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Culture |
Contents:
- Introduction
- Eroding the Culture of Liberty
- General
- Liberty in the Developing World
- Media and Public Opinion
- War and Liberty
- War and Truth
Every political-economic system stands on a foundation, the society’s culture. Ultimately, culture is a tacit system of values and virtues that guide the everyday activities of the people. When the political-economic system is out of sync with a society’s underlying cultural values, the result is instability, which most likely will result in a transformation of the system in the direction of those values. For example, the political economy originally known as liberalism—based on the institutions of individual rights, private property, personal responsibility (individualism), free markets, and the rule of law—requires cultural attitudes consistent with those institutions. Should there develop widespread resentment against achievement, accumulation of wealth, privacy, and consumption, the foundation of liberal institutions will inevitably erode and eventually collapse. Authoritarianism and even totalitarianism will likely follow.
The process can work in the reverse: changes in political institutions can, over time, effect changes in cultural attitudes. Welfare-state programs sooner or later encourage an entitlement mentality in people. Where they once understood that benefits are to be obtained through work, persuasion, and voluntary exchange, they now expect a bureaucracy to provide them as a matter of right. Mediation by a government agency masks the reality that taxpayers are forced to provide such benefits. Left unchecked, the welfare state (aided by government-run schools) acculturates new generations into this entitlement mentality. A vicious circle results: entitlement programs strengthen the entitlement mentality, which produces demands for new and expanded programs. More and more of people’s income is collectivized, and the scope of individual choice is diminished. The very character of people is transmogrified. Self-responsibility atrophies and dependence grows. This is what Nobel Laureate Friedrich A. Hayek called “The Road to Serfdom.”
Similarly, just as liberal institutions are supported by and reinforce attitudes favorable to voluntary exchange, cooperation (through the division of labor), and peace, the institutions of warfare—protectionism, interventionism, imperialism, and militarism—instill collectivism, nationalism, and belligerence. This in turn weakens the natural abhorrence of the brutality of war. The murder of innocents is sanitized as “collateral damage,” and unprovoked invasions are euphemized as “regime changes.”
The political and economic interact intimately. The government’s response to crises erodes not only liberty, but also its cultural underpinnings. Thus government intervention in the economy creates hardships (unemployment, inflation, depression, etc.) that are glibly blamed on others at home and abroad, resulting in domestic regulation, trade restrictions, foreign intervention, and sometimes war. When government exploits crises and expands its power, people become accustomed to looking to the state to solve problems. The irony is that the cultural values proclaimed by both conservatives and so-called modern liberals are systematically subverted by the political and economic measures they support.
Also, click here for Bibliography for Crisis and Leviathan.
Eroding the Culture of Liberty:
Bennett, Linda L. M. and Stephen Earl Bennett. Living with Leviathan: Americans Coming to Terms with Big Government. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1990.
Ekirch, Jr., Arthur A. The Civilian and the Military: A History of the American Antimilitarist Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1956.
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—. “The Reform Mentality, War, Peace, and the National State: From the Progressives to Vietnam,” Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. III, No. 1.
Eland, Ivan. “Frying the French.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, March 12, 2003.
—. “Resist Giving FBI More Authority in Cyberspace,” Oregonian, February 17, 2000.
Friedman, Milton and Rose. Free to Choose: A Personal Statement. Harvest Books, 1990.
Gurantz, Ron. “Look Who’s Looking.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, October 22, 2001.
Hayek, F. A. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
—. “The Road to Serfdom in Cartoons,” Look Magazine, April 1945.
Higgs, Robert. “The Cold War Economy: Opportunity Costs, Ideology, and the Politics of Crisis,” Explorations in Economic History, July 1994.
—. “Collateral Damage: Two Venues, One Logic,” San Francisco Examiner, April 15, 2002.
—. Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).
—. “Crisis and Quasi-Corporatist Policy-Making: The U.S. Case in Historical Perspective,” The World & I, November 1988.
—. “Crisis, Bigger Government, and Ideological Change: Two Hypotheses on the Ratchet Phenomenon,” Explorations in Economic History, Vol. 22 (1985).
