Consider the death of a right-wing dictator. Chile’s brutal Augusto Pinochet died in 2006: “In 2011, the Chilean government officially recognized 36,948 survivors of torture and political imprisonment, as well as 3,095 people killed or disappeared at the hands of the military government.” I was no fan of then-president George W. Bush. Yet his White […]
Two dictators’ deaths — responses from Bush, Trump, and Trudeau Read More »
[With Trump-strategist Steve Bannon all over the news, here’s a re-post of my one encounter with the Breitbart news and commentary site he headed.] What can I say? According to Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government website, Professor Stephen Hicks of Rockford College is a Marxist devoted to educating cadres of revolutionaries. Many people posted/emailed the Breitbart
Breitbart, Bannon, and my Marxist activism Read More »
1. The modern economic debate: Should free-markets or socialism replace feudalism? [Late 1700s to early 1800s] 2. Free-market-ish experiments run in many countries (USA, New Zealand, etc.) — all generally successful [1800s and 1900s] 3. Socialist experiments run in many countries (Soviet Union, China, etc.) — all failures. [1900s] 4. At the same time, Third
Eight steps to Trump Economics Read More »
Reflecting on Robert Frost, John F. Kennedy (just three weeks before his assassination) spoke of the corrective power of the arts in times when politics becomes unmoored. From a speech at Amherst College in 1963: When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern,
JFK on how the artist corrects politics Read More »
Interview conducted at Rockford University by Stephen Hicks and sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Part I Hicks: I’m Stephen Hicks, executive director of CEE, and our guest today is Dr. William Kline, an expert on David Hume, the 18th-century Scottish Enlightenment philosopher. He spoke today at Rockford University in the Ethical Theory
Dr. William Kline on David Hume — video interview transcript Read More »
Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State (1871) Chapter 1 Who is right, the idealists or the materialists? The question, once stated in this way, hesitation becomes impossible. Undoubtedly the idealists are wrong and the materialists right. Yes, facts are before ideas; yes, the ideal, as Proudhon said, is but a flower, whose root lies in
Bakunin’s God and the State [text] Read More »
From National Post, during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: International tensions spilled into competition on Friday when an Egyptian judoka refused to shake his Israeli competitor’s hand following their bout at the Rio Olympics. Or Sasson stepped forward to shake Islam El Shehaby’s hand after defeating the Egyptian fighter, but El
Olympics, Israelis, Islamists Read More »
[My “Post-postmodern Art” essay was translated into Arabic (text below and PDF version here) by Moin Jaffar Mohammed of Babylon, Iraq, edited by Maha El-Shenhaby, and published in the journal Al-Adeeb Al-Thakafiya. For more of my art-related publications, see my Art page.] فن ما بعد – ما بعد الحدثة كتابة : ستيفن هِكس ترجمة : معين
Arabic translation of my “Post-postmodern Art” essay (updated) Read More »