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In my post of 12/27/24, I reviewed the work of the great Friedrich Hayek. Now I would like to use that discussion as a springboard to further examine the ongoing collapse of the Western economic and financial system.
Hayek helps us to see economic life for what is is: the “extended order of human cooperation,” as he calls it. This is society’s vast network of ideas, contacts, and exchange; an endless web of human interaction. This order is infinitely complex, and in a constant state of flux; as such, it lies beyond the ability of any single authority to direct it. The extended order has evolved into its current form. Hayek points to the pioneering vision of Adam Smith, who realized that a type of evolution is the driving force behind the genesis and development of economic and other institutions. (Hayek remarked that Smith and similar thinkers were Darwinian before Darwin, and may have influenced the latter.) Think of law, language, and money: none were the result of a unified, conscious plan. Rather, they evolved in a spontaneous, self-ordering process, in a series of adaptations, producing a workable framework in which people could function. The upshot is that economic structures cannot be planned. Interference with the extended order is doomed to failure, and if pushed far enough, will lead to death and destruction. The case of the Soviet Union is obvious enough. But the same principle applies to our current predicament. Consider the extent of the disease: the colossal edifice of central planning in the West, guided by Keynesian economic theory, is sufficient all by itself to guarantee disaster. It has resulted in an activist Federal Reserve, unbacked fiat currency, rampaging inflation, out-of-control debt, asset bubbles galore, and a rapacious government that now accounts for fully half of what passes for an economy. Add to this the other poisons administered to the extended order, such as DEI and the Green-Industrial Complex, to name two of the worst offenders. None of these monstrosities would exist without coercive government interference. Needless to say, they demonstrate a complete disregard, and even contempt, of economic reality. We can point to additional distortions that result from economic illiteracy. One of them is the absurd notion of a “consumer-based economy.” Consumption is a result of wealth creation, not its cause. The people parroting this inversion of reality confuse the fruit of the tree with the tree itself. And our tree is dying, and will continue to wither as long as we concentrate our efforts on simply eating the fruit. Related to the consumer-based nonsense is the notion that China is dependent on the American consumer, and therefore we can punish them by restricting access to our enormous market. This could make sense only if we were exchanging something of value for the imported consumables. If we were paying in gold, or oil, or even manufactured goods of our own, the dependency story might be plausible. However, we “pay” for the goods with depreciating dollars that are conjured up on the keyboards of the government, the Fed, and the banks. And this means expansion of debt, which, ironically, was until recently being funded by the likes of China. They stopped buying Treasuries, but we can always compensate by creating more dollars, inflation be damned. So let me get this straight. We will punish China (and other BRICS countries) by threatening to stop consuming their goods while giving them nothing of value in return. How on earth will they survive? Real-world, Hayekian economics teaches us that wealth is created by production of tangible goods (instead of financial products), savings (instead of consumption), and the use of sound money (instead of unbacked fiat currency). All of which is coordinated by means of true price discovery and other market mechanisms—not by the declarations and schemes of bureaucrats and clueless academics. What is the proper role of government? Mainly to get out of the way. Stop interfering in the extended order. Instead, grease the wheels; facilitate commerce rather than hindering it. Safeguard property rights. Enforce contracts. Prevent crime and fraud. Build and maintain infrastructure. Humanity is not a proper subject for rational central planning. The aggregate of all human action, beliefs, and behavioral patterns is unknowable. These facts, as Hayek laments, run against the grain of mainstream economic thinking. It is time for a new paradigm. The improvement-of-mankind fanatics consider man to be an input to their calculations, in the same way as one might treat a chicken, a plant, or a steel beam. In other words, in their view, man is a part of the natural world: understandable, predictable, malleable. With the correct laws in place, and the correct government subsidies, he can be forced to live in perfect harmony with nature. This is a false and dangerous assertion. Man can never be integrated into the remainder of nature. He is condemned to stand outside it, to be an observer and an actor with his own unique agenda. This means that answers to the riddles of our existence will not be found in interventionism and central planning, which pretend that society can be harmonized, as if man really were a chicken or a plant.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is all the rage. Despite the widespread enthusiasm, I believe that it is part of our current overblown hi-tech hysteria, and in the end will prove to be counterproductive.
First, a clarification: I am not referring to the cutting-edge research aimed at mimicking and exceeding actual human intelligence, a venture which is a horror story unto itself. Rather, the subject of this post is the current manifestation of AI, along with expected near-future applications based on an expansion of the same processes. The AI that we are now experiencing is essentially a wider and deeper exploitation of data, which enables increased automation. There is no “intelligence” involved, only pushing the boundaries of existing computer technology. Considering our society’s fascination with digital technology, the situation could hardly be otherwise. Few people seem to care that the world around us is decaying by the minute; infrastructure is crumbling while new buildings and products are increasingly ugly and flimsy. But our screens are sharper than ever, and we have apps that enable us to graphically represent any fantasy. Oh, and the stock market is booming, thanks to this great whiz-bang tech stuff. So it’s all good. AI will accelerate the ongoing degeneration of intellect. Instead of an internet search that brings you to a well-composed essay, or even a mediocre article in Encyclopedia Britannica, you are fed a hodgepodge of data. By aggregating diverse sources into a virtual trash compactor, with no real intelligence to guide the process, the result is drastic reduction of quality, as well as disaggregation of mind. One could make the case that everything AI touches, turns to dreck. The term artificial intelligence doesn’t quite cover it; I would instead call this transformation natural stupidity. Most brain work can be automated, if quality is thrown out the window. If there is no need for refinement, subtlety, or beauty, what purpose does human intervention serve? A world in which AI has seeped into every nook and cranny will make Cuban communism look like a luxury brand. Here is a flow chart showing the march of progress: Highly intelligent people (fantastic goods and services, as late as 1965) >> Reasonably intelligent people (acceptable goods and services, 1970s and 80s) >> Mediocrities and midwits (mixed bag of quality, 1990-2010) >> Morons (you are here) >> AI If you want a brutal illustration, consider the medical industry. Even without AI, the “provider” stares into his computer screen, rarely interacting physically with the patient. Might as well go full AI and dispense with the intermediary, there’s not much difference at this point. In fact, automated medical treatment has already begun. When doctors are finally eliminated, the medical public relations machine will be bragging about the cost savings. A curious repercussion of AI is the anticipated use of electricity. How are the sagging U.S. and European power grids supposed to handle the load of these enormous data centers? This new energy hog will aggravate the effects of those other dubious exploits, Bitcoin mining and electric vehicles. All this while the grid is being degraded by the Climate-Industrial Complex. I have heard that the data centers require huge amounts of water to cool off the massive arrays of computers. And we haven’t even discussed the expected rise in unemployment, and the potential for reinforcement of new psy-ops by the Deep State. If you want a picture of the future, imagine being on the phone, trapped in an automated, never-ending customer service loop—forever. But don’t worry everyone, just go back to your phones, all is well. Disregard everything I said. Copy and paste the title of this post into your search engine, and AI will tell you what to think. Pondering the disaster unfolding in Los Angeles, I am reminded of the 1966 movie Fahrenheit 451, based on the novel by Ray Bradbury. The film is a masterpiece of the dystopian/futuristic genre. It portrays a society in which the job of the fire department is to light fires, specifically for the purpose of burning forbidden books.
And here we are. The job of the state and local government in California, apparently, is to ensure that fires break out, and when they do, that the people and equipment for extinguishing them have been degraded as much as possible. The accomplishments of the leadership thus far: malfunctioning reservoirs; precious water channeled into the ocean; empty hydrants; routine brush-clearing protocols ignored; criminals, drug addicts, and lunatics (“homeless”) running amok and starting fires; essential equipment sent to Ukraine; funding diverted to woke insanity; a mayor who has the intellectual prowess of a gerbil; and last but not least, fat lesbians making sure that ability is the least important qualification required for the post of “firefighter.” The dystopia has arrived. We are in it. As an author of dystopian fiction, I am concerned that my vocation will be mooted by reality. If things continue on their current trajectory, it will soon be impossible to write a novel like Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New World. It is already problematic. How can one depict horrors that await us in a future society when those horrors are happening right now? The synopsis on Amazon for Huxley’s Brave New World declares that the book is “a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order.” Well, we’re about, what, eighty percent of the way there? We often hear that such-and-such government policy, or new piece of woke terminology, is “Orwellian.” What adjective do we use when everything is Orwellian? At that point, the term is useless; the outbreaks of depravity that plague us are no longer outbreaks, but rather the norm. Walking in the rain, you can say “I’m getting wet,” but if you jump in the pool, the phrase loses its meaning. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a mentally retarded black lesbian struggling to lift a fire hose—forever. Recent headlines have informed a wider audience that Muslim rape gangs are running amok in Britain. This has been known for some time, but it took the power and reach of Elon Musk and others to catapult the issue to prominence.
