The Clash of Ideas

 "What then are the ideas that transformed the common human condition in the Western world from weakness and drudgery to a life of abundance and freedom that soars above the past? The answer to that question takes us to the early foundations of the principles of freedom and eventually into the minds of two brilliant economists who were personal friends."

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  "Sadly, today the worn out socialist dogmas of the past have been repackaged to capture a new generation. Heroes of liberty paid with their fortunes and their lives in a struggle to settle the big questions that dominated the twentieth century and fomented a half a century of wars, purges, and holocausts. Sadly, the lessons could have been learned and heeded without suffering the greatest loss of life ever recorded and all for a utopian dream."

  "And here we come to the third power required to build that “city on the hill”: belief in an invisible force that compels us to seek our higher selves over our lower selves." 

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"Certain destructive human propensities are moderated by the following spontaneously derived societal institutions: the free market, family, Judeo-Christian ethics, along with the rule-of-law."

   "The most destructive force in human history is government. Human progress can be assured only by the maintenance and growth of individual freedom. 

(...)

Consequently, the chief opportunity and responsibility of all mindful citizens is to actively advocate for freedom and its institutions against government intrusion. 

  "According to Frederic Bastiat, 'We hold from God the gift which includes all others. This gift is life'—our bodies, our faculties, and what we produce with them. But life cannot sustain itself. We have been entrusted with that responsibility. We are compelled to work in order to preserve and develop our lives. To live is to work; this is man. These three gifts, life, liberty, and property are superior to legislation and any form of government." 

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"You could never have imagined an invisible force would someday transform such despair into abundance, security, and complexity of measureless scope. But it did! The powerful invisible force is the free market supported by family, Judeo-Christian ethics, along with the rule of law."

"Hayek heard his name and stepped to the stage. His quiet hazel eyes opened wide with astonishment. The room was huge. The mass of faces and clapping hands disappeared into the darkness beyond the stage lights. This was to be no quiet Q&A. Hayek’s soft voice, half an octave too high, wafted softly over the crowd. He hesitates. ' We have with the best of intentions by our brightest lights sought to check the maladies of humanity. We were confident in our plans. The results have been a disastrous thirty years of world wars. Surely man’s greatest and noblest intentions could not have caused such ruin. Where did we go astray?' 

He had never spoken in such a large arena. There was no oratorical flourish. Hayek’s abstract precepts of freedom were delivered in a monotone voice unenhanced by vibrancy or vigor. The crowd was quietly polite. 

Mysteriously, as Hayek spoke...   

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