Maker Faire: Where Libertarian Dreams Come True

Wednesday, 26 May 2010 08:51

I spent part of last weekend at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA, a two day event showcasing a mindboggling array of technology and artistry, from futuristic robots to retro steam powered trains to re-engineered clothing.  Somewhere between displays on composting toilets and distributed power systems, it occurred to me that all of this was a libertarian fantasy come true.  Here in reality were all the dreams of the 1970’s libertarian ‘zines: a way to finally get off the grid, on the land, away from “the man,” to be totally self-sufficient and independent of larger structures of power and coercion.  The hitch is that most of the makers there, I’d wager, were folks of the left, not of the right.  If any one set of values united them, it was environmentalism, or more specifically the quest to use natural resources more efficiently and with fewer damaging side effects (e.g. externalities).  Thumping under all of this was a quasi-apocalyptic theme that would have seemed familiar to any Tea Partier, militia member, or science fiction buff: how are you going to take care of yourself and your family when our world changes irrevocably for the worse?

All of these connections and missed connections started me thinking on the theme of left-libertarianism, or how the libertarian ethos or spirit can really be said to transcend partisan boundaries.  As those of you know who read my book Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, one of my major arguments in that book is that Ayn Rand served to pin libertarianism to the right through her advocacy of unregulated capitalism and her long history of political collaboration with conservatives and others on the right.  Today, Rand might be more influential than ever, but libertarianism is evolving rapidly and even approaching the political mainstream. As such, we’re bound to see some shifts and changes.

The Right Since Obama: The Rise of Market Fundamentalism

Wednesday, 21 April 2010 05:21

This article originally posted at dissentmagazine.org

THE CRAZIES have come out of the conservative woodwork.  Enraged and infuriated by the election of President Obama, bereft of any intellectual leadership or compelling figurehead, unable to stomach their declining powers in a multicultural America, conservatism has been reduced to a rump movement of alienated working class whites who can only mount bizarre “tea parties” to express their discontent.

Or so runs the conventional liberal wisdom on the conservative movement after the election of Obama.  Even some leading conservatives appeared to agree. Sam Tanenhaus has recently announced the death of conservatism and called for a return to “classical conservatism,” and from his perch at the New York Times, David Brooks has cast a wistful eye at responsible “grown-up” British conservatism.

But the reality of the situation is more complex: The crash of 2008 has recalibrated the balance of power between market fundamentalists and religious fundamentalists in the Republican Party and what we are now seeing is the rebirth of a potent strain of pro-capitalist, anti-statist thought. This aspect of the right has always perplexed liberals, and few expected its return in the wake of a crisis that did much to discredit free-market economics. And yet libertarianism has surged (and religious and cultural conservatism has faltered) as the economy has pushed economics back to the forefront of the policy agenda.

The election of Obama has put conservatives back where they are most comfortable and, arguably, most powerful: on the outside looking in—or, as William F. Buckley, Jr. had it, “Standing athwart history, yelling stop!” Liberals may be comforted by this fact: After almost a decade of George Bush, it’s nice to see what the view is like from inside the White House. But they’d do well not to relax, for it is in periods of political exile that the right has developed its most effective ideas and political strategies.

Read more: The Right Since Obama: The Rise of Market Fundamentalism

My Appearance on the O'Reilly Factor

Friday, 19 March 2010 07:39

Being a guest on Bill O’Reilly’s show was an exciting and at times surreal experience.  The interview itself was awkward, for I never saw O’Reilly himself; I sat in a studio in California, heard O’Reilly through an earpiece, and spoke to a camera lens.  Maybe the set up contributed to the choppy nature of the interview.  But, as the many commentators on my Facebook page pointed out, interrupting guests is part of O’Reilly’s style and he has trouble being anything other than confrontational.  I’m not a regular watcher of Fox, but I had seen enough to be prepared.

While I was asked to provide some context for Hanks’ statements, O’Reilly had his own agenda which involved a similar form of simplification, so the format wasn’t conducive to examining something as complex as our involvement in World War II.  In my podcast lecture course, “Introduction to U.S. History,” I decided that World War II needed a whole week and three full lectures; check those out if you’re interested in learning more about the war in the Pacific, Europe, and on the home front.  These lectures also cover the history of Japanese internment camps in the United States, which are certainly relevant to any complete discussion of race and WWII.

In the Rand Archive, Part 6: On the Brandens, Continued

Sunday, 21 February 2010 14:30

In my last posting, I discussed a few minor inaccuracies I discovered in Barbara Branden’s memoir The Passion of Ayn Rand.  Did I find any inaccuracies in Nathaniel Branden’s memoir Judgement Day: My Years with Ayn Rand (later revised and republished as My Years with Ayn Rand)?

This question in itself is a difficult one to answer, as a memoir is by its nature subjective and personal.  I did discover material that corroborated several aspects of Branden’s narrative – changes in his personality after he met Rand, the circumstances surrounding his move from Los Angeles to New York, his early relationship with Barbara.  The paper trail largely vanishes when all three moved to New York.  However, there is plenty of material in the archive documenting the repressive atmosphere that developed at New York NBI during the 1960s.  New York NBI is also described in great detail by a number of published and unpublished sources that are not held in the Archive.  Again, Branden’s memoir covers all this territory and he is quite frank in describing his role.

I did not discover any evidence that suggested his memoir was deliberately fabricated or untrue.  Working in the archive did, however, help me recapture the perspective of Rand.  By his own testimony, Nathaniel Branden acted poorly towards Rand, but because the story is told from his point of view in his two memoirs, it can be easy to lose sight of this truth.

But what of the affair and the aftermath?  Did I see Rand’s notes on the ending of the affair? Are these available to researchers?

Read more: In the Rand Archive, Part 6: On the Brandens, Continued