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Quotation of the Day…

… is from page 161 of Princeton University economist Thomas Leonard’s excellent 2016 book, Illiberal Reformers, which is a study of how the scientistic pretenses of late-19th and early-20th century “Progressives” led them to endorse illiberal – indeed, often vicious – social-engineering schemes, including eugenics and minimum-wage legislation:

John Stuart Mill had long before warned that politicians will not accept instruction from their technocratic betters, and that even instructed government can do more harm than good.

Mill was correct.  Anyone who believes that politicians will sincerely try to govern society apolitically, according to the ‘scientific’ precepts and findings of technocratic experts – or that politicians will even try to run the government along such technocratic lines – is someone who believes that, properly instructed, rhinoceroses can flap their horns in order to fly.  Similarly, anyone who believes that society should be controlled and manipulated as if it is an engineering project not only has no regard for the dignity of individuals but, also, has no understanding of what society and an economy really are.

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