Traffic is an excellent example. There are a lot of examples of traffic systems that show order even in the absence of signals and other rules the west takes as the norm.
especially on the freeway. People tend to focus on the exceptions to the rule, but it's amazing how often the freeway works well for everyone, without anyone in charge assigning specific cars to lanes and whatnot
Conversely, any cause targeted for master planning must be redefined in narrow managerial terms that lend themselves to a master plan - leading to the displacement of ends with means.
The Price System: How could the narration leave out that? Its the Price System that is the SIGNAL within that voluntary world. Its the Price System that is the SIGNAL that conveys the messages that all those in the market need. Its the Power of the Price System that allows for Spontaneous Organizational Behaviors.... I like Dr. Friedman's statement on the Pencil the best.
Spontaneous Order as described here sounds like a euphemism for Evolution. It might have been a better story, and more elucidative of both product development and economics, to have illustrated the evolution of the pencil, how it went from a stick writing in the dirt to the writing instrument we have today.
best way to think about spontaneous order is how language evolves, especially if you think about the generational differences. So compare boomer colloquialisms (funky, having a gas, groovy) versus gen z (no cap, tea, high key, slaps). No one plans for the meaning of words to change, they are malleable to the intent of its meaning, gen z does it on their own through personal circles like school and impersonal circles like social media. Spontaneous order can be seen in markets as the natural evolution of competition, why one thing fails and another is successful, how certain gov policies can shock a market versus others can boost it, and why, historically, some countries fail and others are prosperous.
There are traffic rules sure, but there's no one assigning specific roles to specific individuals. No director saying "you go in this lane, you go in that lane etc."
In iceland language does not evolve spontaneously, every time they discover a new thing they call a council to decide on the name of a new thing, they name this new thing based on words they already have, i.e. a Bananna becomes "bent yellow fruit".
“Nobody planned the global capitalist system, nobody runs it, and nobody really comprehends it. This particularly offends intellectuals, for capitalism renders them redundant. It gets on perfectly well without them. It does not need them to make it run, to coordinate it, or to redesign it. The intellectual critics of capitalism believe they know what is good for us, but millions of people interacting in the marketplace keep rebuffing them.” Peter Saunders
Am I incorrect to think this is chaos theory in action, and/or anarchy? Neither, really, which are inherently negative things, even though we're taught to believe that way.
There are rules that arise through people's experience though, not through a gov rule, like avoid the guy who's swerving because it's likely to cause an accident, change lanes to go around the slow grandma who's holding up traffic, be careful around drivers' ed cars. All these little precautions, which arise just through social norms, add up to more overall safety on the road.
No a hivemind is a single voice- this is emergent behavior of the illusion we call the collective by induvials making free decisions. Countless voices, not just one.
Except for Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, Mitt Romney, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, Paul Ryan... No, totalitarianism is really just a Democrat thing.
