Scott Horton Interviews Sheldon Richman

Scott Horton, February 15, 2010

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Sheldon Richman, senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation, discusses the case for decentralized non-state national defense, the ideological line – created by an informed and assertive citizenry – that the government dares not cross, the deterrence of government abuse of power through nonviolent action and how society tends toward informal customs – not rampant lawlessness – in the absence of government.

MP3 here. (30:18)

Sheldon Richman is editor of The Freeman, published by The Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington, New York, and serves as senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation. He is the author of FFF’s award-winning book Separating School & State: How to Liberate America’s Families; Your Money or Your Life: Why We Must Abolish the Income Tax; and FFF’s newest book Tethered Citizens: Time to Repeal the Welfare State.

Calling for the abolition, not the reform, of public schooling. Separating School & State has become a landmark book in both libertarian and educational circles. In his column in the Financial Times, Michael Prowse wrote: “I recommend a subversive tract, Separating School & State by Sheldon Richman of the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank… . I also think that Mr. Richman is right to fear that state education undermines personal responsibility…”

Mr. Richman’s articles on population, federal disaster assistance, international trade, education, the environment, American history, foreign policy, privacy, computers, and the Middle East have appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, American Scholar, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Washington Times, Insight, Cato Policy Report, Journal of Economic Development, The Freeman, The World & I, Reason, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Middle East Policy, Liberty magazine, and other publications. He is a contributor to the Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics.

A former newspaper reporter and former senior editor at the Cato Institute, Mr. Richman is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia.

6 Responses to “Sheldon Richman”

  1. Orville H. Larson
    February 16th, 2010 at 12:43 am

    Well, the day is coming when America will implode under the weight of its wars, corruption, imperialism, and the like. Then we’ll see about the non-state national defense!

  2. Patrick
    February 18th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    Harry Browne from p. 81 of How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World:

    "If there were no government, there’d be no nation. And if there were no nation, there'd be nothing to defend.

    If that sounds too simple, think about it. No aggressor conquers a nation by overcoming every single inhabitant occupying every part of the geographical area. It would be far too expensive to do so.

    Instead, the aggressor applies force against the country until the government of that nation surrenders. Then the aggressor takes over the existing governmental machinery to enforce the occupation. If no such machinery existed, how could it enforce the occupation?"

  3. Patrick
    February 18th, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    What I'm getting at is that there is no need for "national-defense" if there is no nation.

  4. Attack the System » Blog Archive » Updated News Digest February 20-21, 2009
    February 20th, 2010 at 3:31 am

    [...] National Defense Without the State Sheldon Richman interviewed by Scott Horton [...]

  5. Free Vermont
    February 23rd, 2010 at 12:19 am

    The enemy IS the government.

    http://attackthesystem.com/armed-struggle-against…

  6. Jon Mohrbacher
    March 17th, 2010 at 3:47 am

    It's a shame Mr. Richman didn't go into all the ways court and police services could be privatized. People tend to think that a stateless society would be a lawless society, and are thus persuaded from it, but that simply isn't the case.

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