In a previous post, I outlined my view that the radicals from the 60s  have won on virtually every issue, and that the kinds of values associated with 60s radicals aren’ t all that radical anymore, but are actually rather mainstream and normal. Given the demise of Communism and the institutionalization of both social democracy and 60s-era cultural politics, it would seem that a new direction for radicals is necessary, and that such efforts would likely emerge from one or another of the libertarian camps. The surprisingly energetic nature of the Ron Paul campaign in late 2007 and early 2008 is symptomatic of this.

For some time, I held to the position that before there could be a serious anti-state movement there first needed to be a more solid intellectual foundation for anti-state radicals. At the time, libertarianism was limited largely to the bourgeoisie economics of the libertarian-right, and the warmed over Marxism, both economic and cultural, of the left-wing anarchists. More specifically, I realized that an effective radical anti-statist movement would have to have as its primary targets the forces of the State, particularly the police state that taken control of American society over the past few decades, the economic arm of the State, which is the corporate and banking system whose activities have also grown more pernicious in recent years, and lastly the American Empire, which is responsible for roughly 8 million deaths over the last 60 years of its existence. Unfortunately, most of the anti-state movements were fixated on other issues, whether the welfare state for right-libertarians or traditional forms of social prejudice (”racism, sexism, homophobia”) for much of the libertarian left.

To be sure, there have been happy exceptions. One of these in the paleolibertarian movement, which is far more radical in its critique of the State and its emanations that most of its classical liberal counterparts. Another is the militia movement of the 1990s, which was big on attitude but unfortunately short on intellectual substance. Still another is National-Anarchism, which offers potential correctives to various deficiencies in other forms of anti-authoritarian thought.  I have considered all of these to be embryos for a new kind of radicalism that might possibly emerge at some point in the future.

Just as important, however, has been the emergence of some major theoretical works, some of them from outside the various libertarian milieus, that can inform both our ideological and our strategic outlook in the future. One of these is Martin Van Creveld’s work on the origins and demise of the nation-state system. Still another is Bill Bishop’s “The Big Sort,” which indicates that Americans are creating the sociological infrastructure for a future anarcho-pluralist system, and they’re doing it all on their own, without any imput from anarchists. Additionally, we have functional models of what the politics of anarcho-pluralism might actually be in practice in the form of the many micronations currently in existence, for instance, Iceland, Liechtestein, Monaco, Luxemborg and Andorra, and the many functional intentional communities from around the world, ranging from Israel’s kibbutzim to South Africa’s Orania community.

On economic matters, the 21st century now has its own Proudhon in the person of Kevin Carson, whose work provides a magnificent continuation and synthesis of the classical anarchists, Marx, the Austrians, Rothbard, the decentralists, the distributists and others who have come before. Finally, anarchists can answer Keynes and Friedman, Marx and Mises. We also have functional alternative economic models in the form of Brazil’s Semco and Spain’s Mondragon cooperative federation.

On military matters, we have “fourth generation warfare” theory of the kind advanced by Van Creveld and Bill Lind, and a working model of a fourth generation army and social infrastructure in the form of Hezbollah. We also have others who are tired of the “culture war” psychology that dominates much of the Right and Left alike, and is seeking out something more appropriately called “culture peace,” including Kirkpatrick Sale’s pan-secessionist movement and the national-anarchists, both of which are tendenies that recognize the legitimacy of a plurality of cultural foundations and value systems, as opposed to the totalitarianism implicit in both imperialism and left-wing universalism. Likewise, the Americans for Self-Determination Plan offers a constructive “third way” beyond both old-fashioned racism and the totalitarianism of modern liberal “anti-racism.”

The various manifestations of the modern states have already been subject to penetrating critiques. Aldous Huxley and to some degree George Orwell predicted what modern states would become, and the core features of these states-therapeutism, managerialism, mass democracy, military humanism-have been dissected by thinkers as diverse as Hans Hermann Hoppe, Thomas Szasz, Noam Chomsky, Michele Foucault, James Burnham, James Bovard, Richard Lawrence Miller, Erick von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Murray Rothbard, James Kalb, C.S. Lewis, Hannah Arendt, Paul Gottfried and Alain De Benoist.

An effort to synthesize libertarian anti-statism and class analysis has emerged in the works of Kevin Carson, Walter Williams on race issues, Charles Johnson, Shawn Wilbur and others. No less respectable a figure as Vincent Bugliosi has brought forth a compilation of compelling evidence that George W. Bush and his associates deliberately went to war in Iraq under fraudulent pretenses and deliberately mishandled the war against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. James Petras from the Left and John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from the Center have produced comprehensive works documenting Israeli domination of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and they have done so without relying on the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of past times.

Another work that needs to be revisited is Walter Block’s classic “Defending the Undefendable.” In my own writings, I have mentioned a large number of political, cultural and economic scapegoats and outgroups that lack political representation, and might well be cultivated as constituent groups for a future anti-state movement. Similarly, now that conservatism, which claims to be the voice of opposition to “big government,”  is in shambles, at least some of the more radical or sincere constituents for conservatism might well be steered towards some sort of crypto-anarchism.

Ultimately, the only way that anarchists can eventually gain enough influence to finally topple the State, Capital and Empire, or at least severely curtail these, is to achieve leadership positions in much larger popular organizations, economic enterprises and political coalitions. Recent events in Greece have shown the potential social power of relatively small organized cadre of anarchists.  So how do we get this revolution going?

I’ve written rather critically of the cultural Left in the past. I do this for two primary reasons: 1) my view that left-wing concerns about matters like oppression of racial minorities, women, homosexuals, et.al., while rooted in legitimate concerns and historical realities, have metamorphed into a new kind of authoritarianism, intolerance, and dogmatic fanaticism that is only now starting to become prevalent and will likely become more predatory in the future and 2) my view that the contemporary emphasis on cultural politics from the Left has proven to be extremely destructive to the broader struggles against the forces of State, Capital and Empire.

