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The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress Hardcover – December 2, 1998

by Virginia Postrel (Author)

72 customer reviews

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Looking ahead to the next century, the editor of Reason magazine predicts a conflict between advocates of bureaucracy and the status quo and advocates of competition and choice, who will drive progress in technology, business, and the arts. 50,000 first printing.

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Editorial Reviews

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Virginia Postrel smashes conventional political boundaries in this libertarian manifesto. World-views should be defined not by how they view the present, she says, but the future. Do they aim to control it, as many conservative reactionaries and liberal planners want to do? Or do they embrace it, even though they can't know what lies ahead? Postrel (editor of Reason magazine) firmly places herself in this latter category--the dynamists, she calls her happy tribe--and urges the rest of us to sign up. The future of economic prosperity, technological progress, and cultural innovation depends upon embracing principles of choice and competition. The downside of this philosophy, Postrel readily notes, is that it doesn't allow us to manage tomorrow by acting today. And that's exactly the point: we shouldn't want to. A future constructed by an infinite number of individual decisions, made privately, is one she believes we should encourage. The Future and Its Enemies is at once intellectually sweeping and reader-friendly; it has the potential to join a pantheon of books about freedom that includes works by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. --John J. Miller

From Library Journal

Postrel, editor of Reason magazine, believes that conflict between stasists (who urge control and favor the status quo) and dynamists will shape the future. In her opinion, the greatest threats to the future are efforts to shape it in advance. She believes in minimal controls, those necessary to create a framework for cooperation in which private property is respected. The topics she covers include technology, the environment, and urban planning. Postrel criticizes those who strive to re-create a simpler past or to thwart competition; specifically, she opposes William Greider (One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism, LJ 1/97), who sees footloose capitalism as a danger. Her defense of the right to experiment is convincing, but it goes too far: Postrel seems to believe the status quo should yield to any proposal for change, ignoring the rights of people to enjoy the results of their own successful experiments. Nevertheless, her book is recommended as a thought-provoking look at an important subject.?A.J. Sobczak, formerly with California State Univ., Northridge
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product details

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Free Press; First Printing edition (December 2, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0684827603
ISBN-13: 978-0684827605
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 0.5 x 9.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 72 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #468,339 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #554 in Books > Science & Math > Technology > Social Aspects
- #1963 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > New Age & Spirituality > Divination
- #5809 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Political Science

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Ananda Gupta

Pop Hayek

November 11, 1998

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

This book promises a new way to think about otherwize puzzling phenomena. It doesn't disappoint.
I enjoyed the book immensely, and thought its pronouncements on the bizarre alliances between "right" and "left" quite enlightening.
The book's central theme involves a conflict between what Postrel calls "stasism" and "dynamism," where the former view involves a blend of both reactionaries (whose primary value is social stability) and technocrats (whose primary value is control - "one best way for everyone"). This analysis enables us to understand the weird overlaps between reactionary environmentalists, who think that the only threat ecosystems face is human-caused instability, and conservatives, who fear cultural instability ("I refuse to let you affect my life.")
Then there are the technocrats, who, as Postrel ably describes, think that if one day care center has an in-house play area, then all of them should. Postrel quotes with merry abandon, laying bare the code in which technocrats talk (they love phrases like "national standards," "comprehensive plans," etc.).
These then are the future's enemies, and they tend to share either a distrust or ignorance of what Postrel, following F.A. Hayek, calls "localized" or "tacit" knowledge. Hayek described such knowledge as "the knowledge of specific circumstances, time, and place" -- that is, the sort of knowledge no technocrat in Washington could ever master, no matter how big his computer. The existence of this sort of knowledge is the reason why large-scale plans foisted on everyone, regardless of circumstances, tend to fail, and why markets, with their endless ability to customize and tailor products to even the most obscure of needs, tend to succeed.
Hayek wrote of these things many years ago, but even he disparaged his own writing skills. (Nonetheless, I am hard-pressed to think of a greater social thinker in the 20th century than Hayek.) It is a good thing that there are people like Postrel to take up the banner.

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Nick

Too long, fails to address some important questions

August 21, 2009

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I enjoyed the author's thoughts even if I am not inclined to agree with all of them. She could have stated her case much more concisely. She does an excellent job of citing her sources, but I thought she beat her subject to death and then some.

