New Libertarian Alliance Blog

We have a new blog on the LA-articles site.

LA-Blog

Latest video

For other videos go to our meetings page

Join our Libertarian Meetup List

Richard Cobden and British Foreign Policy
by Stephen Berry

“Richard Cobden was the most prominent Classical Liberal of the 19th century Britain. It's not just me who rates Cobden so highly, by the way. Cobden has been called 'the greatest classical-liberal thinker on international affairs' by the noted American libertarian and historian Ralph Raico.

Read Online

rcbf.pdf

Why and When Should We Rely on Scientific Experts? The Atkins Diet as an Alternative Theory
by David Ramsay Steele

Dr Robert Atkins >

The Atkins Diet has been condemned by the majority of qualified experts—nutritionists, dieticians, and physicians. Although the preponderance of hostile expert opinion has somewhat lessened since the publication, beginning in 2002, of studies which seem to vindicate Atkins, the majority of established authorities still denounce the Atkins Diet and warn sternly against its conjectured dangerous consequences.

Read Online

Safe Dex
by David Ramsay Steele

Arthur Mitchell, the misnamed Trinity Killer, surmises for one fleeting moment that Dexter aspires to be a vigilante (“The Getaway,” Season 4). Our Dex, however doesn’t want to be a vigilante, though the net result is that he acts just like one.

Read Online

Dexter the Busy Bee
by David Ramsay Steele

Be brutal. Tell the truth. Would you rather live in Miami with Dexter than without him?

Read Online

How Empires Fall
by Stephen Berry

The Battle of Bretton Woods by Benn Steil. Princeton University Press, 2013, $29.95.

At the time of the great economic crisis of 2008, some world leaders, as is their wont at such moments, called for a complete rethinking of the world financial system.

Read Online

How Empires Fall.pdf

The Myth of the Unconscious Mind
By David McDonagh

Therapy Breakthrough: Why some psychotherapies work better than others. Michael R. Edelstein, Richard K. Kujoth and David Ramsay Steele. The book covers the old Freudian psychotherapy and the new Cognitive Behaviour Therapy [CBT] that has largely replaced it over the last 60 years.

Read Online

themythoftheunconscious.pdf

Vallentyne 2010 and Zwolinski 2008 on “Libertarianism”: Some Philosophical Responses to these Encyclopaedia Articles
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - onlibertarianism

The Three Great Errors of Most Libertarians: a Concise Philosophical Analysis
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - The 3 great errors

Some Critical Comments on Long 2013: “Why Libertarians Believe There is Only One Right”
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - long

A Critical Commentary on the Zwolinski 2013 “Libertarianism and Liberty” Essays
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - vellentyne_zwolinski

A Libertarian Response to Macleod 2012: “If You’re a Libertarian, How Come You’re So Rich?”
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - sorich

Kymlicka on Libertarianism: a Response
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - kymlicka

A Critical Commentary on Kukathas’s “Two Constructions of Libertarianism”
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - onlibertarianism

A Critical Commentary on Block 2011: “David Friedman and Libertarianism: a Critique” and a Comparison with Lester [2000] 2012’s Responses to Friedman
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - onblock

Against Against Intellectual Property: a Short Refutation of Meme Communism
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - againstagainstintellectualproperty.pdf

A response to "Libertarianism and pollution: the limits of absolutist moralism"
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - limitsofabsolutistmoralism

The Uncogent Auxiliary Hypotheses of Gordon and Modugno: Reply to a Review
by J C Lester

Read PDF format - uncogentauxiliaryhypotheses

What’s Wrong with “What’s Wrong with Libertarianism”: a reply to Jeffrey Friedman
by J C Lester

jfriedman.pdf

A reply to Frederick 2013: “A Critique of Lester’s Account of Liberty”
by J C Lester

The problem can be explained as follows. Some kinds of property are assumed to be compatible with interpersonal liberty: e.g., self-ownership, initial acquisition by use, acquisition by trade, etc. Other kinds of property are assumed to be incompatible with interpersonal liberty: e.g., slavery by seizure, acquisition by conquest, acquisition by theft and fraud, etc. How are the different kinds of property being distinguished as libertarian or not libertarian?

Read PDF format - A Reply to Frederick

David McDonagh Reviews the Reviewer
By David McDonagh

A Reply to Herman Daly’s criticism of Julian Simon’s The Ultimate Resource.

