on revolution
[this is adapted from David Watson’s 2020 “Prologue to the epilogue to En el camino a ninguna parte”]
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Albert O. Hirschman, “one of the great thinkers of development,” as his biographer called him, was an influential figure in the social sciences six decades ago. Over time he became a kind of respected outsider on the inside of academia — a prominent critic not only of the dominant paradigms in development and the social sciences, but of paradigms in general. Critical of the damage done by arrogant social engineers, Hirschman was also skeptical of contrary claims that development had been an unmitigated disaster. He was a contrarian, an against-the-current thinker, but also, perhaps consistent with his early life story, he was an anti-contrarian, optimistic about human ingenuity and the potential of pragmatism in action.
As an economist, he chose to talk and write about human beings rather than mere numbers, often resorting to literature, philosophy, and obscure, surprising moments in history to develop his ideas. He criticized the group-think and chauvinism of social scientists and development bureaucrats posing as the saviors of the so-called under-developed countries, but he also rejected the revolutionary dogma in those countries that concluded that only a total revolution along Marxist lines could transform societies for the better.
This philosopher of development might even offer modes of thinking that can contribute to de-development, degrowth, and deceleration. Might there be many apparently failed or forgotten ideas in our history that could now bring us to a deeper understanding, a more enlightened social and personal practice? Won’t coming to terms with our destiny be, rather than some completely new and revolutionary idea, a revolution of the Wheel signifying turn … return?
