Friday, October 13, 2017

Libertarianism and the “Alt-Right”



Annually Hans Hoppe and his wife Gulcin host a conference of the Property and Freedom Society, in Bodrum, Turkey.  From the “About” page:

The Property and Freedom Society stands for an uncompromising intellectual radicalism: for justly acquired private property, freedom of contract, freedom of association—which logically implies the right to not associate with, or to discriminate against—anyone in one’s personal and business relations—and unconditional free trade. It condemns imperialism and militarism and their fomenters, and champions peace. It rejects positivism, relativism, and egalitarianism in any form, whether of “outcome” or “opportunity,” and it has an outspoken distaste for politics and politicians.

Ever since this year’s conference, I have awaited publication of Hoppe’s speech from the conference; the title of this post is also the title of his speech.

Hoppe is at his best in this speech (but I cannot point to a speech he has given when he wasn’t).  He weaves a narrative through the co-opting of the terms liberal and liberalism, the current co-opting of the term libertarian, a strong critique of left-libertarians (including less-than-flattering words for Jeffrey Tucker).

He identifies the alt-right movement as beginning with Pat Buchanan in the early 1990s.  He draws the connections between the alt-right movement and libertarianism. 

He focusses on two questions: How to maintain a libertarian order once you have achieved it?  How to attain a libertarian order from a non-libertarian starting point?  To answer these questions, in addition to libertarian theory you need to understand human psychology and sociology.  While holding a coherent theory, many libertarians are blind to this reality of humans being human.

Alternatively, the alt-right better understands human psychology and sociology, yet has no coherent underlying theory; Hoppe describes the several positions of the alt-right that are contrary to libertarian theory.  Yet, the alt-right has brought to the surface the questions that libertarians (other than those like Hoppe) have been unable, or even impotent, to answer.

As must be obvious to anyone reading this blog for any period of time, I walk along a similar path…albeit about seven light-years behind Hoppe.

The video of his speech can be found here.  I understand a transcript will soon be available.  When it is, I will write a more extensive post.

21 comments:

  1. I also was waiting anxiously for this speech to be published. BM, I wonder if you came away with the same thing I did; Hoppe may be close to, or already have, the solution to the problem of a libertarian view of immigration while the State still exists. I believe the key was his comments that public property is not "unowned."

    And the Tucker bit was brilliant. I would have loved to have seen Kinsella's face.

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  2. Amazing speech. Here is a transcription
    https://pastebin.ca/3886708

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    Replies
    1. Good transcript but only through the first 17 minutes.

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    2. What, specifically, was wrong with the rest?

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  3. Thanks for posting the link. HHH came across as a man of the west.

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    Replies
    1. Do not focus on the shadow of a setting sun. We all look tall that way.

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    2. Jaime, perhaps you missed my attempt at a bit of fun?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtGdJQrnnkQ

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    3. No, I did not! You missed mine. :P

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    4. Well...you are the native; I only passed through for a spell.

      A clue, perhaps?

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  4. nice speech.

    basically say this:


    Humans are social creatures

    The Bully Theory of the State
    https://www.garynorth.com/public/12688.cfm


    The main problem, however, is not the statist welfare system as such, but the doctrine of the civil covenant.

    https://mises.org/library/sanctuary-society-and-its-enemies-0


    the U.S. Government Will Default on Its Debt
    https://www.garynorth.com/public/10076.cfm


    All Politics Is Local:

    Which institution would I de-fund 100%?

    https://www.garynorth.com/public/15930.cfm


    The key to political success is not an overnight grab for power at the top. The key is a 50-year program of replacement at the bottom.

    https://www.garynorth.com/public/2928.cfm

    max

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    Replies
    1. max, please tell Dr. North that my site doesn't generate enough traffic to make it worth his paying you to post several dozen links per week to his site.

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    2. LOL. Good thing I was not drinking anything when reading your response.

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  5. "The key to political success is not an overnight grab for power at the top. The key is a 50-year program of replacement at the bottom."

    Hoppe does not say this at all. Hoppe says the precise opposite, that educating the common man about libertarianism is pointless. Instead he proposes populism to push forward libertarianism. Rothbard also supported this, and called it "Outreach to the Rednecks".

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    Replies
    1. Local stuff is important but to also state that national laws and regulations have no [over]bearing influence on local government management is wrong.

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  6. “he proposes populism to push forward libertarianism.”

    1)you can google:

“It Doesn't Matter Who's President”

    “Do Presidential Elections Really Matter?”

    - unelected bureaucrats are in charge

- and populist believe in free lunch ( medicare, social security )

    -and any changes done on the street will just concentrate power more



    “ Local stuff is important but to also state that national laws and regulations have no [over]bearing influence on local government management is wrong. “

    nothing can be done starting from the top, need to start from bottom --from the individual,family... up.

    people believe this:

    "Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote"

    until this change, nothing will

    max

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    Replies
    1. There are many things local government cannot do because of federal laws. Many Federal actions that affect local governments.

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    2. Max, have you ever read a book besides the bible that was not authored by Gary North? You know there are lots of people with valid critiques of Gary North's belief system, and North has failed to answer those critiques adequately.

      Take this thoughtful letter to Gary North -

      https://www.garynorth.com/public/11847.cfm

      North is so triggered that he isn't even able to deal with it logically. Instead he uses ad hominem attacks and cries racist rather than meet the intellectual challenge.

      Delete
  7. I think Gary did excellent job in his replay ( I wish I can do same ).

    you need to read more to see that IQ is not everything and can not explain everything.

    I quote Gary North writings because he write about market and morality.

    max

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  8. Hey Bionic,
    I follow the alt right from about January 2016.

    It has change since then but the movement during the 2016 was led mostly by Jared Tyler and Ramsey Paul (the man himself said that he was an ex-Libertarian). Many have become what is called alt light but it is funny during the American Renaissance 2016 Jared Tyler put a music video before Ramsey Paul speech on what is the alt right (by the way Paul’s video on the Alt Right original ideas in 2016 is really interesting).

    What is interesting is that not only did they include Pat Buchanan as what they would class as the intelligent development of the alt right philosophy but they included Hans Hoppe and Stefan Molyneux.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21wxkpk27FY
    about 1:58 to 2:00 when they mention Hans Hoppe

    I think they include him probably due to his writings and speeches on private property (though they don't believe in free trade), peaceful association over forceful, the question on Open Borders, Hans time preference in humans (many similarities to the r vs K), The Myth of Democracy and writings on the EU.

    It also probably help that many were former Libertarians

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  9. I forgot to mention they also include Murray Rothbard 1:15 in the video. Probably for similar reasons as Hans Hoppe.

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