Manhood of Humanity Part 7

The great ma.s.s of the wealth of the world has been thus produced by generations that have gone. We know that the greatest wealth producers-immeasurably the greatest-have been and are scientific men, discoverers and inventors. If an invention, in the course of a few years after it is made, must become public property, then the wealth produced by the _use_ of the invention should also become public property in the course of a like period of years after it is thus produced. Against this proposition no sophistry can avail.

One of the greatest powers of modern times is the Press; it commands the resources of s.p.a.ce and time; it affects in a thousand subtle ways the form of our thoughts. It controls the exchange of news throughout the world.

Unfortunately the press is often controlled by exploiters of the "living powers of the dead," and so what is presented as news is frequently so limited, colored and distorted by selfish interests as to be falsehood in the guise of truth. Honest, independent papers are frequently starved by selfish conspirators and forced to close down. Thus the press, which is itself the product in the main of dead men's toil, is made a means for the deception and exploitation of the living. Indeed the bitter words of Voltaire seem to be too true: "Since G.o.d created man in his own image, how often has man endeavored to render similar service to G.o.d." Those who want to use such "G.o.d-like" powers to rule the world are modern Neros, who in their wickedness and folly fancy themselves divine. To deceive, and through deception, to exploit, rob and subjugate living men and women, and to do it by prost.i.tuting the living powers created by the dead, is the work, I will not say of men, but of _mad_ men, greedy, ignorant and blind.

What is the remedy? Revolution? Revolution is also mad. The only remedy is enlightenment-knowledge, knowledge of nature, knowledge of human nature, scientific education, science applied to all the affairs of man-the science and art of Human Engineering.

Chapter VII. Survival of the Fittest

Humanity is a dynamic affair, nay, the most dynamic known, because it is able to transform and direct basic powers. Where power is produced there must be an issue for it. Power must perforce express itself in some form.

Electricity produced in the skies comes down in an often disastrous manner. Electricity, produced aimfully, runs our railroads; just so the enormous power produced by humanity must be used aimfully, in a constructive way or it will burst into insurrections, revolutions and wars.

Hitherto we have been guided by those bottomless sciences having only mythological ideas of power-by ideas moulded by personal ambitions, personal interests, or downright ignorance. Periodically we have had all the evils of the lack of a common aim and scientific guidance. Power has been held by the "G.o.d-given" or the "cleverest"; seldom has the power been given to the "fittest" in the sense of the most capable "to do." Those who speak of the "survival of the fittest," as in the Darwinian theory of animals, bark an animal language. This rule, being natural only in the life of plants and animals and appropriate only to the lower forms of physical life, cannot, except with profound change of meaning, be applied to the time-binding cla.s.s of life, without disaster.

The modern vast acc.u.mulation of wealth for private purposes, justifies itself by using the argument of the "survival of the fittest." Very well, where there is a "survival," there must be victims; where there are victims, there has been fighting. Is this what the users of this argument mean? Like the Kaiser, they talk peace and make war. This method of doing things is not in any way new. The world has been accustomed to it for a very long while.

Personally I believe that most of the masters of speculative semi-sciences, such as economics, law, ethics, politics and government are honest in their beliefs and speculations. Simply the right man believes in the wrong thing; if shown the right way out of the mess he will cease to hamper progress; he will be of the greatest value to the new world built by Human Engineers, where human capacities, exponential functions of time, will operate naturally; where economy, law, ethics, politics and government will be _dynamic_, not _static_. There is a world of difference between these two words.

The immediate object of this writing is to show the way to directing the time-binding powers of mankind for the benefit of all. Human technology, as an art and science, does not yet exist; some basic principles were required as a foundation for such a science. Especially was it necessary to establish a _human_ standard, and thus make it certain and clear that "s.p.a.ce-binders"-the members of the _animal_ world-are "outside of the human law"-outside the natural laws for the human cla.s.s of life.

Present civilization is a very complicated affair; although many of our social problems are very badly managed, sudden changes could not be made without endangering the welfare and life of all cla.s.ses of society. In the meantime, changes must be made because the world can not proceed much longer under pre-war conditions; they have been too well exposed by facts for humanity to allow itself to be blindly led again.

In the World War humanity pa.s.sed through a tremendous trial and for those years was under the strain of an extensive mobilization campaign. The necessity of increasing power was manifest; the importance of a common base or aim became equally manifest. In this case the base, the common aim, was found in "war patriotism." This common base enabled all the states to add up individual powers and build maximum efficiency into a _collective_ power. This expression is used, not only as a social truth, but as a known mathematical truth. Those high ideals, which were given "Urbi et orbi" in thousands of speeches and in millions of propaganda papers, had a much greater educational importance and influence than most people are aware of. People have been awakened and have acquired the taste for those higher purposes which in the past were available only for the few.

