The Enigma; R. Bradford

"Who - me? Why I love my country! I'm only trying to save it from .... " And then will follow the name or purpose of the organ izations, interests or persons who have a different social, economic or poli~ical philosophy from that of the outraged speaker. Mr. Bradford is well known as a writer, speaker, and business organization consultant. He now lives in Ocala, Florida. 564 Unhesitatingly, he attributes evil purpose to all who dissent from his viewpoint; and millions of other zealots like him are equal ly busy castigating the opponents of their particular philosophies or prejudices. As a result, the com posite picture of, America that emerges to the world is that of a dishonest, hypocritical, wicked, and no-Ionger-to-be-respected gi ant. And the picture is being painted, not by the Russians, Serbs, Chinese or Albaniap.s - but by the Americans! Nobody would contend,- I sup pose, that this country has ever been free, or should be, from a certain amount of critical intro spection. This is part of the proc ess of self-government. The com petition of political parties assures a lively and continuing assessment of our customs, practices, laws, principles and institutions - an accepted procedure, understood by 1974 THE ENIGMA 565 the people, and largely beneficial.

But the current chorus of defa mation goes far beyond such help ful self-analysis, and often seems to be without identifiable reason or excuse. To be sure, our assets and resources have been impaired and depleted, in part by heedless exploitation, in part by statist brakes on development, in part by the ruinous fiscal policies of recent decades. As a result we have been assailed by the twin evils of doubt and inflation. Inflation, of course, is but the visible symptom of a general self-deception about the effect of unlimited Federal debt on the cost of living. The evil of doubt also results, in part at least, from inflation. When people see the value of their savings steadily shrinking they are troubled by doubts as· to their personal future. In time the doubt becomes fear. The doubt and fear feed each other. People begin to question their ability to cope with life's problems. And perhaps most dev astating of all, they begin to be troubled about a thing that has always been an article of faith with them - namely, the rightness and justice and strength of their government.

But today's incessant and stri dent diatribe goes beyond custo mary discontents. Never within the memory of this wri ter has there been such a persistent and wholesale denigration of the Unit ed States of America as we are now enduring. Whence the Defamation? Whence came all this vitupera tion of America by the Ameri cans? Allowing for the human propensity to be "agin the govern ment," and discounting the bom bast and exaggeration of partisan politics, what is the reason, after nearly 200 years of spectacularly successful national existence, for the constant defamation of our country by its own people? One basic cause is to be found in the gradual conversion of our government from the simple form and purpose conceived for it by the Founders into the gigantic social welfare organization that now sprawls over the District of Co lumbia and dominates the national scene. In the minds of millions, the government is no longer the or ganized power of the people to govern themselves. In their view it has ceased being the simple but majestic instrument that was to uphold justice, protect citizens from aggression, insure their per sonal and political freedom - and then .... let them alone. All that is now taken for granted, to be sure (except the part about leav ing them alone), but it has become of secondary importance. In addi tion to its traditional functions, 566 THE FREEMAN September the government is now an aggre gation of agencies whose job is to provide certain "benefits" - Le., financial assistance - to .... prac tically everybody! This means that its area of potential culpability has been enormously extended.

There are now hundreds of things for which people can blame the government, either for its failure to do enough, or for having done too much, depending on the point of view. Moreover, the government has been assigned the job of guarding the interests of farmers, students, laborers, artists, writers, old peo ple, young people, racial minori ties, housewives, inner city dwell ers, suburbanites, ruralites - and especially "consumers" (which again means everybody) . And this guardianship is not to be achieved as an ordinary matter of law en forcement, but through militant administrative activism. All this has meant a great proliferation of the bureaucracy, with attendant operating expense, plus enormous outlays to finance the innumer able programs that are generated. And it has meant hundreds of new targets and occasions for the ex change of abusive rhetoric. Harmful or Helpful? A great weakness in all this has been the failure to distinguish be tween those features of the societal structure that are harmful and those that are helpful to the growth of the individual-for that, if I understand the real im port of our history, is what this country is all about. The freedom and fulfillment of the individual this was the idealistic dream and the practical aim of those who or ganized the American State.

