(For original Hayek article, click here.)
The totalitarian leader must collect around him a group which is prepared voluntarily to submit to that discipline which they are to impose by force upon the rest of the people. That socialism can be put info practice only by methods which most socialists disapprove is, of course, a lesson learned by many social reformers in the past. ...To weld together a closely coherent body of supporters, the leader must appeal to a common human weakness. It seems to be easier for people to agree on a negative program -- on the hatred of an enemy, on the envy of those better off - than on any positive task. The contrast between the "we" and the "they" is consequently always employed by those who seek the allegiance of huge masses. The enemy may be internal, like the "Jew" in Germany or the "kulak" in Russia, or he may be external. In any case, this technique has the great advantage of leaving the leader greater freedom of action than would almost any positive program.
...Collectivism means the end of truth. To make a totalitarian system function efficiently, it is not enough that everybody should be forced to work for the ends selected by those in control; it is essential that the people should come to regard these ends as their own. This is brought about by propaganda and by complete control of all sources of information.
The most effective way of making people accept the validity of the values they are to serve is to persuade them that they are really the same as those they have always held, but which were not properly understood or recognized before. And the most efficient technique to this end is to use the old words but change their meaning. Few traits of totalitarian regimes are at the same time so confusing to the superficial observer and yet so characteristic of the whole intellectual climate as this complete perversion of language.
The worst sufferer in this respect is the word "liberty." It is a word used as freely in totalitarian states as elsewhere. Indeed, it could almost be said that wherever liberty as we know it has been destroyed, this has been done in the name of some new freedom promised to the people. Even among us we have planners who promise us a "collective freedom," which is as misleading as anything said by totalitarian politicians. "Collective freedom" is not the freedom of the members of society but the unlimited freedom of the planner to do with society that which he pleases. This is the confusion of freedom with power carried to the extreme. It is not difficult to deprive the seat majority of independent thought. But the minority who will retain an inclination to criticize must also be silenced. Public criticism or even expressions of doubt must be suppressed because they tend to weaken support of the regime. As Sidney and Beatrice Webb report of the position in every Russian enterprise: "Whilst the work is in progress, any public expression of doubt that the plan will be successful is an act of disloyalty and even of treachery because of its possible effect on the will and efforts of the rest of the staff."
...The worst oppression is condoned if it is committed in the name of socialism. Intolerance of opposing ideas is openly extolled; The tragedy of collectivist thought is that, while it starts out to make reason supreme, it ends by destroying reason. There is one aspect of the change in moral values brought about by the advance of collectivism which provides special food for thought. It is that the virtues which are held less and less in esteem in Britain and America are precisely those on which Anglo-Saxons justly prided themselves and in which they were generally recognized to excel. These virtues were independence and self-reliance, individual initiative and local responsibility, the successful reliance on voluntary activity, noninterference with one's neighbor and tolerance of the different, and a healthy suspicion of power and authority. Almost all the traditions and institutions which have molded the national character and the whole moral climate of England and America are those which the progress of collectivism and its centralistic tendencies are progressively destroying.
via @AClassicLiberal
Comments (9)
Comments
A moderately-smug Ted talk about partisan thinking, lefties vs righties, with some discussion of how authority plays into things.
Posted by: Crid [CridComment at gmail] at January 21, 2012 1:56 AM
What a great quote. Thanks for posting this, Amy.
Posted by: Robert at January 21, 2012 3:10 AM
Thanks, Robert.
Posted by: Amy Alkon at January 21, 2012 6:05 AM
I always assumed that it was the Peter Principle that allows the worst to get to the top.
(I wonder how safe your antispamware really is if it keeps asking the same question every day.)
Posted by: Patrick at January 21, 2012 1:44 PM
(I wonder how safe your antispamware really is if it keeps asking the same question every day.)
No need to wonder. If I start getting spam, I'll change it. I am, however, partial to the pirate question.
Posted by: Amy Alkon at January 21, 2012 2:48 PM
Probably one of your more important posts and so far (until me) 5 comments.
Evidently soap operas are more important than liberty. Ah. Well. Liberty was always a minority interest anyway. Sadly.
Posted by: M. Simon at January 21, 2012 6:24 PM
I note Pinker on your blog roll. The "Great" cognitive scientists was once of the opinion that drug taking was an aberration - i.e. dysfunction. He has since come around to my point of view - "drug taking is self medication". I never did get a thank you from him for informing him. Why should I expect it? I have no degree in the subject. I'm just a well informed layman. Better informed than he was at the time. Which has got to suck. For a "man" of his "stature".
Any way - I did not get a reasoned discussion from him on the subject. Just a curt dismissal. He could use some well informed critics to keep him honest.
BTW I like letting the good times roll. Heh.
Posted by: M. Simon at January 21, 2012 6:35 PM
Terrence McKenna and Os Janiger were friends of mine. Both now dead.
Os: http://encycl.opentopia.com/term/Oscar_Janiger
McKenna's interesting book on hallucinogenic drugs as therapeutic:
The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs, Evolution, Shamanism, the Rebirth of the Goddess, and the End of History
I used it as my handbook to take mushrooms, which I actually used when I had some issues I needed to figure out. They were helpful. I took LSD once but it was too strong. Other than those episodes, I don't smoke pot or do any drugs, but my mushroom experiences were very good ones. Wrote down a lot of stuff and it wasn't gibberish or anything.
Posted by: Amy Alkon at January 21, 2012 7:12 PM
It appears to me that the people who are smart enough to run things right are also smart enough to not want to run for office. And don't even get me started on MBAs and their ilk. My experience with those seems to indicate that it's better 'business' to bullshit corporate overlords than make money by providing customers with value and service. YMMV.
Posted by: DrCos at January 23, 2012 2:52 AM
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