Hayek on utopian thinking
10 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in F.A. Hayek, liberalism Tags: FA Hayek, utopian thinking
Harald Jaeger – the man who opened the Berlin Wall
09 Nov 2014 1 Comment
in liberalism Tags: spontaneous order, The collapse of communism, The fall of the Berlin Wall, unintended consequences
When one of the regime’s most loyal subordinates, a Stasi officer named Harald Jaeger who was working the 9 November shift at a crucial checkpoint in the Berlin wall, repeatedly phoned his superiors with accurate reports of swelling crowds, they did not trust or believe him. They called him a delusional coward.
Insulted, furious and frightened, he decided to let the crowds out [at 11:30 p.m], starting a chain reaction that swept across all the checkpoints that night.
In short, the fall of the wall came about because of the complex interplay among Soviet reforms, East Berlin’s incompetence and, crucially, rising opposition from everyday Germans.
Earlier that night, Politburo member Guenther Schabowski said — mistakenly, as it turns out — at an evening news conference on Nov. 9, 1989, that East Germans would be allowed to cross into West Germany, effective immediately.
Jaeger refused to leave East Berlin because he said he was "on duty". Stasi officers didn’t get permission to cross into the West until just before Christmas. Red tape involving his travel documents delayed the trip for another month.
On the evils of capitalism
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: The Great Escape, The Great Fact
Evils of capitalism http://t.co/hLzjUc5LFp—
ian leslie (@mrianleslie) November 07, 2014
25 years later Berlin recreates the Wall with 8000 glowing balloons
08 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in liberalism Tags: collapse of communism, fall of the Berlin wall
Berlin is just cool. 8,000 glowing balloons recreate the Berlin Wall, 25 yrs after its fall: wired.com/2014/11/8000-g… http://t.co/qWQZ4TyhLz—
Tabatha Southey (@TabathaSouthey) November 08, 2014
Woody Allen vs William Buckley
07 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, liberalism Tags: William F. Buckley, Woody Allen
Peace in the Middle East – Pat Condell
06 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in laws of war, liberalism, war and peace Tags: Peace in the Middle East
Britain is a world leader in exporting creeps » Nick Cohen
05 Nov 2014 Leave a comment
in economics of media and culture, liberalism, politics Tags: Jihadist, Nick Cohen, political correctness
The British recruits who have joined Isis are not exceptions. They flourish in a culture in which it is so commonplace to offer support to authoritarian regimes and movements that few bother to condemn it.
Free speech ought to mean the freedom to challenge and criticise in all except the most tightly defined circumstances. Instead in Britain tolerance has become indifference; a lazy desire to live in our comfortable bubbles.
The dominant culture views vigorous criticism as rude or insensitive – or, to use that popular and completely meaningless school-prefect putdown, “inappropriate.” More often that not, criticism is taken down and used as evidence of the critic’s failings, his or her obsessions and phobias.
We cannot be bothered to challenge fanatics. We say we don’t want to ‘force our views on others’ – as if argument were physical coercion. And if those others leave England to enslave Kurdish women, or applaud kleptomaniac dictators, we are not responsible. We never concerned ourselves with their affairs, nor argued with them for a moment.
Many poisonous plants have bloomed in this dank climate.
via Britain is a world leader in exporting creeps » Spectator Blogs.
Recent Comments