Václav Klaus, 19th International Vienna Congress com.sult 2022, House of Industry, Vienna, January 30, 2022.
Read the full article at Václav Klaus’ site
Precious excerpts:
Let’s accept that we are responsible for what we are doing now and, eventually, for what we will leave behind us.We can’t be, however, responsible for the future. We do not have any way to influence the behaviour of people in the future.
Our thinking should be also based on the reasonable assumption that future generations will be richer and – due to this and due to the never-ending technical progress – will be much better able to cope with what we today consider to be unsolvable problems. Therefore, the worst thing we could do for future generations would be to artificially undercut our current economic growth and development, and thus reduce their future wealth.
Freedom remains – at least for some of us – a fundamental principle. Let’s not try to mastermind the future – all undemocratic systems aspired to do that, all of them failed and their efforts led to disasters. We should try to hand over to our successors a free world, a democracy. We should allow them to make their own decisions, let them be “free to choose”.
Klaus concludes:
People should remain free to make decisions. There is no one who knows better. There is no “philosopher-king”. Neither Greta Thunberg, nor Klaus Schwab, nor Franz Timmermans, nor Madame Lagarde. In the spirit of Hayek, we should fight against their arrogant, but unjustified pretence of knowledge. We shouldn’t capitulate to them or to the aggressive pressure groups they create and support. This year’s Vienna Congress should express this message very strongly. We shouldn’t disregard our convictions. And the truth.