Acton Institute Powerblog

Promoting free societies characterized by liberty & religious principles

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October 14, 2019

The Chicago Black Sox and baseball’s rule of law

Sports have already been an Acton topic in the past week, so another sports story can’t hurt: 100 years ago this month was the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, infamous ever since for the “Black Sox” scandal, in which eight members of the heavily favored Chicago team accepted money from gamblers to throw the series to Cincinnati. Continue Reading...
May 24, 2019

Athenians and Visigoths: Neil Postman’s graduation speech

While it could be argued that youth is wasted on the young, it is indisputable that commencement addresses are wasted on young graduates. Sitting in a stuffy auditorium waiting to receive a parchment that marks the beginning of one’s student loan repayments is not the most conducive atmosphere for soaking up wisdom. Continue Reading...
February 08, 2019

The libertine road to serfdom

The Sexual State: How Elite Ideologies Are Destroying Lives and Why The Church Was Right All Along. Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D. TAN Books, 2018. 406 pages. Reviewed by Rev. Ben Johnson Keen-eyed analysts have probed every ideological trend threatening liberty – from socialism and fascism to the Alt-Right – with one glaring exception: the revolt against personal responsibility. Continue Reading...
December 04, 2018

A free and virtuous society: Lessons from Les Misérables

Interpreting works of literature is always a dicey task—it’s all too easy to find the conclusions we want to find and turn authors into spokesmen for our own ideas. In these reflections on Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, I don’t claim that what I say is necessarily what Hugo himself intended. Continue Reading...
October 31, 2018

In the wake of socialism, Venezuela’s black-market capitalists meet community needs

The Venezuelan people continue to struggle and suffer under the weight of severe socialist policies—facing increased poverty and hunger, swelling suicide rates, and widespread social unrest. Yet even as its president admits to a nationwide economic emergency, the government continues to celebrate the very drivers behind the collapse, blaming low oil prices and “global capitalism,” instead. Continue Reading...
October 01, 2018

Walmart removes hammer-and-sickle merchandise

After backlash from across the globe, Walmart has stopped selling items bearing the hammer-and-sickle insignia of the Soviet Union. This followed strongly worded letters from Baltic leaders and a U.S. educational effort largely spearheaded by Mari-Ann Kelam through the Acton Institute. Continue Reading...