Karl Hess

Karl Hess (May 25, 1923–April 22, 1994), was a speechwriter, editor, political philosopher, hippie, welder, motorcycle racer, tax resister and libertarian. His career included stints on both the Republican right and the New Left before he became an anarcho-capitalist theorist.^[1] Image File history File links KarlHess. ... May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... April 22 is the 112th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (113th in leap years). ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... The New Left is a term used to refer to radical left-wing movements from the 1960s onwards. ... Anarcho-capitalism is a view that regards all forms of the state as unnecessary and harmful, particularly in matters of justice and self-defense, while being highly supportive of private property. ...

Biography

Hess, a cannibal twin, was born in Washington, D.C. and moved to the Philippines as a child. When his mother discovered his father's infidelity, she divorced her wealthy husband and returned (with Karl) to Washington. She refused alimony or child support and took a job as a telephone operator, raising her son in very modest circumstances. Karl, believing public education to be a waste of time, rarely attended school; to evade truancy officers, he registered at every elementary school and gradually withdrew from each one, making it impossible for the school board to know exactly where he was supposed to be. He formally dropped out at 15 and went to work for the Mutual Broadcasting System as a news writer (he was hired by Walter Compton, a news commentator who lived in the building where Mrs. Hess operated the switchboard). He continued to work in the news media, and by age 18 was assistant city editor of the Washington Daily News. He was later an editor for Newsweek and The Fisherman. Then he worked for the Champion Papers and Fibre Company, which encouraged him to get involved in politics for the company's benefit. There he met Barry Goldwater and many other Republicans. Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: Federal District District of Columbia  - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)  - City Council Chairperson: Vincent C. Gray (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2: Jack Evans... The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ... Yu Fu (Chinese: 漁父; Pinyin: Yú Fù; English: The Fisherman) is a poem attributed to Qu Yuan and published in the Chu Ci (楚辭 Songs of Chu, sometimes Songs of the South). ...

Hess was conventional enough to enlist in the US Army in 1942, but was discharged when they discovered he had had malaria in the Philippines. The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States armed forces and has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ...

Political activities

As a one-time speechwriter for Barry Goldwater, Hess explored ideology and politics and attracted some public interest. He is widely credited with writing the famous line, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice; moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue," but revealed it originally had been Lincoln's line. Hess was also the primary author of the Republican Party's 1960 and 1964 platforms. He later called this his "Cold Warrior" phase. Look up speechwriter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Barry Morris Goldwater (January 1, 1909 – May 29, 1998[1]) was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–87) and the Republican Partys nominee for President in the 1964 election. ...

Following the 1964 presidential campaign in which Goldwater was trounced by Lyndon Johnson, Hess became disillusioned with traditional politics and became more radical. He criticized big business, suburban American hypocrisy and the military-industrial complex. Though well beyond college age, he joined Students for a Democratic Society, worked with the Black Panther Party and protested the Vietnam War. After parting with the Republicans, he went to work as a heavy-duty welder; Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, apparently displeased with all prominent Republicans, ordered the IRS to audit Hess. When Hess asked if a certain deduction he had claimed was right, his auditor reportedly replied, "It doesn't matter if it's right; what matters is the law." Such exchanges, Hess recalled years later, occurred throughout his audit. Incensed that the auditor would see a difference between what was "right" and what was "the law," Hess sent the IRS a copy of the Declaration of Independence with a letter saying that he would never again pay taxes. The IRS charged him with tax resistance, confiscated most of his property and put a 100% lien on his future earnings. Remarkably, Hess was never incarcerated on this matter, probably due to astute, pro bono legal representation and his status as a folk hero. President Dwight Eisenhower famously referred to the military-industrial complex in his farewell speech. ... SDS Button Logo The Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was, historically, a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the countrys New Left. ... This article is about the American political organization. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... . The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the United States government agency that collects taxes and enforces the tax laws. ... A tax resister resists or refuses payment of a tax because of opposition to the institution collecting the tax, or to some of that institution’s policies. ...

In 1968, Richard Nixon became president and Barry Goldwater became a senator. Hess, who had recently written some speeches for Goldwater, kept after him to submit legislation abolishing conscription. Goldwater replied, "Well, let's wait and see what Dick Nixon wants to do about that one." Hess despised Nixon almost as much as he liked Goldwater and could not tolerate the notion that Goldwater would defer to Nixon. Thus ended one of Hess's closest professional associations.

Hess began reading American anarchists largely thanks to the recommendations of his friend Murray Rothbard. He said that upon reading the works of Emma Goldman he discovered that anarchists believed everything he had hoped the Republican Party would stand for, and that she was the source for the best and most essential theories of Ayn Rand without any of the "crazy solipsism that Rand was so fond of."^[2] Murray Newton Rothbard (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was a highly influential American economist, historian and natural law theorist belonging to the Austrian School of Economics who helped define modern libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) aka Red Emma, was a Kaunas, Lithuania-born anarchist known for her writings and speeches. ... Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. ... The Republican Party may refer to: Categories: | ... It has been suggested that The Ayn Rand Collective be merged into this article or section. ...

