February 2012
20 posts
1 tag
Do-It-Yourself Regulation
In a recent post at the UK’s Libertarian Alliance Blog, Director Sean Gabb points out that “government charters, grants personhood to, mandates sales for, creates price floors for, regulates industries to eliminate competition for, allows former employees to regulate their own, responds to lobbying by, bails out, subsidizes, [and] is comprised of politicians whose campaigns are...
1 tag
Media Coordinator Update, 02/24/12
Dear C4SS Supporters,
Content is picking back up at the Center. This week, I’ve submitted 7,125 op-eds to 1,783 publications (all in North America; in addition to amount of content, scope also affects submission numbers).
With less content last week, and all US-centric content this week, it’s our pickup numbers that are down: Only two that I’ve found so far....
1 tag
Nazi Exceptionalism; or, How Godwin's Law Gets It...
Most participants in online debates are familiar with Godwin’s Law: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” The implicit corollary, of course, is that the first person to descend to such a comparison automatically forfeits the debate. Oddly enough, though, I don’t remember electing anyone named Godwin...
2 tags
Romney's "Free Enterprise System": As Statist as...
The rule of centralized state and bureaucratic machines is one of those things that the cultural reproduction apparatus teaches people to accept as “natural” or “inevitable” (“it must be more efficient, or it wouldn’t be this way;” “the people in charge make these rules for a reason”).
But in fact it is very much the result of human agency. In...
1 tag
The Motor of Motown Capitalism
Last week, in a speech in Grand Rapids and accompanying op-ed in the Detroit News, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney delivered what may have been his ultimate “pot meet kettle” moment. Rewinding a few years, Romney called the ’09 Chrysler bailout “a major taste of crony capitalism, Obama-style,” and complained of “sweetheart deals” from Washington.
That Mitt Romney has the gall to so...
1 tag
Anarchy Not Apathy
With the din of another presidential election overwhelming all other would-be news, it’s not easy to be among the uninterested. It isn’t just that you’re barraged with details of an election whose outcome doesn’t matter to you — it’s that the outcome actually doesn’t matter.
An indifference toward practical, electoral politics, however, shouldn’t be taken as apathy regarding political or...
1 tag
Media Coordinator Update, 02/17/12
Dear C4SS Supporters,
Sorry for the late update — I got busy with some personal stuff, and it just slipped my mind that it was Friday!
On the submission side of things, it’s been a slow week (not a lot of content to submit) — I’ve sent 4,542 Center op-eds to 2,762 publications around the globe.
A better than usual week for pickups, though — ten of’em, as...
1 tag
The New Enclosures
Early Tuesday (February 14) morning, Bloomberg reported on Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings for a cool $12.5 billion. Noting that the deal leaves Google with “17,000 additional patents,” the story called the transaction “the largest wireless-equipment deal in at least a decade,” implicating what the EU’s antitrust czar cites as “increasingly strategic use of patents in the...
1 tag
David Goodway. Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow
David Goodway. Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward (PM Press edition, 2012).
I’ll start by saying I found this a very engaging read. I learned a lot of interesting new things about people whose thought I had already encountered, like Morris, Huxley and Orwell, and developed a strong appreciation for those...
1 tag
Gary Chartier on Reason.tv
C4SS Advisory Panel member Gary Chartier ‘sat down with Reason.tv’s Zach Weissmueller to discuss why libertarians should stop embracing the word “capitalism,’ why there’s reason to take the concerns of the political Left seriously, and why the economic system in the United States does not even begin to resemble a free market.”
Original Article
4 tags
Contraception Debate Misses a Basic Question
There’s been plenty of argument over proposed federal regulations requiring employers to offer health plans covering contraception for women. But few people bring up the basic question: Why is it considered normal for your boss to determine your healthcare options in the first place?
Relying on employers for healthcare means the company has more leverage over the worker. If you’re out of...
1 tag
Media Coordinator Update, 02/10/12
Dear C4SS supporters,
This week I’ve submitted 9,069 Center op-eds to 2,764 publications worldwide.
So far I’ve found five “pickups” of Center op-eds this week.
Three of them are in the Dhaka, Bangladesh New Age (which we’re proud to see continuing its regular use of our content!): David D’Amato’s “The Plague of ‘Political Will’”...
2 tags
Should Occupy Use Violence? I Dunno -- Should the...
Back in the mid-1980s, when the African National Congress was still fighting the South Africa’s apartheid regime, I recall Secretary of State George Schultz testifying before some Senate committee. He clutched his pearls at the appearance that “some members of this body are speaking in favor of violence.”
Even then, when I wasn’t an anarchist or anything approaching it, I...
2 tags
More Conflationism in the News
In a recent column, I referred to Auburn University Professor Roderick Long’s concept of “conflationism”:
“Left-conflationism is the error of treating the evils of existing corporatist capitalism as though they constituted an objection to a freed market. Right-conflationism is the error of treating the virtues of a freed market as though they constituted a justification of...
