Archive for John K. Williams
Perspective: Taken for Granted
There is a sense in which being taken for granted is a compliment. A person who takes me for granted has assumed my reliability, trustworthiness, and competence. I have been perceived not as a variable—the fickle subject of random change—but as a constant. But being taken for granted can also irk. It can be perceived [...]
1Apr1988 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedPerspective: The Enemy Within
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves . . . .” These words, from Julius Caesar, describe a theme found in many of Shakespeare’s plays—people being destroyed not by some enemy outside themselves but by an enemy within. Those of us who value liberty frequently speak as though the enemies [...]
1Mar1988 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedThe New Socialism
The Reverend Dr. Williams is a noted speaker and author based in North Melbourne, Australia. Flive years ago my native country of Australia elected a socialist government. A perusal, however, of legislative measures taken by that government leads one to ask precisely what the label “socialist” today means, at least in Australia. The socialist government [...]
1Feb1988 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedPerspective: Who Are the Poor?
When St. Paul’s cathedral was rebuilt after the Great Fire of London of 1666, King Charles II visited the finished building. Upon completing his inspection, he allegedly turned to the architect and proclaimed that he found the cathedral “awful, amusing, and artificial.” The architect was delighted. In those days, the word “awful” signified what today [...]
1Feb1988 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Crisis and Leviathan: Critical Episodes in the Growth of American Government by Robert Higgs
Oxford University Press. 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 • 1987 • 416 pages • $24.95 cloth This is a first-class volume, which in substance exceeds its title. It will prove invaluable not only to people with expertise, or wishing to acquire expertise, in American history, but to men and women anxious to understand [...]
1Nov1987 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedAsking the Right Questions
The Reverend Dr. John K. Williams has been a teacher and is a free-lance writer and lecturer in North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was resident scholar at FEE from April to October of this year. The distinguished scholars of the British Royal Academy once were asked why it is that, when a live frog is [...]
1Oct1987 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedPerspective: On Creativity
The philosopher A. N. Whitehead once noted that creativity, throughout the ages, has been depicted in two radically different ways. On the one hand, creativity frequently is depicted in terms of the ordering of chaos. A drive to order seemingly characterizes the cosmos and human life, and that drive is what often is meant by [...]
1Oct1987 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedBooks of Note
Advocates of the freedom philosophy who minimize the importance of ecclesial beliefs about economics are making a serious mistake. More men and women in the United States—and in my own skeptical nation, Australia—attend church services every Sunday than go to football matches every Saturday! Even non-church people regard mainstream churches as significant agencies of what [...]
1Aug1987 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedCollectives, Communities, and the Individual
The Reverend Doctor John K. Williams has been a teacher and is a free-lance writer and lecturer in North Melbourne. Victoria, Australia. “The trouble with you is that you’re an individualist! You see yourself and other people as isolated atoms moving in an empty void! You forget that human beings are, as Aristotle taught us [...]
1Mar1987 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Will It Liberate? Liberation Theology and The Liberal Society by Michael Novak
Paulist Press, 997 MacArthur Blvd., Mahwah. NJ 07430 • 1986 • 320 pages, $14.95 cloth Michael Novak’s Will It Liberate? is a volume all men and women committed to liberty should purchase and read. The work’s subtitle—Liberation Theology and The Liberal Society—might deter potential readers for whom theology holds little appeal, but such a reaction [...]
1Feb1987 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Worst Polluters
The Reverend Doctor John K. Williams has been a teacher and is a free-lance writer and lecturer in North Melbourne. Victoria, Australia. Opponents of the free economy long have asserted that environmental pollution is caused by the market system, and have claimed that any person concerned about the environment must opt for some form of [...]
1Feb1987 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Forgotten Dream
The Reverend Doctor John K. Williams has been a teacher and is a free-lance writer and lecturer in North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was resident scholar at FEE this past summer. In the biblical book of Daniel is a story about a king who dreamed a dream so disturbing that it wakened him from his [...]
1Nov1986 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Making Sense of Marx by Jon Elster
Cambridge University Press, 32 E. 57th Street, New York, NY 10022 • 1985 • 556 pages, $15,95 paperback This volume is the second contribution to a series, Studies in Marxism and Social Theory, being jointly published by the Cambridge University Press and the Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme. The edi tors of [...]
1Oct1986 | John K. Williams | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Seven Deadly Fallacies of Bad Economics
The Reverend Doctor John K. Williams has been a teacher and is a free-lance writer and lecturer in North Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was resident scholar at FEE this past summer. In the sixth century of the Christian era Pope Gregory I, remembered by history as Gregory the Great, listed what became known as the [...]
1Oct1986 | John K. Williams | 1 comment | ContinuedA Bad Time for Giants
The Reverend Dr, John K, Williams has been a teacher and is a free-lance writer and lecturer based in North Melbourne, Australia. Big can be beautiful, if we let the market and consumer demands decide. Samuel Goldwyn once remarked that he would like to make a film “which begins with an earthquake and works up [...]
1Apr1986 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary by David Humeedited and with a foreword, notes and glossary by Eugene F. Miller
Liberty Classics, 7440 North Shadeland, Indianapolis, Indiana 46250 • 1985 • 679 pages, $11.00 cloth Students of the freedom philosophy are indebted to Liberty Fund. From that body comes Liberty Classics, a superbly produced series of works of inestimable value to any person desirous of making the acquaintance of the great thinkers of history who [...]
1Mar1986 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Freedom with Justice: Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions by Michael Novak
(Harper & Row, San Francisco), 1984 • 253 pages • $17.95 cloth) No defender of liberty can regard with equanimity the abhorrence of the free market in a free and open society displayed by many mainstream church bodies and leaders. All such defenders of liberty are therefore indebted to Michael Novak for his volume, Freedom [...]
1Dec1985 | John K. Williams | 0 comments | Continued-
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For Equality; Against Privilege
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