I have had many brickbats thrown at me because I hold these positions. Some of the criticism on these matters I have received is rooted in simple disagreement or honest misunderstanding. Yet, much of the more vociferous hostility I have encountered seems to be rooted in dishonesty, mendacity, and hysteria, thereby proving my point.  I’m going to outline what I consider to be  the “proper” positions on cultural politics for libertarian radicals in the contemporary era. I say “proper,” in the sense of conformity to actual, tangible facts, relevance to the types of societies we find ourselves in, and the relationship of such questions to broader issues.

In looking around for examples of how the cultural Left typically thinks, an excellent example is a pamphlet in my possession published by a left-wing anarchist “collective” in my local community in 2002. I’m going to quote extensively from this pamphlet, and offer my own thoughts in response. The folks associated with this collective are very good people, some of whom I’ve known for over ten years, who have supported various projects of my own, whom I’ve appeared on television with, and who do very good work on many issues. In no way is any criticism I offer meant to convey hostility or personal attacks.  The first point of this left-wing anarchist manifesto calls “For An End to White Supremacy”:

We live in a culture that was founded upon the slavery of Africans, the genocide of indigenous people, and the brutal exploitation of people of color.

No disagreement so far, though there was plenty of “brutual exploitation” of white labor during early American history as well.

Since our culture has not come to terms with its white supremacist past we continue to live in a white supremacist present based upon the unrelenting economic exploitation of people of color, the mass imprisonment of black and Latino youth, and the privileging of white people and their value systems. Behind the creation and perpetuation of this white Euro-centric status quo is the drive to create profitable capitalist empire.

I thoroughly disagree that we are in a “white supremacist present” in the contemporary United States, at least as far as historic American “white supremacy” is concerned. If that were the case, a black man could not be elected President, people would not lose their jobs or public figures would not be subject to relentless opprobrium for perceived racist utterances. Nor would features such as affirmative action or sensitivity training be the institutional norms that they have become. Are people of color really subject to “unrelenting economic exploitation”? The urban underclass, which is mostly black and Hispanic, falls into this category, but so does the rural white lumenproletariat. What about the black middle class? What about the black professional class or wealthy, upper class blacks?

White people need to know that allowing people of color marginal participation in the dominant white culture is not true freedom.

The problem with a statement like this is that it ignores demographic realities. Blacks are only 12.5% of the U.S. population, so it is unlikely that blacks are ever going to be dominant or a numerical majority in institutions or social organizations. The exception would be those geographical areas where blacks are a demographic majority, and in large American cities where that is the case, black dominated local governments are quite frequently found.

People of color in North America have historically resisted their oppression and colonization by any and all means necessary. From slave revolts to riots against the police to union organizing to movements for control of their own destinies they have resisted their oppressors. The white status quo has historically conceded only what was necessary  to preserve their power and prevent the emergence of a revolutionary mass movement against white domination.

There’s no mention of what a “revolutionary mass movement against white domination” would actually involve.  So long as whites are a demographic majority, there’s only three possible ways to avoid “white domination.” One would simply be to import large numbers of non-white immigrants to such a degree that whites would no longer be a majority. Indeed, this seems to be one of the reason why the Left is rather enthusiastic about mass immigration. Yet, the consequences of such an action are likely to be quite severe. Historically, genuinely multicultural/multiethnic societies tend to be rather unstable and prone to outbursts of intercommunal violence. Oppression of minorities by majorities becomes less of an issue than persistent strife and even bloodshed between contending racial/ethnic power groups attempting to get the political upperhand. Another method might be to grant minorities political and economic privileges and power beyond that of their actual numbers. This has been done through such measures as antidiscrimination laws, affirmative action, electoral redistricting so as to guarantee a certain number of minority legislators, quotas and set asides, school “busing” policies, and many other such measures that are too numerous to mention. Yet, in spite of all of this, minority and/or left-wing claims of inequality still persist.

The third alternative may well prove to be the most satisfactory one. Towards the end of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was apparently moving towards the idea of an independent black nation in North America, for the sake of achieving economic parity with the wider white society. Indeed, the level of wealth in the black community is already such that if black Americans were an independent nation, they would be one of the world’s more prosperous nations, comparable to many European or the more advanced Asian nations. Perhaps black sovereignty, and reparations for that purpose, will be the next phase of the movement for civil rights. The relative prosperity of black Americans may well be an obstacle to white embracement of reparations, as no living Americans ever owned slaves, and many were not even born when Jim Crow when still in effect. Still, there’s no denying that such past policies have prevented black prosperity of today from being what it otherwise would have been. If reparations were combined with elimination of statist social engineering policies concerning race relations, perhaps whites would not be as resistant.

We wholeheartedly support the needs and desires of people of color to organize in their own communities and workplaces free from the intrusion of the guilt-ridden consciences of white radicals. We recognize the ability of people of color to self determine their course in the world. People within the — — Collective who have white skin privileges will stand as allies and work in coalitions with people of color, when and only if, the people of color involved so desire.

Absolutely. I think the key phrase here is “when and only if, the people of color involved so desire.” Most radical groups in North American are predominately white, often exclusively so. The more rhetorically “anti-racist” they are the more all-white they seem to be. Racial minorities in North America who are politically motivated typically tend to prefer their own, separate political organizations. Some of these are obviously more about getting a bigger piece of the System, rather than overthrowing the System. But others aren’t, and it would seem the proper course of action would be to simply recognize and, when feasible, collaborate with black nationalists and related tendencies when mutually beneficial, with everyone otherwise going their own way. The emergence of groups such as Anarchist People of Color, the Lakota Republic, or the Pan-African International Movement would seem to be a positive development along these lines.

