Walter Blockiana

A longtime Canadian friend of Walter Block’s wrote me an amusing story about the Blockster the other day; here is an edited version.

I have known Walter for about 20 years. We hooked up initially when I was involved in politics. I was part of a group of libertarians who ran what would be the rough equivalent of the state Young Republican apparatus. A bizarre situation where the Rothbard wing of the youth faction actually took control and maintained that position for years.

In those days, we would bring Walter out to speak to various events. A few of the stories are quite funny. I will tell you only one so as not to impose upon your time.

In the mid-80’s, probably in 1985, we brought Walter up to Simon Fraser University for the first time. It was to be a debate. That was the first time he and I met. He was debating two lefties.

We were used to dealing with politicians in those days and, being good little political organizers, we stacked the room. It was a room full of about 200 of us, with a few token socialists, who got in late, stuck in the back of the room. We basically have every seat covered. Anyway, Walter arrives ready to be (and I am sure looking forward to being) booed and hissed as usual. Polite and quiet applause when they introduce socialist number one. Polite and quiet applause for labour organizer two. Then they introduce Walter and the place goes ballistic. People are standing on chairs, chanting his name, going wild and I am thinking, “hey, our man is well taken care of here. We have stacked the place.”

I look at Walter triumphantly to see how he is responding to our organizational capabilities. (Our politicans, understand, would be basking in the glow.) All I see–not kidding–absolute bewilderment in Walter’s eyes, a look of concern, bordering on panic, as he nervously starts looking around behind him to try and figure out what exactly is going on. Clearly, he was not comfortable with the crowd cheering his every word, interrupting his talk with applause. This was not a man used to applause at a left wing Canadian campus…. He looked… I’m not sure quite sure really how to describe his reaction and how he looked … he actually seemed almost disturbed by the events as they unfolded. At one point he even asked the crowd to stop cheering for him.

Anyway, that is where we first met. It was quite funny. You had to be there to really appreciate it.

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10:04 pm on September 13, 2005