Philosophy

Philosophy articles feature reflection and analysis about public life, values, ethics, and morals.

All philosophy articles at Brownstone Institute are translated into multiple languages.

  • All
  • Censorship
  • Economics
  • Education
  • Government
  • History
  • Law
  • Masks
  • Media
  • Pharma
  • Philosophy
  • Policy
  • Psychology
  • Public Health
  • Society
  • Technology
  • Vaccines

The Pandemic Response Unleashed Two Kinds of Nationalism

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

For nearly three years, most people in the world have been treated like lab rats in an experiment in bio-technocratic central management by state power, at the urging of once-respected global institutions, and this has resulted in economic crisis, demographic upheaval, and utter political panic. It will be many years before this is sorted out. 

The Pandemic Response Unleashed Two Kinds of Nationalism Read More

Lancet COVID-19 Commission

A Critique of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission 

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The commission members appear convinced that lockdowns and mass vaccination were a net benefit, but It also appears that in two years of consultation they have not considered the alternative. The loss of decades of progress on infectious disease, human rights, and poverty reduction caused by lockdowns has not given sufficient pause for thought. 

A Critique of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission  Read More

The New Parasitic Leviathan

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The consolidation of a non-democratic form of governance that relies on external sources of authority should be a matter of concern to all. A state that functions via emergency rule based on authority that does not derive from citizens is a dangerous one. It is a hollow state that can only function with external justifications and is no longer a democratic state.

The New Parasitic Leviathan Read More

Are We Falling as Rome Did?

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

If our civilization collapses, it won’t be because of an outside attack, like Bedouin charging in from the desert. It will be because of those among us who, like parasites, destroy us from within. Our civilization may collapse and it could be due to any number of factors—war, the economy, natural disasters—but the silent killer, the one that may get us in the end, is our own moral catastrophe.

Are We Falling as Rome Did? Read More

market-loves-you

The Market Still Loves You

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

The theme is meaning. Not big meaning but meaning in small things. The meaning of everyday life. Finding friendship, mission, passion, and love in the course of working out one’s life in the framework of a commercial society, which should not be narrowly construed as only a way of paying bills but rather should be seen as the instantiation of a life well lived. We were not doing a good job of that, so my thinking was to inspire people to come to love what we take for granted.

The Market Still Loves You Read More

Why did the Left Fail the Covid Test So Badly?

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

I am truly grateful for all that John Pilger and his companions in the leftist propaganda dissection cadres have taught me over the years. But as Ortega y Gasset said, a public intellectual is only as good as his ability to remain at the “height of his times.” Sadly, this group of otherwise talented individuals has failed this test, badly, over the last two-plus years.

Why did the Left Fail the Covid Test So Badly? Read More

Golden Calf

Mitigation Is the Golden Calf

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

It was evident to me from the early days of the lockdown that something very cult-like was occurring. When quite literally nothing happened during those first 15 days to justify the lockdowns, the mantra of “just wait two weeks” was on the lips of the believers of the Branch Covidians, much like how a doomsday cult leader is allowed to pick new dates when the aliens don’t show when they are supposed to. 

Mitigation Is the Golden Calf Read More

Memories of the Before Times

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

Oddly, living now in the purple-to-red rural America that my former “people,” the blue-state elites, are conditioned to view with suspicion and distrust, I also have more personal freedom than I did as a member of the most privileged class. The most privileged class does not have the greatest privilege of all, that of personal liberty: it is a class that is continually anxious and status-insecure, its members often scanning the room for a more important conversation, its collective mind continually exerting subtle control, both socially and professionally, over other members of the “tribe.”

Memories of the Before Times Read More

Government by the People: Is It Possible?

SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL

You can bet that this real transfer of power to the people will be strongly resisted by most elite individuals and institutions. They will loudly proclaim every single reason they can think of for why it is a crazy, impossible idea, and get “experts” from their networks to loudly profess the silliness of even proposing the notion. This vitriolic denigration is exactly the measure of how badly we need to loosen their grip on power and change the system they have entrenched for their own benefit.

Government by the People: Is It Possible? Read More

Stay Informed with Brownstone Institute