10 Greatest Libertarian Science Fiction Stories

Looking for an antidote to Star Trek ’s utopian but overbearing Federation ? Like your scientific discipline fabrication with a swelled accent on personal liberties ? Then control out our listing of the greatest libertarian scientific discipline fiction .

Here ’s an io9 flashback to a listwe originally published in 2009 .

https://gizmodo.com/10-greatest-libertarian-science-fiction-stories-5254742

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Top image : Detail from the cover of Heinlein ’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress .

First , here ’s a quick disavowal . The vast majority of science fiction is to some extent touch with a heroic individual shin against a tumid , probably oppressive guild – so a immense amount of science fabrication could be consider libertarian to some degree . What sets apart the Bible on this inclination – and there are certainly long ton of others out there that would make suitable additions – is that they are actively concerned with exploring explicitly libertarian philosophy in a science fiction setting , and many on the list below have been specifically single out as suchby libertarians themselves .

1 . news show from Nowhere ; or , An Epoch of Rest : Being Some chapter from a Utopian Romance by William Morris

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Of all the utopian books that appeared towards the nineteenth century ( the most famous of which is probably Edward Bellamy ’s seem Backward ) , one of the very few that attend a stark time to come as fundamentally libertarian was 1890 ’s News from Nowhere . write from an anarchic - socialistic linear perspective , Morris imagines a future where the biotic community controls the means of yield and exist social structures are a thing of the yesteryear , with metropolis , money , divorce , and royal court all now obsolete .

2 . Men Like Gods by H.G. Wells

There are a clump of potential candidates when it comes to Wells ’s writings on libertarian utopias , but his 1924 Bible is by far the best . scientist from our world stumble upon a parallel universe with an Earth thousands of years more innovative than ours . No governments exist because child are steadfastly indoctrinated to sympathise one single , nonsocial point : respect the self-direction of others . With this one dim-witted regulation in mind , there is no need for societal institutions , and the people of that worldly concern spend their days enjoying their genetically engineered perfection and all the free love they can handle .

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3 . “ Late Night Final ” by Eric Frank Russell

This 1948 inadequate story looks at a starship in electron orbit above the major planet it has occur to invade . As the crew watch how to communicate with the anarchical natives down on the surface , the command structure slowly crumble . finally , presented with the opportunity of a passive , completely free life down on the surface , the encroacher give up their ship until only the police captain is left . Russell ’s 1962 novel The Great Explosion also follow bumbling militarists from Earth as they encounter three long - isolate dependency worlds that have since evolved into rather unusual club . The third and most positively portrayed planet , K22 g , has become a peaceful , libertarian gild whose people call themselves Ghent after their stirring , Mohandas Gandhi .

4 . The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

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Originally published in 1956 as Tiger , Tiger ! , Bester ’s novel of teleportation and revenge foresaw many of the factor that continue to rule scientific discipline fable to this twenty-four hour period . Of particular interest to libertarians is his limning of pot , oppressive mega - conglomerates that rival governments in their range and magnate . The novel ’s protagonist , Gully Foyle , is specify by his growing individualism and self - trust – the characteristics of the quintessential libertarian paladin – which he utilize to pull ahead retribution on those who abandoned him in his hour of need .

5 . “ The Last of the Deliverers ” by Poul Anderson

Anderson ’s 1957 story think a earth where measureless solar free energy has made the geopolitical order of the Cold War obsolete . The world is now engineer into innumerable petty self-directed communities , and citizenry are liberal to do pretty much whatever they want . Although there are enough hoi polloi who still want to raise craw or make goods to forestall social decline , most people spend their time pursuing leisure time activity such as sex and hunt . To the interest of nobody , the last two true believers in the old world order – one a capitalist and the other a communist – pass the time arguing the relative merits of their system , totally ignore the fact it ’s all donnish now anyway .

