Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 28 of Matt Zwolinski’s and John Tomasi’s 2023 book, The Individualists: Radicals, Reactionaries, and the Struggle for the Soul of Libertarianism (footnote deleted):

Human society is a complex ecosystem, and like all natural ecosystems, it is difficult to manage, much less control. When dealing with complex systems, the attempt to impose a consciously designed order from above often backfires. The unavoidable narrowness of our perspective and knowledge, combined with the reactions of those being controlled, often causes our interventions to yield consequences never intended or desired.

DBx: It is truly a fatal conceit to conclude that because we can perceive real imperfections in the market economy, and then imagine how we might use force to ‘correct’ these imperfections, that the use of force as we imagine it will bring about the results that we desire.