THE FATAL CONCEIT by F.A. HAYEK

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 The bottom line: Not a classic like The Road to Serfdom but an adequate argument against the logic of socialist theory, and the principles of socialist thought.

 

The Fatal Conceit has a central argument that can be summed up from a quote on page 108, “Imagining that all order is the result of design, socialists conclude that order must be improvable by better design of some superior mind.”

The author charts the birth and subsequent advancement of our modern world not by careful central planning, but by an “evolutionary” process where people, ideas, customs, and traditions slowly worked themselves into the accepted fabric of our lives. The end result of this slow, gradual, process placed an emphasis on private property, which then ultimately led to our modern capitalistic system. Because our civilization was not planned, the socialists err in thinking they can improve upon what happened spontaneously, without realizing they are in fact a result of this spontaneous order.

Hayek loudly (and intelligently) argues against the socialist model and declares its proponents to either be malicious, deceptive, or self-serving, while in turn making the often-made mistake by libertarian, free-market economists of refusing to acknowledge that their theory on the proper functioning of civilization may not be infallible.

The book uses a predominantly economic lens to view the world, but I found the chapters on the perversion of language and guardians of tradition particularly interesting.

 

Dr. C.H.E. Sadaphal

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One comment on “THE FATAL CONCEIT by F.A. HAYEK
  1. BCHC says:

    Not to mention the book itself is very hard to read. It has very flowery language so Hayek manages to expand upon something as simple as “I like chocolate” into a 3 paragraph rant.

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