In Which I talk about a strong quote by Mr. Von Mises

I got used to writing the beginning of my posts when I finish the main piece, I guess it's easier to do so! I didn't know what to write today, but searching for quotes for the "quote of the week" session of the blog, I found this very provocative one by Ludwig von Mises, and I decided to expand on this thought in my improv messy way. I also write the beginning to say good morning, Happy Monday! And before we begin, I'm happy to say it is my birthday week! This is not a guarantee that things will go well, but certainly bring a smile and hope to my face and soul! Well, that being said, let's jump to what was in my mind when I read this quote by Mises: (posting it here as well because next week the quote will be other, if things go well).

"You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician told them: you are inferior and all the improvements in your conditions which you simply take for granted you owe to the effort of men who are better than you. If this be arrogance, as some of your critics observed, it is still the truth that had to said in the age of the Welfare State." - Ludwig von Mises, on Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged (My favorite book of all time)

I think this commentary by Mises on Ayn's novel to be very clever. It really summarizes this amazing tale by one of America's finest writers. People think that progress is automatic, it happens over time, inevitably. So much that this progress will bring our downfall (I say Our as in Humanity as a whole). Like history can be predicted, like History is a thing at all. What this people never wanted to grasp is how progress happens, and why sometimes it is followed by painful endings. Ayn talks about it, talks about the great human minds and entrepreneurs, the ones that made people guess that progress is granted from above. I don't even refer to God, as Ayn writes on an era that God has faded from many people's lives. I talk about people from above, the government, the state. The state, the greatest of all evils, is dangerously mistaken as the one who brings progress. But great human minds and entrepreneurs can't just make things happen out of thin air, they need freedom, specially ECONOMIC freedom (Capitalism, if you prefer), to act up to their potential. In a world where the values are shattered, this ECONOMIC freedom is precisely the one that takes the fault for most of the tragedy in human's lives, tragedy that many moments is caused by the state and its laws and taxes. Progress is done in an era of freedom and privacy. Decline happens when the state decides to put his greasy hands on it (the state doesn't have hands however, those greasy hands belong to the ones inside the state, such as politicians, bureocrats, ideologues, empresarios that are corporativist (and they are incentivized to be)). It can happen for many reasons, such as "social justice", "let's share the wealth of the greedy capitalists to the common masses!", "the environment is in danger and we need to get rid of so many of those luxuries promoted by the capitalist pigs". So decline happens. It happened to Rome, when slowly but surely their currency was devalued to the point of people returning to barter. It happened in China when emperors decided the country was better off isolated. It happened in England of the 20th century before Margaret Thatcher (with great difficulty) brought some breath to the british economy (being massacred by so many in the process). I mean, the reasons for decline may be different, the ones I quoted above were put in this way more recently, but it always start at the economy, as economy is interlinked with everything, and everything is interlinked to economy. It starts with people taking progress for granted. It starts like that. I wouldn't use the word "inferior" that Mr. Von Mises used, BUT it does need to be a quote that shocks, that draws attention, that expresses that our prosperity didn't come out of thin air, and it will go away if the same socialist mistakes of the past are repeated. And they are being repeated. This is a more sombre post, but seeing this quote by Mises really inspired me to write this ramble about the core of Atlas Shrugged. It is probably a mess, it probably has grammar mistakes, but here it is, my- piece on the matter. If you reached this point, thank you, let me know your thoughts, and I wish you the best!