Newsweek Intern Attempts to Describe Hayek’s Road to Serfdom: Massive FAIL

Posted on | June 17, 2010 | 154 Comments

Thanks to Kathy Shaidle for calling attention to this sophomoric effort by Princeton senior Isia Jasiewicz:

On June 8, Beck devoted an entire episode of his talk show on Fox News to The Road to Serfdom, a work of political theory written in the immediate aftermath of World War II by Friedrich von Hayek, an Austrian émigré to the U.K. and the 1974 recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics . . .
The Road to Serfdom is a treatise on libertarianism, well-known only in academic circles or among political theory wonks stalwart enough to wade through the 60-page introduction and chapters on “Planning and the Rule of Law” and “The Prospects of International Order.”

Ha. Ha. Haha. BWAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Just a few points:

The term “libertarian” in its present meaning was not commonly used until the 1970s.
Far from being known only to “wonks,” The Road to Serfdom was a best-seller in 1944 and ’45, going through multiple printings, and was originally popularized through a condensed version published by Reader’s Digest.
It was not “a work of political theory,” but an attempt to explain the rise of Nazism and fascism — 1944? hint, hint — as one consequence of the prevalence of socialist ideas. It was a very practical book, warning leaders in England and America that the tendency toward the “planned economy” could produce similar results even in Western democracies.
The book obviously wasn’t written in the “aftermath of World War II,” but during the war.
As to being “stalwart enough to wade through the 60-page introduction,” my own copy (50th anniversary edition, 1994) includes an 11-page introduction by Milton Friedman and a couple of prefaces to previous editions. The most interesting chapters, to my mind, are Chapter 8 (“Who, Whom?”), Chapter 10 (“Why the Worst Get on Top”) and especially Chapter 12 (“The Socialist Roots of Nazism”), which has never ceased to provoke howls from the Left, who refuse to admit that National Socialism was socialism at all.

Next assignment for Isia Jasiewicz? “The Bible, a theological treatise well-known only in religious circles or among clergy stalwart enough to wade through several pages of ‘begats’ and the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy.”

ADDENDUM: Whatever happened to young journalists learning their craft as reporters before trying their hand at punditry or criticism? I suppose it would be slumming for a Princeton grad to take a job as a staff writer for a newspaper, covering school-board meetings and such. But am I the only reader who resents being lectured to by 22-year-olds? I don’t care what your SAT score was, sweetheart. You’re not that precocious.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Remember that Professor Reynolds is a Yale Law grad, so the humiliation of Princetonians and Harvardians (e.g., Andrew Sullivan) warms the cockles of his heart.

UPDATE II: As I remarked last week, it is unfortunate 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. Hayek famously described the errors of socialism in The Fatal Conceit.

If you want to read some excellent Hayek for free, I recommend “The Intellectuals and Socialism.” And, oh, yeah, Glenn Beck is right: Buy gold.

UPDATE III: Linked by Greg Ransom at the Hayek Center. Wouldn’t it be nice if the center were Hayekian?

Little Miss Attila has some great Hayekian video.

UPDATE IV: E-mail from a reader:

I’m a former editor at the [Reader’s] Digest. Actually, RD didn’t just do a condensed version of Road to Serfdom, they published the condensed version in the magazine, which at the time was one of, if not the most, widely read magazines in the country. One of the reasons it is so well known by a certain generation, is that it was read by millions of people who other wise might not have been aware of it.
No need to mention me, just the fact, which reinforces that this guy’s a moron. Cheers.

Thanks!

Category: Economics, Glenn Beck, Neutral Objective Journalism

Comments

154 Responses to “Newsweek Intern Attempts to Describe Hayek’s Road to Serfdom: Massive FAIL”

Jay Lewis
June 18th, 2010 @ 2:23 pm

“I suppose it would be slumming for a Princeton grad to take a job as a staff writer for a newspaper…”

Truer words, brother. Truer words. When I was a working reporter, the old curmudgeons never quite trusted anyone who hadn’t done time on either police beat or sports. That’s where you were forced to get your facts straight, because cops and sports are all about numbers, times, locations and names.

Somewhere in the shift from reporters to journalists to pundits, this simple virtue got lost.
Jay Lewis
June 18th, 2010 @ 10:23 am

“I suppose it would be slumming for a Princeton grad to take a job as a staff writer for a newspaper…”

Truer words, brother. Truer words. When I was a working reporter, the old curmudgeons never quite trusted anyone who hadn’t done time on either police beat or sports. That’s where you were forced to get your facts straight, because cops and sports are all about numbers, times, locations and names.

