Austrian Lineage at the LVMI

The Palmer blog has a long history of denigrating the Ludwig von Mises Institute's intellectual heritage. As noted here previously, Cato's most obnoxious Veep likes to present himself as a "defender" of the real Ludwig von Mises' legacy from the institute that bears his name. It's a common theme on the Palmer blog, which offers up gems such as this by routine:

I have learned a great deal from the Austrian school and have the greatest respect for the scholars in that tradition. I feel that their good names and their tradition of scholarship are sullied by being associated with such strange views as those advanced by the Rockwellites.

In the classic fashion of Palmer "scholarship" he then bombards the good folks at the Mises Institute with every ad hominem his mind sees fit to produce. They're "cultists" "embarrasing" "clownish" and "gay bashers" who share characteristics with Lyndon LaRouche. And most of all, sayeth Palmer, they pervert the "real" Ludwig von Mises, who fortunately - we're told - has a champion to defend him in the name of none other than Tom G. Palmer himself!

Of course Tom G. Palmer, the Mises "champion," never studied under Ludwig von Mises. Nor did Tom G. Palmer ever study under another prominent Austrian connected to Ludwig von Mises. As far as one can tell from the list of self-published op/eds he calls his academic curriculum vitae, Palmer has no scholarly connection to the Austrian school what so ever beyond perhaps picking up a used copy of Human Action or the Road to Serfdom at some unnamed point in his career (and it is not unreasonable to doubt he spent much time with either). It is for this reason that Palmer was so handedly humiliated the last time he tried to proclaim himself Mises' defender as well. But you can't teach a dumb dog new tricks, and so history is prone to repetition.

The core of it is this though: like them or not, the Ludwig von Mises Institute has a bona fide lineage. Even if you're annoyed by their message or style, their connection to the real Ludwig von Mises is extensive and indisputable. And that little fact drives Tom Palmer crazy...well, crazier than he normally is.

For starters, the Mises Institute was founded in 1982 by Ludwig's own wife Margit. Margit bequeathed numerous papers from her late husband to the organization and was an active member of its leadership, chairing the LVMI board for over a decade from its founding until her death in 1993. If you mention that fact to Palmer though he gets downright pissy though, and in a very nasty way. You see, Palmer thinks that Mrs. von Mises was a feeble old lady who got snookered into lending her husband's good name by the nefarious Lew Rockwell. The conspiratorial Palmer has outright claimed this in statements that resemble this recent outburst:

"The abuse of Mrs. Mises by the Institute has been a subject of discussion for some years"

Aside from its implicit affrontery to the legacy and intelligence of Mrs. von Mises (keep in mind that she was with the LVMI for over a decade), Palmer neglects to inform his readers that the location of that "discussion" is none other than his own loony, conspiratorial blog where he frequently posts claims like the one found above. Needless to say, the LVMI has a direct connection to the family and person of Ludwig von Mises himself that no amount of slander against his widow's intelligence late in her life can wash away.

If that were not enough though, the LVMI's intellectual lineage to the real von Mises and the Austrian school is bolstered in another way by its academic succession. Palmer dismisses any discussion of this topic as "apostolic" trivia, but only for his want of familiarity with the actual workings of academia. Simply stated, western thought has a long history of identifying and celebrating academic lineages and for good reason. The succession is far from simply an "apostolic" formality. Rather, it explains the dissemination and change of a particular school of thought. Plato was Plato precisely because he had a Socrates to teach him. It's actually very common. Aquinas had an Albertus Magnus; Locke had an Earl of Shaftesbury; Smith had Hutcheson; Jefferson had Wythe; and among the Austrians, Ludwig von Mises had such men as Menger an Boehm-Bawerk. One would think that a man who possesses several advanced degrees in "political philosophy" should know these things.

Academic lineage is relevant in this particular case because Mises himself had many well known and distinguished intellectual heirs in the Austrian School's so-called "fifth generation" of scholars, as did other indisputably notable Austrians such as Hayek. Many of these scholars are still alive, and much to Palmer's chagrin, they voluntarily affiliate with the LVMI. Among the noted names:

1. Murray Rothbard - Mises student and resident scholar at the LVMI until his death in 1995

2. George Reisman - Mises student at NYU, Professor Emeritus at Pepperdine, and Adjunct Scholar of the LVMI

3. Ralph Raico - Student of Mises and Hayek, dissertation at Chicago was chaired by Hayek, currently a senior faculty member at the LVMI

4. Israel Kirzner - Student of Mises at NYU, Adjunct Scholar a the LVMI and author of several publications on LVMI presses.

5. Henry Hazlitt - Distinguished Austrian economist in his own right, and colleague of Ludwig von Mises, served on the LVMI Board of Directors prior to his death in 1993.