Totalitarianism Begins with a Denial of Economics
Totalitarianism is not compatible with a functioning economic system based upon free exchange and private property. Such regimes depend upon historicism and logical relativism.
Totalitarianism is not compatible with a functioning economic system based upon free exchange and private property. Such regimes depend upon historicism and logical relativism.
The original Mont Pelerin Society meeting in 1947 featured Ludwig von Mises, whose warnings about the dangers of socialism and totalitarianism had gone unheeded. In the wreckage of World War II, the truth of his message should have been obvious. It wasn't.
Even though DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) has taken a beating in some state legislatures, it still has a corrupting influence, especially in higher education. As Murray Rothbard pointed out, egalitarians are “at war with nature.”
Modern American culture is statist to the core. The typical school curriculum tells students that capitalism is evil and socialism is good. This only gets worse in college.
While most of us know George Orwell as an authoritative critic of totalitarianism, few people know he was a committed socialist and a lifelong defender of communist Leon Trotsky. While he understood totalitarianism, he never understood socialism.
The political theorist Anthony de Jasay takes on the left‘s ideas of equality, and David Gordon is there to agree—and disagree. Jasay likens the left‘s view of equality to the Indian Rope Trick.
Capitalism is characterized by the private ownership of capital, coming from Lockean homesteading principles, and not from state coercion and force.
Einstein's name is synonymous with brilliance, yet his great intelligence did not translate to logical economic thinking. Instead, Einstein embraced socialism, thinking that one could guide an economy like one guides a mathematical equation.
Kamala Harris claims that she simply wants food prices to be lower. However, her de facto price fixing scheme would create food shortages and raise the real price of food. Of course, when that happens, Harris simply will blame capitalism.
For all of the talk about Kamala Harris being a socialist, she certainly does not advocate socialism of the kind we have seen under the old USSR or Mao’s China. Instead, her version has characteristics of Italy in the 1920s and the more notorious German version of the 1930s.