The Road to Serfdom, Session 1: The Last Stand on Earth
The first line of defense for freedom is for each of us to protect our own mind from its inner totalitarian and resist the allure of ideas that are antithetical to individual freedom.
It might surprise you to learn that in the 1928 German Reichstag elections, the Nazi party got a mere 2.6% of the vote.
Subsequently, the 1929 stock market crash occurred, impacting Germany even more than America. For those reading my essays, it's no surprise that the German people faced a crisis of meaning before and during the crash.
By the 1932 election, totalitarians had received a majority of the German vote; the Nazis had received 37% of the vote and the Communists 14% of the vote.
I am fearful of America's potential future. Between the 2024 and 2028 elections, an economic crisis that matches or surpasses the severity of 1929 is possible.
What will be the outcome of the 2028 elections when an anxious American populace, disconnected from enduring principles that promote human flourishing, casts its votes? We can wonder if the American electorate will make a fatal illiberal choice like the Germans. The most likely, but indeed not the only possible fatal choice, will be a ruthless authoritarian “progressive.”
The Road to Serfdom was published in 1944 after Hayek had moved from Austria to join the faculty at the London School of Economics, where he taught from 1931 to 1950. From 1950 to 1962, he was a professor at the University of Chicago. In the introduction, he reflected that “by moving from one country to another, one may sometimes twice watch similar phases of intellectual development,” which he described as “a struggle for ideas” that determine the direction in which society is organized.
Among factions of totalitarians, Hayek observed, the “communists and Nazis or Fascists clashed more frequently with each other than with other parties. They competed for the support of the same type of mind and reserved for each other the hatred of the heretic.”
He witnessed the rise of socialist ideas among populations in Germany and beyond. He rejected the notion that Germans were “inherently vicious.” Instead, he wrote, “It seems almost as if we did not want to understand the development which has produced totalitarianism because such an understanding might destroy some of the dearest illusion to which we are determined to cling.”
Totalitarians always erect barriers to the free exercise of human ingenuity. Hayek advocated for individuals' freedom to order their own affairs, develop their own talents, and use new ideas to improve their lives and those of others with the fewest possible constraints from central authorities.
Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom tracing the mindset fueling totalitarianism so its consequences could be recognized and “prevented if people realize in time where their efforts may lead.” With urgency, he wrote, “Though the road be long, it is one on which it becomes more difficult to turn back as one advances. If in the long run we are the makers of our own fate, in the short run we are the captives of the ideas we have created. Only if we recognize the danger in time can we hope to avert it.”
The struggle over the meaning of freedom continues today. The first line of defense for freedom is for each of us to protect our own mind from its inner totalitarian and resist the allure of ideas that are antithetical to individual freedom.
Let's say you've decided to stock up on ice cream for your freezer. Now, which flavor will you choose? The flavor doesn’t matter much if you have decided to stock up on ice cream, not chicken or broccoli.
When people want a central authority to control the order of society, whether it's Nazism, Communism, or another form of collectivism, the outcome is still totalitarianism.
Central planning of society fails, as it always has. Hayek warned of the card that politicians play 100% of the time. Expect to hear a form of this argument: “If the outcome is so different from our aims— if, instead of freedom and prosperity, bondage and misery stare us in the face—is it not clear that sinister forces must have foiled our intentions, that we are the victims of some evil power which must be conquered before we can resume the road to better things?” The “evil power” will be defined by the central authorities.
If we cling to the fiction that we are losing our freedom because of outside forces, we will continue to lose our freedom.
The precious liberty that was passed down to us is nearly exhausted. The debate over ideas is thwarted by attacks on free speech and by those who cancel themselves out of fear.
If we are not to be mere victims of our current situation, we must prioritize studying books such as The Road to Serfdom and discussing what we learn.
“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson