Barry Jones, Libertarians, Pendragon

[tcpip]

Last Sunday went to see Barry Jones, who spoke on Redefining Politics in an Age of Toxicity and Moral Vacuum, making the particularly important point that in much of the media that "opinion carries more weight than evidence". Also made the observation that if the make up the ABC board is changed and Fairfax media goes under, the mass media landscape in Australia will become a virtual monopoly. I spoke to him of the attempts to meet him in the past to discuss Sleepers, Wake! Technology and The Future of Work, including one effort with recumbenteer some fifteen years ago. That book provides a novel response to the increasing concentration of capital and the end of an economy of scarcity in necessities in a future post-service economy.

In recent days I've stumbled upon a group of Australian libertarians on Facebook and with various resulting debates. They found the idea of a libertarian left quite challenging, let alone libertarian socialism. Naturally enough there was the usual numbers of Ayn Rand followers, misattributed quotations, anthropgenic climate change deniers, voluntaryists without context, and a typical lack of the sort of economic literacy that includes anything as complex as pervasive externalities, elasticity in goods and services, imperfect competition, or the political-economy of class. They would be having an aneurysm with Stiglitz's latest paper to the Roosevelt Institute which advocates a widespread and heavy taxation on capitised wealth, especially (following Henry George) economic land and pollution.

In gaming news, on Thursday night ran a session of Pendragon, which was the final year of the tournament period. The scenario was recoving the items of Le Chevalier sans Mémoire, dealing with a Black Giant Dwarf and a White Dwarf Giant, and defeating a rather nasty surly giant (of "normal" 15ft size. The session witnessed the arrival of a new player _fustian, who hadn't played RPGs for many years. As we near the end, a reflection on the enormous scope of the The Great Pendragon campaign becomes inevitable. The massive difference in time scale from standard RPGs, the fact that player-characters can even retire of old age, all add to what will give the feel of a saga

Comments

[iris]

Wow, I have never heard of player characters actually retiring. That does really make it sound like a saga.

[tcpip]

The Great Pendragon Campaign starts in 485AD and ends in 565AD; it really is quite an extraordinary book, covering a year-by-year exposition of the story, plus periods of change, all wrapped in a mythic tale (including anarchronisms). It's even quite a scholarly study of the various sources that make up the Arthurian legend.

Given the time-frame it's not surprising that PCs do retire. A game session typically has a short scenario which become the adventure for the year. The most successful character retired in his fifties as the Duke of Essex, having previously built Oxford into a centre of learning.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

I find Facebook terrible for generally any sort of political discourse. There's just... something about that service that doesn't facilitate it very well, I think.

[the-shadow298.livejournal.com]

Never heard the term "voluntaryist" before. Looking it up & find it both interesting & impractical after a form.
But would form an interesting idea as part of a distopian future narrative.

[delphipsmith]

"opinion carries more weight than evidence" - "the worst are full of sound and fury, while the best lack all conviction."

The Barry Jones book looks quite interesting, I have added it to my (admittedly bloated) to-read list. Have you read Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society? Intriguing.

[goatunit.livejournal.com]

I had a fun night in that community, goading a particular tragic dude in an effort to just keep him talking. After that, though, I just felt discouraged at the level of discourse and had to cut it or get overwhelmed responding to everything.

It came as something of a shock, I have to admit. Here in the States, our Libertarians tend to be on the bright side. Wrong-headed, naturally--but intelligent. Would you say that facebook community was a fair representation of Australian Libertarians, in your experience?