Category: Essays

The Survival Lottery

March 28, 2026

John Harris tries to defend the idea of using an advanced computer that chooses people at random for doctors to kill, so the doctors can use those organs to save other lives (1975, p. 261). To many, a “survival lottery” will sound Orwellian, almost like a world with artificial intelligence gone terribly wrong. But, to Harris, the survival lottery is a logical tool that society can use to harvest organs and save many, many lives. … More The Survival Lottery

The Difference Between Formal and Informal Imperialism

February 24, 2026

With the course of history, some nations have
grown strong; others have grown weak. And, in a social Darwinian sense, the “fittest” nations
have survived and consumed the others. But that domination never lasts forever. As history
shows, every empire eventually falls. Like dogs, they grow old, become weak, and then die. … More The Difference Between Formal and Informal Imperialism

A Very Small Price

April 21, 2025

Today, some people seem to have borderline sympathy for Hitler, seeing him as a deliverer to the German people following the impossibly high reparations imposed on them post-WWI. However, sympathy for the German people can become seriously misplaced when it evolves into sympathy for Hitler and his policies. After all, there is a tremendous difference … More A Very Small Price

Lenin, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Soviet Union

March 13, 2025

Discontent was growing in Russia, and poverty and the Tsar’s incompetence only worsened the issue. A parliament, the Duma, was established in 1905 to Westernize Russia and make it more democratic. Still, Tsar Nicholas II held absolute de facto control over the Russian government. The heavy cost of WW1 continued to mount pressures domestically as … More Lenin, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Soviet Union

Philip Dru: The Guise of Welfare and the Death of Liberty

March 11, 2025

Philip Dru: Administrator by Edward M. House follows a brilliant West Point graduate’s rise to political power. From the beginning of the book and throughout all of his conversations with Gloria, who he later marries, Philip Dru shows interest in the greater welfare of society. Unfortunately, Dru rests on the false assumption that salvation can … More Philip Dru: The Guise of Welfare and the Death of Liberty

Woodrow Wilson and WW1 Bias

March 5, 2025

With WW1 raging across Europe, the United States claimed neutrality, but the Wilson administration was far from neutral. Throughout the war, the U.S. (justly) demonized Germany for breaking international law but ignored Great Britain’s violations. This double standard continued beyond just the battlefield and onto the negotiating table.  In an effort to weaken the German … More Woodrow Wilson and WW1 Bias

Philip Dru and the 16th Amendment

March 4, 2025

Edward M. House, an influential advisor during Woodrow Wilson’s administration, wrote Philip Dru: Administrator (1912) during the beginning of the Progressive Era. Rapidly, U.S. politics became dominated by Progressive idealism and the hope for a brighter future. All of the country’s past classical liberal ideals regarding federalism, constitutionalism, limited government, free trade, non-interventionism, etc., were … More Philip Dru and the 16th Amendment

The Coming of WW1

February 26, 2025

On the eve of WW1, the European balance of power was changing. It was no longer the era immediately after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and the same men who controlled foreign affairs in the post-Napoleonic world were a dying breed. The spreading nationalism of the Romantic period took hold of European powers, causing … More The Coming of WW1