1. It is the only social philosophy that places the highest value on the only common characteristic of all thinking beings – individual liberty. 2. It is the only social philosophy that takes individual rights seriously, consistently refusing to sacrifice them in the name of collective moral and legal fictions. 3. It is the only…
Tag: cooperation
The Power of the State versus the Power of Love
Editor’s Pick. Written by Robert Higgs. Hardheaded people mock the idea that “love is the answer” to the people’s dire situation. They insist that evil forces and evil men are afoot in the world, men who care nothing for love and seek only vile ends, and that such malevolence can be fended off effectively only…
The Market is a Beautiful Thing
Market advocates tend to respect the intellect of their fellow human beings. You can tell by their reliance on philosophical, moral, economic, and historical arguments when trying to persuade others. But what if most people’s aversion to the market isn’t founded in philosophy, morality, economics, or history? What if their objection is aesthetic?
Eliminate Quarreling
Writes T. K. Coleman: It is nearly impossible to get into a heated argument with your loved ones if, as a general rule of thumb, you commit to ALWAYS speaking to the other party as if they have the same amount of intelligence and integrity as you. Most quarrels have less to do with the…
Why Do People Submit to Governments?
Editor’s Pick. Written by Mark Stoval for his personal blog. One of the most important insights is that all political states, benign or tyrannical, exist on a foundation of popular consent. The state is a coercive, aggressive monopoly managed by a committee of armed parasites. Rothbard’s “gang of thieves writ large”. Governments are populated by…
The Challenge of Undesigned and Anonymous Order
Written by Steve Horwitz for FFF.org. The spontaneous order of the market has long been an object of both theoretical and aesthetic contemplation for libertarians. From Adam Smith’s discussion of the number of hands it took to make a wool coat, to Leonard Read’s justly famous “I, Pencil,” to the examples that fill Russ Roberts’s…
Entrepreneurship and Social Cooperation
We may laud the market order as an indispensable arena for large-scale social cooperation, but let’s not forget that people cannot cooperate with one another if they don’t know that the potential for mutually beneficial exchanges exists.
How We Move Forward
Writes Free Your Kids: How do we effect positive change? How do we free our kids? How do we free ourselves? We start at home. We start by raising our children in the kindest, most peaceful way possible. We teach them to follow the Non-Aggression Principle. We show them that violence is not an acceptable…
Who is a Libertarian?
Writes Stephan Kinsella: After much thought and debate about this topic over the last 25 or so years, here is my attempt at a lean, concise, precise definition of what a libertarian is: A libertarian is a person who believes that the invasion of the borders of (trespass against) others’ bodies or owned external scarce…
Control is War
Send him mail. “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” is an original bi-weekly column appearing every other Monday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OVP-only RSS feed available here. War is clearly destructive. Even war fought totally in self-defense is destructive; destructive to life, liberty, and property. Murray…