10/25/2011 [email protected] writes: 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
