 We have some time baked into both of our sessions today for Q&A, and that's something we're very eager to get from you We have an online audience this morning that we'd like to say hello to and if anybody watching online has questions They can submit those to our Twitter feed at Mises dot org And we're also going to ask To join Tom be the rents or father Larry Bean From the Salem Lutheran Church in Gretna, Louisiana He is a pastor of the very un-PC variety and he is written a lot on New Rockwell comm not only in the subject of anarcho-capitalism but also on What's happening in some of the main line Protestant churches that have gone off the rail? So we thought we would be interesting to get an un-PC member of the clergy when so many of them seem to be infected To their core with with PC thought so we have About 30 minutes or so for some questions some of you have had these slips that you can send up to us We're also going to have microphones circulating so feel free to ask any and all questions might come to you The only note I would say is we're going to break for lunch after apparently We have several we have books by all three of our main speakers today that can be signed However, if you'd like to get one signed you need to purchase those apparently by 1245 So we'll take some questions now before we break for lunch So Let's start with this one. This is from Jay from Needville, Texas the town I've heard of It's for Dilo. It says Tom recently there used to be specific attacks on Austrian economics as anti-Catholic Canesism and socialism seem to get a free pass relative to the Austrians Has this target been as elevated as a jet at a Jesuit University as it would seem in the Catholic press That's quite a question. I work at a Jesuit University and When I first got there the old Jesuit who was a president His brother was a fortune 500 CEO. He founded the business school He took me to lunch every time I had a Wall Street Journal article published a very appreciative But then you know fast forward 20 years in the new guy is a cultural Marxist. He's the kind of Brian Lanane He's the kind of person that if he was Alive in the Soviet Union under communism He would be the guy going around pointing out the dissenters in the neighborhood for stalling to round up and execute and and so Yeah, well, yeah, especially the Jesuits are especially bad on on this How many stories can I tell you I had the John Allison the Former CEO of the BB&T bank called me up on the phone out of the blue one day. I never met John Allison I knew who he was but he called me up and he offered me $350,000 for a an academic program on the moral foundations of capitalism And because he had read my book how capitalism saves America saved America and he said I make all my top managers read it and And and he said he offered me the money for a seven-year grants for lecture series and all academic programs and Also, he said I'd like to give you enough copies of Atlas shrugged by I ran for every school in the business school and The university president told me that's a that's a Deal killer, you know if we can't give away the books to our students and I said why and he said I ran was an atheist And I responded by saying well, so was Karl Marx and You use the Communist Manifesto in a lot of classes here and I asked him have you have you Pulled the religious views of every single textbook author that is used at this university No, it's just in it said we went on and on like that and but he never relented They said that's a deal killer. You cannot give away copies about the shrug and it took them About two months to give me permission to accept the money the grant And then once the grant was accepted They ordered the public relations department to not issue a press release as BB&T Bank was badgering me They thought it's good PR. That's the reason they do these things for community relations And so we never get a press release and because they they believe the capitalism is a sin and The practice, you know the free market capitalism is a sin And I'm not sure I can't speak for all the Catholics Tom Woods is our Catholic expert here He's written several great books on the Catholic Church But the Jesuits at least the modern one the modern day ones the modern crop are very different from old father Ridley who I knew when I first took this job and And they're they're really Marxist ideologues hiding behind preschoolers They really are like the Pope for example, you know, I'll say it You know, I consider him. He's a Jesuit from South America and every year on my campus There's there's never any celebration of St. Ignatius of Loyola at this Jesuit school the only kind of campus-wide Not a celebration but Event is Every year they put crosses all over the campus to commemorate the the Jesuits who were murdered in El Salvador in the 80s Because they were conspiring apparently with the communist revolutionaries to overthrow the fascist dictator of the day down there and I always thought it was funny that there's never any memorial for anybody else on the campus Because well, they were fighting for the good cause They died for the good cause is my interpretation of why that's the only Memorial that's ever event is ever on the campus. So that's all safe and now I don't want to take up all the time father Bean any any comments on the Pope's recent track through the US Well, the yeah, the