Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

I have no love for John Bolton. I have, to be more clear, no sympathy for him as a figure in our public life whatsoever. But if one is only going to defend the free speech and press rights of those with whom one has some sympathy, one is a two-faced jackass, not an advocate of freedom at all. The point about freedom is that it works, and coercion fails, for any worthwhile goals. Freedom of the press works largely because rats sometimes have fallings out, and because the public can often learn a good deal about the rats when they do have such a split, when some of the rats kick one of their number out of the rat nest, and when the evicted rat finds a publisher. That is a GOOD thing, not something to be regretted. Even though the process often involves the evicted rat making a good deal of money. As for the current dispute over whether the book contains dangerous national security secrets: I may believe that when I see an evicted-rat showing me the commander in chief's bo...

Emily's husband, Paul, used to emit lengthy sentences, even whole conversations, in his sleep. "I want to go to THAT room and fuck you while Emily's away," Paul once said, to someone, in his dream. Emily -- fully awake, and yet more so after hearing this -- had the presence of mind then to whisper, "What's my name?" Paul then uttered in sweet tones the name of a friend and neighbor of the couple. And the rest you can imagine. They were divorced in due course. Linda, a friend of Emily, heard the story, but she reflected that, should her man ever be unfaithful, he would not disclose it to her at all as neatly. Ned too did talk in his sleep, but he would utter disconnected snippets, as if he was moving about quickly amongst several distinct dream worlds, and she never got the context of any of them. Ned said once, "that goes over there." Linda, "what does?" Ned snored a bit, then said, "the damned moon." Lind...

Walter Block is one of my favorite free-market oriented scholars. He is the author, most notably, of a sparklingly iconoclastic book called Defending the Undefendable , the various  chapters of which say positive things about: pimps, drug pushers, drug addicts, blackmailers, ticket scalpers, and dishonest cops! The argument in favor of legalizing blackmail has been especially influential: not because there has been any groundswell of support for such a policy change but because the academic reception of that chapter has shown that Block hit a nerve, among free market advocates. Block's case for legalizing blackmail drew responses in particular from Robert Nozick, Richard Posner, Richard Epstein,  and James Lindgren, an honor role of libertarian theorists. Each gave his reasons why he was unpersuaded. Block has responded. Note that blackmail (for purposes of this debate) is different from extortion. Blackmail is the threat to do something you would otherwi...