Machan's Musings - Liberty Isn’t Easy
by Tibor R. Machan
Sometimes I find myself enchanted by things I should reject. That’s true in both my personal and public concerns.
For example, I am a fan of rail travel—I just finished several legs in England and Europe. When I can afford first class, reserved tickets, I am especially delighted. I settle into my comfortable state-subsidized seat, gaze out the window, and enjoy as scene after scene rushes by, some familiar and some new to me. I am fond of all those little villages in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but I also enjoy watching the great variety of vehicles racing up and down the Autobahns or Autostradas next to the tracks. And then there are all the lakes and beaches and whatnot—I can never get enough, except when I begin to have to deal with the bureaucracy that seems to be present everywhere, with its endless dilly-dallying and inefficiency that tax my patience.
But I feel conflicted too, because, after all, nearly all of these trains run at the expense of a population that no longer really wants to ride trains very much. And it's not just trains, either. Buses are running throughout the Continent with hardly a soul using them, other than at some peak hours. And all those "public" realms throughout the Continent bother me because I realize how people become accommodated to them, and become complacent about privatizing it all, as should be done.
Even in the United States, of course, this attachment to statism's perks is difficult to overcome. People are often so fond of their public education, public television and radio, public parks, forests and beaches, and a whole lot else, that the idea of possibly changing these into private-sector provisions makes them almost permanently opposed to the idea of a truly free society.
I recall many occasions when, while defending the privatization of education, the emotional response (aside from how it would affect the poor) was, for the most part, that everyone in the audience went to public schools, and wouldn't it be unlovely to abandon them all?
Most of us have lived in the shadows of major and petty tyrannies and have become quite used to how things are done in such regimes. Few of us know anything else, really. For example, in Europe, the suggestion that broadcasting should be private is met with near total disbelief on the part of a great many folks, so much so that someone who thinks this is a good idea can be shaken and will tend toward cynicism about the prospects of full liberty.
Yet, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has recently succeeded in persuading Japan's lower house of Parliament to narrowly approve legislation to transform the state-run postal savings and insurance system into a private enterprise over the next twelve years. So, it’s not impossible—only difficult—to make headway toward greater freedom. I am fully committed to the radical transformation of the world’s legal systems toward the limited function of the protection of individual rights. When I consider that I find this transformation difficult to fathom, at least emotionally, how can all those who don’t give a hoot about such principled reforms get on board with the program?
It is here that education, persuasion, argument, advocacy and the other peaceful roads to reform must be carried out with the utmost vigilance and on innumerable fronts, with all the talents and specialization available for the task. It is a bit like quitting some destructive habit—even though one likes it a lot, the greater importance of a longer and healthier life makes the change imperative. No, it’s not easy, but a sensible, reasonable person will usually take up the challenge nonetheless. Pick any such habit that’s turned against you and you will grasp the problem immediately.
It is necessary, then, for revolutionaries to understand that millions of people are not likely to be eager to part with their habits, even once they have found them to be bad ones. Statism is a very ancient bad habit indeed, the "governmental habit" (as Jonathan R. T. Hughes called it in his book by that name). In the face of this realization, vigilance is of the utmost importance.
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