Many old worn-out idols, ideas and ideals have fallen; but what is going to take their place? We witness an unrest which will not be eliminated until something essential is done to adjust it. Calm often betokens a coming storm. The coming storm is not the work of any "bad man," but it is the inevitable consequence of a "bad system." It is dangerous to hide our heads in the sand, like an ostrich, and fancy we are safe.

"Survival of the fittest" in the commonly used animal sense is not a theory or principle for a "time-binding" being. This theory is only for the physical bodies of animals; its effect upon humanity is sinister and degrading (see App. II). We see the principle at work all about us in criminal exploitation and profiteering. As a matter of fact, the ages-long application of this animal principle to human affairs has degraded the whole human morale in an inconceivably far-reaching way. Personal greed and selfishness are brazenly owned as principles of conduct. We shrug our shoulders in acquiescence and proclaim greed and selfishness to be the very core of human nature, take it all for granted, and let it pa.s.s at that. We have gone so far in our degradation that the prophet of capitalistic principles, Adam Smith, in his famous _Wealth of Nations_, arrives at the laws of wealth, not from the phenomena of wealth nor from statistical statements, but from the phenomena of selfishness-a fact which shows how far-reaching in its dire influence upon all humanity is the theory that human beings are "animals." Of course the effect is very disastrous. The preceding chapters have shown that the theory is false; it is false, not only because of its unhappy effects, but it belies the characteristic nature of man. Human nature, this time-binding power, not only has the peculiar capacity for perpetual progress, but it has, over and above all animal propensities, certain qualities const.i.tuting it a distinctive dimension or type of life. Not only our whole collective life proves a love for higher ideals, but even our dead _give_ us the rich heritage, material and spiritual, of all their toils. There is nothing mystical about it; to call SUCH a cla.s.s a _naturally_ selfish cla.s.s is not only nonsensical but monstrous.

This capacity for higher ideals does not originate in some "_super_natural" outside factor; it is _not_ of extraneous origin, it is the expression of the time-binding element which we _inherently_ possess, independently of our "will"; it is an inborn capacity-a _gift_ of nature.

We simply are made this way and not in any other. There is indeed a fine sense in which we can, if we choose, apply the expression-survival of the fittest-to the activity of the time-binding energies of man. Having the peculiar capacity to survive in our deeds, we have an inclination to use it and we survive in the deeds of our creation; and so there is brought about the "survival in time" of higher and higher ideals. The moment we consider Man in his proper dimension-active in TIME-these things become simple, stupendous, and beautiful.

"Note the radical character of the transformation to be effected.

The world shall no longer be beheld as an alien thing, beheld by eyes that are not its own. Conception of the whole and by the whole shall embrace _us_ as _part_, really, literally, consciously, as the latest term, it may be, of an advancing sequence of developments, as occupying the highest rank perhaps in the ever-ascending hierarchy of being, but, at all events, as emerged and still emerging _natura naturata_ from some propensive source within. I grant that the change in point of view is hard to make-old habits, like walls of rock, tending to confine the tides of consciousness within their accustomed channels-but it can be made and, by a.s.siduous effort, in the course of time, maintained.

Suppose it done. By that reunion, the whole regains, while the part retains, the consciousness the latter purloined.... In the whole universe of events, none is more wonderful than the birth of wonder, none more curious than the nascence of curiosity itself, nothing to compare with the dawning of consciousness in the ancient dark and the gradual extension of psychic life and illumination throughout a cosmos that before had only _been_. An eternity of blindly acting, transforming, unconscious existence, a.s.suming at length, through the birth of sense and intellect, without loss or break of continuity, the abiding form of fleeting time." (C. J. Keyser, loc. cit.)

It must be emphasized that the development of higher ideals is due to the _natural_ capacity of humanity; the impulse is simply time-binding impulse. As we have seen, by a.n.a.lysing the functions of the different cla.s.ses of life, every cla.s.s of life has an impulse to exercise its peculiar capacity or function. Nitrogen resists compound combinations and if found in such combinations it breaks away as quickly as ever it can.

Birds have wings-they fly. Animals have feet-they run. Man has the capacity of time-binding-he binds time. It does not matter whether we understand the very "essence" of the phenomenon or not, any more than we understand the "essence" of electricity or any other "essence." Life shows that man has time-binding capacity as a natural gift and is naturally impelled to use it. One of the best examples is procreation. Conception is a completely incomprehensible phenomenon in its "essence," nevertheless, having the capacity to procreate we use it without bothering about its "essence." Indeed neither life nor science bothers about "essences"-they leave "essences" to metaphysics, which is neither life nor science. It is sufficient for our purpose that idealization is in fact a natural process of time-binding human energy. And however imperfect ethics has been owing to the prevalence of animal standards, such merits as our ethics has had witness to the natural presence of "idealization" in time-binding human life.

