Tag: politics
Ani DiFranco, la Schiavitù e il Sussidio della Storia
Qualche tempo fa la cantautrice Ani DiFranco ha dovuto cancellare il suo “Righteous Retreat in the Big Easy”, un ritrovo di autori di canzoni ospitato nella Nottoway Plantation and Resort, una ex piantagione di schiavi in Luisiana. La scelta del luogo aveva provocato un meritato scontento, costringendo la DiFranco alla ritirata. La cantante ha poi…
Good Piece In The Jacobin
The Jacobin recently published a good piece by Peter Frase titled “The Left and the State.” In it he discusses a recent attack on Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange. This attack was published in the well known liberal magazine, The New Republic. He makes use of another good piece by libertarian, Will Wilkinson….
Finding The Brake
In his 1815 Principles of Politics, French liberal author Benjamin Constant defended the monarch’s “right to dissolve representative assemblies.” Constant’s position might seem surprising. Wasn’t securing the independence of parliaments from the royal will one of liberalism’s hard-won victories? His reasoning ran as follows. The “tendency of assemblies to multiply indefinitely the number of laws” is the inevitable…
Libertarian Class Analysis
Say the words “class analysis” or “class conflict” and most people will think of Karl Marx. The idea that there are irreconcilable classes, their conflict inherent in the nature of things, is one of the signatures of Marxism. That being the case, people who want nothing to do with Marxism quite naturally want nothing to…
Self-Help Against The State
A war has been raging in Mexico for almost ten years now. The nexus of American drug laws and Americans’ drug use has spawned outlaw cartels who, like the Prohibition-era Mob, use violence to enforce their control of the drug trade. In 2006, the situation was exacerbated when the government of then-president Felipe Calderon launched…
The Weekly Libertarian Leftist and Chess Review 13
Wendy McElroy reviews a historical work on the surveillance state. Jonathan Cook discusses the Israel-Palestine conflict. Sheldon Richman discusses how intellectual property creates corporate concentration. Jim Lobe discusses the fall of Fallujah. Stephen Kinzer discusses the potential detente with Iran. Thaddeus Russell discusses The Other America. Kevin Carson reviews AFFEERCE: A Business Plan to Save…
La Privatizzazione della Diplomazia, alla Maniera di Dennis Rodman
Il verdetto è stato emesso: Tutti i popoli civili devono odiare Dennis Rodman. Politici da John McCain a John Kerry e opinionisti da Bill O’Reilly a Chris Matthews sono offesi dal fatto che un americano visiti il terzo polo dell’Asse del Male. All’inizio di questa settimana Rodman, assieme a sei suoi ex compagni di gioco…
Privacy 2014: La Favola dell’Accaparratore
In questi ultimi anni gli accaparratori – persone che collezionano mucchi di oggetti fino ad esserne sopraffatti – sono diventati l’argomento forte dei notiziari e della “televisione della realtà”. Secondo un’opinione condivisa da molti gli accaparratori sono persone malate di mente, persone comunque socialmente deviate e bisognose di “aiuto”, o persone che devono essere fermate nella…
On The Worship Of Authority
On Monday, January 13, two Fullerton, California police officers charged with the beating death of Kelly Thomas were acquitted, and the prosecutor announced his decision not to press charges against a third officer involved. Millions who had been following the story met the verdict with incredulity: How could anyone who watched that horrific video of…
Propriedade e privatização libertárias: um paradigma alternativo
Carlton Hobbs recentemente desafiou a tendência da corrente principal dos libertários, defensores do livre-mercado e anarco-capitalistas a favorecer a corporação capitalista como modelo primário de propriedade e atividade econômica e a assumir que qualquer sociedade de livre-mercado futura será organizada no padrão do capitalismo corporativista. Como alternativa a essa forma de organização, Hobbs propôs a…
Libertarian Property and Privatization: An Alternative Paradigm
Carlton Hobbs recently challenged the tendency of mainstream libertarians, free marketers and anarcho-capitalists to favor the capitalist corporation as the primary model of ownership and economic activity, and to assume that any future free market society will be organized on the pattern of corporate capitalism. As one alternative to such forms of organization, Hobbs proposed…
Using Agorist Class Theory
Konkin offered a scenario [PDF], using agorist class theory, to illustrate the difference between a limited-government libertarian and an agorist: “Consider the individual standing at the corner of the street. He can see two sides of the building behind him as he prepares to cross the street. He is hailed and turns around to see an acquaintance from the…
The Cynicism And Futility Of Imprisonment
A new report from the Swedish Prison and Probation Service claims that 46 percent of Sweden’s inmates are mentally ill, that 70 percent have severe drug problems and that these problems mostly have their origins in early life. As elsewhere, Sweden’s prison population is made up of the most disenfranchised, poorest and most vulnerable elements…
Capitalismo: uma palavra boa para uma coisa ruim
O editor do The Freeman, Sheldon Richman, discursando na George Mason University, levantou a questão sobre o que os libertários convencionais querem dizer quando chamam um país de “capitalista”. O que qualifica um país como “capitalista”? Muitos países com índices relativamente baixos de liberdade econômica (incluindo aqueles classificados como “majoritariamente não-livre”) são normalmente considerados “capitalistas”, e referenciados…
Five Libertarian Reforms Millennials Should Be Fighting For
Millennials are disgruntled, and it’s no wonder. In 2008 they turned out in record numbers in support of a presidential candidate who used the most leftish-sounding rhetoric of any Democratic candidate since McGovern. This president came into office with a seemingly filibuster-proof Democratic Congressional majority, by the largest Democratic electoral margin since LBJ beat Goldwater….
Without Government, Who Will Block The Roads?
One question that libertarians and anarchists never stop hearing is “without government, who will build the roads?” Given Bridge-Gate — an intentionally manufactured traffic jam on New Jersey’s George Washington Bridge — one might ask “without government, who will block the roads?” The scandal emerged after four grueling days of inexplicably awful traffic turned out…
The Weekly Libertarian Leftist and Chess Review 12
Review 12 is here! Martin Morse Wooster reviews, Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Ceaser’s Mortal Enemy. Sheldon Richman discusses the ceding of the war power to Israel. Sheldon Richman discusses how morality and practicality coincide in making the case for liberty. Jim Miles reviews, Goliath – Life and loathing in Greater…
Legitimation Crisis
In the latest news story about collusive government-industry pipeline deals, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell announced a “partnership” between the Alaskan government, TransCanada, Exxon Mobil, BP and ConocoPhillips to build a pipeline “attractive to North Slope oil and gas companies.” Such pipeline projects, all involving massive government subsidies including the use of eminent domain to condemn…
Svensk polis, rasism och motstånd
Sverige porträtteras ofta i internationell media som en pluralismens, toleransens och framstegets högborg. Den här bilden står dock i stark konstrast mot marginaliserade människors upplevda verkligheter i Sverige, då den svenska staten blir allt mer desperat och våldsam. 2012 orsakade avslöjandena om inre gränskontroller i Stockholms kollektivtrafikssystem ilska, skräck och ursinne. I den här omfattande…
An Open Letter To The Peace Movement: Reply To A Friend’s Criticisms Continued
In my last blog post; I discussed some criticisms of Roderick T. Long’s, An Open Letter to the Peace Movement, by a non-anarchist or non-libertarian friend. This post continues that discussion. It contains responses to a part of my friend’s response not previously dealt with. The earlier comments will be given a second look in…
Anarchy and Democracy
Fighting Fascism
Markets Not Capitalism
The Anatomy of Escape
Organization Theory