Libertarians and Nationalists: A New Generation Arises

 Libertarians and Nationalists: A New Generation Arises

Fasces at US House of Representatives

“In a battle between force and an idea, the latter always prevails.” Mises, Liberalism [1]

The Western World is in turmoil with over a hundred million refugees across the world coming in our direction. [2] Millions are crossing into the USA and the EU.  Nations with centuries of tradition are being overrun. The situation is beginning to take on the appearance of one of the great historic migrations of people, such as those that overwhelmed classical Roman civilization.  Demographics are being changed as millions risk everything to escape intolerable conditions.

Reacting, large numbers of people of European heritage, on both sides of the Atlantic, and across the globe in places like Australia and New Zealand, are organizing kindred and collaborative groups to defend what they see as threats to their freedoms, their cultures and their people.  

There are several tendencies developing in this milieu.  There are Christian fundamentalists, Nordic Neopagans, libertarian techno- and crypto-nerds, conservative ‘active clubs’ and more edgy rightist fight clubs, well-organized militant Nationalist groups like the Patriot Front. There are those who position themselves as fascists and then there are drinking clubs like the Proud Boys.

It seems that the centuries’ long political consensus in Western countries favoring personal liberty is at risk.  It was about a century and a half ago that Lysander Spooner, great 19th Century American Libertarian lawyer, pointed out that the Old World’s aristocratic tyrannies were grounded in what he called the ‘four monopolies’  — state churches, chattel slavery, the ‘legal infirmities’ of women and government economic monopolies.  He saw all these old institutions collapsing. In the intervening 20th Century, with government monopolies like the Federal Reserve leading the way, the old ‘classic liberal’ ideals of liberty and free market economic progress seem unreachable to many, especially unenfranchised mostly young men on the extremes of the political spectrum.   People have been taking to the streets, no matter which end of the spectrum, in increasing numbers.

This has become a strong trend and is exemplified by actions such as the World-Wide Rallies and Trucker Convoys of 2021/22 which involved millions across the globe, but mainly in Western countries. The lockdowns and mandates have become rallying points for the Right in the Western world.

On a more local level, young (predominantly) men in America and Europe are forming serious ‘fight clubs’ and other active groups (‘Active Clubs’, the Patriot Front and the Proud Boys again come to mind).  The youth who gravitate to these alliances have a broad spectrum of political beliefs, encompassing every nuance from an individualist libertarian ethos through the ‘hard right’ of American Nationalists. 

This mix can be seen in the dozen basic principles of the Proud Boys which include several strictly libertarian propositions (maximum freedom, minimal govt.) as well as ‘hard right’ positions (closed border) and traditionalist values (‘venerate the housewife’) [3]

That’s a wide spectrum.  Is there any intersectional correspondence between libertarian individualists and corporatist nationalists?  Can libertarians and fascists ever cooperate on any issue?  

There is in European politics the idea that there is a ‘hard line’ between ‘democratic’ parties and fascist parties; all the ‘democratic’ parties agree, no matter who ‘forms the government’ the extreme right will not be allowed into the halls of power. Are libertarians obliged to honor this understanding among the statist parties? How far should freedom advocates cooperate with people who, while expressing Western values, may be willing to, under certain circumstances, initiate violence to effectuate change to their liking?

This is not an academic question since there are now a number of credible crises that may play out, putting us all on the battlefield of a third world war.

Quite literally thousands of nationalist and other militants from all over Europe have gathered in Ukrainia, forming freikorps to fight for Russia or Ukrania.  ‘Nazi’ regiments and ‘Anarchist’ cooperatives are fighting together on the Ukranian side.  

The issue of alliances on the Right has remained controversial for a hundred years and even now both sides glare at each other across the social media, (watching each other’s edgy videos of banner drops and protests) while at the same time each stands against the Left as personified in groups like Antifa.

During the past hundred years America embraced ‘foreign entanglements’ in World War One and the first fascist State was founded (Mussolini’s Italy in 1922).  It is said that FDR and his first cabinet were fans of fascism. [4] These early 20th Century machinations suggest a ‘forgotten history’ that may illuminate our question regarding the alliances on the Right.

Also consider the prior century (the 19th of the Common Era) when the theory of the omniscient State was developed by statists and opposed by libertarians (such as Max Weber and Lysander Spooner).

The theory they opposed, that the State was a special type of human organization, has very ancient roots, growing from the ‘divine right of the priest kings’.  It was further developed in Plato’s Republic, which made no significant provision for free speech and dissent.  Centuries later Marxist writers proposed a ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ to overthrow classical liberal societies and their commitment to equal rights, free markets.  But it was in the early 20th Century that the concept was given a name, the State of Exception.

What is a “State of Exception”?  It is the legal theory justifying tyranny asserted originally by the German Jurist (and Nazi) Carl Schmitt [5] and strongly criticized by libertarian philosopher Murray Rothbard. [6]

Schmitt saw the unlimited powers of the totalitarian state as arising from a permanent state of emergency, a “State of Exception” which allowed ruling elites to act arbitrarily, capriciously and without adherence to the rule of law. He asserted such a state justified:

    1. Special executive powers

    2. Suspension of the Rule of Law

    3. Derogation of legal and constitutional rights

More about the history of the State of Exception in my blog, The State of Exception: Tyranny’s Theory. [7] In my view there is no ‘emergency’ exception to inalienable rights.