Jesuits didn't used to be so radical I mean that their early history they were advocates of markets and a lot of the roots of Austrian economics is In the Salamanca school in Spain and so forth So at some point they became radicalized and and the current Pope is a Jesuit and he is Promoting Marxist economics, but you know This is not Catholic doctrine. I'm a Lutheran pastor, but You know all of the all of the Christian denominations including the Roman Catholic Church have divisions within them so Just because a Pope is advocating for Marxist economics don't confuse that with Roman Catholic dogma And you will find fellow Roman Catholics who are advocates of markets and and just the same in In my world in the Lutheran world you will find Lutherans who advocate for freedom. So don't be fooled by you know, certain self-appointed leaders Support the pastors and the bishops who who advocate for liberty and who advocate for markets They're out there. So hunt them down and and support them right to them. You know, it's it can be kind of lonely You know, especially if you're a pastor of a church, you're you're a bishop and you know You're taking all this flack, but I'll tell you getting getting support emails from people from Catholics from people who are Who are supporting markets, please do do that It really means a lot and it in it. I think it strengthens the clergy to know that you've got their back We have by the way when I when I got asked the University administrators my university why They couldn't issue a press release about this grant They said that they thought my book how capitalism saved America was against Catholic social teaching And I was told that by a mathematician Tim Tim Snyder the academic vice president who all of a sudden became an expert in Catholic social teaching And so I guess he's really a a cultural Marxist hiding behind a math degree from Princeton On the on the topic of social justice This is a big big buzzword among the PC and among in religious circles, too And I before I forget I have to put a plug in for this new book by Vox day Sjw's always lie. It's like a homework assignment. Y'all download it. It's like five bucks. It's it's really magnificent It's from a world. I'm not really familiar with from science fiction writing and video gaming I mean, that's not my thing, but it doesn't matter the principles. He lays down in this book not only Diagnosing the problem, but showing how we can fight back against this stuff. It's absolutely brilliant. So please do make note of that Sjw's always lie social justice warriors Vox day Vox DA why I think it's only available in e-book form, but it's five bucks It's it doesn't take long to read it and it's brilliant Do we have an audience question? This gentleman here any comments on Kramsky and his description of the Long March through Western institutions Well, yeah, well, we haven't can't mention everybody in half hour I guess Antonio Gramsky the Italian philosopher Yeah, he's known as another guru of the politically correct left He's famous for this phrase the Long March through the institutions take over the media of the universities and so forth and And so so these people are gramps kites. I guess you could call them and they've been successful there I can recall being at a Liberty Fund conference in 1990 Sitting next to Henry Manny the late Henry Manny and Milton Friedman with another late Milton Friedman and And Henry Manny said at that time we've lost the universities This is 1990 and Henry was you know, he's the founder of the law and economics movement in the Economics and law profession. He ran the law and economics Center at the University of Miami and at Emory for and at George Mason For years he was very prestigious academic This was a long time ago and he thought we'd already lost the Universities and so that the gramps kites Were successful already at that point and of course the media is pretty much the same nowadays and a lot of other institutions This is a good question from the audience from Jason at the University of Florida Says how does Bernie Sanders relate to PC especially when his supporters claim that he's being shunned and we see this a lot times The left says they're the they're the victims of PC any comments on the Bernie Sanders revolution Well, Tom Woods, I think he's publishing or has published a book called Bernie Sanders is wrong about everything Tom disappeared, but I know it was either in the works or it's already out. I don't know It's a it's a free e-book. It's out. It's a free e-book. So go to Tom Woods calm You can probably download the free e-book by Tom and so yeah, they've that's that's Maybe what maybe that's what they're talking about when they talk about poor Bernie, but he's he's didn't he raise 20 million dollars last quarter So he's not exactly being discriminated against by anybody. He's the darling of the left He's probably a little too far right wing for most most of the Jesuits at my school My university but they'll take what they can get We have an audience question this gentleman here of a political correctness. I thought I was racist that you picked this question over mine, so That was that was my own bias coming through the mic TJ the Lorenzo you may have already answered this question. I was busy taking notes. I may have missed it, but today's left wing Today's left wing pride itself on pushing the arts museums