I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

292 I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians
that still persists. There was a very clear distinction in those days between libertarian intellectuals
like Murray Rothbard, whom I admired, and the developing movement at large.
Neil had partners in the business, and he lost control, with Buckley playing a malicious
role. The company was sold to Roy Disney in the mid-1970s, and eventually phased out.
By this time, I had gone to work for Hillsdale College. I had known George Roche
while at Arlington, and admired the fact that he was both anti-war, having written his
doctoral dissertation on 1930s war resistance on the right, and a free enterpriser with
Austrian sympathies. At Hillsdale, I started Imprimis and Hillsdale College Press, set up a
speakers’ series, oversaw public and movement relations, and helped with fundraising.
It was clear to me at the time that Murray Rothbard was Mises’s successor, and I followed
his writings carefully. I first met him 1975, and knew immediately that he was a
kindred spirit. Like all the other living intellectuals I respected, he was on the margins,
laboring at a fraction of the salary he deserved, and excluded from conventional outlets of
academic and political opinion.
I cannot remember the day that I finally came around to the position that the state is
unnecessary and destructive by its nature—that it cannot improve on, and indeed only
destroys, the social and economic system that grows out of property rights, exchange, and
natural social authority—but I do know that it was Rothbard who finally convinced me
to take this last step.
Unfortunately, I could only admire his writings at a distance. I tried to get Hillsdale
to invite him to speak, but that was ruled out immediately. I was told that he might be a
fine economist, but he was a loose cannon, unconnected from an organized apparatus of
conservative thinking.
But what really did Murray in was not his conviction that the state was unnecessary,
but his position on the Cold War. Libertarians were said to be tacit supporters of the
Sovietization of the world. It was utter nonsense, but this accusation that Rothbard was
a “fine economist” but nothing else would dog him until the end. I always saw this as a
rationalization to justify fear of a fundamental rethinking of political philosophy and
world affairs.
After Hillsdale, I turned to editing a journal of socioeconomic medicine called Private
Practice. I worked to integrate the work of the Austrians and apply it to health economics
and government intervention in that industry. It proved to be a fruitful mix, and in my
mind demonstrated the possibilities of using the Austrian tradition to explain the way the
world works in a very practical way.
Doherty: How did you end up working with Ron Paul?
Rockwell: In those days, unlike today, I had a keen interest in the affairs of Congress:
the members of each committee, the legislation that was being considered, and the like.
Being a Congressional aide had always been a dream of mine, as absurd as that may sound
today. When Ron won his first full term, he asked me to work for him.
We never saw his office as a conventionally political one. It was a bully pulpit to get the
message out. We sent out hundreds of thousands of tracts on freedom, inserted amazing articles
in the Congressional Record, and drafted libertarian legislation as an educational effort.