Ten years ago, Pope John Paul II released Centesimus Annus, an encyclical, at once subtle and sweeping, that addressed the future of the post-communist countries of Europe and the general subject of freedom, society, and faith. Jeff Tucker recalls its meaning.
Government is far from the economy's savior. Rather, it is a parasite, a cancer, that eats away at the wealth of its citizens with its fiat currency, its many billions of dollars of expropriated wealth, and its multitudinous directives.
A supporter of the absolute state might defend his cause with many slogans, but freedom of religious opinion, one would think, could hardly find a place among them.
Patriotism and nationalism are powerful forces weighing on the public conscience in the aftermath of the attacks. It makes it very unpopular to ask certain questions and to wonder certain things.
President Bush claims that the war on terror "will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated." Does that include the ELF?
In a usual wartime situation, the government massively expands and then falls back only partially after it is over. The present circumstances, however, are even worse than wartime.
The absence of capitalism would reduce us to barbarism and utter poverty.
By the standards of the Left, Adolf Hitler would have been deemed a "great statesman," had he died before he started the war (or if he had won it). That's because the left tends to measure greatness by the amount of land and number of people under one man's thumb. By that standard, Hitler was a great socialist-which is precisely what he and his part aspired to become.
The political and ideological forces that gave rise to Bolshevism at the turn of the century are similarly inspiring the movement that looted and burned last month in Genoa.
How a great advance in political theory became a justification for the all-controlling state. Review by Joseph Stromberg.