Another plank in my anarchist friends’ manifesto reads “For An End to All the Tentacles of the Patriarchy”:

We aim to shape a society based on equality, mutual respect, celebration of difference, and freedom from dominant patriarchal values and behaviors. Our society places value on labor, politics, and culture that benefits men, heterosexuals, and people who don’t bend the gender they were assigned at birth. Women, transgendered people…transvestites…transexuals…butch women…and feminine males..intersexed people… and sexual minorities (gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, etc. are in different ways oppressed by a patriarchal system that privilges the masculine, the “normative” heterosexual, and the “appropriately” gendered.

I think some qualification is in order here. As Justin Raimondo points out, certain sectors of the homosexual population are quite successful and prosperous. It’s also true that some within the “gay rights” movement have an authoritarian and destructive agenda of their own. Still, if freedom or liberty or anarchy means anything, it ought to mean the right to be different or to be a non-conformist, and there are some people who would not give a “sexual minority” a fair shake no matter what. While there’s always going to be a certain price attached to being “different,” as that’s the way human nature and human societies actually work, it is true that oppressions of this type have long been overlooked. There are religious non-conformists that have been persecuted in American history to various degrees-Quakers, Antinomians, Mormons, “witches,” Jehovah’s Witnesses, Moonies, Branch Davidians. There exists such groups today on the cultural level (drug users, for instance).  No reason exists why the oppression of sexual /gender outgroups cannot be opposed with the same vigor with which one might oppose religious persecution.

The patriarchy manifests itself in many visible ways; from the disparity of earning power between women and men…

There are reasons for this besides rank misogyny but there’s no identifiable reason why there cannot be a meritocracy whereby individual recognition is based on personal achievement and ability rather than group characteristics like gender. One of my favorite examples of such are the resistance movements in Latin America. Twenty percent of the FMLN of El Salvador’s fighting forces in the 1980s were females, and there were even all-female military units. At times, one third of the FARC of Colombia’s forces have been teenaged girls, and when it comes to leadership roles, there’s no denying the place of leaders like Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman or Voltairine de Cleyre in the anarchist pantheon. Some of the most ferocious fighters in China’s Tai Ping rebellion in the 19th century were female warriors.

…to brutal hate crimes against queer and trans people…

Certainly, such crimes are despicable, yet they are only a very small portion of all the violent crime that occurs in America. The people who perpetrate such actions are not honored by society. Such actions often become national scandals and the perpetrators subject to arrest and lengthy terms of imprisonment. However, just as some people commit other acts of murder, robbery or rape inspite of laws, arrests and prosecutions ostensibly designed to prevent such behavior, “sexual minorities” continue to be victimized in such ways at times as well. Perhaps the Pink Pistols are the solution?

…to the inaccessibility of hormones and surgery for transexual people…

Very few people today realize that the polio vaccine was developed without state funding. Instead, it was developed through a private foundation founded by FDR, with funds provided by the March of Dimes. Perhaps there could also be a “March of Dollars” to generate funding for gender reassignment surgery for trans people?

…to the constant fear of violence that many women feel on the streets…

The obvious solution here is more women who are skilled and trained in the use of weapons, including firearms, for self-defense, and the repeal of laws restricting self-defense. This should be an issue where anti-rape and anti-sex crime feminists and conservative gun rights activists can find common ground.

Simultaneously, the patriarchy operates in many “invisible” ways; from the way that we speak and interact intimately…

Sorry, but “intimate” relationships are a matter of interpersonal relations, whatever the issues that arise, not political matters.

…to the self loathing that many queer, intersexed people, transgendered people and women feel… 

Psychological peace has to come from within. If you look to others or to society to provide it, you’ll be waiting a long time. It’s as simple as that.

…to eating disorders caused by sexist beauty standards…

Again, self-acceptance comes from within, not from without. All societies have “beauty standards” of some sort. An acquaintance of mine who is a specialist in Latin American history tells me the Mayans thought crossed-eyes were attractive. In some cultures, “plump” women are considered attractive. Such variations we will always have with us.

…to the feeling of entitlement that people socialized as male often feel…

And not just “people socialized as male.” The assholes ye shall always have with you.

As a first order of business, cultural radicals need to get past their tendency to act with reflexive hysteria whenever “conservative” social views or opinions not in line with left-wing orthodoxy are presented or expressed. The dichotomy between “change” and “tradition” or “reactionary” and “progressive” will always exist on some level. Any genuine libertarian philosophy must have freedom of thought, opinion, speech and honest and open debate as a foremost principle. Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance describes the intellectual atmosphere of Hans Hoppe’s annual gathering of the Property and Freedom Society in Bodrum, Turkey:

These conferences provide a time and a place where nothing is off limits. There are no forbidden subjects, no polite suggestions that whatever is being loudly debated over dinner by the swimming pool might be “inappropriate”. The only rule is the obvious one—that you listen to the other side before making reply.

These are conferences where social conservatives sit down with anarcho-libertarians, where Czechs and Chinese discuss where history went wrong, where English is the preferred language, but a knowledge of half a dozen other languages will frequently come in handy.

They are also conferences useful for what everyone nowadays describes blandly as networking, but what the old Marxists, with a more sinister and accurate turn of phrase, called “cadre building”. It is in Bodrum, every May, that the connections and ideas that will be the future of the libertarian movement are first to be perceived.

And so it should be.

Quote of the Week:

“All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do. I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back. Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.”

                                                                                                   -Leo Tolsoy

“The first step in dealing with violent psychopaths is to stop electing them.”

                                                                                                     -Les Antman

NEW KEVIN CARSON BOOK NOW AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON!!

