David F.
Nolan is famous among libertarians for two major achievements. He's a
co-founder of the Libertarian Party -- in fact, that party was formed in
his own living room in 1971.
Plus, he's the creator of the "Nolan Chart" -- basis for
the Advocates for Self-Government's world-famous World's Smallest
Political Quiz.
In addition, Nolan has a long history of important political activism
and leadership, dating back to the early days of the modern libertarian
movement. He's played countless roles as a libertarian leader and
grassroots activist since the mid-1960's.
The following profile of David Nolan appeared in the Summer 1996
issue of The Liberator, magazine of the Advocates for Self-Government.
Nolan: Innovator for Liberty
by James W. Harris
Rare indeed is the person who hatches an idea that changes the
thinking of millions of people.
Meet a man who's birthed two such breakthrough ideas: David F. Nolan.
Dave is a well-known figure to Advocates and other libertarians. He's
the man who, after all, came up with the watershed insight -- the
"Nolan Chart" -- that is the basis for the World's Smallest
Political Quiz.
Dave is also renowned as one of the Founding Fathers of America's
largest and most successful third party, the Libertarian Party. In fact,
that party was born in Dave's own Colorado living room 25 years ago.
Talk about having an impact!
Belly of the Beast
Ironically, for one who would come to oppose so much of the modern
state, Dave was born in the heart of Big Government USA -- Washington
D.C.. He grew up in nearby Maryland suburbs. He describes himself as
having been a born libertarian -- "I think I was just born with
that streak in me."
As a youth he was an avid reader of science fiction, which led him to
the writings of libertarian Robert Heinlein, the first major influence
on his political thinking. Later, encountering Ayn Rand's writings
helped cement his innate libertarianism.
In the early '60's Dave entered M.I.T., first as an architectural
student, then switching to major in political science. It was in 1963
that Dave first became politically active, and his political odyssey
would parallel the growth of the modern libertarian movement to a
remarkable degree.
In the early '60's there was virtually no libertarian movement as we
know it today. Republican Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign,
with its emphasis on limited government (aided by the fiery rhetoric of
his libertarian speechwriter Karl Hess), was a natural draw for nascent
libertarians looking to change the world. Dave was one of many
libertarians attracted to that campaign.
He became a founding member of M.I.T. Students for Goldwater. Largely
due to his efforts, the chapter rapidly grew to become the largest Youth
for Goldwater chapter in New England. In recognition of this achievement
Dave was appointed Vice-Chair of Massachusetts Youth for Goldwater.
Dave also became involved with the Liberty Amendment Committee, an
organization working to repeal the federal income tax and get the
federal government out of all activities not specifically authorized by
the U.S. Constitution.
Dave was named National Youth Coordinator for the Liberty Amendment
Committee, and -- again demonstrating a flair for nuts-and-bolts
political organizing -- he built a network of more than 600 youthful
supporters for the Amendment.
(Interesting sidenote: it was during his activities with the Liberty
Amendment Committee that Dave first met Harry Browne -- current LP
presidential candidate -- who was then editor of the Committee's
bi-monthly publication, Freedom Magazine.)
In late 1968, the Liberty Amendment Youth Council was dissolved. Dave
turned over a copy of the organization's membership list to another
young libertarian he'd met, Jarret Wollstein, who used it to launch the
Society for Rational Individualism (SRI), one of the first modern
libertarian organizations in America. SRI quickly evolved into the
Society for Individual Liberty (SIL), for years one of the most
important organizations in the liberty movement. In 1989, SIL merged
with Libertarian International and Groundswell-USA to become the
International Society for Individual Liberty that we know today.
During the 1960s, Dave was also active in the Young Americans for
Freedom and the Young Republicans. But as the presidency of Richard
Nixon unfolded, horrors like the Vietnam War, crackdowns on civil
liberties, and increasing restrictions on economic freedom convinced
Dave that the GOP held no real hope for true lovers of freedom. In 1971,
he wrote a breakthrough article for SIL's monthly magazine, The
Individualist, entitled "The Case for a Libertarian Political
Party."
The same month that article appeared -- August, 1971 -- Richard Nixon
went on television to announce that he was demonetizing the dollar and
imposing a "freeze" on wages and prices in the United States
-- a move Dave denounced as "economic fascism."
Disgusted, Dave and a group of his friends in Colorado decided to
explore the idea of forming a new political party, one dedicated to the
consistent defense of individual liberty. Over the next four months,
they contacted other libertarians around the country, and on December
11, 1971 -- in Dave Nolan's living room -- the Libertarian Party was
born.
The Quiz Is Conceived
During this same time period, Dave gave a lot of thought as to just
how his own politics, and those of other libertarians he met, differed
from conservatives and liberals. Much of his political work was with
conservatives. Yet on issues of personal freedom, and opposition to the
Vietnam War, he found himself frequently allied with liberals.
"I kept scratching my head and wondering why people like us
agreed with conservatives on a lot of things, but obviously had
fundamental disagreements with conservatives on a lot of other issues.
And why were there areas where we could see that liberals made sense --
especially opposition to war and draft?"
