Actually it's the Tom Knapps of the world who are tarnishing the image of a Libertarian giant like Harry Browne by suggesting he was ever an anarchist. He was not an anarchist. He was ALWAYS a minarchist and did not advocate the total removal of the U.S. government.
Have the common decency to let the man's body get cold before you smear his name with an insult like "anarchist". --- In [email protected], "Thomas L. Knapp" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Quoth hrearden: > > > In Browne's book "How I found freedom in an unfree world" which was > > published in the 70's if I recall correctly he did not seem to > > advocate being involved in electoral politics. I could be wrong by I > > seem to recall that being the case. > > Not exactly. It's not that he _didn't advocate being involved_ in > electoral politics. It's that he _advocated not being involved_ in > electoral politics. For more than two decades prior to changing his > mind, affiliating with the LP and running for president, he urged > people to avoid "the politics trap" altogether, saying that no good > could come from being involved with the state in any way and that > therefore one should avoid it to the greatest degree possible. > > > I do seem to recall reading > > things writen by anarchists during Browne's runs for office criticle > > of Browne and refering to Browne as a sell out because he was a > > candidate. > > I don't recall reading many "sellout" accusations per se, although > that would be an understandable reaction to a long-time, well-known > anarchist suddenly deciding to do electoral politics. Most of the > stuff I read circa 1994-96 by Harry's fellow anarchists was more in > the nature of "you were right, Harry! Take your own advice!" > > Interestingly, he picked a great time to remake himself. Almost all of > the material by or about Harry on the Internet reflects his post-1994 > career -- for the obvious reason that the Internet was just beginning > to "go public" in 1994 -- and references to his prior anarchist work > are sparse outside of side notes. > > I hope that his estate will collect his earlier essays and articles > and publish them as a collection (perhaps with the finished portions > of the book he was working on when he died, _The War Racket_). I > suspect they will. It would be profitable (and knowing Harry, I think > a profit is the epitaph he'd want), and it would add to his stature. > As we can see, the Paul Irelands of the world are already trying to > diminish that stature by turning Harry into a two-dimensional, > cardboard-cutout caricature of 1/6th of his life. > > Tom Knapp > ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