education public libraries, etc. All in the name of helping the people How much of the left wings? involvement in these programs is really just a trojan horse for cultural Marxism. Thank you Well, I'm not really much of an expert on art museums and all that But I've been noticing for a lot of years that a lot of it is politicized, of course Your question makes me remember Being in San Francisco with my old friend Yuri Maltsev who worked for Mikhail Gorbachev as a young man and Defected from the Soviet Union before the collapse and he became an Austrian economist He's he's been he's been working with the Mises Institute off and off for many years but anyway, you're and I went they had a Russian art exhibit in San Francisco years ago the year and I went to and he was Showing it all to me about how it was how art was used to to sort of indoctrinate and propagandize people in the Soviet Union And and I have to say that I've seen a lot of similar similar arts at various museums here But I've never done a study of that. I know I think Tyler Cowan the the economist Tyler Cowan at George Mason University has written a book on sort of culture and and In economics, so maybe I can recommend looking up what Tyler Cowan has written about it He's he's the one person I can think of it was actually written a book on this on this question The cultural Marxism thing it's it's just kind of funny you mentioned that I was in Russia this summer and I've made a couple trips there. We have some Lutherans in Russia and Front of mind is the rector of the seminary in Nova Severe's, Siberia And he was saying what it was like to grow up in the Soviet Union No math class instead of you know, Johnny has one apple and Mary has one apple You know this sort of thing the questions were all tinged with Marxist everything had to do with Marxism. So when you were in math class, you know You were learning about the the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and that's I mean that's it was all consuming And I think you know if you do go to a museum if you go anywhere It's it's almost like it's it's in the air. We breathe the PC even even when you don't think that it is You know the cereal boxes. I mean Why is it always like this? I think we have to start noticing this and start challenging it By the way that our friend Paul Cantor See a NTR has written a couple of books on literature and political you call literature and political correctness You might look up Paul Cantor also Gentlemen here had a question Yes, I had a question. I was talking to the pastor earlier. He's at this table about the Supreme Court decision regarding homosexuals and how it's going to affect churches and down the road as far as marriage and Tax exempt status and all this you can elaborate on Well Christianity is based on the premise that there is an objective truth We can disagree about what that truth is but Christianity is incompatible with any teaching that truth is malleable or relative And so the Christian teaching that's been handed down is that we have a definition of what marriage is and it's the same as really what Pretty much all societies have said Marriage is and so now by virtue of a fiat decision of a court That's being turned on its head. So Just we were talking earlier about sort of practical matters I mean what what I've decided to do as a clergyman and what my congregation has decided is I'm not going to sign any more Marriage licenses. I'm just out of the business of acting as an agent of the state on that So and it turns out that this is actually what civilized people all around the world do already You know people in Europe people in Russia you can have a church marriage You can have a civil marriage. You can have both you can have neither But the I think we're really opening ourselves up to problems if we if we continue with the status quo And it really is it is a matter of what what you confess to be the truth what you believe to be the truth and That's that's under attack. That's what political correctness is. It's it's not about etiquette. It's not about inclusivity It's about control and domination and we have to be as Jesus said Innocent as doves and clever as serpents So we have to really think and strategize how we're going to move into this brave new world. I appreciate the question It seems to me you know that the old Marxists And before the worldwide collapse socialism, they were all about Destruction they were all about destroying the existing system and they never had an idea of what would replace it You know, they had all these weird theories about You know man could be an architect in the morning and a farmer in the afternoon and things like that under communism But these these neo Marxist the cultural Marxists, they're sort of the same way They want to destroy institution after institution whether it's marriage or or anything else But they don't really have an idea of what's going to come next. It's sort of like the neocons who want to destroy the Middle East But they have no idea what's going to happen in Libya or Syria or anywhere else They just go on to the next bombing, you know, and then and then walk away from it And so so, you know, maybe it's not an accident that all the old lot of the prominent old neocons Claim to have been Trotskyites in their youth, you know former Trotskyites They're sort of the same way of thinking there. They're