Book Reviews

Miller was a religious fanatic, and we laugh at his kind in a secu lar age. But are our secular doom sayers any more credible in their extrapolations and prophecies? I was an early ecologist, and I wrote about - and practiced - organic gardening back in the Thirties. Chemurgy, which advocated the recycling of practically everything, was an exciting movement of the times. So, when the ecologists had their grand revival in the Sixties, I felt a sympathetic stirring in old bones. There -is a pollution prob lem, and it must be tackled. The Long Island Sound coast where we dug for clams and harvested mus sels when I was a boy is now ver boten as a source of consumable shellfish, and to swim at low tide is to risk a bath in oil. The ecol ogists have many. good points in decrying such a state of environ mental affairs. Unfortunately, the secular Milleri tes among them started running away with the predictable result that the sensi183 184 THE FREEMAN March hIe parts of the movement have been discredi ted along with the palpable idiocies.

I t is with the hope of saving ecology from its fanatic friends that John Maddox, the editor of Nature ~agazine in England, offers his The Doomsday Syn drome (McGraw-Hill, $6.95). Mr. Maddox grew tired of hearing that the world was about to asphyxiate itself. The "numbers game" of the population explosionists, which predicted the starvation of "hun dreds of millions of people" in the Nineteen Seventies, seemed to him a vastly overdramatic posing of unreal scarecrows. He doubted that DDT, which had eradicated malaria in many tropical areas, was a universal menace, even though it may have had some as yet undetermined impact on the birthrate of a few species of birds. He couldn't accept the claim that we must suffer from a shortage of metals; after all, the junk piles can become the new mines, and the uses of plastics as a metal substi tution are practically infinite. Scared to Death? Rachel Carson had started the doomsayers on their way with her Silent Spring, which scared thou sands with its warning that "a few false moves on the part of man may result in destruction of soil productivity and the arthropods may well take over." Looking back on such a statement, Mr. Maddox asks if there was ever any reason to fear that the entire surface of the earth would be treated in ex actly the same way at exactly the same time, with all vegetation dying and the insects proliferating despite the insecticides and the lack of foliage to eat?

When Mr. Maddox looked at a map of the Amazon basin, or the Congo, or even of Wiltshire in Eng land, it was more than obvious to him that even the worst agricul tural practices would still leave plenty of trees and plenty of pho tosynthesis around to keep some body and something,even a few robins, alive. Playing around with his own figures, Mr. Maddox says the atmosphere of the earth, which weighs more than 5,000 million million tons, has more than a mil lion tons of air for each human being. The earth's water is so voluminous that each living per son's share would fill a cube half a mile in each direction. Denying the utility of comparing "space ship earth" to one of the Apollo moon capsules, Mr. Maddox says human activity, "spectacular though it may be, is still dwarfed by the human environment." Dirty Old Nature Nature itself has provided in stances of pollution that make 1973 THE DOOMSDAY SYNDROME 185 even the multiple car exhausts of all the Los Angeles freeways seem piddling by comparison. Mr. Mad dox mentions the disappearance of the Pacific island of Krakatoa in a volcanic eruption in 1887. The explosion threw more than a mil lion tons of dust into the strato sphere, and for years thereafter this dust provided the world with gorgeous .sunsets. The dust also reduced the amount of solar en ergy reaching the earth, and we had lower temperatures for four or five years. Eventually the at mosphere purified itself. This is not an argument for defective carburetors or smoke belching chimneys, but it should convey something to the gloom-and-doom boys who think the internal com bustion engine is about to do us all in.

Mr. Maddox recognizes that Malthus, whose "law" insists that populations must continue to out strip the food supplY,has some contemporary relevance in places like India. As an Englishman, however, he is quite aware of what happened to his own nation as it became industrializ~d. The pace of population growth slows down in countries whenever the need for juvenile farm hands becomes less important to families, and Mr. Maddox is sure that the British experience of a lowered birth rate will be repeated in all the underdeveloped countries as the' fac tories move in. A family with a two-child preference in countries that have decent hygiene doesn't need a third and a fourth child for "insurance" as it did in the days of yellow fever and diptheria epi demics. Mr. Maddox wrote his book before the statisticians pointed to a real approach to zero population· growth in the United States, but he was sure the curves were about to level off here as they had already leveled off in Sweden, Bulgaria, Japan and else where. His verdict: the population explosion "has all the signs of being a damp squib."