Simon's book, The Ultimate Resource (1981) holds that we can never really know if we are running out of economic resources. This is because we cannot know what future uses we will be able to make of technical resources, for we cannot tell how future discovery or invention will greatly increase the new economic uses made of the same technical or geographical resources, or what new raw materials we will bring into a future economic use that we do not yet consider to be economic resources at all today

Read Online

rtd.pdf

A Return to Commodity Money?
By Stephen Berry

Paper Money Collapse by Detlev Schlichter. John Wiley, 2011, $39.95.

“Since 1971 the decline in the purchasing power of the pound and the dollar – two of the oldest currencies in the world – has been the sharpest in their long history. Debt levels have risen sharply and the financial industry has greatly expanded.”

Read Online

cm.pdf

The Myth of the Closed Mind
By David McDonagh :-

The Myth of the Closed Mind : Understanding Why and How People Are Rational by Ray Scott Percival. Open Court: $34 97.

This book rightly repudiates the idea of irrationality, as did a few forerunners like The Myth of Irrationality (1993) John McCrone and The Passions (1976) Robert C. Solomon, to cite but two earlier books that suggested a similar thesis. However, this latest book is more cogent and consistent than those two earlier books.

Read Online

Advertising
By David McDonagh :-

The jennyass, Felicity Lawrence, feels that it is a big mistake of the CONDEMS’ new Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, to dismiss the recent campaign of Jamie Oliver against obesity.

Read Online

advertising.pdf

The Keynesian “Revolution”
By David McDonagh

"John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was not really sympathetic to the idea of revolution but he certainly wanted a new beginning in economics, if not in society. Economics, as he found it, exasperated him exceedingly. So did businessmen. Many classical liberals are exasperated by businessmen too, for the statists are right to say that “the market is a good servant but a poor master”. But a free people do not want a master!"

Read Online

keynes.pdf

Libertarianism: An Extremely Short Introduction
By J C Lester'

The words ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ are not usually distinguished in any systematic or significant way. They simply have different roots in the English language. ‘Liberty’ has its origins in the Latin ‘libertas’. ‘Freedom’ comes from the Old English ‘freodom’."

Read Online

Libertarianism_intro.pd

Where did it all go wrong?
By Stephen Berry:-“All about us we can see clearly now that the West is passing away.” is the first paragraph of a remarkable book by Pat Buchanan.

Man of the century with sten gun.

Read Online

wdiagw.pdf

The Great Illusion - Now (Part 2)
By Stephen Berry:-

In Part 1 of this review I gave an exposition of Norman Angell's views on foreign policy and the problem of war. Originally written in 1908 (The Great Illusion - Now is the 1939 reprint), Angell's book demonstrated that in the case of war even the victors lost economically. He showed that they would not be able to enlarge their trade by war or even compel the vanquished to defray the costs of war by indemnities. In short, the widespread belief that one great nation could use force over another to gain immense material advantage was simply false."

Read Online

tgi2.pdf

The Great Illusion - Now
By Stephen Berry:-

The year 2008 sees the centenary of one of the most important books of the 20th century. In 1908 Norman Angell published The Great Illusion , still the best exposition of the classical liberal case against war.

Read Online

tgi.pdf

A Few Observations on the Passing of Augusto Pinochet 
By Stephen Berry:-

Augusto Pinochet and Salvador Allende >

"In the last few months of the year of our Lord 2006, Latin Americans were asking themselves: Who will go first - Pinochet or Castro? The death of General Augusto Pinochet on 10th December provided the answer to that question but leaves many more unanswered."

Read Online

pinochet.pdf

My Greatest Fear
by J C Lester 

Being a five-minute talk on this topic given at one of Christian Michel's twice-monthly meetings.

Read Online

The Sacred Element
by David Ramsay Steele:-
 
"Listen children, this story is more than just true. It's true many times over, for the very same sequence of events has happened thousands of times on different worlds.

Read Online

How Empires Fall.pdf

Life, Liberty, and the Treadmill
by David Ramsay Steele:-

"I can remember the day I learned to ride a bike.  I must have been about eight.  In those days, at least in that part of England, there were no such things as training wheels and the smallest bicycles had twenty-four-inch wheels.  I just kept pushing, wobbling, and gliding along, and suddenly, I could do it!"

Read Online

llt.pdf

Baghdad – and Busted!:
by Stephen Berry:-

In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia, defeated the Russian army, arrived in Moscow and found that he didn't know what to do. Confronted by the Russian Winter and a hostile population, he packed his bags and went home. In 2003, the U.S. invaded Iraq, defeated the Iraqi army (such as it was), arrived in Baghdad and now don't know what to do. Confronted by a hostile population and facing a bitter guerrilla war, the US cannot yet pluck up the courage to leave, but leave they surely will..

