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Noted Libertarian author speaks at Topeka gathering 

by Corey Jones/Topeka Capital Journal

Tom Woods Jr., a senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and a New York Times bestselling author, spoke to a crowded gathering of about 75 people at Annie's Place, 4014 S.W. Gage Center Dr., during a meeting of the Libertarians of Northeast Kansas.

 

A bestselling author spoke to a local Libertarian group Thursday evening about the merits of less government and more social freedom, which he said would create a self-organizing society.
Tom Woods Jr., a senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and a New York Times bestselling author, spoke to a gathering of about 75 people at Annie's Place, 4014 S.W. Gage Center Drive, during a meeting of the Libertarians of Northeast Kansas.
Woods, who said he has lived in Topeka for slightly more than a year, quipped that he wasn't sure after his initial uprooting from New York that people who shared his ideas lived in this area.
"It was nice to find out about this group," Woods said to laughter.
He said the namesake of the institution of which he is a senior fellow — Ludwig von Vises — was a great model, not only as a scholar and economist, but as a human being. Ludwig would have been 130 on Thursday.
Woods, who has authored 11 books, penned a work entitled “Meltdown” directly after the 2008 stock market collapse. It delved into the issues surrounding the collapse from a free-market perspective — the Austrian School of economics for which Vises was noted.
First-term Topeka City Councilman Andrew Gray spoke to the dinner crowd prior to Woods. Gray said "real, viable change" always begins at the local levels. "Armchair politics," he said, needs to end and people have to get out and do something about the current state of affairs rather than simply complain.
Gray pointed out that he now is in a position to begin promoting Libertarian ideas from his council seat.
“You can’t have social freedom without economic liberty,” he said. “You can’t have economic liberty without social freedom — they’re dependent on each other.”
Libertarians are beginning to initiate change, he told the crowd.
"They're scared because we are starting to apply those principles," he said of the current political system.
Woods discussed the ever-increasing polarization of the country's politics between Democrats and Republicans. The establishment itself has its own agenda, he said, rather than promoting the good of the public because it is more interested in "perpetuating itself than bringing about real change."
“We are the excluded middle," Woods said. "We are the reasonable people."
Woods provided examples of how a free society can "more or less arrange its own affairs — direct itself."
"This is kind of scary for people," he said.
He said YouTube is a great way for Libertarians to get their ideas out. Create a YouTube channel, he said, and comment on the day's affairs. Libertarians can't get angry about not having a position in the mainstream if they don't try and spread their word. Books have a shelf life — some run out of print or libraries don't always carry them, he said.
But YouTube is a medium, he said, that appears as if it will be around forever for easy access to information and ideas.
He questioned how it was possible for a guy like himself, who isn't toeing the Democratic or Republican line, to write books and give public talks for a living.
“It’s the Internet," Woods said. "That’s what has made it possible for me to do this.”
Woods took questions at the end of his talk, following a standing ovation.
According to its website, the Ludwig von Mises Institute “was founded in 1982 as the research and educational center of classical liberalism, libertarian political theory and the Austrian School of economics.”
Corey Jones can be reached at (785) 295-5612 or corey.jones@cjonline.com.