Reflections on Gullibility; L.E. Read

Short of a more general realiza tion of this intellectual insensi tivity, our society is doomed; it must fall into a shambles. Sensing this formidable situation, as does 1 See "The Gullible Society," The Freeman, March 1974. Professor Paton, is assuredly the first step in gaining any relief. However, two more steps would seem to be necessary: (1) discov ering the cause of gullibility, and (2) finding its remedy, if there be one. In my view, insensitiveness is the cause of gullibility. A recent experience: Ahead of me in the check-out line at the supermarket was a woman with many items in her basket. She paid with govern ment food stamps, totally insensi tive to the fact that I would be in terested, as one who was financing her purchases. Utterly numb as to gratitude! And most taxpayers, in my place, would have been equally insensitive to their role in paying for that food. I do not know what the total bill might have been for the food the woman had in her basket. Nor do I know precisely the value of the food stamps she receives each 545 546 THE FREEMAN September year. But I did find, upon doing a bit of research, that the total U.S.

food stamp program that cost $85.5 million in 1965 is projected to cost $7.2 billion in 1975. Was I gullible, were all of us gullible in allowing the small beginnings of a program that would expand by 8,400 per cent in ten years! And how many Americans are expected to be riding that $7.2 billion gravy train in 1975? The number, I am informed, will be 16,000,000. So if the woman in the supermarket is typical, she will be carrying $450 worth of groceries past the check-out counter, for stamps, in 1975. In double-checking my estimate of taxes to be paid in 1975 - and calcula ting the impact on me of a $7.2 billion expenditure - I find that, in effect, I will be paying for about half of that woman's food stamp purchases. And I do not know her! Should I or should I not be giving some strange woman $225 worth of groceries a year? Do I know if her need is greater than that of any other customer?

Or am I simply being gullible about food stamps and many other welfare programs, programs to which I am insensitive, since I do not know the real need for such handouts or know the effect of those handouts on either the re cipients or the other taxpayers who will help foot the bill? How account for this two-sided gullibility - exhibited equally by those who feed at the public trough and those' who are forced to keep it filled? Doubtless there are unfathomable reasons - faults and shortcomings interacting on each other - too complex for clear cut analysis. Were there a single cause, we might readily overcome this insensitiveness; alertness then would be a possibility. How ever, if a few likely causes can be identified, they may help us see our gullibility and bring some helpful responses from me, you, and some others; any switch would have to be an individual attain ment. The Roman, Horace, some twen ty centuries ago, offered one reason which can hardly be questioned: "Adversity has the effect of elic iting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant."

Prosperous circumstances! Nev er in the world's history have any people remotely approached the prosperity we Americans have ex perienced, and we are generally flabby in consequence. Gullibility is noth!ing more nor less than tal ents lying dormant. This appears to be an accurate diagnosis of our condition. Free market, private ownership, limited government practices have been more nearly approximated in 1974 REFLECTIONS ON GULLIBILITY 547 the U.S.A. than elsewhere. As a consequence, there has been the greatest release of creative en ergy ever known: goods and serv ices have flowed in unprecedented abundance to the masses as if manna from Heaven. Merely reflect upon the material things - tens of thousands - which are available in exchange for do ing relatively little, if anything. 2 Note the countless persons who enj oy a fantastic affluence and do nothing at all. When people get it into their heads that their pros perity is a natural phenomenon, as a sunrise, for instance, requiring no. talents on their part, talents fail to evolve; in a word, they lie dormant. These people see nothing simply because they are unaware that there is anything to see.

No Faith in Charity Another likely cause: an aston ishing loss of faith in J udeo Christian charity. Indeed, few in today's world are aware of what it is, let alone the wonders wrought by its practice. That woman at the check-out line had no more gratitude for her some thing-for-nothing food than the average taxpayer has gratitude for the privilege of filling the 2 See "Confessions of a Rich Man" in my Let Freedom Reign (Irvington-on Hudson, N.Y.: The Foundation for Eco nomic Education, Inc., 1969) pp. 50-56. trough. Grover Cleveland; in veto ing a handout to .drought-stricken Texans, wrote: The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied up on to relieve their fellow-citizens in misfortune. . . . Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Gov ernment and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood.

The Congressmen who approved that appropriation doubtless did so with the best intentions. They, as distinguished from President Cleveland, were insensitive: to charity as a character-building means to deal with misfortune; they could think only of govern ment handouts. This calls to mind a verse packed full of wisdom: Oh, were evil always ugly; What a boon to virtue that would be! But oft it wears a pretty face'; And lets us cheat unknowingly. It is an observed fact that when ever government preempts any activity, that is, when coercion takes over, voluntary ways are not only forgotten but faith in their efficacy ceases. How many, for in stance, believe that mail could be delivered ever so much more effi ciently if left to the free market? Only a person now and then! Sim548 THE FREEMAN September Harly with charity. When govern ment moves in, charitable prac tices tend to wither away. Your neighbor is hungry. Today? That's the government's problem, we say.

Suppose the government had not intervened. What would you or I do? We would share our loaf of bread! Were government handouts looked upon as ugly, charity would thrive. But because they are well intentioned and thus have a pretty face, we cheat each other unknow ingly, insensitively. Re'sult: gul libility! What possibly can be the cure for this gullibility? What can re store alertness? Ass uredly, the answer lies half-hidden or it would be generally known and observed; few would label themselves, or like to be labeled, gullible. An obvious answer to gullibility is thinking for self rather than imitating platitudes, plausibilities, popular cliches. But that is too obvious. The real question is, what can inspire or encourage one to do his own thinking? What is the over looked formula? Here's mine: Count your bless ings! Until now I have looked up on this as the remedy for perhaps the greatest of aU evils: covetous ness or envy. I am now convinced that it is also the cure for gulli bility.

For this practice to have any meaning, to affect one's intellectual demeanor, it would have to be a daily exercise - in a word, ha bitual and systematic exploration. At first blush, at least to those who have not reflected on their blessings, this is no more of a challenge than a daily repetition of the alphabet, so few blessings are most people aware of. What I am suggesting is the discovery of one or more hereto fore unknown blessings every day of one's life. There aren't that many? Their number is infinite, a world without end! They include every bit of wisdom since the hu man race began; they range from soaps to soups to tissues to dish washers, from raindrops to bath tubs, from pets to friends past and present, from atoms to red blood cells to galaxies, from elec tricity to sunbeams,. from blades of grass to' the· shade of trees, from hot and cold running water to still lakes and wavy seas, from paintings to all the beauties of earth and the heavens. They in clude all the freedom each of us possesses to be his creative self.

The daily exploration of one's blessings opens the mind to Infin ite Consciousness. This is the process of thinking for self; it is the downing of gullibility. For today, I count among my bless ings the ability to share these thoughts with you, whoever you are. f) Political Freedom IsNot Enough MILLER UPTON FREEDOM seems to be one of those words, along with love and de mocracy, which everyone· makes use of to his own convenience. Its very sight and sound stimulate an immediate emotional response with substantial positive over tones. It is therefore a favorite part of the vocabulary of every inspired leader and demagogue alike, be he a Lincoln or a Stalin, a Gandhi or a Hitler. We in our country make special use of the concept when we speak proudly of being part of the "free world." We obviously feel good when we do so, but I wonder if we are being fully objective and hon est with ourselves when we con tin ue to caress our egos this way.