Somewhere in the shift from reporters to journalists to pundits, this simple virtue got lost.
H. G. Fielding
June 18th, 2010 @ 2:34 pm

“…nowhere does Conor Friedersdorf figure into it.” YET.

bad pennies and all
H. G. Fielding
June 18th, 2010 @ 10:34 am

“…nowhere does Conor Friedersdorf figure into it.” YET.

bad pennies and all
H. G. Fielding
June 18th, 2010 @ 2:46 pm

Actually, this is the kind of topic that ought to scream ought to the FrumDreherFriedersdorf troika –epistemic closure, thralldom to dead thinkers and old ideas etc.

Who cares that Hayek is right? What’s important is relentless social expirementation! How else can they show their brilliance?
H. G. Fielding
June 18th, 2010 @ 10:46 am

Actually, this is the kind of topic that ought to scream ought to the FrumDreherFriedersdorf troika –epistemic closure, thralldom to dead thinkers and old ideas etc.

Who cares that Hayek is right? What’s important is relentless social expirementation! How else can they show their brilliance?
H. G. Fielding
June 18th, 2010 @ 2:50 pm

ought to scream out (my proofreader used to work for Newsweek)
H. G. Fielding
June 18th, 2010 @ 10:50 am

ought to scream out (my proofreader used to work for Newsweek)
Jack
June 18th, 2010 @ 3:14 pm

I concur with Kenneth Greenlee … my owns/operates a popular independent bookstore … she purchases as many Road to Serfdom as she can every time they become available from her distributors (which isn’t often). She simply cannot keep the book in stock.

Jasiewicz needs to climb down out of the Ivory Tower and do a BBQ tour of fly-over country.
Jack
June 18th, 2010 @ 11:14 am

I concur with Kenneth Greenlee … my owns/operates a popular independent bookstore … she purchases as many Road to Serfdom as she can every time they become available from her distributors (which isn’t often). She simply cannot keep the book in stock.

Jasiewicz needs to climb down out of the Ivory Tower and do a BBQ tour of fly-over country.
Roxeanne de Luca
June 18th, 2010 @ 3:52 pm

Jasiewicz needs to climb down out of the Ivory Tower and do a BBQ tour of fly-over country.

She grew up in rural Virginia, which may be technically “drive through” country, not “flyover”, but the same idea applies.
Roxeanne de Luca
June 18th, 2010 @ 11:52 am

Jasiewicz needs to climb down out of the Ivory Tower and do a BBQ tour of fly-over country.

She grew up in rural Virginia, which may be technically “drive through” country, not “flyover”, but the same idea applies.
Adran
June 18th, 2010 @ 5:58 pm

Give it up Roxeanne. She’s falsely attacking others through a publication she’d never be given access to if she wasn’t an Ivy Leaguer. She’s sold herself out and deserves to be publicly raked over the coals for her lies.
Adran
June 18th, 2010 @ 1:58 pm

Give it up Roxeanne. She’s falsely attacking others through a publication she’d never be given access to if she wasn’t an Ivy Leaguer. She’s sold herself out and deserves to be publicly raked over the coals for her lies.
Adran
June 18th, 2010 @ 6:00 pm

Oh, by the way, I’m doing two things today I’ve been putting off for a long time: Canceling my Newsweek subscription (which I rarely even look at) and buying a copy of The Road to Serfdom. Congratulations, Izzie!
Adran
June 18th, 2010 @ 2:00 pm

Oh, by the way, I’m doing two things today I’ve been putting off for a long time: Canceling my Newsweek subscription (which I rarely even look at) and buying a copy of The Road to Serfdom. Congratulations, Izzie!
Ted Smith
June 18th, 2010 @ 7:13 pm

For those who have read The Road to Serfdom, and want another beautifully written book on free market economics and its relationship to free society, get Wilhelm Ropke’s (yes, another Austrian) The Humane Economy. An absolutely wonderful book.
Ted Smith
June 18th, 2010 @ 3:13 pm

For those who have read The Road to Serfdom, and want another beautifully written book on free market economics and its relationship to free society, get Wilhelm Ropke’s (yes, another Austrian) The Humane Economy. An absolutely wonderful book.
Roxeanne de Luca
June 18th, 2010 @ 7:18 pm

Adran: Isia is the dear friend of one of my friends, so raking her over the coals isn’t on my agenda.

