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I will be out of town on business tomorrow and Thursday, so posting may be light. In the mean time, have a deep thought.
Many libertarians seem to think that the Robert Heinlein novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is libertarian, by which I take them to mean "portrays libertarianism in a favorable light." But is it really?
It's been a while since I read the book, but I vividly remember a conversation between Manny (the narrator / native Loonie) and Stuart, the reader stand-in. The gist of the conversation was that on the Moon, if you looked the wrong way at a woman, she could have you killed, and if that wasn't seen as a good idea by your friends, they could launch a vendetta to avenge you. If you ran a store, you competitors could put you out of business by hiring people to bad-mouth your operation. Oh, and by the way, the whole moon was so disorganized that Alvarez and a handful of goons could easily govern it.
Sorry, but none of this sounds like a place I'd like to live in. Nor, I submit, was Heinlein particularly enamored of it. I mean, the entire plot consists of Professor De La Paz creating a government to support a military and build interplanetary weapons. I would argue that this novel is a demonstration of the failures and inadequacies of libertarianism. But that's just me.
Many libertarians seem to think that the Robert Heinlein novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is libertarian, by which I take them to mean "portrays libertarianism in a favorable light." But is it really?
It's been a while since I read the book, but I vividly remember a conversation between Manny (the narrator / native Loonie) and Stuart, the reader stand-in. The gist of the conversation was that on the Moon, if you looked the wrong way at a woman, she could have you killed, and if that wasn't seen as a good idea by your friends, they could launch a vendetta to avenge you. If you ran a store, you competitors could put you out of business by hiring people to bad-mouth your operation. Oh, and by the way, the whole moon was so disorganized that Alvarez and a handful of goons could easily govern it.
Sorry, but none of this sounds like a place I'd like to live in. Nor, I submit, was Heinlein particularly enamored of it. I mean, the entire plot consists of Professor De La Paz creating a government to support a military and build interplanetary weapons. I would argue that this novel is a demonstration of the failures and inadequacies of libertarianism. But that's just me.
