Comes The Dawn

11

HERDED, OR HEADED ONE’S OWN WAY?

The ideal society would enable every man and woman to develop along their individual lines, and not attempt to force all into one mould, however admirable.

—JOHN HALDANE

An ideal society should, indeed, be so framed that you are free to head your way along the lines of your uniqueness, and I am free to head my way. This is to say, neither you nor I should be herded—forced into a common mould. Excellent thinking, John Haldane, but I wonder what you meant by “however admirable”!

Anyone who understands the ideal society, as did this Englishman, could not possibly admire any one of countless common moulds into which dictocrats are attempting to force unique human beings. He had too much respect for you and me to call such political hocus-pocus “admirable.” To what, then, was he referring?

In all likelihood, Haldane was speaking ironically of Communism, Socialism, or similar schemes for secular salvation. These utopian visions are pipe-dreams—vain hopes, fantastic ideas, impossible plans. There are millions of pipe-dreamers in the U.S.A. today, and no two dream alike. Each believes his dream to be “admirable,” and is as certain of his self-proclaimed utopia as was Karl Marx, one of the most notorious and discredited—but nevertheless influential—pipe-dreamers of all time.

Such dreamers are victims of a mental depravity—a messianic complex. I’m reminded of the chap in the cartoon, paying his psychiatrist and remarking, “You call this a cure? When I came to you, I was Napoleon, and now I’m nobody.”

Perhaps “Napoleonitis” best identifies this disease. These dreamers sincerely regard as admirable their schemes to herd us into a common mould—their moulds, each different. Interestingly, a vast majority of them are highly “educated.” They interpret their years of “schooling” and graduation as certifying a high level of wisdom and, thus, are infatuated with their prowess. The truth is that life—every mortal moment—is, at best, commencement. Like the rest of us, they know next to nothing. But they are unaware of their limitations, and this may explain their insistence on domineering over you and me, of herding us into their “admirable” moulds.

Why are these pipe-dreams—most of them—“vain hopes,” authoritarian schemes impossible of fulfillment? In the first place, there are so many—literally millions—that no government official or private citizen has ever heard of more than a fraction of them. We’ve all heard of seat belts, for the manufacturers have been compelled to install them, but reflect on the large percentage of drivers and passengers who choose not to tie themselves to their seats.

We had to install a new toilet at FEE. The plumber said it was illegal to use an oval seat, that a U-shaped seat had to be used in all public toilets. Is this a local, state, or national law? Who knows! It’s a safe guess that no pipe-dreamer can answer the question. And were one to research the matter—who cares!—I’ll wager that the violations would be impressive. And it’s anyone’s guess as to how many millions of other pipe-dreams have been made the law of the land.1

Of course, there’s another reason why pipe-dreams are vain hopes, even when known: people ignore them. A minor example: The enormous disregard of laws prohibiting the bringing of cigarettes and liquor from some states where they’re less taxed to one’s own state where taxes are higher. Many citizens, from all walks of life, become law breakers, black market operators, smugglers. They’ll course around countless pipe-dreams and the consequence is a massive moral degeneration.

Some concluding reflections on the know-nothing-ness of pipe-dreamers:

• Knowing not how to prohibit various iniquities, they tend to legalize them.

• Knowing not how to prevent thievery, they do the taking themselves.

• Knowing not how to identify or prevent inflation, they inflate the money supply.

• Knowing not how to suppress labor violence, they give it their coercive support.

• Knowing not how to inhibit aggression among citizens, they become aggressors themselves.

• Knowing not how to invoke a common justice, they perpetrate injustices.

• Knowing not how to run their own lives, they dream up schemes to run ours.

The pipe-dreamers have this much going for them: they are in great demand. Millions of people prefer being herded to finding their own way. Do their own politico-economic thinking? Perish such a perplexing thought! They prefer that others do such thinking for them, especially when this carries promises of easy welfare. Unable to identify false promises, they become the victims of their own shallow envy and greed. That is, unless rescued by those few who have found their own heading.

In reflecting on the few who are headed their own way, I recalled this impressive quatrain from the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám:

And that inverted Bowl they call the Sky,

Whereunder crawling coop’d we live and die,

Lift not your hand to It for help—for It

As impotently moves as you and I.

Ralph Bradford, whose many talents include setting ideas to verse, has paraphrased it for me:

And are you then so weak and self-forsaken

You turn for succor to the vast but shaken

And barren branches of the State? Beware!

It cannot give a thing it has not taken!

Those who think for themselves, who are headed their own way, know full well that government cannot feather the nests of some except at the expense of others—all the political babble to the contrary notwithstanding! Knowing this is a first step in heading one’s own way.

The second step is suggested by Margaret Cameron in her book, The Seven Purposes:

Give unto each his opportunity to grow and to build for progress. Freedom to strive is the one right inherent in existence, the strong and the weak each following his own creative purpose, with all his force, to the one great end. And he who binds and limits his brother’s creative purpose binds himself now and hereafter. But he who extends his brother’s opportunity, builds for eternity.

How does one extend his brother’s opportunity? By pursuing one’s own uniqueness, tending to one’s own knitting, growing in one’s creativity and never, under any circumstance, standing in the creative path of his brother. And never lending one’s sanction when governments do so—be they Federal, state, or local.

Away with herding into common moulds! Let every man and woman develop along their individual lines—each heading his or her own creative way. Such would be freedom: the ideal society!

• 1In Roman mythology, Aurora is the goddess of dawn.