Kym Robinson | The Libertarian Institute

The Philosophy of No One

by Kym Robinson | Jul 20, 2021 | Featured Articles

Philosophy is that ancient gift that speaks to us despite the distance of time. The wisdom and perspective of those long dead carry words of weight and understanding that allows us to find a commonality with a past that is beyond imagination. It can allow us better reflection for now, and to grant us a perspective of scale. The human condition is universal, unconstrained by place or time. It is a constant of all culture and race. The wise thoughts and timeless ponderings from those who lived and have been long dead are a testament that in time, we too shall be dead. Our lives can be as...

How Will Australia Remember Julian Assange?

by Kym Robinson | May 20, 2021 | Featured Articles

“Never believe anything until it’s officially denied."- Claud Cockburn This year's ANZAC day has passed in Australia. It is a national religious holiday where many give thanks for the sacrifice of Australian combatants that served, died, and were injured in the nation's many wars during its young history. It is a time for reflection, when Australians remember their national war heroes, those who fought for empire in far away lands, from arid deserts to terrifying jungles, against foes from all over the world. It is the popular belief that those who fought did so with freedom in mind....

Self Defense, Martial Arts, and the Individual

by Kym Robinson | Mar 19, 2021 | Featured Articles

Self defense is the instinct of all living things. The need to live and survive when attacked. It is only through the insulation of civilised comfort that we tend to ignore the reality of life and neglect the need for self defense. Forgetting that people and beasts do lurk which can do us harm. Fortunately most of us will never be in situations where we are required to defend ourselves. But that does not mean that danger does not lurk close by or in the distance. The nature of the threat is not always the brutish fiend hiding from within the shadows or a pack of wild dogs roaming with a...

Reflections on ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’

by Kym Robinson | Mar 9, 2021 | Book Reviews, Featured Articles

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it.”- Santayana There are some books you read which leave lasting scars on the mind. For me, that was The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer. Having first read it as a child when war was only a genre of films and comic book features, it exposed a dark truth about war and the evils of the Nazi regime. It was a book of horror. Having recently re-read it as an adult—after consuming many other books detailing history's most terrilbe moments—its initial horror remains shocking. Shirer’s extensive history of Nazi...

The Banned Books of the Cold War-Era Soviet Union

by Kym Robinson | Feb 17, 2021 | Book Reviews, Featured Articles

“When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”- George R. R. Martin The authoritarian nature of the Soviet Union has been buried by apologist revisionism and has been romanced in the upsurge of sexy depictions of the Cold War. It's a fondness for a past that never really existed. For its victims it was grim and chilling period of repression. The Stalinist era is one of dystopian horrors, genocide and gulags with centrally planned nightmares converging into a monstrous state headed by a dictator that was saved...

Whisphers in the Wind

by Kym Robinson | Jan 8, 2021 | Featured Articles, Uncategorized

As the fiasco of U.S. democracy shreds at any sense of dignity the world watches on and pretends that the health of the American empire is vibrant, the opinionated social media activist and the interested expert all find outrage in the moment. Biden and Trump drips from the chanting lips of those who are storming the halls of political might. Far in distant lands, inside the obedient nations of the American empire heads of state read out words of support and condemnation. Outraged citizens from abroad criticise the ousted president, or they cheer for him to troll from the platform of...

An Image Is Not ‘Repugnant,’ War Crimes Are

by Kym Robinson | Dec 3, 2020 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

An image was shared on Twitter that has drawn the ire of the Australian government and some of the public. It has been called “Repugnant” by the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison. Last month Australians tried to digest the revelations that members of their elite special forces had executed civilians inside of Afghanistan (acting in their name). This month they are being asked to condemn the Chinese government for sharing an image on social media. In the woke capitalist era of cancel culture, the Australian government and media are outraged! How is it that a mere digital image could...

The Australian Special Forces’ Culture of Death

by Kym Robinson | Nov 20, 2020 | Featured Articles, Foreign Policy

Australia has a culture for war, and that culture breeds atrocities. The Australian government's own inquiry has confirmed many of the allegations leaked by journalists regarding war crimes in Afghanistan, stemming from the execution by Australian special forces of prisoners and civilians. Those same journalists had previously been threatened with prosecution for exposing those war crimes. But faced with a mountain of evidence and already public revelations, the government had no choice but to find that its armed forces had been involved in such atrocities. And those crimes were a...

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