On Andrew Galambos and His Primary Property Ideas

Alvin Lowi, Jr.
e-mail: a l o w i @ e a r t h l i n k . n e t
Original Version: March 31, 1998
© 1998-2000 Alvin Lowi – All Rights Reserved

Section 4

"THE PASSIVE INNOVATOR": A THEORETICAL OVERSIGHT

Galambos set out to perfect and implement his theory and system for the protection of primary property to make the world safe for innovators as the creators of human progress. His approach to the subject assumed that "innovators are seldom entrepreneurs."¹¹ Since such a vision of humanity is defective that may account for many of the problems Galambos encountered in trying to reduce his theory to practice.

A more realistic view of humanity for the purposes of understanding a free society is that all volitional beings comprising it are full-time entrepreneurs whatever else they may be. The alternative is wage slavery or worse. Entrepreneurial activity must include a modicum of innovation in order to succeed in a competitive world without conflict and force. But there is no such thing as a full-time innovator. A man is still a biological organism and he has to eat to remain alive. He cannot eat his ideas no matter how "fertile." He must "sell" them to others or "sell" others on the merits of engaging in their use for a fee thereby behaving entrepreneurially. The only alternatives he has are mendicancy and predation.

Contracting provides the instrumentation for the exchange anticipated by all this "selling" activity. To be effective, the contractual terms that are to be performed must be practical for and profitable to all parties involved. If they are too stringent or esoteric, they may be useful only to establish injury and fix blame for it in an inevitable default of such a contract.

Concentration on protecting a passive innovator from all possible usurpation regardless of his entrepreneurial competence or prudence leads to a concentration on remedies for injuries that can make no creative social history. Such a theory might not even be able to explain how recourse to restitution of injuries can be effected without invoking further injury or spreading the conflict. What it can do is scandalize plunder as if discouragement of the ugly practice is somehow a remedy, let alone a substitute for know-how in the peaceful and productive administration of property.

SOCIAL EVOLUTION VIS-À-VIS UTOPIA

Society is not some ideal world that exists only in the imagination. It is a real or natural phenomenon that can be experienced and, indeed, is experienced in the preponderance of everyday life. If an ideal world like Galambos’ "Natural Republic" was essential for human society to really function, then most people would have to be existing in a state of suspended animation and remain so until they get a wake-up call from the new regime under construction. Clearly, this is not so. In actuality, society consists of real human beings interacting autonomously in their inimitable manner and such peaceful behavior is very much in evidence at the present time, albeit neither universal nor newsworthy. That people can and will become more competent in expressing their autonomous approaches to life seems to be the natural course of human affairs which is aided and abetted by the science and technology perfected by humankind. If this were not so, civilization would have ended before it started and there would be no clues to the future of the human race as such.

Complete autonomy unabridged by forceful or deceptive intrusions or interventions into the lives of some by others has been idealized as a "free society." Curiously, such a free society does not offer complete freedom for autonomous individuals. This is because there is no such thing as freedom from the "laws of nature." Obviously, one can never know enough to always be in harmonious alignment with nature. Conflict with other people is a sure sign of ignorance or worse. Knowing how to recognize the property of others is valuable for avoiding such conflict, and reciprocity is best taught by example. To the extent this is what Galambos had in mind, his work is to be commended and it will be recognized in the future of society.

Galambos’ "spaceland" concept is actually only a state of mind to be enjoyed by each person who apprehends it. When he associated that idea with what he called "The Natural Republic," he catered, I believe inadvertently, to false hopes deeply embedded in the human psyche for the construction of an institutional contrivance that would bring real human freedom to the world. In this regard, Galambos was in good company with the likes of John Locke, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and other less respectable advocates of a Utopia. However, history has been very unkind to such expectations, as Galambos well knew. He developed a somewhat more promising model of progress for human freedom, a vision of society that went well beyond anything imaginable to his liberal ancestors by virtue of his concept of wholly non-political government and his emphasis on entrepreneureship, proprietary administration and innovation. Although he was not entirely comfortable with the implications of his model --specifically that self-government was the only known example that was consistent with it--he could accept the idea of social evolution in terms of the spontaneous order that results from a growing competence among autonomous individuals. This was evidenced by his eloquent treatments of the virtues of honesty and integrity. But he was impatient with the natural processes at work that actually bring about such conditions. I believe his impatience got the better of him when it came to getting across to others the real merit of his vision.

