Wisdom from Hayek
From Chapter 3 of The Constitution of Liberty:
“The argument for liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful means that human reason can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privileged, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from trying to do better. Every organization is based on given knowledge; organization means commitment to a particular aim and to particular methods, but even organization designed to increase knowledge will be effective only insofar as the knowledge and beliefs on which its design rests are true. And if any facts contradict the beliefs on which the structure of the organization is based, this will become evident only in its failure and supersession by a different type of organization. Organization is therefore likely to be beneficial and effective so long as it is voluntary and is embedded in a free sphere and will either have to adjust itself to circumstances not taken into account in its conception or fail. To turn the whole of society into a single organization built and directed according to a single plan would be to extinguish the very forces that shaped the individual human minds that planned it.”
It’s strange to realize that every societal problem we face today is due to a lack of liberty, which itself is due to a pervasive distrust of the consequences of liberty, which, although they are unpredictable, are always beneficial. This state in particular is suffering from string of catastrophes which include the shameful fact that we have the highest incarceration rate in the world. This is a consequence of a fear of liberty, a fear that the ruling class has an interest in perpetuating and inflaming. All that is required to solve these unending crises is to remove the restrictions, regulations, and prohibitions, and let what Albert Jay Nock termed ‘social power’ solve the problems that government created. Fear leads us to support politicians and measures that promise more control, but this control only creates greater and more uncontrollable problems down the road. It also has the even more negative effect of creating the perfect environment for greater corruption, in a cycle that spirals into a situation we have today. Only by unleashing Hayek’s “uncontrolled spontaneous forces” will our problems be solved. But it would be so easy, and it would cost nothing.