Currently, this archive consists of a mere handful of old articles and reviews, of varying length and importance:

• Reason and Evolution (on Hayek's last book)


• The Evolution of an Independent Mind (on Hayek's career)


• At the Altar of Ego (on Rand and benevolence)


• The Ego and Her Own (on the Rand cult)


• The Libertarian As Authoritarian (on paleolibertarianism)


• The Question Authority (on the wearing of a political button)


• Hats Off! (on patriotic ceremony)


• Wars for liberty (against libertarian non-interventionism, of all things)


• Unoriginal sin (is man basically good? bad? libertarian?)


• Halloweenies (the religious left takes a kids' day too seriously)


• Getting Apocalyptic (on Clinton's character)


• Kicking the habit (term limits)


• An argument for gun control? (kids and guns, they just go together, don't they?)


• How Much Wood Would Packwood Pack If Packwood Could Pack Wood?


• Premature Autopsy (it's easy to write a book criticizing economics if you barely know economics)


• Without Form, and Void (the rough draft of a review that appeared under someone else's name, of all things)


• The Sounds of Silencing (on Charles Ives, Mrs. H.H.A. Beach, and modern memory)


• God and Man at Bay (on economic theology and other heterodox notions about progress, science, and society)

For many years I labored in the vineyards of Liberty — Liberty magazine, that is; the Liberty published in Port Townsend, Washington, more specifically.

One of the odder things about Liberty could be found in the opening salvos, the Reflections section. For reasons that now escape me, early on we insisted that these mini-articles not be signed with a full name. I suggested abbreviations, as in encyclopedia articles, but the publisher decided on a simpler system of initials.

While I signed full articles and reviews with my full name, in the Reflections section my name was truncated, as was that of every other contributor. Later it struck me how odd it was for an individualist magazine to so de-individualize its content, but this argument didn't impress the publisher until after I left his employ.

So now you know the origin of the name for this section of wirkman.net. I still have some fondness for the old days, working 24-hours or more at a time, trying to keep on schedule and juggle a thousand tasks...

As time goes on, I'll post more samplings from the pages of Liberty.

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