Eric Zuesse<\/p>\n
On the one hand,\u00a0Andrei Illarionov of the Koch Brothers\u2019 libertarian Cato Institute says<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the first among “the crimes that have been committed or are being committed by the Kremlin \u2013 stealing Crimea\u201d can be rectified only by rejecting “Russia\u2019s aggression in Crimea,\u201d which means to replace the current Russian government by “a free democratic state with the rule of law\u201d: i.e., overthrowing it in order to establish<\/i> that very thing, “a free democratic state with the rule of law.\u201d He says that, “The issue of Crimea\u2019s jurisdiction is within the competence of only one subject of international law \u2013 the owner of that territory, namely Ukraine.\u00a0Only this subject, and no one else, has\u00a0necessary legal rights to change this territory\u2019s jurisdiction.\u201d And, since Ukraine did not sell<\/i> Crimea to Russia, Russia \u201cstole\u201d it from Ukraine. He sees the issue of Crimea as being not an issue of people, but of land: the land-area of Crimea, which Russia \u201cstole\u201d from Ukraine \u2013 that Russia stole the land and everything in it and under it and on it, including its residents<\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n According to Illarionov, Crimea’s residents are simply human property there. They belong to Ukraine, no matter what they think. Illarionov\u2019s article doesn\u2019t even so much as discuss whether the 16 March 2014 popular vote of Crimeans in which 97% favored to rejoin Russia (which the Soviet dictator had donated from Russia, to Ukraine, in 1954, without even asking anyone in Crimea their opinion of the matter) reflected accurately the public sentiment among Crimeans (it actually did<\/span><\/a>); that question is simply ignored; but Illarionov does say: \u201cThe fact that most of the peninsula\u2019s population are ethnic Russians does not matter either.\u201d In other words: the residents of Crimea should be entirely ignored \u2013 not only their opinions but the possible reasons for those opinions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the other hand, the libertarian Ron Paul ignores the entire question of what the \u201cowner\u201d of the land called Crimea is; and he focuses instead upon the freedom of its people. His concern is about persons, not at all about property. And so he refers to people, not to land.\u00a0He writes:<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n “Last week two prominent Ukrainian opposition figures were gunned down in broad daylight. They join as many as ten others who have been killed\u00a0or\u00a0committed suicide under suspicious circumstances just this year. These individuals have one important thing in common: they were either part\u00a0of or\u00a0friendly with the Yanukovych government, which a US-backed coup overthrew last year. They include members of the Ukrainian parliament\u00a0and\u00a0former chief editors of major opposition newspapers.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n “While some journalists here in the US have started to notice the strange series of opposition killings in Ukraine, the US government has yet to say a\u00a0word.”<\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n To call both of these viewpoints \u2018libertarian\u2019 is to use the very same label for diametrically opposite political positions, which is to nullify any meaning for that label, on that topic \u2013 which topic, in this instance. is whether rights inhere in people, or instead in property. That\u2019s a fundamental difference.<\/span><\/p>\n So: Is libertarianism focused on persons, or on property?<\/span><\/p>\n In my latest book,\u00a0Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics<\/i><\/span><\/a>, I track the origin of libertarianism; and, here is what I find in that regard: libertarianism goes back to physiocrats, who were personal heroes and inspirations to the supposed founder of classical economic theory, Adam Smith, and their publisher was:<\/span><\/p>\n “Pierre Samuel du Pont de\u00a0Nemours, a proponent of the earliest version of classical\u00a0economics,\u00a0physiocracy, which said that society is held together by a ‘Natural Order\u2019\u00a0(\u2018physio’=natural, \u2018cracy’=rule), instead of by any ‘social contract’ (such as\u00a0America\u2019s\u00a0Founders believed: they frequently cited the British King\u2019s violation\u00a0of the social\u00a0contract as justifying their own Revolution; libertarianism is\u00a0thus un-American, even\u00a0anti-American, at its root). …<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n “Du Pont published and\u00a0popularized physiocrats\u2019 works. One such work, which he\u00a0published serially in\u00a01769-70, was Turgot\u2019s\u00a0<\/i><\/span>Reflections on the Formation and\u00a0Distribution of\u00a0Wealth<\/i><\/span>. It listed several reasons for the concentration of wealth in a\u00a0few,\u00a0and said that, principally, ‘The difference of knowledge, of activity, and,\u00a0above all,\u00a0the thriftiness of some, contrasted with the laziness, inaction, and\u00a0wastefulness of\u00a0others, is a fourth source of inequality, and the most powerful\u00a0one of all.’ Additional\u00a0causes that he listed for inequality included\u00a0inheritance from intelligent parents.\u00a0Another leading physiocrat was Quesnay,\u00a0who urged the king to model France upon\u00a0the wise despotism of China. Quesnay\u2019s\u00a0<\/i><\/span>Le\u00a0Despotisme de la Chine<\/i><\/span>\u00a0said that, ‘The\u00a0ownership of wealth is quite secure\u00a0in China; we have previously seen that the right\u00a0of property is extended to\u00a0slaves or bonded domestics, and throughout the empire\u00a0children inherit the\u00a0wealth of their parents and of relatives according to the natural\u00a0order.\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n The physiocrats created economics as the theory of property (and of the trading in property); but people were in it only to the extent that they were someone\u2019s property \u2013 slaves. (Slaves in turn could own other property, but the ultimate owner of even that property was still their master, just as the ultimate owners of a corporation\u2019s assets are its stockholders.) All rights, in their view, are property rights, of one form or another. Adam Smith, likewise, treated slaves as possessing worth only because they are the property of some master. This was the longstanding view of slaves, and (though economists try to ignore that lacuna in microeconomic theory) it is still present and important in economic theory today. (Economic theory is still pre-abolitionist. It was designed to be accetable to slave-masters.)<\/span><\/p>\n Ron Paul is not an aristocrat, though with his son Rand Paul, he might have created a dynasty and be therefore a first-generation aristocrat, in the purely dynastic sense.<\/span><\/p>\n By contrast, the Koch brothers inherited millions of dollars, ownership of Koch Industries, which Fred Koch had established and which largely built Stalin\u2019s oil refineries, before Fred went on to co-found the rabidly anti-communist John Birch Society, along with Robert W. Welch Jr. (Welch\u2019s Candies), Robert W. Stoddard (Wyman-Gordon Mfg.), and Prof. Revilo P. Oliver. Furthermore (again quoting my book): “The Birch Society\u2019s magazine, American\u00a0Opinion<\/i>, featured on its\u00a0masthead an Editorial Advisory\u00a0Committee that\u00a0included both J.\u00a0Howard Pew and Ludwig von Mises.\u00a0The economic program of the Birch\u00a0Society was strictly ‘Austrian\u00a0economics\u2019.\u201d That, too, connects today\u2019s libertarianism with that of its founders, ever since the time of\u00a0Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours and consistently right through his heirs and their American Liberty League.<\/span><\/p>\n In the 1930s, the DuPont brothers, and Jasper Crane who married into the DuPont family, created the American Liberty League, which became the model for the Koch brothers\u2019 foundation in 1974 of the Cato Institute and later of the Kochs’ Americans For Prosperity (AFP), which then subsequently\u00a0created the \u2019Tea Party\u2019 in 2002<\/span><\/a>. So: Andrei Illarionov\u2019s view is rooted deeper in the history of libertarianiam, and is also more strongly related to the money-base of the Republican Party, than is Ron Paul\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n The Kochs did not fund the political career of either Ron Paul or Rand Paul. However, the venture capitalist Peter Thiel, a\u00a0member of the Bilderberg Steering Committee<\/span><\/a>, donated $2.6 million to Ron Paul\u2019s 2012 campaign, which is probably the biggest donation to the campaign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On 3 February 2015, Politico bannered,\u00a0“How Rand Paul bombed at Koch brothers gathering,\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and reported that one attendee there said, “People didn\u2019t quite understand where he was coming from.\u201d Moreover: “The next day, when 100 donors participated in an informal straw poll\u00a0conducted by veteran consultant Frank Luntz, Paul\u00a0finished dead last.\u00a0Rubio came in\u00a0first, followed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n These are among the indications that persuade me that, though the Pauls would obviously have liked to have gotten the aristocracy\u2019s support, they never really managed to. The Politico article even says that Rand Paul\u2019s casual manner and style of dress were turn-offs to the Koch brothers and their billionaire friends. However, the Kochs\u2019 friends are mainly from old-line Texas and Midwestern money, largely from energy and financial industries. By contrast, Ron Paul\u2019s chief backer, Peter Thiel, is a California technology entrepreneur, and co-founder of PayPal. He also is first-generation wealth, whereas the Kochs are second-generation wealth, and, really, third-generation wealth if the newspaper publisher who was Fred Koch\u2019s father Harry Koch is counted to have founded that dynasty.