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Freedom Circle

Where Can You Find Freedom Today?

Actions by government that restrict individual liberty

Featured Topics

  • State, The - The group of people that, having effective control over a government, benefit the most from the exercise of its power
  • War - Armed conflict between nations: "The Health of the State"

Notable Topics

  • Army, Standing - A permanently established army of paid or conscripted soldiers and other military personnel
  • Foreign entanglements - Unnecessary involvement with other nations
  • Militarism - A political system influenced greatly by a large, permanent military force
  • Repression, Moral - Legislation and government actions that attempt to dictate "moral and proper" behavior
  • Terrorism - The systematic use of violence to attempt to achieve ideological goals

Articles

Atlas Shrugged and the Corporate State, by Sheldon Richman, The Goal Is Freedom, 12 Oct 2007
Explains how Ayn Ran's Atlas Shrugged properly depicted some businessmen as privilege seekers, but some of her non-fiction was mistaken about big business being a "persecuted minority"
The biggest threat today is not from communism or state socialism or even terrorism. No one in America is proposing to nationalize industry or collectivize agriculture. The threat is from the concentration of power in the hands of pedestrian centrist politicians on the pretext of national and economic security. This has a powerful corporatist element ... For example, all the so-called top-tier presidential candidates favor a comprehensive energy policy designed to cut back the use of imported oil ... Who stands to gain most from the subsidies, tax preferences, and market manipulations that will constitute such a policy?
Our Patience on Iraq Should Be Exhausted, by Sheldon Richman, 4 Apr 2007
Comments on George W. Bush's request that the 2007 Iraqi troop "surge" be given a chance and on congressional efforts to impose a 2008 withdrawal deadline
When will [ordinary Americans] demand an explanation from those who call themselves our leaders ... as Johnson and others have shown, global military and political intervention makes enemies for the country, invites terrorism ("blowback"), and hence endangers Americans at home and abroad. How many examples do we need? September 11 should have been enough for even the dullest of observers. It's time to end the scam: our alleged protectors are in fact the greatest threat to our liberty today. Even the U.S. government admits that the war in Iraq is creating terrorists.
Related Topics: Imperialism, Iraq War, Militarism
Reason 35th Anniversary Banquet Remarks, by Robert W. Poole, Jr., 5 Nov 2003
Remembrances of 35 years, focusing on Reason magazine and the Reason Foundation, but also contrasting the late 1960s to the early 2000s in terms of both technology and government intervention
Back in 1968 ... We had a no-win war in Viet Nam and the draft hanging over every young man's head ... Obviously, there are still many threats to liberty out there—not just Islamic terrorism but huge and unsustainable welfare state programs, not just here but in every advanced country. We've lost important liberties due to the War on Drugs, and are losing others in the War on Terrorism. So it's no time to declare victory and go home. In fact, I don't think there will ever be such a time for advocates of liberty. I firmly believe that eternal vigilance will always be the price of liberty.
The Troops Don't Defend Our Freedoms, by Jacob G. Hornberger, 21 Oct 2005
Examines whether foreign invasion, terrorists taking over the government and the federal government, through the President and its orders to a "loyal and obedient" standing army, are plausible threats to the freedom and well-being of Americans
Let's examine the three potential threats to our freedoms and the role that the troops play in them: Every competent military analyst would tell us that the threat of a foreign invasion and conquest of America is nonexistent ... the troops are not needed to protect our freedoms from this nonexistent threat. Despite widespread fears to the contrary, there is no possibility that terrorists will conquer the United States, take over the government, and take away our freedoms ... As our Founding Fathers understood so well, the primary threat to our freedom lies with our own government.

Interviews

UpdFaculty Spotlight Interview: Walter Block: Walter Block, by Walter Block, 18 Jan 2010
Asks Block about his hobbies, greatest inspiration, the impact of his work and more
What do you see as the greatest threat to liberty today?
Obviously, the greatest threat to liberty today is the U.S. government. It has some 1000 military bases abroad, on the territory of about 200 foreign countries. Its military budget is larger than such expenditures of virtually all other countries put together. It is fighting 2-3(?) wars at present against countries that have not first invaded us or credibly threatened to do so ... Domestic incursions against liberty pale into insignificance by comparison, and, yet, they, too, are serious. We live in a nanny state, where we mundanes (boobus americanus) are forced to obey orders.
An Interview With David Theroux, by David J. Theroux, Strike The Root, 2 Sep 2003
Topics discussed include: the Independent Institute, Theroux's life before founding it, possible connection to Thoreau, the Vietnam War, his heroes and influencers, activism, September 11 and book recommendations
What do you think are the greatest current threats to liberty, and what do you think we should do about them?
The greatest threats to liberty are U.S. interventionist policies worldwide. The dangers are two-fold: (1) Such interventionism fosters world conflict and bitter anti-U.S. sentiments and enemies, endangering the liberty and safety of Americans here and abroad as well as people worldwide, and (2) the "war on terrorism" domestically is producing huge new grabs of government power as every conceivable interest group pushes for its own share of the "terrorist war" pie.