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Like many younger individuals who learn and beloved Ayn Rand’s works, I adopted not simply her concepts, but in addition a few of her baggage. The issue was that it was arduous for me, at 17, to resolve what was baggage and what wasn’t. Rand typically went overboard however not all the time. Her denunciations as “evil” of sure individuals and concepts have been justified: Hitler and Nazism and Stalin and communism come to thoughts. However what about my nice Aunt Ruby, one of many neatest outdated individuals I knew? Was she evil for voting for the New Democratic Social gathering, Canada’s socialist social gathering? For some time I assumed so. I don’t suppose that distorted pondering would have lasted lengthy had I by no means heard of Milton Friedman. However Friedman hastened my transition.
This one of many paragraphs in my article “Milton Friedman: A Private Tribute,” The Freeman, Could 2007. I got here throughout a tough copy whereas attempting to arrange the chaos that’s my workplace.
Rereading the article made me understand how a lot I miss him. We corresponded from 1973 to the early 2000s. In a lot of the correspondence he would give agency however benevolent recommendation. He as soon as referred to his function as that of a “Dutch Uncle.” I don’t like unsolicited recommendation, as my associates know, and I not often requested Milton for recommendation. However he was the exception. I welcomed it as a result of he cared sufficient to take time from his busy day to offer it.
One other passage:
He was good; and he didn’t isolate himself amongst those that agreed with him however, as a substitute, stepped out within the larger world. I do know that niceness doesn’t imply a lot to many individuals who spend their lives steeped in concepts, nevertheless it meant quite a bit to me. I had already sensed, from studying and studying about Rand and Rothbard, that there gave the impression to be a package deal deal in libertarianism: to carry the thought of freedom on the planet, one wanted to assault those that disagreed and encompass oneself with those that agreed. I didn’t need to be that approach. I had all the time wished to be good and, aside from the few months after I learn The Fountainhead, once I introduced to my mom that I might now not go to the grocery store for her as a result of that might be self-sacrifice, I used to be good.
I additionally wished to keep away from the form of isolation from mental and generational equals that Rand and Rothbard had chosen, and to be within the larger world. I later noticed, when watching Friedman’s TV sequence Free to Select in 1980, simply how effectively Friedman did at disagreeing with out being unpleasant. He welcomed all comers, regardless of how they disagreed, and he by no means hit beneath the belt. I used to be turning into this manner too, however he helped me get there sooner.
Learn the entire thing, which isn’t lengthy.
P.S. Right here’s my bio of Milton in The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
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