Mr. Meek is chief editorial writer of the Milwaukee Sentinel.
How can today’s liberals be devoted to a free market for ideas and, at the same time, be opposed to the idea of a free market for goods and services?
One would think that a man who has an appreciation of the importance of academic freedom in the search for truth and knowledge would perceive the equal importance of economic freedom in achieving a better standard of living for all.
Strange to say, however, many of today’s professors of the new sciences and the new humanities, while fervently defending their academic freedom, are engaged with equal fervency in destroying the concept of economic freedom in favor of some sort of politically managed economy.
One of the better expressions of the concept of academic freedom is this:
“… Whatever may be the limitations which trammel inquiry elsewhere, we believe that the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”
That may be paraphrased to give an equally good expression of the concept of economic freedom, thusly:
“… Whatever may be the limitations which trammel economics elsewhere, we believe that the great society of the United States should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing process of a free market by which alone prosperity can be found.”
Teachers and students would object strenuously, and with justification, if the president of their university were to dictate what they had to think. Yet some teachers and students do not object — nay, some even vigorously advocate — that the president of the nation be given the power to decide what people can buy or sell, and for how much, rather than to let people make these decisions for themselves.
Why do so many who worship academic freedom scorn economic freedom? The answer seems to be that they lack the faith, the courage, and the wisdom to understand that the sifting and winnowing process is as efficacious in the market place of goods and services as it is in the market place of ideas, teaching, and research.
In state after state down through history — Red China being the current glaring example—where there has been no economic freedom there has been no academic freedom. The two go hand-in-hand. Those who want to preserve their academic freedom would do well to support and promote economic freedom. For, if the day ever comes when a ruling elite controls the economy down to the smallest detail, that will also be the day when a few men holding a monopoly of political power will control the academic community, down to the smallest detail.
The person who believes in academic freedom should, with equal fervor, believe in the free market system.
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Separation of Powers
The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
JAMES MADISON, The Federalist, No. 47
