Young Americans for Liberty Chapter at UMKC

10/08/2016

To All UMKC YAL Members,

We will be having kicking off our organization in the Spring of 2017, and I, as President, am very excited!

What we need to do between now and then is to pull together and get this organization off the ground. The following is necessary to do so. We need:

- A Treasurer
- A Secretary
- A Public Relations Officer
- A Scribe
- An University Liaison
- An Convention Organizer

Anyone who is interested in filling these positions or have any questions about the structure of the group, please comment on this status or you can contact me at my email [email protected].

Thanks!

10/08/2016

09/23/2016

The most important duty of those who support liberty is not only think for themselves, but to question accepted ideas. Not only those of the mainstream media or those of politicians, or even those of our political opponents. More importantly, we must question our own.

As defenders of liberty, you will be consistently challenged about your stances. They will demand you to present your ideological loyalty to some set of ideas. Your job is not to fall for this irrational desire. Your job is to use the Socratic Method. Probe their position, understand it, and then defend yourself. Ask questions, don't assume you know what they mean. Search for the truth, not a confirming biased.

09/21/2016

If you are ever harassed about promoting the Freedom of Speech, just remind them of Article VI of the Constitution (The Constitution is the Law of the Land Article) and then tell them to read the First Amendment and go on your way.

09/07/2016

Thank you to Josi Plyman and Andrew Server for helping me get 65 signatures for the YAL UMKC Chapter. I am amazed!

08/30/2016

For all those who have contacted me or will need to contact me in the future about anything related to YAL, unless it is of absolute importance or you must due to some protocol, please do not call my phone. Send all your correspondence to my email [email protected]. This is for the sake of efficiency and it is my preferred form of communication. Thank you.

08/28/2016

Ludwig Von Mises was a famous Praxeologist and economist who argued that liberty was a matter of human nature, with liberty being the best protection of human virtue. He wrote works like "Human Action", "The Theory of Money and Credit", and the "Anti-Capitalistic Mentality."

His work followed in the footsteps of Max Weber, using a "values free" scientific study of human nature to derive his principle of liberty. His intellectual followers include F.A. Hayek. His work expanded libertarian philosophy into the social sciences and into the philosophical topic of human nature.

In his work "Human Action", Mises wrote, " Value is not intrinsic, it is not in things. It is within us; it is the way in which man reacts to the conditions of his environment. Neither is value in words and doctrines, it is reflected in human conduct. It is not what a man or groups of men say about value that counts, but how they act." (When considering the presidential race, these words should have been a warning, in my opinion.)

His work was crucial to the introduction of Austrian Economic Theory and the expansion of academic study of Austrian Economics in universities around the United States.

08/27/2016

I would like to begin educating those who join the Liberty movement, whether YAL or otherwise, about the intellectuals behind the Libertarian political philosophy. To give our fellow Libertarians, regardless of their preferred branch, people to look up to. Where conservatives recite the words of William F. Buckley Jr. or Edmund Burke, while the Progressive Socialists (sorry I do not see Democrats as worthy of the term liberal in its original meaning) have Gore Vidal or Karl Marx, many Libertarians do not know who to turn to on an intellectual level. So, for now on, I would like to post a picture everyday of a Libertarian intellectual, tell you something about them, and you can research them for yourselves and then share your insights amongst other friends.

Thank you! I would like to introduce Robert Nozick, author of "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" among other amazing philosophical works. He answered the work of the welfare liberal John Rawls' work "A Theory of Justice" in 1974 through the book I previously mentioned.

He famously stated "From each as they choose, to each as they are chosen," an answer to Karl Marx, who said "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

He also has work in epistemology and decision theory.

Thanks for reading, the next one will be shorter I promise.