The Green Revolution Even in the Asiatic countries that are not yet industrialized, the so-called green revolution is en abling the local farmers to keep a jump or two ahe~d of Malthus. Mr. Maddox may sound overlyrical in his praise of miracle rice and the new "Mexi-Pak" wheat, but in spite of the risk of disease in highly specialized strains of ce reals the green revolution is a demonstrated success. What is now happening in Asia has yet to happen in Africa and South America, but if Mexican wheat can help save India there is no reason to believe it can't thrive in Latin· American lands that look to Mexico for leadership.

186 THE FREEMAN March Even though the appropriation for cleaning .up the atmosphere hasn't been what the ecologists want, it is not true that pollution is on the increase in American cities. Mr. Maddox says that Chi cago reached its air pollution peak in 1965. Since then the carbon monoxide in Chicago air has "de creased most spectacularly." In New York the peak was reached in 1968. In London smog disap peared after the Clean Air legisla tion of the Fifties; there is no reason, says Mr. Maddox, why the London experience can't be re peated in the United States. Mr. Maddox's book has special significance in that it comes from an ecol<;>gist who is himself in earnest about cleaning up the skies, the streets and Lake Erie. When a bona fide environmentalist tells us that we can continue to have industrial growth and a rise in the standard of living without adding to poisons and litter and overcrowding, it is good news indeed.

~ THE NEW TOTALITARIANS by Roland Huntford (New York: Stein & Day, 1971) 354 pp., $10. Reviewed by Allan C. Brownfeld SWEDEN, once labeled the middle way, is now totalitarian, reports the London Observer's Scandina vian correspondent. This total ~,tate is benign. Such words as in dividuality and freedom have lost their traditional meaning, having lanK been neglected in practice. People are passive, and so there is no need to employ the instruments of incarceration and the firing squad to keep them in line. Sweden reminds Huntford of Brave N e'w World where Huxley told us that "A really efficient totalitarian state would be the one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude." Sweden is run by nonelected bu reaucrats, and the Diet, which is elected, is virtually power less. The Diet has neither a say in running the civil service, nor the ability to influence the administrative proc ess.Cabinet ministers and senior bureaucrats are privileged to rule by administrative orders, which the .Diet is prohibited from de bating and over which it has no say. Most of the rules and regula tions that govern Sweden are be1973 OTHER BOOKS 187 yond parliamentary control, and the power of the bureaucracy has been extended to almost all aspects of society, even reaching into the home.

The Directorate of Social Af fairs has total authority concern ing the custody of children. An ad ministrative order issued by a party official is sufficient to take any child away from its parents and have it brought up by any per son or institution and in anyway seen fit. Courts of law have no say in this matter, and there is no way that a parent can oppose an order depriving him of. custody of his own child. "At no point is it possible," states the authot, "to invoke the due process of law, and parents may not be present at the civil service boards which discuss the removal of children from their homes .... In 1968, 21,000 children were removed from their parents' custody. This is about 1 per 350 inhabitants." Academic freedom has never been known in Sweden. 'rom the start, university professors have been appointed directly by the gov ernment; curricula and even the detailed content of individual lec tures were decided by ecclesiasti cal functionaries and state offi cials. Mr. Sven Moberg, deputy Minister of Education, explains the goal of education in today's Sweden: "Education is one of the most important agents for chang ing society. . . . Its purpose is to turn out the correct kind of person for the new society. The new school rejects individuality, and teaches children cooperation. Chil dren are taught to work in groups.

They solve problems together; not alone. The· basic idea is that they are considered primarily as mem.,. bers of society, and individuality is discouraged." Culture is also dominated by the ~tate and used for its own politi cal purposes. The center of the Swedish stage is t~e Royal Dra matic Theater in Stockholm, a state institution. The artistic di rector, Erland Josephson is of course a member of the Social Democratic Party which has ruled the country since the 1930s. "The purpose of the theater," he says, "is to expand emotional life. A country must have a rich emo tional life. Without this, politi cians cannot bring about changes or appeal to the public. You see, our people are emotionally and culturally underdeveloped. The arts, particularly the theater, are being· used to accelerate and bring about a maturing of emotional life." The drama, says Josephson, Blust promote the intentions of the Government. Nothing that contradicts the changes in Swed188 THE FREEMAN March ish society is permitted to appear.

