Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.'s Blog, page 396

An Empire Self-Destructs

Empires are built through the creation or acquisition of wealth. The Roman Empire came about through the productivity of its people and its subsequent acquisition of wealth from those that it invaded. The Spanish Empire began with productivity and expanded through the use of its large armada of ships, looting the New World of its gold. The British Empire began through localized productivity and grew through its creation of colonies worldwide—colonies that it exploited, bringing the wealth back t...

Why Are Israel and the West Unravelling in Tandem?

Alon Pinkas, a former senior Israeli diplomat (well plugged in at the White House), says aloud the ‘reality’ about Israel which he underlines cannot be hidden further:

“[There are now] two [Jewish] states – with contrasting visions of what the nation should be. There is an elephant in the Israeli room – and ‘no’: it’s not occupation, though that is its main cause”.

“The elephant in the room is Israel gradually but inexorably being divided [into a high-tech, secular, liberal state] … and a Jewish...

Maybe We’re Closer to ‘You’ll Own Nothing’ Than We Realize

Maybe we should rephrase the slogan to “you’ll appear to own things you don’t actually control and be happy.”

The World Economic Forum’s catchphrase you’ll own nothing and be happy was widely mocked as an eyebrow-raising vision of a “sharing economy” future without the implicit agency granted by full ownership. Renting stuff that one needed only for one-time use has long been a market, and car-sharing makes sense for urban dwellers who only need a vehicle on occasion.

But to own nothing still im...

Climate Stupidity

The specific gravity of carbon dioxide is 1.52 relative to dry air, and is the same weight as propane. It is even heavier in relation to our humid atmosphere, ranging around 1.61. It falls through the atmosphere about like a cotton seed. Wind can blow it upward, but it falls right back down. It acts like rainwater, seeking low points. We do not need to build pipelines to inject it into the ground. It sinks into to the ground all by itself.

Photosynthesis (CO2 + Sunlight + H2O) cannot exist witho...

5 Things You Need to Do When There’ll Be No Rule of Law

Mention a dystopia to most people and they’ll probably think of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the Thought Police and Big Brother. That’s understandable, because there are worrying hints of it in our own society – are ideas like no-platforming, safe spaces and misgendering really so different from wrong-thinking and thought-crime? – but there’s a different kind of dystopia that’s a lot more common. Unfortunately it’s just as scary.

The word dystopia itself just means a society that’s unpleasant or fright...

Can We Secure Property Rights Without the State?

You think you’re the legitimate owner of your residence until you come back from vacation and find squatters have taken over.  Call the police and have them removed?  You might have to call a private service like Squatterhunters.com instead.

Americans long ago lost property rights to their income, the purchasing power of their money, their savings, and their lives. Is there no way for people to protect what is legitimately theirs?

Fortunately, both experience and theory says there is: The classi...

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in San Bernardino

Being a college town, Palo Alto once offered a multitude of excellent new and used bookstores, perhaps as many as a dozen or so. But the rise of Amazon produced a great extinction in that business sector, and I think only two now survive, probably still more than for most towns of comparable size.

Amazon and its rivals have obviously become hugely beneficial book-buying resources that I frequently use, but they fail to offer the benefit of randomly browsing shelves and occasionally stumbling acr...

A Rothbardian Dissection of Javier Milei – Part I

Introduction

Do you hate the State? Javier Milei, the current president of Argentina, seems to. “The State is a killing machine.” “The State is a criminal organization.” “Taxation is theft.” “Philosophically, I am an anarcho-capitalist.” These are quotes from Milei, a man who offered Argentina a “true liberal option”—classical liberalism. He claims to be a “liberal-libertarian” and an admirer of Murray Rothbard (1, 2, 3). He has said he is a minarchist in the short run, but willing to embrace an...

The Vietnamization of Ukraine

As Ukraine’s defeat in the war moves closer, the neocons are desperate to draw the US further into the fight. Over the weekend, former US State Department official Victoria Nuland told ABC News that the US must help facilitate Ukrainian missile attacks deep inside Russian territory. The Biden Administration has to this point avoided involvement in such attacks, likely because Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia will strike any facility that supplies or facilitates strikes ins...

Javier Milei, the Beginning of the End of Socialist World Domination?

Javier Milei, the beginning of the end of socialist world domination?

Murray Rothbard provided the theory, Javier Milei is it’s first political reality, and here comes a proposal for the liberal utopia envisioned by Hayek. We are all set for a libertarian future.

Milei, the Lenin for freedom?

The term “socialism” is used in the following to refer to the institutionalized policy of aggression against property, over which the state has a monopoly. See also Hans Hermann Hoppe, “A Theory of Socialis...