Anything Peaceful

Reflections on human freedom's elevator pitch.

source: fee.org

Those for whom the ends justify the means are not interested in being charitable about your position or trying to pass any “ideological Turing test.” So it’s incumbent upon us to set the record straight at every turn.

In doing so, it’s important not to misfire the elevator pitch. In other words, if you’ve only got a minute or two, how do you talk about what it means to be a true liberal?

I can think of no better way to sum up a worldview than Leonard Read did with the title of his 1964 book Anything That’s Peaceful. A few of us have taken to saying “Anything Peaceful” for greater concision, but the idea is simple:

Let anyone do anything he pleases, so long as it is peaceful. —Leonard Read

For most liberals, ethics, law, and economic thinking more or less originate in this single imperative. Academic philosophers might have a field day with this formulation. Let them blather on in their critiques, counting angels on pinheads while the rest of us widen and deepen our Empire of the Mind. We might have walked many different paths to get here, but we have made this our prime value. And for my money, it’s the easiest and best way to discuss our philosophy between the lobby and the 10th floor.

Now, if you’re new to liberalism, you might be curious about why we are so focused on Anything Peaceful. Here’s a tidy top 10 list that sums up in more detail how libertarians think about things:

1. Free, peaceful people seek out and strive for their idea of flourishing.

2. Free, peaceful people tend to flourish when there is peace and freedom.

3. Free, peaceful people will pursue a billion experiments, any of which could improve human well-being.

4. Free, peaceful people come together voluntarily to build communities.

5. Free, peaceful people are enormously creative — and gravitate to excellence.

6. Free, peaceful people do not harm others, take others’ property, or pollute the environment.

7. Free, peaceful people tend to share and help others without coercion.

8. Free, peaceful people reasonably question authority.

9. Free, peaceful people don’t redistribute wealth, build utopias, or compel others to be the ends of an engineered society.

10. Free, peaceful people tend to be more tolerant, respectful, and loving.

Elsewhere, I’ve discussed the idea of different moral languages that lead us to the goal of peace and freedom.

Anything Peaceful unpacks an idea in another phrase, the so-called “nonaggression axiom.” (I’ll pass over pointless quibbles about using any less verbose form, such as that offered by Mill in the Harm Principle.) Despite the conceptual similarity among these terms, I’d suggest libertarians drop negative formulations in favor of Read’s.

Even if we look at the same picture, we can use any gestalt to highlight negative and positive aspects. We liberals who care about expanding our movement and making it more influential should urge others to adopt the positive form. Anything Peaceful is beautiful and ennobling—at least in my mind. It captures what’s aspirational about freedom while celebrating the conditions that give rise to flourishing.

Is the Anything Peaceful philosophy for you?

That’s between you and your conscience. But one might ask: Are the other values you hold dear competing or complementary? If you embrace the ideas of peace and cooperation, you might be ready to call yourself a true liberal. Anything Peaceful may appear to be just a slogan. But it is much deeper.

As true liberals, we know that virtually anything is possible in a condition of freedom. Despite accepting the truth that society is not ours to design or control, we take inspiration from appreciating that wonderful things sprout, align, and accrete like the multicolored flora and fauna of a coral reef. The unpredictability of free people working together to make life better is not something to be feared.

It is to be celebrated.

Those who embrace the Anything Peaceful philosophy will betray a mien of limitless potential. You can see it in our eyes because we have left the acrimony of politics and power behind to solve problems, form communities, and create experiences for others.

And while we occasionally rail against the State — with its monopoly on the initiation of violence — that railing does not define us. The desire for Anything Peaceful does. Because where there’s freedom, there’s a sacred fire, vaguely Promethean, which impels us to create, improve, and leave traces of a human community that realizes its potential for future generations.

At least for a time.

This is an updated and edited version of a piece I wrote for the Foundation for Economic Education. I hope the lesson still applies.