lunes, diciembre 29, 2008

Mr. Libertarian vive!

O al menos eso dice Lew Rockwell en el prólogo de la nueva edición de "Hacia una nueva libertad: El Manifiesto Libertario".

"There are many varieties of libertarianism alive in the world today, but Rothbardianism remains the center of its intellectual gravity, its primary muse and conscience, its strategic and moral core, and the focal point of debate even when its name is not acknowledged. The reason is that Murray Rothbard was the creator of modern libertarianism, a political-ideological system that proposes a once-and-for-all escape from the trappings of left and right and their central plans for how state power should be used. Libertarianism is the radical alternative that says state power is unworkable and immoral. "Mr. Libertarian," Murray N. Rothbard was called, and "The State's Greatest Living Enemy." He remains so".
Ciertamente el rothbardianismo esta más vivo que nunca, por mucho que algunos Rothbardianos de izquierdas no creamos tanto en su estrategía para la libertad, como en el núcleo de la teoría. No es fácil obviar la contradicción medios-fines del reformismo político.

También dice Lew - partiendo de la definición convencional de la "izquierda" y, la dada a la confusión, definición de socialismo de la escuela austríaca - que el libertarianismo moderno no se origino como la anti-izquierda, sino, también, como una reacción a la planificación conservadora americana (incluyendo, especialmente al incomprensiblemente idolatrado Ronald Reagan):

  • "modern libertarianism was born not in reaction to socialism or leftism – though it is certainly anti-leftist (as the term is commonly understood) and antisocialist. Rather, libertarianism in the American historical context came into being in response to the statism of conservatism and its selective celebration of a conservative-style central planning. American conservatives may not adore the welfare state or excessive business regulation but they appreciate power exercised in the name of nationalism, warfarism, "pro-family" policies, and invasion of personal liberty and privacy. In the post-LBJ period of American history, it has been Republican presidents more than Democratic ones who have been responsible for the largest expansions of executive and judicial power. It was to defend a pure liberty against the compromises and corruptions of conservatism – beginning with Nixon but continuing with Reagan and the Bush presidencies – that inspired the birth of Rothbardian political economy".
Efectivamente Rothbard es hoy plenamente actual ante la crisis del estatismo. Su mayor mérito es haber sabido unir varias tradiciones aparentemente contrapuestas en beneficio de la causa de la libertad humana:

Yes, he had many predecessors from whom he drew: the whole of the classical-liberal tradition, the Austrian economists, the American antiwar tradition, and the natural-rights tradition. But it was he who put all these pieces together into a unified system that seems implausible at first but inevitable once it has been defined and defended by Rothbard. The individual pieces of the system are straightforward (self-ownership, strict property rights, free markets, anti-state in every conceivable respect) but the implications are earthshaking.

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