Ben Landau-Taylor

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Markets Are Thin
When people talk about a “market economy”, what exactly does that mean? You might assume it means a society where all or most economic decisions are…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
Book Review: The Great Illusion
Normal Angell’s The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National Advantage, published in 1910, is the author’s attempt to…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
On The Franklin Effect
The Franklin Effect is a concept in pop psychology which asserts that, if Alice does a favor for Bob, then Alice will be more inclined to do more things…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
Power Is Not Conserved
If I become more powerful, it has to be at someone else’s expense. After all, power just means the ability to determine what happens, and if I become…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
3
Movements Without Strategists, And The Dissolution Of The British Empire
In The Anglo-American Establishment, Carroll Quigley presents a case study on the Milner Group, an association of British politicians and intellectuals…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
October 2023
The Four-Year Locusts
Every four years, locusts descend on America. They tear through civic society, devouring any organization or community they can reach. Ideological…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
2
What To Do If Nuclear War Seems Imminent
This post describes precautions to take in a scenario like the Cuban Missile Crisis, where nuclear war seems plausibly imminent within the next days or…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
Good Citizenship Is Out Of Date
Norms of good citizenship have been declining. These norms are a crucial piece of social technology vital to the health of local communities and…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
The Vocabulary Of Power
The mechanics of power are complex and easily misunderstood. Modern English vocabulary on the subject does not help; it is often imprecise and equivocal…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
1
September 2023
The Four Instruments Of Expansion
In The Evolution of Civilizations, master historian Carroll Quigley argues that a civilization’s growth and decline is driven by the development of its…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
1
Production Of Elites In The Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was notable for producing an extremely large number of great men. Per capita, I know of no other civilization that came close, except…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
Mercantilism Was Not About Economics
According to the dominant historical narrative, mercantilism was the economic theory prevalent in early modern Europe, until it was replaced when Adam…
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Ben Landau-Taylor
© 2023 Ben Landau-Taylor
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