WEBVTT NOTE VIII. Human Society 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.440 PART 2 ACTION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF SOCIETY 2 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:08.720 CHAPTER 8 HUMAN SOCIETY 3 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:11.560 1. 4 00:00:11.560 --> 00:00:15.280 HUMAN COOPERATION 5 00:00:15.280 --> 00:00:20.480 Society is concerted action, cooperation. 6 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:24.820 Society is the outcome of conscious and purposeful behavior. 7 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:29.840 This does not mean that individuals have concluded contracts by virtue of which they 8 00:00:29.840 --> 00:00:33.000 They Have Founded Human Society. 9 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:39.040 The actions which have brought about social cooperation and daily bring it about anew 10 00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:46.020 do not aim at anything else than cooperation and coadjuvency with others for the attainment 11 00:00:46.020 --> 00:00:49.200 of definite, singular ends. 12 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:55.440 The total complex of the mutual relations created by such concerted actions is called 13 00:00:55.440 --> 00:00:57.720 and Society. 14 00:00:57.720 --> 00:01:05.880 It substitutes collaboration for the, at least conceivable, isolated life of individuals. 15 00:01:05.880 --> 00:01:10.040 Society is division of labor and combination of labor. 16 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:17.080 In his capacity as an acting animal, man becomes a social animal. 17 00:01:17.080 --> 00:01:21.600 Individual man is born into a socially organized environment. 18 00:01:21.600 --> 00:01:28.560 In this sense alone we may accept the saying that society is, logically or historically, 19 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:31.500 antecedent to the individual. 20 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:36.800 In every other sense, this dictum is either empty or nonsensical. 21 00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:44.040 The individual lives and acts within society, but society is nothing but the combination 22 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:47.680 of individuals for cooperative effort. 23 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:53.080 It exists nowhere else than in the actions of individual men. 24 00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:58.180 It is a delusion to search for it outside the actions of individuals. 25 00:01:58.180 --> 00:02:05.680 To speak of a society's autonomous and independent existence of its life, its soul and its actions 26 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:10.840 is a metaphor which can easily lead to crass errors. 27 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:16.880 The questions whether society or the individual is to be considered as the ultimate end, and 28 00:02:16.880 --> 00:02:22.120 Whether the interests of society should be subordinated to those of the individuals, 29 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:27.600 or the interests of the individuals to those of society, are fruitless. 30 00:02:27.600 --> 00:02:31.800 Action is always action of individual men. 31 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:39.060 The social or societal element is a certain orientation of the actions of individual men. 32 00:02:39.060 --> 00:02:44.560 The category end makes sense only when applied to action. 33 00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:50.400 Theology and the metaphysics of history may discuss the ends of society and the designs 34 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:56.380 which God wants to realize with regard to society in the same way in which they discuss 35 00:02:56.380 --> 00:03:00.760 the purpose of all other parts of the created universe. 36 00:03:00.760 --> 00:03:06.840 For science, which is inseparable from reason, a tool manifestly unfit for the treatment 37 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:12.280 of such problems, it would be hopeless to embark upon speculations concerning these 38 00:03:12.280 --> 00:03:14.360 matters. 39 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:20.260 Within the frame of social cooperation there can emerge between members of society feelings 40 00:03:20.260 --> 00:03:25.260 of sympathy and friendship and a sense of belonging together. 41 00:03:25.260 --> 00:03:31.000 These feelings are the source of man's most delightful and most sublime experiences. 42 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:33.980 They are the most precious adornment of life. 43 00:03:33.980 --> 00:03:39.380 They lift the animal species man to the heights of a really human existence. 44 00:03:39.380 --> 00:03:46.880 However, they are not, as some have asserted, the agents that have brought about social relationships. 45 00:03:46.880 --> 00:03:53.380 They are fruits of social cooperation. They thrive only within its frame. 46 00:03:53.380 --> 00:04:00.880 They did not precede the establishment of social relations, and are not the seed from which they sprang. 47 00:04:00.880 --> 00:04:06.880 The fundamental facts that brought about cooperation, society and civilization, 48 00:04:06.880 --> 00:04:13.520 and transformed the animal man into a human being, are the facts that work performed under 49 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:20.160 the division of labor is more productive than isolated work, and that man's reason is capable 50 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:23.320 of recognizing this truth. 51 00:04:23.320 --> 00:04:30.080 But for these facts, men would have forever remained deadly foes of one another, irreconcilable 52 00:04:30.080 --> 00:04:36.120 rivals in their endeavors to secure a portion of the scarce supply of means of sustenance 53 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:38.640 provided by Nature. 54 00:04:38.640 --> 00:04:43.740 Each man would have been forced to view all other men as his enemies. 55 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:48.880 His craving for the satisfaction of his own appetites would have brought him into an implacable 56 00:04:48.880 --> 00:04:52.100 conflict with all his neighbors. 57 00:04:52.100 --> 00:04:57.420 No sympathy could possibly develop under such a state of affairs. 58 00:04:57.420 --> 00:05:03.660 Some sociologists have asserted that the original and elementary subjective fact in society 59 00:05:03.660 --> 00:05:10.240 is a Consciousness of Kind. Others maintain that there would be no social systems if there 60 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:17.320 were no Sense of Community or of Belonging Together. One may agree, provided that these 61 00:05:17.320 --> 00:05:24.300 somewhat vague and ambiguous terms are correctly interpreted. We may call Consciousness of 62 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:30.660 Kind, Sense of Community, or Sense of Belonging Together, the acknowledgement of the fact 63 00:05:30.660 --> 00:05:36.580 Note that all other human beings are potential collaborators in the struggle for survival, 64 00:05:36.580 --> 00:05:41.980 because they are capable of recognizing the mutual benefits of cooperation, while the 65 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:44.380 animals lack this faculty. 66 00:05:44.380 --> 00:05:50.580 However, we must not forget that the primary facts that bring about such consciousness 67 00:05:50.580 --> 00:05:54.560 or such a sense are the two mentioned above. 68 00:05:54.560 --> 00:06:00.100 In a hypothetical world in which the division of labor would not increase productivity, 69 00:06:00.100 --> 00:06:02.660 There would not be any society. 70 00:06:02.660 --> 00:06:06.720 There would not be any sentiments of benevolence and goodwill. 71 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:11.740 The principle of the division of labor is one of the great basic principles of cosmic 72 00:06:11.740 --> 00:06:15.340 becoming and evolutionary change. 73 00:06:15.340 --> 00:06:20.420 The biologists were right in borrowing the concept of the division of labor from social 74 00:06:20.420 --> 00:06:25.700 philosophy and in adapting it to their field of investigation. 75 00:06:25.700 --> 00:06:31.340 There is division of labor between the various parts of any living organism. 76 00:06:31.340 --> 00:06:38.320 There are, furthermore, organic entities composed of collaborating animal individuals. 77 00:06:38.320 --> 00:06:45.140 It is customary to call metaphorically such aggregations of the ants and bees animal 78 00:06:45.140 --> 00:06:46.320 societies. 79 00:06:46.320 --> 00:06:54.700 But one must never forget that the characteristic feature of human society is purposeful cooperation. 