Sicking The Saddamites #2 - Rockwellians: Enemies Of Liberty
by Steven Thomas Druckenmiller
The neo-confederates at LewRockwell.com may be the most dangerous enemies of liberty since Noam Chomsky. Under the guise of freedom, the paleo-conservatives at LewRockwell.com promote anarchy to the highest degree. Their motto, “anti-state, anti-war, pro-market” should be warning enough for any commonsense Objectivist to stay away. After all, being “anti-war” all the time (as the creatures at LewRockwell.com are) drops the context. To state that “libertarians [are mandated] to oppose wars, whenever and wherever they begin” (Gregory, 1-26-05) means that the troglodytes at Rockwell would have opposed even the Revolutionary War—which of course would be fine for them, because their constant America-bashing indicates that they would rather the United States not exist at all.
Indeed, as all Objectivists know, the state qua the state is good and necessary. It keeps men free from the rule of roaming gangs and dangerous thieves. However, for Rockwellians, it is fashionable to be “anti-state” at all times, going so far as to advocate private police. Of course, no Objectivist has a problem with hiring a private security force, but everyone is entitled to the protection of the state, no matter how rich or poor, despite the Rockwellians' agonized objections.
Of course, a favorite target of Rockwellians is Lincoln—hence the neo-confederate label, which they richly deserve, for it is in their attempts to justify secessions of states that Rockwellians show their true colors, and those colors look suspiciously like the top of the Duke boys’ car.
Although most of this can be chalked up to the farcical nature of Murray Rothbard, who stole his ideas from Ayn Rand, the reason that modern Rockwellians are so dangerous is that they wear the label, “libertarians.” Not only do they discredit mainstream libertarianism when they go on and on about “the right to secede” and calling Bush a liar and Saddam a truth-teller (Browne, 1-17-05—perhaps M. Browne missed the Iraqi Misinformation Minister), but they also vociferously attack the Objectivist system without providing a solid philosophical base of their own. They believe that freedom is consistent in the light of Christianity, anarchy, Confederatism and pacifism ... any philosophical system, in fact, that would oppose Objectivism. Were a society actually founded on any of the above-mentioned systems, freedom would likely be a rare thing indeed.
The shrill cries of the Rockwellians about how bloodthirsty Objectivists are, and Raimondo’s ridiculous yet all-too-familiar ad hominem that we’re a cult notwithstanding, the Rockwellians themselves are the cult, faithfully believing that the state has no proper place in society, that war can never solve anything and no good can come of it, and clenching tightly to the amulet of the market to solve every problem. It is these enemies whom libertarians must first defeat in the philosophical realm, because the Rockwellians are too much baggage for libertarianism to ever be taken seriously.
Gregory, Anthony Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of World War, January 26th
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