Jessica Pavoni explains how she came to know Mises, Rothbard, and the rest:
At that point, Hubby and I had more than six deployments between us, so we were credible listeners. Even more impressive: here was a guy [Ron Paul] who wasn’t toeing the party line, wasn’t kowtowing to pressure, and was actually speaking common sense! Look up any video of any presidential debate in which Dr. Paul takes part, and it’s abundantly clear that he is no politician (this is a compliment in my book). It’s safe to say that listening to his position on foreign policy was the first step down the rabbit hole; I didn’t fully understand every issue that he spoke about, but his words came through like a clear bell. Who was this guy? Where did he come from? What did he know? I was hooked.
We bought a book – Liberty Defined (highly recommend it – short, sweet, and easy to understand). I felt myself being pulled out of the apathetic, unconscious masses, and started to wake up. I started to care, I wanted to learn, and I needed to understand how the United States had found itself in the position of being mired in warfare, welfare, and eroding individual liberties. I had seen warfare; I had lost friends. These things mattered. This was real life happening. Dr. Paul was the first person to shed light on the root causes and offer an alternative system.
We began to research the great thinkers, writers, and economists that Dr. Paul referenced. We discovered Murray Rothbard (For a New Liberty and Ethics of Liberty), Ludwig von Mises (Human Action, LvMI), Lysander Spooner (Vices Are Not Crimes and No Treason), Frederic Bastiat (The Law), Peter Schiff, Ivan Eland, Lew Rockwell, and countless others. Over the course of 18 months, I progressed slowly but steadily from conservative neocon (I joined the military in the first place, right?) to limited-government proponent, to minarchism, and then finally the logically-deduced, well-researched, sound philosophy of anarcho-capitalism (self-ownership and non-aggression).
