So I’ve been a partisan now for exactly a month, and it’s been great fun. If anything, it’s allowed me to be far more outright about my (oh so many) doubts about libertarianism, because I’ve been able to eschew any kind of neutrality and just lay in there, enthusiastically scouring the literature for what sounds right. I also immediately bought some of the crazier books I could on libertarian history, which means that I’m reading a far more interesting and curious subsection of American and European thought than the usual Howard Zinn and the Whigs.
So far, as I’ve said, I loved the trashy but glorious Hostile Takeover Trilogy, thought the L. Neil Smith’s the Probability Broach to be quite barking. On the more academic side, Defending the Undefendable and The Not So Wild, Wild West were new takes on contemporary issues, and a propertarian view of the Frontier culture. Defending the Undefendable felt like an exercise in imposing an ethical system masked as undeniable economical truths (undeniable because precious few facts were brought into the discussion). It was less about being convincing, and more about giving blowhards more fuel to be annoyingly contrary. The Not So Wild, WIld West led me to start seeking out more literature on what, exactly, anarchic or minimal government systems might have looked like historically, which is why I’m looking forward to reading Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, and drudging through various core anarchist texts, although frankly that is fairly tedious rehash of the readings I’ve previously made of canonical overexcited Marxists 1910-1979. Great for inspiring you to write Rafe talks about here: that the best way to solidly test an idea is to adopt it wholeheartedly, and see what shakes out. It’s a real shame that very little in our politics or our culture permits this kind of immersive experimentation. It’s not surprising to me that I first sought out science fiction to try these ideas on for size. Everyone other vehicle for discussion seems to think that the trick with big ideas is to treat them like Gulliver in Lilliput: trip them up, tie them down, and poke them with very very tiny sticks to see how they quiver. Surely it’s better to saddle them up and go for a long ride, like Ken Macleod?
I’ve also managed to lose far fewer friends than I thought. No-one has stalked out of my life angrily, though a few have given me pitying looks, and one of my best friends keeps drawling that it’s such a shame I’ve become a “librarian”. It seems to provoke the same reaction as if I’d suddenly decided to start carrying a security blankie around with me: childish, but harmless.
I’ve also become somewhat of a receptacle for crypto-libertarian confessionals, where my lefty friends confess they’re not so sure of the government, or my right-wing friends… wait, all my right-wing friends all pretend to be libertarian already, so that doesn’t work…
August 26th, 2008 at 2:06 am
“Everyone other vehicle for discussion seems to think that the trick with big ideas is to treat them like Gulliver in Lilliput: trip them up, tie them down, and poke them with very very tiny sticks to see how they quiver. Surely it’s better to saddle them up and go for a long ride, like Ken Macleod?”
Or, to put it another way, “like Stalin?” Approaches like that only work when the people saddling up end up with no power. When they end up with power, the consequences are usually… interesting for historians.
Love, a canonical Marxist xx
August 26th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Yes, Ian, exactly like Stalin! You cut me to the quick!
August 26th, 2008 at 9:39 am
I hate it when you cave in that easily.
August 28th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
You do know why Libertarian organizations always fail? You rarely find anyone that actually wants to lead and then when you do no one wants to follow.
September 24th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I loved Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology and you can download it for free from the Prickly Paradigm website. http://www.prickly-paradigm.com/catalog.html#sp04
I like the quote at the beginning;
“Basically, if you’re not a utopianist, you’re a schmuck.”