In these uncertain times, the enduring intellectual challenges of the GOP are, I suppose, comforting. If you can't depend on anything else, you can always depend on the GOP to come up with something assinine. Walter Lippmann came to that conclusion as an entire generation tried to make sense of an era of violence, uncertainty and violent uncertainty. Little has changed in almost 100 years. Brains, you know, are suspect in the Republican Party.A conclusion so obvious does not make one a genius. How you deal with it might make of one a radical, a revolutionary, an existentialist, or, worse --a liberal!!
Walter Lippmann, the son of second-generation German-Jewish parents, was born in New York City on 23rd September, 1889. While studying at Harvard University he became a socialist and was co-founder of the Harvard Socialist Club and edited the Harvard Monthly.Critics and historians describe Lippmann's A Preface to Politics of 1913 as a "penetrating critique of popular prejudices" found in abundance in America. It so influenced President Woodrow Wilson that he chose Lippmann to help formulate and draft the famous Fourteen Points and the concept of the League of Nations. Wilson sent Lipmann to the post-World War I peace negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles.
In 1911 Lincoln Steffens, the campaigning journalist, took Lippmann on as his secretary. Like Steffens, Lippmann supported Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party in the 1912 presidential elections. ...
In 1920 Lippmann left the New Republic to work for the New York World. His controversial books, Public Opinion (1922) and The Phantom Public (1925), raised doubts about the possibility of developing a true democracy in a modern, complex society.Spartacus, Walter Lippmann
When men and women begin to feel that elections and legislatures do not matter very much, that politics is a rather distant and unimportant exercise, the reformer might as well put to himself a few searching doubts. Indifference is a criticism that cuts beneath oppositions and wranglings by calling the political method itself into question. Leaders in public affairs recognize this.These feelings resonate as well today, another age that will be characterized by profound disillusionment in almost every institution, primarily those institutions which presume to govern.--Walter Lippmann, A Preface to Politics
No writer writes in a vacuum. Shakespeare may have been by Johnson's reckoning "of all time". But every other writer is of his/her age. Vera Britain's autobiographical Testament of Youth, covering the year's 1913-1925, come to mind.It was in that "no man's land" that Lippmann sought to balance the interests of the state against those of the individual. Lippmann's most productive years spanned a period which witnessed:
- the slaughter at Verdun, the Somme, the Marne
- the Bolshevik terror in Russia
- black-shirted, brown-shirted hysteria in Italy and Germany
- the Great Depression of 1929-1935
- Stalin's purges
- the Spanish Civil War
- Nazi concentration camp and the Holocaust
- the destruction of whole cities -- Coventry, Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki
What most distinguishes the generation who have approached maturity since the debacle of idealism at the end of the War is not their rebellion against the religion and moral code of their parents, but their disillusionment with their own rebellion. It is common for young men and women to rebel, but that they should rebel sadly and with out faith in their own rebellion, that they should distrust the new freedom no less than the old certainties—that is something of a novelty.That explains to a limited degree my own generation's disillusionment with the "establishment" we inherited. When revolution was required, the pre-war generation settled for half-measures.
-Walter Lippmann, Preface to Morals
There is no doubt, I think, that President Wilson and his party represent primarily small business in a war against the great interests. Socialists speak of his administration as a revolution within the bounds of capitalism. Wilson doesn't really fight the oppressions of property. [emphasis mine, LH] He fights the evil done by large property-holders to small ones.In retrospect, in light of Bush's corporatocracy, Lippmann seems to describe at best a program of half-measures. At worst, a problem left future generations to solve or make peace with.--Walter Lipmann, Drift and Mastery (1914)
When the forces of oppression come to maintain themselves in power against established law, peace is considered already broken.The concept was not original with Che. Thomas Jefferson said the same thing in the Declaration of Independence. Given the contempt with which our current regime treats the established peace, revolution is overdue.--Che Guevara, Guerilla Warfare, Chapter I: General Principles of Guerrilla Warfare
It was not only the Post World War I generation who were disillusioned "with their own rebellion", it was the Viet Nam generation as well. Of our times, I can only add that we confronted Viet Nam as Kafka's Gregor Samsa confronted the fact the had awakened as a bug.
