Intellectual Activism

The intellectual-activist approach seeks to convey an understanding of freedom and the ideas that underlie freedom to society at large. At this time, this approach offers the greatest potential benefit for those who truly desire freedom, because it recognizes that human beings act based on their ideas. Thought is the beginning point of human action: even when people merely act on their feelings, their feelings—as well as their policy of acting on their feelings—can be traced to their past thinking (pp. 1.3:84-8). Therefore intellectual change is the proper leverage point for those who seek positive changes to people's feelings and behavior, as well as their beliefs.

This reeducation process, it should be recognized, cannot be accomplished through the state-controlled school system. As we have already noted, government schools, by their very nature, are almost inevitably oriented toward a predominantly altruistic, collectivistic, and statist perspective (p. 5.4:70-1). Concepts such as independence, responsibility, and individual freedom must therefore be communicated to both children and adults through nongovernmental schools and media.      Next page


Previous pagePrevious Open Review window