In the world of literature on liberty, books fall into three distinct categories. First are the books for experts scholars, deeper works that address high level concepts, social or economic theory, and philosophical ideas. Next are the books for the informed reader, those that have a working knowledge of libertarian ideas and seek to improve one’s understanding of the philosophy of liberty. Finally, there are books for those just starting their journey in liberty, those who have little knowledge of economics or libertarian theory. Jason Rink’s Disciple of Liberty falls into the latter category, and it fills a particularly useful void in libertarian literature: an easily accessible explication of liberty to the Christian newcomer, from the Tea Party proponent to the disillusioned conservative or liberal.

Rink’s key point, made very early in the book, is that Christians do not need to wonder if it is appropriate or biblical to get involved in politics to defend liberty. On the contrary, it is good and right to become informed and take a stand for what is just, good, and right, we ought to get involved in some way. One cannot simply look at Romans 13 and say that “obeying the powers that be” is all we should do. For those “on the fence,” Rink says to get on board.

But Rink does not simply tell us “just do something, anything!” without a care for what we stand for. “Just get out and vote!” is not a compelling message at all. Rather, he takes the minarchist, constitutionalist position, and defends it wholeheartedly. Rink identifies seven priority areas to which Christians should pay special attention:

• Define the limits of authority – The government cannot, and should not, have unlimited power. Limits must be clear and precise.
• Demand fidelity to the Constitution – The limits of authority for the United States Federal Government are found in the Constitution, period. We should continually demand that representatives follow it.
• Defend liberty for all people – If we expect to have liberty, we need to defend liberty even for people with whom we disagree with their choices. This is a difficult, yet absolutely essential element part of our way of life. Rink quotes Thomas Paine:

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”

• Despise debt – We know that individually we cannot spend more than we make; it is unsustainable and irresponsible. The same should be true of the government. No more can they be allowed to spend like a drunken sailor. And this isn’t even about welfare programs either, which account for a small fraction of total government spending. Rather, we must oppose spending on everything that is unconstitutional, from the FCC to the military-industrial complex.
• Demand honest money – The US Federal Reserve and it’s fiat monetary system is fraudulent, backed by nothing but empty promises. A return to the gold standard should be at the top of our priorities, for it is the ultimate check against runaway spending by the State.
• Desire peace with all nations – A Christian is called to love his enemies, not bomb them. We need to understand the history of our current wars in the Middle East and demand that the government cease interventionism.
• Disciple others in liberty – It is time to get involved in the fight for freedom, and we all can play an important role.

Disciple of Liberty has many commendable strengths. The book’s length, about 100 pages long plus reprints of the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, is very appropriate for a reader who is not ready to tackle a tome about libertarianism quite yet. It is fast paced and lively, yet gently brings the reader to see from a different point of view. The seven principles he outlines are really good, all are worth understanding in detail. Striking a balance between length and depth of material is quite a challenge. Overall, Jason Rink has put together an interesting and useful book that can help Christian newcomers to libertarian thinking grasp some fundamental ideas about liberty.

However, there are a few things in the book (or not in the book) that I don’t like. For one thing, the sources and bibliography are surprisingly short. A bit more along the lines of what to read next would have been nice. If I may be so bold, I’d recommend Rothbard’s For a New Liberty and Ron Paul’s Revolution: A Manifesto (which, I should note, was mentioned in the Bibliography).

Another minor point of contention I have with the book is its interpretation of Romans 13, but it is an admittedly debatable topic. Of course, Rink easily disproves the “you just have to obey the government” line that so many evangelicals take. He take’s Chuck Baldwin’s approach, which emphasizes that our contemporary “powers that be” are the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, whereas my own approach is quite a bit different. Detailed exegesis, though, is difficult to distill when you are trying to reign in the length of a book, so it is understandable. But following on this point, overall I have certain doubts about making Constitutionalism our prime directive. Personally, I see the Constitution as a bludgeon or mirror, something we can use to say the Federal Government is so terrible that it does not even follow its own rules and never has. We need to remind people that government is aggression, and that our “resistance” against aggression is to expose such truth without apology. Now, Jason does mention each of these things in the book, so this is just the hard-core anarcho-capitalist in me talking. In no way am I downplaying Jason’s work.

As a personal friend of Jason now, I can honestly say that I am very proud of what he’s done despite my reservations on a few points. This is a great book for liberals, conservatives, or Tea Party supporters, who are all in need of some perspective about what liberty should mean to us. I think that it would be great to give to your Christian parents, relatives, or friends who are fed up with the Federal Government and are looking for an alternative. I encourage you to use Disciple of Liberty to strengthen your own resolve and plant new seeds of liberty in Christian hearts.

Visit Jason Rink at www.jasonrink.com. Buy his book here.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Disciple of Liberty by Jason Rink

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: christian libertarian, Christianity, conservatism, constitution, liberalism, libertarianism, Tea Party, theology, war

Related Content:

• New FAQ Questions Added (2)
• What Happened to the Southern Baptists? (0)
• The Proper Origin of Rights (24)
• Links for this Memorial Day (0)
• How Libertarian Are You? (1)

Russian writer Leo Tolstoy is considered one of the greatest novelists of all time. War and Peace and Anna Karenina have inspired millions over the last century. Less well-known about Tolstoy, though, is that his interpretation of Christian ethics has had a profound effect upon the world, especially regarding non-resistance and pacifism. In this paper, I will examine the development of these themes in Tolstoy’s philosophy as they appear in The Kingdom of God is Within You.

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1838 into an aristocratic family. He was the son of Count Nicholas Ilich Tolstoy and Princess Marya Nikolayevna Volkonsky, whose marriage was one of negotiation and convenience. Social class meant everything in eighteenth-century Russia, and the Tolstoys were part of the upper echelon of power. Leo’s ancestry included generals, diplomats, and ministers of the Tsarist rulers. Thus, Tolstoy enjoyed the privileges of the high class, such as the ability to attend university. As a young man, he lived a profligate and wild life while attending the University of Kazan, struggling to find a purpose in his life. He decided to join the military and went to war. Seeing the grim reality of war motivated him to write, and he achieved some early success in his publications while on the front. He finally married at age 34 and settled down to begin the major portion of his literary career. He also began to re-explore religion and came to a realization about God, the church, the state, and self. It was during this time that he reflected upon the writings of anarchists such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and saw that non-resistance was the only means of lasting change to be found.

