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'Libertarian'- The American Version
07/25/10(Sun)13:30:48 No.257264XXX>>257262992
From: Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky
(see also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxPUvQZ3rcQ )
>But you see, "libertarian" has a special meaning in the United States.
>what's
called "libertarianism" here is unbridled capitalism. Now, that's
always been opposed in the European libertarian tradition, where every
anarchist has been a socialist—because the point is, if you have
unbridled capitalism, you have all kinds of authority: you have extreme
authority.
>If capital is
privately controlled, then people are going to have to rent themselves
in order to survive. Now, you can say, "they rent themselves freely,
it's a free contract"—but that's a joke. If your choice is, "do what I
tell you or starve," that's not a choice—it's in fact what was commonly
referred to as wage slavery in more civilized times, like the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for example.
>The
American version of "libertarianism" is an aberration, though—nobody
really takes it seriously. I mean, everybody knows that a society that
worked by American libertarian principles would self-destruct in three
seconds. The only reason people pretend to take it seriously is because
you can use it as a weapon. Like, when somebody comes out in favor of a
tax, you can say: "No, I'm a libertarian, I'm against that tax"—but of
course, I'm still in favor of the government building roads, and having
schools, and killing Libyans, and all that sort of stuff. |