"It is thus evident that ideals are not things to gush over or to sigh and sentimentalize about; they are not what would be left if that which is hard in reality were taken away; ideals are themselves the very flint of reality, beautiful no doubt and precious, without which there would be neither dignity nor hope nor light; but their aspect is not sentimental and soft; it is hard, cold, intellectual, logical, austere. Idealization consists in the conception or the intuition of ideals and in the pursuit of them. And ideals, I have said, are of two kinds. Let us make the distinction clearer. Every sort of human activity-shoeing horses, abdominal surgery, or painting profiles-admits of a peculiar type of excellence. No sort of activity can escape from its own type but within its type it admits of indefinite improvement. For each type there is an ideal-a dream of perfection-an unattainable limit of an endless sequence of potential ameliorations within the type and on its level. The dreams of such unattainable perfections are as countless as the types of excellence to which they respectively belong and they together const.i.tute the familiar world of our human ideals. To share in it-to feel the lure of perfection in one or more types of excellence, however lowly-is to be human; not to feel it is to be sub-human. But this common kind of idealization, though it is very important and very precious, does not produce the great events in the life of mankind. These are produced by the kind of idealization that corresponds to what we have called in the mathematical prototype, limit-begotten generalization-a kind of idealization that is peculiar to creative genius and that, not content to pursue ideals within established types of excellences, creates new types thereof in science, in art, in philosophy, in letters, in ethics, in education, in social order, in all the fields and forms of the spiritual life of man." (Quoted from the ma.n.u.script of the forthcoming book, _Mathematical Philosophy_, by Ca.s.sius J. Keyser.)

"Survival of the fittest" has a different form for different cla.s.ses of life. Applying animal standards to time-binding beings is like applying inches to measuring weight. As a matter or fact, we cannot raise one cla.s.s to a higher cla.s.s, unless we add an entirely new function to the former; we can only improve their lower status; but if we apply the reverse method, we can degrade human standards to animal standards.

Animal standards belong to a cla.s.s of life whose capacity is _not_ an _exponential_ function of _Time_. There is nothing theological or sentimental in this fact; it is a purely mathematical truth.

It is fatal to apply the "survival of the fittest" theory in the same sense to two radically different cla.s.ses of life. The "survival of the fittest" for animals-for _s.p.a.ce_-binders-is survival _in s.p.a.ce_, which means fighting and other brutal forms of struggle; on the other hand, "survival of the fittest" for human beings _as such_-that is, for _time-binders_-is survival _in time_, which means intellectual or spiritual compet.i.tion, struggle for excellence, for making the _best_ survive. The-fittest-in-time-those who make the best survive-are those who do the most in producing values for all mankind including _posterity_.

This is the scientific base for natural ethics, and ethics from which there can be no side-stepping, or escape.

Therefore time-binders can not use "_animal_" logic without degrading themselves from their proper status as human beings-their status as established by nature. "Animal" logic leads to "animal" ethics and "animal" economics; it leads inevitably to a brutalized industrial system in which cunning contrives to rob the living of the fruit of the dead.

_Human_ logic points to human ethics and human economics; it will lead to a humanized industrial system in which compet.i.tion will be compet.i.tion in science, in art, in justice: a compet.i.tion and struggle for the attainment of excellence in human life. The time-binding capacity, which manifests itself in drawing from the PAST, through the PRESENT for the FUTURE gives human beings the means of attaining a precious kind of immortality; it enables them to fulfill the law of their own cla.s.s of life and to survive everlastingly in the fruits of their toil, a perpetual blessing to endless generations of the children of men. This is the truth we instinctively recognize when we call a great man "immortal." We mean that he has done deeds that _survive in time_ for the perpetual weal of mankind.

Human logic-mathematical logic, the logic _natural_ for man-will thus show us that "good" and "just" and "right" are to have their significance defined and understood entirely in terms of human _nature_. Human nature-not animal nature-is to be the basis and guide of Human Engineering. Thus based and guided, Human Engineering will eliminate "wild-cat schemers," gamblers and "politicians." It will put an end to industrial violence, strikes, insurrections, war and revolutions.

