“The world needs more men and women unafraid to take responsibility, adult enough to accept accountability, courageous enough to speak truth to power, and smart enough to express gratitude to others when they deserve it.”
Is there a “Montana ethos,” a combination of character traits and cultural values that predominates in the state? Such things are naturally tough to pin down. It’s not a matter of hard-and-fast rules but rather a feeling that one gets by being here. It’s not the same feeling you get when you’re in, say, New York.
Virginia Cross recently wrote that Montana’s culture is “a captivating blend of untamed wilderness, rich history, and a fiercely independent spirit” combined with “a welcoming attitude.” I think that’s all true, but I still search for other nouns and adjectives that capture the ethos or spirit I feel when I am among Montanans.
About 30 years ago, I encountered a few sentences labeled “The World Needs More.” The author was noted as “Anonymous.” Whoever wrote those original three or four sentences was on to something important, and they’ve spurred me to revise and extend them into a much longer piece.
The resulting essay captures the character that the world desperately needs. It expresses the values I see in Montana, perhaps more than anywhere else.
I’ve elaborated on those values in one of my books, Are We Good Enough for Liberty?
Here’s the essay, titled “What the World Needs”:
The world needs more men and women who do not have a price at which they can be bought; who do not borrow from integrity to pay for expediency; who have their priorities straight and in proper order; whose handshake is an ironclad contract; who are not afraid of taking risks to advance what is right; who stand for what’s true and not simply what they think others will fall for; and who are honest in all matters, large and small.
The world needs more men and women whose ambitions are big enough to include others; who know how to win with grace and lose with dignity; who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning and ruthlessness are the three keys to success; who still have friends they made twenty or thirty years ago; who put principle and consistency above politics or personal advancement; and who are not afraid to go against the grain of popular opinion.
The world needs more men and women who are humble enough to realize that planning their own lives is a full-time challenge. They are not foolish enough to think they can plan the lives or the economy of millions of others. They don’t regard the central government as the highest authority.
The world needs more men and women unafraid to take responsibility, adult enough to accept accountability, courageous enough to speak truth to power, and smart enough to express gratitude to others when they deserve it.
The world needs more men and women who are tolerant of the differences that make people the unique individuals they are; who don’t feel threatened by opinions or lifestyles or faiths of others who are otherwise peaceful and respectful in their conduct; who are patient enough to win over others through persuasion, not force; who don’t demand that politicians improve their lot in life by diminishing that of another; who understand that adding value through production, innovation and service is a far higher calling than redistributing the property of others at gunpoint.
The world needs more men and women who do not forsake what is right just to get consensus because it makes them look good; who know how important it is to lead by example, not by barking orders; who would not have you do something they would not do themselves; who work to turn even the most adverse circumstances into opportunities to learn and improve; who muster the integrity to work for a living instead of voting for one.
In other words, the world needs more people and places that look like Montanans and Montana.
Lawrence W. Reed writes a monthly column for the Frontier Institute in Helena, on whose board he serves. He is president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education and blogs at www.lawrencewreed.com.
