Chomsky: Here, libertarian means extreme advocate of total tyranny."

[white_wolf]

I came across this video where Noam Chomsky is asked about libertarianism, capitalism, and Adam Smith. He makes some really good points when it comes to countering libertarian dogma. Here is the video:

#!

[freshwest]

1. Yes, I've seen this. Thanks for putting it here. Another essay on right wing libertarianism:

How Freedom Became Tyranny

By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 20th December 2011

Rightwing libertarians have turned “freedom” into an excuse for greed and exploitation.

Freedom: who could object? Yet this word is now used to justify a thousand forms of exploitation. Throughout the rightwing press and blogosphere, among thinktanks and governments, the word excuses every assault on the lives of the poor, every form of inequality and intrusion to which the 1% subject us. How did libertarianism, once a noble impulse, become synonymous with injustice?

In the name of freedom – freedom from regulation – the banks were permitted to wreck the economy. In the name of freedom, taxes for the super-rich are cut. In the name of freedom, companies lobby to drop the minimum wage and raise working hours. In the same cause, US insurers lobby Congress to thwart effective public healthcare; the government rips up our planning laws(1); big business trashes the biosphere. This is the freedom of the powerful to exploit the weak, the rich to exploit the poor.

Right-wing libertarianism recognises few legitimate constraints on the power to act, regardless of the impact on the lives of others...

http://www.monbiot.com/2011/12/19/how-freedom-became-tyranny/

Excuse me if you've seen it before, but it goes to the heart of what is missing in this equation. He details the difficulty of expressing our values to combat it.

[patrice]

4. As Chomsky says US Libertarians are NOT about freedom & "... few legitimate constraints on the

power to act, regardless of the impact on the lives of others ..." as you observe, freshwest, results in oppression, which ultimately must lead to fascism, so we agree with Chomsky "the opposite of freedom" and I can tell you from first hand experience with Libertarians around our occupy, this is exactly what happens.

[patrice]

2. Wealth of Nations is hard to read, but worth the effort. You can find it online.

This is similar to some things I have been saying here, for a few years now, about Adam Smith.

His definition of REAL VALUE (as opposed to FALSE VALUE, or at best, Derived Value) is particularly useful as it is that without which there would be no economy of any type: labor/work is real value.

Seems a useful notion to me, as I can then say that like all good little capitalist, I have a responsibility to get the best return possible on my investment of my real value/labor-capital, and a return as close to real value as possible would be the best, don't you think. Thus co-operatives can be seen as a most efficient form of capitalism.

I like this video very much, because I identify with what Chomsky is saying, including that about real conservatism, as opposed to the phony travesty known as conservative in the USA today.

Thanks for posting this!

[Scootaloo]

3. Adam Smith's work is actually something ALL on the left should familiarize themselves with

Wealth of Nations is not a right-wing / libertarian pirate-capitalist screed. it does have anti-government sentiment in it... But it was written before our revolution brought democracy to the fore; Smith was against monarchal government interference, princes nad kings simply levying fees whenever they wanted to wage a war or fete a relative

[patrice]

5. The important condition on what Smith said, as Chomsky mentions, is perfect liberty. It's also

probably almost non-existent, though everyone constantly talks about being free and freedom as though perfect liberty were a given.

Of course, it's rarity and the difficulty in manifesting real liberty in actuality are not excuses to abandon the effort, because the act of at least trying to free one's self helps others to free themselves, thus making the "pursuit of happiness" more effective.

[Scootaloo]

6. Like I said, it needs to be something all on the left should be familiar with

If for no other reason than to counteract the bullshit propaganda cooked up by American "libertarians."

[patrice]

7. I have been reading about more recent Labor history and I'm hearing in Chomsky's words

about Adam Smith, suggestions of how to approach economic-class solidarity, especially as the most necessary means of fighting the class-warfare that is being waged against working- and lower-economic-class Americans.

Trying to derive new memes to address what is described here:

http://books.google.com/books/about/Stayin_Alive.html?id=h9acQrZmpmAC

[enough]

8. k&r (nt)

[joshcryer]

9. +1, Fuck Ron Paul.

[xchrom]

10. Du rec. Nt