The Education of a Libertarian
by Peter Thiel
Reaction Essay
April 13th, 2009
I remain committed to the faith of my teenage years: to authentic human freedom as a precondition for the highest good. I stand against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives, and the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual. For all these reasons, I still call myself “libertarian.”
But I must confess that over the last two decades, I have changed radically on the question of how to achieve these goals. Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible. By tracing out the development of my thinking, I hope to frame some of the challenges faced by all classical liberals today.
As a Stanford undergraduate studying philosophy in the late 1980s, I naturally was drawn to the give-and-take of debate and the desire to bring about freedom through political means. I started a student newspaper to challenge the prevailing campus orthodoxies; we scored some limited victories, most notably in undoing speech codes instituted by the university. But in a broader sense we did not achieve all that much for all the effort expended. Much of it felt like trench warfare on the Western Front in World War I; there was a lot of carnage, but we did not move the center of the debate. In hindsight, we were preaching mainly to the choir — even if this had the important side benefit of convincing the choir’s members to continue singing for the rest of their lives.
As a young lawyer and trader in Manhattan in the 1990s, I began to understand why so many become disillusioned after college. The world appears too big a place. Rather than fight the relentless indifference of the universe, many of my saner peers retreated to tending their small gardens. The higher one’s IQ, the more pessimistic one became about free-market politics — capitalism simply is not that popular with the crowd. Among the smartest conservatives, this pessimism often manifested in heroic drinking; the smartest libertarians, by contrast, had fewer hang-ups about positive law and escaped not only to alcohol but beyond it.
As one fast-forwards to 2009, the prospects for a libertarian politics appear grim indeed. Exhibit A is a financial crisis caused by too much debt and leverage, facilitated by a government that insured against all sorts of moral hazards — and we know that the response to this crisis involves way more debt and leverage, and way more government. Those who have argued for free markets have been screaming into a hurricane. The events of recent months shatter any remaining hopes of politically minded libertarians. For those of us who are libertarian in 2009, our education culminates with the knowledge that the broader education of the body politic has become a fool’s errand.
Indeed, even more pessimistically, the trend has been going the wrong way for a long time. To return to finance, the last economic depression in the United States that did not result in massive government intervention was the collapse of 1920–21. It was sharp but short, and entailed the sort of Schumpeterian “creative destruction” that could lead to a real boom. The decade that followed — the roaring 1920s — was so strong that historians have forgotten the depression that started it. The 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic about politics. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron.
In the face of these realities, one would despair if one limited one’s horizon to the world of politics. I do not despair because I no longer believe that politics encompasses all possible futures of our world. In our time, the great task for libertarians is to find an escape from politics in all its forms — from the totalitarian and fundamentalist catastrophes to the unthinking demos that guides so-called “social democracy.”
The critical question then becomes one of means, of how to escape not via politics but beyond it. Because there are no truly free places left in our world, I suspect that the mode for escape must involve some sort of new and hitherto untried process that leads us to some undiscovered country; and for this reason I have focused my efforts on new technologies that may create a new space for freedom. Let me briefly speak to three such technological frontiers:
(1) Cyberspace. As an entrepreneur and investor, I have focused my efforts on the Internet. In the late 1990s, the founding vision of PayPal centered on the creation of a new world currency, free from all government control and dilution — the end of monetary sovereignty, as it were. In the 2000s, companies like Facebook create the space for new modes of dissent and new ways to form communities not bounded by historical nation-states. By starting a new Internet business, an entrepreneur may create a new world. The hope of the Internet is that these new worlds will impact and force change on the existing social and political order. The limitation of the Internet is that these new worlds are virtual and that any escape may be more imaginary than real. The open question, which will not be resolved for many years, centers on which of these accounts of the Internet proves true.
