Socialism & the state de Chris Dillow:
I fear DK misunderstands socialism. He says:
And I'm not eccentric here. There's a long tradition in proper socialism - as distinct from the fat-headed "progressive" pseudo-left Fabian drivel DK thinks representative of all socialists - which is sceptical of the state. Marxists have regarded the state not as a tool for leading the unenlightened but rather as a device for promoting the private interests of the ruling class. In this sense, Marxism and public choice theory have something in common.
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The Traditionalist Counterculture de Jesse Walker:
The most interesting thing about Dreher’s volume is not that it combines conservatism with the counterculture. It’s that it combines traditionalism with the counterculture, marrying two trends that seemed as they emerged in the postwar era to be opposites. What’s more, it does this in a way that makes sociological sense. His crunchy cons might not be dropping acid or living in communes, but those aren’t the only legacies of the hippies. When Dreher writes that “Small and Local and Old and Particular are to be preferred over Big and Global and New and Abstract,” he could be quoting Kirk. He could also be quoting the liner notes of a dusty Dylan LP.
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The hippies, like the conservatives, can be divided into libertarian and traditionalist tendencies. The libertarians said things like “follow your bliss,” “do your own thing,” and “we are as gods and might as well get good at it.” At the same time, from the folk music revival of the ’50s and early ’60s to the rural bohemia of the ’70s—a stronghold of homeschooling, homesteading, and other activities celebrated in Dreher’s book—there always was a strain in the counterculture that wanted to preserve the past and restore lost traditions. By 1970 or so, the paradigmatic hippies were not urban runaways eating acid at a lightshow but a troupe of would-be farmers heading to the countryside. On their soundtrack, instead of some endless psychedelic jam, you could hear a series of country-rock songs by Dylan, the Byrds, the Band. Granted, many of those farmers might never manage to get anything to grow. But that was true of some of the Right’s traditionalists, too.
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Indeed, my socialism is founded on the opposite view. I'm a socialist precisely because I believe bosses and politicians know no more than ordinary people, and so their claims to power - based as they are upon a pretence to expertise - are mistaken.The entire concept of socialism is based around the idea that a large part of the population is too...thick to be able to look after themselves. Because these people are so...thick, they need wise leaders to look after them and, naturally, everyone seems themselves as that wise leader.
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And I'm not eccentric here. There's a long tradition in proper socialism - as distinct from the fat-headed "progressive" pseudo-left Fabian drivel DK thinks representative of all socialists - which is sceptical of the state. Marxists have regarded the state not as a tool for leading the unenlightened but rather as a device for promoting the private interests of the ruling class. In this sense, Marxism and public choice theory have something in common.
(...)
The Traditionalist Counterculture de Jesse Walker:
The most interesting thing about Dreher’s volume is not that it combines conservatism with the counterculture. It’s that it combines traditionalism with the counterculture, marrying two trends that seemed as they emerged in the postwar era to be opposites. What’s more, it does this in a way that makes sociological sense. His crunchy cons might not be dropping acid or living in communes, but those aren’t the only legacies of the hippies. When Dreher writes that “Small and Local and Old and Particular are to be preferred over Big and Global and New and Abstract,” he could be quoting Kirk. He could also be quoting the liner notes of a dusty Dylan LP.
(...)
The hippies, like the conservatives, can be divided into libertarian and traditionalist tendencies. The libertarians said things like “follow your bliss,” “do your own thing,” and “we are as gods and might as well get good at it.” At the same time, from the folk music revival of the ’50s and early ’60s to the rural bohemia of the ’70s—a stronghold of homeschooling, homesteading, and other activities celebrated in Dreher’s book—there always was a strain in the counterculture that wanted to preserve the past and restore lost traditions. By 1970 or so, the paradigmatic hippies were not urban runaways eating acid at a lightshow but a troupe of would-be farmers heading to the countryside. On their soundtrack, instead of some endless psychedelic jam, you could hear a series of country-rock songs by Dylan, the Byrds, the Band. Granted, many of those farmers might never manage to get anything to grow. But that was true of some of the Right’s traditionalists, too.
(...)
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