—. “Defending the Homeland,” The Free Market, May 2002.
—. “How FDR Made the Depression Worse,” The Free Market, March 1995.
—. “How War Amplified Federal Power in the Twentieth Century,” The Freeman, July 1999.
—. “In the Name of Emergency,” Reason, July 1987.
—. “War and Leviathan in Twentieth-Century America: Conscription as the Keystone,” from The Costs of War: America’s Pyrrhic Victories, edited by John V. Denson. Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1999.
Higgs, Robert and Charlotte Twight. “Economic Warfare and Private Property Rights: Recent Episodes and Their Constitutionality,” Journal of Private Enterprise, Fall 1987.
—. “National Emergency and the Erosion of Private Property Rights,” Cato Journal, Winter 1987.
—. “National Emergency and Private Property Rights: Historical Relations and Present Conditions,” Journal of Private Enterprise, Fall 1996.
Holcombe, Randall G. From Liberty to Democracy: The Transformation of American Government. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 2002.
Hyman, Harold M. To Try Men’s Souls: Loyalty Tests in American History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959.
Lal, Deepak. “Does Modernization Require Westernization?”, The Independent Review, Vol. V, No. 1 (Summer 2000), pp. 5-24.
Mitchell, William C. and Randy T. Simmons. Beyond Politics: Markets, Welfare and the Failure of Bureaucracy. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press for The Independent Institute Book, 1994.
Semmel, Bernard. Imperialism and Social Reform: English Social-Imperial Thought, 1895-1914. London: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1983.
Sromberg, Joseph R. “Review of the book James Burnham and the Struggle for the World: A Life by Daniel Kelley,”The Independent Review, Vol. VIII, No. 1 (Summer 2003), pp. 141-145.
Twight, Charlotte. “Conning Congress: Privacy and the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act,” The Independent Review, Vol. VI, No. 2 (Fall 2001), pp. 185-216.
—. Dependent on D.C.: The Rise of Federal Control Over the Lives of Ordinary Americans. New York: Palgrave St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
—. “Watching You: Systematic Federal Surveillance of Ordinary Americans,” The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No. 2 (Fall 1999), pp. 165-200.
Appleby, Joyce. Capitalism and a New Social Order: The Republican Vision of the 1790s. New York: New York University Press, 1984). An important book on the liberal, anti-statist program of the Jeffersonian Republicans.
Arieli, Yehoshua. Individualism and Nationalism in American Ideology. Baltimore: Penguin, 1966.
Barnes, Harry Elmer. Revisionism: A Key to Peace and Other Essays. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 1980.
Boaz, David, ed. The Libertarian Reader: Classic and Contemporary Writings from Lao Tzu to Milton Friedman. New York: Free Press, 1998.
—. Libertarianism: A Primer. New York: Free Press, 1998.
Bovard, James. Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.
—. Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
Bramsted, E. K. and K. J. Melhuish, ed. Western Liberalism: A History in Documents from Locke to Croce. New York: Longman, 1978.
de Huszar, George B, ed. The Intellectuals: A Controversial Portrait,. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1960.
de Jasay, Anthony. “Is National Rational?”, The Independent Review, Vol. III, No. 1 (Summer 1998), pp. 77-89.
Hamowy, Ronald, ed. Cato's Letters or Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1994. Annotated edition of the writings by the radical Whig authors John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, who popularized classical liberal and revolutionary ideas in America.
Hayes, Carlton J.H. Essays on Nationalism. New York: Macmillan, 1926.
—. The Historical Evolution of Modern Nationalism. New York: Richard R. Smith, 1931.
Higgs, Robert, ed. Arms, Politics, and the Economy: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. New York: Holmes & Meier for The Independent Institute, 1990.
—. “The Myth of ‘Failed’ Policies,” The Free Market, March 1995.
La Boétie, Étienne de. The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude. Black Rose Books, 1997. [Online Book]
Machan, Tibor R., ed. The Libertarian Reader. Lanham. MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1982.
