Editorial

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Among many who consider the principles of a free society suited for human beings, involvement in contemporary politics has become distasteful. This is not surprising. It is very difficult to tell whether there is anything that one can do to make a difference through politics. A friend of mine who heads an economics department has discovered that, in terms of time allocation, there are hardly any people around who could gain by political involvement, especially among the professionally active population.

Yet the problem arises that if those who do the producing in the country do not involve themselves in politics, the field will be left entirely to those who have nothing to gain by advancing the principles of a free, capitalist society. Clearly, the non-productive citizen has little to gain, as a non-producer, from what capitalism enables him to do.

While there is no general recommendation as to what specific actions people ought to undertake in order to secure for themselves a better political environment, it is clear that complete withdrawal from the political arena can only mean an acceleration toward the controlled economy and fascism—American style.

It may not be possible for productive citizens to devote much time to marches and other forms of "protest politics"—that is a luxury which only the dependents of the welfare state can afford—yet it is only reasonable that every producer consider the issue of political activism carefully. By doing so, I believe he will discover that within his own life-context there are some things he can do to hold the line on the massive advancement this country is making toward totalitarianism.

So while I do not presume to be able to make specific recommendations, I would insist that all rational people owe it to themselves to investigate what avenues are open toward keeping their freedom at least a little longer, if not actually advancing it beyond its present minuscule status. Hopefully, those of us who have attempted to identify the positive steps in behalf of human liberty will manage to pick up on our pace in the meanwhile and bring the state of politics in this society to a level where liberty will once again go on an upward swing. Hopefully.