File in your context notebook after Vol. 1, Tomorrow's Traditions dated for this month.

When it comes to political events ...

is predictable.

7~'4- 7~ ~ ~~'<t ~~

lOft rIp'tttTo capture and subvert the American legal system, Fabian Socialists infiltrated the law schools. As a"Trojan Horse," Felix Frankfurter maneuvered the appointment of Roscoe Pound as Dean of HarvardLawSchool. Before long, Harvard was teaching "socialization of the law." Legal precedents and the oldrights of individuals gave way to "social engineering."

It can be modified by

"So - stand still, Little Lambs, to be shorn," or: ~

FOLLOW IN THE WAKE OF FLINT SCHOOL ABOARD ~ AND

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INSIGHT LETTER Vol. 2Cl1983 4R's Academic Method Inc.

Get out a map of the wo rLd . Look at what you see.Most of the world is ruled, and by barbarians. Atiny, tiny fraction of the people enjoy the freedomand good life made possible by producers. The restof the world is "governed" by moochers and barbarians.

Look at what a small fraction of the world's landmass the United States occupies! And look what atiny, tiny fraction western Europe occupies! Goingsouth we find the small tip of South Africa. Turningto the Far East, the only spots of semi-freedom youhave there are the little islands called Japan, anda small spot called Taiwan. If you have a large mapand look closely maybe you'll see the tiniest bit ofa speck, called Hong Kong. It hardly even qualifiesas a speck: you can't find it on the map unless youknow just where to look. Then on the southern tipof the Malay peninsula, there's Singapore. Andthat's all there is left of freedom!

The rest is controlled, and by barbarians. You'llnotice also that the people are starving. Russiaand Red China are the biggest mass. They can't even-feed themselves. And they are called civilized?!The rest of Asia hasn't even a tenuous claim tobeing self-sufficient in the literal sense. (Ofcourse they are civilized in the sense taught byyour socialist history textbooks -- you'd expectthat.) They never have been able to adequately feedthemselves.

In near Asia only the people living on the narrowstrip of land at the eastern end of the Mediterraneanmay claim the distinction of being self-sufficient,and only in a marginal sense may they be called free.Most of the population of Africa has never risenabove a primitive life style. Only at the extremesouthern tip of the continent has a measure of semi-freedom penetrated to the degree t.hat they can reli-ably feed themselves -- and export food to the restof Africa, which howls in envy their desire to de-stroy those who thus keep them alive.

In the western hemisphere, only the United Statesand Canada preserve the idea of freedom, and even

Published by the 4R's Academic Method, Inc. (International) P.O.Box 5809 Sarasota, FL 33579

here it is so badly diluted that it's hardly recog-nizable. In Latin America it has long since depart-ed. There, too, people are reverting to starvationas governments rule with increasing disregard fortheir own citizens.

Even the-Un~ted States-is only relatively free. Wepreserve the bare shadow of the freedom Americansonce knew, only a faint and distant echo of theideal sought by Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, andthe other heroes of our nation's birth. But here'sthe wonde r : Consider hmv much a little freedOllldCies!How very much!

Freedom is so very powerful that a tiny fractiongoes a long, long way. Today in America one entre-preneur carries 15 or 20 other people on his back.And of course America, along with those tiny frag-ments of freedom overseas, carries all the rest ofthe world. Look how potent an idea freedom is!

Look for a moment at Ta iwan , It's a little, tinyisland located just off the massive mainland of RedChina. It's the free Chinese' last remote strong-hold of freedom. It's somewhat comparable to whatwould happen in our country if we we re invaded andconquered by communist forces. Suppose communistmilitary forces swept across Canada and the UnitedStates. After a long, running fight the last of thedefenders are driven from the mainland -- down theFlorida peninsula, to an island about one third thesize of Cuba. On that island, lying the same dis-tance from the mainland as Cuba does from America,they succeed in drawing a defensive line and repel-ling all attacks. A barely settled, wildernessisland thus becomes home to, say, 18 million surviv-ing Americans, the last of those who knew they werefree and cared enough about it to fight to the end.

