From: Russell Blackford (RussellBlackford@bigpond.com)
Date: Sun Sep 02 2001 - 05:32:46 MDT
Charlie said
>You'd ascribe a libertarian streak to David "more liberal than thou" Brin?
>Yeesh! (Mind you, I've heard him talk a few times. Unless he's had a 180-
>degree conversion he is _no_ libertarian.) As for Greg Bear, he's no
>libertarian either. Small-c conservative, maybe, but again, unless he's
>drifted radically out of where he used to be there's no way I can see of
>calling him a libertarian.
Well, these comments actually strengthen the point I was making, of course,
since you're criticising a *concession* I made (as you obviously realise).
Of the B-boys, Gregory Benford is the only one I know well. He certainly
does have a libertarian streak. Perhaps I'm just projecting this onto the
others, but I realise that some of Brin's writing, in particular, is
critical of libertarianism.
>(Are you going to try and tell me that Ken McLeod is an objectivist? ;-)
Nup. Though he does seem able to treat all sorts of political theories,
including Randian libertarianism with a great deal of knowledge and seeming
sympathy. Despite those Prometheus Awards that he won, I take it he is
really some kind of socialist. Is this correct? Forgive my ignorance, but
I'm not very clear on where some of the new crop of UK hard-sf writers fit
in. I even tend to get Ken McLeod mixed up with Ian McLeod. But some
excellent work has been coming out from the UK of late.
Russell
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