Philosophy

Murray Rothbard believed that the right to engage in voluntary exchange has long been understood as a natural right, not just a good, practical idea. Tariffs and other trade barriers violate that right.

In this edition of Friday Philosophy, Dr. David Gordon reviews Arnold Schelsky‘s The Hype Cycle and finds some worthy insights into things that modern culture has hyped, such as climate change.

It is often asserted without challenge that “life is like a race” and it wouldn‘t be a fair race without the same “starting-line.” While this analogy has some truth, it is largely fallacious and more than implies an ever-present state to provide “equal opportunity.”

Despite its many logical flaws, Marxism remains popular in many academic and political circles. However, Marx‘s Labor Theory of Value still undergirds the entire Marxian structure, and debunking it destroys his entire system.

“It is ideas that group men into fighting factions, that press the weapons into their hands, and that determine against whom and for whom the weapons shall be used.”

In Nicholas Wolterstorff‘s Understanding Liberal Democracy, he assails a vastly influential school of thought in a way that libertarians will find useful.

Herbert Marcuse took pride in his dense, but incomplete writings on philosophy. Dr. Gordon examines Jacob McNulty‘s futile attempt to interpret the thinking of someone who supported Marxian socialism but never successfully explained it.

Economic development cannot ever be seen as an end in itself. People are complex, social beings who may well forgo some of the advantages of economic growth for social stability, something Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard understood.

The intelligentsia really feels like they’re in mortal danger. It’s lovely to see.

Conventional progressive wisdom says that Nazism and Fascism were polar opposites to Communism. Yet, all of these totalitarian worldviews came from the same collectivist origins.