City Journal: Wilfred McClay on the importance of George Washington.
Monday, July 06, 2026
Practice! Practice!
The first book I wrote was published in 1976.
My most recent book, Pilate's Magician, was published in 2026.
[I am deeply grateful for all of the positive reviews.]
"The Use of Knowledge in Society"
The peculiar character of the problem of a rational economic order is determined precisely by the fact that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess. The economic problem of society is thus not merely a problem of how to allocate “given” resources—if “given” is taken to mean given to a single mind which deliberately solves the problem set by these “data.” It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society, for ends whose relative importance only these individuals know. Or, to put it briefly, it is a problem of the utilization of knowledge which is not given to anyone in its totality.
Read all of Friedrich A. Hayek's essay here.
Sunday, July 05, 2026
Saturday, July 04, 2026
Letter to America
Letter to America, from a Frenchman who has seen the end
of the movie.
You still believe you're the last free country. You are,
for now. I'm writing to you from a country that was free too, and which signed
its surrender without a single shot fired.
In France, the State captures and redistributes 57% of
everything the nation produces. Fifty-seven percent. Stop and dwell on that
figure. For every unit of value created by an engineer, a worker, a founder who
risked it all, more than half passes through hands that built nothing. This
isn't a budget line. It's a permanent mortgage on people's existence.
And here's what no one will admit to you: it never
happens through revolution. No one votes for decline. We vote for compassion,
for security, for justice, for the planet. At every step, we trade a piece of
freedom for a promise. And the promises are always beautiful. That's the trap.
Today's collectivism no longer waves the red flag; it has
understood that it doesn't sell anymore. It has learned to speak the language
of care. ESG, governance, compliance, "responsibility": these are the
new words for a very old idea. The idea that an enlightened elite knows better
than you what's good for you, and that power must therefore be transferred to
it, line by line, to decide in your place. It's not a conspiracy. It's worse:
it's a consensus. No one is hiding. Everything is done openly, applauded,
subsidized.
Hayek wrote it eighty years ago: the road to serfdom is
paved with good intentions and centralized planning. France has walked that
road with a smile. We nationalized risk, socialized failure, taxed boldness,
and administered everything else. Result: a magnificent country that builds
nothing anymore, that manages its decay with a funereal elegance, and where the
most gifted young person dreams of only one thing—leaving. Many end up with
you.
America still has what we've lost: the reflex to build
rather than administer. The founder is a hero there, not a suspect. Success is
proof there, not a sin to atone for. That's your treasure. And a treasure is
lost without anyone noticing—a form, an agency, a "good cause" at a
time.
So don't look for hidden enemies. It's useless and
unworthy of you. Look at the figure instead. Look at France. Every point of GDP
you let slip toward the State is a point of freedom that never comes back.
Freedom doesn't die assassinated. It dies anesthetized,
to applause.
Don't sign. Build.
-
Brivael
Le Pogam
[[
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)