Something I Learned

            I have been thinking a lot about free speech and speaking up. I looked at myself and wondered why I don’t speak up more often when I disagree with something. I examined the feelings I had when I was in a situation where I wanted to say something but did not. I found that the reason I did not speak up was because I did not want to rock the boat. That is to say I did not want to start an argument with someone. Once I realized that, I had to ask why I didn’t want to start an argument with someone. The answer to this question was because I thought that they would bring up a topic that I did not know about and would defeat my argument. So I resolved myself to learn about as much as I could. The more I learned the more I realized that I could not know everything. I realized that if I spent all my time trying to make sure I knew everything before I spoke I would not speak.

            It was around this time that I started listening to F.A. Hayek (it actually started with a fictional rap battle between Hayek and Keynes on YouTube) and Thomas Sowell. I downloaded and listened to Thomas Sowell’s book Intellectuals and Society. A book I highly recommend if you want a look at how intellectual shape society and form their ways of thinking. This is where I came across the idea that had already formed in my mind but I had not found the words to express it. The idea that one person, no matter how intelligent, charismatic or insightful they may be can never know more than society. The collective knowledge of individuals will always be more than the knowledge of one person.

            An example of this would be a college professor. They may be an expert in whatever field they teach (let’s say Gender Studies) and they may be very educated but they know next to nothing when it comes to economics. So why is it that we think educated people (people with a degree) know more than everyone else? The truth is that they do know more than the average person, in one specific field. Yet you see over and over again a Professor held up as someone who can comment on anything and be seen as a creditable and valid source. This is the problem with central planning and top down regulation. One person cannot know more than the collective knowledge of everyone and one solution cannot fix the problems of everyone. This is why people need to be free to find solutions for themselves.

Would you rather have the Government say what is and is not a good Engineer or would you rather have Engineers and the people they are working for make those choices? Would you rather have the intelligent professor of Gender Studies fix your car or a Mechanic? Everyone is an individual with their own dreams and desires, their own problems and faults and the best methods of obtaining their dreams and desires and overcoming their problems and faults is going to be different for each individual. This is why individual freedom will always produce far better results in the long run than any sort of central planning or one size fits all solution.