This sickening chapter in the destruction of old Blighty is not strictly about pedophilia, although the rape and torture victims are very young. Nor is the core issue Muslim degeneracy, although clearly we are witnessing an open display of such. Rather, the crux of the matter is the purposeful importation of primitive Third World tribes as bioweapons to degrade and destroy the native population. The importation of human bioweapons into Europe sprang from the same psychopathic brains that gave us lockdowns, transgender madness, death jabs, and totalitarian measures to “save democracy.” All of these are cut from the same ideological cloth. All are weapons of war. Chaos has been the intent from the outset. Multiculti benetton kumbaya diversity blah blah blah—Fuhgeddaboudit. The results of planting these savages in the middle of England (or France, Germany, Sweden, etc.) are predictable with 100% accuracy. The 1400 years of Islamic history make it crystal clear as to what we could expect. Throw the "South Asian" rapists in prison and throw away the key. But don't blame them for this mess. They're pawns in the game. Muslims are gonna Muslim; a leopard can’t change its spots. Disruptions, often violent, will occur whenever you transplant a distinct and unified group into a culture with significantly different values, beliefs, and behavioral patterns. If your clean and safe Arizona town suddenly receives a huge influx of woke Leftist wealthy white Californians, you will soon be experiencing crime, social disarray, and urban blight. Conversely, if Pakistan suddenly became twenty percent Norwegian, there would be outbreaks of nonviolence, rule of law, personal responsibility, and orderly commerce. There is no mystery in any of this. I lived part of my childhood in London; that was back in the early 1970s. It might as well have been on a different planet. The city was safe and pleasant. I could travel alone or with a friend to any neighborhood, at any time of day, without the slightest fear. I don’t think that young people today could imagine that such a thing were possible. I grieve for the old London, and the rest of Europe, which is teetering on the edge of the precipice. We in America are heading for a similar fate, though possibly not quite as rapidly. But on both sides of the pond, unless there are drastic changes, all roads lead to extinction of European man. If Europe, our homeland, goes under, it will be a catastrophe, and will make it even more difficult for North America to keep its head above water. For decades, the U.S. Deep State has been advancing the woke agenda around the world, including the subversion of efforts to stop “refugees” and “migrants” (i.e., the bioweapons) from pouring into European countries. Presumably, with the incoming Trump Administration, this shameful chapter in American history will come to an end. The American foreign policy and espionage establishment is in love with “color revolution” and regime change. What we need is a new kind of regime change, one that liberates the people from treasonous Leftist leaders who are bent on the annihilation of their own nations. In yet another outrage from the scorched-earth Biden regime, the low-lifes running the White House awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to (among others) Hillary Clinton and George Soros. Bestowing this high honor on the Wicked Witch of the West borders on the comical, but laying the ribbon around the neck of Soros is one of the most brazen middle fingers that the outgoing criminal cabal has ever thrust in America’s face.
This act is further indication, as if we needed it, that the cabal has no fear. Why should they; if everything proceeds as it has in the past, then the change of administration is for them just a temporary blip. Here is the likely thought process of a Jake Sullivan or a Karine Jean-Pierre as they box up their coffee makers and dog photos: After leaving the White House, I’ll get a cushy job at the Council on Foreign Relations, the World Economic Forum, or some other think tank or NGO. Periodic interviews on CNN to spice things up. Come January 2029 (or sooner, if we eliminate Literally Hitler), I can complete the round trip back to my old desk, or a better desk somewhere else within the Beltway. Conservative media is always chock full of assertions that so-and-so Swamp dweller is running scared, worried stiff that his time is up. These declarations are often heard after some atrocious mischief has been uncovered. All well and good, but you can expose Deep State wrongdoing until the cows come home, and it simply does not matter to these people. You are publicizing behavior of which they are proud. Scathing commentary and shocking exposés do, however, provide important information to our side. It gives us more ammunition to fight the propaganda battles, and it helps convince people who are on the fence. But it will not halt Leftist criminality and treason. Remember 2016, and “lock her up”? Do we really think that Madame Clinton was shaking with trepidation upon hearing those words? When the threat was exposed as mere bluster, her fame and status among the “elite” increased by leaps and bounds. She became an even stronger role model for countless Woke harridans. And now to top it off, the Freedom medal. (Another prestigious institution bites the dust. When these creeps are mentioned in the same breath as “freedom,” it reminds me of Yasir Arafat receiving the Nobel “Peace” Prize.) Only one thing will stop the Left: consequences. Brutal, real-world consequences for their malfeasance. This means, first and foremost, prison time. Obviously, nothing of the sort occurred during Trump’s first term. On the contrary, it looked like the sequel to Night of the Living Dead, with the zombies rising from their graves. I am hoping that this time will be different. But if no one wears the orange jumpsuit within six months of the inauguration, we will know that it’s business as usual in the Swamp. There would be nothing to disincentivize their psychopathic behavior. Why change their ways? They may be crazy, but they’re not stupid. Perhaps the Harridan-in-Chief will finally come out of the closet and declare that she’s a man. Then she can share a jail cell with her buddy George. Many in the U.S. are hopeful that the incoming administration can solve the problem of inflation. This scourge continues to cause heartache for the population, particularly individuals and families with low income and without assets.
