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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: The Politics of Progress
Review: 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.
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Summary: A must read for those who love freedom. Big, elegant ideas.
Review: Do you worry when you hear, "We're from the government and we're here to help you"? This wonderful book is for you. The author elegantly explains how bargaining away our freedom and allowing big government to run our lives is not only wrong, but how terribly destructive it is to society. This is an important book. The lines between GOP'ers and Dem's have blurred. Postrel brings us a new and more useful distinction: "dynamists" who understand that freedom creates the future through a chaotic process of failure and success, allowing those almost magical, random leaps of human creativity and inspiration that drive progress... and the bad guys, anti-progressive "statists" who disallow both failure and success and all hope for advancement, innovation, and human betterment. Yes the future is both promising in its potential and frightening in its uncertainty -- but who would bargain away its promise for the false security of the present? Want to climb the mountain and see what America and Americans could be? Read this book. See the future. You'll get a tingle. And be a better, freer person. I'm giving out copies to friends right and left.
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Summary: Read in context
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this reader friendly book. It did start to get repetetive in the last third but I adhere to the maxim that repetition is the best form of emphasis (if done with some wit). My title emphasizes "context" as a way to address some of the complaints in other reviews of this book objecting to the perceived "my way or the highway" approach. The dynamist environment requires a competitive marketplace of ideas and techniques. Thus, a truly dynamist environment needs stasist counterpoint to remain truly dynamist... doesn't it? I think the author realizes this. What I found most interesting about this book was the attention Postrel draws to the redefinition of political and philosophical labels, Conservative vs. Liberal etc. which have had almost no coherent meaning for decades. Postrel removes the current labels (conservative, liberal, rightwing, leftwing) and reclassifies the players based on their position relating to the status quo or stasist versus dynamist. Very interesting. This redefinition of the current labelling is also dealt with quite well in another book -- Bobo's in Paradise, by David Brooks. If you want to be truly entertained and enlightened at the same time get the audio version. I laughed, I cried, I pondered -- all while driving in my car!
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Summary: Technocrats and Bureaucrats: Get out of the way!
Review: The Future and its Enemies is a fantastic and clear exposition of the dynamic vision. Postrel maintains that the old political categories of "left" and "right" no longer apply; today political camps are either "dynamic" or "static" in their vision. Those that seek to control and mandate a prescribed outcome would fall under the "static" heading. On the other side, the dynamists seek only to implement simple rules that allow for unpredictable and unplannable results. Postrel's thesis is backed up by credible data and some fascinating anecdotal stories. Postrel relates many of the ideas that were first articulated by F.A. Hayek when he described the "spontaneous order" that occured in a free market. Central economic planning by bureaucrats thus fails because is it ignores the integral process of unplanned, undesigned events, inventions, technologies that result in a free atmosphere where competition is allowed to flourish. Though we may think that good results occur from large bureaucracies planning like public school, health care, social security, and the like,this discounts the possibility that unplanned private initives would be much more effective. This is a book that should be read by all who support central economic planning or those that fear the results of allowing individuals to make voluntary decisions in the free market.
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Summary: (un)planning the future
Review: This book is a testament to the power of distributed knowledge and its positive effects on non-coercive social systems. With a combination of hard research and powerful, quirky anecdotes she describes the power of nested rule systems that allow feedback to greatly enhance innovation and efficiency We cannot make micro-detailed decisions for the common man without destroying the feedback mechanisms that make society fuction. The law fails when these micro-management techniques are applied to it, since they prevent variations due to technological or social advances, allow narrow groups to dictate the shape of the law, and create extreme uncertainty.
I could go on about the unique insights in this book, but it comes down to this- the world is changing at a rapidly increasing clip, but far too many of the rules applied to our lives are remnants of a static vision. Although she recognizes the inherent good that free markets and free minds have produced, she tries- and often succeeds in making her points from a non-ideological way, i.e. not bashing democrats/socialists. Instead, she correctly sees the massive "left/right" shift that is occuring in the world. Since all forms of statism have been discredited, a true liberal/conservative split is inevitable, and (my thought) the death of one of the parties is on its way since both current parties are statist oriented.
In my opinion, Mrs. Postrel has synthesized thousands of years of political and social thinking into an easily understood blueprint for the new century. Rules must exist in a manner consistent with human nature, must be clearly understood, and be open to feedback. This book would be a terrific gift to any "progressive", since it is the ultimate progressive book!
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Summary: An Attractive Manifesto
Review: Virginia Postrel has written a book that deserves all the attention lavished on "Reinventing Government" a few years ago. She makes the case for an essentially libertarian view of the world better than any author I've ever read. Her basic point is that social evolution through simple trial and error produces vastly superior outcomes to the central planning the twentieth century embraced through Communism, Socialism, and the New Deal. She also does a wonderful job of showing the world is not divided purely into the standard left and right political types, but also into camps she labels "stasists" and "dynamists". Stasists resist change and can accept it only when it is carefully planned. Dynamists embrace the unpredictable process of spontaneous change that arises from individuals pursuing their own ideas. "The Future and Its Enemies" is that rare public policy volume that actually contributes something new to the discussion. It deserves to be read and widely recommended, even by those who disagree with its central thesis.
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