In an excellent article in the American Spectator, British philosopher and author Sir Roger Scruton discusses his superb new documentary, Why Beauty Matters, that has recently been shown on the BBC. Scruton incisively examines the importance of beauty in the arts and our lives, including fine arts, music, and architecture. In the process, he...
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With the enormous expansion of the welfare state with the passage of Obamacare, C.S. Lewis’s insightful essay on the dangers, dehumanization, and immorality of welfare/therapeutic statism, “Is Progress Possible? Willing Slaves of the Welfare State” (from his book, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics) is especially timely and noteworthy. Here are...
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James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar is a thrill to see, and various commentators have judged the film for whatever ideological message they have found in it, but what struck me most is that the Na’vi people, in defending their land on Pandora from the imperialist exploitation by the humans, are engaging in one of the...
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The remarkable and haunting, independent, 2009, science fiction short film, 2081: Everyone Will Finally Be Equal, is based on the Kurt Vonnegut short story, “Harrison Bergeron,” from his book, Welcome to the Monkey House (directed by Chandler Tuttle and produced by Thor Halvorssen), and is now available on DVD. Vonnegut’s powerful and incisive story...
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A Facebook friend of mine posted his response to a poll: “Would the world be better without religion?” two days ago, generating, to date, 3,627 comments—by far the most I’ve ever seen for any single Facebook posting, and remarkable for one with 481 “Friends.” While I haven’t read all of the comments, the general...
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With the Climategate revelations, momentum is definitely building against the credibility of the climate doomsday mongering, but will it be enough to derail the juggernaut for global warming statism? As the Wall Street Journal has noted in its November 27th editorial, “Rigging a Climate ‘Consensus’”: The furor over these documents is not about tone,...
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James Montanye’s recent posting on reciprocal rights theory and altruism provides the standard evolutionary biological (evo-devo) view, but as such fails to explain pure altruism or “radical altruism” and is inadequate to defend any consistent system of political economy and morality, including natural law and natural rights, individual liberty and the rule of law....
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There was a certain horrifying fascination to observe the speed and enthusiasm with which conservatives embraced the unprecedented growth of government power and size under George W. Bush in the aftermath of 9/11. A Crisis and Leviathan case study in the “ratchet-effect” of “crises”—documented brilliantly throughout by Bob Higgs and reprinted as our Resurgence...
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To follow up on my recent blog posting, “Obama’s New Theocracy,” and now with the brutal crackdown and news blackout by Iranian government officials on the huge peaceful protests of the corruption and repression in Iran (see here, here, here and here), C. S. Lewis’s discussion of the enormous dangers from theocracy (faith-based statism)...
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I thought this was too good not to share. Here is an excerpt from pp. 69-72 of Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis: He had in fact been a strict socialist at Oxford. Everything ought to be run by the State; private enterprise and independent professions were for him the great evil. He...
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