Tuesday, July 15, 2008

A Groucho Marxist

The thing about Paul Staines & Iain Dale (http://www.iaindale.blogspot.com/ ) is that you know where they're coming from: they're Tories & make no secret of it.
With someone like Brendan O'Neill, however, it's murkier. O'Neill is one of the leading lights in the misleadingly-named Living Marxism. Contrary to its title, LM takes a stance which could be viewed as right of centre libertarianism.
O'Neill was given a chance by the Guardian's Comment is Free website today to indulge his Clarksonesque disdain for the environment & green issues generally. It's worth reproducing an entire paragraph from O'Neill's missive. He imperiously declares:
"Liberty --true liberty-- requires that people see themselves as self-respecting, self-determining subjects, capable of making free choices and persuing the 'good life' as they see fit. Today, by contrast, we are warned that we are toxic, loaded, dangerous specimens, who must always restrain our instincts and aspire to austerity. This is not conducive to a culture of liberty; indeed, it represents a dangerous historic shift, from the Enlightenment era of free citizenship to a new dark age where individuals are depicted as meek in the face of more powerful, unpredictable forces: the gods of the sea, sky and ozone layer."
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/15/climatechange )
Just one question, Brendan, how do you "aspire to austerity"?

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