A Republic

My belief is that a Republic would be the ideal form of government. Unfortunately, the word republic has been vastly misused. Today’s “Republicans” are not republican. Very briefly, a republic is a system of government where natural rights are the basis for law. The political point of view which sustains the general idea of a republic is called libertarianism.

Libertarianism must not be confused with anarchism. Anarchism is the complete absence of government – libertarianism promotes a reduced form of government. If you take the political spectrum as starting from “least government – most freedom” to “most …

ARE YOU A LIBERTARIAN ?

This is a small 20 question quiz. Select all statements in accordance with your own political opinion and press “Get Score”.

Public censorship of society and science should be stopped.
No special rights for appointed officials.
The war against drug-users is misguided.
Subsidy programs must be eliminated.
Tarriffs must be eliminated.
Public education must end.
The environment is best protected by enforcing property rights.
We must end public foreign aid.
Guns should not be regulated for honest citizens – we must be able to defend ourselves.
Health care is an important matter, and should be …

Cults and Communism

Cults are a hot news item because of their usually nefarious and dramatic actions. They have a lot of fanatics, and it is in the human nature to bow down to someone, be it a god or a human being with a lot of charisma. But what exactly are cults? The word is used in a lot of situations, where it is vaguely defined.

The Webster’s defines a cult as “1) formal religious veneration, 2) a system of religious beliefs and ritual, 3) a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious”. Now, if we take only definition 1 …

Politics is a pseudo-religion (by Michael Wong)

Actually, I feel that communism and religion are two sides of the same coin. They both suffer from the same problem; the assumption that a society of sheep is too stupid to govern itself. The Church bases its argument on morality, claiming that the sheep are too stupid to know right from wrong.
The Communist Party bases its argument on economics, claiming that the sheep are too stupid to manage their wealth efficiently or fairly. In both cases, they claim that the solution is to abdicate the right of self-government to a higher …

Quebec : Anti-Separatism

I do not usually write about topics that are laid on concrete terms, and I do not usually talk about regional topics. I am well aware that most of my readership is American, since atheism and Objectivism are movements that are both primarily American in nature. However I do hope that I have some Quebecois readers who can give me some feedback on this text.

I want to say right away that I am not a federalist. I properly identify myself as anti-separatist because I am against the separation of Quebec from Canada. I do not think …

I WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE

First, of all, I’m sorry about the Holocaust. Really, really sorry about that. I’d also like to apologize for the fall of the Roman Empire, for Napoleon’s effectiveness, for China’s brutality and for Jimmy Carter.

I want to apologize for the Irish potato famine, and for the Irish in general. Shame on me for inflicting the world with a race of poets, scholars, monks, and cops, not to mention Brendan Brehan.

I’m sorry for the Hutus using their machetes on the Tutus. Very sorry.

I am hugely remorseful for Rasputin.

I apologize for anti-semitism, racism, …

Gun Control

It seems that gun control is one type of action censorship that is constantly upheld by a majority of people. Periodically, after particular events like mass murders, an upsurge of anti-gun rhetoric is heard. But is gun control arguable on rational grounds, or is it the product of emotionalism in the face of homicide ?

First of all, there is considerable puzzlement on my part about why guns are targeted in the first place. Guns are products like any others, and trade for guns is the same as any other form of trade. Guns can be used to …

From ethics to politics

Objectivist politics are directly derived and based on ethics. But on what is this derivation based ? This is often said to not be explicited enough. How could one justify this transition ? First let’s define the terms.

Ethics is the study of how we should act, how we ought to act.
Politics is the study of the principles of a proper social system.

How can we transfer content from individual ethics to social ethics ? For that, we must use units common to those disciplines, that can be transferred. Those units, which are the guiding …