Ideas, people, technologies, and inspirations should all go forth, be fruitful and multiply. The case is strong, as it builds from respect for the individual, the importance of local knowlege, freedom to choose, the need for feedback, and the ability to learn up to a structure of progress put together one layer at a time. Progress is no longer a goal toward which resources are channeled, but the byproduct of human beings acting as comes naturally, i.e., dynamically. This dynamism exists everywhere and makes conformity difficult to enforce, as any secret police director or corporate public relations person can attest. Rather than treat human contrariness as perversity, Postrel argues, societies should embrace the multiplicity that it engenders.
Dynamism does have a method, expressed most coherently in the evaluation of rules.
Apply to simple generic units and allow them to combine in many different ways. Permit credible, understandable, enduring and enforceable commitments. Protect criticism, competition, and feedback. Establish a framework within which people can create nested, competing frameworks of more specific rules. Postrel walks these meta-rules through a series of test cases in politics, business, and general life.