• How can a society be called democratic when its most sacrosanct institution, private property and ‘free’ markets, in its most prevalent and dominant contemporary form, the corporation, is intrinsically autocratic? How is it again that a society can be defined as democratic when the very precondition of its existence, the indispensable and eternal institution upon which it rests, is authoritarian?
  • One way to answer this:
  • From the stinkweed of greed the flower of the common good shall grow.
  • In this libertarians are more rational, in a narrow sense, than liberals and not a few socialists, because by asserting that private property is not just the prerequisite of democracy, but in essence democracy itself, they dispense with democracy altogether. It’s a slight of hand, to be sure, but it is not disingenuous, only wrong. Bullshit in this sense is the province of others. All social democrats, liberals, conservatives, libertarians and fascists agree that one must plant and tend to the weed in order to grow the flower. The social democrat argues for grafting disease resistant leaves onto the weed and not pruning too deep so as to inhibit growth; the liberal for appreciating the diverse qualities of the weed and applying more fertilizer and ample sunlight; the conservative that the weed comes from a long line of healthy weeds and is best left alone; the fascist for a pure weed sustained by aggressive fertilizing and pruning, but no mutations, so as to make the weed great again; only the libertarian argues that the weed is a misunderstood flower and should be admired and nurtured for what it is, on its own terms. All may disagree as to the precise type of cultivation that is best for the weed, but all tend to the weed, in the mistaken view that it is, or will eventually become, a flower. What is hidden in plain view, of course, is that the weed can never become a flower, because it is a weed. It all amounts to the same thing–a fucked up garden overrun with weeds. Communists neither plant nor tend weeds, only flowers.