September 26, 2005
SCREW 'EM, I GOT MINE:
My Speech at the Antiwar Rally (Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., September 26, 2005, Mises.org)
I was invited to speak at a peace march and rally in Birmingham, Alabama, sponsored by the Alabama Peace and Justice Coalition, and gladly accepted the offer to speak against the war in Iraq.Yes, as you might guess, the program was dominated by leftists who rightly oppose the war but want big government to run the economy. I accepted for the same reason I would accept an engagement to speak against taxes even if sponsored by a right-wing group that also favored the war and militarism.
The opportunity to make a difference in favor of freedom should not be passed up, even if one's associates have a mixed-up ideology. After all, most ideologies these days are mixed up, and have been for the better part of a century.
Those who want free markets domestically typically want central planning and socialism when it comes to war and peace, while those who see the merit of diplomacy and minding one's own business in foreign policy can't reconcile themselves to capitalism as the only economic system that lets people alone to live happy, prosperous lives.
What unites the Left and the far Right is their complete indifference to peoples who don't get to enjoy the way of life Mr. Rockwell advocates. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 26, 2005 12:00 AM
Only war justifies the accretion of state power.
This is why freedom-loving people should be on high alert when someone starts talking about a "war on poverty" ot "the moral equivalent of war" or some such excuse for tyranny.
There is nothing inconsistent or hypocritical about this distinction. We need the state to organize and discipline us so that our enemies may be crushed. We do not need to be crushed ourselves.
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Posted by: Lou Gots at September 26, 2005 11:28 AMWilliam F. Buckley made a comparable argument when he was interviewed by Playboy: That, on balance, it's worth lending one's credibility to a dubious organization in order to promulgate good ideas. Obviously it's a matter of prudence.
Posted by: Paul Cella at September 26, 2005 2:57 PMThen why did he purge the Birchers?
Posted by: oj at September 26, 2005 3:01 PM