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Even more significant of the inherent weakness of the collectivist theories is the extraordinary paradox that from the assertion that society is in some sense more than merely the aggregate of all individuals their adherents regularly pass by a sort of intellectual somersault to the thesis that in order that the coherence of this larger entity be safeguarded it must be subjected to conscious control, that is, to the control of what in the last resort must be an individual mind. It thus comes about that in practice it is regularly the theoretical collectivist who extols individual reason and demands that all forces of society be made subject to the direction of a single mastermind, while it is the individualist who recognizes the limitations of the powers of individual reason and consequently advocates freedom as a means for the fullest development of the powers of the interindividual process.

Friedrich Hayek#137

ControlReasonIndividualism

About this quote

What does it mean?
Collectivism paradoxically relies on one mind to control society while claiming society is bigger than individuals.
In plain terms
Collectivists say society is more than people but then want one leader to control it.
What can you take from it?
Realize collective control relies on individual minds.

Where it applies

  • political theory
  • ideological critique
  • governance debates

Putting it to work

  • critique central planning
  • support individual freedom
  • analyze logic of control

Questions to consider

  • Can any individual mind control complex society?
  • What limits does reason face?

Another view

Collective decision making can be stronger than individual.

More from Friedrich Hayek

  1. Equality of the general rules of law and conduct, however, is the only kind of equality conducive to liberty and the only equality which we can secure without …

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  2. Even the striving for equality by means of a directed economy can result only in an officially enforced inequality - an authoritarian determination of the stat…

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  3. 'Emergencies' have always been the pretext on which the safeguards of individual liberty have been eroded.

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