"Education," he. says, "is turning out people who have learned to fit into society. So that means I won't allow any plays that glorify the individual. That excludes most of the romantic dramatists, like Schiller. And it definitely cuts out most of Ibsen. Brand and Peer Gynt are two Ibsen plays I defi nitely do not want to see per formed." While we are told how happy and content the Swedes are, Mr. Huntford reports that crime in Sweden increased from 250,000 cases in 1960 to 500,000 in 1970. During 1969-70 there· was a 20 per cent increase in thefts, 16 per cent in robheries, 62 per cent in check-passing, and violent crimes increased by 40 per cent in 1969. Seventy-five per cent of all crimes in Sweden are committed by chil dren and youth between the ages of 10 and 25. Despite "sexual lib eration," rape increased by 65.2 per cent between 1963 and 1967. There are a few cracks in the unappetizing picture drawn by Huntford. One such is the recent defection from Prime Minister Palme's majority. Another is the built-in economic inefficiency of a centrally directed technocratic sys tem. A third is the accumulation of evidence that there is a shift in public opinion, denoting a loss of faith in the system. In a new book by Sture Ka.llberg, Report from a Swedish Village, thena tives come through as resigned and cynical, complaining of mo notony and critical of officialdom, uncertain' of where they are or where they want to go. Sweden has matured; those who walked the road to serfdom have finally arrived.

~ THE POLITICAL CULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES by Don ald J. Devine (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1972) 383 pp., $7.95 Reviewer: Allan C. Brownfeld IT IS EASY to mistake the pop cul ture for reality, and those who spend a great deal of time watch ing television and reading head lines are apt tofalI into such a trap. A basic element of "fashion able" thought is that American politics is hopelessly unrepresent ative of the American people, that most citizens are receiving a raw deal and would like nothing more than to turn the system upside down. Thus, radical intellectuals call for revolution in the name of the people, while the only revolu tion the people seem interested in is one against the intellectual elite itself. A recently published scholarly study, The Political Culture of the United States, by Professor Donald J. Devine of the Univer1973 OTHER BOOKS 189 sity of Maryland, leads to these conclusions and many more.

Professor Devine explores in great detail the nature of our value consensus, as reflected in opinion polls, and finds these val ues to be largely in "the liberal tradition," having little relation ship, of course, with the political tendency which today calls itself "liberal." Professor Devine notes that this liberal tradition coin cides with the writings of the political philosopher John Locke: "Locke saw man as rational and free, and his consent is needed for government to be legitimate. He is unrestricted in that he begins life with a mind like a white paper - not unlike America before set tlement. But this man also has a tradition within which his reason operates. This is especially so for his values, which are based upon a natural law ... Locke viewed gov ernment as contracted by this complex but essentially free man to preserve himself from the in security of the state of nature.

Government was thus somewhat unnatural-limited to protecting the individual's life, liberty and property through popular consen~, established laws, impartial judges, and limited but effective execu tives. A government that exceeds these bounds is illegitimate ..." The liberal tradition about which there exists a consensus is one which calls for a very strictly limited government, whose pri mary function is to insure man's freedom and· protect his life and property. Those in the political process today who speak of taxing the rich and bestowing their prop ertyamong the poor are speaking in direct opposition to a basic ele ment of our own liberal tradition. The Federalist Papers (No.1, p.36) states: "The diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of property originate, is not less an unsuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of acquiring property, the possession of differ ent degrees and kinds of property immediately results."

In his Second Treatise, John Locke set forth in no uncertain terms the value of private proper ty. He noted that, "The great and chief end, therefore, of man's unit ing into commonwealths and them selves under government, is the preservation of their property; to which in the state of nature there are many things wanting ... Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labor of his body and the work of his hands, we may say are properly his. Whatsoever, then, he removes out 190 THE FREEMAN March of the state that nature hath pro vided and left it in, he hath mixed his labor with it, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his 'property." In the American political tradi tion, states Professor Devine, "property is necessary because its protection insures that individual liberty and achievement possibili ties survive ... Property is a basic liberal value because its protec tion allows the individual to be free and· secure."

Those who advocate more state intervention into the lives of in dividuals .are calling for a policy which the overwhelming majority of Americans reject. The author's analysis of public opinion surveys indicates that more than eight out of ten choose liberty over economic security and seven out of ten choose individual freedom over duty to the state. Seven out of ten support freedom of the press while more than 95 percent support freedom of speech. Eighty-one per cent prefer private over public ownership of property and six out of ten support achievement more than job security. Professor Devine believes that too many men in politics attempt to please a radical intellectual elite which has views which are at variance with the views of the majority of Americans, rather than the people themselves. The views of the majority are set forth in detail in The Political Culture of the United States. If the au thor's thesis is correct, political stability and political and eco nomic freedom will continue into the future, despite those who chal lenge them today - that is, if the win of the people has anything to do with it.

