Sad news: Joan Kennedy Taylor has died.
Here's a pretty old post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 19 years ago, in 2005, on the World Wide Web.
Sad news from the world of libertarianism feminism: Joan Kennedy Taylor died last week, at the age of 79, after a long battle with cancer and kidney disease. (Alina Stefanescu’s post reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post a note on the sad news; it also has a good round-up of tributes from fellow libertarians and links to a couple of Kennedy Taylor’s essays online.)
Besides her legitimate claim to being the leading female intellectual in the libertarian movement, tout court, over the past 20 years, Joan Kennedy Taylor ought to be remembered for her pioneering efforts for a renewed libertarian feminism, and (in general) for her astonishing ability to bridge cultural and political divides in order to relate to the best in people wherever she could find them (from her political work with the libertarian wing of the Goldwater Republicans, to her friendships with people ranging from Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden, to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg). Although she didn’t hesitate to confront issues head on, she didn’t believe that that head-on confrontation meant slash-and-burn political jockeying; and (as I’ve remarked before) this made her efforts towards a libertarian feminism genuinely transformative and not just oppositional — a conversation between libertarianism and feminism instead of just a shouting match. (Rather than haranguing statist feminists to be less statist, she offers a chance for anti-statists and feminists to understand each other better, and to appreciate what an unapologetic, full-bodied libertarianism and an unapologetic, full-bodied feminism, have to offer one another.
I know because that’s just what she did for me, personally. I remember reading Joan Kennedy Taylor’s essays for the first time during the summer of 1999, just after I’d graduated from high school. Her Ayn Rand and the Concept of Feminism: A Reclamation in Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand was one of a few essays that really convinced me that libertarian feminism and feminist libertarianism were viable projects. And also that libertarianism and feminism were more than just logically compatible; that they might have a lot to contribute to each other. In an important sense that essay was one of the essays that really allowed me to become an anarchist. And, strangely enough, it’s also one of the essays that really allowed me to become a more radical feminist; it opened my eyes to the possibility of an uncompromising feminism that wasn’t tethered to the half-hearted welfare liberal statism that I’d spent most of my high school years half-heartedly believing in. I have my differences with what Joan Kennedy Taylor has to say — sometimes rather sharp ones. But if it weren’t for her I might very well not be a libertarian at all, and I would be a worse feminist too.
May she rest in peace.
Further reading
- Joan Kennedy Taylor (2001): Liberty and Safety
- Joan Kennedy Taylor (1999): Why Aren’t More Women Part of the Libertarian Movement (see also my comments in GT 2005-07-10: Why Libertarians Need Feminism)
- The Joan Kennedy Taylor Blogspot has remembrances from her friends and a long biographical essay.
- The Advocates for Self-Government also feature a tribute to her legacy
- Roderick Long and Charles Johnson (2005): Libertarian Feminism: Can This Marriage Be Saved?
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Program on the emergence of civilization.
“14 species of large animals capable of domesitcation in the history of mankind. 13 from Europe, Asia and northern Africa. None from the sub-Saharan African continent. ” Favor. And disfavor.
They point out Africans� failed attempts to domesticate the elephant and zebra, the latter being an animal they illustrate that had utmost importance for it’s applicability in transformation from a hunting/gathering to agrarian-based civilization.
The roots of racism are not of this earth.
Austrailia, aboriginals:::No domesticable animals.
The North American continent had none. Now 99% of that population is gone.
AIDS in Africa.
Organizational Heirarchy Heirarchical order, from top to bottom:
Terrestrial management:
Movies foreshadowing catastrophy 1985 James Bond View to a Kill 1989 San Francisco Loma Prieta earthquake.
Many Muslims are being used like the Germans and Japanese of WWII::being used to hurt others and envoke condemnation upon their people.
They can affect the weather and Hurricane Katrina was accomplished for many reasons and involves many interests, as anything this historical is:: 1. Take heat off Sheenhan/Iraq, protecting profitable war machine/private war contracts 2. Gentrification. New Orleans median home price of $84k is among the lowest in major American cities, certainly among desirable cities.
Our society gives clues to the system in place. We all have heard the saying “He has more money than god.” There is also an episode of the Simpsons where god meets Homer and says “I’m too old and rich for this.”
This is the system on earth because this is the system everywhere. god is evil because of money.
I don’t want to suggest the upper eschelons are evil and good is the fringe.
But they have made it abundantly clear that doing business with evil (disfavored) won’t help people. They say only good would have the ear, since evil is struggling for survival, and therefore only the favored could help me.
The clues are there which companies are favored and which are disfavored, market domination being one clue, but they conceal it very hard because it is so crucial.
I offer an example of historical proportions:::
People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority. Unions serve to empower. Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems. Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil (disfavored). I believe the coining of the term “Uncle Sam” was a clue alluding to just this. The middle class is being deceived. They are being misled into the unfavored, and subsequently will have no hope.
Amercia is a country of castoffs, rejects. Italy sent its criminals. Malcontents. Between the thrones, the klans and kindred, they “decided” who they didn’t want and acted, creating discontent and/or starvation. The u.s. is full of disfavored rejects. It is the reason for the myriad of problems not found in European countries. As far as the Rockafellers and other industrialists of the 19th century go, I suspect these aren’t their real names. I suspect they were chosen to go and head this new empire.
Royalty is the right way to organize a society. Dictatorships and monarchies are a reflection of the antient’s hierarchical organization. Positions go to those who have favor with the rulers, as opposed to being elected. Elections bring a false sense of how the world is. Democracy misleads people. Which is why the disfavored rejects were sent to the shores of America::To keep them on the wrong path.
Jesus Christ is a religious figure of evil. These seperatist churches formed so they could still capture the rest of the white people, keeping them worshipping the wrong god. And now they do it to people of color, Latinos and Asians, after centuries of preying upon them.
Since Buddism doesn’t recongnize a god, the calls are never heard, and Chinese representation is instead selected by the thrones. It was set up this way. Perhaps dyanstic thrones had a say, but maybe not. Budda was the Asian’s Jesus Christ::: bad for the people. “They came up at the same time for a reason.”
Simpson’s foreshadowing::Helloween IV special, Flanders is Satan. “Last one you ever suspect.” “You’ll see lots of nuns where you’re going:::hell!!!” St. Wigham, Helloween VI, missionary work, destroying cultures. Over and over, the Simpsons was a source of education and enlightenment, a target of ridicule by the system which wishes to conceal its secrets.
Jews maim the body formed in the image of “god”, and inflicted circumsision upon all other white people, as well as the evil that is Jesus Christ.
I think about how Jews (were used to) created homosexuality among Slavics, retribution for the Holocaust. Then I think of the Catholic Church and its troubles. What connection is here between Jews and the Catholic church??? And if it is their sinister motives that�s behind the evil that is Jesus Christ are they being used at all? Perhaps it is them who are pulling strings.
I believe Islam is the one true religion, and those misled christians who attack “god’s” most favored people will pay for it dearly one day.