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“By directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.“

—Adam Smith

For years I have quoted this famous line from The Wealth of Nations, but have often wondered precisely what Adam Smith meant by "invisible hand." The answer is not to be found in his monumental book. Smith was a moral philosopher, so it is my guess that he referred to the Divine Will, the order producing factor in the universe. Invisible? Yes! Knowable? To some extent! If what I apprehend of the Divine Will is anywhere near correct, then I am obliged to try once more to explain the correlation between freedom and the remarkable outburst of creative energy experienced by the American people.

If freedom is not seen to be the reason for progress, it may be neglected and abandoned as of no value. When that happens, we are beset by all sorts of authoritarian controls, along with shortages and rationing. Does this not justify my attempt to explain?

The lives of all persons, be they dictocrats or practitioners of the Golden Rule, are identified with self-interest. The differences have to do with how intelligently self-interest is interpreted. The man to whom Adam Smith referred interpreted his self-interest as best served by producing goods or services of the greatest possible value that he might gain the most for himself. In a word, he was minding his own business. He intended nothing more; indeed, like most people then and now, he was utterly unaware of anything more — of consequences beyond his own gain.

However, have a look at the man who minds his own business; for certain, he is not minding anyone else’s business. By reason of this fact, no other person is restrained by him. All others, insofar as his actions are concerned, are free men, even though that thought does not occur to him. Just a man tending to his own knitting, oblivious of the beneficial over-all effects of such behavior — "led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention."

The end? Clear as crystal: the freedom of everyone to express his uniqueness and seek his own gain! No restraints — none whatsoever —against the release of creative human energy. It is this end and this alone which has accounted for the American miracle.

The Power of Attraction

Adam Smith’s man, releasing his own talents and permitting all others to release theirs, acts correctly, ideally. Correct action bears fruits unimaginable in quantity and quality. True, this astounding result is no part of his intention —he intends only his own gain. Further, the freedom which his kind of action assures is beyond the scope of sensory perception; it is not seen with the eyes or heard with the ears. It is in this sense invisible. As in a magnetic field, the forces of attraction are invisible; they cannot be seen or heard; nonetheless, they work. Freedom —its attractive forces likewise invisible — works!

When it is recognized that most people regard as reality only that which comes within the range of their sensory perceptions, it be comes clear why invisible freedom is so rarely correlated with human progress. The progress they observe is credited instead to what they can see or feel or hear: coercive gadgetry such as compulsory unionism, social security, medicare, socialized mail delivery, government education, dilution of the money supply, wage and price controls, rationing and, to top it off, national self-sufficiency, isolationism, call it what you will. Few, indeed, are those who realize that it is the attractive force of invisible freedom that accounts exclusively for whatever progress there is or ever will be.

It would be very well if Adam Smith’s economic man would persist in his ways — "by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain." He would, in this circumstance, "be led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention." But that man, to whom freedom is invisible, is the very one who, more than likely, is drawn off course, who correlates what is visible to him with the progress he observes. Unwittingly, he joins the interventionist parade, seeking gain not by improving his own industry but by trying to seize the fruits of the industry of others. Blindly, he becomes his own worst enemy. Adam Smith, be it noted, spoke of what ought to be, rather than what is.

Thank heaven, there are two ways of seeing. True, no one can see freedom with his eyes or hear it with his ears. Freedom, in this sense, is invisible. Were this the only way of seeing, the case for freedom would be hopeless. No one would ever correlate progress with men acting freely. All would be lost!

Seeing with Insight

The other way of seeing? Insight, with which a few are graced and many others could be.

Insight, rather than the outward, superficial glimpse of things and events, is an inward, behind the scenes observation — "the ability to understand and see clearly the inner nature of things." It is achieved, if at all, by reflecting on what one sees when looking under the covers, so to speak, for causal sequences. Perhaps such insights can be attributed to interceptions of the Divine Will. But without resort to mysticism, we do know that seekers after light experience more insights than non-seekers. "Seek and ye shall find," so it was said of old; and it is true today.

However, one does not need to reflect very deeply to see why all progress stems from individuals acting creatively as they freely choose without violating the right of others to do likewise. Merely assess your own life. Is it not obvious that no other could identify your uniqueness, be he acclaimed the wisest who ever lived. Adam Smith comments on this:

The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.

Further, so far as you are concerned, whoever you may be, all insights, flashes of intuition, discoveries, inventions are exclusively personal outcroppings; these enlightenments never have been or can they be the coercive impositions of any other person. Insights are not implants but outgrowths of the inner self.

One’s Social Duty

Freedom, while invisible to the eye that only looks outward, is clearly and easily visible to the eye that can and does see within. Freedom undeniably has the case. What is lacking is the insight.

Of course, ever so many people in today’s world will look down upon Adam Smith’s man who "intends only his own gain." They will charge that he is devoid of social consciousness, and so he may be; but not of social behavior. William Graham Summer possessed the insight to reveal this apparent contradiction.

Every man and woman in society has one big duty. That is, to take care of his or her own self. This is a social duty. For, fortunately, the matter stands so that the duty of making the best of one’s self individually is not a separate thing from the duty of filling one’s place in society, but the two are one, and the latter is accomplished when the former is done.¹

Freedom is indeed the invisible hand, the magnetic force that draws to the use of each the unique talents of everyone. As a part of this mysterious attractive force which governs the whole universe, it is not a surface thing for outward observation. Further, even those who see "the inner nature of things" do not know precisely what it is; they do, however, know that it is — and they know of the magic it works. May their tribe increase, for to the bounties of freedom there is no end.

¹ William Graham Sumner, What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1954), p. 98.