L. K. Samuels
L.K. Samuels
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- L.K. Samuels (born December 7, 1951), also known as Lawrence Samuels, is an
American author, libertarian activist and social chaologist. He is best known as the editor and contributing author of Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer. He coined the phrase “social chaology,” which refers to the studies of complex, holistic, and self- organizing nature of society in relationship to the linear, predatory and “planned chaos” predispositions of government.
Education
- Samuels graduated from Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, California, attended Fullerton
Junior College, and in 1976 earned a bachelor’s degree in commercial art with a minor in journalism from California State University, Fullerton.
Early life
- Samuels was born in Huntington Park, California, and moved two years later to the city of
Fullerton in Orange County, California. He became politically active at Sunny Hills High School after listening to a speech by Dana Rohrabacher, who was later elected to U.S. Congress. Samuels co-organized a chapter of Speak-Out with Bob Conaway, and published an underground newspaper after a chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) became active at his high school. He joined YAF in summer of 1969 and later became the Vice Chairman of Orange County YAF, which had 15-20 affiliate chapters on high schools and college campuses.
Political activities
- After interviewing Robert LeFevre, president of Rampart College in Santa Ana, for a college
newspaper, Samuels organized the Jefferson-Libertarian Caucus within YAF in 1973. In the same year he became the editor and publisher of The New Horizon, an underground newspaper at Fullerton College, while writing columns for the campus newspaper The Hornet. Samuels was briefly the editor-in-chief of the official campus newspaper. At University of California, Fullerton in 1973, Samuels became the founder and chairman of Society for a Libertarian Life (SLL). The student organization sponsored and co-sponsored speeches by Prof. Tibor Machan, Phillip Abbott Luce, Kenneth Gregg, Jr., Prof. George W. Trivoli, George Smith, Prof. Joel Spring, Prof. Nathaniel Brandon, Prof. John Hospers, John Pugsley, Kenneth Grubbs, Jr., Sy Leon, Prof. John Hospers, David Bergland, Robert LeFevre, Jack Matonis, and Karl Bray. SLL published several news journals, The New Libertarian Horizon and later Libertas Review, produced a dozen position papers and spearheaded a draft- card burning demonstration in 1979, which received national attention. Samuels conducted a series of anti-tax demonstrations at IRS offices for almost a decade. In 1979 Samuels organized the Voluntary Census Committee to oppose the decrease of privacy by the 1980 Census with the “Count Me Out” campaign. Society for Individual Liberty (SIL), the largest libertarian organization in the country at the time, awarded SLL and Samuels the 1975-76 “outstanding local libertarian organization” in the nation. In 1978 SLL sponsored a debate between State Senator John Brigs and libertarian gay-rights activist Rev. Eric Garris on Briggs-sponsored Prop. 6. This Californian initiative would have banned homosexuals from teaching in Californian schools. Briggs failed to appear at the debate and was sued by SLL and attorney David Bergland.
- In 1974 Samuels joined the Peace and Freedom Party and was elected to the PFP Central Committee in Orange County. He represented the 39th Congressional district as a delegate to the PFP 1974 convention in Sacramento, which resulted in a split between libertarian and
socialist factions. The libertarian faction was recognized as the legal PFP for almost two years. Samuels worked with feminist-libertarian Elizabeth Keathley’s PFP campaign for California governor in 1974. Samuels was expelled by the socialist faction in 1976 after the entire PFP State Central Committee PFP resigned and joined the Libertarian Party. In 1980 Samuels was instrumental in the founding of Rampart Institute, a 503(c)(3) non-profit, educational foundation and later became of its presidents. Robert LeFevre, founder of Rampart College and Harry Hoiles, the owner of Santa Ana Register, were on its board of directors.Samuels was editor of its quarterly journal Rampart Individualist. Samuels co-managed and later managed the Future of Freedom Conference series for five years (1980-85) in Southern California. The libertarian conference series saw such luminaries as: Prof. Murray Rothbard, Robert LeFevre, Karl Hess, Prof. John Hospers, Irwin Schiff, Prof. David Friedman, Prof. Thomas Szasz, Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Prof. Arthur Laffer, Ray Bradbury, Dr. Demento, Assemblyman Dennis Brown, and others. In 1992, Samuels sold his typesetting and graphics business and moved to Monterey County. He became involved in real estate and real estate investment and served as Northern Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party of California (2003-2007). An occasional writer for lewrockwell.com and Campaign for Liberty, he is one of the four founders of the Foundation to End Drug Unfairness Polices (FED-UP), an anti-drug war organization that sponsors speeches by Jack Herer, Ed Rosenthal, Judge Jim Gray, Valerie Corral, and Lynnette Shaw, and provided support to medical marijuana clinics. In 2008 he was elected chairman of the Project Area Committee (PAC), a citizens committee to advise the Seaside Redevelopment Agency and the city of Seaside over eminent domain issues. Samuels is the winner of the 2007 Karl Bray Memorial Award, presented by the Samuel Adams Society.
- Samuels was active in the anti-war movement during the second war in Iraq, organizing peace
rallies and speeches, mostly under Libertarians for Peace and the Peace Coalition of Monterey County. Samuels designed the “porcupeace” logo in 2008, which displays a peace symbol inside of a porcupine, created to give libertarians their own peace symbol. His unpublished novel about 17th Century Ireland – Ferret: The Reluctant King -- won "Honorable Mention" at the East of Eden Writers Conference held in Salinas in 2002. A forthcoming book, In Defense of Chaos: the Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action is planned to be published in 2011.
Quotes
- “Government succeeds by failing.” (In Defense of Chaos: the Chaology of Politics, Economics
and Human Action)
- “Ideology follows the money.” (In Defense of Chaos: the Chaology of Politics, Economics and
Human Action)
Bibliography
Facets of Liberty: A Libertarian Primer, Freedom Press and Rampart Institute, 2nd edition, 2009, first published 1985. ISBN 978-0-578--00310-8
References
1. www.Freedom1776.com
2. www.fedupfreedom.org