Socialists are collectivist in their proposals. But they are Communist in their idealism. Now there is a real pleasure in sharing. We have all felt it in the case of nuts off a tree or the National Gallery, or such things. But it is not the only pleasure nor the only altruistic pleasure, nor (I think) the highest or most human of altruistic pleasures. I greatly prefer the pleasure of giving and receiving. Giving is not the same as sharing: giving is even the opposite of sharing.

MY EARLIEST POLITICAL MEMORY is of a rally at the Arizona State Fairgrounds where Herbert I Led Three Lives Philbrick was speaking about his life as a double agent for the FBI. His story of espionage in the Cold War was chilling and I could see from my Mom’s attitude that this was to be taken seriously. Tyrants, after all, were in the midst of killing 150 million people in the twentieth century.

GROWING UP IN BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, born to a Greek and Sicilian family, I had some conservative predilections as a young high school student. One of my earliest high school teachers had a big influence on me; his name was Ira Zornberg. He was a faculty advisor of a social studies newspaper called Gadfly that I edited. He was the first teacher to bring the study of the Holocaust to high school students.

IF ONE CAN BE BORN AN anachronism, I was. I first saw the light of day in Detroit, Michigan, and my earliest memory—at the age of three or four—is of being taken to nearby Belle Isle where I was permitted to wander about an old wooden schooner named the J.T. Wing. Ever since I have been fascinated by sailing ships. My childhood fantasy was to be a designer of such ships, but since they were no longer economically viable, there was no demand for that sort of expertise.

I WAS BORN INTO A MIDDLE-CLASS English household in Woodford Green, Essex, a suburban area just outside the borders of London. My father was the headmaster of a state school for educationally subnormal children, and my mother a teacher. I was (by far) the youngest of three children, and my father died when I was seven years old. After this things became financially quite difficult.

MY ARRIVAL AT PHILOSOPHICAL ANARCHISM has disturbed some of my conservative and Christian friends. In fact, it surprises me, going as it does against my own inclinations.

As a child I acquired a deep respect for authority and a horror of chaos. In my case the two things were blended by the uncertainty of my existence after my parents divorced and I bounced from one home to another for several years, often living with strangers. A stable authority was something I yearned for.

UNLIKE MANY OF YOUR OTHER CONTRIBUTORS, I can pinpoint the exact date on which I started on the road to being a libertarian. On June 14th, 1994 I read in a testimonial to Henry Hazlitt (who died in 1993) entitled, “A Rembrandt among commentators,” written by Michael Prowse in the Financial Times of June 13th. One of the disadvantages of living in Bermuda, is that the FT arrives a day late, although some of its advantages such as not having to pay income tax provide compensation.

GENEVA IS A SMALL TOWN IN the Finger Lakes region of western New York State. I was born and raised there in a family that was Irish in extraction, Catholic in religion, entrepreneurs by occupation, and thoroughly Democrat in politics. I now realize that by the time I left Geneva for college I was already a libertarian, a fact I credit to my family, especially my mother and father.