Freedom in One Lesson

28.

Self-Reform, Not Reformed Coercion

America is constantly being reformed. Unfortunately, from healthcare and insurance to housing and finance, its reforms do not advance the welfare of Americans but only expand the powers government has over them. Few have seen this more clearly than Leonard Read. In his 1970 book Talking to Myself (Read 1970), he discusses what truly beneficial reforms require. His clarity of thought, which focuses on self-reform rather than the imposition of reform on others, deserves consideration.

Each must look inside himself. . . . Thus do individuals “reform” society.

. . . Government affords no cure. . . . When the objective is at the high level of individual freedom, the real action is within the individual. . . .

. . . All actions and all ideas inimical to a free society are destructive. . . .

When the trend is away from, not toward, a free society . . . the drift is marked by a decline in human virtue. . . .

. . . We’re off course any time any peaceful individual is denied the full use of his own faculties and resources. . . .

. . . [When] Politicians who promise [majorities] what they want are easily elected to positions of power over the resources of everyone . . . justice is out of the question, and an essentially free society impossible. . . .

. . . Freedom affords justice, whereas socialism does not and cannot. . . .

. . . I cannot allow my own pet exception to freedom without allowing others their pet buts. . . . To stand for one socialistic item . . . is for me to give away the case for freedom. . . .

. . . Can I forcibly take the fruits of your labor . . . without committing a crime? I cannot. . . . Urgency or personal need no more warrants coercive force on the part of government than on my part. . . .

. . . What actions of men should be inhibited. . . . Only fraud, misrepresentation, predation; that is, all destructive actions of some against others. . . .

. . . Nothing but ill can flow from plundering others and redistributing the loot. . . .

. . . The only reason for the feeble present condition of our faith in this voluntary behavior is that voluntarism has been largely deadened by governmental takeover. . . .

. . . Let government codify and enforce the taboos against destructive actions; leave everything creative to men acting freely. . . .

Free and self-responsible men are as good as imperfect men can be. . . . Those who are coerced—they’ll behave irresponsibly. . . .

Trust freedom? In the society of men there is nothing else to trust! . . .

Only when it becomes second nature for man to behave in a manner consonant with freedom will freedom be secure. . . .

. . . I may do whatever suits my personal fancy so long as no offense is done to what I owe others. . . .

. . . I cannot do as I please by using either private or governmental coercion. . . .

Whenever I assume that the welfare of others is my problem . . . I am denying to them self-responsibility, the most precious of human possessions. . . .

The right to do as I please is restricted enough by observing ethical and moral principles. . . . Beyond these limitations . . . leave me free to do as I please lest my individuality be shorn away . . . rather than improved and expanded. . . .

The self-responsible man is, by definition, a free man. He could not be free were others responsible for him. . . .

. . . In a society of self-responsible and free men, self-interest draws the virtues into practice. . . .

Some problems in life cannot be delegated. . . . One’s integrity cannot. One’s conscience cannot. And, one’s freedom cannot. . . .

. . . Advancement of freedom is not a matter of who wields political power. . . . It depends upon the disassembling of such power. . . .

. . . Any person aware of his limitations has nothing he wishes to impose on others. . . .

When people do not know how little they know, they’ll effectuate their nonsense by force.

Lovers of liberty owe a debt to Leonard Read. He sees that coercive “reforms” undermine liberty and therefore refuses to support them. Defending our liberty today requires taking that lesson to heart. Instead of imposing reform on others, liberty requires that we reform ourselves to be responsible—that is, unwilling to coerce others. And that is the only reliable path to the improvement of society.