80 00:06:54.700 --> 00:07:00.740 Society is an outcome of human action, that is, of a conscious aiming at the attainment 81 00:07:00.740 --> 00:07:02.300 of ends. 82 00:07:02.300 --> 00:07:07.760 No such element is present as far as we can ascertain in the processes which have resulted 83 00:07:07.760 --> 00:07:13.780 in the emergence of the structure-function systems of plant and animal bodies, and in 84 00:07:13.780 --> 00:07:19.480 the operation of the societies of ants, bees and hornets. 85 00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:23.720 Human society is an intellectual and spiritual phenomenon. 86 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:30.680 It is the outcome of a purposeful utilization of a universal law determining cosmic becoming, 87 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:35.300 namely the higher productivity of the division of labor. 88 00:07:35.300 --> 00:07:40.960 As with every instance of action, the recognition of the laws of nature is put into the service 89 00:07:40.960 --> 00:07:45.240 of man's efforts to improve his conditions. 90 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:53.760 2. A Critique of the Holistic and Metaphysical View of Society 91 00:07:53.760 --> 00:07:59.760 According to the doctrines of Universalism, Conceptual Realism, Holism, Collectivism, 92 00:07:59.760 --> 00:08:07.080 and some representatives of Gestalt Psychology, society is an entity living its own life, 93 00:08:07.080 --> 00:08:12.760 independent of and separate from the lives of the various individuals acting on its own 94 00:08:12.760 --> 00:08:18.160 on behalf and aiming at its own ends, which are different from the ends sought by the 95 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:20.360 individuals. 96 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:28.140 Then of course an antagonism between the aims of society and those of its members can emerge. 97 00:08:28.140 --> 00:08:33.860 In order to safeguard the flowering and further development of society, it becomes necessary 98 00:08:33.860 --> 00:08:39.980 to master the selfishness of the individuals and to compel them to sacrifice their egoistic 99 00:08:39.980 --> 00:08:43.700 Designs to the Benefit of Society. 100 00:08:43.700 --> 00:08:49.220 At this point, all these holistic doctrines are bound to abandon the secular methods of 101 00:08:49.220 --> 00:08:55.700 human science and logical reasoning, and to shift to theological or metaphysical professions 102 00:08:55.700 --> 00:08:57.440 of faith. 103 00:08:57.440 --> 00:09:03.580 They must assume that providence, through its prophets, apostles and charismatic leaders, 104 00:09:03.580 --> 00:09:10.140 forces men who are constitutionally wicked, that is, prone to pursue their own ends, to 105 00:09:10.140 --> 00:09:16.100 walk in the ways of righteousness, which the Lord, or Weltgeist, or history wants them 106 00:09:16.100 --> 00:09:17.780 to walk. 107 00:09:17.780 --> 00:09:23.380 This is the philosophy which is characterized from time immemorial, the creeds of primitive 108 00:09:23.380 --> 00:09:24.380 tribes. 109 00:09:24.380 --> 00:09:28.940 It has been an element in all religious teachings. 110 00:09:28.940 --> 00:09:35.460 Man is bound to comply with the law issued by a superhuman power, and to obey the authorities 111 00:09:35.460 --> 00:09:40.200 which this power has entrusted with the enforcement of the law. 112 00:09:40.200 --> 00:09:46.680 The order created by this law, human society, is consequently the work of the Deity and 113 00:09:46.680 --> 00:09:48.680 not of man. 114 00:09:48.680 --> 00:09:54.980 If the Lord had not interfered and had not given enlightenment to erring mankind, society 115 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:58.020 would not have come into existence. 116 00:09:58.020 --> 00:10:02.620 It is true that social cooperation is a blessing for man. 117 00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:07.900 It is true that man could work his way up from barbarism and the moral and material 118 00:10:07.900 --> 00:10:13.940 distress of his primitive state, only within the framework of society. 119 00:10:13.940 --> 00:10:20.500 However, if left alone, he would never have seen the road to his own salvation. 120 00:10:20.500 --> 00:10:26.100 For adjustment to the requirements of social cooperation and subordination to the precepts 121 00:10:26.100 --> 00:10:30.580 of the Moral Law put heavy restraints upon him. 122 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:36.020 From the point of view of his wretched intellect, he would deem the abandonment of some expected 123 00:10:36.020 --> 00:10:39.620 advantage an evil and a privation. 124 00:10:39.620 --> 00:10:46.420 He would fail to recognize the incomparably greater, but later, advantages which renunciation 125 00:10:46.420 --> 00:10:50.700 of present and visible pleasures will procure. 126 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:55.260 But for supernatural revelation, he would never have learned what destiny wants him 127 00:10:55.260 --> 00:11:00.620 and to-do for his own good and that of his offspring. 128 00:11:00.620 --> 00:11:06.160 The scientific theory, as developed by the social philosophy of eighteenth century rationalism 129 00:11:06.160 --> 00:11:14.220 and modern economics, does not resort to any miraculous interference of superhuman powers. 130 00:11:14.220 --> 00:11:21.020 Every step by which an individual substitutes concerted action for isolated action results 131 00:11:21.020 --> 00:11:26.140 in an immediate and recognizable improvement in his conditions. 132 00:11:26.140 --> 00:11:32.620 The advantages derived from peaceful cooperation and division of labor are universal. 133 00:11:32.620 --> 00:11:38.340 They immediately benefit every generation and not only later descendants. 134 00:11:38.340 --> 00:11:44.300 For what the individual must sacrifice for the sake of society, he is amply compensated 135 00:11:44.300 --> 00:11:46.800 by greater advantages. 136 00:11:46.800 --> 00:11:50.940 His sacrifice is only apparent and temporary. 137 00:11:50.940 --> 00:11:56.740 He forgoes a smaller gain in order to reap a greater one later. 138 00:11:56.740 --> 00:12:01.360 No reasonable being can fail to see this obvious fact. 139 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:06.920 When social cooperation is intensified by enlarging the field in which there is division 140 00:12:06.920 --> 00:12:13.140 of labor, or when legal protection and the safeguarding of peace are strengthened, the 141 00:12:13.140 --> 00:12:19.840 incentive is the desire of all those concerned to improve their own conditions. 142 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:26.120 In striving after his own, rightly understood, interests, the individual works toward an 143 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:32.480 intensification of social cooperation and peaceful intercourse. 144 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:38.760 Society is a product of human action, that is, the human urge to remove uneasiness as 145 00:12:38.760 --> 00:12:41.000 far as possible. 146 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:47.000 In order to explain its becoming and its evolution, it is not necessary to have recourse to a 147 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:53.680 Doctrine, certainly offensive to a truly religious mind, according to which the original creation 148 00:12:53.680 --> 00:13:02.000 was so defective that reiterated superhuman intervention is needed to prevent its failure. 149 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.520 The historical role of the theory of the division of labor as elaborated by British political 150 00:13:07.520 --> 00:13:14.000 economy from Hume to Ricardo consisted in the complete demolition of all metaphysical 151 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:19.880 Social Doctrines Concerning the Origin and the Operation of Social Cooperation. 152 00:13:19.880 --> 00:13:26.500 It consummated the spiritual, moral and intellectual emancipation of mankind inaugurated by the 153 00:13:26.500 --> 00:13:29.460 philosophy of Epicureanism. 154 00:13:29.460 --> 00:13:35.760 It substituted an autonomous rational morality for the heteronomous and intuitionist ethics 155 00:13:35.760 --> 00:13:37.920 of older days. 156 00:13:37.920 --> 00:13:45.060 Law and legality, the moral code and social institutions, are no longer revered as unfathomable 157 00:13:45.060 --> 00:13:47.120 decrees of heaven. 158 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:53.960 They are of human origin, and the only yardstick that must be applied to them is that of expediency 159 00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:56.560 with regard to human welfare. 160 00:13:56.560 --> 00:14:03.700 The utilitarian economist does not say, Let justice be done, though the world be destroyed. 161 00:14:03.700 --> 00:14:09.760 He says, Let justice be done, so the world will not be destroyed. 162 00:14:09.760 --> 00:14:15.180 He does not ask a man to renounce his well-being for the benefit of society. 