Unorthodox minority ideas depend on wealthy iconoclasts for funding

Evidence

The leadership role played by individuals who could offer financial support to organizations representing their beliefs, he wrote, was of special importance when it came to supporting unorthodox ideas in “politics, morals and religion.” If “minority views are to have a chance to become majority views,” they would need to rely upon the financial support of wealthy iconoclasts. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1475

Categorization

• CANDY: “Minority views need wealthy iconoclasts” is a tidy, tweetable summary of how ideas get funded against the mainstream.
• SEED: Could angle an essay on the economics of unorthodox idea propagation — who funds paradigm shifts, and what strings attach.
• XREF: connects to: Conservative foundations funded unorthodox ideas decades before the think tank boom — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 322; Grant competitions let funders steer think-tank agendas more than direct persuasion did — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 578; Business patrons funded free market ideas while fearing intellectual disloyalty — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 1442 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Belief systems are creative inventions of a tiny minority diffused as unexamined packages #corroborates (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1869
• Minority influence is delayed but persists and spreads to unaddressed beliefs #expands (0.72)
• Popular masses accept new ideas only as heterogeneous combinations, not pure forms #qualifies (0.70) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1215