https://repository.digital.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/1100010

The life and death of Anacharsis Cloots weigh on my mind as representative of the tensions between "universal" and "national" ideals in the history of the left from the French Revolution onwards.

Although "internationalism" might seem one way of resolving these tensions, only a sanguine superficiality can find in this more than a partial solution.

Image: Anacharsis Cloots -- Edme Quenedey (1756-1830), dessinateur et graveur -- Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, RESERVE QB-370 (45)-FT 4 -- Public domain -- Wikimedia Commons.

#AnacharsisCloots #History #PoliticalThought #FrenchRevolution #Cosmopolitanism #Republicanism #Nationalism #LeftWingThought #IntellectualHistory #Internationalism #18thCenturyHistory #France

Historically, even modest challenges to hierarchy have often been treated as dangerous ideas.

My latest post explores the overlap between anarchism and Quakerism beyond the stereotypes: consensus, participation, conscience, mutual aid, and distrust of concentrated power.

New post: https://www.martinkubler.com/hierarchy-conscience-participation/

#Anarchism #Quakers #Consensus #Grassroots #SocialJustice #PoliticalThought #MutualAid #FriendsOnTheFediverse

Compare and contrast

https://youtube.com/shorts/xMDxRzqpbF0?si=EPC6Z1K8Vhm8i9iA

with

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2026/04/how-some-liberals-take-ludicrous-positions-to-seem-tolerant

Strictly speaking, the one does not contradict the other, as each chiefly addresses different topics: the unhoused in public spaces on the one hand, public drug use on the other.

Yet a difference in attitude is certainly present here, as well as a difference in the understanding of freedom as a value.

I don't have a pat answer about the "correctness" of either approach. I do know that progressives should be thinking hard about these matters
and be ready for challenging discussion about public space, inclusion, and the justifiability or otherwise of paternalism with regard to housing, drug use, and mental illness.

#PublicSpace #ThirdSpaces #Unhoused #Homeless #DrugUse #Freedom #PoliticalThought #PoliticalPhilosophy #Politics #MentalIllness

Justice Behind a Veil of Ignorance: A Personal Reflection on Rawls’ Idea

https://polymathchristian.wordpress.com/2026/04/25/justice-behind-a-veil-of-ignorance-a-personal-reflection-on-rawls-idea/

https://dominusmarkham.com/the-great-institutional-demolition/

#Institutions #PoliticalThought #GlobalGovernance #Unharnessed #InstitutionalFailure #WreckingBallPolitics #RulesBasedOrder #CriticalThinking #Newsletter #LongRead
#Newsletter, #LongRead #WHO #UnitedNations #CentralBanks

Greek political identity formed in opposition to an imagined Persian tyranny.

Evidence from the Achaemenid Empire suggests pragmatic governance and regional autonomy were common features of rule.

Fear can define a people as effectively as law.

#AncientHistory #PersianEmpire #PoliticalThought #Brewminate

https://brewminate.com/imagined-law-imagined-tyranny-persia-and-the-greek-fear-of-foreign-rule/

Umberto Eco: Ur-Fascism

https://bobmschwartz.com/2017/12/28/umberto-eco-ur-fascism/

#HackerNews #UmbertoEco #UrFascism #Fascism #Philosophy #PoliticalThought #CriticalTheory

Today is #Tolstoy's birthday. His #politicalthought is radical, #anarcho-#pacifist & #iconoclastic. Here's my book on it: https://sites.google.com/site/christoyannopoulos/publications/tolstoys-political-thought-christian-anarcho-pacifist-iconoclasm

Core chapters explore T’s
#pacifism, #anarchism,
#anticlericalism, #asceticism &
#nonviolent #activism. Each time first systematising T (with plenty of poignant quotes), then discussing criticisms of his views, then reflecting on relevance since.