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as if it were armour-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his dome-like brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes.None of us, nor the whole of the US, ever made sense of Viet Nam. [See: The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University ; Also: BBC: 'Bottom Line, 911 is an inside job' ]Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis (1916)
The spirit of the "Viet Nam" generation was more akin to Dylan Thomas. We would "rage against the dying of the light." The target had been fixed and described by President Eisenhower himself: the Military/Industrial complex. It is still with us, awaiting the Beowulf who will kill the beast.
I still find it troubling and absurd that in three articles of impeachment drawn up against Richard Nixon, there is nary a word about his illegal orders to bomb and invade Cambodia, a neutral country. There is nary a word about US support for the "string of faceless" generals in South Viet Nam, most of whom were installed and propped up by the CIA. That Bush is "President" is evidence that we failed despite Nixon's ignominious resignation in the face of impeachment. Had we won, Ronald Reagan could never have destroyed the labor movement, corporatized society, erased the middle class, crushed dissent, and, in countless other ways, pruned the nation of its soul. Lippmann would have been appalled.
Yet there was the fact, just as indisputable as ever, that public affairs do have an enormous and intimate effect upon our lives. They make or unmake us. They are the foundation of that national vigor through which civilizations mature. City and countryside, factories and play, schools and the family are powerful influences in every life, and politics is directly concerned with them. If politics is irrelevant, it is certainly not because its subject matter is unimportant. Public affairs govern our thinking and doing with subtlety and persistence.Pascal wrote, "When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, and the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of space of which I am ignorant, and which knows me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there, why now rather than then." Given the "finiteness" our our existence, it is easy enough to rage against those interlopers into "our" lives.--Walter Lippmann
To be fair, Bush is not the only vainglorious idiot to have have considered the rest of us fodder. The war against Iraq is not the first folly to trespass against the sovereignty of our very selves. We have awakened cockroaches and if there is to be any peace at all, it is the peace we must make with our unwelcome circumstance. As Voltaire said: "I have no name but the name that I have made for myself". Likewise, Sartre: "A man is nothing else but what he makes of himself". We must make of ourselves a "resistance". As St. Thomas More said: "our business lies in escaping" but not, I may add, at the expense of losing. Voltaire said "Ecrasez l'Infame" as to William Wallace is attributed the existential question: what will you do without freedom?
Addendum:
Drift and MasteryAdditional Resources
Walter Lippmann
Drift and Mastery, originally published in 1914, is one of the most important and influential documents of the Progressive Movement, a valuable text for understanding the political thought of early twentieth-century America. This paperback edition of Walter Lippmann's classic work includes a revised introduction by William E. Leuchtenburg that places the book in its historical and political contexts.
Engineering of Consent: A Post War Story
President Wilson and his party represent primarily small business in a war against the great interests. Socialists speak of his administration as a revolution within the bounds of capitalism. Wilson doesn't really fight the oppressions of property. He fights the evil done by large property-holders to small ones.--Force and Ideas, Walter Lippmann
Absurdity of War
Existentialism
Indict Bush
Walter Lippman
Kafka
WWI
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21 comments:
“……….Brains are suspect in the Republican Party………”. This put me in mind of what Herman Goering was supposed once to have said, that “…………whenever anyone speaks to me of intelligence, I take out my revolver……….”.
Has George Bush said anything similar, I wonder?
“………Public affairs govern our thinking and doing with subtlery and persistence……….”. It is also important to recognize that it what we read and hear about public affairs THOUGH THE PRISM OF THE MEDIA TO WHICH WE HAVE ACCESS, which governs how we think and act.
I watched, the other day, on You Tube, extended video clips of Howard Zinn being interviewed on the Al Jazeera English network. Zinn was talking about aspects of American history which are not commonly known, and about the senselessness of all wars – the sort of stuff utterly subversive of the current received wisdom and status quo.
As I watched, I thought how different American foreign and domestic policies might be if the general public had the same opportunities to listen to Howard Zinn, and others, like Gore Vidal and Noam Chomsky, as they have opportunities to listen to the more familiar dramatis personae on CNN, FOX News, and the rest of the MSM.
“…………As my generation was scarred by Vietnam……….”. Yes, it’s the Vietnam generation, to which for all intents and purposes the Bush administration all belong.
