• CHAPTER 1 •

FAITH AND FREEDOM

ALMOST EVERYONE says he favors freedom; just try to find a single individual who says he does not. The search would almost certainly prove fruitless. Indeed, so many declare themselves for freedom and against communism that hundreds of organizations now exist to satisfy the common devotion to this attractive term. But, in spite of this lip service to freedom, our actual liberties continue to dwindle. The centralized state makes more and more of our decisions for us.

• CHAPTER 2 •

CONSISTENCY REQUIRES A PREMISE

IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTER I argued that a faith in the Creator as the endower of men’s rights is an appropriate foundation for libertarian leadership. I repeat, one admits this concept or he is faced with the alternative of submitting to the idea that men’s rights are endowments of the state.

• CHAPTER 3 •

BOOBY TRAPS

FEW IF ANY present-day workers for freedom have achieved effectiveness by relying solely on logical processes. This is to say that they did not begin by first developing a spiritual faith and then acquiring for themselves a fundamental premise or supreme norm. Such preparation has rarely been the means by which they got where they now are.

• CHAPTER 4 •

WHY DO WE LOSE LIBERTY?

AT THE OUTSET, let me acknowledge that I do not know all the causes of authoritarianism. This is by way of saying that I do not know all of the reasons for governmental interventionism or why so many people are intent upon forcibly imposing their wills on others or why they attempt to cast others in their own little images. Further, I know of no thoughtful person who claims to know all the forces which make us behave as meanly toward each other as we do.

• CHAPTER 5 •

EMERGENCE OF A LEADERSHIP

Every man, however obscure, however removed from the general recognition, is one of a group of men impressible for good, and impressible for evil, and it is in the nature of things that he cannot really improve himself without in some degree improving other men.

CHARLES DICKENS

• CHAPTER 6 •

HUMILITY AND LEADERSHIP

Three things prize above all: gentleness, frugality, and humility. For the gentle can be bold, the frugal can be liberal, and the humble can become leaders of men.

LAO TZU

AN INDIVIDUAL does not adopt authoritarian ways because he knows so little. More likely than not, he behaves in this manner because he is unaware of how little he knows—unaware of the significance that his personal stock of knowledge has in the context of the whole.

• CHAPTER 7 •

INTEGRITY AND LEADERSHIP

SOME YEARS AGO the public relations officer of a large corporation summarized for me his guiding principle: “Find out what the people want and do more of it; find out what they don’t want and do less of it.”

• CHAPTER 8 •

THE METHODS OF LEADERSHIP1

WHAT METHOD fits the objective of expanding freedom? This is the question to be considered.

• CHAPTER 9 •

THE MANNERS OF LEADERSHIP

NEARLY ALL DEVOTEES of the freedom philosophy can recall acquaintanceships, initially agreeable, that went sour.

“What a nice person!” we say when someone impresses us favorably. Be that person a housemaid or a bank president, it is clear that neither education nor occupation nor wealth have had any bearing on these favorable associations. Graciousness, courtesy, amiability, thoughtfulness, good will are among the virtues exhibited by persons we have met from all walks of life.

• CHAPTER 10 •

AIDS TO LEADERSHIP

EVER SO MANY who write approvingly of FEE’s educational work conclude with the criticism, “But, you never tell us what to do.”