The present system of social life is largely built upon misconceptions or misrepresentations. For all work we need the human brain, the human time-binding power, yet we continue to call it "hand-labor" and treat it as such. Even in mechanical science, in the use of the term "horse-power,"

we are incorrect in this expression. How does this "horse" look in reality? Let us a.n.a.lyse this "horse." All science, all mechanical appliances have been produced by "man" and man alone. Everything we possess is the production of either dead men's or living men's work. The enslavement of the solar man-power is purely a human invention in theory and practice. Everything we have is evidently therefore a time-binding product. What perfect nonsense to call a purely human achievement the equivalent of so much "horse-power"! Of course it does not matter mathematically what name we give to a unit of power; we may call it a Zeus or a Zebra; but there is a very vicious implication in using the name of an animal to denote a purely human product. Everything in our civilization was produced by MAN; it seems only reasonable that this unit of power which is the direct product of Man's work, should be correctly named after him. The educational effect would be wholesome and tremendous. The human value in work would be thus emphasized again and again, and respect for human work would be taught, from the beginning in the schools. This "horse-power" unit causes us to forget the human part in it and it degrades human work to the level of a commodity. This is an example of the degrading influence of wrong conceptions and wrong language. I said "educational" because even our subconscious mind is affected by this. (See App. II.)

Human Engineering will not interfere with any scientific research; on the contrary, it will promote it in many ways. Grown-ups, it is to be hoped, will stop the nonsense of intermixing dimensions, for which we chastise children. It is the same kind of blundering as when we intermix phenomena-measuring "G.o.d" by human standards, or human beings by animal standards. The relationship, if any, between these phenomena or the overlapping of different cla.s.ses, is interesting and important; but in studying such relationships of cla.s.ses, it is fatal to mix the cla.s.ses; for example, if we are studying the relations between surfaces and solids, it is fatal to mistake solids for surfaces; just so, too, if we stupidly confuse humans with animals.

In the reality of life, we are interested only in the values of the function of the phenomena by themselves and to arrive at right conclusions we have to use units appropriate to the phenomena. The intermixing of units gives us a wrong conception of the values of each phenomenon; the results of our calculations are wrong and the outcome is a misconception of the process of human life. The fact once realized, we will cease applying animal measures to man; even theology will abandon the monstrous habit.

Animal units and standards are to be applied to animals, human standards to man, "Divine" standards to "G.o.d."

In the dark ages, with the complete innocence or misunderstanding of science, the "why" of things was explained by the "who" of things; therein investigation culminated; man was regarded as _h.o.m.o sapiens_ and h.o.m.o sapiens = animal spark of _super_natural; this monstrous formula was accepted as a final truth-as an answer to the question: What is Man? This type of answer became in the hands of church and state a powerful instrument for keeping the people in subjection.

The tendency of the ma.s.ses to let others think for them is not really a _natural_ characteristic-quite the opposite. The habit of not thinking for one's self is the result of thousands of years of subjection. Those in authority, in general, used their ingenuity to keep the people from thinking. The most vital reason why many humans appear to be, and are often called, "stupid," is that they have been spoken to in a language of speculation which they instinctively dislike and distrust; thus there arose the proverb that speech was made to conceal the truth. It is no wonder that they appear "stupid," the wonder is that they are not more "stupid." The truth is that they will be found to be far less stupid when addressed in the natural language of ascertainable fact. My whole theory is based upon, and is in harmony with, the natural feelings of man. The conceptions I introduce are based on human _nature_. Natural language-so different from the speech of metaphysical speculation-will lead to mutual understanding and the disappearance of warring factions.

"Discrimination, as the proverb rightly teaches, is the beginning of mind. The first psychic product of that initial psychic act is _numerical_: to discriminate is to produce _two_, the simplest possible example of multiplicity. The discovery, or better the invention, better still the production, best of all the creation, of multiplicity with its correlate of number, is, therefore, the most primitive achievement or manifestation of mind.... Let us, then, trust the arithmetic instinct as fundamental and, for instruments of thought that shall not fail, repair at once to the domain of number." (C. J. Keyser, Loc. Cit.)

The thinking few knew the power there is in "thinking"; they wanted to have it and to keep the advantage of it for themselves; witness the late introduction of public schools. Belief in the inferiority of the ma.s.ses became the unwritten law of the "privileged cla.s.ses"; it was forced upon, rubbed into, the subconscious mind of the ma.s.ses by church and state alike, and was humbly and dumbly accepted by the "lower orders" as their "destiny." Ignorance was proclaimed as a bliss.

As time went on, this "coefficient of ignorance" became so useful to some people and some cla.s.ses of people that no effort was spared to keep the world in ignorance. It gave a legalistic excuse to imprison, burn and hang people for expressing an opinion which the ruling cla.s.ses did not like.

