Though there are no doubt many people who honestly believe that if they were allowed to handle the job they would be able to settle all those problems justly and impartially, and who would be genuinely surprised to find suspicion and hatred turning against them, they would probably be the first to apply force when those whom they mean to benefit prove recalcitrant, and to show themselves quite ruthless in coercing people in what is presumed to be their own interests.  What these dangerous idealists do not see is that where the assumption of a moral responsibility involves that one’s moral views should by force be made to prevail over those dominant in other communities, the assumption of such responsibility may place one in a position in which it becomes impossible to act morally.

from The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek

HKO Comment:

Hayek used this passage in addressing how nations may impose one moral order on another nation but his premise derives from the way an elite governing body may impose its will on the citizens within a country in the course of economic planning.

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