Saint Francis of Assisi

Free to Choose
On Economy, Ideology, and Achievement

Brother Sun  Within the Catholic tradition, there have been a number of movements based on the ideal of poverty. A representative of the various paupertas movements is that initiated by Saint Francis of Assisi (c.1182-1226). The son of a rich merchant, Francis was the typical prodigal son in his youth. After a stay in prison, Francis renounced his father's wealth and founded the male monastic order of Franciscans, preaching about the desirability of a poor, simple lifestyle. He also wrote poems, among them the well-known Canticle of Brother Sun. After the death of Saint Francis, the practical problems associated with his money-less economic theory led to schism of Franciscans into the Conventuals who continued Francis' ideals of poverty and the Capuchins who thought of these ideals as unrealistic and impractical. Famous members of the Franciscan order were Duns Scotus, William of Occam, Roger Bacon, and Junipero Serra, the founder of California missions. An influential Capuchin was Francois Leclerc du Tremblay (1577-1638), also known as Pere Joseph, who as the advisor of Cardinal Richelieu may have influenced French entry into the Thirty Years' War as an ally of Protestants.

Protestant Ethic and Achievement  Max Weber (1864-1920) who proposed a causal link between Calvinism and the rise of capitalism occupies a prominent position among the eulogists of Protestantism. Weber is best known for his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905). Weber maintained that this ethic is promulgated by the Protestant religion in general and by Calvinism in particular. He theorized that the central Calvinist doctrine, that of double predestination, created in Calvinists feelings of uncertainty and anxiety regarding their state of grace. To reduce this anxiety, Calvinists committed themselves to a strict self-discipline and concentrated all their energy toward accumulation of wealth. Thus practicing Calvinists were more likely to succeed in the emerging capitalist economy, and, in Weber’s opinion, helped to create it. The material success and subsequent accumulation of wealth tended to assure the Calvinists that they were in a state of grace because God bestowed wealth upon them.

The Friedmans' Scale  In market economies a person’s power is measured by the golden rule: who has the gold, rules. The present discussion pertains to the economic-ideological structure of the book by Milton and Rose Friedman, Free to Choose. The book was read by a group of graduate students enrolled in a seminar on theory of tests and measurements. Sentences expressing value judgments were written on index cards in the form of agree-disagree test questions. Statements recorded by two or more readers were assembled into a questionnaire, which was administered to a group of subjects and analyzed. In the following sections, the proportion of respondents endorsing each item is listed within parentheses. If not indicated otherwise, an item was scored in the ‘agree’ direction. Items marked with an asterisk were scored in the ‘disagree’ direction. The Freedmans’ book was excerpted as follows.

  Education  The growing role that government has played in financing and administering schooling has led not only to enormous waste of taxpayers’ money but also to a far poorer educational system (.61). Declining test scores throughout the country, increasing crime, violence, and disorder at urban schools, opposition on the overwhelming majority of both whites and blacks to compulsory busing - all this is a result of the trend toward centralization, bureaucratization, and socialization of schooling (.53). In education, student performance has dropped as federal intervention has expanded (.46). Government finance is needed to promote educational opportunity (.46*). Government takeover of the educational system has reduced the quality and diversity of schooling (.54). State control of education is another example of the common element in authoritarian and socialist philosophies (.54). The self-interest of the educational bureaucracy is the key obstacle to the introduction of market competition in schooling (.51).

  Government, welfare, equality, freedom  Government is today the major source of economic instability (.59). We have gone very far in the past fifty years in expanding the role of government in the economy. The limitations imposed on our economic freedom threaten to bring two centuries of economic progress to an end (.63). Public assistance programs weaken the family, reduce the incentive to work, save and innovate, reduce the accumulation of capital, and limit our freedom (.60). The use of force is at the very heart of the welfare state-a bad means tends to corrupt the good ends. That is also the reason why the welfare state threatens our freedom so seriously (.55). The government bureaucrats, academics whose research is supported by government funds, staff of the many so-called ‘general interest’ or ‘public policy’ groups, journalists and others in the communications industry - are among the most ardent preachers of the doctrine of equality. To members of this new class, preaching equality has proved to be an effective means to achieve one of the highest incomes in the community (.41). More government activity should be directed at altering the distribution of income generated by the market to produce a different and more equal distribution of income (.66*). A society that puts equality of outcome ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom (.76). Increasing sums of money and increasingly rigid controls have been imposed on us to promote racial integration, yet our society seems to be becoming more fragmented (.67).

