I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

182
41
ROBERT LAWSON
MY PATH TO LIBERTARIANISM
I wasn’t exactly a child prodigy, but at the same time, I knew I was a bit brighter
than the average kid in my Catholic school class in Cincinnati, Ohio. Oddly enough for a
pacifist libertarian, I was enthralled by the military in my early days. I loved war movies—you
know the bad ones where John Wayne takes out an entire mountainside of Japanese
soldiers? In fact, I remember being made fun of for talking to my 5th grade schoolmates
about Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps. I must’ve had ten thousand plastic toy soldiers representing
dozens of different nationalities in my collection. I also played Avalon Hill war
board games like crazy in my teens.
There was one hint of my libertarian future in my grade school years. I spent three
or four years doing routine maintenance for a fellow who owned apartment complexes.
This is hardly unusual, except that I was about 11 years old when I began. He taught me
electrical work, plumbing, carpentry, and many other skills. I could replace a kitchen
disposal by myself at age 12 without difficulty. Only years later did it occur to me that
we were breaking many laws designed to “protect” me. We violated child labor laws,
minimum wage laws, tax laws (I was paid in cash), and occupational licensing laws. But
thank goodness we didn’t follow those silly laws. To this day, I benefit greatly from that
experience.
I think I began high school with the notion of going into the military after graduation.
We didn’t have a lot of money in my family, and college seemed so remote to me. In my
very first day in high school I met a friend, Paul Goins, who was reading National Review
in class! He shared my fascination with the military, and turned me on to conservatism.
The next thing I knew I was a good old-fashioned Commie-hating conservative with my
own NR subscription. Paul and I are still best of friends. He was my best man at my wedding,
and I was his at his wedding.
Fortunately, NR, then as now, had enough of a libertarian bent that I started to think
a bit about the idea of free markets in particular and freedom in general. After all, this is
what we were fighting against the Commies for right? And then something important
happened. I still have no idea how he found out about me, because I wasn’t even in his class,
but the AP Government teacher came to me in the hallway and said, “Here, read this,” as
he thrust something into my hands. It was a copy of The Freeman. I think I was a libertarian
from that point on. I devoured it and every copy that I got from then onward. The
teacher’s name was Mr. Eaton—I don’t even remember his first name—and I still have no
idea how he came to know about me. I’m glad that he did.