On Feb 18, 2010, at 10:38 AM, Sean Andrews wrote:
> I'm also struck (yet again) by how slender a line exists between right
> and left libertarians. I don't know how I feel about this
> philosophically (in principle I would rather not have the oppressive
> elements of the state), but I'm increasingly unimpressed with grand
> anti-state arguments.
Maybe it's just aging, but I have to agree. I just don't see how you can get a damn thing done without a state. And I'm thinking more and more that a lot of the anti-statist tone of left movements - the "Change the World Without Taking Power" business, which got kicked into high gear by the Zapatistas - has been a sign of weakness rather than serious new thinking. Supporters of that sort of thing always give me a hard time when I ask just what the Zaps accomplished, but I don't see them having had any good effect on Mexican politics. They put out some lovely press releases for a while, but Mexico is not a better place today than it was in 1993. It's really worth examining how the appeal of that line fits in with traditional American anti- statism, which naturally hangs to the right, and with the preferences of foundation program officers, who like it that all that Third Sector stuff is accountable to them, not any actual constituency (despite NGOs' frequent claims to be a more authentic voice of The People than elected governments).
Doug