In 1884, Tolstoy expounded upon his beliefs in What I Believe, and this work was promptly banned in Russia for its negative imagery of the state and the Russian church. However, it was read widely outside of Russia and garnered much attention, especially by those advocating non-violence in other countries, such as the Quakers in America. Despite the ban, Russian secular and religious intellectuals circulated copies and began attacking Tolstoy’s ideas. In 1894, Tolstoy published The Kingdom of God is Within You, which is a further explanation of his beliefs and a response to his opponents. He writes in Kingdom of the newfound criticism: “These [criticisms of What I Believe] the government tolerated, and even encouraged. So that the refutation of a book which no one was supposed to know anything about was even chosen as the subject for theological dissertations in the academies.” (30) Of course, any work that criticizes the status quo tends to stir such desperate measures.

Tolstoy’s Russia was a country dominated by an elite class of aristocrats, government bureaucrats, military “heroes,” and religious officials. The peasant class was bitterly oppressed through legal maneuvering, taxation, conscription, and a church that legitimized the oppression. An unholy alliance of church and state provided the pretense to keep the peasants from improving their condition. I believe this led Tolstoy away from a traditional creedal Christianity, which to him emphasized conformity, status quo, and doctrines that few people actually believed. Tolstoy viewed the church-state alliance as a complete aberration and perversion of true Christianity for the purpose of keeping the elite in power and the poor supplying their material well-being. He even rejected (though not consistently) the notion of private property, at least as it existed enforced by the state at that time. In contrast, Tolstoy’s conception of Christianity took the words of Jesus with utmost seriousness, elevating the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount as the supreme good.

Tolstoy abhorred violence of any kind. In particular, he viewed the state and its wars as the chief enemies of peace. While normal men interact on a peaceful level the overwhelming majority of the time, war very quickly brings peace and prosperity to ruin:

“Warriors are the scourge of the world. We struggle against nature and ignorance and obstacles of all kinds to make our wretched life less hard. Learned men – benefactors of all – spend their lives in working, in seeking what can aid, what be of use, what can alleviate the lot of their fellows. They devote themselves unsparingly to their task of usefulness, making one discovery after another, enlarging the sphere of human intelligence, extending the bounds of science, adding each day some new store to the sum of knowledge, gaining each day prosperity, ease, strength for their country. War breaks out. In six months the generals have destroyed the work of twenty years of effort, of patience, and of genius. That is what is meant by not falling into the most hideous materialism.” (152)

Tolstoy saw through the veneer of goodness the state wears, with its promises of protection, order, and justice, for what the state really is: organized, institutionalized violence. By its very nature, government cannot reduce violence whatsoever. Tolstoy writes, “Government authority, even if it does suppress private violence, always introduces into the life of men fresh forms of violence, which tend to become greater and greater in proportion to the duration and strength of the government.” (170) Government appears on its face to have some semblance of voluntary nature, but this is a façade since everything a government is capable of doing is only possible because of coercion. “All state obligations, payment of taxes, fulfillment of state duties, and submission to punishments, exiles, fines, etc., to which people appear to submit voluntarily, are always based on bodily violence or the threat of it.” (166)

Yet people accept statism as inevitable, even as right and good, despite the oppression and murder the state perpetrates. In Tolstoy’s words, men know that murder is wrong but are assured by their supposed betters in state offices that what they do is moral, just, and good. They see this inconsistency but believe it is their ignorance that prevents them from understanding the contradiction. “The very grossness and obviousness of the inconsistency confirms them in this conviction.” (304)

Thus, men have become deluded by the state into submission, especially with regards to the use of force. Everyone is under “the condition of the hypnotized,” and like a hypnotized person they will feel and act as they are commanded. The state influences the people such that they lose the power of criticizing state actions, and therefore they follow wherever the state leads them either by example, precept, or suggestion.

How shall mankind overcome the leviathan state? Tolstoy’s answer was Christianity, the absolute dependence upon and practice of the teachings of Christ. Tolstoy derived his ethical principles primarily from the Sermon on the Mount. To him, Christianity was not a mystic religion but a “new theory of life” (hence the subtitle of The Kingdom of God is Within You). Jesus ushered in the new divine theory of life, which “recognizes life not in his own individuality, and not in societies of individualities, but in the eternal undying source of life – in God; and to fulfill the will of God he is ready to sacrifice his individual and family and social welfare.”

The state uses force to push its agenda forward, but must a Christian respond in kind to improve his own situation or bring Christianity to others? Tolstoy appeals to Matthew 5:39, “Resist not an evil person,” as the pinnacle of Jesus’ teachings and as the ultimate means of opposing violence. He treats Jesus’ words not as a theoretical proposition to be pondered and somewhat assented to, but as a realistic, actionable command. Indeed, every person must decide how to respond when he is attacked: “People often think the question of non-resistance to evil by force is a theoretical one, which can be neglected. Yet this question is presented by life itself to all men, and calls for some answer from every thinking man.” (186)

The Christian life, to him, was a progression toward divine perfection, and is characterized by a life of loving others. This love drives us not only to love those that love us, but to love our enemies even to the point of practicing pacifism towards aggression, especially that of the state. He reasons there is no other way of interpreting Jesus and acting otherwise is contrary to the Gospel message. Thus, the Christian cannot use the tools of the state at all. To Tolstoy, the statist theory of life, emphasizing aggression for the purpose of order, was irreconcilable with the Christian life. The state never has been and never could be the Kingdom of God, in fact the Kingdom of God makes government irrelevant. “No honest and serious-minded man of our day can help seeing the incompatibility of true Christianity – the doctrine of meekness, forgiveness of injuries, and love – with government, with its pomp, acts of violence, executions, and wars.” (237)

