III OUTSIDE OWNERSHIP

MOST people, even many posing Economists and Sociologists, seem to think that human society is necessarily so complex and so discordant that we can never hope to get it running harmoniously. They say the poor, the criminal, the courtesan, the profiteer, the superstitious, the gambler, the drunkard, the thief, the militarist, the scheming politician, the deceptive diplomat and the stupid, heartless rulers, we have always had and always will have.

This erroneous idea, I desire to dispel by showing that the introduction and operation of ideal Civilization is real simple, easy and pleasant when the right persons use the right things in the right way, and the higher the civilization the simpler it becomes, as a result of unity of thought and action. The strife, discord and complexity of human affairs begin when one individual, group or nation strives to get or control something from another individual, group or nation by monopoly, superstition, 16special privilege or armed force. It is always a question of non-aggressive self-ownership or aggressive outside ownership—liberty or compulsion.

The strife and discord resulting from outside ownership creep in like this: The parents want to own and control the child until it is 21. Later the child objects to this outside ownership for it naturally wants to own and control itself. Then the battle between the parents and child begins. In like manner does the teacher claim to own and control the pupil; the minister the church members; the master his chattel slaves; the feudal lord his serfs; the employer his employees; the landlord his tenants; the gods their devotees; the compulsory government its subjects; and lastly but by no means least as the rapidly increasing number of divorces plainly indicates, under the give-and-take marriage regime, the husband claims to partly or wholly own the wife, and the wife the husband, instead of each owning himself or herself.

In all such cases, the parties thus owned invariably object to this outside ownership unless the owned are very dull and stupid, and the more intelligent they become, the stronger grows the objection, for in the very nature of things, all self-respecting men, women and children are continually striving for complete 17self-ownership instead of some sort of compulsory outside Ownership, and the same is also true of Nations.

As civilization advances do we realize more and more that the two great enemies of mankind are Superstition in its various forms, and Outside Ownership, that our beliefs should be founded on demonstrable facts, and that no one is good enough to own and control another; that a home that has a “head” or a “boss” in it is no longer a fit place for an intelligent person to live.

We may thus see that reason, justice, liberty and friendly mutuality can easily remove all sociologic strife and discord, if the right persons use the right things in the right way, and how this may be done in a very pleasant and harmonious way forms the interesting story of the following Forecast. The whole problem is thus a question of further Education and Culture.

But in order to interpret the future progress correctly, we must always make our predictions in accordance with the fundamental desires and wants for which living creatures are ever striving. In the case of Man, these fundamentals are: That we all naturally desire to be healthy, strong and handsome, to enjoy the widest range of liberty, abundant prosperity, 18a large store of mentality, congenial sociability, continuous new experiences, interesting discoveries, plenty of leisure for amusement and recreation and mutual freedom to love and be loved. In brief, to live the longest, happiest Life, and that we can do only when we live in harmony with Nature’s Laws which we should all learn to know and obey to the best of our ability, so as to get the most out of life worth living for. Evolve our heaven here on earth.