Technologically, we are much better off today than in 1962. If the progress we made in electronics, medicine and information technology could only have had a parallel in the area of social science, so the "intellectuals’ faith in the state" that Bethell criticises might have been replaced by a faith in individuals, in the capitalist system, in voluntary action rather than the compulsion inherent in statist programs.
Here's wishing Tom Bethell another 40 years on these shores to write his always-provocative columns in The American Spectator. By themselves, they're worth the price of the magazine.