Walter Block - I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians

I CHOSE LIBERTY

I CHOSE LIBERTY

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF CONTEMPORARY LIBERTARIANS

COMPILED BY
WALTER BLOCK

LVMI

MISES INSTITUTE

2010 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0. http://creativecommons.Org/licenses/by/3.0/

Ludwig von Mises Institute
518 West Magnolia Avenue
Auburn, Alabama 36832
mises.org

ISBN: 978-1-61016-002-5

SOME YEARS AGO, at the suggestion of Lew Rockwell, I wrote my own short autobiography, and began asking others in our Austro-libertarian movement to contribute their own stories to my collection.

Autobiographies are important. Our movement consists of more than merely the ideas of Austrianism and libertarianism, no matter how important those undoubtedly are. What more? It is comprised of people, real flesh and blood creatures who extend beyond, far beyond, the thoughts they hold at any given time. The proportion of words written by us, about our ideals and about ourselves, is, overwhelmingly in favor of the former. The present compilation of autobiographies will, in some small way, tend to right this imbalance.

Very few of us will write an entire book-length autobiography about ourselves, nor have complete biographies written about us. One benefit of the present initiative is that it serves as a short substitute for that type of publication. This is a relatively costless way for us to tell the stories of what it was like before we came to our present Austro-libertarian beliefs, what the process of discovery was, who were the people, and which were the books that influenced us in this direction, and how have our lives changed as a result of this political economic odyssey.

As I reach closer and closer to my retirement age, I am more and more concerned that I and others of my generation pass on the precious baton that has been handed to us by those who came before. These chapters can serve as an inspiration to the younger people who only now are beginning to become interested in promoting liberty and economic rationality. Given that we are all already as busy as we can be adding to the Austro-libertarian edifice, how better can we do this than by telling the younger generation of the process through which we arrived at our present states?

This autobiography, all on its lonesome, might be the means of converting some people to the freedom philosophy. That is, all of our arguments, all of our evidence, might fail, and yet, our personal stories succeed, in this regard. Why? One possibility is that, like it or not, Austro-libertarianism comes across to some as cold. We are heartless. We are capitalists pigs. We have cash registers for hearts, and dollar signs on our eyeballs. Another dozen Atlas Shruggeds, Man, Economy, and States, or Human Actions, for such people, will avail us nothing. They will only further engender the message that we do not care for the poor, or downtrodden, or some such idiocy. However, our own personal stories are, well, personal. When we are not seen as cold-blooded and cold-hearted, there is a chance that our substantive message will be given a greater, more sympathetic hearing on the part of such people.

Ordinarily, putting a human face on capitalism is to compromise our principles by coupling free enterprise with some sort of welfare program. Here, in this book, we can attain this goal, at least partially, in an entirely different way, without any compromise whatsoever.

What are some of the other benefits? This book can serve as raw material for sociologists, or psychologists who wish to study people with minority viewpoints. We can perhaps better learn how to promote liberty from the commonalities of our paths in this direction. Virtually none of us started out as full Austro-libertarians. What attracted us to this philosophy may in turn attract others.

As far as I am personally concerned, Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, and Murray N. Rothbard are the three people most responsible for creating the movement that has the best chance of bringing about the free and prosperous society. I dedicate this book to their memory.

MY INITIAL INCLINATION TOWARD Walter Blocks kind invitation to write the story of how I became a Libertarian was to decline it. I didnt think I qualified to take on the label. But Walter explained that he defines libertarianism very widely, synonymously with market advocate, limited government philosophy, free enterpriser,