That is what happened on Taiwan! Overcrowded, withno industrial base to speak of, what would you ex-pect from such a situation? Starvation and misery,right? Refugees who spend entire generations hud-dling in inadequate camps dependent on internationalcharity, as in the Middle East, right? Wrong! Thesepeople have one advantage over those millions whoremain on the mainland. They understand the formulafor making human energy productive. They know theyare free, responsible for their own welfare. So,while the mainland stagnated and sank into unpro- .ductive misery and tyranny, the Free Chinese on thesmall island of Taiwan created a thriving, indus-trialized economy that brings them a far superiorstandard of living than those stagnating on the main-land. The free men and women in that tiny, island

The greatest requirement in the life of any of us is that we should start thinking beforerank necessity overwhelms. A th F' h. n ony IS er

5

Today we recognize that St. Simon, the founder ofmodern socialism, looked to the feudal system wh Lchemerged from Charlemagne's as the model and idealfor his plan of a perfect social order. In an agewhen the American ideal of freedom and independencewas sweeping Europe, St. Simon sought to re-imposeart aristocracy of privilege elevated above the massof ordinary people. He realized the world wouldnever again accept the old blood-line aristocracy,and .invented socialism to take its place. For St.Simon, this vision was a giant step backward. For===~ I ~C=h=a~r~l~e~m~a~g~n~e~,_f~eudalismwas an advance, __a~s~t~e~~f~o~r~- _ward. Any system, even a static system that bindsyou in your place with imposed duties, was prefer-able to the anarchy and bloody chaos which f olLowedthe final collapse of the old Roman Empire.

refuge produce more goods -- literally, a greatertotal gross national product -- than all of conqueredmainland Red China!

That means the people ~lve better. They, and thepeople of Japan, the tip of South Africa, that lit-tle fringe of western Europe, the tiny "speck on thespot" that is Hong Kong, Singapore -- and present-day North America -- are the only areas which pos-sess even relative freedom. These are the onlyareas where humans are allowed to live to some extentby the laws of their own nature, that is, in freedom.(Chile, on the west coast of South America may betrying to return to that condition right now. Let'swish them lots of luck with their difficult task.)

The result is that these f ew free areas support therest of the world. Everywhere else, covertly social-ist governments or worse hold down the people'snatural, productive powers to the point that theydon't produce enough to feed their own people. Inall the chatter about national and internationalpolitics, don't ever lose track of this fundamentalview from the bridge. __ -

Since you are the captain of your own life, you'dbetter study this view carefully. You'll see morefrom up here than from the daily concrete detailsof the socialist dominated press-media. In all thechatter about who's good and who's bad and who oughtto be supporting whom, this basic principled viewtells you what you need to know.

With ability to see such ideas at work, you have achance to regain your freedom and a measure of thegood life for your family. Without principledvision, and the private press to bring you informa-tion, you will drown in the sea of socialism engulf-ing our planet. It will then no longer be fit forhuman. life. Protect your children's future.

i 7~~7~1M ~~ ~'a. 7uf4u

Children need values. If you do not give them yours, theirschool will give them the government's. ~ AND c.-\

fOUOWIN THEWAKeor FUNT SCHOOl. AHOAIW ~ ~

2 Apr, 742: Charlemagne, born. Best known as aconqueror and emp~uirder, perha~~~~little too easy to overlook his positive con-·tribution to the slow re-emergence of civili-

zation. While he didn't exactly invent feudalism,he deserves credit for greatly extending and imple-menting the feudal system of order among men.

Credit? Why was this positive? Feudalism after allwas a system of regimentation far stricter than ouraccredited history textbooks tell us. In theory(only) Feudalism was a system based on freely en-tered agreements to mutual advantage: Farmers,always vulnerable to raiders who would kill them andsteal their crops, wou Ld agree to give part of theircrops to a nearby fighting man in return for protec-tion and leadership in battle when needed. In fact,it was a static system, a regimented society almostat its very worst. For a stricter system you haveto look to the collectivism of primitive societies:The Law of Lek, Lycurgus of Sparta, or the fullepitome of collective regimentation, Plato's grosslymisnamed "Republic."

Theqthing that makes Charlemagne's feudalism apos.itive development is -- the alternative. Allthings must be judged in their own context. BeforeCharlemagne conquered most of western Europe, theland had seen a constant turmoil of wars and raidsamong rival gangs of armed men supporting this or ~that petty kinglet. Their looting and pillaging '-./generally made life next to impossible. As Charle-magne brought them under his sword, he imposed asort of rough law and order. Primitive as it was, itallowed a major improvement in the quality of life.

