moralism

On Gaza: “Now Is Not the Time,” “Moral Equivalency,” and “Liberalism”

From Center for a Stateless Society by Kevin Carson October 26th, 2023

So I come neither to praise liberalism nor to bury it. Rather, I call on anarchism, and on the socialist movement more broadly, to embrace and celebrate all of the best in liberalism, and to make ourselves the new bearers of all that is worth preserving in its legacy. In that spirit, I say now is always the time to criticize abuses of power, regardless of which side commits them. And the actions of everyone, regardless of side, are to be judged by the same moral standard.

Anarchy is Moral Order

Anarchy is when you write recursive trolley cart problems in logical notation. Given a powerful enough computer and enough computation time, you would solve the anarchy equation once and for all and have anarchy forever.

from Center for a Stateless Society by Jason Lee Byas

As I argued in my previous post, anyone who cares about morality needs a good answer to the amoralist challenge posed by someone like Stirner. As I also said there, this is especially true for those moralists who are also anarchists, since a morality without such an answer begins to look a good deal like the domination anarchism resists.

TOTW: True Lies

Telling lies can be a matter of survival. When is it okay to lie to others? When is it okay to lie to ourselves?

Everybody lies. And if you don’t, you’re lying.

This everyday tool of deception can save your ass or ruin your life depending on how you use it. And we have good reasons to lie: manipulation, self-defense, avoiding consequences. For someone stepping outside the boundaries of the law, relationships, work expectations, or simple social graces, telling a tall tale can be easier than facing the music. Fortunately, our collective compulsion to not tell the truth has grayed the moral waters of even our most definitive institutions – when asked if lying is wrong, a shaky “ehhhh, it depends” echos from the Church halls and Scientific offices. Even courts with perjury laws rarely enforce them.

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