If the closest example Borsook or anyone can find to a libertarian system is post-communist Russia, I'd say they're not cracking a book. One must hardly look into the matter to seriously maintain that Russia has had anything like a libertarian government since the USSR collapsed--or ever. First of all, libertarianism requires rule of law--something seriously lacking in the country in question. The US is much more libertarian than Russia. Second, Russia is barely emerging from the shadow of decades of totalitarian Soviet rule, which was preceded by centuries of absolutist monarchy. Calling a few years of half-reforms the best test of libertarianism when we are surrounded, in the West, by the fruits of generations of relative economic freedom first enunciated by Adam Smith(and despite the drag of piecemeal statism) is particularly bizarre. A good starting point for a serious inquiry might be this map--http://www.heritage.org/index/graphics/worldm ap.gif. The study on which it is based attempts to quantify the level of economic freedom in most nations of the world. Russia comes in 122nd. Hardly a test tube for liberty. Regarding the notion that "the" technology industry would not have existed without government funding, I find this to be silly and unproven. The idea that any useful technology governments involve themselves in would never come to pass without that involvement sounds like some sort of superstition. There are numerous technologies that were never a glimmer in a bureaucrat's eye--and yet they somehow managed to come into being. What magical property must one attach to taxes that give them a unique ability to generate whole industries? It is also worth remembering when the Internet and the web became really useful for ordinary peopel--when they were commercialized. I guess when space travel is fully legalized for private efforts and blossoms as an industry then it will be said by some that there would never have been a space industry had it not been for government. (They would do well to visit http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/WrBr/wrights/1902 .html. There is no mention of government involvement in the first airplane flight.) As for the related claim that businesses could not succeed without various state activities, I say "bunk." Markets can do just about worthwhile thing governments can and better. Education and road-building are performed routinely by private companies with private funds. And libertarians never say they don't want government to keep banks (or others) honest. Government enforcement of contract and prevention of fraud are essential libertarian planks. The reviewer at reason.com makes sense to me. Kevborg
"Cybersilly" -- best review of this book I've seen
on
Selfish Society
·
· Score: 1
http://www.reason.com/0008/bk.bd.cybersilly.html excerpt: This is a bad book, unlearned in its titular subject, petulant, and poorly argued. It is tempting simply to dismiss it and move on. Despite its shoddy quality, however, Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High-Tech is not irrelevant. Far from it. The book is fascinating as a case study in the reasoning and psychology behind opposition to the mix of individualism and anti-statism that characterizes contemporary libertarian thought.
Slashdot Mirror
If the closest example Borsook or anyone can find to a libertarian system is post-communist Russia, I'd say they're not cracking a book. One must hardly look into the matter to seriously maintain that Russia has had anything like a libertarian government since the USSR collapsed--or ever. First of all, libertarianism requires rule of law--something seriously lacking in the country in question. The US is much more libertarian than Russia. Second, Russia is barely emerging from the shadow of decades of totalitarian Soviet rule, which was preceded by centuries of absolutist monarchy. Calling a few years of half-reforms the best test of libertarianism when we are surrounded, in the West, by the fruits of generations of relative economic freedom first enunciated by Adam Smith(and despite the drag of piecemeal statism) is particularly bizarre. A good starting point for a serious inquiry might be this map--http://www.heritage.org/index/graphics/worldm ap.gif. The study on which it is based attempts to quantify the level of economic freedom in most nations of the world. Russia comes in 122nd. Hardly a test tube for liberty. Regarding the notion that "the" technology industry would not have existed without government funding, I find this to be silly and unproven. The idea that any useful technology governments involve themselves in would never come to pass without that involvement sounds like some sort of superstition. There are numerous technologies that were never a glimmer in a bureaucrat's eye--and yet they somehow managed to come into being. What magical property must one attach to taxes that give them a unique ability to generate whole industries? It is also worth remembering when the Internet and the web became really useful for ordinary peopel--when they were commercialized. I guess when space travel is fully legalized for private efforts and blossoms as an industry then it will be said by some that there would never have been a space industry had it not been for government. (They would do well to visit http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/WrBr/wrights/1902 .html. There is no mention of government involvement in the first airplane flight.) As for the related claim that businesses could not succeed without various state activities, I say "bunk." Markets can do just about worthwhile thing governments can and better. Education and road-building are performed routinely by private companies with private funds. And libertarians never say they don't want government to keep banks (or others) honest. Government enforcement of contract and prevention of fraud are essential libertarian planks. The reviewer at reason.com makes sense to me. Kevborg
http://www.reason.com/0008/bk.bd.cybersilly.html
excerpt:
This is a bad book, unlearned in its titular subject, petulant, and poorly argued. It is tempting simply to dismiss it and move on. Despite its shoddy quality, however, Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High-Tech is not irrelevant. Far from it. The book is fascinating as a case study in the reasoning and psychology behind opposition to the mix of individualism and anti-statism that characterizes contemporary libertarian thought.