Hi Ernie:
Thank you for the welcome. I launched a nonprofit corporation a few years
ago and last year converted it to an organization that promotes classical
liberalism and Deism. We support socially responsible libertarianism - thus
I appreciate your comments below. My beef with libertarianism is the "me"
ness of the way it is viewed and its tendency to attract potheads,
guntoters, and tax evaders to use vernacular. We believe citizens have a
responsibility, not only an opportunity to be good neighbors. Our
organization sees itself as a community building effort for those that are
not churched or in a government system otherwise. Without voluntary
neighborliness, of course the government will step in. I don't have any use
for the anarchists in our midst, that is unless they are advocating small
community supportive enclaves - many are.
www.aplaceforpossibilities.org
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
On Oct 25, 2011, at 2:34 AM, Kevin Kervick wrote:
It is nice to have been invited by Billy to join in the conversations
here. I came across the term, Radical Centrism, while researching for my
book, Discovering Possibility: A Common Sense Conservative Manifesto (For
Classical Liberals Too) and recently, while preparing for an article that
I published on my Examiner on line page. I admit to not being all that
well-versed on what folks here mean by Radical Centrism but I want to
learn more.
Welcome! Glad to have you join the conversation.
I think we generally would agree with your critiques of both the Left and
the Right, and I actually think civic Deism is a good neutral territory to
work towards.
We Radical Centrists do share quite a bit in common with libertarians of
various strips, though closer to the oxymoronic "social libertarians" than
traditional libertarian. To me, though, our fundamental difference is that
traditional libertarian thought (I'm not sure where you fit in) is largely
*backward* looking: small government, gold standard, Austrian economics. T
here is certainly value in that, but as Radical Centrists we see that as
only part of the answer. For example, I haven't seen a libertarian that is
willing to even acknowledge the partial validity of Marx's critique of
class exploitation in a capitalistic society, much less refute it. The
Radical Centrist position is that *all* critiques have some merit, just as
all solutions do -- not equal merit, but some. And that the best way
forward is to develop new theories that integrate *all* the available data
and perspectives.
That said, we do have our share of libertarian sympathizers here, most
notably David (aka DRB), so hopefully you won't feel too out of place. At
any rate, we treasure a diversity of viewpoints, so we look forward to
having you join the conversation!
Best,
-- Ernie P.
P.S. I'm curious how you score on our new quiz.
http://radicalcentrism.org/forum/
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
--
Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community
<[email protected]>
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism
Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
