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122 I THE PHizosorny oF Eco-PoLirics what. Iherefore, the authors of green political programs often see it as their duty to declare their allegiance to ecological and social justice. Ihe "and" immediately reveals that they are not aware of the essence of political ecology: by ecology, they usually mean protection of nature and by social justice, the proper sharing of goods amongst the competing individual and group interests. Justice is everyone getting what they are due by law. Who is due what can be decided based on universally reasonable principles. All the more reason for the state to preserve its neutrality in this debate. We will now argue against this opinion. Let us bypass all the twists and turns of the debate'’ on the question of justice that began in the house of Polemarchus circa two and a half thousand years ago and take as our starting point how the match currently stands. It seems that the majority of those debating the issue accept as the basis of discussion the formula of equality of freedoms. ‘The debate revolves around whether the freedom of individuals should be limited in the interest of some kind of material equality or whether the freedom of competition for material and intellectual goods should be tolerated or even encouraged, thus accepting its natural consequences: social differences.’“ John Rawls’ theory of justice as fairness offers a bridge. Its starting point is that what is just is what the majority sees as such — or would see, if they were not influenced by their individual interests. If “the veil of ignorance” were to hide from them their identity and fate, i.e., they would have to decide without knowing whether they will be men or women, sick or healthy, learned or ignorant, etc., they would have to agree from purely rational considerations on a few formal basic principles, the acceptance of which lies in all of their interests. The most counter-arguments, however, were made precisely regarding Rawls’ starting point. His critics objected that if he abstracts from every individual characteristic, why make an exception of logical thought and 13 The location of Plato’s dialogue The Republic. 14 Murray Bookchin, in Ecology of Freedom, represents a notable position. He believes that fundamentally, people like to differ from one another and only demand equality if their free interaction is limited by some kind of public restrictive institution. From this one could even conclude to some kind of law of reciprocity of equality: the less freedom one has, the more equality one will demand. Therefore, Bookchin breaks with the egalitarian dogmas of the socialist left, especially with Marxism’s economy-centred perspective. He places the rule of abstract relations and bureaucratic structures damaging the cohesion of community at the centre of his social critique. The justice-performing socialist state, he emphasises, is just as sensitive towards ecological problems as capitalism’s competitive market economy. The harmonious coexistence of man and nature can be realised only in the hierarchical society of self-regulating communities on a human scale. Bookchin: Beyond Neo-marxism. Telos 36, 1978.
