Letters

From the October 2005 issue

Behind the Jeffersonian Veneer

In describing my writing as exhibiting only a "Jeffersonian veneer" ("Behind the Jeffersonian Veneer," June), Cathy Young reveals herself to be either ignorant of Jefferson's thought--a possibility I cannot reject out of hand--or a liar. Jefferson believed in local control, nullification, and secession, and would have resolutely opposed the "incorporation doctrine" associated with modern interpretations of the 14th Amendment. Perhaps Cathy Young doesn't care for these Jeffersonian positions, but a book, like my Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, that advances and defends these ideas is Jeffersonian, pure and simple.

Anyone examining my record of publication, which includes articles for many well-known libertarian publications, can see how anti-statist it is. I am also the author of The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy, whose hard Misesian/Rothbardian line makes it the most libertarian book on Catholic social teaching ever written. But Young, a person who in the wake of 9/11--a time when a principled libertarian voice was needed more than ever--told us we needed to shut up and accept government surveillance, is actually going to question my ideological credentials. Physician, heal thyself.

Young thinks it's unlibertarian of me to oppose radical individualism but doesn't bother to explain why. Just because I wish to keep the state out of my affairs does not mean I cannot also have deep and abiding affection for my family, my church, or any of the other associations that Burke called the "little platoons" of society. Benjamin Constant was not alone among classical liberals in warning that "the interests and memories which spring from local customs contain a germ of resistance which is so distasteful to authority that it hastens to uproot it. Authority finds private individuals easier game; its enormous weight can flatten them out effortlessly as if they were so much sand."

As for the League of the South--a group that has been repeatedly denounced by white supremacist organizations--I simply refer fair-minded readers to Tom DiLorenzo's article "Why They Hate Tom Woods," archived at LewRockwell.com, as well as to my February 19 LewRockwell.com blog entry "In Case You Were Wondering." I am inclined to think that a reasonable person, as opposed to a P.C. automaton, will understand the non-crazy motivations that brought a 21-year-old Tom Woods to that organization's initial meeting.

In her conclusion, Young finds my positions on the War Between the States and World War II so morally obtuse as to render me unworthy of the company of libertarians. Of course, what I said about those conflicts is no different from what Murray Rothbard and countless other libertarians--probably even a majority--have said a great many times and have taken for granted as the clear and obvious libertarian position. For all I know, though, Young wants to expel Rothbard from libertarianism too--perhaps all that scholarship was just so much Jeffersonian veneer.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History has been received with overwhelming favor by libertarians, as my many speaking engagements attest, and my front cover boasts a wonderful blurb by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). These people understand that the book, a New York Times bestseller, has brought anti-statist ideas to the attention of many tens of thousands of people, and in its reading suggestions has spread the word about our scholars and publications to an unusually wide audience. Cathy Young, on the other hand, chooses to join my leftist critics in dredging up some insensitive things I said years ago.

Somehow I think I'll get over it.

Thomas E. Woods Jr.
Assistant Professor of History
Suffolk County Community College
Coram, NY

Cathy Young replies: Three brief points:

1) Tom Woods' attack on "radical individualism" in his writings from the late 1990s goes far beyond the defense of family and other "little platoons." It is a defense of social, cultural, and religious authoritarianism, full of sympathy for the supporters of the Old South's social order (most of whom loathed Jefferson).

2) Oddly, Woods tries simultaneously to portray the League of the South as an unfairly maligned group and to dismiss his association with it as a youthful indiscretion.

3) Murray Rothbard's hostility to Cold War interventionism led him to cheer for the fall of U.S.-backed governments in Vietnam and Cambodia (i.e., effectively, for these countries' takeover by Communist dictatorships). Not, in my view, a proud moment for libertarianism.

Consumer Vertigo

I am grateful for the opportunity to offer some comments on Virginia Postrel's thoughtful but critical article ("Consumer Vertigo," June) about my recent book, The Paradox of Choice.