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Jeffrey Tucker

Liberty or Lockdown Paperback – September 20, 2020

by Jeffrey Tucker (Author), George Gilder (Foreword)

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Jeffrey Tucker is well known as the author of many informative and beloved articles and books on the subject of human freedom. Now he’s turned his attention to the most shocking and widespread violation of human freedom in our times: the authoritarian lockdown of society on the pretense that it is necessary in the face of a novel virus.

Learning from the experts, Jeffrey Tucker has researched this subject from every angle. In this book, Tucker lays out the history, politics, economics, and science relevant to the coronavirus response. The result is clear: there is no justification for the lockdowns.

It’s liberty or lockdown. We have to choose.

The book includes a foreword by George Gilder.

Jeffrey A. Tucker is Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research.

He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and eight books in 5 languages, most recently The Market Loves You. He is also the editor of The Best of Mises. He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture.

The American Institute for Economic Research in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was founded in 1933 as the first independent voice for sound economics in the United States. Today it publishes ongoing research, hosts educational programs, publishes books, sponsors interns and scholars, and is home to the world-renowned Bastiat Society and the highly respected Sound Money Project. The American Institute for Economic Research is a 501c3 public charity.

Print length

246 pages
Language

English
Publication date

September 20, 2020
Dimensions

6 x 0.62 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

1630692123
ISBN-13

978-1630692124
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ American Institute for Economic Research (September 20, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 246 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1630692123
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1630692124
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.62 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #318,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #258 in Epidemiology (Books)
- #840 in Civil Rights & Liberties (Books)

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102 ratings

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Phebe

This book is anti-lockdown, anti-totalitarianism

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2020

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I enjoyed this book, which is vividly written, and it was a quick read. The author was a little unlucky (well, so were we all!) in that he stopped writing Sept. 1, 2020 and the book was published Sept. 26, and assumes the crisis is coming to an end and that everything is "opening." As I write in mid-October, not so much ----- the COVID disease took a sudden sharp spike up in Europe and America and many other places as well. Elected officials turned dictators have re-instituted lockdown laws again, often more draconian even than in March and April.

But this just emphasizes the point of the book. The virus sneers at masks, sneers at lockdowns. It's highly contagious and it gets through, as we are seeing. Mr. Tucker is correct that the death rate is not going up as severely as it did before (so far), implying that the virus just wants to spread; it doesn't especially want to kill. All effective viruses become milder: that's how they spread best. On the other hand, Tucker's essays assume throughout that COVID 19 has no worse mortality than Asian Flu or Hong Kong Flu did years ago. But that is not true: the death rate is double that of those flus now and since the disease is spiking into winter, that mortality count may rise.

All the same, the basic point of the book is well taken: the sudden descent of America during four days in March into a police state didn't work to stop the virus. It still isn't working: it just makes everything much, much worse for everyone. The masks, the out-of-work, the pennilessness, the ruin of the economy, the destruction of human relationship, were all far worse than the virus itself, and they didn't stop the virus anyway, they added to its misery. This is what the Tucker book says, and I agree with it.

18 people found this helpful

Helpful

‘Need character, integrity, courage, truth, this perhaps matters more than ideology and knowledge’

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2020

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“The people with everything to gain from the lockdowns had nothing to lose; the people who had nothing to gain lost everything.’’

Really? Why?

“We were all made part of an experimental game, encouraged to see ourselves as bit players on bell-shaped curves we needed to help flatten and viral spreads we needed to slow.’’

This is an experiment!

“We suffered to reduce suffering. We sacrificed to minimize sacrifice. We were banned from gyms for our health, prevented from entering houses of worship for our own edification, stopped from working so that our overlords could do their work on a virus they couldn’t see, and prevented from traveling to stop population movements so that medical professionals could better test, track, and trace us.’’

All in the name of science.

“This pandemic crisis was not only ever about health and economics; at the very onset of this pandemic, we experienced an epistemic meltdown. The core question concerned: knowledge. Information. Accurate information. How deadly was this? What were the risks? How did one become infected? The demographics of fatalities? The geography of the spread? How contagious, how deadly, how could we know, and how could we find out? Who could we trust with such wildly divergent opinions out there?’’

None of these questions could be answered in advance. What to do? Take over the world! Without knowledge.

What’s needed?

“The trouble is that a well-functioning society can create an illusion that it all happens not because of the process but rather because we are so damn smart or maybe we have wise leaders with a good plan. It seems like it must be so, else how could we have become so good at what we do?’’

Right! Someone must have been in charge!

“Hayek’s main point is that it is a mistake to credit individual intelligence or knowledge, much less good governments with brainy leaders, with civilizational achievements; rather, the real credit belongs to institutions and processes that no one in particular controls.

