"The Alliance of the Libertarian Left is a multi-tendency coalition of mutualists, agorists,
voluntaryists, geolibertarians, left-Rothbardians, green libertarians, dialectical anarchists,
radical minarchists, and others on the libertarian left, united by an opposition to statism,
militarism, and the prevailing corporatist capitalism falsely called a free market, as well as
by an emphasis on education, direct action, and building alternative institutions, rather
than on electoral politics, as our chief strategy for achieving liberation."
Do you know why this isn't catching on, kids? It's seriously short on zazz. You need to zazz it up a bit. Nobody wants to sit around in a circle, unable to go take a crap without first debating whether it's a coercive, statist crap or not. What do y'all do for fun on Saturday nights, go get in verbal rumbles with Randian Objectivists? Sorta like a Jets versus Sharks thing? You should highlight that, then. Otherwise you'll continue looking as dully earnest as a Nader campaign volunteer.
"Sorta like a Jets versus Sharks thing?"
ReplyDeleteMore like a Bolsheviks vs. Mensheviks thing - awaiting funding by such well-endowed parties as might find one or the other of them "useful".
Does this mean that they are just as confused about the meaning of liberty as the rest of the left, only more narrowly focused?
ReplyDeleteI'll bet they cluster together in coffee shops oppressing each other.
ReplyDeleteIn the sense that they are basically divided between "agorist" anarchists and "geoanarchist" (c)ommunists.
ReplyDeleteAnd terms such as "freedom," "liberty," "justice," and "fairness" do not lend themselves to complete and coherent formulation, in any case.
"I'll bet they cluster together in coffee shops oppressing each other."
ReplyDeleteShould another Ayn Rand arise amongst them, I anticipate the establishment, this time, of a *formal* Inquisition, to root out deviation from purely individualist meme-processing.
"Zazz?" What is "zazz?" If you mean that ideas aren't exciting, I guess that I can respect you opinion, but I don't understand it. Even though the ALL isn't perfect, or even close (they consider IWW allies!), investigating and rebutting ideas strikes me as in the long-run as quite satisfying even if it lacks "zazzyness."
ReplyDelete*ROFLMAO*
ReplyDeleteThanks!
db
"What is "zazz?""
ReplyDeleteFor starters? A sense of humor.
T.
Brian: Excuse me. Are you the Judean People's Front?
ReplyDeleteReg: Fuck off! We're the People's Front of Judea!
...I'm still sputtering trying to figure out WHATINTHEHELL constitutes a Green Libertarian.
ReplyDeleteIt boggles the mind. This is why "The Tragedy of the Commons" was WRITTEN.
"Zazz?" What is "zazz?" If you mean that ideas aren't exciting, I guess that I can respect you opinion, but I don't understand it."
ReplyDeleteAnd an earnestly dull voice has been heard from. Only this one makes a Nader activist seem like a laugh riot by comparison.
The best thing about the English language? The wealth of vocabulary.
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing about the English language? The wealth of vocabulary.
So these guys are basically hijacking the term "libertarian in" an attempt to legitimize their idiocy?
ReplyDeleteSeems like a reasonable strategy, and a great reason for me to oppose them.
I recently ran into a guy who referred to himself as a "Libertarian Socialist." How he could wrap one brain around two such diametrically opposed positions I just couldn't grasp. Apparently he's just that much smarter than l'il old me.
ReplyDeleteA Libertarian Socialist is someone who likes the libertarian concept of "nobody gets to tell me what to do" while simultaneously embracing the socialist concept of "...but I get to tell others what to do."
ReplyDeleteLibertarianism doesn't mix with most other political -isms because of the non-aggression principle at its core.
Ursula LeGuin's The Dispossessed comes to mind.
ReplyDeleteThey missed this "libertarian socialist" group.
ReplyDeleteAnd THAT, m'dear, is why some guys over on Kim duToit's blog call me a 'fusionist'; sometimes I'm a libertarian, sometimes a conservative, once in a GREAT while, a liberal (VERY seldom, but miracles DO happen!).
ReplyDeleteI believe in INDIVIDUAL ADULT RESPONSIBILITY, and enforcement of the consequences of not being a responsible adult - kids get a different kind of treatment.
Jim, the Mad Yank
Basically, someone who doesn't like the gummint telling 'em what to do.... unless it's for the good of the planet.
ReplyDeleteUnless they are Libertarian National Socialist Greens.
No more strange than the folks on the right neo-conservatives calling themselves "conservative".
ReplyDelete