1.From their inception in academia, mid-19th century, the Progressives put all faith in experts….these folks were imagined to be able to dictate exactly how society and the lives of its citizens should….must….be regulated, for the best outcomes. It is a central view to every collective regime: communism, socialism, Liberalism, Progressivism, Nazism and Fascism.
The opposite is the view of the free market, based on the myriad voluntary interactions of free individuals. The species is wiser than the individual (Burke). No matter who that individual is.
It should be self-evident that the collectivist varieties, to exist, use force, coercion, violence, and threats of same to enforce that ‘expert’s’ view. And every one of the totalitarian visions does; free choice requires no such coercion.
2. And ‘experts’ can never be wrong.
"It is a great irony of communism that those who did not believe in God believed that godlike knowledge could be concentrated at a central point. It was believed that government could be omnipotent and omniscient. And in order to justify the idea that all lives should be determined by a single plan, the concomitant tendency of communist regimes was to deify the leader- whether Lenin, Stalin, Mao, or Kim Il-sung."
Tom Bethell, "The Noblest Triumph," p. 144
Democrat/Liberals called Obama god, Jesus and the messiah.
3. Even better when the expert is the political leader (have you noticed how every Democrat candidate is claimed to be brilliant, while every Republican is said to be a moron?). Mao’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ was based on that fallacy, that technocrats, bureaucrats, experts are always correct.
In 1957 “Mao gave full vent to his half-baked dream of turning China into a first-class modern power. He called steel the “marshal” of industry, and ordered steel output to be doubled in one year—from 5.35 million tons in 1957 to 10.7 million in 1958. But instead of trying to expand the proper steel industry with skilled workers, he decided to get the whole population to take part. There was a steel quota for every unit, and for months people stopped their normal work in order to meet it.
…nearly 100 million peasants were pulled out of agricultural work and into steel production. They had been the labor force producing much of the country’s food. Mountains were stripped bare of trees for fuel. But the output of this mass production amounted only to what people called “cattle droppings” (niu-shi-ge da), meaning useless turds. This absurd situation reflected not only Mao’s ignorance of how an economy worked, but also an almost metaphysical disregard for reality, which might have been interesting in a poet, but in a political leader with absolute power was quite another matter. One of its main components was a deep-seated contempt for human life.
Mao’s fixation on steel went largely unquestioned, as did his other obsessions.
There were also fantastic economic goals. Mao claimed that China’s industrial output could overtake that of the United States and Britain within fifteen years. For the Chinese, these countries represented the capitalist world…. ignorance triumphed over reason.
...a slogan was put forward, “Capable women can make a meal without food,” a reversal of a pragmatic ancient Chinese saying, “No matter how capable, a woman cannot make a meal without food.” Exaggerated rhetoric had become concrete demands. Impossible fantasies were supposed to become reality.”
Chang, “Wild Swans.”
We should apply the lessons of China under the rule of the Communist ‘experts’ to the choices we have in America…a President who reduced taxes and regulations, and set a tone for individual business decisions...
…. versus the socialist ‘experts’ of the major party, who do quite the opposite.
The opposite is the view of the free market, based on the myriad voluntary interactions of free individuals. The species is wiser than the individual (Burke). No matter who that individual is.
It should be self-evident that the collectivist varieties, to exist, use force, coercion, violence, and threats of same to enforce that ‘expert’s’ view. And every one of the totalitarian visions does; free choice requires no such coercion.
2. And ‘experts’ can never be wrong.
"It is a great irony of communism that those who did not believe in God believed that godlike knowledge could be concentrated at a central point. It was believed that government could be omnipotent and omniscient. And in order to justify the idea that all lives should be determined by a single plan, the concomitant tendency of communist regimes was to deify the leader- whether Lenin, Stalin, Mao, or Kim Il-sung."
Tom Bethell, "The Noblest Triumph," p. 144
Democrat/Liberals called Obama god, Jesus and the messiah.
3. Even better when the expert is the political leader (have you noticed how every Democrat candidate is claimed to be brilliant, while every Republican is said to be a moron?). Mao’s ‘Great Leap Forward’ was based on that fallacy, that technocrats, bureaucrats, experts are always correct.
In 1957 “Mao gave full vent to his half-baked dream of turning China into a first-class modern power. He called steel the “marshal” of industry, and ordered steel output to be doubled in one year—from 5.35 million tons in 1957 to 10.7 million in 1958. But instead of trying to expand the proper steel industry with skilled workers, he decided to get the whole population to take part. There was a steel quota for every unit, and for months people stopped their normal work in order to meet it.
…nearly 100 million peasants were pulled out of agricultural work and into steel production. They had been the labor force producing much of the country’s food. Mountains were stripped bare of trees for fuel. But the output of this mass production amounted only to what people called “cattle droppings” (niu-shi-ge da), meaning useless turds. This absurd situation reflected not only Mao’s ignorance of how an economy worked, but also an almost metaphysical disregard for reality, which might have been interesting in a poet, but in a political leader with absolute power was quite another matter. One of its main components was a deep-seated contempt for human life.
Mao’s fixation on steel went largely unquestioned, as did his other obsessions.
There were also fantastic economic goals. Mao claimed that China’s industrial output could overtake that of the United States and Britain within fifteen years. For the Chinese, these countries represented the capitalist world…. ignorance triumphed over reason.
...a slogan was put forward, “Capable women can make a meal without food,” a reversal of a pragmatic ancient Chinese saying, “No matter how capable, a woman cannot make a meal without food.” Exaggerated rhetoric had become concrete demands. Impossible fantasies were supposed to become reality.”
Chang, “Wild Swans.”
We should apply the lessons of China under the rule of the Communist ‘experts’ to the choices we have in America…a President who reduced taxes and regulations, and set a tone for individual business decisions...
…. versus the socialist ‘experts’ of the major party, who do quite the opposite.
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