Political “Unity” is Neither Necessary Nor Desirable

“[T]o restore the soul and to secure the future of America,” President Joe Biden said in his inaugural speech, “requires more than words. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity. … This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward.” The bad news:  Where politics is concerned, “unity” is a pipe dream.

Responsible Rulers

I have often heard people charge libertarian anarchists with being irresponsible for wishing to get rid of the current system of government and replace it with genuine self-governance. It’s as if — however difficult it may be to believe — these critics actually believe that rulers in the current setup are responsible.

Democratic Nations, U.S. Capitalism, Anarchism, & Root of All Evil (34m) – Episode 374

Episode 374 has Skyler giving his commentary on the following questions from Quora: “Why are so many democratic nations in peril? Has democracy become a liability to free nations?”; “Has U.S. capitalism abandoned the middle class?”; “Why do some people support anarchism?”; and “Is the root of all evil simply a man’s belief in evil?”

I Dream of Anarchy

As any good conversation about liberty ought to, it turned to the question of anarchy. Not in the positive, bomb-throwing sense. Anarchy simply meaning society without a political ruler, or without the initiation of violence. I shared with him a deep and rich body of thought, from Linda and Morris Tannehill, to Lysander Spooner, to Frank Chodorov, to Roy Childs, to David Friedman (Milton’s son), to Spencer Heath MacCollum, to Murray Rothbard, to Leo Tolstoy, to Leonard Read, to Randy Barnett, to John Hasnas, to Bruce Benson, to Robert Higgs, to Edward Stringham, to Peter Leeson, to Jeffrey Tucker and more.

Voltairine de Cleyre

I have rediscovered Voltairine de Cleyre recently, or maybe I should just say “discovered.”  I had previously known her only from quotes and pocket-sized bios.  Listening to an audiobook of essays, however, I am learning of the artfulness that keeps her famous more than a century after her death in 1912.