Those who are long-time visitors to EPJ know that I don't normally put up videos that are one hour and 30 minutes long. I am doing so in the case of this lecture by Alan Charles Kors. The title of the lecture is Socialism's Legacy, it is mostly about that, but at the same time it is about much more. It is about the here and now. It is about what is going on in China , in Libya and in the United States. It is about the future around the planet. It is about what people understand and fail to understand about liberty and private property.
I urge you to make the time to watch this video. And don't give up on it after the first few minutes, Professor Kors takes a few minutes to warm up, but once he does, he gives one of the most impressive lectures I have ever seen.
Socialism's Legacy - Alan Charles Kors from Clemson Institute on Vimeo.
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Wow, that was a good lecture, thanks for the link.
ReplyDeleteThis is slightly off-topic, but the introducer of Kors, Bradley Thompson, has written, in my view, by far the best critique of neoconservatism ever in his book "Neoconservatism: An Obituary of an Idea". Like the lecture, it takes a bit to get going, but once it does, wow is all I can say.
Speech was good. Q&A was pretty weak. Confirmed my suspicion that although this man is quite educated and passionate about the subject, he's still confused and comes across as somewhat ignorant of basic economic theory (I noted his constant call for using empirical validation to judge various social constructs). The repeated interchangeable use of "capitalism" and "democracy" for synonyms for an open political system and free market economic system said much.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Taylor. He seemed to take for granted von Mises' conclusions regarding "middle of the road" policies or "mixed economies".
ReplyDeleteI would also had that he seemed to have a nostalgic and sentimental approach to the U.S. "opposition" to Soviet Communism, neglecting the history of U.S. industrialists and the government supporting and arming the greatest mass-murderers in the history of the world.
Some Yuri Maltsev and Tom Woods will wash this out of one's mind:
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=search&q=yuri
http://mises.org/media.aspx?action=search&q=woods