[368] in libertarians
Laissez Faire Book News: ORWELL'S REVENGE by Peter Huber
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chris Whitten)
Tue Nov 8 11:09:08 1994
Date: Tue, 8 Nov 1994 10:44:39 -0500 (EST)
From: Chris Whitten <lfb@panix.com>
Apparently-To: <libertarians@mit.edu>
First 200 autographed!
World famous doomsayer George Orwell missed the phenomenal
liberating influence of markets and technology
ORWELL'S REVENGE
The *1984* Palimpsest
by Peter Huber
(reviewed by Jim Powell)
In his internationally famous novel *1984*, British author
George Orwell portrayed a horrifying future where tyrants secure
their totalitarian power with technology. Primary weapon: the
telescreen which, installed in each citizen's house, could
somehow see everything, hear everything, issue propaganda and
commands. Orwell coined scary phrases which entered the
language--like *Big Brother*, *Thought Police*, *Newspeak* and
*Doublethink*. His name became an adjective, *Orwellian*,
signifying a nightmarish vision of tyranny.
Now, of course, people around the world have telescreens--
computers linked via telecommunications--in their homes and
offices. Yet such technology has expanded human potential rather
than suppressing it as Orwell had feared. Meanwhile, socialist
regimes everywhere became corrupt, backward and brutal, and many
collapsed.
In his provocative new book, Peter Huber makes clear why
Orwell utterly misunderstood the extraordinary dynamic of markets
and technology. He tells why Orwell mistakenly believed
socialist regimes would be great innovators, and technology would
reinforce tyranny. Millions of people seem to share these ideas
which have contributed to destructive anti-technology hysteria.
Huber goes on to explain--better than anyone else I can
think of--why the telescreen technology Orwell feared cannot, in
fact, be centrally-controlled. Huber tells how such technology
helps liberate people from tyranny. Huber tells how the
telescreen offers "the power of private choice, the power to
control not only what you say and show, but also what you see and
hear." Huber explains why the telescreen "will bring about the
greatest liberation in the most important marketplace of all, the
market place of ideas."
Moreover, Huber offers you a treat: an inspiring sequel to
*1984* which expresses the truth about markets and technology.
He did a computerized analysis of Orwell's writings to write the
sequel in Orwell's style. His sequel tells how Big Brother's
regime crumbles, how markets provide a heartening refuge for
people and an irresistible stimulus for renewal. Then Huber
tells how heroic computer hackers sabotage Big Brother's
telescreen spying system and use it to liberate people.
Brotherhood without Big Brother. A few eloquent examples from
Peter Huber's new book:
"It is in the market, after all, that humans learn to
assemble, to write, to count, to compare, to remember, to
interact, to cooperate, to plan--and thus, ultimately, if they
must, to conspire. The market requires no autocrat, no queen
bee, no central planner, no citadel, no all-powerful executive
suite. Communication across the span of a market occurs through
the accumulation of small, face-to-face deals. The market, like
the currency on which it depends, is a network--a system for
communicating across time and space. The market creates the
strength of numbers outside Party control."
* * *
"The telescreen has the power to put a private school on
every desktop."
* * *
"Almost everything that now belongs to Big Brother can be
returned to the market. Lighthouses for ships? With advanced
communication ships can be tracked and guided privately. Air
traffic control for planes? Planes, like pedestrians, can avoid
colliding on their own, if they can see far enough ahead and
communicate fast enough among themselves... Prisons for
criminals? The most pathologically violent will still need to be
confined, but most antisocial citizens can simply be ostracized,
or tracked by means of electronic collars, or credit reports, or
private references."
* * *
"With the telescreen, it is thus possible to have
brotherhood, or at least as much brotherhood as free individuals
can stand, without Big Brother."
"Prophecying the future with a style as limpid and elegant
as Orwell's, Peter Huber is a polymathic genius of our time.
With forensic rigor and narrative flair, he banishes from our
culture the long-looming incubus of Orwell's *1984* and opens up
new horizons of liberation and hope, growing with the promise of
the personal computer and the Internet." --George Gilder, author
of *Microcosm*
Book No. PP6187 (hardcover) 366p. $22.95
LAISSEZ FAIRE PRICE ONLY $19.95
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Huber's new book will be available this week from Laissez Faire.
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If you have any questions or comments, feel free to let me know.
Thank you,
Chris
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Chris Whitten LFB@panix.com
Laissez Faire Books 1-800-326-0996
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