But Charlemagne deserves recognition for anotheraccomplishment, even more important but much lessknown. He revived learning. Not educated himself,he respected learning and encouraged it. He hiredan English scholar from York by the name of Alcuinto teach his children and others of his court. Mostimportant, under his sponsorship, Alcuin collected,preserved, and copied manuscripts. He tried togather at Aachen as many manuscripts as could befound which had survived the several centuries ofignorance, pillage, looting, and burning since thetime when education had died along with Rome. Underhis direction, copyists reproduced such old, moulder-ing and tattered books as could be found. Today,what we know of the ancient world we owe very large-ly to these copyists whom Charlemagne set to workpreserving all he could find that was left.

Will such a time come again? Perhaps, but not rightaway. Books are typically still safe in our librar-ies. The danger today is the new illiteracy in stu-dents who never learn how to read well enough to~ rea lng -- ence spend thei~ives withoutbenefitting, except at second hand, from the know-ledge that is available. Hence knowledge, whichmust live and grow in the minds and lives of men inorder to enlighten their lives, sits impotently uponthe library shelf, bound in suspended animationuntil a living mind is curious enough to open thebinding and court its favor.

Now, an exercise in future time view for you: Willa new Dark Ages come again, a time when literacy it-self is lost and men sink again to savagery? Well,the first question is, '07hatwould it take? As inthe ancient world, kno~ledge and literacy didn'tdisappear all at once, it was the work of centuries.

First, with a growing affluence, first-handexperience was generally separated from education,with the result that even educated, otherwise intel- - ~ligent people began Jooking toward outside forcesfor protection from their own troubles. Of coursepoliticians soon discovered the road to popularity

6 Where there is no law there is no liberty.John Locke

lay in promising the security the people craved.Perhaps at first they didn't even realize they couldnot, in fact, fulfill their promises. (Politiciansuniversally tend to be incredibly blind about thingslike that; we suppose that such blindness goes with

~the power-seeking personality type.)

Political attempts to provide security led to theever growing regulation by the government. UnderDi9cletian and later emperors the regimentation be-came so severe as to cause a general demoralizationand sense of hopeless resignation. In that mood,few people hold themselves to the long discipline oflearning; they develop in its place an ego-defensivecontempt for learning. If sufficiently widespread,this feeling leads, in one generation or many, to ageneral ignorance and indifference to learning.

Stimulated by similar causes, there has long been inAmerica a subtle but very wide-spread contempt forthose who "knock themselves out, always grindingaway at their studies." It was most evident duringthe '60's. What we see since then is not a returnto our senses but a continuation of the same trend

----~ only with a straighter face~ -Schools don't-Leachand students don't learn. Both go through themotions. Only the brightest perceive that it's asham -- and do nothing about it. Today the generalilliteracy of the 6th century hasn't yet returned,but a kind of "practical illiteracy" surely has.Even to the degree that the mass of modern Americanscan read (both youth and adults) -- they don't. Andthat's as bad as being unable to read.

No, the new dark ages aren't as obvious as the oldones. "High tech" makes it seem as if we can getaway with ignorance this time around. For example,you can't convince a kid with an electronic calcula-tor in his hand that there's any need for him tomemorize his multiplication table~A lot of parentsaren't really convinced, either, judging by theirreadiness to accept his silly, shallow arguments.Nor can you tell a child glued to the tube that heneeds to learn how to read better. He thinks healready knows! But he doesn't read well enough toenjoy it, and thus pore with pleasure and anticipa-tion over the Private Press letters, or to read withpenetration the soul-stirring novels of Victor Hugoor Ayn Rand. Today the popular attitude toward know-ledge has gone beyond contempt; by now it has reach-ed the stage of indifference based on ignorance.

We're not just talking about kids. Most Americanadults slip into the same trap and accept the sugar-coated lies they are told. They are unaware of theartificial additives that make the lies palatable.In fact, they're poisonous. They slip without evena whimper into the new feudalism, imposed not witha sword but with a vacant smile. Look again at RayBradbury's Fahrenheit 451. Remember the completelyvacant personality of Montag's wife, Mildred? Remem-ber how the most important thing in her life was the"family" on her living-room telescreen? Remember inthe movie version with Julie Christie how she keptstroking herself, repeatedly, sensuously, showingthe habitual level of her conscious focus? Now askyourself, how frequently do you see someone like heramong your everyday acquaintances? We imagine that

~if Charlemagne could look around today and grasp~what we're doing to ourselves, he'd bash some heads

together and tell_us to wake up and shape up!

