{"id":1640,"date":"2020-06-05T23:10:40","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T04:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=1640"},"modified":"2024-01-03T20:59:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T02:59:16","slug":"reason-voluntary-private-cooperation-and-entrepreneurship-versus-politics-irrationality-and-power-lust-in-facing-apocalypse-and-extinction-an-appreciation-of-neal-stephensons-seveneves-th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/reason-voluntary-private-cooperation-and-entrepreneurship-versus-politics-irrationality-and-power-lust-in-facing-apocalypse-and-extinction-an-appreciation-of-neal-stephensons-seveneves-th\/","title":{"rendered":"Reason, voluntary private cooperation and entrepreneurship versus politics, irrationality and power-lust in facing apocalypse and extinction: An Appreciation of Neal Stephenson\u2019s Seveneves, the 2016 Prometheus for Best Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

To highlight the Prometheus Awards\u2019 four-decade history and make clear why each winner deserves recognition as notable pro-freedom sf\/fantasy, the Libertarian Futurist Society is presenting weekly Appreciations of past award-winners. Here\u2019s the latest Appreciation for Neal Stephenson\u2019s Seveneves,<\/em> the 2016 Best Novel winner:<\/p>\n

By Michael Grossberg<\/a>
\nSeveneves, <\/i>an epic hard-science-fiction novel, focuses on a cataclysmic event that threatens human civilization and the planet Earth, and its long aftermath.<\/p>\n

Neal Stephenson\u2019s sprawling 2015 novel avoids ideology while dramatizing how a lust for power almost wipes out our species.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>More impressively and much less common in such fiction these days, Stephenson also shows how the courage to face reality and tackle overwhelming problems through reason, individual initiative and the voluntary cooperation of private enterprise help tip the balance towards survival.<\/p>\n

Especially inspiring, for advocates of reason and liberty, are Stephenson\u2019s portrayals of the heroic efforts against terrific odds by a small group \u2014 including some of Earth’s bravest and richest entrepreneurs \u2014 who spend their fortunes and risk their lives to save humanity from extinction.
\n<\/p>\n

When the moon\u2019s stability is undermined, humankind realizes that they have only a limited time to take drastic steps for their species\u2019 future. As nations band together to ensure that at least some fraction of the population might survive in outer space, predictable political impulses for command and control and personal advantage pose a serious threat the efforts and reduce the number of survivors.<\/p>\n

That unprecedented human struggle becomes the gripping focus of the bulk of Stephenson\u2019s brilliant and speculative book, which then jumps forward five thousand years to portray how the survivors evolved genetically and created a new culture that almost seems alien in many ways.<\/p>\n

Of greatest interest to libertarians, classical liberals and other freedom lovers is the dramatic and revealing way that Seveneves\u00a0<\/i>implicitly contrasts the \u201cpolitical means\u201d (i.e. institutionalized coercion, and its attendant deceptions and manipulations from unbridled egotists indulging power lust for short-term but illusory advantages) with the \u201ceconomic means\u201d (i.e. the voluntary private initiative and cooperation that tends to be encouraged and is more common through the mutual aid and trade of a free society and its free marketplace.)
\n
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Without in any way becoming ideological, the novel thus parallels the deep insights of Franz Oppenheimer, the German sociologist and political scientist (1964-1943) who made the distinction between the \u201cpolitical means\u201d and the \u201ceconomic means.\u201d In his classic 1908 book The State,\u00a0<\/i>Oppenheimer said: \u201cI propose in the following discussion to call one\u2019s own labor, and the equivalent exchange of one\u2019s own labor for the labor of others, the \u2018economic means\u2019 for the satisfaction of needs, while the unrequited appropriation of the labor of others will be called the \u2018political means\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a framework was later developed by several generations of libertarian thinkers, most notably Albert Jay Nock (Our Enemy, the State)<\/i>, Murray Rothbard (Power and Market, For a New Liberty)\u00a0<\/i>and Roy Childs, Jr. (Liberty Against Power)<\/em> as a profound and illuminating tool in modern analysis of political economy.<\/p>\n

