Rothbard's Left and Right: Forty Years Later

I'd like to recommend Roderick Long's lecture called Rothbard's "Left and Right": Forty Years Later to anybody who is still trying to get clear on what left libertarianism means. It's an excellent talk (quite enjoyable to listen to as well) and it definately crystalized some concepts for me. Here's an excerpt that I thought was particularly well formulated to express the leftist critique of the state-corporate alliance:

We might compare the alliance between government and big business to the alliance between church and state in the Middle Ages. Of course it's in the interest of both parties to maintain the alliance - but all the same, each side would like to be the dominant partner, so it's no surprise that the history of such alliances will often look like a history of conflict and antipathy, as each side struggles to get the upper hand. But this struggle must be read against a common background framework of cooperation to maintain the system of control.

Congratulations and thanks to Mr. Long for a great lecture which I believe, as Brad Spangler wrote, "will, in time, come to be considered a landmark in [the left libertarian] movement history."

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Written on Sunday, April 09, 2006