The Golden Mean
The Case for Libertarian Politics and Conservative
Values
by Nelson Hultberg
July 30, 2005
[ Softcover, 330 pages ]
Please note: The Golden Mean should be out sometime
in the next year. If you are interested in receiving a notice when
it is released, please email your name and postal mail address to: nhultberg@afr.org and
request to be put on our notification list.
Brief Summary of the Book
Ever since the early sixties, the dream of many on the political
right has been to unite libertarians and constitutional conservatives
against the real enemy on the left. For only in this way can the
forces of freedom become strong enough to check the relentless advance
of modern day statism. The Golden Mean puts forth a
blueprint that should finally bring about this long awaited unification.
TGM is much more, though, than a paean to the libertarian
and conservative movements in America. It is a paradigm shifting
book that will dramatically change the way we look at political theory
and the idea of a free society. What it says will linger in readers'
minds for the rest of their lives.
The book is meant for both the scholar and the educated general
reader. It is a composite of five essays dealing with Aristotle's
famous Law of the Mean, i.e., Golden Mean, and how it applies to
the great questions of politics, economics and ethics. It fills a
very important void in the literature of political philosophy because
it formulates a theory of political organization around which both
libertarians and conservatives can coalesce.
It is important to understand that this means genuine "constitutional" conservatives
rather than today's "neo" conservatives. Neo-conservatives are vehement
big government advocates. Many of them are ex-socialists who started
calling themselves conservatives in the 1970s, but have never ceased
in their advocacy of massive centralized government and an overthrow
of the classical liberal order that spawned the American Republic
in 1787.
Neo-conservatives (such as William Kristol, Bill Buckley,
Newt Gingrich, etc.) are pretenders to the idea of a free society
and its philosophical requisites. They have capitulated to the collectivist's
fundamental morality and thus are destroying what our country is
supposed to be all about. On the other hand, constitutional conservatives
(such as Thomas Sowell, Clyde Wilson, Walter Williams, Ron Paul,
etc.) support a strictly limited government, i.e., the original concept
of freedom upon which America was founded.
The political philosopher, Frank Meyer, attempted in the 1960s to
bring about a unification of libertarians and constitutional conservatives,
but regrettably was unsuccessful. His allegiance to National Review's bellicose
foreign policy (which has morphed into today's neo-conservative drive
for "world hegemony") was the main reason for his failure. Since
then the two movements have gone off in their own direction and consequently
have dissipated their power.
No successful challenge to authoritarian statism can ever
take place, however, without a unity of these two political ideologies. This
unity is the crucial missing ingredient of today's Freedom Movement.
What has been lacking since the beginning of our cause is a rational
theory that can bring these two groups together to restore the
original Republic of states that Jefferson and the Founders envisioned. The
Golden Mean accomplishes this theoretical unification.
Chapter Outlines
Chapter One -- Rights, Equality and the Vital Center
The purpose here is to explain Aristotle's "doctrine of the mean" to
the reader and how it can be used to judge the propriety of such
things as political systems. Much of Chapter One is devoted to demonstrating
that the doctrine of the mean is a natural law instilled into reality
that can be used theoretically to establish what the "universal political
good" is for man. The Founding Fathers' vision of government was
the Golden Mean. It was meant to prevail, not just for the 19th century,
but for all of time.
Chapter Two -- The Great Moral Ideal
Ayn Rand's fundamental message in her 1957 mega-novel, Atlas
Shrugged, was that all dictatorial political systems have their
root in the moral code of altruism -- a code of servility and sacrifice
practiced for thousands of years and modernized by the 19th century
French philosopher Auguste Comte. Altruism, Rand maintained, was
incompatible with capitalism (which is dependent upon self-interest),
and thus it must be replaced with a code of rational egoism if
capitalism is to survive. This was provocative stuff, and it launched
the modern libertarian movement. However, while Rand was right
about altruism, she was blatantly wrong about egoism being the
antidote that would save capitalism. I demonstrate why this is
so, and show the reader what the true "moral ideal" is.
Chapter Three -- Truth's Trojan Horse
The roots of the modern dilemma lie in numerous ideological falsehoods
uncritically accepted during the latter 19th century. No doctrine
has been more pernicious than Auguste Comte's philosophy of "positivism." Its
premise -- that there are no objective moral truths to be found in
reality -- has led to the socio-political ailments plaguing our world
today. Positivism has descended, like acid rain, upon our lives to
obliterate the vital notion of natural law that sustained free civilization
for centuries. I outline for the reader why the older notion of a
universal natural law must be resurrected if we are to restore a
free, ordered, prosperous and humane way of life.
Chapter Four -- The Failure of the Non-Aggression Principle
Ayn Rand put the libertarian movement on the map in the 1960s; but
her philosophy contained several flawed premises that are inhibiting
libertarian growth among intellectuals in the West. Because of their
embrace of Randian ideology, libertarians have thus created a philosophical
movement that cannot get successfully launched as it is presently
constructed. I expose the major error of their present futility --
Rand's non-aggression principle -- how it stifles the launching of
libertarianism as a viable alternative to statism, and what must
be done to restructure the libertarian ship to give it the strength
to prevail.
Chapter Five -- How then Should We Govern?
Why did the Founders' Constitution fail to contain the growth of
government beyond the 19th century? As always, the root of the problem
is found in false ideas. In this case, there are several whoppers
that have brought about freedom's downfall in a political sense.
But there is one fundamental fallacy that transcends all the subsidiary
errors. This is the notion that the state cannot govern properly
and effectively unless it has the power to convey privileges to special
interest groups so as to "promote the common good." This theory has
been held for centuries to be the purpose of government, and was
not adequately addressed in the Founders' political vision. Consequently,
it lingered implicitly in the background to contaminate the growth
of America as a nation. It is the primary cause of our runaway government
today. This chapter explains how and why we must correct the problem.
Chapter Six -- One Final Word
This is a brief three page summation of the book to inspire the
reader to utilize what has been learned to help restore the Founders'
vision of a free and ordered Constitutional Republic, then advance
it, in Ralph Tyler Flewelling's words, "to its highest possible perfection."
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To read an excerpt from the book, "The Political Spectrum Con," CLICK
HERE
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