Videos by VICE
Videos by VICE
Whatever your views on his views, this is by far and away the most interesting facet of Frank Turner, and in all honesty we’d rather spend a year marching with batons in his political youth wing than three more minutes of him singing about how cool booze is. In one of these dug-up quotes, he makes the obvious (but obviously ignored) point that national socialism is still an inverted kind of socialism. Clearly, he didn’t get the memo that whenever the word “Nazis” is mentioned you’re expected to put your hands on your head and shout “RACISM IS WRONG!” 20 times at the top of your voice.
Just as people forget he used to be in a hardcore band, we seem to have lost sight of the fact that the guy’s also a former Black Bloc anarchist. Eventually, he realised that dropping breezeblocks on coppers wouldn’t return us to an idealised state of nature any faster, so he seems to have become what anarchists do when they retire: a libertarian. It’s easy to see how this happens. If anarchy’s another word for nothing left to lose, then libertarianism is anarchism for people with second homes.
In the language of the intersex, Frank has “transitioned”, and in that context, it’s not surprising that he isn’t down with Karl Marx. Anyone who’s ever found themselves lodged between black-booted anarchists and crusty Socialist Worker types at a march will understand what a noxious forcefield exists between the two. Both groups are defined not so much by who they love as who they hate, and old enemies die hard. Fortunately for him, there is already a state where his dreamt-of libertarian minimal government do-what-you-like utopia exists. It is called Somalia. Holiday, Frank?
Follow Gavin on Twitter: @hurtgavinhaynes
More libertarians:
