Cultural freedom.

• Author: Gillespie, Nick
• Position: Editor's Note

DURING THE PAST few years, reason has beefed up its cultural coverage, supplementing articles on public policy and politics with stories such as "Still Fab: Why We Keep Listening to the Beatles" (June 2001),"Pornocopia Deluxe: Behind the Triumph of Erotica" (December 2001), and "In Praise of Vulgarity: How Commercial Culture Liberates Islam--and the West" (March 2002). Recent issues have included appreciations of TV shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Da Ali G Show, of controversial video games, and of racy Arab pop videos.

Why has the magazine of "Free Minds and Free Markets" expanded its coverage of art, music, film, literature, and other forms of creative expression? Partly because the major political and economic battle of the last century has been won, in broad outline if not in exact details (and to be sure, those details matter one hell of a lot). As The Wall Street Journal declared earlier this year, "few doubt ... that the economic argument has been settled in favor of free markets" rather than command economies. We continue to make the case for free markets, but the time is right to look at what free minds are up to.

Another reason for our cultural coverage is that culture is increasingly important to people. As reason has been documenting, we're in the midst of a "culture boom," of a massive increase in the production and consumption of culture. Everywhere you look, there's more of everything. This is no small trend, and it has many causes and effects.

Finally, reason is exploring culture because we're intensely interested in freedom and the weird, wild innovation...