Working with undergraduate honor students is a great pleasure. FREE’s summer interns are from this set. They are normally headed on to graduate or professional school and not yet distracted by looming job prospects. Hence, they focus on ideas and ideals. I delight in sharing a few “life lessons” with them.

These students are self-selected, ambitious, and intellectually curious. Given their exposures to “progressive” dogma in colleges and universities, few have encountered the rigor and elegance of classical liberal thinking. It’s a treat to introduce them to the work of such scholars as Hayek, Friedman, and Sowell. Most of my friends who led the development of public choice theory are still alive and our interns meet a few of them each summer.

During the past decade, most have met, eaten with, and listened to the talks of economist Tom Schelling at our federal judges’ conferences. Tom was a founder of Harvard’s Kennedy School and his modesty and work have inspired me since I read his articles in The Public Interest, while a student and young professor. Ramona and I have signed copies of his books in our library. I’m especially pleased to share his wisdom, and that of his friends and colleagues, with FREE’s interns. (Also, I’ve had the pleasure of introducing Tom and his wife Alice to Republicans.)

Last year’s interns, Steph Baliga and Cart Weiland, surprised me with a collection of my observations on the way the world works. Both were top students and a joy to work with. Their writing flatters my casual observations.

Below are the first three. Cart is a student at Harvard Law School and Steph is working with a religious order. I’m confident that both organizations, like FREE, will gain from their contributions.

John Baden Articulated

As collected by Steph Baliga and F. Cartwright Weiland

FREE Interns, Summer 2009

1) Only otters have more fun than humans.

Frequently offered by John at the outset of each summer FREE conference, the quote is meant as an icebreaker of sorts. With many first-time participants at the table, John recognizes the need to assure people of the value of their commitment to the program, as if to say, “Hey, we’ve done this before. Don’t worry; it really is great fun!” Consequently, the participants begin to view the program as intellectual recreation, feeling more at ease to think critically about the issues at hand and contribute to discussion. Though the subject matter discussed is often complex and sometimes controversial, John’s statement and the context in which it’s made suggest that such complexity is a boon, not a burden. More generally, the quote reminds us that life’s drudgery needs to be checked by a certain degree of lightheartedness. Yes, life’s responsibilities mount as one ages, and yes, life often seems arduous and full of problems that require attention, but, in the end, there still remain ample opportunities for play. We may not have as much fun as otters, but we sure come close.

2) You can’t cheat with physical systems.

Unlike economists, lawyers, politicians, teachers, or people that deal with abstract systems in their respective professions, those working with “the furniture of the word” can’t fudge or ignore details. If construction workers and manufacturers were only as precise as economists, there would be multiple building collapses each day, electricity would work periodically (if at all), and every new appliance would come with warnings starting with “Assuming you….”

Those who work with physical systems know that there will be tangible and expensive consequences for their mistakes. We should keep this in mind when we leave our world of abstractions and enter the “real world” of cars, houses, and pull-up bars. Precision and accuracy, and the people that achieve them, are to be respected and revered.

3) It’s easier to forgive an injury than an insult.

The difference between injury and insult is chiefly one of intention on the part of the actor. When I am harmed in some way, I ask myself if such injury is an accident or is directed at me, and, if the latter, whether it is a deliberate slight against my character. If injury is accidental or at least is not intended to shame me, I am more likely to turn the other cheek. However, when my person is damaged from an insult, and my character is impugned, reconciliation will be more difficult. This is because insults imply an utter neglect of civility in social interactions. We believe we are entitled to a certain amount of respect and common decency, and when people disregard both and insult us, we are less likely to forgive and forget.

(Baden’s addition: I may have failed to elucidate an important corollary. Here it is: It’s exceedingly difficult, and often impossible, to forgive abandonment or betrayal. And these alas, are all too common in universities. Academics advance through many filters, but not those that select for courage or loyalty.)