Susan George asked,
>Why, I'm driven to ask, do progressive funders devote so much of their
>time and money to "projects" and so little to intellectual infrastructure
>and institution building?
. . .
>Why have we not learned from the single-mindedness of the right?
. . .
>Why is the "project"' approach not seen as self-defeating?
The quick and dirty answer is that "the left" and "the right" are not two
sides of a symetrical spectrum of political action with comparable access to
resources, autonomy of decision or forbearance of the state. Susan George's
questions remind me a bit of 'enry 'iggins' plaintiff question about women:
"Why can't they be more like a man?"
One might also mention that it wouldn't necessarily be a "good thing" (even
for the left) if the left did have the same single-mindedness as the right.
There was an episode of single-mindedness of the left in one country that
probably did more damage to the left than any amount of progressive project
funding could ever hope to do. Stalinism did fund intellectual
infrastructure. It also sent intellectuals to the Gulag and Bolsheviks to
the firing squad. Come to think of it, if anything the Mount Pelerin Society
and today's neo-liberal "influectuals" remind me more of Stalin than of Gramsci.
Earlier, on another list, I started a whimsical "novel" called Descending
Mount Pelerin composed of intercut scraps from Hayek's Road to Serfdom,
George Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier and a classic American Economic Review
article by Fritz Machlup (an associate of Hayek's and fellow founding member
of Mount Pelerin Society -- it was Machlup who arranged to get Hayek's Road
to Serfdom published in the U.S.). See if you can guess which sentences are
Hayek's, which are Orwell's and what the snippits from Machlup have to do
with anything.
I started the novel because, for all the right's ideological triumph, their
premise is a lie -- or, to use Orwell's more colourful expression, it's "a
full chamber pot under the breakfast table." Without further ado, here's
chapter one --
Descending Mount Pelerin
Chapter One: On the Road with Fred and George
During the whole modern period of European history, the general direction of
social development was one of freeing the individual from the ties which had
bound him to the customary or prescribed ways in the pursuit of his ordinary
activities. On the day when there was a full chamber pot under the breakfast
table I decided to leave.
The place was beginning to depress me. The conscious realization that the
spontaneous and uncontrolled efforts of individuals were capable of
producing a complex order of economic activities could come about only after
this development had made some progress. It was not only the dirt, the
smells and the vile food, but the feeling of stagnant meaningless decay, of
having got down into some subterranean place where people go creeping round
and round, just like blackbeetles, in an endless muddle of slovened jobs and
mean grievances.
The most dreadful thing about people like the Brookers is the way they say
the same things over and over again. The subsequent elaboration of a
consistent argument in favor of economic freedom was the outcome of a free
growth of economic activity which had been the undesigned and unforeseen
by-product of political freedom. It gives you the feeling that they are not
real people at all, but a kind of ghost for ever rehearsing the same futile
rigamarole.
What sort of considerations are behind the routine decision of the driver of
an automobile to overtake a truck proceeding ahead of him at a slower speed?
What factors influence his decision? Assume that he is faced with the
alternative of either slowing down and staying behind the truck or of
passing it before a car which is approaching from the opposite direction
will have reached the spot. As an experienced driver he somehow takes into
account (a) the speed at which the truck is going, (b) the remaining
distance between himself and the truck, (c) the speed at which he is
proceeding, (d) the possible acceleration of his speed, (e) the distance
between him and the car approaching from the opposite direction, (f) the
speed at which that car is approaching; and probably also the condition of
the road (concrete or dirt, wet or dry, straight or winding, level or
uphill), the degree of visibility (light or dark, clear or foggy), the
condition of the tires and brakes of his car, and -- let us hope -- his own
condition (fresh or tired, sober or alcoholized) permitting him to judge the
enumerated factors.
regards,
Tom Walker
http://www.vcn.bc.ca/timework/worksite.htm
