Sunday, February 13, 2011

Time is the Hero

All my inklings of Hayek's Theistic leanings are disbanded as I reach into the inner makings of Chapter 4. Hayek looks at the "French Tradition" and British institutions which spawned a movement of democratic liberalism and socialism and applauds the British philosophers that have deducted how "...the origin of institutions, not in contrivance or design, but in the survival of the successful."

Civilizations are the product of many men and growing knowledge and wisdom of what systems work over time, not by any particular design, but by a random selection of the "survival of the fittest", the institutions which stand the obstruct test of time.

Chief Justice Hale, "...Long experience makes more discoveries touching conveniences or inconveniences of laws than is possible for the wisest council of men at first to forsee."

He goes on...

"It is not necessary that the reasons of the institution should be evident unto us. It is sufficient that they are instituted laws that give a certainty to us, and it is reasonable to observe them though the particular reason of the institution appear not."

Once we are floating on our evolved, man-made utopian island, we won't even find it necessary to look back and deconstruct the process of how we got here. I like Hayek's thinking...

3 comments:

  1. Are we headed for a man made Utopian island or is it instead possible that we forge basic civilization, reach an age of liberty then topple over, and start the cycle again? The visible concrete gains from curtailing liberty offer a seductive pull rather than the risk taking of fulling embracing liberty with it's unknown outcomes.

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  3. The seductive pull gets the vote of the elect, and eventually the mass public, and the Liberty we have discovered is not a result of democracy. Democracy evolves into "mobocracy" as Thomas Jefferson said: "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%."

    The Roman constitution was mentioned for a reason in Chapter 4, because our government was formed as a constitutional republic, one built on the founding principals of Roman government. Our constition very closely similates the Roman constitution. There is something to be learned from the History of Rome as the American culture merges into a global conglomerate.

    I agree, history has shown us to be in a cyclical construct/deconstruction process, however, the risk taking of fully embracing liberty must be taken with guiding principals such as those our founding fathers maintained.

    "God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." --- Daniel Webster

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