Free Society

Liberals’ Love Affair with Leviathan

by James Bovard February 1, 2022

The election of Joe Biden as president magically transformed all federal agencies, ensuring that their iron fists no longer posed any peril to the American people. Or at least that seems to be what many Biden supporters, liberals, and Democrats now believe. I stumbled upon that new catechism on a cold morning last November. I ambled online after breakfast and ...

The Social Engineer as Ethical Authoritarian

by Richard M. Ebeling February 1, 2022

Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, advocates of greater government planning and redistribution have used “following the science” as the rhetorical cover to rationalize the growth in political paternalism. Now, however, some of them are coming out of the closet and insisting that economists, for example, must explicitly adopt an authoritarian ethic that requires the end to any ...

Totalitarian Paranoia Run Amok

by John W. Whitehead January 27, 2022

“Totalitarian paranoia runs deep in American society, and it now inhabits the highest levels of government.”—Professor Henry Giroux Once upon a time, there was a government so paranoid about its hold on power that it treated everyone and everything as a threat and a reason to expand its powers. Unfortunately, the citizens of this nation believed everything ...

The Healthcare Road to Serfdom

by Scott McPherson January 26, 2022

COVID-19 hysteria has done more to embolden the power-mad than a massive terrorist attack. Once content to whisper among themselves about the danger of “too much freedom” (any amount, in the final analysis, being too much for them), they slither out of the shadows now to champion every new idea or policy that treats people like bees in a ...

The Pilgrims Tried Socialism and It Failed

by Richard M. Ebeling January 11, 2022

With the Thanksgiving holiday in the rear view mirror, we can get past the carving of a turkey; the stuffing and sweet potatoes; and many slices of pumpkin pie that almost all of us happily consumed. But how many of us know or appreciate that Thanksgiving really celebrates the failure of socialism and the birth of private enterprise and ...

Despotism Is the New Normal

by John W. Whitehead January 10, 2022

Looking at the present, I see a more probable future: a new despotism creeping slowly across America. Faceless oligarchs sit at command posts of a corporate-government complex that has been slowly evolving over many decades. In efforts to enlarge their own powers and privileges, they are willing to have others suffer the intended or unintended consequences ...

Winning Freedom Requires Some Radical Solutions

by Richard M. Ebeling January 7, 2022

Suppose that there was a button in front of you that if you pushed, it would, in one instant, abolish all the governmental controls and regulations on the US economy. Would you push that button, and in so doing transform the United States into a society of free people? People who would associate with each other based on voluntary ...

Madness, Mayhem and Tyranny

by John W. Whitehead January 4, 2022

“Tyranny does not flourish because perpetuators are helpless and ignorant of their actions. It flourishes because they actively identify with those who promote vicious acts as virtuous.”—An academic study into pathocracy Disgruntled mobs. Martial law. A populace under house arrest. A techno-corporate state wielding its power to immobilize huge swaths of the country. A Constitution in tatters. Between ...

Will Politicians Revive American Slavery?

by James Bovard January 1, 2022

In the wake of America’s disastrous Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment was enacted to prohibit involuntary servitude. Unfortunately, top newspapers, pundits, and think tanks are now campaigning to nullify that prohibition. Apparently, slavery was evil not because of the unjust subjugation but because plantation owners, not politicians, were the profiteers. Politicians have long been hustling to establish their prerogative to ...

The Fabric of Civilization

by Neera K. Badhwar January 1, 2022

The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World  by Virginia Postrel, Basic Books, 2021, 320 pages. Virginia Postrel’s Fabric of Civilization is a fascinating, deeply researched tale of the development of fabric. Starting with fiber to make string, it takes us through the development of thread, to natural fabric, and finally to synthetics. It tells of ...

Leave Scrooge (and the Rest of Us) Alone!

by Scott McPherson December 24, 2021

The Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol is a beloved piece of literature, a mainstay of the holiday season. First published in 1843 and retold countless times in film and on the stage, it tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserable old corn merchant and landlord who delights in his own misery and the misfortune of others. For almost ...

The Christmas Baby Born in a Police State

by John W. Whitehead December 20, 2021

“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace ...