Manhood of Humanity Part 4

We have just pa.s.sed through a tremendous world-wide _military_ war and we developed special ways of producing power to overcome the enemy. We were thus driven to discover some of the hidden sources of power and all of our old habits and ideas were bent toward military methods and military technology. The war of every-day life against hostile elements is war for the subjugation of physical nature and not for the conquest of people. It is a war carried on by the time-binding power of men pitted against natural obstacles, and its progressive triumph means progressive advancement in human weal.

The lesson of the World War should not be missed through failure to a.n.a.lyse it. When nations war with nations, the normal daily war of millions and millions of individuals to subjugate natural resources to human uses is interrupted, and the slow-gathered fruits of measureless toil are destroyed.

But peaceful war, war for the conquest of nature, involves the use of methods of technology and, what is even more important, technological philosophy, law and ethics.

What I want to emphasize in this little book, is the need of a thoroughgoing revision of our ideas; and the revision must be made by engineering minds in order that our ideas may be made to match facts. If we are ill, we consult a physician or a surgeon, not a charlatan. We must learn that, when there is trouble with the producing power of the world, we have to consult an engineer, an expert on power. Politicians, diplomats, and lawyers do not understand the problem. What I am advocating is that we must learn to ask those who know how to produce things, instead of asking those whose profession is to fight for the division of things produced by nature or by other human beings.

As a matter of fact our civilization has been for a long time disorganized to the point of disease. Lately through the whirl of changing conditions, due to the great release of power in the new-born giant technology, the disorganization has become acute. The sick seldom know the cure for themselves. If the cure is to be enduring, we have to go to the source, and this can be done only by men familiar, not only with effects but also with the causes.

Money is not the wealth of a nation, but production is wealth; so _ordered production_ is the main object for humanity. But to have the maximum of production, it is necessary to have production put on a sound basis. No mere preaching of brotherly love, or cla.s.s hatred, will produce one single brick for the building of the future temple of human victory-the temple of _human_ civilization. Ordered production demands a.n.a.lysis of basic facts.

This era is essentially an industrial era. To produce we have to have: (1) raw material or soil; (2) instruments for production-tools and machines; and (3) the application of power.

The three requirements may be briefly characterized and appraised as follows:

(1) Raw material and soil are products of nature; humanity simply took them and had the use of them for nothing, because it is impossible to call a prayer of thanksgiving (if any) addressed to a "creator" as payment to G.o.ds or men. But raw material and soil, in the conditions in which nature produces them, are of very little immediate benefit to humanity, because unfilled soil produces very little food for humans, and raw material such as wood, coal, oil, iron, copper, etc., are completely useless to humanity until after human work is applied to them. It is necessary to cut a tree for the making of timber; it is necessary to excavate the minerals, and even then, only by applying further human work is it possible to make them available for any human use. So, it is obvious that even raw materials in the form in which nature has produced them, are mostly of no value and unavailable for use, unless reproduced through the process of "human creative production." Therefore, we may well conclude that "raw material"

must be divided into two very distinct cla.s.ses: (_a_) raw material as produced by nature-nature's free gift-which in its original form and place has practically no use-value; and (_b_) raw material reproduced by man's mental and muscular activities, by his "time-binding" capacities. Raw materials of the second cla.s.s have an enormous use-value; indeed they make the existence of humanity possible.

As to the second requirement for production, namely:

(2) Tools and machines, it is obvious that "tools and machines" are made of raw material by human work, mental and muscular.

And, finally:

(3) The application of power. Different sources of natural energy and power are known. The most important available source of energy for this globe is the sun-the heat of the sun. This solar heat is the origin of water power, of wind power, and of the power bound up in coal, of the chemistry, growth and transforming agency of plants.(10)

All foods which the animals as well as the humans use are, already, the result of the solar energy transformed into what may be called chemical energy. Transformation of energies is building up of life.

It is to be clearly seen that the only source of energy which can be directly appropriated and used by man or animal is vegetable food found in the wilderness; no other sources of power are available for _direct_ use; they have first to be mastered and directed by human brain. The same is true in regard to the getting of animal food, the creation of a water- or windmill, or a steam engine, or the art of using a team of horses, or a bushel of wheat; these are not available except by the use of the human "time-binding" power.

