The attached referral ( From the - Canadian -CBC Massey Lecture Series looks at the " Return of History " as a discussion of Fukuyama 's " End of History".... maybe now titled History never ends though democracy might !" She ( Jennifer Welsh) explores the changing vision and influences. that are driving us towards autocracies and threatening the principles that Fukuyama describes
In 1989 American thinker Francis Fukuyama suggested that Western liberal democracy was the endpoint of our political evolution. Our recent history, filled with terrorism and war, rising inequity and the mass flight of populations -- suggests that we've failed to create any sort of global formula for lasting peace and social equity. In the 2016 CBC Massey Lectures, Jennifer Welsh explores how pronouncements about the "end of history" may have been premature. .
Hayek was autistic. So obvious don't you think Nicholas? Or is it still bad form to diagnose dead people? And am I diagnosing or just recognising the signs of this obsessive way of thinking that I've seen in the living autistics I know?
Thanks Julie, come to think of it, autism could be a reasonable explanation for Hayek. As John Gray observed the ”liberal economy emerges morally naked in Hayek's account of it”. Unlike Adam Smith and Schumpeter for instance, he was uninterested in the extent to which the market might itself help replenish the stock of social capital it relied upon to function.
But when you think about it, virtually every major architect of the philosophy of modernity was off-the-charts autistic. Machiavelli, Descartes and Hobbes come to mind. In fact the only one I'm familiar with seems less autistic is Adam Smith. I often think of Western modernity as a kind of Faustian bargain. We got an incredible new world view and set of institutions, but those instincts and institutions that knit us together, that provide care, whether in our households or workplaces? Well they couldn't compete now could they? And here we are.
Thank you for replying. It was this bit in particular that you wrote that I thought was a deadset indicator.... Aron was " exasperated by Hayek’s failure to see his point. "I can relate to that exasperation that one feels when the other person simply will not or cannot maybe entertain the fact that they might not be seeing all that there is to be seen in the possibilities.
I actually read all of the Road to Serfdom or surfdom as I think of it since that blog, way back as a psych post grad.
That was when it was thought Aspergers were boys who can't meet your gaze. It was the oddest writing I had ever read and I diagnosed him then as an obsessive. It was incredibly boring and the only economic text I've read since was Quiggins Zombie Economics... which was much less boring.
As you say so many people in the past must have been on the spectrum, but I've never seen anyone mention that for all those people you list. The only current discussion I have heard is whether Elon is autistic or sociopathic. Perhaps it doesn't make any difference to what we think about these ideas that are so pressing right now but it is interesting to consider the 'personalities' of the people involved and not just their intelligence.
There is so much to read on substack and here is another link you could read from someone who writes about the group around Hayek.
" by focusing on the Alt Right’s anarcho capitalist or right-wing libertarian faction. Existing accounts explore the influence of right wing libertarians on the Alt Right but fail to delve into how one wing of the movement swerved rightward while another did not (Ganz 2017; Hawley 2017). I show that the incorporation of right-wing libertarians into the Alt Right coalition was the end result of a schism in the neoliberal movement in response to the egalitarian challenge of the 1960s. As the welfare state expanded, civil rights were institutionalized, and the New Left condemned domestic and international inequality, neoliberals attacked what they saw as the Left’s faulty premises: the perfectibility of humans through state intervention and the possibility of a future equality of not only starting points but outcomes. Taking aim at what they saw as the “collectivism” and “blank slate” ideology of both student radicals and mainstream social democrats, neoliberals emphasized the basic inequality of human capacity and the stubborn persistence of individual and group differences."
Thanks Julie, I don't think the Road to Serfdom is boring. Nor did Keynes who was very impressed by it. It has a chapter in it called something like "how the worst get to the top" which was a pretty good thing to think about in 1944 along with Orwell.
The problem was that it was one aspect of the story. I think Hayek was driven by his fears. He had a legitimate fear of how badly governments can be governed — we're getting a fairly good demonstration of it right now — but remarkably little interest or curiosity in the depredations of the market. As Keynes pointed out, he had no way of saying at what point one should limit government — having admitted its important role — and that meant that the line was drawn with a rhetorical burden of proof on government, that wasn't imposed on the market.
I don't remember the bit about how the worst get to the top. Did he predict Trump and Musk? Seriously I'm thinking now that I really didn't understand much of what he wrote if that is the bad government of the kind he warned against. It seemed like all he was against was central planning.
But the bit that I do remember was the paragraph in which he dismissed the type of person who would be in need of the social safety net he advocated, as being of no interest or part of his universe. At the time I was receiving social security benefits and was a bit miffed about not being part of the economy.
That lack of curiosity about things that that don't fit with their schema - that's another trait that needs to be managed out before they grow up. It's hard work raising an autistic child to be kind to other people.
