{"id":3018,"date":"2021-03-06T19:43:44","date_gmt":"2021-03-07T01:43:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lfs.org\/blog\/?p=3018"},"modified":"2024-01-03T20:39:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T02:39:16","slug":"back-issues-of-prometheus-the-lfs-quarterly-journal-offers-a-treasure-trove-of-gems-and-libertarian-insights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/back-issues-of-prometheus-the-lfs-quarterly-journal-offers-a-treasure-trove-of-gems-and-libertarian-insights\/","title":{"rendered":"Back issues of Prometheus, the LFS quarterly journal, offer a treasure trove of gems and libertarian insights"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you haven\u2019t browsed through back issues of Prometheus, you should.
\nYou\u2019re missing out on a lot of fascinating and insightful stuff – with ideas and insights that often remain timely and surprisingly timeless.<\/p>\n

A treasure trove of articles, essays, reviews, interviews, debates, acceptance speeches, con reports and letters was published between 1982 and 2016 in Prometheus, the journal of the Libertarian Futurist Society. (The Prometheus blog, launched in 2017, replaced the printed quarterly.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Prometheus<\/a> page of the LFS website is being updated and made more accessible – thanks to the efforts of Chris Hibbert, Anders Monsen and other past Prometheus editors.<\/p>\n

In an ongoing effort, Hibbert and other veteran LFS leaders have been volunteering their time to steadily digitize the Prometheus back issues. Most are now available to read free, either with direct HTML links to each article or with a PDF link to the entire issue.
\nCheck out all the back issues and articles on the Prometheus Index page.<\/a><\/p>\n

WORLDCON SF AUTHORS ON LIBERTY, LIBERALISM AND LIBERTARIANISM<\/strong><\/p>\n

To whet your appetite, here is a fascinating and still-relevant excerpt from one of the earliest Worldcon reports ever published in Prometheus, which sheds light on sf, liberty and the complex relationship between libertarianism and liberalism.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cSF and Freedom,\u201d<\/a> published in the Winter 1985 issue of Prometheus (Volume 3, Number 1), reported on the 1984 Los Angeles Worldcon, where the LFS presented its Prometheus award ceremony before a packed audience of hundreds as part of a Friday night opening-ceremonies program introducing Worldcon guests of honor:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do Norman Spinrad, David Brin, James Hogan, Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Jean Lorrah, Brad Linaweaver, Julian May, Victor Koman, J. Neil Schulman, and dozens of other writers have in common? They have all written fiction with libertarian themes, and almost all of them talked about why they\u2019ve been attracted to such themes at panel discussions and private conversations during the World Science Fiction Convention in Anaheim this year.<\/p>\n

In the year of Orwell\u2019s\u00a01984<\/em>, it\u2019s no surprise that political issues were the focus of many of the Worldcon\u2019s scheduled panel discussions and debates. But it may be surprising to some people to realize how many of the political panels explicitly raised libertarian issues\u2014even when the panel theme did not explicitly focus on libertarianism, and even when none of the panelists were self-defined Libertarians.<\/p>\n

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

For example, Norman Spinrad, David Brin, Donald Kingsbury, Frederick Pohl, and Warren Salomon participated in a fascinating panel discussion on \u201cBeyond Communism and Capitalism.\u201d Not one of them is a self-described libertarian. Yet, with the exception of Pohl, a consistently brilliant novelist who seemed uncertain about the very meaning of \u201cfreedom,\u201d each panelist made some exceedingly libertarian remarks.<\/p>\n

Norman Spinrad made a very interesting point that set the tone for the entire panel discussion: While there has been almost no literature describing a communist system, there have been dozens of novels describing various types of anti-authoritarian societies\u2014from capitalist to anarchist.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Spinrad added that one obvious exception to his point are the many novels \u2014 the whole dystopian category from Orwell\u2019s 1984<\/em>\u00a0to Ayn Rand\u2019s\u00a0Anthem<\/em>\u00a0or Ira Levin\u2019s\u00a0This Perfect Day <\/em>\u2014 which do portray communism, but as a morally corrupt form of tyranny, not as an ideal. That exception, of course. only proves Spinrad\u2019s point.<\/p>\n

Spinrad, like many other liberals, is much closer to libertarianism at heart than he seems to realize. But he\u2019s certainly beginning to realize it, for one of the funniest and most charming moments of the entire Worldcon was the crowd\u2019s spontaneous reaction to another of Spinrad\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment should only act like a referee in a pluralist society,\u201d he said, \u201cnot as a (coercive) unifier of separate interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

That remark \u2014 which sums up rather well the essence of the classical liberalism of John Stuart Mill and Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, if not the more radical 21st century liberalism that libertarianism truly represents \u2014 managed to generate more applause for Spinrad (or almost any other panelist) than anything else he said.<\/p>\n

But the applause flustered Spinrad so much that he protested it. \u201cI\u2019m not a libertarian\u201d he explained out of the blue, although no one had used that political label previously in the discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cSociety is much more complicated than any theory, whether Marxist, Keynesian or Libertarian,\u201d Spinrad said, trying to disown the audience\u2019s response, \u201cand government must also protect the weak from the strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From such remarks, it seems obvious that there are two major misconceptions about libertarianism shared by most liberals, even the more intelligent liberals exemplified so well by Spinrad.<\/p>\n

First, libertarianism is much more complicated and subtle a philosophy than most liberals (and unfortunately, many libertarians) realize. Only libertarianism has built into it a deep respect for the limits of human knowledge (read Hayek), and thus the limits of any government scheme to centrally plan the economy\u2014i.e. our lives.<\/p>\n