Hess founded, with Rothbard, Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought in 1965. It lasted until 1968. From 1969 to 1971 he edited the Libertarian Forum with Rothbard. A right-handed Cartesian coordinate system, presenting the z (up) vector and y (forward) vector, the right is defined to be the positive x vector. ... Libertarian Forum was a libertarian magazine published about twice a month between 1969 and 1984. ...

In 1969 and 1970 Hess joined with others including Murray Rothbard, Robert LeFevre, Dana Rohrabacher, Samuel Edward Konkin III, and former SDS leader Carl Oglesby to speak at two "left-right" conferences which brought together activists from both the Old Right and the New Left in what was emerging as a nascent libertarian movement [2]. Hess later joined the Libertarian Party which was founded in 1971, and served as editor of its newspaper from 1986 to 1990. Murray Newton Rothbard (March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was a highly influential American economist, historian and natural law theorist belonging to the Austrian School of Economics who helped define modern libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism. ... Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) was a libertarian businessman and radio personality. ... Dana Tyron Rohrabacher (born June 21, 1947 in Coronado, California) is an American politician, who has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1989, representing the 46th District of California (map). ... Samuel Edward Konkin III (aka SEK3) was the author of The New Libertarian Manifesto and a proponent of the political philosophy which he called agorism. ... Carl Oglesby was the President of Students for a Democratic Society during the term 1965-1966. ... In the United States, the Old Right, also called the Paleoconservatives are a faction of American conservatives who both opposed New Deal domestic programs and were also isolationists opposing entry into World War II. Many were associated with the Republicans of the interwar years led by Robert Taft, but some... The New Left is a term used to refer to radical left-wing movements from the 1960s onwards. ... See also Libertarianism and Libertarian Party Libertarian,is a term for person who has made a conscious and principled commitment, evidenced by a statement or Pledge, to forswear violating others rights and usually living in voluntary communities: thus in law no longer subject to government supervision. ... The Libertarian Party is a United States political party created in 1971. ...

Back to the lander

Hess wrote an account of an experiment that he and several friends and colleagues launched to bring self-built and -managed technology into the direct service of the economic and social life of what was at the time a poor, largely Afro-American neighborhood of Washington, D.C. — Adams-Morgan. The book is titled Community Technology. While much of the experimentation proved successful in technical terms (apparatus was built, food raised, etc.), the community, continuing on what Hess felt was a path of deterioration, declined to throw itself into efforts to expand on the technology and get greater value out of its application. African Americans, also known as Afro-Americans or black Americans, are an ethnic group in the United States of America whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Sub-Saharan and West Africa. ... Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: Federal District District of Columbia  - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)  - City Council Chairperson: Vincent C. Gray (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2: Jack Evans... Adams Morgan is a neighborhood in Washington, DC, in the northwest quadrant of the city above Dupont Circle. ...

Subsequently, Hess and Therese moved to rural Opequon Creek, West Virginia, where he set up a welding shop to support his household. He became deeply involved with local affairs there. Official language(s) English Capital Charleston Largest city Charleston Area  Ranked 41st  - Total 24,244 sq mi (62,809 km²)  - Width 130 miles (210 km)  - Length 240 miles (385 km)  - % water 0. ...

Hess ran a symbolic campaign for governor of West Virginia in 1992. When asked by a reporter what his first act would be if elected, he memorably quipped, "I will demand an immediate recount." Official language(s) English Capital Charleston Largest city Charleston Area  Ranked 41st  - Total 24,244 sq mi (62,809 km²)  - Width 130 miles (210 km)  - Length 240 miles (385 km)  - % water 0. ...

Books

• Nature and Science (1958)
• In a Cause That Will Triumph (1967)
• The End of the Draft: The Feasibility of Freedom (with Thomas Reeves) (1970) ISBN 0-394-70870-9
• Dear America (1975)
• Neighborhood Power: The New Localism (with David Morris) (1975)
• Community Technology (1979)
• A Common Sense Strategy for Survivalists (1981)
• Three Interviews (1981)
• Capitalism for Kids (1986)
• Mostly on the Edge: An Autobiography (edited by Karl Hess, Jr.) (1999) ISBN 1-57392-687-6

Films

Karl Hess: Toward Liberty documentary film Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. ...

The film won two Oscars in 1981, including one for best short documentary.

References and Notes

Anarchism in America is a 1983 documentary, directed by Steven Fischler and Joel Sucher, and produced by Pacific Street Films. ...

See also

• Appropriate technology
• Back to the land

Appropriate technology is the term used to describe objects which meet the needs of the local people and the environment in which they live. ... Today, the phrase back to the land movement usually refers to a North American social phenomenon of the 1960s and 1970s (which is discussed further, below in this article). ...

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Karl Hess

• The Karl Hess Club
• LP News Jun94 - Karl Hess 1923-1994
• THE PLOWBOY INTERVIEW KARL HESS
• The Death of Politics: 1969 Playboy article by Hess
• From Far Right to Far Left — and Farther — With Karl Hess by James Boyd: 1970 New York Times article about Hess