Mackay, Charles. Memoirs of Extraordinary Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Metro Books, 2002. [Online Book]
McElroy, Wendy. “Étienne de La Boétie,” Future of Freedom Foundation, May 2003.
Mentzel, Peter. “Review of the book Property and Freedom by Richard Pipes,” The Independent Review, Vol. V, No. 2 (Fall 2000), pp. 309-311.
Pipes, Richard. Property and Freedom. New York: Vintage Books, 2000.
Roberts, Paul Craig and Lawrence M. Stratton. The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Roseville, Calif.: Prima Publishing, 2000.
Rothbard, Murray N. “Karl Marx: Communist as Religious Eschatologist,” Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1990), pp. 123-179.
—. The Ethics of Liberty. New York: New York University Press, 2002.
—. “Concepts of the Role of Intellectuals in Social Change Toward Laissez Faire,” Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2.
—. “The Politics of Obedience,” introduction to Étienne de La Boétie, The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude. New York: Free Life Editions, 1975. [Online Book]
Rustow, Alexander. Freedom and Domination: A Historical Critique of Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Schoeck, Helmut. Envy: A Theory of Social Behavior. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Press, 1987.
Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Press, 1987. [Online Book]
Sulzbach, Walter. National Consciousness. Washington, D.C.: American Council of Public Affairs, 1943.
Swanwick, H.M. Collective Insecurity. London: Jonathan Cape, 1937.
Liberty in the Developing World:
Ayittey, George B. N. “New Path for Africa: Establishing Free-Market Societies,” Independent Policy Forum, The Independent Institute, April 28, 1999. [Forum Anouncement, Forum Audio, Forum Transcript]
Kuran, Timur. “The Islamic Dead End,” National Review, December 12, 2001.
—. “The Vulnerability of the Arab State: Reflections on the Ayubi Thesis,” The Independent Review, Vol.III, No. 1 (Summer 1998), pp. 111-123.
Wolf, Jr., Charles. “Review of the book Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations by Catherine Caufield,” The Independent Review, Vol. II, No. 4 (Spring 1998), pp. 617-619.
Chase, Stuart. The Tyranny of Words. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966.
Cobane, Craig T. “Review of the book For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush, by Christopher Andrew,” The Independent Review, Vol. I, No. 3 (Winter 1997), pp. 456-459.
Coulson, Andrew J. Market Education: The Unknown History. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1999.
Curti, Merle. The Roots of American Loyalty. New York: Atheneum, 1968.
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Ginsberg, Benjamin. The Captive Public: How Mass Opinion Promotes State Power. New York: Basic Books, 1986.
Gress, David R. “The Drama of Western Identity,” The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No. 3 (Winter 2000), pp. 463-466.
Herman, Edward S., and Noam Chomsky. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon, 1988.
Higgs, Robert and Anthony Kilduff. “Public Opinion: A Powerful Predictor of U.S. Defense Spending,” Defence Economics, Vol. 4 (1993).
Karp, Walter. Indispensable Enemies: The Politics of Misrule in America. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1973.
Knightley, Phillip. The First Casualty: From the Crimea to Viet Nam: The War Correspondent As Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.
Kwitny, Jonathan. “Review of the book The Captive Press: Foreign Policy Crises and the First Amendment, by Ted Galen Carpenter,” The Independent Review, Vol. II, No. 2, Fall 1997, pp. 321-323.
Lasswell, Harold D. Propaganda Techniques in the World War. New York: Peter Smith, 1938.
MacArthur, John R. “Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War: How Government Can Mold Public Opinion,” Independent Policy Forum, The Independent Institute, October 7, 1993 [Forum Audio, Forum Transcript]
Neumann, William L. “How to Merchandise Foreign Policy: from ERAP to MAP,” American Perspective, Vol. 3 (1949), 183-193, 235-250.
Peterson, H.C. Propaganda for War: The Campaign Against American Neutrality, 1914-1917. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1939.
Rothbard, Murray N. Education: Free and Compulsory. Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1999.
Saunders, Frances Stonor. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters. New York: New Press, 2000.
