Freedom

The End of Capitalism?

Acton.org | Michael Miller | Jan. 21, 2009

Who would have imagined 20 years ago — when the Berlin Wall fell and we celebrated the death of socialism — that capitalism would begin 2009 under heavy fire. The Cardinal of Westminster, Cormack Murphy O’Connor, reportedly went so far as to say that, as 1989 marked the end communism, 2008 was the year when “capitalism had died.”

What are we to make of capitalism in light of all the crises, fraud, and government intervention, when even some traditional supporters of markets are supporting bailouts and seem to have lost faith in the market order? Is capitalism no longer credible? Is capitalism really to blame for the financial woes we now face? [Read more…]

Truth and Freedom

First Things | Michael Novak | Jan. 2, 2009

Human liberty depends on an accurate grasp of the human condition, not as we might like it to be, but as it is: “The truth shall set you free.”

Let us suppose, for instance, a situation in which truth is rendered servile by some contemporary enthusiasm. If truth is held captive by a powerful force of attraction, can the human beings who live under that force ever find a way to liberty? Only by luck, great courage, and long perseverance.

During the past hundred years, ideologies have often trumped the unimpeded search for truth. Here is where the sentence from Orwell becomes pivotal. “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” [Read more…]

Blame me for job losses

American Thinker | C. Edmund Wright | Dec. 11, 2008

When the jobs report for November came out last week, many so-called “experts” were shocked at the massive loss of an estimated 533,000 jobs. Even a Time /CNN organization called “The Curious Capitalists” were at a loss to explain it.

Let me attempt to help out these “curious capitalists” (though I am still skeptical that anyone working for CNN or Time is either curious or a capitalist). I caused part of this job loss and I know precisely why; the election. The results portend big trouble for small business. [Read more…]

America, the Blessing

American Thinker | Kyle-Anne Shiver | Nov. 27, 2008

What is to become of modern civilization if we Americans throw in the towel on the ideals of liberty and individual dignity, and stop believing that these are worth the suffering required to protect them? How can it be that young Americans do not see the bountiful blessings bestowed upon the rest of the world by us? [Read more…]

Obama’s Adam Smith Problem

American Thinker | Ed Kaitz | Nov. 1, 2008

Barack Obama has advanced the astonishing thesis that by “spreading the wealth around” he’ll somehow create a more benevolent society. But we’ve seen above that since benevolence can never be extorted by force the only thing Obama will succeed in doing is spreading suspicion, resentment, and poverty – the condition of any society whose lawmakers “push too far.” A vote for John McCain on Tuesday can help keep America in the good hands of the humble yet brilliant Scottish economist who, in his race to develop a solution to the problem of scarcity, never lost sight of man’s most important virtue: freedom. [Read more…]

Freedom from freedom? Atheism, Christianity, and September 11

BreakPoint | Chuck Colson | October 2008

Those who would eliminate Christianity from public life are sawing off the branch they are sitting on.

September 11 the whole nation paused to remember the 3,000 innocent victims of 9/11 murdered by Islamist terrorists, and to be grateful for those who gave their lives to rescue others—everybody, that is, except the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin. It spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Sept.9 for a full-page propaganda ad in the New York Times—an ad that blamed religion for the horrors of September 11. [Read more…]

Maybe the Economy Should Wait

Human Events | Dennis Byrne | Sep. 24, 2008

Never has the United States had to make such a momentous decision so quickly, except on more memorable dates such as December 7, 1941 or September 11, 2001. Is this really that urgent?

Our betters tell us that the “financial meltdown” leaves us only two choices: Either put this nation in hock in unspeakable amounts to who-knows-whom for how long. Or bring on another Depression. And we must pick our poison right now — no looking for reasonable alternatives. All the key players agree that we’ve got no time to spare; all us bit players can’t fully understand why. [Read more…]

What about the Poor?

FrontPageMagazine.com | Barry Loberfeld | Aug. 13, 2008

For defenders of the Constitution, the free market, and individual liberty, no single issue has thus far proved more defeating – on both the intellectual and electoral battlefields – than that of poverty. It has handed one unearned (and by no means inevitable) victory after another to the unconstitutional statism of collectivist liberals.

The conquest of poverty (to borrow the title of Henry Hazlitt’s classic) requires just two weapons: wealth and compassion. So the only real question is: Who can better provide these – civil society (“the market”) or the political state?

The answer as it regards wealth has now been settled: “[C]apitalism has won,” conceded left-aligned economic historian Robert Heilbroner in 1989. “Socialism,” conversely, “has been a great tragedy this century.” [Read more…]

Solzhenitsyn, Reagan, and the Death of Détente

American Thinker | Paul Kengor | Aug. 10, 2008

In a tribute I wrote earlier, posted at National Review, I noted that it is impossible to capture in one column what Solzhenitsyn meant, experienced, and how he went about translating it to the West. Professors like me know such frustration well, as we struggle to fully convey the impact of such a man to a classroom of students born after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In my earlier piece, I talked about The Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn’s shocking firsthand account of the Soviet forced-labor-camp system, where he himself had been held captive, and where tens of millions of innocents perished. In a disturbing way, that book may have made Solzhenitsyn the most significant of all Russian writers, quite a prize when one considers the caliber of the company. [Read more…]