The battle for liberty is in the end a battle over ideas, writes Jude Blanchette. If the last testament of one of the last great socialists of our time is any indication, the struggle for freedom and capitalism is indeed a hopeful one. And yet, while the world can live without the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu, it could use his sense of passion.
With his lack of principles and scruples, Churchill was involved in one way or another in nearly every disaster that befell the 20th century, writes Adam Young. He helped destroy laissez-faire liberalism, he played a role in the Crash of 1929, he helped start WWI, and by bringing in America to help, prolonged the war and created the conditions for the rise of Nazism, prolonged WWII, laid the groundwork for Soviet domination, helped involve America in a cold war with Russia, and pioneered in the development of total war and undermining western civilized standards.
An extraordinary and wide ranging interview with Hans-Hermann Hoppe: "The apologists of the central state claim that a proliferation of independent political units would lead to economic disintegration and impoverishment. Today, however, manny small countries are all wealthier than their surroundings. Moreover, theoretical reflection also shows that this claim is just another statist myth."
Our public institutions routinely celebrate politicians as heroes and parade them before school children as examples of great community leaders. Tibor Machan doubts the underlying assumption. Members of a city council, especially in major cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, are as a rule undeserving of special respect. They do not hold honorable professions.
Jim Bovard is, without a doubt, the best political researcher-writer in politics today, say Karen De Coster. While most writers add a few footnotes to their writing, Bovard adds some first-rate writing to his immaculate set of footnotes. He doesn't make wild judgments or blanket allegations. Instead, he provides an encyclopedia’s worth of timely quotes laid out in chronological fashion, to funnel the reader through an extensive framework of US government double-dealing, coercion, corruption, and propaganda milling.
Traditionally in the US, the management of the social apparatus of compulsion and coercion, or government, is brought to power by an election in which the majority vote attains dominion. Individuals living in such a democratic republic are mollified by blindly assuming that such a form of government is "rule by the people," as indoctrinated.
These are fascinating times in Germany, writes Frank Vogelgesang. In the country which is one of the last survivors of the classic European welfare state and, arguably, the one with the most encompassing public redistribution machine in the name of "social justice," some legal reforms came in early December of last year. Some commentators call the changes revolutionary, while others say they are just smoke and mirrors. What gives?
What possible difference can another book make? Why should anyone care about the message of one book as compared with its many millions of competitors? It comes down to this, writes Lew Rockwell. Though there is an astounding proliferation of words in our time, there is a drastic shortage of something that is essential to the survival of civilization: defenses of liberty against its ubiquitous enemies and its main enemy, the state.
Today's neocons genuinely believe that the key to durable peace is establishing democracies throughout the world. Two problems here: first, it will require lots of warring and, second, even if achieved it will fail because peace depends on governments abandoning unlimited interventionism. As Mises said, "The tragic error of President Wilson was that he ignored this essential point."
