tyranny

A harrowing experience through Lithuania’s Soviet Era prisons is a reminder of the horrors of the regime and the threats standing even today.

What is the role of government in society? This has been and remains the most fundamental question in all political discussions and debates. Its answer determines the nature of the social order and how people are expected and allowed to interact with one another – on the basis of either force or freedom.

A little more than seventy years ago, on March 10, 1944, there appeared in Great Britain one of the most amazing and influential political books of the twentieth century, The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich A. Hayek, which forewarned of socialist trends in Britain and America that ran the danger of leading to tyranny if taken to their logical conclusions.

This November marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. On November 9, 1989, as the shaky East German communist government resigned, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. Large crowds formed on both sides of the Wall. East and West Berliners climbed on top, and then people began using sledgehammers and pickaxes to cut holes in it. People started to move back and forth through the Wall, capturing the spirit of a freedom to move without political barriers standing in the way.

Imagine police seize your money, your car, even your house. Imagine this happens without you being convicted of a crime or even charged with one. Imagine being told you must sue the government to get back your property and prove you did nothing wrong, and the government can do nothing – nothing – and still keep the property.

A fundamental fallacy of our time is that democracy is the open-sesame to peace, freedom, and prosperity. The political events surrounding what was called the ill-fated “Arab Spring” a couple of years ago was a based on the idea that “democracy” would solve all the problems of any society. But democracy in itself does not define or guarantee a free society. History has told many stories of democratic societies that have degenerated into corruption, plunder, and tyranny.

The Ukraine came apart when a protest against its president forced him to flee to Russia. The issue was whether the Ukraine would be allied with Russia or with the…

The Leviathan in the modern “democratic” state counts on us to simply throw up our hands and submit. Refuse.

Along with July 4, 1776, December 7, 1941 — and perhaps, someday, Barack Obama’s Birthday — June 6, 1944, will long be remembered as one of the most important and…

President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency has already promulgated a tsunami of 1,920 regulations, many of which will bring few health or environmental benefits, but will impose high economic and unemployment…

[First posted at The American Culture.] Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act vividly highlights a basic cultural division in the contemporary United States. One might well call it…

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision holding the Obamacare individual mandate is constitutional was based on grounds not addressed by the parties to the suit. Thus debate was squelched on the…

Heartland’s Director of Research Sam Karnick, the proprietor of the excellent The American Culture blog, expands there on the public comment he offered on our behalf. Sam offered today at…