[107248] in Cypherpunks
CL: K Jackson on Hayek's fearless character
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Thu Jan 7 12:59:06 1999
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 12:22:36 -0500
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1999 02:23:29 EST
Reply-To: Hayek Related Research <HAYEK-L@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
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From: Hayek-L List Host <HayekList@AOL.COM>
Subject: CL: K Jackson on Hayek's fearless character
To: HAYEK-L@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
>> CURRENT LITERATURE << -- Hayek's character
"Friedrich Hayek faced every challenge with the same attitude:
Never let fear get a toehold.
A native of Austria and a member of the Austro-Hungarian military
in World War I, Hayek scouted enemy artillery from the air.
It was hazardous duty. Spotters' biplanes were often shot down.
'Once the Italians practically caught us, one in front, firing
through the propeller,' Hayek recounted years later. 'When
they started firing, my pilot .. started spiraling down.'
Rather than cowering, Hayek took action. 'I unbelted myself,
climbed on the rail. My pilot succeeded in correcting the spin
just above the ground.'
Hayek (1899-1992), perhaps the 20th century's most influential
defender of free markets and liberty, carried that same daring
into the academic field.
'Clearly, he had no intellectual fear,' said Greg Ransom, a
Hayek scholar and philosophy professor at MiraCosta College
in Oceanside, Calif. 'He just did what he thought was right'.
Hayek, who first favored socialist thought, became one of its
fiercest critics. A free-market advocate in the '30s, when socialists
controlled many of the world's capitalist countries, Hayek
wouldn't be dissuaded.
No compromise
Despite the jeers that greeted him in the universities where he
taught and the forums where he lectured, Hayek was stoical in the
face of criticism. In fact, his belief in his theories was so
unshakable he never softened his stance.
'He wasn't afraid to speak out and lead (even thought it) inevitably
would trash his career and reputation in the leftist atmosphere
of the '30s through the '60s,' Ransom said.
But knowing he'd be vindicated, he held his ground during a career
that included teaching posts in London, Chicago and Freiburg im
Breisgau, Germany ,,, "
Kerry Jackson, "Economist Friedrich A. Hayek: Faced a Lifetime
of Challenges As If He Never Knew Any Fear". _Investor's Business
Daily_. Jan. 7, 1999. Leaders & Success Page.
Current Literature is a regular feature of the Hayek-L list.
--- end forwarded text
-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
