History + Comedy = Rothbard
If anything is simultaneously obvious and brilliant, it is Rothbardโs insight that governments are glorified gangs of criminals. How can anyone who knows the basic facts of history disagree? If you strip virtually any chapter of world history down to a postcard, itโs a story of vicious murderers killing each other in order to enslave nearby civilians. Nearly every guy nicknamed โthe Greatโ was a serial killer on a massive scale โ and not the nice kind, either.
If all this is so obvious, why donโt most works of history have a Rothbardian flavor? The answer, in short, is that most historians are serious. When they tell the story of William the Conqueror, for example, they take a considered, pompous tone, and treat all the key historical players with respect. Theyโve usually got their facts straight, of course. But they donโt want to write the โstory of William the Mass Murderer,โ so they briefly mention his body count, then move on to Williamโs land titling policy.
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History + Comedy = Rothbard
Caplan and Candor
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