C4SS Feed 44 presents David S. D’Amato‘s “The Libertarian Road to Egalitarianism” read by James Tuttle and edited by Nick Ford. But we needn’t regard inequality as a weak point in our arguments for economic freedom, or as an issue on which we simply cannot win. Existing economic relations are not the product of freedom…

The U.S. Constitution can reasonably be seen as a massive tax and mercantilist trade-promotion program. However, there’s a third leg to this stool. It was a national-security program as well — almost a proto-PATRIOT Act. Indeed, these three elements formed an integrated project: it gave the new central government independent power to raise revenue by…

“You are not lady like.” — Mexican Marxist and former employer. “YOU YOU YOU YOU KNOW YOU ARE NOT FEMININE!” — Canadian former child star, drunk, trying to navigate a stick shift while … drunk. “Why do you work here if you hate men?” — Shit bag and strip club general manager. “BITCH..BITCH..BITCH” — former…

I am mystified that so many libertarians still see the U.S. Constitution as a landmark achievement in the struggle for liberty. On principle alone, they should have become wary in time. A document that is adored at virtually every position in the political firmament should arouse suspicion among libertarians. Moreover a smattering of historical knowledge…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Kevin Carson‘s “Libertarian Self-Marginalization” read by James Tuttle and edited by Nick Ford. Go to the average mainstream libertarian venue on any given day, and you’re likely to see elaborate apologetics for corporate globalization, Wal-Mart, offshoring, Nike’s sweatshops, rising CO2 levels, income inequality and wealth concentration, CEO salaries, Big Pharma’s profits, and Microsoft’s…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Steve Horwitz‘s “Will Truly Free Markets be Truly Different?” read and edited by Tony Dreher. As I have argued before, I find it a very convenient coincidence that the left-libertarian picture of a free market society just happens to line up almost exactly with the world that many on the traditional…

Jerry Taylor, del Niskanen Center, ha sganciato una bomba della verità sulla politica di Washington con un suo recente pezzo, scritto per Fox News, a proposito del declino di Rand Paul. Taylor nota come la presunta crescita del movimento libertario sulla scia della campagna elettorale di Ron Paul fosse in gran parte illusoria. I populisti…

C4SS Feed 44 presents Jason Farrell‘s “Why Libertarians Are Failing at Politics” read by Athena Roberts and edited by Tony Dreher. There’s a good reason libertarians remain at the ideological fringe: “Libertarian politics” is a contradiction in terms. Libertarianism is not a third party, like the Know-Nothings or the Whigs or a prescription of policy…

A complex man with a controversial legacy, Mohandas Gandhi remains one of the pioneers of civil disobedience as a political weapon and a giant in 20th century anti-colonialism. An individualist anarchist who motivated millions to fight to liberate themselves from British rule, his success showed a potentially powerful application of libertarian ideas during a major…

In the contemporary parlance, it is largely supposed that a capitalist is one who favors a free market economic system, yet this wasn’t always the case. In the nineteenth century, as the descriptor capitalist came into more frequent use, it was virtually always deployed as a term of abuse, in identification of exploiters; it was…

by Michael S. Rozeff Introduction Aggressive violence opposes freedom of action. This is a central libertarian tenet. What then are we to make of non-violent means of controlling an individual’s beliefs, such as methodical inculcation of religious, nationalistic, or superstitious beliefs? Do these methods also oppose freedom? How do we characterize such methods and contrast them…

Steven Horwitz’s Response to Kevin Carson. There is much to like in Kevin Carson’s lead essay and even where I think he goes astray, he performs a valuable service by reminding us of the ways in which the state has affected the evolution of really-existing capitalism and he thereby challenges us to think more critically…

Jerry Taylor of the Niskanen Center dropped a truth bomb on the beltway in his recent piece for Fox News about the decline of Rand Paul. Taylor notes that the alleged growth of the libertarian movement in the wake of the Ron Paul campaign was largely illusory. The alienated populists and conspiracy theorists that filled…

Introduction by Chad Nelson Involvement in the anarchist movement sometimes feels like a futile enterprise. How to get from here to there in a “real” world dominated by statists and authoritarians is a dilemma that confounds even the most sure-footed of anarchists. And when attaching oneself to an anarchist organization, it’s easy to be pessimistic…

Introduction by Gary Chartier Americans are likely to be thinking more about Dorothy Day than usual just now, in the wake of Pope Francis’s affirming reference to her in his address to the US Congress. But people unfamiliar with Day’s life and work will find it easy to imagine that ​she was, in the unfortunately…

The laws of God, the laws of Man, He may keep who will, and can; Not I: let God and man decree Laws for themselves and not for me. –A.E. Housman Political Myth and Self-Hypnosis A rose by any other name Would never, never smell the same And cunning is the nose that knows An…

Uri Avnery discusses Bibi. Uri Avnery discusses Israel’s aborted strike on Iran. Lucy Steigerwald discusses the inevitability of a war president. Simon Jenkins discusses the drumbeat for sending troops back to Iraq. Laurence M. Vance discusses Reagan Republicans. Laurence M. Vance discusses Christianity, libertarianism, and the War on Drugs. Butler Shaffer discusses why you shouldn’t…

Smashing the State for Fun and Profit Since 1969 An Interview With the Libertarian Icon Samuel Edward Konkin III (a.k.a. SEK3) (originally published at spaz.org) Samuel Edward Konkin III (SEK3), author of the “New Libertarian Manifesto” coined the term “agorism” to describe his ideology.  Although very similar to anarcho-capitalism, unlike anarcho-capitalism it opposes intellectual property. …

Ira Stoll discusses how Trump and Sanders are similar. A. Barton Hinkle discusses libertarian approaches to dealing with income inequality. Tom Engelhardt discusses the U.S. antiwar movement. Richard Ebeling discusses the views of John Stuart Mill. Justin Raimondo discusses Hilary Clinton, Chelsea Manning, and double standards. Jacob G. Hornberger discusses Jeb Bush’s confused mindset on…

Once again, a telecommunications corporation — this time Verizon — is emptying its customers’ pockets, with government help. Must be a day that ends in “y.” In the past, New Jersey heavily subsidized the construction of DSL lines, in the form of excess customer rates, on the condition that they would continue to provide DSL…