Man, Economy, and Financial Markets
8 hours ago
Monday, November 22, 2010
Naked Classism
Hubris - the confidence of an elite that assumes knowledge and wishes to impose that assumed superiority on society. This may be a greater threat to liberty than the overt actions of Leviathan.Naked Classism
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I believe Robin Hanson is on to something. My brother, the classic believer in central planning, believes that light rail is good for a community. A quick conversation of the cost of such a project here and in Las Vegas can not dissuade him from such a belief. He can spout off how it saves the environment, builds a more compact society, and such. Put it simply, he knows more than you. Thus building light rail is good.
ReplyDeleteMy illustration is to show that no matter what the data says, people like him believe in what they are doing. The average person who drives to work, just doesn't understand what they are doing. Once they are shown the error of their ways, they will stop.
Your example is reflective I think of the non reflective belief system that dictates a great deal of the contemporary value systems in society - on both the left and right. So this value system generates a hubris, as you point out, these participants in society are convinced that they "know". Such an odd confidence from many who lack even fundamental analytic skills or who merely assert a result unthinkingly based upon unexamined values.
ReplyDeleteThis unshakeable and unexamined value system placed within an expanding central planned state will lead inevitably to totalitarianism as each of these "all knowing" agents are mini totalitarians. I suspect that their grandchildren *(the pace of these evolution is slow) will rue this unexamined hubris.
The "all knowining" do not internatize the costs of their knowledge and impose a time preference that is destructive of future opportunity.