I'm not sure it is odd. Paraphrasing Hayek's observations on the hierarchy of knowledge, but without his eloquence:
Only a minute percentage of the population at any given time is seriously interested in matters philosohic or economic, or has the ability to effectively assimilate and compare the acccumulated knowledge. This tiny group will resurrect, re-combine, and re-vitalize old ideas, occasionally inject a new insight. Then they fight like hell, scream, and call each other names. In spans measured in decades, the surviving thought-chains will reach what Hayek called "the second hand dealers in ideas". These might include technical writers, academics, ministers, etc.; those who mold popular opinion. Slowly, these ideas trickle down to the popular media, incubate, and eventually co-mingle with the good and the bad of what is sometimes considered common wisdom. These ideas are discussed and criticized more or less intelligently initially, by those who more or less know what they are talking about. By the time they have reached the later stages they are simply "reinforced dogmas", not subject to proof or disproof.
It'll just take a while more for a serious plurality to recognize the systemic complexity that requires decentralization. |