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Libertarianism is rooted in the aristocracy, and especially in inherited wealth. The Pauls, with their emphases upon \u201cending the Fed,\u201d and also opposing the military-industrial complex that supports every empire (and thus the national aristocracy), mix libertarianism with a populist tradition that is at the far-opposite end of the ideological spectrum, basically progressive, not at all conservative (of either the libertarian or any other variety).<\/span><\/p>\n Furthermore, Democratic Party aristocrats have been the major investors in the overthrow of Ukraine\u2019s government and the replacement of it by a rabidly anti-Russian racist-fascist or nazi government. So, at the national level, which is Congress and the President, the Democratic Party now supports the world\u2019s only nazi<\/span><\/a> or exterminationist fascist<\/span><\/a>, regime, the people who were put into power by Barack Obama. For example,\u00a0George Soros<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is much more actively involved with that venture than the Kochs have been. The American aristocracy is\u00a0virtually 100% united behind Ukraine\u2019s nazis,<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and against Russia. (Maybe they want to control Russia\u2019s oil and gas.)<\/span><\/p>\n Libertarians\u2019 civil war over Ukraine is a reflection of the difference between libertarianism\u2019s populist base or consumers (which the Pauls rely upon) versus libertarianism\u2019s elite source and manufacturers (which produced and market the ideology, and so have actually created and politically exploited that base). It\u2019s like the difference between a manufacturer and a consumer. While the Pauls sell to the consumers, the Kochs have been the main manufacturers during the past forty years.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the aristocracy\u2019s Republican fronts, \u201cThe Foreign Policy Initiative,\u201d produced on 12 February 2015, an article \u201cThe Libertarian Civil War Over Ukraine,\u201d<\/span><\/a> which portrays Ron Paul as \u201cregurgitating [Russian] propaganda\u201d on Ukraine. It attacks Paul not from a libertarian perspective, but from a mainstream conservative, nationalist, one. To judge from the reader comments to it at the Democratic Party site The Daily Beast<\/span><\/a>, which is a liberal front for the aristocracy, that line of propaganda works at \u2018both\u2019 ends of American politics, perhaps because a \u2018Democratic\u2019 President happens to have done the coup<\/span><\/a> and installed<\/span><\/a> the nazis<\/span><\/a> into power in Ukraine. There is virtual unity<\/span><\/a> regarding the way that American \u2018news\u2019 media<\/span><\/a> have been handling the issue of Ukraine. The only differences are in how the policy is being marketed. The Pauls are trying to sell a different policy on the entire Russia matter, but they don\u2019t control the \u2018news\u2019 media; and, so, theirs is only a niche market.<\/span><\/p>\n ———-<\/span><\/p>\n Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of\u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0of\u00a0Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics<\/i><\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eric Zuesse On the one hand,\u00a0Andrei Illarionov of the Koch Brothers\u2019 libertarian Cato Institute says\u00a0that the first among “the crimes that have been committed or are being committed by the Kremlin \u2013 stealing Crimea\u201d can be rectified only by rejecting “Russia\u2019s aggression in Crimea,\u201d which means to replace the current Russian government by “a free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":146177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,1622],"tags":[115,30,32,96,932,535,875,903,59,931,526,934,933,524,874,92,49,76,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-146176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-featured","9":"tag-barack-obama","10":"tag-big-brother","11":"tag-cia","12":"tag-cover-up","13":"tag-democrat","14":"tag-global-news","15":"tag-koch","16":"tag-libertarianism","17":"tag-military","18":"tag-progressivism","19":"tag-propaganda","20":"tag-rand-paul","21":"tag-republican-ron-paul","22":"tag-russia","23":"tag-soros","24":"tag-terrorism","25":"tag-usa-news","26":"tag-warfare","27":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}