The Abstract Concept of Human Liberty; R. LeFevre

742 concentrate at these two levels. Most of what we hear about and remain aware of in our day-to-day lives moves at the level of people or events. Here and there, a different level appears. It is neither "higher" nor "lower" than the stratum of events but it is different and distinct from it. This is the fascination many find in material things, almost as though they were entities in themselves. It is the'iniser who is so interested in coins that he cannot bear to spend them. Rather, he hoards them all, running avid fingers through them and adoring them as though they were members of his personal harem. It is the engineer, who is so captured by electronic gadgetry, for example, that he can think and talk of little else. It isn't what the gadgets could do that seizes his attention, it is their existence, per se. It is often the art ist who sees in his creations, or at THE ABSTRACT CONCEPT OF HUMAN LIBERTY 743 times, in the creations of others, the be-all and the end-all of human pur pose. People and events may come and go, but artistic creation goes on forever. Whether the musician, the sculptor, or the painter is consid ered, there is a magnetic pull from the works themselves. The only event worth chronicling is the creation of more music, statuary or pictures. The only person worth knowing is he who forms the new.

Most human beings, I may pre sume, have at least a passing inter est in all three strata, but find them selves increasingly drawn to one of them. They are caught up with peo ple, with events or with things, sin gly or in combination. But there is a fourth tier of inter est, and in consequence, a fourth tier of thought. In the Realm of Ideas There is a small remnant of man kind who are concerned with the ab stract. It is in the realm of ideas that their minds flourish and reach ful fillment. While most ask about the who, the when, the what and the where, those who are lured by ideas themselves are challenged and in spired by the why and sometimes by the how. It would be a vain conceit to refer to this meager few as an elitist group, for that provides elevation which may not be deserved. Plato would have been a member, yet his views of the ideal society and perfect jus tice may be th~ source of many of mankind's ills. Karl Marx was clearly inspired 'by ideas and so was Hegel. It would hardly be fitting to award the former with elitist status, and the latter was often so obscure in what he wrote that it has been said that Hegel himself did not un derstand the ideas with which he la bored.

If one may take up boldness with both hands, it might even be pointed out that the greatness of the Chris tian faith is to he found, not so much in the events l'eportedly surround ing the dramatic .life of its origina tor, but in the ideas set forth. The vast num.bers of humanity do not deal with those ideas. They are captivated by events and personali ties. So, with the passing of time, the church and its symbolism, its great art and its inspirational music receive what attention there is and the simple messages, such as "love thy neighbor as thyself," are either forgotten altogether or spurned as nonsense. Who believes that? We have to be practical. Let the govern ment do the loving, I'll take what ever I can get! Minds Wasted The human mind, as we are told repeatedly, is a dreadful thing to waste. I am sorry to say that the po tential mental. power we could be generating is often shunted onto a 744 THE FREEMAN December siding by reason of the direction given to education in our school sys tem. I do not charge conspiracy. But it almost seems that conscious effort is behind what is going on.

The national educational edifice, not yet a state monopoly, gives ev ery possible encouragement to on the-job training, rarely mentioning the thinking that should be occur ring both on and off the job. The government encourages us all to jog. It is a dandy way to encour age a kind of euphoria in which the mind goes into neutral and we im prove our health. Surely, anyone who owns slaves would seek to engender the same result. If slaves are physi cally healthy and innocent ofthought they are more readily made to work and to produce for their masters. This emphasis upon getting a job accompanied by encouragement to go jogging, is not an evil in itself. But, in process, we are becoming a nation only half alert. The country is filled with technicians, athletes, artists and artisans so specialized that it rarely occurs to them that their specialty might become obsolete and they will have to fend for themselves. They presume that the job must be found to accommodate their specialty; they do not fit themselves, the job must be tailored to fit them.

Aside from their respective spe cialties, all have become spectators. We are "laid back," almost in re pose, except when prodded. Never has a people existed which knows so much, and understands so little. How Fares Freedom? With this melancholy view as background, what is the status of freedom in the United States? It is clear that the grip each individual should have over the products of his own labor is gradually slipping over the last knot in the dangling rope. We still look good insofar as speech and press are concerned, if we com pare our situation with conditions abroad in most countries. But eco nomic freedom is almost a thing of the past. The regulators bestride our affairs like the Colossus of Rhodes and few can make reasonable calcu lations for no one knows what the government will do next. What of freedom? Unhappily, it seems to me that there are few who support it for its own sake. The vast number of those speaking up for freedom appear to have a clone men tality. They like to list themselves as supporters of liberty because they admire other individuals who are already so recognized and wish to be like them. "If it's good enough for __ , it's good enough for me." To understand ideas is to cope with ab stractions. But those who function at the level of people-interest rarely take the time to comprehend what freedom is all about.

They understand the broken body 1982 THE ABSTRACT CONCEPT OF HUMAN LIBERTY 745 of a war-victim carried from some battlefield. They know that person has had his freedom violated. They can tell. They see the blood. But they do not see into the heart of their neighbor, who, by tireless effort, great personal restraint and long years of rigid self-discipline has brought a business into existence. They do not recognize his loss of freedom when he is set upon by agents, attacked in the press, brought to trial, ridiculed and smeared be fore his peers for some ex-post-facto failure, such as "excessive" smoke emission. At the time the business was built science hadn't decided that smoke was all that bad. Now he will be fined, pilloried as a vicious, greedy exploiter. He may! lose his business. Or, he may man age to survive by plunging into debt from which he might never emerge. What was his crime? Providing a good that people voluntarily pur chased and, in process, keeping the cost within reason so his customers could benefit by the best then known.

