Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Libertarians, statists, terrorists

Neal Stephenson says in an interview with Mike Godwin:
Speaking as an observer who has many friends with libertarian instincts, I would point out that terrorism is a much more formidable opponent of political liberty than government. Government acts almost as a recruiting station for libertarians. Anyone who pays taxes or has to fill out government paperwork develops libertarian impulses almost as a knee-jerk reaction. But terrorism acts as a recruiting station for statists. So it looks to me as though we are headed for a triangular system in which libertarians and statists and terrorists interact with each other in a way that I’m afraid might turn out to be quite stable.

Stephenson, the writer of novels such as Cryptonomicon and The Baroque Cycle, is one of the most exhilarating modern novelists, and one of the most unusual as well. Read the interview; then read the books.

No comments: