Thank you for getting organized! Wokeness is a cancer that has metastasized across all of our institutions. Curing it starts with strong families and raising children with strong values. The cultural and spiritual fronts are vital to turn the tide in the trenches. Tech platforms like Primer and Synthesis also help with better educational options.
Interesting essay. However, I disagree about mixing up Adam Smith and trade policy with the issues affecting education and free speech. I think many classical liberals get confused about the difference between political liberty and capitalism. The Economist magazine, the premier classical liberal publication, has actually admitted they were wrong in assuming for a number of years that as China became more capitalistic, it would become more free. The exact opposite happened. The elite in China used the country's wealth to solidify their power and increase their political repression. Today they put Uighurs in concentration camps and make people starve to death rather than loosen a COVID lockdown. They cracked down on Hong Kong to squash any semblance of self-determination. Capitalism did not help the Chinese become more free or more liberal; it helped them become less free, more authoritarian and more repressive.
No question the world got China wrong, but I think it's a lot more complicated. China is still infinitely more free than they were pre-capitalism (pre Deng). Also, The Economist no longer stands for classical liberal values, at least since Covid, perhaps longer. I think the broader point is that classical liberalism stands for liberty period. As I tried to articulate in the article, political liberty (whatever the means) is just the means to preserve liberty (including economic).
It's interesting to ponder what "economic liberty" means. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia became much more politically free. Then Western governments decided to privatize the government industries by auctioning them off. They were purchased by the rich oligarchs who essentially became a criminal cartel. Putin worked with them and became the new autocrat, because you have to be an autocrat and destroy the rule of law and freedom of information if you're going to get away with robbing the country blind. Sadly Bill Clinton, the pre-eminent global capitalist, is in large part responsible for the atrocities being committed now in Ukraine.
Agree. Shock Therapy engineered by Jeffrey Sachs if I remember. We gave horrible advice. Anyone who knew some history knew you can't just transition from a socialist to capitalist economy overnight. you need the institutions. China had a better shot because they still had people who had memories of pre-Maoist capitalism.
Thank you for getting organized! Wokeness is a cancer that has metastasized across all of our institutions. Curing it starts with strong families and raising children with strong values. The cultural and spiritual fronts are vital to turn the tide in the trenches. Tech platforms like Primer and Synthesis also help with better educational options.
Interesting essay. However, I disagree about mixing up Adam Smith and trade policy with the issues affecting education and free speech. I think many classical liberals get confused about the difference between political liberty and capitalism. The Economist magazine, the premier classical liberal publication, has actually admitted they were wrong in assuming for a number of years that as China became more capitalistic, it would become more free. The exact opposite happened. The elite in China used the country's wealth to solidify their power and increase their political repression. Today they put Uighurs in concentration camps and make people starve to death rather than loosen a COVID lockdown. They cracked down on Hong Kong to squash any semblance of self-determination. Capitalism did not help the Chinese become more free or more liberal; it helped them become less free, more authoritarian and more repressive.
No question the world got China wrong, but I think it's a lot more complicated. China is still infinitely more free than they were pre-capitalism (pre Deng). Also, The Economist no longer stands for classical liberal values, at least since Covid, perhaps longer. I think the broader point is that classical liberalism stands for liberty period. As I tried to articulate in the article, political liberty (whatever the means) is just the means to preserve liberty (including economic).
It's interesting to ponder what "economic liberty" means. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia became much more politically free. Then Western governments decided to privatize the government industries by auctioning them off. They were purchased by the rich oligarchs who essentially became a criminal cartel. Putin worked with them and became the new autocrat, because you have to be an autocrat and destroy the rule of law and freedom of information if you're going to get away with robbing the country blind. Sadly Bill Clinton, the pre-eminent global capitalist, is in large part responsible for the atrocities being committed now in Ukraine.
Agree. Shock Therapy engineered by Jeffrey Sachs if I remember. We gave horrible advice. Anyone who knew some history knew you can't just transition from a socialist to capitalist economy overnight. you need the institutions. China had a better shot because they still had people who had memories of pre-Maoist capitalism.