Hi All
On 9 Feb 99, at 23:25, drose wrote:
> David Buchanan wrote:
>
> > I'll confess right up front that I did not vote
> > for the President. I'd call myself something like a libertarian
> > socialist.
>
> I'd personally call you something like confused. Mutually exclusive
> ideologies there, David.
I disagree with Don here. Libertarianism and Socialism are not mutually exclusive
ideologies, especially under the MOQ banner, any more than Intellect and Society are
mutually exclusive. They will, at times, produce ideological and moral conflict but, using
the MOQ to establish the order of priority of Value in a conflict, it is generally
Libertarianism that will be the more moral ideology where Society threatens the rights of
the individual.
This doesn't mean to say that there must be continual conflict though, as mutual
exclusivity would imply. Libertarian principles, generally rights based (freedom of
expression, freedom of association, right to privacy etc.) can operate quite comfortably
alongside socialist principles. Socialism is centred around collective responsibility and it is
collective responsibility which gives strength to individual rights. Rights and
responsibility are two sides of the same coin and this is generally what many so-called
libertarians fail to appreciate, being more intersted in their own rights to the exclusion of
those of others.
I was glad to see that David brought up Chomsky as he is a prime example of a Libertarian
Socialist thinker as I think that he epitomises the idea of the Intellectual with a social
conscience and knowledge of the value of social responsibility. If you read virtually any of
his political works he espouses the virtues of the collective within a libertarian system. A
collective is based upon many Socialist principles. It is only the Socialist systems which
lapse into authoritarianism which are a threat to the Libertarian, but once they become
authoritarian they cease to be true Socialist systems. To contradict Pirsig, it has been the
tension between Libertarian and Authoritarian beliefs this century which serve to illustrate
the struggle of Intellect to break free from the constraints of Society - specifically those
societies where authoritarianism was and is the norm. This is something that was
understood very well in earlier times by Jefferson, Burke, Paine and Mill.
Anyway, I could probably go on for a lot longer but suffice to say that I am in agreement
with David here that the Libertarian Socialist ethos is not confused (nor is it wrong). I'm
also in agreement with David as this is the political ideology to which I also subscribe.
Horse
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