Editor’s Pick. Written by Trevor Hultner. Listen. I’m genuinely afraid of a Trump presidency, and I’m really not looking forward to a Clinton presidency either. Do I think one is more-or-less “preferable” to the other? Yeah I do. Ultimately, though: the next president will have just as much blood on their hands as, if not…
Category: Voluntaryism
Caution on Climate Change
Editor’s Pick. Written by Jordan Vaughn Neal. Note: This is not meant to be a definitive proof of anything, only something designed to make one question and think. It is a fact that the measured global average temperature has been rising. It is also a fact that a higher carbon concentrate in an atmosphere, all…
Abstain Altogether
Editor’s Pick. Written by Connor Boyack. I fault nobody who abstains from voting. Voting is largely a corrupt process whereby people hope to be in a majority that can impose their will on the minority. As Lysander Spooner once observed, defensive voting is justified as a way to minimize the burden placed upon the individual:…
Whether You Know It or Not, You Are a Tax Slave
In the antebellum South, it was not uncommon for slaves to rent themselves from their masters. As a young man, Frederick Douglass did so, for example. His owner gave him leave to go out on his own, to find employment where he could, and to pocket the pay he received for such work, except that each month he had to pay his master a fixed sum for his freedom.
What Teaching in China Taught Me About Freedom and Individuality in the World
Working in education gave me unique insight into the parts of culture normally hidden from outsiders and casual tourists. It also gave me a deep resentment for those who maintain their culture at the cost of corrupting young minds. To see children be made into vessels for arbitrary cultural values on a massive scale would be the fire that would consume me.
How Politics Is Like a Nigerian Email Scam
The typical politician seeks the confidence of many strangers in order to secure their votes so that that politician wins power and office. The typical politician seeks this confidence by promising the strangers something for nothing – manna from the capital city or from City Hall – if only the strangers will put their trust in him or her. He wins, they lose.
Canal vs. Braided Stream: Evolution over Structure
Guest column by zeeman stark. zeeman stark is the pen name for a freethinker who currently lives near a large freshwater lake with the Ute Indian eponym. zeeman disdains labels but accepts a no-recipe adjective soup in describing his philosophy: humanitarian, libertine, polymath, voluntary. zeeman has a penis indeed, peach-colored epidermis, stinky feet, and remembers…
A License to Love
Editor’s Pick. Written by Butler Shaffer. If we were more focused in our social/political thinking, we might be more inclined to think through the consequences of our actions. What are some of the costs associated with a judicial declaration that gay marriage is a constitutionally protected right and, secondly, who is to bear such costs?…
What is Anarchism?
Editor’s Pick. Written by Cory Massimino. Anarchism is a broad tradition of historical ideas that contain common elements that are nevertheless, sometimes, conflicting. There is no set of positions that you must hold in order to count as a real anarchist. Rather, in my view, anarchism involves three main points of conceptual analysis. That is…
Toward a Free Society – Full Book
Toward a Free Society A Short Guide on Building a Culture of Liberty by Skyler J. Collins, Published 2015 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalPaperback ($6) and other digital formats found here. Preface This isn’t my first publication, but it is my first publication that I authored entirely. Everything Voluntary: From Politics to Parenting…