Capitalism Under the Tests of Ethics
by Arthur Shenfield
Character and Freedom
by Craig Russell
"To regain our freedoms as individuals, then, we first have to rebuild and regain our
character. It will not work the other way. We cannot regain freedom without first
regaining character. To eliminate the State, we must eliminate our need for the State,
our desire for the State, and we can only do that by regaining character. There is
simply no other way. The path to freedom is not through the voting booth. It’s not
through revolution or violence. It’s not through war. It’s through your own individual
mind – through your mind and my mind."
Choice and Responsibility
by Thomas W. Knepher
The Coming Storm
August 13, 2005
by Susan Callaway
"Let's be realistic. Human beings are not fit to rule each other. History proves it,
over and over again. A small group of people can rule themselves through mutual
cooperation, but the ultimate "rule" for each person must rest on their own acceptance
of personal responsibility for their actions and choices."
Crime and Consequences: Part I: Criminal Responsibility,
Part II: The Criminal Justice System,
Part III: “. . . To Insure Domestic Tranquility . . .”
by Robert James Bidinotto
"Crime can never be eliminated, not if we have the power to choose evil. But it can be
controlled, if criminals are regarded as volitional entities, fully responsible for the
consequences of their actions. The answer is to reform the entire criminal justice
system, from its basic premises to its routine procedures, with a single goal in
mind: to reassert the responsibility of the individual."
Decencies for Skeptics
Spring 1996
by Roger Scruton
"To the conservative conscience, the virtues praised by our liberal elites are the vices
that undermine society. What the liberal sees as toleration, the conservative sees as
complicity in wrongdoing; what the liberal sees as compassion for the weak and the
needy, the conservative sees as the rewarding of irresponsible behavior. Illegitimacy,
welfare dependency, divorce and marital breakdown—even the rise in drug abuse and
crime—strike the conservative as exactly what you must expect when the stern morality
of duty gives way to the sentimental morality of “caring.” When every attempt to impose
standards is greeted as a form of discrimination, when the only response to social
failure is to multiply the rights and curtail the responsibilities of those whose
actions are the cause of it, and when the greatest sin is the sin of disapproval, then
is it surprising if society begins to fall apart? It is all very well for liberals to
lament the social catastrophe of the inner cities. But if every attempt to tell the
truth about it is condemned as racist, sexist, or just plain judgmental, how can the
situation be changed?"
Freedom and Responsibility
May 12, 2004
by John C. Downen
"Those who cannot control themselves will be controlled by others -- legislators,
regulators, and the police. This destroys freedom. But a citizenry composed of
self-governing individuals will rarely need the power of the state to solve its
problems."
Free to Choose
Autumn 1996
by Theodore Dalrymple
"These gentlemen of the road are being joined in their homelessness by increasing
numbers of young people, fleeing their disastrous homes, where illegitimacy, a succession
of abusive stepfathers, and a complete absence of authority is the norm. We are constantly
told by those liberals whose nostrums of the past have contributed so richly to this
wretched situation that society (by which is meant government) should do yet more for
such pitiable people. But is not homelessness, at least in modern-day society, a special
instance of a law first enunciated by a British medical colleague of mine, namely, that
misery increases to meet the means available for its alleviation? And does not antisocial
behavior increase in proportion to the excuses that intellectuals make for it?"
Guilt Sanctified
by Murray N. Rothbard
This essay originally appeared in the July 1990 issue of The Rothbard-Rockwell
Report.
"In the old days, we reviled the Nazis for their doctrine of collective guilt; now we
embrace the same Nazi concept as a vital feature of our ethical system. For confining
guilt to specific criminals would not do, because it would not fit with what Joe Sobran
has brilliantly called our doctrine of Accredited Victimology. Some groups are accorded
the status of Official Victims; everyone not in the Victim groups are, therefore,
criminals and Official Victimizers. The Victimizers are expected to feel guilty about
the victims, and therefore – because there is no point to guilt without a payoff – to
pay through the nose in money, privileges, and "empowerment" forever and ever without
end. Amen."
