On the recent edition of Mises Weekends, Jeff Deist interviews Dr. Jörg Guido Hülsmann.
The topic is “Nation, State, and Borders.” It is a worthwhile
interview. Fair warning: Hülsmann offers views similar to those of Hans
Hoppe on these matters. Quite importantly, he makes the distinction of nation
vs. state. It is a distinction worth internalizing for those who want to
consider the application of libertarian theory in this world populated by
humans.
From the interview, I learned of an essay written by Murray
Rothbard in 1994, entitled Nations by Consent: Decomposing the Nation-State.
As is often the case, when I discover something of Rothbard’s I find myself
torn between excitement and depression: excitement because I have somehow
worked my way to a conclusion similar to his, and depression because all I have
done is somehow worked my way to a conclusion similar to his.
It is a quick read – ten pages. I offer only a few
highlights:
Libertarians tend to focus on two important units of analysis:
the individual and the state. And yet, one of the most dramatic and significant
events of our time has been the reemergence-with a bang-in the last five years
of a third and much-neglected aspect of the real world, the “nation.”
The “nation,” of course, is not the same thing as the state, a
difference that earlier libertarians and classical liberals such as Ludwig von
Mises and Albert Jay Nock understood full well.
This “nation” is…culture:
Contemporary libertarians
often assume, mistakenly, that individuals are bound to each other only by the
nexus of market exchange. They forget that everyone is necessarily born into a
family, a language, and a culture.
…usually including an ethnic
group, with specific values, cultures, religious beliefs, and traditions.
To discuss the application of
libertarian theory in the real world – a world made up of humans that are born
into a family and culture – without recognizing this reality is nonsensical.
Theory without recognizing human realities is a bad theory.
Rothbard goes on to the issue of political borders and suggests
that God did not lay these down at the creation – there is no reason on earth
to consider these permanent and sacred. He doesn’t write it this way, but
this is what he writes. Secession and decentralization and shifting
political borders are both a historical reality and fully consistent with
libertarian theory.
Rothbard explains when and why he began to rethink his views on
immigration and open borders – he previously took the open borders position:
I began to rethink my views on immigration when, as the Soviet
Union collapsed, it became clear that ethnic Russians had been encouraged to
flood into Estonia and Latvia in order to destroy the cultures and languages of
these peoples.
Rothbard recall’s Jean Raspail’s anti-immigration novel The Camp of the Saints (I offer some thoughts on
this novel here). The government encouraged and
subsidized immigration is not libertarian. Many in the libertarian “open
borders” crowd ignore this form of government intervention.
Rothbard,
on rethinking his views on immigration in an anarcho-capitalist world, has
concluded that as no private property owner has “open borders,” no totally
privatized community (or nation) would have open borders either. I manage
my borders. What does “ownership” even mean if anyone and everyone had
access to my property without my consent?
Rothbard
would expect to see numerous different communities (or nations), each with
their own views on the rules for gaining admission. Perfectly
libertarian, and perfectly in conformance with respect to private property.
Summary
Read the essay.
