tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19129587.post8532638607424671707..comments2024-01-13T08:49:14.041-08:00Comments on Myrhaf: A Sail to Catch the WindMyrhafhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16340507405537605164noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19129587.post-88405907236438731182008-07-11T18:41:00.000-07:002008-07-11T18:41:00.000-07:00It would take 20 years to do it in academic detail...It would take 20 years to do it in academic detail, yes. But I'm not so much interested in mapping all of ideological history, so much as I am interested in the principle of ideological causality that would enable this process. Many academics and pundits already do this, but in an entirely rule of thumb fashion, and thoroughly non-objectively. This principle would bring objective rigor to this process.<BR/><BR/>Once the principle is understood, we can objectively *prove* what ideas follow from what ideas. We could prove America's origins in secular ideas, that National Socialism and environmentalism have the same roots, that current culture is not nearly so diverse as people think it is, why Christianity deserves credit as a preserver (but only a little as *originator*) of the modern concept of liberty, that conservatism and the Left are both anti-Enlightenment, but for different reasons, and why Objectivism is indeed the true heir to the Enlightenment tradition.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19129587.post-4340325532725688152008-07-10T18:46:00.000-07:002008-07-10T18:46:00.000-07:00How many books would you have to read to do such a...How many books would you have to read to do such a project right? You would have to read every important work in philosophy, history, econonomics and politics since the 17th century or so. You would have to show the progress of German philosophy, especially Hegelianism, in European and American universities. You would have to connect the ideas to their concrete effects in history. I think you're looking at a 20-year project.Myrhafhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16340507405537605164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19129587.post-90301479394000111922008-07-10T18:18:00.000-07:002008-07-10T18:18:00.000-07:00madmax: I meant "liberal" in the Enlightenment se...madmax: I meant "liberal" in the Enlightenment sense, which is my preferred way of stating "classical" liberal. If you read "Der Fuehrer", you'll get a great snapshot of what that really means. There are things he says and basic concepts which are clearly uncontroversial to Heiden, but when expressed today are nearly always coming from Objectivist or libertarian lips.... hardly mainstream.<BR/><BR/>Where did they go wrong? Basically, they ran out of gas, thanks to Kant; the conception of reason (not to mention the consequent ethics) they needed to close the loop on their politics was aborted in the womb by Kant, in order to stop the Enlightenment from permanently closing the door on the arbitrary (i.e. religious faith) in men's minds. One could say that we are lucky it lasted as long as it has.<BR/><BR/>But the details of how and why it happened the way it has -- i.e. ideological history -- is yet to be studied in depth by anyone I know of. I'm absolutely up for that right now if someone is willing to fund me... otherwise it waits until I can finance it myself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19129587.post-48697031345657043262008-07-10T13:52:00.000-07:002008-07-10T13:52:00.000-07:00Ludwig von Mises made many of the same observation...Ludwig von Mises made many of the same observations as did Heiden with respect to the demise of German Liberalism (Enlightenment meaning) by 1930 in his monumental book, Socialism.<BR/><BR/>I, too, am surprised at the speed with which the American Enlightenment (Liberalism) has died, a reality that this Presdential election has brought into relief.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19129587.post-44396646926031653392008-07-10T11:19:00.000-07:002008-07-10T11:19:00.000-07:00"He is a liberal who understands the connection be..."He is a liberal who understands the connection between capitalism and freedom..."<BR/><BR/>Was Heiden a Classical Liberal? I'm curious because you call him a "liberal." What I'm trying to understand is exactly what did the old liberals stand for? Some mix of capitalism and socialism? A small welfare state? What were there good and ideas and where did they go wrong?madmaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14375140131881725965noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19129587.post-13488921359238128072008-07-10T10:43:00.000-07:002008-07-10T10:43:00.000-07:00I wonder if Heiden was influenced by the Austrian ...I wonder if Heiden was influenced by the Austrian economists, as was Ludwig Erhard, Adenauer's Minister of Economics, who put Germany on the right economic track after WWII.Myrhafhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16340507405537605164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19129587.post-59818931651523887052008-07-10T09:01:00.000-07:002008-07-10T09:01:00.000-07:00A Sail to Catch the Wind... all the more reason fo...A Sail to Catch the Wind... all the more reason for us to try and "change the wind", as Paul Hsieh so eloquently put it.<BR/><BR/>I've been quoting Heiden ever since I received an original 1944 edition from a friend over a decade ago. IMO it is an excellent companion to Leonard Peikoff's "Ominous Parallels", and offers valuable insight not only into Weimar Germany and the Nazis, but also the decline of Enlightenment liberalism, as seen in the contrast between Heiden's clearly Enlightenment context versus the sloppy "thinking" which passes under the name of "liberalism" today. Read him and know the stature that mainstream thinkers once held.<BR/><BR/>I often wonder how in the hell could we have lost so much and fallen so far in just two generations? He is a liberal who understands the connection between capitalism and freedom, and how the destruction of capitalism (via hyperinflation, detailed in a chapter called "The Death of Money" which is a chilling enough read at any time, let alone during an inflationary period like today) was essential to the Nazi program.<BR/><BR/>Another data point he describes is that by 1920 or so, all the old "liberal" (in the Enlightenment meaning) political parties were gone from the German political landscape. The dominant parties were Social Democrats and various religio-conservative parties. Sound familiar?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com