Introduction to Liberalism Book Discussion Group: Year-End Reading Night

Meeting Name: Jagongbi (Let’s Study Liberalism and Soar) Year-End Reading Night

Book Title: The Road to Serfdom

Date and Time: Saturday, December 14, 2024, 6:00–8:00 PM

Location: Gongil Kitchen

Participants: Bench Press, J, mori, kdg, aka, Juwon, Sora, Mimi, Tiberius, Nanuri, Seonhyeong, Suyeon, Myeonghui, Jayu, Born to Run, Taeri

Written by: mori

Chapter 14. Material Conditions and Ideal Ends p.363

If the many voices opposed to the government’s principal aims turn a minority who wish to be free into slaves, can that truly be just or reasonable? If coercion must be used, there can be no doubt that it is far more justifiable to compel the minority to preserve freedom for the majority than for the majority to compel the minority into servitude in order to satisfy its own vulgarity. If those who seek only their rightful freedom hold power, then no matter how loud the voices against freedom may be, they always have the right to obtain freedom.

—John Milton—

Our Generation’s Economic Phobia p.363

- An attitude unwilling to make any sacrifice required to realize economic claims, and a refusal even to recognize that obstacles such as conflicts with other goals may hinder the satisfaction of desires.

- As the world around us grows more complex, it is natural that resistance also grows toward forces that lie beyond the realm of our understanding. Everything ends up being blamed on the immediate cause.

- What made the growth of civilization possible was man’s adaptation to the impersonal forces of the market. The problem is that understanding is much more difficult than adaptation.

Because of the impatient desire to escape irksome restraints, people fail to realize that the new authoritarian restraints deliberately imposed in their place are far more painful. (p.368)

The Permanent Domination of Other Ends by a Single Purpose p.369

; On the problems of anti-unemployment policy

- The only exception to the rule that a free society must not be subordinated to a single purpose is in times of war or temporary disaster.

In peacetime, no one purpose must be allowed to become absolutely preferred over all others. This still applies even if there is one objective that everyone now agrees should take first priority—for example, the conquest of unemployment. (p.369)

- The slogan “at any cost” leads to extremely shortsighted measures.

Economic Growth on Which the Fulfillment of All Hopes Depends p.373

; Policy proposals for reviving the postwar British economy

- No matter how much we want a rapid return to a free economy, that does not mean all restrictions should be removed at once. Even if temporary, the disorder and instability such an attempt would cause would unsettle the free enterprise system. The key is what kind of system we are aiming for.

- Let us not forget that one decisive factor behind the rise of totalitarianism was the existence of a middle class that had been deprived of large amounts of property.

- The only way to create a better world is to keep improving the general level of wealth.

The Decline of the British Political Ideal p.375

- Morality is necessarily a phenomenon concerning individual conduct. Morality can exist only in areas where the individual is free to decide for himself, where he is asked voluntarily to sacrifice personal gain in order to observe moral rules.

- If we have no choice at all, there can be nothing praiseworthy about being altruistic. Members of a society who are “made” to do good do not deserve praise.

- Freedom and responsibility for its consequences—these two are the soil in which moral sensibility grows and moral values are continually recreated.

- Any movement that offers exemption from responsibility, no matter how lofty its ideals, cannot but be anti-moral in its effects.

- There is a widespread attitude of demanding that the authorities create a desirable state of affairs, or saying one will obey provided everyone else is made to do the same.

The impulse toward collective action, as it has been until now and may well continue to be, is a way for a group to satisfy without restraint the selfishness that had to be somewhat curbed when one acted as an individual. (p.378)

(“The passion for collective action is also a way of indulging collectively, and without regret, the selfishness we learned to restrain a little as individuals.”)

The moral standards by which collective political action is judged arise from rules of conduct evolved by individuals. (p.379)

The Urgent Need to Restore Confidence in the British Tradition p.381

- Britain’s strengths—independence and self-help, individual initiative and local responsibility, successful reliance on voluntary action, noninterference with one’s neighbors and tolerance for what is different and distinctive, respect for custom and tradition, and a healthy suspicion of power and authority—are the result of a developed spontaneous order.

- Only by restoring faith in British values and having the courage to defend them can we persuade postwar Germans.

Chapter 15. The Prospects of the International Order p.389

Of all checks on democracy, federalism has proved to be the most effective and the most congenial…

Federalism divides sovereignty and, by assigning to government only certain defined rights, limits and restrains sovereignty.

This is the only method of curbing not only the majority but the power of the whole people.

—Lord Acton—

The Conflict Between National Planning and International Order p.389

- International relations were the field in which 19th-century liberalism first began to retreat.

- The economic planning carried out by each country can even cause serious conflict between nations.

Different kinds of economic planning can truly be realized only when the planning authority is able to block all external influences effectively. Thus economic planning inevitably pours out a mountain of regulations on the movement of people and goods. (p.390)

- When planning on a national scale creates opposed interest groups, a threat to peace arises.

It is neither inevitable nor desirable that borders should become the lines dividing sharply different standards of living, or that membership in one national group should entitle people to a completely different share from that allotted to members of other groups. (p.390)

- If competition in the market is replaced not by individuals but by negotiations between states, it merely turns into competition between armed states unconstrained by law.

Political Difficulties on an “International” Scale Caused by International Economic Planning p.392

- When planning is extended to the international level, it becomes even more complex and the need to rely on physical force and coercion increases.

