Thomas Harrington: The Limits of Transactionalism

We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.” - C.S. Lewis “Men Without Chests”

I recently returned from Spain where I participated in a seminar on The Defeat of the West, the most recent book by the well-known French historian Emmanuel Todd. Whether one agrees with all, part, or none of his thesis—I find myself in the second category—it is a compelling and suggestive read, one that in typical Todd style relies on the innovative mixing of demographic, anthropological, religious, and sociological theories to make its case.

Bert Olivier: Is Peace Possible Today?

As we approach Christmas, with its connotations of peace and goodwill to all people, and the New Year, when one traditionally comes up with ‘resolutions’ for the year ahead, with the intention of compensating for mistakes made during the past year, and of initiating creative projects for the future, one has to ask: is all of this just Heideggerian ‘idle talk,’ or is peace a realistic possibility?

Daniel Klein: Don’t Let the ‘Infaux Thugs’ Close Down Debate

Today’s censors wield cudgels with the word ‘information.’ Content they don’t like they call ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation.’ The justification is fake. The protection is faux protection. Pretending to protect people from bad information by means of censorship may be called infaux thuggery.

The cudgels are hidden, of course, but it is not hard to see through the pretence and discern the underlying message: knuckle under or we will hurt you.

Eric Hussey: The Carbon Alarmists Are Silent about This

I value thought experiments as useful tools to understand how things work. Thought experiments, also known as idealized experiments, have a surprisingly noble history. For example, Albert Einstein used the thought experiment of a constantly accelerating elevator with a pinhole in the side through which a light beam could shine to illustrate the effect of gravity on light.

Dr Wanjiru Njoya: Rothbard on Liberty and Free Will

Many egalitarians and socialists argue that liberty is only of value to those who enjoy the privilege of having free will. They argue that many vulnerable people lack free will and that the state should, therefore, out of compassion for those trapped in unfortunate circumstances for no fault of their own, intervene with support, even when such interventions undermine individual liberty. These arguments reflect a misunderstanding of free will.

Soham Patil: Why do we work?

Socialists are obsessed with eliminating the need to work. They contend that it amounts to coercion that is oppressive. However, they fail to understand the implications of what it means to choose to work and why working is a necessary part of life.

Working in the context of a job refers to exchanging labor for money. Most jobs work on a voluntary basis where an employer and employee agree upon the nature of the work and wages to be paid. Such an agreement is found because an employer realizes he values the labor of the employee more than the wages he must pay, while the employee realizes he values his wages more than the amount of work he must contribute to his job. When these conditions are satisfied, a job is created, and work occurs in exchange for monetary compensation.

Clive Bibby: All the World's a Stage

One thing is common amongst great writers ever since humans first put pen to paper.

The relevance of their observations are timeless and are as valid today as they were when first offered to the people of the age.

The great philosophers, poets, scientists and novelists all had their moment in history where their comments resonated with the oppressed and mighty without fear of contradiction.