My readings on anarchism have been quietly blundering on. Of particular interest is Sheldon Richman’s article on left-libertarianism in The American Conservative. (Boy, left-libertarianism – there’s two easy steps towards annoying Conservatives.) I’m not sure if I accept Richman and his comrades’ analysis of the state but their enthusiasm for autonomous cooperation is refreshing when hordes of “progressives” just cry out for manna from on high. (This can feel like invalids appealing to their ailments.) Nor would it be possible to fault their diagnosis…

These days left-libertarians feel vindicated. American foreign policy has embroiled the country in endless overt and covert wars, with their high cost in blood and treasure, in the resource-rich Middle East and Central Asia—with torture, indefinite detention, and surveillance among other assaults on domestic civil liberties thrown in for good measure. Meanwhile, the historical Washington-Wall Street alliance—in which recklessness with other people’s money, fostered by guarantees, bailouts, and Federal Reserve liquidity masquerades as deregulation—has brought yet another financial crisis with its heavy toll for average Americans, additional job insecurity, and magnified Wall Street influence.

A few bloggers have been musing on “the left’’ beyond statism. It’s a seam of thought that’s rich for mining and I’m glad to see that Brits are pitching in.

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