This critique of Michael Gerson’s “heroic conservatism” strikes a chord with me. I guess my thinking has become very Burkean.
Large scale governmental attempts to change human behavior, no matter how well intentioned, don’t work. The results are always something very different from what was intended. This may not be apparent for a long while, which constantly gives hope to the naive and historically illiterate, but in the end, social engineering doesn’t work.
At least we know why it can’t work, at least partially. Hayek’s famous “knowledge problem” points out that all knowledge is local, incomplete and imperfect, which severely limits the scope and scale of how well a society can be ordered. Order will emerge, and a naturally emerging order more fully reflects the sum of knowledge than the best intentioned “intelligent design”. Order imposed from above can work when it is limited to protecting us from thugs and providing infrastructure, but imposing order to solve “social problems” can’t work.
But having said that, I’m not as critical of Bush’s foreign policy as Mr. Hulsman. We haven’t tried to impose much order on either Afghanistan or Iraq; instead, we’ve created a framework where order can emerge. From where I sit, that seems to be a viable, if painful, option. Nor am I opposed to Bush’s huge effort to combat AIDS in Africa: public health is a critical form of infrastructure and disease doesn’t respect geopolitical boundaries.
Tags: foreign policy, social engineering
