The Last Ditch by Tom Paine

The discussions here at The Last Ditch are generally (our friend and active contributor Mark excepted) informed by a broadly classical liberal view. LearnLiberty.org has an interesting series of short video lectures by Dr Nigel Ashford of the Institute for Humane Studies explaining five different schools of thought in modern classical liberalism.

I confess my own ideas are a muddle of them all; a muddle that is never tested because my own society is so far down the road to totalitarianism that the distinctions don't matter now. The ideas of the five schools are different road maps to where we should be, but we are so far away from there that we can all (even conservatives and more moderate socialists) head in the same direction for many miles before our roads diverge. Sadly, I don't expect to live long enough to need to sort my muddle out. It's more important to play whatever miniscule part I can in persuading people to set off in the right direction.

I am a practical man, not an academic. My concerns are for my children and (I hope one day) grandchildren. I hope they will need to sort their views out much more precisely one day.

Here is the introduction to the series. At the end you will find a menu that will lead you to the others. Or you can just relax and wait to see them here, as I will post them all in the coming days.