Karl Hess

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Karl Hess

Karl Hess (May 25, 1923–April 22, 1994), was an American political philosopher and libertarian anarchist. Throughout his life, he was a speechwriter, editor, motorcyclist, hippie, welder, sculptor, atheist, tax resister. His career included stints on both the Republican right, the New Left, and anarcho-capitalism.

Biography

Hess 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 was 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). By age 18 he was assistant city editor of the Washington Daily News. He was later an editor for Newsweek and The Fisherman. Next, 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 (who subsequently hired him as a speechwriter and nicknamed him "Shakespeare") and many other Republicans.

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. Raised as a Roman Catholic, he took a summer job as an autopsy assistant; that experience led him to conclude that there was no God.

Karl Hess has two sons, Karl and Eric Hess.

Political activities

As a one-time speechwriter for Barry Goldwater, Hess's explorations of ideology and politics drew 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 he revealed it was originally 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.

Following the 1964 presidential campaign in which Lyndon Johnson trounced Barry Goldwater, Hess became disillusioned with traditional politics and became more radical. To all who would listen he criticized big business, suburban American hypocrisy and the military-industrial complex. Though well beyond his teens, he joined Students for a Democratic Society, worked with the Black Panther Party and protested the Vietnam War. After parting with the Republicans in '64, he went to work as a heavy-duty welder; Democratic President Johnson, apparently displeased with all prominent Republicans, ordered an audit of Hess by the IRS . 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, forcing him to try living by barter and otherwise relying on his wife, Therese, for financial support. Remarkably, Hess was never incarcerated on this matter, probably due to astute, pro bono legal representation and his status as a folk hero. Another turning point came for him in 1968, when Richard Nixon became president and Barry Goldwater became a senator. Hess, no longer a Republican but still a writer, composed some speeches for Goldwater; when his old friend won a senate seat, Hess strongly urged him to submit legislation abolishing conscription. Goldwater's reply was, "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 couldn't accept the notion that Goldwater would defer to Nixon. That moment injured one of Hess's closest friendships and ended a valued professional association.

From 1969 to 1971 Hess was the Washington editor of Murray Rothbard's Libertarian Forum.

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 that brought together activists from both the Old Right and the New Left in what was emerging as a nascent libertarian movement [1]. In the '80s, Hess joined the Libertarian Party (founded in 1971), and served as editor of its newspaper from 1986 to 1990.

Back to the lander

Hess wrote an account of an experiment that he and several friends and colleagues launched to bring self-built and self-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.

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.

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."

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

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

See also

• Appropriate technology
• Back to the land

External links

• 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
• More on Hess Blog post containing excerpts from the 1976 Playboy interview with Karl Hess