But the intrusion of govern ment into all walks of life - our tax-supported and politically ori ented and regulated schools; a subsidized and sharply controll.ed agriculture; vast housing pro grams, some of whose monstrously useless buildings are already be ing demolished; welfare programs that have little real concern either for the cost to the public or for the effect upon the recipient; all these and many other well meant but disastrous and costly programs have not truly aided but served to defeat the great idea of an achieved social harmony through the exercise of freedom. Thus the floundering and some times the blundering of a nation that is still striving to find itself, not on the world stage only, but especially in the important matter of what is the proper relationship between government and the gov erned - whether or not the posture of the State as a generous uncle can best serve the true interests of the citizen. Growing numbers 1974 TIRE ENIGMA 567 of thoughtful people are convinced that full freedom and not paternal ism is the best ins urance of indi vidual growth and development.

Certainly the practice of govern mentalism, with its concomitant plethora of regulatory bureaus and departments, will continue to pro vide fuel for the fires of contro versy and bitterness. Unpopular War It has been the fashion in re cent years to blame all our Ameri can doubts and dissatisfactions on war, especially the Korean "Police Operation" and the subsequent Viet Nam exercise in frustration. Those wars did indeed make their disastrous contribution to our na tional discontent. But they were only a current phase of the peren nial unpopularity of America among the Americans. The shrill chorus of defamation was on stage long before the Geneva Accord; and it will still be heard when the Mekong Delta and the Central Highlands are but a. fading mem ory. As Southeast Asia was phas ing out, the Watergate scandal was phasing in as a center of dis satisfaction; and when its course is run new occasions of critical discontent will arise or be manu factured.

First and always, there will be the voices of violence and revolu tion. These fall into two main divisions: the sincere, if deluded disciples of Karl Marx and sup porters of every regime that even pretends to follow the Marx-Lenin Mao line; and second, the hard eyed, communist-trained agents who care little for Marxism as a political theory, but are deter mined upon the destruction of any government that is not communist in form and purpose. These are the activists, trained in the tech niques of revolution, one of which is to infiltrate and use any move ment that has a cause for griev ance, real or fancied. But of even greater destructive impact, though not so intended, will be the continuing clamor of our many special-interest groups. I am not referring now to such "special interests" as agriculture, or manufacturing, or labor, or banking, as the term is ordinarily used. I mean rather the many groups that have as their special interest the promotion, preven tion or abolition of this, that or the other policy or program which, in their belief, threatens (or in sures) the health, welfare, happi ness, freedom - even the perma nence - of the American nation.

Such people are not communists. They wish no harm to this coun try. Indeed, most of them have as their main purpose and mission a program of "saving" the Ameri can people from .... something.

568 THE FREEMAN September A Chorus of Defeat It is not possible or desirable in an article of this brief compass to review and assess all these "move ments." Some of them have a valid basis for the dissatisfactions they express. Some of the changes advocated are long overdue. But that being granted, one who loves this country is appalled at the ex tent to which their voices are di rected, not at a particular evil, but at .the whole American scene, its institutions, its people, and its government. Perhaps this is best illustrated by the emotional effort that was made, following the as sassination of President Kennedy, to load the whole American peo ple with a sense of guilt for the brutal act of one evil man. The result of all this is that the audible voice, certainly the most quoted voice, of our country today is usually one of condemnation, hardly ever one of hope. The com posite chorus of propaganda damns America generally, praises it seldom. Whether there is a South Asian War, a Middle East conflict, a shortage of fuel, or a problem of international credit, our country is customarily the villain, almost never the hero.

Certainly that is the impression one gets from watching television or reading newspapers and maga zines. I am not at the moment criticizing those media. By and large, 'with notable exceptions, they report what is happening the news. On the old man-bites dog formula, bad news inevitably comes front and center. This much can be conceded to media that have plenty to answer for in the way of sensationalism and distor tion. But beyond the media are those who make the bad news - the shouters and ranters; the critics and defamers; the promoters of evil causes who defame with de liberate intent; the supporters of worthy causes who also defame, not with evil intent but by ascrib ing the worst motives to all who oppose them. Thus we hear that there is poverty in the land, not because some people are unfortu nate, but because wicked and ra pacious men are growing fat by despoiling the poor. There is pol lution, not because we all throw our waste about indiscriminately, but because the producers of goods don't package them prop erly. There are shprtages of fuel, not because we burn it up waste fully in our cars and furnaces, but because reckless producers of fossil energy are keeping oil and coal off the market. The cost of food is high, not becaus.e we have all accepted government-induced inflation as a way of economic life, not because transportation and all other costs have soared with a 1-974 THE ENIGMA 569 dwindling dollar, but because self ish farmers, scheming wholesal ers, and retailers without con science have conspired to drive prices up.

