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A paradox most libertarians (if notall) are acutely aware of i s the gap be-tween the self-evidence of libertarian-ism, on the one hand, and the difficul-ty of communicating it to nonlibertar-ians on the other hand. The fact thatpeople have the rights to life, liberty,and property seems to be as self-evident as the fact that 2+2=4. Thefact that the free market i s the onlyeconomic-politicalsystem which makeshuman existence possi,ble-as humanexistence-seems to be very easily dem-onstrable.Yet how many persons whom yo?have tried to win over have actuallybecome libertarians? Now, this para-dox may drive (and it has driven)many libertarians to despair. Theworld seems to be too crazy, to be be-yond the fail-safe point of trying tosave. Let's give up.This approach, however, i s mistak-en. It derives from a failure to compre-hend some simple facts-which are all:surprisingly enough, facts a libertarian(of a l l people) should know.1. Libertarianism i s an idea. And ideasare products, to be sold on the mar-ket. This implies, basically, that toturn another person into a libertar-ian you have to sell him the idea.And selling involves salesmanship.2. To sell a product, you must wrap itin an attractive package. I f you t ry3 REASONIFEBRUARY 977

o communicate an idea in a formwhich contradicts the basic convic-tions of your client, you will fail.Thus, if you explain to a Catholicthat libertarianism i s based on thevirtue of selfishness, r to a com-munist that libertarianism i s forpure capitalism, you will fail. Thewords you use will turn them off,and they will never consider theidea. This, in turn, implies the fol-lowing piinciple.3. To sell libertarianism, you must sellit under a formula which corre-sponds to the basic convictions ofthe guy to whom you sell it. Ineffect, to try to change his basicconvictions, to tr y to make Cath-olic accept Rand's thought first andthen libertarianism as a byproduct,i s utter folly. You may either failimmediately or succeed after eightyears of hard work. So you haveproduced one more libertarian ineight years'. . .Now, my urpose her? s to provide

tions of thesd principles. This articlemay seem somewhat cynical and op-portunistic-but if you read it closelyyou will see that it involves no falsityor deception. The point i s that youcan use tricks-and you'd better, ifyou really want libertarianism to havea fighting chance.

some concret examples and applica-

Libertarianism for decent folk. Adecent, hard-working, never-thinkingbloke wil l not buy individual rights -he does not understand what you aretalking about. It i s quite too l a t e tosend him to a Montessori kindergartento develop his conceptual faculty. In-stead, what you can do i s to explain tohim that libertarianism i s just againstone thing: CRIME. By crime you meanjust what he means: theft, robbery,kidnapping, enslavement. He will ofc o k e agi-ee, because he thinks this i sobvious. Then you just explain a t greatlength, and with many examples) thattaxation i s armed robbery, that infla-tion through deficit spending andmoney printing i s theft-as well as forg-ery of money-that draft i s basicallykidna'p@ing, tc.You know the line. t he point i sone of equity: I f you are not allowedgroup of people called the governmentbe allowed to do them? Clearly, hewill object that the government i s atota lly different thing. But he must re-sort to explaining hat the governmentis, basically, against crime, and thenhe has a paradox on his hands-and aparadox which he can understand.Libertarianism for romantic souls.A romantic soul i s not interested muchin economics or in politics, but he hasgreat admiration for greatness. (That i s

to do any of these, w y should a

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why many Randists are ex-romantic-souls). He i s al l for the good, wise,great, smart hero, for the genius, againstmediocrity, For him, Ibertarian smwould make sense simply as the con-text where greatness would not be per-secuted, hampered,, restrained, de-stroyed. So that i s the only point onwhich you sell libertarianism to him.Libertarianism for justice and free-dom fighters. You will find this indi-vidual in the left radical movement,fighting for what he was told i s free-dom and against what he was told i sslavery. So assure him that you are justagainst one thing: enslavement. Assurehim that you are just for one thing:social justice. Having this agreement,start to communicate to him the truemeaning of slavery-and why taxation,controls, draft, are slavery. (Start withdraft, because he i s already againstthat.)Libertar ianism for hippies. The

hippie has the right to take marijuana,walk naked on the beach, and have hisown sex without anybody interfering,

If you try tocommunicatelibertarianism in a formwhich contradicts thebasic convictions ofyour client you will fai,l.hasnt he? Isnt that just what libertar-ianism s a l l about? Libertarianism wascreated to free him from the oppres-sion of a conformist, square society,imposed on him a t the point of a gun.Libertarianism for commun ists. Thecommunist believes that the proper,natural thing for men to do i s to l ive incommunes, where each gives accordingto his ability and gets according to hisown need. Isnt he entitled to a societywhere he can create such a communityand l ive in it with other same-mindedindividuals? Why should he be perse-cuted as a subversive? Why should hebe connected with the bloodshed inRussia and the like? After all, he i shumanitarian, isnt he? He wants every-body to become a communist freely,not to be forced into a communistsociety. And he also believes commun-ism could really work, were it giventhe chance. Well, in a free society itwould have a l l the chance it needs.Libertar ianism for rel igious folk,Well, isnt it horrible how the govern-ment, infiltrated by communists, im-

poses atheism and materialism hrough-out? Isnt one entitled to l ive in asociety where he i s not forced to hearatheistic broadcasts from government-monopolized or -controlled TV?Also: What about charity? How canhe give to charity in the way he con-siders fit, namely, to his own church,if he i s taxed so much? And why i s hisstate schools? Also, didnt God, whenhe created Adam and Eve, grant manfreedom?Libertarianism for ecologists. Isntit horrible how the whole atmosphereof the planet i s being destroyed bypollution? And the land i s being de-stroyed? And a l l i s due to govern-ments, you know. If any piece of landwould be the private property of some-body, he would take care of it, and hewould be entitled, by law, to defendhimself against any blood\) capitalistwho pollutes his air and land.

