Showing posts with label progressive libertarianism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label progressive libertarianism. Show all posts

Sunday, January 31, 2021

Negative And Positive Liberty: Two Sides, Same Coin

If you are reading this right now, there is a very good chance that you have been feeling "politically homeless" recently.  You may find yourself torn between progressivism and libertarianism, and have thus sought out what we call "progressive libertarianism".  You may strongly oppose lockdowns and related restrictions as egregious violations of civil and human rights, but yet still just as strongly support things like Universal Basic Income, single-payer Medicare For All, fair and progressive taxation, labor rights, racial justice, gender and reproductive justice, environmental justice, and stuff like that.  And take it from us, you are NOT at all alone.

One thing all tyrants and their lackeys both today and throughout history have in common is that they convince the masses that negative and positive liberty ("freedom from" vs. "freedom to", respectively) are somehow at odds with one another or even mutually exclusive, when in reality they are (when properly understood!) two sides of the same coin.  And those who follow the "power-over" or "dominator" paradigm of social interaction (as opposed to the "partnership" paradigm per Riane Eisler) simply cannot see that you really can't have one without the other.  That is true whether one is a Marxist or Neo-Platonist (preferring only positive liberty at the expense of negative liberty), or a Republican or Libertarian (preferring only negative liberty at the expense of positive liberty).  And by cynically pitting one type of liberty against the other, We the People ultimately end up with neither as a result.

If literally everything has strings attached and/or requires one to beg permission from the state or others higher up in the social dominance hierarchy, can one really consider oneself to be free?

If there is no firm social floor below which one cannot fall, then there is a "race to the bottom" which inevitably results in economic coercion.  And economic coercion makes negative liberty into a cruel joke:  the "freedom" to starve under a bridge in a world of natural abundance but artificial scarcity.

The same is also true for individual rights vs. collective/community rights as well, by the way.

To quote the late Mikhail Bakunin, "We are convinced that liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; and that socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality."  Simply insert "negative" before "liberty", and replace "socialism" with "positive liberty" and the quote in fact makes even more sense, regardless of how one feels about that rather nebulous snarl word, "socialism".  That basically sums it up.  QED.

We at the TSAP have one and only one agenda:  liberty and justice for all.  What's yours?

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Where We Stand Today

Since our founding in 2009, the True Spirit of America Party (TSAP) has come a long way.  Many of our positions on various issues have evolved since then, in some cases rather dramatically.

  • Originally, we believed that capitalism could perhaps be redeemed and used for the greater good.  Currently, the TSAP is essentially anti-capitalist since we now realize that capitalism cannot be redeemed, and its addiction to growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell, which eventually kills its host.  We must leave room for Nature, lest Nature not leave room for us.
  • Originally, the TSAP was staunchly pro-guns and in some ways to the right of the NRA.  But with the recent increase in mass shootings and what we have learned since then, we have since adopted a more nuanced and moderate position on the issue of gun control.
  • Originally, the TSAP attempted to find common ground with the nascent Tea Party movement and the broader Patriot movement in 2009-2010.  Since around 2011 or so, we have since ended such attempts upon realizing that they are, by and large, just another reich-wing racist and neo-fascist movement.  We now prefer the Occupy movement instead, by far.
  • Originally, our stance on immigration was relatively hard-line; it has since softened quite a bit.  We now believe in a more generous amnesty program, as not doing so would be far too cruel. And we also realize just how blinded by white privilege we once were.
  • Originally, the TSAP was pro-nuclear power all the way;  as of 2015 we now currently take the more neutral stance that the Union of Concerned Scientists takes, neither for nor against it.
  • Originally, the TSAP believed that with very few exceptions, every able-bodied adult should "work for a living".  We now feel that such an idea is archaic and outdated, and that Buckminster Fuller would be rolling in his grave.  There are more than enough resources in the world such that with today's technology we no longer NEED everyone to "work for a living" unless they really wanted to.  The real problem is that our abundance is being wasted and/or hoarded by the oligarchs, to the detriment of everyone else.
  • Originally, the TSAP was "egalitarian" on the issue of gender for the most part.  We also assumed that our party (including our leader Ajax the Great) would eventually save the world, lol.  But more recently, we now believe that it ain't gonna be us fellas who will save the world.  Only women would really be able to do so, and to do so they must take over.  Yesterday.  The futurists are unanimous about this:  the future belongs to women.  Thus, as of 2014 our party has been an observer of the Matriarchy movement, and as of 2016 we have basically joined the movement fully.  At the same time, we will continue to support our cause of progressive libertarianism to the fullest, as we believe that the two are perfectly compatible.  We would like to thank the distinguished Guru Rasa von Werder and William Bond for helping us see the light in that regard, as well as several others such as Pat Ravasio and Riane Eisler who have inspired us along the way.
Thus, our rather dynamic third party is continuing to evolve.  As John Mellencamp and India Arie would say, "If you're not part of the future, get out of the way!"

UPDATE:  The TSAP party leader, Ajax the Great, has recently created a new blog about the Matriarchy movement, called "The Chalice and the Flame".   Please check it out.  Opinions expressed therein are those of Ajax the Great and not necessarily the TSAP as a whole.