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The Princess Bride reminds us that human action is unpredictable
and
. . . the reason Vizzini fails is that, once more,
he has not anticipated a human action. The Man in Black has poisoned
both cups. The Man in Black has conditioned himself to be immune to this
poison, on the off chance that an occasion like this should arise. Once
again, Vizzini’s ideal plan has been beaten by unpredictable humans.
I can hear Sam objecting that our hero, the Man in Black, is also
something of a planner. I point out, in response, that his
plans—particularly the plan to storm the wedding and rescue
Buttercup—are always flexible, updated on the fly, and tagged with a
warning label reading, “Hear me now; there may be problems once we're
inside." He is a planner, yes, but certainly not one who believes his
plans are ideal and immune to failure. It seems likely that the Man in Black has read Hayek’s “Use of Knowledge in Society,”
which emphasizes the importance and viability of this kind of
“knowledge of people, of local conditions, and of special circumstances”
that allow an individual to plan his own actions and respond speedily
when circumstances change.
By contrast, Vizzini might have done well to read Hayek’s “The
Intellectuals and Socialism,” which could have cautioned him about the
dangers of viewing the world only through one theoretical lens and
ignoring the advice of practical types like Inigo. He certainly would
have profited from Adam Smith’s famous warnings about the man of system, who treats other human beings as if they are merely chess pieces, with no motivations of their own. It
is those motivations that thwart Vizzini at every turn. His human
design is beaten, every time, by the unpredicted and unpredictable human
actions of others.
As Hayek and Smith and a host of other thinkers remind us, any other outcome is simply inconceivable
Source:Sarah Skwire,"All My Plans Are Ideal," The Freeman, August 28, 2014
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