[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
World News See other World News Articles Title: Medieval Libertarianism The stateless Middle Ages were the only example of a functioning anarchic order in the West. The ‘Reactionary’ Libertarianism of Frank van Dun, by Richard Storey. Forgive the length of this post and the multiple links. I am thinking it is necessary to capture and summarize my thoughts on this topic, and have found this work by Storey to be a good vehicle through which to do so. Storey offers a summary of his conversation with Frank van Dun (FvD). Storey introduces the piece with his starting point: Like many anarcho-capitalist libertarians, I believed that the Church, far from being a hindrance to state growth, was the primary promoter of centralised statism in Northern Europe. Storey offers a summary of his view – how he came to reach this conclusion. He reached out to FvD, hoping to maybe learn something but also to receive confirmation of his views. As you can tell from his past-tense use of “believed,” Storey received much more of the learning than he did the confirming. Kingship and Law in th... Fritz Kern, S.B. Chrim... Best Price: $60.30 Buy New $50.00 (as of 03:55 EDT - Details) Except where noted, the remainder of this post (to include the quote at the top of this post) offers some excerpts from FvD’s response to Storey. So there is no confusion about where FvD is headed, he begins his response: Most of your comments fit what is still the PC-view of the medieval period and the role of the Church in it. I began my education on this topic by reading Fritz Kern’s Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages. I learned that the Dark Ages were not so dark; serf’s had far more freedom and protection in the law than we do today; every individual could veto the decision of his lord if proper cause could be demonstrated; medieval law was the most consistent expression of libertarian law to be found in the west (and likely the world); and a written constitution served to protect the state from the people – and not the other way around. My further reading of many books on the time only reinforced these views and added additional insights to the period. For example, From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, by Jacques Barzun. While the focus of his book is post-Reformation Europe, he offers in his introduction the following: The truth is that during the 1,000 years before 1500 a new civilization grew from beginnings that were uncommonly difficult….showing the world two renaissances before the one that has monopolized the name. …the Germanic invaders brought a type of custom law that some later thinkers have credited with the idea of individual freedom.…no rule was held valid if not approved by those it affected. From The Medieval Machine, by Jean Gimpel, I learned of the medieval industrial revolution – from whole cloth came energy and mechanization, mining, the mechanical clock, and pre-Renaissance renaissance men. I learned that it was not until 1277 (if one can pinpoint such events) that the Middle Ages began down the road that would stereotype the entire period – that of questioning scientific and technological progress (and, here again, not everywhere uniformly and simultaneously). From Those Terrible Middle Ages: Debunking the Myths, by Régine Pernoud, I learned of the liberalizing society of the Middle Ages: artistic and literary achievements; the difference of serfdom and slavery (there was virtually no slavery in medieval Europe – and serfs were most certainly not slaves); women were human, too; there was religious tolerance (forget what you think you know about medieval witch burnings and the like); finally, it really wasn’t so good to be king. From Dawn to Decadence... Jacques Barzun Best Price: $1.99 Buy New $13.12 (as of 04:05 EDT - Details) I can list an additional half-dozen books that helped to purge me of this “PC view” of the Middle Ages, books that demonstrated libertarian law in its most manifest expression and for a most extended period. No evangelizing, no theocracy, no absolute state, no king as sovereign, no “Dark Ages,” none of it. You would think libertarians would be happy to find such a reality, to find a working model from which we could learn. No, most aren’t; they get upset. Why is there such pushback by many libertarians on recognizing this history? Back to FvD: Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Ada (#0)
It worked for a reason most LewRockwellites will never want to mention: these where entirely white countries. Everything Liberts want is dependent on this factor, but being a jew-designed movement it doesn't "go there" and professes great love for all humankind equally.
_____________________________________________________________ USA! USA! USA! Bringing you democracy, or else! there were strains of VD that were incurable, and they were first found in the Philippines and then transmitted to the Korean working girls via US military. The 'incurables' we were told were first taken back to a military hospital in the Philippines to quietly die. – 4um
If you wanna get racial about it, credit the Germanic tribes who had no Caesar. Their tribal chiefs were no more than heads of families.
I do, and I do ;-)
_____________________________________________________________ USA! USA! USA! Bringing you democracy, or else! there were strains of VD that were incurable, and they were first found in the Philippines and then transmitted to the Korean working girls via US military. The 'incurables' we were told were first taken back to a military hospital in the Philippines to quietly die. – 4um
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||