“People come to libertarianism through fiction. They come through Ayn Rand… Robert Heinlein…. L. Neil Smith.”
– Libertarian feminist author Wendy McElroy at the 2000 Prometheus Awards ceremony
For quite a few libertarians, “It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand.” Or Robert Heinlein. Or other freedom-loving science fiction writers.
For me, though, my introduction to libertarian and classical-liberal ideas and ideals began earlier – at least in part – with James Blish.
Specifically, Blish’s The Star Dwellers.
When I read Blish’s 1961 novel as a pre-teen in the early 1960s, I came to understand for the first time key insights about voluntary consent and mutual exchange for profit as the best foundation for peace and progress.
Now a finalist for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction, The Star Dwellers is a young-adult-oriented science fiction novel that revolves around a fraught “second contact” between star-faring humans and an ancient, advanced alien species.
AN INTRODUCTION TO FREEDOM – AND BASIC ECONOMICS
Blish incorporates both libertarian and closely related mid-20th-century classical-liberal values into his idealistic and inspiring novel, which powerfully taught me a basic lesson taught in college Economics 101 classes: How free trade, contracts and other voluntary agreements benefit both parties, from their own point of view and given their own hierarchy of needs and preferences, and how that tends to promote the general welfare and enhance the pursuit of happiness.
Even more important, and central to the constellation of libertarian thought, is the deep interconnection between peace and freedom. Blish shows how mutual understanding is forged against the odds between a young human and one of the younger aliens, leading to a formal Earth treaty that ensures peace between the two species rather than more violence and war.
Thus, via an enjoyable tale geared to my age and comprehension level, I came to appreciate how cooperation must be voluntary to be considered cooperation at all) is both morally and practically superior to coercion (including the institutionalized coercion of the State, which by no accident is the human institution that frequently makes war.)
MY “AHA!” MOMENT ABOUT THE ETHICS OF EXCHANGE
I still remember the exciting “aha” moments of discovery I experienced when reading The Star Dwellers.
For it introduced me, in an entertaining and simplified way appropriate to my age, to a concept that’s basic to economics but also to ethics: Dealing with others peacefully and respectfully, through voluntary agreement and mutual consent, is the essence of civility and civilization itself.
While geared to a young and young-adult readership, as so many science fiction novels of the 1950s and 1960s were by my other childhood favorite authors such as Heinlein and Andre Notion, The Star Dwellers clearly dramatizes an insight known to economists for generations: When two individuals, or two groups voluntarily forge a contract or treaty or exchange goods, it’s to their mutual benefit from each of their perspectives.
MAKING A DEAL: THE KEY PASSAGE IN BLISH’S NOVEL
The key passage in the novel occurs when Jack Loftus, a young human space cadet, befriends Hesperus, one of the youngest alien “Angels,” and they begin to communicate and negotiate to find a path to peace – and avert the “death of earth and mankind.”
A happy result is that they learn the benefits of “the essence of making a deal,” which the much older and wiser alien species interprets as a reflection of the young human species evolving enough to develop “a sense of justice.”
“Jack, what is the nature of this concept?” an elder Angel asks to clarify their understanding.
“It’s a kind of agreement in which each party gives something to the other,” Jack said.
“We regard it as fair only when each party feels that what he has received is as valuable, or more valuable, than what he has given… Between individuals, this process is called bargaining. When it is done between races or nations, it is called making a treaty. And the major part of my mission to your nest is to make a treaty between your race and mine.”
In short, Jack and Hesperus make a mutually beneficial deal that benefits both species.
To me, that was a revelatory idea that later blossomed into a broader and deeper appreciation of free minds and free markets, and the principled, unifying political philosophy that best supports both.
As Jerome Tuccille titled his irreverent and hilarious history of the early libertarian movement, It Usually Begins with Ayn Rand.
But for me, it didn’t.
Coming up soon on the Prometheus Blog: In Part 2 of this essay, LFS co-founder Michael Grossberg describes how reading Blish’s novel and other books led his evolution from a Jewish Democratic liberal and civil libertarian into a full-fledged libertarian, why a poorly understood aspect of modern libertarianism is its complex set of interwoven ideas and why so many people have to read and read widely – including fiction and non-fiction – just to discover and fully grasp modern libertarianism.
FOR FURTHER READING
Check out the LFS press release with capsule descriptions of all five novels selected as finalists for the next Prometheus Hall of Fame award for Best Classic Fiction.
Read the Prometheus Blog review of The Star Dwellers.
ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, join the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer international association of freedom-loving sf/fantasy fans.
Libertarian futurists understand that culture matters. We believe that literature and the arts can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future. In some ways, culture can be even more influential and powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other’s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.
* Prometheus winners: For a full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees – including in the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards – visit the enhanced Prometheus Awards page on the LFS website. This page includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.
* Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog’s Video page.
* Read “The Libertarian History of Science Fiction,” an essay in the international magazine Quillette that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.
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