163 00:14:15.180 --> 00:14:21.180 He advises him to recognize what his rightly understood interests are. 164 00:14:21.180 --> 00:14:27.900 In his eyes, God's magnificence does not manifest itself in busy interference with sundry affairs 165 00:14:27.900 --> 00:14:44.260 Many economists, among them Adam Smith and Bastiat, believed in God, hence they admired 166 00:14:44.260 --> 00:14:51.020 in the facts they had discovered the providential care of the great Director of Nature. 167 00:14:51.020 --> 00:14:53.900 Atheist critics blame them for this attitude. 168 00:14:53.900 --> 00:15:06.900 However, these critics fail to realize that to sneer at the references to the invisible hand does not invalidate the essential teachings of the rationalist and utilitarian social philosophy. 169 00:15:06.900 --> 00:15:11.900 One must comprehend that the alternative is this. 170 00:15:11.900 --> 00:15:28.900 Either association is a human process because it best serves the aims of the individuals concerned and the individuals themselves have the ability to realize the advantages they derive from their adjustment to life in social cooperation. 171 00:15:28.900 --> 00:15:37.900 Or, a superior being enjoins upon reluctant men subordination to the law and to the social authorities. 172 00:15:37.900 --> 00:15:53.900 It is of minor importance whether one calls this supreme being God, Weltgeist, destiny, history, Wotan, or productive forces, and what title one assigns to its apostles, the dictators. 173 00:15:53.900 --> 00:16:01.900 The essential problem of all varieties of universalistic, collectivistic, and holistic social philosophy is, 174 00:16:01.900 --> 00:16:10.900 By what mark do I recognize the true law, the authentic apostle of God's word, and the legitimate authority? 175 00:16:10.900 --> 00:16:16.900 For many claim that Providence has sent them, and each of these prophets preaches another gospel. 176 00:16:16.900 --> 00:16:20.900 For the faithful believer there cannot be any doubt. 177 00:16:20.900 --> 00:16:25.900 He is fully confident that he has espoused the only true doctrine. 178 00:16:25.900 --> 00:16:34.260 But it is precisely the firmness of such beliefs that renders the antagonisms irreconcilable. 179 00:16:34.260 --> 00:16:38.780 Each party is prepared to make its own tenets prevail. 180 00:16:38.780 --> 00:16:44.820 But as logical argumentation cannot decide between various dissenting creeds, there is 181 00:16:44.820 --> 00:16:50.940 no means left for the settlement of such disputes other than armed conflict. 182 00:16:50.940 --> 00:16:58.740 The non-rationalist, non-utilitarian and non-liberal social doctrines must beget wars and civil 183 00:16:58.740 --> 00:17:04.360 wars until one of the adversaries is annihilated or subdued. 184 00:17:04.360 --> 00:17:09.940 The history of the world's great religions is a record of battles and wars, as is the 185 00:17:09.940 --> 00:17:18.700 history of the present-day counterfeit religions, socialism, statolatry and nationalism. 186 00:17:18.700 --> 00:17:24.340 Rights and propaganda by the executioners or the soldiers' sword are inherent in any 187 00:17:24.340 --> 00:17:27.460 system of heteronomous ethics. 188 00:17:27.460 --> 00:17:33.660 The laws of God or destiny claim universal validity, and to the authorities which they 189 00:17:33.660 --> 00:17:38.780 declare legitimate, all men by rights owe obedience. 190 00:17:38.780 --> 00:17:45.340 As long as the prestige of heteronomous codes of morality and of their philosophical corollary, 191 00:17:45.340 --> 00:17:50.980 When conceptual realism was intact, there could not be any question of tolerance or 192 00:17:50.980 --> 00:17:53.160 of lasting peace. 193 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:58.900 When fighting ceased, it was only to gather new strength for further battling. 194 00:17:58.900 --> 00:18:04.800 The idea of tolerance with regard to other people's dissenting views could take root 195 00:18:04.800 --> 00:18:10.460 only when the liberal doctrines had broken the spell of universalism. 196 00:18:10.460 --> 00:18:17.160 In the light of the utilitarian philosophy, society and state no longer appear as institutions 197 00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:22.820 for the maintenance of a world order that for considerations hidden to the human mind 198 00:18:22.820 --> 00:18:28.820 pleases the deity, although it manifestly hurts the secular interests of many or even 199 00:18:28.820 --> 00:18:33.380 of the immense majority of those living today. 200 00:18:33.380 --> 00:18:39.420 Society and state are, on the contrary, the primary means for all people to attain the 201 00:18:39.420 --> 00:18:45.640 the ends they aim at of their own accord. They are created by human effort, and their 202 00:18:45.640 --> 00:18:51.000 maintenance and most suitable organization are a task not essentially different from 203 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:58.120 all other concerns of human action. The supporters of a heteronomous morality and of the collectivistic 204 00:18:58.120 --> 00:19:04.720 doctrine cannot hope to demonstrate by ratiocination the correctness of their specific variety 205 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:10.440 of Ethical Principles and the Superiority and Exclusive Legitimacy of their particular 206 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:12.360 social ideal. 207 00:19:12.360 --> 00:19:18.680 They are forced to ask people to accept credulously their ideological system and to surrender 208 00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:22.040 to the authority they consider the right one. 209 00:19:22.040 --> 00:19:28.940 They are intent upon silencing dissenters or upon beating them into submission. 210 00:19:28.940 --> 00:19:34.400 Of course, there will always be individuals and groups of individuals whose intellect 211 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:41.360 is so narrow that they cannot grasp the benefits which social cooperation brings them. 212 00:19:41.360 --> 00:19:46.800 There are others whose moral strength and willpower are so weak that they cannot resist 213 00:19:46.800 --> 00:19:53.640 the temptation to strive for an ephemeral advantage by actions detrimental to the smooth functioning 214 00:19:53.640 --> 00:19:55.860 of the social system. 215 00:19:55.860 --> 00:20:02.920 or the adjustment of the individual to the requirements of social cooperation demand sacrifices. 216 00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:08.680 These are, it is true, only temporary and apparent sacrifices, as they are more than 217 00:20:08.680 --> 00:20:15.860 compensated for by the incomparably greater advantages which living within society provides. 218 00:20:15.860 --> 00:20:21.940 However, at the instant, in the very act of renouncing an expected enjoyment, they are 219 00:20:21.940 --> 00:20:36.940 Anarchism believes that education could make all people comprehend what their own interests require them to do. 220 00:20:36.940 --> 00:20:46.940 Rightly instructed, they would of their own accord always comply with the rules of conduct indispensable for the preservation of society. 221 00:20:46.940 --> 00:21:01.940 The anarchists contend that a social order in which nobody enjoys privileges at the expense of his fellow citizens could exist without any compulsion and coercion for the prevention of action detrimental to society. 222 00:21:01.940 --> 00:21:12.940 Such an ideal society could do without state and government, that is, without a police force, the social apparatus of coercion and compulsion. 223 00:21:12.940 --> 00:21:19.660 The anarchists overlook the undeniable fact that some people are either too narrow-minded 224 00:21:19.660 --> 00:21:26.300 or too weak to adjust themselves spontaneously to the conditions of social life. 225 00:21:26.300 --> 00:21:31.500 Even if we admit that every sane adult is endowed with the faculty of realizing the 226 00:21:31.500 --> 00:21:38.780 good of social cooperation and of acting accordingly, there still remains the problem of the infants, 227 00:21:38.780 --> 00:21:41.420 the aged and the insane. 228 00:21:41.420 --> 00:21:46.940 He may agree that he who acts antisocially should be considered mentally sick and in 229 00:21:46.940 --> 00:21:54.540 need of care, but as long as not all are cured, and as long as there are infants and the senile, 230 00:21:54.540 --> 00:21:59.540 some provision must be taken lest they jeopardize society. 231 00:21:59.540 --> 00:22:05.640 An anarchistic society would be exposed to the mercy of every individual. 232 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:11.760 Money cannot exist if the majority is not ready to hinder, by the application or threat 233 00:22:11.760 --> 00:22:17.280 of violent action, minorities from destroying the social order. 234 00:22:17.280 --> 00:22:22.000 This power is vested in the state or government. 235 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:27.400 State or government is the social apparatus of compulsion and coercion. 