Re: left anarchy, right anarchy

The Low Golden Willow (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Sat, 27 Sep 1997 15:19:54 -0700 (PDT)


On Sep 27, 12:45pm, "The Free Marketeer" wrote:

} Hitler was an outstanding example of a "left wing extremist" even

How so?

} or "right" in anarchy. The "left" wouldn't survive without
} utilizing coercion (oxymoron!), or adapting capitalist techniques.

This, of course, begs the question. The anarcho-(socialist,
syndicalist, communist) claim is that property, such as owning a car
which isn't used 90% of the time, or land you've never even visited when
there are landless peasants starving in megacity slums, is theft and
coercion. So they would say "the 'right' wouldn't survive without
utilizing coercion (oxymoron!), or adapting socialist techniques."
Socialist techniques such as

} "Compassionate capitalism" is probably going to
} be the new euphorism for approximating practical anarchy in the
} years ahead.

I've noticed that when I run into The Usenet Libertarianism Thread (pick
a newsgroup, any newsgroup) I reliably find a bunch of ranting
libertarians and a bunch of ranting statists. Sometimes there are some
sophisticated libertarians, and/or sophisticated statists. And
sometimes there'll be one old libertarian, a 19th century propertyless
anarchist, and he always seems quite sophisticated. Still can't explain
how his economy is supposed to work, but his criticisms of reality and
everyone else are usually cogent. Usually far too cogent for the
ranters; they don't even perceive that they're being hit. A good old
anarchist arguing with your typical Econ 101 libertarian or Randroid is
like a biologist and the typical fundamentalist arguing over evolution;
the latter just doesn't get it.

I agree with the biologist more than I do with the anarcho-socialist,
but a simplistic defense of libertarianism serves no good purpose.

} "Left" anarchy is nothing more than intellectual masturbation for
} socialist and communist ideological refugees, particulary in the

Ideological refugees? Anarcho-communism is at least as old as Marxism.

Merry part,
-xx- Damien R. Sullivan X-) <*> http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix

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