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Summary: It's a future not about Republicans vs. Democrats...
Review: ...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.
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Summary: A postive, uplifting message
Review: Despite its somewhat dark subtitle about the "growing conflict," Ms. Postrel's message is full of hope and excitement. The final chapter, "On the Verge," was for me the most meaningful in the entire book. If you look forward to the future and are intrigued with how it will unfold -- without subjecting it to your own rule-ridden agenda -- you'll surely enjoy "The Future and its Enemies." The author certainly helped me understand some of the weird alliances we're witnessing between the "green" mentality and the archconservatives.
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Summary: One of the finest books of the 1990s
Review: If there's a better book published during the last few years, I don't know of it. With this book, Virginia Postrel takes her place along side Rose Wilder Lane, Isabel Paterson, and Ayn Rand as the 20th century's greatest heroines of liberty. Postrel's book is scholarly, very well researched, and clearly written. Like the philosophy she advocates, her book is dynamic. It is a unique combination of ideas drawn from a wide range of fields -- including, but not limited to, economics, history, management, law, political science, psychology, and biology. Moreover, as others have commented, Postrel's distinction between "dynamists" and "stasists" is wonderfully useful. This fresh distinction shows clearly that the tired distinction between "liberal" and "conservative" is not only useless, but downright poisonous to constructive discourse. This is one of my favorite books of all time.
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Summary: The More Things Change, The Less They Stay the Same
Review: Recent studies in business show that companies whose cultures embrace change have a greater rate of return and more impressive bottom line than companies who have culturally resisted change. Postrel expands this point to...well, to just about everything. As this book points out, change is unsafe, risky, and scary -- which is why so many politicians and bureaucrats have made careers out of resisting change. But it is also exciting and rewarding -- which is why so many successful business leaders embrace change. This is a great point, and Postrel does an excellent job of making it while getting the reader excited in the process.
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Summary: Face to Face, We're All Geminis
Review: 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.
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Summary: Change is constant; growth unsure
Review: Virginia Postrel embraces change and then some! Since change is constant, she argues that human growth depends upon dynamic people (dynamists) plunging in over their head. Her faith in the unknowable future is remarkable and refreshing, and she uses many examples drawn from daily life to illustrate and justify her optimism. She draws a useful contrast between these dynamists and those people who fear the future and want to slam on the brakes. She calls these people stasists, and they come from all points on the conventional political spectrum. Postrel says that only by accepting and embracing change can human creativity, productivity, and wealth grow. I would love to see Virgina Postrel speak before a typical zoning commission, or perhaps debate Al Gore!
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Summary: An important new view of the political/cultural spectrum.
Review: This wonderful new book reimagines the modern political spectrum. On the one hand are dynamists--they celebrate open-ended change, playful experimentation, and technological innovation. On the other hand are stasists-they wish to control and direct change and fear harm from cultural change and unfettered technological innovation. Like all "there are two kinds of people" analyses, I have heard people criticize Postrel's thesis for not covering all cases. But no such analysis ever passes that test. The real questions are: Does it offer new insight? Is it useful? Postrel's dynamist/stasist (note: not "statist") analysis succeeds resoundingly on both counts. It is just as insightful and useful as the old left/right, liberal/conservative, statist/libertarian divides were, and still often are. Not the least of the reasons that the older spectrums have been useful is because people fit themselves into these categories. For the past decade, however, many have been decidedly NOT fitting themselves into the older categories. Postrel is the first to identify who they are and what they care about most. Many of these people are leading the high tech industry and will soon, I hope, be leading our nation. Her insight into how they think is part of what makes this book important. To one familiar with her writing, it is no surprise that Postrel devotes an entire chapter to the idea of "play." Postrel writes with great humor and lively intelligence. She has an unmatched talent for drawing deep insights from modest, everyday occurrences. Her point of view takes in donut shops and computer companies, nail salons and biotechnology, high culture and pop culture. The book is well-footnoted and researched, but displays the enviable ability that Virginia demonstrates in her Forbes and Reason columns: Unlike most writers, who make difficult topics (urban planning, technological development, philosophy) the prose equivalent of boiled spinach, she makes them just plain fun. By the way, this book is not merely descriptive. Postrel is a dynamist and thinks you should be too: They're interesting, flexible, creative, free-spirited, and more fun at parties.
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Summary: Great book, solves many conundrums
Review: Why is it that the far right and far left seem to agree on so much? Why do things that have always proven beneficial, such as free trade, mobility, and modern supermarkets, frighten so many people? Why are people always trying to censor the Internet? Questions such as these nag at the back of anyone's mind who tries to sort out modern political and social issues. Virginia Postrel has supplied an answer so logical that it is surprising no one saw it before: Some people ("dynamists") welcome change and others ("stasists") fear it. Since stasists can be found on both the left and right (and middle), it is not surprising that segments of both sides have similar tactics and goals. Refreshingly, Postrel also has a prescription for us dynamists and is optimistic about the future. After you have read this book, you might think some of her points are obvious, but they probably weren't before! A must-read for Internet activists.
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Summary: Incredibly insightful and rich synthesis--the best I've seen
Review: This book really amazed me a number of times by gradually weaving together many apparently disparate ideas about creativity and control, fear and play, ingenuity and stasis, into a beautifully coherent worldview. Fantastic and fun use of examples (with extended footnotes to boot), clearly thought out arguments, and something I'll call an "added spark" distinguish this work from the background (and not a few reviews), even the better half. This is a mind-changing book. Surely frustrating to critics of self-determination and voluntary association, this is at heart an apolitical masterpiece in every way except its unavoidable implications--and a few examples. It goes one level below politics and explores the attitudes that give rise to them. What it finds is two loose bodies of thought and effort: STASIS, which either deplores most change or seeks to dictate its shape in advance from the powerful top of society down; and DYNAMISM, a less organized--but less conflicted--mindset adopted by sundry thinkers and doers, which tolerates change, prefers low-level rule-making followed by evolved commitments, and thrives on play, local knowledge, trial and error, and a few other key traits--all teased out by the author in delightfully straightforward language. Postrel plainly states that the contrast is not black and white. Not all "dynamists" disavow all "stasist" notions. Dynamism is not a formula for utopia. And not all historical accomplishments flowed from perfect, dynamic settings. Human minds, after all, are manifold--a fact which strengthens dynamist processes but blurs partisan boundaries. And people can accomplish great things in all kinds of settings. The question is, what kind of society promotes the best that we humans can come up with and has, overall, the most benign side effects. If we ask only "How can we, collectively, do great things?" there are many answers. This is not in dispute. Even the most tyrannical societies have produced some wonders. But if we ask further, "How might we allow everyone's best to emerge, recombine in ways we do not anticipate, and do ever greater things?" then Postrel has a much narrower answer for your consideration.
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Summary: Some Good Ideas But
Review: The book is interspersed with some good ideas and examples but is mostly a boring and redundant read.
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