1 tag
Italian Mutualist Domenico Letizia on Mutualism as...
Italian mutualist Domenico Letizia, in “Un’ analisi storica del mutualism, possibile “sostituto libertario” del welfare moderno,” (Istituto de Politica, Oct. 23, 2011), considers historic European working class mutualist organization as a model for anti-state welfarism.
Original Article
1 tag
If You Have to Ask Why, the Answer is Usually...
One major problem with writing political commentary is that it’s often difficult look at something that seems … well, crazy … and find a rational explanation for it. It’s easier to just write off what looks like craziness as craziness and move on. But in the real world, there is in fact method to most people’s madness. This applies even to politicians who have...
1 tag
Romney & Co. vs. "the Very Poor"
Mitt Romney’s latest “Gaffe of the Week” is revealing: “I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there; if it needs repair, I’ll fix it.” Playing into every negative perception of Romney as a latter-day robber baron, the comment coursed through the news cycle.
It’s easy enough to understand why: The mouthpieces of the Washington-Wall Street nexus never tire of...
1 tag
Media Coordinator Update, 02/03/12
Dear C4SS Supporters,
This week I’ve submitted 11,048 Center op-eds to 2,763 publications on seven continents, and have identified seven op-ed “pickups”:
The Dhaka, Bangladesh New Age published Darian Worden’s “Egypt: A Year of Revolution” on January 27; David D’Amato’s “End War by Ending the State” on January 31; Kevin Carson’s...
1 tag
"American Exceptionalism;" or, It's Not State...
Auburn University philosophy professor Roderick Long coined the term “conflationism” for the tendency to confuse the free market — whether in accusatory or apologetic polemics — with actually existing capitalism. Left-conflationism is the practice of attacking the evils of actually existing corporate capitalism as if they were the result of “laissez-faire” or...
1 tag
The Plague of "Political Will"
BBC News reports that negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan, which broke away as a separate state earlier this year, have reached an impasse.
Disputes over oil are nothing new in the region, and the border of the countries is also in question as tensions increase, rousing concerns that the bloody civil war between the countries, fresh in memory, could reignite.
According to South Sudan,...
January 2012
7 posts
2 tags
Why the State Will Fail
To paraphrase the assessment of libertarian socialist Rosa Luxemburg a century ago, we face an imminent choice between freedom and barbarism. There are only two possible outcomes in the present struggle between the authoritarian institutions of state and corporation, and the emergent society of self-organized networks and other voluntary associations of free people:
The state will fail, and be...
1 tag
End War by Ending the State
Much has been made of last Thursday’s announcement that, as reported by the New York Times, the US Department of Defense will take its “first major step toward shrinking its budget after a decade of war.” The plan represents only a minor modification (if even that), but has been presented — by both its proponents and detractors in the US political establishment — as a veritable...
1 tag
Media Coordinator Update, 01/27/12
Dear C4SS Supporters,
This week I’ve submitted 9,083 Center op-eds to 2,763 publications on seven continents, and have so far discovered seven “pickups” of our content:
My own “This Depressingly Vitriolic Presidential Campaign” appeared in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on January 24, and in the Carroll County, Maryland Standard on January 26.
Kevin Carson’s...
5 tags
Egypt: A Year of Revolution
On January 25, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square to mark the one-year anniversary of an uprising that ended nearly three decades of rule by Hosni Mubarak in less than three weeks. Numerous people now camping in the square call for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has ruled Egypt since last February, to hand over their power to civilians.
...
2 tags
The Corporate State: A House Divided Against...
The present historic epoch is one of transition from authoritarian institutions like states and corporations, to a society of self-organized networks and voluntary associations. As in any historic transition, second-order variables introduce high levels of turbulence to the process.
One such source of uncertainty is internal divisions within the authoritarian camp. That can only be expected. The...
1 tag
"This Depressingly Vitriolic Presidential...
That’s how my friend, conservative political blogger Robert Stacy McCain, characterizes the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential primary race to date.
Note that McCain doesn’t argue that the campaign is unusually vitriolic. He’s smarter than that; thus far it has actually been quite pedestrian.
The “vulture capitalism” barbs aimed at Mitt Romney’s career...
1 tag
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery ... and Fighting...
The US Department of Defense recently promulgated a new “defense” guidance document: “Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense.” I use scare quotes because it just doesn’t seem quite right to use “defense” to describe a document that — like its predecessors — envisions something like an American Thousand-Year Reich.
The...