And so on, and on, and on . . . . in a cumulative jeremiad that strips our country bare of good intent or high purpose and pre sents it to the world and to its own people as a nation sunk in selfishness, iniquity and dishonor. And it is a false rendering! It simply does not reflect the reality of America. This statement is no Pollyanna pretense to national per fection. We have our sins and fol lies to answer for, like other na tions. But a ranting voice on a loud speaker; a screaming revo lutionary with a bull horn; a mur derer with a smoking gun or drip ping knife; a sneaking arsonist setting fires; a cowardly terrorist planting a bomb to kill innocent people; a minority mob of stu dents seizing offices, destroying records, spreading excrement, shouting obscenities - these are not America. The Real America America is in those millions of homes where love and decency and pride and parental concern and filial affection prevail-and it is nonsense to pretend, as some-do, that such homes do not exist, or that they are diminishing in number. America is in those grade and high schools where girls and boys by the millions are studying and learning and ducking classes and killing time and flirting and fall ing in and out of love - as they have always done. It is in hun dreds of small colleges and many universities, where the great mass of students are still concerned with learning, excelling, finding a good job, and "getting ahead in the world."

While all the noisy turmoil of marches, "protests," demonstra tions, and riots occupies stage cen ter, the people of the country carryon - working, earning, spending, saving, investing, taking chances, losing, winning, loving, marrying, having kids, getting on each other's nerves, quarreling, making up, planning, hoping, hav ing disappointments, enjoying achievements, sharing sorrows, and making homes where warmth and faith and love abide. While a handful of "activists" are disrupting traffic, upsetting cars, smashing windows, and thereby gaining a few headlines or a coveted spot on television, in hundreds of towns and cities all over the country men and women are giving their time to work on projects to benefit their communi ties. Businessmen are serving on committees; housewive~ are man aging day care centers; working 570 THE FREEMAN September mothers are helping to build a home and a future for their fam ilies. Carpenters are aiding the Red Cross; bricklayers are active in the· Community Chest; others give up their evenings to help op erate clubs for boys and girls. On thousands of farms teenagers are being taught the essentials of husbandry and are competing for prizes contributed by people who are not required to do so, but who want to share their substance and point young people to a better future.

Serious Work for Progress All very prosaic and material istic? Of course. But so, despite its high moments, is life itself. Before we can paint or carve or write books or compose music or operate farms or organize bu~iness enterprises, we must eat, wear clothes, and be sheltered. Such, in deed, is the price of existence. The great majority of people understand this and govern their lives accordingly. At the very time when campus riots were getting the headlines, the rioters were but a handful of students, often led by outside agitators. The overwhelm ing majority of students wanted to get on with the business of ac quiring an education, the better to cope with the problems of their later years. And it was so with every other incendiary and revolutionary movement. Small coteries of irresponsible adventurers made noise and committed depredations. The serious work for progress in social betterment and human un derstanding was done by persist ent pluggers who were unwilling to burn down the barn to elimi nate the rats.

It is not the purpose of these paragraphs to decry propaganda, organization, meetings, agitation, or any other lawful means of fo cusing attention on needed re forms. "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech . .. or the right of the peo ple peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a re dress of grievances." And aside from that Constitutional provi sion, change is the order of life; and today it is needed .in many areas if mankind is to attain full freedom and realize its highest potential. But it is a tragic mistake, cumu latively suicidal, to convert every demand for change into a crusade against the American society. With all its failures and shortcom ings, that society is one of the best, perhaps on all counts it is the very best, that has yet been devised by groping man for his own governance. The evils that exist here are not peculiar to America, but are the common and tragic portion of all mankind. Sum 1974 THE ENIGMA 571 them all up ; take the total of ev erything that is complained of; and then place in the opposing bal ance the multiform advantages we Americans enjoy in terms of af fluence, comfort, and freedom do this, and the scales will tip re soundingly for the good, as against the bad, in our country. Or again, weigh in those same scales of comparison the advantages of fife in the United States as against life in any other country on earth, and once more the balance will come down handsomely for the American performance.

