The socialist, whether nationalist or internationalist, is concerned with the “general welfare” or “common interests,” a way of thinking Hayek calls “collectivism.” The collectivist imagines society to be governed by powerful forces that merge individuals into a single “we.” The purpose of the state is to serve the higher ends of the “we,” to which the interests of the individual must be subordinated. This pattern of thinking about social and political life, argues Hayek, characterized Hitler’s race-based fascism as well as communism’s class-based totalitarianism, an analysis that made The
...more
