Re: [OT] was Re: diff display
Ron Johnson wrote:
> On 09/11/08 12:19, Jeff Soules wrote:
>> Dismissing most of this because it's little more than an expression of
>> the author's prejudice, but...
>>
>>> We don't like the EU because
>>> of their complete disregard for individual rights. It was conceived
>>> of and
>>> implemented by socialists. It's that simple.
>>
>> Socialists?
>> You mean the kind of people who would devote massive amounts of their
>> free time, with no expectation of compensation, to building and
>> distributing a totally free operating system, purely because they
>> believe it would be beneficial to society? And who put in place legal
>> safeguards to ensure that it would protect the rights of its
>> contributors by remaining forever free, and the rights of its users by
>> remaining forever modifiable?
>
> Except... that's not what a Socialist (one who follows/believes in
> Socialism) is.
>
> Modern Socialism has more to do with heavy state involvement in the
> economy, protection of local industry and wealth transfer from the Haves
> to the Have Nots.
I understand that state-sponsored social programs in the US get the label
"Socialism", but "Modern" is not a very good adjective for distinguishing
socialist ideas. I identify strongly as a Socialist, but my socialism is the
libertian socialism of projects like Debian (as Jeff described it).
The Anarchist FAQ tends to explain Libertarian Socialism well:
http://www.infoshop.org/faq/index.html
- Chris Burkhardt
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