Industrial Policy: New Wine in Old Bottles by Kevin Carson

U.S. Polycracy: The Frightening Growth of the State by Ron Shirtz

Sue the P.C. Inquisitors for Libel?  by Walter Block

Obama on the Attack on Gaza: “No Comment” by Joshua Frank

Genocide in the French Revolution by Henry Samuel

The State: Omnicompetent or Incompetent? by Theodore Dalrymple

Marty Peretz and the American Political Consensus on Israel by Glenn Greenwald

“Gaza Strike is Not Against Hamas, it’s Against all Palestinians” by Amira Hass

High Noon for the Israel Lobby by Phillip Weiss

Little Baghdad in Gaza by Amira Hass

Rumsfeld’s Legacy Andrew Cockburn interviewed by Scott Horton, Part One

Rumsfeld: War Criminal Andrew Cockburn interviewed by Scott Horton, Part Two

The Politics of the Gaza Massacre by Justin Raimondo

Top Ten Myths About Iraq, 2008 by Juan Cole

Bush Continues to Inflame Islamic Terrorism by Ivan Eland

Bush Winks at Israel’s Slaughter in Gaza; Obama/Clinton Silent by Matthew Rothschild

Eartha Kitt: Antiwar Patriot by John Nichols

Does Israel Represent the Jewish People? by Dan Lieberman

Gorbachev’s Model for Obama by James Carroll

Attack on Gaza: Self-Defense or Mass Murder? by Greg Mitchell

The Neoconservatism of Obama’s Foreign Policy Cabinet by Josh Xiong

Bush and His Cronies Must Face a Reckoning by Jonathan Freedland

India: Let Kashmir Go by Bennett Ramberg

Pipeline Politics in Ukraine Boston Globe

Guantanamo Whistleblower Stephen Abraham interviewed by Andy Worthington

Delusions of Victory in Gaza by Zvi Barel

Obama Fiddles While Gaza Burns by Robert Dreyfuss

Bush: Still Delusional and Unrepentant by Austin Bramwell

All That Glitters: A Financial History of the World by David Gordon

May We No Longer Be Silent by Paul Craig Roberts

Israel and Ron Paul by Dylan Hales

Spot the Santa Imposter from Thus Spoke Belinsky

Forget Bretton Woods II-We Need a Gold Standard by Walker Todd

Israel’s Attempted Endgame in Gaza by Jennifer Loewenstein

Exception from Humanity: The War Against Palestine by George Salzman and Manuel Garcia, Jr.

The Ten Worst Corporations of 2008 by Robert Weissman

A Hunded Eyes for an Eye by Norman Solomon

What Exactly is Israel’s Mission? by Neve Gordon

The Banks Laugh All the Way to the Bank by Rob Larson

End of NeoLiberalism? Sorry, Not Yet by Patrick Bond

Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. by Andrew Osborn

Like the Romans, So Go the Americans by Tim Case

Doctors Agree: Police Are Bad for Your Health 

The Left, The Right and The State by Lew Rockwell

Pacifying Gaza by Ran HaCohen

Neocons, New York Times Want More War, Torture by Philip Giraldi

Bill White to Remain in Jail Until Trial 

Virginia Senator Wants to Reform Prison System 

Canadia Neocons by Larry Gambone

War: What’s It Good For? Proudhon on War and Peace by Shawn Wilbur

The Struggle Continues in Greece 

Israeli Navy Attacks Gaza Relief Ship in International Waters 

Rooting for the Overdog by Harrison Bergeron2

The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant by Tariq Ali

Will Cheney Seek a Pardon? by Dave Lindorff

The End of the Green Party  by John Walsh

A Blow Against the PC Inquisitors by Chris Clancy

Ron Paul in 2012? 

KopBusters! Heroic Ex-PIG Atones for Past Sins 

Israel’s Constant Crisis by Justin Raimondo

Why Lightning Hasn’t Struck Twice by Charles Pena

Somalia: The Forgotten Front of the War on Terror by Stephen Smith

Who’s Afraid of U.S.-Iran Detente by Muhammed Sahimi

Children and the Existence of Rights by Jan-Patrick Bollstrom

An Interview with Wendell Berry 

Forward: A Magazine from Syria 

Anarchist Philosopher Crispin Sartwell 

The First Casualty of Israel’s War by Todd Honderich

What is Hamas, Really? by Ron Jacobs

Greece: Burn, Baby, Burn! 