Dave realized, "We're not really with either group." So, he
wondered: "What's the root of this tension, this difference?"
It was obvious to him that the standard left-right divisions of
politics didn't make sense. Then his dual academic specialties --
architecture and political science -- pushed him to a unique insight.
"Having an engineering/architectural background, and wanting to
look at things in a quantified analytical manner, and being used to
things like graphs and charts, I began to doodle around with the idea of
trying to reduce the political universe to a graphical depiction.
"I thought, 'Maybe we can delineate this on some kind of map,
using a two-axis graph.' As far as I could determine, no one had ever
taken that kind of engineering/analytical/graphical approach to the
world of political beliefs."
Dave played with the concept until he designed what would later be
known as "the Nolan Chart" -- the famous two-axis political
grid that is embodied in the Advocates' Diamond Chart today.
In the summer of 1970 he wrote an article on this new political map.
"Classifying and Analyzing Political-Economic Systems"
appeared in the January 1971 issue of SIL's newsletter The
Individualist.
That article touched off a flurry of discussion over the next couple
of years, with people making suggestions for changes and improvements,
discussing the usefulness of the chart, criticizing it, praising it, and
so on. It was clear he had hit on something special.
But then, Dave says, "the discussion died down... the idea
didn't completely disappear, but it drifted into a kind of
semi-obscurity for several years."
Marshall to the Rescue!
That obscurity ended abruptly when Advocates Founder Marshall Fritz
-- searching for new, effective ways to communicate libertarian ideas --
became excited by the chart's possibilities in the early 1980's.
Marshall spearheaded the effort that led to the Nolan Chart being
transformed into what is today The World's Smallest Political Quiz.
"Marshall essential resurrected the Chart," Dave says.
"Marshall saw its value as a recruiting and promotional and
mind-changing tool more clearly than anybody else ever had, perhaps even
more than I had.
"Marshall dusted it off, refined it, fine-tuned it, and started
promoting it. And thanks to Marshall's efforts, it took off."
During the past decade, the Quiz has reached millions of people.
Nearly 3 million paper copies alone have been printed. It's appeared in
different languages, has been incorporated into textbooks and
classrooms, and is available to the whole world via computer disks and
the Internet. It's come a long way!
Why Does the Quiz Work?
Asked the reason for the Quiz's appeal, Dave speculates. "I've
observed that, in some way, when you first take the Quiz, it performs a
sort of irreversible change in your brain -- once you've seen the map of
the two-dimensional grid rather than the old straight line, you can't go
back to the straight line. You can't unlearn that process. So the Quiz
does something fundamental to change the thinking process, in a very
small way -- it flips a switch that can't go back."
The integrity of the quiz is another reason for its success, he says.
"You can take the Quiz as a raving socialist, come out a socialist,
and still realize that this is a better view of the political world than
the one you've been using."
Whatever the reasons, there's no doubting the effectiveness of the
little tool.
"In a space of 25 years, to have in this country and,
increasingly, throughout the world, a new model come in and make
significant inroads -- that's pretty fast," he notes. "In
another generation the old left-right model perhaps will be gone."
Recognition
Dave is still active in both organizations that he played such
crucial early roles in. He's a strong supporter of the Advocates and
serves on the informal advisory board that reviews significant proposed
changes to the Quiz.
He's served the Libertarian Party in countless ways. He was the
party's first National Chair and the first editor of their newspaper. He
has chaired the National Platform Committee three times, and has also
chaired the Judicial Committee "for longer than anyone can
remember." He is one of only two people who has attended every LP
National Convention to date -- the other is 1980 presidential candidate
Ed Clark -- and he says he plans to continue doing so "at least
until Ed misses one."
Both organizations have recognized his achievements. In 1989, the
Advocates gave Dave a plaque honoring his pathbreaking insight. And this
year, at the Libertarian Party national convention, Dave was the first
winner of the Thomas Jefferson award, given by party members for
"outstanding lifetime achievement in the cause of liberty."
Optimism
Dave is pleased by the rapidly-growing acceptance of libertarian
ideas, and that makes him optimistic about the future of liberty.
"We're definitely picking up a lot of velocity, and that's the
cumulative effect of all the work that all of us have done." He
points to the Advocates list of "64 Libertarian Organizations"
(published in the previous Liberator) and notes jokingly, "There
are more organizations on that list than there were libertarians 25
years ago. That's an indication of the huge degree of acceptance of our
ideas.
"I think we're going to see a major turning point in the very
near future, the first decade of the next century. The struggle between
the forces of control and the forces of liberty is rapidly moving
towards a climax, but I think that we're gaining ground rapidly enough
that we're going to win."
When that victory comes, Dave Nolan will rank high among those whose
names are celebrated for helping bring about a rebirth of liberty in
America.
Nolan on the Advocates:
"The Advocates is a great organization which I highly recommend
to people who want to support libertarian organizations outside the
Libertarian Party. Along with the LP, you are reaching people
one-one-one better than anyone else. You're tilling the soil, sowing the
seeds that other organizations in the libertarian movement are reaping
the benefits from."
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