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<!-- you can have any number of categories here --> [[Category:Brainpolice (pseudonym)]] [[Category:Egalitarian]] [[Category:Left-Libertarian and Anarchist Criticism]] <!-- 1 URL must be followed by >= 0 Other URL and Old URL and 1 End URL.--> {{URL | url = http://reallibertarianism.com/left-libertarianism-pages/in-defense-of-egalitarianism/}} <!-- {{Other URL | url = }} --> {{Old URL | url = http://polycentricorder.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-defense-of-egalitarianism.html}} {{End URL}} {{DES | des = "One of the common ways in which this plays out is when someone says that egalitarianism makes no sense because it is obvious that people have different levels of intelligence, different physical attributes, different abilities and specializations, and so on. In other words, egalitarians are characterized as proposing that everyone is inherently equal in such a literal sense. But, to my knowledge, no one actually claims this, and hence it is a gigantic straw man. " | show=}} <!-- insert wiki page text here --> <!-- DPL has problems with categories that have a single quote in them. Use these explicit workarounds. --> <!-- otherwise, we would use {{Links}} and {{Quotes}} --> {{List|title=In Defense of Egalitarianism|links=true}} {{Quotations|title=In Defense of Egalitarianism|quotes=true}} {{Text | Part of the baggage that tends to come along with contemporary libertarian politics is a rejection of egalitarianism. The notions of liberty and equality are conceived of as being in an antagonistic relationship, with egalitarian ideas being equated to a forced plan that attempts to circumvent “the natural order” or as a rosy description of the abilities or merits of humans as being flat. This generally functions as the background assumption for a rather convoluted discourse on the matter. One of the common ways in which this plays out is when someone says that egalitarianism makes no sense because it is obvious that people have different levels of intelligence, different physical attributes, different abilities and specializations, and so on. In other words, egalitarians are characterized as proposing that everyone is inherently equal in such a literal sense. But, to my knowledge, no one actually claims this, and hence it is a gigantic straw man. So when egalitarianism is attacked as if it claims that there are no differences between individuals, the ideas of actual egalitarians haven’t been touched. A related route that the opponent of egalitarianism may take is to act as if egalitarianism aims at making everyone equal in such a sense, that the elimination of natural differences between individuals is its prescriptive purpose. But perhaps with some rare exceptions on the fringes, this is also a straw man. Not even communists actually propose, for example, that everyone should have the exact same quantity of wealth. Feminists don’t generally advocate that we turn mankind into a unisexual species, anti-racists don’t generally advocate that we morph mankind into a single “race”. At best, these are bizarre exaggerations stemming from misunderstandings. At worst, it’s a scare tactic. Of course, the opponent of egalitarianism usually ends up falling back on an equation between current conditions that egalitarians seek to address and an appeal to nature or meritocracy. For example, it is just taken for granted that someone is wealthy because they earned it on the basis of their merits or hard work, and hence the egalitarian is characterized as attacking merit. On the flip side, it is taken for granted that someone is poor or in negative economic conditions because they simply didn’t take advantage of their opportunities or they simply lack the merit necessary to produce and improve their condition. This is classic vulgar libertarianism, I.E. it ignores the systematic or social context in order to engage in status quo apologetics, as if the conditions in question must necessarily be a reflection of meritocratic forces. The problem is that when we are talking about social and economic conditions in the context of systems, we are not dealing with a natural meritocracy. The conditions in question are partially determined by institutions, laws, customs, social norms, circumstances, and hence they cannot be completely reduced to a reflection of biology or some sort of inherent pecking order of virtue. Responding to a feminist by appealing to the biological categories of sex, while they are speaking of social conditions in relation to gender, doesn’t address their concern. Appealing to race and I.Q. statistics to an anti-racist, while they are speaking of social conditions that are largely determined by legal and social norms, is just vulgar nonsense. What this boils down to is that anti-egalitarians seem to think that economic, social, and political disparities can be reduced to “nature”, while egalitarians are more likely to see such disparities as largely being a consequence of something much more “nurtured” or “socially constructed” rather than a simple reflection of some inherent law of nature. What the anti-egalitarian sees as “just how it is” or some sort of representation of superiority, the egalitarian sees as a “privilege” within a systematic context, whether it be legal in nature or something more general than that. What the opponents of egalitarianism tend to do is engage in a rationalization for the power relations that egalitarians question by making out-of-context appeals to nature or science. As far as this relates to politics, what goes on is some severe package dealing. Support for liberty is package-dealed with opposition to notions of “social justice”, while support for notions of “social justice” are package-dealed with opposition to political liberty or some sort of statist political ideology. But there seems to be no good reason to consider these two spheres to be diametric opposites or completely separate from each other. On one hand, political structures play a role in determining social conditions. On the other hand, social conditions play a role in determining political structures. If one takes such considerations into account, there is no reason why one cannot be a libertarian and simultaneously be a proponent of “social justice”. Insofar as the state can be shown to play a role in creating or exacerbating power disparities and the socio-economic conditions that egalitarians dislike, this creates a case for egalitarians to be anti-statist. Insofar as certain power disparities and socio-economic conditions that egalitarians dislike can be shown to lead to or fuel the power of states, this creates a case for anti-statists to be egalitarians. To put the matter in more positive terms, it may be that certain egalitarian conditions or ideas function as a healthier precondition to the attainability and sustainability of a free society, and that a free society presents the most effective long-term means for achieving egalitarian goals. This is basically a two-pronged “thick libertarian” analysis of egalitarianism. I must admit that so far I haven’t particularly defined egalitarianism, although I think some part of it can be implied from what has been said. By egalitarianism I don’t simply mean equal liberty, although that can be understood to be a part of it. I mean “social justice”: a respect for “the other”, an opposition to extreme power disparities between social groups, generally favoring a more equitable distribution of wealth rather than the concentration of wealth in the hands of a class, and so on. By “egalitarianism” I basically mean “equity”, in contrast with extreme social and economic hierarchy. This doesn’t necessarily mean a purely flat structure, but a structure that minimizes extreme concentrations of power at any particular point. It signifies the goal of “fair outcomes”, or at least a comparative sense of equality. I think that the marginalization of certain social groups from the benefits of society and the concentration of economic benefits in the hands of an elite is something to oppose. I oppose the oppression of people by virtue of belonging to a particular ethnicity or gender, even if it isn’t strictly a matter of physical aggression. I think that this is not simply describable as a consequence of state intervention (although it partly is), but rather it is a social problem in and of itself that requires a deeper level of analysis. Free market libertarians, when not vulgar, tend to be pretty good at the former, but I think that the latter tends to be neglected in comparison. In a sense, yes, “social justice” depends on “political justice”, but I also think that “political justice” ultimately depends on “social justice” at a deeper level. I do not think that a society with extreme social and economic hierarchy would be healthy, even if it nominally had “political justice”, and I don’t think that it could sustainably have “political justice” in such conditions, which is why I think that the inverse approach to “the state caused it” is just as important if not more important than looking at state intervention as a cause of problems. A society with hierarchical distributions of wealth and power seems like the perfect atmosphere for a state to arise out of, so it seems like there are strong reasons for at least favoring some sense of economic egalitarianism. And in spite of certain dogmas, there is nothing about this that presents dissonance for libertarianism. In fact, it is very consonant with libertarian tradition. In light of this, I am suggesting that libertarians reclaim their egalitarian roots. }}
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