Paleolibertarianism
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Paleolibertarianism is a school of thought within libertarianism founded by Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell, and closely associated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Paleolibertarianism based on a combination of radical libertarianism in politics and cultural conservatism in social thought. The description as paleolibertarianism emphasized their identification with the tradition of the American Old Right, including Ludwig von Mises, Albert Jay Nock, and the America First movement. The movement defined itself in opposition to what it saw as deviations from this tradition in the form of "left-libertarianism" and "neo-libertarianism" (which were sometimes treated as the same thing, and sometimes not) "Neo-libertarianism" was characterized as a corruption of libertarian thought by inside-the-Beltway policy think tanks which failed to offer principled opposition to the consolidation of federal power and interventionism in foreign policy; left-libertarianism was characterized as undermining the cultural foundations of liberty through a misguided egalitarianism and attacks on traditional religion and bourgeois morality. Lew Rockwell characterized paleolibertarian thought by saying:
- Paleolibertarianism holds with Lord Acton that liberty is the highest political end of man, and that all forms of government intervention--economic, cultural, social, international--amount to an attack on prosperity, morals, and bourgeois civilization itself, and thus must be opposed at all levels and without compromise. It is "paleo" because of its genesis in the work of Murray N. Rothbard and his predecessors, including Ludwig von Mises, Albert Jay Nock, Vietnam War-era alliance between libertarians and the New Left
- Intellectual and political alliances with paleoconservatism
- Sharp opposition to war and interventionist foreign policy
- Radical decentralization in politics (most paleolibertarians subscribe to some form of anarcho-capitalism)
- Commitment to a Natural Law approach to libertarian theory, and intense opposition towards utilitarian approaches
Prominent paleolibertarians include Murray Rothbard, Lew Rockwell, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Thomas DiLorenzo and Joseph Sobran. Closely affiliated institutions include the Ludwig von Mises Institute and the Center for Libertarian Studies. Jonah Goldberg is one notable critic of paleolibertarianism.