Tolstoy would say Christianity is the only rational option for peace, and always has been so. In the present age, Jesus’ teaching has become self-evident even in practice, since all efforts of returning violence for violence with the state has progressively made the world worse. The state theory of life requires violence to persist, and only results in the escalation of violence. He even preemptively answers the “mutually assured destruction” strategy to maintain peace in the presence of weapons of mass destruction:

“It is often said that the invention of terrible weapons of destruction will put an end to war. That is an error. As the means of extermination are improved, the means of reducing men who hold the state conception of life to submission can be improved to correspond. They may slaughter them by thousands, by millions, they may tear them to pieces, still they will march to war like senseless cattle. Some will want beating to make them move, others will be proud to go if they are allowed to wear a scrap of ribbon or gold lace.” (206)

But how could someone possibly adopt this teaching, when living in an age of the totalitarian state? Tolstoy would answer simply: give up one’s previous way of life, one’s previous way of thinking, one’s allegiance to all but the source of life, and live free of hypocrisy. “A man need only make this theory of life his own, for the fetters which seemed so indissolubly forged upon him to drop off of themselves, and for him to feel himself absolutely free, just as a bird would feel itself free in a fenced-in place [if] directly it took to its wings.” (210) The understanding Christian is no longer under “the condition of the hypnotized.” But these Christians transcend those who simply want a different government; they will act in freedom right now, despite state oppression, and eventually the state must fall. “Revolutionary enemies attack the government from without. Christianity does not attack it at all, but, from within, it destroys all the foundations on which government rests.” (231)

Why has this remarkable teaching not already spread throughout the world? Actually, it has. There always have been Christians willing to live consistently with the teachings of Jesus, but they are not always visible to us. Moreover, Tolstoy would say the church as an institution has perverted the message of non-resistance, sometimes deliberately hiding this message of Jesus from Christians. Even though he painted the Russian church of his day in an especially negative light, he showed that churches throughout history had suppressed this ethic. Why has the church done this? Because of the love of power. The state church always held a privileged position, and church officials always preferred to keep their status rather than tell the truth. The ramifications of this practice were clear to Tolstoy; he understood the wars and oppression by the state as a direct result of the church’s refusal to practice the message of Jesus as a new way of life. Though perhaps an overly harsh assessment of the church as an institution through millennia, one cannot deny that churches have indeed been complicit in legitimizing aggression against others. The rhetoric of evangelical churches today glorifying the war in Iraq and Afghanistan confirm that this behavior continues (even if there is no “state church”). The only solution is to return to Jesus’ teaching, believe in it wholeheartedly, and practice it consistently with no reservation. Tolstoy may not have accepted traditional creedal Christianity, nor held traditional dogmas, but his faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus is truly admirable.

Tolstoy believed Jesus’ peaceful message would persist through “the foolishness of preaching” (1 Cor. 1:21), but it is remarkable to see the effects Tolstoy’s own words had upon the twentieth century. The Kingdom of God is Within You was immediately banned in Russia upon publication, but had far reaching influence elsewhere. Mahatma Gandhi read the book and was “overwhelmed” by its message, and it greatly influenced his non-violent revolution in India. Martin Green writes, “In Gandhi the book certainly ignited an explosion, and its impact on others around him spread like the bombardment of particles in an atomic pile, so that before the chain reaction was over, the British Empire was blown open and India was a free country, under the aegis of non-violence.” (v) Through Gandhi, Tolstoy influenced Martin Luther King and the non-violent progression of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Contrast these men of non-violence with the history of Russia, where The Kingdom of God is Within You was banned. Seven years following Tolstoy’s death, violent revolutionaries seized control of the Russian government and instituted communism – the Red Revolution. The result was the death of untold millions under one of the most horrible political regimes ever to exist. In fact, the twentieth-century could be described as a century of war. Despite massive advances in science, engineering, medicine, and business, statism is a primary cause of untold millions of deaths from world wars, countless military interventions, and totalitarian regimes. If only Tolstoy had been heeded, such unnecessary death might have been prevented.

Tolstoy writes with clarity and a passion for logic that penetrates deep into the soul. He challenges the contemporary Christian to reconsider the use of force at every turn, to accept Jesus’ teaching as the authority for life, and to reject the state. Far worse than a necessary evil, the state is an unnecessary parasite. Finally, Tolstoy levels a damning charge of complacency and inconsistency against the church today, serving as a reminder to obey God rather than men.

Please consider buying The Kingdom of God is Within You at Amazon.com and LCC will then get a small kick-back from the sale. Remember, LCC receives a small percentage of any shopping you do at Amazon when you go through an LCC link. Help keep LCC growing and growing; your support is much appreciated!

References:

Leo Tolstoy. The Kingdom of God is Within You: Christianity Not as a Mystic Religion but as a New Theory of Life. Trans: Constance Garnett. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.

Leo Tolstoy: The Centennial Anniversary. www.tolstoycentennial.com.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Leo Tolstoy Against the State

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: Book Reviews, Gandhi, government, leo tolstoy, Martin Luther King, non-resistance, pacifism, recommended books, The State, theology, violence, war

Related Content:

• Tolstoy On Violent Revolution (1)
• Top 10 Books for Christian Libertarians – 2009 Edition (4)
• Theological Traditions (3)
• Leo Tolstoy and Non-Resistance (9)
• New FAQ Questions Added (2)

Tolstoy’s Russia was a country dominated by an elite class of aristocrats, government bureaucrats, military “heroes,” and religious officials. The peasant class was bitterly oppressed through legal maneuvering, conscription, and a church that legitimized the oppression. I believe this led Tolstoy away from a traditional creedal Christianity – which to him emphasized conformity and status quo around doctrines that none actually believed (at the time) – and toward a view of Jesus that elevated the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount as the supreme good.

