Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Anarchy or liberty? Part four, Conclusions and Sources

What has definitely contributed to my radicalism is an understanding of the hypocrisy of the economic authoritarians/"libertarians". Specifically:

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Murray_Rothbard
an "anarchist" who thought the police didn't beat up enough homeless people
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand
ambivalent about rape
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Friedrich_August_von_Hayek
Supported Pinochet and demanded all governments be constitutionally against the welfare state
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman
"The poor should know hunger"

So, do we always revert back to liberalism? No.
For example, if we take environmentalism and personal rights to a logical degree we can justify eco-terrorism in the name of self-defence. Also, logically we should be prosecuting war criminals like Tony Blair, but politically this could never happen as any government involved in prosecuting a former prime minister would fear possible prosecution because of their actions, either in the past or a possible future.

Does the state make right regardless? No, because one has to be suspicious of statist/"might makes right" ideas as well as "money makes right". Ethically, this is the same as murder or terrorism.
It is also worth noting that despite claims by economic authoritarians that certain government measures would result in capital flight this failed to occur as a "protest" by capital against the Iraq war and Gordon Brown giving £850 billion to the main banks.

Ethically and politically, one has to be a Social Anarchist.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Naomi_Klein
OK, not so much an anarchist but worth reading
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky