Written by Skyler J. Collins in 2009. Christmastime is arguably the best time of the year. We all know the reasons why, though many forget. My intention with this short essay is not to examine those, the most important parts. Rather, what I thought I’d share here are the details that make the Christmas story…
Category: Voluntaryism
Politics Makes Us Worse
Written by Aaron Ross Powell & Trevor Burrus for The Libertarian Library. Even if we try to ignore it, politics influences much of our world. For those who do pay attention, politics invariably leads in newspapers and on TV news and gets discussed, or shouted about, everywhere people gather. Politics can weigh heavily in forging…
Love, Liberty, and the State
Written by Robert Higgs for The Beacon. Love takes many forms—in personal relations, in work and other creative endeavors, in charity toward the needy, in spiritual commitments that give deeper meaning to life amid its inevitable challenges and losses. Love gives us a reason to continue despite discouragements and difficulties, to keep trying to make…
Will the Police Protect You?
Written by Wendy McElroy for Laissez Faire Today. For years, I have declared a preference for taking my chances with criminals rather than with the police. Criminals usually want my property, not to control my life or to cage me like an animal. With criminals, I can pull a gun in self-defense. Until lately, however,…
A Short History of Liberty
Written by Dean Russell for The Freeman in 1955. From biblical times onward, the history of liberty and progress among various peoples seems to have followed a remarkably similar pattern. There are exceptions, of course—and the time element varies widely—but the pattern may be generally described by ten key ideas in sequence:1. Bondage. At some…
State Secession? No, Individual Secession.
Written by Alex Perales for Alex and Liberty. In wake of all the commotion about having individual states secede from the union to stop the great evils of the Federal Government, I think many are completely missing the point and the history that goes along with it. I disagree with those that call sympathizers of…
Freedom Works Both Ways
Written by Dean Russell for The Voluntaryist, June 1989. Everybody says he’s in favor of freedom. Even the Soviet leaders claim to be fighting for freedom. So did Hitler. Our own leaders are also for freedom. So was my slave-owning grandfather. But my grandfather failed to understand the fact that freedom is a mutual relationship;…
A Way Out – Victory Without Violence
Written by Carl Watner for The Voluntaryist, June 1989. Marshall Fritz of the Advocates for Self-Government recently loaned me a copy of John Yoder’s book, titled What Would You Do: If a Violent Person Threatened to Harm a Loved One… At dinner one evening, we were discussing the question of what I would do if an…
Is Property Theft?
Written by Less Antman for the Center for a Stateless Society. “Property is Theft!” was the battle cry of one prominent French anarchist in the 19th century. “Au contraire, mon frère,” retorted another. “Property is Liberty!” “You’re both wrong,” said a third. “Property is Impossible!” How such people got along with each other is amazing.…
The State’s Anti-Responsibility Vortex
Written by Wrong-Opinion for FreedomFeens.com. Is the blood of a 16 year old American boy on the hands of Obama? If not Obama, then the military commander who passed the order to a soldier? If not him, the soldier who pressed the proverbial big red button, sending a radio signal to a drone, thereby launching…