"Professor Hayek is also probably right in saying that in this country the intellectuals are more totalitarian-minded than the common people. But he does not see, or will not admit, that a return to ‘free’ competition means for the great mass of people a tyranny probably worse, because more irresponsible, than that of the State. The trouble with competitions is that somebody wins them. Professor Hayek denies that free capitalism necessarily leads to monopoly, but in practice that is where it has led, and since the vast majority of people would far rather have State regimentation than slumps and unemployment, the drift towards collectivism is bound to continue if popular opinion has any say in the matter."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
George Orwell, Review by Orwell: The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek / The Mirror of the Past by K. Zilliacus, Observer, 9 April 1944.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Serfdom
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"We have been misled as much because we have refused to believe that the enemy was sincere in the profession of some b…"
"When a professional student of social affairs writes a political book, his first duty is plainly to say so. This is a…"
"Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society, is not a social program; in its paternalistic, nation…"
"The reader will probably ask whether this means that I am still prepared to defend all the main conclusions of this b…"
"I have long resented being more widely known by what I regarded as a pamphlet for the time than by my strictly scient…"
"While history runs its course, it is not history to us. It leads us into an unknown land, and but rarely can we get a…"
"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 creat…"
"For at least twenty-five years before the specter of totalitarianism became a real threat, we had progressively been …"
"The gradual transformation of a rigidly organized hierarchic system into one where men could at least attempt to shap…"
"Is there a greater tragedy imaginable than that, in our endeavour consciously to shape our future in accordance with …"