Founding Mont Pèlerin members became alienated by the society’s later trajectory

Evidence

Even as the members of the Mont Pèlerin Society experienced greater public and professional infl uence in its later years, many of its found ers remained distinctly ambivalent about its trajectory. Some stopped attending meetings, sending notes to Hayek in which they indicated that the tenor of its arguments no longer refl ected their perspectives; others continued to participate while expressing private dismay at the direction its membership had taken. Their frustrations were not related to the society’s impact: its membership continued to expand rapidly, its leading fi gures advised politicians who were well positioned to enact their ideas, and the institutional apparatus in support of freemarket principles was growing ever more intricate and extensive. Rather, the early members worried that the ideas the society now represented were quite different from those that had dominated the initial meetings at Mont Pèlerin. Friedman’s persuasive capacity had proved to be far more potent than their own, but they expressed concern that it was leveraged in the ser vice of a very different social philosophy. Members who had come of age reminding socialists of unwelcome complexities could not wholly embrace the simpler logic that now shaped the public understanding of their worldview. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 562

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the overall arc of ideas-becoming-political-programs traced throughout this book, and to broader scholarship on how successful intellectual movements are often betrayed by their institutionalization (compare Milbank on the Mont Pèlerin Society’s transformation, and the paradox of ‘winners write different programs than founders intended’). — connects to: By 1972 the Mont Pèlerin Society had hardened into technical economics and pure libertarianism — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 528; Mont Pèlerin Society’s first decade failed to reconcile its competing scientific and ideological visions — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 91; Mont Pèlerin’s founders felt isolated and despairing in 1947 — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 118 (+7 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The paradox that an intellectual movement’s success consists in its founders losing control of its meaning, and that the society’s persuasive victory was bought by flattening the nuance the founders prized, is a dense claim about how ideas propagate through history.

Broader Connections

• Mont Pèlerin Society’s first decade failed to reconcile its competing scientific and ideological visions #qualifies (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 91
• The Mont Pèlerin Society shifted from elite academia toward business interests #exemplifies (0.80) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 374
• The Property and Freedom Society split from Mont Pèlerin over perceived compromise with socialism #exemplifies (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 8
• Bitter internal factionalism nearly destroyed the Mont Pèlerin Society. #corroborates (0.80) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 345
• Mont Pèlerin’s founders felt isolated and despairing in 1947 #contradicts (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 118
• The Mont Pèlerin Society’s growth threatened its philosophical unity #complicates (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 325
• Organizational power struggles shaped which factions of the Mont Pèlerin network rose #exemplifies (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 335