The Intellectuals and Socialism

Hayek’s 1949 essay in the University of Chicago Law Review. Its argument is that socialism did not win converts by persuading the public directly but by capturing what he called the “second-hand dealers in ideas” — journalists, teachers, commentators, publicists — who decide which expert opinions reach everyone else, and who are selected for facility with ideas rather than for knowledge of any particular field. His charge against classical liberals is strategic: they had conceded the future to their opponents by offering administrative caution where socialism offered a utopia, and would not recover until they again made liberty an intellectual adventure worth arguing for.

Why it’s on the list: It opens the curriculum’s Marxism and collective psychology section, which is largely a study of how an idea takes hold of a society; Hayek supplies the transmission mechanism the rest of the section illustrates.

Where I saw it: Brendan McCord’s Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List, in the section on Marxism and Collective Psychology. The entry carries a ☑️ on the source page; the page gives no legend for that mark, so it is recorded here literally and not interpreted. The full 211-entry transcription is on The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List.

Connections

• Socialism — the doctrine whose spread the essay explains.
• Liberalism — the tradition Hayek accuses of losing the argument.
• Ideology — the essay’s subject in general form.
• The Philosopher-Entrepreneur Reading List — the curriculum this came from.