Topic: Art and Culture

White Supremacy No, Enlightenment Superiority Yes

– October 29, 2020

“Progress isn’t automatic, and worse, regress can happen. We must understand and promote Enlightenment ideas and practices: Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress.” ~ Warren C. Gibson

Art and Culture, Free Markets, Media

News You Can’t Abuse

– September 22, 2020

“A news outlet that posted a bond with a third party that would be forfeited if it insisted on publishing anything factually wrong, or crossed the line between journalism and punditry, could create the sort of trust that people once had in the New York Times and other papers of record, all of which essentially posted informal bonds backed by their reputations and expected future profitability.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Art and Culture, Authoritarianism, Crisis, Free Markets

Pathological and Parochial Altruism in the Age of Fear

– August 20, 2020

“A healthy altruism already resides in the concepts of liberty, free markets, free trade, and exchanges that are beneficial to each individual. If in the spirit of entrepreneurship, the defectors from the status quo, the disruptors and ingenious can rise up to challenge the “new normal” and break away from the cult of blind obedience and pathological altruism, then there is still hope.” ~ Lucio Saverio Eastman

Art and Culture, Classical Liberalism, Free Markets, History

Stop Tearing Down Statues. Use Them to Tell the Story of American Liberty.

– August 19, 2020

“It is time that we confront our paradoxical history of personalities, beliefs, and institutions, telling a story of continued struggle to manifest a civic inheritance of individual liberty and human dignity. A struggle marked with failure, but which we hope will continue to bear fruit for the good of humankind.” ~ James L. Caton

Art and Culture, Authoritarianism, Free Markets

The Insidious Political Ends of Cancel Culture

– August 18, 2020

“The problem comes when such behavior gets so pervasive that it makes any sort of desirable social fabric impossible. To those people who wish to engage in the heavy politicization, divisiveness, and domination inherent to cancel culture, I say: make sure we actually have a society left.” ~ Ethan Yang

Art and Culture, Economic Education, History

William Harold Hutt: A Birthday Appreciation

– August 3, 2020

“Hutt was a complex thinker in a difficult time who worked to split the difference between the best world we can imagine and the best world that is feasible subject to the constraints we face in the world we actually inhabit. As Ludwig von Mises put it, “Professor Hutt’s rank among the outstanding economists of our age is not contested by any competent critic.” May his contributions endure in our age and in ages to come.” ~ Art Carden

Art and Culture, Economic Education, Free Markets

The Washington Football Team Should Be Called The Candlemakers

– July 28, 2020

“Bastiat laid bare the absurdity of so many arguments for protection, subsidy (for the stadium the Candlemakers would call home, for example), and regulation. The name would be a perfect homage to the never-ending stream of privilege-seeking supplicants filling the lobbies of Washington and looking for new ways to pick the pockets of their competitors, their customers, and the taxpayers—to say nothing of the grotesque concentration of power and perversion of the very idea of the law that makes it all possible.” ~ Art Carden

Art and Culture, Authoritarianism, Crisis

The Bloodless Political Class and Its Lack of Empathy

– July 27, 2020

“Power is dangerous even when not used, but deploying it brutally and pointlessly rots the soul. This is a good description of almost the entire ruling class around the world today, save a few civilized countries that never locked down.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Art and Culture, Authoritarianism, Classical Liberalism, History

“Systemic Racism” Theory is the New Political Tribalism

– July 21, 2020

“A freedom not based on race, nationality, language, or religion, but on an idea of the unique and valued individual who is at liberty to live his own life, peacefully in voluntary mutual association with others. A society that, more than any other, has done more to do away with the tribe and liberate the person, and bring peace and prosperity along with it.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Art and Culture, Crisis, Free Markets

Fear, Tyranny, and the Fairy Tale of Our Times

– July 21, 2020

“Reflecting the national divisions that have only escalated since its release, it illustrates how false stories spread to infect hearts and minds as fatally as a virus. The solution is to reject these fictions and judge for ourselves. As Conall tells Maleficent, ‘I’ve made my choice. Now make yours.'” ~ Caroline Breashears

Art and Culture, Economic Education, Free Markets, Property Rights

Who Owns Leftover and Abandoned Bar Food?

– July 17, 2020

“Figuring out the exact property rights isn’t worth the hassle: it’s too little and too rare to care about enforcing whatever legal right might be applicable in various jurisdictions. In practice, the ownership of leftover food is up to the social norms in the country you’re in, or even the attitude of the staff at the particular establishment you’re visiting – an informal institution, guided by vague and constantly negotiated social interactions.” ~ Joakim Book

Art and Culture, Free Markets, Policy

Do We Really Need More Movie Sequels? If the Market Says So, Then Yes We Do

– July 16, 2020

“Studios make sequels because they expect them to be profitable. This is a good thing, though, because they are working to make Mickey and Minnie Moviegoer better off as Mickey and Minnie choose to define it according to their own preferences, values, goals, and opportunities.” ~ Art Carden