Hi there. I have long been interested in libertarian philosophy and have studied the likes of Rothbard, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Mill, Aristotle, and many other thinkers in the area.
I decided to start a new blog which I am calling “The Anarchist Standard”. You can find it here:
The goal of this blog is to be accessible to a general audience that is somewhat turned off by libertarianism and rightist rhetoric. I want to use a normal, common sense vocabulary to explain the tenets of anarchism in a way that appeals to liberals, conservatives, and those who feel politics is “outside” their lives. I would also like it to be an area of commonality that members of the various libertarian schools could generally agree upon. To borrow from the left’s terminology, I feel the libertarian movement could use more “solidarity”.
The idea of libertarianism as some fringe ideology, rather than a common sense one, needs to be diminished. It’s all too popular to treat libertarians/anarchists as kooks, and to some degree, we have brought it upon ourselves. I’d like to rally some populist interest in anarchism.
What do you think of my goals, and do you know of any other blogs or sites that promote a simple, down-to-earth form of libertarianism which can be understood by regular people?
I agree in your approach towards a more accessible format in delivering libertarian & anarchistic philosophy; a quick look at your blog shows you’ve already garnered a good start towards this with a clean, simple, & bright blog layout.
The first entry, “You Are An Anarchist”, which uses the generally accepted phrase ““Do whatever you like so long as it doesn’t harm others.” as a means of conveying anarchist philosophy, is an excellent general introduction, that doesn’t overwhelm a possible reader with extenuating rhetoric nor possibly long-winded references & quotes.
As for any other blogs, none actually come to mind, at least not with those specific goals in mind. Yours would be the first I’ve encountered that fits that, I suppose.
Don’t confuse a blog with readership! I have a blog (notreason.com) that I think has 4 RSS subscribers and about 11 semi-regular readers. I’ve been running it for about 8 months. I have more categories to place my posts in than readers! [;)]
I don’t want to preach the names of Rothbard or Rand or anything like that too much. I want to appear normal and kind of saying common sense. I think that when you start dropping names like those, people get weirded out. The message needs to be toned down, because libertarianism is really obvious and natural. It would benefit from appearing down-to-earth.