Glory Be! L.E. Read

444 THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY GloryBe! by Leonard E. Read True glory consists in doing what deservesto be written;in writingwhatdeservesto be read;and in so livingas to make the worldhappierandbetterfor our livingin it. -Pliny the Elder T he Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder was born in 23 A.D. When he passed away at the age of 56, he had written 37 books on the nature of the physical universe-including geography, anthropology, zoology, botany, and other related subjects. Pliny did, indeed, leave the world happier and better for having lived in it. He lived every mo ment of his life with zest-enthusiasm-perhaps the greatest stimulus for noble works. Wrote Emerson: "Every great and commanding move ment in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever accomplished without it." The following is an attempt to think through and to understand Pliny's three parts of True Glo ry. If even partially successful, I will make a small contribution to the displacement of that which should be neither written nor read.

True glory consistsin doing whatdeservesto be written.It consists in noble deeds worth recording. This is to be distinguished from blatant notoriety. History presents far more writings of the latter sort than the former. Alexander the Great, Charle magne, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, and countless Leonard E. Read founded the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946 and served as its President until his death in 1983. He was a philosopher, teacher, and exem plar. This article was adapted from the December 1978 Freeman. other great destroyers loom too large in written history. Why these lopsided recordings? It is the bad, not the good, that attracts the public eye. Observe today's media and the preponderance of reporting that does not deserveto be either written or read, spoken or heard. In my study of writing that deserves to be writ ten, I've been surprised that most of the world's great writers-past and present-never kept a dai ly journal. Obviously, they had other disciplines that brought out their remarkable writings. We are all different in all respects. As for me, I have kept a journal for nearly 27 years without missing a day-eapturing every thought that comes to mind or that I have learned from others-a rewarding experience. What a discipline-writing such entries for nearly 10,000days!

Recently I came upon my entry of August 11, 1955,long since forgotten: If it were not for the gravitational force pulling us down, there would be no such concept as "up." If there were no darkness, we would have no sense or appreciation of light. If there were no evil, we would have no aware ness of virtue. If there were no ignorance, we would not know intelligence. If there were no troubles, there would be no aspirations. If there were no insecurity, we would not know of security. If there were no blindness, we would not be conscious of perception. If there were no poverty, we would not experi ence riches. If no man ever imposed restraint on others, there would be no strivingfor liberty and the term wouldnot exist. I now recall discovering, just a few days later, while reading Dagobert Runes' Treasuryof Phi losophy,that around 500 B.C. Heraclitus was say ing the same thing: "Men would not have known the name of justice if there were no injustice." This made me laugh at my "originality" and brought to mind Goethe's assertion: "All truly wise ideas have been thought already thousands of times."

Assuming the above observations to be valid, then "doing what deserves to be written" is learn ing how to cope with and overcome life'scountless obstacles. It is an observed fact that the art of becoming-human development-is composed of acts of overcoming. Obstacles are assuredly the source of aspira tions. Human frailties-which lead to such things as governmental interventions of the kind that de stroy creative activities-inspire their own over coming. Why, then, do errors have their value? Their overcoming leads to evolution-human liberty! True glory consistsin writingwhat deservesto . be read. There are countless thousands of books, articles, and commentaries that deserve to be read. The vast majority of these writings are known to a mere handful of people. I shall refer to only one that is an inspiring and instructive example: You Are Extraordinaryby Roger J. Williams. Professor Williams,a noted biochemist, became convinced that his wife's death was caused by the doctor treating her as "an equal," rather than as an individual. This led the professor to his first study in human variation, having to do only with the vari ation in taste buds in different people. The findings, published in Free and Unequal,are fantastic.

Having an unusually inquiring mind, he began an investigation into ever so many other forms of variation. The findings appeared in 1956: BiochemicalIndividuality,somewhat technical for lay readers. Nevertheless, I read it with avidity, because it contained an important key to the free dom philosophy. It was this book that led to my 445 acquaintance with the author. We corresponded, and after answering a ques tion of·mine he added that he had just written a book, to be entitled You Are Extraordinary,de signed, he said, for lay readers. The manuscript was enclosed. Professor Williams was extraordinary. So are you and so am I and so is each human being. Indeed, no one is the same as a moment ago. Variation is a rule of all life-plant, animal, and man. Once variation is recognized as a fact of life, there can be no endorsement-none whatsoev er-of know-it-alls controlling the creative actions of you or me or anyone. Authoritarianism dismissed as utter nonsense! We would witness hosts of public officialsreduced to a mere fraction thereof. All but a few would return to that won derful status of self-responsiblecitizens-Ameri ca's miraculous performance on the go again.

True glory consistsin so livingas to make the worldhappierand better.How do we live to make others happier and better? Here are a few guide lines, mostly gleaned from others: • Stand for and staunchly abide by what is believed to be righteous-seeking approval from God, not man. • Strive for that excellence in the understand ing and explanation of freedom which will cause others to seek one's tutorship. This brings happiness to both the striver and the seeker-and the world! • Live with zest and enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever accomplished in the absence of such spirit. • Be optimistic.This does not mean a blindness to dictocrats lording it over us. Rather, it is self-assurance that a turnabout is in the off ing. The world is not going to the dogs as the prophets of doom proclaim. Optimism increases happiness for it is contagious. To serve truth and freedom is as high as we can go. When more of us than now attain this intellec tual and moral height, the path toward glory will open: Gloryto God in the highest,andon earthpeace, good willtowardmen. 0 446 Kun Shou You Dou: Even a Cornered Beast Will Fight by Marcella Smith I·stood watching the YellowSea slide onto the sands of eastern China. In the distance, a fairy-tale pagoda rose above red-tiled German villas,remnants of this resort town's European past. The calm sea soothed me; I held my husband's hand, thinking what a lovely place this would be for a vacation. But it was no vacation. We had come here to leave China, and leave quickly.With barely two days' notice, we had frantically packed, spent our useless Chinese money like crazed game show contestants, and made for the coast. We would fly out to Hong Kong the next day. It was June 1989: Chinese students and citizens, peacefully seeking democracy, had been murdered by the People's Army in the streets of Beijing.