Öfgamúslimar hata vestræna menningu. Þeir telja hana spillta: hún tryggi rétt einstaklinga til eigna og viðskipta, hvetji þá til frjálsrar rannsóknar og rökræðu, veiti þeim kost á að stunda lífsnautnir í stað bænahalds og leyfi konum og meinlausum minnihlutahópum (eins og samkynhneigðum) að njóta sín. Munurinn á kristninni, sem er ein undirstaða vestrænnar menningar, og […]
315 starfsmenn Háskólans, innan við þriðjungur þeirra, hafa sent frá sér yfirlýsingu „gegn ísraelskri nýlendustefnu og þjóðarmorði“. Á meðal þeirra eru Vilhjálmur Árnason heimspekingur og Pia Hansson, forstöðumaður Alþjóðamálastofnunar Háskólans. Ekki er í yfirlýsingunni minnst á hina villimannslegu árás Hamas-liða á Ísrael 7. október 2023, þar sem þeir myrtu alla óbreytta borgara, sem fyrir urðu, brenndu […]
European Diary: Vienna, November 2021 In the spring of 1985, a few of us who had formed the Hayek Society at Oxford for discussing classical liberal and conservative ideas invited Friedrich von Hayek to dinner at the Ritz in London. At the close of the event, a group of musicians approached our table and asked […]
European Diary: Paris, October 2021 In Paris, intellectuals are taken much more seriously than elsewehere. On French television, frequently there are long and animated debates about ideas. Books sometimes become sensations. The French would not say flippantly like the English: What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind. When I was growing up […]
European Diary: Akureyri, October 2021 Most of Iceland’s population live in the southwestern corner of the country, in the capital Reykjavik, and in towns nearby. The only sizeable town elsewhere is Akureyri in the north of the island, a busy port, the site of flourishing fishing firms and a service centre for the adjacent rural […]
European Diary: Lisbon, September 2021 During the Covid Epidemic, I spent fifteen months grounded in Iceland, almost as if under house arrest, although it must be said that the government measures there were much milder than in many other Western countries. It was therefore quite a relief when I could travel again. One of my […]
European Diary: The Escorial, June 2021 Finally the Plague was over. My first trip abroad after the Covid Epidemic was in June 2021 to Madrid where I lectured at the Summer University organised jointly by the Brussels research institute New Direction and the Spanish think tank Fundación Civismo. It was held at the Escorial, the […]
When I studied philosophy in Reykjavik and Oxford long ago, one of the classic topics of discussion in classes were whether merchants could deny service to individuals on the basis of who they WERE and not what they HAD DONE (or said). I personally wanted as much freedom to choose one’s customers as possible (both […]
Evrópska hugveitan New Direction hélt 20.–22. september 2023 fjölmennt þing í Madrid, þar sem hægri menn báru saman bækur sínar og sóttu hinn árlega kvöldverð í minningu Margrétar Thatchers. Ræðumaður var Robin Harris, sem var ræðuskrifari Thatchers og ævisöguritari. Ég mælti á þessari ráðstefnu með samstarfi frjálshyggjumanna og íhaldsmanna. Ég leiddi rök að því, að […]
Strax eftir stríð urðu fjörugar umræður á Norðurlöndum um framtíðartilhögun stjórnmála. Í Svíþjóð og á Íslandi snerust umræðurnar aðallega um þann boðskap Friedrichs von Hayeks, að sósíalismi færi ekki saman við lýðræði. Smám saman hurfu vinstri menn í báðum löndum þó frá róttækustu hugmyndum sínum. Í Danmörku tóku umræðurnar á sig aðra mynd. Þar skrifuðu […]
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