Category Archives: Conference Speeches

On Discrimination

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ON DISCRIMINATION
By Christian Robitaille

The following is a translation of a speech delivered in French on the 5th August 2017 at the occasion of the 2nd edition of the Montreal Free Market Seminar.

Today, I will talk about a phenomenon that is increasingly decried as unfair or evil by Canada’s and Québec’s mass media and by the most vocal leftists of our society. I will talk about discrimination. However, I will not talk about it in a conventional way, i.e., by decrying as unjust any form of discrimination whatsoever and by demanding that the State intervenes in order to reduce or eliminate it. Rather, I will take advantage of the fact that I am speaking in front of a civilised audience to talk about the true nature of discrimination and to show that it is, in and of itself, a useless concept insofar as one seeks to find in it the ultimate criterion of injustice. Read more

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What Drives the Modern Left?

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The New Barbarians: What Drives The Modern Left?
Andy Duncan (Honorary Vice-President of Mises UK)
A Speech Delivered in May 2017 at the 5th Austrian School Conference of Mises Brasil

I have a confession to make to you. Up until the age of thirty-five, I was a committed socialist. This is incredible, especially considering that now I am only twenty-seven years old! My personal time frame is quite confused.

I was always what you would consider a difficult child, always asking impertinent questions. I was so stubborn that my parents had to rebel against me, rather than the other way around. It got so bad for some teachers at my local state school, that they put me in a remedial class for children with learning difficulties. This was because I had the temerity to ask them awkward questions, such as why I had to obey them. Read more

Hans-Hermann Hoppe: The Ethics of Argumentation (2016)

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From the recently-concluded Eleventh Annual Meeting of the PFS, Bodrum, Turkey (Sept. 1–6, 2016).

Hans-Hermann Hoppe
The Ethics of Argumentation

I

            At repeated requests from many sides – and given my already advanced stage in life – I have deemed it appropriate to take this opportunity to speak a bit about myself. Not about my private life, of course, but about my work. And not about all subjects – and there are several to which I have made some, however little contribution in the course of the years – but one subject only. The one subject, where I consider my contribution the most important: the apriori of argumentation as the ultimate foundation of law. Read more

The Greatness of Margaret Thatcher: An Alternative View

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The Greatness of Margaret Thatcher:
An Alternative View
Speech Given to the Property and Freedom Society
Bodrum, 2nd September 2016
Sean Gabb

When she died in April 2013, the mainstream assumption was that Margaret Thatcher had been something like the kind of person Donald Trump is hoped to be. She had humbled the left. She had brought about fundamental reforms in economic policy. She had made her country strong again and respected in the outer world. This being the assumption, conservatives went into ostentatious mourning, and the leftists rejoiced. Read more

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