This short survey of facts, known to everybody, brings us to the conclusion that all problems of production come ultimately to the a.n.a.lysis of

(1) Natural resources of raw material and natural energy, freely supplied by nature, which, as we have seen, in the form as produced by nature alone, have very little or no value for humanity;

(2) The activity of the human brain (because human muscles are always directed by the brain) which gives value to the otherwise useless raw materials and energies.

Hence, to understand the processes of production, it is essential to realize that humanity is able to survive only by virtue of the capacity of humans to exploit natural resources-to convert the products of nature into forms available for human needs. If humanity had only the capacity of apes, depending exclusively on wild fruits and the like, they would be confined to those comparatively small regions of the globe where the climate and the fertility of the soil are specially favorable. But in the case supposed, humans would not be humans, they would not be time-binders-they would be animals-mere s.p.a.ce-binders.

There are other facts which must be kept constantly in mind. One of them is that, in the world in which we live, there are natural laws of inorganic as well as organic phenomena. Another of the facts is, as before said, that the human cla.s.s of life has the peculiar capacity of establishing the social laws and customs which regulate and influence its destinies, which help or hinder the processes of production upon which the lives and happiness of mankind essentially and fundamentally depend.

It must not be lost sight of in this connection that the human cla.s.s of life is a part and a product of nature, and that, therefore, there must be _fundamental laws which are natural for this cla.s.s of life_. A stone obeys the natural laws of stones; a liquid conforms to the natural law of liquids; a plant, to the natural laws of plants; an animal, to the natural laws of animals; it follows inevitably that there _must_ be natural laws for humans.

But here the problem becomes more complicated; for the stone, the plant and the animal do not possess the intellectual power to create and initiate and so must blindly obey the laws that are natural for them; they are not free to determine their own destinies. Not so with man; man has the capacity and he can, through ignorance or neglect or mal-intent, deviate from, or misinterpret, the natural laws for the human cla.s.s of life. Just therein lies the secret and the source of human chaos and woe-a fact of such tremendous importance that it cannot be over-emphasized and it seems impossible to evade it longer. To discover the nature of Man and the laws of that _nature_, marks the summit of human enterprises. For to solve this _problem is to open the way to everything which can be of importance to humanity_-to human welfare and happiness.

The great problem has been felt as a powerful impulse throughout the ages of human striving, for in all times it has been evident to thinkers that upon the right solution of the problem must forever depend the welfare of mankind. Many "solutions" have been offered; and, though they have differed widely, they agree in one respect-they have had a common fate-the fate of being false. What has been the trouble? The trouble has been, in every instance, a radical misconception of what a human being really is.

The problem is to discover the natural laws of the human cla.s.s of life.

All the "solutions" offered in the course of history and those which are current to-day are of two and only two kinds-_zoological_ and _mythological_. The zoological solutions are those which grow out of the false conception according to which human beings are animals; if humans are animals, the laws of human nature are the laws of animal nature; and so the social "sciences" of ethics, law, politics, economics, government become nothing but branches of zoology; as sciences, they are the studies of animal life; as arts, they are the arts of managing and controlling animals; according to this zoological philosophy, human wisdom about human beings is animal wisdom about animals.

The mythological "solutions" are those which start with the monstrous conception according to which human beings have no proper place in nature but are mixtures of natural and _super_natural-unions or combinations of animality and divinity. Such "solutions" contain no conception of _natural_ law; scientifically judged, they are mythological absurdities-muddle-headed chattering of crude and irresponsible metaphysics-well-meaning no doubt, but silly, and deadly in their effects upon the interests of mankind, vitiating ethics, law, economics, politics and government.

Such have been and still are the regnant philosophies of human nature.

What is the remedy? How are the laws of human nature to be discovered?

