World History

Zimbabwe's government has embraced a potent mixture of monetary inflation and price controls. The result has been economic disaster.

The government accepts no legal obligation to provide specified law enforcement services in exchange for the taxes it forcibly extracts from the citizenry. A clearly defined and voluntarily accepted reciprocal agreement between the government and the citizens has never existed.

The history of Latin America is filled with tragic stories of countries reaching great heights — Argentina and Venezuela come to mind — and then falling back to mediocrity. Chile could be next if the protesters get their way.

By abolishing the weekend, the Soviets were in one move able to strike a blow against both families and religious institutions. All that was left was the state — and state-mandated labor.

Government officials have often stood in the way of scientific progress.

Far from being the saviors of society, the new breed of anti-market conservatives are merely the newest iteration of the long line of anti-social apologists for state domination.

The Soviets, the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge — these totalitarian regimes would have failed even without any intervention from geopolitical rivals. The socialist systems would have been conquered not by standing armies, but by economics.

The fully satisfied individual is purposeless, he does not act, he has no incentive to think, he spends his days in leisurely enjoyment of life. It is certain that living men can never attain such a state of perfection and equilibrium.

The rulers of that period had far-reaching powers over the activities of their subjects, while individual liberties were largely submerged.

In his new book Judgment in Moscow, Vladimir Bukovsky claims the spirit of the Bolsheviks was never really destroyed. And it has been kept alive with Western help.