WEBVTT NOTE Socialism 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 The idea of socialism is a wonderful idea. 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:13.000 It's the idea of a world very different from our world, 3 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:19.000 in which conditions are in all respects 4 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:26.000 much more agreement to the individual than they are in our world. 5 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:49.000 The only problem with socialism is that this construction, this ideal construction of a socialist world is an ideal that cannot be put into practice. 6 00:00:49.000 --> 00:01:08.640 The socialist ideal describes a state of affairs that cannot be put into real, practical reality. 7 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:24.320 It assumes that everybody knows in what way he could in the best possible way contribute 8 00:01:24.320 --> 00:01:37.360 to the economic efforts of the whole world and of every part of the world. 9 00:01:37.360 --> 00:01:50.680 And it raises the question, why are people so bad or so ignorant or something else, that 10 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:58.360 they do not accept this wonderful idea of a socialist state, of a socialist world, in 11 00:01:58.360 --> 00:02:14.360 In which nothing else happens than what is fit to improve the economic and moral conditions of everybody, of everybody else. 12 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:26.360 One assumes, one asks the question, why should not people behave in this, in such a way? 13 00:02:26.360 --> 00:02:55.360 And one forgets that the problem of social organization of mankind is not a problem that can be solved by making a plan and adjusting people, every individual, to the functions which the plan makes. 14 00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:00.360 The great plan-maker assigned to everybody. 15 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:17.360 People were once living in perfect economic self-sufficiency of small groups, 16 00:03:17.360 --> 00:03:23.360 of the smallest group, of the family, then of a group of families and so on. 17 00:03:23.360 --> 00:03:40.360 and out of these original conditions, they are developed, as people say, something very unsatisfactory. 18 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:57.360 Unsatisfactory because there are people in our world who enjoy much more of the good things of the world than the others. 19 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:03.360 There are people who live under conditions of wealth, 20 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:23.360 And while this is only a small minority of people living, and there are masses of people who are living under very unsatisfactory conditions. 21 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:32.360 What people do not realize in dealing with this problem, with this ideal problem, 22 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:47.480 The truth is that this system or any system of social organization of mankind is not something 23 00:04:47.480 --> 00:04:59.040 that existed or could be thought of having existed from old times on and will exist always 24 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.560 in the same way. 25 00:05:01.560 --> 00:05:13.360 The truth is that there is a historical evolution of mankind, a historical evolution that started 26 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:27.400 from very low conditions of one's satisfaction and improved more and more over the world. 27 00:05:27.400 --> 00:05:43.040 I think the result of this development, of this, as people say, slow development, I don't 28 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:51.840 know how they know that this was slow because they do not know anything about something 29 00:05:51.840 --> 00:06:03.400 which would have brought about this development in a shorter time, they assumed that mankind 30 00:06:03.400 --> 00:06:18.960 is something given that has by some reasons which we do not understand, not attained already 31 00:06:18.960 --> 00:06:22.960 and the State of Affairs which it could act in. 32 00:06:22.960 --> 00:06:32.960 And people look upon groups of men who are living under better conditions 33 00:06:32.960 --> 00:06:38.960 and other groups that are living under poor conditions and are asking, 34 00:06:38.960 --> 00:06:43.960 why is there such difference? 35 00:06:43.960 --> 00:06:56.960 And they do not realize that what they have, what they are describing and what they are dealing with 36 00:06:56.960 --> 00:07:09.960 is a state of affairs that emulates the most important factor, the historical evolution, 37 00:07:09.960 --> 00:07:21.960 The historical changes from some kinds of human cooperation and human operation to other kinds. 38 00:07:23.960 --> 00:07:30.960 And they have in mind people construct a world that never existed, 39 00:07:30.960 --> 00:07:41.880 which we could construct because there are small parts of the present-day world in which 40 00:07:41.880 --> 00:07:51.600 similar conditions to some extent can be assumed to exist, and they are asking the questions 41 00:07:51.600 --> 00:08:07.600 Why is not this the case? Why is A the case and not B? Also, the conditions of B are more satisfactory from the point of view of many people. 