Culture & the Libertarian Heritage

A Week in a (Sort of) Libertarian Country, Part 2

by Scott McPherson July 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 The Republic of Costa Rica has no army. The country, roughly the size of West Virginia and with a population of around 4 million people (including 50,000 North American expatriates), is proudly neutral. Its constitution dates to 1949, following a brief civil war and adoption of many democratic reforms. By Latin American standards, ...

A Week in a (Sort of) Libertarian Country, Part 1

by Scott McPherson June 1, 2005

Part 1 | Part 2 “Are you a libertarian?” I wasn’t expecting the question, but under the circumstances it made sense. We were in Costa Rica, in a taxi heading southeast into the heart of San Jose. My wife, Charlotte, and I were on a long-overdue week’s holiday. The kids were staying with some friends in Texas. It ...

Beware Grand Inquisitors and Psychology Professors

by Sheldon Richman April 1, 2005

For some people, there are a limitless number of reasons individual freedom is not the great good libertarians believe it to be. The “in” reason at the moment is that freedom to choose among a large number of options makes people unhappy. The leading theoretician among the choice-is-bad set is Barry ...

Of Course, It All Began with Ayn Rand

by Bart Frazier February 2, 2005

Like so many others, Ayn Rand has heavily influenced the paths that I have chosen in my life. And like most everyone else, it began with Atlas Shrugged. I was nineteen when someone gave me a worn, pocket-sized edition of Atlas Shrugged. Unlike so ...

On the Centenary of America’s Radical for Capitalism

by Sheldon Richman February 2, 2005

February 2 is the centenary of the birth of Ayn Rand, the novelist who inspired tens of millions of readers with her philosophical action stories celebrating reason, individualism, and freedom under capitalism. Her death in 1982 did not stanch interest in her work either as an artist or as ...

Ayn Rand Introduced Me to Libertarianism

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 2, 2005

My very first exposure to libertarianism was provided by Ayn Rand, whose 100th birthday is being celebrated today. One afternoon in the fall of 1974, I was sitting around watching television. At the time, I was temporarily working as a waiter in Dallas, having just completed three months of ...

What Is Living and What Is Dead in Classical Liberalism

by Charles K. Rowley January 1, 2005

This paper was presented at The Future of Freedom Foundations five-year anniversary conference in 1994. Introduction The momentous upheaval in Eastern Europe in 1989, followed by the complete disintegration of the USSR, did not usher in the end of history as claimed by overly-enthusiastic Western commentators such as Fukuyama (1992) in the first wave of euphoria over the collapse of Marxist-Leninist ...

Republicans Have Family under Attack

by Sheldon Richman December 17, 2004

Anyone who still believes that the people and the government are the same thing ought to think about what a House-Senate conference committee refused to do recently. Thanks to Texas Congressman Ron Paul, the committee had the opportunity to strike a blow for the rights of parents and for ...

In Support of Voting

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 22, 2004

As one who refused to vote for some 20 years, I wield a credential in the debate currently taking place in libertarian circles as to whether people should vote or not vote. (See a sampling of the vote vs. no-vote articles below.) I vote in favor of voting. The reasons I didnt vote for all those years were the ...

The Nationalization of the American People

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2004

With military manpower shortages arising out of the war in Iraq, there is talk in the air that the federal government might reinstitute the draft, most likely sometime after the November election. Such a prospect should cause every American to reflect not only on the moral and philosophical relationship of the ...

Government Interventionism in Ireland, Part 2

by Scott McPherson June 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 In 1881, the Young Ireland Society was formed. The Gaelic Athletic Association and the Gaelic League followed soon after. The Gaelic League began selling Irish-language textbooks and by 1906 had 900 branches boasting 100,000 members in urban areas around the country. The same Arthur Griffith who would found Sinn Fein in 1905 had in ...

Government Interventionism in Ireland, Part 1

by Scott McPherson May 1, 2004

Part 1 | Part 2 Ireland at the turn of the 20th century was poised for change. Most of Irelands inhabitants wanted to alter in some respect the nature of their relationship with Great Britain, which had been interfering in Irish affairs for more than 700 years. In 1801 the British government had even declared Ireland to be, constitutionally, ...