The elimination from church, from school, from universities, of any teacher, any professor or any minister who dared to exemplify or encourage fearless investigation and freedom of speech became very common. It is less common in our generation, but there remains much to win in the way of freedom.

Freedom, rightly understood, is the aim of Human Engineering. But freedom is not license, it is not licentiousness. Freedom consists in _lawful_ living-in living in accord with the laws of human _nature_-in accord with the _natural_ laws of Man. A plant is free when it is not prevented from living and growing according to the natural laws of plant life; an animal is free when it is not prevented from living according to the natural laws of animal life; human beings are free when and only when they are not prevented from living in accord with the natural laws of human life. I say "when not prevented," for human beings will live _naturally_ and, therefore, in freedom, when they are not prevented from thus living by ignorance of what human nature is and by artificial social systems established, maintained, and protected by such ignorance. Human freedom consists in exercising the time-binding energies of man in accordance with the natural laws of such natural energies. Human freedom is thus the aim of Human Engineering because Human Engineering is to be the science of human nature and the art of conducting human affairs in accordance with the laws of human nature. Survival of the fittest, where _fittest_ means _strongest_, is a _natural_ law for brutes, for animals, for the cla.s.s of mere _s.p.a.ce_-binders. Survival of the fittest, where _fittest_ means _best_ in science and art and wisdom, is a _natural_ law for mankind, the time-binding cla.s.s of life.

Chapter VIII. Elements Of Power

In the World War Germany displayed tremendous _power_. Restraining our emotions as much as possible, let us endeavor to a.n.a.lyse that power with mathematical dispa.s.sionateness.

Why did Germany display more power than any other single nation? Because in the establishment of her "ethics," her political system, and her economic structure, Germany availed herself, in larger measure than any other nation, of scientific achievements and scientific methods. It is a very common, very erroneous, and very harmful belief that war was created solely by a "war-lord." Every idea or movement doubtless originates with somebody but back of such "originations" or initiations there are favoring conditions, forces and impulsions. The stage is set by life and the ages; the actor enters and the show begins. In the instance in question, the stage was set by our whole modern system of civilization. The war lords were the "Deus ex machina"-the show was a real one-a tragedy.

The true origin of this war must be looked for in the economic field. Our economic system is the very complicated result of all our creeds, philosophies and social customs. It is therefore impossible to understand the working of the economic forces without understanding the foundation upon which this system of forces is based. A short list of works on the subject is given at the end of this book. A plain statement here will be enough.

Germany was committed to a policy of indefinite industrial expansion. This artificial expansion had reached its limits. Germany was on the verge of bankruptcy. Only a victorious war could avoid a national catastrophe; she played her last card, and lost despite her gigantic power, the greatest ever displayed by any nation. The leading European states were not able to overpower her for a long time. This writing is not intended as an apology for Germany, much less to praise her or her war lords. German purposes were nationally narrow and nationally selfish to the root; her methods were inhuman but Germany displayed power; and without the understanding of power, Human Engineering is impossible.

It is possibly a fault of the writer's military training, but it seems to him that the "General Staff" point of view has as much claim to consideration as any other among the many different interpretations of history-perhaps it has more. It is not the primary aim of the general staff to "fight," very far from it. Their primary aim is "victory" and all the better if victory be possible without a fight. Strategy, brain-work, intelligence, knowledge of facts-these are the chief weapons; brutal fighting is only a last resort. It is highly important to bear that in mind. Soldiers and engineers do not argue-they act. Germany affords the first example of a philosophy or a society having for its main purpose the generating of power to "do things." It seems only reasonable and intelligent to a.n.a.lyse the history of the war from the engineer's point of view, which, in this case, happens to coincide with the military point of view. It must be clearly understood that the modern general staff, or military, point of view has very little or nothing to do with the romance or poetry of war. War to-day is a grim business-but "business" before all else. It has to mobilize all the resources of a nation and generate power to the limit of its capacity. The conduct of war to-day is a technological affair-its methods have to be engineering methods. To crush an obstacle, there is need of a giant hammer, and the more ma.s.s that can be given it and the greater the force put behind it, the more deadly will be the blow.

Prior to the World War technology had not been mobilized on so vast a scale nor confronted with a task so gigantic. Mobilized technology has revealed and demonstrated the fact that it is possible to generate almost unlimited power and has shown the way to do it; at the same time it has demonstrated the measureless potency of engineering and our utter helplessness without it. Technology is comparatively a new science; by some it is called a "semi-science" because it deals primarily with the application of science to practical issues. But when it became necessary "to do things," an engineer had to be called; the general staff had to adopt his view, and all other practices and traditions were bent to his ideas.