horse of george

A curious correspondence discovered, that is probably somewhat over wrought and unfair to Obama and his acolytes - but reading about Hayek and the evolution of his thoughts in the run up to and during the course of WWII, you find this quote from Beveridge, Hayek's socialist nemesis: "A revolutionary moment in the world's history is a time for revolutions, not for patching" - in other words, let's not waste this opportunity the devastation of war has given us by simply rebuilding the old capitalist system - time to summon forth our socialist utopia! Sadly Beveridges thinking largely carried the post war day and England would have to wait for the arrival of Thatcher 30 years later to undo the damage caused - but one is struck, a bit unfairly I admit as a measure of the hubris involved, at how Obama and his utopian crew, coming into power on the heels of a devastating crisis of their own, thought in similar naively idealized terms: here's our opportunity to remake America into something our socialist brethren in the academy will recognize as enlightened - the awful compost of capitalism has made ripe the field - Hope and change! - or as Rahm Emanuel would later repackage it, never let a good crisis go to waste.