42 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:20.800 And what they don't realize is that the problem we are dealing with is not a static problem, 43 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:30.000 it is not a problem of a society, of human cooperation, of human men that existed from 44 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:41.520 from old times, from the far beginning of human history, and will exist to the end in 45 00:08:41.520 --> 00:08:42.520 the same way. 46 00:08:42.520 --> 00:08:55.520 The truth is that people at the beginning, in the early ages of human history, were hardly 47 00:08:55.520 --> 00:09:08.280 are different in their living conditions from the groups of animals, that they lived separate, 48 00:09:08.280 --> 00:09:21.880 in separate small groups, and in these groups also they were not proud with what the people 49 00:09:21.880 --> 00:09:30.680 People are criticizing as the evils of capitalism that these rules have a standard of living 50 00:09:30.680 --> 00:09:38.760 which from our point of view is considered as highly unsatisfactory. 51 00:09:38.760 --> 00:09:52.760 The theory began at, or let us say, men developed out of pre-human beings, and the early condition 52 00:09:52.760 --> 00:10:00.680 of men, the natural condition of men, as some people want to say and to call it, this natural 53 00:10:00.680 --> 00:10:11.240 The condition of men was hardly different from the conditions of the animals. 54 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:18.480 And step by step they developed better conditions. 55 00:10:18.480 --> 00:10:27.320 And these better conditions did not fall from heaven, they were a development, a slow development 56 00:10:27.320 --> 00:10:31.800 of the Human Mind. 57 00:10:31.800 --> 00:10:36.680 And we have to realize that it is not so long ago 58 00:10:36.680 --> 00:10:41.720 that many things which we consider today as simply given 59 00:10:41.720 --> 00:10:48.920 was and that one did not exist. And if we are asking why, 60 00:10:48.920 --> 00:10:52.840 then we have to answer because people had not yet 61 00:10:52.840 --> 00:10:56.680 discovered, had not yet developed them. 62 00:10:56.680 --> 00:11:12.680 Most of the diseases from which people used to suffer and they destroyed the lives of people 63 00:11:12.680 --> 00:11:19.680 very early with a much greater number of infant mortality, 64 00:11:19.680 --> 00:11:34.960 Much of these conditions were, once, the real state of human affairs, and what developed 65 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:51.600 was that some individuals, groups of individuals or greater or smaller groups of families improved 66 00:11:51.600 --> 00:12:01.680 the state of their living conditions slowly, step by step, and in just way brought about 67 00:12:01.680 --> 00:12:05.040 and what we call today human civilization. 68 00:12:05.040 --> 00:12:18.280 If one says there are many people in our neighborhood, in our countries, in the western world which 69 00:12:18.280 --> 00:12:25.960 is considered as the world of the highest civilization today, that are still very unsatisfactory 70 00:12:25.960 --> 00:12:39.960 And there are people who are not even enjoying these, the poorest conditions of the people of the other groups. 71 00:12:39.960 --> 00:12:54.960 Then we are forgetting that there is a historical evolution of the living beings in the whole world. 72 00:12:54.960 --> 00:13:22.960 And leaving aside all problems that do not refer to human beings, we have to say, there are groups of people, nations, parts of the world, races, who are on a much lower level still today. 73 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:49.960 And those who are under better conditions, living under better conditions, are the descendants of people who want to live under conditions which we consider as very unsatisfactory from our present point. 74 00:13:52.960 --> 00:14:02.240 Civilization is an effect of small minorities. 75 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:12.480 That means that it is the people who improve the conditions of mankind 76 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:20.080 by improving the kind of ways of life, the methods of work, 77 00:14:20.080 --> 00:14:32.080 And the ideas, first of all, the ideas that are guiding their work, they are unequally distributed throughout the world. 78 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:46.080 And if we say this is unsatisfactory in present day, let us say, England or the United States, 79 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:58.080 needs, then we must say, and it is nevertheless more satisfactory from the point of view of 80 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:06.080 the individuals living there than conditions in other countries, and certainly also much 81 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:17.840 are much more satisfactory than the conditions for mankind were in the past. 82 00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:34.720 If we say the usual criticism of the socialist parties and ideas is, they say, there is something 83 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:40.920 which is more satisfactory from the point of view of human life 84 00:15:40.920 --> 00:15:44.320 and there is something which is less satisfactory. 85 00:15:44.320 --> 00:15:47.040 Why is this so? 86 00:15:47.040 --> 00:15:53.480 This is due to the fact that those who enjoy a better life 87 00:15:53.480 --> 00:16:01.120 are preventing by the mere fact that they are consuming more 88 00:16:01.120 --> 00:16:10.600 to other people from improving their own conditions. 89 00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:28.200 What we do not realize is that every step forward breaks about, although an increase 90 00:16:28.200 --> 00:16:41.800 It's not only in the number of people as such, but it brings about also an increase of those 91 00:16:41.800 --> 00:16:51.640 who can survive in spite of the fact that they themselves and their ancestors did nothing 92 00:16:51.640 --> 00:16:56.480 contribute or very little contribute to the improvement of conditions. 