...My short-term goals are to defend and even strengthen elements of state authority which, though illegitimate in fundamental ways, are critically necessary right now to impede the dedicated efforts to "roll back" the progress that has been achieved in extending democracy and human rights. State authority is now under severe attack in the more democratic societies, but not because it conflicts with the libertarian vision. Rather the opposite: because it offers (weak) protection to some aspects of that vision...
--from "Goals and Visions" in Perspectives on Power (1996)
Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> 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
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