[lbo-talk] Newsflash: social democracy causes terrorism

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Sat Aug 6 10:00:10 PDT 2005


Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, pp. 142-143:
> >
> >The definitely antagonistic attitude which most
> >planners take toward internationalism is further
> >explained by the fact that in the existing world
> >all outside contacts of a group are obstacles to
> >their effectively planning the sphere in which
> >they can attempt it. It is therefore no accident
> >that, as the editor of one of the most
> >comprehensive collective studies on planning has
> >discovered to his chagrin, "most 'planners' are
> >militant nationalists."4

Most democracies have some element of nationalism (or some sort of chauvinism not based on national characteristics) in that there has to be a distinction between citizens and non-citizens, while a democracy usually makes decisions that affect outsiders.


> >The nationalist and imperialist propensities of
> >socialist planners, much more common than is
> >generally recognized, are not always as flagrant
> >as, for example, in the case of the Webbs and
> >some of the other early Fabians, with whom
> >enthusiasm for planning was characteristically
> >combined with the veneration for the large and
> >powerful political units and a contempt for the
> >small state.

Hal Draper made the useful distinction between socialism from above (e.g., the Webbs) and that from below (e.g., William Morris). They are often two very different animals... -- Jim Devine "An economist is a man [or woman] who states the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible." -- Alfred A. Knopf



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