[109479] in Cypherpunks
Mises on Peace
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Thu Mar 25 13:35:10 1999
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 12:58:34 -0500
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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From: "Mises Institute News" <news@mises.org>
To: <miseslist@mises.org>
Subject: Mises on Peace
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 11:24:48 -0600
Sender: miseslist-owner@mises.org
"[Classical] liberalism rejects aggressive war not on philanthropic grounds
but from the standpoint of utility. It rejects aggressive war because it
regards victory as harmful, and it wants no conquests because it sees them
as an unsuitable means for reaching the ultimate goals for which it strives.
Not through war and victory but only through work can a nation create the
preconditions for the well-being of its members. Conquering nations finally
perish, either because they are annihilated by strong ones or because the
ruling class is culturally overwhelmed by the subjugated."
"The way to eternal peace does not lead through strengthening state and
central power, as socialism strives for. The greater the scope the state
claims in the life of the individual and the more important politics becomes
for him, the more areas of friction are thereby created in territories with
mixed population. Limiting state power to a minimum, as liberalism sought,
would considerably soften the antagonisms between different nations that
live side by side in the same territory. The only true national autonomy is
the freedom of the individual against the state and society. The
'statification'
of life and of the economy leads with necessity to the struggle of nations."
Ludwig von Mises
Nation, State, and Economy (1919)
New York University Press, 1983, pp. 87, 96.
[This mailing listing will begin to regularly feature quotations from Mises
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-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
