Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Walter Block Comments on the Latest Victor Ward Essay

Dr. Block emails:
Dear Victor:

This is just about the most magnificent essay I have ever read about racism. Imagine, truth as a defense against that charge. Go figure.

Best regards,

Walter

Walter E. Block, Ph.D.
Harold E. Wirth Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair and Professor of Economics
Joseph A. Butt, S.J. College of Business                
Loyola University New Orleans
Be sure to read Ward's essay here.

UPDATE

Lew Rockwell writes in an email:
I love Victor Ward!

9 comments:

  1. They are not racist. They just have the same policy positions as the white supremacists. Just because you agree with the racists on everything, that does not make you a racist. In order to be a racist, you have to use the word "nigger" frequently, wear a white hood, burn a cross. Simply agreeing with the white supremacists on every issue does not make you a racist.

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    Replies
    1. You mean like Obama blowing the hell out of the brown people with drones? Or Bloomberg stopping and frisking all the non whites and non Asians in NYC? Or Bloomberg spying on Muslims in New Jersey? Or Obama and most of the left trying to ban guns? Or the left supporting actual Jim Crow laws still on the books in some states?

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    2. In order to be a racist, one has to be like you, Jerry. Obsessed with racial distinctions and seeing race in every anti-government comment on social problems.

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    3. Holy crap. AHAHAHAHAHA.

      What a goober.

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  2. White supremacists want minorities to have gun rights? White supremacists want interracial marriages? White supremacists want economic freedom for EVERYBODY?!?

    I had no idea they held such policy positions.

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  3. A great article by Mr. Ward and I have very similar opinions on how blacks should conduct themselves given the reputations of black people. But Ward brushed away Roderik Long's link which was not really about who profits and lives off the welfare state. It was a link to Hoppe's speech on the industrial revolution and that the gradual rise of IQ in the west was the reason for it and the low IQ in Africa being the reason they haven't progressed much for a long time like it was possible for East Asians. Nothing controversial here if you are familiar with Charles Murray's The Bell Curve* or IQ and The Wealth of Nations by Richard Lynn. Heck if you read Steve Sailer who EPJ occasionally posts you would know this stuff yet most libertarians believe in the blank slate theory and that all races are equally endowed. Therefore any differences in outcome is to be blamed on the state(occasionally some blame culture as well to be fair).

    I love the people at the Mises Institute but to be fair they have been dodging the racial past of both Rothbard and Rockwell for quite some time. The truth is that by downplaying this past they are indeed being politically correct even though those past articles were perfectly acceptable and true even if they would be shocking to most libertarians who are either moderates/neutral libertarians or left-wing libertarians. Libertarians associated with the Mises Institute would never write articles like that about race or ethnicity today. The problems with race and politics have exacerbated today yet libertarians have stayed away from those themes except when couched in neutral libertarian terms. The most disappointing thing is the whitewashing. Some of those writers who engaged in what most PC people would call "racism" have been dumped down the memory hole at Lewrockwell.com This is the same treatment Rothbardians, rightfully, denounce libertarians from the Kochtopus
    of doing towards Rothbard and Mises.


    *Here is Rothbard's very very positive review of The Bell Curve and even higher praise for Philippe Rushon:

    http://archive.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/ir/Ch75.html

    For anybody interested here is some of the history that Lew Rockwell has tried to ignore for a long time:
    https://www.vdare.com/articles/lew-rockwell-and-the-strange-death-or-at-least-suspended-animation-of-paleolibertarianism

    http://www.amren.com/features/2013/10/libertarians-and-race-realism/

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    Replies
    1. So, what *is* you problem with The Bell Curve? Care to provide details?

      I'm guessing you would also have a problem with Amy Chua's "Triple Package", right?

      Don't just make allegations in the vein of "this work is so terrible that its defects are unmentionable". Be brave, and honestly put forth your criticisms.

      "yet most libertarians believe in the blank slate theory" - where's the evidence for this ridiculous claim? Which libertarian? Mises, Rothbard, Walter Block, Rockwell, Hoppe?

      Don't pull another Cathy R here. Show the facts and arguments supporting your claims.

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    2. Re: Sam,

      Is your contention that a theory on economic progress based on IQ can only be espoused by a racist and not a serious scholar? Is it also your contention that a positive review of The Bell Curve vould only comr from a down-and-out racist and not a serious scholar?

      Considering that given the eady availability of both Hoppe's speech anf all of Rothbard's writtings, that your description of these being hidden - your words - "down a memory hole" is both misleading and dishonest?

      I read Rothbard's review of The Bell Curve, and even though I don't agree with the conclusions drawn by the authors, I never got the impression that Rothbard's review was based on racism he was harboring but rather in his skepticism of egalitarianism.

      Be that as it may, I'm not cutting these defamers any slack by assuming simple misunderstanding from their part.

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  4. Very interesting about Lew Rockwell. I am a huge fan of his and his site, but ... What does Robert Wenzel think?

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