Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The Hayek Problem for the Libwaps

There is a close association between many of the libwaps and the Koch brothers. Cathy Reisenwitz, for example, is a member of the Koch Associate Program. She also writes for Koch-funded Reason magazine.

The Koch brothers have made a conscious decision to promote the work of Friedrich Hayek, over that of Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard. Their thinking has been that Hayek is not as radical as Mises and Rothbard and thus more acceptable to the establishment. Duh, no kidding. Someone like Hayek, who would bend away from hardcore libertarian principles on occasion, would certainly be better tolerated by an establishment that is scared to death of hardcore libertarian principles.

Here's the problem for the Koch brothers. Their man Hayek seems to have been something of a sexist.

Ludwig von Mises always welcomed women into his seminars. Bettina Bien Greaves was a regular at the seminar Mises held at New York University. And Jörg Guido Hülsmann  informs us in Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism:
Mises own private seminar [in Vienna] started on November 26,1919 with a talk by Elisabeth Ephrussi...

He wholeheartedly supported his female students as a matter of course, placing for example Marianne von Herzeld and Helene Lieser as economists at the Association of Austrian Banks and Bankers. Helene Lieser was the first woman in Austria to obtain a doctorate in government science. She went on to become Secretary of the International Economic Association in Paris. Another female student, Martha Stephanie Braun, who later taught at Brooklyn College and New York University, recalled,
Professor Mises never restrained any participant in the choice of a topic he or she wanted to discuss...I have lived in many cities and belonged to many organizations. I am sure there does not exist a second circle where the intensity of the intellectual standard of the discussions is as high as it was at the Mises Seminar.
But here is what Eugen Maria Schulak  and  Herbert Unterköfler in The Austrian School of Economics: A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, & Institutions inform us about Hayek:
Another discussion group was started by Friedrich Hayek and Herbert Furth (1899-1995)...Only men were permitted to participate in the discussion. This prompted Vienna's first female doctoral student, Martha Stephanie Braun to give the gathering the designation Geistkries (Literally "circle of spirit," an ironically intended allusion to the self-perception of its members as a circle of exclusive highbrows.)
So will Cathy Reisenwitz, who had to pull her charges of racism against prominent pure libertarians for lack of evidence (SEE: BREAKING Reisenwitz Issues Apology for Making Racist Charges), call out the poster boy of Koch-Austrianism for his formation of a group that prohibited women, when there is clear evidence to support the charge, or will she be afraid of taking on the brothers who sign some of her paychecks?

Does Reisenwitz have the courage, as Murray Rothbard did, to breakaway from the Koch brothers if necessary?

Please Cathy, tell us where you stand?

As for my own views on Hayek, I consider his important insights to be extremely valuable to the development of Austrian economics and libertarianism and promote them. I have called him out on his leaks from principle (chiefly indirectly by posting what Murray Rothbard has written on Hayek (SEE: 48 Non-Libertarian Positions Held By Friedrich Hayek) and I really don't care who the hell he wanted to have in his little clubs and who he banned from such gatherings.

But judging from Reisenwitz's writings, she would have a problem with Hayek's anti-female club, so the question, for her remains, will she,based on her principles, call out Hayek?

17 comments:

  1. Cathy is sexist and enemy of feminism unless she distances from and attacks Hayek! How dare she continue to support that pig!

    She needs to be bombarded on twitter with this until she comments one way or the other - not even Roderick "the drifter" long can save her by accusing us all of racism.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Cathy! I see you spend a lot of time on here!

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  2. Replies
    1. Usually when babies vomit up their food, it is thickened to help keep it down. Maybe something like that is going on here.

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  3. I think this Cathy Reisenwitz tweet has been milked and squeezed for all its worth, time to move on to other issues.

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    Replies
    1. "has been milked and squeezed for all its worth"

      Interesting choice of words in referencing the chick that focuses on sex in her philosophmoric political ramblings.

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    2. You are clearly a hater of women to use terms like "milk" that are sexist

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  4. Thank you Cathy for your perspective.

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  5. "...Hayek, who would bend away from hardcore libertarian principles on occasion..."

    This is a serious understatement. Given Rothbard's list of Hayek's positions, it would be more accurate to say,

    "...Hayek, who would bend away from hardcore socialist principles on occasion..."

    Hayek is the liberals' favorite libertarian. Just another way of saying that they are busy destroying the word "libertarian" the way they did the word "liberal".

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  6. Hi Robert,

    A Ludwig Von Mises scholar would realize that the intent behind human actions are never obvious.

    LEIJONHUFVUD: Was it an exclusively male group? Were you antifeminist?
    HAYEK: No, it was impractical, under the then-existing social traditions, which created so many complications, to have a girl among us; so we just decided-- Our name was even given [to us] by a lady whom you probably have met, who resented being excluded, and so gave us the name Geistkreis in order to ridicule the whole affair.
    LEIJONHUFVUD: But it stuck, and you now remember it?
    HAYEK: Oh yes, we remembered it and accepted it. Her name is Stephanie Browne. Do you know her?
    LEIJONHUFVUD: Yes, yes.
    HAYEK: In fact, if you want the anecdotes of the time, she would be an exhaustive resource.

    http://hayek.ufm.edu/index.php?title=Axel_Leijonhufvud

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    1. I attempted to make clear in my post that I did not care who Hayek allowed and banned in his group:

      " I really don't care who the hell he wanted to have in his little clubs and who he banned from such gatherings."