As with so many other issues, the first step in any serious campaign to resolve the dilemma is to correctly identify the problem, without political propaganda and other extraneous inputs. Our rulers can begin by admitting the extent of the damage. Government statistics on price increases (and unemployment) are nothing less than fraudulent. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that prices are not rising by three percent annually, or whatever similar ridiculous figure is being proffered by the sorcerers in Washington. Moreover, in addition to nominal price, there are other manifestations of decreasing purchasing power that need to be included in the equation. One of these is shrinkflation, the shrinking of quantity for a given item. We have all done the supermarket double-take when encountering, say, a bar of chocolate that is suddenly smaller than it had always been. The price, of course, remains the same or rises. A related phenomenon is crapflation. This means reduction of quality for a given item. One day, out of the blue, you receive a shoddier product, or inferior ingredients, but, once again, at the same or higher price. It’s just another way to hide the erosion of purchasing power. So what exactly is this “inflation”? It is not, as our Leftist friends would have us believe, a cabal of cigar-smoking capitalists in the back room of Kroger headquarters, rubbing their hands together and guffawing as they greedily jack up the price of milk. Rather, consider the word itself. Something has been inflated; think of tire pressure. And that something is the money supply. This used to be common knowledge. My 1991 Webster’s Dictionary defines inflation as “an increase in the volume of money and credit relative to available goods resulting in a substantial and continuing rise in the general price level.” Today, Webster’s still conveys the general idea, but with some obfuscation: “A continuing rise in the general price level usually attributed to an increase in the volume of money and credit relative to available goods and services” [emphasis mine; also note the flipping of the order, and the absence of the word “substantial”]. The American Heritage dictionary just buries its head in the sand: “A persistent increase in the level of consumer prices or a persistent decline in the purchasing power of money.” Going further up the causal chain, the expansion of the money supply is primarily the result of “money printing” by means of an inscrutable process involving the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, and the banks. Much of this takes place to either fund the obscene Federal deficits or to goose the stock and housing markets. Incidentally, the money supply has approximately doubled in the last ten years, with the magic printing press conjuring around eleven trillion dollars into existence. Yes, that’s trillion with a “t.” Increasing prices can never be reversed until this monetary hocus-pocus is ended. Here we have the crux of the matter. Compared to this, every other factor is minor. If they double the quantity of something, what do they expect will happen to its price? That’s right, it will be cut in half. Would any sane and honest person deny that the purchasing power of the dollar has been cut in half since 2015? But yes, there are some other factors contributing to price increases, usually due to government overreach. One obvious instance is government regulation. Automobiles, for example, are far more expensive than need be, due to the onerous safety, emission, and mileage requirements that are now out of control. Then there are the downstream effects of government subsidies and other market interventions, which create artificial demand and speculation, which drives up prices. Suppressing the interest rate has led to the perversely-valued real estate market, as well as a host of other bubbles and malinvestment across the economy. Another case of market intervention is government-backed student loans. Allowed to feed at this bottomless government trough, colleges and universities can keep hiking tuition; after all, the money is always there. Incentives for competition and efficiency have effectively been destroyed. (And the Leftist propaganda machine has its ideological hatchery fully funded.) Another factor is crime. In addition to successful shoplifiting, prevention of such is a significant expense that is passed on to the consumer. Viewing the security personnel at my local Walmart, one would think they are guarding a top-secret military installation. Let us not forget the spreading plague of idiocy and incompetence. This leads to defective products, lousy repairs, wasted time, and other ill effects that in the end, all cost money. The deteriorating quality of the population also makes neighborhoods, or even entire cities, unlivable. This shrinks the available decent living space, driving up demand for housing and amenities in the zones with "good schools." In summary, I hope the incoming Trump Administration has the stomach to tell it like it is. Otherwise, the world of monetary make-believe will continue on its merry way. In order for Western civilization to extract itself from the bog of crises into which it is currently sinking, it must eventually come to terms with the intellectual rot that has permeated its foundations. One manifestation of that rot, less obvious than, say, Keynesian economics, is the pseudoscience of “psychology,” embodied in the Therapeutic-Industrial Complex (TIC).
