WEBVTT NOTE The Mises I Knew 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.940 In the first place, I want to thank you most warmly for the honor which you have bestowed 2 00:00:06.940 --> 00:00:16.120 upon me. I particularly appreciate it, since it came from a university which is dedicated 3 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:25.320 to the ideals of one of the truly great men of our century. I value it also more particularly 4 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:32.320 Since I had the privilege of knowing him in two phases of his life and of appreciating 5 00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:39.520 him in sometimes very difficult situations. My first meeting with Ludwig von Mises was 6 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:47.800 during the Second World War. For the Austrians in the United States, while they had very 7 00:00:47.800 --> 00:00:54.800 faithful friends, it was also a time of great difficulties. Not all of the other Austrians 8 00:00:55.320 --> 00:01:25.320 The Allied leaders, despite the obvious evidence, were ready to recognize Austria as a victim of Hitler, on the contrary, inspired as they were by certain political fanatics of some of the neighboring countries of Austria, but also, unfortunately, by some minor Austrian politicians in exile, who were no longer eager to re-establish the independence of their country. 9 00:01:25.320 --> 00:01:33.880 They had regretfully access to some of the American mass media and politicians and we 10 00:01:33.880 --> 00:01:36.840 had to weather a bad storm. 11 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:45.360 And here may I just make one remark which independently from the subject of Mises, I 12 00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:47.200 have very much on my heart. 13 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:55.080 You see, this university is in the great state of Alabama and I will never forget one fact 14 00:01:55.080 --> 00:02:01.600 When we started this hard work, and it was a hard work, for the independence of Austria 15 00:02:01.600 --> 00:02:08.440 here in the United States, and especially when we tried to get the support of the American 16 00:02:08.440 --> 00:02:15.000 Congress, it was a congressman from Alabama, the first who supported us in our efforts, 17 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:22.400 Mr. Pete Jarman of one of the constituencies where there is today the University of Alabama. 18 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:29.040 And I want to remember this because it was at that time an act of real courage and generosity, 19 00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:35.580 especially since he was not of Austrian origin. He just was one who represented in the world 20 00:02:35.580 --> 00:02:42.580 the ideals of that great state of yours. Others followed thereafter. The next being a senator 21 00:02:42.580 --> 00:02:49.580 Others followed thereafter. The next being a senator from Florida, Claude Pepper, a congressman 22 00:02:52.820 --> 00:02:58.180 from New York, Saul Bloom and several others. I won't mention them all. We had some good 23 00:02:58.180 --> 00:03:05.180 friends too and they all needed a lot of courage to support the cause for which Mises was fighting. 24 00:03:05.180 --> 00:03:21.180 In this storm which we were in, unfortunately, many of the Austrian emigres either went into hiding or even sided with the hostile forces. 25 00:03:21.180 --> 00:03:30.180 Some others, amongst them, leading persons like Ludwig von Mises, stood firmly by their country. 26 00:03:30.180 --> 00:03:37.060 Murray weathered the storm and finally was successful. In the struggle he was as solid 27 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:44.060 as a rock. So I had the opportunity of being a witness to some of his major characteristics. 28 00:03:44.820 --> 00:03:51.820 The first one was an absolutely straight line. Ludwig von Mises was not an opportunist and 29 00:03:52.260 --> 00:03:59.260 dared to speak his mind even though this was considered as untimely. He was backed by his 30 00:04:00.180 --> 00:04:07.780 his great personal courage, that moral courage which unfortunately is all too rare and which 31 00:04:07.780 --> 00:04:16.540 one hence doubly appreciates. Finally, he was a great patriot. Of course he was loyal 32 00:04:16.540 --> 00:04:23.240 to the United States and grateful that they had accepted him when his own homeland fell 33 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:30.240 under Totalitarian Invasion. But he also never forgot that he was an Austrian, that 34 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:37.360 he came from Vienna, and that he owed his old country support as a reward for the intellectual 35 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:45.120 possibilities which Vienna has afforded Ludwig von Mises as long as it was independent. All 36 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:52.120 this made him, in the dark days of the emigration, a real beacon of light. And permit me here 37 00:04:53.240 --> 00:04:59.800 And to add another remark, which was the consequence of a conversation I had today. And somebody 38 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:06.800 asked me, how did Mises get his title of nobility? Who gave it to him? Well, I can tell you that 39 00:05:08.280 --> 00:05:15.280 in Austria, thank God, there was a time under Emperor Franz Josef when finally it was understood 40 00:05:15.280 --> 00:05:30.280 It was understood that nobility, that is to say the elite in a country, had a title and one of reward, not in material sense, but in a moral sense. 