Theft at the Public Till
term self-interest. Our vaunted sense of confidence seems lost, long term considerations go out the window, and the focus is on survival. The rule becomes “look out for number one” at all costs. The attitude toward our neighbors, co-workers, customers, and employers becomes one of suspicion and fear. Each of us tends to become more likely to see the “bad” or “dif- ferent” aspects of our neighbor. Our neighbor becomes less of a person and more of an object. We tend to transfer our fears and animosity toward these neighbors by assuming they seek to take advantage of us and expecting the worst from them. This becomes justification for a preemptory first strike, which we justify to ourselves on the basis that “it’s a dog-eat-dog world.” We have become a nation of strangers. We are alone in our strange land, rootless wanderers moving from city to city, job to job, marriage to marriage. We misinterpreted Adam Smith’s ideas to mean that if we each looked after our own interests, some “invisible hand” would mysteriously arrange things so that it all worked out for the best for all. We therefore promul- gated the rights of the individual and freedom of choice for all. But without the accompanying requirements of self restraint; without thought for one’s neighbor, and one’s grandchildren, such freedom becomes license and then mere selfishness. Adam Smith, who was a professor of moral philosophy not of economics, built his theories on the basis of a moral community. Before he wrote A Theory of the Wealth of Nations he had written his definitive work A Theory of Moral Sentiments -- arguing that a stable society was based on “sympathy,” a moral duty to have regard for your fellow human beings. The market is a mechanism for sorting the efficient from the inefficient, it is not a substitute for responsibility. We need to remind one another that each right we claim for ourselves generates a claim on someone else. A claim of “rights” is often designed to arouse or play upon feelings of guilt in others. There is a limited amount of guilt, however, that one can lay upon other people before they balk. The expression of ever more wants, many quite legitimate, in the language of rights makes it difficult to achieve compromises and to reach consensus, processes that lie at the heart of democracy. A society that is studded with groups of true believers and special-interest
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