You know the cliches:
- It’s a small world after all
- We are the world. Globalism rules
- Earth is our neighborhood now and every citizen is a next-door neighbor.
All that’s more or less true in the digital sector. I’ve emailed and texted using translation programs that allow me to speak with people in languages I hadn’t even heard of. It’s all amazing.
But try, as an individual, to send a package across the border, any border. Large shipments from corporate shippers: no problem. But if you alone try this, the police will be all over it. The postal service charges more than the goods are worth. It takes an age to deliver real stuff from here to there, and the recipient is lucky if the goods are not looted by government officials.
It’s incredible and strange. As much as the digital age has brought us together, the government’s bloated security apparatus has divided more than ever. It is today harder than ever to simply mail something from the U.K. to the U.S., from Brazil to Singapore, from Dallas to Taipei, and even from Seattle to Vancouver. It’s nuts. Despite globalization, the world is physically splintered. And this is despite (strike that, replace with “because of”) free trade agreements.
Consider books, those beautiful carriers of ideas, those makers of revolutions. The U.S. is awash in them and we can hardly get young people to read anything at all. Meanwhile, abroad, they are treasure: beloved, valued, devoured by the young.
And a particular type of book is especially treasured: that that explains and extols the merits of free economies and free people. Those are the type of books that Spy Briefing Books makes its speciality.
Yes, most everyone on the planet has the Internet. But real books, real paper and ink, come at a premium. It is extremely difficult for people in Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Russia to get them. They read and speak English, but can’t get the books they need, not at a price they can afford.
This summer, an entrepreneur who really cares did something about it. He knew we were in close contact with some great young students in Romania who were craving books. They need them for their reading groups, conferences, get-togethers, and libraries. He also knew that because of our affiliation with Agora Inc., a global company, we had ways of finding cheaper and more reliable methods of getting stuff from here to there.
Seeing the need, and knowing that we could get them shipped in a timely and efficient way, he gave a wonderful gift. He gave $10,000 toward a big shipment of pro-liberty literature to Eastern Europe. We picked out a huge selection of the crucial titles, some old and some new, but all of them pointing the way to a brighter future, and put them on the path. Now these kids have what they always dreamed of. They can study, spread ideas, hold meetings, and rally around the ideas that gave birth to liberty itself.
That’s a far better and more lasting gift than anyone can give. It lasts not only a lifetime, but generations.
So this experience got us thinking. The need is there not only in Romania. There are people in Brazil that need great ideas too. And Ecuador. And Singapore. And Belarus. It’s true in Venezuela, Austria, Japan, Ireland, New Zealand, and all over Africa. There are English speakers in all these countries. And in each one there is a shortage of a thing we take for granted: great books that defend human liberty.
And make no mistake: Precisely because the world is so otherwise integrated, the fate of liberty in one country has an effect on everyone. It eventually comes back to you and me. I’ve worked with programmers in West Africa, designers in Mongolia, artists in India, and writers in Scotland. We are all integrated now. It is a gigantic error to think that this kind of integration can be preserved and fostered without that essential intellectual infrastructure.
So at Spy Briefing Books, we’ve decided to undertake a new initiative that allows you to make a difference too. We call it the Freedom Kit Initiative.
The idea is that you make it possible for students and professionals all over the world to gain access to real books. These are books they’ve dreamed of getting, but gave up on long ago.
The plan here is to flood the world with amazing literature that can help universalize the works of Ayn Rand, Henry Hazlitt, F.A. Hayek, and Rose Wilder Lane and books by modern authors on health care, regulation, taxation, monetary debauchery, and more. Many of them show with great power how the U.S. has made so many mistakes in its economics and politics. They urge other countries not to take the same path.
We’ve created a page on the site where you can read more about it and express your interest.
We are always trying to think of ways to get around government. Well, this is a major way! It does an end run around the push for despotism. It gives a huge push to the good guys in the great struggle for human freedom. It laughs in the face of the IMF, the U.N., the World Bank, and all the international bureaucracies that are trying to hobble economic growth.
It does this in the most direct way possible: with ideas. These are more powerful than weapons, armies, or bureaucrats. And by going through our known channels, we can make sure that the books arrive in bulk and end up right where they can do the most good.
So we are working on putting together several levels of Freedom Kits. The way you take part is simply to make a tax-deductible donation. We take it from there. We will send you a complete list of the selections and show you exactly where they end up, so you can follow up if you like.
I’m extremely excited about this initiative. I’ve worked with students all over the world and I know there is a very intense need for literature. They can’t bring in books without paying huge fees. But we can bring the books to them in bulk, right to the offices of outstanding distributors in every corner of the world.
This is the sort of thing that changes lives and makes history. We have the opportunity right now. We can’t let it slip by. Freedom really stands in the balance. We can strike a blow for truth, human rights, and the universal right to be left alone simply by making this treasure available to people.
Please join us in making this Freedom Kit initiative a real hinge of history. Freedom is suffering in this country, but it stands a great chance of ruling the day in so many places around the world. Give this gift today by expressing your interest here.
