"The British system denied any role for human creativity, and instead argued, that if man merely followed his hedonistic desires, pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, objective laws would naturally guide society to achieve the best allocation of wealth"
About this Quote
The subtext is about power laundering itself through neutrality. “Objective laws” sounds scientific, inevitable, beyond politics. Trout’s point is that calling a choice “natural” is a way of refusing responsibility for its human costs. If outcomes are preordained by law-like forces, then inequality isn’t a decision; it’s a weather report. That rhetorical move has always been convenient for elites, and it becomes especially sharp in the 20th-century context Trout lived through: depression, war economies, welfare-state expansion, and then the late-century revival of market fundamentalism. Against those upheavals, the old promise that markets “naturally” produce the “best allocation of wealth” reads less like sober analysis and more like ideological self-soothing.
As a journalist, Trout’s intent is diagnostic rather than academic: to expose the moral dodge inside technocratic language. Hedonism isn’t being condemned as a vice here so much as being mocked as an insufficient model of the human animal - and an even worse foundation for a fair society.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Trout, Robert. (2026, January 16). The British system denied any role for human creativity, and instead argued, that if man merely followed his hedonistic desires, pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, objective laws would naturally guide society to achieve the best allocation of wealth. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-british-system-denied-any-role-for-human-83033/
Chicago Style
Trout, Robert. "The British system denied any role for human creativity, and instead argued, that if man merely followed his hedonistic desires, pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, objective laws would naturally guide society to achieve the best allocation of wealth." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-british-system-denied-any-role-for-human-83033/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The British system denied any role for human creativity, and instead argued, that if man merely followed his hedonistic desires, pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain, objective laws would naturally guide society to achieve the best allocation of wealth." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-british-system-denied-any-role-for-human-83033/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.
