for economically illiterate advocates of monarchy: “Turks mourn relative of Ottoman sultan”
Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, from Osman I to Mehmed V
No doubt a sad day…
7 Responses to “No doubt a sad day…”
Leave a Reply
for economically illiterate advocates of monarchy: “Turks mourn relative of Ottoman sultan”
Sultans of the Ottoman Empire, from Osman I to Mehmed V
Good one. Did you see the hilarious review of Lew Rockwell’s book, written by his employee David Gordon, and entitled “Truth to Power”? What can one say?
To read “Sucking Up to Your Boss,” it’s at http://mises.org/story/3720
“A great many people have learned from Mises and Rothbard, but Lew Rockwell belongs to a much more select class: he has developed their thought in an original way.” Lew Rockwell truly is the new Lyndon LaRouche.
The fact you condone the monarchy and praise the EU in a single article is unintentionally ironic.
??
Micro, are you referring to me (I neither condoned monarchy nor praised the EU) or to Mel (I can’t see any reference to either in his comment)? I don’t follow your point.
[grr! I am an idiot! I meant Condemn! It would all make sense otherwise!]
I refer to your article, “For Mises” sake. In it, you condemn the monarchy as inherently immoral [due to being undemocratic] and simultaneously seem sympathetic to Austria’s entry into the EU. Is that not true?
Ok. That occurred to me after my note. I don’t so much condemn monarchy as mock people who want to return to it. (A constitutional monarchy such as the Netherlands is clearly superior to an unconstitutional dictatorship such as Syria.) The arguments on its behalf are risible. I did not indicate sympathy for Austrian entry into the EU. I merely said that I attended a public address by Otto Habsburg in which he made the case for it.
I re-read the essay just now. There is no sympathy for the EU expressed in it at all. Consider what I wrote:
“(Though it might be noted that Mr. Habsburg described the European Union as the fulfillment of the “Great Austrian Idea” of European unity in one political system; the old “Austrian idea,” of course, was for that political unity to be ruled by one family.) Despite my differences on the wisdom of the ‘Austrian Idea,’ I found the elder Mr. Habsburg quite likable.”
Note: “Despite my differences on the wisdom of the ‘Austrian Idea’….”
That said, EU membership for Austria has had mixed consequences, with some positive outcomes (e.g., allowing foreigners to own land in Austria and stopping the crazy practice of requiring Italian waiters to leave the country periodically to renew their work permits) and some negative (being sucked into the maw of the Eurocracy in Brussels and Strasbourg). I’m not a proponent of “the EU,” but I don’t blind myself to some positive outcomes of accession to the EU (which need to be weighed against the negative, such as imposition of a uniform tariff wall, which required Estonia, as an example, to raise tariffs against non-EU members in order to be allowed to join).
To conclude, I did condemn the idea of bringing back the Habsburgs (or monarchy generally) and I did not express sympathy for the EU (quite the opposite).
I apologize for the misunderstanding, then.
A libertarian would not write about the EU “I don’t blind myself to its positives”, but would instead write “its based on coercion and is therefore immoral and evil”.