The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 ON RE-READING THE LAW 79era. Democracy would, he foresaw,pose an irreconcilable dilemma toAmericans. They who treasuredboth freedom and equality wouldeventually choose to give up theformer· to gain the latter.The Need for RulesMan must live by rules, but theyshould be rules of his own· choosing.Ludwig von Mises stated thisconcept beautifully in his HumanAction:Liberty and freedom are the conditionsof man within a contractualsociety.... As far as he gives andserves other people, he does so of hisown accord in order to be rewardedand served by the receivers. He exchangesgoods and services, he doesnot do compulsory labor and does notpaytribute. He is certainly not independent.He depends on the othermembers of society. But this dependenceis mutual.The late jurist, Learned Hand,wrote about the benevolent "beastin us" which leads us to destroyliberty for others. "Liberty," henoted, "is an essence so volatilethat it will escape any vial howevercorked." The logic of Bastiat,von Mises, and Hand at this pointseems virtually irrefutable.The public school system is aninstitutionalized cork restraininghuman freedom. It makes use(benevolently, of course) of theworst elements of socialism andprotectionism. In truth, we teachersare in the jail business. Educators,like a majority of the adultpopulation, defend compulsory attendancelaws which are in factnothing more than bills of attainderagainst our young.We illogically uphold these extra-judicialcanons despite theirexpressed ban by Sections 9 and10 of Article I of the Constitutionof the United States. This basicconstitutional injunction has beenblandly ignored. In Brown vs.Board of Education the SupremeCourt appeared to actively favorcompulsion. In the words of theCourt, "Compulsory school attendancelaws and the .great expendituresboth demonstrate our recognitionof the importance of educationto our democratic society."We are wildly inconsistent in defining"liberty." First we confrontyouth with our terrible dictum:You have no inalienable rights.Then we expect him to becomelaw-abiding while he is, himself,outside the law. We expect him toachieve a mature autonomous levelin personal growth without exercisingthe right of free choice. Weexpect him to develop value judgmentstripped of a compulsion forresponsibility. A frenetic realityexists in compulsory education.We guard students possessively asthey attempt to escape our bureaucracy.They are not allowed to