Saturday, December 14, 2013

Rothbard : Socialism Isn't Inevitable- No Determinist Laws of History

Professor Murray Rothbard explains:
The Whig theory of history began in the early to mid-19th century, and it has taken over: it's still with us. It's still dominant despite criticisms in the 1930s and '40s.

Basically, what the Whig theory of history says is that history is an inevitable march upward into the light. In other words, step by step, the world always progresses, and this progress is inevitable.

Now, the Whigs themselves were kind of lovable. They were moderate classical liberals. And when they coined the theory in the 1830s, '40s, and '50s, there was a certain amount of justification for it: indeed, if they looked back on the past, things seemed to be getting better and better. There was an increase in freedom, an increase in civilization and standard of living and science and knowledge, and so forth and so on.

And so, unfortunately, they made this impressionistic conclusion into a doctrine, saying, "This is inevitable." If this is 1870, we're better off in every way than in 1860, etc.

This implies heavily that everything that was at any stage of the game was right — it was the best that was possible at the time. And therefore everything that is now is right, or at least is the best possible for this epoch.

This is essentially determinist, this belief in inevitability, and it also puts the stamp of approval on everything in the past and present, because it says things like, Well, slavery now, of course, is bad from our perspective, but slavery in the old days was good because it was better than whatever the preslavery thing was.
You can listen to this very lecture down below. We-repost this one by popular demand. Few colleges in America will teach you what's in this lecture. After listening to this lecture, you'll be much more knowledgeable than virtually all socialist professors in America today.