It is evident that the enterprise, like all other scientific enterprises, must be based upon and guided by realities. It is essential to realize that the great, central, dominant, all-embracing reality is the reality of _human nature_. If we misconceive this fundamental matter, the enterprise must fail; that is both logically clear and clear in the sad light of history; but if we conceive it aright, we may confidently expect the enterprise to prosper. That is why, in the chapter on "The Cla.s.ses of Life," I have laid so much stress on the absolute necessity of conceiving Man as being what he really is, and not something else. And we have discovered what man is: we have discovered that man is characterized by the capacity or power to bind time, and so we have _defined_ humanity as the time-binding cla.s.s of life. That concept is fundamental. It contains the germ of the science and art of Human Engineering. The problem of discovering and applying the "laws of human nature" is the problem of discovering and applying to the conduct of life the laws of time-binding-of time-binding activity-of time-binding _energy_. This fact must be firmly seized and kept steadily in mind.

Energy, we have noted, is the capacity to do work. In human economy work may be (1) _useful_ or (2) _neutral_ or (3) _harmful_. These words have no significance except in human economy. The energy of the human intellect is a time-binding energy, for it is able to direct, to use, to transform other energies. This time-binding energy is of higher rank-of higher dimensionality-than the other natural energies which it directs, controls, uses, and transforms. This higher energy-which is commonly called the mental or spiritual power of man-_is_ time-binding because it makes past achievements live in the present and present activities in time-to-come.

It is an energy that initiates; it is an energy that creates; it is an energy that can understand the past and foretell the future-it is both historian and prophet; it is an energy that loads _abstract_ time-the vehicle of events-with an ever-increasing burden of intellectual achievements, of spiritual wealth, destined for the civilization of posterity. And what is the natural law of the increase? What is the natural law of human advancements in all great matters of human concern?

The question is of utmost importance both theoretically and practically, for the law-whatever it be-is a _natural_ law-a law of human nature-a law of the time-binding energy of man. What _is_ the law? We have already noted the law of arithmetical progression and the law of geometric progression; we have seen the immense difference between them; and we have seen that the natural law of human progress in each and every cardinal matter is a law like that of a rapidly increasing geometric progression.

In other words, the natural law of human progress-the natural law of amelioration in human affairs-the fundamental law of human nature-the basic law of the time-binding energy peculiar to man-is a Logarithmic law-a law of logarithmic increase. I beg the reader not to let the term bewilder him but to make it his own. It is easy to understand; and its significance is mighty and everlasting. Even its mathematical formulation can be understood by boys and girls. Let us see how the formulation looks.

Suppose _PR_ to denote the amount of progress made in some important field by a given generation-which we may call the "first" generation; where _R_ denotes the common ratio-the ratio of improvement-that is, the number by which the progress of one generation must be multiplied to give the amount of progress made by the next generation; then the amount of progress made by the second generation will be _PR__2_; that made by the third generation will be _PR__3_; and so on; now denote by _T_ the number of generations, counting the first one and all that follow in endless succession. Then the following series will show the law of human progress in the chosen field:

_PR, PR__2__, PR__3__, PR__4__, PR__5__, ..., PR__T__, PR__T+1__, ..._;

notice how it goes; the first generation ends with PR; the second generation starts with _PR_, adds _PR__2_, and ends with _PR + PR__2_; the third generation starts with _PR + PR__2_, adds _PR__3_ and ends with _PR + PR__2__ + PR__3_; and so on and on; the _gain_ made in the _T__th_ generation is _PR__T_; _the total gain_ made in _T_ generations is

_PR + PR__2__ + PR__3__ + ... + PR__T_;

this total gain is given by the formula,

Total gain in T generations = (R R-1) (PRT-P).

If we take _R_ to be 2 (which is a very small ratio, requiring the progress of each generation to be merely double that of the preceding one) and if we take _T_ to be (say) 10, then we see that the progress made by the single 10th generation is _P_ 210, which is 1024 times the progress made in the "first" generation; and we readily compute that the total gain in 10 generations is 2046 times the progress made in the "first"

generation. Moreover, to gain a just sense of the impressiveness of this law, the reader must reflect upon the fact that it operates, not merely on one field, but in all fields of human interest. "Operates in all fields" I have just now said; as a matter of fact, as before pointed out, it does not so operate _now_ in _all_ fields nor has it ever done so. My point is that it _will_ so operate when we once acquire sense enough to let it do so. That sense we shall have when and only when we discover that by nature we are time-binders and that the _effectiveness_ of our time-binding capacity is not only a function of time but is, as I have explained, a logarithmic or exponential function of time-a function in which time (_T_) enters as an _exponent_, as in the expression _PR__T_, so that we humans are, unlike animals, naturally qualified not only to progress, but to progress more and more rapidly, with an always _accelerating acceleration_, as the generations pa.s.s.