While liberals. conservatives, and socialists tend to focus only on the more immediate linear consequences of a social problem, libertarians take a more long-range ecological view. realizing that most government programs are counterproductive precisely because of their unanticipated side-affects and coercive byproducts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Second, like Spinrad, many liberals are rightfully concerned about protecting the weak from the strong \u2014 a concern certainly shared by libertarians. But they don\u2019t realize that governments \u2014 by their nature as coercive, class-creating institutions \u2014 inevitably come to represent the strong not the weak. Nor do they know that the diverse, decentralized, non-coercive free-market system offers more real protection for the weak, the poor, the minorities and that smallest minority of all, the individual, than any other political system.<\/p>\n

Although Spinrad identified himself as a liberal, he acknowledged that two of his novels have been extremely libertarian:\u00a0Songs from the Stars<\/em>, a Prometheus Award finalist that portrays an ecological anarchist culture, and\u00a0A World Between<\/em>, a Prometheus Award nominee that has strong free-enterprise elements in its imaginary utopia.<\/p>\n

Libertarian elements also appear frequently in the novels of David Brin, a panelist who managed to outshine even Spinrad in his emphasis on libertarian ideas. Brin paid libertarians several left-handed compliments, all unexpected:<\/p>\n

\u201cMost sf people are extremely anti-authority,\u201d Brin said. \u201cI believe in taking pluralism to an extreme, just as long as you don\u2019t offend people. We\u2019re on our way to a situation where a free market might become possible. Libertarians believe that a free market doesn\u2019t exist today, and they\u2019re right. I wish Libertarians were the second major party in this one-party state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brin wowed the crowd with his charismatic style and ideas, which seemed to be some kind of strange hybrid between Gary Hart\u2019s neoliberalism\u2014which grudgingly acknowledges that the free market is the engine of progress, but wishes to harness and direct it in government-approved \u201chigh-tech\u201d directions\u2014and Pierre Proudhon\u2019s classic libertarian anarchism, which recognizes that intelligent, compassionate human beings do not need the coercive institution of government in order to live together in social harmony.
\n
\n\"\"<\/a>\u201cHow much authority is it safe to focus in a central government?\u201d Brin asked, taking a skeptical, evolutionary approach. \u201cHow the hell do we get there [to freedom]?\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Brin\u2019s complimentary remarks about libertarianism, he calls himself a Democrat. \u201cThe reason I\u201dm not a Libertarian is because they have no chance of getting power. The reason I\u2019m not a Republican is because they talk about ending regulations, but Jimmy Carter deregulated five times as much as Reagan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet it\u2019s clear where Brin\u2019s sympathies lie in the long run. Just read his books. Brin won the 1984 Worldcon Award for Best Novel for\u00a0Startide Rising<\/em>, an epic intergalactic adventure mystery in which it turns out that human beings are virtually the only admirable \u2014 and libertarian \u2014 species in a power-politics galaxy of species enslaving each other. His\u00a0Stardiver<\/em>, which takes place in the same universe as\u00a0Startide Rising<\/em>, focuses on a human expedition into the center of the sun that is sabotaged by political intrigue, while his 1984 fantasy novel,\u00a0The Practice Effect…<\/em> tells the story of a scientist transported to an alternate world where he must fight to free himself and his loved one from an evil tyrant.<\/p>\n

Frederick Pohl (Jem<\/em>,\u00a0Starburst<\/em>, and\u00a0Gateways<\/em>\u00a0and Donald Kingsbury (Courtship Rite<\/em>) were two panelists who objected the most to any talk about freedom. Yet even their objections were illuminating.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not in favor of the lack of freedom,\u201d Kingsbury said. \u201cI\u2019m just suspicious of anyone who tries to provide it. Marx was often wrong. But he was a good critic of our modern alienation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echoing Kingsbury\u2019s remarks, Pohl explained how throughout his life he\u2019s heard all sorts of people \u2014 from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan \u2014 talk about freedom, but he\u2019s never heard an intelligent, coherent definition of it. That certainly makes sense\u2014if Roosevelt and Reagan are typical of those whom Pohl has heard mangle that subtle concept.<\/p>\n

All in all, the libertarian tendencies of Spinrad and Brin had such an impact in setting the tone for the \u201cBeyond Communism and Capitalism\u201d panel, that even Locus,<\/em> the leading sf-publishing trade magazine, noticed it.<\/p>\n

Confirming the correlation between sf and anti-authoritarian ideas, this panel was far more engrossing than the boring Rand Corporation-type \u201cDelphi future-casting session of the hour before,\u201d commented Pascal Thomas in his\u00a0Locus<\/em> report on the Worldcon programming.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you haven\u2019t browsed through back issues of Prometheus, you should. You\u2019re missing out on a lot of fascinating and insightful stuff – with ideas and insights that often remain timely and surprisingly timeless. A treasure trove of articles, essays, reviews, interviews, debates, acceptance speeches, con reports and letters was published between 1982 and 2016 … Continue reading Back issues of Prometheus, the LFS quarterly journal, offer a treasure trove of gems and libertarian insights<\/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":[1862,1124,2201],"tags":[58,52,641,1033,1032,141,46,68,118,15],"class_list":["post-3018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-george-orwell","category-lfs-programs","category-ray-bradbury","tag-58","tag-david-brin","tag-fahrenheit-451","tag-fredrik-pohl","tag-norman-spinrad","tag-orwell","tag-prometheus-awards","tag-ray-bradbury","tag-robert-silverberg","tag-worldcon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-MG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3018","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=3018"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3032,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3018\/revisions\/3032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}