2 Apr, 1792: First official Mint of the United

States was established. The Constitution givesCongress the power to coin money and regulateits value (which means to defin~ its gold or

silver content), but it does not 1llandate that theCongress must-do so. The important thing is thatthe money in use would be honest and uniform. Whena government mint accomplishes this purpose, welland good. It serves the legitimate purpose of polic-ing the standards of value by which men carryontrade, in exactly the same fashion that it policesthe standards of weight and me-asure by which mencarryon their trade. The standard must be objective,unchanging, a standard which permits honest dealing.

But nothing in the Constitution requires that thegovernment should be the one to mint coins. In fact,private mints have many times in our history filledthe need for honest coins to carryon trade muchmore satisfactorily than have the official mints.

For example, during the early ye ars there were thewidely circulated Brasher doubloons and in NewEngland the Pine Tree Shillings. At the time of theCalifornia Gold Rush there was a shortage of offi-cial coinage, so-a number of private firms-mintedtheir own gold coins or small ingots bearing theweight or value in dollars and the name of the com-pany which minted it. (In those days, remember, thedollar was defined by law as a certain weight ofgold or silver.) Those which maintained honeststandards of weight and purity found ready accept-ance and were widely circulated. The Denver mintused to be a private enterprise, and issued coins ofsuch a high standard of quality that rather thantrying to compete, the US government bought them out.You can frequently find additional information aboutprivately minted coins in the Gold Standard News.(See Tomorrow's Traditions, vol 1, for Nov. 28.)

The same thing is happening today. The governmenthas been deliberately debasing our official coinagefor years. A policy of official inflation was under-taken shortly after World War II. In 1964 and 1965our silver coins were replaced with the copper-centered "sandwich" coins. About the same time thelast US silver certificates, the old-style $1 billsredeemable in silver on demand, were replaced byirredeemable paper dollars. Today as a result,private money is coming back.

Today more and more frequently, privately minted,unofficial coins or "rounds" ar-e serving the vitalfunctions of money. For most of the last decade,far-seeing citizens have tucked away their nest eggsin the form of Krugerrands, US Double Eagles, etc,in order to have a secure store of value in the faceof officially directed inflation. Money must alsoserve as a medium of exchange. During the lastdecade, the growth of the underground economy hasgiven an enormous boost to the desirability of hold-ing silver and gold coins for private trading. Notonly official coins, but many privately minted coinshave also served this need: Gold Standard's fullounce and fractional ounce gold and silver coins(telephone 800-821-5648), Sunshine Bullion's one oz.silver "Sunshine" (800-221-1979), Monex's one oz.silver "Trade Eagle" (800-854-3361). There are manyothers, all serving both as store of value and mediaof exchange. When official money is no longeraccepted for our daily purchases -- and that daywill come -- then privately minted coinage will fillthe gap. Will you have any?

Anyone who says that economic security is a human right has been too much babied.Rose Wilder Lane

7

3 Apr, 1860: First US Pony Express aerv Lce , began.Appropriately, this bold, visionary endeavorwas a private enterprise. Its record of successis a proud tribute to the ability of Americans

to span an unsettled, often hostile wilderness withthe power of an idea. With the Pony Express, Ameri-cans conquered both space and time!

They entered service to compete with the mostefficient mail carrier of the time for that part ofthe world -- the Butterfield Overland Mail, whichran stagecoaches by a longer, more southerly routeand took nearly two weeks longer. In its turn, thePony Express pad to yield place barely l~ yearslater to another private enterprise which could de-liver messages faster yet -- the telegraph companies.

Today, with the federal mail carriers working withoutthe ruthless press of competition, it again takesnearly ten days to send your letters across thecountry. When mail carrying was a private business,

__the sp~ed of delivery kept pace with improvements intechnology. Today, -the-technology exists which wouldallow same day delivery from New York to the GoldenGate. It could be routine, it soon would be. Onlyit can't because of the coercive, unconstitutional,government monopoly.

