ReImagining Liberty

This is a show about liberalism, but liberalism is a bit of a contested term, slippery, evolving, and claimed by lots of people with rather diverse views about what it means. My guest offers a helpful framework for clarifying what liberalism is by dividing it in what she's called "The Four Corners of Liberalism": [https://profectusmag.com/the-four-corners-of-liberalism-mapping-out-a-common-ground/] related and overlaping, but still distinct, approaches to the the liberal idea. Emily Chamlee-Wright, the president and CEO of the Institute for Humane Studies [http://theihs.org/], has made a career of defending the liberal tradition, and her insights in our conversation help clarify what liberalism is and how we should approach and respond to those who would seek to overturn it. ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist [https://www.theunpopulist.net], and is produced byLandry Ayres [https://landryayres.com/]. Podcast art bySergio R. M. Duarte [https://www.instagram.com/sergiormduarte/]. Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club. [https://discord.com/servers/reimagining-liberty-945306941251522611] Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod |Link [https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3755-finding-the-balance]|License [https://filmmusic.io/standard-license]

Welcome to the first episode ofReImagining Libertyat its new home withThe UnPopulist. This is a show about the emancipatory and cosmopolitan case for radical social, political and economic freedom. With every episode, host Aaron Ross Powell explores and defends liberalism by talking with scholars, activists and others working to build a freer world. For this first episode atThe UnPopulist, Aaron offers a monologue about why America’s political culture seems so broken, and why this has led to rising illiberalism. He traces the problems to what he calls an “unskillful” approach to politics, and to a widespread lack of the virtues necessary for citizens to be good liberal citizens. ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist [https://www.theunpopulist.net], and is produced byLandry Ayres [https://landryayres.com/]. Podcast art bySergio R. M. Duarte [https://www.instagram.com/sergiormduarte/]. Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club. [https://discord.com/servers/reimagining-liberty-945306941251522611] Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod |Link [https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3755-finding-the-balance]|License [https://filmmusic.io/standard-license]

I sometimes hear market anarchists say that "Anarcho-capitalism isn't anarchism." This claim, and the disagreements about the nature and values of a free society underpinning it, raises a lot of fascinating questions about liberty, radical liberalism, the characteristics of capitalism, how you even define that term, and the broader movement for liberty. My guest today is William Gillis (@rechelon [https://mastodon.social/@rechelon]). He a fellow at theCenter for a Stateless Society [https://c4ss.org/content/author/william-gillis]and one of the most interesting writers out there on radical politics. We talk about freedom and coercion, the legitimacy of power, the role of privilege in political action and inaction, and the ways the culture and incentive structure of the mainstream liberty movement make it less effective, principled, and radical than it should be, and sometimes even lead liberty advocates to become apologists for the status quo. ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist [https://www.theunpopulist.net], and is produced byLandry Ayres [https://landryayres.com/]. Podcast art bySergio R. M. Duarte [https://www.instagram.com/sergiormduarte/]. Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club. [https://discord.com/servers/reimagining-liberty-945306941251522611] Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod |Link [https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3755-finding-the-balance]|License [https://filmmusic.io/standard-license]

Years ago, a then colleague and I pitched the idea of a book called "The Reasonableness of Radicalism," which would've set out the case for an unapologetically radical political liberty and defended it against calls for moderation. The project never went anywhere, though, because we were told by the people making decisions that they didn't like to use the word "radical," because it might turn people off. Clearly, that's not a worry I share, and neither does my guest today. Jason Lee Byas is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at the University of Michigan and a fellow at the Center for a Stateless Society. He's also the author of the best essay I've read in a long time,"Radical Liberalism: The Soul of Libertarianism," [https://c4ss.org/content/49939]which I strongly encourage you to read. ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist [https://www.theunpopulist.net], and is produced byLandry Ayres [https://landryayres.com/]. Podcast art bySergio R. M. Duarte [https://www.instagram.com/sergiormduarte/]. Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club. [https://discord.com/servers/reimagining-liberty-945306941251522611] Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod |Link [https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3755-finding-the-balance]|License [https://filmmusic.io/standard-license]

I've spent my entire career as what you might call a professional liberty advocate. But the last six or seven years have forced a lot of re-thinking on my part about how best to discuss these ideas in the evolving political landscape. The fundamental case for freedom, grounded in shared dignity and mutual respect, remains strong, but it feels like Americas, and much of the world, have proven more willing to reject it recently. Liberalism is ceding ground to the base desire to use power to reward friends and punish enemies. To help me get a handle on how things have changed, were we stand now, and were it all might be headed, I'm joined today by David Boaz, distinguished senior fellow at the Cato Institute, and my boss for the 13 years I spent at Cato. ReImagining Liberty is a project of The UnPopulist [https://www.theunpopulist.net], and is produced byLandry Ayres [https://landryayres.com/]. Podcast art bySergio R. M. Duarte [https://www.instagram.com/sergiormduarte/]. Join the ReImagining Liberty Discord community and book club. [https://discord.com/servers/reimagining-liberty-945306941251522611] Music: Finding the Balance by Kevin MacLeod |Link [https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3755-finding-the-balance]|License [https://filmmusic.io/standard-license]