It is a paradox of Hayek's reputation that he is seen as a philosopher of the right, of individualism, when his societal epistemology is grounded in population thinking, though not in collectivism. It is this latter point that explains the reputation. A societal epistemology grounded in population thought has no single collective locus or mental representation. It is distributed in fragments throughout the population of individuals, and ebbs and flows dynamically, changing as it flows. Since there is no single representation it cannot (and need not) be captured and represented by a Vanguard Class. – Indeed, it cannot be transplanted from the population becaue, firstly, the informational scale is too great, partly because it is a process and not a result, and most importantly because the population simultaneously knows and acts. It does not require an executive to deliver its will; it knows and as it knows it acts. This is the essence of liberal society, in which free individuals exercise their preferences locally, creating as an emergent property a combined societal act of knowing and doing.