Murray Rothbard, Much Needed Civilized Discourse

by Tom Valentine

A brief memoir by Murray Rothbard found via archives at LewRockwell. com triggered so much deep thought and remembrance in me, I am forced to review it out of gratitude for the lessons.

Firstly, Rothbard is not nearly as famous as he should be, thanks to our controlled education and media, which are designed and financed to obliterate truth.

Rothbard is an icon among Libertarians, which is why he gets little or no play in established circles.

A Libertarian is anti-State; antifascism, and pro-individual liberty, and property rights. Those of you who can think critically—think about that. If you are over 40 and prefer states over libertarianism, You are still wrapped in a cocoon—Probably a neococoon.

I will stop insulting now. Rothbard’s writing teaches how to be effective in civil discourse. All the blustering about the many evils enveloping our world has done little to affect positive change. Our present climate here at VT, which is one of healthy exposures of criminal activity against humanity is good for the world and needs to go viral, as they say in Netspeak.

But, (there’s that damned word again) Isn’t it time for calm, sound reasoning and excellent recollections of history? Now we have it, in only eleven pages: www.lewrockwell.com

In this 1994 essay, Rothbard outlines the labeling of political ideologies, which have served to shape our present day milieu of confusion and chaos (my words, not Murray’s).

He cites the “New Deal” of FDR’s 1930s as the catalyst for the “old” right, which “realized the horrors of the New Deal and predicted the collectivist road on which it was setting the nation.”

RRothbard’s family memories are most instructive, especially how he, like me and many of our (30s and 40s) generation, idolized and learned from his father—a Jewish immigrant from Poland in 1910, who rejected everything Yiddish and immersed himself and his family into American culture. (The greatest fear the Zionists have is such ‘assimilation/rejection.)

Therefore Murray utterly rejected the great pressures of Zionism and the racism of The Talmud as he developed into a powerful conservative in the communist dominated environment of New York City.

It is apparent that the nurturing city life he describes lovingly, served to mold his conceptions/perceptions, which eventually gave to the thoughtful world a wealth of fruitful observations. Reading this brief, but expansive piece serves only to enrich thinking, a rare commodity amidst the herds among humanity in our age of soundbites and narcissism.

Tom Valentine

Tom Valentine (born August 20, 1935, same day as Ron Paul) is a businessman, writer, commentator and radio host with an anti-establishment perspective. He worked with Radio Free America from 1988 to 2004. He tends to align with issues from left and right ends of the political spectrum, as well as libertarianism. His main journalistic interests have been unorthodox health care methods and conspiracy theories. He is a believer in many alternatives as cancer cures, and believes that soy products are unhealthy for human consumption. All of his views are at odds with the mainstream medical community.