Book Review: The Open Society and Its Enemies

Abstract

DURING the Years of the Cold War it is well to remember the ancient Chinese proverb: the first result of any war is that the adversaries adopt each other's vices. Today when the Open Society and its Enemies are locked in a bitter struggle, it is painful to record how, step by step, each antagonist takes on the worst features of its adversary. The Communist totalitarians who once denounced capitalism for its huge expenditures on armaments, for its imperial control of "backward" areas, for its long working hours, for its government control of labor unions, and for the wide disparities in its income structure, now copy each of the vices they once denounced. And the champions of the Open Society so quickly forget how they once denounced the totalitarianism of peace-time conscription, state control of wages and prices, government by executive order, iron curtains blocking the once-free movement of human beings across national boundaries, and all the techniques that have been developed since the Inquisition and the Star Chamber to eradicate what the Japanese Government used to call Dangerous Thoughts.