Caryn Ann Harlos unintentionally became a rallying figure for the reformation of the Libertarian Party last year when she exposed ongoing ideological cowardice and institutional corruption at the highest levels while serving as the National Secretary of the Libertarian Party. In an act of political vengeance, a super-majority of the rest of the Libertarian National Committee conspired and succeeded in removing from her position in a kangaroo hearing. While disliked for her action by her LNC colleagues, she became a hero to many of the rank and file for standing up for integrity and championing those whose rights were being violated by those in greater positions of power. Her story is a remarkable one of ordinary people simply standing for what is right, even at great personal cost, and inspiring others to make bold changes in the political landscape. The story has a happy ending as her prior removal was declared null and void by the delegates at the 2022 Libertarian Party National Convention due to the denial of her due process rights. Her message is simple but hard: Don’t ever compromise your integrity though it may cost you dearly. Don’t be afraid.
In addition to continuing to serve as the National Secretary of the Libertarian Party and Libertarian National Committee, Caryn Ann is regular speaker at Libertarian conventions, local activist, and host of the Pink Flame of Liberty YouTube channel where she concentrates on Libertarian Party politics and Party history.
The title of Caryn Ann’s talk is “And having done all… to stand” : You never know when a time of severe testing will come. It may never, but ordinary people exhibiting courage can and do make a difference. And if enough of us merely stand, we will change the world.
The Potential Monumental Significance of Caryn Ann’s Integrity
Those of us fortunate enough to understand and thus greatly appreciate freedom hope that somehow freedom comes quickly, that somehow, as the great free-market economist Murray Rothbard daydreamed, we could push some magical button that could immediately bring freedom. Who knows, perhaps Joe Rogan’s friend, the best-selling author and financial advisor Peter Schiff goes on Joe’s show another time and somehow Joe becomes a fabulous explainer of free-market economics and quickly educates and persuades other famous people and some intellectual revolution happens that way, or maybe another one of Joe Rogan’s friends, the increasingly popular and knowledgeable libertarian comedian Dave Smith likewise turns Joe into a fervent free-marketeer. That would be nice. We don’t know or can predict how we will have freedom, but we do know that without freedom man will self-destroy as we are constantly seeing all around us with the CovidMania and countless other government and thus ‘Central Planning’-created calamities. Consider the following, in August 10, 1915, British physicist Henry Mosely, who would have probably won the Nobel Prize that year, died in perhaps the most disastrous error mankind has thus far made, The First World War (1914–18). Bright and pious fellow homo sapiens that had absorbed German-French-British-Russian “identities”… students, fathers, engineers, “great minds” and “experts”, who even shared a common European Christian faith, reverted to their tribal ape-like nature, and for God, honor, flag and country, slaughtered each other leading to about 18 million deaths and millions more left invalid. At 7:30 am July 1st, 1916 the ‘Battle of the Somme’ began. On this single day, just the British alone, had about 20,000 fatalities and 35,000 wounded. On that day a British soldier was either killed or wounded on average every second. Why did this happen? And if it was such a big deal at the time, worth sacrificing so much, how come hardly anybody knows anything about it today? 20 years later via World War Two the tribalistic slaughter led to over 80 million deaths and what followed was a “Cold War” that brought homo sapiens close to nuclear annihilation several times. Why were our “great leaders” and “intellectuals” utterly powerless to prevent, and were in-fact the promoters of the WWI/II slaughters? It is easy to see that the very same simplistic and tribalistic ‘good vs. evil’ mindset is one again getting homo sapiens ready for what may surely be the final World War when we see the increasing world-wide polarization emerging from the Russia-Ukraine war and ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict. These slaughters and continuing warmongering is the inevitable result of the public’s ignorance of how freedom really works. As long as their ignorance persists and is properly reflected in government via our democratic process, so will the calamities. As F.A. Hayek tells us:
“Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one’s government is not necessarily to secure freedom.”
And also Ludwig von Mises:
“… in the field of social organization and economic policies. Here the best theories are useless if not supported by public opinion. They cannot work if not accepted by a majority of the people…in the end the philosophy of the majority prevails. In the long run there cannot be any such thing as an unpopular system of government…The supremacy of public opinion…determines the whole process of human history… great men cannot succeed in adjusting social conditions to their plans if they do not convince public opinion.”
Now….but…if somehow the Libertarian Party plays a vital role in educating the public and thus bringing freedom and the world-wide peace and prosperity we can have, Caryn Ann Harlos’ wisdom, integrity, courage and moral fortitude may have played a civilization-saving role. During the last 4 or so years, the so-called Libertarian Party’s Mises Caucus had been using freedom and emerging competition of ideas to succeed at persuading other libertarians to join their ranks. The LPMC’s association with great free-market scholars like Tom Woods, Ron Paul, and the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s president Jeff Deist, has led to a vital focus on sound economics as preached by the real intellectual giants of freedom, the so-called ‘Austrian School of Economics’ with the great Ludwig von Mises being their namesake. The economically enlightened LPMC has had a laser-like focus on how money-creation via central banking and thus the Federal Reserve and other world central banks are responsible for the inflation and disastrous government growth and financing of wars. Also, the involvement of great scholars associated with the Libertarian Institute like Scott Horton, providing an in-depth understanding of America’s disastrous foreign policy, numerous wars, and complex ramifications of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, had helped mold the LPMC into an intellectual beacon within the LP which was out-competing the existing leadership. Armed with sound economics and history, the LPMC had been spreading ideas needed to actually understand and fix our problems and attracting people with a fervor to make a difference that had been lacking in the LP for many years. Unfortunately per above, many within the old LP leadership resorted to fraud in various attempts to stymie a changing of the guard, and had it not been for Caryn Ann’s principled stand which exposed the frauds at great personal cost, there is a good chance that whatever good that may eventually come out of the better educated Mises-Caucusfied LP, may not have happened. Again, it would be great if freedom comes tomorrow through some currently unknown means and the Libertarian Party is no longer worth investing time and effort in, but if it really does play a significant role in the necessary education of Americans needed to bring freedom and prosperity, then Caryn Ann was like an Atlas who carried justice and principle and thus the fate of the world on her shoulders when it was desperately needed. At Liberty Speaks we believe we have a keen eye on what is vital and the people who have played vital roles and we are thrilled that she will come to our event to tell her story and make other contributions.
