If A Tree Falls…

                                                       non-fiction

                                                 by Robert Sproule

          First, a true story:
          I was having lunch alone at a table in a busy diner, when a man asked if he
     could join me at my table. I said sure and we began to talk. When I discovered
     that the man was a government building inspector, I asked him a question: What
     would happen if there were no building bylaws? His answer was immediate,
     without any hesitation: They’d all be living in wet basements.
          Second, an impossible story:
          The Virgin birth, of Mary and Joseph fame, did not happen, could not happen,
     will not happen. It’s impossible. End of story.
          Third, a plausible story:
          Mary gets pregnant. Joseph is impotent and will know that the child can not
     be his. But Mary knows her husband well. She knows Joseph is more than just
     physically impotent; she knows that he is not a man of independent judgment;
     that he will believe almost anything.
          In adolescence, Mary had learned she could get what she wanted by manipu-
     lating people. In Joseph she had found just the right man to submit to this power.
     Mary cooks up a plan: she will tell Joseph that she was impregnated by a ghost.
          Now, Joe, he believed in ghosts – and goblins and horoscopes and fortune
     tellers and God. He did not believe in facing up to the facts of reality. In fact,
     whenever an aspect of reality was too painful for Joe to accept, he would simply
     reject that aspect. In his childhood, Joseph had learned this lesson well. He had
     learned that he did not like the frustrations involved in learning a new task, or
     the possible embarrassment in failure, so to avoid frustration and embarrassment,
     he avoided learning new tasks. He was content to let others do for him and think
     for him. So, when Mary feeds Joe her story, he does not consider her infidelity –
     that would be too painful to contemplate. Instead, immediately, without any
     hesitation, he embraces the story and chooses to believe that Mary was impreg-
     nated by a ghost – and the two of them go on to raise Jesus, the poor bastard, to
     believe he is the Son of God.
          And His followers go on to destroy the birthplace of Western culture – Ancient
     Greece. They close down universities – universities that taught reality is an abso-
     lute, the rules of reason, mathematics and the beginnings of science. (The Ancient
     Greeks could and did precisely calculate the circumference of the earth and the
     exact distance to the moon!) They destroy democracy. (To this day, still not
     limited by an absolute right to property)
          Christians go on to teach that this reality, here on earth, is subordinate to a
     "higher reality" – a "reality" one can only reach through death. They subordinate
     reason to faith. They subordinate the individual to God. They bring about a
     mysticism that will rule the world for a thousand years – that hell on earth known
     as the Dark Ages.

