Adam Smith wrote two masterpieces.  One of them, The Wealth of Nations, is widely known as a foundational masterpiece of economics.  I use one of the quotes from that book [1] for an e-mail signature, even if most people who claim to enjoy the book have never made it to Book Three of it.  The other masterpiece, far less often read, is the Theory of Moral Sentiments.  In fact, I have never read that book myself, nor have I ever found it while perusing the library shelves.  It is on my (very long) list of books to read, but it is a much harder book to find than The Wealth of Nations, which at one time was in my personal library as a college students (and may yet be a part of it again in the future).

There are many people who are champions of capitalism and the markets, and I will freely admit to being one myself.  But at the same time one must recognize that it is not free markets and capitalism that is a panacea for poverty and problems.  Free markets are a lot like sunshine, they reveal the moral beliefs of mankind that normally hide in the darkness out of sight and bring them to light.  Sometimes they are good, but more often they are not.  For the freedom to do what one wishes usually means the freedom to pursue one’s corrupt and selfish interests, to let one’s lust run wild, and only very rarely (and often unintentionally) does any good for other people.  In such a state as that freedom is intolerable, and will be quickly traded for some type of tyrannical state where the excesses of the corrupt and powerful may be curbed for the benefit of the many, despite the costs and inefficiencies that may involve.

Therefore, being a lover of liberty, and someone who hates the petty and innumerable regulations and restrictions of a bloated government, I offer wise advise to those who wish to seek freedom not only for themselves but also for entire societies, some large parts of whom do not appear to want to be free, or to accept the responsibility that comes from freedom.  And that advice is simple:  if you want to be free, be good.  If you want to encourage and legislate freedom, build up a just moral society and institutions that are able to pick up the slack that one is going to take away from the purview of government.  Freedom cannot endure without a citizenry possessed of both the self-discipline to avoid evil and corruption and to labor diligently in either body or mind (and to be honest, I have always preferred the diligent labor of the mind to the drudgery of physical labor for myself) as well as the sense of fellow-feeling to encourage and support his brother, his fellow congregant, or his neighbor who is in need.  Without these qualities in ourselves and in our societies our desire to be free is at war with our desire for justice against those who defraud and cheat and oppress others.  Only those who are of sound moral character and a generous and thoughtful spirit are worthy of living in a free realm.  Ironically, perhaps, to be fit for freedom one must be self-disciplined and a servant of righteousness.  Then one can be free to live righteously without the need of external coercion and discipline.

Any just society will possess numerous opportunities for its people to follow the path where their personality, their talents, and their inclinations are best served.  It is this sort of freedom and equality of opportunity, that allows everyone to rise to the level of their abilities and not be hindered for superficial or political reasons, that is the sort of liberty I most wish to find for myself in this world.  Such an equality of opportunity will lead to an inequality of results, but I am not troubled by this.  Speaking for myself I am a person whose material desires are fairly limited.  I want enough of a living to pay off my debts, to live frugally, and to have the honor and respect of myself, my friends and family, and society at large.  I have no desires for fancy or luxuriant living, no great lust for material possessions or purchases aside from traveling and my limitless fondness for books, as well as hearty food and the intelligent conversation of good friends.  I am more motivated by honor and respect than I am by money, which I have little intrinsic personal interest in (to the lament of some people, I imagine).  As others have different motivations their goals will be different and given their talents and inclinations their success will be different as well.  Those who desire wealth are free to acquire it, so long as they do so in a godly fashion without cheating anyone else in the process.  I am not envious of the wealth of others, but rather conscious that it is not acquired or used corruptly.  It is that which is of personal interest to me.

