Lord Acton famously wrote that “liberty is the delicate fruit of a mature civilization.” Liberty, Acton argued was rare and required constant attention to be maintained. As many have noted, one of the challenges with political liberty is that it creates the conditions for its own demise from within. Whether es from decadence and abuse of liberty to revolutionaries within liberal society, or more likely bination of both. One would not normally associate the writings of Carl Jung with those...

The British economist John Kay made a powerful argument in his 2011 book Obliquity: Why our goals are best achieved indirectly that the best way to achieve plex of broadly defined goal is indirectly through a gradual process of risk taking and discovery. Means help us to discover ends, and thus our journeys through life are an integral part of our destinations. We see this in our ordinary lives all the time as chance encounters, casual conversations, and even moments...

Willmoore Kendall defied the norms of many mainstream intellectual movements. Those who knew him recall a “typical strangeness” that characterized the man and his works. He was a solitary figure who has been largely forgotten in today’s conservative conversations. But, nonetheless, Kendall’s radically original ideas need to be rediscovered just as he was a “rediscoverer of the historic American political orthodoxy.” And what better time to engage his work than this, the fifty-second anniversary of his death. Willmoore Kendall Jr....

The documentary The Edge of Democracy is a personal memoir about the recent political scenario in Brazil. Released on June 19 on Netflix, it is directed by Petra Costa — a Brazilian filmmaker and actress who has close connections with leftist politicians. The film portrays events such as the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the Operation Car Wash — that arrested the ex- president Lula da Silva — and the rise of the current President Jair Bolsonaro with a leftist perspective....

The newest issue of the Journal of Markets & Morality has been published both in print and online here. Scholarly contributions range from a study of joy and labor in Ecclesiastes, virtue and vice in the American founding, whistleblowing, and the economics and ethics of education, including a Controversy debating the merits and demerits of the tenure system. The first two entries of this four-part feature, authored by James E. Bruce and Aeon J. Skoble, respectively, can be read open-access...

We are in the midst of a surge of academic interest in the historical relationship between religion and business in America. Notable recent studies include those by Timothy Gloege, Darren Grem, Sarah Ruth Hammond, and Amanda Porterfield. To this growing body of literature James Dennis LoRusso has contributed Spirituality, Corporate Culture, and American Business. The book appears in Bloomsbury Academic’s series Critiquing Religion: Discourse, Culture, Power, a series that explicitly regards religion as “just another cultural tool used to gerrymander...

Last month’s Sohrab Ahmari-David French debate was the more recent skirmish about the meaning of American conservatism. Acton’s Joe Carter has piled a reading list without appearing to favor one side over the other. Such equanimity is admirable because each side has something to teach us about the still-exceptional character of the United States and its conservative movement. That these debates take place on the American right with some regularity is a sign of its vitality, not its decline. No...

Early on in Ma Jian’s new novel the main character has a vision: I saw elderly men and women smashing rocks against the ground under the steely gaze of teenage Red Guards. Among the sweat-drenched faces caked in dust, I saw my father looking up at me. There are many anguished recollections in the book but this one carries a special poignancy. It is central to a story that shows how the personal (with a hint of parricidal guilt) and...

This week the State Department released the 2019 Trafficking in Persons Report, a congressionally mandated report that looks at the governments around the world (including the U.S.) and what they are doing bat trafficking in persons—modern slavery—through the lens of the 3P paradigm of prevention, protection, and prosecution. “Human trafficking is one of the most heinous crimes on Earth,” says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “Right now traffickers are robbing a staggering 24.9 million people of their freedom and basic...

Walmart agreed last month to a $282 million settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, resolving charges of bribing foreign officials. pany mitted themselves to “acting ethically everywhere we operate,” reports indicate that Walmart allowed third parties in China, Mexico, India, and Brazil to make payments to government officials. Of course, while a $282 million settlement would ruin many corporations, it will barely dent the over $100 billion in profits that Walmart brought in last...