Liberalism is the "New Communism"
Jacques Chirac seems to be on the verge of waging all out war against the gravest possible threat to his country: ultra-liberalism (hint: that's what Misesians favor). He has announced that ultra-liberalism is the "communism of our time" because it poses a threat the Euro social model in which politicians and bureacrats run people's lives. Good commentary on the hysteria by Fraser Nelson of the London Telegraph.
Comments (15)
I know Jacques Chirac is probably popular among some people here for his opposition to the Iraq war and because of the related fact that he is hated among neoconservatives. But he is really quite terrible, albeit for different reasons then the reasons the neocons have.
This quote equating free market policies is very consistent with his statist policies. He has opposed free trade, boosted government spending, raised the minimum wage and promoted so-called industrial policy (that is subsidies to favored industries).
He has also done his best to spread French socialist policies by trying to force the Eastern European EU-members to raise their low marginal
tax rates and by advocating a international tax collected by the United Nations on financial transactions and on air travel.
Moreover, he isn't really even anti-war since he got France into a war in the Ivory Coast.
Published: March 30, 2005 10:12 AM
It's of course supposed to be "This quote equating free market policies with communism" in the first sentence in the second paragraph.
In a related story, I really like the contrast highlighted by Greg Ransom at the Hayek Center regarding whether or not "communists" in Chiracian definition (i.e. free market liberals) or real communists are more attractive. To me the free market liberal alternative seems more attractive in more than one way:
http://www.hayekcenter.org/prestopunditarchive/006196.html
Published: March 30, 2005 10:24 AM
Chirac should be severely taken to task for more or less equating "ultra liberalism" with communism. I'm assuming he's an intelligent individual who knows the difference between the two ideologies, so he must be attempting to slur classical liberalism. My understanding of communism is that it is Soviet style Marxist Socialism, and, obviously, classical liberalism and communism are ideologically worlds apart. Whether or not Chirac has the integrity and honesty to acknowledge it, his form of social democracy has much in common both economically and politically with communism. And as Stefan pointed out, he not really anti-war either. Along this line, I would venture a guess that Chirac has a fond opinion of Napolean, one of the biggest butchers of modern times.
Published: March 30, 2005 11:06 AM
Mr Barroso said: “The real divide is not between left and right. It is between modernisers and reactionaries.� I would like to modify this statement somewhat in an attempt to make it more accurate: "The real divide is not between the left and right, but, as it has always been, between true classical liberals and economic/political statists of all persuasions."
Published: March 30, 2005 11:54 AM
Chirac is a politician. If he's against the war, it's merely a political choice, in this case a good one for the State's finance. Besides that, you'll have trouble to find non-statists in the French governments though, wahtever the political color. It's a system, not really a democracy, up there. The trouble is that the only politician who has ever annonced his intention to limit the French public service (25% of active population, and much more in the parliament!!!), on his political program in France, is J-C Le Pen ... yet there will be another revolution before his program gets one single positive sentence in the French press. The French think for whatever reason that he's scum... (Don't get me wrong, the French have good wine and cheese, so why bother with a revolution?)
The question is now: are people (or just the French)really ready for liberalism...
Published: March 30, 2005 12:15 PM
Hooray for Chirac for enlightening us.Of course
free markets and free people are just as big a threat to the status quo as Soviet style statism.
Long live mediocrity and the welfare state!
Published: March 30, 2005 12:26 PM
I will never understand French politics; the socialist party made all the big denationnalisations, the "Liberal" party lowered the weekly hours to 35, etc.. Now the leader of the "Liberal" party just talks nonsense.
Chirac probably just noticed this morning that 80% of his electors are against the European constitution, too "ultra-liberalist" for them, and he wanted a poll boost..
Published: March 30, 2005 2:58 PM
Mr Barroso stated: “The real divide is not between left and right. It is between modernisers and reactionaries.� As far as economic issues are concerned, I believe his comment would be more accurate from a Misesian/Rothbardian standpoint if it read: "The real divide is not between left and right. It is between those who recognize the existence of economic law (as distinct from what they may wish to be reality) and who think and act in accordance with economic law, and all others.�
Published: March 30, 2005 2:59 PM
Mr Barroso said: “The real divide is not between left and right. It is between modernisers and reactionaries.�
Never forget that. It is we, the classic liberals, who are the modernists, the radicals! We move towards the future, towards freedom. WE are the progressives!
Men such as George W Bush, Chirac, Blair, and all their ilk are the REACTIONARIES, they wish to take the world back to the Dark Ages of thuggish kings and guilds.
Published: March 30, 2005 4:36 PM
"I know Jacques Chirac is probably popular among some people here for his opposition to the Iraq war and because of the related fact that he is hated among neoconservatives. But he is really quite terrible, albeit for different reasons then the reasons the neocons have."
So very true, and very similar to the blind faith given to other undeserving hacks like Marx and Rand.
Another example: "Bill Clinton is too charming to be a scumbag."
Another example: "The Reverend Moon is very spiritual and thus is not a criminal."
All in all, a nauseating mix of heuristics and histrionics--the ol' H&H bitch-slap. Here is one catch-all response that I created, offered here for use without any threat of copyright restrictions:
"Open eyes purge lies."
Published: March 30, 2005 7:15 PM
In response to artisan's comment above, Le Pen may once have pledged to reduce the public sector in France but his political persuasion is statist and protectionist. He is in everyway closer to national socialism than he is to classical liberalism. And since once of his main positions is about defending French jobs from immigrants I very much doubt that he disagrees with Chirac on this on. There are a few (very few I fear) classical liberals in france, see for instance http://www.fahayek.org/ . But they are too few to have any political representation.
Published: March 31, 2005 1:25 PM
For those who might have friends in France, Les Belles Lettres (owned by Bill Bonner of Agora Publishing and The Daily Reckoning) publishes a number of classical liberal books in French.
Published: March 31, 2005 8:18 PM
It seems rather Orwellian to link classical liberalism with a completely unrelated political view just for the negative connotations that come with communism.
Published: March 31, 2005 9:09 PM
Chirac is only against *American* war and power and is trying to build France up as a military power as a counterweight.
Published: April 1, 2005 4:13 PM
"It seems rather Orwellian to link classical liberalism with a completely unrelated political view just for the negative connotations that come with communism."
Joe, along the lines of your posting, perhaps the most Orwellian action of modern times was the U.S. Left's co-opting the term "Liberal" from the true, i.e., Classical Liberals. When used in an economic/political context, the term Liberal is derived from the word "liberty". For over 100 years, the U.S. Left has overwhelmingly not supported economic or political liberty. However, it has managed to use the term liberal anyway, and in the process has largely thrown down the Orwellian memory hole the true meaning of the term.
Published: April 3, 2005 1:29 PM