Exploring Libertarianism

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.

Libertarianous leans left libertarian, and here that means the same as the a-word, anarchist. The word started there. Joseph Déjacque coined it, as libertaire, in 1857 for anarchism at full strength. It took the American right another century to try to co-opt it, which is why “libertarian” now needs a left or right in front of it.

The aim is not to claim to be right but to offer 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 original. Some is borrowed, including the strongest arguments against the lines drawn here, each with a note on why it’s here.

Entry points: Start Here: Am I Wrong? | The Unfinished Exclusions | Labor and Property: A Module in Political Economy (forthcoming)

Read in order (the book being made):

  1. Start: Start Here; then The Unfinished Exclusions
  2. The word: The Origins of the Word “Libertarian”; What Libertarianism Is; Left-Libertarianism: The Case and the Controversy; Property, Labor and Equality; Thick, Not Thin
  3. Order: Order Without a Master Plan; Order Nobody Designed; Architecture, Not Weather; The Door That Stays Open; Power Distance
  4. Method: Method Without Foundations; What Moral Words Do
  5. Law: Consent of the Governed; What Rights Are; The Myth of the Rule of Law; Law Without a Monopoly
  6. Propertarianism: Who Owns You?; What Counts as Aggression; Property Without Propertarianism; Labor and Property (forthcoming)
  7. Economics: Cost the Limit of Price; What Prices Carry; more to come
  8. Coda: Post-Anarchism

Utility: Privacy Policy | Contact | Links

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