Friedrich A. Hayek spent a lot of his life around German influence and believed that the same aspects that destroyed freedom in Germany were making their way to The United States and England. Some symptoms that he believed hint at the rise of a totalitarian government are high adoration for authority, acceptance of trends by viewing them as inevitable, and eagerness for “planning”. Hayek points out that leaders like Mussolini even began as socialists before they became Nazis or fascists. I think these points are extremely valid because of the slippery slope that occurs when power is shifted. Planning and democracy clash because democracy does not suppress freedom. A socialist or totalitarian government must decentralize power which means taking away competition since it reduces the power that man has over man. Hayek claims that we have forgotten that private property is assured by freedom. I agree with this statement and that we have also forgotten how much an unskilled workman has in a country like ours versus a skilled man in a country such as Russia. If a single entity has control over the means of production, they have complete power. We should be grateful for and keep our strides toward economic power in the hands of private individuals. As Hayek states, “in a country where the sole employer is the state, opposition means death by slow starvation”. Planning and Power are tools that can be used for coercion in the wrong hands.
Individualism respects that man should have the freedom to act on their own gifts and bents individually given. Socialism and other forms like totalitarianism are a direct contrast to individualism and freedom. Allowing societies to express these individual freedoms allows growth in societies like scientific advancement. This advancement brings comfort, independence, security, and other aspects that are used in a free society. We cannot replace these freedoms with collective and conscious direction unless we want to chain up individual energies that bring growth and advancement. When this liberalism was abandoned in Germany, techniques were used that were later repeated by Nazi and fascist leaders. This begins by directing the thinking of children to certain political organizations, which I believe is a very scary thing for the future of any country. This type of brainwashing and coercion makes individuals not able to distinguish themselves from others and have no sense of individualism. This occurs because people believe that democratic socialism is achievable when it is not. When people strive for this, freedom itself is destructed instead. More intervention by man leads to more corruption which only leads to less freedom.
Competition and central direction cannot be combined and complete, Hayek claims. The only way they can be combined is by planning AGAINST competition. The theme of combination is strong when trying to connect socialism and individualism. These combinations rarely work because they are a threat to freedom. Democracy and socialism are so conflicting because democracy says a man has value and socialism claims that man is a number or statistic, a mere agent. This makes them irreconcilable at their core because of the emphasis on liberty versus servitude and restraint. Hayek makes the solid point that planning often has no boundaries and ends in results that weren’t the original goal. He compares it to taking a journey without agreeing on where you want to go. Democracies at their core cannot plan because planning means agreeing. Even if an agency like congress could agree or compromise, it would not produce true satisfaction. The problem would then be integrating the goals of everyone as one unitary plan. There are too many aspects to ever have true socialist uniformity. Power must be limited to save a society from dictatorship. In socialism, power is not limited or restrained to a certain group. The reality is that the utopian dream of democratic socialism is not attainable.
A leader in a totalitarian society has to disregard morals if they want to achieve success. They are then using methods they disapprove of the achieve their own goals. These groups are formed by the worst elements of society. This is because socialism requires similar views and values. As the level of education and intelligence gets higher, views differ more. Socialism gains the support of the gullible and docile who accept what is given to them as fact. Socialism also appeals to human weakness in order to appeal to the masses. Leaders often gain support by identifying a common enemy, valid or not. Individuals are used as a vessel to achieve what the higher entities in a nation desire.
Liberty is given up in a socialist or totalitarian society. Collective freedom does not exist in these instances and the term contradicts itself. Freedom at its core is individual. Freedoms such as public criticism are suppressed because they are seen as disloyal. Hayek quotes Kant saying, “Man is free if he needs to obey no person but solely the laws”. This planning that stifles freedom is not inevitable, as many think it is. It is a result of deliberate action toward it. To fix this movement toward a downward society, we must embrace individual freedom and creativity, and progress without planning, then we can truly progress.
