My thoughts exactly.
Perhaps there is a model of socialism that is both practical and inherently libertarian, but the centralised model we've implemented most certainly isn't it. We're in no position to evangalise to the USA: the moment we big up our NHS, Americans can respond, "Yeah, and look at the panopticon state that came with it," and it's damn hard to think of a reply.
Azrael that's something I have been looking for. The centralised model as expounded by various Marxist and Trot groupuscules and parties has an inbuilt tendency to be repressive of personal choices and liberties.
Also as you move through life you start to see that life and society isn't just black and white, workers and capitalists, religious or non religious etc etc etc. I can no more accept the idea that societies (at least in the Western Democratic nations) made up of just capitalists and the oppressed than I can accept the idea that Fascism was a good idea.
Although I am a firm supporter of the NHS as the alternatives are too scary to contemplate, the NHS does come with a whole lot of intrusive governmental apparatus that is symptomatic of Big Government.
Health and social welfare is also being used by Governments (especially this one) to normalise the idea that the Government wields the big stick of your personal information, which in a modern secular society is considered similar in some ways to a soul.
The Government say that we need this law for health or that law for child protection etc and these laws are not always used for their original intention.
An extreme example could be this: Rules brought in after the Victoria Climbie tragedy to improve the sharing of data between care agencies would make it very easy for a future govt (or more likely this one) to use children as a weapon against those who speak out against them.
Tools rightly used to track at risk children are also a powerful weapon of social control against people who although I may disagree with them have a right to their opinions. These laws could be used to attack home schoolers who object to the ethos of their local school, pro drug de criminalisation activists, religious minorities etc etc.
Sometimes the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
When I look back over my life and see how many general freedoms have been lost it is extremely concerning.
I'm not an anarchist, I know that lives have been saved through state and community actions but sometimes society has to draw limits on what they wish the govt to do.
Americans seem to have made the choice that although the cushion of the state is inviting it doesn't seem to compare with liberty of thought and action.
If I could find a libertarian socialism that didn't buy into the discredited (in my view) philosophies of Marx and Trotsky then I may be interested.
