David Gornoski on Anthropology and Liberty

12/22/2017 David Gornoski Jeff Deist

David Gornoski is a Christian libertarian writer, frequently featured at The American Conservative and Foundation for Economic Education. David takes inspiration from the work of the late Stanford professor Rene Girard, whose mimetic theory strongly influenced a young Peter Thiel. David’s goal is to ground libertarianism in cultural anthropology, in particular by applying Girard’s “scapegoat theory” to the modern state. Instead of allowing progressives to dominate arts, film, and literature, libertarians should become the storytellers—and show government for the villain it is.

The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.

Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.