Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

146 Scientism and Values
be true history; in any case, I thought it particularly incumbent
upon me to expose the false history so often adduced by the pessimists.
The pessimists? This word, too, stands in need of qualification.
Pessimism often enough takes on the appearance of optimism and
adopts the tone of cheerfulness and hope. Our civilization is, so
we are told (by Marx, for instance, and his followers), in the last
stage of decay, but what will come after its final dissolution will
be of a higher quality and worth all the upsets and the sufferings
that we have still to face. Not that this disguise of optimism is
required to tempt everyone. There is in human nature an inclination
which responds to visions of ruin and decay. Against them
the divine promise of eternal bliss can shine with greater radiance.
Take Augustinus; take Bilderdijk, the great Dutch counterrevolutionary
poet. But even Spengler's unadulterated pessimism found
a receptive public.
Now all these prophets of woe and of repentance, and the joyful
announcers of a new and blissful dispensation as well, like to
appeal to history. History in their hands is made to conform to the
system which they need for their gloomy or hopeful visions.
It is, I suppose; an ingrained habit of the human mind-and, indeed,
it is a noble ambition-to try to construct a vision of history in
which chaos, or apparent chaos, is reduced to order. The historical
process is made to conform to a line, a rhythm, a regularity-a movement,
in other words, which obeys definable and intelligible laws
and whose continuation can, therefore, be predicated by the observer
beyond the moment of his own life.
So I expressed myself, ten years ago, when setting out on a discussion
of the works of Sorokin and of Toynbee. "A noble ambition."
But also: "The historical process is made to conform." In
other words: Violence is done to the historical process. Some years
later, when I was invited to deliver the Terry Lectures at Yale
University, I chose the use and. abuse of history for my subject. 2
In dealing with it, I naturally devoted a good deal of attention to