Never underestimate the influence of intellectuals, because the theories they are promoting today will be the basis of tomorrow's political programmes. This was the warning which Friedrich Hayek, the great architect of the 20th-century revival of classical liberal ideas, issued in 1949 with this essay. Hayek described intellectuals as 'professional second-hand dealers in ideas', people who are in a position to become familiar with new ideas and to promote them through their writings and speeches.
He believed the importance of this class had been ignoted by supporters of the free market, with serious consequences. For example, socialism had never, and nowhere, been at first a working-class movement. It adoption by policy makers had been preceded by a long period in which it had been of interest only to intellectuals, who had promoted it relentlessly
With such products of such bien pensants and the overhanging terrorist threat from fundamentalists
to our children there is little need of a hell - for we are living it.
He believed the importance of this class had been ignoted by supporters of the free market, with serious consequences. For example, socialism had never, and nowhere, been at first a working-class movement. It adoption by policy makers had been preceded by a long period in which it had been of interest only to intellectuals, who had promoted it relentlessly
With such products of such bien pensants and the overhanging terrorist threat from fundamentalists
to our children there is little need of a hell - for we are living it.
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