Socialism; E. Opitz

152 clash of labels they all advocate the planning of economic affairs by political authority - control over production and excha.nge being the key to leverage over other sectors of life and the means of achieving national goals. Such practices as voluntarily pooling goods, sharing the com mon tasks of a community, work ing with the hands, reviving interest in folk arts, do not con stitute Socialism. And it goes without saying that concern for justice is not limited to socialists; the noblest work in behalf of slaves, prisoners, the sick, the handicapped, children, and ani mals has been done by non-Social ists. When it comes to improving man's lot on earth, the influence of Adam Smith probably did more to upgrade the poor than any other single factor, and the major thrust of Classical Liberalism maximized civil, intellectual, and religious liberty for all men by limi ting government to the tasks of policing.

1974 SOCIALISM 153 To Appreciate freedom, Consider the Alternative Socialism is in contention against the Free Society, and we know a thing better if we under stand its adversary. To insist that centralized political planning of the economy is the essence of So cialism may plant the misleading suggestion that the Free Society - call it the free economy, the market economy, or capitalism is characterized by lack of plan ning. Such is not the case. There is indi vidual planning of all sorts in the Free Society, but no cen tralized economic planning. The Rule of Law is not a random de velopment; it is intentional, the result of generations of planned effort by men seeking to establish institutions which ma~imize hu man freedom. The market econ omy operates within the frame work of the Rule of Law, and is regulated by millions of consum ers making billions of decisions as they carry out their private plans for the achievement of their per sonal goals - as well as by other millions who plan ahead for their businesses, their churches, their schools, their hospitals and other corporate ventures.

There are two radically opposed ways of life here, Socialism ver sus the Free Society, and they lock horns over the questions: Who shaH plan? and For whom? Socialism has an overall plan which the handful of men who wield political power must impose on the mass of citizenry in order that the intended' national goals and purposes may be realized. But, millions of people have bil lions of plans of their own, and because many of these private plans do not fit into the govern ment's plan they must be an nulled; and if persuasion does not suffice punishment must be in voked. The ideal blueprint for or dering the life of a bee'hive may be identical with the private plans of the last little bee; but it is not so in human society, where each person is a unique self. Socialism means a nation with two kinds of men; the few who have the power to run things and the many whose lives are run by other men.

The Worst Get to the Top What kind of men are best adapted to the task of fitting the lives of other men into the Plan? Men possessed by an ideology which convinces them they are carrying out History's mandates when they conform the lives of citizens to the social blueprint. As History's vice-regent, the Planner is forced to view men as mass; which is to deny their full stature as persons with rights endowed by 154 THE FREEMAN March the Creator, gifted with free will, possessing the capacity to order their own lives in terms of their convictions. The man who has the authority and the power to put the masses through their paces, and to punish nonconformists, must be ruthless enough to sacri fice a person to a principle. The operational imperatives of a so cialist order demand this kind of action; a commissar who believes that each person is a child of God will eventually yield to a commis sar whose ideology is consonant with the demands of his job.

The ideology which facilitates the Planned State was not in vented by Marx; it was at hand in the form of nineteenth century materialism. Man, in terms of this ideology, is a mere end product of natural and social forces, inhabit ing a universe which does not re flect the handiwork of the Creator, but is reducible instead to the me chanical arrangement of material particles. There is no transcendent end for men to serve, and no soul needing salvation; mankind will be regenerated by altering its en vironment so as to put men fully into the service of the State. In Socialist eschatology the State will finally wither away and men will enjoy an earthly paradise. The skewing of the Christian vision here is obvious; Socialism needs a secular religion to sanc tion its authoritarian politics, and it replaces the traditional moral order by a code which subordi nates the individual to the collec tive. This inversion of values is intended to enhance economic well-being, but in vain. Socialism promises to distribute abundance but is at a loss as to how to pro duce it. A classic study by the, eminent economist, Ludwig von Mises, Soc,ialism (1922), demon strates the impossibility of eco nomic calculation in a planned economy, and experience attests to the chronic shortages of goods which afflict Socialist nations. t) IDEAS ON LIBERTY The Market Method WHEN any commodity is carried to market, it is not the necessity of the vendor, but the necessity of the purchaser that determines the price.

ED M: UN D BUR K E. Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. 1795 CHARLES R. LADow DoYouWa Forever? A MARINE OFFICER, leading his men into battle, exhorted them with this line: "Come on, you . ........ . ! Do you want to live forever?" This is a good ques tion in this era of over-preoccupa tion with the notion of security. It is doubly apposite when one con siders that the world's nations boil with unrest, while the hydrogen bomb hangs over our heads. Mus ing over such matters makes one realize just how far American poli ticians and intellectuals have got ten out of touch with reality. Assuming that we do, or should, seek physical immortality, they have undertaken to protect us against all daily hazards of mor tality. Even as living vegetables, they pump life into us through Medicare, to the bitterest end. While we are spry, they spare no pains (nor our scarce resources) Mr. LaDow, of San Diego, recently retired as a teacher of social studies in high school.