The BBC recently slapped a “trigger warning” on its popular 1969 series Civilisation, warning that viewers may deem the series objectionable as it presents Eurocentric perspectives. The series is now deemed to be “problematic” because it tells a “European story,” focusing on the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. This is criticized by academics—for example, the classicist Mary Beard—for excluding other cultures and also for excluding women while showcasing the achievements of men in Greece, Rome, France, Italy, Germany, and Britain.
This rejection of Eurocentricity by modern academics pervades the “decolonize” movement that has swept through all scholarly disciplines across the humanities and natural sciences. The science of economics has not been spared. Economic theories that have long been associated with economic progress and civilization are also rejected. The concept of “civilization” itself is rejected on the grounds that all cultures are equal; therefore, all cultures are a form of civilization, and no civilization is superior to any other. In this worldview, there is no particular reason why economic freedom should be prioritized above any other social goal.Jeffries, DonaldBest Price: $15.55Buy New $14.00(as of 11:47 UTC – Details)
Economic freedom concerns the human liberty to engage in the activities necessary to sustain prosperity and civilization, as well as the institutional conditions necessary for human beings to thrive. Economic liberty is therefore subsumed within civilization itself. The two concepts are linked, and the idea that we can choose to reject economic principles while maintaining the level of economic progress to which we have become accustomed is simply wrong. Ludwig von Mises explains this in Human Action:
What is wrong with our age is precisely the widespread ignorance of the role which these policies of economic freedom played in the technical evolution of the last two hundred years. People fell prey to the fallacy that the improvement of the methods of production was contemporaneous with the policy of laissez faire only by accident.
Hellbound and Down 