Political Notes

3: Dahrendorf on Britain

Entertainingly describes the boringness of Ralf Dahrendorf. Published in 1983.

4: Anarchy vs Anarcho-capitalism

Takes on anarchists who are offended by the libertarian concept of anarcho-capitalism.

5: Liberty Versus Democracy

Describes the difference and conflict between these two concepts.

6: Doing Something About Unemployment

Describes the political situation in 1983, in particular the issue of unemployment.

8: Preaching to the Unconverted

Attempts to recruit more writers for Political Notes

12: Getting to the Political Parties

How libertarian ideas are affecting political parties in 1985.

74: How and How Not to Achieve Good Taste in Advertising: Free Market Regulation is Better Than Government Regulation

Argues in favour of free-market regulation of advertising.

181: I am a libertarian because

Brian causes a bit of a stir at Exeter University in 1992 explaining why he is a Libertarian.

Economic Notes

3: The Collapse of the Welfare State

What would happen to welfare if the welfare state collapses?

36: The Magic of a Price Rise

How increasing prices can improve the product.

40: Against Charity: Charity, Favours, Trade and the Welfare State

Trade, not charity, is the correct replacement for the welfare state. Published in 1992.

58: The Fixed Quanity of Wealth Fallacy: How to Make Yourself Miserable about the Past, the Present and the Future of Mankind

Causes and remedies for the belief that wealth can not be created. Published in 1994.

68: The Top Rate of Income Tax Should be Cut to Zero

Posits the thought experiment of cutting the top rate of income tax to zero and describes the benefits to rich and poor people (and the state).

83: Linux! Reflections On Commerce, “Anti-Commerce” and the Owning of Ideas

First published in 1998 as Linux and free (as in speech) software started to emerge.

Philosophical Notes

56: The Morality of Consequentialism and the Consequences of Morality

Why natural rights libertarians are more interested in consequences than they think, and how consequentialist libertarians prefer certain consequences for moral reasons.

21: The Rule of Law in Britain: Some Editorial Thoughts on Why It is Threatened and How to Rescue It

How the rule of law is the antithesis of class warfare and why it must be defended amongst demands for ever more laws to address ever more problems.

Cultural Notes

2: Against Art Subsidies

Subsidising art is not only immoral because they force people to pay for other people’s hobbies, it is also bad for art itself.

3: Freedom, Order and Architecture

How spontaneous order is mistaken for chaos and how imposed order has given way to imposed pseudo-spontaneous order.

7: Comrade Blimp

Remembers David Low’s cartoon Colonel Blimp, notes that the stereotype no longer holds true, and argues that many on the left share similar attributes.

Historical Notes

Monty and the Myth of The Unshakeable Plan: How Britain Won the War but Lost the Peace

After World War 2, the British percieved that planning was important for success, and duly discovered that planning an economy does not work.

Sociological Notes

27: Can You Sleep Out All the Year Round? A Conjecture About How Climate Influences Freedom

The inability to sleep outside in the winter in cold places means that if you don’t follow orders, you die. The relationship between the individual and the state therefore must be different compared to a warm place where you can roam and the state cannot find you.

Educational Notes

29: On the Harm Done by Look-and-say: A Reaction to Bonnie Macmillan’s Why Schoolchildren Can’t Read

Discussion of the look-and-say method of teaching reading, incredulity that such stupidity is countenanced, how this came about and was sustained, and what can be done about it.

32: Kumon!: A Part-Time Maths Teacher Reports From the Newly Emerging Private Sector in Mass Education

Brian’s foray into private sector maths teaching at a Kumon centre, where difficulty is tailored to each individual student.

33: The Failure of Politics and the Pull of Freedom: Reflections on the Work of the Reading Reform Foundation

The tactics of a campaign group attempting to return to teaching reading with synthetic phonics.

Psychological Notes

7: What the Success Books Say

Describes and summarises advice found in self-help books.

Scientific Notes

12: Clone on!

Argues in favour of human cloning.

Atheist Notes

Religious Notes

Tactical Notes

2: Publish or be Damned

Argues for publishing writing about the intellectual ideas behind libertarianism, as opposed to mere activism. Contains commentary on the use of computer networking for publishing from the vantage point of 1988.

7: The Tyranny of the Facts

Advice about how not to lose arguments by relying on facts.

8: How to Win the Libertarian Argument

How to spread libertarianism by arguing; not necessarily by winning arguments.

9: Publishing Without Perishing

Describes the publishing strategy of the Libertarian Alliance.

11: A Message to All Would Be Libertarian Alliance Writers on the Vital Importance of Supplying Completely Accurate FOOTNOTES

Brian very much wants contributors to the Libertarian Alliance to properly footnote their work.

Foreign Policy Perspectives

2: Imperialism for Sale

Imperialism, whether it matters so much who rules as what the rules are, and how to shop around for rulers.

27: The End of the Cold War and the New European and British Disuinionism

On the inevitability of disunity when there is little reason to unify.

LA Pamphlets

6: Why the Government Should Stop Harassing the Tobacco Trade

Libertarian Reprints

Libertarian Heritage

Study Guides

Personal Perspectives

13: Helping People to do Freedom: Reflections and Recollections of an Occasional Career Counsellor

Brian explains his approach to giving people career advice, and in doing so gives a lot of good advice.

17: Losing, Blogging and Winning

Tells the story of how Brian met Perry de Havilland and how the libertarian blog Samizdata was founded. It goes on to discuss the difference between being a loser libertarian and being a winner libertarian.

Libertarian Fiction

1: Those Who Can Do

In which we meet struggling writer Eric, who leads by example, shifting the balance of power and discovers his true competetive advantage.

3: The Lion’s Share

The life of Starshine McKane and his evil ambition to murder everyone in the world.