Posted on 03/05/2009 7:49:49 AM PST by El Gringo
In ‘The Vision of the Anointed’(p.254), Thomas Sowell powerfully observes that the msnufacture of the lowly pencil is vastly beyond the capability of a single person. There are those who select, harvest and prepare the wood; those who find, extract, and prepare the graphite; those who shape and assemble the parts; those who package, transport, sell, etc. Each works within a limited “circle of knowledge.” The sum of these circles cannot possibly be invested in a single individual; further, the participants must must all work, autonomously, and voluntarily as a team. They probably work within a web of trusting relationships and formal contracts.
Politicians have no positive contribution to pencil making [my words, not Sowell’s]. To see why, goto href=”http://www.oil-and-vinegar.blogspot.com”economics versus politics
(Excerpt) Read more at oil-and-vinegar.blogspot.com ...
This thesis was originally written about in 1950’s by Leonard Read in an essay title “I, Pencil”
bad link
Long, but interesting read.
This blog was based on Tom Sowell’s ‘The Vision of the Anointed’——even the appropriate page number is stated. Where was the Leonard Read essay published?
ping
Wikipedia entry re: "I, Pencil"
I, Pencil is an essay by Leonard Read. The full title is "I, Pencil. My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read" and it was first published in the December, 1958 issue of The Freeman. It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled "I...Pencil" in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword. Friedman (the 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics) used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose and the accompanying book of the same name.
"I, Pencil" is written in the first person from the point of view of an Eberhard Faber pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.
There is a fact still more astounding: the absence of a master mind, of anyone dictating or forcibly directing these countless actions which bring me into being. No trace of such a person can be found. Instead, we find the Invisible Hand at work.
Since only God can make a tree, I insist that only God could make me. Man can no more direct these millions of know-hows to bring me into being than he can put molecules together to create a tree.
The lesson I have to teach is this: Leave all creative energies uninhibited. Merely organize society to act in harmony with this lesson. Let society's legal apparatus remove all obstacles the best it can. Permit these creative know-hows freely to flow. Have faith that free men and women will respond to the Invisible Hand. This faith will be confirmed.
Thanks for the info and the link. Very illuminating. I am consulting my copy of ‘The Pencil’ by Henry Petroski and don’t see any reference to ‘I Pencil’, tho the writings of Henry Middleton Murry are presented, and they seem to be of a poetic nature. The Petroski book is mostly a history of the pencil, plus an examination of its practical implementation.
I happen to be a bit of a fan of pencils. I conduct a workshop on the weekends during which we seek to explain the existence of the lowly wooden pencil. Several hours later, the end result is overwhelming evidence for the existence of God. I have been using the pencil and the model for a number of years, and have delved into the history of pencil manufacturing, and have been fascinated by it. The essay, “I, Pencil” is what really kicked that off a number of years ago. Quite interesting!
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