Born Free; E. F. Wells

"A good poem is not made," said Robert Frost. "It is born complete." Surely this would be freedom - to think in a rush of words so perfect that, when· the thought finished, it would be poetry. But before this can be achieved, a mind must be dis ciplined as Nijinsky's body was disciplined, as Kreisler's hands were disciplined. No poem is ever born complete to the mind that has not carefully trained itself. Knowingly or unknowingly, through countless attempts, the 1968 "BORN FREE"? 719 poet has disciplined his thoughts to flow in rhythmical, striking patterns. He has prepared his mind for the moment of inspira tion, and the harder he works, the more gloriously his mind can soar. A man who has not disciplined himself to read has narrowed his freedom to choose between ideas. He is confined to what he hears. He is at the mercy of the propa gandists. He has limited his free dom to think. "I thought I'd been freed from jail," said a young friend, "when I quit school. But now I know a dropout has no freedom of choice in the job mar ket."

Self-Discipline an Essential First Step to Freedom Nineteen-hundred years ago, Epictetus recognized the para dox. "No man is free," wrote that wise Greek, "who is not master of himself." The struggle for self mastery is the great battle of life. Yet how often modern man thinks of freedom as a state of total un restraint. Young men and women, eager to be free, confuse unbridled passion with freedom, and so be come a slave to passion. Anxious to live unrestricted, they rush to experience all things and fall piti ful victims to their vices. They are chained as no prisoner is. Recent campus demonstrations showed that the first loss under unrestrained anarchy is a man's freedom. When a meeting is in a state of uproar, no one can be heard. When a handful of students riot, the rights of all students are abused. After the Berkeley move ment, begun with sincere idealism, degenerated into license, one stu dent said, "In the future when I defend to the death anyone's right to be heard, I'm going to make sure he's not trying to muzzle mine."

As long as he is compelled to denounce, to defy, to violate, the young rebel cannot choose; he can only discard or destroy. Scorning all he sees, he denies himself the heritage of the ages. He mistakes lack of responsibility for freedom, crassness for honesty, and the ability to shock or astound for talent. Called down for unseemly con duct, a contemptuous young medic said to television's Dr. Kildare, "What you're asking of me is conformity!" "N0," replied Dr. Kildare. "What I'm asking of you is pro fessional conduct." The young need to be taught that subtle distinction. In a free society it is possible - yes, it is necessary - to fight for what one believes. But it is meaningless to talk of civil rights without rec ognizing civil responsibilities. A free society has the right to ex720 THE FREEMAN December pect its citizens to act as responsi ble adults. In fact, its very con tinuance depends upon it.

Freedom from Responsibility Writing of the decline of Athens, historian Edith Hamilton said, "When the freedom they wished for most was freedom from re sponsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again." Often the freedom to think and the freedom to indulge are ene mies, as history has shown in the decadence of Rome, in the van ished glory of Babylon. The once brilliant mind of Henry VIII was dissipated by pandering to whims, until a gouty king no longer had the freedom of will to deny him self anything. A man who cannot deny himself, can.n.ot choose. Wishes often conflict and the be ginning of wisdom is the realiza tion that short-range desires must often be sacrificed for long-range dreams. Our forefathers who prized freedom above all else were not unbridled men. They did not re volt merely for the sake of re bellion. They recognized that breaking old chains was not enough. If a man was to rebel, it must he for the sake of some mightier aim. They knew that the value of freedom lies in what men do with it.

"I have on my table," said the Nobel P~ize-winning poet, Sir Rabindranath Tagore, "a violin string. It is free. I twist one· end of it and it responds. It is free. But it is not free to do what a violin string is supposed to do to produce music. So I take it, fix it in my violin and tighten it until it is taut. Only then is it fr'ee to be a violin string." Each of us is free to choose if he wishes to be an unhampered piece of cat gut or a free and performing vio lin string - adding to the world's waste or the world's music. "Even if you live in the freest country in the world," wrote Ig nazio Silone in Bread and Wine "and are lazy, callous, apathetic, irressolute, you are not· free but a slave, though there he no coercion and no opposition." No man is born free; it is enough'that he lives in a country where he can become free. This is his American birthright, this, his opportunity. Such an opportunity ought not to be squandered. It ought to be fulfilled by everyone through his own patient and dedicated labors, for if it is not cherished and won anew by each succeeding genera tion, so splendid a birthright could be lost. ~ .ttNINt~ A CASE STUDY JOHN J. ROBERTS Zoning has spread itself across the nation since first tried in New York City in 1916. This study of its growth and effect in one community may help to reveal its general nature. The author is a reporter for The Emporia Gazette in Kansas, and the affairs of the zoning board have been on his "beat."