236 00:22:27.400 --> 00:22:30.740 It has the monopoly of violent action. 237 00:22:30.740 --> 00:22:36.300 No individual is free to use violence or the threat of violence if the government has not 238 00:22:36.300 --> 00:22:39.100 accorded this right to him. 239 00:22:39.100 --> 00:22:45.820 The state is essentially an institution for the preservation of peaceful inter-human relations. 240 00:22:45.820 --> 00:22:51.980 However, for the preservation of peace, it must be prepared to crush the onslaughts of 241 00:22:51.980 --> 00:22:54.140 peace-breakers. 242 00:22:54.140 --> 00:22:59.740 Liberal social doctrine, based on the teachings of utilitarian ethics and economics, sees 243 00:22:59.740 --> 00:23:04.640 Solves the problem of the relation between the government and those ruled from a different 244 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:09.260 angle than universalism and collectivism. 245 00:23:09.260 --> 00:23:14.900 Liberalism realizes that the rulers, who are always a minority, cannot lastingly remain 246 00:23:14.900 --> 00:23:20.780 in office if not supported by the consent of the majority of those ruled. 247 00:23:20.780 --> 00:23:25.680 Whatever the system of government may be, the foundation upon which it is built and 248 00:23:25.680 --> 00:23:32.720 and rests is always the opinion of those ruled that to obey and to be loyal to this government 249 00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:39.360 better serves their own interests than insurrection and the establishment of another regime. 250 00:23:39.360 --> 00:23:45.280 The majority has the power to do away with an unpopular government, and uses this power 251 00:23:45.280 --> 00:23:50.560 whenever it becomes convinced that its own welfare requires it. 252 00:23:50.560 --> 00:23:56.260 In the long run, there is no such thing as an unpopular government. 253 00:23:56.260 --> 00:24:01.580 Civil war and revolution are the means by which the discontented majorities overthrow 254 00:24:01.580 --> 00:24:06.260 rulers and methods of government which do not suit them. 255 00:24:06.260 --> 00:24:12.380 For the sake of domestic peace, liberalism aims at democratic government. 256 00:24:12.380 --> 00:24:16.380 Democracy is therefore not a revolutionary institution. 257 00:24:16.380 --> 00:24:22.680 On the contrary, it is the very means of preventing revolutions and civil wars. 258 00:24:22.680 --> 00:24:28.780 It provides a method for the peaceful adjustment of government to the will of the majority. 259 00:24:28.780 --> 00:24:34.140 When the men in office and their policies no longer please the majority of the nation, 260 00:24:34.140 --> 00:24:40.100 they will, in the next election, be eliminated and replaced by other men espousing different 261 00:24:40.100 --> 00:24:42.100 policies. 262 00:24:42.100 --> 00:24:48.260 The principle of majority rule, or government by the people, as recommended by liberalism, 263 00:24:48.260 --> 00:24:52.900 does not aim at the supremacy of average or common men. 264 00:24:52.900 --> 00:24:58.900 It certainly does not mean, as some critics assert, the advocacy of the rule of the mean, 265 00:24:58.900 --> 00:25:02.960 of the low-bred, of the domestic barbarians. 266 00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:09.380 The liberals, too, believe that a nation should be ruled by those best fitted for this task. 267 00:25:09.380 --> 00:25:15.300 But they believe that a man's ability to rule proves itself better by convincing his fellow 268 00:25:15.300 --> 00:25:19.020 citizens than by using force upon them. 269 00:25:19.020 --> 00:25:24.460 There is, of course, no guarantee that the voters will entrust office to the most competent 270 00:25:24.460 --> 00:25:26.060 candidate. 271 00:25:26.060 --> 00:25:30.300 But no other system could offer such a guarantee. 272 00:25:30.300 --> 00:25:35.740 If the majority of the nation is committed to unsound principles and prefers unworthy 273 00:25:35.740 --> 00:25:45.740 by the office seekers, there is no remedy other than to try to change their mind by expounding more reasonable principles and recommending better men. 274 00:25:45.740 --> 00:25:50.740 A minority will never win lasting success by other means. 275 00:25:50.740 --> 00:25:57.740 Universalism and collectivism cannot accept this democratic solution of the problem of government. 276 00:25:57.740 --> 00:26:15.240 In their opinion, the individual, in complying with the ethical code, does not directly further his earthly concerns, but on the contrary, forgoes the attainment of his own ends for the benefit of the designs of the deity, or of the collective whole. 277 00:26:15.240 --> 00:26:30.240 Moreover, reason alone is not capable of conceiving the supremacy of the absolute values and the unconditional validity of the sacred law, and of interpreting correctly the canons and commandments. 278 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:41.240 Hence it is in their eyes a hopeless task to try to convince the majority through persuasion and to lead them to righteousness by amicable admonition. 279 00:26:41.240 --> 00:26:55.240 Those blessed by heavenly inspiration, to whom their charisma has conveyed illumination, have the duty to propagate the gospel to the docile, and to resort to violence against the intractable. 280 00:26:55.240 --> 00:27:03.240 The charismatic leader is the deity's vicar, the mandatory of the collective whole, the tool of history. 281 00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:09.240 He is infallible and always right. His orders are the supreme norm. 282 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:16.360 Universalism and collectivism are by necessity systems of theocratic government. 283 00:27:16.360 --> 00:27:21.800 The common characteristic of all their varieties is that they postulate the existence of a 284 00:27:21.800 --> 00:27:27.640 superhuman entity which the individuals are bound to obey. 285 00:27:27.640 --> 00:27:32.280 What differentiates them from one another is only the appellation they give to this 286 00:27:32.280 --> 00:27:37.680 entity and the content of the laws they proclaim in its name. 287 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:43.860 The dictatorial rule of a minority cannot find any legitimation other than the appeal 288 00:27:43.860 --> 00:27:49.880 to an alleged mandate obtained from a superhuman absolute authority. 289 00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:55.700 It does not matter whether the absolute ruler bases his claims on the divine rights of anointed 290 00:27:55.700 --> 00:28:01.320 kings, or on the historical mission of the vanguard of the proletariat, or whether the 291 00:28:01.320 --> 00:28:08.520 The Supreme Being is called Geist, Hegel, or Humanité, Auguste Comte. 292 00:28:08.520 --> 00:28:15.000 The terms society and state, as they are used by the contemporary advocates of socialism, 293 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:21.820 planning and social control of all the activities of individuals, signify a deity. 294 00:28:21.820 --> 00:28:27.880 The priests of this new creed ascribe to their idol all those attributes which the theologians 295 00:28:27.880 --> 00:28:35.040 ascribed to God, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Infinite Goodness, and so on. 296 00:28:35.040 --> 00:28:41.480 If one assumes that there exists above and beyond the individual's actions an imperishable 297 00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:48.480 entity aiming at its own ends, different from those of mortal men, one has already constructed 298 00:28:48.480 --> 00:28:51.280 the concept of a superhuman being. 299 00:28:51.280 --> 00:29:03.280 Then, one cannot evade the question whose ends take precedence whenever an antagonism arises, those of the state or society, or those of the individual. 300 00:29:03.280 --> 00:29:13.280 The answer to this question is already implied in the very concept of state or society, as conceived by collectivism and universalism. 301 00:29:13.280 --> 00:29:30.280 If one postulates the existence of an entity, which ex definitione, is higher, nobler and better than the individuals, then there cannot be any doubt that the aims of this eminent being must tower above those of the wretched individuals. 302 00:29:30.280 --> 00:29:42.280 It is true that some lovers of paradox, for instance, Max Stirner, took pleasure in turning the matter upside down and for all that asserted the precedence of the individual. 303 00:29:42.280 --> 00:29:49.520 If society or state is an entity endowed with volition and intention, and all the other 304 00:29:49.520 --> 00:29:55.760 qualities attributed to it by the collectivist doctrine, then it is simply nonsensical to 305 00:29:55.760 --> 00:30:02.360 set the shabby individual's trivial aims against its lofty designs. 306 00:30:02.360 --> 00:30:08.880 The quasi-theological character of all collectivist doctrines becomes manifest in their mutual 307 00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:10.200 conflicts. 