Climate change “skeptics” and “deniers” often turn to F.A.
Hayek’s criticism of science in order to justify their position. Here is Hayek in The Road to Serfdom (often considered a sort of Bible among conservative
thinkers and classical liberals) commenting on the “counter-revolutionary” role
of science and the rise of National Socialism:
The way in which, in
the end, with few exceptions, her scholars and scientists put themselves
readily at the service of the new rulers is one of the most depressing and
shameful spectacles in the whole history of the rise of National Socialism. It is well known that particularly the
scientists and the engineers, who had so loudly claimed to be the leaders on
the march to a new and better world, submitted more readily than almost any
other class to the new tyranny.
- F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1944).
