 The Lullaby Yoke
by Manfred F. Schieder
The steadfast devotion to the premises of collectivism reveals a rejection of reality and an adherence to remain attached to fantastic visions. It conforms the mentality of societies that despise progress and the personal involvement related with it. Such societies remain attached to the past, to the yoke of lullabies whispering the venom of its lies, societies that can barely, if at all, be called civilized, though they would very much like to be considered as such. Since these societies are a contradiction with evolution itself, we are now crossing a time of great transition toward a new type of society whose economic basis is Capitalism, a rational society corresponding to a species that is entering the stage of rationality. (Read more...)
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Saturday
September 5, 2009 |
 It's Not Capitalism, Stupid
by Tibor R. Machan
Any kind of subsidy, a standard policy of various levels of American governments--whereby the government confiscates some citizens' resources and hands these to other citizens--violates the principles of the free market. Those from whom the resources are confiscated have lost their liberty to make use of them in their own market activities. (Read more...)
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THE HORROR FILE: "Silicon crystal = Linda Ronstadt," claim today's error-filled schoolbooks
by Kate Gladstone
The math and science textbooks issued to millions of American schoolchildren contain glaring errors by the thousand.. (One textbook photo, claimimg to show a silicon crystal, actually depicts Linda Ronstadt. A map in another textbook has the equator passing through the USA). Erroneous textbooks -- produced because authors and publishers work in a legislative and social climate that makes accurate textbooks unprofitable -- devastate our civilization's progress. (What kind of science can we expect to maintain or attain, when tomorrow's scientists must first spend precious time and energy learning false information today?) Teachers who care about the minds of their students must refuse to use textbooks that misrepresent observable physical facts -- if the school administration or anyone else demands use of such textbooks, teachers must go on strike for the right to teach accurately and for the safety of their students' minds. (Read more...)
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 ROMANTIC REALISM: Visions of Values
by Alexandra York
It is a passion for life that leads contemporary Romantic Realist artists forward to express a rebirth of values that can elevate their own spirit as well as the spirit of those who experience their art. It is a reverence for and a tenacious love for the beautiful—and for the possible—in the world and in humankind that clears their vision to create images of glory in their art, images that thrill us, that move us, that inspire us. For what cannot be imagined, cannot happen. (Read more...)
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 Is Fear of Our Government Rational?
by Tibor R. Machan
When society is considered a collective--akin to a team, only not
voluntarily established like most sport teams are--those who see
themselves as its leaders and charged with selecting the goals everyone
must pursue, can quite easily slip into a mode of thinking that construes
all opposition a form of betrayal. (Read more...)
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Of Hammers and Health Care: Understanding the Nature of Rights
by Richard Gleaves
Once Upon a Time, America reached a fork in the road.... Franklin D. Roosevelt “The Economic Bill of Rights” Excerpt from 11 January 1944 message to Congress on the State of the Union It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the e... (Read more...)
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 ALIGNING the CITIZEN
by Manfred F. Schieder
Aligning the citizen to its politico-social credo, which is the declared purpose of every collectivist and collectivist biased intellectual or politician, uses education to mould the citizen to whatever it commands, i.e.to adapt to what the ruling group demands. The Montessori method opposes this purpose by teaching the growing child to grasp the nature of reality, learn to deal with it and use his acquired knowledge to assert himself as an individual. (Read more...)
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Our Genuine Collectivism?
by Tibor R. Machan
How can one detect the socialist version of this attempt to revamp the
American system in Mr. Obama & Co.'s proposals? The one straightforward
way is to pay attention to how the regime has accepted one of the most
basic tenets of classical socialism, namely, that wealth is publicly
owned, not by individuals who earned or otherwise honestly came by it. (Read more...)
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 The Legacy Lives: Embracing the Year Three Thousand in Philosophy and Art
by Alexandra York
“Happiness,” then, is not “I feel good” but “I feel good because I am good,” meaning “I am the best I can be.” Epicurus concurred with Aristotle’s moral ideal as the definition of enduring happiness. (Read more...)
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The Folly of Workplace Regulations
by William Scott Dwyer
Workplace regulations do more harm than good, contrary to the claims of government regulators. They create unemployment and interfere with the free choices of workers and business. (Read more...)
