
Vices Are Not Crimes
A Vindication of Moral Liberty
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Narrated by:
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Pete Ferrand
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By:
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Lysander Spooner
About this listen
We are all indebted to Carl Watner for uncovering an unknown work by the great Lysander Spooner, one that managed to escape the editor of Spooner’s Collected Works. Both the title and the substance of “Vices are not Crimes” highlight the unique role that morality and moral principle had for Spooner among the anarchists and libertarians of his day. For Spooner was the last of the great natural-rights theorists among anarchists, classical liberals, or moral theorists generally; the doughty old heir of the natural law–natural rights tradition of the 17th and 18th centuries was fighting a rearguard battle against the collapse of the idea of a scientific or rational morality, or of the science of justice or of individual right. Not only had natural law and natural rights given way throughout society to the arbitrary rule of utilitarian calculation or nihilistic whim, but the same degenerative process had occurred among libertarians and anarchists as well.
Spooner knew that the foundation for individual rights and liberty was tinsel if all values and ethics were arbitrary and subjective. Yet, even in his own anarchist movement Spooner was the last of the Old Guard believers in natural rights; his successors in the individualist anarchist movement, led by Benjamin R. Tucker, all proclaimed arbitrary whim and might-makes-right as the foundation of libertarian moral therory. And yet, Spooner knew that this was no foundation at all; for the State is far mightier than any individual, and if the individual cannot use a Introduction by Murray Rothbard 3 4 Lysander Spooner theory of justice as his armor against State oppression, then he has no solid base from which to roll back and defeat it.
©2024 Mises institute (P)2024 Listen and Think AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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information
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Overall
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Lysander Spooner must be taught in schools!
- By devon on 07-15-19
By: Lysander Spooner
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No Treason: The Anarchist Classic with a New Introduction
- By: Lysander Spooner
- Narrated by: Ayrton Parham
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
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Story
Lysander Spooner was one of slavery’s fiercest enemies. As a lawyer, he offered free legal services to escaped slaves, defending them in court. He advocated smuggling guns to slaves, with which to overthrow their masters, and take possession of their property. “Give the Slave-holders, then, a taste of their own whips.”
-
-
I HAVE SEARCHED FOR THE WORDS FOR A LONG TIME
- By devon on 07-16-19
By: Lysander Spooner
-
The Anatomy of the State (LvMI)
- By: Murray N. Rothbard
- Narrated by: John Riddle
- Length: 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Murray Rothbard was known as the state's greatest living enemy, and this audiobook is his most powerful statement on the topic. He explains what a state is and what it is not. He shows how it is an institution that violates all that we hold as honest and moral, and how it operates under a false cover.
-
-
Good material
- By Tom on 12-14-19
-
The Fiat Standard
- The Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization
- By: Saifedean Ammous
- Narrated by: Saifedean Ammous, Guy Swann
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
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Story
In The Fiat Standard, world-renowned economist Saifedean Ammous applies his unique analytical lens to the fiat monetary system, explaining it as a feat of engineering and technology just as he did for bitcoin in his global best seller The Bitcoin Standard. This time, Ammous delves into the world's earlier shift from the gold standard to today's system of government-backed fiat money—outlining the fiat standard's purposes and failures; deriving the wider economic, political, and social implications of its use; and examining how bitcoin will affect it over time.
-
-
keep narrative to economics related topics
- By HM on 06-14-22
By: Saifedean Ammous
-
The Anarchist Handbook
- By: Michael Malice
- Narrated by: Michael Malice
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anarchism has been both a vision of a peaceful, cooperative society — and an ideology of revolutionary terror. Since the term itself — anarchism — is a negation, there is a great deal of disagreement on what the positive alternative would look like. The black flag comes in many colors.
-
-
An absolute gem
- By Tim on 12-16-21
By: Michael Malice
-
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Economics
- The Politically Incorrect Guides
- By: Thomas J. DiLorenzo
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Another entry in the best-selling, irreverent, hard-hitting Politically Incorrect Guide series! Economics from a rational, conservative viewpoint—that is, a refreshing look at how money actually works from an author who knows the score, and how the law of economics are frequently broken and derailed by pernicious leftists and virtue signaling progressives.
-
-
information
- By bryan on 02-24-25
What listeners say about Vices Are Not Crimes
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Derek Sheriff
- 04-12-24
A hidden gem among Lysander Spooner’s works
This is a great essay not usually found in compilations of Spooners works. Excellent narration as well, in my opinion.
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