Heckman [MFI supporter] also approached what should probably be called the Friedman myth, for instance as articulated by Amit and Rothenberg [MFI detractors]. This is the myth that Friedman was an authoritarian liberal. Sahlins made a classic anthropological observation that symbols are indeed false — and that their falsehood is irrelevant. So the Friedman myth may be a myth, a false story, but it is still subjectively true for the people who believe it.

The post goes on to discuss Friedman’s legacy as relates to his association with authoritarian regimes, noting that:

Assuming for the sake of argument that Friedman was not culpable as an abettor of oppressive government, what is the response to the symbolic-mythical argument? The latter argument is that inasmuch as Friedman is a symbol of authoritarian liberalism, and this has bad associations for many, many people in the world, is this itself a strong or decisive argument for not naming the Institute after him? It seems to me that the answer is No: If there is a myth that you think is wrong, and you (i.e. the University) do not have yourself to fear repercussions of opposing that myth, then you should oppose that myth. By taking the name of the Milton Friedman Institute, the University can say, we do not support the further propagation of this basically wrong story about one of our highly acclaimed scholars.

Check it out here.