Mondays With Murray: Rothbard On Secession

The topic of secession has been all the rage lately after residents of all 50 states filed petitions online to secede from the United States after the election of President Obama.  Let's try and put aside the irony of "petitioning" to secede as well as the seemingly irrational partisan nature of the petitions.   Do these people believe a Romney administration would really have delivered such blossoming freedom that it would make the difference for anyone on whether they want to be a part of the U.S. or not? Nonetheless, the idea of secession is certainly one worth discussing. After all, The United States was founded when the original 13 seceded from England by declaring their independence from King George.What better time than another edition of Mondays with Murray to see what the great libertarian thinker and scholar Murray Rothbard had to say on the subject.  Perhaps this edition should be subtitled Mondays with Mises, as Murray actually discusses Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises' views on secession.  I particularly enjoy Rothbard's portrayal of von Mises as a "flaming anti-imperialist".This is a good example of how Austrian economics intersects with the ideas of libertarianism.  While the former is a social science and the latter is a philosophy, they logically overlap in many ways.  Austrian economics essentially advocates 100% free markets and voluntary exchange as the best creator of prosperity in a society.  Libertarianism arrives at the same conclusion through the non-aggression principle, the idea that all human interactions should be voluntary, not coerced through violence or the threat of violence.Put all of this together and it's not very difficult to guess either Mises or Rothbard's views on secession.  If all associations should be voluntary, then logically any person or group of persons who no longer wishes to be associated with another group should be allowed to peacefully secede from that group.  The aggressor is not the seceder, but rather the ruling entity that uses violence to halt the secession.  This was the case in both America's War of Independence as well as the American Civil War.Often times anyone that even espouses a passing positive sentiment about secession will immediately be associated with the slavery that existed in much of the Confederate South and deemed a "racist" for such a thought crime.  But the issue of secession is distinct in and of itself.  While slavery was certainly a political issue throughout the Civil War, it was not the issue at hand. The issue was whether or the Federal whether States had the right to end their initially voluntary association with the Union.Many of the same detractors will point to the Union victory in the Civil War as the "final verdict" on secession.  But this  makes no more sense than declaring that the murders organized by Charles Manson were the final verdict on whether young actresses had the right to be alive.  The issue of secession is a moral issue; and morals are not decided by who brings the biggest knife to the fight.It makes perfect sense that both von Mises and Rothbard would be "flaming anti-imperialists" and supporters of the right of secession.  Whether one is a student of Austrian economics or believes in the non-aggression principle (hopefully both!), it's the only logical and consistent position to take.BONUS!Here's a recent HuffPo Live segment where Lew Rockwell and several statists discuss secession. Some hilarity ensues.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!