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The Incompatibility of Libertarianism and the Right:
October 12, 2005:
Martin Kraegel III critiques G. Stolyarov II's article, "On Old-Fashioned Progress." Mr. Kraegel objects, in particular, to Mr. Stolyarov's classification of libertarians and classical liberals as part of the Right, claiming instead that the Right is a force in opposition to liberty and progress.
A Defense of the Right:
October 12, 2005:
G. Stolyarov II responds to Mr. Kraegel, demonstrating how libertarianism is in fact compatible with the Right. In so doing, Mr. Stolyarov analyzes the origins of the terms "Left" and "Right" in the French Revolution and contends that the Ancien Regime, the Reign of Terror, 19th century conservatism, and 20th century socialism are all in fact more characteristic of the Left than of the Right.
Austrian School Arguments on the Free Market Origin of Money:
October 3, 2005:
Money was not created by a state edict, and its value derives from a gradual, causal, spontaneous origin on the free market. G. Stolyarov II explains the theories of Austrian economists-- Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises-- that elucidate this view.
October 5, 2005:
G. Stolyarov II explains the unique Austrian School approach to utility-- a logical, universally applicable marginal analysis which encompasses the entire array of diverse individual value preferences.
October 5, 2005:
The Austrian School of Economics offers a universal logical generalization about all individuals, no matter how diverse their tastes. This generalization is the fenomenon of positive time preference-- the favoring of the same satisfaction sooner rather than later. Positive time preference, writes G. Stolyarov II, is a necessary characteristic of active man.
October 5, 2005:
G. Stolyarov II elucidates an insight by Austrian economist Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk concerning the greater productivity of more roundabout or capitalistic methods of creating goods. This essay holds the key to defending the efficacy of techology, savings, and investment in bringing about economic prosperity.
A Review of Virginia Postrel's The Future and its Enemies:
November 2, 2005:
Dr. Edward W. Younkins analyzes a book whose author, Ms. Postrel, claims that the old posited antagonisms of "liberal" and "conservative" are obsolete. Rather, the true ideological battle is between "stasisists"-- advocates of regulated, imposed, stagnant systems-- and "dynamists" who welcome innovation, progress, free markets, and spontaneous order.
The Culture War's Battle of Lexington:
September 28, 2005:
The case of David Parker, the father sued by Estabrook Elementary school for objecting to his son's indoctrination with homosexual propaganda, is a prime representation of polarization in America's present intense culture war, writes Wendy McElroy. Unfortunately, the culture war is characterized by vitriol and mischaracterization instead of civility and rational argument.
September 28, 2005:
The German firm Bayer has recently made the grievous mistake of endorsing the European Union's attack of DDT usage in Uganda. This Africa Fighting Malaria (AFM) press release argues that Bayer seeks to abolish DDT in order for Ugandans to purchase its more expensive, less effective pesticides. However, Ugandans ought to be left free to use DDT in pursuit of their essential survival needs without such coercive interference.
October 3, 2005:
Examining instances of media bias, Sara Pentz reveals how today's mainstream media is a vast machine for indoctrinating viewers and readers in collectivist ideology.
October 3, 2005:
How does the mainstream media manage to indoctrinate people in its collectivist agenda? Sara Pentz reveals that this is often accomplished through the outright fabrication of information, a practice which more objective Internet media sources can render apparent.
October 12, 2005:
It is politically incorrect to admit, but Fred Reed has no fear in doing so: the looters in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina were overwhelmingly black. Why, despite decades of attempts at "integration," have many African-Americans nonetheless formed a large underclass inclined toward theft and violence? Mr. Reed claims that the problem is found in a cultural rejection of honest, productive work and self-improvement.
October 12, 2005:
Fred Reed refutes the popular fallacy that the violence in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was caused by the poverty of those who initiated it. In fact, the New Orleans looters were nowhere near poor in the true sense of the word. Mr. Reed also relates the story of a woman who was born truly poor and used her own effort and merit to rise without looting or killing anyone.
October 12, 2005:
A Women's Studies and Graduate Consortium at Northeastern University in Boston has recently tried to bar entry to a woman on the grounds that she was white-- and that her whiteness inherently constituted oppression and intimidation. Wendy McElroy condemns this race-based mindset and claims that we will never be able to eliminate racial discrimination unless we transcend the very idea of racial categorization altogether.
October 21, 2005:
Wendy McElroy argues that it is proper to exhibit compassion for innocent individual victims of particular calamities and wrongs. However, when the idea of justice becomes supplanted with "social justice" and victims are thought of as inextricable members of an inherently victimized group, then one can have no sympathy for such collectivized "victimhood."
October 21, 2005:
Oregon's educational bureaucracy has taken the lead in instituting a new politically correct policy requiring all teachers to pass "cultural competence" screening, effectively barring those who do not believe in affirmative action and collectivist feminist dogma from the educational field. Wendy McElroy warns parents and concerned thinkers about this threat.
