one thing i like about the current right resurgence: it's libertarian in tone, and what it fears is the extremely quick growth of the state. now the state has been growing steadily since 1548, and it will, in the end, devour us all and extinguish the planet. but any little eddy in a flood, i say.

the bush administration represented right-wing statism, which is an extremely traditional mode: you know, theocracy, monarchy, slavery, military rule, fascism etc.: a glorious human tradition. that's why the left, from locke to thoreau and john stuart mill, was, once, about freedom, individuality, and so on.

but the left developed its own totalitarianism, of course: sort of rousseau-the terror-hegel (well)-marx. i guess you got to have power to fight power. plus it's fun! in a quasi-democracy like the usa, you get watered-down versions of these. when the right is in power, you beef up the security state, and when the left is in power you beef up the welfare state. they're complementary, like, um, submission to force and dependence.

so we got a nice little resurgence of left-libertarianism in the bush admin: street protestors, gay marriage, pot legalization. and now we're getting a nice little resurgence of right-libertarianism: against infinite spending, internationalism, and so on.

one might well doubt the sincerity of most people on both sides, because when they get the power, they are willing to impose their values by any means necessary. i guess that seems to be an intrinsic aspect of human personality, a fatal flaw that god or darwin stuck in our genes as a roadmap to extinction. but the point is to hop on whatever liberty-train is leaving this week, and to focus suspicion on and resistance to whoever's claiming to run your life at whatever moment you find yourself. so i'm a proud tea party wingnut at the moment. later i'll mutate back into emma goldman.