Rothbard vs. the Crazies
All evidence points to the superiority of the libertarian ideal—private property, capitalism,
international trade, laissez-faire—but something is keeping the world from embracing it.
That something is wrong-headed ideology, some philosophical error grown into a massive
system of thought, an agenda that if unleashed would mutilate and crush civilization as we
know it.
Murray Rothbard had a nose for such error. And when he smelled it, he wrote it up,
exposed its underside, refuted its logic, and obliterated its intellectual foundation. Thats
why he was so hated—and so loved. He is so relentless that it makes the reader squirm.
But he also teaches and inspires.
Consider, for example, “anarcho-socialism.” Here is an ideology that hates the state. Fine
so far. Problem: it is an ideology that hates private property even more. In fact, these
people believe that the state is the only reason private property exists.
Rothbard writes:
“they totally fail to realize that the State has always been the great enemy and invader of
the rights of property Furthermore, scorning and detesting the free market, the
profit-and-loss economy, private property, and material affluence—all of which are
corollaries of each other—Anarcho-Communists wrongly identify anarchism with
communal living, with tribal sharing, and with other aspects of our emerging drug-rock
youth culture.”
Or heres another: those people who are forever complaining about the “ugliness” and
“brutality” of urban commercial life.
Rothbard writes:
“My own observation is that most of the bellyachers about the ugliness of our cities and
singers of paeans to the unspoiled wilderness stubbornly remain ensconced in these very
