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Natural Prosperity
R.F. Dyson
[Copyright by R.F. Dyson 1931. Printed in
Australia by The Ruskin Press Pty. Ltd., Russell House. 128 Russell
Street, Melbourne]
[Chapter 1: Cause and Effect.]
If one were able to ask the whole world the question, "Is this
life which we humans are forced to live a happy one or an unhappy one?"
The average answer would surely be, "Unhappy."
To the thoughtful, this answer would no doubt give the further
thoughts: What is life? What is happiness? Were we put into this world
merely to suffer mental and physical agonies, and then to go out like
a candle at probably a most inconvenient moment?
Our entrance into this world like our ultimate exit from it is quite
beyond our control. As is the fact that normally we are "Two-forked
radishes." We can very profitably leave all that to Nature. The
problem with which we must concern ourselves is our happiness or
unhappiness during our sojourn. Does it lie within our power to make
life happy?
Theologians tell us that we are free-willed and that man's downfall
was due to that cause. Our ancestors offended the Creator a few
thousand years ago, and so far he has not recovered his composure
sufficiently to cease punishing us for their offences. That statement
might prompt the answer from the impious: "Who made man,
including this free will?" If it is a gift to man to use as he
likes, then the blame for his downfall must rest on his Maker, not on
man himself. And to punish man for his offences is to behave like "a
peevish watchmaker who damns the wheels because they do not run
properly." All of which the ordinary man of today will consider a
huge joke. For the notion that the Author of this stupendous universe
is some sort of super-man possessing all the shortcomings of ordinary
mortals, is a form of barbaric vanity now happily passing to oblivion.
It is when we open the book of nature that we receive an answer
sufficient for our purpose. Look where we may, we perceive the same
two things. The two things which Emerson called "The Chancellors
of God." Cause and Effect. When the fact is grasped that every
phenomenon is an effect of a cause until the primary cause is reached,
and also a cause of a further effect until the ultimate objective is
reached, the answer to our question will immediately follow. For it
will then be perceived that everything in the universe, from a mote in
a sunbeam to the birth of a new world, goes by law and not by luck.
Everything is moving to an ultimate objective. Within limits man can
be said to be free willed. He can temporarily be foolish or he can be
wise; he can temporarily violate the laws of Nature or he can obey
them; he can poke his fingers into the fire and get them burnt or he
can warm them in front of it. In obedience to the Law of Self
Preservation, he will voluntarily burn his fingers only once.
Thereafter he will observe and respect the natural law and thus gain
the measure of happiness consequent to the satisfaction of his need
for warmth. That is true of man's individual organism, it is true also
of the larger organism called the Social State. The ills with which we
are afflicted spring not from the violation of natural law by the
individual, but from the violation of natural law by society as a
whole. We are endeavouring to build up our Social State upon laws
which violate the natural law governing social growth. That is the
primary cause of all our troubles. Society is continually poking its
fingers into the fire. The immediate effects are unemployment, wars,
strikes, famines, and a mass of misery beyond the powers of
imagination. The ultimate effect will be the obliteration of this
civilisation, and that will be due solely to our stupidity, for we can
cease being foolish and unhappy any time we like. An individual will
cease poking his fingers into the fire just as soon as his intellect
tells him that it is the fire which causes the hurt. Society continues
to burn its fingers simply because the majority of people are not
aware of the exact factors which cause the trouble. The object of this
book is to assist in spreading the knowledge of the exact factors.
Herein it is hoped the Reader will find Cause and Effect set out in
simple form, thus rendering unnecessary the aid of a superior
education. Truth is ever simple and too much learning is, still, a
weariness to the flesh. Since nothing true is ever new, those who have
compiled these pages have only distilled old truths into perhaps
slightly different forms. Our raw materials have been gathered from
various sources, mainly unnamed, because the lapse and lack of time
have made it impossible to do otherwise. However we hereby pay homage
to those who have gone before us and blazed the trail to Freedom.
This philosophy has been frequently and bitterly but never
successfully assailed by those who blinded by unnatural conditions
fail to see that the possession of unearned wealth is Dead Sea fruit.
Which brings in its wake not happiness, but envy, malice, and hatred.
For true happiness cannot be gained by the mere gratification of
desires. It depends as well upon the full exercise of the faculties.
Thus for each individual to enjoy the fullest happiness it is
necessary that he should exercise, and be free to exercise, his
natural powers of hand and brain in the production of those things
necessary for the satisfaction of his individual needs. On these two
factors, the exercise of the faculties and the full possession of the
result thereof, depends the measure of happiness each can obtain.
Whilst wealth can be gained by means other than earning it there is a
double loss. The recipient loses that rightful measure of happiness
which can be gained only through the exercise of the faculties in
legitimate channels, and the producer loses that rightful measure
which he would have enjoyed had he been left in possession of his
product.
It will therefore be apparent that to obtain maximum happiness, all
that is necessary for Society to do is to ensure that each individual
is left in the full possession of the product of his labour. Then each
will earn all he gets and get all he earns, and a fuller measure of
happiness will be added through seeing each other mutually happy.
Presently we shall see that although our occupations may differ, our
interests are identical, because the prosperity of one producer
depends upon the prosperity of all the others. There is no happiness
where there is no prosperity.
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