Parecería obvio que así es, pero si Steve Horwitz ha tenido a bien escribir un delicioso artículo aclarando estas cuestiones, será que no era tan obvio, especialmente para algunos. La clave es la distinción entre organizaciones y órdenes. Las primeras son entes relativamente simples, pequeños, a veces se dan relaciones íntimas entre los miembros, y éstos se conocen mutuamente muy bien. Los segundos, en cambio, son mucho más complejos, incluyen a infinidad de miembros que muchas veces no se conocen entre sí.

Contrary to Ayn Rand’s worldview, where all human interaction is modeled on the self-interested trader, a more Hayekian perspective can recognize that context matters and self-interest isn’t always appropriate.

This difference between organizations and orders matters for two reasons. First, Hayekians should be skeptical of trying to organize intimate organizations as if they were markets. As Hayek argued, this can “crush” the delicate relationships on which those intimate organizations depend. Such organizations work better when they invoke cooperation and collaboration — or sometimes hierarchy — in the service of an agreed-on end. They don’t do well when we turn individual self-interest totally loose, unless they are so large that they look more like an order rather than an organization.

The second reason is that attention to the difference might stop libertarians from trying to invoke self-interest as both “efficient” and “moral” in every situation. Libertarianism does not require acting in our narrow self-interest in a family or a firm, and there’s nothing unlibertarian about behaving altruistically and having concern for the whole in such organizations. Self-interested behavior in intimate orders is rude and often immature, and trying to rationalize it by one’s political philosophy makes one look narcissistic and narrow-minded. Understanding the Hayekian distinction between orders and organizations can help libertarians avoid both bad social theory and bad social behavior.

Leer entero.

Sobre esta cuestión ya traté en el blog en relación a la tesis de Ayn Rand. Podría matizarse mucho sobre el término y concepto del “interés propio”, pero eso lo dejo para los comentarios si alguien tiene a bien.