P E R S P E C T IV E Hacking Leviathan S EP T E MB E R03, 2013 by THEFR EE MAN ˙Libertarian populism˚ is a ll t he ra ge in the Beltwa y blog os phere. The idea, more or less, is tha t somethin g of a politic a l platform is eme rging .Eve rybody hates cron yis m and the rigge d ga me that sus tainsit .The ga me ke epsgood people back and diverts mone y into the coffers of the wea lthy. People would hate the s ys tem if the y kn ew mo re a bou t it . All the center- righ t ha s to do is ex plain ev ery thing and promise to dismantle the inf ra s tructure of cro ny ism. This will us her in a new-a ge lov e fes t for libertarian mes s a ge s a mong the laity. T hatˉ s a s ketch, a ny way . All well a nd good. W eˉ re not particu la rly s a ngu ine a bout the idea of disma ntling the corpo rate s tate throug h old-fa s hion ed democra ti c polit ica l me a ns. B ut weˉ re ha ppy to let the B el tway types ha ve their con ve rs a tion a nd hope the vo tersget wis e to the ga me. W ho kn ows ?Maybe it will beco me a pla tform. Ma ybe people who care more a bout must-see T V right no w will fina lly s tart t o care a bout public ch oic e ec ono mics . W eˉ re jus t no t go ing to s it aro un d an d wait for tha t fire to ca tch. W eˉ d p refer to get behind wha t we ca ll ˙hack ing L ev ia than .˚ If youˉ re worried because ˙ha ck ing˚ ha sa neg a tive connotation, plea s e know weˉ re no t s ug ge s ting people do a ny thing ille ga l. T hatˉ s bet ween you a nd yo ur ris k-bene fit ana lys is. W hat weˉ re s ugg es ting is that ˙ha ck ing˚ ha s pos itive connotationsand tremendou s poten tial to liber a te people. C onsider s o- ca lled ˙life ha ck ing˚: W ikipedians refer to it as ˙a ny productivity trick, shortcu t, skill, or n ov elty method to increase productivity a nd e fficien cy , in a ll wa lks of life; in other words, a nythin g that s olve s an eve ryda y problem in a cle ver or non-o bviou s way.˚ S oundsgood. W ha t about a form of ha ck ing that usesshortcu ts, no velty methods a nd innova tion in general to circumvent or s ha ke up the s tatus quo? Ha ck ing L ev ia than taps more into this s pirit tha n into the notion of beco ming a virtua l s a fe- cra ck er. G ov ernment is s low, not very inno va tive, a nd its rulesare beco ming incre a s ingly obs olete. T hisS tate s cle ros is is due la rge ly to s pec ia l inter es ts tha t a cc rete a nd harden a round old w a ys , old laws , and old public trough s. T hey ˉ re go ing to protect the gr a vy train, a nd they ˉ re pretty go od at it, usua lly. But if eno ugh people a re deve loping crea tive workaroun ds and ne w goo d things , the S tate and its functionarieswill s imply b bewildered by it all. T hatˉ s the ho pe, a ny way. B y the time the technocra ts (a nd their cronies ) catch up to the a ction, it will h ope full y be too late. L a rge co nstit uen ciesw ill have forme d around, sa y, Bitcoin (pee r-to-pe er priva te pa yme nt), Bitmessa ge (p2p priva te mes s a ging) , Airbnb (p2p temp ora ry a partment rentals ) or Uber (p2p cab s ervices ). An d a L eviathan- hacker neednˉ t be a techie,even if a lot of the ja rgo nˆ to sa y no thing of the ge neral a tt itudes ˆ comes from that worl d. T here are doctorswho ch a rge small sums and are deve loping ˙concie rge˚ models to dit ch the Obama care- indus trial c omplex . Hondurans ha ve a men ded t heir constitution s o a s to upgra de their so cial opera ting s ys tems , makin g room for s tartup cities (o fficia lly known by the a cro nym ZEDE). S ome one might reje ct a bad sys tem s imply by opting outˆ for exa mple, simply by cho os ing a diet that isnˉ t based on the gov ernmen t food pyra mid. Our own dis tinguishe d fellow J effrey T ucker ha s made a co tta ge indus try out of t elling people ho w they ca n seize their sho werh ea ds back from the S tate, or raise glassesof bourbon to Mich a el Bloomberg at 8:30 a.m. W ha tever peo ple do, we a re ex cited by the prospects of c rea tive co lla bora tion in an a ge of ra pid so cia l a nd tech no logic a l ev olu tion. An d that lea ds us back to this ques ti on of lib ert a rian populism. J ames Poulos, wri ti ng for Forbes. com ,s ug ge sts a form tha t dove tai ls nic ely with liberty hack ing , pa rticula rly when we move from the merely politic a l to the anthro polo gic al. He writes : The a nthropolo gy Iˉ m propos ing [is all a bout] unforeseeable transforma tions ,a t the pers onal lev el and t he human level. T hatˉ s the essence of a ga me tha tˉ sa nythin g but z ero- sum: inh eren tly cre a tive, open -s ourc e, universal, and unable to be ca pt ured by pl an ners and forecas t ers. S uch an anthropology is co nsonant wi th wha t we have called ˙networked libertarianis m.˚ A nd it is certa inly alibertarian populism