Why Milton Friedman Still Matters (Paul Krause, 1/03/25, Voegelin View)
One of the most disturbing trends in American society is the drift toward economic totalitarianism. More and more Americans are speaking fondly of excessive government control over economic life, an erosion of economic liberty which will have dramatic consequences for our other freedoms.[…]
The assault on freedom begins with economics because economics touches everything in life and economics is the primary means by which strong families emerge and with strong families the political, social, and religious freedoms we enjoy. Without family vitality, there is no societal vitality. This, too, was something that Friedman keenly understood.Friedman stated unequivocally that our political and spiritual loves and liberties were very much contingent upon economic freedom, “The economic controls that have proliferated in the United States in recent decades have not only restricted our freedom to use economic resources, they have also affected our freedom of speech, of press, and of religion.” Today, we all sense this reality that Friedman saw over 50 years. As our economic freedoms deteriorate so too are their efforts to restrict our political and religious liberties.
The majority of the intellectual class has convinced itself of human perfection in some form or another. This is the basis of all totalitarianism—the incessant, even violent, effort to remake human nature into a perfect end-state. Yet Friedman stated that lovers and champions of freedom have always recognized this paradox about humanity and freedom: the imperfection of humanity is the greatest pillar for the freedom of humanity. As he writes, lovers of freedom “conceive of men as imperfect beings.”
Freedom is good, though we know it is imperfect because we ourselves are “imperfect beings.” Good things are always ruined by the fanatical dreams of perfection. The bait and switch of the tyrannical lust of totalitarians is that they blame our imperfection on a system rather than seeing imperfection in ourselves. This gives them the license to dismantle the goods we have from freedom through the phantasmagoric promise of a perfect future.
The Biblical, anti-Rational, recognition of Man’s imperfectability is the Anglospheric difference.