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Isle of Misfit Man-Gods
Aug. 17th, 2011 12:28 pmSeasteading initiative to build giant deep sea platforms, create a society with fewer restrictions on things like weapon ownership, fewer building restrictions, and fewer health and safety codes.
I look forward in a cringing sort of way to this little social experiment demonstrating just how much society needs these kinds of things. Libertarianism as a social policy is sort of founded on the idea that we are (or can be, or should be) islands... setting up a libertarian utopia where people are allowed to rise and fall independently of any sort of safety net or institutionalized support structures is bound to be an exercise in cruelty and politics of the 6th grade gym class variety, but setting one up on an actual island adds a nightmarish twist.
What do the people who fall through the cracks do... swim to shore? Rope a couple of sea turtles with their bootstraps?
And then, of course, we have the ultimate scenario of what happens when it all comes crashing down. And I mean that literally. I'm sure integral to the concept is the backers' belief that enlightened self-interest will keep anybody from building a dangerously unstable structure or setting up anything that's in danger of exploding and damaging the platform or doing anything that might make the environment unsafe for all inhabitants. This is what the capitalist flavor of libertarianism tells us will happen: a company or individual would have to be downright silly to do something that's going to endanger themselves, too, right?
Of course, history is an ongoing horror story of how easily self-interest fails to prevent self-destructive (and neighbor-destructive) behavior. The problem is the all-too-human fallacy of ascribing such things to other people not being as wise and strong and self-sufficient as ourselves. I can picture an archipelago of little Libertatias each exploding or sinking or succumbing to some disaster one after the other, and the inhabitants of each surviving one watching the disasters unfold, saying, "Thank God we're not that dumb." and then go back to figuring out how much more expense they can shave off the safety features of their little factories or whatever.
I look forward in a cringing sort of way to this little social experiment demonstrating just how much society needs these kinds of things. Libertarianism as a social policy is sort of founded on the idea that we are (or can be, or should be) islands... setting up a libertarian utopia where people are allowed to rise and fall independently of any sort of safety net or institutionalized support structures is bound to be an exercise in cruelty and politics of the 6th grade gym class variety, but setting one up on an actual island adds a nightmarish twist.
What do the people who fall through the cracks do... swim to shore? Rope a couple of sea turtles with their bootstraps?
And then, of course, we have the ultimate scenario of what happens when it all comes crashing down. And I mean that literally. I'm sure integral to the concept is the backers' belief that enlightened self-interest will keep anybody from building a dangerously unstable structure or setting up anything that's in danger of exploding and damaging the platform or doing anything that might make the environment unsafe for all inhabitants. This is what the capitalist flavor of libertarianism tells us will happen: a company or individual would have to be downright silly to do something that's going to endanger themselves, too, right?
Of course, history is an ongoing horror story of how easily self-interest fails to prevent self-destructive (and neighbor-destructive) behavior. The problem is the all-too-human fallacy of ascribing such things to other people not being as wise and strong and self-sufficient as ourselves. I can picture an archipelago of little Libertatias each exploding or sinking or succumbing to some disaster one after the other, and the inhabitants of each surviving one watching the disasters unfold, saying, "Thank God we're not that dumb." and then go back to figuring out how much more expense they can shave off the safety features of their little factories or whatever.