308 00:30:10.200 --> 00:30:16.960 A collectivist doctrine does not assert the superiority of a collective whole in abstracto. 309 00:30:16.960 --> 00:30:23.400 It always proclaims the eminence of a definite collectivist idol, and either flatly denies 310 00:30:23.400 --> 00:30:29.800 the existence of other such idols, or relegates them to a subordinate and ancillary position 311 00:30:29.800 --> 00:30:32.840 with regard to its own idol. 312 00:30:32.840 --> 00:30:38.120 The worshippers of the state proclaim the excellence of a definite state, that is, their 313 00:30:38.120 --> 00:30:39.520 own. 314 00:30:39.520 --> 00:30:45.760 The Nationalists, The Excellence of Their Own Nation If dissenters challenge their particular 315 00:30:45.760 --> 00:30:52.560 program by heralding the superiority of another collectivist idol, they resort to no objection 316 00:30:52.560 --> 00:30:59.340 other than to declare, again and again, We are right because an inner voice tells us 317 00:30:59.340 --> 00:31:02.680 that we are right and you are wrong. 318 00:31:02.680 --> 00:31:10.480 The conflicts of antagonistic collectivist creeds and sects cannot be decided by ratiocination. 319 00:31:10.480 --> 00:31:13.900 They must be decided by arms. 320 00:31:13.900 --> 00:31:19.800 The alternatives to the liberal and democratic principle of majority rule are the militarist 321 00:31:19.800 --> 00:31:24.800 principles of armed conflict and dictatorial oppression. 322 00:31:24.800 --> 00:31:31.020 All varieties of collectivist creeds are united in their implacable hostility to the fundamental 323 00:31:31.020 --> 00:31:38.780 Political Institutions of the Liberal System, Majority Rule, Tolerance of Dissenting Views, 324 00:31:38.780 --> 00:31:44.660 Freedom of Thought, Speech and the Press, Equality of All Men Under the Law. 325 00:31:44.660 --> 00:31:50.300 This collaboration of collectivist creeds in their attempts to destroy freedom has brought 326 00:31:50.300 --> 00:31:56.700 about the mistaken belief that the issue in present-day political antagonisms is individualism 327 00:31:56.700 --> 00:31:59.060 versus collectivism. 328 00:31:59.060 --> 00:32:05.320 In fact, it is a struggle between individualism on the one hand, and a multitude of collectivist 329 00:32:05.320 --> 00:32:11.760 sects on the other hand, whose mutual hatred and hostility is no less ferocious than their 330 00:32:11.760 --> 00:32:15.100 abomination of the liberal system. 331 00:32:15.100 --> 00:32:23.040 It is not a uniform Marxian sect that attacks capitalism, but a host of Marxian groups. 332 00:32:23.040 --> 00:32:29.440 These groups, for instance, Stalinists, Trotskyists, Mensheviks, supporters of the Second International 333 00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:35.740 and so on, fight one another with the utmost brutality and inhumanity. 334 00:32:35.740 --> 00:32:41.920 And then there are, again, many other non-Marxian sects which apply the same atrocious methods 335 00:32:41.920 --> 00:32:44.420 in their mutual struggles. 336 00:32:44.420 --> 00:32:51.740 A substitution of collectivism for liberalism would result in endless bloody fighting. 337 00:32:51.740 --> 00:32:56.760 The customary terminology misrepresents these things entirely. 338 00:32:56.760 --> 00:33:02.660 The philosophy commonly called individualism is a philosophy of social cooperation and 339 00:33:02.660 --> 00:33:06.980 the progressive intensification of the social nexus. 340 00:33:06.980 --> 00:33:12.300 On the other hand, the application of the basic ideas of collectivism cannot result 341 00:33:12.300 --> 00:33:18.620 in anything but social disintegration and the perpetuation of armed conflict. 342 00:33:18.620 --> 00:33:24.480 It is true that every variety of collectivism promises eternal peace, starting with the 343 00:33:24.480 --> 00:33:31.340 day of its own decisive victory, and the final overthrow and extermination of all other ideologies 344 00:33:31.340 --> 00:33:33.060 and their supporters. 345 00:33:33.060 --> 00:33:39.240 However, the realization of these plans is conditioned upon a radical transformation 346 00:33:39.240 --> 00:33:41.160 in mankind. 347 00:33:41.160 --> 00:33:47.720 Men must be divided into two classes, the omnipotent godlike dictator on the one hand, 348 00:33:47.720 --> 00:33:53.240 and the masses which must surrender volition and reasoning in order to become mere chessmen 349 00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:56.160 in the plans of the dictator. 350 00:33:56.160 --> 00:34:02.920 The masses must be dehumanized in order to make one man their godlike master. 351 00:34:02.920 --> 00:34:09.160 Thinking and acting, the foremost characteristics of man as man, would become the privilege 352 00:34:09.160 --> 00:34:11.920 of one man only. 353 00:34:11.920 --> 00:34:16.240 There is no need to point out that such designs are unrealizable. 354 00:34:16.240 --> 00:34:20.620 The chiliastic empires of dictators are doomed to failure. 355 00:34:20.620 --> 00:34:23.920 They have never lasted longer than a few years. 356 00:34:23.920 --> 00:34:29.280 We have just witnessed the breakdown of several of such millennial orders. 357 00:34:29.280 --> 00:34:33.240 Those remaining will hardly fare better. 358 00:34:33.240 --> 00:34:39.380 The modern revival of the idea of collectivism, the main cause of all the agonies and disasters 359 00:34:39.380 --> 00:34:44.840 of our day, has succeeded so thoroughly that it has brought into oblivion the essential 360 00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:47.800 Liberal Ideas of Liberal Social Philosophy. 361 00:34:47.800 --> 00:34:54.940 Today, even many of those favoring democratic institutions ignore these ideas. 362 00:34:54.940 --> 00:35:00.340 The arguments they bring forward for the justification of freedom and democracy are tainted with 363 00:35:00.340 --> 00:35:02.620 collectivist errors. 364 00:35:02.620 --> 00:35:08.240 Their doctrines are rather a distortion than an endorsement of true liberalism. 365 00:35:08.240 --> 00:35:13.760 In their eyes, majorities are always right simply because they have the power to crush 366 00:35:13.760 --> 00:35:28.760 and the Cheney opposition. Majority rule is the dictatorial rule of the most numerous party and the ruling majority is not bound to restrain itself in the exercise of its power and in the conduct of political affairs. 367 00:35:28.760 --> 00:35:37.760 As soon as a faction has succeeded in winning the support of the majority of citizens and thereby attained control of the government machine, 368 00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:44.680 It is free to deny to the minority all those democratic rights by means of which it itself 369 00:35:44.680 --> 00:35:49.880 has previously carried on its own struggle for supremacy. 370 00:35:49.880 --> 00:35:56.040 This pseudo-liberalism is, of course, the very antithesis of the liberal doctrine. 371 00:35:56.040 --> 00:36:01.000 The liberals do not maintain that majorities are godlike and infallible. 372 00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:06.140 They do not contend that the mere fact that a policy is advocated by the many is proof 373 00:36:06.140 --> 00:36:15.140 for the common will, they do not recommend the dictatorship of the majority and the violent oppression of dissenting minorities. 374 00:36:15.140 --> 00:36:27.140 Liberalism aims at a political constitution which safeguards the smooth working of social cooperation and the progressive intensification of mutual social relations. 375 00:36:27.140 --> 00:36:46.140 Its main objective is the avoidance of violent conflicts, of wars and revolutions that must disintegrate the social collaboration of men and throw people back into the primitive conditions of barbarism where all tribes and political bodies endlessly fought one another. 376 00:36:46.140 --> 00:37:01.140 Because the division of labor requires undisturbed peace, liberalism aims at the establishment of a system of government that is likely to preserve peace, namely, democracy. 377 00:37:01.140 --> 00:37:04.140 Praxeology and Liberalism 378 00:37:04.140 --> 00:37:19.140 Liberalism is a political doctrine. It is not a theory, but an application of the theories developed by praxeology, and especially by economics, to definite problems of human action within society. 379 00:37:19.140 --> 00:37:27.140 As a political doctrine, liberalism is not neutral with regard to values and the ultimate ends sought by action. 380 00:37:27.140 --> 00:37:33.580 It assumes that all men, or at least the majority of people, are intent upon attaining certain 381 00:37:33.580 --> 00:37:35.020 goals. 382 00:37:35.020 --> 00:37:40.880 It gives them information about the means suitable to the realization of their plans. 383 00:37:40.880 --> 00:37:45.300 The champions of liberal doctrines are fully aware of the fact that their teachings are 384 00:37:45.300 --> 00:37:51.800 valid only for people who are committed to these valuational principles. 