The Antiplanner’s friend and frequent commenter on this web site, M (for Michael) Setty, recently co-authored a response to the final chapter of The Education of an Iconoclast, “Lessons from an Iconoclast.” I’m not sure why Michael thought he needed to respond to my memoirs, but here is a brief reply.
The most important lesson, I stated, was “Don’t trust the government.” To which Michael and his co-author respond, more than once, “governments exist to maximize the satisfaction of the public from available resources.” I’m not certain that’s really why governments exist, but even if they do, that doesn’t mean they behave that way. If you assume that governments and government agencies always work they were intended to work, you’re going to be very disappointed when they don’t.
“The American Constitution is designed to be run by crooks, just as the British constitution is designed to be operated by gentlemen,” wrote Freeman Dyson in his book, Infinite in All Directions. “If ever a World Government should come into existence, it had better be a government designed to be run by crooks rather than a government designed to be run by gentlemen. Gentlemen are too often in short supply.” Continue reading
