The kernels of tolerance, due process, impartial administration, and self-government may not have emerged with liberalism, but it was liberalism that extended these important political institutions to everyone. It’s in post-liberals’ interest to let us forget this. It’s frustrating when liberals neglect it.
Individual librarians, teachers, and school councils who actually interact with students and their families have a much better chance of understanding and responding to what those students need to read than do government bureaucrats.
In exploring the history of libertarian thought, The Individualists provides a model for understanding how political movements can shift with the contexts they’re in and the personalities that drive them.
If we want to preserve the hard-won gains that have made Canada one of the freest and most prosperous countries in the world, we have to rediscover a less satisfying politics: the work of governance.
Not everything is political—in fact, in our frustration at what feels like a broken system, we too often stick politics where it doesn’t belong. But non-political social and community activities form the backdrop for our politics and are essential to solving society’s problems.
What would the Dahl Wars of February 2023 have looked like if copyright terms in Canada were shortened by twenty years instead, putting Dahl’s work into the public domain in 2022?
Absolving policymakers of responsibility for bad policymaking weakens support for democratic institutions at a time when we should be looking to strengthen them. And accepting that our governments can’t do better absolves policymakers of responsibility.
The experience of the pandemic has required some updating to libertarian priors about how much people are willing to sacrifice to help each other. But that doesn’t mean we need to abandon libertarian principles altogether.
Peace is precious, rare, and fragile. We’ll never hold onto it if we believe it’s also impossible.
Online craziness is crashing into the real world with increasing consequences. Solving this problem is critically important.
