Time for America; R. Hoyt

In keeping with our rational, em pirical bent, we pore over artifacts, classify them, and then devise var ious theories to explain their exis tence and significance. However, our 621 622 THE FREEMAN October scientific evaluations of the past cannot be truly accurate, for we can not know all of the variables that shaped the events and artifacts we study. Moreover, we carry to our studies of history the situations and forces acting on us today and, as a result, tend to fill in gaps in our knowledge by projecting these situ ations and forces into the past. Through such projection we actually create historical models for current problems and experiences. In effect, we have reversed the earlier view of the past as a repository of sacred paradigms. Rather than use the past to guide the present, we use the present to discover meaning in the past. Because we can neither retrieve complete information about the past nor fully comprehend the informa tion we do have, history lies open to divergent interpretation. Our widely educated populace, schooled in the veracity of scientific investigation, can understand and accept multiple interpretations of history. Hence, the past becomes a mutable area of the oretical study rather than a fixed template for human experience. This multiplicity of equally valid inter pretations brings into question the embracing of any particular pattern of ideals or principles stemming from the past and, therefore, leads Amer icans to look to the ongoing present for personal and social guidance, as well as for historical understanding.

The mercurial present, though, provides little stability upon which to found guiding ideals. Eschewing the significance of time-honored meanings and portents, we con stantly scan the present for events and situations of such import that they can be used to direct our thoughts and actions. This contin ual search for meaning has resulted in, to borrow a phrase from Words worth, u a craving for extraordinary incident, which the rapid communi cation of intelligence hourly grati fies." As has often been pointed out, the media satisfy this ~~craving" by treating us to a diet rich in sensa tionalistic, often titillating, events and crises. That these sensations are in many cases non-events that have been inflated through media hype is common knowledge. A Glut of Information With no enduring standard(s) by which to judge significance, we feel uncertain despite our wealth of facts; so we demand more information, which the media readily suppl~ Of course, it is also to the advantage of television, radio, and other hourly or daily news media to emphasize recent events because one of these media's most highly touted features is the ability to communicate infor mation rapidly-they are anxious to bring us the latest news.

This steady stream of current facts (as well as attendant background 1980 TIME FOR AMERICA 623 studies, personality profiles, histor ical comparisons, human interest stories, critical commentary, and other related reports) provides so many bits of information that cur rent events seem to pass in slow mo tion and are thereby transformed into an ever-changing, ever-rele vant, contemporaneous history. But as views that held great sway one day become erroneous or meaning less the next, this ephemeral history proves an unreliable guide, leaving us isolated in the present without reliable means for organizing the glut of specific, factual information heaped on us dail~ As we project current views and events into the past in our search for historical precedents, we encounter another major stumbling block to our understanding of history. Due to a number of factors, primarily our increased knowledge of the physical world and our inflated material af fluence, we have a distorted grasp of large numbers. Where once hun dreds and thousands were thought great, millions and billions are now tossed about casually. Historical and geological time tables, which often span thousands and millions of years, are regularly compressed into frameworks we can readily compre hend, such as the lengths of an hour, a day, or a single year. Such com pression presents a false, greatly speeded-up view of history. Thus, events that took decades and centuries in the past become analogized to monthly and yearly situations in the present, leading to further dis tortion of history and reality.

Limited Vision Focused on the present and de luded in our understanding of his tory, we attempt to fine tune inter national developments, economic indicators, social structures, per sonal happiness, and as many facets of our lives as possible within too small a time frame. In responding to and effecting changes within inor dinately short periods of time, we are like the hypochondriac who, feeling not quite right, first takes a laxative to loosen his bowels and then must take paregoric to bind them again. As one quick fix follows another, the body is thrust to ex tremes with no chance of attaining equilibrium. Such instability cre ates further alarm until soon the sufferer becomes fixated on pana ceas and miracle cures. Intent only on the present, we too readily adopt any measure, no matter how hasty and superficial it may be, so long as it promises immediate gratification with little or no investment on our part. What we find, of course, is that we get what we pay for.

Alienated from the past and find ing no stability in the present, we lose hope for the future. Our fixa tion on instant palliatives has so ab sorbed our time and resources that 624 THE FREEMAN October we have all but ceased to look be yond what is immediately facing us. When we stop planning for and in vesting in a bright future, as much American industry and many indi vidual Americans have done, we eventually arrive in a present that is beset with genuine crises, a sense of entropy, and widespread personal despair. To curb our frantic, ill-conceived reactions to events of the moment, to redeem our future, we must re define and reassert ideals that will provide America with guiding ten ets for understanding and action. Such rededication to ideals does not imply a renunciation of facts and specifics in favor of metaphysical or abstract concepts. Rather, it is a reassertion of the healthy relation ship between particulars and ab stractions, the world of sensations and the world of ideas.

Abstractions and Specifics Specifics embody abstractions, thereby giving ideals a form that can be perceived-seen, heard, felt, smelled, tasted-in the actual world of experience. In turn, abstractions are needed to relate and give mean ing to the sea of individual specifics. Through a reassessment of funda mental American ideals, we can re generate our past, investing it with particular meaning and signifi cance. Establishing and promoting our stand on these ideals will allow us to make sense of the specific facts and events of the present and to project a defined course of action into the future. The obvious problem in reassert ing American ideals is determining just what these ideals are and what priorities they have among them selves. Our pluralistic society af fords Americans the right to aspire to numerous, divergent ideals. Con sequently, rather than pressuring for national adoption of anyone set of these ideals, we must r~vitalize our overarching commitment to the freedom of the individual to pursue his or her own chosen beliefs and tenets.

