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Is The West Rich
Because of Luck?
Published on May
2, 1998
Dear Editor,
Re: "Did the West Get Lucky?"--by James Buchan--April 4--Globe and Mail
(Books Section)
[James Buchan's review of David S. Landes book: "The Wealth and Poverty of Nations"]
It's hard to say who is more preposterous, David S. Landes or James Buchan. If Landes
believes, as Buchan suggests, that the West owes its prosperity to luck -- to blessed
fortunes such as soap, windmills, spectacles, clocks, screw-in fuses, private property,
division of labor, freedom of conscience, etc. -- then either Landes can't think
in terms of fundamentals-versus-derivatives or he is a cultural relativist and nihilist
who dislikes the fact that the West discovered the principles of logic, science and
individual rights, and that reason and individualism yield prosperity whereas mysticism
and collectivism yield poverty.
Buchan's response, in effect, was to assert that prosperity can't "last forever."
Why? "History arises from the clash and resolution of innumerable wills and
accidents." Obviously, Buchan agrees with Landes (and with Hegel who injected
this false theory of history into modern philosophy) that reason is irrelevant as
a guide to human action. The fact that people can choose to adhere to a philosophy
of reason and individualism, and thus continue expanding knowledge and prosperity,
is rendered impossible by this theory.
If Buchan and Landes are representative of mainstream intellectuals, then our prosperity
definitely won't last forever because reason and individual rights will be abandoned
-- thus leaving us at the mercy of luck and irrational wills (such as Adolph Hitler
-- a product of Hegel).
Sincerely,
Glenn Woiceshyn
© 1998 Glenn Woiceshyn.
All rights reserved. This article can be found on-line at at http://www.capitalism.org/glennw. |
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