I’ve been a little silent lately because I’ve been studying up for a new project we are starting next week, but before I dive into the project, I want to let you know where it came from.

I was never an avid reader until around 6 or 7 years ago. I’ve told this story before, but I felt like I never had the imagination for it because I always assumed ‘reading’ meant only fiction novels. I’ve always had a hard time picturing the characters and scenery, and then I realized there is such a thing as non-fiction where you don’t run into this problem. So, I wanted to get into non-fiction and never quite knew where to start, but I’ve always liked applied mathematics and statistics, so I figured I ought to go for an economics book. This is where I found Thomas Sowell and my life changed forever.

I now try to read as many books as I can, but, as any reader of non-fiction knows, the problem is for every book you read you get a list of 100 references to other books you want to read to further your knowledge. The best thing to do when you get caught in this trap is to set a rigid priority of books you want to read next so you don’t try to read 10 books at the same time and eventually never finish any of them (this is totally me). The only time I consider breaking this practice is when I see multiple references to the same book pop up in almost every book I read. There is one book in particular I saw referenced about a thousand times in about a hundred different books, and I always thought, “I have to get to that book… eventually.” It took a good kick in the butt from a friend to finally get me to read it.

After wrapping up a podcast with Truman of @ReturnToReason he asked if I would be interested in reviewing a book with him. I’ve done a few book reviews on my own, typically on books about material I strongly disagree with like How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi and The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, but he suggested we look at a book with a strong positive influence. I figured, “hey, sure I’ll read and review a book that isn’t going to give me a major headache while doing it. This change might be nice.”

There was a book Truman already had in mind and, luckily, it was the book that kept hitting my radar when being referenced in all the other books I read. It was The Road To Serfdom by F.A. Hayek.

Along with already feeling like I read much of the book via external references in other books, Truman talked about how much this book changed his life and it got me really excited. I bought the book immediately after talking about it and downloaded the Audible version (free with an Audible account). I was additionally motivated to read the book when Truman said, “I’m going to give you a week to read the book and then we’re gonna talk about it.” Five days later, I finished the book (a real accomplishment for me since I’m a very slow reader).

This is where we get to The Road To Serfdom Project. Our plan is to do an episodic review of the book chapter-by-chapter. We already recorded our review of the introduction and all the released and re-released editions of the book, and we plan to start publishing episodes next week Monday (6/14/2021). Our goal is to release one episode a week covering one to two chapters per episode. These reviews will be in video and audio podcast form on both the Engineering Politics Podcast and the Return To Reason Podcast. Make sure to subscribe to both.

Our first recording was really fun and insightful, and we think you will really enjoy it. The relevance and importance of this book cannot be overstated, especially in a world where history is being erased and altered for political purposes. Here is a little snippet taken from the summery:

“An unimpeachable classic work in political philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, and economics, The Road to Serfdom has inspired and infuriated politicians, scholars, and general readers for half a century. Originally published in 1944—when Eleanor Roosevelt supported the efforts of Stalin, and Albert Einstein subscribed lock, stock, and barrel to the socialist program—The Road to Serfdom was seen as heretical for its passionate warning against the dangers of state control over the means of production. For F.A. Hayek, the collectivist idea of empowering government with increasing economic control would lead not to a utopia but to the horrors of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.”

As you may have noticed, the world – especially the Western world – is turning back towards state sponsored planning to solve all of society’s problems. True liberalism is being pushed out and replaced by government sponsored security. Our lives are being run by ‘experts’ who claim know better than we do. Every social issue, big or small, is being taken up by a strong, centralized authority by declaration of war (war on poverty, war on drugs, war on terrorism, etc.) or, as of recently, declared a health crisis (racism is now a ‘health crisis’). Be wary of those who claim they can solve everyone’s problems if given a little bit more authority because even they might not like the unpleasant consequences that comes with the loss of liberty.

“It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.” – David Hume