Free Society

The Government’s War on Political Freedom

by John W. Whitehead September 29, 2022

“In so many of the little places of everyday life in which life is lived out, somehow democracy doesn't exist. And one of the creeping hands of totalitarianism running through the democracy is the Federal Bureau of Investigation… Because why does the FBI do all this? To scare the hell out of people… They work for ...

Masters of Deceit: The Government’s Propaganda of Fear, Mind Control & Brain Warfare

by John W. Whitehead September 22, 2022

“It is the function of mass agitation to exploit all the grievances, hopes, aspirations, prejudices, fears, and ideals of all the special groups that make up our society, social, religious, economic, racial, political. Stir them up. Set one against the other. Divide and conquer. That’s the way to soften up a democracy.”― J. Edgar Hoover, Masters of Deceit The ...

What’s the Next Crisis to Lockdown the Nation?

by John W. Whitehead September 9, 2022

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.” — H.L. Mencken First came 9/11, which the government used to transform itself into a police state. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which the police state used to test out its ...

If America Were Totalitarian, Where Would You Want to Live?

by Richard M. Ebeling September 1, 2022

Suppose that one evening as the sun was setting and dusk was settling in, a strange mist fell over the United States that resulted in the entire population of the country, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, falling into a deep and restful sleep. Similarly, as evening settled in across the Russian Federation, the same type of mist enveloped ...

Who Will Protect Us from the Government’s Standing Army?

by John W. Whitehead August 31, 2022

“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.”—James Madison The IRS has stockpiled 4,500 guns and five million rounds of ammunition in recent years, including 621 shotguns, 539 long-barrel rifles and 15 submachine guns. The Veterans Administration (VA) purchased 11 million rounds of ammunition (equivalent to 2,800 ...

The Government Wants to Silence the Opposition

by John W. Whitehead August 18, 2022

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” — President Harry S. Truman Militarized police. Riot squads. ...

Libertarianism, Birth Control, and Religious Accommodations

by Laurence M. Vance August 3, 2022

Who would have thought that birth control would be in the news in 2022? The House of Representatives recently passed the Right to Contraception Act (H.R.8373). The bill “sets out statutory protections for an individual's right to access and a health care provider's right to provide contraception and related information.” The vote was 228–195, with just eight Republicans voting ...

America’s Culture of Death

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 1, 2022

In the wake of another mass shooting, this one in Uvalde, Texas, there have been the standard, predictable calls for gun control. The idea is that if more stringent gun-control laws are enacted, there will be fewer mass shootings. That’s simply ludicrous reasoning. When a person wants to kill a lot of people, he is going to be able to ...

It’s Up to Them

by Laurence M. Vance August 1, 2022

President Joe Biden has done it again. He’s committed another gaffe. But this comes as no surprise since he acknowledged during a stop on his book tour in 2018 that he was “a gaffe machine,” and has not stopped proving the truth of that statement ever since. In late December of last year, Biden spoke with state governors on a ...

Out of Control Government and Isaiah’s Job

by Richard M. Ebeling August 1, 2022

It is very difficult to be a classical liberal or libertarian and not experience bouts of disappointment, frustration, and outright pessimism. The world around us seems to be going to hell in a handbasket. Government continues to grow and, apparently, is out of control. For example, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its semiannual Budget and Economic Outlook, 2022-2032 in ...

Declare Your Independence from Tyranny, America

by John W. Whitehead July 1, 2022

Imagine living in a country where armed soldiers crash through doors to arrest and imprison citizens merely for criticizing government officials. Imagine that in this very same country, you’re watched all the time, and if you look even a little bit suspicious, the police stop and frisk you or pull you over to search you on the off chance you’re ...

Would You Abdicate If You Could Be the Dictator?

by Richard M. Ebeling July 1, 2022

Leonard E. Read, the founding and long-serving first president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), once told a story about when he first met the famous Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. It was in 1940, shortly after Mises had arrived in the United States from war-torn Europe. Read had invited Mises to Los Angeles to deliver a talk ...