385 00:37:51.800 --> 00:37:58.120 While praxeology, and therefore economics too, uses the terms happiness and removal 386 00:37:58.120 --> 00:38:05.640 of uneasiness in a purely formal sense, liberalism attaches to them a concrete meaning. 387 00:38:05.640 --> 00:38:11.800 It presupposes that people prefer life to death, health to sickness, nourishment to 388 00:38:11.800 --> 00:38:15.360 starvation, abundance to poverty. 389 00:38:15.360 --> 00:38:20.980 It teaches man how to act in accordance with these valuations. 390 00:38:20.980 --> 00:38:27.260 It is customary to call these concerns materialistic, and to charge liberalism with an alleged 391 00:38:27.260 --> 00:38:34.020 crude materialism and a neglect of the higher and nobler pursuits of mankind. 392 00:38:34.020 --> 00:38:39.420 Man does not live by bread alone, say the critics, and they disparage the meanness and 393 00:38:39.420 --> 00:38:43.140 despicable baseness of the utilitarian philosophy. 394 00:38:43.140 --> 00:38:50.060 However, these passionate diatribes are wrong because they badly distort the teachings of 395 00:38:50.060 --> 00:38:57.500 First, the liberals do not assert that men ought to strive after the goals mentioned 396 00:38:57.500 --> 00:38:58.900 above. 397 00:38:58.900 --> 00:39:05.940 What they maintain is that the immense majority prefer a life of health and abundance to misery, 398 00:39:05.940 --> 00:39:08.360 starvation and death. 399 00:39:08.360 --> 00:39:11.980 The correctness of this statement cannot be challenged. 400 00:39:11.980 --> 00:39:18.220 It is proved by the fact that all anti-liberal doctrines, the theocratic tenets of the various 401 00:39:18.220 --> 00:39:26.220 Religious, Statist, Nationalist and Socialist parties adopt the same attitude with regard to these issues. 402 00:39:26.220 --> 00:39:30.220 They all promise their followers a life of plenty. 403 00:39:30.220 --> 00:39:38.220 They have never ventured to tell people that the realization of their program will impair their material well-being. 404 00:39:38.220 --> 00:39:47.220 They insist, on the contrary, that while the realization of the plans of their rival parties will result in indigence for the majority, 405 00:39:47.220 --> 00:39:59.220 The Christian parties are no less eager in promising the masses a higher standard of living than the nationalists and the socialists. 406 00:39:59.220 --> 00:40:08.220 Present-day churches often speak more about raising wage rates and farm incomes than about the dogmas of the Christian doctrine. 407 00:40:08.220 --> 00:40:16.020 Secondly, the liberals do not disdain the intellectual and spiritual aspirations of man. 408 00:40:16.020 --> 00:40:22.780 On the contrary, they are prompted by a passionate ardor for intellectual and moral perfection, 409 00:40:22.780 --> 00:40:25.860 for wisdom and for aesthetic excellence. 410 00:40:25.860 --> 00:40:31.500 But their view of these high and noble things is far from the crude representations of their 411 00:40:31.500 --> 00:40:32.960 adversaries. 412 00:40:32.960 --> 00:40:38.680 They do not share the naïve opinion that any system of social organization can directly 413 00:40:38.680 --> 00:40:45.140 succeed in encouraging philosophical or scientific thinking, in producing masterpieces of art 414 00:40:45.140 --> 00:40:49.740 and literature, and in rendering the masses more enlightened. 415 00:40:49.740 --> 00:40:56.160 They realize that all that society can achieve in these fields is to provide an environment 416 00:40:56.160 --> 00:41:01.900 which does not put insurmountable obstacles in the way of the genius, and makes the common 417 00:41:01.900 --> 00:41:06.980 and Man free enough from material concerns to become interested in things other than 418 00:41:06.980 --> 00:41:09.260 mere bread-winning. 419 00:41:09.260 --> 00:41:16.980 In their opinion, the foremost social means of making man more human is to fight poverty. 420 00:41:16.980 --> 00:41:24.460 Wisdom and science and the arts thrive better in a world of affluence than among needy peoples. 421 00:41:24.460 --> 00:41:29.820 It is a purposeful distortion of facts to blame the age of liberalism for an alleged 422 00:41:29.820 --> 00:41:31.820 materialism. 423 00:41:31.820 --> 00:41:37.520 The 19th century was not only a century of unprecedented improvement in technical methods 424 00:41:37.520 --> 00:41:42.100 of production and in the material well-being of the masses. 425 00:41:42.100 --> 00:41:46.780 It did much more than extend the average length of human life. 426 00:41:46.780 --> 00:41:50.980 Its scientific and artistic accomplishments are imperishable. 427 00:41:50.980 --> 00:41:56.520 It was an age of immortal musicians, writers, poets, painters and sculptors. 428 00:41:56.520 --> 00:42:03.200 It revolutionized philosophy, economics, mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology. 429 00:42:03.200 --> 00:42:08.760 And for the first time in history, it made the great works and the great thoughts accessible 430 00:42:08.760 --> 00:42:12.320 to the common man. 431 00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:15.400 Liberalism and Religion 432 00:42:15.400 --> 00:42:21.780 Liberalism is based upon a purely rational and scientific theory of social cooperation. 433 00:42:21.780 --> 00:42:26.800 The policies it recommends are the application of a system of knowledge which does not refer 434 00:42:26.800 --> 00:42:33.000 in any way to sentiments, intuitive creeds for which no logically sufficient proof can 435 00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:40.220 be provided, mystical experiences, and the personal awareness of superhuman phenomena. 436 00:42:40.220 --> 00:42:46.380 In this sense, the often misunderstood and erroneously interpreted epithets atheistic 437 00:42:46.380 --> 00:42:50.360 and agnostic can be attributed to it. 438 00:42:50.360 --> 00:42:56.060 It would, however, be a serious mistake to conclude that the sciences of human action 439 00:42:56.060 --> 00:43:02.560 and the policy derived from their teachings, liberalism, are anti-theistic and hostile 440 00:43:02.560 --> 00:43:04.260 to religion. 441 00:43:04.260 --> 00:43:10.640 They are radically opposed to all systems of theocracy, but they are entirely neutral 442 00:43:10.640 --> 00:43:15.860 with regard to religious beliefs which do not pretend to interfere with the conduct 443 00:43:15.860 --> 00:43:21.080 of Social, Political and Economic Affairs. 444 00:43:21.080 --> 00:43:27.580 Theocracy is a social system which lays claim to a superhuman title for its legitimation. 445 00:43:27.580 --> 00:43:34.100 The fundamental law of a theocratic regime is an insight not open to examination by reason 446 00:43:34.100 --> 00:43:37.600 and to demonstration by logical methods. 447 00:43:37.600 --> 00:43:43.860 Its ultimate standard is intuition, providing the mind with subjective certainty about things 448 00:43:43.860 --> 00:43:49.720 Studies which cannot be conceived by reason and ratiocination. 449 00:43:49.720 --> 00:43:55.700 If this intuition refers to one of the traditional systems of teaching concerning the existence 450 00:43:55.700 --> 00:44:02.160 of a divine creator and ruler of the universe, we call it a religious belief. 451 00:44:02.160 --> 00:44:06.620 If it refers to another system, we call it a metaphysical belief. 452 00:44:06.620 --> 00:44:12.800 Thus, a system of theocratic government need not be founded on one of the great historical 453 00:44:12.800 --> 00:44:27.800 of the World, the outcome of metaphysical tenets which reject all traditional churches and denominations and take pride in emphasizing their anti-theistic and anti-metaphysical character. 454 00:44:27.800 --> 00:44:37.800 In our time, the most powerful theocratic parties are opposed to Christianity and to all other religions which evolved from Jewish monotheism. 455 00:44:37.800 --> 00:44:52.800 What characterizes them as theocratic is their craving to organize the earthly affairs of mankind according to the contents of a complex of ideas whose validity cannot be demonstrated by reasoning. 456 00:44:52.800 --> 00:45:04.800 They pretend that their leaders are blessed by a knowledge inaccessible to the rest of mankind, and contrary to the ideas maintained by those to whom the charisma is denied. 457 00:45:04.800 --> 00:45:11.600 The charismatic leaders have been entrusted by a mystical higher power with the office 458 00:45:11.600 --> 00:45:15.800 of managing the affairs of erring mankind. 459 00:45:15.800 --> 00:45:18.320 They alone are enlightened. 460 00:45:18.320 --> 00:45:22.880 All other people are either blind and deaf or malefactors. 461 00:45:22.880 --> 00:45:29.880 It is a fact that many varieties of the great historical religions were affected by theocratic 462 00:45:29.880 --> 00:45:31.320 tendencies. 463 00:45:31.320 --> 00:45:36.600 Their apostles were inspired by a craving for power and the oppression and annihilation 464 00:45:36.600 --> 00:45:38.840 of all dissenting groups. 