In clinging to visions of engineered social contrivances that are to be "built" to purpose, Galambos indulged in a sort of play-acting among his followers. This approach is reminiscent of earlier social movements calling for the establishment of certain ideal institutions thought to be prerequisite to social life. Sir Thomas More was the first to write such a script.¹² More’s title Utopia (meaning "no such place" in Greek) was appropriate to his subject, namely an ideal state of affairs he envisioned in which all is ordered for the "best" of mankind "as a whole" and the "evils" of society--poverty, misery, etc.--have been done away with.¹³ Galambos was the first person to enlighten me on this priceless bit of etymology proving he was well aware of the difference between reality and ideality. But obviously, he was not the first person to lose track of that difference in the course of a zealous campaign for setting the world to "right."

GALAMBOS’ HERITAGE

Galambos was cognizant of the factors that contribute to the accretion and safekeeping of property in society. But he failed to come to grips with them realistically in his own life. To some extent, this was a disciplinary problem with him that every innovator faces. To realize immediate income from a disclosure of heretofore-unimagined notions has to be a great feat of intellect and personality. To have inspired others to accept his ideas and act out his ideological program has to be an even greater one. Galambos took great pride in the fact that he was able to realize immediate income from his lectures, but he was in denial when it came to recognizing that his know-how was inadequate to ensure he would receive the kind of appreciation and recognition he had in mind. This was tantamount to denying that his theory was incomplete or defective as the case may be.

In any event, Galambos compromised his control objectives for financial gain as would most innovators in his circumstances. However, more than would some, he disdained patient investment of his work in a more controllable vehicle such as a controlled-circulation book.¹⁴ One can only speculate as to the reasons for this neglect. Yet, had he not gone ahead with his disclosures without any durable documentation or greater assurances of protection, his ideas may never have seen the light of day, whereupon we would not be here now discussing them and struggling to apply them. He did, after all, have more lucrative business and professional alternatives available to him in his life.¹⁵

Galambos was famous for the shortness of his patience and the magnificence of his obsession. This combination of "virtues" left him vulnerable to consequences he was not prepared to accept. But he proceeded anyway to give his courses withholding nothing because he felt morally obligated to fully disclose all the information pertinent to the ideological program he was promoting. For some, this was more than they really wanted to know. For others, it was far too little. Afterward, when he saw his ideas being embraced, adapted and implemented by others as he ostensibly wished, he took the last resort of the scoundrel, namely moral intimidation, in an attempt to maintain his exclusivity--as if he could ever have been copied. In this respect, Galambos underrated himself as a person because, if nothing else, his style, passion and insight was inimitable and he obviously enjoyed his work while he was at it. He also realized a great ego profit that comes to very few because few are as well equipped to profit from teaching as he was. Galambos manifested genuine charisma to go with his encyclopedic knowledge.

Galambos achieved a good measure of what he set out to do in terms of developing the traits of honesty, integrity, self-reliance, scholarship and skepticism in his students. To this extent, had aligned himself harmoniously with nature, albeit grudgingly. His extreme idealism seemed to prevent him from taking a full measure of profit from his success. Although he did not acknowledge it, he was also aligned with Thomas Kuhn, Arthur Koestler, F. A. Hayek, Spencer Heath, F. A. Harper and other authors who have pointed out the intimate relationship of intellectual property to technology and thereby to the advancement of civilization. Even without a book to his credit, Galambos probably contributed more to this particular cause than any of them because he so significantly raised the level of consciousness for proprietary administration of intellectual property. Beyond that, Galambos had invented an abstract system of primary property protection, a castle in the sky, so to speak, with which he administered an esthetic experience for most, an intellectual inspiration for some and an emotional ordeal for a few. Because his teachings on the subject lacked immediate practical application, many of his students became frustrated and worried, but hardly more than he was.

As has been suggested previously by at least one of the Free Enterprise Institute's original faculty members, "common law" experience represents an important source of data in the development of "volitional science." Little of this perspective seems to have survived in Galambos’ approach. Nevertheless, he definitely established the kind of consensus common law accords owners, albeit not to the extent or level of intensity that he wished. Indeed, he was contemptuous of the merely consensual notion of ownership believing as he did that there was some higher standard of recognition that derived from his theory.

Galambos failed to express his ownership in contractual form. He pronounced moral judgment rhetorically in advance on anyone who would disclose or otherwise make use of his ideas without authorization. He insisted that definite and specific social manifestations of "his ideas" could not be comfortably pursued by specific others volitionally for mutual profit unless explicitly sanctioned by him. So it was more by default than error in theory that he did not live to see more progress with his ideological program. For example, he never exercised an owner’s prerogative by answering the questions of authorization, which a legitimate owner is obliged to do. Thus, his splendid vision of proprietary administration of ideas remains largely untried.

