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What Tolkien Can Teach Us About Twitter
In December of 2016, I observed, alluding to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, that Twitter was akin to Trump’s ring of power. My point then was relatively straightforward: just as…
Common Good Politics: A Review of Nader’s Book
In his new book, Ralph Nader argues that the Left and the Right should unite against the economic and political establishment in the Center.
Ron Paul on The Future of Freedom
Here is a video of a talk Ron Paul recently delivered at a program sponsored by The Independent Institute. Paul sees signs of a shift away from concentrated power, and…
How Equality Makes Us Better (and Stupid)
Hidden Springs Lane. The concept of equality lies at the heart of the American system. School children learn by heart (or used to) those memorable lines from the Declaration of…
Politics on a Human Scale: Historiography
The language of “human scale” politics originated, at least in modern America, among the New Left and the Counterculture. More recently it has been adopted by traditional conservatives (appropriately enough).
Truth on the Losing Side
Justice Scalia’s dissents in the two same-sex “marriage” cases are worth reading. The first opinion addresses the idea of judicial supremacy within the federal government—what Jefferson called “the despotism of…
On Power
Every fall I teach a course called “Democracy.” One of the books we invariably read is On Power: The Natural History of its Growth by the French philosopher Bertrand de…
C.S. Lewis on Mere Liberty and the Evils of Statism Pt. III
This is Part II of a III Part series on C.S. Lewis and Statism. The series originally appeared at theIndependent Institute. See Part I here and Part II here. Collectivism and…
Swimming with Sharks
Today many Americans seem smitten with the notion that Washington holds the answer to the many dangers circling in the water.
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.
Welcome to the Plutocracy
This will not last. Greed consumes everything, until it finally consumes itself.