465 00:45:38.840 --> 00:45:45.840 However, we must not confuse the two things, religion and theocracy. 466 00:45:45.840 --> 00:45:52.280 William James calls religious the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in 467 00:45:52.280 --> 00:45:58.200 their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may 468 00:45:58.200 --> 00:46:01.300 consider the divine. 469 00:46:01.300 --> 00:46:07.040 He enumerates the following beliefs as the characteristics of the religious life. 470 00:46:07.040 --> 00:46:14.160 That the visible world is part of a more spiritual universe from which it draws its chief significance. 471 00:46:14.160 --> 00:46:20.420 That union or harmonious relation with that higher universe is our true end. 472 00:46:20.420 --> 00:46:27.760 That prayer or inner communion with the spirit thereof, be that spirit God or law, is a process 473 00:46:27.760 --> 00:46:35.160 Religious wherein work is really done, and spiritual energy flows in and produces effects, 474 00:46:35.160 --> 00:46:39.120 psychological or material, within the phenomenal world. 475 00:46:39.120 --> 00:46:46.120 Religion, James goes on to say, also includes the following psychological characteristics. 476 00:46:46.120 --> 00:46:52.600 A new zest which adds itself, like a gift to life, and takes the form either of lyrical 477 00:46:52.600 --> 00:46:58.240 Social Enchantment or of appeal to earnestness and heroism, and furthermore, an assurance 478 00:46:58.240 --> 00:47:06.880 of safety and a temper of peace, and, in relation to others, a preponderance of loving affection. 479 00:47:06.880 --> 00:47:11.940 This characterization of mankind's religious experience and feelings does not make any 480 00:47:11.940 --> 00:47:15.600 reference to the arrangement of social cooperation. 481 00:47:15.600 --> 00:47:27.600 Religion, as James sees it, is a purely personal and individual relation between man and a holy, mysterious and awe-inspiring divine reality. 482 00:47:27.600 --> 00:47:38.600 It enjoins upon man a certain mode of individual conduct, but it does not assert anything with regard to the problems of social organization. 483 00:47:38.600 --> 00:47:46.600 St. Francis of Assisi, the greatest religious genius of the West, did not concern himself with politics and economics. 484 00:47:46.600 --> 00:47:51.600 He wanted to teach his disciples how to live piously. 485 00:47:51.600 --> 00:47:59.600 He did not draft a plan for the organization of production and did not urge his followers to resort to violence against dissenters. 486 00:47:59.600 --> 00:48:06.600 He is not responsible for the interpretation of his teachings by the order he founded. 487 00:48:06.600 --> 00:48:23.600 Liberalism puts no obstacles in the way of a man eager to adjust his personal conduct and his private affairs according to the mode in which he individually, or his church or denomination, interpret the teachings of the Gospels. 488 00:48:23.600 --> 00:48:35.600 But it is radically opposed to all endeavors to silence the rational discussion of problems of social welfare by an appeal to religious intuition and revelation. 489 00:48:35.600 --> 00:48:48.600 It does not enjoin divorce or the practice of birth control upon anybody, but it fights those who want to prevent other people from freely discussing the pros and cons of these matters. 490 00:48:48.600 --> 00:48:55.800 In the liberal opinion, the aim of the moral law is to impel individuals to adjust their 491 00:48:55.800 --> 00:49:03.000 conduct to the requirements of life in society, to abstain from all acts detrimental to the 492 00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:10.320 preservation of peaceful social cooperation and to the improvement of inter-human relations. 493 00:49:10.320 --> 00:49:15.880 They welcome the support which religious teachings may give to those moral precepts of which 494 00:49:15.880 --> 00:49:21.520 which they themselves approve, but they are opposed to all those norms which are bound 495 00:49:21.520 --> 00:49:27.040 to bring about social disintegration from whatever source they may stem. 496 00:49:27.040 --> 00:49:33.000 It is a distortion of fact to say, as many champions of religious theocracy do, that 497 00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:36.040 liberalism fights religion. 498 00:49:36.040 --> 00:49:41.840 Where the principle of church interference with secular issues is in force, the various 499 00:49:41.840 --> 00:49:46.560 Churches, denominations and sects are fighting one another. 500 00:49:46.560 --> 00:49:52.680 By separating church and state, liberalism establishes peace between the various religious 501 00:49:52.680 --> 00:50:00.520 factions and gives to each of them the opportunity to preach its gospel unmolested. 502 00:50:00.520 --> 00:50:02.880 Liberalism is rationalistic. 503 00:50:02.880 --> 00:50:08.600 It maintains that it is possible to convince the immense majority that peaceful cooperation 504 00:50:08.600 --> 00:50:14.120 Human Action within the framework of society better serves their rightly understood interests 505 00:50:14.120 --> 00:50:18.200 than mutual battling and social disintegration. 506 00:50:18.200 --> 00:50:21.540 It has full confidence in man's reason. 507 00:50:21.540 --> 00:50:26.680 It may be that this optimism is unfounded and that the liberals have erred. 508 00:50:26.680 --> 00:50:31.800 But then there is no hope left for mankind's future. 509 00:50:31.800 --> 00:50:34.160 3. 510 00:50:34.160 --> 00:50:37.160 The Division of Labor 511 00:50:37.160 --> 00:50:45.260 The fundamental social phenomenon is the division of labor and its counterpart, human cooperation. 512 00:50:45.260 --> 00:50:50.580 Experience teaches man that cooperative action is more efficient and productive than isolated 513 00:50:50.580 --> 00:50:54.060 action of self-sufficient individuals. 514 00:50:54.060 --> 00:50:59.660 The natural conditions determining man's life and effort are such that the division of labor 515 00:50:59.660 --> 00:51:04.400 increases output per unit of labor expended. 516 00:51:04.400 --> 00:51:11.120 These natural facts are, first, the innate inequality of men with regard to their ability 517 00:51:11.120 --> 00:51:18.720 to perform various kinds of labor, second, the unequal distribution of the nature given 518 00:51:18.720 --> 00:51:24.360 non-human opportunities of production on the surface of the earth. 519 00:51:24.360 --> 00:51:30.560 One may as well consider these two facts as one and the same fact, namely, the manifoldness 520 00:51:30.560 --> 00:51:36.480 of Nature which makes the universe a complex of infinite varieties. 521 00:51:36.480 --> 00:51:40.680 If the earth's surface were such that the physical conditions of production were the 522 00:51:40.680 --> 00:51:47.920 same at every point, and if one man were as equal to all other men as is a circle to another 523 00:51:47.920 --> 00:51:54.820 with the same diameter in Euclidean geometry, division of labor would not offer any advantages 524 00:51:54.820 --> 00:51:56.700 for acting man. 525 00:51:56.700 --> 00:52:02.500 There is still a third fact, namely that there are undertakings whose accomplishment exceeds 526 00:52:02.500 --> 00:52:08.620 the forces of a single man and requires the joint effort of several. 527 00:52:08.620 --> 00:52:14.240 Some of them require an expenditure of labor which no single man can perform because his 528 00:52:14.240 --> 00:52:18.120 capacity to work is not great enough. 529 00:52:18.120 --> 00:52:23.560 Others again could be accomplished by individuals, but the time which they would have to devote 530 00:52:23.560 --> 00:52:29.280 to the work would be so long that the result would only be attained late and would not 531 00:52:29.280 --> 00:52:36.080 compensate for the labor expended. In both cases, only joint effort makes it possible 532 00:52:36.080 --> 00:52:43.880 to attain the end sought. If only this third condition were present, temporary cooperation 533 00:52:43.880 --> 00:52:50.120 between men would have certainly emerged. However, such transient alliances to cope 534 00:52:50.120 --> 00:52:56.040 with specific tasks which are beyond the strength of an individual would not have brought about 535 00:52:56.040 --> 00:52:59.840 lasting social cooperation. 536 00:52:59.840 --> 00:53:04.440 Undertakings which could be performed only in this way were not very numerous at the 537 00:53:04.440 --> 00:53:06.960 early stages of civilization. 538 00:53:06.960 --> 00:53:12.760 Moreover, all those concerned may not often agree that the performance in question is 539 00:53:12.760 --> 00:53:19.680 more useful and urgent than the accomplishment of other tasks which they could perform alone. 540 00:53:19.680 --> 00:53:26.080 The great human society enclosing all men in all of their activities did not originate 541 00:53:26.080 --> 00:53:29.480 from such occasional alliances. 542 00:53:29.480 --> 00:53:35.160 Society is much more than a passing alliance concluded for a definite purpose and ceasing 543 00:53:35.160 --> 00:53:40.640 as soon as its objective is realized, even if the partners are ready to renew it should 544 00:53:40.640 --> 00:53:43.800 an occasion present itself. 