The Conservative has long been marked, whether he knows it or not, by long-run pessimism: by the belief that the long-run trend, and therefore Time itself, is against him, and hence the inevitable trend runs toward left-wing statism at home and Communism abroad. It is this long-run despair that accounts for the Conservative's rather bizarre short-run optimism; for since the long-run is given up as hopeless, the Conservative feels that his only hope of success rests in the current moment.
Originally appearing in Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought (Spring 1965, pp. 4-22), this audio essay is occasioned by the startlingly uncritical attitude American conservatives have shown toward the consolidation of state power that has been unleashed since the atrocities of September 11.
Murray N. Rothbard made major contributions to economics, history, political philosophy, and legal theory. He combined Austrian economics with a fervent commitment to individual liberty.
