Free Republic

When a new book came out, the great C. S. Lewis would first seek out an old one on the same subject. That’s good advice for embattled Americans. In fact, two old books address what is happening today with rare perception. Regent College Publishing has reissued The Green Stick and The Infernal Grove, the two volumes of Chronicles of Wasted Time by Malcolm Muggeridge. Paul Johnson called it one of the great autobiographies of our time, which might be an understatement. Wisdom and wit leap off the pages, and there’s even a news hook: Russia has invaded Ukraine and that...

...“There are three groups of people: those who become spellbound and actually believe that the wrong answer is the right one; those who know the answer is wrong, but dare not tell the truth so they agree with what they know to be false; and those who know the answer is wrong and say so. Typically, only 30% of people in a totalitarian society are actually under the hypnotic spell of mass formation. It seems greater, but they’re actually in a minority. However, there’s typically another 40% that simply go along with the program, even though they’re unconvinced. They don’t...

For German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, life was a process of constant change. The father of the "zeitgeist" was born 250 years ago. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the German philosopher who would go on to be one of the most famous thinkers of his era, was born on August 27, 1770, in Stuttgart, in southwest Germany. His parents practiced Pietism, a Lutheran reform movement that emphasized personal religious experience. Hegel, who showed an affinity for math and Latin, was at the top of his class in school. His parents hoped he would become a priest and sent him to...

The American Dialect Society has named “they” as the word of the decade, recognizing the plural pronoun’s growing use as a singular form to refer to people with a non-binary gender identity.The winner was decided in a vote by the body’s 350 members at an annual gathering on Friday. “People want to choose something that stands the test of time and sums up the decade as a whole,” said linguist and lexicographer Ben Zimmer. […] Other words on the list for word of the decade included “meme,” which came in second place, followed by “climate,” “#BlackLivesMatter,” “woke” and “MeToo.” …

In a shock result, Karl Marx has been voted the greatest ever philosopher following a poll by Melvyn Bragg's Radio 4 show In Our Time. In the public's poll, which assessed 20 philosophers, Marx, author of the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, got 27.93% of the 30,000 votes. In second place came David Hume with 12.67%, followed by Ludwig Wittgenstein with 6.8%. Plato trailed in fifth place and Socrates at eighth. Andrew Chitty, who, at Sussex University, teaches the UK's only MA in Marxist philosophy, said: "This shows that philosophy should take Marxism seriously. It is possible he won because...

In a 2001 speech, delivered by Fiorina in Aspen, CO, at the Progress and Freedom Foundation Seventh Annual Summit, she stated the following: “The San Jose Mercury reported: “Hewlett-Packard’s Chief Executive Officer, Carly Fiorina, opened the conference with a scholarly address. She did not give interviews, but she did mention a reporter in her speech—a young guy who couldn’t spell the name of the 19th Century philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (as in “Hegel you know, the process of Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis? I use it every day,” said Fiorina). (San Jose Mercury 8/27/2001-Jennifer Files reporter). In response to the article...

The Delphi Technique and consensus building are both founded in the same principle - the Hegelian dialectic of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, with synthesis becoming the new thesis. In group settings, the Delphi Technique is an unethical method of achieving consensus on controversial topics. It requires well-trained professionals, known as "facilitators" or "change agents," who deliberately escalate tension among group members, pitting one faction against another to make a preordained viewpoint appear "sensible," while making opposing views appear ridiculous. The facilitators or change agents encourage each person in a group to express concerns about the programs, projects, or policies in...

I know I haven't been very active lately. Part of this is because the news is so unceasingly bad all the time that I simply must take breaks to keep from giving in to despair. But here are my thoughts on the implicit connection between two current raging headlines. In all but outlawing the rebel flag and all things Confederate, the Left is intentionally pushing buttons and trying to create a conflict. I understand how angry FReepers are, but I have read posts by FReepers saying they will now fly the rebel flag instead of the American flag (the Charleston...

During the latter part of the nineteenth century a coalition of moralists and social reformers sincerely thought that giving political power to women would eliminate all traditional social evils. After all, men had always ruled, and women were supposedly inherently more moral and more religious than men. Maybe this would fix everything. Thus the push for women's suffrage. And when it was all over, women were just like the men. I am going to suggest something absolutely outrageous. But it's been knocking around in my mind for a while, and I hope that the example of women's suffrage will show...

Marx sharply criticized those who tried to solve their problems philosophically or religiously, i.e., in thought, and advocated that they can only be solved by changing reality in practice so that the problem disappears. In other words, philosophy and religion had to be brought down to earth so that secular redemption could come through revolutionary practice, and not through thought or faith. As such, it was Marx who infamously wrote “the philosophers have only interpreted the world differently, what matters is to change it.” Due to their indifference to the material necessities of life, philosophy and religion could thus only...

Mr. Dean Gotcher Live & On-Line May 17, 2004 - Starting at 09:30 AM CST 1340-AM KXOW or here On-Line with WinMediaPlayer or RealPlayer Mr. Dean Gotcher is the founder and director of the Institution for Authority Research. His background is in education and European history and philosophy. His extensive research in the area of education reform has given him exceptional insight into what education reform is all about, who is responsible for the changes, when the reforms really started, and most importantly, why our system of education is being restructured. DEAN GOTCHER Institution for Authority Research Box 233...

THE PURPOSE OF THIS ARTICLE IS TO INSTRUCT FELLOW FREEPERS ON HOW TO CONTROL AND INFLUENCE LIBERAL MEETINGS. The election is upon us. Lets get into the various election groups undercover, and employ these techniques in order to win. Lynn Stulter -- The Delphi Technique was originally conceived as a way to obtain the opinion of experts without necessarily bringing them together face to face. In Educating for the New World Order by Bev Eakman, the reader finds reference upon reference for the need to preserve the illusion that there is "Lay, or community, participation in the decision-making process, while...

You would have never heard of Karl Marx had it not been for V.I. Lenin. Marx was neither terribly successful nor terribly important in his own right, and had it not been for a revolution carried out three decades after his death, he would be a footnote at best. But on this May Day, the high holy day of Communism and Socialism, it is important that we remember. As a student, both in England and America, I often heard the refrain -- even from conservatives -- that "communism wouldn't have been so bad if it had been carried out...