Methadone Maintenance Ignited America’s Opioid Crisis
The newly adapted and widely adopted “Disease Model of Addiction” soon analogized narcotics’ methadone with diabetics’ insulin as both requiring long-term “replacement” medication—however, for any similar “disease” of addiction to tranquilizers, cocaine, alcohol, or barbiturates—abstinence (antithetically and hypocritically) remained the endgame. It remains notable that to this day not a single ardent advocate of the Disease Model supports maintaining people on benzodiazepines or cocaine. This glaring contrast cannot be unseen.
The Service of Dissent
In the last four years we have seen an astonishing rise in censorship, as in other forms of bullying and coercion, inside and outside the academy, even from governments and state agencies. We can’t reverse that by regret. We can only reverse it by acts of resistance. The first antidote to censorship is bold speech and consistent action. Of that, Patrick Provost has provided an admirable example that we ought all to follow.
The Populist Wave and Its Discontents
Quite possibly, the type of reform Western democracies require is more radical than anything either populists or their critics are willing to contemplate. For what is required is far-reaching decentralising reforms that anchor political and economic power not in a centralised state, but in a federal pact among municipal and regional governments and grassroots institutions such as local citizen assemblies, professional associations, and worker co-operatives. Under such reforms, the old national political establishment would lose much of its power. But so would national populist leaders and movements.
Ancient Political Advice for Today’s Rulers
Psy-ops employ a diversity of psychological strategies and techniques to exercise influence over the feelings, thoughts, and behaviour of a selected group, with the obvious goal of persuading the people comprising the latter, usually via various modes of deception, to act in a desired manner. If this sounds familiar, don’t be surprised. It has been carried out on the populations of the world’s countries since at least 2020, and arguably for much longer.
Brownstone Institute for Social and Economic Research is a nonprofit organization conceptualized in May 2021.
Its vision is of a society that places the highest value on the voluntary interaction of individuals and groups while minimizing the use of violence and force even including that which is exercised by public authority.
This vision is that of the Enlightenment which elevates learning, science, progress, and universal rights to the forefront of public life, and is newly threatened by ideologies and systems that would take the world back prior to the triumph of the ideal of freedom.
Not Just This One Crisis
The motive force of Brownstone Institute is the global crisis created by policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. That trauma reveals a fundamental misunderstanding alive in all countries around the world today, a willingness on the part of the public and officials to forgo freedom and fundamental human rights in the name of a public health crisis. The consequences are devastating and will live in infamy.
It’s not just about this one crisis, but past and next ones as well. The lesson we should learn concerns the desperate need for a new outlook that rejects the rights of the legally privileged few to rule over the many under any pretext, while preserving freedom, free speech, and essential rights even in times of crisis.
Why “Brownstone?”
The name Brownstone is from the malleable but long-lasting building stone (also called “Freestone”) used so commonly in 19th-century American cities, preferred for its beauty, practicality, and strength.
Brownstone Institute regards the great task of our times as rebuilding the foundation of liberalism as classically understood, including core values of human rights and freedom as non-negotiables for an enlightened society.
OUR MISSION
The mission of Brownstone Institute is constructively to come to terms with what happened, understand why, and how to prevent such events from happening again. Lockdowns have set a precedent in the modern world and without accountability, social and economic institutions will be shattered once again.
An institution such as Brownstone Institute is essential in preventing the recurrence of lockdowns by holding decision makers intellectually to account.
In addition, Brownstone Institute hopes to shed light on a path to recovery from the devastating collateral damage, while providing a vision for a different way to think about freedom, security, and public life.
Brownstone Institute looks to influence a post-lockdown world by generating new ideas in public health, scientific discourse, economics, and social theory, to defend and promote the liberty that is critical for an enlightened society from which everyone benefits.
The purpose of Brownstone Institute is to point the way toward a better understanding of essential freedoms – including intellectual freedom and free speech – and the proper means to preserve essential rights even in times of crisis.
The Road Ahead
The world needs Brownstone Institute now to prevent the next “snap” lockdown and make the case for an open and free society.
The idea is to correct and compete with the mainstream media and take on the technocratic disease managers, or anyone else who believes rights and liberties can be violated, at the discretion of political leaders, to central plans.
The research and content at Brownstone are sophisticated but accessible. Operationally, Brownstone’s mode is no fluff in the budget, no bureaucrats, no cronies, only a highly competent small team working to change the world.
The institute will have media reach and call on scientists, intellectuals, and others who are dedicated to this task.
OUR PRIMARY FOCUS
- A rethinking of the relationship between social and market functioning and public authority, particularly as it relates to crises;
- The post-lockdown recovery and vibrancy of markets, small businesses, and entrepreneurial opportunity;
- The inviolability of academic freedom, free exchange of ideas, and the openness and vitality of scientific discourse;
- The prosperity, freedom, and health of all members of society, including and especially its less privileged members;
- The rights of association of individuals, families, and the well-being of school-age children, who carried the greatest burden during the lockdowns.
Brownstone Institute’s goals are accomplished through research and publishing, including essays, articles, reports, media, and books, and by organizing conferences and retreats.