they're all about destroy destroying existing institutions that have evolved or some some of them over centuries and then what's left the chaos and in a lot of bad things Question from the audience lady in the back Without capitalists there'd be no art museums Without capitalism, there would be no art museums Well, that's one of the points that Tyler Cowan made in his book that I referred to earlier On on this that I think he did a historical study of how you know, maybe a hundred years ago that almost all major works of art were were financed by benefactors of the artist But then once you get the national endowment for the arts and the in government funding of all this Well, of course, it's going to be politicized and he who takes the king's shilling becomes the king's man If you want that next year's grant you have to be politically correct with this year's grant And it's the same as a if you got a grant to do economic research same thing whether it's creating art or economic research It becomes politicized. Of course it does question from the audience This gentleman here Anyone a little bit on how the PC culture ignores or Confuses positive and negative rights and the libertarian stance on positive and negative rights Like Anastasia was having a conversation about that last evening she's she's suffered at the hands of it of a was it a niece your granddaughter who is Viewing positive rights as positive happy good and negative rights as negative awful bad So when did this all get so screwed up? When did the two things become conflated and one of them is now subordinate to the other? Unfortunately Well, that's that's been an issue for many decades to positive and negative rights And a Hayek wrote about it in the Constitution of Liberty in 1960 Mises wrote about it Rothbard wrote about it about the confusion that some people have about this Somebody just sent me just yesterday, but it so happens an article from the Washington Post about this and there was an article in the post claiming that You know one of the most important rights human beings can have is the right not to have not to have to work To be able to live without having to work and so so so therefore, you know We should have a and Robert Reich the the former Clinton Department of Labor Secretary Has a new book out arguing that every 18 year old should be given a stock portfolio And and then everybody should be given a basic income of I don't know how many you know Whatever how much money he thinks 20 grand or something like that And I'm not sure where he says where he thinks the money will come from probably the woman who I call mother Yellen Now, maybe she'll she'll come she'll come up with the money but but that's that's the positive rights thinking is sort of the The the the fairyland, you know wave a magic wand and we all have money, you know It's that's called monitor. That's called Federal Reserve monetary policy by the way, and and but that's that's their thing It's the Washington Post actually said this two days ago. Somebody sent me the email And so yeah, I don't know what else you can say about it. So it's you know Franklin Roosevelt's speech on the Econ on the Freedoms freedom to have a house freedom to be free from hunger and all this It's all about giving people some the government giving people something so they have freedom from Not having a house or something like that And so that speech of Roosevelt's was an attack on the whole idea of negative freedom Which is you know freedom from being coerced and aggressed upon by the state and it's and it's subsidiaries I'll just culturally this infantilization. I mean that's what Children depend upon receiving from their parents and at some point, you know, you grow up and you become the parent or you be You know, you become self-sufficient, but culturally it's like we've done Something to just stunt that normal growing up phase and now you have you know grown-ups people That expect other people to provide for them. I mean I Culturally, I don't know where this happened But clearly there's been some kind of a shift at some point in the culture that's made people kind of expect that I Just read an article Can't remember where it came from but somebody was commenting on he was spending some time in a in one of the most affluent sections of New York City where You know part of our ruling elite resides and he said he was at a restaurant or a Starbucks or something and the children there We're just running wild and the parents were doing absolutely nothing disrupting everything And he said this person that had struck me that well the parents Obviously behaved like that when they were young and so they they saw nothing wrong with their children Just behaving like wild animals and disrupting everybody in the whole place And but he was making the point that well these these are the people they're very affluent wealthy people who are Sort of the ruling elites, huh? Maybe it was the upper west side of New York City where Bill crystal lives or something something like that But it's it's your comment reminded me of reading that The infantilization of society has been going on for a while And by the way Hans Hoppe's book democracy that God the God that fails Predicted that he said it's inherent in democracy that we create an infantilization of society because of the the high time preference That it encourages among other things