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Activism, Achieving a Free Society, and Writing for the Remnant

[From my Webnote series]

On why I write, why I fight, the Remnant, and the problem with libertarian activism and “waystation libertarians.”

The Irrelevance of the Impossibility of Anarcho-Libertarianism

Where are the best pracitical suggestions along those lines – if any of you know and are willing to share?

My personal view is that in the long run the only that that can work is economic literacy. Thus we need to educate people; and one way to do it is to support the Mises Institute, and to keep spreading a consistent, principled message of liberty. We can keep learning, both to improve ourselves and to improve our ability to persuade. And by improving ourselves we help present “one improved unit” to society, thus helping to win over people to our other views by the power of attraction.

I would recommend not deluding oneself that we can “win” once and for all; or that winning is all that matters. That way lies the perils of self-delusion, compromise, despair, disengagement, and activism (see my The Trouble with Libertarian Activism).

I would recommend fighting because you want to do the right thing, be on the right side, and make even incremental progress. I would suggest taking heart in Nock’s idea of “the Remnant“–“In his 1936 article “Isaiah’s Job”, which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, Nock expressed his complete disillusionment with the idea of reforming the current system. Believing that it would be impossible to convince any large portion of the general population of the correct course and opposing any suggestion of a violent revolution, Nock instead argued that libertarians should focus on nurturing what he called “the Remnant”. The Remnant, according to Nock, consisted of a small minority who understood the nature of the state and society, and who would become influential only after the current dangerous course had become thoroughly and obviously untenable, a situation which might not occur until far into the future.”

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Preface to Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023)

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Why I’m a Libertarian–or, Why Libertarianism is Beautiful, Mises blog (Dec. 12, 2006)

“Faculty Spotlight Interview: Stephan Kinsella” (Mises.org, 2011) https://stephankinsella.com/2021/06/faculty-spotlight-interview-stephan-kinsella-mises-org-2011/ Are there any words of wisdom you wish to pass onto the next generation of Austrian scholars?
Yes. Do not focus on short-term goals; this way discouragement lies. Have principles and integrity. Do the right thing, and fight for truth and liberty, because it is right, even if it seems to be an uphill battle. But I would say: live a good life. Enjoy it. Think hard before becoming altruistic. And as I noted in “Nock and Leonard Read on “One Improved Unit” and the Power of Attraction“, your primary task is to improve yourself–to strive for excellence in yourself. Then you become a bright light that attracts people; they see you are good, and successful, and worth emulating or listening to–so you win people over by the power of attraction. They come to you, and then you have more success spreading the ideas of liberty than if you go around being a pest.

Libertarian Answer Man: Does It Matter How Law is Made?:

I think your goal is “liberty” in the short or medium term. So you are thinking always in strategic terms. I get this, but this is the activist mentality. 2 Even I am prone to it, but I always fear it can corrupt—make you start dismissing people who are into theory, ignore the division of labor and favor only your own little area, make you start to compromise just to make a single tiny win…. so I stick to theory and understanding. I don’t care if the activists insult me with their crude, anti-intellectual chants of “what good has your fancy theorizing done” or whatever. My being libertarian does not require that I become a high-time preference anti-intellectual activist sellout. I’d rather understand and maybe advance libertarian scholarship in my own little way, or practice it in my own life. To be honest, that’s enough for me, because it has to be, because we won’t achieve perfect justice in our lifetimes (unless Bitcoin is the spark that finally starts to undermine the state).

… I view the state and its various horrible intrusions into public life as similar to a disease or natural disaster or other natural threat we need to respond to. 3 That’s my approach to it—have normal, good life, and then gird for the upcoming apocalypse; while in the meantime studying and promoting liberty and helping keep “the Remnant” alive. Libertarian activists hate when I say this. But I’m old enough and have been in this movement long enough—since 1981 or so—that … I don’t care. They stamp their feet and demand results now. I want results now too. I just don’t conflate fact and fiction. And I try not to stamp my feet like an insolent punk. I love Star Wars and Lord of the Rings but I know they are not real. I know the difference between fantasy/fiction and real life. No offense, libertarian activists. I have no problem being realistic (and I don’t care if activist libertarians sneeringly deride this as defeatist), and if being realistic, and honest, means I can’t be a good huxter exaggerating promoter that’s perfectly fine with me because I’d rather achieve my own liberty with my own money and success and live in a 62% liberty world as a man with integrity, than lie to myself and others in the vain hope of tweaking the knob from 62% to 62.1%—or, more likely, freedom is always being eroded so the 62% this year will be 61.5% next year, so I’m selling my soul and integrity in the vain hope of having a small chance at slowing down the decrement from 62% to 61.5%? I don’t play these games. I never pretend. I won’t do it. Whatever it is, it is, and if it’s bad, we need to know it and accept it, and build on that understanding of reality.