Matthew 5:39, “Resist not an evil person,” was the pinnacle of Jesus’ teachings to Tolstoy. He believed in “Christianity not as a mystic religion but as a new theory of life” (the subtitle of the book). Jesus ushered in the new divine theory of life, which “recognizes life not in his own individuality, and not in societies of individualities, but in the eternal undying source of life – in God; and to fulfill the will of God he is ready to sacrifice his individual and family and social welfare.” The Christian life, to him, was a progression toward divine perfection, and this life is characterized by loving others. This love drives us not only to love those that love us, but also to love our enemies even to the point of practicing strict pacifism towards aggression. He reasons that there is no other way to interpret Jesus, and to act otherwise is completely counter to the Gospel message.

Tolstoy would say the church as an institution has perverted this message of non-resistance, even deliberately hiding this message of Jesus from Christians. He saw the Russian church in an especially negative light, but showed that throughout history the church had suppressed this ethic. Why? Because of the love of power. The state church always held a privileged position, and church officials always preferred to keep their status rather than tell the truth. The ramifications of this practice were clear to Tolstoy; he declared the wars and oppression by the state as a direct result of the church’s refusal to practice the message of Jesus as a new way of life. The only solution is to return to Jesus’ teaching, believe in it wholeheartedly, and practice it consistently with no reservation.

The Kingdom of God is Within You was immediately banned in Russia upon publication, but had far reaching influence elsewhere. Mahatma Gandhi read the book and was “overwhelmed” by its message, greatly influencing his non-violent revolution in India. Martin Luther King also held Tolstoy in great esteem. Tolstoy may not have held to traditional Christian doctrine, but his determined adherence to the words of Jesus is remarkable. It brings to mind the words of Gandhi: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

I certainly do not admonish Christians to adopt his beliefs in full, because I do believe that God was in Christ reconciling himself to the world as believers have said for two millenia. However, taking Tolstoy’s philosophy of non-resistance to heart is instructive and valuable. Tolstoy challenges the contemporary Christian to reconsider the use of force at every turn, leveling a damning charge of complacency and inconsistency against the church today.

For more information on Leo Tolstoy, check out the Tolstoy Centennial Website.

UPDATE: I failed to mention that I have an exegesis of Matthew 5:38-42 posted here at LCC. Again, I’m not really a strict pacifist but I’m very sympathetic and am very willing to listen.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Leo Tolstoy and Non-Resistance

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: non-resistance, pacifism, recommended books, theology

Related Content:

• Leo Tolstoy Against the State (2)
• Virtually unknown pub "Faith & Freedom" now available on Mises.org (2)
• Top 10 Books for Christian Libertarians – 2009 Edition (4)
• Tolstoy On Violent Revolution (1)
• The Libertarian Theology of Freedom (28)

Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) was a French sociologist, philosopher, and theologian, but his main profession was teaching law at the University of Bordeaux. He held strong views about the nature of government as antithetical to Christian faith, and is counted among the 20th century Christian anarchists.

Anarchy and Christianity is a short work presenting the essentials of Ellul’s political philosophy with respect to Scripture. It reads in a scholarly manner, especially with his references to historical and textual criticism and the assumption that the reader knows something about Marxian class theory, historical theological traditions, and even a bit of Greek. One must be prepared to encounter someone distant from the American evangelical theology that we are so familiar with. I’d be hard-pressed to say he is a “theological liberal,” but he is different. Despite the qualms I have with certain elements of Ellul’s thought, I found the book to be a very enjoyable read and it enlivened Scriptures that I had not paid due attention in the past. Since it isn’t that long, I think anyone can gain a lot from reading this book.

The book contains three main parts, plus an appendix for further thoughts. First, Ellul includes a personal introduction to demonstrate why the political question of anarchy is still important to the church today. He begins: “The question I am posing is the more difficult because fixed opinions have long since been reached on both sides and have never been subjected to the least examination.” If anything, the question is not settled (not even with him). He reveals some of his personal history, including his time participating in Marxist movements before converting to Christianity. Even though he admired Marx, he was also very familiar with Proudhon (“Liberty is the mother, not the daughter, of order.”) and therefore never really considered himself a strict Marxist/communist even while sympathetic to the ideas.

Part 1 is entitled “Anarchy from a Christian Standpoint” and outlines what anarchy actually is, describes why he considers himself and anarchist, and answers some anarchist objections to Christianity. To Ellul, the essential element of anarchy is not the caricature of a bomb-throwing revolter but a rejection of violence and aggression as a means of accomplishing political goals. “No matter what the motivation, however, I am against violence and aggression. I am against it on two levels. The first is simply tactical… My second reason is obviously a Christian one. Biblically, love is the way, not violence.” Ellul then addresses the charge of non-Christian anarchists that Christianity itself is antithetical to freedom, even going so far as to address briefly the “problem of evil.”

I love this paragraph where he defends the position that God is the great liberator:

But why freedom? If we accept that God is love, and that it is human beings who are to respond to this love, the explanation is simple. Love cannot be forced, ordered, or made obligatory. It is necessarily free. If God liberates, it is because he expects and hopes that we will come to know him and love him. He cannot lead us to do so by terrorizing us.

The subject of Part 2 is “The Bible as the Source of Anarchy,” where Ellul shows via what he calls a “naïve reading” of the Bible that typical interpretations of pro-state Christians are wrongheaded. He surveys both the Old and New Testaments, answering a variety of questions that seemingly pro-state Scriptures bring to the forefront. Without giving too much away, he addresses 1 Samuel, the Prophets, the teachings of Jesus, Paul, Peter, and Revelation. Some of his interpretations are what I expected, others are quite surprising. I will leave it to you to discover and enjoy.

In summary, Ellul’s work is quality material for the Christian libertarian. His chief flaw – and this flaw is certainly not trivial from my point of view – is a lack of understanding about the free market as the great vehicle of practicing freedom. I think it very likely that he is caricaturing corporatism as capitalism, but nevertheless a steadier free market principle would be help bolster his ideas to contemporary libertarians of all backgrounds. But most importantly, he gives an thought-provoking case that the State is from any point of view the enemy of freedom and of God.

