What you are about to read was written just 52 years ago by Russell Kirk in response to the lack of understanding exhibited by American’s during the Korean war of the founding principles of our system of government. What Kirk has done in his excellent book, The American Cause, is lay out the vital principles which makes America exceptional in the world of ideas and government. The need for such a book is highlighted by this quote from the editors introduction:
What Kirk learned was that many American troops who had been taken prisoner during the Korean War (1950-53) had been easy targets of Communist indoctrination. In fact, the chief of intelligences of the ‘Chinese People’s Volunteer Army’ in North Korea had written a memorandum to his superiors in Beijing in which he fairly gloated. ‘Based upon our observations of American soldiers and their officers captured in this war,’ this intelligence officer wrote, ‘the following facts are evidenced.’ Among other things, ‘There is little knowledge or understanding, even among United States university graduates, of American political history and philosophy; of federal, state, and community organizations; of states rights and civil rights; of safeguards to freedom; and of how these things supposedly operate within [their] own system.’ [Emphasis Added]
Sadly, I believe, things have only gotten worse with regard to understanding those ideas and principles upon which our country was founded. As you read Kirk’s description of “The Free Economy” you can’t help but notice in his last paragraph how far we have fallen from the belief in a free-market system with the current embrace of central planning…so read on.
Economic Principle: The Free Economy*
Political freedom and economic freedom, the great majority of Americans think, are bound together inseparably. Nor can freedom of religious opinion be altogether separated from freedom of economic life. This conviction that a free-market economy is a support of all freedom is one strong motive behind the American championship of what Marxists usually call “capitalism” and what more prudent thinkers usually call “market economy” or “free enterprise system.”There are other reasons for the American attitude. One of them is the belief that only a society which, by and large, is economically free can be a just society; for the just society is one in which each man may seek the things which belong to his nature. By contrast, a system of economic totalitarianism treats the industrious and the idle, the able and the stupid, as if they were alike – which is contrary to the laws of justice. Another of these reasons is the belief that only a society which, by and large, is economically free can be an orderly society; for the orderly society is one in which every class and interest fulfills the functions for which it is best suited. Without economic freedom a class of economic autocrats could domineer over all other elements in society. Yet one more reason is the belief that the value of a system may be judged by that system’s fruits, and the free economies of modern times, particularly in the United States, have been economically fruitful.
“It will take some hammering to drive a coddling socialism into America,” George Santayana once wrote. Yes, and the proportion of professed socialists is smaller in the United States, than it was when Santayana wrote. The great American labor unions never have flirted long with economic collectivism, and the number of economic radicals among educated people is smaller in the United States than in most countries; while the American merchant and industrialist remained undismayed champions of economic competition and free enterprise. Yet it remains possible for a nation to lose economic freedom through a failure to understand the necessary conditions of such freedom, just as it is possible for a people to lose political freedom in a fit of absence of mind. Our first necessity, then, is to apprehend the theories that lie behind the reality of our free-market economy.
*Russell Kirk, The American Cause 3rd Edition (Wilmington, Delaware, ISI Books, 2006), p. 89,90.
Russell Kirk (1918-1994) is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s most important men of letters, and is ranked high among the principle architects of the postwar conservative intellectual movement. A columnist, essayist, novelist, historian, and critic, Kirk’s best-known works are The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot, The Roots of American Order, and The Politics of Prudence.
Buy and read, The American Cause by Russell Kirk.
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