CHAPTER IV.
UNIVERSAL
SECURITY, PEACE AND HAPPINESS
VERSUS
POVERTY, FEAR AND WAR
We all desire happiness,—nor do we begrudge the fulfillment of this desire in the life of any other person—therefore, why should we not help each other to find security, peace and happiness? Why should we not stand together,—"One for All and All for One"?
Since none of us would want anyone or anything to stand in our pathway and obstruct or prevent our happiness; nor have any right-thinking men or women the slightest desire to interfere with the happiness or joy of others,—and since these two correlated statements are indisputably true when applied to the lives and thoughts of any group of people in any country on the face of this globe,—Why then is it also true that so few of us have ever felt securely happy? Why is it that envy, jealousy, hate, bloodshed and war, are observed all about us as the indications of experiences in the lives of everyone, and that these conditions exist today, literally as unabated as they have throughout untold centuries of human life? Why is there so much lack and why such ceaseless fear of losing what little we have?
The Research Department of The International Institute of Universal Research and Administration is prepared to prove that the causes which bring about insecurity, and racial, religious, and cla** antagonisms, are not the inevitable concomitants of evolution, nor an accidental result, but the plans and purposefully directed plots and programs of those motivated by the desire for power and financial gain, "and who are not the slightest bit concerned about how they accomplish their ends."
Were it not for the "Planned Perpetuation of Antagonisms," causing constant division among the people of various groups, we would by now be living in a world populated by men and women doing their fair share of the world's work, and earning the right,—and thereby worthy,—of sharing with fair equality, its inexhaustible and diversified abundance and loveliness. Man would no longer be a creature of lustful enslaving habits and appetites, nor in bondage to superstitions, unprovable beliefs or undemonstrable creeds. Men would be obeying the "Golden Rule"—not from compulsion but from desire—instead of merely theorizing and preaching about it. They would be thinking, speaking and living, in a clean intelligent, unselfish and kindly manner. Man, loving good more than evil, and a**ured of the right to develop his talents and constructive abilities, would be worthy of trust, and a law unto himself—free—joyous—and forever unconfined and unlimited.
We have no desire to injure or k** you, nor to cross the oceans to some foreign nation and k** people we have never even seen; people who individually could not,—by the wildest stretch of imagination,—have done anything to harm us. Only collectively could they affect us adversely or injure us, and then only after they had been organized and incensed to thoughts of fear, hate or envy, by the lying tongue of propaganda,—stimulated and made to utter its lies by some one person, or some small group of persons filled with the lust for power, glory or wealth. Only then can people be made,—(through the mesmeric and hypnotic influence upon their emotions of subtle propaganda),—to desire or want to k** men whom they have never even seen. Only by being influenced into believing that we might lose the few crumbs of security or happiness,—patronizingly granted to us by the small group of families who unlawfully control the wealth and power of this globe,—could any of us be persuaded into going out and k**ing another human being—no matter what his nationality or color might be—English, African, Chinese;—white, black or yellow.
It has required centuries of progress for mankind to reach the place where it is now possible to communicate with a large enough number of people, during any one century, to build up a force of sufficient potency to overcome greed and the lust for power, which have, during countless centuries, been the principal causes of poverty, envy, jealousy, hatred, murder and war. These selfishly perpetuated experiences and qualities of thought make security or happiness utterly impossible of attainment in the life of any human being, whether he be rich or poor.
You will readily recognize as your own the ideas we are going to present to your thought, and we therefore suggest that you spend no more time or years in "wishing, only,"—since the world has now reached an age of enlightenment, and has developed facilities for intercommunication, which make it possible to immediately put mankind's universal ideas of freedom into effect. The fulfillment of these desires can be brought to pa** with such a small amount of co-operation, that the world's right-thinking men and women need no longer delay, even one day, in taking the necessary steps for their accomplishment.
It is not vast wealth, power, glory, nor the unsubstantial elements of flattery, that mankind seek. All any normal men or women desire, is freedom to do the things which appear to their thought as worthy of effort, and to have the facilities with which to develop natural talents and express "normal" ambitions. No one, until falsely trained to desire such things, asks for great wealth or power, but only for a**ured security, peace and financial independence. It is not for purposes of luxurious living that the average human being desires financial independence, but primarily, in order that opportunities fo'r constructive self-expression might thereby be made more readily available.
Man is never a glutton or a beast, unless he has become the creature of enslaving appetites and educated desires cunningly encouraged by influences which profit from such weaknesses.
To love Life, and "to Live" and "to let Live," is as natural an impulse of our thought as it is to breathe, unless one's mentality has been warped by an environment, such as need no longer exist on this earth.
Now let us see whether we can, individually as well as collectively, obtain happiness—permanent security—peace—and financial independence, right here in this present world, without any new discoveries,—(other than those which already exist),—being added to our civilization.
