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This March marks the 75th anniversary of the Foundation of Economic Education. Because FEE has done yeoman work in defense of people’s rights and liberty for that entire time, starting when those prospects were bleak, that is also a milestone for the advancement of society. And given that Leonard Read was FEE’s founder and guiding light, it is worth reminding ourselves of his commitment to those principles.
Article by Gary M. Galles from FEE.
Of course, Read produced a mountain of material on rights and liberty, so finding his best words on those topics can be like finding a needle in a haystack. My Apostle of Peace was one such effort, but I wanted to find an appropriate article I did not include there. And I have found a good candidate–“How not to be Owned,” Chapter 25 in his Having My Way (1974). Not only does its title connect our rights and liberty intimately, but that connection is worth revisiting. Here are some of the highlights from this masterful piece.
Who is to control the fruits of your labor, you or others?
Private ownership is the very heart of the free society but…Throughout the ages, the plunderers have had it by a mile…Private ownership comes out in last place.
The Commandment, “Thou shalt not steal,” presupposes private ownership. Why? How possibly could anything be stolen were it not first owned!
Here we have a stress on the importance of private ownership, so strong that a violation was deemed a religious offense.
Millions hold private ownership as a sacred right for themselves but fail to realize that unless this precise right is extended to everyone else, it is no right at all–a mere fiction!
When each citizen proclaims ownership of his earnings and fails to…insist upon a similar ownership on the part of everyone else, the outcome has to be all citizens against one. For the person who is not permitted to own what he has earned is in fact owned by a master!
[What] queer notions of right and wrong, each respecting his own property but not that of the other person.
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But, really, what is the difference between a political collective backed by a constabulary and a man’s passion to enslave backed by a lash? There is no less compulsion in one case than in the other.
It is as simple as this: If a man has a right to his life—to “own” himself–it logically follows that he has a right to sustain his life, the sustenance of life being the fruits of one’s own labor. Thus, to the extent that one’s sustenance is taken… to that extent is one owned instead of owning himself.
Where lies the remedy? What has to happen before individuals will concede to others precisely the same right to ownership as they seek for themselves? Observe the Golden Rule? Yes, that is the answer all right, but in the same sense that “Thou shalt not steal” is the answer.
Here is a realization we must come to: The Golden Rule and the Commandment are but labels for ideal and hoped-for relationships. In a dictocratic society they are unattainable pipe dreams. In a free society they automatically exist. These ideal relationships grow toward reality only to the extent that the free society approaches reality.
Freedom and private ownership, as well as an observation of the Golden Rule, rise or fall in unison; they are inseparably linked!
Once this is understood, it becomes clear why “Thou shalt not steal” has so little practical meaning [today]…The Commandment against theft is no more than a mystical aspiration in a dictocratic situation, and cannot be otherwise.
Whenever the right to the fruits of one’s own labor is gaining acceptance and respect…understanding of the free society is likewise gaining…When state welfarism and government control is on the rampage, as in the U.S.A. today…leaders…wave aside the free society as a viable way of life…Their philosophy, though never in these realistic terms, is that you and I shall not be permitted to own; we are to be owned.
The coercive control of people’s lives–including the fruits of their labor–falls or rises precisely as the practice of freedom increases or wanes, which is to say, as authoritarianism relaxes or tightens its grip.
Freedom is the right of anyone to do anything, so long as it is peaceful. Government is freedom’s peace-keeping agency; its role is limited to codifying and prohibiting all unpeaceful or destructive activities.
Given this freedom arrangement, each citizen is free to produce anything he pleases, to exchange on mutually agreeable terms with whomever he pleases, to do as he chooses with what is his own and without trespass against others.
We have in this ideal situation only willing exchanges, whether of goods or services. Each citizen gains in his own judgment or he would not make the exchanges. Each owns; no one is owned. There is neither thievery nor enslavement; both are impossible. Each is behaving toward others as he would have them behave toward him. In a word, the Golden Rule is observed as freedom is practiced.
How to own rather than be owned? Learn the freedom philosophy and how to live by it!
Leonard Read saw how rare freedom was in human history, and recognized America as the greatest outlier produced from that long and often dismal track record until our founding.
He also saw our regression from the ideas of our founding that has long since been taking place. Both led him to defend our rights and liberty against encroachment and advance them wherever possible. He and FEE, which was founded for that purpose, deserve our gratitude.
And the most appropriate response is to understand the importance of those ideas well enough to put them into practice.
‘The Purge’ by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us
Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.
For the last few months, NOQ Report has appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip.
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It wasn’t just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from “woke” Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. One of our YouTube accounts was banned and another has been suspended. Facebook “fact-checks” everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss “taboo” topics.
The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can’t say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancelation, but we’d rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media’s lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they’ve convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth.
The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an “anti-vaxxer” in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects. These questions are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting cancelled.
There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We are on track to be short by about $5300 per month in order to maintain operations.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies.
During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we’d like to be completely free from them. That doesn’t mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
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