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 LeFevre's poignant tribute to David Carradine
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The following commentary by the late Robert LeFevre originally appeared in Samuel Konkin III's New Libertarian Notes, Number 36, November 1974. It caught my attention because of the poignant 'tribute' it pays to actor David Carradine who is currently being torn to shreds in the press over the manner of his recent death. I reprint LeFevre's commentary in full below. David Carradine is an actor. He recently spent nearly $5,000 of his own money buying an ad in the Los Angeles Times. He did so because a movie he had recently seen angered him. he wanted to plead with the film producers to turn over a new leaf and give him a "happy ending."
His ad is worth quoting: "Why is tragedy the only kind of significance we understand? Why is it that if a movie is not stupid, violent, dirty, silly, scary, or weird, it must be sad?....All I want is to be happy and uplifted, have something to do on a Saturday night; have a good time; have some hope on Monday....I would like to pledge my own life and my career to the corny ideal of giving joy....Please give me a happy ending.
David Carradine has struck a responsive chord in a number of hearts, including my own.
How well I recall those exciting moments back in 1969 when a considerable number of people, many of them enrolled in the Young Americans for Freedom, began to turn their minds in the direction of a consistent philosophy of freedom. In conducting a number of sessions with a few of them, I was impressed, perhaps more than I should have been, by the thirst, the hope, the great yearning they expressed for a world in which the individual could be free to do what he wished to do with himself without fear of governmental incursions upon his life. In a sense, the ideal sought was that expressed by David Carradine. It was the hope of a happy ending--not in a film but in the life of the individual. And the members of the YAF Libertarian Caucus launched a "libertarian movement," as it has been called ever since.
I was exhilirated at finding so many who were so eager. And I was especially pleased to note that the great majority of these people had been involved directly or indirectly with political action and had finally seen through the sham and delusion that political action entails. They had found deceit, chicanery, and double dealing in the political arena and they cried out for something better to which they could devote their lives.
But how short is the attention span, how brief the high resolve. Large numbers of those who began the process of finding happiness in their own lives, of disclaiming all coercive practices, are drifting, some slowly, some with astonishing speed, back into the arms of the Circe of political action.
How well I recall my own excursion into politics as a member of the conservative wing of the Republican Party back in the halcyon days that brought Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford into political prominence. And I remember how thoroughly I believed that if I could be elected, or help get into office some "good men" with the same views I had, how we could "save" the economy and the country and everything else worth saving.
But in those days there were magnificent teachers right at their prime and I benefitted by knowing them and having them dash my illusions about the uses of power. Men like von Mises, Baldy Harper, V. Orval Watts, Frank Chodorov, Leonard Read, and some remarkably astute women like Ayn Rand, Rose Wilder Lane, Isabel Paterson, and others, held up the banner of individual nobility and scorned the doctrine that might can be sanctified and made beautiful by some election process.
Alas, the lust for power over others by means of which to impose good upon them is probably the ultimate snare and delusion. It is a kind of addiction, luring each Sir Galahad into the morass called "the end justifies the means."
But this is not the time to mourn. There is one enormously bright area in the darkling sky. It attests to the youth of those who seek power in order to do good. It is probably true that all youth is attracted by the glamour of violence, even the disguised violence of majority-seeking processes.. And the movement of so many who say they favor liberty into the political arena is, after all, a reflection of the youthfulness of the libertarian movement. It has scarcely cut its eyeteeth and it must learn and test its strength and make mistakes and, by mistaking, learn still more.
So here's to liberty and here's to those who profess to love this elusive lady. Their concern is real and vital. And with that combination, sooner or later, learn they will.
Wendy McElroy
- Friday 12 June 2009 - 07:16:51
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