,
superficial view. The only good totally humorless; his idea of high a reconstitution of the Old Right,
thing about hippiedom is that it wit is someone being on the re- possible and feasible. But our
makes the modal nihilos easy to ceiving end of a hotfoot. accelerating disgust with our lib-
spot. But even those MLs who But above all, the ML is a ertarian movement comrades is
look like real people, who wear moocher, a bunco artist, and of- a separate phenomenon, al-
suits and ties, really arent. The ten an outright crook. His basic though it dovetails neatly with our
important point is the personality, attitude toward other libertarians new movement and has given us
the attitudes. is Your house the word paleo.
In short: the is my house. Years ago, when I was la-
ML, if he has a How many liber- mentingto an old friend about the
real world oc- tarians in the crazies in the libertarian move-
cupation, such rare privileged ment, he counselled: Lets face
as accountant position of living it. In a kooky movement, youre
or lawyer, is in an apartment going to get a lot of kooks. True,
generally a or house have but our ideas are not that kooky.
lawyer without not had the While all movements are im-
a practice, an pleasure of perfect vessels for their pure
accountant hearing their ideas, the marvelous libertarian
without a job. doorbell ring, doctrine by no stretch of the imagi-
The MLs mo- and being con- nation deserves this. Once my
dal occupation fronted with old friend Ralph Raico, comment-
is computer someguyonthe ing on some movement atrocity
programmer; doorstep who or other, took his cue from the
the ML was a says, in effect; wonderful line in the movie The
computer nerd Hey man, Im a Godfather, when Lee Strasberg,
long before the libertarian, and as the Meyer Lansky-type, was
inventionofthe expects to be delivering Old World homilies to
personal com- put up for the Corleone: When Moe was killed
puter. Comput- night, the week, (by the Corleones) did I say any-
ers appeal in- or whatever? thing? Did I ask questions? No,
deed to the How many liber- because I said to myself: This is
MLs scientific tarians have had the business we have chosen.
and theoreticalbent; butthey also to chuck such people out into the Ralph paraphrasedthis into This
appeal to his aggravated cold? Libertarians, in short, is the movement we have cho-
nomadism, to his need not to whether they articulate this phi- sen.
have a regular payroll or regular losophy or not, are libertarian- Okay. That worked as a con-
abode. Furthermore, it is easy to communists: anyone with prop- solation of sorts for years. But we
call yourself a computer consult- erty is automatically expected to paleos have had it. Were opting
ant when what you really are is shareit with the other members out. Were unchoosingthe move-
unemployed. of his extended libertarian Yam- ment Wereforming anew move-
The ML also has the thou- ily. ment of ur own: paleo-libertarian-
sand-milestare of the fanatic. He We paleo libertarians are ism. N.6.:This is the first of multi-
is apt to buttonholeyou at the first people who are finally saying, part article.) -M.N.R.

May 1990 5