Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id808929252
it’s not obvious to me that we should always take the most uncompromising Marxist’s side in their debate with left liberals like Mill. Marx himself was a radically democratic thinker, but the way some Marxists simply dismissed important liberal ideas like checks and balances on state power or individual rights against the state would of course have a dark legacy. Mill was in some ways prophetic in warning socialists about the danger of such dismissals, and contemporary socialists don’t want to fall into the same trap as some of our forebears.
✏️ The Tension Between Marxist Thought and Liberal Democratic Principles: Marxist thought advocates for the abolition of private property and the establishment of a classless society, which often conflicts with the liberal democratic principles of individual rights and private ownership. While liberal democracies emphasize personal freedoms and market economies, Marxism critiques these systems for perpetuating inequality and exploitation. This fundamental disagreement leads to ongoing debates about economic systems, political power, and social justice within societies that navigate these contrasting ideologies. I think this is touching on where marxists/socialists fall into the authoritarian trap that has marred the movement before. Are marxists against checks and balances on state power? Are they against indvidual rights against the state? How does one manage this? #followup #addto/questions 🔗 View Highlight
id808930006
liberalism
✏️ Liberalism: A political and economic philosophy that emphasizes individual freedom, equality, and limited government intervention in personal and economic affairs. Rooted in Enlightenment principles, liberalism advocates for civil liberties, democratic governance, and the protection of human rights. It supports free markets and private property while promoting social progress through reform rather than revolution. Liberalism can conflict with socialism, which prioritizes collective ownership and social equality, leading to debates on the role of the state and the distribution of resources. 🔗 View Highlight
id808930036
what are the boundary lines between liberalism and socialism?
✏️ This is a good question to look into. 🔗 View Highlight
id808930987
recognize that liberalism is really a family of liberalisms, and the same is true of socialism. Whether liberalism and socialism harmonize and reinforce each other or conflict depends in part on which members of the respective families you put together.
✏️ Something that we should be keen to apply to many things. Just as one human being is not representative of all humanity, each of these philosophies and models have a range of types to them. 🔗 View Highlight
id808932016
Socialists have rightly been very critical of the atomistic egoism of what C. B. Macpherson calls classical liberal “possessive individualism” and its ethic of endless acquisition. Socialists foregrounded how it is destructive of solidarity and community.
id808932032
But there are other forms of liberalism going back to Thomas Paine which were also critical of atomistic individualism and the ethic of endless acquisition.
id808932125
one of the core things it adds to socialism is the need to protect individual rights and impose significant limitations on state power.
id808932223
I’d follow Ben Burgis in maintaining that a core argument for socialism should be a wariness of human nature and how easily it can be corrupted when some people enjoy enormous amounts of power and wealth.
✏️ xref with the other article that talked about how socialism should have built in within it the check on those that would seek corruption and greed. 🔗 View Highlight
id808932373
What liberals need to learn from socialists is the importance of hope and to rediscover this commitment to ethical and cognitive improvement.
id808939768
liberals can learn from socialists how dangerous economic concentrations of wealth are, since they readily turn into concentrations of power.
id808947483
The goal of socialists should be to hold a mirror up to liberals and say that they cannot achieve their goals unless they’re willing to extend liberal principles about equality and freedom from domination to the economy.