R.G. Collingwood, a philosopher, historian, and archaeologist who taught at Oxford in the first half of the twentieth century, was much esteemed by Ludwig von Mises, especially for his essay “Economics as a Philosophical Science” and, more generally, for his work in the philosophy of history. In this week’s column, I’d like to consider a point that Collingwood makes in his “Fascism and Nazism,” published in Philosophy in 1940, that helps us answer a vital question that confronts us today.

Leonard Read, founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, had very clear views about the legitimate role of laws—solely to restrain harms to individuals’ and their rights, since going farther than that “night watchman” role necessarily violated some citizens’ rights. In fact, in his October 1, 1969, “Read’s Law” article in The Freeman, he even rode a wave of eponymous laws to create a law about fidelity to that principle:

In the research paper Egalitarianism and the Elites, published in 1995 in the Review of Austrian Economics, one of Murray Rothbard’s most brilliant insights was that even the implementation of an egalitarian society requires leadership. As the fall of one system to the implementation of a new model of society cannot come out of nowhere, someone must command and lead this process. And naturally, these leaders will occupy powerful positions.

College should be a place where academics can educate and mold the minds of our future scientists, doctors, and leaders. For far too long, however, American universities have been dominated by a culture of tyranny and complicity in having our rights stricken from us. I am, of course, talking about the individual rights to freedom of speech and the right to assemble on campus.

Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is colloquially defined as insanity, per a quote attributed to Albert Einstein. Call me insane, but I wince whenever I hear this. As a rule of thumb, it’s fine but it can be slippery. I’m reminded of another quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus who is alleged to have said, “A man cannot step into the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.”

America’s “monthly federal deficit hit a record $249 billion in November—$57 billion more than the same month last year—with federal spending also hitting new heights in consecutive months, while tax revenues dropped,” reports the London Daily Mail.