In her 1943 book-length essay, The Discovery of Freedom, author, Rose Wilder Lane, takes us through thousands of years of history to repeatedly demonstrate that “all men are free.” Despite a few factual errors and a few poorly-chosen words—acknowledged and regretted by the author, herself—it more than amply illustrates her thesis. (For the benefit of younger readers, “men” refers to all people, not just males.)
She argues that recent rapid improvements in living standards and justice in North America, along with parts of coastal Europe, were a direct result of the knowledge that men are free. She contrasts this knowledge with the belief that men are subject to authority. This difference in belief has real consequences.
Free men decide what to do and then do it, subsequently bearing the consequences, good or bad. This applies to all men, as all men are free. But those who do not know they are free tend to look to an authority to tell them what to do, or at least tell them what they are allowed to do. The authority may be a document, a deity, a person, or a council; in any case people do what they believe the authority wants instead of doing what they determine to be best based on their own knowledge and abilities.
Most everyone understands that they, themselves, have the ability to defy authority, but those enamored with the power of authority somehow convince themselves that the authority controls other people. For example, some believe that making drugs illegal can prevent drug abuse, despite a century of proof that it cannot. Others try to eliminate hate by making it a crime, as though those in authority could control men’s thoughts. (My examples, not the author’s.)
Progress arises from the actions of people who understand that they are free. They may invent, or find new and better ways to serve their neighbors. Those who do not understand that men are free will not change unless granted permission to do so, and may not even ask for permission unless invited to do so. So millennia pass with little change as those few new inventions and ideas that do arise are suppressed by an atmosphere of authority.
She wrote the book while reactionary elements around the world—Fascists, socialists, Marxists, and monarchists—were fighting a war in an attempt to restore authoritarian power and reverse the ongoing viral worldwide spread of human freedom that had begun almost two centuries before in America. World War II is over, but the battle for men’s minds continues to this day.
So read the book. You can buy copies through most booksellers, borrow it from larger libraries, or download it for free. You won’t regret it.
Posted 2022/09/30