Green libertarianism

An ideology that has no representing organizations and an emerging body of thought, but already has its own Wikipedia article.

Hilarious.

Considering that there’s no caucus in either the U.S. Green Party or the U.S. Libertarian Party, its kinda sad that the only organization that dares combines the terms “green” and “libertarian” is the Libertarian Green National Socialist Party, also known as the Libertarian Green Nazis.

Furthermore, Greens and Libertarians tend to hold intersecting, rather than parallel, views and interests. Greens tend to ally with the social Left (i.e., disenchanted progressives from the Democratic Party); in the U.S., Libertarians are presented as being more to the political right in comparison to the Republicans (attracting political paleoconservatives, though not as many social paleoconservatives as the Constitution Party).

Thus, the Greens are more concerned with social policies, while the Libertarians tend to be more concerned with political structure. The two could mesh, except that Libertarians will likely be somewhat turned off by the Greens’ advocacy for government restrictions on environmental waste and global warming, while the Greens will likely be somewhat turned off by the Libertarians’ advocacy of “laissez faire” (let the market sort out its own problems) economical liberalism. Plus, some social conservatives in the Libertarian party will find the Greens’ advocacy of such touchy progressive issues as abortion and same-sex marriage as going against their own moral or religious beliefs, while some social liberals in the Green Party will, in turn, find the Libertarians’ advocacy of limited government intervention as far as natural disaster relief and lower-class disparities to be a bit repugnant, selfish and middle-class-centric.

There might be hope for this ideology, however:

OK, nevermind…its kinda fucked right now.

Green libertarianism, if the Wikipedia definition is something to go off of, will advocate an ecologist, socially progressive approach to the environment without much support from government and more support from a laissez faire-driven economy.

This might be an ideology that is perfectly fitting for those who focus on the promotion of Green technology in business (currently the rage in media, corporate and government outlets right now, given the current limitations forced by the lesser amount of oil and natural gas being exported in the world recently) but are also pro-lesser-government and pro-free-speech/expression, including “geeks”.

I don’t think that Green libertarianism is equatable with Green anarchism, however. Green anarchism, according to the article, focuses on the detrimental, opressive uses of technology, and is more aligned with techno-primitivism (think “Neo-Luddite“, but going way, way back); it is also very pro-animal rights/justice, and I seriously doubt that Green libertarianism, or its preceding general ideologies, have as much of a lock or medium of expression on the animal rights issue as do the Green anarchists. At best, I think that those who may be inclined toward Green libertarianism may or may not include those who are inclined toward the defense of animal rights.

5 thoughts on “Green libertarianism

  1. Greens and Nazis go together anyway. Both want to give all power to make decisions to the government and make the people subjects of the government instead of the government serving the people. Libertarians (a direction in which I tend to lean) want the government to stay the hell out of the lives of people.

    1. Exactly what I said above: I’m assuming that Green libertarianism pushes for environmentalism and social justice with support from anyone-but-the-government (such as corporations, churches, universities and other institutions, unless I’m holding the “little-l” libertarians to a too-stringent, Ron Paul-oriented stereotype).

      1. Actually, Ron Paul is NO libertarian. He’s a loony toon. I tend to be a small l libertarian. I distrust Greens, Socialists, liberals, conservatives, fundamentalists, labour and just about everyone else.

        Danny

  2. libertarianism

    The libertarian party has more in common with the national socialists(corporate statism) than with classic libertarian philosophy. What a foul usurpation of the word libertarian.

    1. Re: libertarianism

      Well, the libertarians (and “L”ibertarians?) have always (or at least in recent memory) been pro-corporate and pro-small government (maybe Reagan’s “government is the problem” maxim holds true for the modern libertarianism?).

      Richard Branson, owner of the Virgin conglomerate, is one of the most well-known libertarians in the UK for a reason.

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