 Can We Cause Our Actions?
by Tibor R. Machan
In a recent Op Ed column for Free Inquiry magazine--December 09/January10--Mr. Thomas Clark claims that the defense of human agency that some folks, including me, have been advancing for many years involves what he terms “contra-causal” free will. It does not. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
November 11, 2009 |
On Corporation Phobia
by Tibor R. Machan
What would be cool, actually, is if both Michael Moore and Ralph Nader, as well as their admirers, recognized that the bad guys are mainly those in power, the politicians and bureaucrats, not the citizens who, various grouped, are trying to get in on the game of wealth redistribution. (Read more...)
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Another Ayn Rand thread at Reason.com
by Jim Henshaw
On yet another Ayn Rand thread over at Reason.com's Hit and Run (presumably to cross-promote the upcoming Ayn Rand series at Reason.TV), one of the Reason staffers (Tim Cavanaugh) who is reading the Fountainhead for the first time (!) posed two question about the book that I (posting as "prolefeed") and two other peopl... (Read more...)
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 Soros is Confused Again
by Tibor R. Machan
Whatever it is that Soros is aiming for, one thing is clear: he despises
freedom in the market place. And so long as there is any trace of
respectful discussion of free markets in universities, Soros is going to
spare no money in thwarting it. (Read more...)
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Sex in The Fountainhead - The Rape of Ayn Rand
by B B
Rape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person’s consent. I’ve had many conversations over the years about this scene, especially with those who I would consider "surface-readers" - those who read without the curiosity to explore the implications. Was it rape or wasn’t it? The answer boils down to whether or not Dominique Francon gave her consent to Howard Roark.
I think Dominique did consent to the sex, wanted it, and even encouraged it through her actions. (Read more...)
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 An exchange with a non-Objectivist
by Jim Henshaw
Reason.com has had several recent Ayn Rand blog posts recently. I (commenting under the name "prolefeed") had an interesting exchange with "Hazel Meade" on the thread commenting on the Ayn Rand book interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on 10-15-09. (the interview can be found here): http://video.google.c... (Read more...)
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 Vital Ideas in Conflict-Sen versus Bauer
by Tibor R. Machan
A most influential book by Harvard Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen
is Development as Freedom (Knopf, 1999). At first glance the title
suggests that Sen shares the late Peter Bauer’s ideas who argued that
global free market policies would best help the poor everywhere. But that
isn't Sen's message at all. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
October 14, 2009 |
Nebulous Terms: Defining Religion
by Jonathan Pararajasingham
While the debates and philosophising on religion continues as fervently as ever, there still seems no real consensus on what the actual definition of a "religion" should be. God is certainly not an essential part of the equation as evidenced by the existence of atheistic religions such as Hindu Carvaka or Buddhism. Here I try and explore what should perhaps objectively be the common threads that define true religion, and thus simultaneously exclude pseudo-religious beliefs. (Read more...)
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The Desperate Defense of Obamacare
by Tibor R. Machan
The political arena has abandoned all civility, it seems. It was coming our way once folks like Ralph Nader and Michael Moore got to be big wigs, speaking up in support of populism and a massive federal government. (Read more...)
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 Many Medical Devices Still Taxed Under Baucus Health Bill
by Unknown
A link to an article at another web site. (Read more...)
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Keynes and his Ideology of Planning
by Tibor R. Machan
What Keynes was eager to promote is the idea of the government's
unbridled authority to tinker with economic affairs. That is the point of
insisting so vehemently that nothing exists that stands opposed to that
authority, no notion of Adam Smith's natural liberty, John Locke's natural
rights, and other classical liberal ideas that were at one time beginning
to be used so as to pull the rug from under those who saw fit to interfere
with other people's economic decisions and circumstances. (Read more...)
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BANK FAILURES: Market Failure or Government Failure
by William Scott Dwyer
Many banks have failed under government control of the financial system, but wasn't it worse under free banking in which there was no lender of last resort and no federal insurance of depositors' funds in the event of bank failures? The following article examines this question in light of the historical evidence. (Read more...)
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Tuesday
September 22, 2009 |
Objectivism and charity
by Jim Henshaw
Discussion of Objectivist principles regarding "compassionate" release of convicted criminals with terminal illnesses, and regarding when charity is justified and non-sacrificial. (Read more...)
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Saturday
September 19, 2009 |
The Expanding Public Realm
by Tibor R. Machan
Virtually every time someone promotes increasing the scope of government's
involvement in our lives, the excuse is that the problem being tackled is
a social or public type, not one of individuals. (Read more...)
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Tuesday
September 15, 2009 |
If I Owned A Chain of A Thousand Hospitals
by Tyson Russell
I've written two bullet points on things I would do if I owned a chain of a thousand hospitals. The point is to add your own in the comments and in so doing illustrate what Randians/Objectivists/Libertarians/Minarchists envision for a health care system absent of government interference. (Read more...)
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Saturday
September 12, 2009 |
On Respecting the Presidency
by Tibor R. Machan
After one congressman shouted out "liar" during President Obama's speech to
Congress the other evening, one of Mr. Obama's cheerleaders at The New
York Times intoned gravely that even if one disapproves of a given office
holder, one ought to show respect for the office. Well, not really, not
any more. (Read more...)
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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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