41 00:05:30.280 --> 00:05:51.280 This so-called verdienstadel, this honor, this nobility of reward for independent action was one that was very important and that reminded me of a tradition which I think was very useful in Japan. 42 00:05:51.280 --> 00:05:57.480 In Japan also there were noble titles, but those who received for a great achievement 43 00:05:57.480 --> 00:06:04.440 a noble title, it was not their children who afterwards had the right to carry the title, 44 00:06:04.440 --> 00:06:10.520 but all the ancestors who received the title because of the gratitude of Japan for the 45 00:06:10.520 --> 00:06:15.920 achievements that they had a son who had done such a great service. 46 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:23.160 And somehow I feel that in the times of Emperor Franz Josef, it was quite clear that gradually 47 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:32.160 this new type of nobility was rising, and Ludwig von Mises was one of the great noblemen 48 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:38.360 of that time. That's why he received his title, in my opinion, and that was one thing which 49 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:43.040 of course ended in tragedy, because most of these people were murdered afterwards when 50 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:51.480 when the Nazis came in, but indeed created that new sense of nobility which for the future 51 00:06:51.480 --> 00:06:57.120 can be of very great significance for all of us, whether we are living in a republic 52 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:04.200 or in a monarchy or in any other sort of political system, and that here we have something which 53 00:07:04.200 --> 00:07:11.640 has been often criticized but which I submit to you is a very useful way of rewarding public 54 00:07:11.640 --> 00:07:18.640 Service. The second time I had the opportunity of seeing Professor von Mises was in the Montpelerin 55 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:27.680 Society that important, I must admit almost call it decisive organization, created soon 56 00:07:28.960 --> 00:07:35.960 after the Second World War in order to reestablish in the universities of Europe the idea of 57 00:07:35.960 --> 00:07:42.160 The idea of a free economy as a basis of individual freedom. 58 00:07:42.160 --> 00:07:49.280 He was there with the great men of his time, like Professor von Hayek, Röpke, Machlub, 59 00:07:49.280 --> 00:07:51.800 Ludwig Erhard and Eugen. 60 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:56.840 I do not mention many others who fought with them for the same ideals. 61 00:07:56.840 --> 00:08:03.280 They dared to try to bring back, starting from Germany and Switzerland, the old ideals 62 00:08:03.280 --> 00:08:09.820 of the Economic School of Vienna, as against the allegedly modern ideologies which began 63 00:08:09.820 --> 00:08:15.720 with a beverage plan and continued through certain personalities like Keynes, who had 64 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:22.720 certainly great literary abilities but economically were trying to lead Europe down the road to 65 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:30.480 serfdom, where here the Montpellier society endeavoured to gather the leading spirits 66 00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:37.480 on the side of freedom and to return to Europe those values which had been driven mostly 67 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:44.980 overseas by the horde of National Socialism. The Montpellierin Society had started as a 68 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:52.840 small but very important group. All of them were distinguished professors. I was the only 69 00:08:52.920 --> 00:08:59.560 one in that group who didn't have this high academic title. Later on I discovered the 70 00:08:59.560 --> 00:09:05.440 This is the reason why I was invited to join this illustrious society. 71 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:09.480 Professors usually live in order to teach the ignorant. 72 00:09:09.480 --> 00:09:14.000 When they started to work, there was no ignorant amongst them. 73 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:20.800 I happened luckily to pass by during a meeting, not even knowing that I was at a meeting of 74 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:23.080 the Montpélran society. 75 00:09:23.080 --> 00:09:29.440 Thereupon I was invited to join, since obviously the professors were eager to have at least 76 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:36.440 Just one ignorant to educate. I must tell you that I gained a lot from my membership 77 00:09:37.840 --> 00:09:44.280 in the Montpelerin Society. It gave me that knowledge of the basics of economics, which 78 00:09:44.280 --> 00:09:51.280 is indispensable, especially when one is ready to start on a political career. Only, when 79 00:09:51.280 --> 00:09:58.280 Only, when I joined somewhat later, due to the European elections of 1979, the group 80 00:09:58.920 --> 00:10:05.920 of Euro-parliamentarians did my presence at the Mont Pelerin Society become rare. 81 00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:13.120 The main reason was not lack of interest. God knows, but the fact that the Mont Pelerin 82 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:20.120 Society's meetings always take place in the first week of September. Now, we politicians 83 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:49.120 In the first week of September and I, having become a parliamentarian, had the absolute obligation to be present. If I wanted to work effectively, I have always and deeply regretted this. But by the same token, I was year after year profoundly grateful to that society, and especially to its great personalities like Ludwig von Mises, for what he has done. 84 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:57.120 What they had given me in the preparatory period. Indeed, we had the great privilege to participate 85 00:10:58.760 --> 00:11:05.000 within the framework of the Mont Pelerin Society in that fight for freedom, which was both 86 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:12.000 tough and victorious. At least, I did not realize at that time that we were just starting 87 00:11:12.800 --> 00:11:19.800 on a major campaign for freedom and were just in the preliminary stages. The main battle 88 00:11:19.800 --> 00:11:23.640 The battle was to come later. 89 00:11:23.640 --> 00:11:30.640 Permit me now to speak as a European parliamentarian out of that experience and how I see from 90 00:11:32.760 --> 00:11:39.760 this level the big battle which is being fought in Europe and as it is to a more or less equal 91 00:11:42.080 --> 00:11:49.080 degree in other parts of the world. I strongly feel that no decision has yet been made to 92 00:11:49.800 --> 00:12:07.800 have been reached and that we have now to face an even more dangerous challenge than was the case at the time when the battle was won against the creeping socialism at the end of the Second World War. 93 00:12:07.800 --> 00:12:14.800 Our situation today in the world is determined, I submit to you, by the enormous discoveries 94 00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:22.240 of our scientists at the end of the nineteenth and in the first half of the twentieth century. 95 00:12:22.400 --> 00:12:28.520 Whoever had the opportunity of following the events knows that the world, as it existed 96 00:12:28.520 --> 00:12:35.520 only a few decades ago, has changed fundamentally. The acceleration of this change is going 97 00:12:35.520 --> 00:12:40.600 is going to be felt even more strongly in the times to come. 98 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:47.600 A person who has reached my old age when looking back on the period of his youth will realize 99 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:54.920 that we have undergone a true, though unbloody revolution which has altered almost all the 100 00:12:54.920 --> 00:13:01.920 data of our life. This has not been easy for many of us. Thus, I remember Winston Churchill's 101 00:13:01.920 --> 00:13:07.280 I remember Winston Churchill's first visit in the United States after the Second World 102 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:17.120 War. He was invited to visit the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the many journalists 103 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:25.680 who followed the great hero on his triumphant trip to the United States were banned from 104 00:13:25.680 --> 00:13:35.520 for entering, because he was admitted to those two top secret places, where some elements 105 00:13:35.520 --> 00:13:39.680 of the future were under preparation. 106 00:13:39.680 --> 00:13:46.080 The stay of Churchill lasted two hours, and when he came out, the newspaper people ran 107 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:54.040 to him, asking him what his impressions were. His answer was, gentlemen, as you know, I 108 00:13:54.040 --> 00:14:01.540 I am not a very religious man, but inside there, and he indicated the door which had 109 00:14:01.540 --> 00:14:12.320 just been closed behind him, I prayed in order to thank the Lord that I am 70 years old. 110 00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:20.080 The main changes in our life, at least in the perspective of a politician, are threefold. 111 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:27.080 In the first place, there is the fact that the old idea of autarky has completely vanished. 