Comes The Dawn

19

LET’S LOOK TO OUR PRINCIPLES

If it’s right in principle, it has to work!

—BENJAMIN A. ROGGE

The reference here is not only to material progress for self and others, but also to intellectual and moral progress—emergence—of individuals. These aspects of progress are interrelated and inseparable. We want things to work, for nearly everyone prefers progress to decadence. Our desire is that we rise to a superior way of life, rather than fall into one that is inferior. The question is, how can one tell whether or not he is on the right course? Rogge gives the answer: “If it’s right in principle, it has to work!”

This answer, while unquestionably correct, is far easier to state than its guideline is to interpret. “Right in principle” can be compared to truth in its pristine purity. No one in his right mind claims to possess this. Our fallible minds can purge a theory of some errors; but all? What then do we have to go by? Pragmatic considerations mainly; does it or does it not work! If affirmative, we have hit upon a right principle; if negative, a wrong principle. But the question does it work? has about as many diverse answers as there are persons who raise the question. A few samples:

• The thief “thinks” robbery is a right principle—taking great risks for the sake of small and momentary gains. In his ignorant estimation, it works.

• The politicians and bureaucrats who utter only those words which will get votes or popular approval believe expediency is a right principle because “it works,” that is, it puts or keeps them in office.

• Labor union officials who use force to obtain above-market wages and below-market hours for their members believe coercion to be a right principle. To them, it seems to work.

• Businessmen who persuade government to impose tariffs and other restrictions to free and uninhibited trade, believe monopoly to be a right principle. Being nearsighted, they “think” it works.

• Teachers who advance spend-ourselves-rich notions, “think” Keynesism to be a right principle. With their limited vision, they do not understand why it does not work.

• Clergymen who preach that brand of welfarism which consists of robbing Peter to pay Paul believe, no less than thieves, that robbery is a right principle. To these shortsighted “religionists,” it gives the appearance of working.

It takes but a slight amount of insight and foresight to recognize that not one of the above “works.” Each of them brings destruction, as becomes obvious upon reflection.

Suppose all were thieves—all parasites and no hosts. Everyone would perish. Robbery violates the right to the fruits of one’s own labor and, thus, is wrong in principle.

Suppose all were word mongers—everyone telling lies. Why would all perish? Lying violates truth; expediency is wrong in principle.

Suppose every citizen were a coercionist—freedom to act creatively completely squelched. None would survive. Coercion restrains creativity and is wrong in principle.

Suppose all were monopolists—every good and service having but a single human source, not an iota of competition or exchange of ideas, inventions, discoveries. No survivors! Monopoly restrains the freedom to produce and exchange, and is wrong in principle.

Suppose all were Keynesians. Society would revert to primitive barter, and nearly all would perish. Keynesism causes inflation and destroys an honest, workable medium of exchange; it is wrong in principle.

Obviously, all of the above are restraints; not a one will work, for they are founded on a wrong principle. To repeat, “If it’s right in principle, it has to work.” What then is right in principle? My answer: Discover what should be released and what restrained. It is right in principle, then, to restrain every action which hinders the release of creative energy. And, by the same token, it is right in principle to release every action which facilitates creative energy.

How does creative human energy manifest itself? Overly simplified, in an overall luminosity, that unimaginable wisdom which emerges—blossoms—as a social phenomenon when the creativity of all individuals is released and free to flow. The term I have used—“wisdom of the market”—is too mundane for communicating what I mean. Frankly, this social phenomenon is nothing less than Creation manifesting itself at the human level. What name shall we give this wisdom which exists in no one person but exclusively in a free flowing of infinitesimal bits of insights, intuitive flashes, and the like? Why not call this indescribable phenomenon Creativity, and let it go at that!

It is Creativity that works and it’s the only force that does! It has to work because it is right in principle. Restrain not an iota of it; release Creativity 100 per cent—not an exception! Admittedly, this is one of the least understood of all politico-economic truths. Try as one will, over and over again, and it is rarely grasped. It is in the realm of the spiritual and can only be caught, not taught. But this we know: it is in the free market, private ownership, limited government way of life that Creativity flowers to bless mankind.

The best one can do to prove this point is to ask of anyone that he cite a single creative action that should be restrained. Name an exception; that’s our unabashed challenge!

Immanuel Kant laid down the rule for the kind of behavior on which the right principle is founded:

Act only on that maxim [principle] which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

This is to say that no one should ever act in a manner contrary to his ideal of how all persons should act toward one another. The instruction is clear: If any action of mine would result in social chaos if practiced by everyone, then I must never so act. Let everyone measure his own conduct by the yardstick he applies to others. In essence, the Golden Rule—exemplarity!

Henry Ward Beecher contributed an enlightening thought to this theme: “Expedients are for the hour, principles for the ages.”

In the economic realm, Henry Hazlitt adds his Creativity:

Economics . . . is the science of tracing the effects of some proposal or existing policy not only on some special interest in the short run but on the general interest in the long run.

If right principle is to guide our thoughts and actions, only those proposals or existing policies merit approval which could be lived with forever. There is no such thing as a short-range gain that is not also a blessing in the long run—forever! To assess any action as a gain for the hour that is not a gain for the ages is nothing but faulty assessment, an inability to see beyond one’s nose, as the saying goes. It is to miss the whole point of Creativity at the human level.

If it’s right in principle, it has to work; therefore, let’s look to our principles.