Such an assertion of individual freedom must look beyond our cur rent, reductive interpretation of in dividual as self. Increasingly, our temporal isolation in the present has been accompanied by a spiritual iso lation of the self. With quickening pace the ideal of the free individual united with other free individuals in a government designed to govern least has been usurped by an ethic of the dominant self among other dominant selves each seeking to ad vance his or her personal cause(s) while restricting the freedoms of others. In the self-centered, dog-eat dog milieu created by this change, many Americans have sought through the extension and prolifer ation of governmental control to leg islate the sense of solidarity and se1980 TIME FOR AMERICA 625 curity previously generated through private, yet mutual, dedication to shared ideals. Restrictions on the Individual As the government has gained in authority, individuals have felt in creasingly threatened and helpless in the face of restrictions sponsored by others; consequently, more pow ers have been deeded to the govern ment to restrain these others, and the situation has escalated. We must break this cycle of repression by de manding not only our own personal freedom but, more importantly, the freedom of other persons-all who can exercise their individual free dom in compromise with the indi vidual freedom of others.

The key word here is compromise. When a neighbor runs his power tools, cuts his grass with a power mower, has a party, or engages in anyone of a number of noisy activi ties while I am working, I get an noyed, even mad. My impulse is to find some way to silence him, to pre vent him from ever making such noise again. He is violating my free dom to silence. Of course, when I use my power tools, mow my yard, or whatever, I don't feel the same way why, they're my tools, my lawn, etc.; I should have the freedom to do whatever I wish on my own prop ert)T. As for myself, I would like it if he had to be silent and I could do whatever I wished when I wished. Yet, I realize that to preserve my freedom to act, I must not just grudgingly allow, but actively af firm, his freedom to act also. Occa sionall:}T,he impinges on my freedom and, occasionally, I on his; in this way we both remain free to pursue our individual interests.

Now, if my neighbor's individual interests ran to raising hogs, re building engines, or opening a skeet shooting range, I would not affirm his freedom to do so. Neither would most of our other neighbors. None of my neighbors, however, acts with such selfish disregard for others. On an individual level, despite our dif ferences, we all get along fine. The fact is that most people get along just fine on an individual level. It is to this individual level that I think we must go to reawaken the spirit of American freedom. We must reassess how much of our freedom and wealth we wish to place under governmental control. In making this reassessment, we should recognize that when we call upon the government to regulate the ac tivities of others, we are oiling ma chinery that can serve to repress our own freedoms as well. We should also remember that such repression is not unknown in America. From witch hunts to lynchings to perse cution campaigns, America has a history of sporadic, yet virulent, at tacks on the freedom of the individ ual. Therefore, we must decide ex626 THE FREEMAN actly where our loyalties lie; upon what fundamental set of ideals will we base our understanding, actions, and dreams-on the American ideal of individual freedom or on some other ideal(s) that will necessitate the suppression of our rights and privileges.

The American experiment in in dividual freedom and democracy has not outlived its time. Everywhere, people have sought and are still seeking the rights and freedoms we enjoy. Not all, however, do seek such ends; in fact, many prefer some.form of master/slave, ruler/subject rela tionship that maintains their cho sen system of ideals. We have al ways stood virtually alone in our In Defense of the Individual national commitment to the ideal of individual freedom. To preserve the option of this freedom in an often hostile world, we must each promote individual freedom for ourselves and others. With the material and edu cational development of the Third World, many may soon be afforded an opportunity to experience greater individual freedom than they have ever known. By reasserting the au tonomy of the individual on the na tional and international levels, America can retain its vanguard po sition in history. Rather than being a time of inevitable dissolution and decay, now-perhaps more than ever-is the time for American ideals. i IDEAS ON LIBERTY WE ARE BORN into a family and a community. An immense social heritage is put at our disposal-a storehouse into which has been distilled the contributions of an enormous number of individual men and women, some famous and some nameless. Knowledge, wisdom, skills, and some of the very thought-forms by which we may avail ourselves of this treas ure are handed down to us. The problem here is not analogous to ration ing a given quantity of goods to a certain number of people; it is analo gous to keeping a conduit open so that the spiritual accumulations of previous generations can flow unimpeded, to be enriched through under standing and application by this generation and passed on to those to come. Diminution of political liberty is comparable to the silting up of the conduit; freedom is the removal ofobstructions to the flow of energy.

EDMUND A. OPITZ Rae C. Heiple Thinking About Government ONCE upon a time most people be lieved the world was flat, but that did not make it so. There were times when learned men believed one might discover a way to turn lead into gold or to build a perpetual mo tion machine. When I was a child, Mother made me wait an hour after eating before going swimming lest I get stomach cramps. We all know better today: But did you ever wonder how many things believed today will be absurd thoughts in the future, laughed at even by children? Just for instance, what do we think is the proper role of government in our lives? The world is a wonderful place. Mankind is on an upward course. Progress, though not constant, seems to be part of the natural order of Mr. Heiple is President of the Abingdon Bank & Trust Company, Abingdon, Illinois. things. Mother nature goes on un changed, but people are able to im prove their lot. They are able to build tools to increase their effectiveness.