The preaching and practise of psychology in the West, lo these last hundred years or so, is a natural outgrowth of Progressive ideology, which exalts the degenerate while attacking the productive and well-constituted. The TIC brings this maneuver down to the micro level, destabilizing and paralyzing the individual from within his own mind. Not satisfied merely with destabilization of the political and economic realms, the Progressives have infiltrated the most intimate chambers of our private existence. This is accomplished with the aid of two primary tools, guilt and inversion. Guilt is as essential to the TIC as debt is to the fiat-based monetary system. Wait a minute, you say; doesn’t psychotherapy release us from our burden of puritannical guilt, all that sexual and potty stuff? Perhaps, but that’s small potatoes compared to the guilt loaded onto us by the selfsame soul robbers. Guilt, guilt, guilt. The skilled pracitioners of the TIC construct an archeological dig within your memory banks, to find shards of ancient guilt that had been buried forever. And even if that shard cannot initially be reimagined in its original form, your friendly neighborhood ego-crusher will weave a wondrous tale, so that the image of the original full-sized mental pot or jug becomes crystal clear to the victim. If this sounds like witchcraft, that’s because it is. The more normal and sane you are, the worse the guilt weighs upon you. This is partially a function of conscience; better-quality people tend to be more self-critical. But it is also due to inversion, another major tool of the brain leeches. The natural order of society is inverted: normal is considered sick whereas mentally ill—the real kind—is considered perfectly normal. Ask your TIC representative how the American Psychological Association views transvestites, compared to, say, 1965. Now contrast this with the “treatment” of energetic and mischievous (i.e., normal) little boys. You’re sick, I’m sick, we’re all sick; the world is just one giant hospital (and they run it). You are guilty of all sorts of transgressions that you “suppressed” since birth. Don’t fret, says the TIC, there are ways to confront and process that guilt. Overwhelmed? That’s okay, we’re here to help! What are we to do with this parasitical class, this latter-day Carthaginian priesthood? Mao had the solution: send them to the fields! [Related: see my post of 12/13/24, Homeless Nation.] [To everyone I wish a Happy New Year!]
Two of the greatest fraudulent narratives of the modern era are Covid, and the “oppressed Palestinians.” I would like to share with you links to a podcast and an article that summarize, in a succinct and straightforward manner, these two malevolent con games. Covid: a twenty-minute podcast by the indefatigable Michael Yeadon. Palestinians: an article in American Thinker by Shai ben-Tekoa. One of the most disconcerting signs of our society’s decay has been the proliferation of tattoos. And it only seems to be getting worse.
I grew up in the America and England of the 1960s and 70s. The only “ink” I recall seeing at that time was on veterans of the navy (typically a relatively small image of an anchor or mermaid), and survivors of the Nazi concentration camps. That was it. Never a conspicuously visible, multicolored, “artistic” design. To imagine such a thing being common, and on women no less, would have been to enter the realm of science fiction. For thousands of years, tattoos have been the mark of the slave, the criminal, and the pirate. In short, the dregs of society. This is reflected in the Bible, which in Leviticus 19:28 states, “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves: I am the Lord.” The prohibition is presented in the context of warnings against prostituting one’s daughter, wizardry, mediums, sacrifices to Moloch, and other sickly, idolatrous, and barbaric customs. To permanently engrave one’s body with ink is to spit in the face of God and man alike. In the current era, one peculiar aspect of the phenomenon is its appearance across the socioeconomic spectrum. If it were limited to the lowest classes, we might consider it to be a strictly vulgar pursuit, to appear street-tough and repellant. But when a young lady at Princeton, from an upper-class family involved in molding the cultural, political, and economic shape of the nation, thinks that inscribing on her body the mark of the slave is “cool,” what are we to expect from our elites? Nothing good, for sure. It’s one more strike against our youth. They have become dumbed down, humorless, self-hating, and uncultured; we poison them with psychotropic drugs, mutilate their genitals, and ruin their health and adulterate their DNA (or simply murder them) with safe and effective injections. Are tattoos their cry for help, or rather their proudly-displayed badge of membership in a new race of botched, confused, and profoundly ugly subhumans? Among the many problems staring our society in the face is the imminent meltdown of the financial and monetary system. There are numerous facets: uncontrolled government spending and intervention; a looming sovereign debt crisis; the enormous, Byzantine derivatives complex; the insolvent banking system; the growing power of the BRICS countries; and on and on. Putting all the pieces together is a daunting task.
