Chapter 13 Part C
First, then, what are the values that enable humans
to respond to the main consequence of entropy, the unceasing, uphill struggle
of life, the quality of life that we know as “adversity”?
A whole array of values should be taught to
young people to enable them to deal with adversity. In order to deal well with
adversity, a society needs large numbers of people willing and even eager to
face constant struggle, exertion, exhaustion, and pain. A society proves most
effective, in fact, if its citizens take up the offensive against the
relentless decay of the universe. In short, a society proves most durable if
its children are taught to like challenge. These children become adults who
seek to bring new territories (planets?) under their tribe's control, and to
devise new ways of growing and storing food, building shelters, etc. - ways of
accomplishing more work with less human exertion (i.e. by new technologies) -
and, in general, constantly performing the tasks of survival more efficiently.
When
we generalize about what these entropy-driven behavior clusters have in common,
we derive two giant values; they are, in English, the ones called
"courage" and "wisdom".
Under different names, courage is instilled
in the young in societies all over the world, which is what we would expect if
it really does work. Bergson spoke of "élan", Nietzsche of the
"will to power"(1.), both celebrating, rather than inventing, the concept of courage. Japanese samurai lived by bushido, their code of total
discipline, and European nations lived by a similar code, chivalry, right into
modern times. But over centuries, beyond difficulties of translation from culture to
culture and era to era, we see in all these values a common motif: they all
direct their disciples to train themselves to persevere through challenges and
obstacles of all kinds, even to seek challenge out. Achilles chose a brief, hard life of honor over a
longer, easier one of obscurity. For centuries, the ancient Greeks considered
him to be a model of a man, as do some people in all nations that have absorbed
ancient Greek culture to this day. Many other cultures have similar heroes.
Brad Pitt as
Achilles in the movie "Troy" (2004)
Henry Cele as Shaka in t.v. series "Shaka Zulu" (1986)
Jet Li as Huo Yuanjia in "Fearless"
Confucius said that the superior man thinks
always of virtue, while the common man thinks always of comfort. 19th century
English writer K. H. Digby put it this way: "Chivalry is only a name for that general spirit
or state of mind which disposes men to heroic actions, and keeps them
conversant with all that is beautiful and sublime in the intellectual and moral
world." (2.)
The exhortation to meet, and even seek,
adversity, and to defend one's way of life, echoes through all societies. Young
people are exhorted to face hazards in defense and promotion of their nation and its way of life.
We can most conveniently sum up the gist of all of these values by saying that
they are built around the principle that in English is called “courage”.
It
is familiar and cliché to exhort young people to aspire to courage. Clichés get
to be clichés because they express something true. Amid the chaotic background
of the physical universe, life strives to create stable, growing pockets of
order. In the case of humans, it does so by programming into young people the
whole constellation of values around the prime value called
"courage". From this prime value, behaviors that meet and overcome adversities of
all kinds flow, and societies that believe in courage survive better because of
that belief.
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