Danger Is My Middle Name – And So Is Yours
Glen Allport
2007-12-02 17:00
Exclusive to STR
December 3, 2007
As soon as there is life there is danger. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- 1 -
Danny Shahar wrote an excellent column for STR recently (Paternalists Just Don't Understand) about drug prohibition. Shahar's column reminded me that I have been meaning to write a column of my own on the topic, covering only the two most basic arguments for freedom on this issue. So, with a...
Government and the Process of Design Change
Glen Allport
2007-11-25 17:00
Exclusive to STR
November 26, 2007
- 1 -
Those in control of government are using the same methods to advance and otherwise improve government power over citizens as corporations such as Apple Computer or Honda Motors use to advance and otherwise improve their products. Broadly speaking, these methods are intelligently applied iterative and incremental design change.
That is not a comforting...
The Fugitive
Glen Allport
2007-11-18 17:00
Exclusive to STR
"O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia , and Africa , have long expelled her. -- Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an...
Remember, Remember This Fifth of November
Glen Allport
2007-11-04 17:00
Exclusive to STR
November 5, 2007
- 1 -
Every person knows what is wrong with the world and what would make things right. This knowledge is buried deep within us and usually stays hidden because it is painfully at odds with the world as we find it.
Yet the knowledge is there, born anew within every child. Occasionally we see this truth in action, as when someone takes a stand in favor of freedom...
Capitalism Is Not Freedom, and Socialism Is Not Love
Glen Allport
2007-10-28 17:00
Exclusive to STR
October 29, 2007
"cap'i'tal'ism (k'p''-tl-'z''m) n. An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market." -- The American Heritage Dictionary
"so'cial'ism (s''sh'-l'z''m) n. 1.a. A social system in which the...
Money
Glen Allport
2007-10-22 03:00
Exclusive to STR
"Paul Robinson, one of [Barclays Bank's] strategists, said: 'We're dollar bears. The dollar is coming up for an important few weeks. We expect it to get quite a bit weaker.' The bank fears that the dollar could fall to as low as $1.50 against the euro."
-- Dollar's weakness to intensify, experts warn, by...
Day One
Glen Allport
2007-10-14 16:00
Exclusive to STR
October 15, 2007
- 1 -
Inevitably, a day will come when America's descent into tyranny stops and begins to reverse. The character, details, and timing of that day are important.
Day One might arrive via the ballot box, as most Americans would expect, or it might arrive in a different fashion. Certainly, there has been little to suggest that the American electorate would snap out...
We Are All the Same; We Are All Different
Glen Allport
2007-09-23 16:00
Exclusive to STR
September 24, 2007
Love and freedom are the foundations of healthy life, both at the individual and social levels. Love and freedom are intertwined so tightly in human life as to form a single unit -- a duality.
Our needs for both love and freedom, and the fact of their connection within us at both the individual and social levels, stem from our very nature. The duality of love...
Subtext Versus Jackhammer: Emotional Health and Ultraviolence in Pathfinder
Glen Allport
2007-09-17 16:00
Exclusive to STR
September 18, 2007
Russell Means, the Lakota activist, actor, libertarian, and occasional political candidate, has a new film out this year -- Pathfinder: Legend of the Ghost Warrior, released this past April and now available on DVD. Despite the title and unlike Means' debut film (Michael Mann's 1992 The Last of the Mohicans) Pathfinder is not based on one of the James Fenimore...
Top Ten Reasons for a New 9/11 Investigation
Glen Allport
2007-09-10 16:00
Exclusive to STR
Preface for 2009
It has been two years since this column was first published, and despite a new Democratic administration and further scientific evidence debunking the Official Conspiracy Theory, the situation is largely unchanged. The United States is still occupying the nations of Iraq and Afghanistan, causing an...
What Even a Hoax Can Tell Us: The 'Kennebunkport Warning'
Glen Allport
2007-09-03 16:00
Exclusive to STR
September 4, 2007
- 1 -
An Ominous Warning
Last week a warning was posted at many sites on the internet. The core of this warning was that "the backers, controllers, and allies of Vice President Dick Cheney are determined to orchestrate and manufacture a new 9/11 terror incident, and/or a new Gulf of Tonkin war provocation over the coming weeks and months."
"...
Health Care
Glen Allport
2007-08-26 16:00
Exclusive to STR
August 27, 2007
- 1 -
Within Living Memory: When Things Worked
As children in the mid-1950s, my siblings and I were exposed to the typical childhood diseases of the time: measles, chicken pox, mumps, and of course colds and flu.
When we were sick, our parents called the doctor, who came out to our home near Chicago. The doctor would arrive carrying a black leather bag filled with...
The Enemies of Love and Freedom
Glen Allport
2007-08-19 16:00
Exclusive to STR
August 20, 2007
- 1 -
A Simple Question
Who are the enemies of love and freedom? One answer is: "Not always who you might think."
- 2 -
Bad Frameworks and the Evils of Coercion
In Blinding by Paradigm, I described how faulty paradigms for politics (and for worldview in general) create disaster. Inaccurate paradigms actually prevent the creation of a healthier world by...
