by Robert Wenzel
With separatist movements in the northern Iraq region of the Kurds, and in Catalonia, grabbing headlines, it is an appropriate time to think about such movements.
Murray Rothbard once wrote:
There runs through For a New Liberty (and most of the rest of my work as well) a deep and pervasive hatred of the State and all of its works, based on the conviction that the State is the enemy of mankind.
This is an understandable position for anyone who is an advocate of a Private Property Society. It is sound and noble. Noble, because
although sound, it goes against the perspective of the masses and the house intellectuals.
If we take this Rothbard insight of hate of the state as our guiding light, what should we make of separatist movements?
We should recognize that separatist movements are not the discarding of state rule. They are merely the reorganizations of state rule over given areas.
The reorganization can lead to a state rule that is less oppressive or more oppressive. A separatist movement, without an understanding of the new rule that will replace the old rule, tells us nothing as to whether the separatist movement is moving away from or toward liberty–whether it will result in more statism or less statism.
Continue: Target Liberty: A Libertarian Perspective on Separatist Movements