~ THE BONHOEFFERS: POR TRAIT OF A FAMILY by Sabine Leibholz-Bonhoeffer, with a Fore word by Lord Longford and a Pre face by Eberhard Bethge (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1972) 203 pp., $7.95 Reviewer: Dr. Gottfried Dietze WHETHER ONE BELIEVES that his tory is made by great men or by the masses, certainly the progress of history is unthinkable without individuals standing out in great ness from what has been amassed around them, by standing up for their beliefs against the powers of this world. It may be added that the greatness of our civilization is due in a large measure to the· fact that men again and again have had the courage to challenge what was fashionable. This is why the idea of freedom has relevance to all men irrespective of color, creed, or national origin, why the idea is older than Adam Smith and, in deed, timeless. One of the men who stood up to 1973 OTHER BOOKS 191 oppression in the not too distant past was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young Protestant theologian mar tyred by the National Socialists in a concentration camp at the end of World War II. When Hitler came to power Bonhoeffer went on the air saying that an individual feels the need of submitting himself to a leader only to the extent that he is not mature or responsible enough to do good by himself.

From then on to his famous Letters from Prison, Bonhoeffer courageously resisted National Socialism ,and wrote his influential books. His life was the more re markable in view of the fact that he left a safe haven in the United States and returned to Germany although he had been warned and knew that he would· get into trou ble there, feeling that his teaching would be more necessary under a government which oppressed re ligion than in a nation. known for religious tolerance. The attractive, well-illustrated book here reviewed, written by his twin sister, provides frank in sights into Bonhoeffer's attitudes and beliefs, bringing in many per sonal remembrances. The author also vividly portrays the family she and her twin brother belonged to, one which Lord Longford calls the most remarkable family of our time, "with their distinguished ancestry on both sides, their father perhaps the leading psychiatrist in Germany, the eight children all extremely gifted. " Certainly, the whole family courageously opposed National Socialism. Aside from Dietrich, another brother, Klaus, and two brothers-in-law, Hans von Dohnanyi and Riidiger Schleicher, were killed by Hitler's men.

In a human and touching way the author also describes her own life. Married to Gerhard Leibholz, a "non-Aryan" professor of con stitutional law who due to Hitler's racism had to leave his professor ship in Gottingen, her account shows the ostracism and persecu tion suffered under socialism of the nationalist brand. The book describes the family's flight to Switzerland and England, where they lived until 1947, when Dr. Leibholz resumed his professor ship and became an outstanding judge· of West Germany's highest court. The book is a well-written and fascinating document of contem porary history. In away, the or deal of the Bonhoeffers is repre sentative of the experience of all those who courageously resist op pression and who suffer the. inevi table consequences. It was said above that freedom is older than Smith's Wealth of }.lations, generally credited with having ushered in the era of lib eralism. And yet, that era perhaps 192 THE FREEMAN March constitutes the climax in the his tory of freedom. This reviewer asked himself whether the family here described is not a typical product of the liberal era with its sense of individualism, propriety, honesty and achievement. All these values have increasingly come un der challenge since World War I, when socialism made deep inroads upon liberalism. In our time when, as Hayek put it, the worst tend to get on top, a closely knit, dis tinguished family like the Bon hoeffers becomes increasingly a reminder of a past age, just as individualism, family life, and dis tinction are. Perhaps such losses are inevitable after the revolt of the masses which Ortega's Gasset described. Perhaps, therefore, our mass age which produced a regime like that of National Socialism under which the Bonhoeffers had to suffer, an age which still suffers regimes that oppress freedom, now needs a revolt against the masses.

Certainly many men like those here described would be needed to accomplish that task. The book was an immediate suc cess in Germany where it was originally published. Danish and English editions came out before the present American edition. A Japanese translation is to follow. HANDSOME BLUE LEATHERLEX FREEMAN BINDERS $2.50 each ORDER FROM: THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION IRVINGTON.,ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 10533 the Freeman VOL. 23, NO.4. APRIL 1973 The Foundingof the AmericanRepublic: 21. The Beacon of Liberty Clarence B. Carson 195 "They had relighted the beacon of liberty; it remains for those who come after to keep it burning." Pilot·Errors If "flight plans" depend upon coercion, beware! Leonard E. Read 207 Industrialism:Friend or Foe? V. Orval Watts 211 It is not "the power of the market" that dehumanizesthe individual, but his subjection to unlimited political power. Right Congregation,Wrong Sermon John C. Sparks 218 For an enduring International armistice, we need to curb our personal appetites for governmentaid and intervention.