Free Republic

In his book The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic Interpretation, Upton Sinclair makes an interesting observation: (page 299/300) And now the War has broken upon the world, and caught the churches, like everything else, in its mighty current; the clergy and the congregations are confronted by pressing national needs, they are forced to take notice of a thousand new problems, to engage in a thousand practical activities. No one can see the end of this - any more than he can see the end of the vast upheaval in politics and industry. But we who are trained in...

If a tree falls in a forest and nobody was there to hear it, did it really happen? If baby parts are being sold and nobody is there to report it, were those parts really sold? "They(journalists) decide what their readers shall know, or what they shall not know" - William Thomas Stead, Government by Journalism The latest chapter of this grotesque storyline is that Margaret Sanger's Planned Parenthood is warning the media not to play any of these videos, or even report on them. But it is pretty clear that there was a coverup before that letter was even...

THE ORIGIN OF "THE INTERCOLLEGIATE SOCIALIST SOCIETY" DISCLOSED.ITS DEFENSE BY THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, IN "HARPERS WEEKLY," ANALYZED AND REFUTED. (BY THE EDITOR.) THE "Intercollegiate Socialist Society" will not capture American universities for revolution and anarchy. Its scheme would have been impossible in any event, and it did not threaten any real danger to our social and political structure. But that men whose names are generally accepted as standing for culture and good citizenship should be permitted deliberately to announce such a project without rebuke would have been to ignore their public challenge to patriotism. It was necessary to consider that...

Nearly 100 years ago, Walter Lippmann wrote about “the manufacture of consent” in his classic work, “Public Opinion.” On the heels of that book, Edward Bernays penned a little volume called “Propaganda,” in which he stated that an elite would always be responsible for making the public aware of “new ideas” which the public would then act upon as the elite nudged them into it. Related, but more in-depth is Jacques Ellul’s 1962 book, “Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes.”

TO MAKE STUDENTS OF SOCIALISMDublin, N.H., July 14, 1905. To the Editor of Harper's WeeklySir, - I observe in a recent number of your valuable journal an expression of surprise that my name should be united with others in the formation of an "Intercollegiate Socialist School" which "aims to imbue the minds of the rising generation with socialistic doctrines." This last phrase is your own, for I at least am connected with no organization for the purpose you here state. As to the names with which mine is united I am not concerned; as Theodore Parker used to say "I...

The United States does not have a living and breathing constitution. So then, how do we build it into one? Earlier today, I posted the full text of Louis Brandeis' address "The Living Law", which is quite an interesting work. On the one hand, Brandeis does accurately capture public feeling regarding mistreatment by their employers. On the other hand, Brandeis' uses this address to stand back, marvel at his own work, and act like an innocent bystander. The big key in the address is the court case "Muller v. Oregon", to which Brandeis had a hand in. He doesn't mention...

THE LIVING LAW (1) (Alt. Link) By Louis D. Brandeis (2) The history of the United States, since the adoption of the constitution, covers less than 128 years. Yet in that short period the American ideal of government has been greatly modified. At first our ideal was expressed as “A government of laws and not of men.” Then it became “A government of the people, by the people and for the people.” Now it is “Democracy and social justice.” In the last half century our democracy has deepened. Coincidentally there has been a shifting of our longing from legal justice...

I.S.S. Gives Way to New League for Democracy The New York Call - November 19, 1921. Organization's Birth Celebrated at Dinner in Yorkville Casino - Will take in Non-Collegians.With the avowed purpose of "mobilizing the brains of the middle-class in the service of the labor movement," the League for Industrial Democracy has come into being on the framework of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. The new organization's birth was celebrated by a dinner at Yorkville Casino last night, addressed by Robert Morss Lovett, president of the League; Scott Nearing, Norman Thomas and Roger N. Baldwin. The league, according to Mr. Thomas,...

The attitude of progressives never ceases to amaze me. I should be used to it by now, you would think I would be - considering how many of their books I thumb through. But I don't think it's possible to entirely get used to things such as this: The phrase "natural rights of Englishmen" is vague and meaningless in the history of constitutional development and political philosophy, and deserves to stand with that other equally abused phrase, much on the lips of the colonists at this time, "taxation without representation." Neither had any literal meaning in fact, but as historical...

In his book Public Opinion, Walter Lippmann wrote the following about what the CPI achieved: (page 47) Probably this is the largest and the most intensive effort to carry quickly a fairly uniform set of ideas to all the people of a nation. The older proselyting worked more slowly, perhaps more surely, but never so inclusively. Now if it required such extreme measures to reach everybody in time of crisis, how open are the more normal channels to men's minds? The Administration was trying, and while the war continued it very largely succeeded, I believe, in creating something that might...