Stinnett, Robert B. “Pearl Harbor: Official Lies in an American War Tragedy?”, Independent Policy Forum, The Independent Institute, May 24, 2000. [Forum Anouncement, Forum Audio, Forum Transcript]
Vidal, Gore. Screening History. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992.
Bovard, James. Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Calhoun, Laurie. “Just War? Moral Soldiers?”, The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No. 3 (Winter 2000), pp. 325-345.
Higgs, Robert. “Hard Coals Make Bad Law: Congressional Parochialism Versus National Defense,” Cato Journal, Spring/Summer 1988.
—. “Regime Uncertainty: Why the Great Depression Lasted So Long and Why Prosperity Resumed after the War,” The Independent Review, Vol. I, No. 4 (Spring 1997), pp. 561-590.
—. “Some Other Costs of War,” The Free Market, March 1991.
McElroy, Wendy. “War’s Other Casualty,” The Freeman, July 1999.
Mears, Helen. “A Note on Atrocities,” Dissent.
Raico, Ralph. “Review of the book Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World since 1776, by Walter A. McDougall,” The Independent Review, Vol. III, No. 2 (Fall 1998), pp. 273-278.
Rashid, Ahmed. “Osama bin Laden: How the U.S. Helped Midwife a Terrorist,” Center for Public Integrity, Sept. 13, 2001.
—. “War, Peace and the State,” in Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays. Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2000, pp. 115-132.
Schwarz, Benjamin and Christopher Layne. “A New Grand Strategy,” The Atlantic Monthly, January 2002.
Stephens, Joe and David B. Ottaway. “From U.S., the ABC’s of Jihad,” Washington Post, March 22, 2002.
Bourne, Randolph. War and the Intellectuals: Collected Essays, 1915-1919, ed. by C. Resek. New York: Harper and Row, 1964.
Chamberlin, William Henry. “How Franklin Roosevelt Lied America Into War,” from Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: A Critical Examination of the Foreign Policy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Its Aftermath edited by Harry Elmer Barnes. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1969.
Eland, Ivan. “The Bush Administration’s Weapons of Mass Deception.” Oakland, Calif: The Independent Institute, June 5, 2003.
—. “Bush Deception on Iraq War II: Is the Public to Blame?” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, June 23, 2003.
Ellsberg, Daniel, Barton Bernstein, Edwin Firmage, David R. Henderson, and Jonathan Marshall. “Secrecy, Freedom and Empire: Lessons for Today from Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers,” Independent Policy Forum, The Independent Institute, October 24, 2002. [Forum Announcement, Forum Audio, Forum Transcript]
Flynn, John T. “The Final Secret of Pearl Harbor,” October 1945.
Fulbright, J. William. The Pentagon Propaganda Machine. New York: Vintage Books, 1971.
Gregory, Anthony. “Unbelievable Reasons for War.” Oakland, Calif.: The Independent Institute, February 28, 2003.
Higgs, Robert. “The Oval Office Liars’ Club,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 24, 2002.
—. “Suppose You Wanted to Have a Permanent War.” Oakland, Calif: The Independent Institute, June 12, 2003.
MacArthur, John R. Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1993.
Doenecke, Justus D. “Review of the book Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-1944 by Thomas E. Mahl,” The Independent Review, Vol. IV, No.1 (Summer 1999), pp. 133-137.
Mahl, Thomas E. Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939-1944.
Martin, James J. American Liberalism and World Politics, 1931-1941: Liberalism’s Press and Spokesmen on the Road Back to War Between Mukden and Pearl Harbor, 2 Vols. New York: Devin-Adair Publishers, 1963.
—. “Pearl Harbor: Antecedents, Background and Consequences,” from The Saga of Hog Island: And Other Essays in Inconvenient History. Colorado Springs, Colo.: Ralph Myles Publisher, 1977.
Stinnett, Robert B. “The Pearl Harbor Deception.” Oakland, Calif: The Independent Institute, December 2, 2002.
Walker, Jesse. “Review of the book Radio Goes to War: The Cultural Politics of Propaganda during World War II by Gerd Horten,” The Independent Review, Vol VIII, No. 1 (Summer 2003), pp. 132-135.