Striving Toward Perfection The perfect society, the country without fault or reproach, has yet to be devised. Man is a developing creature, still close to the cave and the jungle in many of his reflexes. He errs and sins grievously against his fellows, and against himself. Just now especially he is caught up in great tides of change, and is the victim as well as the beneficiary of vast scientific dis coveries and technological ad vances. He stands today tiptoe, as it were, on the edge of a new im mensity - his eyes on the planets and stars, his feet dragging in the mire of an all-too-earthy existence. His glory is that he does con sciously and persistently strive toward perfection. He does want to do and be better. Groping and stumbling, hindered by selfishness and prej udice, he does neverthe less catch visions of the better life and is at moments exalted. His tragedy is that he is still not as big as his visions, smaller in mind and comprehension than his sci ence - a moral and ethical juve nile, overshadowed by the soaring splendor of his technology. But he stri ves, he reaches, he aspires and therein resides his nobility.

Therein also is found the hope of mankind for ultimate perfection. Meanwhile, men are not perfect, neither we Americans nor anyone else. Our life is flawed by the fail ures, malice, ignorance, selfishness and general perversity of human nature. Our society has been and is marred by poverty - but far less so than the societies of most other countries. It has been scarred by crime, like other societies that boast of their high ethical stand ards. Capitalism in America has produced its quota of rapacious crooks --:- and so has socialism in England and Sweden and commu nism. in Russia and China. A mi nority content of depravity, cu pidity, and ruthlessness inheres in the human condition. The Ameri can society, like others, has failed in a subtle way to achieve the highest plane of freedom, possibly because it has made ' freedom into a kind of political shibboleth of something expressed in terms of 572 THE FREEMAN September physical advantage, rather than as an essential thing of the human spirit.

But it is a great society, easily the best and finest yet practiced among men. And it should not, for the sake of all mankind, be pulled apart, either by enemies who want to destroy it, or by friends who, with tragic good intent, are quite apt to dismember it in the process of trying to make it better. The Americans love their coun try - but they constantly revile it. They are proud of its achieve ments - but they dwell on its blunders. They know about its re markable successes - but they'd rather talk about its failures. They speak eloquently of its great fu ture, all the while they are busily pulling it to pieces. That is the enigma. IDEAS ON 46 LIBERTY Freedom Lost Is Freedom Lost THE GOVERNMENT FORCE which takes away any individual's free dom must always be applied locally because that's where the in dividual is. Each and every individual is local to some locality. To destroy an individual's freedom, government force must be applied in his locality.

The argument that local government is less dangerous than federal government has been used to expand local governments all over these United States, and the government expansionists apply the same type argument to state governments. "State governments," they say, "are less dangerous than the federal government." The result is that local and state governments have expanded even faster than the federal government in recent years. Local governments have been taking more and more freedom of choice away from the individual. State governments have been taking more and more freedom of choice away for the individual. The federal government has been taking more and more free dom of choice away from the individual. They are all dangerous. In recent years the greatest danger has come from local and state governments because they have been the most successful in taking freedom of choice away from the individual.

Freedom lost is freedom lost, whether it be to the federal gov ernment, the state government or the local government. From the Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, July 5,1974 A REVIEWER'S NOTEBOOK JOHN CHAMBERLAIN The Fellow-Trevellers IN THE BEGINNING there was the romantic tradition. The artists, worshipping clay, paint, decibels or words (as the case might be), retreated to their garrets with confused feelings that the French Revolution, which was supposed to have brought about a universal en lightenment, had misfired. The new Bohemians may have consid ered themselves to be socialists, anarchists or radical democrats, but they actually hungered with out knowing it for an aristocratic order that would support them with a quite old-fashioned patron age. That was the way it had been before the damnable bourgeoisie began to scramble for capital to start factories - the "Satanic mills" - and that was the way it should be again.