Libertarians and the Apocalypse
Posted on January 1, 2011I’ve always loved apocalypse fiction, ever since I was a kid. Nuclear war, plague, natural disaster, zombies, the medium doesn’t matter – Day of the Triffids, I Am Legend, Alas Babylon!, A Canticle for Leibowitz, 28 Days Later, The Road, Survivors, The Death of Grass, The Walking Dead, I’ve enjoyed them all. (Before anyone gets scared, I should probably add that I do read and watch other things as well…)
I’ve come across plenty of other fans of end-of-the-world fiction over the years, from all walks of life and points of view (Tom Harris MP, for example). However, a pattern has definitely established itself bit by bit - libertarians are more likely to enjoy apocalypse fiction than any other political group I’ve come across.
Why should this be the case?
There’s a lazy answer, which we should deal with straight away. The usual political smear-merchants would trot out that it’s because libertarians hate human beings and wish secretly that everyone was dead. Obviously this is nonsense – for a philosophy founded on admiring people enough to trust them to live their own lives, it would be absurd to want everyone killed.
In fact, far from being a macabre interest in the apocalypse - stories about everyone dying – I think this is actually an interest in post-apocalypse fiction – stories about how people survive without the State.
There’s obviously the basic appeal of a world where there’s no-one bossing you around, telling you off for smoking or drinking or trying to gather your personal data. That’s something any libertarian merrily daydreams about. But most intriguing and fascinating of all is speculating about human innovation and interaction without an overriding authority either doing it all for you or forcing you to do as it wishes.
In our world as it is today, there are myriad restraints on living by a libertarian code. Indeed, most activity by libertarian campaigners is taken up opposing proposals that would further impinge on our individual freedom, so it seems that the general shift is even further away from our ideal position.
We are so far from a libertarian world that the best way to explore how our ideas might work in practice is through what scientists and philosophers would call a thought-experiment – testing out political ideas in a theoretical, simplified world.
For example, a physicist wanting to test a theory of how radiation operates under particular circumstances might well imagine a thought-experiment world where there was no background radiation, no sun and no stars to interfere. Similarly, someone wanting to explore how people might live in a libertarian way inevitably finds it interesting to imagine life in a world without authority, state, nosey neighbours or hectoring puritans – a thought-experiment provided most commonly in the world of apocalypse fiction.
Tags: 28 Days Later, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Alas Babylon!, Apocalypse, Apocalypse Fiction, Books, Culture, Day of the Triffids, Freedom, I Am Legend, John Wyndham, Libertarianism, Liberty, opinion, Pat Frank, Politics, Robert Kirkman, Survivors, Terry Nation, The Death of Grass, The Road, The Walking Dead, Walter M Miller
Categories: Culture, Opinion, Politics
28 Weeks Later is worth watching just for Imogen Poots…
Also, all the libertarians I know listen to hard rock music and secretly wish to be on a long American highway on a hog whilst rocking out to Motley Crue
10.01.2011 09:44
I recommend “A Canticle For Leibowitz”, if you are not familiar with it. 50 years old this year, and an excellent example of the genre.
10.01.2011 09:51
Authority is a mindset that can be overcome. Just learn to say NO and keep saying NO. It really is that simple. Certainly worked for the East Germans. Eventually.
10.01.2011 09:54
I personally believe a post apocalyptic world would be a libertarian’s nightmare. The descent into Darwinism, the survival of the fittest. The central control of food distibution by the people with the best weapons. The breakdown of law and order, the ability to kill someone without any punishment or retribution. The loss of major avenues of communication.
You can bet your last can of beans that smoking in a pub will still have astmatic seagulls flapping widely, environmental health officers in swastikas handing out daily ration fines and what remains of the televison network have images of Deborah Arnott of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) wagging her finger at you.
10.01.2011 13:43
Could it be that your ‘apocalyptic’ stories are in fact just a subset of good science fiction? Not the modern zombie blood fests or the fantasy stuff but the more intellectual and thoughtful stories that focus on the social effects of science or psychological discovery and how its used. The ‘what if’ ideas. A canticle for leibowitz being an example. Roger Zelazny, Philip K Dick and many classic writers have written some excellent stories with interesting perspectives. Very often the best such stories highlight the benefits, and usually also the drawbacks of innovation and they are often written from a very libertarian perspective.
I don’t usually advise my betters but I will make one suggestion, If you haven’t ever done so have a break from the more gory apocalyptic and read Eric Frank Russell’s short novelette ‘And then there were none’. It will make you both smile and think. It’s online here http://www.abelard.org/e-f-russell.php.
10.01.2011 16:46
Im not sure that a thought experiment is good way to predict a post apocoypse world. Libertarians, surely believe that people are many and varied, each with different values and motivations, whereas the socialists believe we are all little more than animals, motivated by greed and selfishness – hence the dystopian scenarios.
10.01.2011 17:33
I recommend “The Lovers” by Philip Jose Farmer, a novel where the “Sturch” (state + church) rules. Or Theodor Sturgeon’s “More than Human”.
Why I like these kinds of books is exactly as you say – what comes through, after disaster, is something greater.
That is also why I dismissed J. G. Ballard – things only ever get worse, no relief, no hope.
Alan Douglas
10.01.2011 17:48