The attached referral ( From the - Canadian -CBC Massey Lecture Series looks at the " Return of History " as a discussion of Fukuyama 's " End of History".... maybe now titled History never ends though democracy might !" She ( Jennifer Welsh) explores the changing vision and influences. that are driving us towards autocracies and threatening the principles that Fukuyama describes
In 1989 American thinker Francis Fukuyama suggested that Western liberal democracy was the endpoint of our political evolution. Our recent history, filled with terrorism and war, rising inequity and the mass flight of populations -- suggests that we've failed to create any sort of global formula for lasting peace and social equity. In the 2016 CBC Massey Lectures, Jennifer Welsh explores how pronouncements about the "end of history" may have been premature. .
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/lecture-1-the-return-of-history-1.3829081
Thanks
Nice interview with Musa Al-Gharbi on Robert Wright's Non Zero podcast the other day. I'll drop a link.
https://www.nonzero.org/p/why-wokeness-failed-robert-wright
The first hour is not paywalled.
Thanks — an hour's enough for me!
Just a quick word of thanks for all the work you put into these omnibus collections, Nicholas. Much appreciated.
Thanks Tim!
Hayek was autistic. So obvious don't you think Nicholas? Or is it still bad form to diagnose dead people? And am I diagnosing or just recognising the signs of this obsessive way of thinking that I've seen in the living autistics I know?
Thanks Julie, come to think of it, autism could be a reasonable explanation for Hayek. As John Gray observed the ”liberal economy emerges morally naked in Hayek's account of it”. Unlike Adam Smith and Schumpeter for instance, he was uninterested in the extent to which the market might itself help replenish the stock of social capital it relied upon to function.
But when you think about it, virtually every major architect of the philosophy of modernity was off-the-charts autistic. Machiavelli, Descartes and Hobbes come to mind. In fact the only one I'm familiar with seems less autistic is Adam Smith. I often think of Western modernity as a kind of Faustian bargain. We got an incredible new world view and set of institutions, but those instincts and institutions that knit us together, that provide care, whether in our households or workplaces? Well they couldn't compete now could they? And here we are.
Thank you for replying. It was this bit in particular that you wrote that I thought was a deadset indicator.... Aron was " exasperated by Hayek’s failure to see his point. "I can relate to that exasperation that one feels when the other person simply will not or cannot maybe entertain the fact that they might not be seeing all that there is to be seen in the possibilities.
I actually read all of the Road to Serfdom or surfdom as I think of it since that blog, way back as a psych post grad.
That was when it was thought Aspergers were boys who can't meet your gaze. It was the oddest writing I had ever read and I diagnosed him then as an obsessive. It was incredibly boring and the only economic text I've read since was Quiggins Zombie Economics... which was much less boring.
As you say so many people in the past must have been on the spectrum, but I've never seen anyone mention that for all those people you list. The only current discussion I have heard is whether Elon is autistic or sociopathic. Perhaps it doesn't make any difference to what we think about these ideas that are so pressing right now but it is interesting to consider the 'personalities' of the people involved and not just their intelligence.
There is so much to read on substack and here is another link you could read from someone who writes about the group around Hayek.
" by focusing on the Alt Right’s anarcho capitalist or right-wing libertarian faction. Existing accounts explore the influence of right wing libertarians on the Alt Right but fail to delve into how one wing of the movement swerved rightward while another did not (Ganz 2017; Hawley 2017). I show that the incorporation of right-wing libertarians into the Alt Right coalition was the end result of a schism in the neoliberal movement in response to the egalitarian challenge of the 1960s. As the welfare state expanded, civil rights were institutionalized, and the New Left condemned domestic and international inequality, neoliberals attacked what they saw as the Left’s faulty premises: the perfectibility of humans through state intervention and the possibility of a future equality of not only starting points but outcomes. Taking aim at what they saw as the “collectivism” and “blank slate” ideology of both student radicals and mainstream social democrats, neoliberals emphasized the basic inequality of human capacity and the stubborn persistence of individual and group differences."
https://www.academia.edu/39530020/Anti_68ers_and_the_Racist_Libertarian_Alliance_How_a_Schism_among_Austrian_School_Neoliberals_Helped_Spawn_the_Alt_Right
Thanks Julie, I don't think the Road to Serfdom is boring. Nor did Keynes who was very impressed by it. It has a chapter in it called something like "how the worst get to the top" which was a pretty good thing to think about in 1944 along with Orwell.
The problem was that it was one aspect of the story. I think Hayek was driven by his fears. He had a legitimate fear of how badly governments can be governed — we're getting a fairly good demonstration of it right now — but remarkably little interest or curiosity in the depredations of the market. As Keynes pointed out, he had no way of saying at what point one should limit government — having admitted its important role — and that meant that the line was drawn with a rhetorical burden of proof on government, that wasn't imposed on the market.
Not boring?
I don't remember the bit about how the worst get to the top. Did he predict Trump and Musk? Seriously I'm thinking now that I really didn't understand much of what he wrote if that is the bad government of the kind he warned against. It seemed like all he was against was central planning.
But the bit that I do remember was the paragraph in which he dismissed the type of person who would be in need of the social safety net he advocated, as being of no interest or part of his universe. At the time I was receiving social security benefits and was a bit miffed about not being part of the economy.
That lack of curiosity about things that that don't fit with their schema - that's another trait that needs to be managed out before they grow up. It's hard work raising an autistic child to be kind to other people.