Hayek vs. Hayek

Yesterday, my colleague Brian Doherty noted that The Road to Serfdom has bounced to number one on Amazon.com after a loving tribute on Glenn Beck's Fox broadcast. Great news!

But here's a short, sad story to give you some perspective: I did a Google News search for Hayek this morning—you know, just a typical day when you work at Reason—and this is what I found:

Which makes now as good a time as any to link to the classic Salma vs. Friedrich Scorecard.

UPDATE: Reason contributor Lene Johansen correctly notes via Twitter that I should have taken this opportunity to encourage you to rewatch the excellent Hayek v. Keynes rap battle video:

Comments

[spambot]

Beck takes things everyone should read and then when he associates with it makes it look like fringe kookery. Do us a favor and go away you are not helping.

[Old Mexican]

Re: spambot,

At least, it looks like fringe kookery for those writting for the Huffington Post . . . but not much than that.

[-]

Putting Hayek at the top of Amazon's bestsellers list isn't helping? Maybe you should go away.

[hmm]

Everyone stand back!

I'm gonna get my fringe kookery on!

[Suki]

Is that on the Food Channel?

[hmm]

Soul channel.

[Pro Libertate]

There is no cooking on the Food Network any more, aside from the occasional Good Eats episode. Now it's all reality programming. However, Scripps has launched the Cooking Channel (in place of Fine Living) to highlight cooking again. Just somewhere else.

[T]

Wait, does that mean Scripps is killing Fine Living? Where am I going to get my Three Sheets fix?

[Pro Libertate]

Cooking Channel is already live, and Fine Living is no more.

I imagine some Fine Living shows survived the transition. Like Emeril Live and the original Iron Chef.

[T]

This is what I get for not watching much TV, I suppose.

[Zeb]

"Like Emeril Live"

I thought you said it would feature cooking.

[Pro Libertate]

Hey, I like Emeril. I started watching Food Network back in the 90s because of him. He's got some great recipes. Love his restaurant (in Orlando), too.

[Ben]

Three Sheets is on the Travel Channel now & looks like it's been picked up for a new season:

http://www.zanelamprey.com/201.....etter.html

Viva Pleepleus!

[Brett L]

Apparently the business model of niche cable channels is to establish a viewership with relevant programming and then abandon in favor of reality shows. I didn't realize MTV was 15 years ahead of the curve with The Real World. It makes me sad.

[#]

does MTV even pretend to show anything about music anymore?

[Old Mexican]

I stopped seeing MTV after they started Pimp My Ride - not funny.

[Tim]

So you won't be interested in their newest version: "Pimp my Mother" ?

[Brett L]

Is Blago the first guest or Spitzer?

[Suki]

O'Reilley

[?]

There is no cooking on the Food Network any more

Remember when MTV played music videos?

[Suki]

That was back when you were a different color, Sol.

[Clich? Bandit]

Kind of like MTV not showing videos so they made MTV 2 which also morphed into not showing videos.

I want my MTV...back

[Clich? Bandit]

ok, clearly i was caught in a time warp...pretend my comment about MTV was posted before everyone else...that would make me feel better.

[?]

I feel your pain.

[Suki]

Someone as hot as you feels pain? That is so deep.

[JW]

No, no you don't.

Martha Quinn is no longer near as cute as she used to be. You don't even want to think about Nina Blackwood.

[?]

I comprehend your potato.

[Subsidize Me!]

I cannot possibly conceive of how having the fox news audience reading Hayek is a bad thing.

I think there is a Beck Derangement Syndrome, and you are afflicted. You'll feel better after you ogle Salma's chesticles like the rest of us perverts.

[Invisible Finger]

Even better is when you realize half the Fox News audience is left-wingers getting their hate on.

[Suki]

If it gets mentioned on Rush that actress will be unfindable on the Google.

[Jorgen]

If he's getting people educated, good for him. The reality is that if you want ideas to penetrate past the circle of intellectuals, they often have to be advanced by people who are a little brash, crazy and entertaining. And if Beck is educating his audience then he deserves a lot of praise.

[The Left]

Yeah, but Beck's audience can't read. Haw haw haw! And even if they did buy it, they'd just poop on it. Haw haw haw!

[Suki]

New handle MNG?

[The Left]

Don't hate me because I'm stupid.

[Suki]

I don't hate you only because you are stupid. There is an "and" before socialistic too.

[Tulpa]

That's why we have The Illustrated Road To Serfdom, a stern warning of the dangers of government control of industry published by ... General Motors.

[Urkobold?]

FOOLS! ARE YOU NOT AWARE OF THE URKOBOLD'S PLAN TO ILLUSTRATE HAYEK'S ROAD TO SERFDOM WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF SALMA HAYEK?

[T]

Nice catch, Tulpa. But that was the GM of old, not the craven pack of lickspittle government-dependent curs they've become.

[Old Mexican]

And . . . so?

[Kiwi Dave]

I know, sometimes I think Beck is an elaborate piece of performance art, kind of like a very deep-cover Colbert.

[Greg]

In Friedrich's defense, Salma just happens to have a new movie coming out in two weeks... if Beck had given him pub a couple of months ago I doubt Salma would have kept him from the top spot

[?]

Salma vs. Friedrich

If only science could put his brain in her body...

[Suki]

What an awesome SciFi novel idea!

[?]

It would make economics fun again!

[Suki]

Hollywood would ruin that book with a bad movie.

[?]

Starring Angelina Jolie? Or Scarlett Johansson?

[Suki]

Not sure who Michael Moore would pick.

[?]

He'd pick a bucket of chicken, definitely.

[Suki]

To the bone!

