The Stockdale Paradox and the Future of Liberty
“The Stockdale Paradox reminds us that when faith falters, turning to false optimism is not the path forward. Such optimism, wrote Frankl in Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything, ‘lull[s] us into complacency and… a rosy fatalism.’” ~ Barry Brownstein
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Liberalism, True and False
“There was an underlying humility in the older classical liberalism that assumed that each person could better find his own way than to presume that political paternalists could make better decisions for them.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling
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Old Wisdom for Perilous Times
“The dark times that we are experiencing nearly a century after Mumford began his writing career have been experienced by previous generations, including Mumford’s and Melville’s.” ~ Natalie Taylor
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A Well-Regulated Militia is Necessary to the Security of a Free State
“Responsibility and duty are necessary elements of individual liberty. In between anarchy and tyranny is civic liberty, which may require the time and energy of citizens to maintain a level of lawful order in society.” ~ Daniel Betti
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Remember an Underappreciated Honest Politician
“With the midterm elections so close, anyone who has studied Cleveland’s views, can’t help but recognize the abyss between that ‘honest, principled, and plain-spoken president’ and the current occupant of the White House. ” ~ Gary M. Galles
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When the Family Is Abolished, People Starve
“Like the Chinese communists, Lewis sees no need for every family to cook, wash clothes, and raise children. For the Chinese, instead of paradise, the outcome was the worst man-made famine in history.” ~ Barry Brownstein
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Government Lands, Squatters’ Claims, and David Crockett
“If people make improvements to unused public land without legal title for their activity, have they earned a claim to that property through their labor on it?” ~ Daniel Betti
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What Conservatives Have Forgotten about Subsidiarity and the Common Good
“Since each entity has protected duties and powers, interventions are only warranted when a community is in need and unable to meet its responsibilities. The government is not given license to adventure into others’ spheres.” ~ Andy Smarick
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Tolerance as the Supreme Political Principle
“Groups can always exploit and instrumentalize ethical and religious claims. Tolerance is the primary political virtue because it prevents convergence to any one sect’s vision of a good social order.” ~ Michael D. Thomas
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“No, Sarah, Our Prosperity Wasn’t Extracted from Slaves”
“A key purpose of my intro econ course is to help my students understand how peaceful, commercial cooperation emerges to create and maintain our astonishing material prosperity.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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If America Were Totalitarian, Where Would You Want to Live?
“I ask my students, at the end of such discussions, how free is America, really, today? What is the direction toward which we seem to be continuing to head?” ~ Richard M. Ebeling
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Robespierre and Us
“One of the strengths of Gauchet’s book is the way it continually emphasizes the inability of Robespierre and his fellow fanatics to give serious thought to the art of governance in a political order at once popular and representative.” ~ Daniel J. Mahoney
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