The System Builder

DIGG THIS

Foreword to the 1974 edition of Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays.

Historians and anthologists of anarchist thought, in comparing the great libertarian classics with other schools of political philosophy, have always been eager to mention the fact that no anarchist theorist has ever been on the level of a Marx or Hegel. What they have meant by this fact is easy to pin down: traditionally, anarchist philosophers have not been system builders and have not been on as profound a level in analyzing ideas and institutions as have the great ideologists.

Marx is mentioned most frequently, perhaps, as a contrast, because Marx was equally competent in philosophy, economics, and history. Furthermore, Marx took a great variety of strands of thought prevalent in the mid-nineteenth century and unified them into a mighty system of socialism. Marx, moreover, was the father of a powerful ideological movement that has had a profound historical impact. And, whatever one may think of the fact, it is true that compared with Marx, all of the anarchist theorists can be considered superficial. Not that Warren, Tucker, Spooner, Stirner, Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Tolstoy, just to mention a few of the most famous anarchists, were in any way ignorant. Few theorists of any camp, for instance, are as rigorous, passionate, and systematic as Lysander Spooner. And few considered as many issues and events as Tucker. Bakunin, too, was the founder of a movement that, for a time at least, rivaled that of Marx. But after all of this is said, it remains to be faced: no anarchist theorist has reached the stature, intellectually speaking, of the great political philosophers in Western Civilization.

Until now, that is. For within the last few years, libertarians have seen the initial signs of widespread recognition of the youngest of the libertarian "superstars": Murray N. Rothbard. Still in his mid-40s, Rothbard’s writings have begun to see the light of day in the New York Times, Intellectual Digest, and many other prominent publications – left, right, and center. He has appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including the Today Show, and his ideas have been debated widely throughout the country. He is stirring up more and more admirers with the publication of his latest book, For A New Liberty. While Rothbard has yet to have the impact of Rand, Friedman, or Hayek, his influence is rapidly growing.

But the most significant things to be said about Rothbard are intellectual. For in Rothbard we have one of the only explicit system builders writing today. He has already published three volumes of a treatise on economic principles, namely the two volumes of his Man, Economy, and State and its sequel, Power and Market. Numerous works on economic history have been published, and with the publication of For A New Liberty, there is the first book-length statement of his political philosophy. Moreover, the best is yet to come. Rothbard is working to complete his book on the ethics of liberty and to bring the first several volumes of his multi-volume history of the United States to publication in the near future. This last involves one of the most ambitious undertakings of any contemporary historian.

Read the rest of the article