It is my belief that their bellicose policies stem from their unresolved “manhood” issues, arising out of residual guilt that they all found ways not to be drafted at the time of the Vietnam war.
Thus Vietnam still casts its long baleful shadow over the present.
Indeed, Christopher, an entire book can be written about Nam's long shadow as, indeed, the Civil War still looms large down south. Your mention of Zinn reminds one of his brilliant history of how Columbus dispatched the Arawaks.
Not having been born English, French or Swiss, it is impossible for me to declare US history "tragic" ---though I am tempted. Our history is probably no more tragic than, say, that of Russia or Revolutionary Mexico. Still --it's hard not to conclude that American History especially seems transparently the dialectical, inexorable conclusion from a flawed premise.
By contrast, England not only survived the horrible bloody One Hundred Years War abroad, the War of the Roses at home, the Catholic-Protestant wars but grew more free in subsequent years, not merely surviving Cromwell but transcending him.
The US, by contrast, has not put its own Civil War to rest but drags it out in every national election, never more obvertly than with Nixon's "Southern Strategy".
I am at work now on a "revisionist" history of Texas. I would hope that after reading it, one will never see John Wayne's "The Alamo" in quite the same way again.
But, cynically, I suppose every country has its "official" version of history, designed to make the folk feel good about themselves.
You write:
As I watched, I thought how different American foreign and domestic policies might be if the general public had the same opportunities to listen to Howard Zinn, and others, like Gore Vidal and Noam Chomsky, as they have opportunities to listen to the more familiar dramatis personae on CNN, FOX News, and the rest of the MSM.
There are some clips of Vidal debating William F. Buckley. Buckley blew his top and threatened to punch Gore's "goddamn nose". At some point, however, big media stopped seeking out articulate folk of either political persuasion. Thanks to big media timidity, consolidation and cowardice, incisive debates of real issues was replaced with dumbed down news and talking points. The only people who have benefited from this pernicious trend have been the "coaches" who are hired and paid good money to teach folk how to be interviewed. Interestingly, much of this field was pioneered in Houston, TX. Executives from DuPont paid Houston consultants big money to learn how to "bridge" and frame a messages within the corporate "talking points".
Now that the right wing controls the big media outlets, there is most certainly a diminishing need for this sort of thing. Corporate America has simply bought and paid for the dissemination of their version of everything.
Len, great writing. Christopher and Len together - your ideas and comments about revisionist histories are spot on.
To the victors go the spoils - that includes the feel good after school special known as history.
I'm working on something to the same effect - about the pompous attitude this country has with regards to its own moral elitism. If more people knew honest to goodness history, and not just the history that the winners wrote for us to proudly feast on - I think our society would be very different. (Also to be included is the pivotal nature of Reagan and the 1980's and its role in politics and American culture). Its all slow going though - bit by bit as it were.
It must be a matter weighing on folks minds lately, as I am seeing a lot about it here and there.
On a tangent though, our country really has based much of its economic success in the hands of military action, and the citizen's fear of war. Around WWII our country realized that war equaled profits, and ever since then there has been some sort of conflict, some sort of national threat to get us by. From the cold war to the imminent attack on Iran - our country literally thrives on violence and fear.
Edward Bernays realization that man and woman were able to be controlled my material gain, I found to be illuminating. Suddenly I understood how our government controlled our Society by cheap consumer goods. Our government then proceeded to destroy our Country, First and most important was our freedom. Which the Republican Party was so adept at doing.
Freuds view of Man, I find depressing and disturbing I still believe in our goodness.
Thank you for such a great article, Len. They all are, I learn a great deal, because of them.
How many Ches is the moronic monkey producing even now! The era of mollifying the unwashed masses with cheap Chinese junk and "reality TV" is almost at an end, to be put to death by the Chimpy "borrow and borrow some more" fiscal policies which have left us with dollars that are really worth less than the paper they are printed on. When the crash comes, it will be exceptional, and I suspect this time the reaction to it is also to be particularly harsh.
I noticed your use of Picasso’s 'Guernica' in illustrating this article. A truly powerful depiction of a horrific event. It has served as inspiration for other great art, however. I once heard the great actor Rod Steiger talk about 'Guernica' and how it inspired one of the most seminal and defining moments in American cinema.