September 2011
5 posts
The 9/11 Cult: Embracing the Glamour of Evil →
Like all religions, the religion of state thrives on rites, rituals and relics, striving to put its god — political government — at the center of human existence. Seldom has this been more apparent…
When the Mafia Can’t Compete With the Chamber of... →
I’ve written frequently on the national regulatory state as a source of monopoly rents to big business. But the true nature of regulation as a naked power grab by incumbent businesses is nowhere…
Kevin Carson on Carson’s Corner 9/3/11 →
Kevin Carson will be on Carson’s Corner with Bob Carson (no relation, AFAIK) — a progressive radio show on Underground Progressive Radio, 530 AM Brick, New Jersey. It will be streaming tonight and…
Media Coordinator Update, 09/02/11 →
Dear C4SS Supporters,
The bad news: So far, I’ve only detected four “mainstream media pickups” of Center op-eds this week.
The good news: Two of those four pickups are in papers we’ve never been…
Hurricane Reality →
Even as flooding and power outages still affect millions, many say that Hurricane Irene was overhyped by the media. Some, like Howard Kurtz, focus on the minimal damage to New York City, as if this…
August 2011
4 posts
Cutting Through “Free Trade” Rhetoric →
In a recent article at The Guardian, Timothy Snyder opined that “those who benefit from the Tea Party are more like British lords than American rebels.” Snyder argues that Tea Partiers are…
1 tag
Carson Rejoinder to Gregory
Let me start by saying I’m a long-time admirer of Anthony Gregory’s writing, and I’m as surprised as he is that this has turned into a significant disagreement. Frankly, given our considerable areas of agreement, I’m having a hard time figuring out why my commentary piece (“Corporations are People? So Was Hitler”) set him off.
Gregory’s first objection, in...
Condemning Politics Itself →
The Associated Press reports a new poll showing “that Americans are plenty angry at Congress.” The story goes on to observe that “[t]he poll finds more people are down on their own member of…
1 tag
Anthony Gregory -- Contra Kevin Carson on the...
MUTUAL EXCHANGE
Mutual exchange is the Center’s goal in two senses—we favor a society rooted in peaceful, voluntary cooperation, and we seek to foster understanding through ongoing dialogue.
That’s why we’re inaugurating this new feature of our site. Mutual Exchange will provide opportunites for conversation about issues that matter to the Center’s various publics. A lead essay, deliberately...
January 2011
3 posts
Somalia: New Players, Same Problems →
The troubles of Somalia are in the news again, as Erik Prince of Blackwater fame is reportedly backing a private military company’s bid to work for the embattled Somali government.
With the varied…
Greenwashed Corporatism is Still Corporatism →
Biodiesel is a fairly high-profile energy source these days. Willie Nelson’s fryer oil-powered car is about as famous as Ed Begley Jr.’s electric.
What you may not know is that biodiesel, despite…
Tumblr Glitch.
Apologies for no posts in the past few weeks — Tumblr stopped importing our feed. Should be up and running soon!
December 2010
23 posts
The USSR Died, But the State Survived →
Belarus, the former Soviet Republic that has remained largely unchanged since the fall of the Iron Curtain, is immersed in a political maelstrom following a contentious presidential election that…
Our official editorial policy →
The Center has now officially adopted a formal editorial policy. This policy reflects the outcome of careful discussion among various stakeholders. Although we expect it to be subject to…
The State Makes Serfs →
It’s not unreasonable to worry that corporate and government interests are forcing the average person into serfdom. Chris Hedges’ words in a recent interview with The Raw Story exemplify the…
State-Corporate Healthcare: No “Right to Choose” →
Those of us dwelling on the free market left, the strange breed that understands corporate domination as a protuberance of state power, are seen as paradoxical outliers within the American political…
OBAMACARE Individual Mandate Struck Down, What... →
The court ruling striking down the ObamaCare individual mandate to buy health insurance is good news, but it shouldn’t be portrayed as some grand victory for “Liberty-with-a-capital-L” because the…
The Thin Black Line →
In “But what kind of stateless society?” Jeremy Weiland raises — in a constructive manner — several important issues surrounding what the Center for a Stateless Society does and how we do it. I…
Wage Slavery: The Short Version →
Reconciling free market libertarianism and libertarian socialism should never be a matter of ignoring differences. Instead, such reconciliation ought to be understood as building a synthesis….
Ignorance is Strength →
Barbara Tuchman, in “The March of Folly,” quoted Nelson Rockefeller on the resumed bombing of North Vietnam: “We ought to all support the President. He is the man who has all the information and…
Cyber World War One →
After losing the Democratic Party’s primary in 2006, US Senator Joe Lieberman formed a new party and sought re-election on its ticket. In doing so, he bucked an American branding fad: While many…
The Ivory Coast and “Power-Sharing” →
Ethnic and cultural frictions have long simmered in Ivory Coast, a francophone, West African state known for its cocoa exports and — until recently — its relative peace and prosperity. For years the…
Weiland: What Kind of Stateless Society? →
Jeremy Weiland has published some intelligent questions about the Center (and other matters) well worth discussing.
While not a thorough response, I’ll add briefly that I’ve typically opted for…