Many people misunderstand, stigmatize and even demonize free markets and free minds. They misperceive as somehow \u201cgreedy\u201d or selfish or exploitative people who cooperate through economic or social means to work together in common pursuit to achieve countless legitimate goals and solve or ameliorate real human problems and challenges. In fact and in history, as well as in libertarian theory from Locke and Mill and Spencer to Hayek, Friedman, Mises, Rand and Rothbard, a sustainablesustainable and humane civilization, in which everyone\u2019s natural rights and human dignity is respected depends on people more consistently embracing cooperation over coercion.<\/p>\n

That is also one of the most seminal themes among several key concepts and insights in Seveneves<\/i>, although the novelist wisely lets readers make those connections ourselves.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, Seveneves <\/i>is a massive and multi-part saga \u2013 in some ways, at least two different novels in one \u2013 that can stimulate and satisfy readers looking for many different things (from hard sci-fi and plausible world-building to big ideas, vast engineering projects and post-apocalyptic visions).<\/p>\n

Yet, among the manifold pleasures in a rich, complex and multi-generational tale, libertarians and classical liberals can find much that underscores how those shortsighted people pursuing politics, power and short-term advantage over long-term rational self-interest are much more likely to undermine human society and progress – and in extreme crises, such as the central scenario imagined here, can threaten our very existence.<\/p>\n

Note: Stephenson\u00a0also won the Prometheus Award for Best Novel in 2005 for The System of the World.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Neal Stephenson (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stephenson was a Best Novel finalist in 1996 for\u00a0The Diamond Age<\/em>\u00a0and in 2000 for Cryptonomicon, later inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction. He was nominated for Best Novel for Quicksilver<\/em> (in 2004), The Confusion<\/em>\u00a0(2005), REAMDE\u00a0<\/em>(2012),\u00a0and Fall, or Dodge in Hell <\/em>(2020).<\/p>\n

* Coming up soon on the Prometheus Blog:<\/strong>\u00a0A 40th<\/sup>Anniversary Celebration and appreciations of the next novel to be recognized with a Prometheus Awards: Cory Doctorow\u2019s Homeland<\/em>, the other 2014 winner for Best Novel.<\/p>\n

* See related introductory essay<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0about the LFS\u2019 40th<\/sup>anniversary retrospective series of Appreciations of past Prometheus Awards winners, with an overview of the awards\u2019 four-decade history.<\/p>\n

* Other Prometheus winners:<\/strong>\u00a0For a full list of winners \u2013 for the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the recently updated and enhanced Prometheus Awards page<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website.<\/p>\n

* Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards, join <\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit volunteer association of libertarian sf\/fantasy fans and freedom-lovers.
\nLibertarian futurists believe cultural change is as vital as political change (and often more fulfilling, positive and productive long-term) in achieving universal individual rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To highlight the Prometheus Awards\u2019 four-decade history and make clear why each winner deserves recognition as notable pro-freedom sf\/fantasy, the Libertarian Futurist Society is presenting weekly Appreciations of past award-winners. Here\u2019s the latest Appreciation for Neal Stephenson\u2019s Seveneves, the 2016 Best Novel winner: By Michael Grossberg Seveneves, an epic hard-science-fiction novel, focuses on a cataclysmic … Continue reading Reason, voluntary private cooperation and entrepreneurship versus politics, irrationality and power-lust in facing apocalypse and extinction: An Appreciation of Neal Stephenson\u2019s Seveneves, the 2016 Prometheus for Best Novel<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,159,2204],"tags":[501,373,505,506,507,502,20,510,513,504,352,512,511,509,503,508,350],"class_list":["post-1640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-best-novels","category-neal-stephenson","tag-apocalypse","tag-cooperation","tag-entrepreneurship","tag-evolution","tag-franz-oppenheimer","tag-human-extinction","tag-neal-stephenson","tag-our-enemy-the-state","tag-quicksilver","tag-reason","tag-seveneves","tag-the-confusion","tag-the-diamond-age","tag-the-economic-means","tag-the-moon","tag-the-political-means","tag-the-system-of-the-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-qs","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2107,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions\/2107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}