Introduction

IN THE NEXT to the last chapter of this book, Frank Chodorov asks, “what in life is more worthwhile than the pursuit of an ideal?” We may confidently predict that were he to be asked this question he would reply, “nothing.”

We could predict his reply because his life has answered the question for us. His whole life has been spent in pursuit of the ideal of individual liberty. And, he has been “Out of Step” because most people of the current age have been pursuing unearned ease, comfort, security and everything else but individual liberty.

I first met Frank when I was a junior in college. His concern then, as now, was with individual liberty and the threat to it, in potential or fact, from too much government. Because of this mutual concern we became close friends and finally associates in the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists—the organization he founded in 1952 to counteract collectivism on the campus.

Although we are both individualists, we are not always in complete agreement. For instance, I do not believe that all governmental ideas should be consigned to the junk heap. Nor do I agree with Frank’s dictum, “socialists (individualists) are born not made.”

I am not prepared to dismiss the influence of Dewey, Samuelson et al, so lightly. However, in an age such as ours with its excess in the direction of totalitarianism, thank God for an individual such as Frank.

A book reviewer once described Frank as one who has just been around. That he has. He has explored the intellectual vineyards of modern-day collectivism and found its fruits as unpleasant and poisonous as were those of the collectivisms of previous generations. A man of firm principles, individualist incarnate, Frank Chodorov has contributed greatly toward the cause of libertarianism, freedom—and, perhaps, civilization.

E. Victor Milione