Big thank you to Jeremy Weiland for including this blog in the aggregation called leftlibertarian.org. I will try to keep the content worthy. Must confess last night threw in another quotebag due to writer’s block. My sympathies are more with social anarchism than left libertarianism, whose tone strikes me as a mixture of 1% left and 99% libertarianism. I have no quarrels with the libertarian left; as I understand their definition of ‘market’ almost perfectly matches the laissez-faire enthusiasts’ definition of ‘capitalism.’ My definition of capitalism is distinct from both; being simply another word for ‘business.’ My head is 100% on their side, while my heart has qualms with the bulletproof case of both camps to the effect that voluntarism implies agorism—with all that that implies—in particular price signals. The purpose of this blog is the search for end-runs around the Iron Laws of Economics. Lately I’ve been looking mainly at gift economy (gift paradigm as an alternative to exchange paradigm) and extreme transparency (visible hand as an alternative to invisible hand). I’m not sure my content is appropriate in a left libertarian venue, but I can promise to be nice, even when doing the devil’s advocate thing. And I appreciate the analytical acumen of the left libertarians. Those who are closer to my most passionate views, unfortunately tend to be either interested in talking about no subject other than demonstrations, or are hopelessly mystical and therefore speak gibberish. This project is, as much as anything else, an exploration of my own head…
with Gratitude to Jeremy Weiland
Comments
6 responses to “with Gratitude to Jeremy Weiland”
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Granted I’m a bit on the left of even the left-libertarian camp many times, but from my perspective your blog is a very welcome, fresh take on things. I strongly suspect many others feel that way as well.
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Well, there’s no particular orthodoxy involved in being on the leftlibertarian.org aggregator — as the inclusion of Matthew Yglesias shows! I find your contributions thought-provoking even when I don’t agree with them, so by all means welcome.
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Being a left-libertarian, I am still a regular reader of your blog. So for me at least, it is valuable.
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You may not consider yourself left libertarian, but *I* consider you to be the kind of left libertarian that I want to be part of our movement or at least conversant with. I’m probably not as hostile to business as you are, but I believe I’m much more hostile to it than many of my allies, so I feel a camaraderie with what you’re trying to do here. I think the left libertarian milieu is much richer for having you as a part, if you can stand it. 🙂
That said, if inclusion on the aggregator brings too many outraged market fundamentalists your way, let me know – there’s no reason in hell you should have to constantly stake out a position in a movement of which you’re not even an enthusiastic member!
By the way, there’s a group of us that is going to start a gift economy reading group. With your blessing I’ll submit your email so you can keep up with it when it starts (if it starts).
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Oh, I’m not afraid of market fundamentalists. If anyone wants to blow up my mailbox it’s november eight charlie hotel zulu [at] yahoo [dot] ca.
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What is your definition of the market?
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