Please consider buying Anarchy and Christianity at Amazon.com and LCC will then get a small kick-back from the sale. Remember, LCC receives a small percentage of any shopping you do at Amazon when you go through an LCC link. Help keep LCC growing and growing; your support is much appreciated!

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Anarchy and Christianity

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: anarchy, ethics, free market, free society, gospel, government, history, Marx, philosophy, The State, theology

Related Content:

• Top 10 Books for Christian Libertarians – 2009 Edition (4)
• New FAQ Questions Added (2)
• Turning the Other Cheek — Matthew 5:38-42 (6)
• Theological Traditions (3)
• The Proper Origin of Rights (24)

For the bulk of my life so far, I have lived in the age of Alan Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank from 1987 to 2006. Mentioning a Federal Reserve chair like this in the past would not have been considered normal, yet Mr. Greenspan has a sort of legendary status associated with him. Well, at least some people consider him to be an iconic figure, but more and more the general public is coming to realize the destructive effect he has had on the world economy. Books like Frederick Sheehan’s Panderer to Power have something to do with the dispelling of the myth.

Sheehan’s book is the first critical, post-crash biography of Greenspan. Using Greenspan’s own words, Sheehan tracks Greenspan’s education as a young man, early professional life, his meteoric rise to stardom as a celebrity figure, and his tenure as Federal Reserve chair. The questions primarily raised are: What kind of man is this who has so much power over the world, and what did he do that has led us to today’s economic crisis? The answers are quite surprising. Here are some of the things I learned about Greenspan.

• Greenspan was supposedly a disciple of Ayn Rand, yet he probably did not understand what Rand generally was talking about. Nathaniel Branden wrote later, “I wondered to what extent he was aware of Rand’s opinions.” Apparently, he would even argue the question of his own existence with the objectivist coterie. Rand herself wondered, “Do you think Alan might basically be a social climber?”
• Even in his pre-Fed years, Greenspan was actually a rather mediocre economist and forecaster. Time after time he would make highly-publicized predictions and yet the exact opposite would occur (see pages 43, 54, and chapter 7).
• Greenspan was a master self-marketer, which is probably the reason for his rise to stardom. He constantly engaged the media and the New York financier social scene, hence he had everyone’s ear without the wisdom to back it up. How else can you be both a professional economist and yet date Barbara Walters?
• Even though Greenspan has supposedly had a historically apolitical career, he was a master politician (read: liar). One only need look to his involvement during the Nixon and Carter presidencies to realize that he knew how to play the political game brilliantly.
• Greenspan’s policies during his Fed years were incredibly political as well. He frequently timed his actions in accordance with what was politically expedient. Wall Street and the fat cat Congress could count on the legendary “Greenspan Put” to be their savior when things were looking down.
• Post-crash, Greenspan has tried to play his own game of historical revisionism about his policies that led to the economic crisis. Sheehan exposes these and many other lies.
• Greenspan has been hired as a consultant by many of the firms who profited from the economic crisis via government handouts. Go figure, the man who enriches Wall Street and causes the meltdown gets the extra paycheck…

Clearly, there is much yet to learn about the man whom many called “the second-most powerful man in the world” for nearly twenty years.

In summary, Sheehan’s retrospective on Greenspan is a fascinating read, and I anticipate it will become a valued resource for those looking to understand the Greenspan years from a perspective that offers more than tacit approval of inflationism and government intervention in the economy. Keep in mind, though, it is not an easy read. Economics is discussed at a fairly high, but understandable level. You will probably end up like me, referring to Wikipedia and other sources to recall certain investment and econ topics. Nevertheless, Panderer to Power is worth your time if you desire more knowledge about the Greenspan legacy.

Please consider buying Panderer to Power at Amazon.com and LCC will then get a small kick-back from the sale. Remember, LCC receives a small percentage of any shopping you do at Amazon when you go through an LCC link. Help keep LCC growing and growing; your support is much appreciated!

###

Visit Frederick Sheehan’s website.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Panderer to Power: The True Story of Alan Greenspan

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: Bernanke, biography, Book Reviews, economics, Federal Reserve, Greenspan, money, recommended books

Related Content:

• Ron Paul’s "End the Fed" Now Available! (3)
• Top 10 Books for Christian Libertarians – 2009 Edition (4)
• Virtually unknown pub "Faith & Freedom" now available on Mises.org (2)
• Tax Slavery Sucks (3)
• Social Slavery (3)

End the Fed, by Ron Paul – The Federal Reserve banking system is corrupt and has devastated the world economy, and Ron Paul demonstrates in this great book just how bad it really is. A must-read for our current political situation!

Meltdown, by Thomas Woods – Here’s another essential book for you to know well. Tom has not only written a great expose of how the government has crippled the economy but also a great treatise in basic economics. This book even hit the NYT Bestseller list for multiple weeks!

The Libertarian Theology of Freedom, by Edmund Opitz – Most LCC readers are already familiar with Opitz since I have been in the process of archiving his essays online, but I want to point out that this book is back in stock again at Amazon (but probably not for long). Read my review of this book for more information. But for that matter, any book by Ed Opitz is well worth having on your bookshelf.

Christianity and War, by Laurence Vance – I’m going to keep pushing this book until every Christian I know is reading it. Laurence’s work is incredible and absolutely essential for getting the church at large to realize war is NOT the answer. (Don’t forget that you can get the audiobook exclusively from LCC!)

Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman – Does American “culture” sometimes make you wonder what on earth happened here? Neil Postman clarifies the problems we face on a regular basis in this classic book. Check out my book review here at LCC.

The Ethics of Money Production, by Guido Hulsmann – Guido is definitely one of my favorite scholars in the Austrian School, and this book is just one more reason why. His thesis is simple: money creation must occur on the free market, neither inhibited nor controlled by government, in order to be created in an ethical manner. Pretty great topic, eh? (By the way, you can get this book at Amazon, but it’s cheaper via the Mises Institute online store.)