Five hundred million (500,000,000) people are always hungry, and thirty million (30,000,000) of them die each year from lack of food, and yet it has been said, and proofs are readily available,—that enough food could be raised within a "ten-year" period, to feed the population of our entire world for over one hundred (100) years, without any further harvesting of crops or other production of food, if mankind desired to use the present machinery, inventions, and available executive ability, for the accomplishment of such a result.
Millions of men, women and little children die annually from extreme exposure, due to lack of warm clothes, and yet, enough clothing materials could be produced within a ten (10) year period to clothe the entire human race for the rest of this century.
Over one thousand million (1000,000,000) people on our planet,—(one-half of its total population),—have no habitations of their own which they can call their home, yet we claim that there is a great world depression and not enough work for the trained workers of our civilized nations to perform, and that therefore, hundreds of millions of industrious and intelligent men and women must remain idle.
With hundreds of millions of people starving, freezing to d**h and homeless, mankind must wait while the world's "Swinish Money Changers,"—motivated solely by greed, and indescribable selfishness, stop to figure out just how they can succeed in making men continue to work for the private profit system which they control; a system of "Greed" and "Selfishness," which has been perpetuated century after century, for the exploitation of human beings, and which should have been completely destroyed long ages ago.
Is it the purpose of life to build machines, cannons and battleships, accumulate money, and construct vast office buildings,—where. the Midases may count their gold,—or should the object of life consist in seeking wisdom and happiness? Where did we come from?—Why are we here?—Where are we going? Are not these questions of more importance to each of us than the creating of piles of gold to pour into the laps of a small handful of people who cannot possibly ever take such wealth with them when they leave us, and yet, which—after they are gone—always starts the endless struggle all over again, to see who shall possess it?
Is it not right that we each should have our lives to use as we may choose, so long as we harm no one? Should we not be seeking wisdom and happiness, instead of lifeless money and unsatisfying self-glorification?
The two hundred million (200,000,000) people whom we herein invite to learn how they may form an equally owned and "Universal" service corporation, are at this time spending an average of over one thousand million ($1000,000,000) dollars per day. If they have the courage, wisdom and vision to combine their buying power, they can readily own the world's principal resources of raw materials, from which are produced food, clothes, homes and other necessities of life (as well as its luxuries) and thereafter they will have the power to permanently prevent such requirements of human life from ever again being exploited for private profit. There is no other way on this earth, to stop wars or to eliminate poverty.
The Private Profit System controlled by those who use the world's resources and its man power for the production of their luxurious pleasures, is wholly dependent upon "the demand always exceeding the supply," for in no other way can a profit be collected.
When supply exceeds demand, those who control its sources are glad to get whatever people will pay, but when demand exceeds supply and, for instance, two people want exactly the same article of which there is only enough for one, they will then bid against each other, and if they want it badly enough, will keep on bidding until they pay a thousand times or ten thousand times what it actually cost to produce; but the reverse is also true: When those in control of a large quantity of some article,—the supply of which exceeds the demand,—desire to sell, they have to go out bidding for buyers. If they can't get people to buy at one price, then they offer their merchandise at a still lower price, and keep on lowering the price until someone agrees to buy. Hence, anyone who desires to make a profit on the sources of supply he may control, is of necessity forced to curtail his production so as to never release enough to satisfy everyone, or in other words, so that there will always be a surplus of buyers unable to get what he is producing;—always someone to bid a higher price and start the others bidding, so that even after they have paid many times the article's value they will feel fortunate in having obtained it at any price,—due to its "supposed (?)" scarcity.
This basic formula upon which the "Private Profit System" is perpetuated century after century, is readily understood, when we consider the prices paid for rare paintings. If a famous artist has pa**ed on, and the number of his paintings can never again be increased, people begin wanting what they can no longer get, and they offer those who own the paintings, more money than they paid for them; and then some one else thinks he wants them and he offers still more. Finally people begin to think that the paintings, "Themselves," must possess some great inherent value of their own, when actually, the demand has been created largely because of the fact that the quantity can never be increased. "It isn't the paintings they pay for but only the privilege of having control of them."
In accordance with the "Money Changers'" formula,—that the supply of any necessary article must never be permitted to equal the demand,—we find that during the past twenty-four (24) months, they have used the influences which their vast accumulations of gold and silver enable them to wield, to bring about the destruction of millions of acres of wheat and cotton crops, tens of millions of cattle, and countless millions of tons of other necessary or desirable requirements of human life, in order that they might thereby force the demand to a point so far beyond the available supplies of necessities or luxuries, that they would have no difficulty in obtaining whatever profits they might desire through their control over the principal commercial avenues of production and distribution.
The fact that five hundred million (500,000,000) other human beings will go hungry each day, and that thirty million (30,000,000) of them will starve to d**h during the following twelve (12) months, is of no concern to these captains of finance. Theirs is a business of making profits, and as long as they can make more money from human beings who are suffering and in need, than they can from those who are secure, peaceful and happy,—mankind may rest a**ured that just so long as gold and silver can control the destinies of men, no improvement in our economic or political systems which might provide a guarantee of security and happiness to the inhabitants of our world, will ever be brought to pa**.
