Mt.Hamilton/Bastiat Society - Phil Magness on Marxism and Intellectuals

We welcome Philip Magness back after almost eight years to address us on a large and difficult topic.

Phil will look at Hayek's famous essay "The Intellectuals and Socialism," on this its 75th anniversary year, in its historical context, and track where we are today. The thesis is that while Marxism/socialism lost the major political battles in the 20th century, the intellectual classes continue to cling to them through academia's ongoing promotion of the same ideas. The talk would then examine how we reconcile this paradox of a philosophy that was discredited in practice (the USSR and socialist block regimes' collape in 1989 and early 90s) yet socialist idea still retains a strong enough intellectual following that it is even being rehabilitated.

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Phillip W. Magness is a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and the David J. Theroux Chair in Political Economy. He has served as Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research, and as Academic Program Director at the Institute for Humane Studies and Adjunct Professor of Public Policy in the School of Public Policy and Government at George Mason University. He received his Ph.D. from George Mason University’s School of Public Policy.

His books include The 1619 Project: A Critique, Colonization after Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement (with Sebastian N. Page) and The Rules of the Game: How Government Works and Why it Sometimes Doesn’t (with Paul Weissburg), and Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education (with Jason Brennan).

Dr. Magness’s scholarly articles and reviews have appeared in The Independent Review, Journal of Markets and Morality, Journal of Private Enterprise, Journal of Supreme Court History, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, North Carolina Historical Review, Reviews in History, Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, Journal of Southern History, Journal of Business Ethics, Civil War History, Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Virginia Magazine of History, Liberal Education, Slavery & Abolition, Journal of the Early Republic, and Constitutional Political Economy.

His popular articles have been published in Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Daily Caller, History News Network, and Civil War Monitor.

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Please join the Mont Hamilton/Bastiat Society in this 15th year since our founding, to hear and interact with Phil Magness on this important topic that concerns us all.

This meeting will be in-person for no more than 20 individuals only, including lunch. We think you will enjoy the intellectual stimulation, the edification, the camaraderie, and to meet new people.

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About the Mont Hamilton Society - In 1947 Friedrich Hayek, an economist and social philosopher who later won the Nobel Prize, organized a meeting at Mt. Pelerin, a resort in Switzerland. Hayek convened a modest sized group of (39) economists, historians, philosophers and journalists for the purpose of supporting research and discussion on the role of markets vs. government. The Mont Pelerin Society is now a large and prestigious international organization.

In 2009, a group of friends began to meet in San Jose for the purposes of improving their understanding of economic theory, applying it to current events and sharing their understanding with others as well as promoting a joyous sense of camaraderie. In recognition of the example set by the Mont Pelerin Society, they decided to name their group the Mont Hamilton Society. Members understand the realities of the business world, share an interest in economic thinking, and value civil discourse from a variety of perspectives. Faculty and students from the Department of Economics at San Jose State University are frequent guests at Society meetings. In June 2017 the Mont Hamilton Society became the San Jose/Silicon Valley affiliate chapter of the Bastiat Society, an AIER.org project, hence our new name: Mont Hamilton/Bastiat Society. See our webpage for more information: https://www.aier.org/bastiatsociety/san-jose

There are no membership fees or organizational meetings at this time, but all interested are encouraged to join and participate.

If you would like to be on our invitations list, or know someone else who might like to receive notice of our 7 - 10 (or more - during pre-covid years) luncheons or other events per year, or if you have any questions, please send an email to:

san-jose@bastiatsociety.com

You or your suggested contact(s) will receive an announcement/invitation and a reminder or two for each event as they are scheduled, or a prompt answer to your question/s.

These events are discussions, not standard lectures. To facilitate this, the in-person gatherings before Covid Lockdowns were kept "small," typically 12 - 24 individuals only. Some presentations are video recorded, depending on demand. Constructive feedback on our events and interest in recordings is welcome, since we are continuing to evolve our meeting formats.

Thank you for your interest.