When Thomas Jefferson wrote: "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man,'' he clearly realized that most tyranny originates in the mind of man and in the basic conditions of human existence. Some aspects of those basic conditions remain, so far, essentially unchanged - such as the short human lifespan. Others have been markedly changed by science, engineering, and increases in human knowledge. Even King Solomon was trapped in the boredom and vanity of repetition of works of agriculture and architecture little different (except in extent) from those of his predecessors. Today, ordinary scientists, engineers, and those who support and work with them can undertake projects that are entirely unique. The technological age has mobilized some of the best qualities of the human spirit by providing mankind with an endless frontier. While each of us might categorize the properties of the human mind and spirit in different ways, most lists would include charity, love, faith, hope, inventiveness, reason, self-importance, greed, fear, jealousy, and envy among the fundamental properties of human beings. While science, engineering, and other technology are exact and rational, most human properties are not. A great modern challenge is to meld all of these human characteristics with technology for an ultimately positive result. Jefferson and his colleagues understood that civil institutions can be formed in such a way as to encourage the positive characteristics of human beings and to discourage the negative characteristics. Each individual needs such institutions because each must struggle with these things within himself and others. In the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, "Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains . . . an unuprooted corner of evil.'' During the years that Laurelee and I traded commodities, we became very familiar with greed and fear. For example, about 100 times each year, short-term fluctuations in the copper market moved either upward or downward out of the usual range and triggered a reaction of greed or fear in many individual speculators. This reaction was partially predictable, so we were able to parameterize this phenomenon and use it for profitable trading. Fear is a stronger emotion than greed, so markets that reflect these emotions tend to fall faster than they rise. With our PDP-11 computers, she and I traded these fluctuations in copper from a room on our farm. On some days, we made about 1% of all trades in the world copper market. Today, technologists are seriously hampered by the growth of civil institutions that stimulate negative aspects of human nature. The government welfare industry is not just an institution that wastes resources. It is also an institution that has built a large underclass of people who are more than usually motivated by jealousy and envy. Jealousy is not necessarily a destructive emotion except within the mind that expresses it. Blinded by jealousy of the accomplishments of others, a person may never learn enough about the basis of those accomplishments to equal them himself. Envy, however, is generally destructive. Envious individuals express their hatred of the accomplishments of others by attempting to destroy those accomplishments - rather than trying to duplicate them. Envy is a primary driving force behind a large part of the grassroots agitation against technology. When the Bolsheviks chose village commissars in Russia, they often chose the village bums. These people were easily controlled, and they were motivated by envy. Much has been written about individual and institutional power-seekers at the national and international levels who exercise control over such movements as global pseudoenvironmentalism. These people and the politicians and businessmen who join them pursue a contemptible agenda. (Contemptible even if it seems to serve our own interests as in the case of nuclear power advocates who repeat the lies of global warming in order to advance nuclear power.) These few individuals would certainly fail, however, if it were not for the many grassroots agitators who amplify their efforts. These agitators are largely motivated by envy. Here in the Northwest, the anti-logging, anti-farming, anti-mining, anti-human accomplishment pseudoenvironmentalists agitators are primarily the community bums. They live in or on the fringes of the welfare community and are motivated primarily by envy. Environmentalism is just their latest excuse for hatred. A great strength of American free enterprise is that it shares national power among the millions of productive individuals who rise in economic, social, and political influence as a result of their own individual productive accomplishments. There is much wisdom and vast decentralized strength among these individuals. Unfortunately, a few individuals are overcome by ambition and desire for increased power to such an extent that they attempt, by the various means of tyranny, to dominate the millions of others. Since productive accomplishment and economic freedom and property are the specific strengths of productive Americans, the mobilization of hatred of these accomplishments is used against the productive people who stand in the way of tyranny. This mobilization is often accomplished through the politics of envy. Reason will not stop envious individuals from telling lies to the good people of America about trees, or animals, or ozone, or carbon dioxide, or nuclear radiation. They do not fear the power plant - they hate those who were able to build it. They do not fear the chemical industry - they hate those who were able to create it. They do not fear carbon dioxide - they hate the technological accomplishments of which it is a byproduct. Compassion is the proper attitude toward those who have failed, so far, to be successful in life. Rewarding failure with payments of tax money, however, has created a breeding ground for envy that is an impediment to technology and a threat to American freedom.
|
|
Vol. 22, No. 6
Newsletter: Access to Energy Newsletter Archive Volume: Issues Issue/No.: Vol. 22, No. 6 Date: February 01, 1995 03:32 PM Title: Envy
Copyright © 2004 - Access to Energy Newsletter Archive
|