Mar 14, 2008

Environmental and Classical Liberal Authoritaranism

by Liberty and Power

Steve's post on environmentalism prompted another comment along with an added and very juicy treat from Thomas Sowell at the end of this post.

In one of his earlier posts that he cited in his recent article, Steve referenced Jonah Goldberg's citing an Australian environmentalist suggesting democracy might have to give way to political authoritarianism. This supposedly evidenced a strong authoritarian streak in environmentalism.

Steve - given that you personally know many environmentalists, this is a bit below the belt don't you think. To recapitulate several points I have made before on this blog, first, 'environmentalism' encompasses a wide variety of political positions because it refers to issues of concern, not to an ideology. There is no “environmentalism” but there are “environmentalists” who think we need to take far better care of the natural world than we currently do.

Second, the authoritarians among that group are hardly new - consider Ophuls' work for example. They have been OVERWHELMINGLY rejected by nearly everyone involved with environmental issues. You are beating the deadest of dead horses and you and Goldberg didn’t have to go all the way to Australia to find one. But Goldberg’s scholarship on fascism is competitive to his scholarship on environmentalism.

Third, ironically, you are echoing the anarcho-marxo left ideologues like Murray Bookchin who, with his acolytes, has for years and years made the same argument. It is no more accurate coming from the lunatic left than it is from the right libertarian end of things. For one of my responses to the Bookchinites, see http://www.dizerega.com/?p=110

Fourth, in any group unbalanced people will be found, even unbalanced people with Ph.D.s. For many years the man who last year said the following on his blog was listed as a classical liberal and he was invited to all the right gatherings. For all I know, he still is. Some of his writings are recommended by libertarians:

“ When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.”

The spirit of Pinochet is alive and well at Hoover, AEI, and at Goldberg’s beloved NRO.

You can read Thomas Sowell in his own words here
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmU0NGQ0ZTQzZTU4Zjk4MjdjZWMzYTM4Nzk2MzQ0MGI

Is classical liberalism and even libertarianism strongly authoritarian and even religious? By Steve’s logic it would seem to be, in which case do we have a pot calling the kettle black? Or maybe this approach is simply a dead end intellectually and ethically.

More Comments:

Gus diZerega - 3/15/2008

Thanks, Steve - and you are 100% right here. Some on this list might be surprised to know ALL my most recent spats have been with the illiberal left. Some occurred on my blog, some elsewhere.

If, as seems to be the case, the right is self-destructing as the dominant political force in this country we can expect a resurgence of intolerant leftists while at least some right authoritarians shut up for the time being.

But I think emphasizing this issue of respect for freedom needs to be aimed at the left and right in their various forms, and not at names that apply only to interest in broad substantive issues such as environmentalism, feminism, religion and spirituality, etc.

One way we can tell that we are not dealing with an ideology is that ideological groups try and capture it. Witness:

eco-socialism
eco-anarchism & social ecology
eco-marxism
free market environmentalism
liberal environmentalism
even
conservative environmentalism (makes sense with genuine conservatives)

socialist feminism
libertarian feminism
liberal feminism

as well as non-ideological variants pointing to different ways of studying an area:

cultural feminism
feminism and psychoanalysis

deep ecology
ecosystems analysis

Gus

These commonly encountered terms indicate that different ideologies seek to capture under their wing an issue which is itself not ideological.

If an ideology seems unable to say anything very interesting on an issue, it seems to me they then try and turn the issue into an ideology so as to hide the fact they have nothing to say.

Steven Horwitz - 3/14/2008

Just a short reply Gus:

Yes, both classical liberalism and environmentalism have a wide range of views that fit under their umbrellas, and both umbrellas contain folks with authoritarian tendencies.

You have done yeoman's work in trying to keep classical liberals honest on this score, in the context of the war especially.

My series of posts was intended to do the same for my friends on the left who are attracted to environmentalist issues. Both classical liberals and the left claim to reject various forms of authoritarianism. Consider that your concerns about classical liberalism and the war and my concerns about the left and environmentalism are both after the same thing: asking people with whom we think we share important ends to not fall into the trap of authoritarianism in the name of what they believe is best for others.