I Hate Max Lerner by Murray N. Rothbard

I Hate Max=20 Lerner

by Murray=20 N. Rothbard
by Murray = N.=20 Rothbard

All=20 my life, it seems, I have hated the guts of Max Lerner. Now, = make no=20 mistake: there is nothing personal in this rancor. I have = never met,=20 nor have I ever had any personal dealings with, Max. No, my = absolute=20 loathing for Max Lerner is disinterested, cosmic in its = grandeur.=20 It's just that ever since I was a toddler, this ugly = homunculus,=20 this pretentious jackass, has been there, towering over the = American=20 ideological scene. In the fifty-five years that I have been = aware of=20 Max's presence, in all of his many permutations and = combinations and=20 seeming twists and turns, he has taken the totally repellent = position at every step of the way. Thus:

I=20 hated Max Lerner when he was a brilliant young editor of the = Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, spreading his=20 Marxo-Veblenian poison for the decades that that publication = was=20 highly influential in American intellectual life.

I=20 hated Max Lerner when (in 1937) he wrote an introduction to = the=20 Modern Library edition of the Wealth=20 of Nations, in which he dismissed Adam Smith, in=20 Marxo-Freudo lingo, as "an unconscious mercenary in the = service of=20 the rising capitalist class."

I=20 hated Max Lerner when he was a Stalinist apologist before, = during,=20 and after World War II. I hated his pompous, sing-song = Stalinoid=20 delivery when he was a radio commentator in New York just = after the=20 war.

I=20 hated Max Lerner when, in the unforgettable imagery of that=20 hilarious and perceptive work by Dwight Macdonald, = Confessions of=20 a Revolutionary, reporter Lerner, advancing through = Germany at=20 the end of World War II, leaped from an army jeep to = confront an=20 elderly shell-shocked German farming couple, asking them: = "Do you=20 feel guilty?" after which he proceeded to a gala banquet = with Red=20 Army generals, wolfing down caviar and toasting each other = with=20 champagne.

I=20 hated Max Lerner when, leaping on the "consensus" bandwagon = in the=20 1950s, he ignored all conflicts and problems and celebrated = America=20 as a Civilization.

I=20 hated Max Lerner when, in his insufferably clotted and = tedious=20 column in the New York Post, he began to boast about = being=20 the "patriarch" of his newly-burgeoning family.

I=20 hated Max Lerner when he abandoned that family to take up = permanent=20 residence in Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion, there = celebrating the=20 sleazy joys of hedonism.

I=20 hated Max Lerner when he became a pro-Vietnam War liberal = and then a=20 Reaganite.

And now I hate Max Lerner especially when, now = =96 of=20 course =96 a neocon, he emerges, at the age of 180 or = whatever, out of=20 his residence at the Playboy Mansion (Hefner himself having = thrown=20 in the towel on the hedonic life), to join the Smear Bund in = their=20 assault on Pat Buchanan (Washington Times, Oct. 8). = But leave=20 it to Max to add that special Lernerian twist, in which he = shows=20 himself not at all different from the Original Lerner of = long ago.=20 In his newspaper column Lerner commits his foul act in the = course of=20 a running smear of Charles Lindbergh (the excuse is a review = of a=20 documentary on the Lone Eagle) in which Lerner shamelessly=20 resurrects the old, discredited Rooseveltian-Stalinist lies = about=20 Lindbergh being pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic.

So,=20 Max. Here we are again, old buddy. What goes around comes = around,=20 eh? After fifty-five years we can close the books at last. = Marxist,=20 Veblenite, Stalinist, 50s consensus-man, pro-war liberal, = Reaganite,=20 neocon, what in Hell's the difference? Nothing's changed. = Two=20 constants loom through all the gyrations of your life. = You've always=20 been a pompous, humorless egomaniac. And you've always = worshiped at=20 the shrine of war and the State. So what else is = new?

This=20 essay is included, with many others, in the Lew=20 Rockwell-edited Irrepressible=20 Rothbard

Buy=20 = it

Murray N.=20 Rothbard (1926=961995) was the author of M= an,=20 Economy, and State, C= onceived=20 in Liberty, W= hat=20 Has Government Done to Our Money, For a = New=20 Liberty, T= he=20 Case Against the Fed, and many other books = and=20 articles. He was also = the editor=20 =96 with Lew Rockwell =96 of The=20 Rothbard-Rockwell Report.

Murray=20 Rothbard Archives=20 =