Talking about bureaucracy: Inspiration from the ideas of Ludwig von Mises (3) I. The Youth Movement in Germany II. The Fate of the New Generation in the Bureaucratic Environment III. Guardians and Progressives of Authoritarianism IV. Selection of Dictators V. The Disappearance of Critical Consciousness

Mises The Psychological Consequences of Bureaucratization

As an economist, Mises also has an outstanding deep understanding of psychology and human behavior, so let's look at Mises's view of mass psychology from his book "Bureaucracy".

<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="4" > youth movement in Germany</h1>

Capitalism is a system in which everyone has access to wealth; it gives everyone unrestricted opportunities (Ludwig, 1944). He was young, energetic, and wise, and though his ideas ultimately failed, he had no reason to despair, for he and his children, who would embark on a journey. Young people born in the United States can use their rights to the fullest and succeed with their actions without restriction.

But in the midst of the bureaucratization tide, things have changed. Ludwig believes that due to the trend of bureaucratization, the government's regulatory activities will be strengthened, and young people will be disappointed in the future, and they will only get a job in the government to get security. The prevalence of bureaucratic control in Germany led to the outbreak of a youth movement in which young people rejected the ideologies and values of the older generation, opposed the politics and authority of the elderly, and hoped to replace the hypocritical values and ideologies of capitalism with a new set of theories. Ludwig saw these young people as frivolous, they knew only that they were young and energetic, that "our leaders could do everything", that their revolutionary radicalism was only a phenomenon of prolonged adolescence, that they had neither new ideas nor new solutions. The leaders of the youth movement are nervous and just want to find work in the government.

Youth movements reflect the inner anxiety of young people facing regulation who have little future. The goal is to get a job in the government, to accept government regulation, to be embedded in the gears of the state apparatus.

<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="9" > second, the fate of the new generation in a bureaucratic environment</h1>

Ludwig argues that the threat of bureaucratization has its roots in socialization tendencies. Young people are victims of a bureaucratic trend that has no chance to shape their own destiny and can only follow the rules assigned by their elders and climb up the bureaucracy step by step. Liberalism and capitalism abolish this hierarchy and give everyone equal opportunities.

Ludwig criticized Karl Marx's class ideas and did not endorse Karl Marx's ideas, believing that Karl Marx did not explicitly indicate what classes were. In capitalist society, the factors of production in the market determine who is a capitalist, who is an entrepreneur, who is a farmer, and the votes of consumers determine who is in the high position of society. In socialist society, there are no capitalists, no entrepreneurs, karl Marx said that the bourgeoisie does not exist, socialist society is a classless society, but this is meaningless. Under capitalist conditions, where everyone has the opportunity to change their own destiny, it makes sense for consumers to vote based on the candidate's abilities and service attitudes.

<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="13" > third, the guardian and progress of authoritarianism</h1>

Taking Plato as an example, Ludwig criticized Plato's utopian ideal state, the country ruled by the philosophical king, arguing that this utopian ideal society could not tolerate change at all, and change was deterioration. Ludwig saw the Roman Catholic Church as an ideal model of bureaucratization because it solved the problem of the selection of the supreme executive body, with elders promoting those they considered capable. And the doctrine is eternal, rigid, and helpful for bureaucratic rule.

So stubborn conservatism makes the bureaucratic apparatus unsuitable for social and economic affairs. Within a thorough bureaucracy, human nature has been changed and man is no longer human.

<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="17" >4</h1>

Using civil war for selection, using risks to seize power, Ludwig used the succession of the Roman Emperor's position to show that the system of dictator selection was bad, and once multiple people began to compete for the position of dictator, the dictatorial country would fall into war. When the dictator comes to power, he will purge all competitors, maintain power by ruthless means, and the basis of all thorough bureaucracies is violence, and the so-called security and stability are endless civil wars.

<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="20" >5. The disappearance of critical consciousness</h1>

Ludwig believed that the purpose of socialists was to eliminate competition and restore the human psyche of a poisoned capitalist society. But the mind cannot disappear, whether it is market diversification competition or bureaucratic pluralism competition. Ludwig criticized the social bureaucracy of the government, and the Germans, the Russians, took the government's strengthening of the management of society for granted, no doubt, but it was flawed, and the intensification of the crackdown on criminals was not a reason to restrict the freedom of the vast majority of good people.

Free enterprises make the public pay voluntarily by providing services, and businesses that do not pay by the public will fail, but the bureaucracy forces the public to pay.

The disappearance of critical consciousness has led to the people being fooled, the people being fooled into thinking that a government that regulates everything is friendly, perfect, and utopian, and they silently assume that the dictator will do everything they want him to do correctly.

This chapter, the sixth chapter of the book, deals with the undesirable consequences of the popular psychology of the people under this bureaucratic trend. It shows Mises's strong class and ideological stance. In this chapter, Mises makes a powerful critique of the bureaucratic trend through various adverse consequences. However, because many criticisms are not fully established, and the complexity of real life makes people's hearts complex, Mises's thought seems to me to be more or less one-sided, requiring readers to think independently and look at it rationally.