Re: left anarchy, right anarchy

E. Shaun Russell (e_shaun@uniserve.com)
Sat, 27 Sep 1997 11:22:24 -0700


Remi [welcome to the list] wrote:

>Are right and left anarchism really opposite ideologies ? sometimes, there
>can be a fruitful collaboration. The best example, IMO, is the GNU project,
>a pure anarcho-socialist project (no property of information!) which gave
>birth to successful companies such as Cygnus.

I have always disliked the whole idea of "left" and "right" in
politics (or non-politics, as it may be.) By saying that one is "left
wing" it gives the impression that the person in question has *only* left
wing tendencies when they may possess many "right wing" qualities as well.
The Advocates for Self-Government has a somewhat more effective (IMO)
method by dividing a chart into five different political sections then
asking key questions to position one on the chart. Although this may be an
improvement to the conventional left\right scale, it still leaves much to
be desired. Probably the easiest way to find someone's views in politics
is to simply ask their opinion on the purpose of government and why. If
one says that they think that government should be abolished, obviously
they are anarchists; if their reason is because the government has done
virtually nothing to feed the starving and homeless, then their position is
pretty obvious.

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E. Shaun Russell Poet, Musician, Atheist, Extropic Artist
==============================> Transhumanities editor for Homo Excelsior
Kineticize your potential... http://www.excelsior.org
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