Not sure who Maknho is so thanks for the name drop I’ll check their work out, but as far as I know, Bookchin was a lefty anarchist. I always assumed his later ‘libertarian phase’ was just another label that he’d eventually disavow as well but that his critique of the state also went alongside his critique of the market.
Can you refer me to other libertarians who are particularly anti-market, in the American context?
Bookchin was a lot of things in his life, including a zionist, by the end he had renounced anarchism in favor of his own thing. Although he has had some decent critiques, that sort of behavior has made it hard to take him too seriously.
I would recommend David Graeber frankly if you’re looking for American context anarchism.
It’s a damned shame bookchin wrote a terrible article filled with wild distortions of history of israel/palestine. It goes without saying that people should just not go to bookchin to have an accurate or rigorous framing of middle east’s history and society. Ok, he inspired autonomous democratic movements like rojava, but that’s beside the point of it all and more linked to his social theories of democracy rather than any concrete understanding of history - as far as I know he never studied the history of the middle east in any serious depth.
His social ecology essays are filled with interesting stuff and did have some very good critiques of different environmentalist currents, he did have some strange critiques of Marx at times, but I still respect some of that work even if I may not agree with much of it. His views on zionism is another story though, not excusable. The silver lining is (as far as I know) it was just that one article.
In my opinion what defines libertarianism overall is being non-statist and a belief in markets dictating all of life.
Left libertarianism is just progressive on social issues.
Yes.
No.
Lots of libertarians critique both markets and the state (e.g. Murray Bookchin or Nestor Makhno).
The defining feature is just a critique of state power.
critiquing both is what makes you a left libertarian.
Not sure who Maknho is so thanks for the name drop I’ll check their work out, but as far as I know, Bookchin was a lefty anarchist. I always assumed his later ‘libertarian phase’ was just another label that he’d eventually disavow as well but that his critique of the state also went alongside his critique of the market.
Can you refer me to other libertarians who are particularly anti-market, in the American context?
Bookchin was a lot of things in his life, including a zionist, by the end he had renounced anarchism in favor of his own thing. Although he has had some decent critiques, that sort of behavior has made it hard to take him too seriously.
I would recommend David Graeber frankly if you’re looking for American context anarchism.
It’s a damned shame bookchin wrote a terrible article filled with wild distortions of history of israel/palestine. It goes without saying that people should just not go to bookchin to have an accurate or rigorous framing of middle east’s history and society. Ok, he inspired autonomous democratic movements like rojava, but that’s beside the point of it all and more linked to his social theories of democracy rather than any concrete understanding of history - as far as I know he never studied the history of the middle east in any serious depth.
His social ecology essays are filled with interesting stuff and did have some very good critiques of different environmentalist currents, he did have some strange critiques of Marx at times, but I still respect some of that work even if I may not agree with much of it. His views on zionism is another story though, not excusable. The silver lining is (as far as I know) it was just that one article.