The Intellectuals And Socialism Friedrich A Hayek 9781169828834 Books
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This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
The Intellectuals And Socialism Friedrich A Hayek 9781169828834 Books
This is a slim pamphlet, yet nonetheless a very important work of Hayek's. The essay first appeared in 1949. (For reference, Road To Serfdom was published in 1944.) Hayek is explaining why a country or society can be gripped by cripplingly bad ideas, and how ideological change takes place in moving a society in the direction of general approval of those bad ideas. For our reading purposes in 2015, we can substitute Keynesianism, central planning and the welfare/warfare state for Socialism in the title of Hayek's pamphlet. We can also see the process Hayek describes at work in the propagation of the climate change theory.The origination of ideas begins with theorists, experts and original thinkers. But the spread of them belongs to what Hayek calls "intellectuals". He states, "It is intellectuals ....who decide what views and opinions are to reach us, which facts are important enough to be told to us, and in what form and from what angle they are to be presented." The intellectual, for Hayek, is no expert. It is a person of general knowledge, which supposedly qualifies that person to appreciate expert testimony and to make judgements. He calls them "second hand dealers in ideas". He includes writers, and commentators in the media. Today, he'd include bloggers like those on Project Syndicate and other Keynesian outlets.
Most importantly, they are people of no practical experience in the world. They "do not possess that experience of the working of the economic system which the administration of property gives". Schumpeter describes them in a similar way as exhibiting an "absence of direct responsibility for practical affairs and the consequent absence of first hand knowledge of them".
These intellectuals generally believe that a system of deliberate control or conscious organization is always superior to the result of spontaneous processes. (Hayek, of course, believed the opposite.) The intellectuals are further driven by a belief in material equality - an intellectual (not moral) construct, conceived in the abstract and of doubtful meaning or application in particular instances.
They select the view that is best in accord with this spirit, and support it in their writing and commentary, even if all scientific evidence is against it. They do so unencumbered by much knowledge of the facts of everyday life.
Once the more active part of the intellectuals has been converted to this set of beliefs, the process by which they become generally accepted is almost automatic and irresistible. These intellectuals are the organs which modern society has developed for spreading knowledge and ideas, and it is their convictions and opinions which operate as the sieve through which all new conceptions must pass before they can reach the masses.
Hayek calls upon all of us to make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage. We must regain the belief in the power of free market ideas, and we must be determined to oppose the intellectuals who have chosen for us the theories they prefer.
It is worthwhile, indeed valuable, to all supporters of freedom to read this pamphlet and think deeply about its content.
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The Intellectuals And Socialism Friedrich A Hayek 9781169828834 Books Reviews
Intellectuals pointing us towards socialism, and doing everything they can to pave the way, are hardly a new occurrence. Indeed, they never seem to go away and do not allow the utter failure of their ideas to dissuade them in the least. In this brief account, Hayek proposes a few thoughts as to why intellectuals seem so smitten with socialism.
As Hayek notes, socialism has never been a working class movement. In every country that has moved towards socialism, its ideas have been adopted by the intellectuals decades before it came into political reality. The Left tries to gain the support of this elite, while the Right, taking a "more naïve" view, tries to reach individual voters.
Intellectuals are those who, through habit or profession, come into new ideas sooner than the people whom they address. By this view, intellectuals are not original thinkers, which is not much of a surprise to anyone who has debated them. Rather, they are traders in ideas. Often experts in one field, their prestige in that field makes them respected when espousing ideas outside their expertise. This is what distinguishes intellectuals from experts.
Hayek makes several interesting points. Those of a socialist bent, disaffected with society in its current state, may not be attracted to options outside the intellectual sphere. Becoming, say, an academic may provide the best route for him to influence society to move in the direction that comports with his views, allowing for wholesale rather than piecemeal change to society.
Further, the intellectual is not interested in technical details, but in broad visions. As traditional (classical) liberalism has not provided large, overarching visions for some decades, intellectuals interested in such grand-scheme ideas have only socialism to which to turn. Therefore, the situation is not one of a battle of conflicting ideas, but one in which the existing order is contrasted with a more utopian ideal to be realized. In a society in which the main structures of freedom have been won, continuation involves details. The glamour of innovative thinking is, therefore, left to those who would alter the foundation itself.
Hayek's description of a "climate of opinion," involving very general preconceptions which provide the context through which new ideas and views are filtered, as well as the role of science in furthering such trends, are both illuminating. THE INTELLECTUALS AND SOCIALISM provides a kind of blueprint for understanding the relationship between the two. Although the particulars might have changed since its first publication, it is still quite relevant today. Perhaps, given the absence of large, strictly socialist societies after the collapse of Soviet communism to provide us with concrete examples of socialism's consequences, even more so.
This is a slim pamphlet, yet nonetheless a very important work of Hayek's. The essay first appeared in 1949. (For reference, Road To Serfdom was published in 1944.) Hayek is explaining why a country or society can be gripped by cripplingly bad ideas, and how ideological change takes place in moving a society in the direction of general approval of those bad ideas. For our reading purposes in 2015, we can substitute Keynesianism, central planning and the welfare/warfare state for Socialism in the title of Hayek's pamphlet. We can also see the process Hayek describes at work in the propagation of the climate change theory.
The origination of ideas begins with theorists, experts and original thinkers. But the spread of them belongs to what Hayek calls "intellectuals". He states, "It is intellectuals ....who decide what views and opinions are to reach us, which facts are important enough to be told to us, and in what form and from what angle they are to be presented." The intellectual, for Hayek, is no expert. It is a person of general knowledge, which supposedly qualifies that person to appreciate expert testimony and to make judgements. He calls them "second hand dealers in ideas". He includes writers, and commentators in the media. Today, he'd include bloggers like those on Project Syndicate and other Keynesian outlets.
Most importantly, they are people of no practical experience in the world. They "do not possess that experience of the working of the economic system which the administration of property gives". Schumpeter describes them in a similar way as exhibiting an "absence of direct responsibility for practical affairs and the consequent absence of first hand knowledge of them".
These intellectuals generally believe that a system of deliberate control or conscious organization is always superior to the result of spontaneous processes. (Hayek, of course, believed the opposite.) The intellectuals are further driven by a belief in material equality - an intellectual (not moral) construct, conceived in the abstract and of doubtful meaning or application in particular instances.
They select the view that is best in accord with this spirit, and support it in their writing and commentary, even if all scientific evidence is against it. They do so unencumbered by much knowledge of the facts of everyday life.
Once the more active part of the intellectuals has been converted to this set of beliefs, the process by which they become generally accepted is almost automatic and irresistible. These intellectuals are the organs which modern society has developed for spreading knowledge and ideas, and it is their convictions and opinions which operate as the sieve through which all new conceptions must pass before they can reach the masses.
Hayek calls upon all of us to make the building of a free society once more an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage. We must regain the belief in the power of free market ideas, and we must be determined to oppose the intellectuals who have chosen for us the theories they prefer.
It is worthwhile, indeed valuable, to all supporters of freedom to read this pamphlet and think deeply about its content.
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