RIP Brian Doherty

RIP Brian. His book 'Radicals for Capitalism' is really a MUST for people interested in the modern history of free market thinkers as well as their various differences (randians, hayekians, rothbardians, friedmanites, ‘natural law’, etc. :-) . It was in his book, which I read soon after its publication in 2007, where for the first time I learned that there were like-minded "Hayekians" as an identifiable group. I got to briefly meet Brian in person in late 2007 at a Ron Paul event where he briefly interviewed me. Unfortunately I was shocked and very disappointed when he greatly misunderstood and misrepresented my views in his subsequent article ‘Scenes from the Ron Paul Revolution: The rise of an eclectic anti-statist movement’. He wrote:

“The predominance of newbies bothers Jorge Besada, an economics fan in a Hayek shirt who shipped in from Nebraska to hear his man talk in Ames and Des Moines. Without a solid grounding in the verities of Austrian economics, Besada worries, Paul supporters won’t be optimal sellers of the freedom message. Too many of Paul’s positions, whether his hard-money stance or the larger questions of how free markets and free people will function and achieve social goals without constant government management, require a sophisticated economics background to really get, he fears.”

“The predominance of newbies bothers Jorge Besada” !!!????? I was beyond shocked and disappointed when I read that first sentence because in many ways it is a complete misrepresentation and total opposite of my views and Misesian ethos. Mises writes:

Liberalism is rationalistic. It maintains that it is possible to convince the immense majority that peaceful cooperation within the framework of society better serves their rightly understood interests than mutual battling and social disintegration. It has full confidence in man’s reason. It may be that this optimism is unfounded and that the liberals have erred. But then there is no hope left for mankind’s future.

And:

“Economics must not be relegated to classrooms and statistical offices and must not be left to esoteric circles. It is the philosophy of human life and action and concerns everybody and everything. It is the pith of civilization and of man’s human existence…All present-day political issues concern problems commonly called economic. All arguments advanced in contemporary discussion of social and public affairs deal with fundamental matters of…economics. Everybody’s mind is preoccupied with economic doctrines…Everybody thinks of economics whether he is aware of it or not. In joining a political party and in casting his ballot, the citizen implicitly takes a stand upon essential economic theories…As conditions are today, nothing can be more important to every intelligent man than economics. His own fate and that of his progeny is at stake…all reasonable men are called upon to familiarize themselves with the teachings of economics. This is, in our age, the primary civic duty. Whether we like it or not, it is a fact that economics cannot remain an esoteric branch of knowledge accessible only to small groups of scholars and specialists. Economics deals with society’s fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen.”

I am a Misesian down the the last atom in the sense that I believe everyone can understand economics and that “This is, in our age, the primary civic duty.” Thus “The predominance of newbies” THRILLED me! Also, writing “require a sophisticated economics background to really get”, again, this implies “esoteric circles” which is totally un-Misesian and the opposite of how Mises, Hayek, Hazlitt and myself see-saw things.

But I can see how the misunderstanding arose, if there was any criticism or slight frustration in my tone, it was not about the newbies, but it was a desire for the Ron Paul campaign to focus more, per Mises, on economic education which I felt was the real driver of the ‘Revolution’. To this day I firmly believe that had the RP 2007-8 campaign had a better focus on clever economic education and marketing we could have had a real triumph like Milei had in Argentina.