Coming to Mindset Shift U This Fall: Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and Seneca’s “On Anger”

The descent into socialism and mindless anger can happen here.

Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom has never seemed more prescient and timeless: The descent into socialism and mindless anger can happen anywhere.

Kamala Harris’s intention to regulate food prices displays an astonishing level of economic illiteracy on her part and voters who may be cheering for it.

I’ll be posting an essay about the issue tomorrow.

Astonishing progress has been made in the past few centuries, but most don’t know why. A rich extended order has evolved, allowing human cooperation to lift billions out of dire poverty and bring a standard of living to the West that couldn’t have been imagined mere generations ago. Yet few understand that the bounty we enjoy does not flow from politicians' plans. Today, some are actively working to destroy the engine of human cooperation.

Let’s be clear: Millions are now cheering for what Hayek saw as dangerous, what you see as dangerous, in the name of societal advancement.

This fall, we will do our civic duty by working through Hayek’s classic to see clearly where we are going wrong. With this understanding, you can be an effective voice in discourse.

Here is our schedule:

Please read the introductory material before Session 1 on September 28th. It varies depending on the edition of The Road to Serfdom you have.

September 28th – Chapters 1, 2:  Understanding Individualism and Is Democratic Socialism Possible?
October 5th –-Chapters 3, 4: Central Planning vs the Price System
October 12th—Chapter 5: Is There a Common Good?
October 19th –-Chapter 6: The Rule of Law
October 26th –-Chapters 7, 8: What About Social Justice? 
November 2nd —Chapters 9,10: Why the Worst Get on Top
November 9th —Chapters 11, 12: How Socialism Destroys Truth
November 16th -–Chapters 13,14, 15, 16: Adjusting to What We Can’t Understand

After finishing The Road to Serfdom, we will take a break for Thanksgiving.

No matter who wins the election, anger will be in the air. Beginning Dec 7^th, we will consider the Stoic philosopher Seneca’s essay “On Anger.”  Seneca dismantles our mistaken beliefs that expressing anger is necessary to accomplish change and gain peace of mind.

One excellent translation of “On Anger” is temporarily on Kindle sale at Amazon for $2.99.

We will take a Holiday and New Year out-breath and begin our winter/spring 2025 work sometime in January.

In 2025, for Mindset Shifts U, I am considering works by contemporary writers such as David K. Reynolds, Alexandra Hudson, and Hugh Prather as well as classics by Seneca, Epictetus, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I will announce the Mindset Shifts U winter/spring 2025 schedule later in the fall.

I hope you can join us in considering ideas that can aid in avoiding the worst outcomes facing humanity.

Thank you for your support of this Substack.