Preserving the Flame of Freedom
One of the most precious portions of our cultural heritage is the classical liberal tradition. As I wrote in my article “The Epic Triumph of Liberalism and Its Tragic Betrayal”:
“Liberalism/libertarianism is actually a centuries-old tradition with millennia-old roots. It is the founding philosophy of America, the catalyst of the rise of the West, and the source of almost all things sweet and splendid about the modern world around us.”
But as Ludwig von Mises wrote in 1962:
“Today the tenets of this nineteenth-century philosophy of liberalism are almost forgotten. In continental Europe it is remembered only by a few. In England the term “liberal” is mostly used to signify a program that only in details differs from the totalitarianism of the socialists. In the United States “liberal” means today a set of ideas and political postulates that in every regard are the opposite of all that liberalism meant to the preceding generations. The American self-styled liberal aims at government omnipotence, is a resolute foe of free enterprise, and advocates all-round planning by the authorities, i.e., socialism.”
With liberalism, what David Brooks called “the cultural transmission belt” broke down: although, thankfully not completely. As Albert Jay Nock wrote, in every generation there persisted a “remnant” of liberty-lovers who kept the flame of freedom alive. One of those keepers of the flame was Leonard Read, founder of FEE.
As Bettina Bien Greaves wrote:
“Read was not above a little showmanship. When he wound up a lecture, he often had the lecture room darkened. Then he would light a small electric candle. The eyes of everyone in the audience would be riveted to that small flame. “No amount of darkness,” he said, “can extinguish that tiny light.” Then, gradually, Read would turn up the intensity of the candle until the whole room was flooded with light. “A good idea,” Read said, “is similar. Once abroad in the world it lives; it cannot be extinguished or put back in a bottle. And an idea whose time has come can spread in time to encompass the entire world.” And so it would be, Read believed, with the freedom idea. In spite of the refusal of the general public to accept the freedom philosophy, Read remained eternally optimistic, convinced that freedom would win in the end.”
FEE was crucial in preserving the ideas of liberty and connecting the libertarian remnant in a time when faith in central planning was at a peak. And it is crucial today in spreading those ideas far and wide now that libertarian thought is a known entity in public discourse once again.
