Login | Register

20 online
CHAT NOW

Most Popular Choices

13

General News 10/25/2017 at 12:57 PM EDT

Barbarian Virtues: is the state evil?

Quicklink Submitted By Don Smith 2 comments

Become a Fan
(21 fans)

James Scott has spent a lifetime documenting the horrors of the modern state. But does he miss the freedoms only it can afford?

James Scott has written a series of books critical of the state and nostalgic for the supposed peaceful and cooperative hunter-gatherer past. Political scientist and legal scholar Samuel Moyn reviews Scott's work and concludes that Scott both ignores the brutality of pre-state humans and understates the benefits of states and civilization. The very qualities of equality and freedom that Scott bestows are a product of states.

Read the rest of the story HERE:

At www.thenation.com

Rate It | View Ratings

Don Smith Social Media Pages:

Democratic Precinct Committee Officer, activist, writer, and programmer. My op-ed pieces have appeared in the Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and elsewhere. See http://WALiberals.org and http://ProgressiveMemes.org for my (more...)

Related Topic(s): Anarchism; Anarchy Anarchism; Bottom-up Economics; Bottom-up Top Down; Libertarianism; State; State Corruption; Top-down Bottom-up, Add Tags

Go To Commenting

The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

Contact Author

Contact Editor

Author Page

View Authors' Articles

OpEdNews ~~depends upon~~ can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

To remove advertising from OpEd News, please become a premium member.

"Just as The Tipping Point provides an explanation for big changes, Rob Kall offers a unified explanation for the magic behind the success of the biggest tech companies, the Arab Spring, Occupy and the social media revolution" An important, big picture, visionary approach weaving together technology, economics, evolution, science and personal relationships -- even happiness -- to describe a wave of change as significant as the invention of the printing press that is well under way -- a wave that could rescue the planet from the top-down system that afflicts the planet."

Thom Hartmann, host of nationally syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, since 2003 and a nightly television show, The Big Picture, since 2008

Art Instruction for People
At All Skill Levels

Top Content
in the Last 2 Days
(by Page Views)

Film Review: Women Talking (2022) by John Hawkins ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Shifting sands of the Arab Gulf herald a new Middle East by Steven Sahiounie ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

The beginning of the end of Israel by Steven Sahiounie ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Goodbye, Doctrine of Discovery by David Swanson ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Fraud Is Baked Into the American Healthcare Cake by Thomas Knapp ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Hamilton's Revolution: War, Sex and Politics by Meryl Ann Butler ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

The monumental shift taking place in the Middle East by Mark Lansvin ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Granada Hills Charter Will Try Again To Defeat Scott Schmerelson by Carl Petersen ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Whiteboard Justice by BK Faunce ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Before European Hegemony by Abu-Lughod revisited by Abdus-Sattar Ghazali ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

All animals go to heaven by Gary Lindorff ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Trump Indicated (Ooops, I mean Indicted)" by Steven Jonas ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

All Together: Let's Remember Julian Assange (Poem) by John Hawkins ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

The Truth about the CIA's Imperial Holy Warriors is hidden in the Mystical by Paul Fitzgerald Elizabeth Gould ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Menopause Mongering Returns, Big Time by Martha Rosenberg ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Rupert the Transgender Terrorist by Peter Barus ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Basing GNP on Resource Extraction is Self-Cannibalism by Clinton Callahan ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Paradigms, Domination, and Trance - Bringing It All Back Home - Part 13 - 1 (Summary: Transcending Paradigms) by Blair Gelbond ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

The American Nuclear Society Covers-up Nuclear Power Plant Explosions, Endangering Lives and the Environment by Robert A. Leishear, PhD, PE, ASME Fellow ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

India alarmed at Bhutan's stance on border dispute with China by Abdus-Sattar Ghazali ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Trump indicted yesterday, what's next? by Dave Lefcourt ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

GOP treachery, ageism and Renaissance porn by Bob Gaydos ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Another Shoe Drops In LAUSD Hacker Scandal by Carl Petersen ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Most Christians Do Not Believe What is in Their Bible by Bob Johnson ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

AI leaders call for a Pause to AI by Scott Baker ( With membership, you can see # of pageviews)

Go To Top 50 Most Popular

Ad info: click here

Classics of Liberal Thinking

Progressive Radio Links