Book Review: Beginnings of the Great Society

Libertarians have always had a sense of history. Mainly because they puzzle over the USA of the 19th Century and its transformation into the USA of 2007. Many explanations are offered. A Pulitzer prize winner, Robert A. Caro, has made a unique contribution to this political conundrum in a multi-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson. What a book! the first two volumes, which I read, The Path to Power and Means of Ascent, go 1400 pages. LBJ, you’ll recall is referred to as the founder of “The Great Society”; big benevolent government.

Who was this “Great Liberator”?

[Lincoln Unmasked: What You’re Not Supposed to Know About Dishonest Abe. By Thomas J. DiLorenzo. Crown Forum, 2006. 223 pgs.]

Thomas DiLorenzo calls attention to a vital fact that demolishes the popular view that one of Lincoln’s primary motives for opposing secession in 1861 was his distaste for slavery. Precisely the opposite was the case.

The State Breeds Social Conflict

The political season brings promises to “bring us together as a community” and “heal the divisions between us.” Here is what the political class won’t reveal: their laws, programs, restrictions, subsidies — the whole panoply of interventionist measures they love and of which they promise ever more — are the main source of social division. In contrast, markets draw people into peaceful social relationships, and encourage and reward harmonious interaction among people.

The Exploitation of Children?

Lew Rockwell writes: Thanks to a conspiracy of health Nazis (this is a particularly apt phrase since the Nazis were pioneers in the art of badgering people over health issues), public interest law firms, and government officials, the days of kid-directed advertising for many products is coming to an end. To those who see conspiracy in every commercial, ads directed toward kids are seen as exploitative and evil, child abuse at the hands of the merchant class. And you thought they were only trying to sell you a delicious breakfast!

If Men Were Angels

In If Men Were Angels Robert Higgs analyzes James Madison’s famous passage from The Federalist No. 51 containing the quotable line “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” This is an excellent article with several useful analytical approaches to thinking about the state. Of particular value is a section on the “dynamic considerations” left out by the Hobbesian or Lockean account of moving from the “state of nature” to a state:

“The issue has caught Congress’s eye, as it searches for revenue sources.”

When you need the dough to fund your welfare, war, political favors, corporatocracy, assorted government agencies, the hiring of new agents for the state, and other assorted crookery, where do you turn? To the economics and finance genius, Robert E. Rubin, of course! Rubin says that the hedge fund wizards are a great, new source of cash for the federal government.

Chodorov the Great

I think this might be the last of the Chodorov books available to be put online. If not, please let me know. In any case, this is a treasure: One is a Crowd. It collects his most profound essays on individualism, many of which I hope to see as Daily Articles. I was riveted by his biographical essay on the meaning of his own Jewishness to his life and beliefs. His piece on what educational institutions should do is unforgettable. Incredible material here.

Economic Lessons Everywhere

As our political class prides itself on past, current, and future exploits, the masses pay for monuments that will one day tumble into the mud. Hubris is one human attribute that never goes wanting, and it increases with power and prestige. Wars and carnivals, or guns and butter, destroy the capital needed to keep society progressing. Either we learn our lessons from the Romans or we will be the archeological site of a subsequent generation. Trading Liberty, Freedom, and Property for a marble obelisk that will not weather the storms of the ages is no inheritance for our children, or our children’s children.
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