McGovern Beats Nixon by Daniel McCarthy

The Problem of Oligopoly from No Third Solution

George McGovern Conservatives by Paul Gottfried

The Subsidized Roads/Zoning Feedback Loop from Rationalitate

Proudhon on Justice as the Definition of Philosophy from Shawn Wilbur

More on Proudhon and Justice 

The True Story Behind This War is One Israel is Not Telling by Johann Hari

The Loathsome Smearing of Israel’s Critics by Johann Hari

2009 is Going to be a Humdinger by Richard Spencer

2009: The More Things “Change”… by Jack Hunter

The Gaza Massacre by Taki Theodoracopulos

The Ten Best Survival Vehicles 

The U.S. and Israel: George Washington Was Right by Glenn Greenwald

The Arrogant Self-Righteousness of Vichy Liberalism by L.K. Samuels

Compassionate Statism by Bill Butler

Stop Foreign Aid to Israel (and everywhere else!) by Jacob Hornberger

Torture, Slaughter and Lies by Brian Cloughley

War Will Not Bring Peace to Afghanistan by Deborah Storie

What Next on Israel/Gaza? Why Should Americans Care? by Daniel Levy

Gaza: Where Civilians Become Targets by Andrea Becker

Closing Guantanamo by Joanne Mariner

To a Nation Under Siege: Happy 2009 by Kelley Vlahos

Understanding Gaza by Tony Garon

Unfair and Unbalanced: The U.S. Response to Gaza by Wajahat Ali

Media Banned from Gaza as Humanitarian Crisis Esclatates by Mel Frykberg

Party to Murder by Chris Hedges

Cynthia McKinney: Anti-Imperialist Hero by Jeremy Sapienza

Obama Golfs While Gaza Burns 

From Kansas City to Palestine: End All Occupations 

Underreported Struggles from Around the World 

If Hamas Did Not Exist by Jennifer Loewenstein

Blacks in Favor of the War on Blacks (the Drug War) by TGGP

Rebranding Anarchism from Bay Area National Anarchists

Two Police Shootings from AnarchoNation

Another Brutal Year for Liberty by Glenn Greenwald

Roads Without the State by Bart Frazier

Voluntary Government by Mike Rozeff

On Being An Israeli Arab by Charles Featherstone

Coming Soon: The Disunited States? by Doug Bandow

Huffington Post: Israeli-Occupied Territory by Justin Raimondo

The Real Goal of the Slaughter in Gaza by Jonathan Cook

Gaza Attacks: Murder with Impunity by Mustafa Qadri

So What Have the Palestinians Got to Complain About? by Mark Steel

Black Oak: A Journal of Mid-American Culture 

Libertarians for Animal Rights 

Save Your Candles-The Dark Ages Are Coming! by Justin Raimondo

What Became of Western Morality? by Paul Craig Roberts

Blago Raises the Stakes by Pat Buchanan

An Agorist Primer by Brad Spangler

Justice: On the Quality of the Philosophical Mind by Pierre Joseph Proudhon

Greek Uprising: Echoes of ‘68 by Chris Spannos

Update on Lori Berenson 

Greece: Reports from the New Year 

Diary of 2008 by Alexander Cockburn

The Economy is Worse Than it Appears by P. Sainath

Retrieving an Asian American Anarchist Tradition by Jane Mee Wong

Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright by Dee C. Lubell

Against Head Shop Raids by Norm Kent

We Live to Tell the Story by Cynthia  McKinney

Obama, Afghanistan and Israel by Robert Fantina

Does Law Require Legislation? by Murray Rothbard

Born at Wounded Knee by William Norman Grigg

The Climate Scammer Vs. Asthmatics by Vin Suprynowicz

Obama’s Black Widow by Barack Obama

Politics and the English Language by George Orwell

Is Israeli Policy Crazy? by Ivan Eland

Gaza Clouds Obama’s Prospects by Robert Scheer

The Political Consequences of Uncovering Genocide in Canada by Larry Gambone

Mad Max Rides Again from Wally Conger

Forty years ago, in the summer of 1968, leftist radicals fought the police outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Four years later, these same New Left forces went into the Democratic Party, seized control of its nomination process, and put George McGovern on the presidential ticket. The result was the biggest defeat of a major party candidate in modern American history, surpassing even the Goldwater and Mondale debacles of 1964 and 1984. For decades afterward, as the cultural Left consolidated its position in the Democratic Party (and other places, like the mass media and academia), the Democrats fuctioned as an often seemingly irrelevant opposition party, achieving victory only when they put up a couple of previously obscure frying pan governors as candidates.

As Republicans continued to win elections, the cry from the Right was a persistent, “The Sixities are over!” as if the radical Left had finally been vanquished for good. The Right was saying this as recently as 2004, when a former celebrity of the anti-Vietnam War movement, John Kerry, headed up the Democratic Party ticket, obtaining forty-eight percent of the vote. The radical Left was a fringe movement in the late 1960s, comprised of politically marginalized and socially outcast racial minorites, feminists, homosexuals, environmentalists, student radicals, leftist intellectuals, counterculturalists and the antiwar movement. Now, forty years later, what was marginal in 1968 is normal, mainstream and a cultural majority at the end of 2008.

The electoral victory of Barack Obama symbolizes the culmination of the long march from the streets of Chicago to full institutionalization of the radical Left of a previous era. That Obama, the individual, is more of a centrist than a leftist and was only a child in 1968 is less significant than what he represents. The 68ers have now seized the establishment and those who insisted the establishment could never be trusted have become the establishment.

On virtually every issue, the radical Left of the 1960s has either won or is in the process of winning. Racism? Despite the claims of “anti-racist” professionals who insist that Nazis are hiding under every bed, racism is at an all-time low. Blacks are only 12.5 percent of the U.S. population, and have a lengthy history as an outgroup, yet a black man wins the presidency. If hatred of blacks was particularly common, the Obama presidency would be impossible. Sexism? The woman who is to become the next Secretary of State is a woman who personally epitomizes 70s era feminism. The class of urban professional women has grown exponentially in recent decades. Even the vice-presidential candidate of the ostensibly “conservative” party was a woman, something that would have been virtually unthinkable forty years ago. A friend of mine’s mother was told as a child that her ambition to become a doctor was inappropriate because of her gender. Today, such sentiments would be laughable. As an illustration, the daughter of the Reverend Jerry Falwell, the man who for many symbolized anti-60s social conservatism, is now a physician. Gay rights? Homosexuals are more out of the closet, more socially integrated and have more “rights” than ever before. Anti-gay marriage referendums continue to pass, but do so by a smaller margin each time they come up for vote, with the real source of the conflict being generational in nature. The gay rights movement will eventually win on that issue as well. In the 1950s, homosexual relationships were considered a serious felony, like drug use in the present era. Today, not only does gay culture thrive in American cities, but even mainsteam bookstores like Barnes & Noble feature entire sections of literature devoted to gay issues. Such materials would likely have been banned under obscentity laws prior to the late 60s or early 70s.

