Liberty Space Articles

Just A Reminder

admin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:37:00 GMT

Just A Reminder by Martin Kraegel III

Osama bin Laden is back in the news, with another video to remind us all that he is still at large six years after his al-Qaeda network reduced the World Trade Center to a heap of rubble and killed close to three-thousand people. Now I know already some are going to say the government is involved in a conspiracy to use Osama bin Laden as a cover for their own complicity in 9/11 or as a way to keep the masses in perpetual fear. I find this to be implausible because it gives the government too much credit for being clever. After all, never forget that all the lies surrounding the Iraq invasion had already been debunked before U.S. troops ever set foot on Iraqi soil. Simply put, the government is not good at keeping secrets or at implementing complex policies of intervention. Read Full Article

Acapulco Gold

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:57:00 GMT

Acapulco Gold by Dan Keizer

There are a lot of arguments for the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana. Many advocates tend to cite such things as the relatively benign negative effects of the drug on society, them medical benefits of the drug, the tax base a legalized marijuana industry could create, or the supposed benefits of placing regulations on the drugs sale and manufacture. These arguments may sound like a good way to convince a person who does not use the drug that government policies should be changed. But before pursuing these avenues a smoker may want to consider the holes they can dig if the wish ever comes true. Pushing for the reform of marijuana laws using these utilitarian arguments may never bring about the smoker's paradise that so many weed lovers dream of. Read Full Article

Individualism, Properly Understood

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 06:08:00 GMT

Individualism, Properly understood by Alex Strekal

There is some confusion in terms of how many people tend to define individualism. According to some, individualism is akin to dictatorship, where one individual controls everyone else regardless of consent or ethical consideration. According to conventional wisdom, apparently individualism and narcissism are virtually indistinguishable. Another common mischaracterization of individualism is the idea that it's social isolationism, where everyone lives as an absolute hermit. Typically, the "cure" for individualism that is proposed is some kind of collectivism, in which "society" or "nation" or "state" are said to be supreme over the individual. In collectivism, people are identified uniformly as members of groups rather than as unique individuals unto themselves, with their own minds and actions. Read Full Article

The Romanticism of Violence

admin — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:40:00 GMT

The Romanticism of Violence by Crispin Evenich

The Romantic movement started as a reaction to the ongoing Age of Enlightenment. The thinkers of this Enlightenment era moved our society forward by basing decisions off research and deductive reasoning. If it was not for this era, democracy, individualist anarchism, and humanism would have never been offered as alternatives to the monarchic model of the time that had been in place since the time of the Egyptian pharoahs. The Romantic age was a new found philosophy that was in opposition to the previous hundred years of culture that existed in Europe, Asia, and the new Unites States. It led to a new emotionalism that created human involvement but did not always lead to the best results for mankind in general. Read Full Article

Living What?

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 04:35:00 GMT

Living What? by Matt Bear

What exactly is a "decent living?" Decent compared to what? Just about everyone prefers to make more money than not. If you compare standards from the early 1900s to today, even the poor are "better" off. Healthcare is more readily available and they are still generally working less hours than the average farm employee in the 1900s. For the sake of argument, if we believe that we can increase the wage of workers to an amount, then why not raise the hourly wage to $10 or $20 or maybe even $100. If the arguments hold true for any arbitrary number, then make the workers the best off we can? Why settle on $7.25, what is so special about that number? Equity in opportunity is much more important that equity in pay. Read Full Article

But What About The Roads?

admin — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 07:37:00 GMT

But What About The Roads? by John Tierney

The ability to use the road with out having to pay can be done with out taxes, in fact its the only way to do it since taxes are you paying for a poorly done transportation system with blood money. Perhaps there are some ideas that can added to my sort of transportation real estate idea. Perhaps individuals who buy the roads can better their roads to get better amounts of donations, or instead of individuals, groups or small clubs or even whole corporations could buy them and work to better their roads. Roads and sidewalks would be administrated locally and would be more likely to be fixed quickly. With government bureaucracies they get neglected and with time get worse or ignored at the very least. When they do get it fixed it's always a cheap fix, never lasts and thus is not sound. Read Full Article

On Capitalism

admin — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 03:58:00 GMT

On Capitalism by Borodog

The human concept of private property is simply an extension of human nature. First, property "rights" (in my opinion rights are but human constructs; the systems of "rights" that come to predominate in a human society are social norms) can only arise when conflict is possible, and conflict is only possible when there is scarcity. Whenever goods (things that are capable of satisfying human wants, needs, and desires) are scarce, conflict can arise. If I eat an apple, you can not. My satisfaction must come at the exclusion of the satisfaction of others. Obviously, conflicts can arise. Who gets to eat the apple? Read Full Article

We v.s. Them

admin — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 03:21:00 GMT

We V.S. Them by Martin Kraegel III

The highest moral value of the democratic age is the value that "the people" "should" rule, therefore anything done in the name of "the people" is just. Thus the politician uses words like "we," "us," "together," and "united" in his appeals for action. If he were to instead say "I" and "me" he would appear monarchical. But he achieves the same ends by saying "we the people." The politicians are not alone in this endeavor of verbal trickery. The media and academia, which in the democratic age have replaced the priesthood and the church as the mouthpieces of supreme truth, reinforce and multiply the effect of the original lie. In return they gain protection and access from the State. Read Full Article

Market Anarchy: Because Taxes Aren't So Certain After All

admin — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 02:33:00 GMT

Because Taxes Aren't So Certain After All by François Tremblay

What is market anarchy, and how is it justified? We can technically define Market Anarchy (also called Anarcho-Capitalism, and less often, Voluntaryism or Individualist Anarchy), following the first self-professed Anarchist in modern times, mutualist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, as the "absorption of government by the economic organism." This is a perfect and elegant definition, but it may be too obscure. Market Anarchy can be more simply defined as the position that "the State is unjustifiable and must be replaced by voluntary action in all areas of society." People should be free to make the laws they want, protect themselves the way they want, trade and work the way they want, have sex the way they want, take drugs or not take drugs, have abortions or not have abortions, religion or no religion, in short to live the way they want. And most importantly, be free to organize themselves in order to achieve these goals for themselves and those who agree with them. That's Anarchy! Read Full Article

Armed and Safe

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 03:28:00 GMT

Armed And Safe by Eugene Casey

Surprise! The United States harbors the most heavily-armed population in the world. According to the Small Arms Survey 2007, conducted by the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and reported by Reuters, “270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms” are owned by U.S. citizens. This translates to 90 guns per 100 people. Personally, I think this is spectacular if it's even remotely true, at least on a basic level. The down side is that many of those gun owners are likely uber-nationalistic conservatives who worship George W. Bush like Jesus-incarnate and think the best thing going for the modern world is an ill-defined “war on terror.” Read Full Article

Pragmatic Utilitarianism: A Road To Tyranny

admin — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:09:00 GMT

Pragmatic Utilitarianism: A Road To Tyranny by Alex Strekal

The arguments given by people to justify unethical acts are usually utilitarian, which is to say that a given act is defended on the grounds that it is beneficial to someone. This is commonly manifested in the arguments given in defense of the alleged "need" for a whole host of economic policies, and government in general. For example, conservatives often argue that the tax-funded defense industry helps "stimulate the economy". It is often argued that the public sector is justified because it "creates jobs". So long as a measure can be shown to be beneficial to a specific group of people, the utilitarian is prone to be comfortable with it. Read Full Article