The Rare Moment; L. E. Read

The Rare Moment _ LEONARD E. READ The rare moment Is not worth caB:)ablleof SeE~JnltJ« WHEN IS THERE "something worth looking at"? Any time! There are good things to see at all times, in all places, and by all individuals. It's a matter of personal choice; and how varied are these value judgments of individuals! For in stance, there are, many who are more attracted to the labor-saving device known as thievery than to anything else. They think stealing is a procedure "worth looking at." Pause, here for a moment. Some of us think of thievery - whether carried out by individuals or prac ticed collectively "from each ac cording to ability, to each accord ing to need" - as very low on the scale of values. Why? Simply be cause our judgments differ from, and are presumed to be at a high er level than, those of the thief. But we must be careful in con demning persons whose value judgments are, in our opinion, lower than our own. For implicit in such an attitude is the claim that we are superior.

426 After all, who is any of us but an imperfect mortal! If we de mand that others see things as we do, we are opening the door to the possibility that we should be forced to look at only what a gov erning majority of others believe to be worth looking at. And bear in mind that no two of~'us have the same judgments; indeed, one's own values change from one day to the next. So, we need the flexi bility to cope with constant changes. I would let each decide for himself what's worth looking at and suffer the penalties of his errors or the blessings of his righteousness. Man's ideas as to what's worth looking at range from pornog raphy to sunsets, from Picasso to Raphael; from the Pyramids to the Jungfrau; from ancient ruins to the TajMahal; from Soviet Life to the Holy Bible; from atoms to galaxies; from Bach to rock. Ideas and ambitions range from state socialism to individual 1974 THE RARE MOMENT 427 liberty; from a square meal to an elaborate symphony; from quiet repose to strenuous executive ac tivity; from a decent burial to a voyage of exploration over un chartered seas; from the' cheapest fiction to the purest science or philosophy; from thinking for self to imitating others - you name it!

Krutch is right. The rare mo ment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at. What could ·be more common? Every moment of one's life af fords that opportunity. Beyond the flash The rare moment is when we are capable of seeing - that rare glimpse into the mystery of that which is observed. Most people only look at a flash of lightning; they see nothing of its miraculous nature. While no one knows what it is, there have been a few who see beyond what meets the eye; they have seen enough to generate and harness electricity to our use. This kind of seeing -- insight occurs only in the rarest of mo ments. Many of us look at a sunset and are, overcome by its beauty. How few of us" even today, perceive that the sun does not set? Many see no more than was seen by the first man on earth. How many, before or since Copernicus, have understood that the setting of the sun is an illusion, rather that the earth is rotating? Rare moments, indeed.

Another example of a rare mo ment: Ever since man first set foot in Switzerland, that majestic mountain, the Jungfr au, has ranked high among the beauties of nature, truly worth looking at. People' by untold thousands have stood at its base looking up in awe. Around the turn of' the cen tury an entrepreneur had a vi sion' a moment of seeing: Why not multiply what's worth look ing at? Make it possible for the thousands to go atop· the Jung frau that they might see the beau ty from that vantage point! Some twelve miles of tunnel was bored through the rock, a cog railroad installed, and a .wonderful hos telry built within,· the mountain near the top. Private enterprise! No government subsidy! Just one of those· rare moments of seeing which is more in evidence when man is free and self-responsible. Near the top of the list of things thought to be worth look ing at is wealth-material afflu ence. The aggregate of the mo ments spent in seeking wealth staggers the imagination. But note how rare the moments when individuals are capable of seeing the· preconditions for gaining affluence, a society of free and self-responsible individuals with 428 THE FREEMAN July government limited to codifying and inhibiting destructive ac tions. If government thus per forms, people are free to act crea tively as they please. And there is no other way to material well bein.g.

Not seeing for themselves, the masses listen to false prophets, persons who promise that we can spend ourselves rich, that pros perity derives from dictatorial control over wages, hours of la bor, exchanges, prices, and so on. They hear the promises but can not foresee the consequences of the methods to be used. Wrote Ralph Barton Perry: "Ignorance deprives men of freedom because they do not know what alterna tives there are." An affluent so ciety cannot prevail unless indi viduals see that their economic well-being stems from the general practice of the principles of pri vate ownership, the free market, and limited government. In Search of Power Perhaps the power to run the lives of others tops the list of things a majority believe to be worth looking at. Rare, indeed, are the moments when these in dividuals are capable of seeing the futility of their way. Were I the wisest philosopher or politician who ever lived, there is not one of these meddlers who believes I could run his life better than he.

But he, unwise, has no doubt about his powers to run your life and mine. Why unwise? The very first step in wisdom is an aware ness of how little one knows. Nor do such people see that power corrupts them! Most of us doubtless have the potential to see ever so much more than we customarily perceive. We rarely see more than we wish to see. As unique individuals, we tend to specialize, to focus on the details from a particular point of view. Such focusin.g gives us more intimate knowledge of the tree, the trunk, the root, the twig, the Ie·ai, the miracle within the single cell. I have my special in terest, you yours, things we see more clearly, while neglecting many other possible vistas. The danger of too narrow a speciali zation is that we can't see the forest for the trees. The· "forest" worth looking at which most intrigues me is a vi able society, one featured by har monious relationships, one in which the individual may proceed, unobstructed by others, toward a realization of his creative apti tudes and potentialities. If a per son fails to overcome his own ob stacles - frustrations, supersti tions, imperfections, ignorance, no will to strive - that's his problem.

