By Cake Boy
We have studied anarchism for a couple of weeks. I tried to formulate a new anarchism. An anarchism past the dimensions of woke leftism and neoliberal capitalist hegemony. This, then, would be a pluralist anarchism. We have seen that there would be positive sides to this model. But, it is also a very futurist position. The social/constructive anarchist is a futurist. He/she is a symbol for the next world. Maybe anarchism will play a role again, maybe it will disappear. At least we formulated an anarchism that is up to date, and that is, in my view, the most consistent version of anarchism, in which the individual has the greatest amount of freedom.
If you think anarchism is too farfetched, too big of a statement, then there is another theory that might be interesting for you.
Namely, geoism. Geoism, or Georgism (it means the same), is a libertarian movement, but it’s different than the well-known right-wing libertarianism of Ron Paul. They often call geoism a ‘left libertarianism’. In my country, they would say a ‘leftwing classical liberalism’. The words left and right aren’t that meaningful, so let’s put it this way. Geoism is a libertarianism that competes with the libertarianism of Rothbard, Hoppe, and Ron Paul. And in my view, it’s an underrated ideological system
Geoism is based on the ideas of Henry George. George was an American classical liberal economist. You could say that George formulated Proudhonian politics but within the framework of a statist system. So, you could say that George tried to create a classical liberal version of anarchist ideals. He sort of deradicalized Proudhonian anarchism.
What did Proudhon want? What was the core of his thought? Proudhon wanted people to have free land (people should be able to use the land), free markets, and to get rid of the state. This would then be the most individualistic system we could possibly have. We have seen that the pluralist anarchism Preston and I talked about is more or less the same as Proudhon’s anarchism
What did Henry George want? George wanted people to have free land, he wanted free trade, and he wanted a small government (as small as possible).
If people don’t own land, they can get exploited. If people can’t trade, then they are not free.
And how do you give people free land within a statist system? George proposed a land tax, the so-called land value tax. With the money from this tax, you can give every civilian a basic income. The more land you have, the more tax you pay to compensate society. But, the other taxes will be very low, and the taxes on labor and income will be minimized. Georgists often say: tax what you take, not what you make. You take the land (because the land is inherent to everyone) and make your products or services. Geoism, then, would create a capitalism that would work for everyone, not just for some speculators and monopolists.
At the moment, the geoist movement is reviving again. The geologists are working on international connections, parties, think tanks, seminars, etc.
Geoism is pragmatic. It doesn’t believe we can get rid of states anymore. But they believe we could make the system more just, or at least change it. Geoism is within the classical liberal tradition, so it values free speech, human rights, the right to bear arms, free media, etc. It’s not a revolutionary or insurrectionary movement. It believes it can achieve change through evolution.
So, if you don’t believe in your anarchism anymore and still want to be politically active, geoism might be the right movement to use. It’s getting bigger again, so now is the time to get into it. It will try to compete with the upcoming communist wave and formulate a freedom-orientated reaction to the crisis of neoliberalism. I think of all the non-anarchists/statist/moderate ideologies, geoism is the closest to the ideals of anarchism. That’s why I wanted to bring it up. Now, often, when people stop being anarchists, they become a Marxist/Leninist/communist because they say communism is more realistic. I would rather see ex-anarchists joining the Geoist ranks than the communist ranks.
