[Dean's World] Dean: Two and a Half Challenges for My Libertarian and Market-Oriented Conservative Friends

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Posted by Dean:
Two and a Half Challenges for My Libertarian and Market-Oriented Conservative Friends
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1168303618.shtml


   I have long been known as a dedicated, unrelenting foe of Communism,
   and of the dysfunctional philosophy that underlies it known as
   Marxism.

   If you're looking for me to say "but" right about here, just stop.
   There is no "but."

   I feel almost stupid having to write the above sentences. Honestly,
   it's almost humiliating to have to write them. [1]Search my archives.
   I'm not even a little nice on this subject. I don't even have much
   truck with those who say "Marxism and Communism aren't the same
   thing." Nice try. In the real world it's almost invariably a
   distinction without a difference.

   I'll make some excuses for useful idiots and youthful idealists. But
   only so many. I make similar forgiveness of white supremacists or
   "black power" extremists or whatnot; basically, I sympathize with
   those who in fear and ignorance made youthful mistakes; this is why I
   think that [2]American History X was one of the greatest films of the
   1990s, and should be required watching. Not with your young children,
   but certainly with your older children. Not because it's an exercise
   in self-flagellation (it is not) but because it's an eye-opener that
   will leave neither the left nor the right nor members of any faith
   tradition or culture entirely comfortable.

   Maybe the problem here is the Manichean worldview that still infects a
   lot of discussions: you're either X or Y, you're either black or
   white, you're either liberal or conservative, you're either left or
   right, you're either pro-market or anti-market, etc.

   For example, I have always been so utterly against Islamo-fascist
   ideology that I can't express it. I don't find the term
   "Islamo-Fascist" wrong at all; I use it to distinguish the utter
   nutjobs from the sane people. Most of the sane people I know agree
   with me on that point. It is a stain that should be viewed much like
   the evil that infected some (not all, just some) Christian thinking in
   the past--and not always as far back in the past as we would like to
   imagine.

   It's also not an attempt to draw a "moral equivalency" by the way--try
   as some might to shoehorn me into that nonsense.

   I guess I write all this only because I get tired of hearing these
   days from people who think I have "changed." I suppose I have a
   little--if you've aged 5 years and you haven't changed at all, there's
   probably something wrong with you--but my "change" is a bit less
   dramatic than some seem to think.

   I say all this by way of explaining: I feel that market-oriented
   libertarianism and conservatism are not evil, but in need of
   challenging forthrightly. You know, just because they proved
   themselves right about many issues--the overreaching of state power,
   of the limited value of populism and state regulation, and the limited
   value of state planning--that does not make them inherently right
   about everything.

   So in this friendly, genuinely non-hostile and Socratic (I hope)
   spirit, I offer two simple questions:

   1) Can you find for me, anywhere in history, the existence of any such
   thing as a "corporation" before [3]Stora Kopparberg was granted a
   charter by the King of Sweden in 1347, and can you find me more than a
   dozen examples of such corporations that existed before His Majesty
   granted said charter? Indeed, can you provide me with examples of at
   least two dozen such corporations that existed in the entirety of
   history before the 18th century? Please be specific. Partnerships and
   family-owned businesses do not apply.

   2) Although neither Ayn Rand nor Adam Smith were perfect or infallible
   philosophers, I think most would agree that they are the best
   expositors of the idea of the free market and the entrepreneur. So,
   can you find me any example of a vigorous defense of the idea of the
   Corporation in the entire writings of either Adam Smith or Ayn Rand?

   Since I'm pretty sure that the answers are "no" and "no," I now ask
   sub-question 2a: Who was Howard Roark's primary nemesis in [4]The
   Fountainhead? It wasn't the government, was it?

   I am astounded by how many so-called "libertarians" and
   "conservatives" talk as if the Corporation is the ultimate expression
   of the natural and organic free market, the great expression of
   individual triumph--as opposed to being exactly what it is: a creation
   and ongoing expression of state power, and an exercise in
   collectivism.

   By the way, [5]Sam Walton has been dead for 15 years. So why is
   Wal-Mart an expression of the individual entrepreneur again?

   Compare this to marriage, which existed long before the government
   defined it, and has existed for tens of thousands of years, under
   every culture and religions, whether the state recognized it or not.
   You really think they're comparable? How so? Where do you find an
   example in history of such a beastie as a corporation prior to 14th
   century Europe, and where do you find more than a dozen out of them
   before 19th and 20th century governments expanded the concept for
   trade and other purposes?

   I think these are important questions that don't get asked often
   enough. Indeed, I'm pretty sure these questions are going to define
   the political debate for the next generation.

   To put it in short: you guys won on a very major and important
   question. Marx was wrong in most of his particulars. You won, the
   Marxists lost. Granted. So the argument stops there?

References

   1. http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi
   2. http://www.amazon.com/American-History-X-Edward-Norton/dp/6305313687/sr=1-1/qid=1168302367/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-4713790-9667245?ie=UTF8&s=dvd/deansworld01-20
   3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stora_Kopparberg
   4. http://www.amazon.com/Fountainhead-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191153/sr=1-1/qid=1168305300/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-4713790-9667245?ie=UTF8&s=books/deansworld01-20
   5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Walton