Read Online

Baghdad2.pdf

Baghdad or Bust!
by Stephen Berry:- :- 

"And I believe we really do have to go back to the Second Boer War before we reach a British government engaged in a more unjust war than the present imposition of naked force on Iraq.  Despite the clear opposition of world opinion in general, and countries which have been traditionally supportive of the West in particular, it has been determined that the present Iraqi regime should be toppled.  Why has this happened?"

Read Online

irag.pdf

Escape from Leviathan: Liberty, Welfare and Anarchy Reconciled: The Groundbreaking New Book from LA Member
Dr J. C. Lester:- :- 

Escape from Leviathan is a notably ambitious reconstruction of radical libertarian thinking from the ground up. Even those, like myself, who are unpersuaded by its reformulation of classical liberalism will benefit from reading Lester's book.' - John Gray, Professor of European Thought, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London. ... 

Read Online

efl.pdf

Mises Without Embarrassment: 
by Bob Layson:- 

When this philosophy student eventually encountered the writings of Ayn Rand, circa 1977, he was immune to her, how should it be put, banalysis of the central problems of philosophy and her Mr Toad like dismissal of ‘those gentlemen up at Oxford'. Indeed, I felt rather embarrassed on her behalf. Rather as one feels when watching someone in a karaoke bar putting on a great show and never hitting a note in the middle. With Mises the experience was quite different. Admittedly, his claims for the ‘apodeictic certainty' and empirical content of a priori reasoning in economics seemed so much to run full tilt into the arguments of Hume that – even with the aid of Kantian philosophy, neo and otherwise – he seemed certain only to choke on what he had bitten off. Nevertheless, the house that von Mises built struck me as an imposing one with or without its so-called foundations. I even had a suspicion that what Mises regarded as truths synthetic, empiric and a priori would prove more palatable to philosophers and others if taken to be analytic, tautological and, in all practice, indispensable."

Read Online

Mises.pdf

Hitler: Puppet of Ideology:
by Stephen Berry:-

The first half of the 20th century saw in Europe a rise of groups who espoused some form of racialism or nationalism, the most dramatic example of the trend being in Germany ...

Read Online

PDF file

Old Hickory's  Diary Commercial Art Music:-
by Jonathan Le Cocq:-

"Is a commercial environment good for music? In one sense the answer seems to be manifestly yes, given the vast quantities of music produced and sold in live and especially recorded performances. But this refers above all to contemporary popular music, sometimes explicitly called commercial music because of its marketability. What of jazz and especially classical or ‘art' music? Here the same terminology implies that there is something non-commercial about such music, perhaps because it cannot flourish (survive, even?) in a commercial environment, or perhaps just because it does not bear the imprint of market processes in its product."

Read Online

music.pdf

The Economics of Education:
A book review by Stephen Berry:-

Policy makers of the right and left may differ over many things, but of one thing they are certain. Education – and here more seems to mean better – will be the key to success in the knowledge-based economies of the future. As a report to the British Parliament recently put it, “Learning is the key to prosperity. Investment in human capital will be the foundation of success in the twenty-first century.” And there is scarce a dissenter to this in the Western World. Whether we look at Europe, North America, Australasia or Japan, the trend in recent decades is inexorably in the same direction. Expenditure on education is increasing, the number of teachers growing relentlessly and in many countries, the percentage of students who enjoy the benefits of college education exceeds 50 per cent within their particular age group.

Read Online

eoe.pdf

Civil Society and Civil Liberties: Two Statist views reviewed by J C Lester
"I fill Ernest Gellner with disgust: disgust at my views and disgust at his inability to say exactly what is wrong with them (or so he once remarked in his social philosophy seminar). Gellner fills me with frustration. He is always penetrating, witty and erudite (except when using "egotism" for "egoism"), but I cannot see how his ideas of social anthropology can be a substitute for real philosophy and economics. His new book is no exception."

Read Online

Old Hickory's Diary

This time Old Hickory looks at: The Court of Appeal Judgement against Farrakhan. The BNP and the Local Elections. The Death of Lord Bauer.

Read Online

oldhick-7.pdf

oldhick-6.pdf

The Mystery of Fascism
by David Ramsay Steele:- 

   From 1912 to 1914, Mussolini was the Che Guevara of his day, a living saint of leftism. Handsome, courageous, charismatic, an erudite Marxist, a riveting speaker and writer, a dedicated class warrior to the core, he was the peerless duce of the Italian Left. He looked like the head of any future Italian socialist government, elected or revolutionary.