The Cult of the Presidency, by Gene Healy – I met Gene for the first time this past October at the Students for Liberty Texas Conference, and am now an even greater admirer of his intellect and tenacity to hit the establishment hard. This book shows just how ridiculous statolatry has become, especially in the last eight years with Bush. Now, I think he could write a second book just about Obama. (Also, the paperback version runs a couple bucks cheaper if it matters to you.)

Faith and Liberty, by Alejandro Chafuen – I was really excited to find this book, which covers the history of the Late Scholastic thinkers and their writings on private property, trade, money, and the State – which were all written from theological perspective.

The Way, the Truth, and the Sword, by Scott Ritsema – You can get Scott’s great book either as an eBook or through Lulu.com. Either way, you’re in for a treat, as Scott has written a wonderful little book encouraging the church at large to reject the State and get back to the true savior, Jesus Christ. Scott is the webmaster at Civics News.

An Amazon Kindle filled with the Mises library and Christian Classics – This may be #10, but it’s probably #1 in my list. You know, almost every book the Mises Institute publishes (and much more) is available to download for free as a PDF on their website. You could easily fill a flash drive with liberty PDF’s from the Mises Library and tons of classic theological texts from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library and Project Gutenberg. Now THAT would be a gift long remembered! (Hey Mom, hint hint?)

And remember, if you follow one of these links, LCC gets a small referral cut from every purchase you make at no cost to you. So, get some great books AND support LibertarianChristians.com while doing your Christmas shopping. It’s much appreciated…

Finally, if you think a great book deserves to be on this list, comment below and make your voice heard!

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Top 10 Books for Christian Libertarians – 2009 Edition

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: Book Reviews, culture, government, history, money, philosophy, recommended books, statolatry, theology

Related Content:

• Summer Reading – Top 10 books that you should drop everything to read now… (1)
• Leo Tolstoy Against the State (2)
• Anarchy and Christianity (5)
• Virtually unknown pub "Faith & Freedom" now available on Mises.org (2)
• The Libertarian Theology of Freedom (28)

Perhaps the most valid justification of government is its defense of citizens against foreign aggressors. But when governments wage war, a thin line separates defense and offense. And even in a defensive war, governments typically deprive their own citizens of many liberties. Historically, war has done more than anything else to enhance the power of governments and to diminish the liberties of the people. Classical liberals have always recognized the dangers of war and supported policies, such as free international trade, that reduce the likelihood of war.

The Foundation for Economic Education has stood squarely in this classical liberal tradition, and over the years its monthly publication, The Freeman, has presented many articles alerting readers to the domestic dangers of war and espousing policies that promote peaceful international relations. Leviathan at War, edited by Edmund A. Opitz, reproduces many of those articles as well as several other commentaries. The longest essay in the collection, Wesley Allen Riddle’s “War and Individual Liberty in American History,” is a previously unpublished contribution.

In a chapter on “The Roots of War,” Ayn Rand succinctly states a major theme of the book: “If men want to oppose war, it is statism that they must oppose. So long as they hold the tribal notion that the individual is sacrificial fodder for the collective, that some men have the right to rule others by force, and that some (any) alleged `good’ can justify it—there can be no peace within a nation and no peace among nations.”

In an excerpt from Human Action, Ludwig von Mises expresses similar ideas. “Aggressive nationalism is the necessary derivation of the policies of interventionism and national planning. While laissez faire eliminates the causes of international conflict, government interference with business and socialism create conflicts for which no peaceful solution can be found.” Mises describes how the engagement of governments in “total” war led them inexorably to extend their controls over economic life.

Perhaps the starkest wartime deprivation of liberty is the conscription of men to serve as soldiers. The United States first conscripted men during the Civil War. In World War I nearly 3 million were drafted, in World War II some 10 million, and the draft persisted until 1973. In “The Conscription Idea,” written in 1953, Dean Russell lamented that “the principle of conscription is now fearfully close to becoming a permanent American institution.” Russell, who had served in the Air Corps for five years during World War II, rejected the standard defense of the draft, which maintains that the end justifies the means. Said Russell, “Those who advocate the `temporary loss’ of our freedom in order to preserve it permanently are advocating only one thing: the abolition of liberty.” He believed that if the United States were genuinely menaced from abroad, volunteers would come forward in sufficient numbers to defend the country.

The book reprints Daniel Webster’s stirring speech opposing conscription when it was proposed in 1814. “An attempt to maintain this doctrine upon the provisions of the Constitution,” declared Webster, “is an exercise of perverse ingenuity to extract slavery from the substance of a free Constitution.” Anyone would be struck by reading Webster’s speech alongside the unanimous decision of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of the draft in 1918. Then, Chief Justice Edward White found himself “unable to conceive” how anyone could regard conscription as involuntary servitude—obviously, America’s effective constitution had changed enormously since 1814. In an excerpt from a 1944 book, the British military historian B. H. Liddell Hart criticizes conscription, calling it “a decisive step towards totalitarianism.”

In “How to Finance a War,” Willard M. Fox exposes the fallacy that the costs of war can be shifted to future generations by debt financing. He observes that “the real cost of waging war is borne by the living who are deprived of things that in the absence of war could be produced and consumed in ordinary peacetime life. No amount of fiscal hocus pocus can change that reality.” He also shows how the U.S. government has resorted to inflation to help finance its wars, and he explodes the myth of wartime prosperity. He concludes that “by a combination of persuasion, appeals to patriotism, veiled threats of coercion, and bidding a high enough price, government can get what it wants in the market” for most wartime purposes.

Nothing displaces sound morality quicker than warfare. Soldiers are lionized for indiscriminately killing people and destroying property—actions that would ordinarily bring moral censure. Government propaganda encourages citizens to dehumanize enemy populations, so that mass murder can go forward without moral restraint. Leonard E. Read’s contribution, “Conscience on the Battlefield,” challenges the herd mentality underlying the savagery that attends the waging of war. Mark Twain’s classic “War Prayer” hits the same target.

