The Essential Rothbard - Ludwig von Mises Institute

The Essential Rothbard 69
opponents often inhabited a dark landscape. He could apply to
himself the words of Dante: Per me si va ne la citta dolente [Through
me is the way to the sorrowful city]. 186
Hayek’s account of natural law and reason lay at the heart of
Rothbard’s critique:
Tied up with his dismissal of natural law is Hayek’s continuous,
and all-pervasive, attack on reason. Reason is his bête
noire, and time and time again, from numerous and even
contradictory standpoints, he opposes it. The true rationalist
theory was, and is, that reason can discover the natural law of
man, and from this can discover the natural rights of liberty.
Since Hayek dismisses this even from historical consideration,
he is left with only two choices for the formation of a
political ethic: either blind adherence to custom and the traditions
of the “social organism,” or the coercive force of government
edict. 187
To Rothbard, Hayek’s rejection of reason led to muddleheaded
and unlibertarian views. Besides the very long list of such measures
that Rothbard cites in a later review, 188 he also notes that Hayek
was prepared to support conscription, if needed to defend against
an external enemy. 189 In The Constitution of Liberty, Hayek surprisingly
criticized the Supreme Court for finding too many of Roosevelt’s
New Deal measures unconstitutional. 190 This anomaly in a
supposedly libertarian work did not escape Rothbard’s attention.
186
Dante, Inferno, Canto 3, line 1.
187
Rothbard Papers, review of Hayek, Constitution of Liberty; emphasis
in the original; Modugno, ed, Diritto, natura e ragione, p. 80.
188
Rothbard Papers; Modugno, ed, Diritto, natura e ragione, pp.
108–12.
189
Rothbard Papers; Modugno, ed, Diritto, natura e ragione, p. 44.
190 Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, p. 190.