Keith Preston (of Attack the System) is interviewed on the subjects of totalitarian humanism and libertarian strategy by Keir Martland (the Friday page editor). Recorded Monday 5th August.
The Libertarian: Podcast #2
The Libertarian: Podcast #1
Recorded on Friday 2nd August.
H.L. Mencken in 10 Great Quotes
The ‘Great Authors in 10 Quotes’ is an ongoing series meant to expose readers to some of the most noteworthy thinkers in the classical liberal, libertarian, and anarchist traditions. The challenge is finding material deep enough to reflect an author’s thought, while still being accessible for a brand new reader. We encourage readers to leave comments linking to other written works and videos by the author.
Henry Louis “H. L.” Mencken (1880-1956) was a 20th century American journalist, author, satirist, and social critic. Mencken was one of the most prominent American libertarians of the early 20th century. The son of German immigrants and early apprentice to his father’s cigar company, Mencken set out to become a professional journalist despite lacking connections or higher education. Ever the iconoclast, Mencken is known for both publishing the first English language book about the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as serving as the primary correspondent to the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial”. Mencken represents the ‘Tory Anarchist’ strain of American libertarianism; a worldview that combined Anglo-American classical liberalism, aristocratic social sensibilities, and a brutal commitment to honest assessment of their contemporary culture. Continue reading
Interview: Marco de Wit
Geurt Marco de Wit is an historian, business executive, founder of the Finnish Libertarian League and a lecturer in the Austrian-anarchist-Rothbardian tradition. The topics discussed in the interview include Hoppe’s Grand System, paleolibertarianism, sociobiology, revisionist history and paleostrategy. Infographics referenced in the interview can be found here.
Non-state Alternatives to Nozick’s Night-Watchman
By Jock Coats
In the nearly four decades since Harvard University Professor Robert Nozick wrote what is probably his best known work, “Anarchy, State and Utopia [ASU]” (1974), much of the academic debate it has generated has focussed on its role as a response to fellow Harvard political philosopher John Rawls’s “A Theory of Justice” (1971). This debate, therefore has concentrated on the second of the three distinct parts of ASU in which Nozick advances his own libertarian theory of distributive justice (Vallentyne, 2011) and on his critique of Rawls’s influential liberal, redistributive version (Meadowcroft, 2011). Continue reading
Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman
Years ago Paul Avrich, my high school classmate and later a colleague in a college where he was a professor and I an adjunct, invited me to spend an evening with an aging group of Jewish anarchists. At the gathering a woman told me that other than Eleanor Roosevelt, the country’s most remarkable woman had been Emma Goldman. Ahrne Thorne agreed. He was the last editor of the anarchist “Freie Arbeiter Shtimme” (Free Worker’s Voice, it was closed in 1977 after 87 years of publication when it had 1,700 subscribers). He said he had met Alexander Berkman and knew Emma Goldman well. It was hard for me to imagine these elderly men and women as threats to the Republic. They were also despised by Communists because anarchists had the temerity to reject their Soviet paradise. Continue reading