Paul Rosenberg

Sunni: I am so sorry about that. And it really is my fault in part. I was—very uncharacteristically—nervous about the situation, and stupidly held myself at a distance from a lot of people and opportunities there. Since then I’ve become aware of doing that in certain public situations, and rarely am such an idiot these days—well, at least not an idiot in that way. [laughs]

Paul: [laughing] Well, acting like an idiot is something that happens to us all, unfortunately. It’s leaving it behind that’s important.

Sunni: Yeah, I agree. But, back to the story, now we seem to go off into the weeds. I didn’t hear from you for quite some time [pauses] but someone somewhere decided to send me a copy of a book to consider reviewing. That book was A Lodging of Wayfaring Men, which I read, and enjoyed enough to review it. One of the most intriguing elements of the book was that it was attributed simply to Anonymous or something like that.

Paul: Yep, that’s right, the author was “Anonymous”.

Sunni: Probably like everyone who read the book, I tried to uncover the identity of this mysterious author, but failed. I never did let go of that curiosity; I don’t imagine that I know every pro-freedom author around, but while working at FMN I got acquainted with a lot of them, and not being able to solve the mystery niggled at my mind for quite some time [pauses] usually in odd moments of contemplation or when my brain wouldn’t wind down for sleep. Even so, I was very surprised to hear from you earlier this year, totally out of the blue—and you were telling me that you’d written the book! All this time I knew the author but didn’t know it. Damn, Paul, you’re good as a man of mystery! [laughs] But seriously, I can’t really be too hard on myself for not twigging you, because I don’t know you very well. So before we unravel the story surrounding A Lodging of Wayfaring Men more, what would you like to share by way of an introduction to yourself?

Paul: Umm [pauses] It’s funny, I never quite know what to say to that question. I really don’t like tags. If you allow people to use them, they stop seeing you, the person. Instead, they see you as an object in a category. But, since there’s no good way around that in these situations, I’ll give you the basics.

Sunni: [laughs] Fair enough, since I resist labels too!

Paul: I’m an ethnic kid from the north side of Chicago, raised by nice parents in a nice neighborhood. My business ventures have usually revolved around the construction trades, though not entirely. In fact, I’m still involved with the construction business, mostly in the electrical trades.

Sunni: So you’re an entrepreneur! Did you get started via a family business?

Paul: Yes and no. My dad was a roofing contractor, doing flat roofs, not shingles. Tar and gravel—usually fairly large projects. I was pretty deeply involved with that during my teenage years. Then I went into the electrical field on my own. I was an electrician, though I moved into management fairly quickly.

Sunni: Which do you like better—the electrical work or the management work?

Paul: Both have their pleasant aspects, but I really don’t do much of either anymore, though I do sometimes miss them.

Sunni: How are you staying involved, then?

Paul: I write the books and magazines that they read. This is professional-level stuff, so you may never have seen it. I’m an expert witness as well, which is the most interesting work.

Sunni: I can imagine that is. I’ll try to come back to that. Back to the story, though. How did you discover the Eris Society? And is it fair to infer from your longtime participation that you are at least a little libertarian? I know not everybody is, but many of us seem to be ...

Paul: More than a little libertarian, for sure. I come down in the free-market anarchist camp—which is the only truly moral way for men to arrange their affairs upon earth. Though, like most, I have minor disagreements with other ancap folks on small points.