The society defined itself through opposition because its positive vision was unsettled.

Evidence

In an attempt to resolve these tensions, Hayek enlisted Lionel Robbins to dictate a new draft of the statement after breakfast the following morning. Robbins’s version, which was quickly accepted by the group, defi ned the society’s mission primarily through the trends its members opposed, including the recent worldwide turn toward a “decline of belief in private property and the competitive market” and a denial of both “absolute moral standards” and “the desirability of the rule of law.” United in their sense of opposition, the members now faced a pressing need to unravel the “essential moral and economic origins” of the “present crisis.” … But Robbins’s statement cast aside the language of “convictions” in favor of an emphasis on problems that still needed to be solved. Their meetings would be charged with the task of generating “a reassertion of valid ideals” that could stand as fi rm bulwarks for the capitalist order against the socialist encroachments of recent years. About what those ideals might be, strong disagreements had already emerged. The members of the Mont Pèlerin Society were unifi ed in the social philosophy they opposed and the questions they sought to address, but the structure of their alternative vision remained unclear. — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 269

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Enlightenment’s self-image required the Rest as its suppressed opposite.

Broader Connections

• The Enlightenment’s self-image required the Rest as its suppressed opposite. #exemplifies (0.85)