>I would agree. The one truly smart Objectivist around is Chris
>Sciabarara, who needless to say, would never write a piece of
>crap, like that of David Holcberg. Then again, Chris is one of the
>few Objectivists and libertarians who has more than a superficial
>knowledge of Marxism and Hegelianism. It is curious that most of the
>orthodox Objectivists have become staunch war mongers despite,
>what should be obvious to them, that "war is the health of the state."
I asked Holcberg about this. Here's the correspondence (in reverse chronological order).
Doug
----
[second exchange]
>Reply-To: <davidh at aynrand.org>
>From: "ARI Media" <davidh at aynrand.org>
>To: "Doug Henwood" <dhenwood at panix.com>
>Subject: RE: Peaceniks' Motivation
>Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 10:46:20 -0800
>
>What's your point?
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Doug Henwood [mailto:dhenwood at panix.com]
>Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 10:14 AM
>To: davidh at aynrand.org
>Subject: RE: Peaceniks' Motivation
>
>
>ARI Media wrote:
>
>>You misunderstand Ayn Rand's philosophy. We are not against the state,
>>we are for *individual rights*, which can only be secured by the state
>>(including the military).
>
>This is a little different.
>
>Doug
>
>----
>
>"The Roots of War," _The Objectivist_ 1966
>by Ayn Rand
>
>It is said that nuclear weapons have made wars too horrible to
>contemplate. Yet every nation on earth feels, in helpless terror,
>that such a war might come.
[rest of essay posted by Yoshie followed]
>Doug,
>
>You misunderstand Ayn Rand's philosophy. We are not against the state,
>we are for *individual rights*, which can only be secured by the state
>(including the military).
>David
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Doug Henwood [mailto:dhenwood at panix.com]
>Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2003 10:03 AM
>To: David Holcberg
>Subject: Re: Peaceniks' Motivation
>
>
>ARI Media wrote:
>
>>Members of the so-called peace movement are not motivated by love of
>>humanity but by hatred of America. They don't care about the Iraqi
>>victims of Saddam Hussein's regime. If they had their way, Iraqis would
>>suffer another three decades of oppression, fear and torture under
>>Saddam. Nor do the peaceniks care about preventing the next September
>>11. If they did, they would support--not denounce--our war on terror.
>
>Wow. You guys come up with some pretty crude stuff. Just wondering,
>though - for a bunch of antistatists you seem to love the military.
>Surely you're familiar with Randolph Bourne's famous essay, War is
>the Health of the State
><http://struggle.ws/hist_texts/warhealthstate1918.html>. Doesn't all
>the secrecy and coercion bother you, or do "special bodies of armed
>men" get a free pass from the Rand Institute? I'd be very grateful if
>you could address this in a future piece.