And Yet There is Hope

Reading Justin Raimondo's latest article was depressing, even though it is an accurate assessment of where we are today. And it's true that until the government goes bankrupt and dissolves, we could be in for a rough ride. There may a period where, as Albert Jay Nock wrote, the flame of liberty will have to be kept alive by a Remnant of freedom lovers.

However, that doesn't mean there is no room for optimism. Quite the opposite in fact! As Murray Rothbard taught, the inefficient state will necessarily collapse in time, to be replaced by the only moral system: free-market capitalism. He wrote in 1973:

In short, the advent of industrialism and the Industrial Revolution has irreversibly changed the prognosis for freedom and statism. In the pre-industrial era, statism and despotism could peg along indefinitely, content to keep the peasantry at subsistence levels and to live off their surplus. But industrialism has broken the old tables; for it has become evident that socialism cannot run an industrial system, and it is gradually becoming evident that neomercantilism, interventionism, in the long run cannot run an industrial system either. Free-market capi­talism, the victory of social power and the economic means, is not only the only moral and by far the most productive system; it has become the only viable system for mankind in the industrial era. Its eventual triumph is therefore virtually inevitable.

And Rothbard didn't even know about the internet!

Wally Conger wrote in 2002:

For starters, as Murray Rothbard stressed years ago in his essay “Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty,” we must stop misreading history. No matter our short-term losses, Rothbard said, the historical long-term trend is in our favor. Granted, the Old Order still amasses all the power it can, usually with success. But its job isn’t as easy as it once was. Now, the Power Elite has to wrap its programs in the garb of “progress” and “security” and “freedom” — the language of libertarianism — to get the ear of the people. They shudder when movie audiences spontaneously cheer the explosion of the White House in “Independence Day.” They fret about the destruction wreaked on the credibility of the electoral process and on government itself by Election 2000. They worry about the discrediting of state socialism, and about the proliferation of both secessionist and anti-tax movements here and abroad. So we should take a longer view of history and be encouraged at the incredible progress liberty has made in two millennia, despite the odds.

So take heart and do not lose hope! The Ron Paul Revolution could be the turning point for the cause of liberty! Perhaps there will be a movement among the Remnant who, like Thomas Paine, will be able to set hearts aflame with a desire for freedom! That movement is here today, in fact, led in part by Rothbard's legacy, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, which is spreading the message of peace, prosperity, and liberty worldwide.

We may be in for a ride, but in the end, we know liberty will win!