A recent emailing of Roderick Long’s, “An Open Letter to the Peace Movement,” precipitated some criticisms from a non-libertarian and non-anarchist friend. This post will be a response to those criticisms. The author’s name will be withheld. If he so chooses, he can reveal himself in the comments section. The original text of the piece…

The Washington Post‘s E.J. Dionne Jr., predicts that the reemergence of the Democratic left will be a major political story in 2014 (“The Resurgent Progressives,” January 1). He argues that the American right has been unwilling to compromise on policy matters with moderate Democrats. As a result the populace has been dragged ever farther to the right — even…

“Building Creative Commons: The Five Pillars of Open Source Finance” was written by Brett Scott and published on his blog The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money. We are honored to have Brett Scott‘s permission to feature his article on C4SS. Feel free to connect with Scott through twitter: @Suitpossum. AHOY, THERE BE A CLOSED…

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 of exchange or…

Many statist-leftists in the Global North would probably bristle at the notion that their politics can promote disempowerment amongst marginalised and/or oppressed groups and communities. “On the contrary!” they might say, “My statist proposals will actively counter disempowerment of such groups and communities, by giving them more resources (e.g. financial aid), and preventing discrimination against…

Walter Block recently penned a piece arguing that libertarianism is neither left nor right. In it he argues that libertarians share an anti-unionist bias with the right. It may be true that many libertarians possess an anti-union bias, but that says nothing about the normative compatibility of unions with libertarian principles. It also ignores those…

Durante tutta la durata della “chiusura” del governo americano, i politici democratici hanno paragonato i loro rivali repubblicani ad “anarchici”, dicendo che la “chiusura” dimostra la necessità di un governo. Un esempio è un recente intervento al senato della senatrice Elizabeth Warren, democratica. I fraintendimenti del suo intervento sono rampanti. Confonde cooperazione e governo dicendo: “Nella nostra…

The Canadian Supreme Court recently struck down the anti-prostitution laws of the country. This sound legal decision provides an occasion for a deeper discussion of the dynamics of sex worker politics. In particular, it allows for a dialectical or contextual left-libertaian analysis. Chris Matthew Sciabarra ably describes dialectics as: “Dialectics is the art of context-keeping….

AUTHOR’S NOTE: TechCrunch has reported that the Iron Maiden story that this article was centered around was misreported, if not an outright fabrication. We have corrected the factual inaccuracies and regret the error. For years, advocates of strict enforcement of intellectual property law on the Internet and elsewhere have said that the single largest detriment…

Christmas is full of exhortations to work towards a more peaceful world. But when you get right down to it, what can we actually do, today, to help usher in that world? While there’s no magic button that can be pressed or perfect argument that can be made to bring about peace on Earth, there…

In the wake of the Duck Dynasty controversy, Tom Woods recently made a post connecting the matter to his grievances surrounding “thick libertarianism.” Woods defines the distinction between “thin” and “thick” libertarians as follows: Some libertarians say the traditional libertarian principle of nonaggression is insufficient. That is merely “thin” libertarianism, they say. We also need…

Peace on Earth and goodwill toward all —  in a world of conflict, tis the season of peace. The holiday season is also a time of reflection and, for many, hope. I am curious about hope, however, and wonder if careful reflection will reveal it is time to give it up. This idea was introduced…

In einer Ansprache, die die Luftangriffe auf Libyen durch die USA und ihrer Verbündeten zum Thema hat, sagte Präsident Obama, dass das Scheitern zu handeln „ein Verrat an uns selbst wäre“, dass ein Massaker in dem Land „das Gewissen der Welt beflecken“ würde. Jedes mal wenn die Elite der Außenpolitik des Imperiums anfängt davon zu…

Pope Francis wrote in his recent apostolic exhortation, “Just as the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say ‘thou shalt not’ to an economy of exclusion and inequality.” He’s right — but not in the way he intends. Before…

Während den späten 1880ern brach eine heftige Debatte über Egoismus vs. Naturrecht im Anarchismus in der libertären Zeitschrift „Liberty“ aus. ( Die verschiedenen Beiträge zu dieser Debatte werden vielleicht in der Online Bibliothek des Molinari Institute verfügbar werden,  in der Zwischenzeit kann man sich für Details Frank H. Brooks „The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908)“…

During the late 1880s, a fierce debate broke out in the pages of the libertarian periodical Liberty over egoistic versus natural-rights approaches to anarchism. (The various contributions to this debate will eventually be available in the Molinari Institute’s online library; in the meantime, for details see Frank H. Brooks’ The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881-1908) or Wendy McElroy’s The Debates of Liberty:…

C4SS Senior Fellow and Chair Sheldon Richman “explores the critical distinction between capitalism and free markets; discusses corporation socialism, the challenges facing publicly funded schools, and much more.“

United States Secretary of State John Kerry has been politicking through Southeast Asia the past few days. Kerry visited the Vietnam Mekong Delta, a place he knows well from his wartime adventures. US military interventionism in the region nominally passe, but there is another aspect of state violence still making headlines in the east: Environmental degradation. Kerry traveled…

Stephen Moss discusses Jeremy Scahil’s, Dirty Wars. Karam Filfian reviews Dirty Wars. Anthony Papa asks for a pardon of both drug war prisoners and the turkey. Deepak Tripathi discusses Obama’s Middle Eastern policy. David Macray discusses the plight of ex-convicts. Ahmad Barqawi discusses Bandar’s reign of terror. David Rosen discusses the private security threat to…

Montaigne famously held that one person’s profit always involves another person’s loss, and this apothegm has won him some hostility from libertarians; see Mises, for example, here, here, and here. But I think Montaigne’s meaning has been misunderstood. When the claim is taken out of context, it is easy to assume, first, that Montaigne is attacking profit, and…