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A Map of the World That Did Not Show Utopia
“Hannah Arendt used to speak of ‘the lost treasure of the revolution’: a protean phenomenon that eluded the capture of those who sought it the most. Like Hegel’s ‘cunning of history’ and Marx’s ‘old...
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Talking to Empty Chairs
Commotion surrounding Clint Eastwood’s eccentric and at times erratic “empty chair” speech at the Republican National Convention shows no signs, even now, of stopping. Over a week on, and airwaves are...
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Controversial Books and Controversial Authors
“If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries...
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Let Us Plant Our Trees This Afternoon
“‘Every man,’ said Professor Woodrow Wilson, ‘sent out from a university should be a man of his nation as well as a man of his time.’ …Every great age is marked by innovation and daring–by the ability...
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You, Romans
The Greeks shape bronze statues so real they seem to breathe, And carve cold marble until it almost comes to life. The Greeks compose great orations, and measure The heavens so well they can predict...
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The Paradox of Tolerance
“Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the...
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Alexis de Tocqueville on Church and State
“The short space of threescore years can never content the imagination of man; nor can the imperfect joys of this world satisfy his heart. Man alone, of all created beings, displays a natural contempt...
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Eager for Slavery
“The only Roman emperor I wholeheartedly admire is Tiberius. He was a brilliant politician, a brilliant administrator, a man of state and of the people. He was somebody who was meant to govern the...
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Robert Nozick on Taxation
“Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor. Some persons find this claim obviously true: taking the earnings of n hours labor is like taking n hours from the person; it is like...
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The Fourth of July According to Ronald Reagan
In 1981, during his first year in office, Parade magazine asked President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) to write something for them about what Independence Day meant to him. This submission was written by...
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The Happiness of the People
“My text is drawn from Federalist 62, probably written by James Madison: ‘A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people;...
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David Ricardo Shapes the Principle of Comparative Advantage
“The same rule which regulates the relative value of commodities in one country, does not regulate the relative value of the commodities exchanged between two or more countries. Under a system of...
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Vices Are Not Crimes
“If, then, it became so difficult, so nearly impossible, in most cases, to determine what is, and what is not, vice; and especially if it be so difficult, in nearly all cases, to determine where...
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When and How You Should Break the Law
MR. WICKER: Dr. King, I can sympathize with a good deal of your doctrine of nonviolent disobedience, but it seems to me that you get into a very difficult point here, at which one man’s conscience is...
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What Was the American Founders’ View of Human Nature?
Robert George: “The American Founders famously supplied constitutional mechanisms to remedy what they called the darker motives of man. And with their rather Presbyterian view of human nature, the...
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It’s Alright to Be Offended
“The idea that any kind of free society can be constructed in which people will never be offended or insulted is absurd. So too is the notion that people should have the right to call on the law to...
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Those Who Won Our Independence
“Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the state was to make men free to develop their faculties, and that in its government the deliberative forces should prevail over the...
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‘We Don’t March’: Einstein, Orwell, and Steinbeck on the Evils of Militarism
“When troops would come by, accompanied by fifes and drums, kids would pour into the streets to join the parade and march in lockstep. But not Einstein. Watching such a display once, he began to cry....
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A Government’s Contempt for Law Is Contagious
“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by...
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What Can the Lottery Teach Us about Marijuana Legalization?
Questioner: There was a recent article written by Alexander Cockburn in which he wondered if prohibition was 100% bad. In it, he mentioned that there were some public health benefits [to prohibiting...
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