| Milton Friedman: A Memorial Tidbit |
The reputation of Milton Friedman (1912-2006) will get by without assistance from me. Publications like Reason magazine, The New York Times, National Review, Newsweek, and Time, with audiences in the millions, have heaped admiring words upon him. Still, I have a memory which nobody else is likely to bring up (though there must be surviving classmates who can confirm it). So let me tell you about it.
Forget for a moment what you think of Friedman's politics and economics, pro or con. This is a story about character.
It was a summer class way back in 1958. If I had to describe today the content of the course, I would have a hard time, but that doesn't matter. It's not what my story is about.
The part which I remember was the day when Professor Friedman wrote a quotation on the blackboard before class, and during class time invited us to ponder it for a while and comment. What did we think?
There was a suitable pause while we ruminated, and then a student raised his hand, got up, and delivered a slashing critique. He was witty, he had the whole class laughing, he tore the thing to pieces.
Maybe I should mention that the quotation was from a well-known Keynesian economist -- I think it was Modigliani, but don't quote me on that. At any rate, the point is that Friedman was a leader of the rival school for which the University of Chicago was famous: the neo-classical school. All of us anticiated that Friedman would delight in a skillful put-down of the quotation.
Instead, he astounded us. "You know," he said quietly, "you probably think that you earned an "A" for the whole course right there. But actually, what you did was quite shallow. It may seem brilliant to pop off with impressionistic criticisms of an opponent, but anybody can do that. What takes real intellectual effort is to make sense of what he's saying, figure out where he's coming from, how anybody could believe such a thing. Once you really understand what the man has attempted to put across, then feel free to criticize. But criticize the point which was made, not some shorthand substitute."
Quite apart from paying tribute where tribute is due, I think this anecdote should be made known because the advice which Friedman gave is so very much needed in today's debating environment. Talk show hosts, journalists, public officials, legislators, activists from every quarter -- they all go fishing in each other's utterances for the sound byte which will shut down further debate. Everybody talks past everybody else.
Did Friedman follow his own advice? He was always a vigorous advocate for uncompromising positions. I wouldn't want to comb through everything he said in the way of advocacy to assure that he never put a spin on anyone else's assertions -- though I'd be surprised to find any example.
I can only say that he lived up to his own precept in his conduct to me. I have a critical style of learning. Whatever I'm studying, I hunt for the weak points, raise awkward questions, as much to test my own understanding of what has been said as to resist possible rubbish. Friedman understood this. He dug to the bottom of seeming objections and even encouraged that they be developed further.
It has always seemed to me that Friedman's behavior was right in line with the precept which he had so strikingly urged upon us the day of the Keynesian quotation. Whatever the content of the course, that was the part that stayed with me forever, and I hope I've lived up to it. Thank you, Milton Friedman, and RIP.
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