Most of our interns have resumed their academic pursuits, and will not post as often as before. However, do expect a few more posts from us before next summer.
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Image of TrinityCollegeCamGreatCourt from Wikipedia
Photograph © Andrew Dunn, 8 September 2004.
Website: http://www.andrewdunnphoto.com/
Beneath the ivy stones molder away;
Light shineth out as the last golden ray.
For all is autumn now under the birch,
Lest snowy night ore’ take the cathedral church.
It is a quiet autumn on our Western front, and beneath the ivy we may still glimpse the moldering remnants of our older world.
Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Free speech in the coffee houses of Europe and America birthed the rise of gentility, republican government, and liberty during a time of, as Beatrix Potter said, “swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with flowered lappets – when gentlemen wore ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy and taffeta…” Whether philosophical men between sips passionately debated the latest movements of the British Army in America, or some highwaymen sat brooding plots over steaming mugs, coffee was sure to find its way at the heart of most adventures. With the introduction of coffee into Europe in the 17th century and the subsequent rise of the coffee house as a public forum in the 17th and 18th centuries, some of the greatest political, social, and literary achievements of Great Britain and America started with a cup of coffee.
Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Time flies, and with it the memory of the late economist Milton Friedman, who would have been 99 years old this year. However, we at the Mackinac Center and the Foundation for Educational Choice hope to revive Friedman’s legacy by hosting some lectures this Friday on his monetary policy. It is also the 15oth anniversary of the American Civil War, an issue encompassing a context for economic analysis.
Friedman’s free-market principles are vital to comprehending monetary supply during the Civil War. An entire generation of brothers hammered their plowshares into swords. As Northern factories shaped rifles and Southern farmers smelt bullets, the strain on local economies was enormous. Like a plague of locusts, the “terrible swift sword” burned through the Virginian Shenandoah Valley and across Georgia, destroying Southern crops and vegetation. Along the Western front, raiders on both sides wreaked havoc on the civilian populace. In the words of a song, “not now for songs of a nation’s wrongs,
not the groans of starving labor; Let the rifle ring and the bullet sing to the clash of the flashing sabre!” The elephant in the room was big government, as usual. Both North and South inflated their money supplies, causing a rise in prices. Southern currency especially suffered a significant decrease in value due to the printing of excess Confederate money. As was apparent to Friedman, inflation is most often the fault of central banks, like those during the Civil War, that print more money than reflects actual market demand.
As a historian, I have always found Friedman’s work to be historically pertinent. His view of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as an era of prosperity deserves more academic acceptance than it gets. I agree with Friedman’s impression that America during the Victorian era was a beacon to all those persecuted peoples throughout the earth who wished simply for the freedom to work hard for their existence. It was not a “gilded age” as historians want to paint it but a golden one. Friedman’s love for America’s heritage and his presumption of good will to all people, even his enemies, are his two qualities I admire most.
This Friday will be a day of both celebration and solemn reflection, as we remember Friedman’s legacy and the many thousands of lives lost during the Civil War. History often repeats itself in various forms. If we do not apply absolute principles to past events, we will be subject to repeating the same mistakes that history contains. We must remember those who are important in the history of our freedom, and reclaim our historical landmarks of liberty.
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Image of CivilWarFifeandDrum from Wikipedia
As we approach July 17th, the landmark date for the beginning of the Second Battle of the Marne, I thought it appropriate to wrap up the World War I theme. I’ve composed a poem, perhaps from the perspective of the French or British soldiers during the Allied counter offensive of the battle, in which the troops were expected to abandon their trenches and fight a less conventional war (Neiberg 40:10). American reinforcements are now numbering about twenty two to twenty three thousand soldiers a day, giving the French more leeway room for ambitious tactics (Ibid 59:36). My poem gets at the contradictions of the war and hints at future problems that proved all too true in our post world war era. It looks back to the 19th century Christian world for its inspiration of childhood, including the Victorian concept for an imaginative and chivalrous youth. Like Chesterton’s Ballad of the White Horse, it is an attack on Nihilism, although more pertinent to the 20th and 21st centuries. Below are some video tributes.
