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Free speech leads to technological progress |
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76%
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39 votes,
Feasibility
0%
Originality
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Humour
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Between the conception and the creation, between the invention and the innovation, falls the shadow. Power runs between the two. An idea without a bankroll is just an idea. In order for an invention to become an innovation the inventor must persuade someone with a bankroll.
Joel Mokyr understands this perfectly well, and calls it 'openness to new information', He quotes a writer who contrasted the delightful stage of alertness with the less delightful stage of persuasion, which is 'a struggle against stupidity and envy, apathy and evil, secret opposition and open conflict of interests, the horrible period of struggle with man, a martyrdom even if success ensues'. Any academic or businessperson can supply instances. What matters, to put Mokyr's theme in rhetorical form, are the conditions for persuasion. Europe's fragmented policy made for plural audiences, by contrast with intelligent but stagnant China. An inventor persecuted by the inquisition in Naples could move to Holland. 'It seems that as a general rule ... the weaker the government, the better it is for innovation.'
What makes alertness work and gets it power, is persuasion. At the root of technological progress is a rhetorical environment that makes it possible for inventors to be heard. So the industrial revolution was rhetorical. It was the climate of persuasion that made Europe great.
The conclusion is pleasing, if it is true. Free speech leads to riches. The plain speaking that has characterised Europe since the dark ages is what has made it rich. No wonder that the nations where speech was free to a fault were the first to grow rich: Holland, Scotland, England, Belgium and the United States.
Summarised from an article by Donald McCloskey in the American magazine Reason (March '91) monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.
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