Standing ready to assist us in this labor are the great thinkers of the field. Among these must be counted the incomparable Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992). He is best known as one of the founding fathers of the Austrian school of economics, and the outspoken nemesis of John Maynard Keynes. Hayek demonstrates conclusively how Keynesian economics—that web of misconceptions and mythology in which the West is now trapped—is dysfunctional and guaranteed to fail. But Hayek goes far beyond this level of analysis. He goes deeper, burrowing into every rabbit hole of socialism and interventionism to expose the ideological and spiritual foundations of this perennial challenge, not merely to the financial and monetary system, but to civilization in its entirety. I am reprinting below a post that I wrote about him in 2007, on the original AWOL Civilization blog. * * * The Extended Order of Human Cooperation No blog on the deterioration of Western culture would be complete without a tribute to Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992), the great Austrian-born economist and philosopher. When one considers the breadth of his work and the acuity of his analysis, he may very well be the preeminent sociopolitical thinker of the 20th century. No one has been such an outspoken advocate for liberty, or such a devastating foe of all forms of socialism—what Hayek often calls "collectivism." In The Counter-Revolution of Science (1952), he deconstructs the illusions of the early socialist thinkers, notably the false doctrine of “scientism," the misapplication of scientific methodology to social phenomena, particularly history. History, Hayek explains, is not a real thing, subject to the methods of the natural sciences. If we are to undertake a study of zebras, we need not hesitate to employ these methods. We see before us a type of animal that is clearly distinguished from other species. There can be little doubt that a zebra is a zebra. Our subjects behave in accordance with the characteristics of their kind. They cannot change themselves, and there is no emotional or intellectual bond between researcher and subject. All this is completely different when it comes to human history. Our subjects do not behave in a predictable fashion, and they can remake themselves. There are many bonds (and enmity) between researcher and subject. But most importantly, the creation of history is itself a subjective act. The actors are implementing what they believe to be “their" history of the moment; moreover, each individual has a different perception of his own behavior, his neighbor’s behavior, and indeed everything else occurring in the world. To say that this phenomenon is subject to laws in the same sense as natural laws is a serious error. In The Road to Serfdom, written during World War II, Hayek demonstrates that Communism and Nazism are two sides of the same collectivist coin. He traces the careers of the National Socialist (Nazi) leadership, showing that they were socialist in every sense of the word. In fact, many were prominent “left-wing" socialists or communists who embraced the swastika as Hitler rose to power. Hayek thereby dismisses the influential myth that the Nazis were some sort of ultra-conservative movement. In The Constitution of Liberty (1960), perhaps his magnum opus, Hayek lays out a philosophical blueprint for a 20th-century society based on liberty. This book is the modern heir to the ideas of Locke and Adam Smith. The Fatal Conceit (1988) is a general critique of socialism, in which Hayek shows that “rational" planning is doomed to failure. The very first paragraph sums up much of his thinking: “This book argues that civilisation depends, not only for its origin but also for its preservation, on what can be precisely described only as the extended order of human cooperation, an order more commonly, if somewhat misleadingly, known as capitalism. To understand our civilisation, one must appreciate that the extended order resulted not from human design or intention but spontaneously: it arose from unintentionally conforming to certain traditional and largely moral practices, many of which men tend to dislike, whose significance they usually fail to understand, whose validity they cannot prove, and which have nonetheless fairly rapidly spread…” When I read Hayek, I am always struck by his vast command of history, culture, philosophy, and economics, as well as by his matter-of-fact tone. His attitude is distinctly non-ideological; he is never the advocate of a party or “program.” Hayek warned us about flirtation with the wily seductress that is collectivism. Will we take heed? |
Dystopian literatureWelcome to the blog! While you're here, check out the six dystopian novels by Gary Wolf. His latest is The Cubist Supremacy. 
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