The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

196 THE FREEMAN Aprilciety, but only if they know when tostop raking the muck and to look upwardto the celestial vision abovethem, to the crown of worthy endeavor.There are beautiful things above andaround them and.if they graduallygrow to feel that the whole world isnothing but muck their power of usefulnessis gone.It would be naive to suggestthat inaccurate criticism is uniqueto the last half of the twentiethcentury. It is as old as speech, butperhaps T. H. Huxley put it bestwhen he said: "There are men towhom the satisfaction.of throwingdown a triumphant fallacy isas great as that which attends thediscovery of a new truth."Lack of objectivity and nonaccountabilityseem these days tobe the fashion. Too many peopleare "throwing down a triumphantfallacy" and others are treating itas "a new truth." To compoundthe felony, no one is held accountable.The AntipreneursI also have a new name for themuckraker of the 1970's. If youaccept "entrepreneur" as the genericterm for "businessman",perhaps we can refer to thesesingle-minded, persistent and totallymyopic critics of businessmenas "antipreneurs." The negativeprefix in "antipreneurs" isquite appropriate since those whohammer away at the business communityare for the most part anegative lot. They reject, and theyrebuke, and they reproach, andthey frequently view with alarm,but hardly ever do they come upwith .anything constructive.The enemies of private industryare active today as never before,they are influential today asnever before and - most disconcertingof all - they are succeedingtoday as never before.In what ways are they succeeding?Well, for one thing, they arechanging some basic attitudes inthis country. They are convertingthe United States of America froma nation that once respected initiativeand economic achievement,that honored the rags-to-richeshero, to a nation that imputes toits businessmen the most venalmotives and most despicable conduct,that is coming to idolize thereverse-twist, riches-to-rags antihero.Think I'm exaggerating? Thenconsider for a moment a fewstatistics.In 1966, Social Research, Incorporated,conducted a study on publicattitudes toward businessmen.Twenty-eight per cent of allAmericans polled agreed to thestatement that "big business isdangerous to our way of life."Twenty-eight per cent. A sizeable