This great fact is to be at once the basis, the regulator and guide in the science and art of Human Engineering. Whatever squares with that law of time-binding human energy, is right and makes for human weal; whatever contravenes it, is wrong and makes for human woe.

And so I repeat that the world will have uninterrupted, peaceful progress when and only when the so-called social "sciences"-the life-regulating "sciences" of ethics, law, philosophy, economics, religion, politics, and government-are technologized; when and only when they are made genuinely scientific in spirit and method; for then and only then will they advance, like the natural, mathematical and technological sciences, in conformity to the fundamental exponential law of the time-binding nature of man; then and then only, by the equal pace of progress in all cardinal matters, the equilibrium of social inst.i.tutions will remain stable and social cataclysms cease.

Chapter V. Wealth

I beg the reader to allow me to begin this chapter with a word of warning.

The reader is aware that Criticism-by which I mean Thought-may be any one of three kinds: it may be purely destructive; it may be purely constructive; or it may be both destructive and constructive at the same time. Purely destructive criticism is sometimes highly useful. If an old idea or a system of old ideas be false and therefore harmful, it is a genuine service to attack it and destroy it even if nothing be offered to take its place, just as it is good to destroy a rattlesnake lurking by a human pathway, even if one does not offer a subst.i.tute for the snake. But, however useful destructive criticism may be, it is not an easy service to render; for old ideas, however false and harmful, are protected alike by habit and by the inborn conservatism of many minds. Now, habit indeed is exceedingly useful-even indispensable to the effective conduct of life-for it enables us to do many useful things automatically and therefore easily, without conscious thinking, and thus to save our mental energy for other work; but for the same reason, habit is often very harmful; it makes us protect false ideas automatically, and so when the destructive critic endeavors to destroy such ideas by reasoning with us, he finds that he is trying to reason with automats-with machines. Such is the chief difficulty encountered by destructive criticism. On the other hand, purely constructive criticism-purely constructive thought-consists in introducing new ideas of a kind that do not clash, or do not seem to clash, with old ones. Is such criticism or thought easy? Far from it. It has difficulties of its own. These are of two varieties: the difficulty of showing people who are content with their present stock of old ideas that the new ones are interesting or important; and the great difficulty of making _new_ ideas clear and intelligible, for the art of being clear and perfectly intelligible is very, very hard to acquire and to practise. The third kind of criticism-the third kind of thought-the kind that is at once both destructive and constructive-has a double aim-that of destroying old ideas that are false and that of replacing them with new ideas that are true; and so the third kind of criticism or thought is the most difficult of all, for it has to overcome both the difficulty of destructive criticism and that of constructive thought.

