Rothbard, Rand, and Radicals for CapitalismMike Rappaport

Radicals for Capitalism is the name of the new book by Brian Doherty on the modern history (intellectual and gossip) of the libertarian movement.  Rand, Mises, Hayek, Rothbard and Friedman as well as scores of other less well known eccentrics.  I caught Doherty on the C-Span show After Words over the weekend, and it was quite interesting.  I am really looking forward to reading it.  Also see this review by John Fund in the Wall Street Journal. 

I used to know quite a bit about libertarian lore, back when I was a full fledged libertarian — not the moderate squish libertarian-conservative fusionist I am now.      

When I was 19, I attended Cato Summer Camp — then held at Dartmouth.  In many ways it was an intellectual disappointment (although I hear it has much improved), but still it was great to see some of the famous.  One part that stands out was my time with Murray Rothbard, who was happy to tell stories about the other libertarians and Rand.  By coincidence, we found out that Ayn Rand was going to be on Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow Show one night.  So Rothbard, myself, and a few others found a TV and watched Rand.  It was a pretty amazing experience.  It turned surreal when Snyder asked Rand what she believed was the cause of the problems in the world, and she explained, on network television, that the problems all were due to Immanuel Kant.  (I can’t remember whether the culprit was Kant’s belief that man cannot have direct knowledge of the real world or his belief that an act done for selfish reasons has no moral value — but either one would be true for Rand.) Snyder was puzzled by this, to say the least.  And Rothbard, if I remember correctly, thought it was hilarious. 

Rothbard himself was not terribly impressive that week.  I can still remember him talking about Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty, at the time (and probably still) my favorite book on political theory.  He said, with the kind of Jackie Mason delivery that he had, “I can still remember when it came out.  We sat around and listed on the back in crayon all of the sell-outs.  Social security, zoning, government funding of schools, etc.”  Not exactly an intellectual refutation — more of a litmus test.  (Alas, much of the camp had that character.)  Still, I look back on Rothbard with a certain fondness.