I’m blogging only because I couldn’t get a seat at the Ron Paul luncheon today, held as part of the 25th anniversary celebration in New York. It seems that hundreds of people have been hanging out in the streets outside the hotel here in Grand Central station, in hopes have seeing Ron. It is only a slight look at the excitement that his campaign has generated. As regards the luncheon today, it was schedule long before anyone knew of his intentions concerning the nomination.
In any case, indoors here, we’ve had the most wonderful conference. Last night, Robert Higgs, now the Schlarbaum laureate, gave a speech worthy to be considered among the great libertarian speeches in all history.Really, it was a classic on that level: packed with detail about the expansion of government in our time, and comparing it to previous periods, and explaining it all in light of Austro-libertarian theory. The crowds sat in amazement and then rose for a standing ovation at the end. Dr. Higgs says that he will be sending this speech in for publication on Mises.org, so we do look forward that. Perhaps it will be up in only a few days.
This morning, David Gordon explained how dangerous neoconservative ideas on war have become and put them into perspective, Peter Klein spoke on the merits of the business firm as an instrument of social advance, Mark Thornton talked about his own history with the Mises Institute and, in particular, about what it means for the world that the Mises Institute has become such an important source for new research, and Jeffrey Herbener spoke on the history of education from the ancient world to the present and how it has been one long struggle between public and private sources. All wonderful.
The most recent speech was my own, in which I had 20 minutes to explain about what is happening at Mises.org — 1995 to the present. Of course this was impossible, so I tried to give a casual overview as best I could. It did give me a chance to back away from it a bit and see the big picture. Then after I step down from the podium, I immediately remembered 100 things I forgot to say.
In any case, it has been a great conference–a celebration really–from last night through today, and we still have the afternoon and evening to go.
Coda: The conference kept its high standards through the remainder of the day and evening. The dinner was packed–perhaps 350 people?–and it was great to see so many old friends and contributors. The only topic was the work of the Mises Institute, so it is something like a dream for me, since this is always my favorite topic. I spoke with many people about our publishing bonanza, conferences upcoming, website structure and traffic, as well as new works forthcoming.
The dinner speeches were opened by Burt Blumert who introduced John Denson, who provided interesting insight into the early years of the Mises Institute: how it came to Auburn, the economics faculty at the time, our move from building to building on campus until we finally built our own spot. Next came the man of the hour, Guido Hulsmann, who talked about the spread of the Austrian School around the world.
He made an interesting point concerning the ongoing question of who is the next Mises or Rothbard or Hayek.He pointed out that these men were only widely known as the geniuses they were late in life — at 65 or 70 years old, During the largest part of their careers, they were considered accomplished and insightful but not figures of historic importance. This struck me as an interesting insight, and he followed up by saying the next great figure on this level could be among us today but we will not know it for another few decades.
It’s interesting how we look back at history with the biases of the present, isn’t it? Truly, even after Mises’s death in 1973, it was not clear that he and his works would emerge as the defining statements of liberalism and the Austrian tradition. And this topic provides the backdrop to the most awaited speech of the conference: Lew Rockwell’s 25th anniversary speech.
Lew asked the question: why must there by institutions that are dedicated to an ideal such as liberty or a scientific body of thought like economics. He answered the question in several parts, first distinguishing what the institute does from the activities of a conventional “think tank” that serves political parties. Independent institutions are ever more necessary in times of rising statism, to give the ideas of liberty room to breath. In addition, if Mises is right that the protection and advance of liberty depends on the ideals being widely held in society, it is the obligation of liberals to spread their ideas throughout society.
He discussed this by analogy to the marketplace itself. An invention is useless if exists only in the mind of the creator. It must also be made economically viable and marketed.so that it can make a change in society. It is the same with ideas. It is not enough that we hold ideals. We must takes steps to propagate these ideals and work to seem them put into place, and in this regard, institutions are essential.
Lew’s speech will be on Mises.org this week, and the other speeches appearing in time.
{ 11 comments }
I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to this. I really wanted to go. It just seemed really expensive to stay in Manhattan.
I hope you have been making plenty of audio recordings to post on Mises.org. I was going to ask if I would be allowed to make recordings if I were there. I hope somebody did.
