Science fiction writer David Brin isn't just a libertarian -- he's a cheerful libertarian.

That's how he described himself in the Prometheus Libertarian Sf newsletter (July 2000). He wrote: "The name I give my own brand of libertarianism [is] cheerful libertarianism!"

Government, Brin wrote, "isn't intrinsically vile, but rather an awkward, intermediate necessity. A stage in a general evolutionary process... Instead of railing about how stupid our fellow citizens have been, cheerful libertarianism congratulates them on how far they managed to come using such gross and crudely inefficient tools."

In an article in San Jose's Metro newspaper (February 6-12, 1997), Brin argued that all science fiction writers are "pretty much libertarian" because they share "cantankerous attitudes" toward authority. "That's because science fiction is the quintessential American literature," he said. "It's about hope, change, and individuals facing altered circumstances."

Brin has made his mark in that quintessential American literature, winning all three of the field's most prestigious awards, the Nebula, the Hugo, and the LOCUS. He has perhaps best known for the libertarian-themed novels, Startide Rising (1983) and The Uplift War (1988). His 1985 novel, The Postman, was made into a movie by Kevin Costner.

In 1998, Brin wrote The Transparent Society, a nonfiction work that earned him new respect as a futurist. The book made the alarming claim that traditional notions of privacy are obsolete in an age of high-tech surveillance,
databases, and the Internet.

The solution, Brin wrote, is to create a society that is even more transparent -- but where the "power to observe" is shared by everyone. That way, surveillance will actually promote freedom because politicians and bureaucrats will be watched by citizens. The Transparent Society won Brin the American Library Association's "Freedom of Speech" Award.

-- Bill Winter