 Machan's Musings - My Guilty Pleasure
by Tibor R. Machan
Witnessing one’s adversaries being hoisted on their own petard is indeed a guilty pleasure of mine (which is why I find the idea of using eminent domain to take U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter’s home, a power he recently helped authorize, so appealing). The New York Review provides that pleasure in each issue by combining a straightforward, uncompromising practical elitism with the relentless and unyielding political and legal message of egalitarianism. This certainly provides abundant evidence of the naiveté and ultimate futility of its socio-political message. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Kelo v. New London Versus the Free Society
by Tibor R. Machan
If one keeps in mind that libertarian "anarchists" are really not anarchists—since they do believe in law and its administration and they do accept some agency having jurisdiction in such matters—and if one then keeps in mind that takings for purposes of enhancing such administration is necessary given that compensation is provided, then it is clear that government has proper legal authority only to take private property for public—which is to say, strictly limited legal administrative—use. The incorporation issue is irrelevant here, and is of no concern to the basic principles of a free society. Kelo, then, did grave violence to individual or private property rights and one ought to work to have the Court reverse itself, not to lend it any kind of credibility. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - At the Movies (Again)
by Tibor R. Machan
I have recently noticed that, in serious American movies, the ideological take tends to be anti-capitalist, anti-free markets, anti-free trade, anti-business, anti-corporate—in short, against most of the things associated with The United States of America. Granted, there are U.S. government policies that I, too, find very upsetting—increased meddling in people’s personal lives, court decisions that favor the government over the private sector, preoccupation with political correctness, and so forth—but these aren’t what these movies tend to go after. No, the targets of these movies tend to be ordinary American values. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Ethics at a Movie
by Tibor R. Machan
The Girl in the Café makes for a heart-rending story, but it is completely misguided and casts totally unjust aspersions on many people who would certainly be interested in solving the problem of world poverty, if it were in their legitimate power to do so. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - The Menace of Imperialism
by Tibor R. Machan
Let us leave behind the imperialist temptation once and for all. Let us not assume that our pet projects must be everyone’s or that our pet peeves must be shared by all. Imposing these notions on everyone is nothing more than that menace, imperialism, which history shows to be such a malicious force. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Why Bother Celebrating the Fourth?
by Tibor R. Machan
Maybe what we need is to abolish this holiday altogether, and drop the pretense that most people care about anything besides the fanfare, fireworks, and barbecues. Let’s just admit that freedom had a short and uneasy career on this continent and was mostly sacrificed on the altar of power, of the power of some over the sovereignty of others. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Rights and the Supreme Court
by Tibor R. Machan
It would be much better if the courts, all of them, really stuck to the Bill of Rights and what it implies. This is: that we all have the right to do whatever we choose (implied by the liberty to which, per the Declaration, we have an unalienable right), provided we do not violate someone else’s rights. That is indeed the ideal of a free society that has been associated with America, and it would be best for the courts and its critics to stick to it. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Promoting Right Conduct, the Right Way
by Tibor R. Machan
Civilized conduct requires that one promote the right conduct of others not by coercion, but by persuasion, example, instruction, urging, imploring, and, at worst, ostracism and boycott. Human beings, in short, must deal with fellow human beings peacefully, even if those others refuse to do what's right. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Schools Are Making Students Sick
by Tibor R. Machan
I think it is the system that is creating a bunch of sick kids and the kids are fine unless they are subjected to the system. That makes much better sense than the other way around. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - On Tolerance and Respect
by Tibor R. Machan
The US Supreme Court joined with all too many local officials in wiping out tolerance and respect for individual autonomy and sovereignty by legally authorizing others to impose their projects on the rest whether they choose it or not. They have endorsed the ancient concept of paternalistic government. And that is not democracy—it is the rule of the tyrannical mob, a form of barbarism. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Confessions of a Near-Anarchist
by Tibor R. Machan
The USA has by now become something of a representative tyranny, meaning, those elected by some of the people—not a whole lot of them, if you do the math—are imposing their will on us all and, yes, the Supreme Court and the rest of the courts are backing up this vicious charade. Under the circumstances I have virtually no respect for the law. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Shifting Science or What?
by Tibor R. Machan
One cannot much reply on any experts and has to do one’s own thinking, however risky that may be. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Religion, Politics and Society
by Tibor R. Machan
The more the government encroaches on various parts of our society that are not any of its proper business, the more difficult it will be to keep the peace among all those who take their religion—or its absence—seriously in life. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - NIMBY Squared, Then Cubed
by Tibor R. Machan
NIMBY = Not In My Backyard! (Read more...)
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Racists or Just Sick of the Charade?
by Tibor R. Machan
Of course, some of the young blacks who yelled from joy when they heard Jackson go free may have had a tinge of racist attitude mixed in with their relief and vindicated sense of justice. But I think not much. They didn’t turn on me, the only white in the place, and yell at me gleefully. Instead they had smiles on their faces and no sooner was it all over on the TV set, they went back to work. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Understanding Varieties of Diversity
by Tibor R. Machan
But, let’s face it, many people do invest a great deal in their own membership in such groups even though they had nothing to do with it. For some reason they derive their personal identity from them, not from individual accomplishments. And in some instances this is actually understandable and worth some sympathy. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Race Card Out, Class Card In!
by Tibor R. Machan
But what to do now, when a prominent black figure delivers this piece of sensible insight? Come to the rescue The New York Times. The problem with Bill Cosby isn’t that he is white - no, it’s that he belongs to the upper black classes. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - State Regulation Is Wrong
by Tibor R. Machan
Those, however, who want to strengthen the power of the government to meddle in our economic lives are very good at ignoring that members of the professions that are constitutionally protected from government intervention are just as prone to malpractice, if not more so, as are those in the field of business. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Fawning Over Galbraith - to a Point
by Tibor R. Machan
You need to watch out when current dreamers laud the thinking of older ones: Do they reveal the whole truth or only the portion that gives their dreams some measure of respectability? (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Paradoxes of Multiculturalism
by Tibor R. Machan
In fact, if there is a society in which multiculturalism is embraced by most folks, at least to some significant measure, it is the United States of America. And this has been so from its very beginning. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - A Few Linguistic Peccadilloes
by Tibor R. Machan
English is my third language and as a speaker and writer I have always appreciated receiving editorial help, just in case a faux pas has slipped into some missive of mine. But even the best editors cannot be relied upon to follow one’s strictures in some areas of the English language. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Corporations and Governments
by Tibor R. Machan
It is pretty clear that in a society in which people may solicit governments for favors, big corporations will have an advantage over others, although universities and unions are not all that far behind in the power they wield through lobbyists throughout the capitols of the various states and the federal government. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Another Effort to Discredit Individualism
by Tibor R. Machan
Most of us are familiar today with junk science in support of various environmental and related political programs and how often the government is eager to cash in on it. Perhaps we need to be alerted to junk philosophy, as well, put in the service of a political utopia. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - Let's Keep Them Quarreling
by Tibor R. Machan
The point of my column was that American politics seems to lack nearly any measure of civility—of simply working with the rules and arguing the issues. This fracas about the judicial nominations supports the point—once again, instead of engaging in the civilized process of following the rules wherever they lead, each side is calling the other nasty names, impugning to it vicious motives. (Read more...)
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Machan's Musings - The Importance of Details
by Tibor R. Machan
In personal relationships, we are seeking someone who is a match for us as individuals. General attributes do matter. But as individuals we respond not just to some general traits but also to very specific, often quite unique attributes. (Read more...)
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