The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

610 THE FREEMAN Octoberinto the nineteenth as into a promisedland, and settle there like illegalimmigrants for the rest ofour lives." While returning to thepast is clearly impossible, if desirable- they had their problemsand we have some very real advantagestoo - still the questionremains whether we could regainthe best of their world and graftit on to the best of our own. Letus examine this possibility.Return to FreedomI shall not attempt to predictjust how we -are going to straightenthings out; like Amos of old,I'm "no prophet, neither a prophet'sson." Nevertheless, I think wecan get some idea how it mighthappen from the British transitionto free enterprise as describedin this article. Of course, it is notoriouslyhard to turn a nationaround once it is launched in agiven direction - particularly if itis down hill. Tocqueville 26 commentson this tendency: "The machineonce put in motion will goon for ages, and advance, as ifself-guided, towards a point indicatedbeforehand." AnotherFrenchman a little earlier, LouisXV, remarked cynically as theOld Regime of France was hasteningto its fall, "Let the good machinerun itself. It will last ourtime. After us, the deluge." LouisXVI was swept away by that deluge,but freedom did not cometo France in spite of the slogansof the Revolution. Chamberlain 27remarked a few years ago that,since "politics tends to go byratchet-action" in a democracy, thetime may come when the situationbecomes so snarled and tangledthat a nation "may be lucky ...to lose a total war totally," providedthey are conquered by amagnanimous foe and have "aRoepke serving as advisor to theMinistry of Economics, not a JohnMaynard Keynes." That is a longstring of "ifs" and the· hazardsare greatif you are not that lucky.The English escaped the equivalentof the French Revolutionnearly two centuries ago butfound their way, falteringly butsurely, toward the desired goal, apeaceful revolution of freedom.Judging by the British experience,a nation needs an intellectualelite which believes in liberty(let's hope we are building thatnow) ; a general population whichis weary of the endless and stiflingrestrictions of mercantilism(many of our people are gettingtired of the pretensions and highcost of big government) .; .andcrises which afford the possibilityof a choice (and all nations havethose, particularly the omnicompetentstate which attempts morethan anyone can accomplish).Actually, setting up the free