“To understand our civilization,” Hayek writes, “one must appreciate that the extended order resulted not from human design or intention but spontaneously: it arose from unintentionally conforming to certain traditional and largely moral practices, many of which men tend to dislike, whose significance they usually fail to understand, whose validity they cannot prove, and which have nonetheless fairly rapidly spread by means of an evolutionary selection — the comparative increase of population and wealth — of those groups that happened to follow them.”

Hayek lived during WW1. He learned society can and does collapse. Progress is not certain. Destruction simple.

What can we see?

“The seeming intelligence that we had in February suddenly seemed to turn to mush. A better way to understand this is all our smartest institutions and practices were crushed, leaving only raw stupidity in its place. Truth is that we as individuals are probably not much smarter than our ancestors; the reason we’ve made so much progress is due to the increasing sophistication of Hayek’s extended orders of association, signaling, capital accumulation, and technological know-how, none of which are due to wise leaders in government and industry but are rather attributable to the wisdom of the institutions we’ve gradually built over decades, centuries, and a millennia.’’

This takes some thought. Institutional knowledge is not held in any one brain. It’s the lessons borrowed from the past and delivered to the future. Note Tucker recognizes debt owed to people living thousands of years ago! Who was that?

Requires humility, sober judgement, careful analysis. Who does that?

I include table of contents to indicate the wide variety of arguments and interesting subjects.

THE CHOICE AN EPISTEMIC CRISIS
SMART SOCIETY, STUPID PEOPLE
IS IMMUNITY A CASE OF ROTHBARD’S LOST KNOWLEDGE?
THE VIRUS DOESN’T CARE ABOUT YOUR POLICIES
THE BLOODLESS POLITICAL CLASS AND ITS LACK OF EMPATHY
THE RETURN OF BRUTALISM
WHEN WILL THE MADNESS END?
THE CARNAGE WHY DID THEY CLOSE THE SCHOOLS?
THE LOCKDOWNS KILLED THE ARTS
PORCFEST STAYED OPEN
WHAT GOOD COMES FROM THIS TRAGEDY?
THE DAY FIRST-WORLD PROBLEMS BECAME REAL
DELAYED MEDICAL PROCEDURES: STORIES FROM THE FRONT LINES
LOCKDOWN SUICIDE DATA REVEAL PREDICTABLE TRAGEDY
“I’VE LOST FAITH IN HUMANITY”: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TOLL OF THE LOCKDOWN
AUTHORITARIANISM IN AUCKLAND
MADNESS IN MELBOURNE
THE HISTORY THE NEW YORK TIMES REVIVES ITS GRIM PAST
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION OCCURRED IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC
HOW GLOBAL CAPITALISM BOOSTED IMMUNITIES
THE 2006 ORIGINS OF THE LOCKDOWN IDEA
THE 2007 ORIGINS OF FORCED SCHOOL CLOSINGS AND MANDATORY HUMAN SEPARATION
THE TERRIFYING POLIO PANDEMIC OF 1949-52 ELVIS WAS KING, AND 116,000 AMERICANS DIED IN A PANDEMIC
WOODSTOCK OCCURRED IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC
THAT TIME JESUS WAS QUARANTINED
OUR TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD
THE HOPE AMERICA REDISCOVERS EMPATHY
PANDEMICS AND THE LIBERAL PATH
THERE WILL BE BLOWBACK, IN MOSTLY GOOD WAYS
MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO
WE NEED A PRINCIPLED ANTI-LOCKDOWN MOVEMENT

The idea of ‘lost knowledge’ was fascinating . . .

“Rothbard’s entire book is an exercise in discovering lost knowledge. He was fascinated with how A.R.J. Turgot could have written with such clarity about value theory but the later writings of Adam Smith were murky on the topic. He was intrigued that the classical economists were lucid on the status of economic theory but later economists in the 20th century became so confused about it. You could observe the same about free trade doctrine: once it was understood almost universally such that everyone seemed to agree it had to be a priority to build peace and prosperity, and then — poof! — that knowledge seems to have vanished in recent years.’’

I’ve been considering this for some time. I respectful of past thinkers; Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Dante, Pascal, Wycliffe, Tyndale, Newton, Milton, Priestly, Maxwell, Einstein, Servetus, Castillo, Faraday, Duhem, etc., etc.. And all the more as I become familiar with their thought. In fact, modernity revealed as superficial, banal and even dangerous.

One speaker . . .

“Phil Magness delivered a masterful presentation of his research on the failed history of Covid-19 modeling. His focus was on the main proponent of lockdown: the now famous but daily discredited Neil Ferguson and his wild predictions of many millions dead. He more than anyone was responsible for setting off a bandwagon effect of lockdowns that came to the UK and the US, policies which had no significant effects on cases or deaths, wrecked the businesses and lives of millions, hallowed out hospitals with the banning of elective surgeries, and ended up distracting medical professionals from the one thing they could have done to have reduced the death toll: focus on the nursing homes that accounted for 43% of American deaths.’’