In a society where there is genuine freedom of opportunity there will be inequality of results.  No one can be forced to be hardworking or virtuous.  Additionally, success is unlikely if one labors in an area where one does not have talent or strong inclinations.  Therefore, a just society will have many kinds of opportunities available for people to achieve a variety of desired ends, so far as their own diligence allows.  No just society would want everyone to be a salesman or a farmer, because if all sell, who will buy, and if all farm, who will create and who will engage in the mental labor which farmers generally show little interest in.  And if people have a genuine moral sense and self-discipline, they will desire a variety of ends.  Many may desire less money so that they can spend more time in reflection on truth, or with friends and family.  Many may prefer to have time for their own interests rather than being the wage slave of a company at the beck and call of a supervisor at all times of the day.  Nor is this improper in the least–a just society recognizes that wealth is only one very small part of what makes life worthwhile.  For what is life without the warm embrace of a loved one or spending time with good friends, or the enjoyment of what is beautiful?  Those are the sorts of things that make life worthwhile for me, and certainly many others as well.

And such higher facilities require a mind that things beyond mere material possessions, but is trained in the liberal as well as the mechanical arts.  As human beings we face a dual responsibility of having to engage in useful and productive labor (which is what tends to earn us a salary and a living) as well as the deeper needs for respect, love, and meaning that make life worth living.  A just society does not make men mere machines, but neither does it allow men to philosophize about virtue while whipping slaves to provide them with their food and wealth so that they can be plantation-owning aristocrats in corrupt empires.  Rather, a just society allows people to be free to the extent that they are good, and that they use their freedom to benefit others through their labor or through their creations.  In complaining so much about our loss of freedoms, we ought to be sensitive to the fact that those who abuse freedoms to oppress or to defraud others greatly diminish the attraction of freedom among those who are not so confident in their abilities to succeed in a free market when faced with those who use their wealth and power corruptly or who behave unethically to prosper.  In such a situation many, perhaps even most people, will prefer serfdom or subjugation to an oppressive state full of regulations to anarchy in a Hobbesian state of nature.  Nor can we blame them for this.

Therefore, if we desire to be free, it must be our goal to engage in a variety of difficult tasks.  For one, we must build up institutions that have fallen into grave disrepair.  We must remind churches of their obligations to help others, like widows and orphans, through the third tithe (for example), obligations that churches have been all too willing to pass off to the inefficient government.  We must remind families to provide encouragement for their own members rather than to be cruel and hard-hearted and selfish.  We must remind our neighbors that freedom depends on communities looking out for each other and making sure that no one has to suffer in solitude, but everyone can receive encouragement and a helping hand from those who know their character and situations the best.  Only in such a world can the civil government be lopped and cropped to its proper levels.  This work has barely even begun in many cases, as our moral collapse as a society has left us living alone, sleeping alone, eating alone, and bowling alone, suspicious of our relatives, with few deep friends, and with only the slightest relationships with our neighbors and brethren.  Such a society cannot handle freedom.

In addition to the task we have to rebuild institutions that have fallen into disrepair, we must also rebuild our own moral worldviews.  We must recognize proper standards of behavior, both that we do not add to the moral corruption of this fallen world in matters of personal morality as well as not adding to the weight of oppression in matters of social morality.  God does care about sexual morality, but He also cares about justice and equity.  We cannot emphasize either aspect of morality at the extent of the other, but must recognize how both work in harmony to create and maintain a just and godly societal order that allows for freedom because such a freedom is not used for license.

None of these are easy matters, but if we are true friends of freedom we must be friends of virtue and godliness and justice as well.  For freedom cannot endure if it is merely the freedom to exploit others without government interference, the freedom to destroy our earth without being restrained by civil authorities, or the freedom to create and peddle filth without demur or complaint.  In such a corrupt state, freedom will be so intolerable that its worth in the eyes of the people at large will be nonexistent.  And in such a world no one save the powerful and wicked will even want to be free, for fear of how others will abuse freedom against them.  Let us hope and pray that we are found worthy to escape such a fate and to develop the moral fiber within ourselves and our communities and our institutions so that we can be free without need of external discipline.  For if our societies will not provide such discipline and we will not deliver it ourselves, then God Himself will intervene in history to judge and discipline us.  I would rather not need such discipline myself, nor need to be harshly reminded of God’s sovereignty in His Creation.  Let us hope that the other liberty loving people of this world feel and act likewise.

[1] The quote is:  “All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.”  I slightly adapted the quote in my e-mail signature in quoting it from memory.