11 Apr, 1814: Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated, thefirst time. The interesting thing about Napo-leon's abdications is that, in both cases, hedidn't have to. Had he really been the tyrant

his e~emies called him, had he held his positiononly to wield power without regard for the rightsand wishes of citizens, he would not have steppeddown. In both cases, his power base remained intact,even though weakened. Yes, even after Waterloo. Butas he had lost the conf Lderice of the French peoplehe refused to continue as their leader when theydidn't want him. Sound like a new thought? Contrastthat with other government bureaucrats, regulatorsand "leaders" who today refuse to give up power.How many of today's leaders would do that?

18 Apr, 1942: Gen. James Doolittle led his famouscarrier-based raid on Tokyo. During the dark,-early days of the war in the Pacific, whileAmerican and allied forces were suffering de-

feat after defeat, this daring raid carried the wardirectly to t-e- Japanese home island~wnlch theyhad believed secure from attack. Although tacticallynot significant, this surprise raid gave a greatboost to allied morale, as Americans worked aroundthe clock to belatedly build the needed armaments toturn back the flood of death and destruction.

The reasons which led to the raid are not frequentlyremembered in today's (programmed) textbooks. Forexample, immediately preceeding the raid, betweenJan. 2 and May 6 the same year, the Japanese con-quest. of the Philippines raged to its terrible con-clusion. When Corregidor finally fell, (from lackof American ammunition!) the Japanese herded the60,000 Allied survivors and drove them like beaststo distant prison camps. Suffering from tropicalheat, starvation, constant physical abuse, lackingany medical help, they died like flies on what be-came known as the Bataan Death March. The survivors,starving and in sore need of medicines, were herded

into the holds of Japanese freighters for shipmentto prison camps on Japan. Packed like inanimategoods, lacking heat,food, and toilet facilities,not even permitted to breathe the freezing but clea~sea air-- in these incredibly harsh conditions,more thousands died.

Nor was this the first evidence of Japanese contemptand abuse of those they captured. In 1931 they hadinvaded Manchuria, the industrial center of northernChina. The world protested in vain against the bes-tial inhumanity with which captives were treated.Not only captured ~oldiers, but even women and chil-dren who merely found themselves in the way, allsuffered from their contemptuous disregard for allhuman decency. When the Japanese invaded China in1937 it was the same story, and the same again andagain as the Empire of the Rising Sun was pushedacross most of southeast Asia.

These things aren't pleasant to remember, but theymust not be forgotten. This was the con t ext; for Gen.Doolittle's daring, long-range raid upon the-Japan-ese capital. In this raid, Doolittle brought hometo the Japanese war-lords our nation's utter rejec-tion of the "Bataan Death March," our rejection ofthe unprovoked, barbaric aggression they had beenwaging, and ~ the inhuman treatmen~~heir victims.

By contrast, our record on this score is clean.American treatment of prisoners of war is character-i.Zedast~~~e;t-~dh~n-e-Of-all na~-In the Doolittle raid, we told the Japanese warlordsin terms they could not mistake that the people andgovernment of the United States would no longertolerate their inhuman bestiality.

21 Apr, 1889: Adolf Hitler, born. How frequentlymight history be changed by a small word of en-couragement! Young Adolf wanted to be an art-ist. Twice he tried and failed to win admission

to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Had he receiveda little encouragement and helpful instruction, howmight his subsequent career have been changed! Hissense of failure and bitterness might have been di-verted, and the world saved from the outward pouringof his self-loathing! One never knows, and a kind-ness is so easy to give. . .

30 Apr, 1939: First public television broadcast.Even more than the movies, television is a tech-nology of high promise and catastrophic conse-quence. Imagine! You bring the image and

voice of far distant persons and events into yourvery living room. The potential for expanding hori-zons and awareness is enormous. But, forty yearslater what we receive isn't expansion, isn't life-ennobling. The typical news coverage and entertain-ment we see today on the tube contracts our sense oflife and of the world. The problem isn't with thetechnology -- it's with the programming, andespecially with the shallow readiness with which wewill accept today's trivia in the place of real in-formation, probing commentary, and enriching enter-tainment. The wave of "progressive" education forthe last half century and more has certainly doneits work! r-'\

8 Any coercion is an attack on rights.