The Well-Read Cypherpunk

[Faustine]

Quoting Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>:

> I don't think anyone would say "don't read the classics." I'd venture
> that they're necessary but not sufficient to achieve True
> Cypherpunkishness.*
> 
> More seriously, there are some concepts that lie behind what the
> recent
> threads calls an agora, and some books help clarify them in more
> detail
> than a mailing list discussion can. I know I've benefited from these
> recommendations.

No doubt! That's the beauty of this place.

What I was really driving at is that if more libertarians aspired to the 
creativity, analytical rigor, and breadth and depth of knowledge of people like 
John von Neumann and Leo Cherne, it would be a very good thing. 

Last night I was reading an essay (author slips my mind) called 'Intelligence 
and the Information Revolution'. The author called for getting beyond the old 
barriers of department and specialty and the creation of 'Super Analysts', omni-
talented multidisciplinary people who really, really get it. Wouldn't it be 
great if more pro-freedom activists took the Super Analyst approach? I think so.

I'm in a PhD program myself: when I speak up in class, I try not to give my 
fellow classmates a reason to say 'oh damn, there goes that tiresome 
libertarian chick again.' Knowing the material and being able to articulate 
something interesting and relevant about it is all that matters: if you're 
intellectually rigorous and responsible you can command respect, whatever your 
persuasion.

I think the ultimate goal for anyone out to shape public policy is to find a 
way to redefine the questions: re-frame the terms of the debate and you've 
really accomplished something significant. 

And nobody ever succeded in redefining the questions by bricking up their 
mental content with pre-digested ideological constructs: in a sense, once you 
give up your independence all you can do is 'talk at right angles' to people 
who don't share your mindset. And what could be less in the spirit of 
libertarianism than that? Of course the answer isn't 'read everything'. But 
making the committment to creativity, curiosity and analytical rigor couldn't 
hurt.


~Faustine.


****

'We live in a century in which obscurity protects better than the law--and 
reassures more than innocence can.' Antoine Rivarol (1753-1801).