Intellectual movements succeed through diversified long-horizon patronage

Evidence

To adopt terms that Milton Friedman would appreciate, institutions like the Volker Fund and the Mont Pèlerin Society are the venture capitalists of the intellectual world, allocating a broad dispersion of small investments with an extended time horizon and an understanding that one spectacular success can compensate for the toll of many minor failures. Friedman was the benefi ciary of a network of organizations established by individuals who were uniquely reconciled to the assumption that the nature of their impact would not be revealed until long after their ability to appreciate it had passed. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 442

Categorization

• APHORISMS: The venture-capital model of philanthropy — small dispersed bets, long time horizons, acceptance that impact outlives the investor — is a genuinely reusable wisdom about building for change.
• XREF: connects to: Global structures enabled ideological community for marginalized intellectual movements — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 147; Neoliberal backers believed a canonical text was a precondition for movement success — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1447

Broader Connections

• Global structures enabled ideological community for marginalized intellectual movements #expands (0.78) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 147