Enjoying the view from Limbo
One of the most disingenuous arguments used by defenders of the British government’s right to decide when a baby’s life is no longer worth trying to save, and to determine when and how he will die without any consideration of the wishes of his parents, is the quixotic claim that “doctors are dedicated to saving lives.” In other words, if even the life-loving...
A beneficial side effect of the horrible Charlie Gard case is that it is the kind of story that forces anyone who wishes to talk about it to define himself, whether openly or implicitly, on certain fundamental issues: self-ownership vs. socialism, the private family vs. state, and the principled defense of individual liberty vs. progressive pragmatism. One of the more predictable and amusing...
Socialized Medicine / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 31, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
Why were Charlie Gard’s parents not allowed to take him home to die? The answer provided by the Great Ormond Street Hospital is a priceless revelation of the socialist mind, and a perfect realization of the principles of medicine predicted in Brave New World. After claiming that they had “tried absolutely everything” to satisfy the parents’ wishes — “absolutely everything” seems a tad...
Socialized Medicine / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 29, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
In civilization’s ongoing battle against the advance of progressive authoritarianism, the story of Charlie Gard — may he rest in peace — is an object lesson in the danger of unclear principles, and the value of clear ones. The defenders of the despotism of socialized medicine have a vested interest in trying to persuade you that the Charlie Gard case is at its...
Socialized Medicine / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 29, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
Unfortunately, Charlie Gard has died. Normally, we lament the loss of a baby by saying things like, “It’s so unfair that he never had the chance to accomplish anything or live a meaningful human life.” Not so in this case. For while Charlie was obviously deprived of the opportunity to fully experience life — and I mean deprived by his illness, not just...
Socialized Medicine / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 29, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
No surprise, of course, but Charlie Gard is dead. His life, however, though sadly brief and unpleasant, was not lived in vain. For he has done more to advance the cause of freedom, against progressive authoritarianism, than most of us will do in a full natural lifetime. He has opened eyes. I’ll have plenty more to say about his death, and the importance...
America Descending / Socialized Medicine
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 28, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
He never wanted to. You don’t “repeal and replace” a massive and society-altering piece of legislation without even trying to make the case for doing so to the nation’s population, which McConnell has very deliberately never done. Mitch McConnell is a closet progressive, much more interested in cutting deals for himself and his establishment cronies than in advancing the cause of freedom...
America Descending / Socialized Medicine
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 27, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
For years, Mitch McConnell’s GOP establishment promised to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, where even the dimmest bulb in the box, if being honest with himself, knew that the “repeal” part was merely a rhetorical veil for the real goal, “replacement,” a.k.a. rebranding and permanent entrenchment, a.k.a. greasing the skids for the eventual slide into the true goal, socialized medicine. Well, now the veil...
Liberty's Labors Lost / Socialized Medicine / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 26, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
Charlie Gard’s parents, stonewalled by their government and the Euro-socialist high command for five months, their child effectively kidnapped by the State, have finally been forced to accept that it is now too late to hope that their baby might be saved. They have therefore withdrawn their application to take him to an American hospital for experimental treatment. He will soon die. There...
Socialized Medicine / What is Progressivism?
by Daren Jonescu · Published July 26, 2017 · Last modified February 1, 2018
By a charming coincidence, socialized medicine is claiming a famous victim at the very moment that its grip on the West’s last outpost of liberty is tightening. Together, the British government’s success in running out the clock on Charlie Gard and the U.S. Senate’s apparent progress toward paving the road to single-payer healthcare in America have symbolic value. For years, we have spoken...