Free Society

Contactless Government

by Laurence M. Vance November 1, 2021

It seems that at almost every business website you go to, you will see a link to information on that business’s response to the coronavirus, the pandemic, or COVID-19. One of the original responses of businesses to the COVID-19 “pandemic” that is not only still with us, but apparently here to stay, is contactless service. Although this initially appealed ...

Tyrants of the Nanny State: When the Government Thinks It Knows Best

by John W. Whitehead October 15, 2021

“Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers’ enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. ...

The Biden Crackdown on Thought Crimes

by James Bovard October 1, 2021

The Biden administration is seeking to radically narrow the boundaries of respectable American political thought. The administration has repeatedly issued statements and reports that could automatically castigate citizens who distrust the federal government. We may eventually learn that the new Biden guidelines spurred a vast increase in federal surveillance and other abuses against Americans who were guilty of nothing ...

The Importance of Liberty and the Rhetorical Misuse of Freedom

by Richard M. Ebeling October 1, 2021

The seemingly singular concern of modern political debate, dispute, and disagreement is the issue of how and in what forms government will command and control and restrict and regulate the actions and interactions of virtually everyone in society, as well as redistribute the income and wealth of some for the benefit of others. Open the opinion pages of practically any ...

Stop Playing the Government’s Mind Games

by John W. Whitehead September 27, 2021

“No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.”—Edward R. Murrow, broadcast journalist America is in the midst of an epidemic of historic proportions. The contagion being spread like wildfire is turning communities into battlegrounds and setting Americans one against the other. Normally mild-mannered individuals caught up in the throes of this disease have been ...

The Conflicts of Visions That Shaped America

by Jacob G. Hornberger September 1, 2021

There have been two conflicting visions in American history that have shaped our nation. As conditions in the United States continue to worsen, it is important that Americans engage in serious soul-searching to determine which vision should be embraced going forward. The original vision The first vision was that which characterized the American people from the founding of the United States ...

Why Government Cover-Ups Succeed

by James Bovard September 1, 2021

“It’s not necessary to censor the news, it’s sufficient to delay the news until it no longer matters,” Napoleon Bonaparte reportedly said. The same standard helps explain why Washington politicians and federal agencies usually get away with covering up their lies and abuses. Many people assume that unless the government actively censors, people will learn what the government has done. ...

Puritanism: Then and Now

by Laurence M. Vance September 1, 2021

Journalist, editor, and literary and social critic Henry Louis “H. L.” Mencken (1880–1956) adopted the moniker “libertarian” years before it became popular to do so. In a letter of 1920, he wrote: “I am an extreme libertarian, and believe in absolute free speech.” In a book-review column of 1922, he wrote, “I am, in brief, a libertarian of the ...

The American Spirit of Liberty versus Modern Tribal Racism

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2021

In a number of recent speeches, President Joe Biden has been repeating that America is founded not on an ethnicity or a religion or a language but on an “idea.” He has emphasized that the nature of this idea is that human beings do not derive their rights from the government but instead cede some of those rights for ...

How Freedom Dies from A to Z

by John W. Whitehead August 23, 2021

“Plays, farces, spectacles, gladiators, strange beasts, medals, pictures, and other such opiates, these were for ancient peoples the bait toward slavery, the price of their liberty, the instruments of tyranny. By these practices and enticements the ancient dictators so successfully lulled their subjects under the yoke, that the stupefied peoples, fascinated by the pastimes and vain pleasures flashed before ...

The Right to Bodily Integrity

by John W. Whitehead August 18, 2021

We’ve reached the point where state actors can penetrate rectums and vaginas, where judges can order forced catheterizations, and where police and medical personnel can perform scans, enemas and colonoscopies without the suspect’s consent. And these procedures aren’t to nab kingpins or cartels, but people who at worst are hiding an amount of drugs that can fit into a ...

A Deficit of Clear Thinking About Loss of Freedom

by Richard M. Ebeling August 11, 2021

Rightly, much is being made about the size of federal government spending and the annual budget deficits, along with the projected resulting growth in the national debt over the next ten years. But a real and more serious deficit is to be found in the lack of sound and serious thinking and debate about the growing size and scope ...