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| John Maynard Keynes
A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind. By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone. Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all. For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves and to every one that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still. I do not know which makes a man more conservative – to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past. I do not understand how universal bankruptcy can do any good or bring us nearer to prosperity. I evidently knew more about Economics than my examiners. I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal. I would rather be vaguely right, than precisely wrong. If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid. In the long run, we are all dead. It is better that a man should tyrannize over his bank balance than over his fellow-citizens and whilst the former is sometimes denounced as being but a means to the latter, sometimes at least it is an alternative. It is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil. Most men love money and security more, and creation and construction less, as they get older. Nothing mattered except states of mind, chiefly our own. Only with absolute fearlessness can we slay the dragons of mediocrity that invade our gardens. The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward. The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. The decadent international but individualistic capitalism in the hands of which we found ourselves after the war is not a success. It is not intelligent. It is not beautiful. It is not just. It is not virtuous. And it doesn't deliver the goods. The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds. The importance of money flows from it being a link between the present and the future. The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future. To the economists – who are the trustees, not of civilisation, but of the possibility of civilisation. Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking. |
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