Having met Isia, I take a slightly different view of this – even though I think that her article was terrible and am ashamed that Newsweek published it. Personal like of Isia aside, I take a long-term-ish view: should she try to opine away at Yale Law without doing her homework, her professors will eat her for lunch. Should she not want to wade through dense writing, she will not get through law school. Also, Yale has a strong group of conservatives, so I have no doubt that she’ll quickly learn that conservative intellectualism is not an oxymoron.
Roxeanne de Luca
June 18th, 2010 @ 3:18 pm

Adran: Isia is the dear friend of one of my friends, so raking her over the coals isn’t on my agenda.

Having met Isia, I take a slightly different view of this – even though I think that her article was terrible and am ashamed that Newsweek published it. Personal like of Isia aside, I take a long-term-ish view: should she try to opine away at Yale Law without doing her homework, her professors will eat her for lunch. Should she not want to wade through dense writing, she will not get through law school. Also, Yale has a strong group of conservatives, so I have no doubt that she’ll quickly learn that conservative intellectualism is not an oxymoron.
Estragon
June 18th, 2010 @ 8:31 pm

With all due respect to Roxeanne’s friend, the very fact that Yale Law would admit such a vacuous little twit says about all we need to know about the Ivy League today.
Estragon
June 18th, 2010 @ 4:31 pm

With all due respect to Roxeanne’s friend, the very fact that Yale Law would admit such a vacuous little twit says about all we need to know about the Ivy League today.
So, the alma mater graduates ignoramuses « The Tiger on Politics
June 18th, 2010 @ 5:18 pm

[…] Kathy Shaidle points out, via Stacy McCain, a Princeton senior at Newsweek could not do the elementary due diligence required to find out that […]
wombat-socho
June 18th, 2010 @ 10:01 pm

@Don (#44) Opining about Harry Potter, or writing Harry Potter fanfic? Having crossed paths with HP fanfic writers, my experience has been that they neither read nor write very well, and given the low quality of the article in question I couldn’t help[ wondering. 😉
wombat-socho
June 18th, 2010 @ 6:01 pm

@Don (#44) Opining about Harry Potter, or writing Harry Potter fanfic? Having crossed paths with HP fanfic writers, my experience has been that they neither read nor write very well, and given the low quality of the article in question I couldn’t help[ wondering. 😉
nicholas
June 18th, 2010 @ 10:53 pm

I have to agree with Roxeanne. When it comes to young people we should be long on patience, and avoid pushing them deeper into the abyss of liberalism. Listen to what they are saying, and provide a cogent response that an honest person will have to consider. And allow for some time to go by. Turn them, rather than burn them.

They are our future, and though the cesspool of liberalism they are indoctrinated with is reprehensible, our young people are not. Don’t confuse them with an ideology they have not fully taken as their own.
nicholas
June 18th, 2010 @ 6:53 pm

I have to agree with Roxeanne. When it comes to young people we should be long on patience, and avoid pushing them deeper into the abyss of liberalism. Listen to what they are saying, and provide a cogent response that an honest person will have to consider. And allow for some time to go by. Turn them, rather than burn them.

They are our future, and though the cesspool of liberalism they are indoctrinated with is reprehensible, our young people are not. Don’t confuse them with an ideology they have not fully taken as their own.
nicholas
June 18th, 2010 @ 11:09 pm

I’m loving all this interest in Hayek, though. And this at the height of Obamonomics!
nicholas
June 18th, 2010 @ 7:09 pm

I’m loving all this interest in Hayek, though. And this at the height of Obamonomics!
Michael Lonie
June 19th, 2010 @ 12:14 am

Roxanne,
Maybe if your friend Isia gets badly embarrassed on account of her publishing irresponsible ignorance about Hayek she will learn to think and do some research before she opens her yap again. The young may be more tha willing to share with us their ignorance and inexperience, but there is no reason that we should let them get away with it. Burnt fingers build character.
Michael Lonie
June 18th, 2010 @ 8:14 pm

Roxanne,
Maybe if your friend Isia gets badly embarrassed on account of her publishing irresponsible ignorance about Hayek she will learn to think and do some research before she opens her yap again. The young may be more tha willing to share with us their ignorance and inexperience, but there is no reason that we should let them get away with it. Burnt fingers build character.
Dan
June 19th, 2010 @ 12:29 am

As for exploring Austrian economics, one should not miss Dr. George Reisman’s “Capitalism”. It is a masterful synthesis of classical and Austrian economics that offers in depth defenses of capitalism as the only economic system capable of improving the human condition. He dutifully builds on the ideas of Hayek and von Mises.