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
The Men at the Marne
Leave our trenches and coldly fight
To ascend the world of death and light?
And all because more men as we
Now come from a far country?
The cost of men to save more men;
Which is more costly? None now ken.
To war, from ditch to earth our height;
We fight our act; and act our fight;
The plan from those whose ends are met
Without a thought to cost or debt.
So sacrifice untallied be,
Until by war, from war, we’re free.
What lurked behind clouds of glory,
An endless war; who could foresee?
Only the wise, but they spoke not,
And with sorrow left to their lot
The foolish who’s counsel it was
Within a year to win the cause.
From death, more hard than earth their toil,
They sooner learned to hide in soil.
Now, weeping, wailing it seems,
Pours from the guns that slay the dreams,
Of a generation young but old
Between worlds modern and more bold.
More men, less care; more life, less life,
If ever we win to lose our strife.
But such a world that would arise,
Might wage new war within the skies.
Empire ends. What will next be;
Harder masters or liberty?
Time of troubles, wherein the right
Is just as wrong as wrong is trite;
Where law is law that law is not,
From naught is naught, and naught our lot?
For childhood once more we would
Stand as we stand for truth and good.
A video tribute to the Second Battle of the Marne
This was an earlier battle called Passchendaele, but it has some actual original footage worth watching.
Work Cited:
Neiberg, Michael S. The Second Battle of the Marne: The Turning Point of 1918. US Army War College. Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, PA. 20 August 2008. Lecture. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aey6nVhZpcU
Image of General gouraud french army world war i machinegun marne 1918 from Wikipedia
Cross-posted from Landmarks of Liberty
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
I won’t have time to post anything big since I’m preparing for an Intern University lecture. However, in keeping with the Russell Kirk theme, here’s a little poetic description of the beginning of the “Time of Trouble”: WWI. In this poem, Wilfred Owen points out the end of a Western progress (something I would term as the false ideology of progressivism), and ties this in with the history of Western politics. Although he perhaps over-glorifies Greece and Rome, the idea is that the Western World is losing its luster. This fact is incontrovertible, but not inevitable for the future. Let us restore that which has been lost.
Being a bagpiper myself, my eyes welled up with tears when Reagan made reference to Piper Bill Millin’s bravery on the beaches. Here are some pictures of him.
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Images of Landing on Queen Red Beach, Sword Area and Bill Millin from Wikipedia
I have just finished Russell Kirk’s “The Politics of Prudence,” and found it to be in keeping with much of what I study and admire in Western culture. His book comprehensively defines modern American conservatism provides a history of conservative thought, and describes historic and contemporary challenges to conservative preservation of a Christian society. Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
One of my biweekly duties here at the Mackinac Center is providing the State Policy Network (SPN) with a comprehensive list of labor-union-related articles from think tanks and other liberty-minded organizations across the country. According to Ed Schultz’s imaginative conclusions, that would make me a vital link in SPN’s alleged attempt to destroy the middle class. The video below from the Ed Show outlines the theory that SPN exists to undermine the middle class, but Ed conflates several points.
Corrections to Ed and Andy’s misconceptions:
1. State think tanks do not exist simply to research labor related issues, nor do they generally expend a lot of effort towards destroying collective bargaining. In fact, only a few think tanks (about 3-5 out of 50) have a separate and distinct labor department. Others have maybe one individual who does labor research, or leave labor related subjects up to other departments whenever applicable.
2. SPN does not exist solely to deal with collective bargaining. Such a definition would be far too specific and narrow. Granted, they do help coordinate state think tanks, but labor is only one policy issue of dozens. Such policies are really dealt with in the state think tank arena, not on SPN’s level.
3. Unions do have a place in state think tank analysis. State think tanks generally frown on government coercion of labor (forced collective bargaining agreements, etc.).
4. These state think tanks are not necessarily conservative. In general, they do promote free markets, but from a sense of furthering individual liberty, not to “conserve” the political order (as conservatives do). Rather than Ronald Reagan, the ideological foundation of state think tanks was laid by people like Milton Friedman, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises. Although conservatives agree with free market policies, they are less apt to defend or even study the ideological basis for the thank tank movement. According to conservative scholar Russell Kirk, conservatives like me prefer to value prudence in arriving at their policy goals. The free market is a policy point of intersection between conservatives and the libertarian ideological basis, but nothing more.
