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Elizabeth Anderson on a theory of justice founded on freedom from oppression rather than mere income equality

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  Protesters carrying Black Lives Matter signs at a demonstration against police brutality in Boston, May 2020. From Britannica.com The political narrative and institutional arrangement in the UK is based on the premise that those on low incomes are either strivers or skivers, and if the latter they should be be excluded from benefits entitlements. This mentality of restricting benefits to the ‘undeserving’ poor has been a dominant part of UK political narrative on poverty since at least the Poor Laws of 1601. This view falls out of a theory of justice called Luck Egalitarianism (LE). In her article, ‘What is the Point of Inequality’, Elizabeth Anderson critiques this approach and offers a constructive alternative, Democratic Egalitarianism (DE), where redistribution is motivated by dignity and respect, and the poor are not judged deserving or underserving. LE is an insurance-based approach to redistribution, and thereby, so it claims, justice. The market is allowed to supply insur...
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Arendt on the break in ideas and the break in history

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Plato's cave created a separation between philosophy and human affairs that was encouraged by Aristotle but regretted by Socrates.   Arendt sees the rise of modernism in the 19th century as creating the ground in which the weed of Totalitariansim could take root. It did this by untethering our adherence to past intellectual authorities, making us vulnerable to new, human-created ideologies and regimes. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Marx all independently recognised this vulnerability, but were powerless to prevent the consequences. Her description of how this unfolded is as follows. Since antiquity, ideas of how we should live together had been devised by political philosophers in contemplation and at a distance from human affairs. Truths would be revealed to philosophers and people would go along with their prescription, unknowingly accepting the intellectual authority of the philosopher king. This hierarchy carried over to religion, where revealed truths also held sway. With the arr...
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The Logic of Marx

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Image: Der Zauberlehrling (The Sorceror's Apprentice), 44″x36″ oil on canvas, By Margot Serowy. Marx thought capitalism was a case of the sorceror losing control of the forces they has called up with their spells. Marx predicts that capitalism will destroy itself, leading to a flourishing capital-less class-less society where 'the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all'. His logic for why this is inevitable is as follows.   First, it is in the nature of capital to accumulate. But as it accumulates, there is overproduction and it becomes unstable, leading to recession and crisis. The antidote to this is to expand into yet more markets, becoming bigger still and yet more unstable. This gigantic means of production, conjured up by rampant capital accumulation, is what Marx calls, 'the weapon' that signals the demise of the capital owning bourgeoisie.   But it is not enough to have a weapon, you need someone to shoot it. Thus, the seco...
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