Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #629089 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
Michael Barone"U.S. News & World Report"In industrial America, centralized bureaucracies believed they could identify and impose what 1910's management expert F. W Taylor called "the one best way" In post-industrial America, Virginia Postrel argues in her insightful book The Future and Its Enemies, it makes better sense to set out simple rules, allow flexibility and accountability.

From the Publisher
Here are 5 great pieces of advance praise for this book:
"The best damn nonfiction I've read in years!" --Tom Peters

"In this bold and compelling book, Virginia Postrel uses a breathtaking range of examples, from music to software to hairstyling, to argue that progress comes not from a master plan but from courage, experiment...and even playfulness. She makes you look again at what you thought you already knew." --Esther Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings and author of Release 2.0

"Virginia Postrel skewers the pessimists of both the left and right who see technology as the enemy and nostalgia as their friend. Bubbling with enthusiasm, and fortified with examples that run from computers to shampoo, she exposes those whose futile efforts to dictate the future pose the greatest threat to progress and security alike." --Richard Epstein, University of Chicago Law School, author of Simple Rules for a Complex World

"Virginia Postrel has a radically old-fashioned view of the future. She believes in progress. She thinks the world we are building, you and I, is a decidedly messy place, that nonetheless is turning out pretty nice. Go ahead. Imagine that." --Joel Garreau, author of Edge City: Life on the New Frontier and The Nine Nations of North America

"Showing both an acute eye for the thick textures of social life and a deep understanding of competing strands of current social theory, Virginia Postrel accomplishes here one of the social theorist's hardest tasks: devising new ways to make sense of large amounts of otherwise unconnected, or inexplicable, information about the social and political world....It is a large achievement." --David Post, Temple University Law School, co-director of the Cyberspace Law Institute

Customer Reviews

The Politics of Progress
Books asking us to envision a "new" politics are a dime-a-dozen. Only one of them is worth reading and that is Virginia Postrel's The Future and Its Enemies. This book is a sublime expression of the idea that the laissez faire society envisioned by many "conservative" thinkers will lead to far more creativity, diversity, and innovation than could have been created by any policymaker's plan. The medium you are reading this on is proof of it. Years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine the idea of a transparent online marketplace where you could read a compilation of book reviews from both experts and ordinary readers, and if you liked what they had to say, have the book sent to you just by clicking a button. No Washington sage planned out a World Wide Web with sites like Amazon and eBay. It just spontaneously evolved when entrepreneurs began pushing the limits of new technology. The result of this decentralized process is pretty spectacular. This is exactly the point, argues Postrel. The best things in life always emerge in a laissez-faire environment. Though this may seem like common sense, it runs against the prevailing political wisdom, even in this era of supposed fiscal conservatism. "The era of big government" may be over, but Washington's appetite to control your life in new ways is still very much alive. Bill Clinton thinks he can plan out a good life for you through tax incentives for good behavior and public-private initiatives. Anyone well versed in Postrel's ideas knows this is folly. But Clinton's "third way" politics is only one manifestation of a growing reactionary movement to rein in and shape the future to fit some pre-determined mold. This is a movement that encompasses much of the political left, right AND center. Buchananites attacks free trade which bring lower prices and more convenience because it destabilizes the industrial communities of the past. Reactionary environmentalists and assorted leftists argue for small scale economic autarky, insularity, and stagnation for the sake of restoring us to some pristine state of nature (a state of nature in which the air was cleaner, but life expectancy was also a fraction of what it is today). On one hand are the stasists -- from Clinton to Buchanan to Ralph Nader, and on the other are the dynamists who embrace change and innovation, even if they can't control it.

Libertarian classic
This fascinating book by the author of Reason magazine explores the conflict between stasis and dynamism. Those who long for stasis want an engineered, regulated world. They include leftists and reactionary rightists. For them, it is all about stability and control and they are distrustful of technology.

Dynamists, on the other hand, seek a world of constant creation, competition, spontaneity and discovery. Whereas proponents of stasism believe that progress requires a blueprint, dynamists consider it as an evolutionary process. It boils down to the craving for predictability versus the enjoyment of surprise. Stasists and dynamists disagree not only about short-term policies but also about the way the world functions.

The book is a type of manifesto outlining the dynamist vision. It integrates the work of many scholars in describing how dynamist systems operate. The author explores how progress occurs in a dazzlingly wide variety of areas, from fashion to computers to movies and many others. Her arguments are quite convincing as she demonstrates how open-ended trial and error is the route to human improvement.

The Future And Its Enemies is quite an engaging read as it discusses the processes by which creativity brings about progress, prosperity, freedom and happiness. Its charms lie in the way that it points out the connections between different aspects of life, dealing with subjects as disparate as hairdressing, computer games, philosophy and bio-ethics, amongst others.

