The Mainspring of Human Progress

Chapter 20

MORAL VERSUS MATERIAL

THE third attempt to set men free has made the great-grandchildren of the revolutionary leaders the best-fed, the best-clothed, the best-housed, and the most prosperous people on the face of the globe. Many of the things that we have come to take for granted as commonplace necessities of life would have been beyond the fondest dreams of luxury-seeking kings and potentates a few years ago.

Perhaps I’m laying too much stress on material accomplishments, as against the cultural and moral aspects, but I can’t see that there are any clean-cut dividing lines. It is generally agreed that the necessities of life must be taken care of before there can be any widespread progress in other, more important directions. But I’d like to suggest that the interrelations are far deeper – that neither the chicken nor the egg comes first.

America’s outstanding progress in the realm of material things is the result of an approach which was based on sound moral principles; which threw aside the pagan superstition of a static universe; and which admitted no limitations to man’s progress so long as he directs his imaginative abilities and creative faculties in harmony with truth and rightness.

Consider the futile efforts of the ancient alchemist who, laboring under the delusion that things are governed by the whims and fancies of the mythical gods, attempted to change the nature of materials in-the-mass by waving his magic wand and uttering his mystical incantations. His intentions were good, but his beliefs were false; and progress was at a standstill until modern research workers reversed the procedure. In contrast to the ancient alchemist, they delve into the secrets of the molecule and the atom – working from the specific back to the general – with the abiding faith that there is no limit to what can be accomplished, so long as man conforms his plans to the “higher plan” which governs all things.

Voluntary Co-operation

The same principle applies in the fields of industry and commerce. America’s accomplishments in quantity production and in the widespread distribution of complex products and services would not have been possible except through the voluntary co-operation of free individuals. This voluntary co-operation depends on the observance of ethical standards based on the recognition of human rights, human obligations, and individual responsibility. It is a practical manifestation of the brotherhood of man, and it is good business. To rely on force and coercion – courts of law and police regulation – is too expensive. It slows things down, adds too much to the overhead, and saps energy that might otherwise be directed to the production of greater abundance.

In the static world of the pagans, the only way to gain a benefit was to take something away from someone else. Under that philosophy, human energy which might have been used to increase wealth was always wasted in fighting over existing wealth. This went on for thousands upon thousands of years; in the process, material wealth was destroyed, human energy was dissipated, and desolation prevailed.

Then, here in America, after 160 years of voluntary cooperation between free individuals, we have pointed the way to a world of peace and plenty. Although we’ve just barely reached the threshold, we’ve gone far enough to disprove the age-old superstition that for one person to make a profit, the other must suffer a loss. Under the American formula, the soundness of the Golden Rule becomes increasingly apparent; and for the first time in history, we have witnessed the paradox of higher wages, lower prices, more things for more people – and we’re only just getting started!

Not Perfect, But…

It is true that America is far from perfect; and being a self-critical and progressive people, we find it easy to visualize a much better world. But in admitting our shortcomings and laying our plans to overcome them, there are three questions which might well be asked:

1. To what degree are our shortcomings traceable to the form of political structure under which our country was founded?

2. To what degree are they due to our having drifted away from that concept?

3. How does our record compare with the records of countries which have tried to operate under the opposite philosophy?

And in drawing the comparisons, it’s important to bear in mind that we’ve been at it less than 200 years, as against thousands of years of experience with various forms of regimentation.

Counterrevolutionists

Today we hear a lot of talk to the effect that our original form of government has been outmoded; that it’s old-fashioned and needs to be brought up to date; that you can’t resist the trend of history; and that we are now in the midst of a new world-revolution.

But the truth of the matter is that the American revolution for human freedom is the only thing that’s really new, and it did not end with the surrender of Cornwallis nor with the signing of the Constitution. It’s still going on, and the counterrevolutionists – the enemies of freedom – are on the march. Their major attack is not on the open battlefield. It is in the fifth-column technique of skillfully boring from within – a program of infiltration and attrition.

The principal secret weapon is traceable to Lenin, who allegedly instructed his followers to first confuse the vocabulary. Lenin was smart. He knew that thinking can be done only in words and that accurate thinking requires words of precise meaning. Confuse the vocabulary, and the unsuspecting majority is at a disadvantage when defending themselves against the small but highly disciplined minority which knows exactly what it wants and which deliberately promotes word-confusion as the first step in its efforts to divide and conquer.

