The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Glenn Beck Goes Hayekian

Posted on | June 9, 2010 | 27 Comments

When I laid down to go to bed in the wee hours this morning, I flipped on Fox News and caught the re-run of Glenn Beck. He was talking about Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, and The Other Glenn informs us that the book is now No. 1 at Amazon.

It’s unfortunate, really, that most people who read The Road to Serfdom stop there and don’t pursue Austrian economics or Hayekian philosophy further. One of the finest treatises Hayek ever wrote was The Mirage of Social Justice – which goes in-depth on a key theme briefly explored in Road — and yet it gets short shrift.

Many people describe Hayek as “libertarian,” a term also applied to Hayek’s mentor Ludwig von Mises, author of the masterwork Socialism (which I highly recommend). But Hayek and Mises were economists who directed their critique at the socialist error — Hayek famously described it as The Fatal Conceit — of supposing that a bureaucratic elite could improve the lives of ordinary people by directing their economic activity in a more rational or equal manner.

That distinct insight is quite separate from what most people mean by the label “libertarian,” and neither Hayek nor Mises was ever made it their business to militate for, inter alia, legalized prostitution. Which isn’t to say they were anti-prostitution. Rather, the Austrians sought to get people to think about economic policy as a thing separate from whatever might be meant by “conservative,” a term that provokes mental associations that are utterly unrelated to (and sometimes at variance with) the preservation of economic liberty.

By the way, if you think I’m trying to sell you books so that I can collect a (tiny) profit via Amazon Associates referrals, you’re absolutely right. However, if you want to read some excellent Hayek for free, let me recommend “The Intellectuals and Socialism,” and I’ll also tell you how to get the full value of it:

  • Print it out – A work of enduring value deserves the permanence of print. This isn’t some quick headline thing you can scan on your computer and then forget. It’s a keeper. So print it out and staple the pages together, and keep it for future reference.
  • Take it to bed with you — It is my opinion that the best reading position is supine. Ever since college, whenever I really wanted to get into reading something, I lie down to do it. Even if you can’t go to bed, recline on the sofa and you’ll be able to read with greater concentration. If you find yourself nodding off, don’t worry. Enjoy your nap, and then read more when you wake up again. There have been times (before I became a blogger, I should note) when I’ve spent entire weekends plowing through a book in this manner: Read some, sleep some, eat some, read some. Relax the nervous system, and hone the brain.
  • Keep a pen handy — This is a trick I borrowed from Thomas Jefferson. He had a notebook that he called a “commonplace,” sort of a daily journal of his reading and other activities. He’d cut out a newspaper item, glue it into his commonplace, and record his thoughts on it. What I drew from that was the importance of making notes, however minor, about whatever I read. When reading any work that is philosophical in nature, especially, you’ll likely find some passage that inspires you to underline a sentence or bracket a paragraph and then jot a note in the margin referencing some specific example of that particular point.

By the way, Ronald Reagan was known to do this kind of stuff — reading serious stuff as relaxation and making margin notes. And the Gipper was also a huge fan of Hayek. While I’m at it, let me suggest one possible answer to the question, “What Would Reagan Do?” Hit the tip jar.

Hey, you got something against capitalism, buddy?

UPDATE: Thanks to the commenter who called my attention to the YouTube clips of this Glenn Beck broadcast at Liberty Pulse. You can go over there and see the entire episode, but here’s just one taste, featuring Professor Thomas E. Woods Jr.:

By the way, Professor Woods was among those who endorsed Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party, which he called “relentless and stunning.”

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Category: Economics, Education

Comments

  • hrh

    Not to impinge to much on the capitalist system and the estate of the Hayek’s, but someone linked a free pdf of Serfdom:

    http://freebieholic.net/2008/06/02/the-road-to-serfdom-by-fa-hayek-free-pdf/

  • hrh

    to = too
    the estate of the Hayek’s = the Hayek’s estate

  • hrh

    Not to impinge to much on the capitalist system and the estate of the Hayek’s, but someone linked a free pdf of Serfdom:

    http://freebieholic.net/2008/06/02/the-road-to-serfdom-by-fa-hayek-free-pdf/

  • hrh

    to = too
    the estate of the Hayek’s = the Hayek’s estate

  • http://catholicprodigaldaughter.blogspot.com/ Mary Rose

    Another book to add to my already-burgeoning library…

    Hey. Did you know that James O’Keefe will be speaking at the 29th Annual G.K. Chesterton conference?

