By the second page of the introduction, I knew I would like this book. American conservatism is “marked by its unorthodoxy and its radicalism,” observes the British-born National Review writer Charles Cooke. Rather than seeking to conserve “international norms” or “the tribal precepts that have animated most of human history,” he continues, the conservative movement in this country is animated by “eccentric ideas” such as free markets, property rights, the separation of powers, and freedom of conscience. Personal liberty is “a rare privilege” enjoyed by only a tiny percentage of all the human beings who have ever lived. “If conservatism in America has one goal, it is to preserve that opportunity,” Cooke explains.
As I read these words, I was reminded of a wonderful little book first published in 1947 entitled “The Mainspring of Human Progress.” Its author, Henry Grady “Buck” Weaver, was a half-blind statistician from Georgia who worked for General Motors. He’d never written anything before except articles on psychological research. But he had a way with words — and a passion for defending human freedom. “For 60 known centuries, this planet that we call Earth has been inhabited by human beings not much different from ourselves,” reads the book’s first sentence. “Their desire to live has been just as strong as ours. They have had at least as much physical strength as the average person of today, and among them have been men and women of great intelligence. But down through the ages, most human beings have gone hungry, and many have always starved.” The reason this reality changed, Weaver goes on to argue, was the birth of the free-enterprise economy, in turn made possible by the birth of limited government.
Comments