Taking for granted the fact that the hippie was part of a diverse group we called “hippies” who, in his varied states of mind, could not be counted upon to think or act like other hippies, there was, and still is, a certain type of hippie, a “hippie with a philosophy,” who actually lived the communal life. The philosophy of the communal hippie was
The county-by-county electoral map published by USA Today showing that George W. Bush carried 2,434 counties covering 2.4 million square miles, compared to Al Gore’s 677 counties covering about a half million square miles, suggests that the worst fears of one of America’s greatest statesman and political philosopher, John C. Calhoun, may have
Fabrication Mises Review 6, No. 1 (Spring 2000) A NECESSARY EVIL Garry Wills Simon and Schuster, 1999, 365 pgs. Garry Wills is a man with a mission. He wishes to expose for the falsehood that it is a myth that has bedeviled American history. Teachers of heresy such as Thomas Jefferson and John C. Calhoun have maintained that government,
The process was never intended to be democratic. The first presidents were appointed by elites, not elected by the masses. Not until 1820s, with the rise of Andrew Jackson, did popular voting have a role in the selection of presidents. The modern principle of democracy--repeated in nearly every media account of the Florida vote confusion--holds
Two front-page events from this last week would appear to have nothing in common: 1) the merger of America Online and Time Warner, 2) and a huge South Carolina rally in defense of the Confederate flag and Southern rights. In fact, they have this crucial commonality: both are glorious signs that the nation-state as we know it is coming to an end.
We now commence the annual national ritual of noticing that the Declaration of Independence is among the “founding” documents that gave birth to the country. And pundits, following innumerable scholars for 150 years, will twist and mangle the text to discern some other meaning from the document besides the obvious one. In most parts of the world,
When NASA’s Polar Lander--scheduled to arrive on Mars on December 3rd--disappeared, there was reason for hope. Perhaps the incompetence of state-funded science would finally become obvious. After all, the fiasco followed NASA’s loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter less than three months before. To paraphrase the comment made by one of Oscar Wilde’s
A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government by Pulitzer Prize winning Garry Wills is a book with a mission. Wills contends that a charming Yankee trait--an ornery suspicion of all things political--is based upon an intricate misunderstanding. He claims that historians have mistakenly concluded that the Founding Fathers and
While Franklin Delano Roosevelt narrowly missed being Time Magazine’s “Man of the Century,” there is no doubt that the man who prolonged the Great Depression and helped lay the groundwork for World War II looms large in the consciousness of statist journalists and historians. Although FDR’s role in the Second World War is of utmost importance to
John F. Kennedy has many enduring legacies. Aside from his personal corruption, he embroiled the United States in the Vietnam War, something that still has repercussions more than three decades later. And he presided over the beginnings of unprecedented expansion of the powers of the national government under the guise of the “New Frontier.”
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.