    “The Mistake about the Social Services”

    Of course I want to go. May have to start my own Shoe Leather Fund.

  • http://catholicprodigaldaughter.blogspot.com/ Mary Rose

    Another book to add to my already-burgeoning library…

    Hey. Did you know that James O’Keefe will be speaking at the 29th Annual G.K. Chesterton conference?

    “The Mistake about the Social Services”

    Of course I want to go. May have to start my own Shoe Leather Fund.

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    http://libertypulse.com/article/tom-woods-yuri-maltsev-discuss-road-to-serfdom-on-glenn-beck/

    Tom Woods & Yuri Maltsev Discuss Road to Serfdom on Glenn Beck

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    http://libertypulse.com/article/tom-woods-yuri-maltsev-discuss-road-to-serfdom-on-glenn-beck/

    Tom Woods & Yuri Maltsev Discuss Road to Serfdom on Glenn Beck

  • Count Vikula

    That was the best episode of The Glenn Beck Show I have viewed thus far.

  • Count Vikula

    That was the best episode of The Glenn Beck Show I have viewed thus far.

  • http://viadelgato.blogspot.com Carlos del Gato

    Another good one that’s also free to download.

    The Counter-Revolution of Science.
    http://www.archive.org/details/counterrevolutio030197mbp

  • http://viadelgato.blogspot.com Carlos del Gato

    Another good one that’s also free to download.

    The Counter-Revolution of Science.
    http://www.archive.org/details/counterrevolutio030197mbp

  • JC

    One quibble – Shoot from a prone position, read in a supine position.

  • JC

    One quibble – Shoot from a prone position, read in a supine position.

  • jWarrior

    This link has The Road to Serfdom in cartoons that was published in Readers Digest: http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/enemies_foreign_domestic/the_road_to_serfdom_in_ca.php#010942.

  • jWarrior

    This link has The Road to Serfdom in cartoons that was published in Readers Digest: http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/enemies_foreign_domestic/the_road_to_serfdom_in_ca.php#010942.

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    Shoot from a prone position, read in a supine position

    Thanks. Fixed that. In the newspaper business, the copy desk always caught my f–ups. Here in the ‘sphere, it’s the commenters.

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    Shoot from a prone position, read in a supine position

    Thanks. Fixed that. In the newspaper business, the copy desk always caught my f–ups. Here in the ‘sphere, it’s the commenters.

  • sgide

    It’s important to note also that Hayek was not a conservative. He considered himself a liberal but of course at that time liberal had a different meaning than it does today. The liberal well has been poisoned by progressives and their leftist ideology.

    Today it seems to me also that many people who claim to be conservative are in fact more liberal than so-called liberals. The reason for that is that many conservatives have an over-riding passion for personal freedom and personal responsibility.

  • sgide

    It’s important to note also that Hayek was not a conservative. He considered himself a liberal but of course at that time liberal had a different meaning than it does today. The liberal well has been poisoned by progressives and their leftist ideology.

    Today it seems to me also that many people who claim to be conservative are in fact more liberal than so-called liberals. The reason for that is that many conservatives have an over-riding passion for personal freedom and personal responsibility.

  • http://radamisto.blogspot.com Steve J.

    Let’s hope these new readers make to page page 125:

    Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance, where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks, the case for the state helping to organise a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong. There are many points of detail where those wishing to preserve the competitive system and those wishing to supersede it by something different will disagree on the details of such schemes; and it is possible under the name of social insurance to introduce measures which tend to make competition more or less ineffective. But there is no incompatibility in principle between the state providing greater security in this way and the preservation of individual freedom.

  • http://radamisto.blogspot.com Steve J.

    Let’s hope these new readers make to page page 125:

    Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance, where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks, the case for the state helping to organise a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong. There are many points of detail where those wishing to preserve the competitive system and those wishing to supersede it by something different will disagree on the details of such schemes; and it is possible under the name of social insurance to introduce measures which tend to make competition more or less ineffective. But there is no incompatibility in principle between the state providing greater security in this way and the preservation of individual freedom.

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    *sigh* just some common ‘commenter’. Not even a courtesy link..

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    *sigh* just some common ‘commenter’. Not even a courtesy link..

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