Monthly Archives: May 2022

Elon Musk styles himself as a character out of science fiction, posing as an ingenious inventor who will send a crewed mission to Mars by 2029 or imagining himself as Isaac Asimovs Hari Seldon, a farseeing visionary planning ahead centuries to protect the human species from existential threats. Even his geeky humor seems inspired by his love for Douglas Adamss Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

But while he may take inspiration from science fiction, as Jill Lepore has observed, hes a bad reader of the genre. He idolizes Kim Stanley Robinson and Iain M. Banks while ignoring their socialist politics, and he overlooks major speculative traditions such as feminist and Afrofuturist science fiction. Like many Silicon Valley CEOs, he primarily sees science fiction as a repository of cool inventions waiting to be created.

Musk engages with most science fiction in a superficial manner, but he is a very careful reader of one author: Robert A. Heinlein. He named Heinleins The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress from 1966 as one of his favorite novels. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a libertarian classic second only to Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged in its propaganda value for neoliberal capitalism. It inspired the creation of the Heinlein Prize for Accomplishments in Commercial Space Activities, which Musk won in 2011. (Jeff Bezos is another recent winner.)

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress popularized the motto Theres no such thing as a free lunch, often used by defenders of capitalism and opponents of progressive taxation and social programs. Its about a lunar colony that frees itself, via advanced and cleverly applied technology, from the resource-sucking parasitism of Earth and its welfare dependents. In this instance, it appears that Musk correctly caught the authors drift.

Heinlein filled his fiction with loudmouthed men who claim to be accomplished polymaths. They boss everyone around, make decisions on a whim, and ignore advice regardless of the consequences. In other words, they act just like the CEO of Tesla, Inc. Likewise, Musk often attracts investors through publicity stunts rather than proven science and engineering, a self-marketing strategy that puts him, as Colby Cosh has pointed out, in the same dubious company as Heinleins space entrepreneur D. D. Harriman in his story The Man Who Sold The Moon.

But Heinlein wasnt in the business of criticizing free-market capitalism far from it. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress depicts a moon colony forced by the centralized Lunar Authority to ship food to Earth where it goes to feed starving people in places like India. The lunar citizens, or Loonies, revolt against the state monopoly and establish a society characterized by free markets and minimal government. The Loonies welcome the Malthusian catastrophe that will follow their withdrawal of nutritional assistance from Earth because they believe population collapse will ultimately make the welfare dependents down there more efficient people and better fed in the long run.

In addition to basic libertarianism, the novel promotes what Evgeny Morozov would call technological solutionism, the belief that every social or political problem can be solved with the right technical fix. This ideologys roots go back to the 1930s technocracy movement, which, as Lepore points out, numbered Musks grandfather among its adherents. Musk has taken up this legacy, promoting the electric car as the solution to climate change. In Musks view, private innovation rather than state intervention or activist politics will save the world.

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress follows the same mindset. Although the Loonies advocate libertarian principles we learn that the most basic human right is the right to bargain in a free marketplace these prove secondary to the practical problem that Earth is draining Lunas water and other resources at a rate they predict will result in mass starvation on the Moon.

Their solution to this problem touts itself as equally scientific. In the book we learn that an insurrectionary group is no different from an electric motor: it must be designed by experts with function in mind. The Loonies revolutionary conspiracy decides that revolutions are not won by enlisting the masses. Revolution is a science only a few are competent to practice. It depends on correct organization and, above all, on communications. Acting on this principle, one of the coconspirators, Mannie the computer technician, designs their clandestine cell system like a computer diagram or neural network, mapping out how information will flow between revolutionists. They determine the best way of organizing a cadre not through democratic deliberation or practical experience but through cybernetic principles.

Mannies disinterest in the messy business of political persuasion is a strength, not a weakness, because it allows him to see people as mere nodes in the network. Indeed, Mannys narration throughout the novel uses engineering terms to describe human beings and social interactions. He describes one woman as [s]elf-correcting, like a machine with proper negative feedback. Mannie, who boasts a cyborg arm, treats others as mechanisms in need of tinkering. Musks brain-machine interface company, Neuralink, attempts to operationalize this idea.

For Mannie and his coconspirators, democratic input from the revolutions mass base is noise that can only interfere with the signals transmitted from the elite leadership outward to their interconnected web of subordinates. Even when it comes time to establish a constitution for the Luna Free State, the conspirators use clever procedural tricks to do an end run around everyone in the congress who is not a member of their clique. Smart individuals always win out over mass democracy in Heinleins fiction and thats a good thing.

The novel takes solutionism to the extreme when Mannie enlists the help of a sentient supercomputer named Mike to lead the overthrow of Earths colonial government on Luna. Anticipating the exuberance of the dot-com era, Heinlein suggests that a computer can foment change better than any movement or organization. Mikes revolutionary tactics reflect the novels obsession with communications: much of the book is devoted to the conspiracys attempts to shift public opinion against the Lunar Authority and sow confusion among the governments ranks through hacking and media campaigns. Like the keyboard warriors of our present moment the hyperonline Musk among them Heinleins revolutionary elite hope to change society by manipulating information.

