Editor’s Note: Cato Institute scholar, author and law professor Ilya Somin (also a lifelong SF/fantasy fan) gave the keynote address and presented the Prometheus Hall of Fame award at the 46th Prometheus Awards ceremony. Here is the first part of his speech on libertarian currents in SF/fantasy.
By Ilya Somin
It is an honor to be here and to have a small hand in presenting this award appropriately. I’m going to devote my keynote talk to discussing the relationship between libertarianism and science fiction, broadly defined.
I will explain why libertarianism is more represented in the science fiction genre and in the closely related fantasy genre than probably in any other literary or popular culture genre. I’ll give some examples, and I’ll briefly talk about why it matters, why we should care.
Though for many of us in the current audience, the reason why we should care is simply that we’re science fiction fans and also libertarians. We care for that reason. But there are reasons why this could be important even for other people who are less interested in science fiction or less interested in libertarianism than most of us are.
CLOSELY RELATED GENRES SET IN IMAGINARY WORLDS
Science fiction and fantasy, I think, are closely related genres, partly as it’s very difficult to tell the boundary between them, and partly because both are set in imaginary worlds far removed from what we consider our everyday reality. And it is striking that these two closely related genres have a large amount of libertarian ideas in them.
I would give just give a few examples from some of the most prominent franchises of the last several decades.
THE LIBERTARIAN THEMES OF TOLKIEN’S LORD OF THE RINGS
One obvious one is The Lord of the Rings, where it is notable that the Ring of Power must be destroyed and cannot be wielded safely, even by the, you know, by the wisest and best people like the wizard, Gandalf or others. None of them can be trusted with it, and it’s an obvious metaphor for political power.
It’s also notable that the government of the Shire, where the Hobbits live, which is sort of the most ideal society in some ways in Tolkien’s work, is very similar to the libertarian Night Watchmen state. The powers of the governor very limited at near the end of the book.
I don’t want to ruin the ending of The Lord of the Rings too much, but there is the episode of the Scouring of the Shire where an authoritarian socialist like government is temporarily set up in the Shire. It seems like a clear indictment of socialism and it was intended as such.
And of course Tolkien’s views that he conveyed in his fiction were very skeptical of government. As he put it, the most improper job of any man, even Saints, is bossing around other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity.
Tolkien was not a libertarian. He was more of a conservative traditionalist, but he certainly had the libertarian suspicion of government power, which is reflected in The Lord of the Rings and actually in much of his other work as well.
J.K. ROWLING’S WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER
One can say similar things about the Harry Potter franchise, the other big fantasy franchise the last several decades. Again, I don’t want to ruin the plot for you too much, but in addition to Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters, the enemy of the protagonist that we see throughout the books is actually the government of the wizard world.
The Ministry of Magic, which is legal scholar Ben Barton put it, is an all bureaucracy government that is similar to most negative possible versions of public choice theory. It’s impressive it it attains people without being processed, and at the same time it actually does a terrible job of doing the work of actually protecting the people. It’s so much so that when it’s taken over by Voldemort late in the series, it’s only perhaps moderately worse than the regular Ministry of Magic is.
And of course, the good guys, folks, we prevail.
They do so through a private self help organization, the Order of the Phoenix. Rowling is not a libertarian. She’s more of a conventional left liberal, but I think her series has obviously strong libertarian themes and suspicion of government even though she herself is not a libertarian.
SUZANNE COLLINS’ THE HUNGER GAMES
Perhaps the biggest new science fiction franchise of the last 25 or so years is The Hunger Games franchise, written by Suzanne Collins. And of course, the setup of The Hunger Games is in some ways stereotypically libertarian.
We have an oppressive central government, the capital, exploiting the 12 districts with forced labor, taxation, no representation, all sorts of oppression, and the wag. It’s notable that the capital especially is envisioned in more recent books in the series, which I very much recommend even though they’re less famous than the original trilogy.
The capital represents a kind of right wing authoritarianism where the idea is we need this government to provide border and security. But when the heroine Katniss Everdeen manages to escape the capital and ends up in District 13, which is leading the fight against the capital, what you see there is a kind of left wing oppressive status government that seems socialist in many ways and over time.
Again, I don’t want to ruin the plot too much, but over time it becomes very clear that the District 13 government is just as bad as that of the capital, even it has a somewhat different ideology. The president of District 13 is named Al McCoy, which is assigned. She is the other side of the same coin as the president of the capital, President Snow.
So it’s notable to sort of both left and right wing statism get beaten up in The Hunger Games series, and you see some of these themes about more fully again in the prequel books which have come out since the original series.
Coming up: Don’t miss part two of Somin’s keynote speech, with thoughts about Heinlein, Star Trek, dystopias, technological optimism, popular culture and why SF/fantasy is the most libertarian genre.
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.
