Looking Out for Yourself

For assuredly, graduates of this splendid Institute will avoid an all too common error-the notion that the beginning of earning is the end of learning! It is not at all improbable that you have, until now, been so engrossed in technical and other formal edu cational pursuits, that you have given but scant thought to the edu cational program you must resolve for yourself, beginning tomorrow. I would like to present for your conFrom a 1956 college commencement address. sideration some of the problems I foresee for you, issues with which students of specialized subjects may not be too familiar. Unless you are alerted, or are dif ferent from most of the folks I know, you can easily remain unaware of the two opposed ways of life that will be contesting for your attention and support in the years ahead. One of these ways-the collectivistic-has by far the most numerous adher ents. Indeed, you will be fortunate if you find even a few individuals who harbor no collectivism whatever.

Collectivism is easy enough to iden tify when it comes plainly tagged as socialism, communism, Fabianism, Nazism, the Welfare State, the planned economy, or state interven tionism. But one has to be sharply discriminating to discern it when it is untagged or concealed; when it is 663 664 THE FREEMAN November offered as proper fare by so-called conservative political parties; when it is endorsed by many high-ranking business leaders and their organi zations; or when it is urged upon you by your best friends. Collecti vism is a system or idea which holds that the collective-as distinguished from the individual is what counts. Individual hopes, as pirations, and needs are subordi nated to what is termed "the collec tive good." Practically, no such system can be implemented unless some person or set of persons inter prets what "the collective good" is. Since it is impossible to obtain unanimous and voluntary agree ments to these interpretations, they have to be enforced-and enforce ment requires a police arrangement which in turn dominates the lives of all persons embraced by the collec tive. Implicit in all authoritarian systems are wage and price controls, dictation as to what will be produced .

and distributed, and by whom. Russia is the world's most pro nounced example, but here at home we see the same thing rearing its head in the form of rent control, Valley Authorities, public housing, parity prices, acreage allotments, union monopoly, federal subsidies of every description, federal subven tions to states and cities and dis tricts, governmental foreign-aid programs, import quotas, tariffs, manipulation of money, such as the monetization of debt, and so forth. However, it is.more or less idle for me to dwell on what I believe to be error. As has been well repeated over and over again, "It is better to light. a candle than to damn the dark ness." A much sounder approach is to displace the wrong by advancing the right, to argue positively instead of negatively. With this in mind, I should like to take sides in the ideo logical conflict of our times and com mend to your attention the way of life which is the opposite of collec tivism. This way of life, also, has nu merous labels, but I'm going to give it a simple and descriptive name, "Looking Out for Yourself." That's about as opposite as you can get from having the government looking out for you.

A Positive Approach Now there's a lot more to this looking-out-for-yourself philosophy than first meets the eye. To the un reflective person-to the victim of cliches and catch phrases-it will suggest a life of non-cooperation, greed, the law of the jungle, and no concern for the well-being of others. But, be not deceived. If you intelli gently look out for yourself, you will thereby follow the way of life most valuable to others. Perhaps you will better under stand this idea when I explain why there isn't anyone on earth you can constructively control except your1983 LOOKING OUT FOR YOURSELF 665 Creatively, man has no con trol over others, no power over others, except the power of attraction; and even then, it is the other person who de cides upon and determines the degree of attraction. self. Control can be divided into two types, the destructive and the crea tive. It is simple enough to control others destructively. Little intellec tual achievement is required to re strain others, to inhibit their ac tions, to destroy their lives. There are all sorts of ways to get on the backs of others and hinder them in their creative actions. But the hindering type of control is quite different from the helping type. The hindering type rests primarily and ultimately on the application of brute or physical force.

The Limited Role of Force Now brute or physical force is all right if confined to its proper sphere-that is, restraining and in hibiting destructive actions such as violence, fraud, misrepresentation, and predation against peaceful per sons. Broadly speaking, this is the logical function of government. In sound theory, government should .use its police powers only to do for all of us equally that which each of us has a moral right to do for himself in defense of his life, liberty, and prop erty. It should apply physical force only defensively in order to repel that which is evil and unjust. It should be clearly understood that brute, physical, or police force can not constructively help anyone. It can give only a negative assist by clear ing the obstacles from the road to opportunity. No person, nor any set of persons, can physically force any one to invent, to discover, to create.

