Academic ideas deliberately seeded among educators eventually shape public opinion

Evidence

Once Crane committed to the plan of an American meeting of the MPS, he at last lived up to Hayek’s hopes as a fundraiser. Crane diligently raised money for a year and a half, sending letters to dozens of prominent conservative businessmen and to small right-wing foundations. His initial pitch sought to persuade businessmen that the esoteric group mattered: … While freedom in economic affairs still seems to be losing ground politically throughout most of the world, there is at least one encouraging sign. Among educators there is more awareness of the concept of freedom, and increased interest in it. Some of them even evidence a retreat from collectivist philosophy, which has so long dominated academic thinking, and a groping toward a better understanding of liberty. This is important, because what the highbrows upstairs talk about today has such a decisive influence on the public opinion of tomorrow. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1461

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Crane’s earlier fundraising pitch style and Hayek’s long-game strategy of influencing intellectuals before politicians, a classic neoliberal ‘infiltration of the intelligentsia’ tactic. — connects to: Political change propagates from a single thinker through schools to public influence over decades — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 554; Hayek saw journalists and teachers as idea dealers who shape public opinion — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1908; Elementary foundational ideas grow into political pillars through innumerable repetition — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 651

Broader Connections

• Elementary foundational ideas grow into political pillars through innumerable repetition #expands (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 651