 Were the Founders Libertarian?
by Tibor R. Machan
In the fall 2001 issue of The National Interest Francis Fukuyama writes in response to my brief statement of the meaning of the term "natural rights," namely, that "properly understood, [they] are liberties, spheres of personal authority within which one does as one judges fit-even if it may be unwise, imprudent or cow... (Read more...)
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Choose Life; Privatize Space
by Eric J. Tower
Privatize Space. Our very lives and civilization may depend upon it. (Read more...)
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Replacing Arguments with Name Calling
by Tibor R. Machan
Rush Limbaugh has claimed that the modern liberalism of Ted Kennedy & Co. is dead in the water as far as arguments are concerned. I am not sure this isn't true also of modern conservatism, a la George W. Bush-are there really any arguments in support of Bush's bloated big government "compassionate" conservatism?
... (Read more...)
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Free Speech's Fits & Starts
by Lindsay Perigo
Walking home from the gym the day of the first anniversary of the beginning of the liberation of Iraq, I encountered several hundred smelly Saddamites marching towards Parliament to demand the reinstatement of their toppled idol (I exaggerate the letter, but not the spirit of their protest). The vicious irony of their using their freedom of expression to demand that Iraqis be deprived of it, so soon after acquiring it, was clearly lost on these caterwauling grotesqueries. I alternated between seething disgust at the vermin & curiosity as to whether any of them might be given cause for pause by a moment’s reflection on free speech’s long, tortuous history. (Read more...)
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1984-Style Surveillance, Today
by G. Stolyarov II
A national computerized database, federal spying on private bank accounts, the legal kidnapping of children from their homes and parents, institutionalized reporting on people's private lives... this, to G. Stolyarov II, smacks of totalitarianism of the sort George Orwell had described. (Read more...)
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 Socializing and Privatizing
by Joseph Rowlands
I went to a lecture the other day and one of the speakers called himself an "egalitarian libertarian." That's a very interesting mix, so he described what it means. He's an egalitarian, so he believes that too much inequality is bad, and he generally supports a "safety net." Which means he accepts the principle of the ... (Read more...)
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Toward a Paradigm of Human Nature, Human Action, and Human Flourishing
by Edward W. Younkins
I have written several recent essays in Le Québécois Libre and SOLO in which I have suggested the potential feasibility and desirability of combining and extending doctrines from Austrian Economics and Objectivism in our efforts to develop the strongest possible conceptual and moral case for a free market society. In t... (Read more...)
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The Paradox Of Choice
by Marcus Bachler
The central “Blur” is the famous “third way” politics that is supposed to advocate a blurring between right and left-wing choices. Now, Blur has found his new academic “single-choice” Knight in Shining “one size fits all” armour. (Read more...)
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Kant Can't
by Lindsay Perigo
One of Ayn Rand’s great insights into the conflicts among philosophers through the centuries was that they were usually false - the alleged adversaries, under her withering glare, were exposed as two sides of the same coin, sharing the same underlying flaws. (Read more...)
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"Government" versus "State"
by Tibor R. Machan
Concepts such as "government," like "democracy," "law," "justice," "freedom" and "love," to cite just a few, are what W. B. Gallie, called "essentially contestable" (see his "Essentially Contested Concepts", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Vol. 56 [1955-56]). I heard the characterization from Alasdair McIntyr... (Read more...)
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Giving in to the Terrorists: Spain says, "You Win" to Al Qaeda
by David Bertelsen
Spain’s outgoing Prime Minister José Maria Aznar had his flaws but there was no doubting that he was honorable, principled and resolute in the fight against terrorism. Having survived an ETA assassination attempt in 1995, Aznar understood the two basic premises of any war against terrorism: Firstly, that one sha... (Read more...)
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Something Old, Something New
by Eric Rockwell
A Marriage Proposal. Conservatives maintain that condoning gay marriage would destroy the "sanctity" of marriage. Gays say that if they are not allowed to marry, it is a violation of equal protection. Is there a practical solution? (Read more...)