                                                       * * *

          In the first story, while this government building inspector may tell himself
     that he’s a force for good in the world (he’s not), he actually holds a deep and
     utter contempt for man. He believes that, but for him, we would all be living in
     wet basements. That, by his nature, man is worthless: that he can not grasp reality –
     the need for shelter; that he can not think – acquire the knowledge to build a
     shelter;  that he has no ambition and will not take responsibility for his own life –
     act to build a shelter.
          This man, undoubtedly, does not identify the exact nature of his view of man.
     He does not see himself as holding man in contempt, but as his benefactor. He
     sees himself as doing good, doing the right thing, helping people, taking care
     of them, doing what he has been taught to do – to be his brother’s keeper. He is
     an altruist.
          Altruism is the moral code that holds that man is his brother’s keeper –
     the principle and practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of
     others (Random House Dictionary). It is the welfare of others that is to be man’s
     guiding principle, and to be moral he must put it in practice. And put it in practice
     he does.  Since, as an altruist, he believes he should unselfishly devote himself to
     the welfare of others, to be virtuous, he must help his fellow man, and to do that –
     he seeks a position of power.
          In the second story? There is nothing to add to the second story.
          In the third story, if Mary and Joseph had been rational people, Mary would
     have confessed her infidelity, and, with enough effort, the two of them might have
     rebuilt a worthwhile marriage. But these two were anything but rational. Both
     Mary and Joseph’s only concern was how they could evade the facts of reality.
     They were subjectivists.
          Subjectivism is the doctrine that knowledge, perception, morality, etc., are
     subjective and relative and that there is no external or objective truth (Oxford
     Dictionary) – if you think no one preaches such a philosophy, ask your teacher or
     your child’s teacher if reality is objective or subjective, and you will find that
     many, if not most, will answer subjective. The subjectivist forms an opinion or
     feeling and then looks for "facts" to support it, or evades facts that contradict it.
     The subjectivist does not like reality – some will admit to this – it interferes with
     his feelings, it’s too restrictive. But no man can totally ignore reality – the penalty
     for that is death. Even Joseph knew enough not to step in front of a fast moving
     camel. So, the subjectivist has a problem. How will he survive? He knows he
     must look both ways before crossing the street, but not much more than that. He
     is not interested in acquiring knowledge of the facts of reality or learning how to
     use those facts to his advantage. No problem. He has a back-up plan. He will
     use, not reality, but his fellow man. It is, in fact, his only option – he lusts after
     power or submits to it.   In the case of Mary and Joseph, it is Mary that exercises
     the power and Joseph that submits to it.
          In the case of ambitious men who lust after power, they need a moral justifica-
     tion to convince their victims to submit, a justification that will give their victims
     a "higher" purpose in life. They find it in the morality of altruism. The ambitious
     subjectivist finds altruism to be a perfect fit in his quest for power. Altruism
     preaches that man must subordinate his welfare to the welfare of others – subor-
     dinate his will to the will of society – Stalin’s communist Russia; subordinate
     his life to a "superior race" – Hitler’s Nazi Germany; subordinate a rational
     Western culture to every faith-based culture – multiculturalism; subordinate
     himself to every other life form on the planet – environmentalism; subordinate
     competence to incompetence - what else is the meaning of equal praise for
     unequal achievement in the classroom or unequal talent in kid’s sports?
          Altruism and subjectivism: The latter holds that reality is unknowable, that
     there are no objective truths and as a consequence man’s only means of survival
     is to lust after power or submit to it. The former holds that man is his brother’s
     keeper, that man must be taken care of because on his own he can not grasp an
     objective reality, can not think for himself, and will not take responsibility for his
     own life.

