Psychological Motives Behind Collectivism Collectivism is a doctrine of the “crowd mind”, a philosophy of incompetency. To those who have ever been the losers in the unequal, privileged, and despotic struggle for existence, who have not felt the glory and satisfaction of conquering obstacles and the achievement of aims, the thought of peace and security…

Things are at a bit of a standstill with the Laurance Labadie Archival Project, and this is mainly due to the fact that on top of all the other work I’m doing I simply do not have the time or energy to transcribe, edit, and respond to each of his works. The last of these…

I am not a historian. I have never worked professionally in any field of historical studies. Difficulty in the details of the Laurance Labadie Archival Project is therefore bound to happen, with the latest conundrum being how the surname Labadie is pronounced. In my recent appearance on Mutual Exchange Radio, I used the pronunciation lɑˈbɑdi…

Comments by Laurance Labadie on Interview Between Kerry Thornley and Harry Pollard on “Dialogue”  It may be somewhat gratuitous to comment on what Mr. Kerry Thornley has said on what he considers to be his understanding of economics in only a half hour show, but he has said enough I think plus his explicit endorsement…

Superstition and Ignorance versus Courage and Self-Reliance Every well informed person knows, today, that man has evolved from lower forms of animal life. With this evolution in my mind, we may imagine the progress he has made in ideas and social valuations. Primitive man worshipped the sun, which was natural because from it came both…

Justice To what extent, if any, is violence justifiable? To answer this question some standard of “justice” must be postulated. What are we to understand by the term justice? Are we to determine it in terms of the individual or in terms of society? To what extent do these starting points overlap? Does the individual,…

Objections to Communism It places the inefficient on par with the efficient, the lazy with the industrious, and the thrifty with the extravagant. Therefore it places a premium on idleness and lacks spur to industry and thrift. It makes the celebate contribute for the support of the children of his procreative brother. It divides responsibility…

Comments on S.E. Parker Re article by Sid Parker Mr. Parker totally misapprehends the meaning of the economics of liberty or anarchy. He can hardly evade the charge of being remiss, nor gloss over what may be his own ignorance, by attributing the words “panacea” and “system” to the insistence of individualist anarchists that equitable…

Anarchy and Law Clarity, definiteness, and specificity are desired for the enhancement of understanding. But anarchism as a social philosophy suffers from the handicap of not being an affirmative theory about the activities of humans. It is rather a negative philosophy in the sense that it tries to ascertain what is invasive of the maximum…

Marxian Socialism Socialism can be explained partially by man’s eternal desire and faith in a better life to come [1]. The very attitude of dogmatism and cock-sureness brands Socialism as unscientific. The socialists hold an exaggerated idea of the importance of economics in the materialistic interpretation of history. They hold the incorrect labor-cost theory of…

Critical Comment on Social Credit I studied your article in “New Democracy” carefully and liked some things you said in it. Some things annoyed me tho. You speak of certain demands on the government. This surprises me. In my estimation, no one who understands liberty demands from government. For example, suppose we demand justice from…

Liberty and the State The anarchistic solution of the money problem is so simple as to cause amazement. It is to permit anyone and everyone to go into the banking system. Why not? No one objects to anyone going into the hat business or building business or any other non-invasive enterprise. Naturally those who furnish…

Money and Politics Money, especially credit money, is undoubtedly one of the greatest of cooperative discoveries. Without it no great specialization of labor seems possible, except under an all-inclusive state control of industry, and even here something of its nature would be necessary to maintain a check of and on consumption Money is inconceivable without…

Letter to Mother Earth Believing that the attempt to make labor-time a standard for a monetary unit a fallacy and bound to fail in practice, I submit a few questions and observations. Whose labor is to be used as a standard, the efficient or the inefficient man’s? Take any product you may, say shoes. John…

The Money Problem In the Light of Liberty Many thoughtful people are more and more aware that industrial depressions are caused chiefly by faulty control of money and credit. Most “reformers,” or those who recommend measures to remedy this, turn to government for issue and control of money. It is my purpose here to briefly…

Money and Your Freedom Dear Ron and Laura: Don has been East for a while and dropped in last night. Among other things he brought me up to date on your thinking and plants. I knew that my blast, when I was out to see you, would upset you. But I thought [it] worth while…

Excerpts From a Letter to a Friend Apropos your series of articles on Human Rights: There was a University of Chicago “professor” who wrote a book entitled Might is Right, under the pseudonym of “Ragnar Redbeard.” In it he maintained that life is essentially a battle in which “to the victor belonged the spoils,” and…

Economics of Liberty The following purports to be a clear and concise outline of libertarian economic theory. Liberty means to be free from as well as free to do. To be free means to be independent—not forced interdependence. Independence implies exclusion, hence a libertarian economy will involve property rights. Free exchange may be made by…

Reflections on Socio-Economic Evolution Aside from various forms of robbery, legal and illegal, there are three methods by which humans get sustenance in their relations with others—parasitism, benevolence, and reciprocity. Parasitism is the inescapable relation between mother and child which is absolutely essential for the prolongation of life. It is characterized by consuming what one…

For the main part of the Laurance Labadie Archival Project, I am going through pdf scans and old hardcopies of Labadie’s work in order to convert them to digital text form for the Center for a Stateless Society website in order to make them more widely and freely available. However, it was always my intention…