(2) Outer space. Because the vast reaches of outer space represent a limitless frontier, they also represent a limitless possibility for escape from world politics. But the final frontier still has a barrier to entry: Rocket technologies have seen only modest advances since the 1960s, so that outer space still remains almost impossibly far away. We must redouble the efforts to commercialize space, but we also must be realistic about the time horizons involved. The libertarian future of classic science fiction, à la Heinlein, will not happen before the second half of the 21st century.
(3) Seasteading. Between cyberspace and outer space lies the possibility of settling the oceans. To my mind, the questions about whether people will live there (answer: enough will) are secondary to the questions about whether seasteading technology is imminent. From my vantage point, the technology involved is more tentative than the Internet, but much more realistic than space travel. We may have reached the stage at which it is economically feasible, or where it soon will be feasible. It is a realistic risk, and for this reason I eagerly support this initiative.
The future of technology is not pre-determined, and we must resist the temptation of technological utopianism — the notion that technology has a momentum or will of its own, that it will guarantee a more free future, and therefore that we can ignore the terrible arc of the political in our world.
A better metaphor is that we are in a deadly race between politics and technology. The future will be much better or much worse, but the question of the future remains very open indeed. We do not know exactly how close this race is, but I suspect that it may be very close, even down to the wire. Unlike the world of politics, in the world of technology the choices of individuals may still be paramount. The fate of our world may depend on the effort of a single person who builds or propagates the machinery of freedom that makes the world safe for capitalism.
For this reason, all of us must wish Patri Friedman the very best in his extraordinary experiment.
April 13th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
[...] 14, 2009 Peter Thiel’s response to Patri Friedman’s Folk activism essay is up at Cato Unbound. His central point is that politics is unavoidably illiberal, and the only way to be free is to [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 9:01 am
[...] Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » The Education of a Libertarian – thiel libertarian [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 9:24 am
[...] The full article can be accessed here. [...]
April 14th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Thiel’s response…
Peter Thiel has a succinctly argued response to Patri’s lead easy at Cato Unbound. The part about the race between politics and technology caught my eye right away:
A better metaphor is that we are in a deadly race between politics and technology. T…
April 16th, 2009 at 4:09 am
[...] Peter Thiel writes regarding the failure of Democracy to preserve freedom and some possible technofix strategies. Included are thoughts creating freedom in Cyberspace, Outer space or on the high seas. It would be interesting to build certain distributed Internet apps that could change the dynamics of freedom, including reputation systems, gifting/barter systems and user-controlled Internet apps. [...]
April 16th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
[...] Gibson For those of you keeping score, in the anchor of the Cato Unbound folk activism relay, Peter Thiel offers a mix of optimism and concern: A better metaphor is that we are in a deadly race between [...]
April 16th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
[...] Cato Unbound » Blog Archive » The Education of a Libertarian (tags: libertarian education policy change government future politics) [...]
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:50 am
[...] Thiel talks about stuff at Libertarianism Unbound magazine. I remain committed to the faith of my teenage years: to authentic human freedom as a [...]
April 28th, 2009 at 12:31 am
[...] PayPal founder Peter Thiel, writing at Cato Unbound: [...]
April 28th, 2009 at 9:46 am
[...] Peter Thiel argues that the link between freedom and democracy is decaying. [...]
April 28th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
[...] Clarium Capital founder Peter Thiel: “Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of [...]
April 28th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
[...] Shorter Peter Thiel April 28, 2009 Posted by Evil Bender in News and politics. trackback The Education of a Libertarian [...]
April 29th, 2009 at 9:10 am
[...] http://www.cato-unbound.org/…; [...]
April 29th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
[...] mixes in some evo-psych junk for example). Still it’s much better than a follow-up essay by Peter Thiel. He continues with the anti-democratic sense: I remain committed to the faith of my teenage years: [...]
April 29th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
[...] went to hell in a handbasket when “women got the franchise” in 1920. Check out his screed on the Cato Institute’s blog, Cato Unbound, in which he addresses both the downfall of all [...]