James Madison spoke wisely when he warned that “of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded.” It is inconceivable that, absent the wars of the past century, the government of the United States—and probably many others as well—could have grown nearly so powerful. From its participation in wars, the U.S. government gained, for example, high income-tax rates and income-tax withholding, the system used to finance the voracious modern welfare/warfare state. Even more importantly, victory in the world wars convinced Americans that the federal government has the ability to achieve great social objectives in the public interest and can be trusted to do so. A clear progression leads from wartime economic planning to the massive contemporary government meddling in economic affairs.

Edmund Opitz deserves much credit for compiling an excellent collection of commentaries on a subject of the greatest importance. No matter how much Americans may wish to throw off the shackles of the welfare state, recover their lost liberties and live in peace, they stand little chance so long as the government can divert them by engaging in war. As Opitz wisely observes, “while many people say they want peace, few know or want the things that make for peace. . . . When men rely on political privilege to acquire economic goods, they have already embraced the near end of a principle whose far end is war.”

December 1995

Robert Higgs is Research Director for the Independent Institute.

Order Leviathan at War from Amazon.com or the Foundation for Economic Education.

Read more from the Edmund Opitz Archive.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Book Review: Leviathan at War edited by Edmund A. Opitz

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: economics, Edmund Opitz, history, recommended books, war

Related Content:

• Virtually unknown pub "Faith & Freedom" now available on Mises.org (2)
• Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce (3)
• Defending Freedom and the Free Society (0)
• A Tribute to Edmund A. Opitz (0)
• What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? (1)

1. Ron Paul, The Revolution: A Manifesto – If you haven’t read this yet, you should. Become a part of the R3VOLUTION!
2. Murray Rothbard, For a New Liberty – This is a great way to delve into libertarian thought. It’s freely available online as a PDF, HTML, or MP3 audiobook. (BONUS: A cheaper alternative if you want a paperback would be Linda and Morris Tannehill’s The Market for Liberty. It’s shorter than Rothbard, and slightly randian-sounding, but awesome.)
3. Tom Woods, Meltdown – The best quick way to understand the current economic crisis, its causes/solutions, and a bunch of Austrian econ.
4. Frederic Bastiat, The Law – Essential classic reading in the classical liberal tradition.
5. John Cobin, Christian Theology of Public Policy – There isn’t much out there better than this when it comes to Christian libertarian stuff. (BONUS: Cobin’s Bible and Government is less expensive and covers a lot of the same.)
6. Boldrin and Levine, Against Intellectual Monopoly – This is the book I am currently reading, and boy am I excited about it. B&L just thrash the notion that intellectual property is necessary for innovation to be maintained in an economy, and in fact history shows exactly the opposite! IP is an invention of the state to give legalized monopolies, nothing more. Abolish it! (BONUS: Make sure to read Stephan Kinsella’s awesome Against Intellectual Property, a paper from the Journal of Libertarian Studies, in conjunction with B&L.)
7. Ramit Sethi, I Will Teach You To Be Rich – Ramit is great on personal finance, and I highly recommend his book and his blog. Highly informative and fun to read. You *will* learn a lot. I pride myself on being a very good money manager and yet I’m learning tons of useful things!
8. Robert Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress – A fun, fun book about revolution on the moon by the master of science-fiction. Incidentally, this book is where we get the acronym/phrase “TANSTAAFL”, which means, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Heheh.
9. David Allen, Getting Things Done – This book revolutionized the way I work. GTD is all about getting things out of your head and into an organizational system you can trust and review regularly in order to operate at maximum productivity as much as possible. For all you busy professionals out there, you MUST check this book out and see what you can learn and apply in your work.
10. Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death – I reviewed this book on LCC a short time ago, so check that article out for more information. It is enough to say that Postman has delivered an excellent cultural critique that should pique the interest of anyone in pursuit of truth.

So, what are you reading this summer, and what have you already finished? Let everybody know in the comments. All books welcome, libertarian and otherwise! Don’t be shy!

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Summer Reading – Top 10 books that you should drop everything to read now…

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: christian libertarian, history, philosophy, recommended books, theology

Related Content:

• Top 10 Books for Christian Libertarians – 2009 Edition (4)
• The Libertarian Theology of Freedom (28)
• Virtually unknown pub "Faith & Freedom" now available on Mises.org (2)
• The Proper Origin of Rights (24)
• The Humongous Page of Libertarian Resources (12)

In this thin volume, the Acton Institute has assembled a superb group of scholars from the Judeo-Christian tradition to speak their minds on what it means to be a steward of God’s creation. The book consists of three position papers, one each by the Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant representatives, that explain their own viewpoints. It also includes the text of the Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship, which resulted from inter-faith dialogue between the three groups. The result is an imminently readable book that challenges us to be good stewards of what God has entrusted us with.

All three traditions emphasize the importance of the doctrine of creation. Regardless of the process itself, Genesis tells us that humans are the apex of God’s created order and have been given the role of steward in it. Thus, we are to use, cultivate, and develop environmental resources as responsible individuals.

I found it particularly interesting that each tradition’s position paper addressed the issue of over-population. I suppose this is important because it seems that every year we hear in the news about the “dangers of too many people” on earth. The book thoroughly trounces the absurd over-population argument once and for all. Other “catastrophe” positions, such as climate change alarmism, are debunked as well, most specifically in the Protestant position paper. The science itself is addressed and the duplicity of the ideas are exposed for what they are: anti-human hogwash.

Another prominent feature of the book is the affirmation of the free market and property rights as the proper means of environmental preservation. Each tradition understands that command-and-control economics cannot possibly result in environmental protection. In fact, it is progress on a free market that drives people to cleaner and better methods of production.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed most the Jewish tradition’s position paper. I thought their analysis of Torah and their logical exposition of the Old Testament was nothing short of stellar. On the other hand, perhaps I should not have been so surprised. After reading the section and reviewing some of the key points, I noticed that my favorite Rabbi, Daniel Lapin, was part of the group that wrote the paper. I guess he gets around!

Libertarian Christians need to become more aware of environmental issues, but that awareness needs to go beyond merely knowing arguments against global warming. We need to have a proper Biblical understanding of stewardship and communicate it accordingly. The Acton Institute’s little book has done the Christian community a great service with this book, and I highly recommend it to Christian readers looking for an accurate account of environmental stewardship theology.

