Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya
“Equality before the law is a highly-contested principle, largely because there is no consensus on what it means for everyone to be treated equally. Does equality before the law mean that nobody believes himself to be superior or inferior to others? Does the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee that we must all enjoy the same social status? Can the Constitution ensure that no one feels slighted, ignored, or overlooked? Do citizens have a constitutional right to feel welcome and included in everything?” (10/06/26)
“In the run-up to Israel’s Oct. 27 election, the country’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that a key minority (the two main parties representing Arab Israelis) could not be banned from participating. The decision serves as a marker of democracy in a political system that protects the rights of minorities in instances when one side has an overwhelming majority. The ban, recently approved by an election commission dominated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, would have effectively disenfranchised the one-fifth of Israeli citizens who are of Arab Palestinian heritage. In the wake of the October 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas, many right-wing Jewish Israelis have pushed for not only punitive military action in Gaza and forcible expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, but also curtailment of the rights of Israeli Arabs.” (10/05/26)
“When my father, Shelby Steele, author, columnist and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, began publishing his essays on race in the late 1980s, my teenage self was often by his side when he gave speeches. After each speech, the same scene unfolded as a crowd of people gathered to the side of the podium, each wanting a word. I remember one man in particular who hurried to reach my father first. He wore a corduroy sports coat with leather elbow patches. He said, ‘Dr. Steele, that was truly a remarkable speech. I want to thank you for saying the things you said up there.’ My father thanked him, and the man lowered his voice and leaned in as if to share a conspiracy. ‘You know I can’t say those things.'” (10/06/26)
“Arthur Scargill once boasted that he had never betrayed his class. It was meant as a badge of honour. It should have been read as a warning. We understand loyalty to family. We understand loyalty to village, county and country. These are places and people we belong to and most would not wish to leave. Class is different. It is a condition, not a community. And for most of British history the working-class condition meant hard labour, low pay and narrow horizons. To pledge loyalty to that is to pledge loyalty to the very thing a sensible person would want to escape. It turns the miner’s son who becomes a surgeon into a deserter. It makes ambition look like apostasy. That is the first problem with class. It is a cage that congratulates you for staying inside.” (10/06/26)
“Like Russia, the U.S. is huge and hugely multicultural. In fact, those are the two biggest multicultural nations on earth. Like Russia, U.S. population growth stems from its so-called minority population. Like Russia, that population is largely non-white. Unlike Russia, where the fast-growing minority groups include Muslims and Asians, the U.S. Hispanic ‘minority’ is Christian and, quite mistakenly in my view, much of it pro-Trump. Again, unlike Russia, which has a leader, president Vladimir Putin, who openly espouses traditional values and is just as openly enthusiastic about the minorities he governs, Trump scorns American minorities and unleashes a murderous Gestapo against them. Putin would never dream of such idiocy.” (10/06/26)
“Just three weeks after American hip-hop artist Macklemore was kicked off megastar Ed Sheeran’s tour over the rapper’s ‘Free Palestine’ messaging, it looks increasingly obvious that Sheeran overestimated the power of pro-Israel cancel culture and underestimated the American fanbase. Last week, country superstar Zach Bryan wore a ‘Free Palestine’ t-shirt during his concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. His band wore similar attire. Robert Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium and was primarily responsible for pressuring Sheeran to ditch Macklemore last month from the tour, was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, Sheeran’s back-up band and all of his opening acts on the tour dropped out to support Macklemore, who went on to launch his own Free Palestine Tour this fall as his own popularity is experiencing a resurgence. The three-date European leg of the tour sold out immediately.” (10/06/26)
“The novelist J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) repeatedly insisted that his epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, written from 1937 to 1949, was not allegorical. But some scholars have argued otherwise, detecting contemporary, 20th-century influences in his storytelling. Tolkien fought at the nightmarish Battle of the Somme in World War I. He witnessed the slaughter of the youth of Europe in the trenches that lived with him the rest of his life. In the 1930s, he despaired over both the rise of the godless Communist Soviet Union and the transformation of a once-enlightened Germany into a monstrous fascist regime. Tolkien, a devout Catholic, was dismayed not only by the growing power of these totalitarian empires but also by the West’s urbanized industrialism and secularized modernism on the eve of World War II. In middle age, he lived through the even greater slaughter of World War II.” (10/06/26)
“The billionaires are putting our world at risk through support for unregulated AI, funding the fossil fuel industry, and undermining democracy. They are using their unprecedented levels of power to lead us toward multiple pathways of total human annihilation. Now is a good time to reflect on ways to challenge capitalism, a driving force behind the madness we face. And yet, on one side we have many people who are hesitant to name capitalism as a force behind destruction we face. On the other side, many of those few who do name capitalism use outdated and unhelpful frameworks for understanding how to challenge capitalism. Sven Beckert’s Capitalism: A Global History (Penguin 2025) is a book worth reading if you are interested in building a world past capitalism. Beckert’s original approach to understanding capitalism helps us to see possibilities for challenging it in the present precarious time we are living in.” (10/06/26)
“Most political professionals behaved as though Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency was a joke: an elaborate ruse to set up a new reality show. The internecine wars that viciously pitted Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters against each other were largely in the rearview mirror, and Democrats were busy measuring Oval Office drapes and donning ‘I’m With Her’ t-shirts. … So when the Washington Post broke the Access Hollywood story on the afternoon of October 7—ten years ago this week—the immediate reaction in the D.C. corridors of power was disgust mixed with faux shock commingled with barely contained glee. The three-minute clip played to all of the priors of the Democratic establishment, which had remained convinced America would never elect this con man, now confirmed as a raging misogynist. Uttering ‘grab ’em by the pussy’ to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush was surely the final nail in Trump’s coffin.” (10/06/26)
