Henry Louis Mencken was a contemporary and acquaintance of Albert Jay Nock. In The Superfluous Men, a volume of comparative essays compiled by Robert M. Crunden (ISI Books, 1999), Mencken is described as “an enormously prolific writer and editor of newspapers and magazines” who “had great impact on college students and the educated young adultsContinue reading “Demagogue and Demaslave”
Author Archives: Albert Jay Nock
Village Idiot Refuses to Look for a Job
“I refuse to look for a job in this economy until the government makes the minimum wage a living wage.” Thus spake an unidentified twenty-ish male follower of the “occupy movement” who was shown just long enough to spout this idiotic conviction on one of the network news broadcasts in the fall of 2011. IfContinue reading “Village Idiot Refuses to Look for a Job”
Opposing Interests
The State is no proper agency for social welfare, and never will be, for exactly the same reason that an ivory paperknife is nothing to shave with. The interests of society and of the State do not coincide; and any pretense that they can be made to coincide is sheer nonsense. Society gets on bestContinue reading “Opposing Interests”
…For I Am Their Leader
Not long ago I saw a sticker on a car bumper which read: “There they go. I must hurry and catch them, for I am their leader!” Amusing. I’ve seen a variation of this notion in action; it happens with great regularity in politics. I was a college student in Ohio in 1969-1970, and forContinue reading “…For I Am Their Leader”
The Three Laws of Organisation
In response to an urgent social demand, a revolutionary regime was set up in France in 1789. At the outset it was backed and promoted by men of far-seeing intelligence, including a good part of the aristocracy. . . . Then at the moment when the revolution became a going concern, Epstean’s law brought inContinue reading “The Three Laws of Organisation”
Albert Jay Nock 