Recommended Reading: The Road to Serfdom: A classic warning against the dangers to freedom inherent in social planning by F.A. Hayek

Although this blog is on hiatus, I will from time to time offer recommended readings. In this installment, The Road to Serfdom: A classic warning against the dangers to freedom inherent in social planning by F.A. Hayek will be briefly discussed. This book, written by the 1974 co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, was published in 1944 and is dedicated "to socialists of all parties." In it, the author warns against state-imposed collective "planning," and explains in detail its incompatibility with democracy. His thesis, written from the point of view of a classical liberal, is essentially that state economic controls (which lead to monopolies) are the antithesis of freedom. In the real world, authority is human and must make choices that will inevitably favor one group over another, thus leading to social strife. In addition, the happiness of the individual must be neglected, which basically leaves all claims of authoritarian socialism as incompatible with the concept of personal freedom. As the author also states, only personal freedom allows the individual and hence society to develop humanistic morality and values. Without some personal responsibility, the most terrible deeds may be justified as part of the greater plan.

Although dated, his thesis is still relevant. For those believing the state can solve all problems, as its history indicates, this book would definitely appear threatening. For this reason alone, this book is worth reading.

Hiatus

This blog is in hiatus. I have too many projects going right now, and nobody reads this stuff anyway with any regularity. A blog is too difficult to back check. The whole becomes represented by the sum of its parts. The part is seen in and of itself. When I resume, I will likely post only singular aphorisms, but I am not in the mood just yet. The back posts will remain for the search engines and for the (few) readers who are plowing through old posts. Meanwhile, I will likely pursue hard copy publishing. I will still be posting at my far more frequently visited sites: Propaganda Posters and at Drunk And Armed. I will also still publish Rants/Essays irregularly (which nobody much reads either - it takes a lot of work to be universally offensive).

-SRL