Many Americans feel like they have a miserable choice of presidential candidates this year. But the same pattern goes back at least to the end of the Reagan era. For decades, presidents have had far more power than they can be trusted with. Here are election season pieces I wrote on this theme in 1988 […]
American Conservative, July 24, 2020 How Intellectuals Cured ‘Tyrannophobia’ American presidents have adopted Hobbesian levels of power. by Jim Bovard Almost 400 years ago, English philosopher Thomas Hobbes wrote a book scoffing at tyrannophobia—the “fear of being strongly governed.” This was a peculiar term that Hobbes invented in Leviathan, since civilized nations had feared […]
Bogus fears can produce real servitude. We cannot permit politicians to exploit the pandemic to seize vast new power in perpetuity. COVID-19 is a real threat but so too is Leviathan.
I will write more on this shortly…. Unmentioned in Assange arrest coverage – the US govt. after 9/11 dropped an Iron Curtain around itself. @wikileaks exposed US govt. crimes no one else would touch. https://t.co/MMahFJqyc6 — James Bovard (@JimBovard) April 11, 2019 Julian Assange is charged with "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion." What about […]
My old friend Ernie Hancock and I had a rowdy hour-long chat this morn about Ruby Ridge, William Barr, AmeriCorps, and Leviathan’s next big surprise. You can listen to the show by clicking on this link to Ernie’s “Declare Your Independence” radio show audio files – Or you can click on the MP3 files below […]
The American Conservative Seymour Hersh and the Disappearing Iconoclast He won a Pulitzer for My Lai and cracked Abu Ghraib wide open. But this reporter is still a lonely breed. By James Bovard • August 17, 2018 Journalist Seymour Hersh in 2009. Credit: Institute for Policy Studies/Flickr Seymour Hersh, Reporter: A Memoir, Sy Hersh. Knopf, June […]
On Thomas Hobbes’ birthday, this warning should be heeded by the Leviathans that now rule most of the world: “When men build on false grounds, the more they build, the greater is the ruin.” I used that line as the header quote for the final chapter of Freedom in Chains (1999). Now if only I […]
Ron Redrift
"Our political system has zero legitimacy to
Brian Wilson
Someday we may produce something Serious.....
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Jim
The playing field is getting wackier by the hour
ruralcounsel
"Biden – “Vote for Me or the Constitution