Yep, wrong ideas create bad decisions.

And this was a revelation . . .

“Gupta’s claim is that when we live in isolated tribes that are sheltered from exposure, those people gradually become weaker and more vulnerable. The wrong pathogen arrives at the wrong time and the people have not been biologically prepared for it. It wipes them out in shocking ways. But with modern capitalism came the end of such sterile isolation. It gave us new methods of traveling, mixing, associating, moving, and consequently led to more exposure to disease and the resulting antibodies. Hence, it is not just better therapeutics and vaccines that helped us conquer some plagues but immunities themselves. Our biological toolkit for fighting disease became improved simply through travel, trade, and global commerce.’’

Man, you sure don’t hear this very often! What a counter-cultural narrative!

Final page . . .

“This takes us to the final point. Whether this movement is working in the realms of academia, culture, journalism, or politics, there is an absolute urgency that it exercise unrelenting moral courage and integrity. Ferociously. It should be uncompromising on crucial points. It must be willing to speak even when it is unfashionable to do so, even when the media is screaming the opposite, even when the Twitter mob floods your notifications, even when you are shamed for thinking for yourself.’’

Newton, Galileo, Kepler, Boyle, Maxwell, Faraday, started modern science risking rejection, persecution and suffering. These men were devout Christians. Newton, Maxwell and Faraday serious bible students who studied creation as worship of the Creator. Integrity non-negotiable.

“This time around, as you have surely noticed, even the voices of good people with good ideas fell silent in fear. This fear must be banished. The blowback against this despotism will come but it is not enough. We need character, integrity, courage, and truth, and this perhaps matters more than ideology and knowledge.’’

Integrity essential.

“Knowledge without the willingness and courage to speak is useless, because for integrity there is no substitute.’’

This book developed from short articles Tucker wrote during past several months. Each chapter composed in a short, easily absorbed journalistic style. If reader hasn’t been exposed to this alternate narrative, may take some time. In fact, might become sad, disillusioned, and yes, even furious.

Convincing, analytical, persuasive, careful. Not a rant, but, confident, clear and direct. Avoids arrogance without apologizing.

Great!

Nevertheless, extensive references listed in the 223 footnotes (linked)

Tremendous scholarship!

Several charts

No bibliography

No photographs

Recommended

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jim F.

An important, illuminating, and particularly thoughtful collection of short, easily read, well argued perspectives on the pandemic response.

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2020

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I had an interesting paradox of reactions in reading this very worthwhile book. On the one hand, the collective impact of the essays is to render a rather unwelcome reminder of how unevolved and pre disposed to irrational fear and panic our human race remains, even in the midst of such advances in education and insight that have accrued over time. Not a pretty picture. But at the same time, when one is exposed to such an intelligent, courageous, and committed voice as the author's, it renews hope that perhaps we humans might continue moving two steps forward even if we continuously seem unable to avoid the one, sometimes very large, step backward.

Reading this book is a genuine learning experience from a clearly learned writer.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

bellas88

Great explanation of the impact of public policy without foresight

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2020

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There are few books on this topic so far, and I hope more come out in the future. Right now many are compelled by fear to have a myopic view of lockdowns with only one goal in mind -- end the virus. This mentality ignores the litany of collateral damage that will catastrophically harm hundreds of millions of people in the coming year, and outright kill millions in the near future. I highly recommend everyone read this book, and sign the Great Barrington Declaration while you are at it. Let your fear go for a time and let your reason take control again.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Patrick P.

No

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

This should be a must-read for anyone who pays any attention to government’s actions today and who has any interest whatsoever in maintaining what freedoms we have left.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

V. Stone

Packed with Powerful, Useful Information

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2020

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This book written during the lockdowns in the United States. An excellent, well researched view of current events. Helps you make the connection between the past and the present.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

SummerSawe

Glorious Summary of Why Lockdown Policy Was Awful

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

Filled with facts and wrenching anecdotes, this work will enrage those victimized by the tyranny that befell much of the world in 2020 now into 2021. I especially appreciate historical examples of bad pandemics we just toughed out like the 1950s Asian Flu.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Cliente Kindle

A book that Gets better and better

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2021

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I would Love to see a reedition, to see what Jeffrey things about the vaccine, its deployment, the antivaccine movement, the colateral damage of confinement, etc

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Bikerbert

.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

What a great read , it makes me weep to see what governments have imposed on people all over the world. We all need to question what is actually going on and I'm so thankful that people like Jeffrey Tucker are brave enough to stand up and speak out. Thank you Jeffrey Tucker I wish u were in charge .

Rod McNeil

Science doesn't care what you believe!

Reviewed in Canada on March 20, 2021

Verified Purchase

Learn the truth about covid from an author inspired by science, with no hidden agenda. Science doesn't care what you believe!

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