Looking for Libertarian SF
Bret A. Marquis
I'm looking for pointers to (science) fiction works along the
lines of L. Neil Smith et al. Particularly those books dealing
with Anarcho/libertaria.
Bret Marquis
(sdcsvax, akgua!crash) bigbang!bam
b...@nosc.arpa
Michael McNeil
You may already have heard of these, but I would say that two of
the best of this genre are
The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Michael McNeil
3Com Corporation (usual disclaimers)
Santa Clara, California
{hplabs|fortune|idi|ihnp4|tolerant|allegra|glacier|olhqma}
!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm
"Of course they answer to their names?" the Gnat remarked
carelessly.
"I never knew them to do it," [said Alice.]
"What's the use of their having names," said the
Gnat, "if they won't answer to them?"
Lewis Carroll, *Through the Looking Glass*
--
Michael McNeil
3Com Corporation
Santa Clara, California
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!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm
The bird a nest,
The spider a web,
Man friendship.
William Blake
da...@tekigm.uucp
such as "Reality in the 21st Century" and like that. His political
system is what he calls a "technocracy", but actually appears to
be a one-buck:one-vote sort of system, where those who control the
wealth control the country (in other words, you don't work, you got
no say....ooooh, listen to the knee-jerk liberals snapping to attention
out there: come on, kids, it's a STORY.) The more interesting part is
his idea of each citizen getting so many shares of BASIC stock in the
country, which they cannot sell, the dividends of which they may use
in any manner they desire. If you have any money left from whatever
partying you do, you may buy shares of VARIABLE STOCK, which also
pays dividends, but you may sell whenever you wish. In other words,
if you are carefull with your earnings, you may buy more VARIABLE,
increasing your income, allowing to save faster or to be a bit less frugal.
In other words, it's your money; do with it as you see fit and you're
on your own, George.
Perhaps not as libertarian as one might hope, but perhaps as much as
we'll ever see while corporations wield the power of the mighty shekel.
Dan C Duval
ISI Engineering
Tektronix, Inc.
tektronix!tekigm!dand
Garret and Trish
You might like "Floating Worlds" by Cecilia Holland, though it's
about anarchy (among other things) and not libertarianism.
Princess Patricia
Radford Neal
> Take a stab at Mack Reynolds, and his various "X in the 21st Century",
> such as "Reality in the 21st Century" and like that. His political
> system is what he calls a "technocracy", but actually appears to
> be a one-buck:one-vote sort of system, where those who control the
I don't think I've read "Reality in the 21st Century", but I've read
others in this series.
I would not consider the political systems portrayed in Mack Reynolds'
fiction to be at all libertarian. I think "Fascist" might be a better
description. By this I mean a polical system in which at least a
facade of private ownership is maintained, but in which all important
economic decisions are decided by political, not market, forces.
My memory of the details of Mack Reynolds' societies is vague; for that
matter, I'm not sure he describes the political system in detail. I *am*
sure of my recollections regarding the general tone of his philosophy,
(technically, the philosophy of his characters, but this is so consistent
from novel to novel that he must either agree with it, or at least think
it is inevitable). This tone is distinctly non-libertarian.
An example I remember, from a book called something like "The Lagrangists":
The hero, a private investigator, I think, is recruited to solve the
problems of some space colony. Which he does. At the end he is quite
tempted to join the colony, but doesn't. The reason? The colony restricts
immigration to people of a certain intelligence level, which he doesn't
meet. It seems possible that the colonists would make an exception in
his case, but he thinks they should stick to their principles, so he
foregoes the opportunity. Apparently, this is not a satire; Reynolds seems
to think this sort of elitism is good.
The question that immediately comes to my mind, of course, is why these
intelligent people couldn't solve their own problems. This attachment
to non-objective status criteria is reminiscent of feudalism. It is quite
foreign to libertarianism.
Radford Neal
John T. Sanders
To Bret Marquis -
For anarcho-libertarian science fiction, both old and
new, the best source by far is the Libertarian Futurist
Society. The LFS newsletter, _Prometheus_, prints dozens
of reviews of such stuff, along with related articles
and correspondence from and among LFS-ers. In addition,
LFS gives the annual Prometheus Award to best new
libertarian fiction, and a Hall of Fame award too. These
are big enough deals to get presented at the World SF
Conventions (Frederick Pohl was a presenter this year
of the Hall of Fame award to Cyril Kornblueth), and the
words "Prometheus Award Winner" appear on the covers of
several past winners.
For more info, write to
LFS
121 McKinley St.
Rochester, NY 14609.