"What To You Want to Be?" M. Bidinotto

We adults smile to ourselves at the infinite variety and scope of our children's ambitions. But we sometimes fail to realize that an idea vital to the existence of liberty is taking root in their young minds-an idea that we instill al most accidentally, and then spend years inad vertently destroying. "What do you want to be?" is not a universal question. Many if not most societies have been structured for sons to follow in their fathers' footsteps, while daughters repeat the lives of their mothers. Individuals have few choices to make and rarely expect any. Even in the early years of this country, choices, if not ambitions, were often severely limited by the primitive conditions of the society. But with ever increasing wealth and well-being, men's op tions grew, and "What do you want to be?" became a valid and meaningful question. By asking !bem what they want to be, we create in children the expectation that they will choose their own roles in life. Lacking matu rity, children seldom fix upon one goal; but then, rarely do they question the belief that they someday will. Their observations of what ap pear to be fascinating adult occupations bring out a natural eagerness to be involved, and they Margaret Bidinotto is a freelance writer in New Castle, Pennsylvania.

look forward to that magical day when they will get to "pick for real. " Making Choices Human beings need to make choices, to func tion and thrive as their nature designed them to do. Liberty is the only condition under which legitimate decisions can be made. But for lib erty to survive, people must expect-and, more importantly, want-to make choices. The indi vidual who does not expect to make choices, or who does not want to do so, is in no position to defend liberty, or his own individual humanity. It is ironic, then, that this country, full of opportunity, has so many well-intentioned nay sayers. Doting aunts tell a young person, "you can't do that," while concerned uncles grum ble, "nobody's done that before." Exasperated teachers tell him to "get serious and grow up, ' , as his parents lecture him to "come down to earth and be realistic." By the time he is in his late teens, a person has heard enough adult -exhortationsto convince him that his goals and ambitions were foolish and nonsensical. By the time he is in his early twenties, he's been exposed to enough adults complaining about their "lot" in life, shirking their work, playing the lottery, and griping about their "lousy luck," to be convinced that life is just a crapshoot with overwhelming odds.

It is the rare individual who makes it to adult hood with his youthful ambitions intact. Most would agree that it would be the height of cruelty to tell a starving child, "just step into this room and you'll have all you can eat" only to have him walk into an empty room. No one would be surprised if the child became cyn61 ical or bitter. Nor should it come as surprise when young people, once promised a rich diet of unfettered choice, become cynics when forcefed the thin gruel of pragmatism and de terminism. These young cynics can only look back on their childhood ambitions with nostalgic long ing and, eventually, pain. They will feel some what guilty as a small reproachfulvoice inside tells them they should have stuck to their goals; but as time progresses, they will convince themselves that they "couldn't help it," that circumstances rule their lives, and that they don't want to make their own decisions. Then, they will eagerly embrace any collective that will absolve their guilt and offer to relieve them of the personal responsibility of deciding their own fate. Finally, in time, they will work to relieve others of that same burden.

The next time a breathless six-year-old bub bles enthusiastically about his plans to be "a doctor, then a veterinarian, and then a singer, ' , check your amusement and offer him warm ap proval instead. Share you own dreams and am bitions with the next teenager you encounter and encourage him to strengthen, not repress, his own interests. Tell him to close his ears to the voices preaching pragmatism and determin ism, and ask him instead: "What do you want to be?" 0 62 Responding to the Oil Shock: The U.S. EconolDY Since 1973 by Rodolfo Alejo Gonzalez and Roger Nils Folsom I n 1981 the price of crude oil peaked at $36 per barrel; today it is less than half as high. Meanwhile, prices in general have risen al most 30 percent. 1 The price-setting power of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Coun tries (OPEC) cartel clearly has waned as oil consumers reduced their oil use, as the end of oil price controls encouraged oil production in the U.S. (the second largest producer in 1987, producing less than the Soviet Union but more than Saudi Arabia), as non-OPEC countries such as Britain, Norway, and Mexico greatly expanded their oil output, and as OPEC's mem bers surreptitiously produced above their OPEC quotas and discounted below OPEC prices. Oc casional intermittent truces in this economic warfare still twitch the oil markets from time to time, as will the end of the Iran-Iraq war, but OPEC's power is much diminished if not totally gone.