I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

358 I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians
As the debate got under way, I found myself more and more pissed off. I was still
enough of a working class New Yorker to recognize a pile-on when I saw one, and my gut
instinct inclined me to the side of the underdog. Hess had the guts to appear on the podium
by himself in enemy territory and subject himself to a drubbing at the hands of hostile
forces, one of whom was supposed to be me. Sorry, but I was not about to play along and,
instead, delivered a speech sympathetic to Karl’s position, which earned me a relieved smile
from him, raucous cheers from Rothbard and his coterie, and an outraged roar from the
rest of the assemblage.
I was no longer a Conservative or an Objectivist. I was not a philosophical anarchist
yet, but I was willing to be converted to one if that’s what it took to find a new political
home. After the so-called debate, I broke bread with Murray Rothbard and company, and
before long I was visiting Murray and his merry band of free-market anarchists in his apartment
on the Upper Westside of Manhattan. Through Murray I was introduced to the
writings of Lysander Spooner, Benjamin Tucker, and Albert Jay Nock, and I developed a
deeper familiarity with Murray’s own impressive output—even at that relatively early stage
of his career. Before long, Murray launched the Libertarian Forum, for which I became a
kind of co-editor and regular contributor.
I was not only an anarchist now, but one with a developing philosophical foundation to
support my beliefs. Walter Block took one look at my thick beard and tangled hair and anointed
me a “Right Wing Hippie,” even before Ayn Rand got around to popularizing the label.
In addition to Murray and the literature he introduced me to, the other major intellectual
influences on me at the time were Leonard Liggio and, to a lesser extent, Joe Peden. Leonard
in particular was a walking encyclopedia with a detailed grasp of history, which he colored
with a revisionist tinge. Following the publication of my first two books, Radical Libertarianism
and It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand, liberal reviewers started referring to me as “everyone’s
favorite Right Wing anarchist.” I had no problem with the description and started to fancy
myself as the Right Wing answer to Hunter Thompson. My conversion to full-blown free
market anarchism from Goldwater Conservatism was complete and public enough to have
earned me the scorn of William F. Buckley on the op-ed page of the New York Times.
My break with Murray, which came around the time of my quixotic run for governor
of New York on the Free Libertarian ticket in 1974 (see my book, It STILL Begins With Ayn
Rand), had more to do with differences over our respective views on Israel, and foreign
policy in general, than with ideology. He was also troubled by my characterization of him
in It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand. In any event, Murray and I had little contact with each
other after 1975, but I will always remember him for the major impact he had on my philosophical
development at a time when I was searching for a new ideological home.
Over the years, my political philosophy has not changed all that much, although my
tactics have. Murray, himself, rooted for Pat Buchanan in his 1992 quest for the presidency
even though he never repudiated his free-market anarchism. Libertarian feminist Camille
Paglia is a registered Democrat and voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. Politics, indeed, makes
for strange bedfellows, and libertarians today cast their votes all over the political spectrum
in elections, or vote not at all, while advocating contradictory positions on abortion and
the death penalty.