parables Archives - The Libertarian Labyrinth

Radical Parables

August 2, 2005 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] As I’ve been immersing myself in Bolton Hall’s work lately, I’ve been finding that nearly half of the book-length works consist of parables of one sort or another. The parable form is fairly common among radical writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Before he wandered off into anti-semitism and eugenic speculation, Morrison Isaac Swift, the anti-imperialist, wrote a collection of entertaining short fictions, nearly all of which amount to radical parables. A number of Mary Marcy’s books published by Charles H. Kerr took the form of socialist parables. Of course, these latter works were a bit […]

Readings at Random: How the Doctors At Last Agreed

August 1, 2005 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] How the Doctors At Last Agreed A patient with a rope twisted tight around his fee was brought to the Sociologic Hospital. His skin was chafed and bruised by the cord, and fever burned him so that he was like to perish outright. Said Dr. Divine: “We must first make you and your fellows religious, so that you won’t come to such dreadful straights.” “No,” said Dr. Socialis; “first do away with competition, which makes men enemies, then if the patient needs religion, it may be administered.” Dr. Charitas said: “Good homes would prevent all this. Now here is […]

“a toast to dear old Bolton Hall”

July 2, 2005 Shawn P. Wilbur

[ezcol_2third] Bolton Hall, single tax anarchist – the song! The great things you find online! Kevin Carson’s recent post on Georgism led me back to the work of Bolton Hall. I read through his collection of children’s stories, “Monkey Shines,” over coffee yesterday and read parts of “The Game of Life” last night. It’s hard to overstate what a fine writer and sane thinker Hall was. But here’s a taste: The Social Poultice Society The subject for the evening was, “How to Abolish War.” The President suggested, that, as a matter of course, we should prohibit the use of dum-dum […]