                                                             * * *

          If a tree falls in the forest, and there is no one there to hear it, does it still make
     a sound? The answer is…YES! If man had never evolved on this planet, a tree
     crashing to the ground would still make a sound – a lot of sound! Reality exists,
     and it exists whether any man wants to acknowledge it or not. A rock is a rock
     and a planet is a planet, and the existence of one does not contradict the existence
     of the other.
          On planet earth, life has evolved. And each life form has its own method of
     survival – a tree takes a certain set of actions to survive, a bird takes a different
     set of actions. So, the question is – what are the actions man must take in order
     to ensure his survival?
          Man must think. And to do that properly, he must learn the rules of reason.
          Man observes reality with his senses – and there are only five! It’s his senses
     that provide the raw data on reality. And man has the unique capacity to think
     about his observations. As a hunter-gatherer he observes that a particular patch
      of berries that he visits frequently produces better fruit. He thinks about it. He
     thinks it might have something to do with the fact that he has trampled down the
     plants without berries. He decides to weed his berry patch – and farming is born.
     When man decides to actively pursue an understanding of reality, i.e. experiment –
     science is born. And man learns that moving a magnet through a coil of copper
     wire will produce an electric current.
          But how does man know his thinking corresponds to the facts of reality?
     Observation is his key method – if he gets better fruit or an electric current, he can
     be sure he’s on the right track. There is, however, a law that guides him: the law
     of non-contradiction – in a triangle containing a right angle, the area of the square
     drawn on the side opposite the right angle is equal to the sum of the areas of the
     squares drawn on the other two sides. This is a fact (discovered by those Ancient
     Greeks again). Given the dimensions of a right angle triangle as six, five and four
     inches where six inches is the side opposite the right angle, then thirty-six square
     inches equal forty-one square inches. Obviously, something is wrong – this is a
     contradiction – thirty-six can not equal forty-one. Either the law is not true or
     something is wrong with the measurements (the law is true – a right angle triangle
     can not be drawn with ratios of six, five and four – ratios of five, four and three will
     produce only right angle triangles). Arriving at a contradiction guides man back
     to the facts of reality, providing, of course, that he does not ignore contradictions.
          This ability to observe the facts of reality and integrate them into a logical
     whole without contradiction is the power of reason. It is a virtue! Being reasonable
     is being virtuous.  Being unreasonable is a vice. The unreasonable man does not
     concern himself with resolving contradictions. He’s a subjectivist. He’ll believe
     anything, and the man who will believe anything has a motive – he believes he can
     get away with anything.
          It stands to reason that in order to further his life, man must act – to obtain a
     meal, actions are required. Successful action demands that a man has a grip on
     reality, knows what he is doing, and applies himself. Competence is a virtue.
     And life is not without risks. Courage is a virtue.
          It stands to reason that successful actions can not be random or he would be
     constantly running into things and bouncing off walls. His actions must be purpose-
     ful, whether it’s to clear the driveway of snow, plant a garden or build a business.
     Purposeful action is goal directed. And to achieve a goal, man needs virtues –
     self-motivation, concentration, determination, stamina. And the man that
     practices virtues has a virtue that encompasses all virtues, for that is its meaning –
     the adherence to, and the practice of, virtues – that virtue is…integrity.
          Being virtuous is not an end in itself – it is a means to an end. Practicing virtues
     not only earns man his physical sustenance, but it is also the road to happiness.
     Does anyone believe he can achieve his happiness by practicing vises? No. But
     some think they can get away without practicing virtues – just keeping a garden
     free of weeds will not result in any crops, only a bare patch of dirt. In order to
     achieve happiness, one must actively pursue it – by practicing virtues.
          Notice that being virtuous is necessary even if man lives alone on an island –
     that he must employ virtues in order to sustain his life. But man does not live
     alone on an island. He lives and trades with other men.
          It is each man’s responsibility to live his own life – no man can live a life for
     another man. If man is to live and trade with other men, it is his right to his life
     that has to be protected. And to protect his life, man must have the right to property;
     if he does not have the right to his property, he does not have the right to his life –
     if a man plants a garden, he has the right to the fruits of his labour, and not have it
     stolen from him and be left to starve to death. If he earns ten dollars for an hours
     work, every penny of that is his – by right.
          It is to protect man’s right to his life and his property that man institutes a
     government.  That is its function - and its only function.  A proper government
     protects man from the use of force and fraud.  It creates a police force to protect
     man from criminals, an armed forces to protect man from foreign invaders, and
     law courts to settle disputes according to objective laws.  It does not provide for
     the education of our children, health care, old age security, or create a nanny
     state that dictates virtues and vices.  It keeps its hands off man's property, its
     hands off the economy - it allows laissez-faire capitalism - a free market in
     goods and ideas.
          It's worth mentioning a common objection - not a valid one - to laissez-faire
     capitalism.  What about the poor and those who can not support themselves?
     Well, there's nothing wrong with being poor.  Many men, myself included, have
     been poor at some time during the course of their life.  And those who can not
     support their own life?  (Those that just don't feel like it should be told to practice
     virtues and thus change their feelings.)  There is a principle in the function of
     property rights that addresses this problem to a huge extent:  the percentage of the
     population of a given country that can not support itself operates in inverse ratio
     to the degree of recognition of property rights in that country.  Or, in other words:
     the greater the respect for property rights, the lower the percentage of people that
     can not support themselves.  Suppose a man looses a leg because of disease or an
     accident.  What chance does this man have of supporting himself in a Third World
     country, where the right to property is virtually ignored, and as a result the unem-
     ployment rate is sixty or seventy percent?  Even the able-bodied are on the verge
     of starvation.  But in a country that protects the right to property, the unemploy-
     ment rate is low, and its economy is much more diverse.  This diversity offers a
     whole range of job opportunities that don't even exist in the Third World - many
     jobs where a missing leg is irrelevant.  And not even the leg will be missing for
     long - he will be able to afford a prosthesis.  As for the remaining fraction of the
     population that can not support themselves, they can easily rely on charity - billions
     of dollars have been raised by private charities in spite of our governments taking
     half of everything we earn.  In my opinion, even governments, if they stick to their
     proper function, can be financed voluntarily - not now, but eventually.
           It is capitalism that protects man's life and his property.  It allows each man to
     stand on his own judgment and trade voluntarily with other men to the benefit of
     each.  It allows man his freedom to define his goals and go after them.  He is free
     to practice his virtues in pursuit of his happiness.  He is free to get a grip on reality -
     he knows that when a tree falls, it makes a sound.  He gets good at what he is
     doing - he is competent.  He strives to achieve his happiness - he is a fighter.  He
     takes pride in being the architect of his own character - he is a self-made man.
     He is a Champion, a Warrior and a Titan - he is his own hero.

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