I see a lot of blogs and websites that claim to speak for "the libertarian left". I haven't run across any from "the libertarian right" but I am sure they are out there somewhere. I don't know about you, but I think that distinction is nonsense. Either you are "libertarian" or you are not. I am not talking about "libertarian purity" or anything silly like that here. You may hold some left-over views, call them "scars", from your past, but don't pigeonhole yourself by those aberrations.
I considered myself on "The Right" long ago. Does that make this blog "a blog of the libertarian right"? I hope not. I have moved beyond all that. Or at least I think I have. Yes, I defend the "keeping and bearing" of guns. I also renounce the supreme stupidity of drug prohibition and "enforcing the law at all costs" that seem to be such a turn-on for The Right. Unlike The Left, I don't believe there is any such critter as "social justice"; either each individual gets justice or no one does.
I just think the false distinctions of "left" and "right" miss the boat completely. They are both authoritarian scavengers patrolling the bottom sludge. The libertarians are up top, in the light. Therefore this is "a blog of the political top".
Amen to that. Follow the left or the right to either of their extremes and you have authoritarians who want to tell us how to live supported by people who want to be told how to live.
ReplyDeleteMichael
Well, Libertarian Left is a term used specifically by our movement to refer to egalitarian Anarchists, people who want the State to be replaced by voluntary action and self-rule. Most Left-Libertarians are Agorists.
ReplyDeleteThen "Left Libertarian" is redundant and should just be called "libertarian". Why add a word that has become synonymous with "socialist"?
ReplyDeleteThis might help clear things up a bit:
ReplyDeletehttp://all-left.net/
So, somebody point me at a "right libertarian".
ReplyDelete"LeftLibertarian.org" a blog aggregator
ReplyDeleteI think most "left" libertarians would agree that that the modern distinction between left and right is meaningless. In this case, the term left is generally meant in the original sense of "revolutionary".
Although a corrupted term(like most), it can be a useful distinction from the "Right" (mainstream\neo\paleo\) libertarians and small government conservatives who like the term libertarian but still support the modern "ancien régime" of centralised government. I suspect this is similar to why you(KM) call yourself a radical libertarian.
An added advantage of the term "left libertarian" is the cord it strikes with the descendants of the European libertarians/socialist anarchists. In their mist is a large proportion who are definitely true allies in our quest too live in a genuinely voluntary society but are scared away by the terminology we, as market anarchists, share with "vulgar" libertarians and state capitalists.
I can't see an easy way round this semantic minefield. In my opinion everyone needs to be more sympathetic towards others' terminology bias and turn of phrase if we are to ever get anywhere in this freedom thing of ours.
Kent,
ReplyDeleteThe term "libertarian left" originated I believe with Sam Konkin, who adapted it from Rothbard's attempts at a meeting of the minds between free market libertarians and the radical left of the sixties (see the archives at Mises.org for his magazine Left and Right with Karl Hess). Another, more recent, manifestation of this was Robert Anton Wilson's Guns and Dope Party (Guns for everybody who wants guns, no guns for anybody who doesn't want them. Dope for everybody that wants dope, no dope for anybody who doesn't).
It's also used to set apart those libertarians who don't equate existing state capitalism with a free market, what Kevin Carson calls "vulgar libertarians" and I would call Stosselite Libertarians. For an example of what I would call a "right" libertarian, look up Eric Dondero, who pushes for Giuliani for president and considers P.J. O'Rourke the "greatest living libertarian".
I don't really consider Dondero much of a "libertarian". Maybe there is a continuum where, somewhere along it, someone slides into the zone most would recognize as "libertarian". I don't really like "socialist anarchists" (is this what Che was?) for the reason that they only want to get rid of the current tyrants and impose their own socialist tyrant. I can't see value in trying to lump myself with them. I try to avoid the words "left" and "right" when talking politics since the only distinction I can see is authoritarian/libertarian. Terms like "radical" and "anarchist" only show how far down the road toward freedom from coercion one thinks they have travelled. (I like the Guns and Dope Party's website and visit it sometimes when I need a psychological lift.)
ReplyDeleteI am not unsympathetic towards the terminology, I simply think it is redundant, and that the words "left" and "right" come with a lot of baggage I am not willing to cart around. I realize that "anarchist" has even more baggage, but I am willing to drag it along because it allows me to explain my position more clearly instead of masking who I am am what I believe.
Right Libertarians would be like paleo-anarchists, or Objectivists, or constitutionalists, things of that sort.
ReplyDeleteSo, they are partially on their way to libertarianism, but stop short? Where do I fit in this? I can't bring myself to use the term "left" or "right" to refer to my views.
ReplyDelete*shrugs*
ReplyDeleteI don't care about left or right. I just happen to be member of a group that calls itself Left Libertarians. I agree that the label is probably badly chosen, but they must have their own reasons.
BTW, good work on your blog. I've added you to my MA blogroll all-star.
ReplyDeleteIn a nutshell, Left-libertarians tend to be much bigger critics of state-capitalism, more critical of things like racism, sexism and homophobia, and more sympathetic toward things like voluntary workers’ associations, collectives, communes, and the like. But don’t worry, they’re still genuine libertarians. I believe they use the “left” label just to show they have different attitudes on some things.
ReplyDeleteI want to thank everyone for the input. As long as someone actually embraces liberty, freedom from coercion, voluntary association, and things like that, while turning away from authoritarianism then they are on the same side as I am. Call yourselves what you will. A rose by any other name....
ReplyDeleteFrancois, thank you for the compliment!
ReplyDelete