How do I know that my narrative is better than yours? The experiments of the 20th century told me so. It would have been hard to know the wisdom of Friedrich Hayek or Milton Friedman or Matt Ridley or Deirdre McCloskey in August of 1914, before the experiments in large government were well begun. But anyone who after the 20th century still thinks that thoroughgoing socialism, nationalism, imperialism, mobilization, central planning, regulation, zoning, price controls, tax policy, labor unions, business cartels, government spending, intrusive policing, adventurism in foreign policy, faith in entangling religion and politics, or most of the other thoroughgoing 19th-century proposals for governmental action are still neat, harmless ideas for improving our lives is not paying attention.
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Samizdata quote of the dayJune 20th, 2012 |
 6 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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The entire 20th century was a worldwide laboratory experiment for all the major statist/collectivist theories and assertions of efficacy.
The results have been uniformly calamitous, from the economic, political, military, and ethical perspectives.
I’m afraid the idea that some weren’t paying attention is quite a bit more charitable than I am willing to be.
If what we do in life echoes in eternity, then the echoes I hear are the screams of collectivism’s multitude of victims.
It takes a pretty willful deafness, and blindness, to miss something of that magnitude.
Only pathological evil is that insensate to anything but the internal needs that drive it.
Unfortunately the results haven’t been uniformly calamitous–it’s all worked out quite well for the rulers, and they’d obviously like to keep themselves in power for as long as possible.
“faith in entangling religion and politics”
That’s definitely not a phenomenon new to the 20th century. Most religions are essentially proposals for systems of government. And prior to the 19th century most governments were deemed to have divine justification of authority.
I’d feel happier about his quote if she didn’t include her own name on the list of worthies. Could we wait fifty years to check on her own worthiness?
ErisGuy, to me it was obvious that she was sarcastically self-deprecating, but I could be wrong.
The 19th century was supposed to have “proved” the success of state mass education (although, yes, it started in the 18th century with Frederick the Great of Prussia).
The 20th century was about applying this “success” to everything – by the state domination of everything.
The early 21st century will see the bankruptcy of this idea – even in education.