  Socialism  Central economic planning is the wave of the future. (a) It will provide a world of plenty shared equally. (b) It would be a turn to tyranny and misery (.53). The elimination of unemployment, the vast production of war material that made the US the ‘arsenal of democracy' and the unconditional victory over Germany and Japan demonstrates the capacity of government to run the economic system more effectively than ‘unplanned capitalism.’ (.33*). Socialism, intellectually bankrupt after more than a century of seeing one after another of its arguments for socializing the means of production demolished, now seeks to socialize the results of production. This new trend will (a) be also discredited. (b) result in more equality, benefiting a majority of people (.71). Nationalized industries proved so inefficient and generated such large losses that only a few die-hard Marxists today regard further nationalization as desirable (.54). The economic controls that have proliferated in recent decades have not only restricted our freedom to use our economic resources, they have also affected our freedom of speech, of press, and of religion (.38). The century from Waterloo to the WW I was one of the most peaceful in human history among Western Nations. People were free to travel all over Europe and much of the rest of the world without passports. They were free to buy and sell goods to and from anyone. (a) This is a striking example of the beneficial effects of free trade on the relations among the nations. (b) This is not a true picture of the nineteenth century - the era of the robber baron, rugged individualism, heartless monopoly capitalism, and exploitation of the poor (.29).

Structure of the Free to Choose Scale  In combination with other scales comprising our East-West dimension the Free to Choose Scale was administered to a group of subjects. It showed substantial correlations with the scales comprising the West pole of the East-West dimension. The ideological character of the Freedmans’ economic theory is definitely pro-capitalist. Its emphasis is on self-reliance, past-future time orientation, immediate critical appraisal and a belief system that is based primarily on cognition and secondarily on affect. It seems to appeal to entrepreneurs with a preference for reason over creativity, critical over imaginative, prescriptive vs. non-discursive modes of operations, and legalistic-impersonal personnel policies. On the opposing pole of the dimension, anchored on its Western end by Free to Choose Scale, is Thoreau's Walden where Thoreau maintains that 'most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meager life than the poor. The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindu, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich in inward.' (1854, p.17).

Ultima Veritas  Toward the end of his life, David McClelland (1917-1998) attempted to evaluate the impact of his life-long work that aimed at quantification of socially relevant events. McClelland writes that he attempted to show historians how things could be done, but that in the intervening years he did not notice a slightest inclination on the part of the historians to follow his example. History in general  and most historians in particular, with few notable exceptions, remain subservient to the establishment, heading the 'ultima veritas' inscription that can be found on barrels of medieval cannons.  David McClelland's most influential books are The Achievement Motive (1953), The Achieving Society (1961), and The Roots of Consciousness (1964). In The Achievement Motive McClelland described his methodology, In the Achievement Motivation he framed his methodology in a theoretical framework of social theories of Parsons and Marx and theories of history of Sorokin and Toynbee. In the Roots of Consciousness he collected his insights into German and American national characters, psychoanalysis, mysticism, methodology of physical sciences, works of Andre Gide, and the role of Harlequin in the history of the theatre. McClelland innovative measurement techniques encompassed content analysis of stories from children's readers, classical literature of Greece and Rome, literature of the Golden Age of Spain, statistics on coal production, passenger miles flown by different airlines, and ring tosses of children. However, most of his studies revolved around the measurement of the need for achievement, need of affiliation, and need for power.

The Need for Achievement  Using content analysis of projective tests and historical documents, McClelland have described the role need for achievement plays in the formation, flourishing, and fall of societies and civilizations. Analyses of documents from early stages of a civilization typically show high levels of the need for achievement. With the passage of time, the need for achievement is replaced by the need for power and violence within a society increases, as well as the probability of war. An instrument often used to measure need of achievement is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The TAT is a collection of illustrations that are used to elicit a story. A picture might portray a darkened profile of a young person in a pensive mood with the hand under his or her chin, sitting at a windowsill and looking into the night. If a subject after viewing this picture writes a story that the person within this picture is dreaming of becoming a surgeon, scientist, or inventor, the story is scored for the need of achievement. A the story is about the boy thinking about his girlfriend, the story is scored for the need for affiliation.

  About Doodles  One does not have to use the TAT pictures to elicit stories expressing the need for achievement. These stories may be found in magazines, books, and children's readers or portrayed in movies and theaters. If a story is popular, it may express not only the motivation of the writer, but can also reflect the needs that the readers, audience, and motivational currents within a society. Achievement motivation also finds its expression in art. Sculptures, paintings, and architecture may reflect these motivational traits. Straight lines are generally indicators of achievement motivation, convoluted lines indicate the lack of it. There are studies describing a relationship between types of doodles produced at dull, boring meetings and the achievement motivation of their authors. A complex mess of entangled lines is more likely to be drawn by persons with a low level of achievement motivation. Doodles consisting of straight lines indicate resoluteness characteristic of persons with high levels of achievement motivation.