Environmentalism? One of the world’s leading advocates of environmental causes, who obtained a Nobel Prize for his efforts, was very nearly elected President of the United States in 2000. Student radicalism? Many of the student rebels of the 1960s are now tenured academics, and there is no place in American society where the far Left is more secure than in academia. The sexual revolution? This has proven to be every bit as enduring as the civil rights revolution. Very few Americans even remember that some states had laws prohibiting contraceptive devices in the 1960s. Pornography and adult entertainment are now almost as mainstream as rock and rap music.

What about the antiwar movement? Surely, some might think, the present war in Iraq illustrates a failure of the radical Left is this area. Well, not really. In the early days of the Vietnam War, it was physically dangerous to oppose the war. Early antiwar protests typically required police protection, and the protestors were happy to have the cops present to ward off vigilante attacks from gung ho patriots. When the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was passed, it did so unanimously in the House of Representatives, and with only two dissenters in the Senate.

The number of casualties on the American side has yet to be one-tenth of what they were in Vietnam, yet public opinion turned against the war at the first site of blood, and this was in spite of the fact that September 11 had occurred only a few years earlier. It is politically impossible to impose war taxes, which is why the System is financing the war with inflation, deficit spending and foreign loans. The draft is likewise politically impossible and, indeed, the fact that there has been no draft since the Vietnam era marks yet another profound victory for the radical Left of the time. The present Iraq war, the public disgust generated by the neoconservatives and the Bush crowd, the national bankruptcy produced by Bush policies and the ineptness of the U.S. at fighting modern, “fourth generation” guerrilla armies have likely rendered further major imperial expeditions like Vietnam or Iraq impossible for the forseeable future. Yes, some piss ant Clintonesque imperialisms like those in Haiti or Kosovo may continue (with the added irony of former Vietnam War protestors defending these in the name of “humanitarian” war), and these will likely end only when the present regime finally dissolves, but the empire is on its last legs and its days are likely numbered. 

Indeed, even the “conservatism” of the present time is “liberal” compared to the pre-1960s period. Ronald Reagan did not govern appreciably to the right of John F. Kennedy. Reagan’s wars in Central America were simply a repeat of Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs and early involvement in Vietnam. George W. Bush has not governed to the right of Lyndon Johnson, presiding over the same kind of failed combination of joint extension of the warfare and welfare states as LBJ. The present day leadership of the Republican Party are the neoconservatives, who were on the far left end of the Democratic Party in the 1960s, the so-called “state department socialists.” What about the Religious Right? There is no group around more consistently demonized by the Left, and the literature of the Left is full of wild claims concerning an imminent theocratic coup by the Religious Right. The reality is that the Religious Right are simply convenient scapegoats for the Left and useful idiots for the Right. In the thirty years that the Religious Right has been an organized political movement, it has achieved nothing concerning any of its major issues. Putting prayer back into public schools? There are arguably more restrictions on religious practice and expression in state institutions than ever before. Banning abortion? A comprehensive anti-abortion referendum could not pass popular vote even in conservative South Dakota, and with Obama likely appointing the next members of the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade is probably secure. Tuition tax credits or vouchers for private religious schools? It ain’t happening.

Jews are another traditional American outgroup, who were at times excluded from some social organizations and institutions until the civil rights era. Today, ethnic Jews own the majority of the major media companies, and the Israel Lobby is by far among the most powerful in the U.S government, essentially controlling U.S. policy in the Middle East. Yet, merely pointing out these facts invite sshrill accusations of the new “Scarlet A” of anti-Semitism. Prior to 1965, the U.S. maintained a racially restrictive immigration policy, which has since been liberalized remarkably. America was ninety percent white in 1960. Today, the U.S. is only sixty-eight percent white, and proposed policies to so much as deny welfare state benefits to illegal immigrants are denounced as racist and xenophobic.

Indeed, the only area where the radical Left is losing is in the area of so-called “criminal justice.” The U.S. police state has expanded dramatically in recent decades, and the “War on Drugs” and enforcement of other “consensual crime” laws have largely been the foundation of this, and has produced a corresponding prison-industrial complex. The execution rate in the U.S.  is also unusually high for a modern, democratic, industrialized nation. 

Though the Left has achieved complete or nearly complete victory on just about every issue, the Left will never admit as much. Sixties radicalism has become what any other movement becomes once it is institutionalized. The purpose of the Left today is to simply perpetuate its own existence and its own vested interests. For this reason, invisible armies of racists, sexists, homophobes and theocrats must constantly be said to be hiding behind every rock or tree. Heretics who dissent from left-wing orthodoxy on any number of matters must be constantly sought out for denunciation, repression or persecution.

This brings us to the question of what it really means to be a radical in 21st century North America. How “radical” is it to simply espouse anti-racism, feminism, gay rights, environmentalism and other run of the mill “progressive” causes? Are such things “radical” or are they mainstream, status quo and now establishmentarian in nature?

Is attacking the supposed “racism”  of a Don Imus or a James Watson really the act of a dissident? Or would it be the “radical” thing to do  to champion the rights of freedom of speech, religion or association for those with beliefs and opinions that dissent from liberal orthodoxy? Is it “radical” to persistently denounce groups like the Klan or Neo-Nazis that everyone hates anyway, or would it be more “radical” to expose supposed humanitarian do-gooders like the SPLC or the ADL for the frauds they are? What would be more cutting edge or “going against the flow,” to denounce “sexism” in the manner of an establishment liberal like Gloria Steinem or to defend academic and intellectual liberty for the likes of Walter Block? As far as defending outgroups goes, are groups like homosexuals, immigrants, minorities or women really “outgroups” in contemporary society? Would it not be far more radical and far more shocking to the establishment to defend gun-toting rural rednecks, drug-dealing inner-city ghetto dwellers, home schoolers and truants, practicioners of alternative medicine, strange religious sects, drug users, prostitutes and convicts, or avowedly separatist indigenous people like the Lakota Republic? What would be a greater outrage, a protest demonstration led by commie cults like the Workers World Party, or the formation of citizen militias, common law courts and secessionist movements? What would be more rebellious in nature, a recycling program or civil disobedience demanding the right to smoke in private bars and clubs, thereby giving the finger to the therapeutic state? What is more truly radical, agitating for gay marriage or a riot against the police state and prison-industrial complex similar to that which recently transpired in Greece?