545 00:53:43.800 --> 00:53:49.160 The increase in productivity brought about by the division of labor is obvious whenever 546 00:53:49.160 --> 00:53:54.480 Remember the inequality of the participants is such that every individual or every piece 547 00:53:54.480 --> 00:54:01.040 of land is superior at least in one regard to the other individuals or pieces of land 548 00:54:01.040 --> 00:54:02.900 concerned. 549 00:54:02.900 --> 00:54:14.320 If A is fit to produce in one unit of time 6p or 4q and B only 2p but 8q, they both when 550 00:54:14.320 --> 00:54:20.760 When working in isolation, we'll produce together 4p plus 6q. 551 00:54:20.760 --> 00:54:25.520 When working under the division of labor, each of them producing only that commodity 552 00:54:25.520 --> 00:54:34.160 in whose production he is more efficient than his partner, they will produce 6p plus 8q. 553 00:54:34.160 --> 00:54:40.260 But what will happen if A is more efficient than B not only in the production of p, but 554 00:54:40.260 --> 00:54:43.680 also in the production of q? 555 00:54:43.680 --> 00:54:49.400 This is the problem which Ricardo raised and solved immediately. 556 00:54:49.400 --> 00:54:51.560 4. 557 00:54:51.560 --> 00:54:58.560 The Ricardian Law of Association Ricardo expounded the law of association in 558 00:54:58.560 --> 00:55:04.040 order to demonstrate what the consequences of the division of labor are when an individual 559 00:55:04.040 --> 00:55:11.080 or a group, more efficient in every regard, cooperates with an individual or a group less 560 00:55:11.080 --> 00:55:14.020 efficient in every regard. 561 00:55:14.020 --> 00:55:20.560 He investigated the effects of trade between two areas, unequally endowed by nature, under 562 00:55:20.560 --> 00:55:25.540 the assumption that the products, but not the workers and the accumulated factors of 563 00:55:25.540 --> 00:55:32.780 future production, capital goods, can freely move from each area into the other. 564 00:55:32.780 --> 00:55:38.580 The division of labor between two such areas will, as Ricardo's law shows, increase the 565 00:55:38.580 --> 00:55:44.820 of the Productivity of Labor, and is therefore advantageous to all concerned, even if the 566 00:55:44.820 --> 00:55:50.300 physical conditions of production for any commodity are more favorable in one of these 567 00:55:50.300 --> 00:55:53.420 two areas than in the other. 568 00:55:53.420 --> 00:55:59.120 It is advantageous for the better endowed area to concentrate its efforts upon the production 569 00:55:59.120 --> 00:56:05.320 of those commodities for which its superiority is greater, and to leave to the less endowed 570 00:56:05.320 --> 00:56:17.400 The Paradox that it is more advantageous to leave more favorable domestic conditions of 571 00:56:17.400 --> 00:56:24.480 production unused, and to procure the commodities they could produce from areas in which conditions 572 00:56:24.480 --> 00:56:30.400 for their production are less favorable, is the outcome of the immobility of labor and 573 00:56:30.400 --> 00:56:37.040 and Capital, to which the more favorable places of production are inaccessible. 574 00:56:37.040 --> 00:56:42.520 Ricardo was fully aware of the fact that his law of comparative cost, which he expounded 575 00:56:42.520 --> 00:56:48.880 mainly in order to deal with a special problem of international trade, is a particular instance 576 00:56:48.880 --> 00:56:53.360 of the more universal law of association. 577 00:56:53.360 --> 00:56:59.520 If A is in such a way more efficient than B, that he needs for the production of one 578 00:56:59.520 --> 00:57:06.680 One unit of the commodity P, three hours, compared with B's five, and for the production 579 00:57:06.680 --> 00:57:14.680 of one unit of Q, two hours, compared with B's four, then both will gain if A confines 580 00:57:14.680 --> 00:57:23.160 himself to producing Q and leaves B to produce P. If each of them gives sixty hours to producing 581 00:57:23.160 --> 00:57:33.520 P and 60 Hours to Producing Q, the result of A's labor is 20 P plus 30 Q, of B's 12 582 00:57:33.520 --> 00:57:44.600 P plus 15 Q, and for both together, 32 P plus 45 Q. If, however, A confines himself 583 00:57:44.600 --> 00:57:52.600 If he confines himself to producing Q alone, he produces 60 Q in 120 hours, while B, if 584 00:57:52.600 --> 00:58:00.440 he confines himself to producing P, produces in the same time 24 P. The result of their 585 00:58:00.440 --> 00:58:11.320 activities is then 24 P plus 60 Q, which as P has for A a substitution ratio of 3 divided 586 00:58:11.320 --> 00:58:20.200 by Two, Q, and for B, one of five divided by four, Q, signifies a larger output than 587 00:58:20.200 --> 00:58:28.340 32 P plus 45 Q. Therefore, it is manifest that the division of labor brings advantages 588 00:58:28.340 --> 00:58:35.780 to all who take part in it. Collaboration of the more talented, more able and more industrious 589 00:58:35.780 --> 00:58:42.960 with the less talented, less able and less industrious results in benefit for both. 590 00:58:42.960 --> 00:58:49.160 The gains derived from the division of labor are always mutual. 591 00:58:49.160 --> 00:58:54.340 The law of association makes us comprehend the tendencies which resulted in the progressive 592 00:58:54.340 --> 00:58:58.160 intensification of human cooperation. 593 00:58:58.160 --> 00:59:04.020 We conceive what incentive induced people not to consider themselves simply as rivals 594 00:59:04.020 --> 00:59:09.440 in a struggle for the appropriation of the limited supply of means of subsistence made 595 00:59:09.440 --> 00:59:16.500 available by nature, we realize what has impelled them and permanently impels them to consort 596 00:59:16.500 --> 00:59:20.600 with one another for the sake of cooperation. 597 00:59:20.600 --> 00:59:26.700 Every step forward on the way to a more developed mode of the division of labor serves the interests 598 00:59:26.700 --> 00:59:29.300 of all participants. 599 00:59:29.300 --> 00:59:35.540 In order to comprehend why man did not remain solitary, searching like the animals for food 600 00:59:35.540 --> 00:59:42.380 and shelter for himself only, and at most also for his consort and his helpless infants, 601 00:59:42.380 --> 00:59:48.180 we do not need to have recourse to a miraculous interference of the deity, or to the empty 602 00:59:48.180 --> 00:59:52.900 hypostasis of an innate urge toward association. 603 00:59:52.900 --> 00:59:58.900 Neither are we forced to assume that the isolated individuals or primitive hordes one day pledged 604 00:59:58.900 --> 01:00:04.020 themselves by a contract to establish social bonds. 605 01:00:04.020 --> 01:00:10.940 The factor that brought about primitive society and daily works toward its progressive intensification 606 01:00:10.940 --> 01:00:17.780 is human action that is animated by the insight into the higher productivity of labor achieved 607 01:00:17.780 --> 01:00:20.980 under the division of labor. 608 01:00:20.980 --> 01:00:26.940 Neither history nor ethnology nor any other branch of knowledge can provide a description 609 01:00:26.940 --> 01:00:33.780 of the evolution which has led from the packs and flocks of mankind's non-human ancestors 610 01:00:33.780 --> 01:00:40.420 to the primitive, yet already highly differentiated, societal groups about which information is 611 01:00:40.420 --> 01:00:46.100 provided in excavations, in the most ancient documents of history, and in the reports of 612 01:00:46.100 --> 01:00:50.940 explorers and travelers who have met savage tribes. 613 01:00:50.940 --> 01:00:57.220 The task with which science is faced in respect of the origins of society can only consist 614 01:00:57.220 --> 01:01:03.860 in the demonstration of those factors which can and must result in association and its 615 01:01:03.860 --> 01:01:07.660 progressive intensification. 616 01:01:07.660 --> 01:01:10.440 Praxeology solves the problem. 617 01:01:10.440 --> 01:01:15.820 If and as far as labor under the division of labor is more productive than isolated 618 01:01:15.820 --> 01:01:23.720 Labor, and if and as far as man is able to realize this fact, human action itself tends 619 01:01:23.720 --> 01:01:27.600 toward cooperation and association. 620 01:01:27.600 --> 01:01:33.920 Man becomes a social being not in sacrificing his own concerns for the sake of a mythical 621 01:01:33.920 --> 01:01:41.360 Moloch society, but in aiming at an improvement in his own welfare. 622 01:01:41.360 --> 01:01:48.480 This teaches that this condition, higher productivity achieved under the division of labor, is present 623 01:01:48.480 --> 01:01:55.420 because its cause, the inborn inequality of men and the inequality in the geographical 624 01:01:55.420 --> 01:02:00.000 distribution of the natural factors of production, is real. 625 01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:05.280 Thus we are in a position to comprehend the course of social evolution.