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Campaign Finance Reform in Buckley v. Valeo
by Jonathan R
In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, Congress amended existing campaign finance laws to limit the amount that could be contributed to, or spent by, political campaigns. The Supreme Court considered these regulations in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) and made a momentous hash of the legislation. The verdict therefore bot... (Read more...)
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This is not what that meant by land of the free
by Dustin Hawkins
Apparently there is some confusion when describing America as the land of the free. At one point, the "free" involved individuals having freedom. Get it? America was to be the land where people would be free to do what they choose and to pursue those dreams they desired, so long as to not interfere with others' rights ... (Read more...)
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The Orwellian Popular Culture of Modernity
by G. Stolyarov II
The society of Oceania in Orwell’s 1984 employs entertainment of the utmost vulgarity and a perversity not encountered by a man of proper tastes in order to satisfy the “instinctive urges” of its proletariat. The Oceanians’ music possesses an inhuman crudeness and resembles more the severe thumping of a drum than a me... (Read more...)
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Constitution Bashing
by Ross Elliot
"Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the Constitution of any State or Federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups." And so says the recent... (Read more...)
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A Public Statement on The Objectivist Center
by Diana Mertz Hsieh
As many of you know, for the past ten years, I have actively been involved with and supportive of The Objectivist Center, formerly the Institute for Objectivist Studies. In that time, I attended every Summer Seminar. I recommended IOS/TOC to countless people. Early on, I often defended the ideas in Truth and Toleration... (Read more...)
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The Rights of Intervention
by Dustin Hawkins
Does a dictator have the right to exist uninterrupted? (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 25, 2004 |
Murray Rothbard's Randian Austrianism
by Edward W. Younkins
Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) was a grand system builder. In his monumental Man, Economy, and State (1962), Rothbard continued, embodied, and extended Ludwig von Mises' methodological approach of praxeology to economics. His magnum opus was modeled after Mises' Human Action and, for the most part, was a massive restatement, defense, and development of the Misesian praxeological tradition. Rothbard followed up and complemented Man, Economy, and State with his brilliant The Ethics of Liberty (1982) in which he provided the foundation for his metanormative ethical theory. Exhibiting an architectonic character, these two works form an integrated system of philosophy. (Read more...)
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Law vs Custom
by Lindsay Perigo
In his excellent essay below, "Not Enough Justice," Joe Rowlands spotlights a type of conundrum routinely flung at Objectivists... (Read more...)
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Thursday
February 19, 2004 |
Freedom of Speech means Freedom to Offend
by Reginald Firehammer
What is the most dangerous epidemic in the world today? Is it SARS, bird flu, AIDS, or some other lurking devastating infection? No! It is none of these. It is something much worse, much more insidious, much more destructive and ultimately deadly. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
February 18, 2004 |
Self and Inconsistency
by Tibor R. Machan
Many more years ago than I like to admit I read a wonderful little book, Prescott Lecky's Self-Consistency: A Theory of Personality (New York: Island Press, 1945). (Read more...)
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Sixty Issues And Ten Years On
by Lindsay Perigo
In my very first editorial in the very first Free Radical -- in May, 1994 -- I explained the magazine's mission by quoting a businessman's admonition: "The trouble with you, Lindsay, is that you reduce everything to an issue of freedom." (Read more...)
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Valentine's Gifts
by Joseph Rowlands
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Romance is in the air. Little red hearts are on every storefront. Young couples are planning to celebrate their love. Yes tomorrow, Cupid is in command. What more fitting a time could there be to talk about property rights! (Read more...)
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The Holy Sixth Century
by Kyrel Zantonavitch
Rationality and philosophy were discovered and invented around the early 500s BC in eastern Ionia. The almost instantaneous result of these wondrous creations was much more happiness, pleasure, ambition, and overall hope in life for all the new Greek men of reason. It was nothing less than a spiritual revolution. (Read more...)
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