Occasionally I receive comments like this:
“To claim that freedom derives from Christianity is nonsense.”
From now on, I will simply offer a link to this post: my canned response.
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I occasionally receive comments such as yours. I believe the topic is much more involved than can be achieved via a simple response in the comments section. Therefore, I offer the following as a gesture of goodwill: I truly want to address your comment; I can only do so via the following posts.
I thank you in advance for entering into what I am certain will be your honest exploration of this topic. After all, why would you have commented if you didn’t want a thorough discussion?
Start here: Antonio Gramsci Libertarians; and here: Libertarian Communists
Then this post, based on this talk given by Jeff Deist – read them both
Further foundation: A Libertarian Grand Narrative. Also read the two embedded links within this post:
· The Libertarian Quest for a Grand Historical Narrative, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
· The Cost of the Enlightenment, by Daniel Ajamian
Then go to the Bibliography tab, and from there read the following:
· Gerard Casey, Freedom's Progress?: A History of Political Thought
o Finding Freedom in an Unfree World
· Fritz Kern, Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages
o Every Individual Vested with Veto Power
o A Written Constitution: Protecting the State from the People
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Liberty or Equality: The Challenge of Our Time
o The Fatherland of Philosophy
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Leftism: From de Sade and Marx to Hitler and Marcuse
o Leftism: A Perfect Track Record of Failure
o The Road to International Socialism
· C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
o The Natural Law of C.S. Lewis
· Robert Nisbet, The Quest for Community: A Study in the Ethics of Order and Freedom
o The Revolutionary Essence of the State
o Far Cry
o Procuring Petty and Paltry Pleasures
· Heinrich A. Rommen, The Natural Law: A Study in Legal and Social History and Philosophy
o Is-Ought and Hume’s Guillotine
· James C. Russell, The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation
o What Kind of Christian Are You?
o Shake the Dust off Your Feet
· Richard Storey, The Uniqueness of Western Law: A Reactionary Manifesto
o The Not-So-Universal Libertarianism
o Libertarianism and Natural Law
· Frank van Dun, Various
o What Happened to the Promise?
o Give Me Liberty or Give Me Property Rights!
o Heresy
o Natural Law and Anarcho-Capitalism
Then read this on natural rights, based on work by Murray Rothbard: What of Natural Rights?
Finally, read this book: The Search for Liberty
o Chapter One: Metaphysics and the Four Causes
o Chapter One.one: Aristotle’s God
o Chapter Two: The Form of the Good
o Chapter Three: An Overview of Natural Law
o Chapter Four: Philosophy and Theology
o Chapter Five: Thomistic Metaphysics
o Chapter Six: Thomas and Natural Law
o Chapter Eight: The Catholic View
o Chapter Nine: Compare and Contrast
o Chapter Ten: The Natural Law of C.S. Lewis
o Chapter Eleven: On Ethical Absolutism
o Chapter Twelve: Libertarian Natural Law
o Chapter Thirteen: Libertarian Natural Rights
o Chapter Fourteen: Natural Law: The Complication
o Chapter Fifteen: Crime and Punishment
o Chapter Sixteen: The Continuum
o Chapter Seventeen: Ergo Summatim
o Appendix: The Form of the Good Made Manifest
After you read these, I believe we can have a proper discussion.
Kind regards,
bionic mosquito
Thank you for your truly monumental search for truth. You've helped me more than I can explain, and for the words to express my thanks to you for all your efforts.
ReplyDeleteThank you. This is very encouraging.
Deletethis is a great source of links. thanks, and God bless you.
ReplyDeleteTroy, thank you for these words.
DeleteI don't often make a point of it, but take a look at the top of the page - there are tabs that cover various topics (that include some of the items in this post and many others). These might also be helpful.
TL;DR
ReplyDelete=)
Are you offering a print version of your book? Perhaps you can self publish or get the Mises Institute to offer it in a nice case-wrapped hardback? I'd buy it. It's the least I could do for enjoying your website all these years.
Being boxed into writing something that can be called a book was already more constraining that I like. I don't have an appetite for more.
DeleteIt is sufficient for me that you read and comment. Thank you for this.
I can understand that. It is sufficient for me that you keep writing, anything, in any format. Otherwise, I will complain to your Manager. =)
DeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts and intellectual adventures with us. I've grown a lot here at The Mosquito. I actually have no clue how old you are, but I hope you live to 150.
By the way, I love these one-stop-shop resource pages you put together. It is very impressive. Are you going to make this one a new tab at the top?
ATL the journey doesn't work without feedback from you and others here - both now and in the past.
DeleteI may make a new tab, and consolidate one or two of the current ones.
I concur with all that ATL says in his 12:09PM comment. I have also hoped that you will continue writing for a long time to come.
DeleteI don't often comment, but I read with alacrity all that you write, and I’m very grateful for this thought-provoking resource. It is unmatched, and I thank you. How you find the time to write so prodigiously, when I find it daunting simply finding the time to read what you say, is astonishing to me.
Thank you once again, Mr. Bionic. Peg
Thank you, Peg.
DeleteGod has blessed me with the time and desire to continue this work. I have chosen to focus my life on a handful of things that are both valuable to me and allow me to eat!
Freeman’s Perspective, Paul Rosenburg, has extensively explored/explained Christianity and freedom in past subscription newsletters. A great resource. You can navigate to those (or his shorter daily articles for free) via the following link:
ReplyDelete(today’s daily was so good I linked it)
https://freemansperspective.com/live-dangerously-and-you-live-right/
That's a hell of can.
ReplyDeleteMaybe better referred to as a heavenly can?
Delete:-)
Wow; I love it! Thank you for putting all these great writings in one place! Now I have enough reading for a year ;-)
ReplyDeleteBtw, it's nice to be back and read your thoughts again. Sorry, I went on an RSS feed hiatus for two years due to information overload but I realized that other news/sources are causing me serious mental decline so now I am back solely reading blogs.
Thank you for your continuous deep explorations of the truth! You have given me a lot of clarity, thoughts, energy, and inspiration. May God bless you!
Norbert
Thank you, Norbert.
DeleteYour comments are interesting. A few years ago I decided to try and focus on the positive: what is necessary to move toward a civil and reasonably free society. I didn't like what I was becoming by focusing on the negative.
I still do it once in a while (primarily, I think, only to offer the contrast), but I am much more comfortable with the mix.