We love to detest pipe dreams, but what constitutes a pipe dream? Of the many we could record somewhere in our numbering should be the simple belief in ‘change via talking’. That is, placing all our trust into a strategy of pontificating.
Is it working?
Henry Hazlitt once reflected
“When I look back on my own career, I can find plenty of reasons for discouragement, personal discouragement. I have not lacked industry. I have written a dozen books. For most of 50 years, from the age of 20, I have been writing practically every weekday: news items, editorials, columns, articles. I figure I must have written in total some 10,000 editorials, articles, and columns; some 10,000,000 words! And in print! The verbal equivalent of about 150 average-length books! And yet, what have I accomplished? I will confess in the confidence of these four walls that I have sometimes repeated myself. In fact, there may be some people unkind enough to say I haven’t been saying anything new for fifty years! And in a sense they would be right. I have been preaching essentially the same thing. I’ve been preaching liberty as against coercion; I’ve been preaching capitalism as against socialism; and I’ve been preaching this doctrine in every form and with any excuse. And yet the world is enormously more socialized than when I began.
Thus, we have written beautifully and critically and provided elaborate responses for our confidence in markets and liberty. Yet, poetics aside, the majority of our critics will simply rebut life without state provisions as being unrealistic…something that looks great on paper…something that history demonstrates wont work…something that can’t be maintained, or simply, a refutation of “prove it”.
To which we can’t prove it…
Mainstream free marketers attempt to overcome such “prove it” denials by building working models and simulations, or by performing controlled experiments on samples of the population. Heaps of intelligent formulae have been personalized within computer replications and math models of exchange, yet, at each stage our models must omit information that markets coordinate with ease.
However, what if we could truly “prove it/try it”? What if we could truly put these paperweight thoughts into action for scrutiny? This is what the wonderful world of The Seasteading Institute wants to accomplish; a real life laboratory for working governments from the ocean.
In such a real-time floating nation, governments would finally compete for its citizens versus repressing them with intimidation.
If you want to try direct democracy, attempt it. If you want to try anarcho-capitalism, seek it. If you believe communism/primitivism/environmentalism/Judaism/Jehovah Witness-ism or any other ‘ism’ to be your essence of utopia then pack your bags and try it. And if you find yourself misguided you are not stuck, you may leave and take your property with you. The concept is that simple.
It is like a nation state of mobile homes in which you may come and go whenever you deem the current state of governance to be ill. It is a remarkable concept, but what is truly remarkable is that it doesn’t involve political persuasion, ballot-box begging or regime change. It involves technology and a system of profit and loss—two things the market can deliver exceptionally well.
Think of the countless hours and dollars we spend on political candidates, political platforms, books, journals, blogs, articles, etc with hopes of only a slight return of more liberty on our investment. In fact, do these outlets even provide more liberty or do they simply tame the progression opposite from it?
And a better question…in a world of big government, one where the barriers of entry are high, and the taxation toward political change is even higher, what would a market for freedom look like? Overlooking the market for ideas, a market for which libertarians do well. What would a market for creating new freedom look like?
Perhaps The Free State Project or The Seasteading Institute?
Thus,
- Imagine real religious freedom in a city of unrestricted faith
- Imagine an innovative community of scientists not hampered by red tape
- Imagine a truly environmentally green community
- Imagine a Las Vegas meets The Netherlands for a weekend getaway
- Imagine timeshares to futuristic cities or primitive like retreats to live like Thoreau.
- Imagine a recreational escape for those with peculiar interests?
- Imagine an end to the infinite regress of “capitalism doesn’t work…but pure capitalism hasn’t been tried” or “socialism doesn’t work…but pure socialism hasn’t been tried”
- Imagine universities no longer dumping funding into quasi-economic or political models but truly funding real-time ideological governments for data collection.
Ideas surely matter, but the idea of creating a new society of freedom in absence of strictly political reform or literature distribution shouldn’t be designated as a pipedream. With innovative minds like Patri Friedman and his team of engineers, and funding from entrepreneurial giants like Paypal founder Peter Thiel, give the concept some thought
Continuing from Hazlitt quote above
“Yet, in spite of this, I am hopeful. After all, I’m still in good health, I’m still free to write, I’m still free to write unpopular opinions, and I’m keeping at it. And so are many of you. So I bring you this message: Be of good heart: be of good spirit. If the battle is not yet won, it is not yet lost either”
And to the naysayer…what’s the alternative?
************************************************************************************************
Undoubtedly, and rightfully, you have questions and criticisms and I couldn’t do this organization justice in 1000 words. Therefore, look to their articles in Reason and Wired Magazine or Listen to their podcast at Econtalk, as well as look at their FAQ section on their website.
{ 21 comments }
Talking is good, we enjoy it, and sometimes we even persuade others somewhat. But living the free life is even better. Seasteading is one option, but we can begin to live liberty wherever we are – taking responsibility for education, self-defense, and all the decisions which the State claims to be able to somehow “improve” our lives via coercion. We need to resist encroachments on liberty, to “poke holes in the fence” before it becomes an impenetrable web that entangles us.