112 00:14:27.640 --> 00:14:33.120 It was not so very long ago, just a little more over a century, when in the framework 113 00:14:33.120 --> 00:14:40.120 of a village, economy, almost everything that was needed to the inhabitants could be produced. 114 00:14:42.200 --> 00:14:49.000 Before the Second World War, Adolf Hitler was able to boast that he would create a German 115 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:56.000 and self-sufficiency, and as the events of the war have proven, he almost succeeded. 116 00:14:56.400 --> 00:15:03.400 And today, the only form of autarky, of which we can still speak, is to be indispensable 117 00:15:05.640 --> 00:15:12.640 for others, as they are indispensable for us. The world globalization is today a tangible 118 00:15:12.640 --> 00:15:25.640 is today a tangible reality. The interdependence has become worldwide and this has deeply affected the economy of each one of our countries. 119 00:15:25.640 --> 00:15:38.640 When people, especially among politicians, complain today about the fact that factories are leaving one country to take up production in another, 120 00:15:38.640 --> 00:15:48.680 This is perhaps very effective in public meetings, but certainly does no longer correspond to 121 00:15:48.680 --> 00:15:51.320 the reality. 122 00:15:51.320 --> 00:15:59.680 Mobility in world economy has become one of the major characteristics, as was wholly the 123 00:15:59.680 --> 00:16:06.880 mobility within a single large country, for instance in your United States only a few 124 00:16:06.880 --> 00:16:13.880 The second most important characteristic with direct impact in our lives is the expansion 125 00:16:18.720 --> 00:16:25.480 of international travel facilities. I still can remember, and vividly so, the times when 126 00:16:25.480 --> 00:16:32.480 the United States were only from Europe, at best four days, but generally much more removed. 127 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:43.160 Today, thanks to Concorde, one can go in the morning from Europe to the United States and 128 00:16:43.160 --> 00:16:49.640 return in the evening even with a very big jet lag, but still one has come back. 129 00:16:49.640 --> 00:16:55.960 This mobility has also created a migration of the population which already significant 130 00:16:55.960 --> 00:17:02.960 and by the end of the national autarky has now become a global phenomenon. 131 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:08.960 Recently I had a personal experience which showed me drastically how things change. 132 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:16.960 I was in a major subway station of Munich and there were quite a number of colored people passing by. 133 00:17:16.960 --> 00:17:24.960 I suddenly realized that if only 15 years ago a single colored man had walked through his station, 134 00:17:24.960 --> 00:17:31.760 All the children would have turned around to stare at him. Now, they don't even take notice. 135 00:17:31.760 --> 00:17:38.760 He's a completely normal sight. This acceleration of traffic has also signally reduced distances 136 00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:47.000 within a country or between continents. In politics, this has led to what one might call 137 00:17:48.120 --> 00:17:54.920 the pendulum diplomacy, which was inaugurated in our times by Henry Kissinger and nowadays 138 00:17:54.920 --> 00:18:00.520 This is increasingly becoming a normal form of diplomatic intercourse. 139 00:18:00.520 --> 00:18:07.520 It also creates serious problems in numerous countries, which are more and more frightened 140 00:18:07.520 --> 00:18:14.360 by the wave of immigration, that rising tide which the politicians use, but for which they 141 00:18:14.360 --> 00:18:16.440 see no remedy. 142 00:18:16.440 --> 00:18:22.200 We shall have here serious problems in the future, which if we do not resolve them in 143 00:18:22.200 --> 00:18:28.600 and Time are bound to create international tensions of an unbelievable magnitude. 144 00:18:28.600 --> 00:18:35.600 Finally, and perhaps most effective from the point of view of the citizens' private lives 145 00:18:35.600 --> 00:18:42.520 is the explosion of information. Not so long ago, it could be said, as Bismarck had formulated 146 00:18:42.520 --> 00:18:49.960 it one day in the German Reichstag, what are we interested in him if people beat each other 147 00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:56.360 are far away in Turkey. Today Turkey is a few hours from Europe and indeed from the 148 00:18:56.360 --> 00:19:02.360 United States. The events have an entirely different impact from the one they had in 149 00:19:02.360 --> 00:19:09.360 the past. Not so long ago, news about an outrage, a bomb, a catastrophe took some time to reach 150 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:19.240 the other parts of the world. The speed of the telegraph was compared to today's possibility 151 00:19:19.960 --> 00:19:27.680 is very slow, and the result was that when the news reached their destiny, they had cooled 152 00:19:27.680 --> 00:19:36.680 down. They had no longer that lively impact, which is felt when you assist to an event. 