“In the New World, they wanted to erect a New Jerusalem that would not only be religiously devout, but be built on a new foundation of communal sharing and social altruism. Their goal was the communism of Plato’s Republic, in which all would work and share in common, knowing neither private property nor self-interested acquisitiveness.
“What resulted is recorded in the diary of Governor William Bradford, the head of the colony. The colonists collectively cleared and worked land, but they brought forth neither the bountiful harvest they hoped for, nor did it create a spirit of shared and cheerful brotherhood.”
very well written. doubt very many people know this portion of history, i didn’t. really liked Bradford’s conclusion about the nature of man and how “God in his wisdom saw another course fitter for them”.
this truth is so awesome to me. we are all agents unto ourselves and have free-will; now that’s something to be thankful for.
I honestly didn’t know much either outside of the fluff taught in grade school.
that is a very powerful revelation, and unfortunately a difficult concept to grasp for many.
i just read this now (fascinating how good and natural order may still result from the Curse) – interesting to me partly bc Ebeling was a professor at Hillsdale while I was there, until he left to head FEE. I didn’t take any of his classes, but he gave a lecture for a seminar I took.
Also that Mises quote from Dilorenzo has inspired a bit of mischievousness, i think i will copy and paste it to my Econ class’s chatroom where some fellow student has asked (trying to understand it in terms of the Keynesian model) what caused the current situation.
you’ll have to let me know what kind of response you get from that quote. it’s amazing to me how accurately mises and other austrians (as in the economic philosophy, not the nationality) were able to predict the trends in the economy even many years beyond their times. and still they are ignored.