In this impressive work, Postrel has made a valuable contribution to the literature of freedom. Her refreshing angle and original insights clearly show that the organic growth of society is superior in every way to planning by arrogant political elites. Hayek and Mises would have been proud of her!

Face to Face, We're All Geminis
Having been born on June 1st, my astrologic sign is Gemini. The Twins constellation suggests a dual personality. Happy and sad, strong and weak, intelligent and passionate. A proverbial incarnation of the conflicting passions in life. Granting even the smallest credence to the influence of the stars on our lives, I've never met anyone - no matter their birth sign - who wasn't a complex, ever-changing, multifaceted and occasionally conflicted personality. If duality is the criteria, perhaps we're all Geminis. Dualism is a slightly strained effort to comprehend ourselves and society. The distinct emotional and intellectual features we can identify do seem to have degrees, from nearly nothing to the dominance of one characteristic over others. Occasionally, for short periods in our lives, one of those sentiments or inclinations will dominate all others. For good reasons, we'll be timid, even fearful, about our future. Then, in a new context, swing to the extreme of strength, even bravery, in pursuing our dreams. The same occurs with intellectual talents and inclinations. This duality never concerns us at the time, simply because we are fully in the context of our own sentiments. However, when we review them in the abstract, or in the society at large, they seem different.

In the abstract, we tend to personify those temporary inclinations as incarnate drives that propel us toward either good or evil. When we consider the extreme poles of emotion and intellect, we fault the devil for our failures and praise divinity for our successes. It seems to add sense to our world to imagine some insuperable force of dualism at work than to understand all the complexities in our lives or in society. So we enjoy neat dualist categories of rich versus poor, conservative versus liberal, strong versus week, libertarian versus totalitarian, arts versus science, or Republican versus Democrat.

In her new book, The Future And Its Enemies, Virginia Postrel (editor of Reason magazine) coins her own social dualism, the dynamists versus the stasists. Dynamists are, of course, the friends of the future, demonstrating creativity, enterprise and progress. Happy to have everything always changing all the time. With prolific empirical evidence, she makes the case for allowing these dynamic forces to flow freely. On the other hand are the stasists, those tired, old stick-in-the-muds, who want to suppress or control everything and everybody. Dynamists are our salvation and stasists are our damnation.

We would probably all agree, to one extreme or another, with nearly all the examples she presents, but Postrel's dualism suffers the same fault as any. Even the most dynamic among us wants to lay down in a comfortable bed at night, confident that our home is secure, dependent on some prolonged serenity for a peaceful sleep. Even the most temperate and cautious among us will indulge in a passionate art form or apply ourselves to solving a vexing problem. It's no surprise that we are all part-time dynamists or stasists, in nearly every respect. We are all Geminis.

Postrel documents a broad assortment of dynamic social and political heroes. And she's always correct. Fostering an environment that allows playful novelties and astounding innovations is a good thing. Many people do marvelous things in wondrous ways. But Postrel begs off any ethical criteria or political guidelines for creating such an environment. In a stiff journalistic commentary, she skips thorough a continuous string of authorities and copious references that get in the way of her clear convictions about justice, liberty and rights, which are always evident in her writing and editing of Reason magazine. Her book itemizes a range of opinions about dynamic rules and guidelines, but lacks the vitality of a central ethical premise. At times, she almost proposes that the means justify the ends, that dynamism forces always lead to favorable outcomes.

The dynamic versus stasist dualism falls far short of being an inspirational nostrum. Dynamic human conduct can be a boon to our lives, or a scourge. People can do terrible things with disastrous consequences in a very dynamic way. Temperance, caution, and skepticism can be stasist virtues when it comes to the beneficial evolution of the human condition. Perhaps the other dualisms are equally unsatisfactory. In the context of our lives, we all push and pull, swing and sway, between extremes. Since we're all Geminis, both facets make the whole life, where moderation is the norm, if not the rule.

In spite of the grand premise, there emerges some passion and delightful exuberance in Chapter Seven, "Fields Of Play". Postrel almost succumbs to a hearty delight in composing an ovation to whimsy. While explaining that play - not necessity - is the mother of invention, her dry commentary approaches exuberance. The creativity, enterprise, and progress that flows from the joy of simple exploration and learning is worthy of a book on its own. When it's all said and done, the future will be decided by the whimsy of our children. Perhaps she can dedicate it to the Geminis of all ages.

------- William Westmiller is California Coordinator of the Republican Liberty Caucus. He was a Candidate for the Republican Nomination for (CA24) Congress, and is a former National Secretary (and California Chairman) of the Libertarian Party.