The author likely has a point about individual and non-government directed successes. What she ignores are the thousands of years of state directed projects that still rank amongst the greatest achievements of all time. I would point out not only the Interstate highway system, the Panama Canal, the lend lease program of recent times. I would also point out that there are examples of state sponsored works of literature (the Aeneid)and music (the music composed for the courts of Europe) which are rather famous. The art and architecture of "stasist systems" include Versailles and the Peterhof. Not too shabby.

I'm not suggesting statism (which is really what the author is talking about while using the term "stasist") is superior to anything in particular but for all the successes of the dynamist approach, their opponents have a few laurels to rest upon too. Why is that? What kind of a book could have discussed the ups and downs, the drawbacks and advantages of both her approach and the state directed and controlled systems she loathes, and why are they important?

This book really doesn't address these questions and I think the author should have addressed them in at least the span of a chapter (while consolidating others). It's an argument that she either avoids for some reason or didn't consider, but "stasists" can mount a powerful rejoinder to her work, and a few reviewers here do just that.

In some important ways, this book disappoints. I think it has some merit and persons interested in free markets, free enterprise, and entrepreneurship might find this work very useful, if far from comprehensively advancing the author's arguments. I rate this book three stars. Were it not so verbose and repetitive, I would probably have gone four stars, yet written a similar review. Interesting? For the first 125 pages, yes. Valuable? Perhaps, but not as a comprehensive or forceful manifesto for libertarian ideas.

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Producer

An essential read for anyone who plans to live in what we loosely call "the future".

August 3, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Almost 20 years ago, this book book introduced me to the insightful work of Bloomberg columnist Virginia Postrel. No matter on which side of the political divide you fall, this book is a must-read. The breadth of observation, depth of perception and value of her conclusions, as expressed in 'The Future and Its Enemies', have not diminished one whit since the book was published. In fact, the premise of the book has been validated by the events of the last 20 years. Buy it. You will not regret it.

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February 5, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I first read this in the nineties. Re-read again in 2015 on a friend's recommendation.

Stasists vs. dynamists -- this is as pertinent today as it was 20 years ago.

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Jonathan Brown

This is a must read to think about the future

December 30, 1998

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Postrel does an amazing job of explaining why the Luddites who fear technology and the Technocrats who claim they can manage it are the enemies of the future. She divides the world into stasists (who include people as diverse as Pat Buchanan and Al Gore) and dynamists. She describes the operating assumptions of both groups and then leads us through a series of discussions including the necessity for games and playful thinking for anyone who wants to think about the future. What is great about this book is both her clarity of style and her stunning insights. Anyone who is interested in either the new economy or the politics of technological development should read this book.

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Most recent customer reviews

Paul E CriderTop Contributor: Philosophy

and prevent the stifling of innovation and the imposition of the "one best way". Play and frivolous experimentation are not only

"The Future and Its Enemies" is an obvious allusion to Karl Popper's "The Open Society and Its Enemies," and a lucid description and powerful defense of the open...Read more

Published on July 18, 2014

Daniel Estes

"Life will find a way" -- Dr. Malcolm (Jurassic Park)

"This diverse, decentralized process makes technocrats uncomfortable--no one is in charge, and the results are unpredictable--but it strikes reactionaries as downright evil.Read more

Published on July 24, 2013

Amazon Customer

Pricing

The content of the book seems good (based on the sample), but this pricing is insane:

hardcover: $3.13
kindle: $14.Read more

Published on March 22, 2012

Stephen Wahrhaftig

An inspiring, valuable book

As a business person and someone interested in the motivations of people, I found The Future and its Enemies one of the best written books on how organizations make bed decisions,...Read more

Published on May 4, 2011

Gene Cisewski

Statists v. Dynamists, it's your choice

The Future and Its Enemies Read this. Twice. As this reviewer's title might suggest, at times the reading can get a little long and academic.Read more

Published on May 2, 2011

Johnny & Riza

Important and interesting look at freedom and innovation

I thought of PM Thatcher's "This is what we believe" quote upon finishing The Future and its Enemies. Something tells me I am going to be buying a bunch of copies of this.Read more

Published on March 8, 2011

P. Bierre

Benevolence of free actors can't be taken for granted

Postrel's future strikes me as naive and idealistic. Unleashing the creative animus of billions of free actors?Read more

Published on February 10, 2007

John J. Posephney

Very dry and boring

If you need something to put you to sleep read a couple of pages just before bed time.

Published on January 11, 2007

Blake Elder

Deserves to be declared a Classic

This book is brilliant. I also believe it is a very important book that needs to be read by many thinking people.Read more

Published on December 15, 2006

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