{"id":2561,"date":"2021-01-11T22:16:35","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T04:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=2561"},"modified":"2024-05-10T21:32:27","modified_gmt":"2024-05-11T02:32:27","slug":"a-bold-adventure-and-thought-experiment-about-a-free-and-just-society-h-beam-piper-john-mcguires-a-planet-for-texans-the-1999-prometheus-hall-of-fame-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/a-bold-adventure-and-thought-experiment-about-a-free-and-just-society-h-beam-piper-john-mcguires-a-planet-for-texans-the-1999-prometheus-hall-of-fame-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"A bold thought experiment about a just society: H. Beam Piper & John McGuire\u2019s A Planet For Texans, the 1999 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is the Prometheus Blog Appreciation of\u00a0H. Beam Piper and John McGuire\u2019s\u00a0A Planet for Texans <\/i>(aka\u00a0Lone Star Planet)<\/i>, inducted in 1999 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction.<\/p>\n

By Eric S. Raymond<\/a>
\n<\/strong>
\nIn 2021, H. Beam Piper’s 1957 novel A Planet For Texans\u00a0<\/em>(co-written with John McGuire) can seem like little more than an appealing and rather lightweight adventure romp.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That’s because today we read it already having a good idea of what a libertarian minarchy would be like, and Piper’s New Texas seems like another exercise in familiar tropes.<\/p>\n

In 1957 it was something much more, a bold and even shocking thought experiment – because it was among the very first<\/em> works to propose that what we now think of as a libertarian minarchy would not<\/em> immediately degenerate into a Hobbesian war against all, but could in fact be a stable and just society.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nowadays we think of “libertarian SF” as the part of the SF genre consciously written to explore or advocate libertarian ideas. In these works, influence runs from libertarian ethics and politics to fiction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But there are a handful of science-fiction classics from before the modern formulation of libertarianism around 1970 that were causal in the opposite direction, influencing how libertarianism took its present shape.<\/p>\n

One might call seminal works these “pre-libertarian” SF. While Robert Heinlein’s The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress\u00a0<\/em>from 1966 is the example that usually leaps to mind, A Planet for Texans\u00a0<\/em>is not far down the list in terms of persistent popularity and lasting influence.<\/p>\n

When you really grapple with how early H. Beam Piper wrote this \u2013 well before the likes of David D. Friedman<\/a> (<\/em>author of the influential empirical libertarian book\u00a0The Machinery of Freedom, <\/em>available here<\/strong><\/a> with a free pdf) wrote seriously and analytically about libertarian legal systems – the courtroom scenes begin to seem much more impressive. (Check out Friedman’s blog here.<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Piper, without benefit of theory, gives us what in effect is a guided tour of New Texas’s conflict-resolution mechanisms, even exploring their failure modes.<\/p>\n

In true Golden Age fashion, the idea is the hero – an idea that nobody could possibly slap a “libertarian” sticker on until at least thirteen years after the story was written. The adventure plot is a thin wrapper around the conceptual challenge to the reader, and the romance almost an afterthought.<\/p>\n

There’s a bit more substance in the whodunit subplot as the protagonist unravels dastardly villainous plans, but that too is an accompaniment rather than the main thrust of the novel.<\/p>\n

There is a quote attributed to Antoine de Saint-Exupery which explains the main thrust: \u201cIf you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Piper’s novel was clearly intended to make the reader to live on New Texas, and it succeeds in that for anyone not entirely dead to the attractions of liberty.\u00a0 Which was important, perhaps more important in the years between 1957 and 1971 than we can now easily understand today; St. Exupery tells us why.\u00a0 Before the pioneers of our movement could construct libertarian ethical and political theory, they needed to long for a vast ocean of liberty.<\/p>\n

The gift of pre-libertarian SF was to create and nourish that longing when the language to articulate it barely existed as yet – and by doing so, stimulate the invention of an adequate language.<\/p>\n

