Generally I would say that there is no place at all for Libertarians of any stripe in the Alt Left, however, I recently ran across a fellow who wants to be Alt Left while linking to Libertarian sites. He says he is a Left-Libertarian into Agorism, counter-economics, etc. Well, I had to go and look those up, but what I came up with was that I am pretty dubious over all of this. First of all, this guy was linking to your typical rah-rah ultra-capitalist Libertarian webpages. Also Left-Libertarian heroes are people like the toxic (((Murray Rothbard))) and the naive but deluded (((Karl Hess))). They fall into the same individualist anarchist camp as Lysander Spooner and the rest of his poisonous ilk.
So how can there be individualist anarchists on the Left. I would say that there cannot be. An Individualist Anarchist Left seems like an oxymoron.
They get away from the, “Hey you guys are just anarcaps,” accusation by saying that they differ from Rothbardians in that the Rothbardians and Randists love capitalism, and Left Libertarians don’t (!?). Instead of loving capitalism, they love something called “the market.” I believe that is called a distinction without a difference. Weasel words.
They want to get rid of the state too. They throw out the same tired Libertardian arguments about how the only problem with capitalism is the involvement of the state in it. This results in something called crony capitalism, and getting the state out of the economy will “free the market” to do all its invisible hand magic tricks.
The problem is that all capitalism turns into crony capitalism in time. That is the nature of capitalism. Just as in all capitalism, the state ends up being taken over by the rich and the largest capitalists, nowadays called corporations. There’s no way to avoid that either. If you like capitalism, you have to settle for crony capitalism and bourgeois (rich and the corporate) rule. You can’t have capitalism without these things not because they are essential for capitalism to exist but because all capitalism develops these characteristics over time with the consistency of a nearly mathematical law.
Also they believe in something called voluntary transactions between members of the community. The whole idea that some poor Dalit peasant and the feudal landlord he rents land from in a debt slavery arrangement are entering into some voluntary transaction among equals must be some sort of a sick joke. Chomsky has made remarks on these lines.
Counter-economics sounds horrible. By this they mean that they venerate the Black Market. Actually, black markets cause nothing but endless problems and return almost no revenue to the state or society. They are almost literally poisonous, not to mention all the crime and violence that tends to go along with them.
Kevin Carson is a well known Left Libertarian, and while I feel that at his heart he is a good man, he is definitely one deluded fellow. I also feel that most of these guys have some sort of bizarre and near crazy hatred of this evil thing called “the state.” There is nothing wrong with the state per se. Sure, it gets taken over by the rich and corporations rending its role nearly moot, but that’s not a problem with the state as a formation, that’s a problem with capitalism.
Carson seems to want to have his cake and eat it too. He is a good Leftist fellow, yet somehow he thinks that by doing away with the state, we will create some leftwing paradise. Which ain’t gonna happen. Do away with the state and you get Syria, Libya, Somalia, Mad Max and Road Warrior. You also get warlord rule because if the state won’t assume the reins of power, I assure you that some warlords will. Nature abhors a vacuum, especially a leadership vacuum.
I am quite suspicious of all of this Left Libertarian stuff, and I am wondering if there is a role for them in the Alt Left.
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No capitalist would ever want it.
You’ll find that the loudest proponents of laissez faire capitalism are not capitalists themselves, but ideologies who think they are capitalists or at least want to signal belonging to this social group. Wall Street isn’t going to voluntarily give up the potential of future bail outs. Who exactly is going to benefit?
The reason that real capitalists won’t want a free market system, or would deliberately undermine such a system is because a socio-economic system which is built around individuals trying to maximise their income and gain competitive advantage is going to eventually see those individuals gaming, changing and corrupting the system to gain more. Why adhere to principles of the free market, when corrupting them gives you more power?
The paradox here is that this capitalism essentially requires capitalists to restrain themselves, and their earning potential, for no other reason that some abstract ideological purity.
This is why this loony libertarianism will never take off. ACTUAL Capitalists rely on the state. People with capital invested in property markets will want state intervention to pump the market, central bank intervention. They want competitive advantage through tax breaks (as there are in Australia). A Libertarian with Capital is essentially saying “I want to give up the financial and power advantages that I have, in order to have a better capitalist system where I make lesss money”.
Sure, some capitalists may make more money, or have more opportunity to act like a complete prick, but many wouldn’t. Wall St bailouts gone. Bank deposits underwritten by tax payers gone. Too Big To Fail gone.
Yeah, thats gonna fly.
I would have assumed left libertarianism was anarcho syndicalism or anarcho communism. Both seem like insanely unworkable ideologies to me, but nothing like what you are describing. I can’t even begin to wrap my mind around this thing you call counter economics. There are reasons that mainstream society frowns on those things included in this category. It seems like they are celebrating social dysfunction and decay.
Right on. There is absolutely nothing Left about any possible extrapolation of AnCap Libetardism. And I do find it supremely hilarious how many Libertards call themselves Capitalists, when in fact they’re little more than Plebs who buy into a particular ideology that happens to worship real Capitalists. And to be a real Capitalist you absolutely must own buttloads of Capital. If you don’t, you’re simply a delusional pretender. That is, OUT OF THE FUCKING GAME, BITCH. Though I have a feeling that most AnCap Plebs are simply aspies who enjoy roleplaying all day in the robotic aspieverse this is their mind.
The real Capitalist is laughing all the way to the bank (that they own) each and every time a dumb Pleb professes their undying love for “muh marketz”.