A Concern for Power Who knows about his loss of free dom? Those impressed by personali ties are rarely moved. And few are more fickle. Reputation is built by the adoring masses who think and talk at people-to-people level. And let one cloud of suspicious circum stance arise and their heads pivot like the dandelion turning toward the sun seeking some new personality i.dol on whom to throw their latest doak of fame. Such thinking pro vides no spine for freedom lovers. They see no principles. Popularity and prestige provide the single lure. What is the status of those inter ested in events within a freedom context? These are the lovers of ex citement and their natural arena is politics. Their concept of abstrac tions is often limited to Machiavel lian maneuvering and back door di plomacy. Those concerned with events are most likely to decry the merit of any principle. "Promise them anything, but win," seems to be the universal clamor.

And, having won, what then? Why, then they must keep on winning. Those interested in events are inter ested in power. And once power is obtained, it must be forever-kept and always enlarged and extended. Those who think at this level clearly see the loss of freedom we all experience when other hands than theirs are on the tiller of the ship of state. "Give us the scepter!" they cry. "We will throw out those rascals and provide a government which will en force freedom. We will reward the just and punish the unjust! Only those of us who understand freedom can be entrusted with the power to impose our wills upon all by force. The taxes we levy will be rightful taxes. The regula.tions we impose will be only for the good of Society."

746 THE FREEMAN December At this level, freedom and victory are equated. The positions of the serf and the master of the serfs are jus tified. Each has what he deserves. Focus on Moneyand Profits What of those who find fascina tion of things uppermost in their minds as they consider freedom? Or dinarily, the fascination here tends to centralize and focus on the ques tion of money. Freedom becomes im portant because it means profits. Those thinking at this level usually forget that a free market has its merit because the customer is king. And, as customers rule, it is cus tomer choice that finally determines who will profit and who will lose. A free market is a profit and loss sys tem, with only the customers mak ing the final decision. In short, if one is free, one will have more money with which to buy more things with which to get more money. Here are often found those businessmen who speak from both sides of their mouths. They favor a free market until they face effective competition. Immediately, they clamor for protection against the dollar losses which will now accrue to them. The important item in their thinking is the dollars to be gained rather than the importance of de serving those dollars.

In fine, it seems to me that only that remnant which has taken the time to study freedom as an abstraction, as a body of thought, has any real comprehension of what it is all about. This group, by the very na ture of the human mind, will in the foreseeable future be scant of num bers. These are the thinkers who rec ognize that it is not their ability to be handsome, to be glib, to be ele gant of manner, charming and poised which makes them important. That which makes them important is what they take to heart. They can be rough and crude so far as their exteriors are concerned. But if they compre hend freedom they will be loved, not because they can make headlines or because they know the "right" peo ple. They will be loved because they are lovable; they live without violat ing the freedom of others· and they extend and expand the abstract vir tures of honesty, truthfulness, hard work, fortitude and individual cour age, despite having to act alone on most occasions. In short, they set an example of personal merit and in tegrity with which the latent nobil ity in all of us can happily identify.

These are the same thinkers who will recognize that events, however dramatic and breath-taking, unless they adhere to principles, are per formed almost by rote. There is a certain sameness to be found in all errors, large or small. Only those with principles blaze new trails, the most find excitement in each new cast of characters; yet the drama being 1982 THE ABSTRACT CONCEPT OF HUMAN LIBERTY 747 played is the same old tragedy of er ror. Our relatively free press is still around to give us the key. Here we will find a constant reiteration both in war and in elections. A murder is a murder; rape is rape and theft is theft. Only the names of the partic ipants change. Firm in the center of all such headlined events is the vio lation of the freedom of some by oth ers. Abstract thinkers know this and avoid such karmic repetition for themselves. These same thinkers recognize that success in the accumulation of wealth does not relate to one's ability to grab; but in one's ability to attract the patronage he desires because of the meri t of his offering. Deserved suc cess is awarded like a prize. The fact that it is deserved is more important than the level of attainment, for such success arrives within the bounda ries of freedom.

Human liberty is an abstraction. It is a concept not yet attained in any final way. Indeed, it will probaAlbert Jay Nock bly never be attained as a total con dition, for there will always be mal functioning human beings, just as there are well-functioning children who know nothing at all of any ab straction until they are taught. The abstract concept of human liberty is one of the mightiest and rnost important intellectual attain rnents of our species. It provides us with a comprehensible, visible star of such celestial magnitude that all viho wish can see iJt;. As such, it serves the function of Polaris for those who comprehend its use. You can steer your life by it, even if you cannot reach it. But until you can see it deanly, despite the mist of multi tudes, the storm of events, the scud ding clouds of things, until it stands out stark and bright in your own sky, you will probably find that you are pursuing some flickering lesser pur pose. Should that be the case, the problem is readily resolved. Take a new sighting and steer closer to the full abstract meaning of the word. , IDEAS ON L1BERfY WHEN the historian of two thousand years hence, Qr two hundred years, looks over the available testimony to the quality qf our civilization and tries to get any kind of clear, competent evidence concerning the sub stratum of right-thinking and well-doing which he knows must have been here, he will have a devil of a time finding it.' ... A Remnant were here, building a substratum like coral insects-so :much he knows-but he will find nothing to put him on the track of who and where and how many they were and what their work was like.