Comments on: War, Socialism and Precision in Thinking

By: Rad Geek People’s Daily 2005-12-20 – Lazy linking on Leftist labor libertarianism

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 18:15:14 +0000

[...] Brad Spangler (2005-12-03): War, Socialism, and Precision in Thinking writes on the need to disentangle the different meanings attached to the words capitalism and socialism (each of them has at least one traditional meaning that’s perfectly consistent with the peaceful economic cooperation, and one that’s directly antagonistic to it). Brad protests the fuzzy thinking that typically comes about from running the terms freely together, and urges libertarians to realize that If anything that is voluntary on all sides is, at the very least, acceptable to the point that it at least can not righteously be opposed by force, then one has to come to grips that a stateless society will have capitalistic and socialistic aspects in practice. Hippy communes. Farmers co-ops. Employee owned enterprises. Workers syndicates. Unions. … Ultimately, vulgar libertarians, on this point anyway, fail to distinguish libertarianism from personal preference for a particular class of business models. [...]

By: GoodMennen2

GoodMennen2 — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 15:03:36 +0000

good blog is dead blog:-) long live!…

…

By: BradSpangler.com » Blog Archive » Rothbard’s Reds

BradSpangler.com » Blog Archive » Rothbard’s Reds — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 15:08:46 +0000

[...] Of course, I’ve talked about this sort of thing and its ramifications before, and I’m not the first Rothbardian to do so. As an example, note where Konkin briefly argued over two decades ago that the stateless Free Market accomplishes the libertarian communist goal of abolishing “wage slavery” (not necessarily wages per se) using the anarcho-capitalist means. “It probably should be noted explicitly that businesses could grow quite large in the counter-economy. Whether or not ‘wage workers’ would exist instead of ‘independent contractors’ for all steps of production is arguable, but this author feels that the whole concept of ‘worker-boss’ is a holdover from feudalism and not, as Marx claims, fundamental to ‘capitalism.’ Of course, capital-statism is the opposite of what the libertarian advocates.” [...]

By: BradSpangler.com » Blog Archive » Klafka and left libertarian reconciliation

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:17:20 +0000

[...] Definitions are important when discussing complex concepts. I’ve mentioned before the ambiguity of terms like socialism and capitalism in that each can have both a libertarian and an authoritarian meaning. Back in 1993, in Anarchy: a Journal of Desire Armed no. 34, Lance Klafka laid blame for this state of affairs squarely at the feet of Rand in his article “Ayn Rand and the Perversion of Libertarianism“. Ayn Rand, however, attempted to offer a moral justification of capitalism by substituting the word `capitalism’ for the libertarian meaning of the word “socialism.” [...]

By: BradSpangler.com » Blog Archive » The Emerging Anarcho-Centrist Agenda for Socialist Revolution with Capitalist Characteristics

Tue, 31 Jan 2006 07:16:35 +0000

[...] I’ve approached this matter myself before and found it convenient to cite this explanation by fictional character Hagbard Celine of why Proudhon was not contradicting himself when he said both that “Property is Theft” and that “Property is Liberty“. Proudhon, by piling up his contradictions this way, was not merely being French; he was trying to indicate that the abstraction “property” covers a variety of phenomena, some pernicious and some beneficial. Let us borrow a device from the semanticists… [...]

By: Brad Spangler

Brad Spangler — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 02:44:40 +0000

“Excelletn as usual Brad…”

Thanks!

I might be setting myself up for an ideological smackdown, but I’m not entirely sure I want to concede the Left to you. :)

Actually, here’s one post in particular I’d like your thoughts on.

http://www.bradspangler.com/blog/archives/221

By: plawiuk

plawiuk — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 01:57:40 +0000

Excelletn as usual Brad and you have once again inspired me as I cruised through your blog to go on and on and on at my blog on libertarian labour, socialism etc. from my marxist perspective. So thanks man for the inspiration to respond to your posts from the left.

By: Geekery Today

Geekery Today — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:05:46 +0000

Lazy linking on Leftist labor libertarianism

Try saying that three times fast. For a while now I’ve been urging libertarians and the labor movement to take a more serious and sympathetic…

By: Notes on Building a Theory of Revolution, Part 2 » Rational Review

Notes on Building a Theory of Revolution, Part 2 » Rational Review — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 00:26:46 +0000

[...] One of the themes I’ve pounded on is that words can have multiple definitions. Careful analysis is required in order to really use words as tools for clear thinking, instead of letting the words of others manipulate your thinking. [...]