Steiger is perhaps most well known for a black and white film called "The Pawnbroker". It was one of the first films to tackle Nazi Concentration Camps and the effects on their survivors. Getting past the obvious difficulties in playing a character decades older than himself, Steiger had serious problems with the ending of the picture. What to do when confronted with the sum total of the characters actions? A boy lies dead in the street, bleeding. Steiger thought of ‘Guernica’ – specifically, the image of a single mouth open, the head up, its scream silent.
And so you have the final frame of the picture. We look down upon Steiger’s character, his head thrown back, eyes searching the heavens, mouth open in horror, unable to articulate a single sound. I find that image particularly resonant. In it I see America’s reaction to our own rape and pillage. We scream, yet no one hears. Oh yes - I’d say ‘Guernica’ was an excellent image to choose.
Len, your site is always a marvel of intellectual depth. There is one thing about Walter Lippmann that I think is worthy of mention.
Lippmann actually lurched more than a bit rightward in his later years. In scholarly hindsight he is now widely regarded as an influential "cultural conservative." I use that term to distinguish him from political and economic conservatives (Republicans), who usually seem more interested in grinding the faces of the poor than in "conserving" the things that were best about our past. Lippmann was clearly more interested in the latter.
But by the 1950s he had "drifted" (pun intended) far enough rightward that in "The Public Philosophy" (1955), he essentially endorsed the idea of jailing communists because of their ideas. His reasoning was that civilized democracy and a "good" society depend on a consensus of nonviolence, a Burkean idea that change must come about only through rule of law and due process, etc. Where communists and other radicals err, he reasoned, is that they consider violent revolution a serious option. To them, bullets are at times better than ballots, he more or less said, and therefore they disqualify themselves from membership in, and the tolerance of, the social mainstream.
Lippmann was indisputably one of the best U.S. political thinkers of the 20th century, but he was damaged goods in my eyes after I read that book. By his reasoning, one would only have to profess a revolutionary creed, not even point a gun at anyone, to be denied rights. It seems antithetical to what our country is at least SUPPOSED to stand for. Not only Thomas Paine, but many of the bourgeois Founding Fathers, wouldn't have passed that litmus test.
Lippmann was in his 60s at the time he wrote this, but I would have hoped for him to come to different conclusions.
wow...what a great set of comments. I am now the victim of a severe computer crash and am offline --possibly through Monday.
I will say this before logging off a "borrowed" computer: all your comments are not only inspired, they inspire me.
As pessimistic as I have, at times, become, this comments section has with all your brilliance kept alive an unshakeable optimism that not even a "Bush" can efface a bedrock foundation upon which a better society can be forged.
As they used to say before radio was automated and computer generated: stay tuned.
As I write this, there are 424 days, 20 hours, 34 minutes and 47 seconds till the end of the Bush administration. I suspect that when that day comes, there will be one hell of a party in America.
Happy Thanksgiving, Len, and I hope you get your computer problems fixed soon.
I came across this morning some rather moving comments Bill Moyers made about his late father, a poor working man, who felt that, in Franklin Roosevelt, he had a friend in the White House.
Who, today, feels they have a friend in the White House? The New Robber Barons? The new employers of sweatshop labour?
I note with interest the swathe which Ron Paul is cutting among the ranks of so many well-educated young people, entranced with what he says about Iraq, that the US (very rightly) should get out of there right now.
But they choose to ignore the rest of the Ron Paul credo, that - in so many words - government should get out of nearly all of the public realm, leaving ordinary people the freedom to do what they want.
The reality is that Ron Paul's America would be an America before Franklin Roosevelt, the America of the Robber Barons, of sweatshop labour, of economic inequality far greater than is now the case, and all the other social ills which beset fin de siecle America.
This is the link to Bill Moyers comments, which call out to be read by the historically challenged:
www.truthout.
org/docs_2006/112207A.
shtml
Just in passing, here's a follow up to your earlier notes, Len, recording the wealth transfer since Reagan into financially safer hands:
Last week there was a record inflow into so-called “short funds”... of the short interest in domestic equity markets, if one looks at all exchanges – NYSE, Amex, OTC, etc. – here’s a startling statistic -- half of all of the short interest is controlled by eight offshore funds, all managed by Carlyle Group or its subsidiaries, trusts, limited partnerships and other such vehicles.
I heard this last Wednesday. In these 8 funds, there are only 300 investors common to all 8 funds. They are, in fact, the top 300 members of the Bush Cabal. Most hold interest through offshore blind trusts, ranging from the Cayman Islands to Panama. But they are all Bush-Cabal-aligned interests. They are the top 300 members of the Cabal that, for lack of a better definition, control the short side of domestic equity markets. And, of all of the planet’s capital marketplaces, the short interest is concentrated in U.S. markets. The short interest in the rest of the planet’s markets is minuscule by comparison.
We're living in a command economy run by a Western nomenclature. And they're driving everyone else into serfdom.
Len,
Happy Thanksgiving! I just noticed Gemini Scrolls posted here, that was really nice of you. I'm sorry I did not post your comment on that scroll. The reason why I did that is because it was yours and I did not have your permission.
Sometime in the first half of next year I plan on doing an article and short video about Nursing Homes.
High-Tech is new to me!
Marc McDonald said...
As I write this, there are 424 days, 20 hours, 34 minutes and 47 seconds till the end of the Bush administration. I suspect that when that day comes, there will be one hell of a party in America. Happy Thanksgiving, Len, and I hope you get your computer problems fixed soon.
Thanks, Marc. Hope to have it soon. Hope everyone had a happy turkey day.
Christopher said...
...some rather moving comments Bill Moyers made about his late father, a poor working man, who felt that, in Franklin Roosevelt, he had a friend in the White House.
My own father felt the same way about FDR and when Ike ran for President, my father voted for Adlai Stevenson.
Thanks for the link. Am checking it out now.
The reality is that Ron Paul's America would be an America before Franklin Roosevelt, the America of the Robber Barons, of sweatshop labour, of economic inequality far greater than is now the case, and all the other social ills which beset fin de siecle America.
You are absolutely correct. Ron Paul's economic theories will finish off the working class, a job begun by Bush, that is, turning the US into a third world state. Should Ron Paul ever assume the office, he will not be able to govern without the GOP power base which is corrupt to the core. And why would they care anyway. All their gay boy friends are getting rich. Paul will be worse than Bush in that Bush knows he is crooked and doesn't care. Paul, however, is a true ideologue, a fanatic. I met the guy when he was just a junior Congressman and thought he was a kook. I still do. A litle knowledge is a dangerous thing. Paul knows just enough economics to be a real threat.
damien said...
We're living in a command economy run by a Western nomenclature. And they're driving everyone else into serfdom.
I doubt the world has ever seen wealth concentration on this scale. No one I've talked to in the US truly understands just how wide the gap between rich and poor. I suggest everyone google the "L - Curve". If that doesn't wake one up, nothing will. The US will revert to pre-enlightenment society. The rest of the world is pulling the plug on the dollar as we write. Thanks for the link, damien.
Diane B said...
Happy Thanksgiving! I just noticed Gemini Scrolls posted here, that was really nice of you.
You're welcome and I hope you had a happy thanksgiving.
Zinn sells quite well at my DC bookstore, which gives me some hope.
http://tshirtinsurgency.com/about-us
Len, I have to agree with you and Christopher on Ron Paul (also here). The guy is an absolute nightmare when it comes to economics, a sort of teenage religious zealot seeking to covert the world to all things Libertarian. Joseph Cannon says:
The economy is like our road system: If no rules existed, everyone except thugs would be afraid to drive. Paul wants to abolish the last vestiges of those laws which make life tolerable.
Culturally, Ron Paul is a uniqely American phenomenon. His economic views would hold no sway in Europe. God help the US if he ever comes to office. He's a menace.