153 00:19:36.680 --> 00:19:44.000 A bomb exploding at the other end of the world is today, thanks to global television, exploding 154 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:56.000 is changing simultaneously in the rooms of everyone who owns a television receiving set, and this is in no times being the majority of humanity. 155 00:19:56.000 --> 00:20:12.000 Therefore, we all are affected by incidents and events in quite a different way than was the case in the days of any of the preceding or even of the now still living generations. 156 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:18.480 This is changing fundamentally all the facts, including those of the political life. 157 00:20:18.480 --> 00:20:23.300 With that we must realize that this is just a part of the event. 158 00:20:23.300 --> 00:20:28.840 We go through an acceleration which will alter our lives even more. 159 00:20:28.840 --> 00:20:36.720 People feel this, although an answer to the problem itself is not forthcoming as yet. 160 00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:43.360 All this is called progress and certainly there is some progress if we look for instance at 161 00:20:43.360 --> 00:20:45.280 the medical science. 162 00:20:45.280 --> 00:20:49.760 What has been achieved here even in the last years is staggering. 163 00:20:49.760 --> 00:20:58.060 On the other hand, its impact on the life of humanity, the political sense, the question 164 00:20:58.060 --> 00:21:04.680 of freedom and democracy, has not yet been fully assessed and will be felt strongly in 165 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:13.080 in the non-too-far distant future. There is also the added fact, especially in the political 166 00:21:13.080 --> 00:21:20.400 life, that it is very hard to transmit the experience of the generation to the next. Each 167 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:30.080 generation must acquire its own experience, and this of course means a new system of teaching 168 00:21:30.080 --> 00:21:36.080 whereby the teacher must be the person itself affected by the event. 169 00:21:36.080 --> 00:21:43.080 Politically, one of the most significant elements in the rise of the superpowers, 170 00:21:43.080 --> 00:21:49.080 which started with the Second World War and now is becoming a normal phenomenon. 171 00:21:49.080 --> 00:21:57.080 Some of the countries have superpowers in their own right, and for instance, the United States, 172 00:21:57.080 --> 00:22:08.440 who by this fact are able to master the events more easily than those who have still to draw 173 00:22:08.440 --> 00:22:13.840 the consequences from their smallness in the face of world events. 174 00:22:13.840 --> 00:22:21.440 We have therefore here the rapidly progressing federations of small countries. 175 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:28.440 It is led by the European Union, which has a longer past because of the geographical data 176 00:22:30.140 --> 00:22:37.140 of the European continent. The present tendency for enlargement will in the end create a truly 177 00:22:38.600 --> 00:22:45.600 united Europe. We find similar phenomena in the organization of African unity, in the 178 00:22:45.600 --> 00:22:51.460 The Organization of African Unity, in the efforts of the Latin American nations to find 179 00:22:51.460 --> 00:23:02.460 unity as shown by Mercosur, and last not least in the efforts of the Asiatic nations, especially 180 00:23:02.460 --> 00:23:11.020 those of South East Asia in the Asian bloc. That these political unifications are taking 181 00:23:11.020 --> 00:23:18.020 in some time is obvious. On the other hand, one can already note certain phenomena. Here, 182 00:23:23.020 --> 00:23:29.540 the great danger emerging from freedom and democracy is a tendency towards centralization. 183 00:23:29.540 --> 00:23:36.540 This is being felt in the European Union, increasingly in other areas, and creates serious 184 00:23:36.540 --> 00:23:43.540 and creates serious problems which are not yet sufficiently studied. 185 00:23:43.560 --> 00:23:50.560 Centralism is leading at the same time to big government which are by nature inefficient. 186 00:23:53.940 --> 00:24:00.940 This can be shown in the smallest details. I can tell you of a personal experience characteristic 187 00:24:00.940 --> 00:24:23.940 In 1994 we had European elections. The European Commission in Brussels had the reasonable idea of sending out buses all through Europe in order to distribute material and to explain to the people the issues at stake. 188 00:24:23.940 --> 00:24:32.580 They also sent to all the candidates the schedule of these buses to their respective areas. 189 00:24:32.580 --> 00:24:42.940 I usually did not go to these bus stops because I had some better matters to deal with. 190 00:24:42.940 --> 00:24:51.740 On one day, however, I had a few hours break and since it was indicated that the bus would 191 00:24:51.740 --> 00:24:58.740 to be stopping in Munich at such and such an hour, I went there to see what would happen. 