The Hoppe Victory Blog, with 1000 plus signatures, represents a spectacular, even unprecedented, international effort by supporters of liberty on behalf of a libertarian intellectual under fire. In addition the signers of the Victory Blog, major European scholars have sent the following correspondence to the president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, concerning the treatment of Hans-Hermann Hoppe. As they correctly discern, the attack was politically driven and its implications should be of grave concern for all dissident intellectuals. For more on the details, see the Hoppe Victory Blog:
We are shocked to learn that Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe--whom we know well for his important contributions to economic science and political philosophy--is being harassed by your administration for a remark he made on the likely behaviour of homosexuals as concerns savings. Even if picking up such an example for explaining time preference rate offended the sensibility of a student, which is indeed a pity since it is widely acknowledged that Professor Hoppe didn’t mean to be personal in any way, the plea of the offended student should not have been accepted by the University. By accepting it the University is not only in breach of academic freedom, but also in breach of the freedom of speech.
This episode is most depressing and of particular concern for us here in Europe, since many of us here had the experience of living under unbearable, suffocating conditions of the Communist and Nazi totalitarianism, and most of us have always looked to America as an example-setting free nation.
Are we now to learn the lesson--taught by your University--that in American universities anyone proclaiming political correctness, or anyone engaged in politically correct spy reporting, is able to destroy anyone who is doing research or drawing conclusions from self-evident premises? We hope this is not the case.
Jacob Arfwedson, Eurolibnetwork, France
-Derek Bernard, Jersey
-Simon Bilo, University of Economics, Czech Republic
-Dr. Hardy Bouillon, Centre for the New Europe, Belgium
-Professor Gabriel Calzada Álvarez, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain
-Professor Enrico Colombatto, University of Turin, Italy
-Dr. Algirdas Degutis, Institute of Culture, Philosophy and Art, Lithuania
-Dr. Tim Evans, President, Centre for the New Europe, Belgium
-Renato Farina, Deputy editor, “Libero”, Italy
-Luca Ferrini, University of Torino, Italy
-Professor Cesare Galli, University of Parma, Italy
-Lord Harris of High Cross, Founder President, Institute of Economic Affairs, UK
-Jan Havel, University of Economics, Czech Republic
-Joerg Gudio Hülsmann, University of Angers, France
-Mindaugas Jurkūnas, Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University, Lithuania
-Elena Leontjeva, Lithuanian Free Market Institute, Lithuania
-Professor David Lipka, Prague school of economics, Czech Republic
-Dr. Carlo Lottieri, Law University of Siena, Italy
-Peter van Maanen, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands
-Professor Antonio Martino, Minister of Defense, Italy
-Alberto Mingardi, Instituto Bruno Leoni, Italy
-Paolo Pamini, Institut Constant de Rebecque, Switzerland
-Professor Angelo Maria Petroni, University of Bologna, Italy
-Massimiliano Neri, Universitad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain
-Dr. Gerard Radnitzky, em. o. Professor, Germany
-Dr. Jaroslav Romanchuk, President of Minsk Mises Center, Belarus
-Professor Pascal Salin, University Paris-Dauphine, France
-Dr. Josef Sima, University of Economics, Czech Republic
-Dr. Remigijus Simasius, Lithuanian Free Market Institute, and Lithuanian Law University, Lithuania
-Carlo Stagnaro, Istituto Bruno Leoni, Italy
-Alessandro Stanchi, Italy
-Ugnius Trumpa, Lithuanian Free Market Institute, Lithuania
-Paolo Zanetto, Istituto Bruno Leoni, Italy
(list not intended to exclude anyone who could not be contacted in time for the letter to appear)