Only through the universal adoption of a medium of exchange based on "Service" rather than on "Gold or Silver," will mankind ever succeed in destroying the swinishly perpetuated spectacle of the wholesale destruction of food and other necessities of life, which is permitted to take place before the very eyes of tortured starving human beings.
To make our world into a garden spot, ever more beautiful as a home for the human race,—to add to the sum total of human happiness, and not just seek what we would individually like to possess, (without consideration for others ), but instead, to apply "the Golden Rule" of
"One for All and All for One"—as a real desire within our hearts, and not merely words emanating from our lips, is the only ambition truly worthy of intelligent creatures.
Man cannot point to a time since the beginning of human history when there has not existed, somewhere on the globe, a greater abundance of those things which are necessary or desirable for his use, than he could possibly exhaust. However, it has been less than one hundred (100) years since men have awakened to a sufficient degree of comprehension and discernment, to recognize the "infinite abundance" of good which has always been available for their welfare here on earth.
Only by the intelligent application of new ideas, have men discovered ways and means of using a few of the materials which the earth contains in such limitless abundance and variety. The good ideas; which they have welcomed and acted upon, now enable them to communicate almost instantly with one another in any part of the globe. By the use of "right ideas,"—at the rate men have proven their ability to abridge distances during the past twenty-five (25) years,—it is not improbable, that at a not far distant date, men will be able to travel to any part of the world between sunrise and sunset of a single day.
Mankind should therefore no longer be mesmerized by the belief that they are made up of many disconnected links, nationalities, cla**es or families, but they should now,. recognize the fact that they are, after all, just one family—"The Human Family." Why then, should they not become "Mankind United"? The result of world-wide co-operation, and of such internationally united efforts, would soon be "Mankind Unlimited."
Considering the inexhaustible abundance of the earth's resources, and mankind's present ability to rapidly transport those things which constitute a surplus in one locality, to points where there may seem to be a lack, it is high time that "Mankind United" in order that they might share each other's surplus products, and thereby each enjoy a wider variety of the good things which our earth so abundantly produces.
There never has been, and there never will be, an actual economic cause or reason for the existence of a world-wide condition of poverty—or reasons for men to wage war among themselves, inasmuch as an abundance of everything essential to man's welfare has always existed upon this globe. The proof of this statement is a fact which no one can deny;—namely, that all of the materials which enter into our telephones, radios, airplanes, automobiles, or any other present-day invention,—have been here on this earth throughout countless millions of years waiting for man to use them. Limitless resources and power are always available whenever men are willing to stop fighting among themselves and devote their thoughts and efforts towards the discovery of the blessings which our Creator has placed here for our use; resources in such vast abundance, that men need never fight over which one should have the most, for there is more than mankind can use during a period of millions of years.
There never has been and never can be any reason, due to a difference in the fundamental needs or desires of human beings, nor to a lack of materials for food, clothes, shelter,—or any other requirement for man's welfare,—which could constitute any legitimate cause for the establishment of antagonistic forms of government, or separately owned sources of supply, or separately owned facilities for manufacturing or producing mankind's necessities or luxuries of life.
There is not now, nor could there ever have been in the history of man, a period when the intelligent application of "The Golden Rule" in all human activities and relationships, could not have solved every spiritual, moral, or physical requirement of man. The natural results and effects of brotherly love, and a consequent unshakable trust and confidence in one another, would have uprooted the causes of poverty and war centuries ago, had men applied "The Golden Rule" in their "economic relationships," as constantly as they have referred to it in their philosophical discussions with one another.
Merely because our ancestors failed to discern the practical and economic, as well as idealistic desirability of universal brotherly love (which would long centuries ago have resulted in the destruction of cla** distinctions—national boundary lines and racial antagonisms)—and merely because they preferred to go out and commit murder, and then after stealing the possessions of their weaker brothers, to evolve a rule of conduct which they called "The Law of the Survival of the Fittest" does not justify us in perpetuating such a rule.
The world was not formed "solely" for the use of "swine," nor solely for the use of human beings who subscribe to "swinish" humanly promulgated rules of conduct worthy only of hogs.
Our Research Department claims that wars, poverty, and most of the disappointments, broken hearts and broken lives of mankind, can be avoided by co-ordinating the combined "demonstrable" wisdom, ideas and efforts, of each member of the human family with all others, and distributing the total products thereof, "equally" among the members of the entire human race,—granting none the privilege of attaining to a degree of power or influence sufficiently great to injure his fellows,—should greed or selfishness gain control of such a one's thoughts.
We believe that all men, women and children, of every nation, should have the privilege of developing their talents for their own as well as for the world's advancement, and the equal use of whatever they might desire of the earth's resources of a constructive nature, for their own individual happiness.