Individualism, Individual Responsibility and Freedom
by weebies
"The state, with its collective responsibility, has always been the greatest
violator of rights and freedoms. History teaches us that states that have emphasized
collective responsibility over individual responsibility have always been the worst
at human rights abuses. As America moves away from an individual responsibility to
a collective responsibility mindset, we see the same abuses happening here."
Liberty and Individual Responsibility
by Dwight R. Lee
"The ability of government to enforce impartially general rules will be
sabotaged if the
lack of responsibility and restraint reaches the point where government becomes the
dominant source of discipline in society. The more necessary government is to the
maintenance of the general rules upon which liberty depends, the more insufficient to
this task it is sure to be."
Liberty and Responsibility: Inseparable Ideals
by Max More
"Only freely chosen actions reflect character. Only when people do the right thing
freely can we have confidence in their character. If they act as we think they should,
and they do so out of virtues such as benevolence, productiveness, and integrity, then
we know their good actions resulted from a good character. If they took the action out
of fear, then we can know nothing about the goodness of their character. All we will
know is that we have removed an opportunity for the free exercise of virtue."
The Market and Political Freedom
by John Marangos
"Because the value of self-control is taught, exercised, and mobilized by the
market, in the long run, authoritarianism cannot exist alongside free markets."
The Private Property System and the Decent Society
by Tibor R. Machan
Property and the Moral Life
Jason Baldwin
Reflections on Self-Responsibility and Libertarianism
by Nathaniel Branden
"If we live in a culture that upholds the principle that we are responsible for our
actions and the fulfillment of our desires, and if coercion is not an option in the
furtherance of our aims, then we have the best possible context for the triumph of
community, benevolence, and mutual esteem."
Rejecting Responsibility
by Russell Madden
"Only when people appropriately delimit what rightly belongs to their spheres of
personal responsibility—and what does not—will the “helpless” face the full consequences
of trying to avoid the requirements of reality. Only when the national political debate
takes into account the problems arising from well-intentioned meddling will actual
reform occur. Only when each of us realizes precisely what personal responsibility
entails—and where it ends—will true freedom be established in this country."
Reputation: Studies in the Voluntary Elicitation of Good Conduct edited by
Daniel B. Klein
reviewed by John Attarian
"Government regulation, oversight, and auditing are recent inventions. Yet trade
flourished for centuries without them. If the free market really were incapable
of self-policing, this could not have happened; rational economic agents would not
have risked exposure to rampant fraud and malfeasance, and trade would have remained
local and low volume. Since it obviously did not, markets must have had effective
policing mechanisms grounded in reputation."
Restoring Parental Responsibility for Education
by Marshall Fritz
"We Americans can be proud that our forbears had the wisdom and courage to end
government-compelled church funding, attendance, and practice. Similarly, government
must be prevented from compelling school funding, attendance, and curriculum. Only
with the separation of school and state can we re-establish parental responsibility,
protect parents' rights, and enable schools, teachers, and students to flourish in
an environment of educational freedom."
Reviving a Civil Society
by Lawrence W. Reed
"Restoring civil society requires that we “Just Say No” to shirking our personal
responsibilities and expecting government to do for us what we can and should do
on our own, within our personal lives, our families, and our local communities.
It requires us to think creatively about stimulating private initiative, and then
just doing it.
Rights and Responsibilities
December 4, 2002
by Wendy McElroy
"According to PC feminism, the woman alone has the right of choice in carrying a
pregnancy to term while the man bears legal responsibility for child support. Yet,
in paying child support, he has no guarantee of joint custody or even visitation rights."
Self-Reliance
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms
must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness.
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."
What Social Classes Owe to Each Other
1883
by William Graham Sumner
"Sumner was one of the founding fathers of American sociology who explored the
relationship between the individual and the state from an individualist and free
market perspective. This collection of essays is a good example of his approach to
the subject."
Who has rights and responsibilities?
by Roy Halliday
Chapter 3 of Enforceable Rights:
A Libertarian Theory of Justice.
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This page was last updated on May 19, 2007.