Will there be enough Misesians to save civilization? Where are they?
In a previous post I discussed the ‘Ethos’ of Ludwig von Mises. Anyone fortunate enough to have stumbled upon ‘Austrian Economics’ and men like Ludwig von Mises can easily see how homo sapiens just goes from one tribalistic central planning coercive calamity to the next. We are essentially dangerous slightly smarter apes coercing and making criminals out of each other via government. Carl Menger and his ‘Austrian School’ and especially men like Ludwig von Mises already explained how the entire world works, has evolved, and how the only way to save civilization is via economic education. Yet even though these men already explained how the world works, already saved us from Socialism via a great educational effort and marketing campaign in 1940s via the publication of F.A. Hayek’s ‘The Road To Serfdom’ and so much more. As mankind continues its march towards socioeconomic collapse, there are hardly any people in the entire planet who one could refer as Misesians and are the type of people, as in the 1940s, needed to save civilization. Here is what I mean.
The so-called ‘Austrian’ economists like Mises, F.A. Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, saved civilization because they had the following things in common:
A proper understanding of economics and basically how economic freedom, capitalism, the private sector, etc. NOT government coercion is what created civilization. It is private companies who are motivated to innovate and also copy each other’s innovations thus constantly creating and spreading superior information and subsequent social order. Government and thus monopolistic and coercive decision-making should be kept to a minimum and always with an eye on maximizing competition etc. Obviously the Soviet Union and Socialism led to death and chaos because by eliminating competition via large competition immune bureaucracies these societies destroyed the very mechanisms that created their order to begin with. These men also understood that private property and freedom did not come from some God, they were all secular thinkers, and knew that the tradition of private property was an evolved concept and they felt like by understanding economics people could use their reason and common sense to defend private property and freedom and so on. These men did not run around pontificating about morality, calling politicians evil and that sort of thing. They knew economic ignorance was the root of the problems and acted accordingly, and again, via their educational efforts they saved civilization and we are essentially ruining on the little inertia that remains from their efforts.
Mises writes:
Liberalism is rationalistic. It maintains that it is possible to convince the immense majority that peaceful cooperation within the framework of society better serves their rightly understood interests than mutual battling and social disintegration. It has full confidence in man’s reason. It may be that this optimism is unfounded and that the liberals have erred. But then there is no hope left for mankind’s future.
In other words, if we do not even have enough people who have faith in the ability to ‘convince the immense majority’ … ‘then there is no hope left for mankind’s future.’
My concern is, where are the real intellectual descendants of these men? People who see the world as they did and are interested in a similar educational effort to once again, and hopefully for the last time, save civilization?
As things are today when I look around, I don’t mean to sound kinda arrogant, but I am the only person I know to whom I would apply the label Misesian. I understand these men’s ideas. Per Mises above, I too believe that if we do not have enough people who believe that we can ‘convince the immense majority’ … ‘then there is no hope left for mankind’s future.’ Per these men I believe that the root cause of our problems is not bad or stupid people but massive economic ignorance and try to act accordingly.
When I look around I see some people who do understand enough economics and how vital economic freedom is, but many of these believe that other people are either too stupid or purposely malicious or negligent to somehow understand freedom. Many will say that “Leftists” are this way or that way and “they” want to do so and so. As if somehow human beings could never change their minds and actually understand things. It is kinda mind-blowing how so many of today’s freemarketeers were once totally clueless leftists or die-for-Israel-kill-the-antisemitic-muslims Christians who eventually understood economics and changed their minds, yet it does not occur to them that other fellow human beings can also eventually see things differently. These people are thus NOT Misesians. Many of these, do not focus on education and seek to somehow break up the country or separate. The more naive and totally clueless types are preppers, these people are too economically clueless to realize how even if the prep well and the rest of mankind self-destroys in a nuclear holocaust they too would eventually die off. As Mises tells us:
“Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore, everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.”
Thus, again, these preppers and people who don’t realize how we must somehow thrust ourselves “vigorously into the intellectual battle” are NOT Misesians. You also have many that somehow want to become professors of Austrian Economics, that is awesome, and I really value my friendship and acquaintance with many fellow austro-libertarians in academia, but if the goal is to have a career teaching freedom in some obscure university, this means that economics remains in esoteric circles. Mises writes:
“Economics must not be relegated to classrooms and statistical offices and must not be left to esoteric circles. It is the philosophy of human life and action and concerns everybody and everything.”
If these people’s goals are to use the accreditation and network to somehow take economics to the masses per Mises, then awesome, they are Misesians, but if the goal is a “career”, then, this people too, are NOT Misesians. If Mises triumphs, these people would be out of work and I, as well as the truly commited freedom fighters, want Mises to triumph. I have little doubt that many freemarketeers in academia would love to lose their jobs becasue we suddenly had a massive increase in economic understandings. These are Misesians.
So again…Will there be enough Misesians to save civilization? Where are they?
