May 29, 2012
Wilkinson on Hero Inflation
Here. Calling “hero” everyone killed in war, no matter the circumstances of their death, not only helps sustain the ethos of martial glory that keeps young men and women signing…
Author: Jason Brennan
May 29, 2012
Pick a Set of Deaths
Suppose there are two states, MoreJustia and LessJustia. Both MoreJustia and LessJustia are unjust states, but MoreJustia is significantly closer to being just and legitimate than LessJustia. Suppose for a…
May 25, 2012
Memorial Day: Soldiers and Civic Vice
[SEE UPDATE BELOW] Americans tends to hold up soldiers as models of civic virtue. Might they instead be examples of civic vice? Might it be that the average employee at…
May 22, 2012
Oh, but it’s just a petty violation of liberty.
I’m writing a chapter against compulsory voting for a textbook. Prima facie, we should assume compulsory voting is wrong until shown otherwise. Compulsory voting is, after all, compulsory. When a…
May 15, 2012
The Administrative State vs. the Social Insurance State
In Libertarianism: What Everyone Needs to Know, I examine the question of which country is the most libertarian. I argue briefly that while the United States has the highest percentage…
May 14, 2012
Red Scarves and Status
In “Political Liberty: Who Needs it?”, I wrote: Imagine that in our culture, or in the human race in general, we tended to associate being given a red scarf by…