Editor’s Note: This is the second part of the keynote speech that Cato Institute scholar and law professor Ilya Somin, a lifelong SF/fantasy fan, gave when he presented the 2026 Prometheus Hall of Fame award. His speech, a highlight of the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony in August, explores libertarian currents in SF/fantasy.
By Ilya Somin
There are, of course, many other libertarian themes in prominent science fiction and fantasy works. I do not have time to go over them all. I’ll just mention a few.
Robert Heinlein, as most of you, like we know, was one of the founding fathers of modern American science fiction, and he of course, was consciously libertarian, his ideology.
The same thing is true of a number of other very prominent science fiction writers like L. Neil Smith, Larry Niven, and David Brin, though obviously for example Brin has a very different strain of libertarianism than Heinlein.
There are also many nonlibertarian authors in the genre who nonetheless have works that have libertarian themes. Ursula K. Le Guin is a famous example.
There are many others. If I go through them all, I would use up all of my time and I would keep you here all day. But there are many of them.
MOST SF (AND STAR TREK) ISN’T LIBERTARIAN
Now I do want to emphasize that this does not mean that all or even most science fiction is actually libertarian. The majority is not. There’s obviously lots of explicitly non libertarian or even anti libertarian science fiction.
Star Trek I think is a good example. Much of Star Trek actually promotes what is a kind of socialism, and there’s obviously a long history of other socialist science fiction.
Less commonly, you have rightwing science fiction as well. It does exist even though it’s a bit less common than the left wing or libertarian kind, and there are many other examples.
So I’m not saying simply that science fiction is inherently libertarian or all or most of it is. I’m saying merely that libertarianism is much more represented in this genre than in almost any other popular culture genre or literary genre, at least that I can think of. So I want to ask, why is that? And I think that’s true for several reasons.
One reason is that because science fiction and fantasy are set in a different world from our own, this genre can more easily criticize and break with tradition. And of course, when you represent a somewhat radical minority ideology, being willing to break with tradition makes the genre more hospitable.
If you’re a libertarian, by definition you reject many of the traditions of government power in our society, and indeed in almost every other way.
Secondly, science fiction and fantasy appeal disproportionately to more educated and more politically aware people. I certainly don’t claim that all highly educated people, or even most, are libertarian. Far from it. But on average, libertarianism does correlate with education and interest in politics.
DYSTOPIAN VISIONS IN SF/FANTASY
So a genre that appeals to people like that will be disproportionately libertarian. I think it’s also significant that much science fiction and fantasy literature has scenarios that involve dystopias of various kinds. And of course an evil, oppressive government is a very common type of dystopia.
So literature where you see a lot of dystopia is likely to have disproportionate libertarian themes.
TECHNOLOGICAL OPTIMISM
Finally, I think there is a correlation and a relationship between being libertarian and being a technological optimist. Most libertarians welcome new technologies like nuclear power, new forms of travel, the Internet, more recently AI.
Whereas of course rightwing traditionalists but also many socialists are often suspicious of new technologies for various reasons. Science fiction, on average at least, is a genre that’s sympathetic to technological optimism. But of course there is some techno-pessimist science fiction, and therefore there is an affinity there with libertarianism as well.
WHY LIBERTARIANS ARE MORE REPRESENTED IN SF/FANTASY
So I think all of this explains and helps explain both why libertarian ideas and libertarian people are more represented among science fiction and fantasy authors than in other genres and also among the readers.
I will mention just one more point on this, which is that on average, sanity and science fiction disproportionately appeals to men as compared to women, and libertarianism, the datasets also is disproportionately male. I think it should not be that way, but that correlation does exist and is relevant.
WHY SF/FANTASY IS IMPORTANT IN POPULAR CULTURE
Finally, why is it that we should care about this relationship other than just that? It’s interesting to us because we’re drenched in the subject.
One reason is that many more people watch and follow science fiction and fantasy literature, movies, TV shows, and so forth that read any kind of serious political and public policy analysis. Check out my book Democracy and Political Ignorance on why most people do not know much about government and public policy.
So popular cultural genres like this one, you have some influence on people’s political views, and therefore it’s notable that this one is disproportionately libertarian in a way that most others very much are not.
USING FICTION TO ENVISION FREER, BETTER FUTURES
And there is the implication that libertarians who want to can try to use this genre to help promote our views. I think we should also think about to what extent libertarian ideas can be more prominent in some other genres as well, and I think libertarians should give more thought to that.
There are certainly other genres that go to other groups in the population which I think are underexploited by libertarians. I’ve in the past mentioned the genre of crime and mystery fiction, which seems like a natural for libertarian ideas, but libertarians make very little effort to get into that.
So in conclusion, I think it’s clear that science fiction and fantasy are more libertarian than almost any other literary or popular culture genre.
This provides some useful insights on what kind of people are attracted to libertarianism and what kind perhaps not. And also it may help us more effectively promote libertarian ideas in the future.
THE PROMETHEUS HALL OF FAME FINALISTS
And now I come to the most important part of my duties today, which is to present today’s award.
This year, a 50th work will be inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.
Five novels, first published between 1932 and 2003, were selected as 2026 finalists:
James Blish’s The Star Dwellers
C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength,
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World,
Adam Roberts’ Salt
and Charles Stross’s Singularity Sky.
And the winner is Brave New World.
FOR FURTHER READING
Read the first part of Somin’s keynote speech, which discusses Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series and other libertarian currents in SF/fantasy
Read the acceptance speeches for Brave New World by Pulitzer-winning writer-editor Jack Miles, a co-trustee of the Aldous and Laura Huxley Literary Estate; and by Huxley’s grandchildren Tessa Huxley and Trev Huxley.
ABOUT THE LFS AND THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS
* Join us! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, honor outstanding freedom-loving fantastical fiction and find fellowship with other fans, 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, 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 links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each winning work since 1979 fits the awards’ distinctive dual focus on both liberty and literary quality.
* Watch videos of the annual 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 highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant elements of libertarian themes and insights in the evolution of the modern SF/fantasy genre.
* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society’s Facebook page for updates, comments, and links to Prometheus Blog posts.
