Freedom, Society, and State - Ludwig von Mises Institute

FORWARD
by
William O. Reichert
Professor of Political Science
Bowling .Green State University
When Thomas Hobbes chose to title his theory of
the modern state, The Leviathan, he could not possibly
have known just how prophetic that caption was to
prove to be in our day. Hobbes, of course, did not
have in mind the Old Testament version of the word
Leviathan, viz., a sea monster portending evil. In
Hob b e s' min d the t e r m Lev i a t han s ym b0 1 i zed an 0 c ean ­
going vessel Which, when attached to his social contract
theory, was meant to convey the idea of a mighty
ship of state capable of withstanding the most ferae
i 0 us g a I e san d tern pes t u 0 us sea s t hat h uma n na t ur e
could invent. Today the symbolization of the state as
a ship more logically brings to mind the ill-fated
TIt ani c as its un k tot he bo t tom 0 f t he At lantic wi t h
its cargo of humanity caged within its iron hull.
Clearly, the modern democratic theory of the state is
inc r i sis, for not a n I y ha veman y peopIe losteon f i ­
dence in the state's abi I i ty to keep order within
society but there is a widespread, ominous feeling that
we are being sucked into a whirlpool that is heading us
all toward a political version of Davey Jones' locker.
David Osterfeld's Freedom, Society, and the State is
addressed to the quest ion of how we might save ourselves
from this unsavory fate.
In ·the pages that follow, Osterfeld, drawing
heavily upon the tradition of individualist thought as
out I ined by Benjamin R. Tucker and other American libertarians
of an earlier era, presents a synthesis of
.anarchism and capitalism, a mission that is apt to be
considered by many as futile as Hobbes' attempts to
S quaret he c 1 r c 1 e • Soc i a lis t sin pa r ticu 1a r will be
wary of thIS synthesis, for the free mark t economics
that Osterfeld employs in his argument s generally
thought of as the stock-in-trade of a power ul elite of
we a I t h t hat use s the s tat e t 0 rna i n t a init s posit ion 0 f
special economic privilege and political domination.
But the uneasiness socialists experience at the mention
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