When revolutionary war breaks out, Mikes technical superiority emerges as the deciding factor. Using electromagnetic catapults, the supercomputer hurls rocks at the Earth that impact with the force of atomic explosions. The Federated Nations of Earth are forced to grant their lunar colonies independence after this calculated show of force. In the end, the Loonies achieve political emancipation thanks to a gadget.

These ideas would later feed into what Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron call the Californian ideology, a combination of techno-utopianism and economic libertarianism espoused by digital artisans such as software engineers working in Silicon Valley. As Barbrook and Cameron note, the Californian ideologys evangelists in the 1990s tended to be science-fiction fans who loved Heinlein and fancied themselves countercultural rebels bringing about a golden age of freedom by building the electronic marketplace. They believed that once unleashed from physical as well as governmental constraints, the free market would produce new technologies to address every possible problem or need.

Even more fundamentally, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress reflects a prevailing dogma that promotes cybernetics as the key to understanding the universe. Under this belief system, everything from markets to ecosystems appear as information processors operating based on feedback mechanisms. Like a thermostat, they respond to changing circumstances without conscious human control. Because the economy is a self-regulating system too complex for anyone to understand let alone steer, the Californian ideologists suggest, it should be insulated from democratic interference by a global legal order developed by neoliberal experts.

Musk has immersed himself in this ideology since his involvement with PayPal in the 1990s, and so it makes sense that he would be drawn to The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Hes so mired in this way of thinking that he entertains the idea that all of reality is a computer simulation. In many ways, Musk models himself on Mannie the computer technician, the wisecracking rebel who only wants the government to get out of his way so he can make things work. When Musk encounters traffic congestion, he doesnt see it as a failure of urban planning or a problem following from underinvestment in mass transit. Instead, he sees it as an opportunity to build a hyperloop. His solution to everything is an invention developed and marketed by rogue geniuses in the private sector. His faith in technofixes is so great that he imagines machines as potential overlords waiting to take over. There is more than a hint of Mike in his fear of an impending robot apocalypse.

Even his efforts to acquire Twitter and strip it of content restrictions seem to be motivated by the same ideology. Fred Turner argues that Musks opposition to content moderation stems from a belief that information wants to be free. When speech counts as data rather than dialogue, it becomes impossible to see why hate speech might be harmful.

Musks belief system rules out the idea that society is riven by antagonisms, least of all class struggle. He will always see problems like climate disaster as purely technical rather than derived from the profit-seeking behavior of the corporations ruining the planet. If science fiction reveals the contradictions of capitalism and encourages us to imagine alternatives, then Musks sci-fi persona is a cheap imitation. As a libertarian and a technocrat, the best he can do is fantasize about handing the revolution over to the machines.

Read more here:
To Understand Elon Musk, You Have to Understand This '60s Sci-Fi Novel - Jacobin magazine

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Summer is heeeeeeere! Oh wait, you're an adult and have kids.Now you have to figure out what to do with them before you are driven to the edge of madness. What a drag!

Don't panic. We've got some great summer activity ideas for you andWhoa, you have a libertarian kid?That's even worse!

Try these libertarian themed summer activities:

1) Go to the beach: If you bring a shovel and a metal detector you can minefor bitcoin. Is that how it works? We're still not sure.

2) Start a podcast: Oh, your libertarian child already has a podcast, doesn't he? Never mind.

3) Grow a garden: Yes, for Christmas trees. Definitely nothing else.

4) Set up a lemonade stand: Make sure it doesn't take fiat currency. Precious metals are acceptable.

5) Go to the Grand Canyon: Tell everyone their view is subsidized by taxes on working-class Americans.

6) Buy a 3D Printer: For lightsaber replicas, figurines, and ghost guns.

7) Tour Europe: Just be careful not to form any foreign alliances.

8) Light summer reading: Sowell, Hayek, and Tuttle Twinswill get you started.

9) Repair the road you paved yourself: Try to avoid using public roads when you go buy the material.

10) Panning for gold: Then you can take all the gold you find and invest it in gold!

11) Storm the Federal Reserve: Just use the plan from Die Hard With a Vengeance. It worked almost perfectly!

12) Tell people to get off your land: A wholesome way to bond with your child.

NOT SATIRE: You know what wed really like to do this summer?

Fill a public school library with Tuttle Twins books, so when a LibsOfTikTok teacher shows up ready to indoctrinate her students, she unfortunately finds a library full of books that teach kids about the ideas of liberty, free speech, free markets, individual responsibility, and American history.

Will you help us send Tuttle Twins books to a public school? It costs roughly $10 to distribute one book to a school. Can you help?

Click here to help us distribute more copies of the Tuttle Twins books to schools across the country, with your tax-deductible gift of $10, $50, $100, $500, or even more.

