[lbo-talk] CNN prints "Libertarian" ideas to save economy

[Alan Rudy]

My take on this, after significant engagement with Bookchin's work some time
back and arriving on the political scene after the right wrested
"libertarian" from the left in the late-70s, was that "libertarian" and
"populist" are parallel and atheoretical terms in the mainstream of  US
politics - at least along the lines of Marxist/sociological understandings
of capitalism/modernity.
In both cases, the left wing is primarily communitarian (often rooted in
some variant of "Jeffersonian democracy") and the right is primarily
dedicated to free markets (usually rooted in some variant of Smithian
independent/moral economy) and both believe in self-determination.
Tied to the query about "freedom" - and surely painting with too broad a
brush - libertarians and populists tend to embrace a big-is-bad vs.
personal-is-good kind of politics committed ot the idea that communities, or
individuals, should be "free" to be and become who they want to be and
become.
Surely, liberatarian anarchists in North America draw on european traditions
tied to intellectual and political traditions much more cognizant of the
problems of the localism of American "populism" and the individualism of
American "libertarianism" than are broadly understood much less embraced in
the US.

*********************************************************
Alan P. Rudy
Visiting Associate Professor
Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work
Central Michigan University
124 Anspach Hall
Mt Pleasant, MI 48858
517-881-6319

On Sat, Feb 7, 2009 at 12:24 PM, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:


>
> On Feb 7, 2009, at 9:01 AM, Eric Beck wrote:
>
>>
>> Ron Paul got them started, I think, and mostly they were rebelling
>> from within the ranks of the Repbulican Party, which I give them some
>> credit for. I also give them credit because the current crisis has
>> radicalized them even more. At least, unlike many on the left, they are
>> adjusting to changing circumstances. Too bad it's in a completely creepy and
>> stupid direction.
>>
>
>
> If they are indeed becoming "Libertarian"(TM) that's far from a "completely
> creepy and stupid" choice.  I dare say that if these three points of the
> "Libertarian"(TM) program--reduction of the military to the minuscule force
> needed for defense of the US's territorial integrity; end of the "war on
> drugs" through legalization and medical regulation; and elimination of the
> "foreign aid" that goes mainly to despotic regimes on the order of Israel
> and Egypt--if these three things were done the benefit to everybody in the
> world would far, far outweigh the real harm done even by enactment of all
> the "creepy and stupid" aspects of the "Libertarian"(TM) program.
>
>
> Shane Mage
>
>  This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
>> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
>> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>>
>> Herakleitos of Ephesos
>>
>
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