Even now, some of Galambos’ brightest and most enthusiastic students are paralyzed over a moral dilemma regarding their authority to recite let alone research or extrapolate Galambos ideas without specific authorization from Galambos himself or his "moral" trustee. Since such authorization is not now nor ever was forthcoming, those believers so afflicted who persist in their abstinence face intellectual suicide. Once having apprehended Galambos’ grand vision of the future, their thinking about the world can never be the same as before. To think or not to think is a false alternative, which they must set aside in order to become whole persons. That they must act even though they do not understand all they know, or appreciate all the consequences of their actions, is reminiscent of one of Galambos’ favorite quotations. Attributed to the famous electrical engineer and innovator Oliver Heaviside, he said: "Must I refuse to eat because I do not understand the process of digestion."

Galambos may have made a serious error in connection with is dream of founding of a science of volition. In his expositions of scientific method, he established with great clarity that validity and truth (which he was inclined to lump together under the term "rationality") together suffice to prove scientific rectitude. However, he subsequently introduced an ad hoc moral criterion that applied only to social phenomena when testing any theories of such.

Originally, Galambos, the scientist and natural philosopher, considered morality to be whatever code of human conduct (ethics) a proper social science would accredit. But he got impatient to implement his ideological program regardless of the maturity of the underlying science. While the specific moral criterion he chose--integrity of property--to be imposed on the usual criteria of scientific rectitude--truth and validity--is a prime candidate for accreditation by science as a "law of nature," the scientific cycle has yet be completed on the question. Thus, it remains a hypothesis, albeit a highly pregnant one.

Galambos created a serious problem when he took a promising postulate for a science of society and elevated it to the status of parity with the traditional scientific criteria of "rightness." That decision not only spoiled his epistemological clarity but it also complicated the practice of the scientific method in his chosen domain of phenomena well beyond necessity. It was not like him to dismiss Occham’s advice without a by-your-leave. When he so enshrined his property postulate as a matter of faith, it was never thereafter to be questioned. Then, he came to regard any doubt as to the relevance of his moral criterion of "absolute rightness" to be tantamount to sanctioning immoral behavior. This judgmental posture unnecessarily handicapped him as well as his followers in apprehending, let alone realizing, his grand and esthetic visions of the future of civilization based on scientific method.

One might ask what else could he have done. One thing comes to mind. He could have treated "property" as a property of social phenomena, looking for indications under the rules of scientific method as to the implication for peaceful and creative social behavior, whatever that means.

References and Notes

¹¹ A. J. Galambos, "The Nature and Protection of Primary Property," Course V-201, Free Enterprise Institute, Los Angeles, CA, October, 1965.

¹² Thomas More, Utopia, 1516.

¹³ The Columbia Encyclopedia in One Volume, Columbia University Press, New York, 1940.

¹⁴ In 1963, a group of enthusiastic patrons of FEI assembled in Galambos' offices on East Beverly Blvd. to hear a book proposal by this author, then an FEI faculty member. This proposal, complete with an annotated table of contents, was presented to Galambos with his indulgence. A textbook was to be prepared in the manner of Wilson's treatment of J.W. Gibbs Vector Analysis, a text-bookfor the use of students of Mathematics and Physics founded upon the lectures of J. Willard Gibbs , by E. B. Wilson, Chas. Scribner and Sons, New York 1901.This work had been exemplified by Galambos as a proper one for an author who had more urgent matters to contend with. A limited printing of controlled-circulation, serialized copies was subscribed for in advance at a price of $500 per copy. Only one hundred copies would be printed by FEI and these were already over-subscribed as evidenced by the premiums being offered by the 20 or so existing subscribers for multiple copies with low copy numbers. Galambos was amazed to see this bidding but he avowed that the subscription price was outrageously high and he would not sanction any book of his to be so "overpriced." At this point in the proceedings, Dr. George N. Haddad, another faculty member and an active bidder for the first ten numbered copies, suggested to Galambos that if he thought the price was too high, he should not buy one. In the end, Galambos shunned this project without further explanation. Needless to say, such behavior had put a damper on the enthusiasm of FEI’s first generation of students.

¹⁵ Besides his recognized competence as an astrophysicist and mathematician, Galambos obtained a brokerage license from the National Association of Securities Dealers. During the 1950's. He built and operated a successful business firm dba Universal Shares, Inc. specializing in the then new field of mutual fund investments using dollar-cost-averaging techniques. He is still remembered more than forty years later by many satisfied clients who got their first real taste of capitalism with his help as the enhanced their personal wealth in the process by acting on his investment advice. After forming the Free Enterprise Institute in 1961, he gradually phased out his investment practice to devote all his energies to his lectures. He eventually became so pessimistic about the health of American capitalism on ideological grounds that he shunned stock market investments altogether. Much to his chagrin, his latter-day disdain for investment in corporate securities through mutual funds proved to be financially disappointing for him and his loyal students.