This site is about one thing: power that can’t be held to account. The state first, and then the private privilege the state props up.
I call myself a left libertarian, and here that means the same as anarchist. The word started there. Joseph Déjacque coined it in 1857 for anarchism at full strength, and it took the American right another century to borrow it.
I don’t claim to be right. I claim a test anyone can use: is a person being used as an input, and can they leave? Slavery fails it. So does more of ordinary life than we like to admit.
Most of the writing here is mine. Some is borrowed, including the strongest arguments against my lines of reasoning, each with a note on why it’s here.
Start here: Start Here: Am I Right? Start Here
Then by section:
- Libertarianism — where the word came from, and why it belongs on the left.
- Anarchism and the State — consent, legitimacy, and the limits of democracy.
- Rights, Laws and Right-Libertarian Flaws — natural law, positive law, where self-ownership goes wrong, and what the non-aggression principle can and can’t carry.
- Economics — markets versus capitalism, labor, property, and who the rules are written for.
- Order and Knowledge — spontaneous order, exit, method.
- Post-Anarchism — what Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze and the rest add to anarchism, and where they fall short.
Some commentary is signified with a cat silhouette. The cats sometimes have something to say: click or tap the cat to see its message. The cats usually offer a Yodaism or something unique pertaining to the post. This is not an endorsement of animal domestication, pets, or Yoda-like speech.
Martin Elson