Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #351845 in Books
• Published on: 1999-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

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!

A practicing dynamist, a public school teacher, comments.
As a longtime reader of REASON I am familiar with Postrel's essays. Reading this book continued my admiration of her intellectual and writing skills. I have attempted to live (but never came close to it) what I considered the ideal model of education, "Sommerhill", while teaching in public schools in Southern California. I was dynamist within a huge majority of stasists.My life was seldom easy because I posed a real threat to them. Unfortunately, for me, I saw their inability to share my visions of what could be, as stupidity. Their reactions, their need to keep their world secure, stable, and structured was as much a reflection of their genetics, their physiology, and their shared personal histories as mine was directing me to act as a dynamist. In 1960 I realized that our lock step, three group reading groups and rigid reading structure was not only boring, but killing my sixth graders love for reading. I had 42 in my class and I felt the stasists were more interested in how well I controlled my army than what they were learning. I sent away for and bought with my own money one of the first SRA kits. My chidren's attention, ontask time, and sheer joy was a thing of beauty. After three days the principal came in to find out why parents were excited about their children who couldn't wait to get to school and read. He was so angry he would have fired me on the spot. Instead, since I was a probationary teacher, I was forced to return the kit. Now I know he was just doing what he thought best. He sincerely believed in the methods that I saw weren't working as well as he thought. He ignored much of what was obvious to me because it didn't fit into his neat conception of a closed future. He believed that if you followed the curriculum and the structures as they were laid out by "experts" that each teacher (by teacher proofing the curriculum) would provide each child with what he needed to be a successful and productive citizen. I already had given up on religion, Freud, and many other ideas because they had ALL the answers -just too neat! I saw the world as everchanging and beyond my ability to control except for some limited portions. I wanted to teach my children the basic skills too, but in an environment that taught them to be flexible and courageous. The more I understood the stasists and their fears as well as their visions, I was able to find livable compromises. My classrooms were little oases in which I did things other teachers were either afraid to do or hadn't thought of doing. The conflicts with stasists were continuous, but my children, their parents, and I flourished within the system. Virginia Postrel gives a cohesive philosophy to what people like me are attempting to do. We are the dynamists, and the stasists need us to open windows and doors they either won't or can't see. But we need them to give us the ground, the stable structures from which we can operate. Further, none of us are pure stasists or dynamists. My wife is a stasist. Without her love, her carrying for me and our children, and giving some balance to my wildness and weirdness, I would have gotten fired many times. Stasists and dynamists need each other. This book could help in understanding our differences and similarities.

It's a future not about Republicans vs. Democrats...
...not even about Liberal vs. Conservative. Everyone seems to want change. Postrel make the convincing argument that the battle is really between those who demand central control and a pre-planned future vs. those who are willing to let the future evolve in a many time unexpected way. Essentially it's an age old debate - almighty wisdom vs. evolution.... It's authority (whether it be religion or the state) versus freedom of choice (whether it be the markets or experimentation). Postrel delineates the battle ground with a variety of examples...both contemporary and historic.

The book offers insights into the potential of creativity breaking out from the traditional command and control mentality. As a former urban planner, I was particularly enlightened by her examples as they relate to a changing urban scape.

Overall, this is a ground breaking book that links a number of guru management ideas, politics, science and economic thought....the kind of cross-disciplinary analysis that opens up new ways to more objectively view the world. The Future and Its Enemies is a worthwhile read that will help the reader understand the real underlying dichotomy and debate ("the paradigm" which is a term that Postrel gratfully doesn't use) that defines how politicians and others react to a wide variety of contentious debates. Now the reader can understand the underlying personalities and sets of beliefs and predict how the future balttle lines will be drawn..and what side to be on.