The Soul Is Software
Glen Allport
2007-08-12 16:00
Exclusive to STR
August 13, 2007
- 1 -
What is the soul?
The soul is not a supernatural construct. I see the soul as one's personality, including deeper levels that are typically beyond conscious awareness. The soul is embodied within us as software, running on the hardware of our brains and bodies.
That last is difficult for some to accept, but we have to be some type of thing, and the type of...
The Bridges of Hennepin (and Every Other) County
Glen Allport
2007-08-05 16:00
Exclusive to STR
Last week, a bridge on Interstate 35W in Hennepin County, Minnesota collapsed, killing five people, with at least eight more missing at this writing. "For more than a decade the state of Minnesota has known of problems with the metal holding up the Interstate 35W bridge," according to Minneapolis CBS news channel WCCO. Around the nation, 75,000 other bridges have...
Ron Paul and the Path Back from the Brink
Glen Allport
2007-07-29 16:00
Exclusive to STR
July 30, 2007
- 1 -
At the Brink
There is much debate in the freedom movement, and especially in the voluntaryist / abolitionist / market-anarchist community, on whether Ron Paul's candidacy is helpful or harmful to the cause of freedom. Given the high stakes involved, this is no surprise. We face a truly desperate situation both politically and economically, with the recent...
Compassion vs. Coercion: Good vs. Evil
Glen Allport
2007-07-22 16:00
Exclusive to STR
- 1 -
How odd that government--an institution run entirely on the basis of coercion (which is to say, on the basis of violence, both threatened and real)--presents itself, whenever possible, as a tool of compassion.
This mismatch between government's actual methods and its supposed goals reveals two things: first, that much of what governments do is not what people want (thus the...
How Liberals Created Our Neo-Con Nightmare
Glen Allport
2007-07-16 16:00
Exclusive to STR
Did American liberals set the stage for Bush and the neo-cons to take over this country?
That is not a trick question, and the answer is: "Yes, they did."
- - - - -
How, then? Very simply. Here is a basic outline of what happened:
First, note that a government without rules is a disaster.
Make that, "a government without clear, enforceable rules that give...
The Key to the Future
Glen Allport
2007-07-08 16:00
Exclusive to STR
July 9, 2007
"The task of dramatically changing the world for the better -- specifically, of replacing neurosis and tyranny with love and freedom -- only seems impossible; change happens constantly and large shifts in the character of society have occurred repeatedly in history."
-- from an earlier essay in this series, Opening Up to Paradise: My Journey to an...
CorporateGovernment CorruptionSynergy: The Dangers of Corporatism
Glen Allport
2007-07-01 16:00
Exclusive to STR
July 2, 2007
"It is not a coincidence that the merger of the USGovt and big industry has occurred while the US Middle Class has suffered a tragic income reduction since the 1970's . . . . A constant income over the past six years would have declined in real terms by 7% to 11% each year. That is roughly a 50% decline in real terms!!!"
-- Financial commentator Jim Willie...
The Worst Way to Do Anything
Glen Allport
2007-06-24 16:00
Exclusive to STR
June 25, 2007
"Good enough for government work." -- traditional
- - 1 - -
What People Know
Coercive government always proves to be the worst way to do anything peaceful and civilized; the combination of coercion and top-down central planning ensures this. Furthermore, everyone knows that government is the worst way to do things, even though most people don't seem to...
To Those Who Vote, and Those Who Don't
Glen Allport
2007-06-04 03:00
Exclusive to STR
"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep, debating what to have for lunch."
-- Attributed to Benjamin Franklin, James Bovard, and others
- - - - -
Strike The Root has an official position on voting: don't do it. For those who have...
How Democrats Can Save America (and Perhaps the World)
Glen Allport
2007-05-28 16:00
Exclusive to STR
May 29, 2007
"You want to tell the Iraqis how to run their country. I gotta tell you: we should just get out." -- Mike Gravel, speaking to other candidates at a Democratic debate
- - - - -
Last week's column was aimed at Republicans; this week, Democrats. These are not the expected topics for a libertarian/market-anarchist site.
As I pointed out last week, making...
How Republicans Can Save America (and Perhaps the World)
Glen Allport
2007-05-20 16:00
Exclusive to STR
May 21, 2007
"There is a strong tradition of being anti-war in the Republican Party. " -- Dr. Ron Paul at the recent South Carolina GOP debate.*
- - - - -
Why a column addressing Republicans at a site that eschews the coercion of politics?
Because preaching to the choir does nothing to advance the cause of love and freedom. A more free and compassionate world will...
Crystal Ball
Glen Allport
2007-05-13 16:00
Exclusive to STR
May 14, 2007
"I know what you'd spend 500 million dollars to see: the future."
– Ben Affleck as engineer Michael Jennings , in Paycheck (2003)*
- - - - -
Last night my wife and I saw the movie Next, based very loosely on a story by Phillip K. Dick and starring Nicolas Cage, Jessica Biel, and Julianne Moore. Cage plays a low-key Las Vegas stage magician named...
Reprint Rights
RECENT COMMENTS BY Glen Allport