Posted on 02/10/2017 1:51:53 PM PST by nickcarraway
Finalists for a libertarian literary prize
The Libertarian Futurist Society has announced its finalists for this year's Hall of Fame award. This is one of two prizes the group gives out annually: The Prometheus Award honors the best libertarian-themed novel of the past year, while the Hall of Fame Award goes to libertarian fiction that first appeared at least half a decade ago. The focus is on science fiction—hence that word "Futurist"—but non-sf works are occasionally added to the mix. (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Fountainhead have both been nominated for the Hall of Fame in the past, and in 2000 that prize went to Hans Christian Anderson's "The Emperor's New Clothes.")
This year's nominees are unusual in that they're all short stories rather than novels. From the press release:
London Magazine London Magazine • "As Easy as A.B.C.," by Rudyard Kipling (first published 1912 in London Magazine), the second of his "airship utopia" stories, portrays a crisis in a twenty-first century society where an unpopular minority calls for the revival of democracy, and a largely hands-off world government is forced to step in and protect them.
• "Conquest by Default," by Vernor Vinge (first published 1968 in Analog) is his first exploration of the idea of anarchism, in which a stateless alien society visits an Earth recovering from nuclear war. The story combines a novel approach to the problem of avoiding the decay of anarchy into government with an evocation of the tragic impact of cultural change.
• "Coventry," by Robert A. Heinlein (first published 1940 in Astounding Science Fiction) envisions the Covenant, a social compact under which breaking the law, as such, cannot be punished unless actual harm to someone has been demonstrated. The story contrasts that society with a lawless "anarchy" into which those who break the covenant are sent.
• "Harrison Bergeron," by Kurt Vonnegut (first published [1961] in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction), satirizes the idea of radical egalitarianism with a portrayal of a society where all talented people are compulsorily brought down to average—until one gifted youth rebels against the system.
• "Starfog," by Poul Anderson (first published 1967 in Analog) envisions a widespread interstellar society millennia after the fall of a Galactic Empire, unified by the Commonality, a mutual aid organization. The story explores methods of carrying out large-scale projects through voluntary cooperation and market incentives under conditions where central control is unworkable.
• "With Folded Hands..." by Jack Williamson (first published 1947 in Astounding Science Fiction), uses science fiction to satirize the modern "nanny state" and explore an ethical theme: the peril of unrestricted authority, even (or especially) when it is used totally altruistically to take care of those subjected to it. The press release also mentions some nominees that didn't make this year's cut of finalists, including Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Philip K. Dick's "The Exit Door Leads In," among others. (They really should give the Dick story the prize sometime. It may be the most anti-authoritarian thing he ever wrote, and it has new resonance in the age of Snowden. Read it here.) Another also-ran is William Golding's Lord of the Flies, which I remember as being rather anti-libertarian, but I read it around 1981 so I might not argue if you tell me I'm wrong down in the comments.
For a list of past winners, go here.
“An armed society is a polite society”
“TANSTAAFL”
Robert Heinlein
Harrison Bergeron is the classic in this group of worthy literature. It is written in a way that it actually speaks to kids, even now.
That’s the test.
Absolute classic, and its succinct, which you have to be in a society with near zero attention span.
Nothing by NicknamedBob? Is outrage!
LOVE love love Harrison Bergeron. It seems so apt in this age of “privilege.”
If these others are on the same par as that one, I’m gonna have some reading to do. :)
If Hall of Fame means fame, “Harrison Bergeron” is the only one I ever see cited.
Heinlein doesn’t fit well with libertarianism after Ayn Rand.
Vonnegut said later that his satire was more against right-wing views of left-wing egalitarianism than about communism or socialism.
That could simply be the older Vonnegut covering himself from criticism from his left-wing peers, but it is possible.
Heinlein.
And starship troopers. Not the sarcastic take on the book, that movie, but the real novel.
And most people never got the satire of Strangers in a Strange Land. The hippie bible that was completely misread by them.
I also read, I believe, all of the Lazarus Long novels.
Lazarus Long, Time enough for love. great novel
I have seen Vonnegut criticize everything right of center. I did enjoy much of his stuff though.
I nominate Joshua of the book of Joshua and the founder of the libertarian state of Israel. His founding words were thus:
Choose you this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
All libertarianism since then has been built on that statement.
+1.
L
Perhaps there is another who deserves mention and credit, to wit, John W Campbell Jr., the editor of Astounding SF -> Analog SF&F from 1937 to 1971, since he published 4 of these six nominees!
His editorials were required reading and led me to my libertarian views today. His influence on the “Golden Age” of Science Fiction is measured by the authors he helped. The paper he used may have been pulp, but the writing and editing shone like gold.
A friend of mine worked at a NPR radio station. He was left of center but still rational. He sent me a tape of a Vonneget interview shortly before Vonneget died. My friend had not aired it because it was obvious that Vonneget had dementia. He went on an incoherent rant about how he was thankful that he had a pasty complexion because George Bush wanted to kill everyone paler than himself. He’d obviously lost it but of course NPR thought it was great stuff.
Can’t disagree but I’d wager that Harrison Bergeron may have never been written if not for Heinlein’s works that preceded it.
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