Friday, April 16, 2010

Must-read

Crooked Timber's John Holbo on Libertarianism, Property Rights and Self-Ownership, which argues that Libertarians' focus on property and its privileging over (or conflation with) liberty gives you something that looks an awful lot like feudalism. Similarly, their stunted definition of freedom results in odd things such as slaves being "free" even when subjected to the lash, and women and non-whites being free even when subjected to widespread discrimination and victimisation, insofar as such treatment comes from society rather than the state. Whatever you call that, it isn't freedom.