VDARE.COM will be posting more about Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s valiant effort to revive paleolibertarianism via his Property and Freedom Society conference, held in Bodrum, Turkey, every spring. (For an account of this year’s conference by the British libertarian Sean Gabb, click here).

I spoke on the libertarian case against immigration, always a difficult subject for modal libertarians because their handful of painfully-conned nostrums won’t fit the subject, no matter how hard they struggle. (For an example, see here).

But an Estonian libertarian greatly enriched the conference by arranging for a showing of The Singing Revolution, the extraordinary independent film documenting how folk music held together his tiny nation during its long dark night of occupation and near-genocide at the hands of the Soviet Union. The emotional power of the huge mass song festival scenes in which Estonians spontaneously begin to sing their national songs after years of prohibition is shattering. The movie is an irrefutable demonstration of the reality and legitimacy of collective identity.

The next day, after my talk, when a modal libertarian ignored my argument as usual and asked the standard question about why an employer shouldn’t be able to hire whoever he wanted, I simply pointed out that in Estonia this could have meant the employer would be importing more Russians, which the Soviet Union was already doing in an attempt to drown the Estonian nation. This was met with silence.

For reasons which invite discussion, The Singing Revolution is not being distributed in the usual way. But you can sign up here for news on how to see it.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe is hosting a conference of the Property and Freedom Society in Turkey in May,and Peter Brimelow is going to be one of the speakers. He’ll be speaking on “The Libertarian Case Against Open Immigration“.

So if you’re in Turkey, as some of our readers are, or if you expect to be in the neighborhood , then drop in. Details below:

 

 

 

Property and Freedom Society

Third Annual Meeting

Karia Princess Hotel

Bodrum, Turkey, May 22-26, 2008

Speakers:

Mustafa Akyol

Understanding the Ottoman Empire, Modern Turkey, and the Kurdish Question

Peter Brimelow

The Libertarian Case Against Open Immigration

Enrico Colombatto

In Defense of Corruption

Anthony Daniels (aka Theodore Dalrymple)

The Culture of the Underclass

Thomas DiLorenzo

The Errors of ‘Public Choice’

Sean Gabb

The Nature of Ancient Financial Markets

Paul Gottfried

Perspectives on the Role of Religion in American Life

Hans-Hermann Hoppe

On Human Rationality

John Laughland

The Travesty of Political Trials

John Lott

More Guns Less Crime

Yuri Maltsev

Alexander Solshenitzin on Politics and Economics

Benny Peiser

Climate Change, Societal Evolution, and Progress

Remigijus Šimašius

How to Deal with Bullies as Neighbors? Reflections on the Foreign Policy of Small Countries

The Paleo blog has a lengthy post on immigration and statism–the post is almost 4000 words, and quotes Hans-Herman Hoppe among others, but the shorter version is that mass immigration is “Just another government program.”

Private individuals, unlike the government, have the smarts to have a lock on their home door. Individuals don’t have “open borders.” We have the authority to choose—to “regulate”—who enters and who does not. Only the government has the perverse foresight to be foolish enough to have the door open to “its” geographically controlled territory. But it is much worse then that: The door is not only unlocked and wide open but inside the house there are many free gifts (welfare) waiting for those who enter! This is certainly a recipe for disaster. Government subsidizes immigration. In addition, due to the fact that “our” government is democratic, and its very nature is “open” compared to a monarchy’s “closed” nature, this tendency is further promoted.The Problems of Pro-Trespassing Libertarians - The Paleo Blog

Hans-Hermann Hoppe is an economist at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas and a brilliant libertarian polemicist in German and English, whose last book, Democracy: The God that Failed, has created excitement here and in Europe, Hoppe�s work defends immigration restriction and free trade, among other things. Last year, Hoppe offended the Thought Police on his campus by noting that homosexuals (like other groups, such as the very young and very old) plan less for the future than heterosexuals. This fleeting observation in a 75-minute lecture led gay activists to demand the university authorities punish Hoppe for violating protected group rights. Now the university is proposing to reprimand him and withhold his next pay increase. The ACLU (!) has ridden to his defense, on the grounds that whatever gay might claim for themselves, their “protection” does not take precedence over freedom of speech, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal has described him as �a world-renowned economist, author and speaker.� Stay tuned.