Related: Close readings of authoritarian thinkers in the Philosophers, Explained series: Hegel, Gentile and Mussolini, Marx and Engels, Heidegger, Dugin, Nietzsche.
The Rise of Authoritarianism Panel [In case you missed it] Read More »
Refreshing this quotation from Zeev Sternhell’s The Anti-Enlightenment Tradition (Yale University Press, 2010), a scholarly study of the most disturbing intellectual trend of the modern world — the ongoing lineage of intellectuals opposed to the Enlightenment tradition of reason, naturalism, individualism, and freedom. Along the way Sternhell asks, of Nietzsche’s place in the trend, an
Zeev Sternhell on the Nazis’ pillaging of Nietzsche Read More »
Reprising this open letter Douglass wrote in 1848 to Thomas Auld, his former master, on the tenth anniversary of his escape from slavery to freedom. TO MY OLD MASTER. Thomas Auld, Sir: The long and intimate, though by no means friendly, relation which unhappily subsisted between you and myself, leads me to hope that you
Frederick Douglass’s letter to his former master Read More »
The flowchart is from the end of Chapter 5 of Stephen Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (Scholargy Publishing, 2004, 2011), summarizing the argument developed in that chapter. Click the image to enlarge. See also Professor Hicks’s discussions of the philosophers’ primary texts, in his Philosophers, Explained series:
The Evolution of Socialist Strategies Read More »
On the priority of character: “Wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the State” (Apology, 30b). On the dangers of democracy: “No man on earth who conscientiously opposes you or any other organized democracy, and flatly prevents a great many wrongs and illegalities
In class: Socrates in Plato’s *Apology* Read More »
Reprising this chart which integrates the major answers to the question: What makes liberal capitalism good? The chart diagrams the positive claims about liberal capitalism by its defenders — John Locke, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and others. For elaboration, see my book Liberalism Pro and
Justifying liberal capitalism — flowchart Read More »
At Smithsonian Magazine, an eye-opening piece on government-propaganda history. And as government’s acquired powers and bureaucracies tend to persist and grow, the precedent set by Wilson is still with us. Writes professor of journalism Christopher Daly: “The full bundle of techniques pioneered by Wilson during the Great War were updated and used by later presidents
Woodrow Wilson’s 1917 “Ministry of Information” Read More »
Every other year or so I post that the United States Postal Service government monopoly loses billions while private-sector FedEx and UPS were profitable. It’s a multi-decade trend now. FedEx and UPS versus USPS. * USPS Loses $15.9 Billion – But Bosses Get Hefty Compensation Raises. * FedEx Income Statement. * UPS International Profit Rebounds.
USPS still losing big money—2021 edition Read More »