Thank you,Connor BoyackAuthor, Tuttle Twins

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Summer Activities To Enjoy With Your Libertarian Kid - The Babylon Bee

Anyone who has children understands that one of their best qualities is their limitless trustworthiness. Children will believe any fantastically false lie you tell them until critical thinking abilities (occasionally) develop later in life, such as that a minor deity is so happy to obtain their filthy baby teeth that they leave printed American cash with the Treasury Secretarys name on it for it. Its the most ridiculous thing in the world, but I, and most likely you, have believed it for years.

Unfortunately, some people might take advantage of childrens cuteness for nefarious ends. Theres an entire genre of legendary quotes attributed to leaders of authoritarian organizations that say something along the lines of Give me the child for seven years, and Ill give you the man, implying that those formative early years may establish beliefs that last a lifetime. Similar statements are attributed to Jesuit leaders, Lenin, and others, but the concept is apparent enough regardless of the source.

But the Church and the State arent the only ones who see the usefulness in indoctrinating naive children. I recently discovered this when an unscrupulous editor of a popular leftist magazine, lets call it Present Developments, mailed me a large box of libertarian childrens literature known as the Tuttle Twins series, a series of illustrated stories and workbooks designed to teach children about the wonders of the free market. (Advertisements for it may have appeared on Facebook.) I can confirm that the unique Tuttle Twins combination pack is as horrible as you think it is after reading all 11 books in it.

Each Tuttle Twins book is based on the teachings of a notable libertarian intellectual, such as Friedrich von Hayek, Ayn Rand, or Ludwig von Mises, and includes a tribute to the figure as well as a brief biography of their work. Connor Boyack is a Utah resident, a Brigham Young University graduate, and the president/founder of Libertas Institute, a free-market think tank, which is impressive given that there are only approximately 900 of them in the United States. In that position, he argues, he has modified a considerable number of laws in favor of personal freedom and free markets, presumably when he isnt penning odious Ayn Rand propaganda for helpless children.

The Tuttle Twins Learn About the Law, the first book in the series, is based on Frederic Bastiats writings. As a teacher, I can tell you that assigning the twins to ask a wise person to teach them about something really important is an excellent instructional method. They visit their next-door neighbor Fred, who brings them to his personal library, which features an oddly lovingly depicted bookshelf with a number of recognized libertarian titles, ranging from Murray Rothbard to Ron Pauls End the Fed to, bizarrely, Jeremy Scahills Dirty Wars.

Read More: Sssniperwolf Controversy: From Photoshop to Fictitious Video Games

More adventures lead the twins to the circus, where they work as guest clowns and become involved in the search for the star attraction, a strongman named Atlas, who has resigned (shrugged). The strongmans wages had been cut by the despotic ringmaster, who believes the circus can continue without him. Soon, the kids learn that being a clown was actually pretty easy, while Atlas toils away in the gym, and indeed, the entire circus enlists his help to erect tents, hang tightropes, and feed the animalsapparently, this is not a carnival without carnies.

The slacker clowns hate Atlass celebrity and benefits at work and spout nasty egalitarian lines like We all make this circus work together and Were all just as important, which are, of course, typical Marxist bullshit. These clowns must recognize that some skills are more valued than others, the children eventually learn. Atlas possesses a unique skill set that is difficult to duplicate, which makes him more valuable. The Russian organist remembers history, claiming that the clowns alluring calls for equality destroyed by Russia, which was formerly a peaceful, problem-free society.

Finally, the children persuade Atlas to return to the circus, and he saves everyone when the pillar supporting the Big Top begins to collapse, owing to the fact that it was improperly constructed without the superman on whom everything appears to rely. Everyone Learns Their Lesson after the ringmaster returns Atlas.

Read More: Dan Schneider Controversy: A Brief Explanation of Dan Schneider Controversy

Finally, choose-your-own-adventure novels are available. These books are comparable to the ones you might have read as a kid, but theyre written for teenagers, with fewer drawings, and plainly aimed at the YA market. Because of the Gummint and its Unintended Consequences, the novels arent choose your own adventure like most commercial books, but rather choose your own consequence.

Read More: Ray Liotta Controversy: Whats the Story Between Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta?

The kids in The Tuttle Twins and the Case of the Broken Window are in a high-stakes, end-of-season baseball game, probably in the Clich League, with a tying run on base. However, Emilys outstanding performance shatters a priceless window in the local church, forcing us to make a decision: Run or Come Clean. Come Clean, socialists.

The church is insured, but when Father McGillivray points us that the policy has a $5000 deductible, and our rates will go up, Boyack unwittingly reminds us of capitalisms nonsense. Wed rather not file a claim. You could argue that if something is too expensive to use, whats the sense of having an insurance market at all, but that isnt the Tuttle Way. The kids family offers to pay the deductible and have them work it off by having them intern for their Uncle Ben, who does this YouTube news broadcast thats quite popular, which is quite the pickup line.

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Tuttle Twins Controversy: The Case of The Terrible Libertarian Propaganda and The Tuttle Twins and Much More! - pelhamplus.com