The Fateful Turn: Online Series
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The Fateful Turn started as a series published in FEE's The Freeman magazine in 1962. The Freeman is online at fee.org and here are the links to those articles as the series "Individual Liberty in the Crucible of History"
The Foundations of American Liberty
First paragraph: There is a growing awareness that we Americans, individually and as a people, have lost our bearings. Some try to still the uneasiness that this awareness arouses by adopting public postures of confidence. Others react by denouncing those who suggest that everything is not just as it should be. Groups are being formed throughout the land that focus on this or that ailment as the source of our troubles. The extremes are represented by the quietism of President Kennedy and the near hysteria of the Minute Men.
2. Individual Liberty in the Crucible of History
First paragraph: The ideas which would, in time, act as an acid to eat away the intellectual foundations of American liberty made their appearance and began to gain sway over thinkers in the period 1840-1890. Some of these corrosive ideas were not new, but whether new or old they gained impetus from new currents of thought which swept the intellectual world in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Few men living at that time realized that the ideas they were imbibing and sometimes championing would poison the roots of liberty. Few enough realize even today that they have done so.
3. Circumstances Hostile to Liberty
First paragraph: Men bent upon tyranny will ever find means at hand for achieving it and justifications for imposing it. The unimaginative, the uncreative, the lazy, and the irresponsible can ever find formidable circumstances to excuse their failures. Whether any given set of circumstances is more favorable to liberty than another is debatable. It is not debatable, however, that conditions change, or that changed circumstances require different approaches to the same goal. Deterministic explanations of human behavior cannot be disposed of by simply denying any importance to circumstances. We front at any given time an imposing array of circumstances in terms of which we must modify our behavior or have it modified for us, react or respond, adjust to or overcome them. Effective action must proceed from an awareness both of enduring and of changing circumstances.
4. A Collectivist Curvature of the Mind
First paragraph: Any capable observer should be able to see that there has been a gradual and mounting circumscription of liberty in America in the twentieth century. It manifests itself in the spreading tentacles of government control and regulation, in the concentration of power in the federal government, in government by Presidential decree, in the unchecked rulings of independent commissions, in the proliferating activities of government agencies, in the virtual confiscation of earnings by means of the progressive income tax, and by a diminishing control of their property by owners.
First paragraph: Americans came upon the road to collectivism by diverse ways and from many paths. The signs that pointed toward this broad road filled seeker's hearts with hope by such disarming labels as "General Welfare," "Social Justice," "Economic Security," and "Freedom from Want." Some came in large groups which had been organized to advance special interests, while others came as individual stragglers. There were those drawn from the path of liberty by the siren song of utopian reformers. Tender-hearted men turned toward collectivism in the belief that it offered the best hope of alleviating the suffering which they saw or read about. The obstacles in the path of liberty— the difficulties in the way of achieving economic independence, the hardships of the individual route to personal fulfillment— convinced many of the "necessity" for joint effort. Budding intellectuals discovered a new faith in the organic conception of society, and the unsuccessful could excuse their failures as the fault of society. The destitute succumbed easily to the explanation that they were victims of oppression. Some men may be honestly convinced that they know what is best for all of us; at any rate, collectivism offered a mode for reformers and planners— men caught in the grip of a compelling yision— to use government to embody their ideas in law and practice. By these and other paths did Americans gather upon the road to collectivism. . . . Following excerpt: Historically, however, the shift to collectivism was made in the following manner. Men organized themselves in interest groups for the pursuit of common goals. They included such groupings as farmer alliances, labor unions, business associations, and professional organizations. These organizations frequently sought privileged status at law, and to bring the force of government to bear upon Americans to make them accede to their demands. When they succeeded, they contested with one another for superior position, and preyed upon both unorganized individuals and other groups as well. This neofeudal system (strangely enough, many "liberals" called it progress where labor unions were concerned) created a situation rife for the United States government to step in and "adjust" these demands in the public interest. This last is the face that collectivism presents in our day. . . . Following excerpt: The difference between a collectivistic society and an individualistic one can be succinctly stated. Where individual liberty is the goal, the government will exist, in considerable part, to disarm collectives. In a collectivist society, government will act to empower groups. The shift for America, then, came at those points when governments ceased to disarm groups effectively and began to empower them.
First paragraph: But Surely, I will be told, even if a rebirth of liberty were needed, now is not the time for it. What we need in these times, says the critic, are unity and strength. Surely, it is unwise to cast doubts upon the benevolence of our government and to divide our people by calling for a return to liberty. Besides, times have changed, and we must adjust to and go forward with them. The trend everywhere today is toward socialism and collectivism, and Americans must adapt to the actual world within which they live. Even if it were possible to "turn back the clock," what would our socialistic allies think of the effort? Speak to us not of individual liberty but of collective security, for the latter is what our age requires. Let us shed a tear for the passing of individualism and merge ourselves once more with the spirit of the times and join in the collective effort.