      That goes for the reason behind Hayek's banning of women. As I have attempted to make clear here at EPJ, prejudices are no big deal in my book, whether they are against blacks, women or Robert Reich-type midgets.

      The point of my post is much narrower, Reisenwitz seems to consider prejudice a problem, but will she call out such "sexists" when it involves a person that is promoted by the Koch checkbook.

      My point has nothing to do with Hayek's intent. I really don't care what it was.

      Delete
    2. @msreekan

      Do you serious buy Hayek's excuse when Mises held a seminar at the same time that included women?

      Delete
  7. Here's Tucker attacking "pop Austrian" economics at a BTC conference.
    Does look coordinated, now, doesn't it? Tucker, Richman, Long, Reisenwitz...
    Popcorn time again.

    http://bitcoinmagazine.com/12918/jeffrey-tucker-attacks-pop-austrian-economics-bitcoin-event/

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  8. Hi Robert,

    I have been an EPJ reader for a while and do understand your position but disregard for the intent is different from acknowledging the fact that we cannot assume one. The correlation between the action (of including / excluding women) and prejudiced process of reasoning is integral to the narrative here.

    We could call out someone for using any such erroneous correlations but should refrain from using one.Thanks!

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    1. @msreekan The only one that seems to be assuming an intent is you with your hilarious quote of Hayek's justification for not having women in his group. Further, Wenzel isn't discussing the merits of the sexist charges against Hayek, but questions how Reisenwitz would respond to Hayek's banning of women. Is she going to give Hayek a pass that she, at first, she failed to give Rothbard, Rockwell et al.? Even though she has admitted she has no quotes to back up her earlier accusations. Inquiring minds want to know, how does Reisenwitz come down on Hayek's actions?

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    2. Hi Jack,
      Why should we respond to baseless accusations with even more speculations? Hayek may or may not be prejudiced but taking specific actions and claiming there can only be one intent is an error, we cannot infer anything concrete with this methodology.

      By arguing there can only be one reason for Hayek to exclude women you are proving that people are indeed taking the wrong idea from this post.

      Delete
  9. And here is Reisenwitz again. This time she and Raimondo are on the same page:
    As I said, her problem isn't with libertarianism or theory. It's with the alt right, traditionalists and social conservatives. For her crowd, I guess all that amounts to is "medieval superstition," "racism" and "bigotry."

    Cathy Reisenwitz ‏@CathyReisenwitz Apr 2

    @OccamsRazor5 @MikeAnissimov @JasonKuznicki @adamgurri @ARossP Are people still trying to claim the "Dark Enlightenment" isn't racist?

    traditionalRIGHT Ed. ‏@TradRight Apr 2

    @CathyReisenwitz @OccamsRazor5 @MikeAnissimov @JasonKuznicki @adamgurri @ARossP I think we are pretty open about it.
    Karl F. Boetel ‏@RadishMag Apr 2

    @CathyReisenwitz @OccamsRazor5 @MikeAnissimov @JasonKuznicki @adamgurri @ARossP libertarianism -- still a useless neutered fake opposition

    Karl F. Boetel ‏@RadishMag Apr 2

    @CathyReisenwitz @OccamsRazor5 @MikeAnissimov @JasonKuznicki @adamgurri @ARossP as has been explained before http://radishmag.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/white-right/ …

    Adam Gurri ‏@adamgurri Apr 2

    @RadishMag @CathyReisenwitz @OccamsRazor5 Neoreaction: still a politically unaccomplished empowerment fantasy :)

    Karl F. Boetel ‏@RadishMag Apr 2

    @adamgurri @CathyReisenwitz @OccamsRazor5 well, considering we're opposed to politics… & that only a retard would call it "empowerment"… ;)


    Adam Gurri ‏@adamgurri Apr 2

    @RadishMag @CathyReisenwitz @OccamsRazor5 Cutting critique, did your 12-year-old come up with it? :p

    Justin Raimondo ‏@JustinRaimondo Apr 2

    @TradRight @CathyReisenwitz @OccamsRazor5 @MikeAnissimov @JasonKuznicki @adamgurri @ARossP "Dark Enlightenmet" = Nazi revival.

    Occam's Razor ‏@OccamsRazor5 Apr 2

    .@JustinRaimondo Spoken like a true Cultural Marxist @TradRight @CathyReisenwitz @MikeAnissimov @JasonKuznicki @adamgurri @ARossP
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    Esoteric Traditional ‏@EsotericTrad Apr 2

    “@JustinRaimondo: "Dark Enlightenmet" = Nazi revival.” These devastating critiques just get better!

    ReplyDelete