Let us face this fact: One can have no control whatever over any other person creatively. We are indeed fortunate if we have very much con trol even over ourselves creatively. In any event, such creative control as any of us possesses is confined strictly and exclusively to self. Creatively, man has no control over others, no power over others, except the power of attraction; and even then, it is the other person who decides upon and determines the de gree of attraction. This is a God-be stowed limitation on all men for which we should be forever grateful. I, at least, am pleased that others cannot compel me to accept as eter nal verities that which they claim to know. And I am even more pleased that I cannot force my opinions and beliefs upon others. The Power of Attraction The power of attraction is always and forever a subjective judgment!

666 THE FREEMAN November One maybe attractive to none, to a few, to many. Figuratively, others look us over and decide for them selves whether or not we have any thing worth their consideration. Af ter all these years of schooling, you fully realize that no teacher is ever self-designated. It has always been you who decided what, if anything, you learned from your teachers. Or, to use a more obvious example, it is the person with the receiving set who does the tuning in-it is never the broadcaster. Put it this way: I can help you in a material sense only if I have money to lend or give to you, or goods and services to exchange with you. I can not help you materially if I am a pauper. Intellectually, I can assist you if I possess understanding not yet yours. The moron can give us no help intellectually. Spiritually, I can be of value to you only if I am in possession of insights which you have not yet experienced. Materially, in tellectually, and spiritually, I am limited as to what I can do for any other person by what I have to give, by how well I have looked out for myself in these areas.

Once we have grasped the idea that the best way to help others is first to look out for ourselves, we should next consider how important it is that we do help others. I would like to em phasize the point that each of us, if self-interest be interpreted accu rately' has a vested interest in the Materially, intellectually, and spiritually, I am limited as to what I can do for any other person by what I have to give, by how well I have looked out for myself in these areas. material, intellectual, and spiritual well-being of others; that our very existence depends on others. A Society of Specialists To appreciate the extent of our de pendence on others, we need but re alize that we are living in the most specialized, the most advanced divi sion-of-Iabor, the most removed-from self-subsistence society in all of recorded history. For example, you will discover, as you take up your highly specialized tasks, that someone else will be growing, processing, and delivering your food, that someone else will be making your clothing, building your home, providing your transporta tion, supplying your heat, and mak ing available to you most of the new knowledge you acquire. Indeed, you will discover that individuals from all over this earth will be at your service, willingly exchanging their millions of special ties for your own single specialty. You will discover that you will consume in a single day that which you could not possi1983 LOOKING OUT FOR YOURSELF 667 bly produce solely by yourself in thousands of years. You will see about you a release and exchange of creative energies so fabulous that no living man can trace or diagnose the miracle. Youwill, for instance, pick up the receiver of a telephone, and instantly there will flow to your per sonal service the creative energies of Alexander Graham Bell-of tens of thousands of metallurgists, engi neers, .scientists, operators, lines men-a complex of creative ener gies flowing through space and time in order that you may talk to your parents or friends in a matter of sec onds.

No one of us can exist without these others. And I repeat, each of us has a vested and vital interest in the creative energies of other people and in the uninhibited exchange of their services, ideas, and insights. We must, if we would intelligently look out for ourselves, see to it as best we can that these others be free of pri vate or political marauders, inter ventionists, and parasites. Any in hibition to their creative lives is opposed to your and my personal in terests' and we err and do not look out for ourselves if we sanction or fail to oppose such debasement. And further, it is incumbent upon all of us to rise as far as we can in our own intellectual and spiritual statures so that these others, on whom we de pend, may find something in turn to draw from us. Material wealth, morally speaking, is but the means to free us from lower employ ments so that we may labor more industriously at higher employments, that we may develop more fully the life of the intellect and of the spirit.