192 00:24:58.780 --> 00:25:05.420 I found this bus standing on a very place in the big city where in all likelihood nobody 193 00:25:05.420 --> 00:25:12.420 would pass. This was for me an excellent illustration of centralism. Even a Munich dimwit could 194 00:25:13.280 --> 00:25:20.280 have told that this would be false because he had some personal experience while an academic 195 00:25:21.740 --> 00:25:30.740 A politically graduated bureaucrat in Brussels, on the other hand, would choose the place on his map and this would be the result. 196 00:25:30.740 --> 00:25:38.740 It is a practical experience of politics that the closer you bring a decision to those it affects, 197 00:25:38.740 --> 00:25:43.740 the greater the likelihood that the decision will be good. 198 00:25:43.740 --> 00:25:51.740 Federalization is leading also to the new feudalism now being created in the name of efficiency. 199 00:25:51.740 --> 00:26:00.740 Bureaucracy is today the cancer of political institutions and seems to be on a move towards ever greater expansion. 200 00:26:00.740 --> 00:26:11.740 If successive governments come with the promise of reducing bureaucratic services, only very few of them are successful. 201 00:26:11.740 --> 00:26:18.940 In the end, under the pretext of efficiency, new bureaucracies are being established. 202 00:26:18.940 --> 00:26:25.140 When recently new governments were formed in Europe, in Great Britain, in France, in 203 00:26:25.140 --> 00:26:31.740 Germany and in Italy, all the promises of reducing bureaucracy were forgotten. 204 00:26:31.740 --> 00:26:36.340 Indeed, the number of bureaucrats continues to rise. 205 00:26:36.340 --> 00:26:43.340 Today, there are already countries in Europe where 25% of the population are on public 206 00:26:45.520 --> 00:26:52.520 and government services. It is also a frightening fact that in recent opinion polls, it was 207 00:26:53.860 --> 00:27:00.860 found that when young people were asked what their professional goals in life were, a majority 208 00:27:00.860 --> 00:27:08.860 A majority had answered to enter government service. People no longer seem to see the 209 00:27:08.860 --> 00:27:18.140 great personal accomplishments as an achievement, achieving excellence, but only one security, 210 00:27:18.140 --> 00:27:25.620 which on the one German political leader recently stated, is leading directly from government 211 00:27:25.620 --> 00:27:42.620 The greater our states become, the less efficient and the more expensive they are. 212 00:27:42.620 --> 00:27:49.620 Thus, we are on the road to serfdom, of which Professor von Hayek has so ably spoken. 213 00:27:49.620 --> 00:27:56.620 When knowing what dictatorship of the desk means, one sometimes comes to believe that 214 00:28:01.860 --> 00:28:08.860 in the long run, more dangerous it is than the individual dictatorship. The arrogance 215 00:28:09.140 --> 00:28:15.940 of bureaucracy is in many countries reaching a point which explains the population's deep-rooted 216 00:28:15.940 --> 00:28:25.120 Fear when facing governments. The lonely crowd is today a reality. This means a direct danger 217 00:28:25.120 --> 00:28:32.620 for democracy. One of the most perilous features of our times is the confusion of language. 218 00:28:32.620 --> 00:28:40.340 A true Tower of Babel, the less efficient and the more expensive they are. Thus, we 219 00:28:40.340 --> 00:28:46.820 We are on the road to serfdom, of which Professor von Hayek has so ably spoken. 220 00:28:46.820 --> 00:28:57.820 When knowing what dictatorship of the desk means, one sometimes comes to believe that 221 00:28:57.820 --> 00:29:05.580 in the long run more dangerous it is than the individual dictatorship. 222 00:29:05.580 --> 00:29:12.500 The arrogance of bureaucracy is in many countries reaching a point which explains the population's 223 00:29:12.500 --> 00:29:19.500 deep-rooted fear when facing governments. The lonely crowd is today a reality. This 224 00:29:20.820 --> 00:29:27.820 means a direct danger for democracy. One of the most perilous features of our times is 225 00:29:27.980 --> 00:29:34.980 the confusion of language, a true Tower of Babel, though today it is mainly locked in 226 00:29:35.580 --> 00:30:02.580 on the East River in New York. Especially in Europe, we find almost everywhere that justice and equality are being considered identically, although in fact the enforced equality is one of the greatest injustices one can visit upon a person or a nation. 227 00:30:05.580 --> 00:30:12.580 This is particularly felt in politics with our electoral system. People in countries 228 00:30:14.860 --> 00:30:21.700 with proportionate representation and party lists of candidates no longer know who their 229 00:30:21.700 --> 00:30:27.780 representative is. Amongst my colleagues in the European Parliament, those who have 230 00:30:27.780 --> 00:30:34.540 been elected on a national list, as is the case in France, in Spain or in Greece, do 231 00:30:34.540 --> 00:30:36.980 do not know who elected them. 232 00:30:36.980 --> 00:30:44.480 The true contact between elected representatives and the people themselves is diminishing and 233 00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:52.700 so it is justly claimed increasingly that we have no longer democracy but we have party-tocracy. 