On Being Practical; L.E. Read

ON BEING PRACTICAL t';} oCeonarJ G. Read 't\THEN an engineer aims at being practical, he seeks con sistency with sound principles so that his structures will endure. But when politicians or businessmen plead, "Let's be practical," they are suggesting some sort of a "middle way"-that sound principles be tossed overboard. They are thinking only of the moment with a disregard for the basic rules of the social structure in which they operate. (Perhaps this explains why the pyramids have outlasted so many societal designs!) All of us at FEE try to be intensely practical at our self-assigned chore of free market, private property, lim ited government education. Yet, because "being prac tical" is so often associated with momentary expediency as distinguished from adherence to sound principle, we constantly run the risk of appearing impractical-even esoteric or mystical-when we argue for and explain our idea of what is practical in educational endeavors.

The above is but a preface to my own belief that most of the "practical" schemes for reforming the masses are utterly impractical, and my acknowledgment that our concept of the practical will appear to many persons as mere fine-spun theory. 336 ON BEING PRACTICAL 337 Libertarianism-a label we use to identify the free way of life-is an ideal; it is not dogma. It hasn't a single rule that even suggests how any individual shall act creatively. On the contrary, libertarianism stands only for the un obstructed release of the creative human spirit, regard less of the form this may take. The creative spirit, as it manifests itself through individuals, cannot, prior to its manifestation, be predicted or imagined-let alone dog matized. Who can make dogma out of what yet is to be discovered, thought of, invented, produced, exchanged? Aspiring libertarians, however, unless they are cau tious, can easily become cult ish and doctrinaire. Some become intellectual authoritarians and regard all in dividuals to be in error who do not precisely share their views. Many become reformers and attempt to shape others in their own fallible images.