Comments Elsewhere

Kennedy,

Roderick’s a philosopher, and moreover an Aristotelian. He is more optimistic about the possibility of changing hearts and minds than you are, but when he starts talking about conceptual confusions and “anti-concepts” it’s safe to assume that he considers clarity on the matter something desirable in itself, not only for its consequences. Confusions are worth exposing because they are confusions, not just because they serve nefarious purposes (although, in fact, they do).

I think he’s probably right that there is some hope for a renewal of a left-libertarian alliance, but the points he makes about the terms “capitalism” and “socialism” are still worth making whether or not they have any practical impact on the populace at large, movement types, or indeed anyone else at all.