Arrghh, this quote system thing really needs a fix...
RE: Saan: I'm not surprised that German law schools are enamored with social democracy. But most of modern German society is the product of American (specifically, Progressive Rooseveltian) influence, especially their legal system. There's no reason to say that German (or European) academia is any more or less enamored with social democracy than US academia. This applies just as much at the sub-tertiary level as it does in formal academia, as many of our younger users could no doubt tell us. I'm asking why the US would have more members than other countries. I don't see any significant evidence that American society and academia is any more or less obsessed with the religion of social democracy than European society and academia. The only possible exception I can think of is that America has a far higher number of Christians (probably much higher than official records indicate, given "Christian" can be a cultural affiliation in UK and European censuses), though it was left-wing Americna Evangelical Protestanism which spawned social democracy and it's ideological predecessors.
RE: John James: I was referring to the compass in general. There's nobody, be it on my charts or theirs, who fits more than lightly into that category, to the same depth that, say, a Communist leader would into the red category, or that Pinochet fits into the blue, or a left-anarchist into the green.
How many of those anarchists, though, can explain what they would replace the current Greek government with? Discussions I've had with anarcho-syndicalists have all led to community decision panels and things of that nature.
"communithy decision panels". Talk about "a shit by any other name..."
"Community decision panels" LOL!. Suddenly what comes to mind are all these farleft and progressive intellectuals that don't understand the real world annd come together to discuss policies within an acadameic circle. Fortunately most can't even come to an agreement with one another better yet most of their ideals ever are put into practice in the real world. Ironically these same individuals believe that they know what policies are best for the rest of us and yet live on the publics dole.
Greek people have been having polycentric neighborhood assemblies, open to all, in which everyone is alotted the same amount of time to speak, and they have been de facto running the day-to-day happenings in many Greek neighborhoods for a while now. Dissenters are in no way bound to the decisions of the assembly. Whether or not they act on a vote is up to them.
Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and bow out now. It's safe to say we're all too unfamiliar with the Greek movement to discuss anything beyond hypotheticals, and I don't want this turning into another, "you're a statist!" "no, YOU'RE a statist!" thread.
Fwiw, this convo has persuaded me to bookmark a book on the Spanish anarchist movement for near future purchase -- I'm looking for one that looks comprehensive.
Cool.
While syndicalism isn't a thing for everyone, I'm quite amazed how well it actually worked out. Even though I come from that tradition, it's pretty incredible.
That said, it wasn't without it's faults. The way I see it the CNT/FAI got caught up in a weird political game/war that more or less forced them to join an "war coalition government." Even then, Cataluña and a good part of, I think Valencia was the other anarchist stronghold, remained autonomous for much of the civil war, all while the CNT/FAI militia held off very important fronts from fascist invasion!
Well, there's a programme on British radio tonight (BBC Radio 4): Keynes v Hayek: Two economic giants go head to head.
Hopefully it will help bring Austrian ideas to the wider public over here.