Sci-Fi: a Radical Genre Leading to Libertarianism (and Even Non-theism)
Monday, May 12th, 2008As a youngster, my far-right and oppressively Roman Catholic parents indoctrinated me to believe all manner of nonsense, and they monitored my television viewing according to criteria that were simply absurd. (Casper the Friendly Ghost ‘toons were out, because they were Communist-inspired.) But very oddly, they paid almost no attention to what I read, especially as I hit adolescence and the local library and bookstores. Thus it happened that at 13, I devoured A. E. van Vogt’s novel, Slan, and forevermore became hooked on the Sci-Fi (or speculative fiction, if you prefer) genre. Voraciously did I consume Asimov*, Robert Silverberg, Robert Heinlein, and Frank Herbert’s Dune series — and somewhat later the Niven/Pournelle collaborations, Greg Bear (especially Queen of Angels, which is way under-rated), and Vernor Vinge. Oh, and so many others, including Nancy Kress’s Beggars in Spain trilogy (which is so amendable to libertarians I learned of and ordered the first in the series from Laissez Faire Books in the 90s).