http://www.capitalism.net/

http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Treatise-Economics-George-Reisman/dp/0915463733/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276907327&sr=8-1
Dan
June 18th, 2010 @ 8:29 pm

As for exploring Austrian economics, one should not miss Dr. George Reisman’s “Capitalism”. It is a masterful synthesis of classical and Austrian economics that offers in depth defenses of capitalism as the only economic system capable of improving the human condition. He dutifully builds on the ideas of Hayek and von Mises.

http://www.capitalism.net/

http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Treatise-Economics-George-Reisman/dp/0915463733/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276907327&sr=8-1
nicholas
June 19th, 2010 @ 1:45 am

A smack down generates a push back, Michael Lonie. Read her piece. It’s more a crack at Beck and the strange appeal and sway he has than a critique of Hayek or a discussion of economics. And you’ve got to admit, Beck’s appeal is kinda strange.

Raucous, unapologetic, entertaining, conservative?

Yes.
nicholas
June 18th, 2010 @ 9:45 pm

A smack down generates a push back, Michael Lonie. Read her piece. It’s more a crack at Beck and the strange appeal and sway he has than a critique of Hayek or a discussion of economics. And you’ve got to admit, Beck’s appeal is kinda strange.

Raucous, unapologetic, entertaining, conservative?

Yes.
Dr. Bob
June 19th, 2010 @ 2:29 am

Not only was the book very popular and widely read, there even was a comic book version.
Dr. Bob
June 18th, 2010 @ 10:29 pm

Not only was the book very popular and widely read, there even was a comic book version.
Mike
June 19th, 2010 @ 12:22 pm

No, Nicholas – YOU “read her piece,” as you superciliously urged another person commenting to do: she admits she “stopped reading at page 10.” And her critique of RTS included her view that its title, and certain of its chapter titles, were boring. Of course, she did go to Princeton, so she DOES know everything – or at least so she’s been told by the likes of Nicholas.
Mike
June 19th, 2010 @ 8:22 am

No, Nicholas – YOU “read her piece,” as you superciliously urged another person commenting to do: she admits she “stopped reading at page 10.” And her critique of RTS included her view that its title, and certain of its chapter titles, were boring. Of course, she did go to Princeton, so she DOES know everything – or at least so she’s been told by the likes of Nicholas.
Ben (The Princeton Tiger on th
June 19th, 2010 @ 3:07 pm

It’s pretty clear that the kid meant just to sneer at Beck — problem for her is that she revealed just how little she knew about 20th century intellectual history with her snide little description/dismissal of The Road to Serfdom.

As far as the top schools go, though, Princeton is pretty good on this stuff.

About a quarter of its student body votes Republican (25% for W in 2000, as I recall), and it was where I found out — from my friends, not my profs — that right-wingers didn’t have horns and make sacrifices to Lucifer at night.

And when I made a snide remark about George W Bush in my senior thesis (a year and some before I voted for the man), my advisor made me take it out — it weakened my paper, she said. (And she was right, of course.)

Anyway, Princeton is about as friendly as it gets, for Ivy League conservatives — people actually believe in freedom of expression there, unlike, say, at Brown.

So lay off a little, will you? Robert George has his Madison program there and is bringing alternative views to the ignorant.

***

But yes, Glenn Beck is a bibliophile — as any listener or viewer of his well knows. It’s all about intellectual history there.

His critics might want to brush up on theirs.
Ben (The Princeton Tiger on this thread)
June 19th, 2010 @ 11:07 am

It’s pretty clear that the kid meant just to sneer at Beck — problem for her is that she revealed just how little she knew about 20th century intellectual history with her snide little description/dismissal of The Road to Serfdom.

As far as the top schools go, though, Princeton is pretty good on this stuff.

About a quarter of its student body votes Republican (25% for W in 2000, as I recall), and it was where I found out — from my friends, not my profs — that right-wingers didn’t have horns and make sacrifices to Lucifer at night.

And when I made a snide remark about George W Bush in my senior thesis (a year and some before I voted for the man), my advisor made me take it out — it weakened my paper, she said. (And she was right, of course.)

Anyway, Princeton is about as friendly as it gets, for Ivy League conservatives — people actually believe in freedom of expression there, unlike, say, at Brown.

So lay off a little, will you? Robert George has his Madison program there and is bringing alternative views to the ignorant.

