Was this stupidity or maliciousness on the part of Mr. Tanenhaus to so twist my words? I cannot be sure, but my assessment is that for this modern reincarnation of Walter Duranty there was a bit of both involved, with the latter surely predominating, since he didn’t appear particularly stupid to me during our long interviews.

Do I regret I did a series of interviews with Mr. Tanenhaus? Should I resolve never again to deal with a journalist from the New York Times? I would gladly do it again. For one thing, there is always the outside chance of converting such a person to the freedom philosophy. For another, there is the possibility, admittedly unlikely, that a mainstream journalist would at least be fair. I go further. My aim is to convert the entire world to the one true faith, libertarianism. I will sit down and talk to the very devil himself in this effort, or, to Communists, Nazis, New York Times reporters, it is all in a day’s work for me.

Not a bit of it. My motto is, Full steam ahead, go right at ‘em, and the devil take the hindmost. The illegitimi are going to misinform gullible people, such as most readers of the New York Times, no matter what is said. Nothing can be done to change that, except of course for a mass conversion to libertarianism, or, at least, decency. Why allow their possible (well, very likely) misinterpretations to deflect me, us, from making the libertarian case in the most powerful way possible?

It is easy to see how a journalist at the New York Times could so seriously misconstrue libertarianism. Less so, far less so, can this be understood in the case of Reason. These people are supposed libertarians themselves. What had they to say about Mr. Tanenhaus’ smear of me as supportive of slavery as it actually functioned? Here is the reaction of Reason editor Nick Gillespie: “One economist, while faulting slavery because it was involuntary, suggested in an interview that the daily life of the enslaved was ‘not so bad — you pick cotton and sing songs.’” Now, these people full well know who the “one economist” is, namely me. Mr. Mr. Tanenhaus, after all, does mention me by name, and spells it correctly. Mr. Gillespie is fully cognizant of the fact that I am a libertarian. At least he should have known this, since I have contributed to this movement over many years and have published in his own Reason Magazine and Reason Papers on numerous occasions. Did it not seem jarring to him that I would support slavery as not being “so bad?” Am I amiss in thinking that as a fellow libertarian he would have checked things out with me before piling on? I am not at all that disappointed with Mr. Tanenhaus. I expected little better from him; after all, what does he know? He works for the New York Times, for goodness sakes! But I am truly amazed, and appalled, that a supposed libertarian such as Mr. Gillespie would be so vile.

A postscript on voluntary slavery. I am on record on numerous occasions in support of voluntary slavery; some other libertarians support me on this issue as well. See Andersson, 2007; Block, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007A, 2007B, 2009A, 2009B; Lester, 2000; Nozick, 1974, pp. 58, 283, 331; Philmore, 1982; Steiner, 1994, pp. 232. I want now to anticipate and obviate possible objections emanating from “libertarians” such as Mr. Gillespie that my stance here implies that I favor, however slightly, coercive slavery as it actually existed in history, and even nowadays, in some places.

What is voluntary slavery? Consider the following. My child is sick with a dread disease. It will kill him unless he has an operation. The operation costs $5 million, and I, a poor man, just do not have anything like that amount of money. But you, gentle reader, are a rich person, who has long wanted me to be your slave. So, we make a deal. I agree to become enslaved by you, for $5 million. You give me that amount of money, I turn it over to my child’s doctors, and then I come to your plantation to serve you. We both gain in the ex ante sense from this commercial interaction, as is always the case. You value my servitude more than the $5 million you pay for it; I regard my child’s life more highly than my own freedom. Forget about the niceties of this example. Ignore the political incorrectness here. Do not consider libertarian objections along the lines of not being able to alienate the will. Focus on just one issue: Does this contract, or does it not, violate the NAP? I say it does not, and would hence be legitimate in the libertarian society.

This is not the time nor the place to try, once again, to refute those libertarians who disagree with me on this issue (I am in a distinct minority in the libertarian community). My aim here is more limited. It is to distinguish the hypothetical case of voluntary slavery from the operation of real world coercive slavery. I claim that the latter is a paradigm case of NAP violation, and ought to be opposed to the utmost, while the former is not. I have little doubt that Mr. Tanenhaus will seize upon this example in a “gotcha!” moment. He will aver that this is but further evidence that I support real slavery, and that since I do, Rand Paul, another libertarian, must as well.

One last word. I allege that it is libelous to claim I maintain that (real world) slavery wasn’t really so bad. Shall I sue Mr. Tanenhaus and his employer? The latter certainly has deep pockets. I am rather ambivalent about this. On the one hand, libel is not a per se violation of the NAP. Under libertarian law, Mr. Tanenhaus and the New York Times have a legal right to besmirch my good name with allegations of this sort. Yes, they have attempted to ruin my reputation. Probably, they have succeeded, at least with a goodly number of people. But, I do not own my own reputation. Rather, it consists of the thoughts of other people, and I cannot own those. For more on this, see my book Defending I. On the other hand, the NAP only requires that libertarians refrain from using violence (lawsuits ultimately constitute the use of invasive force) against innocent people. The New York Times hardly fits this bill. Rather, that organization is a major mouthpiece for the state. As Lew Rockwell pithily put it, and as reported in this very article, they are “part of the regime.” Therefore, they would not be off bounds for a libel suit launched by a libertarian.

I am content with the fact that thanks to this vicious smear, more people than would otherwise be the case have now at least heard of libertarianism. Not in a good light, to be sure. But, perhaps, a significant number of them will do some research on the subject. A good place to start would be with the web of the Mises Institute, mises.com, and/or with LewRockwell.com. Auburn, AL is the center of the Austro-libertarian movement; long may it prosper.