All Posts Tagged With: "individualism"
Social Cooperation, Part 2
Last month I wrote about Ludwig von Mises’s emphasis on social cooperation as the basis of his economic philosophy, particularly in his magnum opus, Human Action. I thought I’d follow up with more thoughts on this subject. Mises was no maverick in this regard. Interest in social cooperation pervades the best classical-liberal and libertarian thought. [...]
30Nov2011 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedSocial Cooperation, Part 3
Some liberal thinkers have attached such importance to social cooperation that they have likened society to a living organism.
28Oct2011 | Sheldon Richman | 6 comments | ContinuedThe Individual and the Community
Last May sociologist Amitai Etzioni participated in a debate hosted by the Cato Institute in which he argued against the classical-liberal theory as being too atomistic, excessively concerned with selfish individualism, and neglectful of the importance of community. He’s been making this point for 20 years, which is strange for two reasons: First, it isn’t [...]
26Oct2011 | Aeon J. Skoble | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Gilded Age: A Modest Revision
Mark Twain named the decades after 1865 the “Gilded Age,” and Progressive historian Vernon Louis Parrington sketched them in some detail in 1927. For Parrington (Main Currents in American Thought, volume 3), the Gilded Age was a “Great Barbecue” of continuous government largesse and State-assisted capital accumulation under a very simple philosophy: “[P]reemption [of land] meant exploitation [...]
21Sep2011 | Joseph R. Stromberg | 4 comments | ContinuedSocial Cooperation, Part 2
Only individuals value, choose, and act, of course, but in an important sense the resulting social whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts.
26Aug2011 | Sheldon Richman | 19 comments | ContinuedDon’t Leave Me Alone
When libertarians adopt “leave us alone” rhetoric, they reinforce their negative stereotype as selfish and unconcerned with the less fortunate. That’s no way to persuade people to support freedom.
21Apr2011 | Steven Horwitz | 65 comments | ContinuedThe Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America
It is a curious footnote in the history of the libertarian movement that three of its leading inspirations voted for Franklin Roosevelt for president. The irreverent H. L. Mencken voted as much against Hoover as he did for FDR. Ayn Rand, like many, bought into Roosevelt’s rhetoric of fiscal discipline. But Isabel Paterson knew better, [...]
9Jul2010 | Jude Blanchette | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Roads to Modernity: the British, French, and American Enlightenments
In 1945, Austrian economist F. A. Hayek delivered a lecture on what he called “Individualism: True and False.” The gist of his argument was that there had been a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding concerning the relationship between the individual and society, both in terms of social theory and practical politics. He juxtaposed what [...]
7Jul2010 | Richard M. Ebeling | 2 comments | ContinuedCapital Letters
Don’t Let the Court Off the Hook To the Editor: As a former wartime draftee — the Korean War — I’m of two minds re Aeon J. Skoble’s “Neither Slavery Nor Involuntary Servitude” piece in your September issue (“It Just Ain’t So!). No question, he did a very good job of picking apart the operational [...]
6Jul2010 | FEE Admin | 1 comment | ContinuedWhat’s Wrong with Reparations for Slavery
There has been much debate recently about reparations for slavery. According to its proponents, the federal government should award Americans of African descent financial damages solely because slavery, as an institution, existed in the United States from the founding until almost a century later. Three principal arguments are offered: (1) The legacy of slavery has [...]
30Jun2010 | Stefan Spath | 16 comments | ContinuedAre We Really All Healthcare Collectivists Now?
“We have to do something about health care.” The scariest word in that sentence is not something. It’s we. The first-person plural form is not merely a convenience, as in “We’re in for a cold winter.” It indicates that decisions about “the healthcare system” are to be made collectively, with one decision binding everyone. That’s [...]
31Jul2009 | Sheldon Richman | 1 comment | ContinuedTGIF: Are We Really All Healthcare Collectivists Now?
“We have to do something about health care.” The scariest word in that sentence is not something. It’s we. TGIF is here.
31Jul2009 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedAin’t My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism
The abysmal 2008 presidential election should have Americans scratching their heads, pondering how the political economy of the United States devolved into a duopoly of two nearly identical, state-loving political parties that are always ready to intervene militarily anywhere on the planet. It was not always this way, and how we got here is the [...]
24Apr2009 | Christopher Westley | 0 comments | ContinuedIndividualism Clashes with Cooperation? It Just Ain’t So!
Individualists get a bad rap in politics these days. That should come as no surprise; politics these days is dominated by electoral politics, and electoral politics is an essentially anti-individualistic enterprise. With free markets and other forms of voluntary association, people who can’t agree on what’s worthwhile can go their own ways. But the point [...]
20Jan2009 | Charles Johnson | 5 comments | ContinuedA Department of Homeland Happiness Security? Only if We Want to Be Unhappy!
Richard Ebeling (rebeling@fee.org) is the president of FEE. It is more than 230 years since Adam Smith observed that each individual is a better judge of how best to apply his productive efforts than any statesman who would direct the economic activities of the citizenry. Furthermore, Smith said, any such power “would nowhere be so [...]
1Mar2008 | Richard M. Ebeling | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Real Argument about Government
A lot of contemporary political debate centers on how big government should be. The debate tends to have two main features. First, it uses measures such as government spending as a proportion of GDP or the share of total income taken in taxation. Figures such as these show a dramatic rise in the size of [...]
1Dec2007 | Stephen Davies | 2 comments | ContinuedTime to Revive Individualism?
One problem facing people who broadly favor smaller, limited government; private property; and free exchange is what to call themselves. Historically the word “liberal” was the answer and still is in many parts of continental Europe. However, in the Anglophone world, particularly the United States, the word has now come to refer to those who [...]
1Sep2007 | Stephen Davies | 2 comments | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
Update below. Controversy rages over the Obama administration’s mandate that all employers – including... Read More
The Snow Plowers’ Petition
The following might have happened in a small college town in upstate New York… In a cold and snowy... Read More
Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
Picking on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is one of the largest participation sports on the Internet.... Read More
