Sunday, January 29, 2012

Socialism: Gravest Threat to Freedom

English: GFDL picture of F.A. Hayek to replace...
zerohedge: F.A. Hayek On "The Great Utopia":
There can be no doubt that most of those in the democracies who demand a central direction of all economic activity still believe that socialism and individual freedom can be combined. Yet socialism was early recognized by many thinkers as the gravest threat to freedom.
Read the whole thing.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The sociologist Charles Murray wrote an essay showing how even mild socialism, such as the UK practices, thwarts political dissent.

As we see with legislation like SOPA and PIPA, well-meaning central planners can do nothing but restrict human freedom.

Tocqueville predicted such a problem in the 1830s:

It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd.

And here we are.

P.S. Read this book by Charles Murray: http://amzn.to/y4FftP