The philosopher Jürgen Habermas died on March 14. In the assessment of David Gordon, Habermas “totally subordinate[d] philosophy to Marxist ideological propaganda” and was a social theorist who pushed a “brand of radical social democracy.” His goal was to “extend the welfare state in a radical fashion that will end up in socialism.”
In a July 2025, Gordon provides a summary of Habermas’s views:
As we begin a new week, the media is filled with reports that President Trump is ready to approve a US ground operation against Iran, either to seize Iran’s uranium or to attack an island off the country’s coast. Thousands of US troops have sped to the conflict area to await President Trump’s decision.
The President is on the verge of making a serious mistake to add to a series of deadly mistakes that have characterized this terrible war of choice against Iran. A US ground operation against Iran would only achieve the death of thousands of US servicemembers.
Last Saturday, the third so-called “No Kings” protest took place in cities across the US. Left-leaning protestors again took to the streets to show everyone how much they oppose Trump.
The Walmart Recession Signal (WRS), which measures Walmart’s stock price against a basket of luxury stocks, shows high risk of a sharp economic downturn.
On May 28th, the 10th annual Austrian Economics Meeting Europe will be held at Western Catholic University in Angers, France. Started by European Mises University alumni, the AEME is a research conference dedicated to the Austrian tradition, where participants have an opportunity to engage with contemporary research from scholars around the world.
Confirmed keynote speakers include Michael Esfeld (University of Lausanne), Nathalie Janson (NEOMA Business School), and Nikolay Gertchev (University of Angers.)
“...the power of the state expands and the liberty of the citizen contracts.”
Karl Marx believed machines would eventually turn workers into something disposable. In The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels wrote that industrial labor had already reduced the worker to “a mere appendage of the machine.” In Capital, Marx argued that machinery would create a permanent “industrial reserve army” of unemployed workers. As automation increased, workers would lose bargaining power while capital consolidated control. The proletariat would become poorer and more desperate.
The ongoing destruction of the world’s largest natural-gas reservoir at South Pars and Qatar has produced exactly what Austrian economics predicts: sudden, irreplaceable capital destruction followed by a violent supply shock. Oil has spiked, European gas prices have jumped, and the Strait of Hormuz is now a flashpoint.
The economist Walter E. Williams was a great defender of liberty, and, in that context, he also defended the right to self-determination and the right to secede. But his reasons for opposing the removal of Confederate monuments were not confined to his support for independence movements. He was also against the vandalism and pointless destructionism of the social justice warriors.
[This article, new to mises.org, was first published as “Just War and Rothbardian Libertarianism” in Encyclopedia of Military Ethics, July 2011.]
