Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Knowleage: Unused and Misused 131
"wise society" can be found in the proceedings and final resolution
of the American Assembly in 1953, called together to discuss "SOM
cial security in modem times." 12 But any actuarial examination of
social security schemes in advanced democracies shows that these
collectives have less wisdom and long-range foresight in planning
the welfare of society than has the average head of a family for his
dependents.
One reason for this, of course, is that the head of a family can
be sure of love and support even if he has to make, in the interest
of long-range goals, economic decisions which frustrate the immeM
diate preferences of some members of the family. The governments
of democracies usually believe that they cannot afford such
sanity. It is "politically impossible."
Possibly, as Richard LaPiere shows in his book, The Freudian
Ethic (1959), the same sentiments and pseudo ethics that have rendered
impotent whatever wisdom may be available to some men
in government now tend to corrupt at least certain families in
America. Parents read that they ought to run the family by public
opinion polls among brats. If this should become a dominant feature
of our families, it is likely that more and more of them will
become incompetent. In so far as this stems from the same source
as the cancer in government-a vulgar misunderstanding of democracy
and equality-I see little reason for optimism when the
more powerful of two incompetents, a certain type of modern
government, tells a certain type of modern family that it needs the
central government to protect it from its own folly. A collusion of
two fools will hardly lead to a sane public policy.
In some circles of contemporary sociology it is fashionable to
view society and its subdivisions as "systems." Often, however, it
seems to me, not enough care is taken in regard to important ontoM
logical distinctions. For instance, Karl von Frisch, in his studies
of the bees, conceives of their state as a highly articulate system;
but we hardly assume the bees to know themselves as constituent
members of a system. In other words, there are at least two different
possibilities when we speak of a social system. The researcher
and theorist, in order to make puzzling phenomena comprehen-