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6 . Emphyrio by Jack Vance

7 . The Dispossessed : An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin

Set in her Hainish Cycle universe , this book won both the Nebula and Hugo awarding in 1974 . Among other issue , Le Guin explores the guild on Annares , a large , inhabitable moon of the planet Urras on which revolutionist from that planet settled so that they might clear their dreams of an anarchic Zion . Two centuries afterwards , the revolution has stagnated and hierarchical structures are reemerging , even if no one on Annares is willing to admit it . Le Guin was n’t kidding when she put “ equivocal ” in the title – lots of anarchists and libertarians believe Annares is portrayed in a basically positivistic light , while capitalist tend to see Annares as an straight-out dystopia .

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Also worth checking out is 1973 ’s “ The Day Before The Revolution ” , which depicts the historical and ideological background knowledge of Odonianism , the anarchical thought that pervade the worlds of The Dispossessed . There ’s also the introduction to her little story compendium The Wind ’s Twelve Quarters , which offer a summary sum-up of why she see anarchy so interesting to explore :

Odonianism is anarchism . Not the bomb - in - the - pocket hooey , which is act of terrorism , whatever name it tries to dignify itself with ; not the social - Darwinist economic ‘ libertarianism ’ of the far good ; but anarchism , as prefigured in former Taoist thought , and lucubrate by Shelley and Kropotkin , Goldman and Goodman . Anarchism ’s principal target is the authoritarian State ( capitalist or socialist ) ; its principal moral - practical idea is cooperation ( solidarity , mutual aid ) . It is the most ideal , and to me the most interesting , of all political theories .

8 . Pretty much anything by Robert Heinlein

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If you ’re looking for skill fiction with a libertarian perspective , you really ca n’t go faulty with Robert Heinlein , particularly his later work . His forever evolving politics , tempered with an always iconoclastic belief in individual exemption , lead him to invest seemingly contradictory ideas in his books , from his advocacy of the sexual revolution in Stranger in a Strange Land to the complicated militarism of Starship Troopers .

But The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is plausibly his most comprehensive exploration of his libertarian ideals , not to mention one of the most successful attempts to couch his beliefs in a compelling narrative . One of the record book ’s main characters , the “ rational nihilist ” Professor Bernardo de la Paz , explains at duration how political science – any government , even democratic ones – is an underlying threat to individual exemption . Considering the inhibitory lunar order presented in the novel , it ’s a difficult point to debate , although Heinlein is the first to take that once the rotation is over most multitude would rather choose the security and constabulary offered by some raw government over the incertitude of true freedom .

9 . utterly everything by Robert Anton Wilson

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in all likelihood the only author who exceeds Robert Heinlein in fusing science fabrication and libertarian thought is Robert Anton Wilson , who has written several trilogies that are adequate parts futurist yarns and philosophical explorations . The Illuminatus Trilogy ! ( coauthored with Robert Shea ) is primarily interest with anarchism , with several appendix on the face of it written by the Koran ’ several anarchist groups that render panoptic theoretical ruminations on the topic . 1979 ’s Schroedinger ’s Cat trilogy looks more directly at libertarianism , considering an alternative universe in which the Libertarian Immortalist Party has turn that world ’s United States , known as Unistat , into an agency - free utopia .

10 . Wheels Within Wheels by F. Paul Wilson

Wilson ’s 1979 novel reckon at a massive confederacy that threatens the liberty of an entire interstellar Federation . As Pete Paxton and the granddaughter of his old partner , Jo Finch , fight to uncover the true statement , they must face up Machiavellian political operators and a ruthless telepath . The novel is a Hellenic example of the battle between individual defenders of liberty and wraithlike governmental design who depend to take freedom away for their own ending , but that ’s not why I included it on the inclination .

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The playscript is also the inaugural victor of the Prometheus Award , a yearly pureness pass out by the Libertarian Futurist Society for the best science fable book that explores libertarian themes . retiring winners have include Harry Turtledove , Neal Stephenson , and Terry Pratchett ; a full list of past winners can be foundhereand is as just a position as any from which to develop a libertarian science fabrication version listing . ( You also really ca n’t go ill-timed with awards that have given limited honour to Patrick McGoohan for The Prisoner and Joss Whedon for Serenity . You just ca n’t . )

More recitation :

How to Steal an Election , Science Fiction - Style .

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