“Anarchism is probably about nine-tenths discussion and one-tenth action.” (Freedom October 1989) The remark appears with a suggestion that anarchists should work for redistribution of goods and services, but the value of such a change is doubtful; it would mean duplicating the efforts of other groups. Ten years ago there were, for example, already some… read more »
Graduated income tax, and effectively unlimited picketing rights for trade unions, were introduced in the 1870s by Disraeli, Conservative Prime Minister (Roy Jenkins in the Sunday Times, 13 May). from Ideological Commentary 46, July 1990.
Laws make criminals. True; without laws there can be no crime. But attractive though it sounds, the absence of crime does not make it easier for people to live together. Observation of hunter-gatherer communities, which have no laws, shows that although without crime they yet suffer from individuals who take things from others against their… read more »
The Independent (30 April) has a front-page article and two inside pages on police corruption. A week or two earlier in the Sunday Times Books section John Stalker, himself a high police official until he got up against the RUC, spoke of police corruption as an accepted fact. The establishment of a police force overcomes… read more »
Doctor Ann Dally made herself unpopular with the more orthodox medicos by providing heroin addicts with methadone as a substitute, maintaining the dosage until they felt able to renounce their habit. In reviewing her book (A Doctor’s Story, London: Macmillan) J. F. Watkins suggests that if her method were officially adopted and addicts charged, say,… read more »
“Intellectuals” carries several meanings, one of them including most of the professionals. Since these tend to guide their working behaviour by the accepted rules and principles of their profession this usage clashes with the meaning given to the term in s.i., where it indicates those who tend to rely, in matters they consider important, on… read more »
Anarcho-capitalists, and others in favour of the free market, will be please to learn that the Association of European Airlines is on their side. Faced with EC attempts to ban the cartel-like arrangements between airlines and force them to compete with each other, the incoming AEA president protests, and calls upon free market theories for… read more »
1. “The left remains hopelessly fragmented.” (Robet Harris, Sunday Times 20 May) 2. “The ‘fragmentation’ of the left is something to be applauded, not regretted. Not from a ‘victory of the free market’ angle, but from a need to construct theory which is based on the experience of people living today. […] In a sense,… read more »
Obedience is all around us; has it been imposed upon people yearning for freedom, or volunteered by people who don’t value independence? Everybody interested in social affairs will have an opinion, and most of us are ready to give voice to our belief. Stanley Milgram took a different approach, setting up a series of experiments… read more »
The Trades Description Act says, more or less, that dealers must not tell lies about their goods. When it was going through Parliament one MP asked whether it would apply to politicians’ promises, and the House dissolved in laughter. Yet the temptation to accept the politicians’ words at their own valuation has to be resisted;… read more »