Thursday
November 20, 2003 |
 Why Capitalism is Always Suspect
by Tibor R. Machan
Few people who criticize corporate crime make mention of the fact that we hardly have a genuine free market in place anywhere on earth. So, business corporations operate, as does the rest of commerce, in a mixed economy, with substantial government intervention - taxation, regulation, protection and so forth - thoroughly diluting the free market process. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
November 19, 2003 |
The New Con
by Marcus Bachler
I have always assumed that Conservative parties were more the friends of individual liberty, at least in their rhetoric if not in content, than their left-wing counterparts. At least they have always claimed to want to encourage free markets and profits in business, reduce government spending and lower taxes -– and to some extent they still do. Yet lately there has been a shift in this old style rhetoric from Conservative parties in opposition. And I believe that this change has been the result of a shift in strategy of modern day left-wing politics. (Read more...)
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 Activism Made Easy
by Elizabeth Kanabe
Elizabeth's speech from the third SOLO Conference in Philadelphia. (Read more...)
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 Review: Mario Lanza - An American Tragedy
by Lawrence Galante
A review of Mario Lanza - An American Tragedy by Armando Cesari with a preface by Placido Domingo, foreword by Lindsay Perigo, and CD liner notes by Derek McGovern. "The definitive book about the legendary tenor Mario Lanza has been written." (Read more...)
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Altruism and Integrity
by Joseph Rowlands
Some people dismiss the Objectivist critique of altruism by proclaiming that altruism doesn't really require self-sacrifice. (Read more...)
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Thursday
November 13, 2003 |
Thoughts on Religious Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
Over the years the idea of state sanctioned religious expression has been challenged all over America. Many have also found that challenge quite objectionable. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
November 12, 2003 |
Creeping Collectivism: Insufficient refutation of public safety laws
by Scott D. DeSalvo
It seems that politicians of all levels and stripes are running for public office on platforms that include promises of more regulation, and more government infringement upon private lives and private decisions. (Read more...)
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 SOLO Proudly Announces ...
by Lindsay Perigo
In SOLO's Credo I wrote that SOLO was not afraid to acknowledge that Ayn Rand was wrong about some things, and that homosexuality was one of them. I made it clear to anyone who cared to listen at the time that one of SOLO's first projects would be to exorcise the shocking homophobia that has disgraced the Objectivist movement since Day One - to expose it to the lights of day and reason, show it to be the grotesquery that it is and fiercely proclaim how alien it is to a philosophy that sets such store by the identification of reality. (Read more...)
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 Two Cheers for Modernity
by Roderick Long
It is common for Objectivists to stress the superiority of Enlightenment culture over the cultural movements preceding and following it. (A reprise appearance on SoloHQ with hyperlinks.) (Read more...)
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Floating Abstraction Day
by Joseph Rowlands
There's a television cartoon called Futurama that I want to talk about. At times it's hilarious, and the half hour shows are packed pretty tight. The story hinges on a guy named Fry who gets stuck in cryogenic freeze for 1000 years, waking in a world of robots, aliens, and space ships. The potential topics for the show are wide-reaching, and they occasionally hit on a very interesting theme. (Read more...)
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CEO Pay -- Normal or Unfair?
by Tibor R. Machan
In my many years of trying to understand the free market economy I have been hampered by the simple fact that no such thing exists. Like ideal marriages, genuine free markets are mostly something we can conceive of and understand in theory but rarely encounter in the actual world. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
November 5, 2003 |
Hard Labour
by David Bertelsen
Labour legislation in Europe is destroying its economies. That's bad. But the economic destruction is nothing compared to the destruction being wreaked on a more important treasure - the human spirit. (Read more...)
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Philosophies of Faeces
by Lindsay Perigo
It was reported recently from Britain that the Tate Britain art gallery had warned underage visitors to stay away as it unveiled works short-listed for the Turner Prize- including a cast of two large dolls engaged in a sex act. (Read more...)
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 Getting Back On Your Feet
by Paul M. Kay
Objectivism, it is often asserted, is a philosophy for living on Earth. It is a philosophy for living one's life with joy and exuberance. (Read more...)
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Perfection in Life
by Elizabeth Kanabe
Perfection – it's something that we all strive for. (Read more...)
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"If you don't like it, Leave!"
by Tibor R. Machan
This is an exclamation I've heard on innumerable occasions when I have debated the merits of a fully free society. "So, you consider taxation a form of confiscation, even extortion? You think regulations are petty tyrannies? Well, you can go live somewhere else. You can't really complain, then. We have decided to collect taxes and that's the end of the story, or to impose zoning laws or affirmative action or bans on smoking or drug abuse. So, love it or leave it." (Read more...)
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Wednesday
October 29, 2003 |
You Might be a Fascist
by Russell Madden
Many of the beliefs common to citizens today are actually examples of a fascist politico-economic system. (Read more...)
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 Fundamental Premises
by Joseph Rowlands
A question that often comes up is what the difference between philosophy and science is. (Read more...)
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IRV: From Game Playing to Principle
by Jeff Landauer
When I ran for the United States House of Representatives in 2002, a theme that I incorporated into all my speeches was, "Don't waste your vote" ... on the Republicans or the Democrats. To vote for either of them would be an endorsement for the status quo of continued statism and violations of individual rights, so I claimed. But the reality is in plurality, winner-take-all elections, there are generally only two styles of voting. (Read more...)
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 Fostering Global Francophobia
by Sam Pierson
Address delivered at SOLO Conference #2, Auckland, February 16, 2003 (Read more...)
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Revisiting the Loss of Jobs
by Tibor R. Machan
Recently I argued that it is customers who cause the loss of jobs; companies merely deliver the message to employees and investors that customers have decided to go elsewhere to buy goods and services. In a more than less free market that is exactly how things would go. (Read more...)
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Wednesday
October 22, 2003 |
A Judgment to Rush
by Russell Madden
Rush Limbaugh's self-admitted problem with painkillers, the nature of (Read more...)
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Anger Management
by Joseph Rowlands
"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering." - Yoda (Read more...)
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The Ishmael Paradigm
by G. Stolyarov II
A review and refutation of a novel that has become a sacred cow of the left: Ishmael exhibits precisely that tribalist-collectivist mindset which both Ayn Rand and George Orwell had warned the world about. (Read more...)
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Plato and Hollywood
by Tibor R. Machan
In his most famous dialogue the ancient Greek philosopher Plato has his main character, Socrates - his own teacher who never wrote down his thoughts but whose ideas infused all of Plato's writings - construct the ideal community. It serves many purposes, among them to understand human psychology and morality. The ideal city is to be structured like the human soul and it can be used to see in large form how that human soul is best harmonized. (Read more...)
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