Defining the fault lines for the future

By Steven Greenhut
Orange County Register, December 13, 1998

A couple of years ago, I came across a letter in a national political magazine exhorting right-wing traditionalists to endorse the presidential candidacy of left-wing consumer advocate Ralph Nader. At the time, I wrote it off as sheer nuttiness. But the political world is increasingly tough to pin down, with oddball coalitions becoming a fairly common occurrence.

With the communist menace no longer an ideological dividing line, new political dividing lines are emerging (and some old ones re-emerging). Although Congress remains behind the times, with debates still waged on familiar conservative vs. liberal turf, the rest of the country is moving on to new and more interesting arguments.

For those who want help sorting through the new ideological jumble, I recommend two recent books. The first, "The Future and Its Enemies," by Reason magazine editor Virginia Postrel, details the kind of "strange new alliances" I refer to above, then coins new terms to describe what's going on. The second, "Freedom and Virtue," edited by Georgetown University professor George W. Carey, looks at two long-standing political labels to help clear up the confusion.

Postrel's book breaks ground with this piercing analysis: The emerging political division isn't between conservatives and liberals, but between "stasists" who want a "regulated, engineered world" and "dynamists" who are comfortable with a "world of constant creation, discovery and competition."

In support of this theory, Postrel points to alliances between, for instance, nativist Buchananites and counterculture environmentalists to oppose immigration and free trade. Though both groups have radically different world views, they seek to manage the future and protect their way of life from dynamic encroachments.

Stasists are defined by two elements, Postrel wrote: Reactionaries (of the left and right) hellbent on restoring "the literal or imagined past and holding it in place," and technocrats, i.e. government bureaucrats who "promise to manage change, centrally directing 'progress' according to a predictable plan." As an avowed libertarian, Postrel offers an impassioned case for dynamism and has even started a website (www.dynamist.com).

Though it doesn't break as much ground, "Freedom and Virtue" rehashes an old debate that also has been affected by recent events. Conservatives and libertarians often were lumped together on the right because of their shared revulsion at communism. With the Cold War over, the alliance has split. Today you're as likely to find conservatives and libertarians on opposing sides of an issue as you are to find them brothers in arms.

The dividing line, as exposed in essays by conservatives and libertarians, isn't stability vs. dynamics, as Postrel asserts, but between liberty and virtue. Conservatives, editor Carey wrote, "strongly believe that shared values, morals and standards, along with accepted traditions, are necessary for the order and stability of society."

Libertarians, argued Tibor Machan (the Freedom Communications adviser whose essay is in the book), aren't against virtue, but believe that "liberty is the paramount value to be sought by way of politics." Political force is such an "awesome and dangerous instrument of human interaction," he wrote, that it is "permissible and useful only in repelling force, not in building character, love, faith, scientific knowledge, etc."

In other words, libertarianism isn't trying to create the ideal society, but merely to build a hedge around government power so that individuals can pursue other virtues without the threat of coercion. Those of use who hold that view no doubt will find ourselves in Postrel's dynamist camp, because we're unwilling to use coercion to promote our particular vision of how society should function.

But whatever the views of those on your Christmas list, both books are good gift choices because they offer fresh perspectives and keen insights on emerging political debates. Steven Greenhut is an editorial writer with the Orange County Register .

Reprinted by permission of the author.