I'm with Keynes on this, To begin with, he certainly knew about economics than Orwell did. And Hayek advocated free competition, not "free" competition.Keynes, Hayek’s friend and lifelong intellectual opponent, called it “a grand book,” adding, “Morally and philosophically, I find myself in agreement with virtually the whole of it.” George Orwell, more equivocal, conceded that Hayek “is probably right” about the “totalitarian-minded” nature of intellectuals but concluded that he “does not see, or will not admit, that a return to ‘free’ competition means for the great mass of people a tyranny probably worse . . . than that of the state.”
I wrote about this almost exactly year ago: A growing disconnect? Surge in sales of two books offers political hints.
Here's the Hayek-Keynes rap video.
At the same time, it seems to me that of the three thinkers under discussion Orwell who history has proven to be most prophetic, again and again.
ReplyDeleteOrwell is good on history, yes. But he is not without his flaws. 1984 would have been better had he visited America and seen modern advertising at work. He would have been able imagine a much subtler and more insidious kind of propaganda that what he imagined. Of the three, I think Hayek was the most correct. We will not only go to hell in a handbasket. We will pay the fare and think it a vacation.
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