***

But yes, Glenn Beck is a bibliophile — as any listener or viewer of his well knows. It’s all about intellectual history there.

His critics might want to brush up on theirs.
Ben (The Tiger)
June 19th, 2010 @ 3:17 pm

Remedial reading for Isia:
http://www.johnvfleming.com/book_excerpts.html

20th century literary history from (Princeton) Professor John Fleming, including bits on the central role of Reader’s Digest in American intellectual
Ire.
Ben (The Tiger)
June 19th, 2010 @ 11:17 am

Remedial reading for Isia:
http://www.johnvfleming.com/book_excerpts.html

20th century literary history from (Princeton) Professor John Fleming, including bits on the central role of Reader’s Digest in American intellectual
Ire.
Ben (The Tiger)
June 19th, 2010 @ 3:18 pm

(Ire = life – blasted touch keyboard!)
Ben (The Tiger)
June 19th, 2010 @ 11:18 am

(Ire = life – blasted touch keyboard!)
Ben (The Tiger)
June 19th, 2010 @ 5:21 pm

Actually, now that I think of it, Reader’s Digest played a central role in American intellectual _ire_, too: the intelligentsia was pissed off that RD would publish anti-Communist writers and even pay them the then-princely sum of a dollar a word!

More here and here.
Ben (The Tiger)
June 19th, 2010 @ 1:21 pm

Actually, now that I think of it, Reader’s Digest played a central role in American intellectual _ire_, too: the intelligentsia was pissed off that RD would publish anti-Communist writers and even pay them the then-princely sum of a dollar a word!

More here and here.
nicholas
June 19th, 2010 @ 5:34 pm

Ben, I appreciate your thoughts.

Mike, I did read her piece, and though the general criticism of it here is correct, it strikes me as a bit over the top. She’s a 2010 graduate, for heaven’s sake, and from what I have read of it, her writing in college was not of a serious journalistic nature, but more commentary on her school experiences. It was pleasant and had some merit. The admission that she only got to page ten – come on, you’ve got to smile about that. Not get so darn frustrated. Her dismissive critique of Beck’s fiction is poorly supported? Yes, of course, but who wants to go jumping off a bridge over it?

My preference is to engage young people and open them to considering the moral superiority of individual liberty, and its necessary condition, limited government, as Walter E. Williams is want to say. I don’t think you get there by condemning their thoughts and writings. I realize that they have spent a great deal of time in what is now essentially a liberal indoctrination. I also believe their ideas about the world are not fully formed, and thus they have the potential of learning from new experiences. I am interested in this young gal and others like her and hope to offer the vista from a conservative’s perspective. Motivation wise, the harder you push her down the more you cement her into the dogma of the left. I’m not for writing young people off. If we cannot pass our heritage to them we will have failed to preserve this last best hope for freedom.

She’s what, twenty-one? Okay. Now relax, will ya?
nicholas
June 19th, 2010 @ 1:34 pm

Ben, I appreciate your thoughts.

Mike, I did read her piece, and though the general criticism of it here is correct, it strikes me as a bit over the top. She’s a 2010 graduate, for heaven’s sake, and from what I have read of it, her writing in college was not of a serious journalistic nature, but more commentary on her school experiences. It was pleasant and had some merit. The admission that she only got to page ten – come on, you’ve got to smile about that. Not get so darn frustrated. Her dismissive critique of Beck’s fiction is poorly supported? Yes, of course, but who wants to go jumping off a bridge over it?

My preference is to engage young people and open them to considering the moral superiority of individual liberty, and its necessary condition, limited government, as Walter E. Williams is want to say. I don’t think you get there by condemning their thoughts and writings. I realize that they have spent a great deal of time in what is now essentially a liberal indoctrination. I also believe their ideas about the world are not fully formed, and thus they have the potential of learning from new experiences. I am interested in this young gal and others like her and hope to offer the vista from a conservative’s perspective. Motivation wise, the harder you push her down the more you cement her into the dogma of the left. I’m not for writing young people off. If we cannot pass our heritage to them we will have failed to preserve this last best hope for freedom.

She’s what, twenty-one? Okay. Now relax, will ya?
Apology to a Princetonian : The Other McCain
June 19th, 2010 @ 2:00 pm

[…] up." — Arthur KoestlerApology to a PrincetonianPosted on | June 19, 2010 | 2 CommentsIn punk-smacking young Isia Jasiewicz the other day, I evidently touched the pride of one of Jasiewicz’s fellow Princeton alumni. […]