Celebrating a Great Editor: Max Borders and The Freeman

Yesterday the Foundation for Economic Education’s “Anything Peaceful” blog carried the news that editor Max Borders was leaving his position directing content for FEE.org and FEE’s long-running magazine, The Freeman. Over the past three years Max has been an eloquent voice for liberty and an excellent curator of editorial talent, publishing content from an impressive stable of regular contributors, including my colleague Iain Murray.

In his valedictory post, Max confesses to a list of 10 “editorial biases” that he brought to his work at FEE, though I’d say most of them count as virtues rather than vices. Here are a few I found especially noteworthy:

5. There is more to freedom than policy, and more to life than politics. Ideas have staying power. Innovations change incentives. Policy and politics are necessary evils at best. They are devoid of creativity and are almost always impediments to making the world a better place. If public choice theory has taught us anything, it’s that policy and politics are where most of our ideals go to die.

8. Innovation can change institutions. Excessive focus on economics and politics has impeded the freedom project. These subjects are important, but creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship are as important or more so: they drive social change.

10. Humanity is just warming up. It is a magnificent time to be alive. All you have to do is open your eyes to see not only that the world is getting better but that no government on earth — despite all the missiles and spies and guns and jails — can hold down a determined people armed with good ideas and big dreams.

Max left it for another time to fill us in on what he’ll be doing next, though I suspect he’ll continue to direct and expand the annual “event experience” he co-founded, Voice and Exit. You can watch some of the great “better than TED” presentations from Voice & Exit here.