Lenin was an able strategist, and his instructions have borne fruit. There are evidences of it on every side. The result is that the communication of logical thought has become increasingly difficult, until today we are living in a world of sugar-coated fallacies, clichés, false meanings, and double talk.

Offhand, one would assume that free Americans, with their unprecedented record of progress, would be completely immune to the propaganda of those who advocate a reversion to pagan ideology. But paradoxically, people who have lived their lives in a civilization founded on Christian ethics are at a serious disadvantage when defending themselves against the surreptitious tactics of those who deny all moral values and who are obsessed with the immoral fallacy, the end justifies the means. As Henry J. Taylor expressed it, the best prize fighter, accustomed to following the boxing rules, is not invulnerable when an opponent carries lead in his gloves and has no compunction about hitting below the belt.

The Jujitsu Technique

We in America are up against the problem of protecting ourselves against the jujitsu tactics of those who would have us commit suicide by using our own strength to destroy the very things which are responsible for that strength. Without regard for moral principles of decency and fair play, their techniques are skillfully designed to take advantage of our virtues and to turn them into weaknesses.

Our habit of self-criticism, which is so largely responsible for our progress, makes us particularly vulnerable to distorted propaganda which exaggerates our deficiencies and holds out false promises of a short cut to the millennium. Thus it is that some of our most patriotic, high-minded, and well-meaning citizens succumb to the overtures of those who would make them the innocent tools of subversion.

The fact that we are a progressive and open-minded people, always on the alert for new ideas, makes us susceptible to old ideas when they are attractively camouflaged and presented as something new.

Being a hospitable, tolerant, and fair-minded people, we are inclined to consider both sides of every question. That’s all right up to a point, but when it comes to the eternal verities of moral truth, there are no two sides to the question. Right is right, and wrong is wrong; and any concession to the pagan viewpoint – whether in the name of expediency or open-mindedness – paves the way for the destruction of all moral values.

Look at the Record

I repeat that America is far from perfect. It would be easy to write a whole book on the negative aspects; but in recent years, that side has been so overstressed that I make no apology for concentrating on the doughnut instead of on the hole. On any honest basis of comparison, the record of America speaks for itself.

In this republic, less than 7 per cent of the earth’s population has created more new wealth than all the other 2,010,000,000 people in the world; and the benefits of this great wealth have been more widely distributed here than in any other country – at any time. In addition to, or rather as a result of, such accomplishments, we have more churches, more schools, more libraries, more recreational facilities, more hospitals. Americans have gone further than any other people in the elimination of abusive child-labor practices, the reduction of back-breaking drudgery, the spread of literacy, enlightenment, health, longevity, general well-being, and good will toward others.

Ours is the only continent on which there has never been a general famine. Aside from the early settlers, few people in America ever have gone hungry. Even in the depths of our worst depression, Americans who were on relief were living better than most of the fully-employed in other countries.

There is more laughter and more song in these United States than anywhere else on earth. In shops, streets, factories, elevators, on highways and on farms – everywhere – Americans are friendly and kindly people, responsive to every rumor of distress. Someone in America will always divide his food and share his gasoline or his tire tool with a person in need.

It would seem that insecurity, the price of freedom, has bred a degree of human sympathy that is without parallel in the history of mankind. It is only in America that rank-and-file citizens, over and over again, have made millions of small sacrifices in order to pour wealth over the rest of the world, to relieve suffering in such faraway places as Armenia, Russia, China, and Japan.

Opportunities

With the shortest working hours on earth, we have greater opportunities for self-improvement and personal advancement. But please note that the emphasis is on the word opportunities. The matter of taking advantage of opportunities is up to the individual. It cannot be otherwise. There are no substitutes for self-faith, self-reliance, self-development, individual effort, and personal responsibility. Life is no bed of roses. The end of man is not self-indulgence, but achievement. There are no short cuts, no substitutes for work.

Human life came into being and aspires to advance in the face of conflict, struggle, pain, and death. In the last analysis, no person’s security can exceed his own self-reliance; when anyone denies this self-evident truth, the chances are that he has for too long depended on someone else to do his fighting for him.

If, down through the ages, men and women hadn’t stood up to the job of living – if they hadn’t taken risks, faced dangers, suffered exhaustion beyond exhaustion, and kept on fighting and working in the faint hope of victory – then there would be no human being left to tell the story.

Living is a tough job. Only good fighters can make a go of it. The tragedy is that we waste our energies in fighting one another, instead of fighting the common enemies of mankind – famine, pestilence, disease, and other destructive forces of the nonhuman world.