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Dismissing Your Thoughts
by Tibor R. Machan
Whenever I would voice any of my views about politics, economics, child
rearing or whatever, these folks explained it away by my origins, my
having been born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, then a Soviet
(communist) satellite. Everything I thought and said was deemed to have
been caused by my background. (Read more...)
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Philosophical Foundations of the Enlightenment
by Michael F Dickey
With then the application of reason to every philosophical realm; truth, existence, art, morality, and politics - all the great progress of the modern world; freedom, democracy, science, and capitalism – would be forged and would cultivate the very same lush vibrant human garden Voltaire desired, because in cultures that adopted the ideals of The Enlightenment a flourishing to an extent never before seen in the history of humanity would take root, ushering a period of unequaled material affluence, unprecedented scientific growth, unparalleled religious and ethnic tolerance and unequivocal individual freedom. (Read more...)
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 Religion & Liberalism (*)
by Manfred F. Schieder
The author published the essence of this article some 25 years ago in an Argentine newsmagazine. In spite of the time gone by, the topic has, unfortunately, not lost its primacy. It is as actual and as pressing as it was then, particularly in view of the recent anti-capitalist declarations by the present Pope Benedict 16. (Read more...)
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Is It All Luck?
by Tibor R. Machan
Well, much may be luck or its absence but much also isn't. This is a case
of what I called in one of my early books, The Pseudo-Science of B. F.
Skinner (1973), the blow up fallacy. It involves taking a picture--i. e.,
considering--some small portion of the world or life and seeing it quite
clearly but then making the leap of applying it to everything. (Read more...)
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The Navigation System - A Parable
by Richard Gleaves
Philosophy as Guidance (Read more...)
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Yes, Roger Federer is Human
by Tibor R. Machan
No, there is no way to engineer human beings to be excellent. This is
precisely what makes them so human--however they turn out is to a large
measure their own doing, following their beliefs and choices. (Read more...)
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Quo vadis, Businessmen?
by Manfred F. Schieder
True, free businessmen are facing the situation of the renewed attempt by governments all over the world to establish collectivist systems that, as history proved many times over, throw the general population into dictatorships and, thus, a life of famine and despair. The article poses the question if businessmen have noticed this menacing purpose and presents the answer to face it from the very start. (Read more...)
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Truncated "Liberty"
by Tibor R. Machan
In public finance there is a trick well captured by the famous Laffer
Curve. Up to a certain point people will tolerate being taxed and then,
after that point, they won't take it any longer. So governments do well if
they identify that point (not an easy thing because our tolerance level is
not the same). (Read more...)
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Society as an End and Society as a Means
by Manfred F. Schieder
Which of both is the type of society corresponding to the rational, free, peaceful and productive individual? This article presents the analysis in favor of the correct foundation of coexistence. (Read more...)
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On Passing Judgment: Politics versus Etiquette
by Ted Keer
From Ayn Rand's break with the Brandens to the current fiasco over James Valliant's banning at Wikipedia, Objectivists have taken sides and demanded that sides be taken. Is this the best policy in all cases? (Read more...)
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Hope versus Reality
by Tibor R. Machan
One main reason that bureaucracies are generally sluggish and unenthusiastic
about serving the public--as distinct from private vendors--is this
element of constant competition, combined with the fact that bureaucrats
gain their income from taxes which can often be raised with impunity by
those who hire them. (Read more...)
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OBAMA: HONORING THE DEAD AND DISRUPTING THE LIVING
by Alexandra York
I wonder: How many times did they dine in the city of Paris and visit Notre Dame (a top tourist attraction even for young neophytes) in private life, as do most people who are genuinely interested in learning about and experiencing other cultures on their own initiative and acquiring the attendant sophistication of worldly and historical knowledge? (Read more...)
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The Parable of the Empty Throne - a warning for Democrats
by Richard Gleaves
The best intentions can still sow the seed of dictatorship. (Read more...)
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Mini Business Ethics & Freedom
by Tibor R. Machan
Freedom does not promise perfection by a long shot. (Read more...)
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Degrading Art
by Manfred F. Schieder
For long stretches of time, art has been used to nullify reason as the characteristic that identifies human beings. Nowadays, through "modern art", it display existence as worthless and despicable. But art is the tool to show the universe and life's magnificence and also the means to promote the creation of a rational type of society. As such, it deserves greatest attention and respect. (Read more...)
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