The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

726 THE FREEMAN Decemberto improve themselves and theirgrasp of truth - thus making thehuman situation more tolerable,more just, more enjoyable - confidentthat the final issue is in God'shands.But won't men perversely useTheism as in excuse for intolerunceand even persecution, as indeedhas happened in history? Ofcourse they will, for there is nogood thing that cannot be misused.But reflect on the deadlinessof the alternative as exhibited byregimes which make atheism official.Communism, during its firstfifty years in several countries,has taken a toll of at least eightyfourmillion lives!What is Man? the creature fromMars might ask. And our answerwould be that man is a being withan anthropoid body and six ideas.What if he loses contact with oneor more of these ideas? our questionercontinues. In that case, weanswer, his humanity is therebythat much diminished.Diminished man has come to thefore at an accelerating rate duringthe past century. In statecraft, hewas unable to resolve minor differencesbetween Western nationsand thereby prevent them fromtearing each other to pieces in thecycle of wars which began in 1914.In religion, we have a split betweenthe "death of god" trend,on the one hand; and, on the other,an emphasis on push-button salvationism.In education, there isagreement on one point only, thatthere is a crisis in the schools; butthere's no consensus as to causeand cure. Philosophers have abandonedthe great tradition in philosophyto embrace one fad afteranother; positivism, linguisticanalysis, existentialism. Thenthere is the "treason of the intellectuals,"many of whom havefound communism and socialismirresistible; who resolved thatthere should be no more war inthe Thirties but decided a fewyears later that war was a wonderfulthing. And in personal life, ata time when the male is giving hisworst performance, unable to reconcilewomen to their roles inlife, the female wants liberationso she can imitate the' male!It goes without saying that asI list a portion of the indictmentagainst modern man, I have inmind statesmen, artists, philosophers,theologians, intellectuals,as well as ordinary men andwomen, who have kept the faith,who have not lost their heads. Iam not certain that the madnessfrom which we suffer has run itscourse, and that we've turned thecorner, but I am enough of anoptimist to have confidence thatthe corner is within sight, andthat there is sufficient health in ust.o make it. ~