This presupposes that making progress comes from us explaining things to other people. That the roadblock to progress is that not enough people “get it”. And that we can change this by handing out enough ISIL pamphlets to our cousins and uncles at Thanksgiving get-togethers.
I don’t believe any of this. I think there are natural reasons most people are not interested in ideas and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. I think it‘s futile to hand out the ISIL pamphlets to the brother-in-law. This is now the solution to liberty—to create an army of fellow Objectivists or whatever. It just won’t happen.
I do believe that we have a state because people believe in various myths. This is the theme of Hoppe’s The Great Fiction.  I think we will have widespread liberty only when most people basically naturally accept the grundnorms of liberty. But I don’t think this will happen because we run around exhorting them. I really am a Nockian “Remnant” guy in this regard. 4 I’m happy to try but I’m not sanguine about our chances. I’m not afraid to admit this, and one thing that turns me off about rah rah activists is they become dishonest since they can’t admit reality because it bursts their activist bubble. 5 I think liberty can be achieved but I think the way to do it is to: wait. (And maybe Bitcoin will hasten it.) We have to wait for teaching moments and for the capitalist mentality to be ingrained naturally into the zeitgeist. Just as the fall of communism in 1990 showed everyone that central planning doesn’t work and we need “capitalism,” I suspect that over time as the human race continues to improve, as technology improves, as we give up atavistic ideas like religion (which will take a while; we are still in a primitive era, despite our rocket ships), as the division of labor expands, as we become richer, as crime declines, as people become more powerful by technology and the state recedes into the background, the libertarian ethos will gradually take hold of mankind. It will be like The Golden Age of John C. Wright’s great sci-fi trilogy.
But how long it will take to get there, is anybody’s guess. As I said, bitcoin may get us there quicker. But I think there is little we can to do get there quicker. This frustrates the activist since they want to do something. I view my role in liberty as one of personal growth and understanding and a mission of helping to move theory forward—for its own sake. In the meantime I think people should just keep an open eye out for the true nature of society and the state now, and take whatever precautions they need to survive and even prosper in the face of atavism-socialism.

Sure, me too. I think the human race, if it doesn’t destroy itself, will achieve liberty. Sure. So I’m optimistic too. I’m just realistic and not impatient.
 I simply want to hasten our evolution.
What makes you think this is possible? This is the real issue for all our meandering discussion. What makes you think that “promoting a message”, even if you have found finally the simplest, perfect, encapsulation of our perspective, can “hasten our evolution”?
 The choice is simple: to do something or not.
I agree with this. But I look at it like Nock did the Remnant. Or—if the ship is going down, I choose to die on the side of the righteous. But I prefer not to do rah rah stuff and have illusions. Here’s a summary of why I’m a libertarian — Why I’m a Libertarian–or, Why Libertarianism is Beautiful.
  I opt to do something, but I concede there is no “right” answer.
All of us have “opted to do something”. I am part of the general liberty movement despite not expecting intellectual activism to transform society right away. I fight because it‘s the right thing to do. I fight because I enjoy it. I like talking to people who are like-minded. I like opening the eyes of those few who are looking for enlightenment. I like understanding more and developing theory. I like helping preserve and foster the liberal spirit so that it‘s there when and if humanity finally grows up and wants and needs it. I think we are a primitive species. Very atavistic. We are still religious and tribal for God’s sake—racist, puritanical, sex hangups, stupid religious stuff; we are just smart apes. It might take 100,000 or 5M years before we finally grow up.
See, that’s optimism, for me. But damn I sound like a downer, even to me. 🙂
I might sound pessimistic but that means I won’t give up. Since I don’t have unrealistic expectations. I can’t count the number of people I’ve known and seen who are so impatient for change that they just give up on liberty or start to compromise and sellout to try to get something done. 6 If you focus on immediate results, and are likely to be disappointed, you might give up your principles or compromise. I won’t since I have such low and realistic expectations.
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