The reader, therefore, if he will be good enough to reflect a little upon the matter, can not fail to appreciate the tremendous difficulties which beset the writing of this little book, for he must perceive, not only that the work belongs to the third kind of critical thought, but-what is much more-the errors it aims to destroy are fundamental, world-wide and old, while the true ideas it seeks to subst.i.tute for them are fundamental and new. This great difficulty, felt at _every_ stage of this writing, is, for a reason to be presently explained, greatly enhanced and felt with especial keenness in the present chapter. I therefore beg the reader to give me here very special cooperation-the cooperation of open-mindedness, candor and critical attention. It is essential to keep in mind the nature of our enterprise as a whole, which is that of pointing the way to the science and art of Human Engineering and laying the foundations thereof; we have seen Human Engineering, when developed, is to be the science and art of so directing human energies and capacities as to make them contribute most effectively to the advancement of human welfare; we have seen that this science and art must have its basis in a true conception of human nature-a just conception of what Man really is and of his natural place in the complex of the world; we have seen that the ages-old and still current conceptions of man-zoological and mythological conceptions, according to which human beings are either animals or else hybrids of animals and G.o.ds-are mainly responsible for the dismal things in human history; we have seen that man, far from being an animal or a compound of natural and supernatural, is a perfectly natural being characterized by a certain capacity or power-the capacity or power to bind time; we have seen that humanity is, therefore, to be rightly conceived and scientifically defined as the time-binding cla.s.s of life; we have seen that, therefore, the laws of time-binding energies and time-binding phenomena are the laws of human nature; we have seen that this conception of man-which must be the basic concept, the fundamental principle and the perpetual guide and regulator of Human Engineering-is bound to work a profound transformation in all our views on human affairs and, in particular, must radically alter the so-called social "sciences"-the life-regulating "sciences" of ethics, sociology, economics, politics and government-advancing them from their present estate of pseudo sciences to the level of genuine sciences and technologizing them for the effective service of mankind. I call them "life-regulating," not because they play a more important part in human affairs than do the genuine sciences of mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology, for they are not more important than these, but because they are, so to say, closer, more immediate and more obvious in their influence and effects. These life-regulating sciences are, of course, not independent; they depend ultimately upon the genuine sciences for much of their power and ought to go to them for light and guidance; but what I mean here by saying they are not independent is that they are dependent upon each other, interpenetrating and interlocking in innumerable ways. To show _in detail_ how the so-called sciences will have to be transformed to make them accord with the right conception of man and qualify them for their proper business will eventually require a large volume or indeed volumes.

In this introductory work I cannot deal fully with one of those "sciences"

nor in suitable outline with each of them separately. I must be content here to deal, very briefly, with one of them by way of ill.u.s.tration and suggestion. Which one shall it be?

Now among these life-regulating "sciences" there is one specially marked by the importance of its subject, by its central relation to the others and by its prominence in the public mind. I mean Economics-the "dismal science" of Political Economy. For that reason I have chosen to deal with economics. In the present chapter I shall discuss three of its princ.i.p.al terms-Wealth, Capital and Money-with a view to showing that the current meanings and interpretations of these familiar terms must be very greatly deepened, enlarged and elevated if they are to accord with facts and laws of human nature and if the so-called "science" which employs them is to become a genuine science properly qualified to be a branch of Human Engineering. It is to be shown that the meanings currently attached by political economists and others to the terms in question belong to what I have called the period of humanity's childhood; and it is to be shown that the new meanings which the terms must receive belong to the period of humanity's manhood. It will be seen that the new meanings differ so radically from the old ones as to make it desirable for the sake of clarity to give the new meanings new names. But this, however scientifically desirable, is impracticable because the old terms-wealth, capital, money-are so deeply imbedded in the speech of the world. And here comes into view the very special difficulty alluded to above and which led me to request the reader's special cooperation in this chapter. The difficulty is not merely that of destroying old ideas that are false; it is not merely that of replacing them with true ideas that are new; it is that of causing people habitually to a.s.sociate meanings that are new and true with terms a.s.sociated so long, so universally, so uniformly with meanings that are false.

The secret of philosophy, said Leibnitz, is to treat familiar things as unfamiliar. By the secret of "philosophy" Leibnitz meant the secret of what we call science. Let us apply this wholesome maxim in our present study; let us, in so far as we can, regard the familiar terms-wealth, capital and money-as unfamiliar; let us deal with them afresh; let us examine openmindedly the facts-the phenomena-to which the terms relate and ascertain scientifically the significance the terms must have in a genuine science of human economy. Examine "the facts" I say-examine "the phenomena"-for bending facts to theories is a vital danger, while bending theories to facts is essential to science and the peaceful progress of society.

Human beings have always had some sense of values-some perception or cognition of values. In order to express or measure values, it was necessary to introduce units of measure, or units of exchange. People began to measure values by means of agricultural and other products, such as cattle, for example. The Latin word for cattle was _pecus_, and the word _pecunia_, which came to signify money, accounts for the meaning of our familiar word pecuniary. The earliest units for measuring became unsuited to the increasing needs of growing trade, "business," or traffic.