Good news, Len. It's still not confirmed, but in our national elections today the John Howard (Liberal) government appears to be heading for the exits! Labor looks set for a 14-16 seat majority in the House of Representatives and will form a new government. Of course, I'm thrilled but it only makes my unfulfilled desire to kick heads even more noticeably unfulfilled, so I'll have to do honor to the national stereotype and get myself roundly pissed. The war-mongering, worker-hating, born-to-rule, Bush backing bastards are out!! Yay!!! Here's the kicker: John Howard looks set to lose his seat to a former ABC newsreader and political commentator, Maxine McKew. If it eventuates -- and it certainly looks that way -- Howard will be the first Australian PM in 80 years to lose his seat. It's not the answer to everything, but at least a decent party is taking charge. First Blair, now Howard... only Bush to go. Drink up girls and boys in celebration of a small win on the road to, hopefully, some much larger ones in the war for decency and truth! Cheers all!
thanks for the links, matthew. And I am glad to hear that Zinn is selling well. His is the history we should have been taught but were not. In my case, I grew up knowing something about the "Trail of Tears" (for example) but there was nary a word about ot in any curriculum I was exposed to.
damien said...
Bush backing bastards are out!!
There IS a "god".
thanks,also, for the Ron Paul links. His "economics" are Medieval. If he should make a Faustian bargain with that crime syndicate that is otherwise called the GOP, he will be able to peddle is tripe to a rather unsophisticated public to whom it will all sound good. Even some "liberals" are already fooled.
FuzzFlash sez... Yes Gang, as Damien reports, El Rodente has lost his Prime Ministership and lost his Seat in Parliament. As some of us are wont to say:
"You Little Fucking Beauty!!"
He is only the second PM in our history to do so. The Imbecile's warmongering, Booster Buddy is out of business. (Also note that Poland wants to pull its troops out of Iraq pronto, too.)
Great news for a lot of reasons. Maybe things arn't all over in Oz yet, afterall. Two impoortant promises from our new PM Kevin Rudd aka The Ruddster aka Pixie aka Tin-Tin is to sign Kyoto protocol on Global Warming as our planet is in mortal peril, and get our token groud troops out of Iraq. It's a start, I guess. At least Tin-Tin will be able to sock it to the Chinese re our slowly cooking world in fluent Mandarin, which is way beyond the booklearnin' scope of the Three Shakespeare readin' Kid Crawford Camus.
The sites Damien referred to, if consulted by Ron Paul supporters dazzled by his anti-war message, would make them very aware that they’ve seen in him only what they wish to see.
On the topic of John Howard’s ouster in Australia, the supporters of the new Labour prime minister must be hoping he won’t suffer the fate of another Labour prime minister of the 1970’s, Gough Whitlam (Australia’s equivalent of Salvatore Allende, perhaps?) who, after three years, was summarily dismissed by the governor-general - an unprecedented happening.
I read of rumours that the US had instigated the events which led to Whitlam’s removal.
Damien or Buzzflash might know more about this.
Christopher, the US was hostile to the Whitlam Labor government and anything Left wing (just ten years before they fully supported an Indonesian crackdown that killed half a million "Communists"). I may be wrong but, in general terms, Gough Whitlam was defeated by three things: (1) some bad financial decisions (when one of his ministers, Rex Connor, sought foreign loans in the Khemlani loans affair); (2) a Liberal Party (read Conservative) leader, Malcolm Fraser, who refused to pass money supply bills in the Senate thus provoking a crisis; and (3) a Governor General and Queen's representative, Sir John Kerr, who wrongly sacked Whitlam in order to defuse the money supply crisis. Fraser didn't need any US encouragement to bring down Whitlam.
Cannonfire also has some pleasant quotes about Ron Paul from his commentators:
AitchD -- It can't hurt to refer to Ron Paul by is full name, Ronald Ernest Paul, for being the lone nut he really is (you know, like Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, Mark David Chapman, Richard Milhous Nixon). "Ronald Ernest Paul, the lone candidate calling himself a Libertarian ..."
anon -- "True Libertarianism has never been tried!" Yes it was: It was called the 19th Century, and the vast majority of people who lived in the big cities at that time were miserable.
fallinglady -- Whenever I come across someone who says Paul has it right, I remind them that he also believes that if there is a pot hole in the street in front of your house, you are free to grab a bucket of tarmac and fill that hole. If the water coming out of your tap is cloudy and smelly, you are free to boil it before drinking it.
Required reading for libertarians, at least in any just world: The Jungle, (1906) by Upton Sinclair. It's a shit-shoveler's eye-view of what the libertarian "utopia" would look like. And, from what I have read, Americans had something pretty close to this about a century ago. I don't care to revisit.
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