J
Jeffrey C. Dege
Guest
On Sun, 02 May 2004 23:08:21 GMT, R. Steve Walz <rstevew@armory.com> wrote:
sufficiently ignorant that it stands by itself.
Why should I listen to you, rather than them?
--
[Liberty] is a modest and even humble creed, based on a low opinion of
men's wisdom and capacities and aware that, withing the range for which
we can plan, even the best society will not satisfy all our desires.
It is as remote from perfectionism as it is from the hurry and impatience
of the passionate reformer, whose indignation about particular evils
so often blinds him to the harm and injustice that the realization of
his plans is likely to produce. Ambition, impatience, and hurry are
often admirable in individuals; but they are pernicious if they guide
the power of coercion and if improvement depends on those who, when
authority is conferred on them, assume that in their authority lies
superior wisdom and thus the right to impose their beliefs on others.
I hope our generation may have learned that it has been perfectionism of
one kind or another that has often destroyed whatever degree of decency
societies have achieved. With more limited objectives, more patience,
and more humility, we may in fact advance further and faster than we have
done while under the guidance of "a proud and most presumptive confidence
in the transcendent wisdom of this age, and in its discernment."
- F.A. Hayek, "The Constitution of Liberty"
I had intended to comment on the rest of your blather, but this wasJeffrey C. Dege wrote:
It is tempting
to believe that social evils arise from the activities of evil men
and that if only good men (like ourselves, naturally) wielded power,
all would be well.
-----------------------
All social ills can be traced to unfairness,
sufficiently ignorant that it stands by itself.
Both Friedman and Hayek won Nobel Prizes in economics.- Milton Friedman's introduction to F. A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom"
You actually quote the guy who is most widely recognized as an
inept posturing right-wing asshole??
Why should I listen to you, rather than them?
--
[Liberty] is a modest and even humble creed, based on a low opinion of
men's wisdom and capacities and aware that, withing the range for which
we can plan, even the best society will not satisfy all our desires.
It is as remote from perfectionism as it is from the hurry and impatience
of the passionate reformer, whose indignation about particular evils
so often blinds him to the harm and injustice that the realization of
his plans is likely to produce. Ambition, impatience, and hurry are
often admirable in individuals; but they are pernicious if they guide
the power of coercion and if improvement depends on those who, when
authority is conferred on them, assume that in their authority lies
superior wisdom and thus the right to impose their beliefs on others.
I hope our generation may have learned that it has been perfectionism of
one kind or another that has often destroyed whatever degree of decency
societies have achieved. With more limited objectives, more patience,
and more humility, we may in fact advance further and faster than we have
done while under the guidance of "a proud and most presumptive confidence
in the transcendent wisdom of this age, and in its discernment."
- F.A. Hayek, "The Constitution of Liberty"