All Posts Tagged With: "power"
Government Is Force
Government is different from anything else in society, the only institution that can legally threaten and initiate violence against nonaggressors.
16Sep2011 | Sheldon Richman | 62 comments | ContinuedWatch the Watchmen
I believe in the right to privacy. Yet I can think of someone who deserves very little privacy—a policeman making an arrest. Unfortunately it’s a crime in some states to make a video of a policeman doing just that. People recording police have been threatened, detained, or arrested. Some were jailed overnight. That’s wrong. Police [...]
22Jun2011 | John Stossel | 5 comments | ContinuedFear-Mongering and Servitude
In his 1776 essay, “Thoughts on Government,” John Adams observed, “Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.” The [...]
22Jun2011 | James Bovard | 33 comments | ContinuedPower and the Market
The ultimate countervailing power is not the State but the combination of market competition and social activism.
2Jun2011 | Steven Horwitz | 18 comments | ContinuedThe Shame of Medicine: Celebrating Coercion
“Coercion is a subjective response to a particular intervention and has been considered an unfortunate but necessary part of the care of people with psychiatric illness.” That definition of the State-sanctioned forcible control of innocent persons labeled mentally ill by persons labeled psychiatrists was offered by Giles Newton-Howes—honorary senior lecturer in the department of psychological medicine, [...]
24Feb2011 | Thomas Szasz | 7 comments | ContinuedHistorical Reputations
In an election year it is useful to try to remove oneself from the hubbub of daily campaign news and advertisements and to imagine how the candidates will be viewed by historians. This is not a simple exercise, and the attempt will reveal a number of widespread attitudes that affect our view of both past [...]
1Nov2008 | Stephen Davies | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Love of Power vs. the Power of Love
Lawrence Reed is president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market research and educational organization in Midland, Michigan. “We look forward to the time when the power of love will replace the love of power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.” So declared British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone [...]
1May2007 | Lawrence W. Reed | 2 comments | ContinuedWhy Not More Liberty?
Russell Roberts holds the Smith Chair at the Mercatus Center and is a professor of economics at George Mason University. He is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. His latest book is The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance. There are two extreme views of American government and the political process. One is that [...]
1Dec2004 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedIts About Power. Period.
Roger Clites is a freelance writer. If we dig deep enough into any government program or policy, regardless of its stated aims, we will find that its basic purpose is the accumulation of power. We constantly allow ourselves to be flim-flammed by debates, compromises, or other distractions from this underlying point. By straying in any [...]
1May2000 | Roger M. Clites | 0 comments | ContinuedUnfettered Powerful Extremes
Over the years, intelligent and well-meaning opponents of private property and free markets have offered thoughtful and articulate arguments in support of government intervention. None of these arguments have withstood close scrutiny, but at least they were offered in the spirit of honest debate. Such arguments, even though deeply flawed, never infuriate me. Not so [...]
1Dec1999 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law
In The Structure of Liberty, Boston University law professor Randy Barnett identifies the fundamental problems that must be recognized in order to create a proper foundation for society: the problems of knowledge, interest, and power. Those problems arise because both physical resources and human abilities are scarce, because altruism is limited, and because humans are [...]
1Sep1999 | Bruce L. Benson | 1 comment | ContinuedIsolationism
Frank Chodorov (1887-1966) was editor of The Freeman in 1954 and 1955. This is excerpted from his autobiography Out of Step (Devin-Adair, 1962). Reprinted with permission. Isolationism has been turned (by our politicians, our bureaucracy and its henchmen, the professorial idealists) into a bad word. And yet, isolationism is inherent in the human makeup. It [...]
1Jul1999 | Frank Chodorov | 2 comments | ContinuedBetween Power and Liberty: Economics and the Law edited by Richard M. Ebeling
Hillsdale College Press • 1998 • 169 pages • $9.95 paperback Philip Murray is an associate professor of economics at Webber College in Babson Park, Florida. Between Power and Liberty: Economics and the Law, is the publication of the 1997 Ludwig von Mises lectures at Hillsdale College. The book’s title comes from James Madison’s description [...]
1Feb1999 | Philip R. Murray | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Virtues of Free Speech
Mr. Turiano is a graduate student in philosophy at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Any persuasive argument for liberty must involve a connection between liberty and human excellence. The reason for this is clear. An argument for liberty is an argument for its goodness. The ultimate context for all human evaluation of good news is human [...]
1Sep1996 | Mark Turiano | 0 comments | ContinuedInscrutable Freedom
In every age and in every country, there are two kinds of people—the lovers of freedom and the devotees of power. The former like to pursue their own good in their own way without infringing on the equal freedom of others. The devotees of power love to exercise control over others, and especially to command [...]
1Jun1996 | Hans F. Sennholz | 1 comment | Continued-
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