I’m glad to see you guys are finally starting to cover these types of movements and looking to the future instead of fixating on the past.
There’s a very good reason the State tries to obliterate the past (history & culture) in the minds of its captive children at their desks right now.
The cultures of these things would be as arid as this drawing.
Don’t base it on THIS drawing; think of the idea itself. The Freedom ship never got off the ground mainly due to costs, but with material advances a project like that may be feasible one day.
I wasn’t basing my comment on the drawing, it was the opposite. I was basing my comment on the history of Utopian experiments. All human problems are between the ears; they don’t originate from the arable land and cities, to be escaped by heading for the forest, the seas or for space.
Hasn’t this been tried before? I think it was called the British Colonies.
What makes anyone think that there could not be a coercive state as long as everyone lives on floating platforms?
There is no coercive state in international waters. That’s why people want to go
there. If you’re suggesting that statists would want to escape the states they love
so much in order to spend a lot of money, and perhaps lose a lot of money or face danger
just for the sake of infiltrating the freedom-seekers out there, I think that’s absurd.
Many of the designs are mobile anyway. The surface of the earth is 3/4 covered by water, right? It’s kinda like the idea of a space station except you don’t have to go to space. You
need to build something to be your “land,” your home, but you still have gravity,
sunshine, air, water, and the ability to grow food and fish, perhaps engage in
aquaculture, mining, etc.
The whole concept is such that if there is any coercion you can just leave and go
somewhere else. You’re not tied to land and you’re not tied to hordes of dumbed-down
sheep who support the oppressive gov’t systems out of ignorance or bribery or
whatever.
It’s a new frontier on earth. It’s a shame that you would make such a defeatist
comment. I’ve been reading stuff at that site and I think it’s fantastic. Someday it
will happen because there are always a few brave souls around who push the
boundaries of the possible and never give up.
I really do envision a day where industries will mass manufacture cities like they do cars today. They will fill these cities up with people from all over the world. These people will come from low economic liberty environments, and be placed into high economic liberty environments which will allow them to create prosperity and wealth that never existed before. Wealth and prosperity that will be used to finance a never ending stream of these mini states, mini communities whom will all compete with each other for the best resources and talent and for the most prosperity. In this environment, Austrian economics and those who understand it will become valuable. Their knowledge about how to create more wealth with less effort via well defined property systems will make them sought after. These cities will likely evolve to have honest money, no copyright and patent, no or low taxes, no restriction on substances, and probably even energy independence. This will make them very unpopular with land nations and probably create a lot of tension.
That kind of experiment could be somewhat interesting. However, it may produce false positives with regards to socialism vs capitalism. It seems to me that on an isolated island with a finite amount of people one could centrally plan the allocation of resources and determine relatively accurate prices. It seems to me that it would not represent a modern society with a diverse set of skills, resources, and human actors.
At the very least socialism would get more credence then it deserves.
Socialism was man’s nature before agriculture, before cities, before specialization in trade. It doesn’t work in the modern context, but what do you think people did before money, before barter… when were just hunter/gatherer tribes? Why do you think people have the emotions they do today and why socialism retains its allure, even if it doesn’t work in a modern context?
The point is, people will have the choice of trying out different systems and seeing out which one works for them. It will be a true market test.
private property was paramount even in primitive, tribal cultures. see benson
http://mises.org/journals/jls/9_1/9_1_1.pdf
Seasteading – utopia vs practice
http://inetsoda.com/seastead/
Your link makes a bunch of claims about “in practice”, but clearly they are just speculation about the realities of the efforts being harsher than expected.
I think that you make valid critiques (while still ultimately endorsing the ideas), but calling those critiques “practice” seems misplaced.
Why is it that I’m reminded of the game Bioshock while reading this article?
Screw all that coercive infrastructure.
Buy a boat to do what thou wilt.
i’m thinking:
“i had trouble in getting to solla sollew”.
I must say, I’m so pleased to hear the positive outlook with a sound plan! I love Rothbards quote in Left, Right, and The Prospects for Liberty: “…while the short-run prospects for liberty at home and abroad may seem dim, the proper attitude for the Libertarian to take is that of unquenchable long-run optimism.”
I think the Austrian school, free market advocacy, and the philosophy of liberty are, by and far, the two most rational, most peace-based, and most important bodies of knowledge in human history. It’s not perfect, but if and when practiced, is likely to produce a life in accordance with natural laws and rhythms as no other school of thought, belief system, or man-made edict can.
Keep up the good fight!
Is anyone covering the progress of FreedomShip?
http://freedomship.com/
Just wondering because it’s something similar
manny
The one thing about those ‘free-societies’ is that they would inevitably need to be tightly controlled to prevent floods of freeloaders and communist/statist agitators coming in; Singapore’s example springs to mind there. Think of it as the ultimate gated community, I suppose…
However, if such a reality cannot be reconciled in certain libertarian circles, then it’ll probably remain a pipe-dream.
Comments on this entry are closed.