93 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:10.880 or let us say this, we had once in a country that has today a population of 5 million people, 94 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:25.400 a population of 5,000 people, and the individuals of these 5,000 people live under much poorer 95 00:17:25.400 --> 00:17:33.760 more conditions than those ten times or hundred times greater number of people who are living 96 00:17:33.760 --> 00:17:35.240 in this country. 97 00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:47.640 And this emerge under the system which we have, under the system which is working now. 98 00:17:47.640 --> 00:17:57.840 And this system is a system in which everybody is free to try to improve his own standard 99 00:17:57.840 --> 00:18:04.840 of living in the best possible way that is accessible to him. 100 00:18:04.840 --> 00:18:10.840 In this way, we have, of course, developed great differences. 101 00:18:24.840 --> 00:18:28.840 There are enormous differences in the standard of living. 102 00:18:29.840 --> 00:18:33.840 We have rich people and we have poor people and we have very poor people. 103 00:18:34.840 --> 00:18:43.480 We have still people dying, I wouldn't say from starvation, but dying from the fact that 104 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:49.400 the conditions, the material conditions for their survival were less fortunate. 105 00:18:49.400 --> 00:18:56.960 We are only to look around into various parts of the world and we will see the groups of 106 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:05.960 And to answer the question, why is this country more dangerously populated than in other countries? 107 00:19:05.960 --> 00:19:11.960 Why are the people living on a higher standard of living in this country than in other countries? 108 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:17.960 Then we have to say, because the people are different. 109 00:19:17.960 --> 00:19:42.960 Because these are groups of people that developed methods of improving the state of health and the length of life of their members in a better way than it was done in other countries. 110 00:19:42.960 --> 00:20:12.960 And therefore, people who were in advance of other groups, we have to take into account the fact that there is no such thing as a life 111 00:20:12.960 --> 00:20:18.960 and the standard of life given to people by nature. 112 00:20:18.960 --> 00:20:30.960 Every improvement has been brought about by the ideas and actions 113 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:39.960 according to these ideas of men who brought about a higher standard of living. 114 00:20:39.960 --> 00:21:02.960 If we say therefore all people are equal and it is not very unfair and just that there are people living at the highest standard of living in some parts of the world 115 00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:15.040 and on the lower standard of living in other parts of the world, then we want to substitute 116 00:21:15.040 --> 00:21:25.960 for the world as it exists and other world which is inhabited by different kind of people. 117 00:21:25.960 --> 00:21:38.080 We would complain of the inequality of the standard of living of people, but we do not 118 00:21:38.080 --> 00:21:53.160 realize that if there were not such a difference, the people would have remained on the original 119 00:21:53.160 --> 00:22:03.000 on the standard hardly different from the standard of animals. 120 00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:10.400 We are dreaming of a world of equality. 121 00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:21.880 We say, and repeat it again and again, men are equal, and the truth is, men are unequal. 122 00:22:21.880 --> 00:22:31.680 And precisely because men and groups of men and families and tribes are unequal, there 123 00:22:31.680 --> 00:22:35.880 is progress and improvement in the world. 124 00:22:35.880 --> 00:22:47.360 If the people, when people are criticizing today that there are countries in which the 125 00:22:47.360 --> 00:22:53.360 The standard of living is more satisfactory than in other countries. 126 00:22:53.360 --> 00:23:03.360 But they are forgetting that 1000 years ago, 2000 years ago, or even 500 and only 50 years 127 00:23:03.360 --> 00:23:16.360 ago, there were also great differences between the various groups and tribes of men. 128 00:23:16.360 --> 00:23:36.360 and that these differences would not have disappeared if it had been considered as a law, as a principle of existence, as a principle of human management, 129 00:23:36.360 --> 00:23:44.360 that every improvement must be given at the same time to all of them. 130 00:23:44.360 --> 00:23:50.360 First of all, you have to realize this would require the spotting government. 