Government

Villagers and Pillagers

The world is made of villagers and pillagers. It always has been. Perhaps it always will be, but we can hope all the same that we’ll grow beyond our pillaging stage once and for all.

On Totalitarianism

Odds are, you’re a totalitarian.

A totalitarian is someone with a totalizing ideology. That is, they think that all things can be explained through a single social structure. We typically think of totalitarians as those who support the creation of a government that has…

Scapegoats and Politics

The Koch Brothers (Charles and David). George Soros. Whoever is President of the United States.

Everybody loves a scapegoat.

A scapegoat is someone we ritualistically blame for everything, for all our sins, for the sins of our society…

Taxing Your Way To…

There have been riots in France over the imposition of a fuel tax. The point of the fuel tax is to discourage fuel consumption, thus reducing emissions, thus reducing the increase in greenhouse gases. The rioting French understand that the tax is increasing prices and making it more difficult…

Religion and Government and Spontaneous Orders

Human societies are made up of a variety of different social orders. Among the orders (hardly an exhaustive list) are language, morals, culture, religion, government, philanthropy, math, the natural sciences, technology, the social sciences…

Things More Important Than Politics

1. Your family. If you stop talking to family members over politics, you have your priorities…

What Is Socialism?

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have made socialism popular in the United States, especially among young people…

The Origins of Leadership

A quarter of all species of fish live in social groups called shoals; half spend at least part of their lives in…

How to Get Along (or, The Games We Play)

There are three kinds of games people play, and every interaction we have can be understood as being one of these kinds of games.

1. Zero-Sum Games
2. Positive-Sum Games
3. Negative Sum Games