Why is the Self a Lesser Cause?
War increases the burdens of government. If you seek evidence, look around.
Government does not grow only in obvious ways, for example by gaining the
power to hold individuals without charge or to monitor their lawful
activities. It also grows through the promotion of a culture of sacrifice.
In war, more than at other times, people are expected to serve the state's
purposes.
That quintessential court "intellectual," David Gergen, whose sacrifice
consists in working for anyone who possesses supreme power, recently chided
President Bush in a New York Times op-ed for not asking more of the American
people. He called for "the creation of a new sense of purpose in our
national life." I don't know about Gergen, but most of the people I know
already have a sense of purpose in their lives. As for purpose in our
"national life," in America that can only mean a dedication to leaving us
free to pursue our own happiness. But that's not what Gergen has in mind.
What he does have in mind is revealing, because his call for bigger
government is only vaguely associated with fighting terrorism. The war just
makes the sacrifice easier to justify.
He writes, "Mr. Bush can still demonstrate [wartime] leadership by linking
present sacrifice with a better future in several ways. He can, for example,
roll back his tax cuts and propose that the savings be redirected toward a
broad social cause like improving the lives of children. If the war is about
securing their safety, after all, why should we not be equally concerned
about securing their health and education?"
Could anything be more out of spirit with what America was to be about? The
Founders' vision was one in which governance was limited to protecting life,
liberty, and property. That vision did not include plundering people to
finance transfer programs (which inevitably fail anyway), because the
Founders understood that the best path to health, education, and the other
good things in life was freedom and the resulting prosperity.
Gergen wants more than a tax increase. He said Bush should "embrace
universal service" in a military or civilian capacity. That doesn't really
mean everyone, though. His proposal does not include the drafting of
middle-aged university professors/magazine editors/former presidential
counselors whose salary and speaking fees would easily absorb the tax hike
he favors. Only 18-to-24-year-olds would be so honored -- whether they liked
it or not.
When politicians and their sycophants talk about sacrifice, they always mean
coercion. Why, then, are the solemn pronouncements of those who would so
cheerfully dispose of other people's lives received with such respect? If
Gergen wants to see someone make sacrifices, who's stopping him?
Unfortunately, the president shares Gergen's view. In a commencement address
at Ohio State University, he endorsed the ethic of self-sacrifice and
condemned "selfishness," a red-herring term that can cover everything from
what the ancient Greeks called the "good life" to the felonious ways of a
thug. (Novelist Ayn Rand found it curious that victimizing others is
typically regarded as being in one's self-interest.) Bush urged the
graduates to "serve our country, and a cause greater than self."
But hold on. Hasn't every leader who ever wished to accumulate power urged
people to serve their country and a cause greater than the self? I can't
think of one who told them to be free and to achieve their own happiness.
The call to sacrifice always precedes usurpation and tyranny.
Why is the self always regarded as a lesser cause? Everyone gets one
precious life, and making it into something extraordinary is a demanding
moral cause. Moreover, when people develop themselves into happy and
productive individuals they inevitably help to improve the lives of others.
In a market economy, one gets rich by enriching others with better goods and
services.
To be sure, benevolence is admirable. Helping others when possible is what a
good neighbor does. But that's a far cry from an ethic of self-sacrifice.
The president's message is that only service to others can validate one's
life. That is wrong. One's life is an end itself. It requires no
justification beyond itself. Beware the call for sacrifice.
Sheldon Richman is a senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation in Fairfax, Va., author of Tethered Citizens: Why We Must Abolish the Welfare State, and editor of Ideas on Liberty magazine.
Also by Sheldon Richman
The Multiracial Activist - Count Me Out
The Multiracial Activist - Elian's Fate: It's Not America's Decision
The Multiracial Activist - Reno's Disgrace
The Multiracial Activist - Of, By, And For The People?
The Multiracial Activist - Preventing Holocausts
The Multiracial Activist - Terrorism and the Drug War
The Multiracial Activist - An Unkeepable Promise
The Multiracial Activist - An Astounding Remark
The Multiracial Activist - Self-Inflicted Violence
The Multiracial Activist - Military Tribunal Rules Violate the Rule of Law
The Multiracial Activist - Bush, Rumsfeld, and Orwell
The Multiracial Activist - Why is the Self a Lesser Cause?
The Abolitionist Examiner - The Key To Race: Depoliticize It
Book: Your Money or Your Life
Book: Separating School and State
Copyright © 2002 The Future of Freedom Foundation. All rights reserved.
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