Read Online

fascism.pdf

Old Hickory's Diary
Updated 30/9/01:-

This time Old Hickory looks at the destruction in New York, Dorothy Rowe's latest book and The Tory leadership contest.

Read Online

oldhick5-pdf

The Rise and Fall of the British Welfare State 
by Stephen Berry:-

In The Times newspaper (October 18th, 2000) Professor Michael Joy, consultant cardiologist at St Peter's hospital, Chertsey, wrote to complain that he could not admit very ill patients from his Accident Department due to the unavailability of beds in the main hospital. He said, “If nothing is done, I guarantee within the next weeks there will be a mighty crash. Everybody in the Health Service is totally demoralised. I have never seen morale at such a low level in my 35 year career.” ... 

Read Online

PDF File

Multiply and be Fruitful:

by Ray Percival:-     
How could anyone doubt that the world has an overpopulation problem? ... 

Read Online

PDF file

Alice in Wonderland
by David Ramsay Steele:- 
  

We have to imagine something like Ferdinand Lasalle writing Jack London's novels, but even this does not come near the prodigious strangegraham@etrwebdesign.co.ukness and strange prodigiousness of Rand's accomplishments ...

Read Online

PDF file

Keith Evans on Drugs

By David McDonagh:-

In the 1970s, the UK state ran a series of television adverts on the theme that "heroin screws you up". The message was that if you messed around with this dangerous drug, you would be at death's door within a few years, if not within a few months. I was rather pleased that I had never felt the slightest temptation to indulge in taking heroin as I repeatedly saw the adverts warning us all against it.

Read Online

keod.pdf

Why Libertarians Should Be Concerned with the History of Political Thought  
By Gene Callahan:-
"If prominent proponents of libertarianism appear to be ignorant of the great themes of Western political theory, then its opponents can plausibly dismiss libertarianism as another naïve attempt to deal with the complexity of political life with a set of simplistic slogans."

Read Online

hopt.pdf

Smoking & Libertarianism: 
Amartya Sen's article and J C Lester's reply 

Read Online

Jan Lester replies to critics of his book "ESCAPE FROM LEVIATHAN"
"As a critical rationalist, I welcome criticism. A serious response can help to elucidate matters even when that criticism mainly comprises superficial misreadings, misquotations, unsubstantiated assertions, ill-tempered ad hominems and elementary linguistic confusion that together amount to a professional disgrace. Thus I am happy to reply to Professor Machan's review of Escape from Leviathan."

Richard Garner & Reply

Reply to Julius Blumfeld

Reply to Gordon-Modugno

Reply to Machan

Reply to Otteson

Reply to Barry 

Reply to Meckled-Garcia 

Reply to Cohen

Reply to Brooks

1. Reply 2. Escape from Lester - Thom Brooks replies 3. Brooks's Escape from Philosophy: A rejoinder to “Escape from Lester: A Reply from a so-called ‘Philistine'”  
Reply to Ellin


Reply to Hayes


Replies to Swan

War Games
By Stephen Berry:-

The opening ceremony of the Berlin Olympics
But many people can still be heard to proclaim with a bull-headed obstinacy that international sport should be encouraged as a source of goodwill between nations, a means by which individuals from different countries can come to know and like each other. Unfortunately, there are simply too many examples of international sport producing ill-will and all but sparking international incidents.

Read Online

Wargames.pdf

Old Hickory's Diary

 Updated 20/1/06:-


"This time Old Hickory looks at:
1. The latest renewal of the oil scare
2. Gordon Brown
3. The elite EU superstate
4. David Cameron."

Read Online

oldhick-10.pdf

Book Review: The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History
reviewed by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel:-
Thomas E. Woods, Jr.'s, Politically Incorrect Guide to American History not only became a New York Times bestseller but also raised an amazing amount of furor, to a certain extent among the left leaning, who are the book's bête noire and would be expected to take offense, but especially in conservative and libertarian circles, among the book's presumed friends

Read Online

Goodbye to All That:
by Stephen Berry:-

" Dutch voter in traditional costume votes 'No'."

The week beginning 29th May, 2005 proved to be the most momentous in European history since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. On that Sunday, the French, always seen as one of the staunchest supporters of the European Union (EU), voted 'Non' in a referendum to reject the new EU constitution. Barely had the bemused Eurocrats in Brussels prepared their explanations for this Gallic aberration when, on the following Wednesday, the Dutch too rejected the constitution with an even more decisive ‘Nee'.