The anwers to these questions are clear enough.

Quote of the Week:

” I want to make a summing up, brief and to the point, but thorough. I have never suppressed a word in my books out of regard for other people and their prejudices.”

                                                                             -John Henry MacKay

 

Tribal Anarchism, Part One by Death Sipheroth

Tribal Anarchism, Part Two 

Tribal Anarchism, Part Three 

Tribal Anarchism, Part Four 

Tribal Anarchism, Part Five 

Taxpayers in Revolt by Doug French

The Meaning of the National Debt  by Bill Sardi

Madoff Explained by Lew Rockwell

Training Occupation Troops for America by William Norman Grigg

Cooling Is Warming by Vin Suprynowicz

How Somali Pirates Will Save US from a Depression by Tim Swanson

Put Virtue on Your VISA by John Zmirak

Pink Xmas by Paul Belien

George W. Bush, Protectionist by Pat Buchanan

Defending the Truly Undefendable by Marcus Epstein

Who’s the Christmas Grinch? by Paul Gottfried

Dropping the “C” Word by E. Christian Kopff

Banking Demystified by Doug French

A Badge of Dishonor by Paul Hein

Prohibition Increases Potency 

Reason Sells Out to Inflationists 

Herod’s Henchmen by Laurence Vance

America Needs to Go to Rehab by Eric Margolis

On the Death of Deep Throat by Pat Buchanan

A Tale of Two Giants by Dylan Hales

Reason Magazine, Populism and Ron Paul by Dylan Hales

Soldiers Against War  by John Denson

Torture USA by Glenn Greenwald

Here Come the Progressives! by Justin Raimondo

The “Coup” That Wasn’t by Justin Raimondo

The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney by Andy Worthington

Feinstein: Bad Choice for Intel by Stephen Zunes

Where Have All the Neocons Gone? by Jacob Heilbrunn

Prosecuting an Outlaw Administration by Scott Horton

Dismantling the Imperial Presidency by Aziz Huq

Habeus Corpus Barely Saved by Sheldon Richman

Out of Sight, Out of Mind by Steven Chapman

Turning a Blind Eye to War Crimes by Brad Friedman

Cold War Shivers by Eric Walberg

Cheney’s Legacy of Deception by Dick Cheney

Israeli Spies’ ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card Philip Giraldi interviewed by Scott Horton

Iraq Wins the Iraq War Patrick Cockburn interviewed by Scott Horton

World War Two Was Bad for the Economy Thomas Woods interviewed by Scott Horton

Manufacturing Dissent Glen Greenwald interviewed by Scott Horton

Government Without Laws  by Ralph Nader

Obama and the Graveyard of Empires by Gary Leupp

Nixon’s Cambodian Shock Treatment by Howard Lisnoff

The Bill of Rights: Killed in Action by the War on Drugs by Michael Dee

Welcome to Soup Kitchen America by Richard Rhames

Are Magazines a Thing of the Past? 

A Road to Revolution? by Uri Gordon

Open Letter of Support for the Uprising in Greece 

San Francisco Greek Solidarity March 

An Interview with a Greek Anarchist 

Republic Magazine: Issue # 11

Anarchy in Philadelphia

Rich Countries Carry Out 21st Century Land Grab by Debora Mackenzie

The History of Processed World 

Open Capital: The Sharing of Risk and Reward 

En Route to Military Rule by William Norman Grigg

Two Dangerous Bush-Cheney Myths by Robert Parry

Back to “Globalism” by Gordon Prather

100 Tons of US/Israeli Bombs Dropped on Gaza by Bay Area National Anarchists

The Medusa’s Head by Alexander Cockburn

Riots Push Greece to the Edge by Malcolm Brabant

Obama is Not a Latent Lefty by Paul Street

Left-Wing Authoritarianism lecture by Tammy Bruce

Quote of the Week:

“All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both.”

“Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the great majority of men. Every valuable thing that has been added to the store of man’s possessions has been derided y them when it was new, and destroyed by them when that had the power. They have fought every new truth ever heard of, and they have killed every truth-seeker who got in to their hands.”

                                                                                                    -H. L.  Mencken

 

The Old Right and the Anti-Christ by Richard Spencer

Our Ponzi Economy by Peter Schiff

Cui Bono with the Bailouts? by Paul Gottfried

It’s Hoover Time! by Pat Buchanan

Wars on Common Sense by Jack Hunter

New Constitutional Convention=New Declaration of Independence? by Chuck Baldwin

The U.S. Criminal Justice System is Collapsing by Paul Craig Roberts

A  Brief Note on the Evil of the Neocons  by Dylan Hale

The Revolution Continues in Greece 

Proudon’s Second Letter by Shawn Wilbur

Greece: Pictures from the 2nd Week of Protest 

Insurrection is the Present and the Future! 

