TGIF: Defend the Enlightenment!

TGIF: Defend the Enlightenment!

by | Jul 2, 2021 | , , ,

The libertarian philosophy is embedded in Enlightenment liberalism. This is clearly seen in its commitment to free inquiry (reason) and free speech, the full realization of which, I argue, requires complete respect for individual rights, including property rights. Unfortunately we live at a time when those values are increasingly under assault from from a variety intellectuals and activists despite political and cultural differences among themselves. We hear prominent people ask--and it's really an assertion disguised as a question--whether free inquiry and free speech are really all they...

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TGIF: Liberty as a Problem-Solving Process

TGIF: Liberty as a Problem-Solving Process

by | Jun 25, 2021 | , , , , , ,

Strictly speaking, liberty isn't the solution to problems. It's what creates the framework in which solutions can be discovered. That is an important distinction because it reminds us that advocates of full-blown liberty do not offer the world a problem-free society but "only" a society in which problems are discovered and problem-solvers are mobilized as quickly, fairly, and efficiently as impossible. To get this point across to students in lectures, I used to quote the the title of a 1970 hit record: "I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden." Social troubles will not...

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TGIF: Is “Free Election” an Oxymoron?

TGIF: Is “Free Election” an Oxymoron?

by | Jun 18, 2021 | , , , , , ,

American leaders and their loyal media pundits love to sit in judgment of other countries' election, declaring them fair or rigged according to their seemingly meticulous standards. In fact, the real standard is that the regimes "we" like hold free and fair (enough) elections, while the regimes "we" dislike don't. What about regimes "we" like that hold no national elections at all, like Saudi Arabia? They are forgotten whenever the loveliness of democracy is the topic of discussion. Maybe a broader approach would shed light on the matter. We could ask: does any country have really free and...

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TGIF: VP Harris Tells Guatemalans to Stay in Their Place

TGIF: VP Harris Tells Guatemalans to Stay in Their Place

by | Jun 11, 2021 | , , , , ,

Shame on Vice President Kamala Harris. On her recent trip to Guatemala she said, "I want to be clear to folks in the region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come. Do not come. I believe if you come to our border, you will be turned back.” This is what passes for sensitivity to human rights in the post-Trump era. It's the same attitude that marked not only the Trump years but also the pre-Trump era under Barack Obama, the deporter-in-chief, and Joe Biden. Notice Harris mentioned the "dangerous trek" without acknowledging that the U.S...

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TGIF: What the State Really Is

TGIF: What the State Really Is

by | Jun 4, 2021 | , , , ,

To better understand the nature of government, one can think of it as an agency that sells or, more precisely, rents power to others. The greater the power and the wider its scope, the more opportunities the state's agents will have to sell access to it in return for favors. Of course the demand for that power will also be greater. This stands to reason. If the government is allowed to make many important decisions about private activity, people will want to influence or control that decision-making--and they'll be willing to pay for that influence as long as the price is less than the...

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TGIF: About that “Real Estate Dispute” in Sheikh Jarrah

TGIF: About that “Real Estate Dispute” in Sheikh Jarrah

by | May 28, 2021 | , , , ,

When the Israeli government describes the conflict over the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem as just a "real-estate dispute," it has a point. Palestinian families are at risk of eviction (and some have already been evicted) from homes they've lived in for many years so that Jewish settlers, many of whom were born in Brooklyn, N.Y., can move into them. This is being done on the basis of a 1970 law that permits Jews to acquire Palestinian properties that are said to have been once owned by Jews. Also, under a 1950s law, the Israeli government claimed the properties of so-called...

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Hamas, Israel, and the United States

by | May 22, 2021 | ,

For obvious reasons, I cannot endorse Hamas's firing projectiles at residential centers in Israel. But if is wrong to terrorize Israeli noncombatants into changing their government's outrageous anti-Palestinian policies, then it must also be wrong for Israel and the United States to terrorize noncombatants into changing their rulers' policies, which those countries routinely do through sanctions and other, explicitly military ways. One morality--one set of individuals rights--for all!

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