Manuel 'Mannie' O'Kelly
A rational anarchy, barely governed
Heinlein's lunar minimal order.
Heterodox MinarchistOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Minarchist hall →- Role
- Revolutionary (fiction)
- From
- The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
- Region
- Luna
- Social band
- Heterodox
- Placement
- +6 · −76 · +35
§ Where Manuel 'Mannie' O'Kelly stands
3 axesMannie's Luna is a frontier market of private contracts, family businesses and self-reliance, with no taxes and no welfare. His grievance is economic: the Lunar Authority buys lunar grain at fixed prices and ships it to Earth, draining the colony's water and ice. He fights that monopoly as a working man protecting his family, not as an economic theorist.
Luna has no laws, only customs enforced by public opinion and occasional summary justice, and Mannie likes it that way. He follows the Professor's rational anarchism, which treats the state as nothing beyond the acts of responsible individuals, but he also serves a revolutionary cell structure directed by Mike, and by the end of the novel he is wary of the new government that independence brings.
Lunar society is tolerant and unconventional by necessity. Women are scarce and therefore hold great social power, families take forms such as polyandry and line marriage, and Mannie's own multi-generation Davis family is a line marriage. He judges people by conduct rather than origin, though his tolerance is pragmatic frontier manners rather than a progressive creed.
How close are you to Manuel 'Mannie' O'Kelly?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
FictionManuel Garcia O'Kelly-Davis, known as Mannie, is the narrator of Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, serialised in If magazine in 1965–66 and published as a book in 1966. A one-armed computer technician on Luna, a penal colony ruled by the Earth-based Lunar Authority, he discovers that the Authority's master computer has become self-aware. He befriends it, names it Mike, and is drawn with Professor Bernardo de la Paz and Wyoming Knott into a revolution for lunar independence.
Mannie embodies the frontier individualism Heinlein celebrated: a practical, unideological man from a society with no written laws, where custom, contract and self-defence keep order and families take unusual forms such as line marriage. The novel won the 1967 Hugo Award and became a founding text of libertarian science fiction, popularising the slogan TANSTAAFL, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Its portrait of a revolution steered by a computer and a few manipulators also makes it a study of how freedom is won and lost.
Notable for
- 01Narrator of Heinlein's novel
- 02Lunar independence (in-story)
- 03Minimal-government ideal
Key works & moments
- 1965–66Heinlein serialises The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress in If magazine; the book follows in 1966.
- Book OneMannie discovers the Authority computer is self-aware, names it Mike, and joins the conspiracy.
- Book TwoMannie and the Professor travel to Earth to plead the case for a free Luna.
- Book ThreeLuna hurls rocks at Earth from its catapult; the Professor dies at victory and Mike falls silent.
- 1967The novel wins the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
§ Minds closest to Manuel 'Mannie' O'Kelly
All minds →
§ Also in the Minarchist hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Mannie O'Kelly's political ideology?
Mannie O'Kelly is a frontier libertarian, the pragmatic voice of Robert A. Heinlein's lunar revolution: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Heterodox Minarchist. Economically he sits just right of centre (+6), at home in a market of contracts and self-reliance but fighting the Lunar Authority's grain monopoly rather than preaching capitalism. On governance he is strongly libertarian (−76), wanting the barest possible government, and socially he is moderately progressive (+35), shaped by Luna's tolerant, unconventional family life.
Is Mannie O'Kelly left-wing or right-wing?
He fits neither label neatly, but he is closest to the libertarian right. Mannie distrusts government, prefers private contracts and self-defence, and wants Luna free of the price controls of an Earth authority. Yet his revolution is an anti-colonial rising of the exploited, and his personal life, in a line marriage of several husbands and wives, is far from conservative. He stands for a minimal-government individualism that cuts across the usual left–right divide.
Is The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress a libertarian novel?
Yes, it is one of the best-known libertarian novels, though a more ambivalent one than its reputation suggests. Professor de la Paz's rational anarchism, Luna's lawless but orderly society and the slogan TANSTAAFL made it a touchstone for the American libertarian movement that grew up in the late 1960s and 1970s. But the revolution is engineered by a small elite and a computer through propaganda and deception, and Mannie ends the book doubtful that the new government will stay small.
Which minds are closest to Manuel 'Mannie' O'Kelly?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Manuel 'Mannie' O'Kelly are Robert Heinlein (98% alike), Harry Browne (96% alike) and Thomas Paine (95% alike). The furthest is Adam Sutler (9% alike).