The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

648 THE FREEMAN Novemberbook entitled The Modern Temper,using the word "temper" in thesense of frame of mind, or outlook.His major point was thateducated people had come to assumethat science had exposed asdelusions the values and standardsupon which Western Civilizationhad been founded, and thatthe decline of the West was dueto Western man's loss of faith inhimself. The prevalent belief, heargued, is that men are animalsand animals are machines.What men believe about themselvesis an important factor inthe success or failure of theirefforts. A golfer who firmly believeshe can sink a putt is morelikely to do so than one who believeshe'll miss the cup. A swimmerlike Don Schollander tells howhe gets himself "psyched up" beforea race and tries to make hisopponents feel like losers in a warof nerves. It is a notorious fact inbaseball that certain pitchers havethe "Indian sign" on a particularbatter; he's a dangerous hitterexcept against this one pitcher.The right beliefs, in short, inspireright action.I don't know what an elephantbelieves about himself; I suspectthat he doesn't believe anythingabout himself, one way or theother. I think it would not matter;he'd go. on being the same oldelephant he always was. Sometimeswe say of a pet Saint Bernardwho tries to crawl up intoour lap that "Bozo thinks he's akitten." But we know we're joking;and even if this was saidseriously, we know that Bozo remainsa dog no matter what hethinks he is.With the human species it isdifferent: Human beings do notattain their full stature as personsunless they are reinforced by theproper ideas and beliefs about themeaning of being a person. Weshare our physical being withother mammals; biologicallyspeaking, we are anthropoids. Byvirtue of our genetic equipmentwe are clever, adaptable hominids;but no one of us realizes his fullpotential as a man or woman unlesshe knows what it means to behuman. If we so misread humannature as to regard our species asnothing more than the fortuitousproduct of natural and socialforces, then we have impaired ourchances of achieving the mostuniquely human qualities withinour capacity.EnvironmentalismIf it is generally believed thatman is merely the product of hisenvironment - the individual apassive outcome of the time andplace into which he was born, thehuman race a consequence of accidentalchemical and physical