The Triumph of an Idea Beginning and Conclusion of Seven Years of Public Service "Meanwhile, please God, as ever hitherto in a crisis of the Republic, a man will emerge from comparative political obscurity, capable of holding high the torch of personal liberty, that all the people may see the clear light and revert gladly to the pristine standard of individual and industrial progress which, despite temporary retrogression, continues to be the glory of the nation." - North American Review, August, 1910 Selections from about Three Hundred Columns of Editorial and Special Articles Published in "Harper's Weekly" and "The North...

THE BASIC PROBLEM OF DEMOCRACYWHAT MODERN LIBERTY MEANS BY WALTER LIPPMANN FROM our recent experience it is clear that the traditional liberties of speech and opinion rest on no solid foundation. At a time when the world needs above all other things the activity of generous imaginations and the creative leadership of planning and inventive minds, our thinking is shriveled with panic. Time and energy that should go to building and restoring are instead consumed in warding off the pin-pricks of prejudice and fighting a guerilla war against misunderstanding and intolerance. For suppression is felt, not simply by the scattered...

We in America have a problem with media bias. Who or where does it come from? What did those people say, write, or do? Did it evolve by multiple steps, or by one step? When did the use of narrative get introduced? In an attempt to answer some of these questions and others, the result is a paper that I have recently written, here. I put it up online for all to read and examine, and I hope there will be those who will take the time to follow the footnotes back and read the original source material. These are...

I have completed a study paper on the roots of progressive journalism. I did not do this for any of my classes, I did this on my own because I wanted to and because I truely think it needed to be studied in a more formal fashion. I have been looking around at a handful of peer-reviewed journals that deal with history, but I do not trust them. Plus, there is the issue of copyright and I do not want what I wrote to fall into the trap of being locked away on some journal's pages on the month of...

I just thought that fact needed to be stated. Following up on a previous blog posting where I went a little bit into the revisionist history of Robin Hood, "Who polluted Robin Hood?", wouldn't recognition that the Sheriff was a government employee pretty much put the whole thing to bed? "Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor" No, not really. The Sheriff of Nottingham was a government employee. Robin Hood stole from the government and gave to the poor, because they were being oppressed by the tyranny of high taxation and only dear Robin had the...

Rush talked about a politico story back on November 3rd which relies heavily on establishment insiders giving good talking points to left wing journalists, so as to be able to hit members of the Tea Party harder over the head. Since then, we have seen the GOP win the election overwhelmingly, and then go on to give Obama everything he wants. Specifically a trillion dollar spending bill and amnesty. There are a lot of people out there who believe that the Republican Establishment is out to GET conservatives, and quite frankly, I don't see how anybody can argue against it....

Jim Geraghty published an interesting article the other day about 'Narrative Journalism' titled "What If the Media’s ‘Narrative Journalism’ Harms Their Own Causes? It has been widely discussed in light of what it contains, so I am going to go right for what is outside the box. Narrative Journalism, in this context, also necessarily implies narrative protesters. The narrative being pushed by the journalist does not have to be true by any means, but to the protesters, it is very real. The challenge is that we as citizens are supposed to be able to trust the journalist establishment without fear...

Upton Sinclair's 1929 letter to John BeardsleyDear John: I will write you a few notes about the matter concerning which we were talking last night. When I went to Boston the last time in October 1928 I was completely naive about the Sacco-Vanzetti case, having accepted the defense propaganda entirely. But I very quickly began to sense something wrong in the situation. There was an air of mystery about the Boston anarchists, and I saw they had something to conceal. Then in Sacco's cross examination I detected what seemed to be a slip in his alibi. I began asking catch...

Robin Hood was not a jacobin nor a socialist, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. But here, I will highlight where he was transformed into one. The title of the book is: "Robin Hood: A Collection of All the Ancient Poems, Songs, and Ballads, Now Extant Relative to that Celebrated English Outlaw ; to which are Prefixed Historical Anecdotes of His Life", authored by Joseph Ritson, who was sympathetic to Jacobinism. This book was first printed in 1795. This book is a collection of his works, which means that he was spreading this filth around in who...

If you are someone who is upset about the state of Journalism today, and the one-sided ideological view that they take on every issue, then the essay "Government by Journalism" will be a real eye opener for you. But William Thomas Stead was not content only with manipulating his readers through his one single paper, the Pall Mall Gazette, Stead looked for someone who would truely bring his idea to new heights - manipulate readers in greater numbers than he could ever possibly reach. He said: I have been long on the look out for a man to appear who...