Greece: Something is Happening 

Pushing Pakistan Over the Edge by Peter Lee

Each Shoe Was Worth a Thousand Words by Patrick Cockburn

Why Hezbollah Stiffed Carter by Franklin Lamb

Obama and the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Jeff Halper

A Forgotten Genocide: The Case of Spain by Vicente Navarro

It Thundered and Lightinged and the Rain Began to Fall by Thomas Naylor

$2000 Gold and Secession Gerald Celente interviewed by Lew Rockwell

John Edison, Jr.: The Poster Child for Tyranny by Trevor Bothwell

Police Have Killed 400 with Tasers Since 2001 

What Happened to the Libertarian Party? David interviewed by Lew Rockwell

The Crisis-Mongers by Justin Raimondo

Israel’s Get Out of Jail Free Card by Philip Giraldi

Who Guards the Guardians? by Nat Hentoff

Dick Cheney’s Fantasy World by Scott Ritter

Ready for Revolution? by Alex R. Knight III

Incoherent Empire: The Case for Getting Out of NATO by Doug Bandow

Obama’s War by Pat Buchanan

What Good is Wall Street? by Tom Piatak

Hip Natives Out-Economize Foreign Squares 

Proudhon’s Projects by Shawn Wilbur

Barack Obama and Rick Warren by Stonewall

Deindustrialization Killing GOP in North by Patroon

Is Social Conservatism Dead? by Stonewall

Solidarity with the Greek Insurrection 

Support for Greek Uprising in Syracuse 

Greek Union Offices Occupied 

Solidarity with Greek Revolutionaries in NYC 

An Ethnic Cleansing in America by Alexander Cockburn

Days of Rage in Greece by Panos Petrou

Prosecuting Bush and Cheney for Torture by Dave Lindorff

President Meathead by Missy Beattie

PIGS Assault 12-Year-Old Girl 

Family Victimized by PIGS Fights Back 

Unemployment at 16.5% 

Military Dictatorship Updates 

Tax Resistance and the Depression David Beito interviewed by Lew Rockwell

Flying Shoes, Bursting Bubbles by William Norman Grigg

The Great Global Warming Swindle? 

The Medical-Industrial Complex by John McDougall interviewed by Lew Rockwell

The Bubble of Empire by Justin Raimondo

Committing War Crimes for the “Right” Reasons by Glenn Greenwald

What Obama Doesn’t Know by Nat Hentoff

Will War Crimes Be Outed? by Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith

Land of the Free to Torture and Imprison without Trial by Brian Cloughley

The U.S. and Iran Gareth Porter interviewed by Scott Horton

An Agorist Take on the Greek Rebellion

Therapeutic State Undermines Freedom of Conscience (and some libertarians think that’s fine) by Ronald Bailey

Colorado Bank Attacked in Solidarity with Greece 

San Francisco Action in Support of Greek Uprising 

The Fed-Bankster Rip-Off by Murray Rothbard

Democracy, American-Style by Jacob Hornberger

Excluded Democracy by Ralph Nader

The Fascist PIG Arpaio 

Actual Consumer Protection 

Of Mistresses and Misplaced Outrage by Robert Stacy McCain

Greece and the Insurrections to Come 

Greece Solidarity Rally in Toledo 

“Greek Syndrome’ is Catching as Youth Take to Streets 

What’s Wrong with Being “Bourgeois”?

Quotes of the Week:

“Something is happening to this country. It still has a lot going for it’s friendly people, great diners, good blues, country bands, widespread availability of illegal drugs. But the government is out of control. Everything is illegal and watched. It’s getting so you can’t shoot cats from a car window with a twelve-gauge any more. Who wants to live in that kind of world? We’ll all probably be overrun by cats, drown in them.”

                                                                                                                         -Fred Reed

“Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain.”

                                                                                           -Marquis de Sade

“”He looked into anarchy, he looked past the voluntarily organized anarchy of Proudhon and Tolstoy, he looked into chaos itself, and he said, yes, even that, I will accept even that, before I will bend the knee to any Authority that claims to own me.” 

                                                -Robert Anton Wilson on the Marquis de Sade

“Nationalism is often mistaken for militarism and utilized in the name of centralizing political authority, but the real nations, as opposed to the territories marked out on official maps, are the ethnic, religious, and geographical allegiances that form natural bonds between people. The emerging world state is naturally hostile to these. It prefers to deal with a homogenized mass culture and does everything to discourage – and, if necessary, suppress – all regionalism.

The frontiers of freedom, in this globalist future, will be pioneered by the new regionalists, the secessionists, the campaigners for Cascadia, the republic of Vermont, and the right of Trans-Dniester to go its own way. Gigantism is a conceit, and a fatal one, as the rulers of the old Soviet empire learned and we are just beginning to fathom.”

                                                                                         -Justin Raimondo

The Myth of Socialism as Statism by Larry Gambone

Questions About Cooperative Socialism by Larry Gambone

Conflation Conflict, Continued (unfortuately) by Kevin Carson

IWW-Affiliated Truckers to Strike 

The Amish Say Religion Trumps Building Codes

The Latest Excuse for Fascism  by Lew Rockwell

Leftist Thought Controllers  by Bill Anderson

Sovietizing the Economy: The Final Phase  by William Norman Grigg

The Real Reason Why Illinois Governor Blagojevich Was Arrested  

SWAT PIGS Raid Food Coop in Cleveland  

State Silences 8-Year-Old Blues Guitarist 

Class Struggle in Chicago Factory 

The One Good Thing About an Obama Presidency  (He’s a Smoker!!)

Thought Policing 101  by Tom DiLorenzo

Withered Conservatism  by Michael Brendan Dougherty

Obama Chooses to Stay the Course on Foreign Policy  by Christopher Preble

Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards  by Bruce Fein

Despair Among the Neocons  by Robert Dreyfuss

Lost in Guantanamo: The Faisalabad 16  by Andy Worthington

The Nullification of the Bill of Rights   by Jacob Hornberger

Photos of the Greek Uprising  

Anarchism and Neighborhood Associations  by Larry Gambone

National March for Sex Workers Rights in Washington, D.C. on December 17  

Obama and Economic Catastrophe  by Mike Davis

The Demographics of Global Depression 

The Death of AIDS  by Richard Spencer

Mumbai 2008/Sarajevo 1914  by John R. Schindler