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Cargando... The God of the Machine (1943)por Isabel Paterson
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. NA Paterson reviews the evolution of governments in terms of individual liberty, private property, and the progress of society in terms of technology and standards of living. From the Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans to the states of World War II (it was written in 1942-43) she compares the workings of government to machinery. But she continues to point out that unmanned machinery cannot be effective without a free people to drive it. When many people lose sight of that last point they begin to believe that our plenty is made by an automatic process, by a ‘machine’ made up of government, industry, agriculture, business, etc. The work points out that these are only elements, like the parts of a power grid, and the individual inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs are the generators or dynamos that provide power to the system. Eliminate their incentives and opportunities and the system will deteriorate. It may function for a time, just as a car will run on battery power; but it is ultimately doomed to failure. The semi-socialist systems being adopted in the west cannot be maintained, so she writes the equivalent of Lincoln’s ‘House Divided against itself cannot stand’ speech. She was alarmed by the progress that a ‘corporate liberal’ state had made even in 1943. A clear grasp and statement of certain ideas makes this remain an important book for libertarian and other advocates of individualism, private property, liberty, and restraint of government. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
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The God of the Machine presents an original theory of history and a bold defense of individualism as the source of moral and political progress. When it was published in 1943, Isabel Paterson's work provided fresh intellectual support for the endangered American belief in individual rights, limited government, and economic freedom. The crisis of today's collectivized nations would not have surprised Paterson; in The God of the Machine, she had explored the reasons for collectivism's failure. Her book placed her in the vanguard of the free-enterprise movement now sweeping the world.Paterson sees the individual creative mind as the dynamo of history, and respect for the individual's God-given rights as the precondition for the enormous release of energy that produced the modern world. She sees capitalist institutions as the machinery through which human energy works, and government as a device properly used merely to cut off power to activities that threaten personal liberty.Paterson applies her general theory to particular issues in contemporary life, such as education, .social welfare, and the causes of economic distress. She severely criticizes all but minimal application of government, including governmental interventions that most people have long taken for granted. The God of the Machine offers a challenging perspective on the continuing, worldwide debate about the nature of freedom, the uses of power, and the prospects of human betterment.Stephen Cox's substantial introduction to The God of the Machine is a comprehensive and enlightening account of Paterson's colorful life and work. He describes The God of the Machine as "not just theory, but rhapsody, satire, diatribe, poetic narrative." Paterson's work continues to be relevant because "it exposes the moral and practical failures of collectivism, failures that are now almost universally acknowledged but are still far from universally understo No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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