Kimberlé Crenshaw, one of the founders of critical race theory (CRT), recently decried what she called the “war on wokeness” (by which she seems to mean a war on CRT). According to her, this “war on wokeness” is “the road to an authoritarian state that’s paved through the history of white supremacy.” It’s true that the “war on wokeness” has taken
A recent report by the Manhattan Institute (a conservative think tank) showed that critical race theory (CRT) concepts are being taught in many high schools across America. The report was based on a survey of 1,505 nationally representative Americans aged 18–20 and lends new weight to the idea that CRT is about training students to be social
The panopticon is a hypothetical surveillance and control system first imagined by philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the eighteenth century. It’s envisioned as a tool to control the behavior of a large number of people with as little effort as possible. Here is one description : “The panopticon is a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of
A new movement is emerging on the left. This movement sells guilt and self-flagellation and calls it antiracism. Its leaders present themselves as the absolute authority on race relations and claim that being a good white person means following their instructions. But when it comes to racism, “the elect” (to borrow Columbia University linguistics
Libertarians have a reputation for denigrating traditional American institutions. They deride the Superbowl as “sportsball,” sneer at mass-market entertainment as “bread and circuses.” It goes deeper than that. As Mises Institute president Jeff Deist says : While libertarians enthusiastically embrace markets, they have for decades made the
Last month, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University announced that it was laying off almost all of its staff, in spite of having received almost $55 million in funds in the last three years. Critics have jumped on Kendi’s fall to renew arguments that he’s a grifter or a “midwit,” but there’s another
[ Editor’s Note: Contrary to myth, Austrians are not opposed to quantitative or empirical assessments of history in light of economic knowledge. The confusion may arise from the fact that Mises regarded this not as economics, strictly speaking, but as economic history, or the work of historians. Nonetheless, discussions of measurements of economic
Many Americans trust the market to some extent but worry that capitalism will create a race to the bottom without government intervention. In their mind, companies will cut corners and outsource labor in the pursuit of profit, creating shoddier and shoddier products. The true free market, however, creates exactly the opposite: a race to the top.
To defenders of the state, “anarchy” is a scary concept. They claim that we need government intervention to protect us or all hell will break loose. But in fact we live anarchy every day, in one of the most crucial aspects of our lives: dating. Every day people meet, date, have one-night stands, fall in love, and break up; all without government
The story of Sleeping Beauty always struck me as a libertarian fable. The central plot demonstrates the impotence of government: Aurora is cursed to prick her finger on a spinning wheel, and her royal father issues a decree that all spinning wheels should be burned. But all the king’s action does is put some poor weavers out of work. Aurora still
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.