Preventing Cultism

Austrian economics is sometimes accused of being an Objectivist-like cult. We are said to have our sacred texts: Human Action, Principles of Economics, Man, Economy, and State. We have our idols who we constantly cite: Hayek, Mises, Menger. Some of us have dire predictions of an inflation-generated financial apocalypse. I disagree with this interpretation, since one could say the same thing about philosophy in general.

How do we prevent ourselves from becoming cultists? The competition within our group certainly helps, as does the constant confrontation of the mainstream. Another healthy development is that some of us see ourselves in the mainstream tradition. However, we must also be willing to question received gospel and perform more empirical research. There is a general lack of empirical analyses of ABCT.

Unfortunately, many members of the public who subscribe to the Austrian viewpoint act like it is a cult. They unquestioningly shout “end the fed!” without having anymore than a basic understanding of the theory. This is a problem that is difficult to address, since it also has positive effects. It means that people are interested in ideas. However, it also means that people associate market process theory with a political outlook, predictions of catastrophe, and simplified theory. This is certainly not true in the academic world. This might be interpreted as elitism. If it is, so be it.

There is a good post on this kind of thing here.