Freedom in One Lesson

60.

Seeing the Light on Looting

Having written about public policies for three and a half decades, I have often struggled with the slipperiness of words. Using words without thinking about them gives power to those who can manipulate their meanings to mislead others, and it encourages equivocation—changing the meaning of a key term or phrase in the course of an argument—in public policy discussions, a logical fallacy that can be used to create many ways to rob Peter to pay Paul with the coercive power of government.

Leonard Read, who wrote about public policies for about a decade longer than I have, also combats the distortions created by the 24-7 linguistic confusion factories that encourage government growth and coerced redistribution. Read’s reflections on this issue in “Loot,” from his 1978 book Vision (Read 1978), are worth examining because current politics revolves around more looting than ever before.

Ideas . . . shape our way of life and mold our very being. However, we think in words; and what we mean by the words we use, and what others think we mean by them, may range from the bright lights of creativity to the dark shadows of destruction [due to] their misuse and the consequent misunderstanding and confusion. . . .

. . . We also need . . . words to explain how freedom works its wonders. And what words will best describe and explain freedom’s opposite? How does one make it clear that accepting coercively confiscated “ benefits” is just as sinful as the confiscation itself? . . . And the same is true of thousands of . . . ignoble schemes.

Read is concerned with a particular distortion here: mistaking special privilege and plunder for benefits by ignoring violations of rights.

The acceptance of plunder is as sinful as the plundering itself. But where are the words to portray the sinful nature of plunder?

Many of us, over the years, have used the words “special privilege” to describe freedom’s opposite—the plundering way of life. But these words no longer serve to describe the undesirable; they have lost their derogatory impact. So widespread is the practice of plunder that what were at one time devised as special grants of political power— and were more or less clearly recognized as such—are now claimed as the inalienable rights of the special class spawned by such privileges. Among pigs at the trough, there is no stigma.

Read has a different term in mind to restore the earlier, more accurate understanding and negative connotations of special privilege and plunder.

Why not use another word that has a chance of clarifying our meaning? Let’s try an acronym: . . . Living Off Others Thoughtlessly—LOOT! Looting is an accurate synonym for plundering and still carries a sharp verbal sting which most of us would rather avoid.

How does thinking in terms of government-enabled looting improve our society?

Many among us today are thoughtlessly living off the labor of others.

Throughout history there have been looters of this or that variety. But we seem now to be confronted with a progression of such harmful behavior. As more and more people have abandoned moral scruples—feathering their nests at the expense of others—looting in its countless forms has more and more become a way of life.

Emerson wrote, “Thought is the seed of action.” Honest, moral and sound economic thought results in commendable and creative action; each person serves himself through serving others. But if dishonest, immoral and uneconomic thinking prevails, the results must be harmful, not only to others but to self as well. Such thoughtlessness, then—rather than careful thought—is the seed of actions which presently bedevil us. And the seeds, more often than not, are words with garbled meanings . . . warped from bad to good. . . .

It is increasingly evident that countless millions in all walks of life thoughtlessly “live” off others; they loot and they don’t know it. They are the unwitting victims of their own naivete, stumbling along the devolutionary road . . . with pride instead of guilt.

Frederic Bastiat helps us to see through this shameful practice:

See if the law [government] takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Read thinks it is important for individuals to recognize looting for what it is across its almost endless forms, including the government-enabled looting from which they benefit.

Government would not take from some and give to others were the others to reject the loot. It follows then, that the recipients of ill-gotten gains are as sinful as the government which effects the transfer by force.

Only the hardened professional criminals . . . would personally so indulge themselves. The vast majority would refrain from immoral action were it a you-and-me relationship. Honesty would prevail.

However, when government does the coercive taking and handing out, most citizens—those who do no thinking for themselves—are relieved of any sense of indulging in crimes. Instead they experience a false sense of absolution. . . .

In compiling a list of looters, let us take care not to confine it just to the “ beneficiaries.” . . . We must label all looting as such. . . . We must include all instances where coercion, be it private or public, is employed to “ benefit” some at the expense of others. The list is too long to count. . . .

. . . Is there a community in the U.S.A. without . . . monuments to looting? . . .

Plundering is so rampant that everyone is involved more or less—unconsciously participating or trapped beyond escape. . . . What should we critics of looting do? What might the right tactic be?

Read concludes that we benefit from shedding light on looting.

Perhaps another acronym may help to clarify the creative force: Living In Good High Thought: LIGHT!

To see the LIGHT we need what I would call intellectual binoculars. We should see, not with just one, but with both eyes.

The vast majority see with one eye only and, as a consequence, observe merely surface or false appearances. . . .

Fortunately, there are those who see with one eye the falseness of LOOT, and with the other observe the true LIGHT. To thus see beneath the surface brings enlightenment—encouragement. Growing numbers . . . are beginning to see the destructiveness of plunder and how freedom works its unbelievable wonders.

Government looting and efforts to supercharge political extraction have been metastasizing for decades since Leonard Read wrote these words. There is a greater urgency to think clearly about these issues because the payoff to overcoming them has become greater. Read offers a great description of what is involved in this task: to see the destructiveness of plunder and how freedom works its unbelievable wonders.