Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West

by R.R. Reno

Hayek’s metaphysical minimalism stands in contrast to collectivism, which presumes “the existence of a complete ethical code in which all the different human values are allotted their due place.”29 A social philosophy of this sort marshals political and social pressure to bring individuals into conformity with what is purportedly good for us. If we allow ourselves to think in terms of the common good—or any substantive good—we are on the slippery slope to socialism and collectivism, the road to serfdom. Although he does not say it explicitly, Hayek implies that there is always greater freedom for the individual when the social consensus about right and wrong is weakened. The prerequisite of cultural deregulation and the reign of the weak gods was already evident in John Stuart Mill’s defense of individualism, On Liberty, published nearly a century earlier.