The Real Rebels

John Locke reminds us that the Latin rebellare means to “bring back again the state of war.” War, as Locke usefully defines it, is a state that ensues “when someone declares by word or action,” “as a matter of calm settled design,” “that he intends to end another man’s life,” or to “get another man

Badges of Shame, and of Honor

Decades ago, a six-year sojourn in Canada acquainted me with the awe in which the denizens of that snowy realm hold the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Many a northern lad could dream no grander dream than growing up to join the ranks of these bravest of all servants of Queen and Country. In one fateful

Dispelling the Sorrows of Hell

The sorrows of death surrounded me, The sorrows of hell encompassed me: and in my affliction I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice from his holy temple. Psalm 17:5-7 Jean Paul Sartre was half right when he nihilistically complained: hell is other people. What he ought to have said is: “Hell is

Watching the Watchmen Wobble

It is surely a profound relief to many an American breadwinner, whose workmates may happen to number a hundred or more, to learn that the highest court in the land will not countenance the attempts of a distant agency, charged with maintaining workplace safety, to force his employer to treat him as a guinea pig

Free Men and Slaves

According to Plato’s Athenian Stranger, there are two sorts of doctors, corresponding to two sorts of patients. On each side, there are “slaves and free.” Slave doctors “acquire the art by following their master’s command,” “but not by following nature.” Generally, they are permitted to treat their fellow slaves. In doing so, the slave doctor

It Takes a (Certain Kind of) Village

One of the advantages socialists have these days is the poverty of our political culture, especially as it pertains to our (lack of) understanding of the rights they are in the process of stripping from us. Those nobly seeking to escape the servitude into which we are rapidly slipping, drawing from a conceptual toolbox within

Homeland Restoration

Angelo Codevilla asks the vital if perplexing question of how to restore a republic when a sizable portion of its members has no desire to govern itself. In one of his many astute formulations, Codevilla notes that, although the “bipartisan ruling class that controls nearly all our institutions” constitutes a tiny minority of the populace,

A Familiar Trick

The days between Christmas and New Year’s day are allowed as holidays. From what I know of the effect of these holidays upon the slave, I believe them to be among the most effective means in the hands of the slaveholder in keeping down the spirit of insurrection. This will be seen by the fact,

Subsidiarity in Action

Subsidi-what? You may be asking? Subsidiarity is a term originating in Catholic Social Doctrine (which is indeed a real thing, underneath layers of oft-peddled rip-offs). Simply stated, the principle of subsidiarity proclaims that “one should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what [the former] can accomplish by their own enterprise and industry”;

Freedom in Action

Whenever someone contemplates reality in pure pursuit of knowledge and without regard for immediate practical purposes; Whenever someone, oblivious of possible usefulness, disadvantages, danger, or even death, is able to say, “So it is; this is the truth!” (e.g. “The Emperor has no clothes!”)— Then we witness, in an eminent degree, human freedom in action.