Hayek on Liberty in Wartime
Bruce Caldwell, editor of Hayek's collected works, is interviewed here on the new edition of Road to Serfdom:
I'll give you one example of some relevance for today. One of his major themes was that in times of war, national leaders will use the war to grow the size of government. And it doesn't have to be a World War II sort of war. You can think of wars on poverty, wars against drugs, wars on terrorism. All of these are wars that the leaders have used to say we need to have more government, bigger government, more government involvement -- and particularly if it's a war that is open-ended. I mean World War II actually came to end. It's hard to think that the war on terrorism would ever come to an end, or a war on poverty, or a war on drugs for that matter.
It means that the mandate for government to keep trying to -- well, it didn't work, so we need to try something else, and we need more resources. Often, particularly, it wasn't just a resource issue. Civil liberties -- the surrendering of civil liberties during wartime -- is one of the things he was afraid of, worried about then, and I think is always appropriate to be worried about.
Comments (4)
I think that hits the nail right on the head. Too bad everyone can't see that...too bad so many people buy into the war time propaganda.
Published: July 25, 2008 4:14 PM
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people... inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and... degeneracy of manners and of morals... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare...
Published: July 25, 2008 9:25 PM
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people... inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and... degeneracy of manners and of morals... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare...
Published: July 25, 2008 9:26 PM
Mr. Bruce Caldwell makes a very good point in the quote extracted from his interview. If everyone remembers Jimmy Carter's refrain that the energy crisis was the moral equivalent of war!
It is clear that the only way the government can convince people to tolerate the extraction of their wealth for government use is to make the next 'bogeyman' the 'moral equivalent of war.'
Published: July 27, 2008 10:00 AM