I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Ron Paul 259
I have no idea why some people react to war and violence one way and some the other
way. I don’t have anything special to make me look at it this way. It just seemed natural to
be opposed to violence. That was one of the reasons that I went into medicine. Throughout
the 40s, 50s, and 60s, it was known that if you were male, when you became eighteen you
were going to have to go off someplace. So many went off and didn’t come back. I knew
my personal make-up was such that not only did I not endorse these programs but it would
have been hard for me to pick up a rifle and shoot people. These conflicts were not what I
considered to be real self-defense. That helped motivate me to go into medicine instead. If
I was going to have to be trapped into war, I would rather help people who were injured
than trying to find someone I could shoot.
In medical school I was still fascinated with ideas. I got interested in sorting out some
of these things I had always felt and thought. I wanted to find out what the principles were.
I remember having the book Dr. Zhivago sent to me from my mother. It had come out in
1957. One person who stimulated me most to put the whole philosophy together was Leonard
Read who founded The Foundation for Economic Education. He was a very lone wolf after
World War II. Everything had become big government and internationalist. He wrote a
lot of articles himself and revived some classic articles that were forgotten like Frédéric
Bastiat’s The Law. Henry Hazlitt was associated with him and Mises as well. Mises and
the Austrian economists influenced me the most on policy. He was also close to Hayek
who wrote the Road to Serfdom. Then I read Ayn Rand’s books. They all had a strong
influence on me.
Early on I thought I was the only one to think this way. I had a natural instinct for
this view and then I discovered other people who had done a lot of serious writing and
explaining on how government and society works. After studying other peoples’ thoughts
on these topics, I found out there was a hard-core position that could be defended morally
and constitutionally. I was not by myself! I thought I would just talk about politics and
economics, but I ended up doing more than I ever expected.
For those who think this way, it just seems that we are alone, but it is just that the
establishment has totally rejected these views. Whether it is the political establishment ,or
the media establishment, or the university system, they are saying how things are going to
be, how we should be. I think that is not the way it is supposed to be.
It has always been part of my nature not to want to engage in violence and that led me
to libertarian philosophy and my views. I hold strongly to the view that libertarians commit
to. You should never use force to impose your will on other people. You should never use
the government to do it either. That is a sound principle. You would not have to be a pacifist.
If everyone decided to follow these rules and never to use force, it would be a pretty peaceful
and good world. It is good advice to follow. I don’t know why I hold those views. I think
some of us are born that way. Some of us just like to be left alone.
I finished my two-year residency training of internal medicine after medical school.
Then I went into the Air Force. When it comes up in the district, I make a joke about how
I got into the Air Force. I always say that I volunteered and served five years. Then I laugh
about it. The real story is when I was a medical resident two years out of medical school I
got a notice saying that I was hereby drafted to go into the army as a buck private—unless