 Amphorae from Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian Times  Roaming through Greece’s countryside or paging through a book describing her architecture, one may observe that, as the time progressed, the straight, slender columns of the Doric order were replaced by the volutes on the capital of columns of the Ionic order. With additional passage of time, the clustered leaves adorning the capitals of columns of the Corinthian order supplanted the columns of the Ionic order. The Doric order is the oldest and simplest of the three stages of classical Greek architecture. Fluted columns with plain, saucer-shaped capitals are typical of this architectural style. The Ionic order is characterized by two volutes in the capital and is named for an ancient region of Asia Minor along the coast of the Aegean Sea. According to legend, the design of the capital of the Corinthian columns was inspired by the sight of acanthus leaves growing from a basket placed by a mourning lover on the grave of his loved one. The Doric order marks the rise of classical Greece, the Ionic order its flourishing, and the Corinthian order its decline. These architectural changes paralleled changes in the general level of achievement motivation of classical Greece. Shortly after the invention of scuba diving apparatus, treasure hunters began to recover Greek amphorae from the ancient Greek ship sunk in the Mediterranean. Adorned by scenes from Greek mythology, amphorae served as containers for transport of grain. Analyzing paintings on the amphorae recovered from the sea floor, the level of achievement motivation encoded within the painting’s design was related to the distance of the location of their recovery from Athens. The more prosperous the country, the larger the area of its commerce, the more straight lines within paintings on amphorae resting for centuries on the bottom of the Mediterranean.

Speeding Train vs. Vast Expanse of Sky  While studying achievement motivation, David McClelland made an interesting observation: watches of subjects with high need to achieve were consistently set few minutes faster. When we are bored or waiting, time seems to pass slowly. A colleague of mine had a poster in his office that read: 'If I had only a day to live, I would spend it in a statistics class.' To measure the subjective perception of time we used the Knapp's metaphors, related to the perception of time, such as the fleeing thief, a galloping horseman, or a speeding train, a quiet motionless ocean, a road leading over a hill, a vast expanse of sky rated on a 7-point scale.

 Subjective experience of time For the measurement of subjective estimates of the fixed time intervals, we used a modification of J.W. Lovett Doust’s method where subjects are discouraged from mental counting, asked to close their eyes, and to report when 5, 15, 30, and 60-second intervals had passed. Scores on this scale of subjective estimates of the fixed time intervals are the discrepancies between the reported and physical time. We found that the subjects' ratings of the time-related metaphors were highly correlated with the subjective estimations of the fixed time intervals.

Pleasant psychic states result in the underestimation of time.

Unpleasant psychic states result  in  the overestimation of time.

Dilated and accelerated experience of time On the psychological level, Gulliksen reported that pleasant psychic states result in the underestimation of time, unpleasant ones result in overestimation. McClelland documented that subjects with high need for achievement overestimate time, while subjects with low need for achievement, underestimate it. On the physiological level, Sterzinger reported underestimation of time intervals after the application of quinine, overestimation after administration of caffeine, and thyroxin. Within the context of the Consciousness Scales, we found that subjects affiliated with the Western dimension perceive time as accelerated. Subjects affiliated with the Eastern dimension perceive time as dilated.

Telescoping of time During our experiments with psychedelic drugs we observed that the telescoping of time was frequently reported.

Images of Wealth  If imagery is associated with the achievement motivation, can imagery also influence the accumulation of wealth? We examined this possibility in an experiment described in an article Imagery and success: Are dimensions of mental imagery valid predictors of the accumulation of wealth? A short version of the Betts Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery was used in this study. The Betts questionnaire is an adaptation of Galton’s Breakfast Table Questionnaire, designed to measure the vividness of imagery. In addition to the Betts questionnaire, subjects also received a separate list of questions that pertained to assessment of success, outcomes of imagery-related activities, and vividness of sensory recall. Our subjects were persons with highly varied economic status. The low-income group consisted of subjects drawn from persons frequenting a public dining room, administered by charity. Responses of the high-income group were solicited by mail to prominent persons in the Phoenix, Arizona area. Subjects classified as an intermediate-income group were recruited from local bank employees, merchants, and other members of the Phoenix business community. Scores on the Betts Questionnaire were correlated with the criterion variable of monetary success (the age, sex, and educational level were partialled out). Results showed a positive relationship between vividness of mental imagery and achievement as measured by monetary success. Imaginative persons had a higher income than persons with low frequencies of mental images. All that it takes to get rich is to imagine a pile of money. Or does it?

References

Krus, D. J. & Kennedy, P.H. (1982) Some characteristics of Apollonian and Dionysian dimensions of economic theories. Psychological Reports, 50, 967-974.

Friedman, J. S. & Krus, D. J. (1983) Imagery and success: are dimensions of mental imagery valid predictors of the accumulation of wealth? Educational and Psychological Measurement, 43, 557-562.