We know the fate of the term liberal and liberalism. It has been affixed to so many different people and different positions that it has lost all its meaning and become an empty, non-descript label. The same fate now increasingly also threatens the term libertarian and libertarianism that was invented to regain some of the conceptual precision lost with the demise of the former labels.

I first met Murray Rothbard in the summer of 1985. I was then 35 and Murray was 59. For the next ten years, until Murray’s premature death in 1995, I would be associated with Murray, first in New York City and then in Las Vegas, at UNLV, in closer, more immediate and direct contact than anyone else, except his wife Joey, of course.

Being almost as old now as Murray was at the time of his death I thought it appropriate to use this occasion to speak and reflect a bit on what I learned during my ten years with Murray.

a priori truth, 8
academics, role of, 31
adversity, Rothbard’s reaction to, 109
affirmative action laws
   end of, 93
   role of, 36
agnosticism, 102
alternative lifestyles, advocacy of, 14
Alt-Right (Alternative Right), 78
   beliefs of, summarized,
       80
   goals of, 81
   lack of theoretical foun-
       dations for, 82
   mysticism of, 20
America’s democratic capital-
    ism 102

Because every action requires the employment of specific physical means — a body, standing room, external objects — a conflict between different actors must arise, whenever two actors try to use the same physical means for the attainment of different purposes. The source of conflict is always and invariably the same: the scarcity or rivalrousness of physical means. Two actors cannot at the same time use the same physical means — the same bodies, spaces and objects — for alternative purposes. If they try to do so, they must clash.

Libertarianism is logically consistent with almost any attitude toward culture, society, religion, or moral principle. In strict logic, libertarian political doctrine can be severed from all other considerations; logically one can be — and indeed most libertarians in fact are: hedonists, libertines, immoralists, militant enemies of religion in general and Christianity in particular — and still be consistent adherents of libertarian politics.

The writings collected in this book are mostly addresses given in Bodrum to the Property and Freedom Society, of which Professor Hoppe is both Founder and President. I was fortunate to hear them read out to the gathering, and I am deeply honoured to have been asked to provide an Introduction to the published versions.

What is important in life is life, and not the result of life. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken! — Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

1 percenters, 50
99 percenters, 42
adaptive, 17, 28, 31–33, 35, 64, 84, 95, 96
Alien and Sedition Acts, 102
Allison, Julia, 57
Andersen, Hans Christian, 13
antidiscrimination laws, 59, 61
Aquinas, Saint Thomas, 19
Arendt, Hannah, 77
assumptive close, 44
Axelrod, Robert, 32, 84