I first saw these "rules" in the early 1970s. They appeared in a publication from Princeton University called "University". They struck a responsive chord.

I was having a tough time resolving many of the issues raised in my high school and college years. I had been raised in a strict, loving, conservative Republican family in and around Chicago and had attended what were among the best public schools in the nation.

As an early "baby boomer" (born at the start of 1947) I "liked Ike", remember seeing the school integration struggles on (ironically??) black-and-white TV, know where I was when I learned JFK had been shot, remember the music revolution of the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Motown/Philly/Chicago and "deep soul" and later Miles Davis.

The Vietnam War ripped us apart. Much like Muhammad Ali (nee Cassius Clay) I could not comprehend fighting people (or a country) with whom I had no quarrel; yet I acknowledge the need for military defense.

On the other hand I have never been able to understand how people who called themselves "liberal" could support totalitarian governments. Governments which always seem to have at least one of the following words in their names: People's, Democratic, Republic -- and are neither of the people, democratic nor republican. A time when "politically incorrect" was applied to the expressions of dissidents in the Soviet Union and Communist China as they were sent off for "vacations" at "re-education camps".

Liberals loved the Soviet Union. And Mao. And Ho Chi Minh. And Che and Fidel.

They got a couple right: Hitler and South Africa.

But they ignored or were indifferent to so many. North Korea. Idi Amin. Albania. Hungary. Czechoslovakia. Tito. Mussolini. Saddam. Libya.

And Central and South America seemed to depend on whether the dictators were supported by our government.

Perhaps we all find it hard to not laugh at the "generals" in outfits looking more like bus drivers on Halloween, small countries and people with funny-sounding names and, perhaps, skin colors not coordinated with our own. So we don't remember them or take them seriously.

Liberals did not really believe in liberty. They were smarter and knew better.

A conservative was often somebody who disagreed with a liberal rather than someone who felt that standing the test of time might indicate some value to humanity. So a conservative was defined by what he was not -- a "liberal" -- even if he had innovative, unusual or seldom-expressed ideas.

And a radical was now somebody who was just like a liberal only more so.

These "laws" probably helped me to understand that I am very much what is now called "libertarian" (still somewhat derisively so in many quarters). I believe in something much closer to original meanings of liberal, conservative, and radical as I understand them. I do not know whether Professor Levy would agree or disagree with me.

1. Large numbers of things are determined, and therefore not subject to change.

2. Anticipated events never live up to expectations.

3. That segment of the community with which one has the greatest sympathy as a liberal inevitably turns out to be one of the most narrow-minded and bigoted segments of the community. (Marion Stanley Kelley, Jr.'s reformulation: Last guys don't finish nice.)

4. Always pray that your opposition be wicked. In wickedness there is a strong strain toward rationality. Therefore there is always the possibility, in theory, of handling the wicked by outthinking them.

Corollary one: Good intentions randomize behavior.

Subcorollary one: Good intentions are far more difficult to cope with than malicious behavior.

Corollary two: If good intentions are combined with stupidity, it is impossible to outthink them.

5. In unanimity there is cowardice and uncritical thinking.

6. To have a sense of humor is to be a tragic figure.

7. To know thyself is the ultimate form of aggression.

8. No amount of genius can overcome a preoccupation with detail.

9. Only God can make a random selection.

Marion J. Levy, Jr., A.B. and Ph.D. Harvard, Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. His books include The Structure of Society and Modernization and the Structure of Societies. His 'Laws' numbered six when first formulated in 1966 and later grew to nine.

© 1966, 1970 Marion J. Levy, Jr.

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