Philosophy and Methodology

Pat Buchanan’s remarkable book expresses a distinctively nationalist thesis; and, as a conscientious reviewer in good standing, I shall of course say something about it. 

Mark Twain wrote long ago, but he seems at least as insightful about the government abuses we experience today as he was of those he observed directly. And the defense of liberty in modern America, with a government that has ballooned far beyond anything he could have anticipated, would certainly benefit from a healthy new dose of the same patriotic irreverence that animated Twain.

To make a transition from statism to the market economy means a complete revolution in economic and political life, writes Lew Rockwell, from one where the state and its interests rule to a system where the power of the state plays no role. Freedom is not a public-policy option. It is the end of public policy itself.

In a recent article, New York Times writer Paul Krugman puts out a clever analysis of state demographics. He alleges that the pro-Bush states have more crime, divorce, single moms and net-tax eaters than the pro-Gore states. Krugman's analytic knife, however, doesn’t cut deeply enough to get to the truth of the matter.

Pity the businessman who hires someone just out of school! Most graduating seniors have lived a lush life in college, after living a lazy life in high school, and a goof-off life before that.

Many consider Walt Whitman America's greatest poet, and his Leaves of Grass the most influential poetry volume in American literature. But Whitman's poetic celebration of individual freedom is not limited to his poetry.  It is also reflected in the all-but-overlooked prose he penned during his extensive career as a journalist and editor.
 

Richard Ebeling writes: The rejection of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes around the world has represented a rebirth of the ideal of the democratic order. It is important to remember, however, that "self-government" can mean and has meant two different, but complementary ideals.

In this previously unpublished piece, Murray Rothbard argues that the the silliest of demagogues are a great servant of reason, even when mostly in the wrong.

It was the achievement of Ludwig von Mises to recreate in his time the radical program of early liberalism, i.e., the realizing of individual freedom, peace, and prosperity through limitations on state power, individual rights, and an economy based on private property. A state pursuing vengeance, he believed, threatens liberty itself.

For those who have seen A Beautiful Mind, be assured that the strategizing--in which Russell Crowe instructs his friends that the only way to success is for them all to ignore the pretty girl and focus instead on her plainer friends--does not constitute a true Nash equilibrium. Even if all the boys would be better off if they all ignored the pretty blonde, there would still be an incentive for each one to deviate from the pact and approach her.