Reddit mentions of Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal

This sort of "analysis" really plagues political charts regardless of ideology in that it takes rhetoric and propaganda at face value and lacks any historical perspective, taking ideologies in a vacuum. Here, the way liberty is defined is completely loaded to make libertarians appear the most in favor of "liberty," whereas that concept of liberty seems to me to be complete subjugation to the whims of business interests with a few frills thrown in (4/20blazeit!).

If we look at the history of right-libertarianism, it becomes clear why it is generally called right-wing as opposed to the anarchist and socialist tendencies of left-libertarianism. In Europe, it is more valid to say that libertarians would not fit into the definition of conventional conservatism in that European conservatism has had monarchist streaks and, since von Bismarck, an element of welfare statism. It is in this sense that Hayek wrote his essay "Why I Am Not a Conservative." However, libertarianism is not as much of a presence in Europe with parties and people sharing this ideology calling themselves liberals. In fact, Hayek does this as well, stating:

>I will nevertheless continue for the moment to describe as liberal the position which I hold and which I believe differs as much from true conservatism as from socialism.

In the US, liberalism obviously changed meaning and conservatism lost its monarchist connotations with the American Revolution's basis in the ideology of republicanism. Hayek perceptively remarks on this:

>Conservatism proper is a legitimate, probably necessary, and certainly widespread attitude of opposition to drastic change. It has, since the French Revolution, for a century and a half played an important role in European politics. Until the rise of socialism its
opposite was liberalism. There is nothing corresponding to this conflict in the history of the United States, because what in Europe was called "liberalism" was here the common tradition on which the American polity had been built: thus the defender of the American
tradition was a liberal in the European sense.

In this way, liberalism became the "status quo" of American politics. Fast forward to the 20th century and the beginnings of the right-libertarian movement proper. Libertarianism in this sense developed largely in reaction to the New Deal. Libertarianism was initially seeded in the post-war era by the William Volker Fund, which paid and disseminated the writings of liberals such as Hayek, von Mises, and Aaron Director.

Over time, a fleet of libertarian and conservative think tanks were nurtured by business interests -- there is too much to cover here but Kim-Phillips Fein's book Invisible Hands does so in detail. The Libertarian Party itself was notoriously built with the backing of the Koch brothers, as was the Cato Institute, probably the most famous libertarian think tank.

This ended up leading to a split within the movement, with Koch-funded projects being derisively referred to as the "Kochtopus." However, these critics, as opposed to the urbane "Beltway libertarians," were generally even farther to the right, being anarcho-capitalists, or paleolibertarians. Paleolibertarianism carries a heavy element of social conservatism. As defined by Lew Rockwell:

>Paleolibertarianism holds with Lord Acton that liberty is the highest political end of man, and that all forms of government intervention–economic, cultural, social, international–amount to an attack on prosperity, morals, and bourgeois civilization itself, and thus must be opposed at all levels and without compromise. It is “paleo” because of its genesis in the work of Murray N. Rothbard and his predecessors, including Ludwig von Mises, Albert Jay Nock, Garet Garrett, and the entire interwar Old Right that opposed the New Deal and favored the Old Republic of property rights, freedom of association, and radical political decentralization. Just as important, paleolibertarianism predates the politicization of libertarianism that began in the 1980s, when large institutions moved to Washington and began to use the language of liberty as part of a grab bag of "policy options." Instead of principle, the neo-libertarians give us political alliances; instead of intellectually robust ideas, they give us marketable platitudes. What's more, paleolibertarianism distinguishes itself from left-libertarianism because it has made its peace with religion as the bedrock of liberty, property, and the natural order.

http://www.fact-index.com/p/pa/paleolibertarianism.html

Socially conservative elements of paleolibertarianism have attracted various other right-wing causes, such as neo-confederacy, white supremacy, and dominionism (see e.g., RJ Rushdoony).

In sum then, American right-libertarianism represents the appropriation of classical liberal rhetoric by business interests to attack New Deal welfare statism. Social liberalism has generally taken a back seat, or is rejected outright by paleolibertarians. Libertarianism today is merely a concentrated form of hegemonic neo-liberal ideology and does not challenge it in any substantial way. This is why right-libertarianism is called as such and does not "transcend" the left-right spectrum in any way.

You might be interested in Invisible Hands https://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Hands-Businessmens-Crusade-Against/dp/0393337669

It's funny that you missed the masterminds who orchestrated the whole thing and brought all those people together. The du Ponts. Read Invisible Hands by Phillips-Fein If you want more info.


I probably still have the summary I wrote on it for a class. Let me see if I can link it.

Edit: Here

Incredibly interesting question OP! You really get at the heart of the issue.

My take on it is that the branding of government functions as "socialist" is a way for corporate forces to consolidate power. It is such a complicated issue that I can't sum it up in a quick sentence. There was a very intentional effort following the perceived failings of unfettered capitalism following the Great Depression, wherein people began believing that government played a legidiement role in the economy. These business forces got together, and tried to find rebrand their hegemony in the eyes of the public.

Some early unsuccessful marketing strategies focused on giving positive argument as to what market forces could accomplish. This initial campaign was unsuccessful, so they decided to try another tactics: to connect the market to fundamental American values of freedom.

Agree or disagree, this happened, and it was successful. It was so successful that "Market" is synonymous with "free market." Of course, everything that opposed market forces became unfree by contrast. So liberalism became "socialism," or "communism." This is most apparent with Mccarthyism, but you see it all over the place. The irony is that governments are democratically controlled, whereas corporations are controlled by a couple people on the top.

My source is a book called Indivisible Hands: Businessmen's crusade against the new deal. I can followup and double check the sources if anyone wants verification. I love this subject and I can do more research once this semester is over.

She's got a book mark in the book though. Looks like she read the first 20% or so. Maybe the shirt is worn ironically? (I want to believe)

Meh, fuck it. She's still a leftist witch:

>Great research and writing. A wonderful review of the origins and progress of efforts to repeal the New Deal. Very effective in helping illuminate the work of the conservative movement to remove the US Federal social and financial safety net. This is an important work -- very useful to those of us today who work to preserve and even expand it. Thank you.


https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/0393337669/ref=cm_cr_dp_syn_footer?k=Invisible%20Hands%3A%20The%20Businessmen%27s%20Crusade%20Against%20the%20New%20Deal&showViewpoints=1

These are good too if you want to understand how the US swung to the far right.

http://www.amazon.com/Death-Liberal-Class-Chris-Hedges/dp/1568586795

http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Hands-Businessmens-Crusade-Against/dp/0393337669/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410918334&sr=1-1&keywords=invisible+hands+the+businessmen%27s+crusade+against+the+new+deal