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View Full Version : Born Libertarian: Doug Casey on Ron Paul and the Price of Freedom




Lucille
10-14-2013, 04:35 PM
Born Libertarian: Doug Casey on Ron Paul and the Price of Freedom
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2013/10/14/born-libertarian-doug-casey-on-ron-paul-and-the-price-of-freedom/


The Gold Report: Doug, we are at your conference in Tucson, Arizona, the day after former Congressman and presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul gave the keynote speech to a sold-out crowd. How did you two first meet?

Doug Casey: It was about 30 years ago. Ron used to attend my Eris Society—named after the Greek goddess of discord—meetings in Aspen, Colorado. Everyone from Sonny Barger of the Hells Angels motorcycle club to Burt Rutan, inventor of SpaceShipOne, would meet to discuss ideas.

TGR: In those 30 years, have Ron Paul’s ideas changed much?

DC: Ron believes he was born a libertarian. He’s right. I believe in Pareto’s law—the 80-20 rule. I prefer to think that 80% of humans are basically decent, which is to say that they were born libertarian oriented. But it takes a while to crystallize what that means. Ron and I, and many others, have moved beyond gut libertarianism to a structured, intellectual libertarianism.

Some people see the same things we see through a totally different lens, however. Those people tend to be the other 20%, or perhaps 20% of that 20%, or even 20% of that 20% of that 20%. They range from being wishy-washy on ethical subjects to being sociopaths or even outright criminals. These people are at the opposite end of the spectrum from us in every way.

TGR: One of the things Ron Paul mentioned last night is that a true libertarian advocates for the freedom of everyone to do what he or she wants as long as it’s not hurting someone else. This includes people who don’t agree with your views.

DC: Exactly. As opposed to busybodies who want to tell everybody else what to do. They think they know best and are perfectly willing to put a gun to your head to make sure that you do what they think is right.

TGR: We are meeting in the midst of a government shutdown. Ron Paul called it a paid holiday for federal workers. Are we doomed to an endless cycle of these manmade crises?

DC: I would like nothing better than to see the shutdown go on forever, but unfortunately the government is only shutting down things that inconvenience people, like monuments and national parks—things that should not be owned by the government to start with. I wish they would shut down all their praetorian agencies, like the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. Shut down the IRS. I am much more concerned about Silk Road being shut down than I am the US government being shut down.

TGR: Do you think regular people care whether government is shut down or not?

DC: Over half of Americans are living off the state, receiving more from the state than they’re putting into it, which makes them receivers of stolen property. They see the government as a cornucopia and therefore a good thing so they want it to be open and sending them checks.

The situation is fairly hopeless at this point, and it’s likely to get a lot worse before it gets better. Trends in motion, in whatever direction, tend to stay in motion until they hit a crisis, at which point they transform into something else. This trend is not only in motion, but it’s accelerating in the wrong direction.

TGR: Ron Paul said that the charade on the American people is that the two parties are different, that actually it’s not that we need a third party, but we need a second party. Your presentation compared the end of the Roman Empire to the state of the US today. Is the current political system doing a better or worse job of protecting freedom and liberty in the US compared to ancient Rome?

DC: The founders consciously modeled the US after Rome, everything from the way government buildings look to having an assembly and a senate. We are similar right down to the Latin mottos. When you model yourself after something, you eventually tend to resemble it. That partly explains why we are on the slippery slope of constant wars, less freedom, more power for the executive, destruction of the currency, and barbarians at the gate. Another part is the natural tendency of all empires to reach their level of incompetence and then decline. It’s to be expected. Entropy dictates all things wind down and degrade.

As I pointed out in my speech, America has gone through periods of what paleontologists call “punctuated disequilibrium.” Things evolve gently in one direction and then experience massive change very quickly. I’m afraid that the US might be approaching a phase similar to the one the Romans experienced before Diocletian made himself emperor. He completely changed the character of Rome; he believed that in order to save Rome, he had to destroy it.

As we go deeper into this crisis—of which we’re just currently in the early stages—there’s every chance that the American people are going to look for a savior, a strong man, probably a military person because Americans love and trust their military for some reason. I see the military as not much more than a heavily armed version of the post office, but I suspect that we’ll find someone who is the equivalent of Diocletian, who will change the whole nature of society radically in the wrong direction.

TGR: Do you believe in changing from within the system, or just getting out from under the system? Would you ever run for public office?

DC: I think the situation is beyond retrieval at this point. People generally get the government they deserve. At this point, Americans are much more interested in freebies than they are in personal freedom. They are like scared little rabbits. They’re much more interested in safety than they are in personal liberty. I think they’re going to get what they deserve good and hard over the years to come. I would much rather watch what goes on in the US on my widescreen TV in the lap of luxury in another country than be in the epicenter of things here. The system is beyond the point where it can be reformed.

And, no, I have zero desire to run for office. Plus, anyone who runs for office disqualifies himself for being in a position of power by the very fact that he wants to be in that position. My friend Harry Browne always used to say that when he ran for president on the Libertarian ticket, the first thing he’d do if he were elected would be to quit—at least after rescinding all outstanding Executive Orders and recalling all the troops. Anyway, even if Ron Paul had been elected president and if he tried to make the necessary changes, the public would have rioted, Congress would have impeached him, and the heads of the CIA, FBI, and the military would have sat him down and subtly intimated that they have the power, and he shouldn’t do anything they don’t want done—or undone.

I don’t think a change can be made at this point. I’m just interested in seeing what happens when we really get involved in a really big crisis, which I think is going to happen in the next couple of years, as we go back into the trailing edge of the economic hurricane that started in 2007...

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