FROM THE ARCHIVES.

• Position: On liberalism, copyright law and homeschooling

20 YEARS AGO

July 2001

To say 'neoliberal' is the same as saying 'semiliberal' or 'pseudoliberal.' It is pure nonsense. One is either in favor of liberty or against it, but one cannot be semi-in-favor or pseudo-in-favor of liberty, just as one cannot be 'semipregnant,' 'semiliving,' or 'semidead.' The term has not been invented to express a conceptual reality, but rather, as a corrosive weapon of derision. It has been designed to devalue semantically the doctrine of liberalism. And it is liberalism--more than any other doctrine--that symbolizes the extraordinary advances that liberty has made in the long course of human civilization.

MARIO VARGAS LLOSA

Global Village or Global Pillage?

What has gone mostly unseen and unremarked upon is the effort by industries who benefit from copyright law to shift the balance of the law forever in their favor, and away from the public interest that, according to Article I of the U.S. Constitution, is supposed to be the beneficiary of copyrights.

MIKE GODWIN

Copy wrong

25 YEARS AGO

July 1996

Rather than capitalizing on the broad, if often inchoate, anti-government and pro-individualist sentiments that seem to be growing among voters, insisting on systematic libertarianism in the political arena reduces the libertarian impulse to a series of litmus tests on issues that many voters may not see as particularly important or connected: gun rights and abortion rights, property rights and drug legalization, free speech and lower taxes. To these mainstream issues the Libertarian Party platform adds such problematic esoterica as jury nullification, a reliance solely on tort law and 'strict liability' to govern pollution, and the right of individual political secession. When libertarianism is presented as an all-or-nothing bargain, interested voters are more likely to leave the whole package on the table.

NICK GILLESPIE

Uncompromising Position

The home school movement suggests that educational choices need not be limited to public and private schools. Rather, parents can create far more flexible arrangements, relying on an array of learning services, resources, and technologies that enable their children to learn at home on a part-time or full-time basis. We can begin contemplating a future of learning opportunities analogous to the innovation and decentralization that is currently taking place in traditional workplaces.

BRITTON MANASCO

Special Ed

To achieve the social goal of a 'livable wage' (even...