Having My Way

29

HARMONY UNDERSTOOD

All discord, harmony not understood.

—ALEXANDER POPE

All forms of authoritarianism—socialism, state interventionism or welfarism, and the like—are despotic. They are at once dictatorial, domineering, coercively prescriptive; they are dogmatic and arrogant. All despotic philosophies may be simply summarized: “Do as I say, or else!” The practices of this way of life range all the way from one person lording it over another to those who wield their vast political powers over millions of citizens. As the eminent German psychiatrist, Dr. Fritz Kunkel, evaluated this mode of conduct:

There is not much difference between the medicine-man of ten thousand years ago and the political propagandizer of our time.1

In any event, this despotic way of life—the very antithesis of freedom—rages throughout the world as a forest fire out of control, in the U.S.A. as elsewhere.

True, this political inferno will burn itself out eventually; sooner or later there will be nothing flammable left—no more fuel to sustain the fire. But must we wait out this tiresome historic sequence? Or, does mankind possess the intellectual potential to douse the flames and achieve the noncoercive society in our time? Assuredly, we must try.

Finding the way requires an understanding of, a belief in, and a desire for the free society. Without understanding, belief, and desire, forget it! But granted these intellectual achievements—opening and upgrading the mind to a better idea—all the king’s horses and all the king’s men are rendered powerless. Sanity wins!

What do I mean by freedom? My most concise, and probably least understood, answer: “no man-concocted restraints against the release of creative human energy.” The word “free” has so many different meanings! The Oxford Dictionary, for instance, uses over 6,000 words to describe its various connotations. No wonder so few grasp what you or I mean by the free society! The conceptions range from being free of responsibility for self to being free to do anything one pleases regardless of the harm imposed on others, that is, from slavery to anarchy—from planned chaos to unplanned chaos. We are faced with the old, old problem: not only political tyranny but, also, the tyranny of words!

In any event, the aforementioned ambitious intellectual achievement can never be realized unless we come to some common and acceptable definition of “free.” Perhaps it might help to return to the word’s original spelling and definition, that is, to medieval English. It was then “freo” and was defined as “to love, to delight, to endear. . . . Not in bondage to another.” The freedom philosophy, when rooted in this meaning of “free” makes a great deal of sense to me. At least it deserves analysis and perhaps adoption.

Most of us are content with “Not in bondage to another.” I wish to suggest, however, that this, by itself, is a very skimpy definition. If there were no more to freedom than being let alone by others—absence of exterior restraints—we could visualize a society of mummies, not one doing anything against others but, far more significant, not one doing anything helpful to others. If there were no more to the freedom philosophy than this, I would be less enthusiastic than I now am. True, not in bondage is essential to freedom in the sense that not being dead is essential to life. But there is more to life than not being dead and there is more to freedom than not being enslaved.

Continuing the mummy analogy: in the truly free society the mummies come alive. What happens? In one respect, nothing! As mummies, in their new state, they do nothing whatsoever to enslave or injure one another; they remain mummified; not a dictocrat in the population. Then what is changed by reason of their coming alive? Each becomes graced with unimaginable creative aptitudes and potentialities. Interestingly, no two are alike; each one is unique. Joe has skills and talents for this, John for that; the more advanced their skills, the greater the variation; without such variation, men would be mummies. This is to say that were everyone identical to me, all of us would perish. And the same would be true if we were all like you, whoever you are.

What has happened, then, as a result of our freedom to be different? First, the slightest reflection reveals that all of us have become interdependent. All live on the fruits of each other’s labor. Second, we have gained an obligation—dictated by intelligent self-interest—to unmask ourselves, that is, to remove as many inner restraints as possible. Why? That our lights may shine; that our hidden aptitudes and potentialities may emerge. What then is the shape of the free society in its ideal form? It is featured by the absence of both outer and inner restraints. Externally, no one lording it over another! Within, no mummifying self-paralysis hindering the potentially creative self!

