The Free Society and Its Enemies; T. Machan

The Free Societyand Its Enemies TIBOR R. MACHAN THE EDUCATION of citizens in the philosophy of freedom must he the concern of all those who consider the free society the proper kind of social system under which man can live with his fellow men. Unfor tunately, it is in this task that those who propose a free society find themselves least qualified. The reason is simple: how the prob lems of individuals, how their wants will best be handled is not something that we can forecast with certainty. This basic uncertainty about the ways in which free men would deal with their lives - how they would manage to travel roads built by private concerns, to mention just one issue which is raised fre quently - should not, however, pre vent one from thinking about the issue once in a while. It is true that if a free society is based on the moral point of view that each man has the moral right to the use and Mr. Machan, candidate for the Ph. D. degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, also teaches part-time and does freelance writing.

disposal of his property - includ ing himself and his work - then it is of secondary concern how men will come to produce those things which we now seem to value very highly. Surely, if it is moral ly right to have private ownership of land, how that principle will effect the satisfaction of the now expressed desire for roads, parks, beaches, and the like is of sec ondary concern. But it is also true that unless we can successfully demonstrate that a free society is good for people, that it is of benefit to man - that the moral principles serve his best interest - we cannot very well ad vocate its adoption. Yet we know that not everyone with whom we talk about freedom is thoroughly versed in the intricacies of philo sophical reasoning. A recent dis cussion I had with a gentle lady, of advanced years showed me that it is very difficult to resolve basic problems of epistemology with someone who, though basically in telligent, just has not the time or 25 26 THE FREEMAN January the energy to absorb what is needed to consider such issues.

As a result, I considered demon strating to som.e of my intellectual adversaries that some of the things we value today - roads, parks, for ests, beaches, schools, and so on not only would be available to peo ple who wish to obtain them but would be obtainable in much bet ter conditions and circumstances than now prevail. In attempting this, I found that one cannot limit himself to one alternative. Cer tainly, it is quite possible that city roads - as they are now known would be maintained and owned by the local business concerns (groceries, gas stations, motels, banks, nightclubs, and the like). But it is also conceivable that roads might be defunct at the time when a free society will be estab lished, and the problem would not even arise. The notion that we would travel in helicopters may now seem outrageous; but with free men, one can never tell what is going to catch on next.

An important feature of this type of presentation of the possi bilities of and within a free soci ety is that at certain stages it re veals a great deal about the per son with whom one is talking. For instance, the lady with whom I was discussing the matter objected to my suggestion that businesses might own the city roads on the grounds that "they might not let me walk on them unless I do it for the sole purpose of trading with them." This revealed some thing very interesting to me about this lady. It strongly hinted that hers was a negative view of hu man nature. Clearly, it would he absurd and even self-defeating for anyone to make that kind of a lim itation on property which is wide ly used and which works, in the end, to further his benefit. A busi ness does not benefit solely through direct trade; good will, patience, and kindness to customers furthers one's business operations in any market where buyers are free to choose where they will shop. We all find it disturbing when we are being pushed too hard by sales men who cannot wait for us to make a decision. But the sugges tion that honest business prac tices, competence, consideration for one's fellow men, and respect of others' rights, would foster ill will seems to stem not so much from a concern over the availabil ity of generally recognized values and goods but from a basic dis trust of the capacity of man for goodness.

Many people believe, consciously or subconsciously, that man by his very nature is either stupid or evil. They do not act on this in their personal lives - not always, that is - but they tend to think 1969 THE FREE SOCIETY AND ITS ENEMIES 27 it when the promise of human freedom is suggested to them. They look at history and believe that the evils result, not from bad ideas, distorted views, faulty rea soning, or the absence of reason ing by many powerful people, but from the basic, necessary deficien cies of human nature. And when this becomes evident, we who be lieve otherwise can go to work on a reconsideration of the philosophy of man and society. Religion and philosophy have had great influence in bringing about the kind of society we have. I t is only through reconsideration of the problems in those very ab stract fields of study that we may be able to recast man's image. But our rethinking of those issues also may help us appreciate the con fusion that persists in many minds about alternative systems of gov ernment and society. For clearly, if man is necessarily evil or de ficient in important aspects of his character, no social system is go ing to bring about the goods which so many of our adversaries be lieve a free society cannot pro duce. As to the lady's objection, for instance, surely she must realize that if people would privately place stupid prohibitions on the use of the property which they open for trading purposes, they will vote just as stupidly when the use of city streets is considered in the "democratic process." There is, after all, no guarantee that City Planning Commissions are com posed of infallible and good peo pIe; and if they are all deficient by nature, the harmful judgments they make will affect all of us. An elite and a dictator are equally subject to the laws of human na ture. So, it is a mistake to think that pure democracy or represent ative democracy - or any other system of government in which human beings administer the de cisions - would protect us against the failings of naturally deficient or evil men. At least, in a free society we would be able to con fine the source of evil and the responsibility for it much more efficiently; while, as it stands now, we all suffer at the hands of the majority and its representatives.

Discussing the values of a free society is an exasperating job. But it is immensely revealing; it tells one a great deal about why w·e are where we are and why we are not moving toward a better alterna tive more rapidly. By paying heed to some of the things that concern our adversaries, we can learn a great deal about them and about the problems we must overcome in order to progress toward the building of a truly free society. I am by no means pessimistic. But I would warn against believing that the task is a simple one.· ~ 01 the DIVISION olLABOB GARY NORTH THE DIVISION OF LABOR is a sub ject which has fascinated social scientists for millennia. Before the advent of modern times, phi losophers and theologians con cerned themselves with the im plications of the idea. Plato saw as the ultimate form of society a community in which social func tions would be rigidly separated and maintained; society would be divided into definite functional groups: warriors, artisans, un skilled laborers, rulers. St. Paul, in his first letter to the church at Corinth, went so far as to describe the universal Church in terms of a body: there are hands, feet, eyes, and all are under the head, Christ. Anyone who intends to Gary North is a member of the Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy and is the author of Marx's ReliAion of Revolu tion (Nutley, New Jersey: Craig Press, 1968) , from which this article has been adapted.