Where Lies This Fault?

by Leonard E. Read

In this 1967 essay, Leonard Read lays out what might best be termed a sociological study of libertarian activism.

Read attempts to identify different types of personalities and individuals who are likely to be amenable or resistant to the message of free markets and liberty.

Read then goes on to examine the proper methods of describing liberty and free markets. The proper approach, he explains is to have a proper appreciation for the true complexity of freedom and marketplace. Read describes this appreciation as a sort of “awe” which prevents the pro-freedom activist from reducing ideas about liberty to simplistic and unimpressive descriptions of the truly incomprehensible breadth of human ingenuity and creativity in a state of freedom.

Throughout this analysis, Read includes an admonition which he would later develop more fully in his 1973 essay, Instead of Violence. It is essential for the proponent of freedom and free markets to constantly seek better understanding first for himself, and to not be smugly impressed with his own supposed enlightenment and depth of knowledge. Such illusions are greatly damaging, Read explains, for one who is so pleased with himself is unlikely to gain any additional knowledge, or convincingly communicate what little knowledge he actually possesses.

21 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 20, 2013

About the author

Economist and historian Lawrence W. Reed is president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education. Before assuming the presidency of FEE in 2008, he served for 21 years as president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He holds honorary doctorates in Laws and in Public Administration. His nearly 2,000 articles have been published throughout the world. His interests have taken him to 86 countries and all 50 states.