234 00:30:52.700 --> 00:31:01.020 That is the government parties which unfortunately in some cases leads to a new notion which 235 00:31:01.020 --> 00:31:08.020 which is called kleptocracy. It is the rule of thieves. This is creating a mounting criticism 236 00:31:11.380 --> 00:31:18.380 of the democratic system, which I feel you Americans are still lucky enough to escape 237 00:31:18.820 --> 00:31:25.140 because of the fact that you still have the direct election of your representatives and 238 00:31:25.140 --> 00:31:32.140 of Your Senators. Here people at least know who their representative is, or at least have 239 00:31:34.660 --> 00:31:41.660 an ample opportunity to know it. Democracy still has a human face. In Europe, unfortunately, 240 00:31:43.260 --> 00:31:50.260 we are approaching the stage of abstract democracy, where it is no longer possible to establish 241 00:31:50.260 --> 00:31:57.540 Where it is no longer possible to establish a living link, as shown by the fact that in 242 00:31:57.540 --> 00:32:05.580 Great Britain too, the movement to abolish the direct election of members is increasingly 243 00:32:05.580 --> 00:32:07.580 advanced. 244 00:32:07.580 --> 00:32:14.180 And here may I just tell you that this is one of the most dangerous sides of the picture, 245 00:32:14.180 --> 00:32:44.180 Because exactly there is no longer any life. And I, who have been 20 years in Parliament and believe that I have a little experience on that, I know what this means, to be estranged from one's electorate and it has been always my effort to try to get as close as possible to my voters and indeed in many instances it was my voters who brought that initiative which led me to bring some in, some out. 246 00:32:44.180 --> 00:33:14.180 This is creating an increasing skepticism on the part of the population is clear. Here too, I can give you a personal experience. It is only since 1994 that in meetings and being asked by younger people whether I would not agree that democracy is a bad system, that it is inefficient, and that it would be a blessing if some spread of skepticism 247 00:33:14.180 --> 00:33:21.060 A strong person rose to put the house in order. We, the older people, who have known these 248 00:33:21.060 --> 00:33:27.200 strong persons, cannot be tempted by such pseudo-logic. The youngsters, who have not 249 00:33:27.200 --> 00:33:33.940 the same experience as we have, are increasingly attracted by what the French political thinker 250 00:33:33.940 --> 00:33:40.940 Jean-Francois Revelle has called the totalitarian temptation. This, in my opinion, has become 251 00:33:40.940 --> 00:34:08.940 is becoming an increasing danger which not only threatens Europe but also many of the other democracies who by their devotion to alleged justice are abolishing the human face of democracy and are making of it a system which is the more endangered since a young generation is taking over which has never known either totalitarianism or global warfare. 252 00:34:08.940 --> 00:34:37.940 Almost against this danger and threat, we in Europe have an instrument which I hope will be used, although I am sometimes worrying about the way in which especially the national governments, who still hold excessive power in the European Union, are trying to brush it aside, namely the principle of subsidiarity in the Treaty of Maastricht. 253 00:34:37.940 --> 00:34:45.660 One of the most important steps in this Maastricht Treaty is the fact that the principle of 254 00:34:45.660 --> 00:34:50.580 subsidiarity can now be used in the European Court. 255 00:34:50.580 --> 00:34:53.880 So far this has not taken place. 256 00:34:53.880 --> 00:35:00.980 As you know, subsidiarity, which is a difficult word to translate to the people, means in 257 00:35:00.980 --> 00:35:07.980 In more simple terms, that the greater entity can never take over a task which a smaller 258 00:35:07.980 --> 00:35:15.380 entity can fulfill in a satisfactory manner. In other words, municipalities have basically 259 00:35:15.380 --> 00:35:22.900 more rights than territorial units, as for instance, counties or states. This is also 260 00:35:22.900 --> 00:35:28.740 an effective defense against the temptation of using the harmonization which we have to 261 00:35:28.740 --> 00:35:34.220 I want to carry out, in order to live in the present world in a human way, as a means to 262 00:35:34.220 --> 00:35:41.220 extend the power of central government. I know that it is a truly human characteristic 263 00:35:41.220 --> 00:35:47.700 that those who are bearers of bad news are unpopular. It was indeed a very human system 264 00:35:47.700 --> 00:35:54.700 in old Turkey that if bad news were brought to the sovereign, the news would be accepted 265 00:35:54.700 --> 00:36:17.700 Today, fortunately, one no longer executes bearers of bad news, but on the other hand it is hard to get them across and to make people understand that some of the hopes which are being entertained quite generally today are unjustified. 