"[W]hen men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas-that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market, and that truth is the only ground upon which their wishes safely can be carried out. That at any rate is the theory of our Constitution."
             - Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Abrams v. US (1919) (dissenting).

"Economic markets, for example, do not guarantee technological or material 'progress.' They merely facilitate progress if the market players are capable of and inclined to such a thing. Historically, some cultures have achieved material and technological progress, some have not.

"Likewise, intellectual markets guarantee neither moral or intellectual progress. They merely reflect the morality, intelligence, character and acumen of those able and permitted to participate in them. As with economic progress, some cultures have achieved intellectual progress, some have not.

"Thus, an intellectual market provides no inherent guarantee that the ideas which prevail are better or truer or more useful than ideas which fail. In fact, the market of ideas is the worst system in the world for discovering truth - except for all the others."
            - Mike Dean, School Choice and Intellectual Freedom (1997).

"Government speech, by definition, disrupts and dislocates the market of ideas that would exist but for government intrusion, and creates a different market that would not have existed but for the same intrusion. Something to remember every time a congressman or tenured professor collects a salary your taxes pay for."

FFF briefs and publications

"Wishing you a blessed and thoughtful Thanksgiving" Essay by Michael Dean

In a culture bent on erasing itself, the second verse of America the Beautiful is
one of my favorites among the few lonely sentinels still guarding what's left of the
American idea. Read More

Plimouth Plantation Essay by Michael Dean

The officials were ostensibly from the Wampanoag nation, but I don’t know if that was really true because there were signs directing us not ask any of them “hurtful questions” like what percentage of native American, in fact, they really were. 

Read More

"Politics, Elections, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court: Preserving Debate and the Market of Ideas" by Michael Dean

I wrote recently that the April 1 Gableman-Butler race for Wisconsin Supreme Court was going to get "ugly." It has. Read More

Steiger, Dover, and the New Alchemy

Southworth Supreme Court Brief