George H. Smith and Marilyn Moore have done a terrific job compiling this varied selection of essays on individualism. Some of the writers may be known to the general public - people like John Stuart Mill, Oscar Wilde, Michel de Montaigne, St. Augustine, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Robert G. Ingersoll. Others may be known to libertarians … Continue reading The Best Defenses of Individualism in One Book
Category: Liberty
Most Americans, whether liberal or conservative, Democratic or Republican, do not show much understanding or respect for the principles of personal liberty. We criticize our political leaders, but we must recognize that their behavior simply reflects the values of people who elected them to office. That means we are all to blame for greater governmental … Continue reading Are You Really Pro-Liberty? Here Are a Few Tests.
Most people are aware of the influence of Karl Marx and his ideological compatriots in building 20th-century totalitarianism. But there is another tradition of thought, dating from the early 19th century and continuing through the interwar period, that took a different route in coming to roughly the same conclusions regarding the place of the state … Continue reading Five Forgotten Champions of the Total State
1. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) A tyrannical Empire threatens the freedom of its people and uses mind control, torture, propaganda, and force (including The Force) to destroy their way of life and even an entire religion. There’s no way this could happen on our planet, only in a faraway galaxy… right? Empire … Continue reading Ten Classic Films with a Libertarian Twist
In 1762, agents of the king of England entered John Entick’s house without his consent, searched it from top to bottom, and seized documents and other printed materials. Entick was not accused of a crime; rather, the king’s men were in search of allies and materials associated with John Wilkes, an outspoken critic of the … Continue reading At Odds With History: States Seize Control of Civil Asset Forfeiture
Wikileaks has just published over 8,000 files they say were leaked from the CIA, explaining how the CIA developed the capacity to spy on you through your phone, your computer, and even your television. And Wikileaks’s Julian Assange claims these “Vault 7” documents are just one percent of all the CIA documents they have. The … Continue reading Why You’re Being Watched
Ever since governments began banning and licensing different parts of the economy, the black market has made sure people still have access to the things they need. Unstable governments always turn on their own citizens using price controls, heavy taxes, and even the threat of imprisonment to prop up their failing systems. As conditions inevitably deteriorate, … Continue reading How the Black Market Is Saving Two Countries from Their Governments
From Radical Revolutionaries to Privileged Bureaucrats The great German sociologist, Max Weber (1864-1920) offered an understanding of the evolution of socialist regimes in the twentieth century from revolutionary radicalism to a stagnant system of power, privilege and plunder, manned by self-interested Soviet socialist office holders. Max Weber, in his posthumously published monumental treatise, Economy and … Continue reading How Communism Became the Disease It Tried to Cure
As conversations swirl on Capitol Hill and across the nation regarding the repeal of Obamacare and Medicaid reform, I would like to describe Maine’s success in reducing Medicaid enrollment by 24 percent in the last five years and why our experience is relevant to the ongoing debate. In our corner of the United States, we … Continue reading Maine Rejected Medicaid Expansion and Found Success. Now, House Health Bill Would Send Us Backward.
The idea of communism – the common sharing of productive property and its resulting output – is as old as the ancient Greeks and Plato’s conception of the ideal Republic in which the guardians all live and work in common under the presumption that a radical change in the social institutional setting will transform men … Continue reading Socialism Requires a Dictator
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