266 00:36:17.700 --> 00:36:24.700 One should never forget that good politics consist in always being prepared for the worst. 267 00:36:24.700 --> 00:36:31.700 If it does not materialize, one can't thank the Lord, but if it comes, one is ready. 268 00:36:31.700 --> 00:36:41.700 Today, unfortunately, when too many politicians are thinking of saying what pleases the masses in order to be re-elected, 269 00:36:41.700 --> 00:36:56.700 There is some very real danger that the courage to admit dark perspectives vanishes so that all too many persons no longer know what is really at stake. 270 00:36:56.700 --> 00:37:10.700 Here, the so-called perfect democracies of the proportionate representation and the rigid list of candidates are much more threatened than are those where the people know their representative. 271 00:37:10.700 --> 00:37:17.700 People who have personal contact with their representative consequently trust him more 272 00:37:18.460 --> 00:37:25.460 than they can do to those who aren't, except perhaps in seeing them from time to time on 273 00:37:30.060 --> 00:37:37.060 television. At least for us in Europe, this shows our task since freedom is once again 274 00:37:37.060 --> 00:37:43.580 are again endangered. We must dare to speak of this. We must realize that freedom must 275 00:37:43.580 --> 00:37:50.580 be saved and must be protected. At the same time, we must also understand that freedom 276 00:37:52.180 --> 00:37:59.180 is best established in the small entities. Its basic root is the family, then the municipal 277 00:37:59.460 --> 00:38:06.460 life and so on. The great countries, our great federations of the future, will be big houses 278 00:38:06.460 --> 00:38:13.460 It is in this perspective that we have to see the potentialities of the teachings of Mises, 279 00:38:20.820 --> 00:38:26.500 one of his greatest contemporaries for the future of our common life. This is not an 280 00:38:26.500 --> 00:38:33.500 academic game or a scientific preoccupation. It is today a very important and very humane 281 00:38:33.500 --> 00:38:40.500 and Human Fact. We are not here in order to dream or to follow intellectual pursuits, 282 00:38:41.020 --> 00:38:48.020 but dedicated to a truly important task. Let us not forget that in the end, as past decades 283 00:38:48.280 --> 00:38:55.280 have shown, it is the work at the universities and in the intellectual community that is 284 00:38:55.360 --> 00:39:02.360 long-range decisive. When one sees in these terms the tremendous success which Professor 285 00:39:03.500 --> 00:39:20.260 We know that today, when the dangers are still ahead and still can be avoided, it is the 286 00:39:20.260 --> 00:39:28.260 work at the universities which is decisive. We ought to be able to teach the people that 287 00:39:28.260 --> 00:39:34.700 that freedom is worth fighting for, that the basis of freedom is the political freedom, 288 00:39:34.700 --> 00:39:40.180 and that the prosperity of the future depends on the achievement of peace. 289 00:39:40.180 --> 00:39:45.500 I know that there are many who say that we should not talk of the defense of peace at 290 00:39:45.500 --> 00:39:51.700 a time when peace allegedly is assured since the collapse of the Soviet Union. 291 00:39:51.700 --> 00:39:55.500 Let us not be mistaken, this is not the case. 292 00:39:55.500 --> 00:40:01.820 When we see certain figures who are politically quite successful and who remind us of the 293 00:40:01.820 --> 00:40:08.900 Hitlerite and Stalinist times, such as Saddam Hussein or Slobodan Milosevic, when we see 294 00:40:08.900 --> 00:40:15.580 that they are able to challenge great world powers which do not dare to put an end to 295 00:40:15.580 --> 00:40:22.340 their inhumane rule, we know that the time has come when we must act again as did our 296 00:40:22.340 --> 00:40:28.140 for predecessors like Ludwig von Mises at the end of the Second World War. 297 00:40:28.140 --> 00:40:35.140 More than many years ago, we are called to defend freedom and to promote sound notion 298 00:40:35.780 --> 00:40:42.780 of democracy. More than once, we must make people recognize the tremendous dangers of 299 00:40:44.900 --> 00:40:51.900 centralism and of centralized bureaucracy. More than once, we should mobilize the people 300 00:40:52.340 --> 00:40:58.660 to mobilize the forces of freedom in the fight for the defense in our times. 301 00:40:58.660 --> 00:41:04.980 This is a task which is given to the younger generation, but in which the older generation 302 00:41:04.980 --> 00:41:07.820 can render significant service. 303 00:41:07.820 --> 00:41:14.900 It is from our decision of today that the future of the next generation depends. 304 00:41:14.900 --> 00:41:17.280 Mises did that in his time. 305 00:41:17.280 --> 00:41:24.680 We who are dedicated to the ideas for which this great man has started and lived are called 306 00:41:24.680 --> 00:41:31.280 upon to act in our days so as to be worthy of our great predecessors. 307 00:41:31.280 --> 00:41:31.920 I thank you.