World War Two discredited fascist theory just as the collapse of the USSR a few decades later discredited Marxism-Leninism. However, the embers of these theories remain scattered around and flame up every so often, in ‘liberated zones’ or ‘no go’ areas in many Western cities.

In this context, how do the two political movements ‘on the Right’ reacted to each other over the century in which the theories of both movements reached their fullest development. We seek to find the collaboration within libertarian individualism and the individualism within nationalism.

As a subsidiary issue we look at the disconnect between Right Nationalism as a political movement and Government Domination (Fascism, Corporatism or Syndicalism) as an economic theory.  Libertarians, on the other hand, have an ‘unhampered market’ economic theory clearly at odds with fascism’s central planning and enforced collaboration between market and government.

Let’s look at Ludwig von Mises, the 20th Century’s great philosopher of liberty. I note that he left his native land, Austria in 1934, the year the Austrofascists took over. After a time in Switzerland he spent the war and post-war years in the United States where he mentored what has become a world-wide political movement.

He pointed the way toward a libertarian nationalist approach with his understanding of classical liberalism’s cosmopolitanism – “nationalism does not clash with cosmopolitanism, for the unified nation does not want discord with neighboring peoples, but peace and friendship.” [8]

Or, as Jefferson put it, “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations…entangling alliances with none.”

My blog on Nationalist Libertarianism explores this further [9]

“Peace — Individualism — Free Trade: lead to a libertarian world. 

As a practical matter, urgent steps in that direction require a wholesale planetary divesting of authority from political systems used to micro-manage Human Action. 

Every regulation abolished, every tax reduced, is a victory for humanity. The direct political program therefore must be “abolish multiple old regulations for any new one proposed” — and the same as to taxes and bureaus.“

Nonetheless, Mises was accused of being ‘soft’ on fascism by various Marxist scholars, as he thought Italian Fascism was to be acknowledged for stopping a Communist takeover there. His condemnation of fascist policies is clear:

“That its foreign policy, based as it is on the avowed principle of force in international relations, cannot fail to give rise to an endless series of wars that must destroy all of modern civilization requires no further discussion. To maintain and further raise our present level of economic development, peace among nations must be assured. But they cannot live together in peace if the basic tenet of the ideology by which they are governed is the belief that one’s own nation can secure its place in the community of nations by force alone.” Mises, Liberalism[1]

Here Mises was applying the libertarian Non-Aggression Principle [NAP] and condemning the pro-war policies of the tyrannies of his time, primarily the Fascists and the Communists.  Both political movements espoused the same morality of ‘might makes right’ and supported central planning and government domination over all of of social life. Left or Right, statism supports dictatorship.

However, both tendencies on the Right do see cultivating manliness among the youth as a significant value, in direct opposition to the Left’s championing of Critical Race Theory’s offspring, Critical Sex Theory, with its emphasis on ‘metrosexual’ feminized males and non-binary or trans persons.

Why have those who espouse an ‘Alt Right’ [sometimes Alt Right 3.0] lifestyle of martial training and activism ['Cultured Thug'] and some who adopt a more extreme fascist style as well as more ‘center’ nationalist symbolism?  Why is fascist posturing [giving what are considered 'Roman Salutes' and the like] so attractive to some on the Right, while others, such as libertarian youth, remain committed to peace, free trade and civil liberties? 

Both see themselves as the ‘True Right’. Both seek to build lasting communities of like-minded, self-actuated, and politically active, men and women who value individual effort, physical prowess, and intellectual achievement.  

In this way the new Western Chauvinists stand not just against the Left, but more importantly, stand against the globalist elite that seeks to manipulate both Right and Left, exercising especially strong control over popular Leftist causes such as ‘climate change’ and ‘systemic racism’.

Ultimately, it is dissatisfied individuals, engaging in Human Action, guided by Informed Consent that will set the underlying economic conditions which will determine how the Western Civilization will develop in the coming decades and centuries.

It was Mises who defined the first principle of economics as “Humans act purposefully” and from that understanding,  that all Human Action is predicated on dissatisfaction.  The youth of the world are profoundly dissatisfied, none more so than Westerners of European heritage.  

Beware, as a new generation arises.

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Footnotes:

[1] https://mises.org/library/liberalism-classical-tradition/html

[2] https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/

[3] The Tenets are:

1. Minimal Government

2. Maximum Freedom

3. Pro Free Speech

4. Pro Gun Rights

5. Anti Racism

6. Anti Racial Guilt

7. Anti Drug War

8. Anti Political Correctness

9. Closed Borders

10. Gloify the Entrepreneur

11. Venerate the Housewife

12. Reinstate a Spirit of Western Chauvanism

[4] https://dailycaller.com/2016/12/13/fdr-praised-mussolini-and-loved-fascism/

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Schmitt

[6] https://mises.org/library/carl-schmitt-and-murray-rothbard

[7] https://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2022/04/the-state-of-exception-tyrannys-theory.html

[8] L. von Mises, Nation, State, and Economy, 1919

[9] https://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2020/09/nationalist-libertarianism.html

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References:

https://mises.org/library/liberalism-classical-tradition/html

https://mises.org/library/mises-and-fascism

https://mises.org/library/was-mises-fascist-obviously-not

https://mises.org/library/mises-his-importance-and-relevance

https://fee.org/articles/misess-lost-papers-plundered-by-the-nazis-buried-by-the-soviets-rediscovered-by-me/

 

Source: http://vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/2023/01/libertarians-and-nationalists-new.html