Liberty and community: John Mackey's version.

Sunni Maravillosa interviews Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, the result being the best interview I have read with Mr. Mackey to date. Mackey explains how starting his own small business forced him to rethink the characterizations of businessmen as greedy capitalist exploiters. The interview touches on one of my favorite conversations, namely, the problems that libertarian individualists have with the word "community" and/or "collective". Mackey remarks:

I think the reason why many libertarians object to the words "collective", "shared fate", and "community citizenship" is that they associate those words with coercive, involuntary organizations such as the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture under communism or other totalitarian political organizations. Needless to say I don't use these words in these contexts. I believe in voluntary cooperation as the key principle for organizing any collective organization. Whole Foods Market is a collective based on voluntary cooperation between all the various stakeholders. No one is forced to cooperate against their will and all are free to withdraw from the collective organization anytime they wish to. A collective without freedom is by nature coercive and is therefore unlikely to lead to human flourishing. However, collectives based on freedom and voluntary cooperation can lead to very high levels of human flourishing. Indeed, I seriously doubt that high levels of human flourishing are even possible without voluntary cooperation from millions of various communities and collectives.

Mackey stresses that he did not begin his business for profit-- he opened his first store for fun. In fact, Mackey's "New Business Paradigm" (see below) does not put profit at the center. On his business philosophy, Mackey expounds:

Free-market economists have done a major disservice to capitalism and to business by making profit maximization the supposed primary goal of business. The terrible reputation of business in the world today is a direct result of the belief that business has no other purpose besides maximizing profits. The average person believes that business should care about its customers, employees, society, suppliers, the environment -- as well as its investors. The fact that business philosophers and economists articulate a philosophy that business should only care about maximizing profits and shareholder value (and has no other compelling ethical responsibilities to any of the other stakeholders) has done incalculable harm to the reputation of business. The "brand of business" in the widest sense is pretty terrible throughout the world.

Randians, take note-- you don't need the virtue of selfishness as a justification for appreciating the contributions of entrepreneurs to society. And perhaps we do need other people after all. Even I get a little lonely when my cigarettes run out. I hope that Mackey is right-- that his business model wins. And I hope that libertarians get more serious about peace, love, understanding, and community. To quote Mackey again:

Human beings are both individuals and members of communities (or collectives). We learn and grow best through relationships and our growth will always be limited without them. I haven't met anyone that I consider to be self-actualizing who did it all by themselves. Freedom as an ideal is a very, very incomplete ideal when it lacks love. Freedom is my highest "political ideal", but love is my highest "personal ideal". We need both. There is no paradox and there is no contradiction here. Freedom and love: let us marry these two together!

For more on combining libertarian views with respect for communities:

• John Blundell's Waging the War of Ideas touches on interesting debates in the early libertarian movement. All 175 pages are available for free online.
• Charles Murray occasionally cedes his impasse between communtarian intuitions and philosophical libertarianism.
• Richard Cornuelle's essay, "The Power and Poverty of Libertarian Thought", which prophetically warns of the dangers associated with narrow definitions of individualism.
• Community and Political Thought Today, edited by Peter Lawler and Dale McConkey, which has an essay by one of my college professors, Murray Jardine, intended to clarify the meaning of the term "communitarian" in modern political theory. Jardine managed to import paganism and Gilgamesh into our political thought class, thereby assuring my attendance.
• The Center for Liberty and Community, presided over by the wonderful Kevin Rollins, encourages discussion about the tensions between liberty and community as generally conceptualized.