Libertar ianism for wishy-washy to l-erant guys. Anybody i s entitled to hispoint of view, isnt he? Isnt it bloodywrong that one guy thinks he i s so rightas to enforce his opiniops and valueson another? Wouldnt it be better ifwe would have a society where eachman l ives by his own creed and noman has the power to enforce his valueson another? Isnt that what libertarian-ism i s al l about?Libertarianism i s a correct politicalphilosophy. Truth i s distinguished ini t s ability t o solveal l relevant problems.Every point of view i s based on recog-nition of some real problem and graspof some truth. It involves, usually,maqy falsifications of facts.The point, however, i s that you canmake an individual a libertarian on thebasis, almost, of whatever point ofview he possesses-if you communicatethe idea to him in his own frame of ref-erence, based on his own fundamentalconvictions, in his own terms andwords. Libertarianism, you should re-member, i s a political philosophy, notan existential one. Qne can be libertar-ian for many (and mutually incompat-ible) reasons. Your problem, as a liber-tarian, i s to create a libertarian society.To do that, you need many, many newlibertarians. Their other convictions,whatever they are, are none of yourbusiness. They concern you only inso-far as you use them-as the basis foryour sale of libertarianism.

money used\ to support atheism in

Moshe Kr oy teaches philosophy atLaTrobe University in Australia. He isthe author o f Conscience and MoralCompetence.

It borders on the superb.Virgi l Hinshaw, Ohio State UniversityI

\

In troduct ion toPhilosophicalInquiries

Tibor R. MachanState University of New Yorkat FredoniaWritten with the convictionthat familiarity with philosophyhas invaluable applications tol i fe in general, this introductorytext provides the student withthe means to develop a frame-work from which to approachand investigate reality.* No previous knowbdge ofphilosophy is required of thestudent.The principal areas of philo-sophical thought are clearlypresented: science and philos-ophy, logic, metaphysics, epis-temology, ethics, and polit-ical thought.The material has been classtested for over five years.Questions for discussion andan extensive glossary are in-cluded.1977, 63/8x 9%, paperbound, 384

pagesFor ordering or examination in.formation, please write to:

Dept. 893, College Div., 47Atlqntic Ave., Boston, MA 0221(#6055362 $8.95F E B R U A R Y 1 9 7 7 l R EA S O N 3

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Steven M BecknerThe present system of our legis-lation seems founded on thetotal incapaci ty of mankind totake care o themselves o r to exi s t wi tho ut legislative enactment.Ind iv idua l p rDper ty mus t bemaintained by invasions of per-sonal r ights and the 'generalwelfare secured by mon opoliesand exclusive privi legesA campaign remark by Roger Mac-Bride? A pungent commentary onCongress by Murray Rothbard?Or thefrustrated indignation of a small busi-nessman beset by OSHA and a dozenother government agencies?None of the above. The observationwas made March 11, 1835, by WilliamLeggett in one of the innumerable edi-t o r i ais this 19th-century journalistwrote during an a l l too short career.Some 140 years before the currentcrop of libertarians burst on the scene,Leggett was giving strident voice to athoroughgoing belief in t h e principleswe've come to associate with modernssuch as Rand and Rothbard. It wouldbe difficult to find a more consistent,cogent, or energetic advocate of l iber-ty in American history. He attackedevery conceivable type of governmentintervention in economic and social

32 REASONIFEBRUARY 1977

life. And contrary to popular opinionof the pre-Civil War era, there are fewinterventions today that were not al-ready being practiced in some formback thenLeggett was calling for laissez-fairein an age when government was beingused in favor of business more oftenthan against it. Though he was meticu-lously even-handed in his applicationof free-market principles, he was re-garded by contemporaries, as he i snow by most historians, to be i n thelabor camp. And in fact Leggett wasthe guru and spokesman for the NewYork-based Equal Rights or Locofocoparty-a radical working-class spinofffrom the Democratic Party. Created in1835 as the earliest significant Ameri-can labor movement, the Locofocoswere probably more free-marketoriented than the business communityof that era.Born in New York City in 1801, ason of Abraham Leggett-an officerduring the Revolution-Leggett livedas a pioneer in Illinois for a time be-fore taking a commission in the Navyin 1822. His naval career was cut shortin 1825, when he was court-martialedfor dueling with a fellow midshipman.As explained in the entry for Leggettin the Dict ionary o f Amer ican B io-

graphy, His faults were chiefly hottemper and a witty, unruly tongue.For example, one of the chargesagainst Leggett a t his court martial wasthat the erstwhile young poet hadquoted passages of Shakespeare ofhighly inflammatory, rancorous andthreatening import against his cap-tain.But such faults were to serve Leg-get t well in his chosen profession. Hiscame to be known as one of the mostvenomously articulate pens in the in-fant American newspaper world.Mencken and Pegler-and occasionallyvon Hoffman-are his only modern riv-als a t the art of ruthless, cynical com-mentary. After his military discharge,Leggett took up residence in NewYork City, where he devoted the re-maining years before his untimelydeath in 1839 to intrepid political eco-nomic writing that enthralled some,scandalized others. He had no sacredcows. He attacked the Bank of theUnited States, and when Andrew Jack-son destroyed that he attacked statebanks. In analytical expos& thatwould make any Austrian economistproud, he called for an end to fraction-al-reserve banking and a return to goldand silver. He railed against govern-ment grants of monopoly, against