He Who Would Bear Witness; L.E. Read

[305 ] of the sort. Suddenly a vision is experienced; he, "sees the light." All well and good. But instead of waiting to bear witness, he hustles into an extended buttonholing pro gram in order that others, too, may know what he "knows." The religious eager beaver rarely helps the cause for which he so stanchly stands; indeed, he may do it harm. Homework Comes First Moving into the libertarian area, we observe many newly won devotees of freedom aggressively trying to sell others before doing their homework. They may have realized for the first time-in one excitingly intellectual moment-that no person, nor any collection of persons, has the moral right to control or forcibly to direct what any individual shall discover, invent, create, where he shall work, the hours he shall labor, the wage he shall receive, or what and with whom he shall exchange. This moral point, to some, comes as pure revelation. They then see that a vast preponderance of things governments do are wrong; and wrongs, they correctly reason, must be righted. And, if of the eager beaver type, they will, like many newborn religious zealots, immediately em bark on setting all of mankind straight, once and for all.

Effectively? That's the delicate and important question. Saul was on the road to Damascus for the purpose of persecuting a new and rising sect which he and the religionists then in power thought should be liquidated. During the journey he was blinded by a great light, and [306 ] a V oice from an unseen source queried him as to the possibility of his mission's being in error. Saul, so the Bible reveals, became a convert of the sect he was about to destroy and he, Saul, became Paul. Paul was not of the eager beaver type. He did not begin ':':setting the world straight" the next morning. Instead, he went to the Arabian desert-some say for three years-to meditate, to contemplate, to prepare him self. Paul, authorities generally agree, ranks first, even to this day, as an effective Christian protagonist. Paul waited before bearing witness. Is Anybody Listening? No person can bear witness for any philosophy-be it religious, moral, social, political, or economic-until others will admit his testimony willingly, desirously, to their own persons. And no such admission is likely until a witness bearer has gained the respect of the listener or reader on the subject of his testimony. Respect must first exist in the other person. The would-be witness bearer must wait until respect develops.

Waiting is a difficult discipline, particularly if one entertains deep convictions about a philosophy or a way of life. Yet, to plunge ahead of one's reputation-to oper ate outside of one's own radiation-is to waste energy. It can lead only to ineffectiveness, disappointment, frus tration. The esteem in which one is held by others, whether in matters of the spirit or in the libertarian philosophy [307 ] or whatever, can never be expressed as a generality. It may be high with one person only; nonexistent with all others. Indeed, it is in constant flux with anyone person. Esteem, respect, reputation, in the final analysis, rest on one:ts own acquirements in understanding, explana tion, and manner of presentation. This is the homework department of effectively communicating to others what one believes to be truth. A Loose Connection Recently, I called on the treasurer of a retail establish ment at the suggestion of the president, personally friendly to me, who had to be out of town. It was imme diately apparent that I had no favorable status at all with this keeper of the cash, that in a moment the well known get-rid-of-him-quickly technique would be. ad ministered. Obviously, I had preceded my reputation for competence of any kind. I engineered my own exit. Such is my low estimate of trying to communicate ideas in so unfavorable an atmosphere. It wasn:tt that this treasurer was incapable of being interested in the libertarian philosophy and FEE:ts efforts appertaining thereto. It was that I was wholly impotent to do anything about it, and it is further evident that I shall remain that way until he may desirously admit me and what I have to say. Conceivably, my competence could some day reach a point that news of it might drift to him or in some other manner be impressed upon him. Unti! that day, wait!

[308 ] Afterward, I lunched with six executives of a corpora tion. They wanted a discussion with me about the prob lems presented by our nation's growing collectivism. Communication was natural, easy, useful to me, and per haps to them. My waiting period-as far as these people were concerned-had already matured into a situation of effective communication. An hour later I was on a plane for Chicago. A clean cut, intelligent-looking young man inquired, 4:4:May I share this seat with you?" On being welcomed to do so, he introduced himself, explained that he was a senior at the University of Minnesota, that he planned to obtain his Master's Degree and, in a most affable manner, chat tered about his interests and other plans. How easy the error of getting ahead of myself, of discoursing too early in this new acquaintanceship about the free market, private property, limited government philosophy, and about the Foundation! However, I was still smarting from the lesson emphasized during the forenoon with the treasurer. I deliberately waited. As it turned out, there wasn't a thing about which the young man talked but what suggested a. relevant libertarian comment on my part. Finally, my seat-mate could hold out no longer: "Please tell me, Mr. Read, what do you do?" This par ticular waiting period required no more than an hour.

His parting remark at Midway Airport was: "Wait till I tell my Dad about the Foundation's work. It will make him very happy." I thought it quite a coincidence that he used the word "wait." [309 ] AN EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGE t'J C. J. Steiner, s.J. ~ AMERICAN higher education is faced with the greatest and most demanding challenge in its history. In this challenge there is opportunity to enrich and strengthen the very fiber of American society. How America-its educators and its citizens-reacts to this challenge will determine in great part the artistic, the scientific, the professional, the economic, and the moral advancement of our people through the closing decades of the twentieth century. The challenge we face is not merely one of numbers, that is, to provide educational opportunity beyond the high school for a vastly increased population that may double college enrollments within ten to fifteen years.