Please consider buying Environmental Stewardship in the Judeo-Christian Position at Amazon.com and LCC will then get a small kick-back from the sale. In fact, LCC receives a small percentage of any shopping you do at Amazon when you go through an LCC link. Your support is much appreciated!

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Who Else Wants to Be a Good Steward?

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: Bible, climate change, economics, environment, pollution, regulation, theology

Related Content:

• Earth Liberation (3)
• Why the Free Market Rocks, Reason #497… (4)
• Why being a candidate can be beneficial for liberty (6)
• Virtually unknown pub "Faith & Freedom" now available on Mises.org (2)
• Theological Traditions (3)

Neil Postman is a cultural observer and critic, educator, and communications critic at New York University. His well-known book Amusing Ourselves to Death gives us a chilling reminder of how much the media we use on a regular basis affect our thought patterns. In particular, Postman’s main concern is the effect of television on public discourse. It is not the entertainment value of television that concerns him so much as the elevation of television as a primary conveyor of what is considered “the truth.” He was keenly aware of the power of the media to influence at a basic level how people think and feel about the world around them. Considering how much we as libertarians criticize the mainstream media for capitulating to the State at every turn – whether the left or the right – Postman helps us get behind the medium itself to understand the epistemology. We can then see that while Orwell’s 1984 is still of great concern, perhaps the even greater danger is the Huxleyan vision from Brave New World.

“Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity, and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture.”

The Medium is the Metaphor

Part 1 of the book is a fascinating exposition of epistemology – how we come to know what we know. The media we use is an integral part of the equation. Media helps build the structures of thought, and thus thought communication. Postman writes:

“When Galileo remarked that the language of nature is written in mathematics, he meant it only as a metaphor. Nature itself does not speak. Neither do our minds or our bodies or, more to the point of this book, our bodies politic. Our conversations about nature and about ourselves are conducted in whatever ‘languages’ we find it possible and convenient to employ. We do not see nature or intelligence or human motivation or ideology as ‘it’ but only as our languages are. And our languages are our media. Our media are our metaphors. Our metaphors create the content of our culture.”

The “bias” of a medium upon a culture is unseen yet deeply felt. Nowhere is the difference more clearly seen than between typography and television. In a culture characterized by print, thought processes will tend to organize themselves into a similar linear and logical order that is seen on the pages of books. Proper use and expression of words becomes the norm. This was the state of America during the founding era and lasted, for all intents and purposes, until the late 20th century. It was the culture enriched by the likes of Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Paine, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain. Postman explains how widely available print media constructed the culture of America.

“And Now . . . This”

Television, as a different medium, changes the metaphor. Postman says, “Television has achieved the status of ‘meta-medium’ – an instrument that directs not only our knowledge of the world, but our knowledge of ways of knowing as well.” It is no longer a pseudo-mystery but is in the background of everywhere we go and everything we see.

And thus, we come to Postman’s primary criticism of how television is used and what it affects negatively: in religion, in education, and in news and politics. Most of the Christians I routinely interact with understand his criticism of religion distinctly well. The so-called “televangelist” movement certainly diminishes the depth of theological discourse throughout Christendom. It is presented primarily as entertainment, losing what makes religion a historic, profound, and sacred human activity. Instead of spiritual transcendence, the preacher is tops. “God comes out as second banana.” (Given, this is not universally the case but it is certainly the right characterization.)

The educationists can be heard praising the television medium as “the future of education” just as often today as when Postman wrote initially in 1985. “We face the rapid dissolution of the assumptions of an education organized around the slow-moving printed word, and the equally rapid emergence of a new education based on the speed-of-light electronic image.” Postman’s harshest criticism is reserved for those who would dumb us down in deference to the lowest common denominator.

I know of no libertarian that does not clearly see the vacuous nature of television news programs. Moreover, this flows straight into the political arena. There was once a time when the President of the United States could walk down the street without people recognizing him, simply because no one knew what the president looked like. Now, however, “looking presidential” is just as important, perhaps more important, as knowing the Constitution or having good ideology. This is the power of television: to put the superficial and unimportant into the forefront.

Culture is Dead! Long Live Culture!

Neil Postman can almost come off as a Luddite by the end of Amusing Ourselves to Death, but his criticism should still be heeded. It is not simply that Postman despises the very pixels of your new 42 inch LCD panel. On the contrary, he admits that as entertainment it is excellent and quite fun. I don’t think he is even saying that no serious message can ever be conveyed through television or a movie (or else he would be throwing all theatre out the window as well). No, the main message is a warning that serious messages are easily lost within the medium, and there is great danger when matters of utmost seriousness are couched as mere entertainment.

Amusing Ourselves to Death truly helped coalesce many disjointed thoughts in my own mind about the usefulness, or lack thereof, of the television medium. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to those of you who observe culture with a watchful eye, and wish to respond accordingly to a trend that we intuitively understand to be negative in the long run.

We should be careful to remember that the war of ideas will not be won, and certainly victory in the same will never be preserved, using images rapidly flashing on a screen. Even as we are excited that our modern heroes of freedom, like Ron Paul, Peter Schiff, and Tom Woods, are receiving incredible interview opportunities on the news, we need to remember that we will not win by merely playing their game. This culture is dying, in part because of how lost public discourse is becoming. It’s our turn to come in and rebuild culture – for the cause of liberty and of Christ.

Buy Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death from Amazon.com and support LibertarianChristians.com.

Post from: LibertarianChristians.com

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Please support LCC by sharing this post on your favorite social network.

Tags: culture, Media, recommended books

Related Content:

• Top 10 Books for Christian Libertarians – 2009 Edition (4)
• Culture (3)
• Was J.R.R. Tolkien a Libertarian? (20)
• Virtually unknown pub "Faith & Freedom" now available on Mises.org (2)
• Top 10 Books for Christian Libertarians – Christmas 2008 Edition (23)