Will such an ideal society ever exist? That is, will there ever come a time when individuals will simultaneously (1) refrain from injuring or impairing the rights of others to life, livelihood, liberty and (2) strive for their own intellectual, moral, and spiritual unfoldment? To me, such a possibility is as farfetched as expecting a society of angels. Why, then, spend thought and time defining the ideal, the unattainable? Why not get off “Cloud 9” and return to earth? Why not be “practical”?

Imperfect man’s ideal port is, at best, Expectation. Man can sail in the direction of the ideal but this port advances in front of him as he moves toward it. This is not a point of destination but, rather, one of Expectation or Aspiration now and forever. Samuel Johnson phrased it thus:

It is reasonable to have perfection in the eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

I would say that it is not only reasonable to have perfection in the eye but that it is an absolute necessity. In the absence of such a constant star, we are adrift and without compass, all at sixes and sevens—going every which way! The improvement of society—moving in the direction of the ideal—requires, at the very least, a definition of what the ideal is. This is down-to-earth practicality! Why? Because such a definition is the only lodestar we have. Wrote Joel Hawes:

Aim at the sun, and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself.

The definition of the ideal society has more to it—much more—than I have so far sketched. Reflect again on the word “free” in its original form, the medieval English “freo.” Note that the definition went beyond, “Not in bondage to another” and included “to love, to delight, to endear.” What in their time did people mean by this phrasing? Certainly, there was no reference to the free society as we think of it. Society-wise, these people lived under and were aware only of such political establishments as feudalism, serfdom, mercantilism, and the like. The ideal to which we aspire is of recent vintage, ideas and concepts come upon during the past two centuries. To the users of “freo” such concepts as the subjective and marginal utility theory of value, freedom in transactions, private ownership, government limited to keeping the peace were, at best, in embryonic form—not hatched! What, then, did they mean by “to love, to delight, to endear”?

These were family terms—parents to their children and vice versa—that is, to those not enslaved. They loved, were delighted with, and endeared to the few whose relationships were not dictocratic and, thus, not antagonistic. We can infer from this that freo—free—was linked inseparably with and exclusively to living in harmony. Here, in my view, was a profound truth in its seedling stage—in embryo! The users of “freo” were unaware of the potential in this seed they were sowing; indeed, most people in today’s world are unaware that it has sprouted and grown and flowered; they do not know of the remarkable demonstrations of its efficacy, even though it goes on before their very noses—plus explanations galore. Blind to enlightenments!

This blindness to the fact that freedom and harmony are inseparable twins is easily remedied. Merely do a personal inventory of the persons for whom you have the greatest affection—love, delight, endearment. They will be those, past or present, who enlighten you or, conversely, those who are enlightened by you; in a word, they are those within your circle of light. In the economic realm they will be those who lighten your load and those whose load you lighten.

Wherever and whenever freedom is practiced in the market place, every creative act, whether in goods or services, lightens the load of consumers precisely as it lightens the load of producers. One among countless examples: those who have found out how to raise broilers for prices lower than 50 years ago—and of far higher quality—benefit not only themselves but consumers across the nation. Note how harmonious are these willing exchanges—harmony existing in the absence of antagonisms.

The despotic or interventionist way of life, to the extent it is permitted, generates antagonisms for it rests on the fruitless attempts to do good to some at the expense of others. No injury to any person can ever benefit another. Emerson gave the explanation:

Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end pre-exists in the means, the fruit in the seed.

The freedom philosophy is nondespotic and, to the extent of its practice, makes for a harmonious society. How rapidly we move in the direction of this ideal depends on how aptly and quickly we can gain an understanding of, a belief in, and a desire for freedom. By this process, men may deal with one another in harmony rather than discord.

Who can rise to this level of thought? Anyone who is interested and who so wills it. Anyone!

• 1See “The New Science and The New Faith” by Dr. Donald Hatch Andrews, The Freeman, April 1961.