Read Online

cm.pdf

Old Hickory's Diary



This time Old Hickory looks at: 'The Firemen's Strike and the Law', 'The Lords, the Home Secretary and Gaol Sentences' and 'The Great Britons Series'.

Read Online
 

Regarding Henry

A Book Review by Stephen Berry:-

 Would Henry Kissinger be convicted of war crimes on the basis of this book? The history of war crimes trials shows us that if his enemies were judge and jury – and in war crimes trials this usually is the case – the answer would be a resounding yes! But I will be a little more discriminating ...

Read Online

henry.pdf

The Anatomy of the state
by Professor Murray N Rothbard:- 
   It is not by chance that the bloodiest century in world history has coincided with a revival of the belief in state power. The Libertarian Alliance believes that a general appreciation of the predatory nature of state power is the surest method of countering this trend and continuing the work begun by the great anti-statists of the 17th-19th centuries. It is to this end that we republish Murray Rothbard's classic analysis of the state.

Read Online

Rothbard.pdf

Libertarian controls
by J C Lester:- 
   It is often argued by libertarian types that there should be No Controls on this or that. The argument usually combines two factors: the supposed evidence that the controls are disastrous; and the supposed axiomatic fact that the repeal of state legislation must be more libertarian (though the latter point seems to oblige more-libertarian-than-thou types to ‘stick to their guns' whatever the consequences). My chief contentions here are that many No Controllers are conceptually confused and that this confusion often causes them to argue for alarming and unlibertarian policies: policies that defend not liberty but licence, that is, having the power to infringe the liberty of others.

Read Online

LA-17.pdf

Film Reviews
We have decided to publish a column of Film Reviews. Some films reviewed will have an avowedly Libertarian content. Some films will be selected merely because they are interesting. The reviews will be of films both old and new.  We hope you will find them all entertaining ... 

Read Online

Download

The Pure Joy of Heroin
by J C Lester:-  
   The media's latest spate of heroin-bashing started, as far as I can tell, with a piece in Time Out (March 1984). What is remarkable about this report is that the evidence for the supposed harmful effects of the drug is almost entirely absent - there were no deaths or even' accidents on the South London estates investigated ... 

Read Online

pdf file

No Representation Without Taxation!
by J C Lester:-     

The other day I saw some old film footage of Suffragettes marching with a banner that read, "Taxation Without Representation Is Tyranny". I seem to remember that some American colonials also once expressed similar views (whatever happened to them?). Most people would now regard that point as a fair one. I am no great fan of democracy, preferring liberty, but even I can agree that people who are taxed but not allowed to vote are likely to be more than averagely oppressed by those who can vote.

Read Online

PDF file

A Plague on Both Your Statist Houses
by J C Lester 
Why Libertarian Restitution Beats State-Retribution and State-Leniency .

Read Online

An Attack on the Realm:
by J C Lester 
A Review of In Defence of the Realm: The Place of Nations in Classical Liberalism, David Conway (Ashgate, 2004)

Read Online

The Great Educational Expansion: A Response to Grant M. Nülle:
by Stephen Berry:-
It's no good allowing governments to set absurd targets and then getting worked up about the extent to which the targets should be privately or publicly financed. The idea that the government should set targets for citizens and the citizens should then jump to attention should be something which is deeply inimical to all believers in liberty...

Read Online

tgee.pdf

Churchill:The End of Glory
by Stephen Berry:- 
   It is a platitude in the UK today that World War Two was the greatest and most noble triumph in British History. This review of John Charmely's controversial biography of Winston Churchill critically questions this view of WW2 and much else about Churchill's career. From being the world's greatest military power in 1900, Britain by 1950 had sunk to the status of a debtor nation on the verge of losing dominion over palm and pine. Were these 50 years really the glorious epoch which the Churchillians would have us believe ...

Read Online

PDF file

Nozick's Flawless Libertarianism?: Review of On Nozick: by Edward Feser:-
By J C Lester: 
This is an excellent though largely uncritical introduction to, and defence of, Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia (New York: Basic Books, 1974). It is also quite a good introduction to libertarianism ...

Read Online

My Orwell Right or Wrong:
A book review by David Ramsay Steele:-
 "Why Orwell Matters is an advocate's defense of Orwell as a good and great man. The evidence adduced is that Orwell held the same opinions as Hitchens. Hitchens does allow that Orwell sometimes got things wrong, but in these cases Hitchens always enters pleas in mitigation. Hitchens's efforts to minimize the importance of Orwell's objectionable views, or in some cases his inability to see them, paint a misleading picture of Orwell's thinking."

Read Online

orwell.pdf

More Articles ...