Europeans have sometimes been beguiled by a despotism that comes concealed in the seductive form of an ideal â as it did in the cases of Hitler and Stalin. This fact may remind us that the possibility of despotism is remote neither in space nor in time. Votes: 9
If the central contest of the twentieth century has pitted capitalism against socialism, then F. A. Hayek has been its central figure. He helped us to understand why capitalism won by a knockout. It was Hayek who elaborated the basic argument demonstrating that central planning was nothing else but an impoverishing fantasy. Votes: 7
Moral vices prosper by dressing themselves as virtues. Votes: 6
Theodore Dalrymple is a brilliant observer of both medicine and society, and his book wittily engages with two versions of the current nonsense: orthodox medicine on drug addiction, and romantic poets on the wisdom you supposedly enjoy from getting high. Votes: 6
Capitalism is what people do if you leave them alone. Votes: 3
Politics is the activity by which the framework of human life is sustained; it is not life itself. Votes: 0