chomsky citations and mandeville 's paradox in his ' fable of the bees : or , private vices , public benefits ' ( 1732 ) , bernard de mandeville argued that the wealth of a nation results from private vices of the citizens . this is mandeville 's paradox : intentional actions of individuals may bring about social phenomena intended by no one . part of the persistent chomsky - boom exemplifies mandeville 's paradox : a great deal of people citing chomsky do so in order to show that he 's wrong - - and , with the implication that he does n't deserve being cited so frequently ! ( i owe mandeville 's paradox to rudi keller ( 1990 ) sprachwandel . francke verlag : tuebingen . ) martti nyman department of general linguistics , university of helsinki , finland