5. Ed does not account for the distinction between public and private sector unions, a fact that may render the results of Ed’s graph a little differently. From these stats (see “I. U.S. Historical Tables: All Public Sector Unions“), public union membership is increasing, not decreasing. Right-to-Work legislation allows the worker to withhold his dues as he so desires. As such, it decreases the political lobbying power of public sector unions and grants the worker the right to choose whether or not to join a union. Ending collective bargaining simply lets the worker get a word in edgewise, and is not aimed at private sector unions. Is Ed’s graph a graph of all union membership, or just public sector unions? The private sector merits an entirely different set of graphs and analysis (see the Private Sector Table). Further, if public sector union membership were to ever decrease because workers are getting the right to decide for themselves, we might conclude that members will have decided that union dues weren’t worth it. It’s the workers that are making the decisions in right-to-work states, and as such, state think tanks cannot be blamed for the decisions workers make in a free economy.
6. Public sector unions do not represent all of American middle class jobs. What about those middle class Americans working in the private sector? There are many reasons for the decrease in middle class income. It’s a bad economy after all, and trying to find one answer to the problem is like playing blind-man’s-bluff. There are many players in this game, and it’s impossible to tag one issue as the cause for all of the troubles of the middle class.
E. Wesley Reynolds – Mackinac Center Intern
Starting now, expect another great summer of policy and liberty minded commentary with our Mackinac Center interns on Trying Liberty.
We will be on a school year hiatus, as most of our interns are back to college life.
E. Wesley Reynolds on behalf of Trying Liberty
Emperor Napoleon I of France on his death bed (left) and Prince Klemes von Metternich (right) of Austria who organized the Congress of Vienna
In 1814, Europe sat in tatters from the recent ravages of Napoleon (“History of Europe”). Parts of the resulting Congress of Vienna were friendly to Biblical and Classical notions of law and liberty, while others were not. Because the Congress blended true ideals of government with lust for power, the results were mixed. Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
Much confusion in the writing of history arises from the fact that history spans a diverse array of dating methods. Because man’s knowledge is finite, his methods for discovering what is true are in constant flux. One of these changes has been the altering of the old Julian calendar to the present Gregorian calendar. Great Britain and her colonies did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until Sept. 14, 1752 (The 1752 Calendar Change). Accordingly, dating American and British history before 1752 is difficult, and merits a short discussion in any context that addresses the history of these nations. Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
The Declaration of Independence had just been written, and now the young American nation first began fighting for its principles on Long Island, New York on August 27, 1776 (“Battle Pass”). Incidentally, the Battle of Long Island was the largest battle of the entire war, and although the British won the battle, the Americans survived, which was more than Britain could afford (ibid). When the battle ended, the Americans were stranded on the Island with little hope for escape from the British army. It was only a matter of time. Calling his council together, General George Washington proposed the only option; a perilous escape by small boats across the East River to Manhattan Island. The crossing of this American “Red Sea” became one the most miraculous events in the entire American War for Independence (Marshall 313-314). Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
What is it about Scotland that has stirred the imagination for centuries? Aside from spectacular geography, one word answers this question, “heritage.” The struggles of Scotland may be largely understood as an endeavor to preserve a culture and people that resonate with valiant and independent principles. In this sense, Scotland embodies the highest ideals of conservative thought; preserving the true, good, and beautiful. Although misplaced, the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 was certainly the last national moment of Scottish independent fervor, and marks the grave of Scottish autonomy and tradition. Any rebirths of Scottish culture since 1745 have been reenactments of earlier glory, such as the Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott craze of the 19th century and the Celtic music fad of our own day. With the last battle at Culloden, the English banned the kilts along with all Highland dress, destroyed the clan system, illegalized the carrying of all weapons in Scotland, and sealed the power of the English monarch over all Scottish subjects. The end of a civilization had come. Read more on Landmarks of Liberty…
E. Wesley – Mackinac Center Intern
