File spoon-archives/marxism-thaxis.archive/marxism-thaxis_1997/97-02-10.192, message 109


Date: Thu, 6 Feb 1997 10:41:26 -0500 (EST)
From: "Chris M. Sciabarra" <sciabrrc-AT-is2.NYU.EDU>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Whether Freedom Has Any Chance


On Wed, 5 Feb 1997, Justin Schwartz wrote:

> 
> Chris thinks that ideas can bring about a libertarian society without
> there being a social basis to those ideas. I guess I don't see it. A good
> thing, I think, since I think that freedom depends on our getting
> socialism, not libertarrianism.
> 
> --jks
> 
	Cute... but no, it is not that I believe ideas can bring about a
libertarian society; it is that I think the social basis, namely the
distinction between privileged and non-privileged is as much a political
as it is an economic one, and that a libertarian perspective might shed
light on this social basis.  And like Marx, I'd say that "objective"
conditions are not enough -- the "subjective" or ideational ones are just
important, and winning the battle of ideas is ultimately a function of the
efficacy of these ideas.  Which is why socialism is in retreat in most of
the world -- at least the kind of "socialism" that dominated the Iron
Curtain.
					- Chris
==========================================Chris Matthew Sciabarra, Ph.D
Visiting Scholar
New York University Department of Politics
Email:      sciabrrc-AT-is2.nyu.edu
Website:    http://pages.nyu.edu/~sciabrrc
==========================================



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