[cross-posted at Liberty & Power]
First Kevin Carson makes it into the pages of The Freeman with his article “Economic Calculation in the Corporate Commonwealth.” And now Charles Johnson follows with a “Scratching By: How Government Creates Poverty as We Know It.”
Congratulations to Charles! And I bet that’s the first time that that Marilyn Frye quote has appeared in The Freeman! The left-libertarian quest for global domination continues apace.
Incidentally, Charles is a, and probably the only, third-generation Freeman author.
I’ve got little to add … Carson plus Rad Geek makes it clear that leftists are more than welcome in The Freeman.
The only thing is, that Sheldon Richman himself (the current editor of The Freeman, for those who don’t know) is as leftist as either of them — and he’s been persistently bringing up leftist perspectives in his articles in The Freeman (and elsewhere, such as his “The Goal is Freedom” column at FEE’s website).
And you brought up That Photo. There’s no question that The Gipper would be somewhat surprised at some of the current Freeman’s contents. (And your caption brings to mind Cliff Roth’s hilarious short film “The Reagans Speak Out on Drugs”.) But I do think it gives a bit of the wrong impression of The Freeman and FEE — since both have been known for staying out of the political fray and being more “plumb-line”. When Carson’s article first came out, I had the idea of trying to get as many people to take and post photos of themselves reading a current issue of The Freeman as possible, although I go ahead with it (and my digicam is currently broken); anyone interested in kicking it off?
Certainly the left-friendliness of The Freeman is pretty much entirely due to Sheldon. But it’s not as though The Freeman was innocently plumb-line before that. I’m not just talking about vulgar libertarianism, but stuff like Carl Horowitz’s “Homosexuality’s Legal Revolution,” a nasty gay-bashing piece from the May 1991 Freeman about which I’ve previously blogged.
Incidentally, I notice that the article in question has disappeared from the FEE website. It’s listed here, but see what happens when you click on it. (It’s not accessible via Wayback Archive either. But if you really want to, though, you can find it here.)
FYI for readers: on the LeftLibertarian2 email list, Sheldon said of Horowitz’s article: “That article never would have seen the light of day had I been the editor. When I saw it I was disgusted.”
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LeftLibertarian2/message/2831