Brennan thinks hes being cute by referring to Rothbard as Hackman in this unbelievably puerile post (he got his insipid giggles by referring to Rockwell as Stonegood previously). The most disgusting part is his reiterated dismissal of Rothbard for not being highly regarded by academia. What is particularly grating is the sacrifice that men like Rothbard and Mises consciously made by sticking to their guns and never pulling their punches in their fight for truth. Coming out of Columbia, as brilliant, prolific, and widely read as he was, he could have written his own ticket in the post-war Federally-subsidized boom in academia, perhaps even ending up with a plush position at the Federal Reserve. But he insisted on saying exactly what he believed about economics, drawing the ire of Arthur Burns who stood in the way of Rothbard getting his PhD for years, until Burns left to launch his career in Washington, which included his later disastrous tenure as Fed chief. Rothbard also could have written his own ticket in the burgeoning conservative movement. He probably could have built his early involvement with the National Review into a well-paid career in the New Right, and eventually in the Nixon and Reagan administrations, as so many others did. But he insisted on saying exactly what he believed about foreign policy, drawing the ire of William F. Buckley who wrote him out of the movement. Even when he co-founded his own think tank (the Cato Institute), he got kicked out for speaking his mind! And so after all that, someone who appreciated Rothbard managed to cobble together enough support from small and medium-sized donors to found an institute that supported and promotes his work and that of his similarly self-sacrificing mentor Mises (who also could have written his own ticket had he sold out) and which honors their memory. And for its efforts and its resulting exclusion from establishment respectability, that institute is denounced for being cult-like and insular. And Rothbard himself is dismissed for being just an activist and a hack since he was not professionally successful enough. And who are the ones doing the sniffy denouncing and dismissing? Why, the very libertarians who are considered by the establishment to be mealy-mouthed and harmless enough to be allowed to climb the ladder in the ivory tower and the halls of power: folks who would have never had the moral courage and resolve to sacrifice what Rothbard and Mises sacrificed. There are few things more revolting than the spectacle of moral/intellectual pygmies spitting on the graves of moral/intellectual giants.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 20:41:44 +0000
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