His insights into the nature of free societies helped to preserve the West as it indulged in socialist and welfare state policies, and are key to restoring it to healthy freedom. A first crucial insight of Hayek and other classical liberal thinkers is that the actor and unit of analysis for any study of human history, society, or institutions is the individual. Society is constituted by aspects or priorities in the action of individuals that are shared with others. There is no collective entity, be it material, dialectic, Weltgeist, or historical wave apart from individuals. A second Hayekian insight concerns the nature of order.
Most people conceive of order in the world as falling into one of two categories.
First trees, mountains, and solar systems arise and evolve naturally. Second, watches and tables, statues and rockets result from intentional human planning and action. This latter conception gives rise to the belief among socialists and statists that all-wise, caring bureaucrats can plan and benevolently guide economies to prosperity, and among social conservatives that censors and vice squads can create civil societies. A classic example of this type of order is money. In primitive societies, individuals might need to travel long distances to trade with one another.