Security Analyst - Live Show [Procaster] Mon Dec 26 2011 04:30:53 PMon Occupy Portland Official. The Secret of Oz - Winner, Best Docu of 2010 v.1.09.11. Jedediah Purdy: How to Be a Liberal-Conservative-Socialist-Anarchist. When I argued last week that treating "socialism" as a slur shuts us off from some important and humane ideas, the posting drew a long string of comments (nearly 1k at last count).
Naturally, lots of people want to know what it would mean to take socialism seriously, short of collectivizing the means of production -- and, if I just mean that I support good public education and universal health care, why use a controversial word for ideas that much of the developed world shares? I think it's a very fair question. It's one I've also been asking myself about anarchism after spending some time in late October with the Wall Street Occupiers and being hugely impressed by the moral ambition and relative success of their attempt to live in a humane, voluntary, non-hierarchical way. It didn't leave me ready to declare myself an anarchist. This essay is a very short sketch of why anarchism socialism, liberalism, and conservatism all deserve to speak to us.