Omar Khan’s post on his blog remidned me of the book ‘Waging the War of Ideas’, by John Blundell, which you can download in full below.
In particular, pay close attention to the story on page 17, and in particular paragraph 3, which I quote below:
1946: Recently demobilised from Britain’s Royal Air Force, highly decorated fighter pilot Antony Fisher finds in the Reader’s Digest a condensation of F. A. Hayek’s classic critique of socialism,
The Road to Serfdom. It confirms his own worries about his country’s tilt toward socialism.Travelling to London, Fisher seeks out Hayek at the London School of Economics (LSE). ‘What can I do? Should I enter politics?’ he asks. With Fisher’s war record, good looks, gift for speaking, and excellent education, it is no idle question.
‘No,’ replies Hayek. ‘Society’s course will be changed only by a change in ideas. First you must reach the intellectuals, the teachers and writers, with reasoned argument. It will be their influence on society which will prevail, and the politicians will follow.’
1949: Ralph Harris, a young researcher from the Conservative Party, gives a Saturday afternoon lecture in a small village in southeastern England. Fisher – now a farmer – is present and loves what he hears. Taking Harris aside after the meeting, he explains his ideas for an organisation to make the free-market case to intellectuals. ‘One day,’ he says, ‘when my ship comes in, I’d like to create something which will do for the non-Labour parties what the [socialist] Fabian Society did for the Labour Party.’ Harris is excited. ‘If you get any further,’ he says, ‘I’d like to be considered as the man to run such a group.’
The book was first published and 2001, and was republished in 2007.
It was this book that inspired me to do something to spread freedom and liberty Malaysia.
Click here to download the full book.
Filed under: Freedom & Liberty
This para should be in our FAQ.
and I’d have to thank WSWJ for giving me this book on the day I left the UK
As much as I agree that ideas are what defines society, I must say I disagree with the unflinching view of a top-down imposition of ideas, with the assertion that ideas would only proliferate from individuals nominally higher in the social hierarchy.
At the same time, it’s heartening to see someone not afraid of subscribing to the view of individualist Western Liberty instead of the Oriental version of communal Liberty. Good luck, I’ve seen swift denunciations of people like you in Malaysia as pengkhianats.