Last Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris has forced the world’s attention away from causes such as the plight of “white privilege” on college campuses and back to the consequences of blowback in the Middle East. The political response to these atrocities have been predictable — calls for nationalism, more war, fewer civil liberties, and greater power for the government that failed to protect its citizens. Even those politicians whose rhetoric calls for greater humanitarian efforts for ISIS’s most vulnerable victims still manage to stand in the way of private individuals who wish to help their fellow man.
Of course, the true battle of the day is greater than ISIS or any other single organization.
As Mises wrote in Human Action, “To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.”
As long as the ideology of statism, militarism, and interventionism maintain its hold on the world, civilization will suffer from its consequences. The desire for power and control will eclipse concern for human life. Only those guided by an ideology of peace and prosperity can offer hope for the world.
On Mises Weekends, Louis Rouanet joins Jeff Deist to discuss the fallout from Paris. Rouanet, a former Mises Fellow who studies in the French capital, talks about how his country’s government has reacted to the attack and the willingness of his countrymen to trade liberty for the theater of security.
And in case you missed any of them, here are this week’s featured Mises Daily articles and some of our most popular articles at Mises Wire:
- European Borders May be Redrawn as Europe Embraces Nationalism by Ryan McMaken
- Blowback: The Washington War Party’s Folly Comes Home to Roost by David Stockman
- ISIS May Be Our Ally Some Day by Ferghane Azihari
- White “Privilege” Has Nothing on State Privilege by Tho Bishop
- Open Borders Are an Assault on Private Property by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.
- Paris Attacks Are Just Part of the Game for Global “Leaders” by Greg Morin
- The Long History of French Military Intervention in the Middle East and Africa by Ryan McMaken
- State-Provided Security and Market Incentives by Jeff Deist
- Paris: More Bombs Will Not Solve the Problem by Ron Paul
- Hey Big Spender: France’s Robust Military Spending by Ryan McMaken
- A Private Solution to the Syrian Refugee Crisis by Tho Bishop
- Where the Left Goes Wrong on Foreign Policy by Murray Rothbard
- War and Strategic Socialism by Matt McCaffrey
- Is an Interest Rate Hike Overdue? by Randall Holcombe
- Student Loans and Uncle Sam by Jonathan Newman
- Essential Reading on Entrepreneurship by Matt McCaffrey
- Baylor University PhD in Entrepreneurship by Peter Klein
- Gilmore and Sugrue On American History by David Gordon
