Peace, Political Science, and Pedagogy; S. Barone

Rather than think that their country's prod ucts should be supported at any cost, they begin to hold the view that the origin of a product is not as important as its quality and price. Thus, nationalistic ideas and provin cialism take a back seat to rational self interest. The best way to support business in the global community is not by protecting or subsidizing various industries, but by abol ishing trade barriers that prevent businesses from selling consumers the products they ~~. 0 PEACE, POLITICAL SCIENCE, AND PEDAGOGY by Stephen G. Barone O ne of the latest fads in schools is a so-called "peace curriculum." It is wrought of the notion that peace is engen dered by a certain kind of attitude: that if we teach teenagers and young adults to think and talk more about peace, or if we condition them to have a sort of knee-jerk aversion towards anything military, then the world will consequently be a more irenic place. This concerns me as a psychologist and educator, because history provides scant evidence that war can be avoided by having either peace or antimilitarism as goals unto themselves. Neville Chamber lain's overtures toward Nazi Germany prior to World War II provide one of the most salient counterexamples to this nostrum.

This is not to suggest that a careful study of what conditions precede peace within or among nations is not the legitimate province of a high school or college curriculum. But if we really want to teach what distinguishes Stephen G. Barone is a practicing psychologist and writer who teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. peaceful societies from aggressive ones, or tolerant ones from those hell-bent on "cleansing" themselves of racial, religious, and ethnic diversity, then I prescribe we consider the empirical case: that what the most stable and domestically peaceful na tions have in common is a viable economy with a commensurate "commercial class" of citizens. Happily, in free societies, individuals are able to choose identities that center upon human action as opposed to an unchange able history. Eventually, we come to think of ourselves primarily as psychologists, car penters, or grocers instead of Germans, Catholics, or Serbs. The psychological free dom this gives one is no small thing, espe cially if the person is born into what he rightly or wrongly perceives to be a perse cuted caste. It allows him to see himself as the best electrician in town instead of, for instance, ruminatingabout beinga persecuted Moslem and declaring a jihad forthwith.

This tendency for individuals to develop utile self-concepts also separates them from 380 THE FREEMAN • JULY 1994 stereotypes in the eyes of others. For ex ample, there are relatively few Americans whose prejudices would cause them actively to avoid, let alone persecute, the best ac countant in town because she is Hispanic, the best mechanic because he is black, or the best grocer because he is Korean. Rational self-interest engenders tolerance: the fact that we tend to value and identify with others for their respective skills or profes sions. As a result, we overlook the incon sequential differences among us, such as race, creed, or ethnicity. On a larger scale, commercialism amidst freedom requires finding common and re ciprocal needs across the various racial, religious, and ethnic constituents that exist both inside and outside of a heterogeneous society. Thereby, it is a more potent psy chosocial inhibitor against civil war, mili tary adventure, or institutionalized perse cution than is any church, government, or army. Businesses are destroyed during do mestic upheaval; import/exporters loathe whatever restricts trade among nations; and merchants crave as many customers as they can get. Hence, they resist anything that might result in civil revolt, international war, or whatever might arbitrarily exclude one group of people from doing business with another.

But when economic activity is outlawed or severely retarded by government intru sion, people are largely deprived of the opportunity to "become," so their senses of identity remain doggedly tethered to rigid and irrational lines of caste, ethnicity, reli gion, or tribalism. And herein lies the dan ger, because as scarcity always fills the void where a vital economy would otherwise operate, political and social unrest festers, ready to be exploited by those who seek dominance over their fellows. In the ab sence of property rights, each group will lay claim to the paucity of resources by refer ence to their ostensive historical predomi nance over the other, or even appeal to supernatural entitlements. Under such con ditions, aspiring despots saw and nurtured near-maniacal levels of loyalty and cohesiveness among their homogeneous constit uencies by scapegoating the blame for bad times across strictly secular lines: tribe against tribe, religion against religion, na tion against nation.

This is precisely what is happening in places like Somalia and the old Soviet re publics. Governmental inhibitions have re tarded free enterprise and its requisite divi sion oflabor , allowingpeople the luxuries of prejudice, hate, and bigotry amidst the dep rivations of hunger, disease, and pestilence. Conversely, the United States and Canada do not share the world's longest undefended border because their peoples practice pa cific thoughts about one another. Instead, the historical peace between both countries is born of stark commercial interests. Like wise, Germany's Mexican production of Volkswagens for sale in the United States, or Japan's American production of Hondas for sale at home, does more to guarantee peace among nations than can all the good vibes in the galaxy. In the absence of commerce, the various constituents of a diverse society revert to their most primitive senses of self. Unable to be butchers, carpenters, or storekeepers, they identify with groups made of rigid caste and mere happenstance. They are Catholic instead of Muslim, Serb instead of Croat, or black instead of white, each predisposed to bbimingthe other for any lack of prosperity.

When such mayhem is unleashed, it cannot be squelched by armies or "peace-keeping forces." A nation that relies primarily on a militiato control human congress is the very one that is most likely to erupt into civil war at the first lapse in martial order. Global harmony is not the by-product of kind thoughts, friendliness, and promises to share with one another; it is the direct product of human industry and prosperity. Peace tends to break out when people mind their own business. But this presupposes they have business to mind. Factions in places like Somalia, Haiti, and the Balkans will never consider peaceful coexistence until they have something more to lose than gain by continued war and hatred. D THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY THE TRIBAL PREMISE OF WELFARE CAPITALISM ILLUSTRATED by Anne Wortham T wo years ago I was asked by the legal representative of aNew York real estate firm (hereafter referred to as "ReaIFirm' ') to provide an opinion on a housing discrim ination suit brought against the company by a black couple. The plaintiffs charged that RealFirm's use of only white models in its advertisement amounted to an act of dis crimination against blacks. Informed by complaints brought in Saunders v. General Services Corp., the plaintiffs' basic argu ment implied the following assumptions: 1. The absence of black models is the consequence of a decision to exclude based on racial preference.