World History

Democracy works best at a small scale. The electoral college's nod to this reality is much too weak. But it's better than nothing. 

Mexican interventionists are now pushing the idea that Mexico is a country dominated by a free-market ideology which they call "neo-liberalism." But any serious look at Mexico's government makes it clear this is not the case.

The fruit of the Enlightenment has been the growth and centralization of the state, at the expense of all other institutions. The material plenty we enjoy today are in spite of this change, not because of it.

States love wars because they enable the state, under the slogans of "defense" and "emergency," to impose a tyranny upon the public that might have been openly resisted in time of peace.

There is a persistent myth that capitalism has destroyed what would have been a natural abundance and peace of mind. Yet nature does not generate abundance or peace. The characteristic mark of the "state of nature" is irreconcilable conflict. 

Not only is capitalism not a system of the exploitation of labor, but the real system of the exploitation of labor is socialism.

Far from making women "wage slaves," Europe's move toward urban wage work liberated both women and men from the isolation and low productivity of rural farm work.

It doesn't look like French populism is going away, and this may be an opportunity to finally chip away at the country's paralyzing bureaucracy.

In a relatively unhampered market, a declining population is not necessarily an economic problem. But in a system where retirees can loot younger workers through government pension systems, there is a real problem, indeed.

Wealthy Hollywood types, being relentless and cynical social climbers, figured out years ago that college is mostly about social status and certification.