Hayek framed individual rational self-direction as dangerous civilizational hubris

Evidence

It was men’s submission to the impersonal forces of the market that in the past has made possible the growth of civilization … It does not matter whether men in the past did submit from beliefs which some now regard as superstition … The refusal to yield to forces which we neither understand nor can recognize as the conscious decisions of an intelligent being is the product of an incomplete and therefore erroneous rationalism. It is incomplete because it fails to comprehend that co-ordination of the multifarious individual efforts in a complex society must take account of facts no individual can completely survey. And it also fails to see that … the only alternative to submission to the impersonal and seemingly irrational forces of the market is submission to an equally uncontrollable and therefore arbitrary power of other men. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 227

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the reader’s prior engagement with Friedrich Hayek in ‘The Library: A Fragile History’ and earlier chapters on the thought collective. — connects to: Hayek grounded free-market economics in a theory of human ignorance — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 278; Hayek held that mixing spontaneous order with organization is never rational — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 209; Hayek located rationality in impersonal market processes, not individuals — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 223 (+6 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: A strange and deep inversion: the zealot of free markets demands submission of the individual will to an impersonal force — structurally anti-liberal despite liberal dress.

Broader Connections

• Hayek considered genuine independent thought a minority capacity in any society #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 224
• Hayek’s epistemology denied others the holism his own vision required #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 242
• Hayek framed social rights demands as atavistic tribal regressions threatening civilization #complicates (0.70) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 30