freedom 41
A Sense of Owingness
Like so many others, I spent too much time hoodwinked by the story of liberation, emancipation, and autonomy. What it meant to be free, I supposed, was to be free…
Of Dullards, Whales, Frustrations, and Shirts Like Fetters
What of those who have never once thought it their duty to amuse their readers?
Are You Free?
What would Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson say if they were transported to our day?
The Blind Senator from Minnesota
It was difficult to say whether they were on the far left or the far right or both simultaneously, but you were safe to identify them as radical, whichever political…
Democracy as Spectacle: The Messianic Compulsions of our Republic
Americans do not need a Messiah because this nation is not Heaven on Earth.
Independence Day Eve
Whenever I hear someone claim that “our enemies hate us for our freedom,” I think first of the USS Vincennes and July 3rd, 1988. Twenty-two years ago today, Vincennes was…
Ingratitude and the Death of Freedom
The hubris of ingratitude is a caustic acid that reduces all in its wake to the fetid condition of servitude, for a spoiled child needs nothing so much as a…
Perils of the Stationary State
When economic growth finally levels off, what kind of world comes after? Shall we be unchained from the mad rush for money of the last century? Or will other but…
Mill, Hayek, and Our Midas Plight
Call it Factory Planet: a world in which natural processes are treated as parts of a vast world-machine operated to produce a maximum amount of wealth for humans.
Fat Nation
Kearneysville, WV. Tis the season to be jolly. And the jolliest fellow of all is that rotund elf in the red suit. He’s happy. He’s spry. He binges on cookies…
Burn the Vineyard
I have just returned from one of the most remarkable journeys of my life, a ten day tour of Romania to promote an anthology of distributist and localist essays, Economic…
Imitation and the Art of Flattery: the Cold War of the Imagination
Washington, Connecticut. At the end of his introduction to a re-publication of the Marquis de Custine’s "Empire of the Czar, A Journey Through Eternal Russia," George F. Kennan recalls a…
… Neither Proud Nor Lonely
C.S. Lewis noted that “If you had asked Lazamon or Chaucer ‘Why do you not make up a brand-new story of your own?’ I think they might have replied (in…
Advice For Up-And-Comers
Claremont, CA. I spoke last week at the New Jersey Governor’s School for Public Issues, a (mostly) state-funded summer program for civic-minded students about to enter their senior year in…
The New “Freedom”
Claremont, CA. Becka flew into my office, so excited that she was out of breath. "Professor," she asked, "have you heard about freedom?" I couldn't help laughing. "Why yes, Becka,"…
GPS, Security, and Freedom
Blairsville, GA. Recently my wife and I took a trip to New York City. To alleviate the trials of navigating an unfamiliar city, my sister offered to let us use…
Modernity, Fecundity, and Being a Competent Geek
Wichita, KS. Not too long ago, I asked my readers at my main blog just what sort of geek I should be. (The answer, in case it wasn't apparent at…