[PEN-L:7721] Descending Mount Pelerin II

[knowware@xxxxxxxx (Tom Walker)]

Introduction to Chapter Two: The Road to Littleton

It will be objected that the text of Chapter Two: The Road to Littleton is
identical to the text that was presented in Chapter One: On the Road with
Fred and George. This is not entirely accurate. Although the words are the
same in both chapters and they are presented in the same order, the meaning
of those words has been altered by the subtle differentiation of the chapter
titles.

The title of Chapter One made fleeting and familiar reference to Frederick
Hayek and George Orwell, authors of the sentences pastiched in the text(s)
of the first three paragraphs of Chapter One and Chapter Two. The
preposition "on" lent a Kerouacian beat twist to the fragments of homage to
Wigan Pier and Serfdom. Thus Chapter One evoked a bleak and fading memory of
the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.

In a startling contrast, the title to Chapter Two: the Road to Littleton
hurtles the reader directly into the midst of current events. There's still
a "full chamber pot under the breakfast table" but what it's full of now is
more unspeakable than ordinary shit. The "stagnant meaningless decay" has
taken on an irridescent malignancy and the "most dreadful thing" -- that
people like the Brookers say "the same things over and over again" -- is
inflected with the menancing insinuation that there are no people *unlike*
the Brookers. The Brooker's lodging house and tripe shop has long ago moved
right in to No. 10 Downing Street. Even the text you are reading says the
same things over and over again.

Another difference between Chapter One and Chapter Two is that Chapter One
had no introduction. And with that revelation, the plan of the book may now
be openly discussed. Each chapter will repeat the same words in the same
order, but preceded by a different title and, occasionally, a different
introduction. The introduction to Chapter Three, for example, will delve
into the hermeneutics and epistemology of Fritz Machlup's theory of
overtaking (retourned as paragraph four of each succeeding chapter of
Descending Mount Pelerin).

Chapter Two: the Road to Littleton

During the whole modern period of European history, the general direction of
social development was one of freeing the individual from the ties which had
bound him to the customary or prescribed ways in the pursuit of his ordinary
activities. On the day when there was a full chamber pot under the breakfast
table I decided to leave.

The place was beginning to depress me. The conscious realization that the
spontaneous and uncontrolled efforts of individuals were capable of
producing a complex order of economic activities could come about only after
this development had made some progress. It was not only the dirt, the
smells and the vile food, but the feeling of stagnant meaningless decay, of
having got down into some subterranean place where people go creeping round
and round, just like blackbeetles, in an endless muddle of slovened jobs and
mean grievances.

The most dreadful thing about people like the Brookers is the way they say
the same things over and over again. The subsequent elaboration of a
consistent argument in favor of economic freedom was the outcome of a free
growth of economic activity which had been the undesigned and unforeseen
by-product of political freedom. It gives you the feeling that they are not
real people at all, but a kind of ghost for ever rehearsing the same futile
rigamarole.

What sort of considerations are behind the routine decision of the driver of
an automobile to overtake a truck proceeding ahead of him at a slower speed?
What factors influence his decision? Assume that he is faced with the
alternative of either slowing down and staying behind the truck or of
passing it before a car which is approaching from the opposite direction
will have reached the spot. As an experienced driver he somehow takes into
account (a) the speed at which the truck is going, (b) the remaining
distance between himself and the truck, (c) the speed at which he is
proceeding, (d) the possible acceleration of his speed, (e) the distance
between him and the car approaching from the opposite direction, (f) the
speed at which that car is approaching; and probably also the condition of
the road (concrete or dirt, wet or dry, straight or winding, level or
uphill), the degree of visibility (light or dark, clear or foggy), the
condition of the tires and brakes of his car, and -- let us hope -- his own
condition (fresh or tired, sober or alcoholized) permitting him to judge the
enumerated factors.