Both Hayek and Polanyi were looking for ways to defeat the “scientism” and “scientific socialism” which they felt dominated the media and the public intelligentsia, thanks to the well-disposed editorship of Nature and the BBC. … In due course, his Abuse of Reason project laid the groundwork for The Road to Serfdom and prolonged the previous developments of his methodological views. But to a large extent, it amounted to a wartime effort against the left scientists in England who occupied vital positions within the wartime government, continued to influence the general public, and met regularly to discuss their views in the Tots & Quots discussion group.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 80