Hayek: Planning and Democracy

From The Road to Serfdom by FA Hayek, Chapter 5. Planning and Democracy

We can rely on voluntary agreement to guide the action of the state only so long as it is confined to sphere where agreement exists. – p.68

Democratic government has worked successfully where, and so long as, the functions of government were, by a widely accepted creed, restricted to fields where agreement among a majority could be achieved by free discussion and it is the great merit of the liberal creed that it reduced the range of subjects on which agreement was necessary to one on which it was likely to exist in a society of free men. – p.77

The fashionable concentration on democracy as the main value threatened is not without danger. It is largely responsible for the misleading and unfounded belief that, so long as the ultimate source of power is the will of the majority, the power cannot be arbitrary. The false assurance which many people derive from this belief is an important cause of the general unawareness of the dangers which we face. There is no justification for the belief that, so long as power is conferred by democratic procedure, it cannot be arbitrary; the contrast suggested by this statement is altogether false: it is not the source but the limitation of power which prevents it from being arbitrary. Democratic control may prevent power from becoming arbitrary, but it does not do so by its mere existence. If democracy resolves on a task which necessarily involves the use of power which cannot be guided by fixed rules, it must become arbitary power. – p.79

Nothing new under the sun

I was listening to Girl Talk Radio this evening, and heard “The Crew” by Fdel. I noticed a sample that I instantly recognized from Fatboy Slim’s song “Gangster Tripping” (It’s at about 1′40″ in to the song, and probably elsewhere – sort of sounds like a nasal robot saying ‘wah-wah’, but in a higher pitch). I recognize samples all the time, like “Record Creakin” by DJ Venom containing a sample from Eminem’s “Under the Influence” (at 2′09″).

Movies reuse music samples too – in Over The Hedge, you can hear the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive engine failing after the Depelter Turbo fires near the end of the film. In Wall•E, when the cute robot fully recharges, the sound of a Mac booting up plays. My friend and I laughed out loud in the theater at this point – but we laughed alone. I assert it’s because most people didn’t appreciate that Steve Jobs (Apple’s current CEO) bought Pixar (then The Graphics Group) from George Lucas at a critical time and probably saving it from obscurity, while Steve’s other minor business endeavor produced computers that use the chime at boot up.

Even documentaries are not above the practice. The BBC’s recent attempt to capitalize on “Planet Earth”, called “Earth: The Biography”, shamelessly reuses a stock audio clip of wind whistling over and over and over again. The narrator’s accent is also repugnant.