Apple’s products seem light years ahead of the competition. By the time the competition starts getting vaguely close to making a product that approximates its excellence and elegance, Apple announces the new thing that is more astonishing than ever, and the whole thing starts again.
[Excerpted from chapter 2 of Society Without Coercion, 1969]
Government is, by definition, a “social monopoly of force.” The greatest instrumentalities of force which have ever been assembled, the police forces and armies of the world, are at the disposal of governments. With these great agencies of force at their disposal, the potential ability of governments to violate the rights of the individual is accordingly great and indeed it is easy to see that they have done so.
The review in the New York Times Book Review (July 11, 1971) by one of the educational establishment is an example.
[Libertarian Forum, 1971]
“Revolution” has been defined, by all too many libertarians, as well as by most other people, as simply massive acts of direct violence.
But “revolution” is really the application of Aristotelian final causality to the process of social and political change, and should not be confused with throwing bricks or any other random acts of violence. But what does this mean?
My wife and I just celebrated the birth of a beautiful, brown-haired boy. During the night, as I was waiting for nature to run its course, I walked around observing the maternity unit of our chosen hospital.
Though this was our seventh trip there, as I ambled about, something caught my eye for the very first time. There next to the door to labor and delivery was a framed license — an Ohio maternity license.
Wow, I thought. I hadn’t even bothered to verify that the hospital was licensed by the state. What if it hadn’t been? Caveat emptor, I suppose.
[This article is excerpted from An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought, vol. 1, Economic Thought Before Adam Smith. An audio version of this Mises Daily, read by Jeff Riggenbach, is available as a free download.]
