World History

The state is held together by violence and nothing else. There is no such thing as "the social contract." But even violence cannot make a state last past its time, as we saw with the USSR.

More than forty years ago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn urged his fellow Russians “not to live by lies.” In our politicized age, his words ring truer than ever.

While the government promotes CBDCs as tools for "inclusion," it is more likely that they will be another vehicle for federal intrusion.

On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan and Tho talk about the Chinese economy. 

For the past fifty years, the US has not had a military draft. Unfortunately, the end of conscription did not mean US military interventions abroad ended.

Progressives have distinguished themselves in the past half century by being against progress. That trend is unlikely to change.

Some Jamaicans complain that the Chinese are "colonizing" the country because of their economic success there. Actually, their success is due to entrepreneurship and plain hard work.

China rose from poverty after the Mao years only because its political leadership embraced private property and a market economy. Unfortunately, today the Communist leadership is moving back to socialism.

In a free society, political crimes like treason and "seditious libel" are few and far between. Under despotic regimes, on the other hand, political crimes multiply. 

In the Gulag, political prisoners were systematically terrorized by ordinary criminals with the encouragement of the authorities. It was hoped this would help the regime liquidate the state's ideological enemies.