National Affairs: TOWARD OPEN SOCIETIES

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Iron Curtains Bestow Advantages, But So Does Freedom

The Anglo-American relies upon personal interest to accomplish his ends, and gives free scope to the unguided strength and common sense of the people; the Russian centers all the authority of society in a single arm. The principal instrument of the former is freedom; of the latter, servitude.

—De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1835

DURING the turbulent fortnight preceding President Eisenhower's declaration that "a world of open societies" is a major U.S. goal, many voices in the West bemoaned the strategic disadvantages of an open society in competition with a closed, authoritarian society. In justifying the null need to send U25 flying over Russia, U.S. spokesmen repeatedly pointed to the great advantage of secrecy that Iron Curtains bestow7—almost as if Iron Curtains were something to envy. Temporarily forgotten was the balancing fact that closed societies have their competitive disadvantages, too—and open societies their competitive advantages.

President Eisenhower himself articulated some of the competitive disadvantages of the open society. "Here in our country," he said in last week's televised speech to the nation, "anyone can buy maps and aerial photographs showing our cities, our dams, our plants, our highways—indeed, our whole industrial and economic complex. We know Soviet attaches regularly collect this information. Last fall Chairman Khrushchev's train passed no more than a few hundred feet from an operational ICBM. in plain view from his window." But openness also has its advantages. It fosters self-scrutiny and public criticism and free speech—more effective restraints against corruption, inefficiency and injustice than any secret police.

The closed society surfers from the absence of these restraints. Ruthless, singleminded concentration of men and treasure on a single project may lead to spectacular results (example: Sputnik). But the monolithic closed society lacks the flexibility to improvise and change its plans. "It is not prepared to go off into new, unplanned fields." says University of Chicago Historian Daniel Boorstin. "But the open society is a world where everything can be tried." Adds Bishop Gerald Kennedy, president of the Methodist Council of Bishops: "The overwhelmingly important strength of a free society is the individual—the lonely man. whether he be in a laboratory, in a church, in his home, who gropes for and finds ideas and then expresses them. This is creativity. This is what a closed society does not permit."