Η τυραννία των χαμηλών προσδοκιών

Πας σε ένα εστιατόριο γεμάτο ποντίκια και ακαθαρσίες. Οι σερβιτόροι είναι αγενείς, η κουζίνα δεν έχει εξοπλισμό και το μέρος φαίνεται εντελώς ανοργάνωτο. Σε καθησυχάζει, όμως, ο φίλος σου. Ο σεφ έχει πολύ υψηλό επίπεδο. Δεν αξιολογείται από κανέναν και δεν έχει το δικαίωμα να απαιτήσει μεγαλύτερη καθαριότητα στον χώρο. Είναι, όμως, σπουδαίο το φαγητό του – έτσι λένε όλοι, άρα πρέπει να ισχύει.

Οι πελάτες που έχουν μια παραπάνω οικονομική άνεση πάνε και τρώνε αλλού, και ο μάνατζερ του εστιατορίου στέλνει τα παιδιά του απέναντι που έχει ένα πεντακάθαρο μαγαζί, αλλά μη μένεις στις εντυπώσεις. Το εστιατόριο είναι πολύ καλό.

Τυπικό ελληνικό ΑΕΙ

Λες, καλά να το πιστέψω, αλλά τι βλάπτει να κάνουν και μια εντομοκτονία; Θα πέσει το επίπεδο του σεφ; Μαθαίνεις ότι η διοίκηση και το συνδικάτο δεν συμφωνούν στο θέμα της καθαριότητας, τη βρίσκουν καταπιεστική, αλλά σε διαβεβαιώνουν ότι το εστιατόριο δεν έχει τίποτα να ζηλέψει από τα καλύτερα του κόσμου. Τα φαγητό σκίζει.

Ποιος αφελής θα ανεχτεί να ακούσει αυτές τις ανοησίες;

Friedrich Hayek: The Socialist Roots of Nazism

It is a common mistake to regard National Socialism as a mere revolt against reason, an irrational movement without intellectual background. If that were so, the movement would be much less dangerous than it is. But nothing could be further from the truth or more misleading. The doctrines of National Socialism are the culmination of a long evolution of thought, a process in which thinkers have had great influence far beyond the confines of Germany have taken part. Whatever one may think of the premises from which they started, it cannot be denied that the men who produced the new doctrines were powerful writers who left the impress of their ideas on the whole of European thought. Their system was developed with ruthless consistency. Once one accepts the premises from which it starts, there is no escape from its logic. It is simply collectivism freed from all traces of an individualist tradition which might hamper its realization.

Though in this development German thinkers have taken the lead, they were by no means alone. Thomas Carlyle and Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Auguste Comte and Georges Sorel, are as much a part of that continuous development as any Germans. The development of this strand of thought within Germany has been well traced recently by R. D. Butler in his study of The Roots of National Socialism. But, although its persistence there through a hundred and fifty years in almost unchanged and ever recurring form, which emerges from that study, is rather frightening, it is easy to exaggerate the importance these ideas had in Germany before 1914. They were only one strand of thought among a people then perhaps more varied in its views than any other. And they were on the whole represented by a small minority and held in as great contempt by the majority of' Germans as they were in other countries.