The Understanding Project
  • Resources
  • Author
  • Books
  • Logic

The Libertarian Socialist

6/21/2011

 
I recently met a young man who calls himself a socialist, but he's really a libertarian. I'll explain.

What he means by “socialism” is more co-ops, and greater cooperation in general. He does not mean central control. Indeed, if the citizenry of one state wants to opt-out of a program, he says the other states have no right to stop them. He also does not mean we have an obligation to help others. Indeed, he doesn’t believe in paying for something he probably isn’t ever going to use just so others can use more.

He also calls himself an anarchist, but with one caveat: he says he is a “practical anarchist.” He recognizes the need for government to exist to protect us from invasion and generally mitigate forces, which if unleashed, would leave us less free in the end. What he means by anarchist is: he doesn’t believe the government should regulate any of our personal behavior that does not directly harm another.

When I relayed the story of my encounter to a friend of mine, he told me to tell him that he wasn’t a socialist anarchist, but instead a libertarian. It seems there’s already a name for what he is.

I bring this story up because with all the hullaballoo over the Tea Partiers calling Obama a socialist, and the Democrats accusing the Tea Partiers of using the term to scaremonger, it is forgotten that we aren’t always talking about the same things. We are too quick to judge people. It would have been easy for me to have dismissed this guy as hopeless or started arguing with him, accusing him of supporting central control of the economy – and perhaps even a police state, but then I would probably never have learned what this guy was about, and I would not have this story to share.

Afterthought: I met a girl a few years ago who claimed to be a communist. By communism, she meant more cooperation and sharing and less competition and materialism, not a totalitarian government that refuses to recognize property rights. I was very relieved.

daniel noe link
6/21/2011 12:58:03 pm

I totally forgot to mention that this guy also makes a different definition of collectivism than I have heard in the past (see http://www.theunderstandingproject.com/1/post/2010/06/collectivism-or-socialism.html ).

His idea of collectivism is when any member of a small town may call a town meeting and everybody works together without a formal taxation and spending institution.

ray ban link
6/28/2011 04:17:40 pm

read the post ,I think it is very good.

ray bans link
7/11/2011 05:51:15 pm

He has come around after the all star break, and will be a bounce back candidate next year after the M's rid themselves of Jose Lopez and move Chone back to 3rd.

lacoste uk link
10/1/2011 07:34:13 pm

I think the post is good for us.he doesn’t believe the government should regulate any of our personal behavior that does not directly harm another.


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Hi, I'm Dan. I like chocolate, hiking, and politics.

    Archives

    November 2019
    April 2019
    February 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    May 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    February 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Al Gore
    Anarchy
    Animals
    Ann Coulter
    Anti-Semitism
    Approval Rate
    Barack Obama
    Bias
    Bill Clinton
    Budget Deficit
    Bush Bashing
    Bush-Bashing
    Bush-bashing
    Capitalism
    Center
    Christmas
    Civility
    Code Words
    Coffee Parties
    Collectivism
    Compromise
    Conservative
    Constitution
    Court Rulings
    Culture
    Debate
    Democrats
    Dick Cheney
    Discrimination
    Donald Trump
    Drew Weston
    Economy
    Education
    Environment
    Eric Holder
    Euthanasia
    Experience
    Flag Burning
    France
    George W Bush
    Glenn Beck
    Global Warming
    Health Care
    Hillary Clinton
    Historical Narrative
    Holiday
    Homosexual
    Huffington Post
    Humor
    Hypocrisy
    Immigration
    Independent
    Insult
    Insurance
    Iraq
    Israel
    Jared Loughner
    Jimmy Buffet
    John Kerry
    John Mccain
    Jon Stewart
    Joseph Stark
    Journalism
    Judith Curry
    Julian Assange
    Koran
    Liberal
    Libya
    Marginalization
    Marketing
    Marriage
    Media
    Memes
    Mike Huckabee
    Military
    Mit Romney
    Monopoly
    National Debt
    Occupy Wall Street
    Osama Bin Laden
    Partisanship
    Political Spectrum
    Pragmatism
    Prejudice
    Privacy
    Psychology
    Rachel Maddow
    Racism
    Recession
    Religion
    Republicans
    Rights
    Rush Limbaugh
    Sarah Palin
    Sean Hannity
    Semantics
    Sex
    Sexism
    Socialism
    Sources
    State Rights
    State Secrets
    Stephen Colbert
    Suicide
    Taxes
    Tea Parties
    Term Limits
    Theory
    Tom Tancredo
    Torture
    Unions
    Van Jones
    Wikileaks

    RSS Feed

Please check out my books!

  • Resources
  • Author
  • Books
  • Logic