Free Society

The FBI: The Silent Terror of the Fourth Reich

by John W. Whitehead February 9, 2017

“After five years of Hitler’s dictatorship, the Nazi police had won the FBI’s seal of approval.”— Historian Robert Gellately “Adolf Hitler is alive and well in the United States, and he is fast rising to power.”—Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, on the danger posed by the FBI to our civil liberties Lately, there’s ...

The Libertarian Angle: Welfare versus Charity

by Future of Freedom Foundation February 7, 2017

FFF president Jacob Hornberger and Richard Ebeling talk about the differences between voluntary charity and coerced "charity." Go to the podcast.

Rule by Brute Force

by John W. Whitehead February 2, 2017

“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.”—Ayn Rand The torch has been passed to a new president. All of the

Has the American Dream Become the American Nightmare?

by John W. Whitehead January 25, 2017

“Most Germans, so far as I could see, did not seem to mind that their personal freedom had been taken away, that so much of their splendid culture was being destroyed and replaced with a mindless barbarism, or that their life and work were being regimented to a degree never before experienced even by a people accustomed for generations ...

Nothing Is Real

by John W. Whitehead January 20, 2017

“There are two ways by which the spirit of a culture may be shriveled. In the first—the Orwellian—culture becomes a prison. In the second—the Huxleyan—culture becomes a burlesque. No one needs to be reminded that our world is now marred by many prison-cultures…. it makes little difference if our wardens are inspired by right- or left-wing ideologies. The gates ...

The Titanic Sails at Dawn

by John W. Whitehead January 6, 2017

“When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters Despite our best efforts, we in the American police state seem to be stuck on repeat, reliving the same set of circumstances over and over and over again: egregious surveillance, strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, government spying, censorship, retaliatory arrests, ...

How Would the Baby in a Manger Fare in the American Police State?

by John W. Whitehead December 22, 2016

“Jesus is too much for us. The church’s later treatment of the gospels is one long effort to rescue Jesus from ‘extremism.’” —author Gary Wills, What Jesus Meant Jesus was good. He was caring. He had powerful, profound things to say—things that would change how we view people, alter government policies and change the world. He went around ...

How to Beat the Post-Election Blues

by John W. Whitehead December 16, 2016

“I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel.” ―  Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Christmas I keep waiting to encounter the “kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant” Christmastime environment that Charles Dickens describes in A Christmas Carol: “when men and women seem by one consent ...

The Tyranny at Standing Rock

by John W. Whitehead December 2, 2016

“We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”— Benjamin Franklin, as quoted in The Works of Benjamin Franklin Divide and conquer. It’s one of the oldest military strategies in the books, and it’s proven to be the police state’s most effective weapon for maintaining the status quo. How do you conquer a nation? Distract them with football games, political ...

Workplace Smoking

by Laurence M. Vance December 1, 2016

While making a brief trip recently to a place of business in a local outdoor mall in central Florida, I noticed that a new sign had been posted on the information board in the middle of one of the sidewalks: “Smoking in Workplaces Is Prohibited by Law.” The sign was gone the next week, replaced by an ad for ...

Dysfunctionality, Violence, and Race in American Society

by Jacob G. Hornberger October 1, 2016

The following are five libertarian proposals that would help to resolve the conflict and violence between blacks and the police across America and, to a large extent, alleviate much of the dysfunctionality that afflicts American society: End the drug war. A free society necessarily entails the fundamental right to ingest anything an adult wants, no matter how destructive or dangerous. ...

Adam Smith’s Moral Path through Quagmire

by Wendy McElroy October 1, 2016

Adam Smith’s book The Theory of Moral Sentiments offers a path through a dangerous social quagmire. Namely, the law increasingly demands that peaceful acts conform to a specific state-approved morality. The process turns morality into a matter of state and law rather than one of individual conscience. The politically correct justify mandatory morality in the name of social justice or ...