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I don’t know why Heart of Darkness receives so much attention among the works of Joseph Conrad. Perhaps it taps the angst of grad students and professors in their quests for titles and tenure. I find it unfortunate, as Conrad has much else to offer and some of his works are more accessible and … less dreary than Heart of Darkness.

Earlier this year I read The Rover (in a very fine, calf-skin edition from 1924), and I’d previously read Victory and a number of Conrad’s shorter works. A few weeks back I stumbled across The Secret Agent in Port Orchard’s Book ‘Em. (Interestingly it was published in Stuttgart and labeled “Not for sale in the U.S.A. or the British Commonwealth.”) According to Conrad’s introduction, the plot is ripped from a headline in the same loose sense as NBC’s Law & Order. In Conrad’s work, the missteps of an agent provocateur gradually expose a tableau of London revolutionaries whose ideologies either render them inert, inhuman, or, at the very best, awash in hypocrisy.

His thoughts caressed the images of ruin and destruction. He walked frail, insignificant, shabby, miserable – and terrible in the simplicity of his idea calling madness and despair to the regeneration of the world. Nobody looked at him.

For an exploration of the hollow core of radical Marxism and Historicism, The Secret Agent offers all that within an espionage tale and with a bit of humor as well.

Federalist No. 39 is the essential essay on Federalism in the original Constitution. Here is how Madison sums up.

The proposed Constitution, therefore, is, in strictness, neither a national nor a federal Constitution, but a composition of both. In its foundation it is federal, not national; in the sources from which the ordinary powers of the government are drawn, it is partly federal and partly national; in the operation of these powers, it is national, not federal; in the extent of them, again, it is federal, not national; and, finally, in the authoritative mode of introducing amendments, it is neither wholly federal nor wholly national.

One word of caution: The Constitution gave Federalism a new meaning very different from the old idea of a lose, defensive federation. Generally, as here, when they use the term they have in mind the older rather than the newer meaning.

I’m in the middle of a tour of Washington state teaching about our union of states, the constitutional structure called Federalism. Here’s an update, cross-posted from LibertyLive.org.

So far in our series of classes on the Constitution and Federalism, we’ve been to Tacoma, Mt. Vernon, Renton, Shoreline, Bellevue, Everett, and Port Orchard. This week takes us to Omak, Moses Lake, Spokane, and Pasco, and on Sunday afternoon to Yakima. Next week, we finish the series with stops in Sequim, Olympia, and Vancouver.

Federalism–the balance of power between our national and state governments–is an essential part of our constitutional structure. It keeps local issues local, where people have more say and governments can better respect local diversity. State and local governments, because they are smaller and closer to the people, have greater potential for accountability and transparency than Washington, D.C. Even the Ancient Greeks understood this, which is why they formed federations in the first place. To learn more, attend one of our upcoming programs. You can also become a Freedom Foundation member to read more about Federalism in the August issue of Living Liberty.

Today the Evergreen Freedom Foundation released the first in a new online video series, Talk Back on Economics, at GetFree.tv. The idea is to offer some basic free market ideas in an interesting and lively format.

You can subscribe to GetFree.tv on iTunes.

My son and I spoke at the Conservative Enthusiasts’ July 4th picnic on Mercer Island. Thanks to Mark Sussman for the invitation. (The video does clear up after going blurry; thanks to the videographer for posting to YouTube!)

A lot of people are upset about “the government.” And there’s a lot to be upset about, from the lack of personal ethics displayed by state legislators like Sen. Phil Rockefeller, sponsor of the “title only” tax bill (that is, it’s blank—they’ll write it later) that had its “public hearing” in today’s legislative session, to every member of any legislature (especially the U.S. Congress) who votes for spending with no intention of seeing that the bills get paid.

But the worst of it all, is how these people came to power. Not one of them marched into a capital as part of a conquering army. And though some were born or married into wealth and power, no one can actually get to Congress that way.

These rogues and scoundrels were nearly all elected … by the people. Most of our worst politicians were elected fair and square, put into power by the people even as they compete to see how quickly they can regulate, tax, and indebt us into oblivion.

This is our crisis and our opportunity. Too many voters are suckered by candidates promising a free lunch and other too-good-to-be-true government “bargains.” Yet every politician is vulnerable at election time.

(Crossposted from Save Our States: protecting Federalism and the Electoral College)

Today I had the pleasure of talking with two great legislators in Pennsylvania’s state capitol. The Commonwealth Foundation had suggested I speak with Senator Mike Folmer because of his understanding of and dedication to America’s founding principles. It turns out that Senator Folmer is one of the founders of COOL: the Constitutional Organization Of Liberty, an organization that is doing in Pennsylvania what the Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s Citizen Action Network is doing in Washington State.

The first-term Senator walks the walk in other ways as well, paying back to the state treasury the amount of the cost of living increase in his legislator salary because he believes the automatic pay raises violate the Pennsylvania Constitution. You can find him on Facebook.

State capitols are great places to get lost, which can turn out to be a real blessing. When someone offered to show me the way back to the main capitol building, it was only natural for me to ask him what he did there. He turned out to be Representative Joseph Preston, Jr., a long-time legislator from Pittsburgh. All I had to do was mention my concern about the effort to undermine the Electoral College and Representative Preston remarked that people just don’t read The Federalist Papers anymore. He explained to me that he requires his staff to read them.

What a day, and a great reminder that there are dedicated, thoughtful elected officials who care enough for Liberty to study the institutions that preserve it.

The first thing you notice outside Vermont’s Capitol Building is that it’s beautiful, set back on a hill, built in the classical style, and topped with a golden dome. And the first thing you notice inside is that it’s small. Walk around and it only gets smaller.

The members have no personal offices and no personal staff. Neither do the party caucuses. Each committee has a room with a table in it. Legislators work either from their slice of that table or from their desk in the House or Senate chamber (or in the cafeteria or the hall). And everything is as open as could be, so long as you’re not claustrophobic.

It was a beautiful thing, in my opinion, to see legislators really working, working themselves rather than relying on personal or caucus staff. In truth, the reliance on professional staff is a threat to representative government. It has also undermined limited government as legislatures hire staff to do what they would not otherwise have the time to do.

Now if we can only figure out how to bring some of the spirit of Montpelier back to Olympia….

And remember, there’s more about my trip over at Save Our States: Protecting Federalism and the Electoral College.