Rockwell's Masterpiece

Paul B. has been a customer for many years and although he’s reasonable on many issues, there are certain subjects I approach with great caution. Adolf Hitler is one of them.

"Look, Paul," I said crossing the line in a discussion. "Hitler’s economic policies were similar to Mussolini’s and even FDR’s. In the 1930s, Hitler was just another central planner, another advocate of the welfare-warfare state. There are even uncomfortable resemblances to the Cheney-Bush regime.

"Lew Rockwell wrote a brilliant piece last month explaining the u2018Violence of Central Planning.’ Let me forward it to you."

Then I remembered. You couldn’t forward Paul anything — though he’s not even as old as I am. He has no computer and even brags about it.

I don’t know how many there are like Paul, but I’ll wager that a survey of folks over 60 will reveal that too many good, solid Americans still get their information from the likes of Rush Limbaugh, National Review, and the Fox Network.

Some of these innocents have never heard of Lew Rockwell, yet just one of Lew’s articles could turn them upside down and inside out. How do we get to them? How do we reach the good people out of range of LRC?

A book written by Lew, that’s how.

I have just finished reading the proofs of Speaking of Liberty. Sure, I love Lew as a friend, and there’s no greater fan of his work, but I was stunned at the power and eloquence of this 470-page Rockwellian manifesto.

You too will love this book, and take a pride in it. Lew speaks for all of us who love liberty.

The timing is perfect. More and more Americans realize we are in trouble. They know this is not the founding fathers’ America. It’s not even their father’s America. They are less and less blind to the predatory presidency, federal wars and taxes, DC meddling and spying, the constant attempts to brainwash us with the multicultural commandments.

Yet no matter how much the leviathan subverts our freedoms, wrecks our schools, squeezes our businesses, rips us off, and makes Beelzebub look like an honest man, we are supposed to shut up. Indeed, in the world according to Ashcroft, we are supposed to close our eyes, hand over our wallets and our children, pledge allegiance, and stigmatize anyone who dissents.

More and more of our sort of Americans are seething. And even middle-of-the-roaders are nervous. Here, in this country and all around the world — huge numbers share our concerns, as the remarkable reach of LewRockwell.com shows.

But that’s not enough. We must break out. We must reach a whole new audience. We must light a prairie fire for freedom, and show people the difference between blind "patriotism" and the true American heritage of liberty.

That’s why Lew wrote this book, and that’s where you come in.

Lew’s masterpiece is called, Speaking of Liberty and the Conservative Book Club has made it a monthly selection. What a breakthrough! They think it’s exactly the kind of book that libertarians and conservatives will gobble up, the kind of book people like us will want their spouses, children, neighbors, friends, business associates, and clergy to read as well.

In typical Rockwellian fashion, Lew takes on all the issues, including the radioactive ones:

  • Why "discrimination" — far from being immoral — is essential to human life.
  • Why another name for taxation is wealth destruction.
  • How the Federal Reserve gives us not sound money, but inflation, recession, and depression. (Thanks a bunch, Alan.)
  • Why the gold standard is still the best monetary system, no matter how much the establishment hates it (or maybe that’s "because the establishment hates it").
  • Why private property is the basis not only of prosperity and freedom, but of civilization itself.
  • The diabolical evil of socialism and its pyramid of skulls.
  • Why our present system is the mixed economy, and why that should scare the heck out of you.
  • Why we must never allow capitalism to be traduced — by commie professors, statist politicians, malignant media, or biased clergy.
  • What happens when the hypodermic is held by "that cold, cruel monster, the state" and its sickening pal, the American Medical Association.
  • Why Mises and Rothbard show us the way, and so does Austrian economics.
  • Why war always makes us more oppressed and less prosperous (unless you’re a merchant of death or a neocon, unless I repeat myself).
  • Why government turns the lie volume up to high in wartime.
  • Why Lincoln hated peace, federalism, free trade, and the republic of the framers.
  • Why trade sanctions are immoral;
  • Why it’s wrong to erect a military dictatorship over a conquered people after an aggressive war — whether they’re Confederates or Iraqis.
  • How ideas shape history, and why we can and must never lose hope.

Murray Rothbard’s untimely death was devastating to Lew and myself. Ever since, we play a game:

We try to guess how Murray would have reacted to today’s shocking or funny news. To the failure of US war socialism in Iraq? To the latest establishment "unknown" who bursts upon the political scene? "He didn’t just drop down from the sky," Murray would cackle, before explaining exactly who pulled his strings.

Would he like that movie? Which team would he root for in the World Series? What would he think of the neocons’ ascendancy, and their thrilling decline? That all his work against them has born such fruit? That there are so many brilliant young Rothbardians now teaching and preparing to teach?

Well, among the things I don’t have to guess about: How dear Murray would have received Speaking of Liberty. He would be bursting with pride.

Life is filled with joys and regrets. I only wish Murray could have lived to see Lew’s masterpiece.

But there’s still so much we can do. It’s simple arithmetic. 1) We know that ideas have consequences, and 2) We know that Speaking of Liberty could not arrive at a more critical time. But it could all add up to zero if we fail to get Lew’s book out in time to enough of the right people.

The great Mises Institute is publishing Speaking of Liberty.  But in order to have impact and influence, you and I must help get the book maximum attention and distribution.

Send a generous tax-deductible contribution to CLS. We will use your gift to get Speaking of Liberty into the hands of those who will do the most good: student leaders, activist teachers, the clergy, libraries, honest journalists, and other opinion molders.

Your tax-deductible donation of $25, $50, $100, $500, $1000, or any amount can strike a real blow for liberty. And goodness knows we need it.

And remember: This is Rockwell at his best. The Rockwell who muffles "loud-mouthed" statist, talk-show hosts. The Rockwell who turns commie environmentalists green. The Rockwell who is quick and funny — and deadly — when tossed into the lion’s den. The Rockwell who brings a steel-edged consistency to the defense of liberty. Speaking of Liberty IS pure Rockwell.

Every now and then, my enthusiasm about the importance of people owning gold spills over, and I threaten to go out and sell some "door-to-door."

My wife summed things up when she said, "Well, Blumert (she calls me that when she’s making a point), it looks like you’ll be adding Lew’s book to your u2018door-to-door’ products."

She’s right. Speaking of Liberty is pure gold.

So if I come knocking at your door, you had better buy something. In the meanwhile, help me make Speaking of Liberty an instant classic, since it deserves that status, by ordering advance copies for friends and family.

And, don’t forget, your generous tax-exempt gift to CLS will help us make Lew’s masterpiece available in every corner of this nation and overseas as well.

With your help, Speaking of Liberty really can make a difference for everything you and I believe in.

Burton S. Blumert Archives