Some of us like the mp3s uploaded on here. It’s nice to watch video, but sometimes I like to load the mp3s onto my iPod so I can listen to mises.org material away from my computer while I do other things.
Me too, I love having recordings of the conference speeches – not quite as good as being there, but leagues better than nothing at all. Especially being able to hear them over and over
The Mises Institute sponsored conferences are always full of excellent speakers and are always packed full of stimulating conversations. What a special treat for everyone to have Ron Paul there (like he usually is) among friends with the thrills of victory after victory for liberty!
It is overwhelming to see how great is the interest in liberalism in the classical sense and it gives us a glimpse of the importance of the Mises Institute.
To prove the point: “Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism” launched during this same period! This book will quench many a thirst for knowledge about the roots of liberalism.
Well, how lovely that I am stuck here in rainy England whilst this conference is taking place in NYC.
There’s always later, I suppose.
I was able to attend and had a great time. Unfortunately I missed Jeffrey’s talk, as I was out front of the Hyatt getting some Paul and supporter’s footage. As someone relatively new to this crowd, it was great to meet Lew, Ron, Dr. Higgs and numerous other icons in the movement. I had the pleasure of dining with Becky Akers at the dinner. Hopefully I’ll have my ‘blogger’ account of the event up today . . . just got home.
The entire event was absolutely, breathtakingly inspirational. I brought 9 of my close friends and family, we all had the very highest expectations, and were still blown away. Jeffrey, your talk and the site tour were very exciting, I have been an avid user for years and I always like the changes (though they catch me up some times, briefly.)
Thank you all so very much for the amazing organization and the rockin’est blast we have had in oh… about 5 years.
I attended Friday and Saturday’s sessions. I didn’t, however, attend the dinner Saturday night or the Ron Paul luncheon. It’s very expensive in New York City…to do the entire event would have cost me close to $1,600. So, I opted for fewer activities, saved a lot of money and instead took advantage of the 25% discount on the books.
A few impressions of some of the people at the conference. I’m not going to discuss their topics, because they’ve got video of everything.
Mark Thornton was MC. It was his job to keep everyone on schedule and get them back into the conference room after each break. He is a very pleasant and patient person and was the right choice for the job. I’m sure keeping us moving along was not unlike herding cats.
Judge Napolitano gave the opening speech. He was very animated and an excellent choice for warming up the audience.
Prof. Higgs gave his presentation after receiving his award. He is an incredibly intelligent man who is totally devoted to what he does and is a credit to his profession. But what I noticed and liked most about him is that for all his expertise, he is the embodiment of humility.
I think Dr. Block enjoys public speaking as much as he enjoys being a libertarian. He is also quite animated and made an excellent presentation.
Thomas DiLorenzo made us laugh when he told Mark Thornton that he was going to take a little extra time giving his presentation and that it was okay to do that because he was bigger than Mark. Mark is a big guy, but DiLorenzo is built like “The Terminator”.
Jeffrey, of course, reminds me of the energizer bunny. He is everywhere, doing everything, and then worries that he’s not doing enough. Jeffrey, ya done good!
I spoke briefly with Tom Woods. He is a genuinely nice person.
I absolutely don’t want to forget the staff members who took care of all the reservations for the conference as well as registration and the running of the bookstore. I’m sure they had many other responsibilities, but I wasn’t there for the entire event. They did a terrific job, and at Saturday’s end, the bookstore’s inventory was nearly depleted. Wonderful job!
BTW Anthony, if you want to feel bad about missing the conference, okay. But don’t worry about missing NYC. IMHO, it is highly overrated. I couldn’t find a pizza place that had seating, so we ended up trying out the food court at Grand Central. It was not a pleasant experience. To tell you the truth, whenever I attend an event in the city, I always find myself saying how nice it will be to get home.
Well there is some solace in the fact that most of these speeches will probably be up online sooner or later.
Did Hoppe go onto Naomi Klein at all in his speech, BTW?
It was an amazing weekend! Thanks to the staff and supporters who made it possible.
Well, how lovely that I am stuck here in rainy England whilst this conference is taking place in NYC.
There’s always later, I suppose.
Hehe, stumped for words James?
Comments on this entry are closed.