{"id":9285,"date":"2011-12-20T16:21:11","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T21:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=9285"},"modified":"2019-09-10T15:49:02","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T19:49:02","slug":"george-monbiot-this-bastardised-libertarianism-makes-freedom-an-instrument-of-oppression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2011\/12\/20\/george-monbiot-this-bastardised-libertarianism-makes-freedom-an-instrument-of-oppression\/","title":{"rendered":"George Monbiot: This Bastardised Libertarianism Makes “Freedom” an Instrument of Oppression"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Monbiot: This Bastardised Libertarianism Makes “Freedom” an Instrument of Oppression<\/strong><\/a> is another gem I found on Truth Out<\/em>. Monbiot quotes author Isaiah Berlin, as follows:<\/p>\n

As Berlin noted: “No man’s activity is so completely private as never to obstruct the lives of others in any way. ‘Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows’.” So, he argued, some people’s freedom must sometimes be curtailed “to secure the freedom of others”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I have had many philosophical discussions\u00a0 with libertarians over the years.\u00a0 I wonder if this article would have made any difference.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Monbiot apparently had good luck with it in a debate.<\/p>\n

Yet when I asked her a simple question \u2013 “do you accept that some people’s freedoms intrude upon other people’s freedoms?” \u2013 I saw an ideology shatter like a windscreen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He describes the problem with modern day libertarians like Ron Paul:<\/p>\n

Modern libertarianism is the disguise adopted by those who wish to exploit without restraint. It pretends that only the state intrudes on our liberties. It ignores the role of banks, corporations and the rich in making us less free. It denies the need for the state to curb them in order to protect the freedoms of weaker people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is how I finally came to realize, when I was a sophomore in college, the flaws in Ayn Rand’s books and in her philosophy.\u00a0 I learned some truths about the “weaker people” who were the victims of Ayn Rand’s exploiting hero types.\u00a0 Many of these “weaker people” were born into circumstances that prevented them from even realizing that there were alternatives to their current situations.\u00a0 There were examples of some extraordinary people among them who found a way to a better life, but the odds were just stacked against the people who didn’t even know their was a way out to be found.\u00a0 Some of the exploiters were not just innocent partakers of the advantages of their own circumstances.\u00a0 Many used government policy to prevent the “weaker people” from ever discovering what was being done to them and by whom.<\/p>\n

What the 1% so fear about Elizabeth Warren is that her research, her books, and her lectures reveal the ugly truth of how the exploiters keep the 99% down.\u00a0 See the video of Warren’s explanation at The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Monbiot: This Bastardised Libertarianism Makes “Freedom” an Instrument of Oppression is another gem I found on Truth Out. Monbiot quotes author Isaiah Berlin, as follows: As Berlin noted: “No man’s activity is so completely private as never to obstruct the lives of others in any way. ‘Freedom for the pike is death for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9285"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28038,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9285\/revisions\/28038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}