There is another point about this highly specialized society which de serves your reflection. You men and women, highly trained as specialists yourselves, represent the cream of this year's crop. Tomorrow, you will enter a society in which there will be millions of specialists, the cream of numerous former crops. I hope you will not emulate so many of them who attend only to their own spe cialties and little else beyond ac quiring wealth and entertainment. Perhaps the most dangerous trend of our times is this: Specialists-the cream of the crop in intellectual and spiritual potentialities-who, by at tending only to their diverse spe cializations, leave to the skim milk of the crop the vital problems of man's proper relationships to man. Danger of Overspecialization Specialization has its unques tioned blessings. But there is always the danger, which we are now wit nessing, of its taking off like spokes 668 THE FREEMAN November from the hub of a wheel, on and on with no regard to boundary or pe riphery, with each specialist head ing into an ever-advancing remote ness, into an atomistic world of his own, always widening his distance from others, losing social cohesi ve ness with society disintegrating as each of us loses integration with others, with communication be tween specialists becoming more and more impossible, with nearly all specialists "too busy" to read, study, and meditate on the general prob lems of man's proper relationships to man. When these trends charac terize a society, that society isn't merely doomed to collapse; it is des tined to explode! If you would look out for yourself-and thus for oth ers-you will by example and pre cept do your part in reversing such trends.

In order that I be not misunder stood, I repeat that specialization has its unquestioned blessings. Special ization, when practiced by whole men, by those who reflect on the meaning of life, by those who have an acquaintance with the humani ties, and in a society where creative energies are uninhibited, is the road to material wealth-which can, in turn, lead to intellectual and spiri tual wealth. But while specializa tion is the means to wealth, let us not think of material wealth as an end in itself. Material wealth, like specialization, is only the means to higher ends-intellectual and spiri tual wealth. Wealth Can Free Man for Higher Aims It seems to me that if material wealth has any moral purpose at all, it is to free man from the restric tions which are imposed by a subsis tence level of living; for when one has to labor in the rice paddies from sunrise to sunset merely to eke out an animal existence, he doesn't stand much chance of evolving and devel oping those numerous potentialities peculiar to his own person. But weal th is not something to be pur sued for wealth's sake or merely for luxuries, or quick retirement, or for shirking the problems of life. Ma terial wealth, morally speaking, is but the means to free us from lower employments so that we may labor more industriously at higher em ployments, that we may develop more fully the life of the intellect and of the spirit. Material wealth is but a tool to help us develop our God-given faculties of intellect and spirit.

And now, a word of counsel. The market place is in high-pitched com peti tion for your specialized ser vices, and the emoluments being of fered are relatively high. This may make the future look extraordinar ily promising to you. And it can be promising if you don't become iso lated in your own specializations. There are many brilliant but lost 1983 LOOKING OUT FOR YOURSELF 669 specialists in industry today, per sons who cannot be promoted into higher positions because of a nar rowness in their scope. They lack an interest in the problems of others on whom they depend, and an under standing of the society in which it is their lot to live. Broadening One's Perspective Broadening one's scope, continu ing one's education into other than one's own specialty, is not a dismal but a glorious prospect. It can be the very zest of life. Certainly, it is a well-known fact that any specialist, be he writer, painter, cook, or engi neer, is a better specialist if there be breadth in his understanding, if he be an integrated person, if he has balanced judgments as to right and wrong principles in man's relation ships to man.

The deviltry going on in the world today is not primarily caused by criminals. The truly malevolent persons are too few in number to ac count for our wars and the continu ing accumulation of vast arma ments between major conflicts. The thoroughly evil persons among us are not numerous enough to account for all the racial and national hatreds and prejudices, for labor violence, for the growing belief that the honest fruits of one's labor no longer belong to the earner, for restrictions on the exchange of goods and services, and for the many other collectivistic in anities and horrors. These things are not the doings of criminals. They originate mostly with the well-in tentioned, those who wish to do good to others but who, lacking personal means, thoughtlessly see no harm in employing the police establishments to impose their brand of good on the rest of us, to use the fruits of other persons' labor to satisfy their own charitable instincts.