131 00:23:50.360 --> 00:23:57.360 If we have no government that says, you must do these things, 132 00:23:57.360 --> 00:24:02.360 that we have a world in which the individuals are unequal, 133 00:24:02.360 --> 00:24:19.060 and these unequal individuals are free to search for the best possible satisfaction of their 134 00:24:19.060 --> 00:24:32.060 We consider it, lots of people have written books in this sense, we consider it as very 135 00:24:32.060 --> 00:24:42.060 unfair that there are nations and families who are living at a higher standard of living 136 00:24:42.060 --> 00:24:50.060 of Living, the other groups. But what we are forgetting is that the fact that people have 137 00:24:50.060 --> 00:25:01.060 found out some methods for the improvement of the standard of living could be realized 138 00:25:01.060 --> 00:25:10.060 at the same time by everybody in the whole world. We have to realize that the world of 139 00:25:10.060 --> 00:25:19.060 progress, the world which we did not create, but the world in which we were born, that 140 00:25:19.060 --> 00:25:31.060 this world is a world in which conditions are improving only step by step by the work 141 00:25:31.060 --> 00:25:41.320 of people, and that in this regard, in improving the conditions, the various people are very 142 00:25:41.320 --> 00:25:42.320 unequal. 143 00:25:42.320 --> 00:25:57.220 Nothing is more erroneous than the idea to assume that people are equal in this regard. 144 00:25:57.220 --> 00:26:13.080 So, the equality does not include equality of the mind, equality of energy, equality 145 00:26:13.080 --> 00:26:22.300 of many other qualities that are necessary in order to improve the standard of living, 146 00:26:22.300 --> 00:26:29.580 of one's own standard of living, as well as the standard of living of other people, you know. 147 00:26:29.580 --> 00:26:38.140 It would be a quite different world which these socialist ideologues have in mind. 148 00:26:38.140 --> 00:26:47.980 A world in which every change for the better would be prevented by the fact that it cannot be 149 00:26:47.980 --> 00:26:55.980 put into practice at the same day or in the same year, in the same age for all other people. 150 00:26:56.980 --> 00:27:10.980 The fact that there were people who had, let us say, invented some protection for the feet, 151 00:27:10.980 --> 00:27:13.980 who invented the shoes and the stockings. 152 00:27:13.980 --> 00:27:26.500 The fact that the invention of shoes or something, which we have to consider as the technological 153 00:27:26.500 --> 00:27:40.580 predecessor of modern shoes, was not available at the same time to everybody, was not something 154 00:27:40.580 --> 00:27:48.580 that deprived somebody, it was something that opened the way for future improvement. 155 00:27:48.580 --> 00:28:00.580 We are looking at everything in the world from the point of view, why is it not given to everybody? 156 00:28:00.580 --> 00:28:06.580 We do not realize that the progress, the improvement of conditions, 157 00:28:06.580 --> 00:28:24.580 is something that goes step-by-step beginning with those people who are gifted in order to invent these new things and to put these inventions into practice and so on, 158 00:28:24.580 --> 00:28:31.580 and just step-by-step brings about an improvement. 159 00:28:31.580 --> 00:28:44.580 Socialism is a wonderful idea, wonderful. Everybody should get the same thing, same people. 160 00:28:44.580 --> 00:28:52.580 Why should one man have more or better things than another man? 161 00:28:52.580 --> 00:29:21.580 There is no answer, no other answer, than this is not a why, this is, the question is wrong, that the people have to ask, is it permitted to men to improve their conditions, or have they the same way to remain at the same level? 162 00:29:22.580 --> 00:29:31.220 of Life that their ancestors had already ages ago, many, many ages ago. 163 00:29:31.220 --> 00:29:37.140 This is the difference between the animals and man. 164 00:29:37.140 --> 00:29:49.380 I will leave aside all the problems, how there is also some development in the animal kingdom 165 00:29:49.380 --> 00:29:57.380 implementing the life of these animals. 166 00:29:57.380 --> 00:30:13.380 But if we are asking why is it that the people in the western part of Europe and in America 167 00:30:13.380 --> 00:30:33.380 are at a higher standard of living than the others, we have to realize that this is not due, first, that this is not due to the fact that these more benefited people have exploited the others, 168 00:30:33.380 --> 00:30:48.380 and secondly that the mere fact that they have improved their conditions will in the course of the further development also benefit the other ones. 169 00:30:48.380 --> 00:31:02.380 The idea of socialism was fundamentally wrong on account of the fact that people believed that improvement of conditions 170 00:31:02.380 --> 00:31:14.380 He comes, falls from heaven, and that therefore everybody should get it at the same time. 171 00:31:14.380 --> 00:31:23.380 Then they say, if it is really true that to have a pocket watch is an enormous progress, 172 00:31:23.380 --> 00:31:36.380 Why did not heaven give one night to everybody in the world a pocket watch? 173 00:31:38.380 --> 00:31:47.380 If we see this, we can learn these truths every day. 174 00:31:47.380 --> 00:31:59.380 If we see how some new invention comes, or some new method of healing diseases, or so on, you know. 175 00:31:59.380 --> 00:32:13.380 Human abilities and effects of these abilities are different, 176 00:32:13.380 --> 00:32:31.380 And we must realize that the opposite is only socialism, that means a state of affairs in which a dictator tells to everybody what to do and what not to do. 177 00:32:31.380 --> 00:32:48.380 And this dictator will ask, why should we get something that will be nothing if we can't give to everybody everything at the same time, then let us better not to give anybody anything. 178 00:32:48.380 --> 00:32:52.380 And this is the alternative of socialism. 179 00:32:52.380 --> 00:33:19.380 The alternative to capitalism would have been a state of affairs in which you wouldn't get anything that would create a difference between you and all the other people living on Earth. 180 00:33:19.380 --> 00:33:30.380 If we had retained the state of affairs, the population of the world would still be what it was 5,000 million years ago.