Healing Our World: In an Age of Aggression [Paperback]

Mary J. Ruwart (Author), Frances Kendall (Foreword), Leon Louw (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2003

Through its win-win approach, Healing Our World illustrates how the rules of social interaction which we learned as children hold the secret to universal harmony and abundance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... combines libertarianism with Western and Eastern spirituality ... challenges the reader to see things in spiritual clarity." -- Paul Whitfield, South Bend Tribune

"... may be the most important book of the decade." -- -- Joseph Terrano, Visions Magazine

"...outlines how non-aggression would look in real-life areas of job creation, health care, environment, poverty, crime, drugs...." -- Teri Murphy, Arlions News

From the Publisher

Winner of Freemarket.net's "Book of the Year 2003" award

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Product Details

• Paperback: 435 pages
• Publisher: SunStar Press; 3rd edition (January 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0963233661
• ISBN-13: 978-0963233660
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #544,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 63 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Why liberty is a win-win proposition January 23, 2003

By John S. Ryan

Format:Paperback

[Mary Ruwart's excellent book is now available in its third edition. This is a reposting of my review of the second edition.]

There are two books I recommend as introductions to libertarian thought. One of them is Murray Rothbard's _For A New Liberty_. This is the other.

Dr. Mary Ruwart's _Healing Our World_ is in some ways a better general introduction suitable for a broader audience, in large measure because it appeals to the better nature of everybody from conservative Christians to hippie mystics: she really _does_ mean, and quite rightly, that libertarian principles are the means for healing our world. Her essential point is that, _whatever_ our goals and beliefs, we can best serve them by honoring our neighbors' choices so long as they aren't threatening our lives or property. For when we do so, everybody wins; my gains aren't your losses, and there really is a common good at which we can both aim.

Moreover, Ruwart carefully and compassionately explains why the libertarian approach is a better way to bring about the (entirely legitimate) goals of the more modern sort of liberal: for example, improving the quality and availability of medical care (including alternative medicines), reducing pollution, saving the environment, and so forth. Readers of, say, the Objectivist/Randian literature might come away with the impression that concern for the well-being of persons other than oneself (let alone the "environment"!) is just incompatible with libertarianism. Ruwart argues that in fact libertarianism offers not only the best way to _promote_ such concern but the only viable way to put it into practice. (On this ground alone, there are probably lots of _libertarians_ who could profit from a close reading of Ruwart's book just to pick up its tone and tenor. Her example of tolerant understanding could lead more "brittle" thinkers to enter empathically into values that haven't exactly been common among libertarians.)

Lurking in the background of Ruwart's exposition is her clear sense of the "market" as simply voluntary human interaction within a framework of obligatory respect for others' well-being. This view should appeal even to readers who don't care for the term "market"; it might, for example, be attractive to various sorts of communitarian and others who worry about the reduction of social life to economic exchange. The essential point is that human society, community, is an organic network of interacting centers of voluntary activity, not a bureaucratic order that imposes mechanical top-down rules via statute or regulatory agency -- and that trying to turn it from the former into the latter is just a fancy way to destroy it.

Ruwart's outlook should delight everybody from Calvinists to Hayekians to Taoists. And there has never been a time at which it's been more important to get the word out on liberty. Get this book at once and pass out copies to your friends; Ruwart's libertarianism has something to say to people of every political and/or religious persuasion or none.

By the way, you can pre-read it online if you know where to look...

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars First-rate introduction to libertarian-anarchism. June 29, 2003

By Lord Chimp

Format:Paperback

Like Murray Rothbard's classic _For a New Liberty_ from years ago, _Healing Our World_ -- despite having a title and cover one might associate with leftist-liberals -- is a fantastic sort of updated "total" defense of libertarianism and introduction to the concept.

Ruwart introduces the groundwork of the non-aggression axiom with less attention on natural rights and private property arguments and more on accessible, plain moral reasoning that is pretty much unassailable. She then introduces the reader to the consequences of aggression, particularly the government's aggression, on society. The government's use of aggression disrupts free interaction between people and thus makes us worse off. As Scott Ryan says below, she shows that liberty is a win-win situation.

Like Rothbard, she mounts a compelling case on numerous issues: Pollution, monopoly, war, foreign policy, welfare, courts, business regulation, minimum wage, police, et cetera et cetera. Her examination of education doesn't give much attention to the actual fact of the State influencing children but focuses on private schooling solutions.

Older versions of _For a New Liberty_ lacked a discussion of one of the most dangerous powers of the State: control over the (fiat) money supply. Ruwart explains fractional reserve banking, the consequences of a central banking system in a way that is _very_ easy to understand.

_For a New Liberty_ has nothing specifically about healthcare. Ruwart fortunately explores two government elements very detrimental to our health: the Food & Drug Administration and licensing/regulation of health care services.

She also expands on some out the arguments Rothbard made briefly in his chapter "Personal Liberty". For one, she looks at armed citizens and the effect of right-to-carry laws on crime rates (citing lots of Bruce Benson's important work). Her chapter on illegal drugs is definitive, showing plainly that creating a black market for drugs is worse than the drugs themselves.

The book mounts a consistent case with nary a concession given to government. Therefore, she makes an anarchocapitalist case without saying she is an anarchist (although she says she is in her libertarian autobiography over at Lew Rockwell's site).

Ruwart does not involve herself much in an "anatomy of the State" (pun intended of course) and its very nature being immoral and criminal, although the overtone is obviously there. The State does bad things and is therefore bad, but the book is about the effects on those things and not the fact that the State is bad. If that makes sense. I think it does.

And, perhaps as a corollary of that Ruwart's overall tone is very accessible and positive. For this reason, she seems more likely than anyone I can think of to prevail on skeptics, whether they are "conservative" or "liberal" (as Ruwart herself once was -- might not impress cold-hearted neo-cons though. Marxists are very deluded too).

And it's really beautifully written and essential for all good people. this review is getting way too long, but I think you should buy it.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars There is a Better Way March 15, 2004

By Robert Haven VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Wow! If you read this book with an open mind, it will really make you think about the viability of a common-sense approach to solving (as much as is possible) the world's problems (poverty, war, pollution, etc.). Dr. Ruwart proposes that we should simply interact in society by the same basic unwritten rules we use in being a good friend or good neighbor. She shows, over and over, that when we break these rules (usually for well-intentioned goals), things go wrong and we hurt the ones we want to help.

Her philosophy should be of great interest to both liberals and conservatives as I believe it can achieve the ultimate objectives of those two sides of the political spectrum: peace, freedom, and prosperity. Or if you currently find yourself politically homeless, with your beliefs not fitting either label, you just may find in here a philosophy that fits your convictions.

Besides all that, "Healing Our World" is an easy and enjoyable read, with just enough historical references to illustrate the author's points without getting tedious. And I liked all the great quotations in the margins (from Julius Ceasar to Lao-tsu to Ann Landers).