It is for that achievement that A Planet For Texans\u00a0<\/i>deserves to be remembered.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/strong> H. Beam Piper (1904-1964) was an American science fiction writer of novels and short stories.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
H. Beam Piper (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He was best known for his Terro-Human Future History series of stories and novels (including Little Fuzzy<\/em> and two other Fuzzy novels about a sapient alien species) and a shorter series of alternate-history \u201cParatime\u201d stories (including his\u00a0Paratime\u00a0<\/i>anthology and the novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Lone Star Planet,<\/em> co-written with John J. McGuire and originally titled A Planet for Texans, was separate and independent from either Piper series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The work was a tribute to libertarian journalist H.L. Mencken\u2019s essay \u201cThe Malevolent Jobholder\u201d (published in June 1924 in The American Mercury<\/em> magazine), in which Mencken proposed \u201cthat it shall be no longer malum in se\u00a0<\/i>for a citizen to pummel, cowhide, kick, gouge, cut, wound, bruise, maim, burn, club, bastinado, flay or even lynch a (government) jobholder, and that it shall be malum prohibitum\u00a0<\/i>only to the extent that the punishment exceeds the jobholder\u2019s deserts. The amount of this excess, if any, may be determined very conveniently by a petit jury, as other questions of guilt are now determined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadly, Piper committed suicide in 1964. According to the Wikipedia bio entry on Piper, he killed himself believing that his career was \u201con the skids\u201d and he was \u201cprevented by reticence and his Libertarian principles from asking anyone to assist him with his financial difficulties.\u201d
\nEven more horribly, Piper was mistaken about his career because \u201chis agent had died without notifying him of multiple sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

* Coming up soon on the Prometheus Blog:\u00a0<\/strong>An Appreciation of Hans Christian Anderson\u2019s \u201cThe Emperor\u2019s New Clothes,\u201d the 2000 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner for Best Classic Fiction.<\/p>\n

* Read the\u00a0introductory essay\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0about the LFS\u2019 40th\u00a0<\/sup>anniversary retrospective series of Appreciations of past Prometheus Awards winners, with an overview of the awards\u2019 four-decade history.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Also worth reading is Eric S. Raymond\u2019s seminal Prometheus Blog essay on \u201cFreedom in the Future Tense: A Political History of SF.\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

* Other Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/strong>For 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\u00a0Prometheus Awards page\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>on the LFS website.<\/p>\n

* Read\u00a0\u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0an essay in the June 2020 issue of the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/em>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the modern genre.<\/p>\n

* Join us<\/strong>! To help sustain the Prometheus Awards,\u00a0join\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>the Libertarian Futurist Society (LFS), a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans. Libertarian futurists believe culture is as vital as politics (and often more productive and fulfilling in the longer run) in spreading positive visions of the future and achieving universal individual rights and a better world (perhaps eventually, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is the Prometheus Blog Appreciation of\u00a0H. Beam Piper and John McGuire\u2019s\u00a0A Planet for Texans (aka\u00a0Lone Star Planet), inducted in 1999 into the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction. By Eric S. Raymond In 2021, H. Beam Piper’s 1957 novel A Planet For Texans\u00a0(co-written with John McGuire) can seem like little more than … Continue reading A bold thought experiment about a just society: H. Beam Piper & John McGuire\u2019s A Planet For Texans, the 1999 Prometheus Hall of Fame winner<\/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":[43,2353,160,8],"tags":[851,859,855,853,858,849,852,856,857,860,850,854,21,862,861,83],"class_list":["post-2561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-book-reviews","category-hall-of-fame","category-review","tag-a-planet-for-texans","tag-antoine-de-saint-exupery","tag-conflict-resolution-mechanisms","tag-david-friedman","tag-golden-age-of-sf","tag-h-beam-piper","tag-h-l-mencken","tag-hobbesian-war","tag-libertarian-minarchy","tag-little-fuzzy","tag-lone-star-planet","tag-new-texas","tag-robert-heinlein","tag-suicide","tag-the-american-mercury","tag-the-moon-is-a-harsh-mistress"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-Fj","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561","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=2561"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7509,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2561\/revisions\/7509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}