[Syd Henderson]

Or vice versa

[Tulpa]

Already been done in The Man With Two Brains. One of the better Steve Martin movies.

[Pro Libertate]

"Ladies and gentlemen, I can envision a day when the brains of brilliant men can be kept alive in the bodies of dumb people."

[Skid Marx]

Already been done in The Man With Two Brains. One of the better Steve Martin Lily Tomlin movies.

[Pro Libertate]

Do you mean All of Me?

[Pro Libertate]

Hayek vs. Hayek. An interesting idea. . . .

[Pro Libertate]

Personally, I wouldn't steal bits from the Urkobold, given his taint-withering propensities. But that's just me.

[DADIODADDY]

jello wrestling match...to the death?

[Pro Libertate]

No, no. It's a battle of wits. Well, of wits and other things ending in "its."

[Warty]

Nobody is mentioning the important issues here.

[?]

They were implied.

[BakedPenguin]

Good point, but you could have gotten a better photo.

[Warty]

Yes, but she's not in Austrian costume there, now is she?

[BakedPenguin]

Argh. I hate it when I'm too slow to pick up on multiple level commentary.

Which is pretty much always. Anyway, in leiu of an apology, here's some death metal.

[Warty]

I think that's technically black metal. But I heartily approve of any song that has the lyrics "ass for ass".

[?]

I would like to add that Lactating Salma was the best Salma ever.

[A. Freeman]

Fringe kookery or truthful issues? One thing Glenn Beck has done is change the discussion in this country from politics to governance. People need to know the difference; the US Constitution is NOT about political parties, it is the legal document that defines Governance.

The idea that our Capitalist economic system has advantages over a centrally managed economy is one that has been lost to the Public Skool System. That includes advantages of and proper operation of a free market economy.

Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch sound no less radical on Stossel's Fox Business Network program, just somewhat less enthusiastic.

[Tony]

Since countries with heavy investment in social services consistently outperform more laissez-faire systems in nearly every meaningful social metric, it's hard to choke down the glories of capitalism based on your word alone.

[Ron L]

Tony|6.10.10 @ 1:09PM|#
"Since countries with heavy investment in social services consistently outperform more laissez-faire systems in nearly every meaningful social metric,..."

"Social metric" would mean sitting in coffee shops grousing about the US?

[Suki]

+69

[Meaningful Social Metrics]

Ya! Suck on that! Ever-burgeoning debt burdens don't mean squat!

[Hong Kong]

Re: Tony,

Since countries with heavy investment in social services consistently outperform more laissez-faire systems in nearly every meaningful social metric, it's hard to choke down the glories of capitalism based on your word alone.

Yes, people in Greece live better lives . . .

[Old Mexican]

By the way, who gets to decide which is the "meaningful" social metric? And what is a social metric, anyway, and why would anyone find it useful to measure a society? That makes as much sense as holding water with a sieve.

[Diane Sawyer]

I do. Scum.

[Mike Laursen]

Why is this sad? If I had no choice but to go back in time and kill one of the Hayeks at birth, I'm afraid it would have to be Fred.

[Suki]

Bad idea.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Mike Laursen,

I don't even that would be enough to entice Salma to sleep with you.

[Mike Laursen]

Don't worry. I have no hope of any such thing ever happening.

[Lester Hunt]

I think Beck is much better when he appears on O'Reilly than he is on his own show.

[Suki]

Does he bring both turntables?

[Tim]

I like when Bill puts a cookie on his nose and Glenn jumps for it.

[Tim]

Connie Chung and Dan Rather would still be on the air if they had mastered that one.

[?]

The Hayek/Hayek joke is a fallow field.

"But them titties ain't planned!"

Hiyo.

[Tulpa]

One of the chapters in Road To Serfdom is "Why the Worst Get On Top". Hee hee.

[Greg Ransom]

Sexy woman with a snake.

Who doesn't want to see that?

[Adam]

Me?

[Suki]

Why do you guys think that was so hot in Blade Runner? I didn't like.

[Max]

Well, you gotta admit Katherine, Salma Hayek is more beautiful than old FA Hayek, even if she is shrieking =)

[Tim]

HELEN THOMAS!

Just trying to bring the temperature down...

[Tulpa]

How about Kerry Howley vs. John Kerry?

[DADIODADDY]

selma has a way better rack...ergo sheshould be #1

[Demian808]

It just goes to show that hyperbole sells. If you want to take your cues from a self professed "rodeo clown" that's your problem.

Hayek makes a convincing argument against a centrally planned economy. Ok, fair enough. If you think that Barack Obama is turning America into the Soviet Union, then I'm sure you'll find great solace in Hayek's book. (As long as you ignore the parts of it that don't fit that narrative.) But if you don't think hyperbole is where its at, but instead reside in the "reality based community" then you might certainly take note that Hayek, while rejecting Socialism in its most extreme forms, did not endorse a Libertarian style unfettered free market Capitalism either.

Yet it doesn't seem as if balanced, rational argument in vogue; what clowns like Beck do is encourage people to look at things in black and white. Go ahead and call it libertarianism if you will, but don't call it "reason."

[ap]

LOL

that is sorts of DRINK!

[Tulpa]

The point of TRTS is that even a mixed economy with a large public sector has a strong tendency to become ever more centrally-planned and then progress to totalitarianism.

[Mike Laursen]

If you think that Barack Obama is turning America into the Soviet Union, then I'm sure you'll find great solace in Hayek's book.

That sentence was a bit ... oh, what's the word ... hyperbolic.

[lj220]

the google is wonderful TYF220GDH

[han]

Do you think there will ever be a Libertarian or independent president or will it always be someone from one of the two major parties?