April 30th, 2009 at 8:56 am
[...] But, now he’s given up hope on achieving his vision through political means because, as he writes in Cato Unbound, a website run by the Cato Institute, all those voting females have wrecked things: The 1920s were the last decade in American history [...]
April 30th, 2009 at 9:55 am
[...] this month’s Cato Unbound, Peter Thiel writes about how he wants to found a new government out in the ocean. Why? Because he’s fed up with [...]
April 30th, 2009 at 10:00 am
[...] makes a related and equally gloomy prediction: Cato Unbound this month deals with a core issue. Peter Thiel writes, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible…As one fast-forwards to 2009, [...]
April 30th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
[...] the assertion that women having the vote has helped to send our nation into a downward spiral: Cato Unbound Blog Archive The Education of a Libertarian [+] Rate this post [...]
April 30th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
[...] Libertarian businessman Peter Thiel, one of my favorites, is drawing a lot of comment for a controversial essay he wrote for the Cato Institute, “The Education of a Libertarian,” particularly for [...]
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:58 am
[...] http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/the-education-of-a-libertarian/ [...]
May 3rd, 2009 at 7:54 pm
[...] 4, 2009 I find the furore over Peter Thiel’s comments on female suffrage and the growth of the welfare state rather disturbing. Here’s the offending [...]
May 5th, 2009 at 9:35 am
[...] sent in by one of our eagle-eyed readers (h/t to Female Talk for the link). It’s a piece by one Peter Thiel, a man who is wholly unremarkable to me except for the fact that he is the founder of PayPal. In [...]
May 5th, 2009 at 10:34 am
[...] is how Peter Thiel open’s his essay at Cato Unbound. The month’s conversation is devoted to seasteading, but I’m more interested in identifying [...]
May 5th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
[...] Thiel wrote a compelling article about freedom and political society. The conclusion – freedom can not survive without new [...]
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:19 pm
[...] to think about leaving current political structures to seek self-determination is flaring up again. Peter Thiel’s Cato Unbound essay, which innocently but unwisely pointed out that women are more likely to vote for statist policies [...]
June 22nd, 2009 at 12:05 pm
[...] it is no longer clear that conservatives will do it for them. If the attitude of PayPal founder Peter Thiel, writing in Cato Unbound, is at all representative, libertarians are in danger of abandoning political liberty altogether. [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 10:55 am
[...] you’re a billionaire, such as Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, who expressed in a recent article that the women’s vote has ruined chances for libertarian-style democracy. He is so despondent [...]
August 7th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
[...] of PayPal and early Facebook investor, has written an controversial and interesting essay “;The Education of a Libertarian< The controversial part is where blames the death of “capitalistic democracy” on welfare [...]
August 11th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
[...] http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/the-education-of-a-libertarian/ [...]
August 27th, 2009 at 12:53 am
[...] of the more stupid democratic totalitarian arguments I’ve heard (and yes, it does mention the Peter “The Root of All Evil” Thiel): Public opinion surveys show that an overwhelming 85 to 90 percent of Americans are opposed to [...]
November 15th, 2009 at 10:08 am
[...] Peter Thiel, a PayPal founder and pioneer behind The SeaSteading Institute, has been criticized for his cunning plan of escaping taxes and other irritating regulations by building a gated community in the ocean. Here’s a Cato Unbound article he wrote about his philosophy, “The Education of a Libertarian.” [...]
December 27th, 2009 at 11:08 am
[...] the words of Peter Thiel, “in our time, the great task for libertarians is to find an escape from politics in all its forms …” One form of escape from (obviously corrupted) politics lies in the possibility of settling [...]
February 9th, 2010 at 6:58 am
[...] invirtiera $500,000 en el instituto y hablara en defensa de su viabilidad en un artículo titulado “The Education of a Libertarian”. El instituto también recibió cobertura mediática de CNN, CBS, Wired Magazine y Reason [...]