My discussion with Glenn Beck ranged over capitalism and socialism, the ethics needed for a free society, Greek virtues, intolerance and indoctrination in education, Ayn Rand’s egoism and her view of charity, whether a meaningful life requires transcending failure, the differences between Antifa and Nazi Brownshirts, whether the National Socialist really were socialist, postmodernism, whether […]
Conversation with Glenn Beck [transcript] Read More »
George Orwell, in contrast to those who want to distance National Socialism from their own preferred version of socialism: “National Socialism is a form of socialism, is emphatically revolutionary, does crush the property owner as surely as it crushes the worker.” [1] Also, and in fuller detail: “Internally, Germany [under the Nazis] has a good
Orwell on Nazism as socialism Read More »
As part of my Neither right nor left mantra, another datum. Most people use “right” and “left” journalistically: to designate shifting bundles of social-political beliefs and attitudes. The bundles are usually not internally coherent. So more analytic thinkers try to bring order out of mush by identifying multiple dimensions of contrast: individual versus collective, liberty
Against the new post-2016-Trump right too Read More »
The title of my upcoming FEECon talk is: “Why Young Socialists Don’t Love Us, But They Should.” The conference has a wide range of smart and lively thinkers, activists, and entrepreneurs, so I am looking forward to engaging. Thanks to everyone at The Atlas Society for making my participation possible.
“Why Young Socialists Don’t Love Us, But They Should” — FEECon talk coming up Read More »
Two recent articles on Stoicism, one by philosopher Aaron Smith and a self-described “grumble” response by philosopher Roderick Long. Both focus on Stoicism but with some attention given to its differences and similarities with Objectivism. To that pair of discussions I add this short collection of quotations I use as a guide when I lecture
Stoicism: Smith, Long, and some quotations Read More »
Friedrich Engels arguing that communism is the logical consequence of German philosophy, starting with Kant’s revolution and progressing through Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel: “The Germans are a philosophical nation, and will not, cannot abandon Communism, as soon as it is founded upon sound philosophical principles: chiefly if it is derived as an unavoidable conclusion from
Engels on communism’s connection to German philosophy Read More »
Hong Kong’s economic transformation: 1960: Average per capita income in Hong Kong was 28 percent of Great Britain’s. 1996: Average per capita income in Hong Kong was 137 percent of Great Britain’s. Most of us want to know the magic formula that takes people from poverty to wealth. So a one-question quiz: Guess what happened
Ignoring Hong Kong Read More »
A strange coincidence of timing: Today I recorded an episode of Open College on why even dangerous ideas should not be banned, on the ground that free societies need to understand them so as to combat them. Also today, my documentary on Nietzsche and the Nazis was suppressed at YouTube (at Craig Lennon Danielson’s site).
My video banned by YouTube (N-word alert) Read More »
A new episode of my podcast series, produced by Possibly Correct out of Toronto. Audio: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Topics and times: The decline of slavery as a moral achievement // History: Slavery practiced everywhere before modernity // The internal African slave society and trades // The Atlantic trade and where the slaves went // Early
The Stain of Slavery [Open College] Read More »
I’m happy to announce a new audio edition of my “Ayn Rand and Business Ethics” has been published at Audible. Thanks to the team at The Atlas Society for producing it. The essay was originally published in The Journal of Accounting, Ethics & Public Policy and has since been translated into Korean, German, Serbo-Croatian, and
Audiobook: *Ayn Rand and Contemporary Business Ethics* published Read More »