Jun 15, 2005
Against Leviathan
Robert Higgs's masterpiece, Crisis and Leviathan, has a wonderful supplement in the recently published Against Leviathan. Both of these books, along with Higgs's numerous articles and scholarly studies over the years, constitute a tremendous body of anti-state scholarship. When I read Crisis in college, often between classes or sitting at a bar, I couldn't believe my eyes to see how in depth and comprehensive was his treatment of all the varying intricacies of political economy during times of crisis-induced nationalization and militarization of American resources, business and labor.
Against Leviathan is a little more polemic and impassioned—not to say less rigorous in its research—and has a slightly greater chance, in my experience, of inciting the reader to share the author’s anger and frustration. After reading it, I was frankly rather upset, especially by the sections on the war on drugs, both in its overt and well-recognized form (the war on illicit recreational substance users) and the less appreciated campaign (the war to deprive the ill from their needed and preferred but non-FDA-approved medicines). Both wars have assaulted individual liberty and have led to thousands of American deaths. And when Higgs writes about it, he discusses statistics and policy options, but the living resentful emotion of living under the tyranny of the therapeutic state resides in each of his virtuosically chosen words. I get the impression that Higgs has had it and he’s not going to take it any more.
But the book is filled with facts, data and information—more than one might believe without thinking about it while reading it, since the author’s prose goes does so easily and is not cluttered with extraneous and arrogant jargon. Here’s my review of the book from a while back on LewRockwell.com, in which I touch on other issues he examines, such as the oppression of conscription, economic egalitarianism as a supposed a priori good (he debunks this one well), and the nasty characters who have ruled this country (such as Richard Nixon, who, truth be told, was no more amiable and tactful in private discussion than he was honest and humble in his public “service”). I’d really like the comments of anyone who’s read the book, or anyone who hasn’t read it. This collection of essays truly is superb.
Against Leviathan is a little more polemic and impassioned—not to say less rigorous in its research—and has a slightly greater chance, in my experience, of inciting the reader to share the author’s anger and frustration. After reading it, I was frankly rather upset, especially by the sections on the war on drugs, both in its overt and well-recognized form (the war on illicit recreational substance users) and the less appreciated campaign (the war to deprive the ill from their needed and preferred but non-FDA-approved medicines). Both wars have assaulted individual liberty and have led to thousands of American deaths. And when Higgs writes about it, he discusses statistics and policy options, but the living resentful emotion of living under the tyranny of the therapeutic state resides in each of his virtuosically chosen words. I get the impression that Higgs has had it and he’s not going to take it any more.
But the book is filled with facts, data and information—more than one might believe without thinking about it while reading it, since the author’s prose goes does so easily and is not cluttered with extraneous and arrogant jargon. Here’s my review of the book from a while back on LewRockwell.com, in which I touch on other issues he examines, such as the oppression of conscription, economic egalitarianism as a supposed a priori good (he debunks this one well), and the nasty characters who have ruled this country (such as Richard Nixon, who, truth be told, was no more amiable and tactful in private discussion than he was honest and humble in his public “service”). I’d really like the comments of anyone who’s read the book, or anyone who hasn’t read it. This collection of essays truly is superb.