Why is Slavery Possible? L. E. Read

Surely, slavery could never succeed in the face of de termined and continuing resistance. For example, there wouldn't be a tiger in any zoo were the tiger to remain as ferocious as when first captured. Man simply would not put up with such a beast. The caged tiger, however, does not retain his ferocity. The wild 'beast soon becomes docile and as grateful for its food and other attentions as a house cat. Why? The tiger was at liberty in its native habitat, had experienced freedom, but ferocity attends only the initial stages of captivity. Docility comes quickly and certainly [280 ] with imprisonment. Could the reason be that the tiger has no understanding of the distinctions between liberty and serfdom? Knows no. definitions? If the tiger has no knowledge or awareness of his liberty, he cannot remem ber a knowledge he has never possessed. His cage be comes the only habitat he knows, and he eats and sleeps, contentedly.

There never would have been any Negro slavery in America had the Negroes remained as intractable as when first taken in hand by the slave traders. They re belled at first but soon became docile. They, too, had been at liberty in their African habitat. However, they were primitive men. They lacked the power of articulate expression in the field of ideas. They were not in posses sion of definitions and the distinctions between freedom and slavery. They lacked awareness; nor could they re member that which had never been known to them. They soon accepted as normal the slavery which became their lot. They had nothing but the normalcy of their slavery to serve them as a point of reference. Slavery by Degrees Symbolic of the modem trend toward serfdom is the imposition of progressive taxation, especially the income tax. The Sixteenth Amendment would not be on our statute books had any substantial number of Americans foreseen its consequences.

In this instance of a growing serfdom or, conversely, a loss in freedom of choice, there was no abrupt change [281 ] to arouse resistance. These progressive taxes were im posed ever so gradually. Hardly anyone noticed the "take" at first. Americans adopted the principle of pro gressive taxation because they did not understand it. They did not realize that this was a denial of the concept of equal treatment under the laws and a displacement of the methods of voluntary exchange with a government enforced policy "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Further proof that there was but little understanding of the liberty that was forsworn and the intervention that was accepted is the fact that as the "take" has increased over the years, there has been no rebellion, even on the part of those on whom the "bite" has been the greatest. Each succeeding increase is only a new normalcy greeted with the docility and indifference of the imprisoned tiger and the enslaved Negro. And, in my view, the reasons are the same: No understanding of the definitions and the sharp distinctions between liberty and. serfdom.

It is self-evident that tigers will never be freed from zoOs by any doing of their own. It is a historical fact that slavery was not abolished in America by any rebellion on the part of the Negroes. It is equally plain that present-day Americans who have accepted or are indifferent to the growing encroach ments of the State cannot be expected to rescue them selves. Intellectual rebellion is not made of indifference or docility. It is made of sterner stuff. It has its roots. in. an understanding that liberty is the freedom to do as one [282 ] pleases creatively; that restraint has no place except against destructive, predatory activity; that serfdom re strains creative action. It displaces self-control with con trol of self by others. To deprive a person of self-control leaves him little incentive to indulge in constructive or creative thought. Without the desire, one soon loses the capacity for self-control.

A Free Man Restored A person who understands these distinctions, even though he be in prison or in the salt mines at the point of a gun, cannot be called a serf. All that can be properly said of him is, "There is a free man restrained." Freemen, defined as those who understand these distinctions, are the only ones who can rescue the in different and the docile from a growing serfdom. The burden is on them and them alone. The burden cannot be 'shared by anyone who is unaware. Awareness of the difference between slavery and lib erty is the individual's only defense against enslavement. Therefore, it is tremendously important to preserve the ideals of self-control, reflected in the concepts of per sonal choice, private property, freedom of exchange, and government limited to the defense of these rights of the individual. To lose awareness of these ideals makes slavery possible, without a struggle. It is passive sur render of the only reason, if not the only chance, for life.

[283 ] FREEDOM TO SHOP AROUND No DOUBT you have heard so many speeches about the ample destiny of Canada that already you may be tired of hearing about it. Canada's immense natural resources used to be left to our statesmen to talk about on Dominion Day, and to ambitious teen-agers in high-school contests in oratory. True enough, nearly every month somebody does un cover some new treasure in the chest on whose lid we sit. But even though we :6nd all these treasures, we did not put them here. OUf iron ore, our oil and gas, were laid down by billions of anonymous bacteria, in the years before there were any Canadians. Other countries, with equally valuable resources, still remain poor. Nowadays it is the fashion among large minded folk to work out admirable schemes for develop ing these countries with other people's money, as in surance against discontent and envy growing too acute among the natives.