But if the obstacles are put there 1974 THE RARE MOMENT 429 by others - if the individual is compelled to live as others dictate - that is everyone's problem. Freedom is everyone's business! We Need freedom Because We Are Interdependent Why is freedom everyone's busi ne'ss? It is because my freedom depends on yours and vice versa. There is but faint appreciation of the high degree of specializa tion in contemporary society, of how dependent each of us is on the others. In short, we are now interdependent beyond recall ; there is no turning back. This is to say that we, in our age, are at once soc'ial and individualistic be ings. And if we fail or refuse to recognize this fact, all will fall together. Of course, the individualistic side of this coin - being one's best self - is a, problem of the first magnitude. Each of us must wrestle with this personally. Many, I suspect, see this. It is the social side of the coin they fail to see.

How can ordinary mortals, such as you and I, fulfill this aspect of life? The formula is simple. Never do unto others that which you would not have them, do unto you. If you wouldn't have others con trol your life, then never try to control anyone else. If you wouldn't have others hinder you from producing, freely exchanging, owning the fruits of your own labor, competing, traveling, then don't inhibit these practices among your fellowmen. This is all one has to do to fulfill his role as a social being. Merely heed the oldest, wisest, and simplest maxim ever written! Finally, is there a prescription for removing our blindfolds? Is there a mode of conduct or dis cipline which would open up new vistas, permitting you and me to see more than we now do? I am just beginning to see that the an swer is integrity. For years, I have been defining integrity as the accurate reflec tion in word and deed of what ever one's highest conscience dic tates as right. This may not in fact be right but it is as close to righteousness as one can get.

My definition stands; but I see now that my preachments - words - have been better arranged than my practice - deeds. It is my prac tice of integrity that must be im proved. To illustrate this failing on my part: I have, written that each of us should await discovery, that if there is anything in our garden worth looking at, it will be de tected by others.! Do I heed this? 1 See the chapter, "Await Discovery," in Having My Way (Irvington-on Hudson, N. Y.: Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., 1974) pp. 40-44.

430 THE FREEMAN July Only with the greatest difficulty! Impatience tends to govern me, more or less. I can hardly wait till others find out how good I think I am at this or that. This nagging urge is a .common trait and accounts, in no small measure, for the urge to reform that plagues humanity. Out of such a garden grows nothing but weeds. When I cannot believe and abide by my own admonitions, am I to expect better of others! Seeing and doing must become one and the same. To see the right with out doing it is to live without in tegrity. How Integrity Helps Why is it that integrity removes the blindfolds, improves seeing? Some of the reasons are apparent. I repeat, while one's accurate reflections in word and deed may not in fact be truth, they are as close to truth as one can get. Even though we err, our devotion to integrity leads toward that which is right; this is the only road to truth.

Those truth seekers who prac tice integrity themselves are drawn to integrity in others. This virtue has a magnetic quality. Are not the persons to whom you listen those who manifest integ rity? When others are being drawn toward your honest reflections, your light tends to brighten. Their attention is an encouragement, a stimulant, .to put your best foot forward. .In a word, integrity works its attractions back and forth among us; and the rare mo ment becomes a. more common ex perience. Wrote Charles Simmons: Integrity is the first step to true greatness. Men love to praise [it], but are slow to practice it. To maintain it in high places costs self-denial; in all places it is liable to opposition; but its end is glorious, and the uni:.. verse will yet do it homage. ~ IDEAS ON L$ LIBERTY To Find Meaning SUCH MEANING as there is to life on this earth is found in tending our own plot of ground, in tasting the fruits of· our own labors, in developing our own skills and perceptions, in sharing with others freely, in doing that which is appropriate to our talents, in striv ing to fulfill our ideals for ourselves, in the pleasure of a job well done, in the company of friends we have chosen and Who have chosen us, in bringing up our own children, in short, in sitting under our own vine and fig tree.

CLARENCE B. CARSON The Flight From Reality There's No Such Thing asa Free Lunch EARL L. BUTZ IN THE OLD DAYS the king called in his three wise men to tell them he'd become interested in econom ics. "But," he said, "it sounds con fusing and complicated. I .want you togo out and boil it down for me in a way that I can under stand." Nine months later they came back and reported they had com pleted the job. They said they had condensed all of economics into a single book of 200 pages. The king said, "That's too long. I don't have time to read that much." He· had the chairman beheaded, and told the other two: "Now I want it boiled down." They came back in 30 days and said they had economics boiled Dr. Earl L. Butz is Secretary of Agriculture of the United States. This article is reprinted by permission from the March 1974 issue of The American Farmer. Copyright American Farm Bureau Federation, 1974. All rights reserved.