- As the scale of planning grows, the number of people who share the same priority of ends decreases, and the need to rely on physical force increases; the less commonality there is in views, the greater the need to rely on force and coercion.

- The reason people do not face the difficulty of this problem is that they assume they themselves will be the ones solving it and overestimate their own ability to do so; but in large-scale planning they are only a minority.

Planning on an international scale is, even more than planning on a national scale, nothing but the naked rule of force. (p.394)

- A large economic area can succeed only when a dominant people ruthlessly imposes its goals and ideas on the rest; the inevitability of this lay not in German cruelty but in the necessary consequences of the task itself.

Conflicts of Ideals Solvable Only by Force p.396

- An international planning system that brings about struggles between nations

It is almost certain that under an international planning system, even more than under a free economy, rich and powerful countries would become the objects of far greater hatred and envy from poor countries. Rightly or wrongly, poor countries would all be convinced that if only they were free to do as they wished, their material condition would improve much faster. If it is accepted that realizing distributive justice among different nations is the duty of an international authority, then the transformation of class struggle into a struggle between the working classes of different nations is simply a consistent and unavoidable consequence of socialist doctrine. (p.397)

(p.309–310 It is almost certain that under an international planning system, even more than under a free economy, rich and powerful countries would become the objects of far greater hatred and envy from poor countries. Rightly or wrongly, poor countries would all be convinced that if only they were free to do as they wished, their material condition would improve much faster. If it is accepted that realizing distributive justice among different nations is the duty of an international authority, then the transformation of class struggle into a struggle between the working classes of different nations is nothing more and nothing less than a consistent and unavoidable consequence of socialist doctrine.)

- Moral responsibility entails the use of force.

To assume moral responsibility means having to make one’s own view of moral questions prevail, if necessary by force, over the dominant views of other communities; it also means placing oneself in a position in which it becomes impossible to act morally. (p.400)

(p.312 To assume moral responsibility means having to make one’s own view of moral questions prevail, if necessary by force, over the dominant views in other communities; it also means placing oneself in a position in which it becomes impossible to act morally.)

The Power of International Institutions Cannot Be Confined to Economic Issues Alone p.401

- The danger of an independent international resource authority

A comprehensive monopoly system that belongs nowhere and yet affects every government in the world can only become the worst kind of disruptive institution. (p.402)

The Need for Strong Political Power to Control Economic Power p.405

- The ideal international political institution should not have the power to order people what to do, but it should be able to restrain them from actions by which they can harm others.

- The power that must be delegated to an international institution is the minimum force essential to preserve peaceful relations—that is, essentially the powers of the ultra-liberal and laissez-faire state.

- The ideal form of international government is federalism: democracy with clearly limited powers. It is the only way to make the ideal of international law a reality. It limits not only the power of individual states but also the power of states taken together.

The only form of union among different peoples that can create an international order without placing excessive burdens on the legitimate desire of individual nations for independence is the principle of federation. (p.407)

Federalism, of course, is merely the application to international affairs of democracy—that is, the only peaceful method of changing government that mankind has yet invented. (p.407)

Among 19th-century liberals, few failed to express belief in federalism as the ultimate goal. (p.410)

The Advantages of the Federal Principle p.410

We must not try to rebuild civilization on a large scale. (p.410)

Without sufficient local self-government to serve as a training ground in political discipline not only for future leaders but also for ordinary citizens, democracy has never functioned properly anywhere. (p.411)

The ordinary person can truly participate in public affairs only where he can learn and practice responsibility through matters familiar to most people. There, not theoretical knowledge of others’ needs but awareness of one’s neighbors guides action, because the place where public affairs are involved is precisely the world I know. (p.411)

(“People truly participate in public affairs when awareness of having neighbors, rather than theoretical knowledge of other people’s needs, serves as the guide to their actions.”)

If we can create a world fit for small nations to live in, we will all be winners. (p.411)

Our goal is neither an omnipotent super-state nor a loose association of free nations, but a community of nations of free men. (p.412)

The Danger of Excessive Ambition p.413 (In the English edition, this paragraph is not divided.)

- The League of Nations was weakened by attempts to make it worldwide. A smaller but stronger union would be a better instrument for preserving peace.

- Of course, such a comprehensive organization as a new League of Nations is also necessary.

- Relatively close regional federations and a larger, looser union are not mutually incompatible.

- Even as regional federations are formed, the possibility of war between federations belonging to different blocs still remains. To reduce this risk, we must rely on a larger and looser union.

- Measures that make future war impossible may perhaps be worse than war itself. The best we may be able to do is reduce the degree of risk of conflicts that could lead to war.

Conclusion p.417

- Rather than devising yet another mechanism to guide and command individuals, it has become more important to let individual creative energies burst forth.

- Those who believe in the inevitability of historical trends are steeped in the ideas that caused war and produced the evils we have experienced.

- The younger generation does not know very well what 19th-century liberalism was.

- Let us not forget that it was not the grandfathers of the 19th century but the present generation of the 20th century that made a mess of the world.

- The central principle that policies for individual freedom are the only progressive policies is still true today, just as it was true in the 19th century.

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Original title: 자유주의 입문 독서토론모임 <연말 독서의 밤>

Author: Jayujuui Ipmun Dokseotoronmoim

Date: 2024-12-14

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=reading01&pn=1&idx=27213