For the past 200 years, America has been thought of as the greatest beacon of freedom, opportunity, and progress in the world. In this span of time, we have seen a massive increase in quality of life, industry, technology, wealth, progress, prosperity, and happiness. The “American Dream” has been considered by many to be better off than the previous generation, as the result of an ever-increasing level of prosperity. But what is the state of the belief in this dream today? What is in store for the future of America?
First, in order to answer these two questions, one must determine the fundamental causes of all of the prosperity that America has enjoyed in the past 200 years. The answer to this is: America’s philosophy. Throughout the history of mankind prior to the creation of America, the governments of the world reflected a number of different philosophies, however, they all retained one essential characteristic: that the government SHOULD force individuals to apply themselves towards certain ends, forcing those individuals to be unable to use the conclusions of their own mind. America, on the other hand, was the first country to recognize that the government SHOULD NOT force individuals to apply themselves towards certain ends, but rather, should allow individuals to decide what actions to take for themselves (at the beginning of America this principle was only applied to a certain segment of the population, however, this was due not to a flaw in the principle behind the creation of America but rather the failure of the original government of America to institute this principle fully). But what does this profound difference between the philosophy of America and the philosophies of the governments of the past mean?
In order to answer that question, one must first determine the nature of the human mind. A human being is a being who possesses a volitional consciousness, which means, that the mind does not work automatically, but rather, either a human must CHOOSE to use his mind and try to observe and identify reality correctly, or a human must choose to evade that effort of observing and identifying reality and instead let his mind wander. As an example, think of reading a book. When reading a book, you can either choose to concentrate on what is written as you read down the page, or you can let your mind wander, not concentrating on the words in front of you (have you ever read a page of a book and afterwards thought to yourself, what did I just read? This is what letting your mind wander is like). Since a human being has no automatic means of survival and his mind does not work automatically, the CHOICE to use one’s mind is critical to producing the materials which will benefit his own life which includes everything ranging from the basics such as food, water, and shelter to the advanced materials such as technology, industry, and medicine.
Since a human being needs to use their mind in order to create the materials necessary for the benefit of their own life, and since one must choose to either use one’s mind or not, it follows that one should choose to use their mind as much as possible. What is the precondition for being able to use one’s mind as much as possible? Freedom. In order to be able to use one’s mind to the fullest capacity, and thereby create the best conditions for the benefit of one’s life, one must be able to be free to choose to use their mind or not to use their mind. Why is this? Because the mind and force are OPPOSITES. Force entails the physical compulsion of an individual to act in a given way, against the will of the individual, thus removing the ability for that individual to choose to use their mind or not. Without the ability to choose to use one’s mind, it is impossible for a human being to choose between a number of alternatives (because force entails the physical compulsion to act upon one of those alternatives against one’s will). Thus, it is impossible for any human being that is forced to create the conditions necessary for the benefit of their life.
This is the reason why America’s philosophy ushered in the greatest wave of progress mankind has ever seen. America’s philosophy was better than all of the philosophies of the previous governments of the world because America’s Founding Fathers recognized these facts about the nature of the human mind. They realized that in order for a human being (and thus a society of human beings as well) to create the materials which will benefit one’s life, the human mind MUST be free to choose between a number of alternatives and thereby act upon whatever they choose.
Thus, it was FREEDOM which set the preconditons necessary for the highest use of the human mind, and as a result, all of the technological and intellectual innovation ranging from new technologies to industry to a massive increase in quality of life, great growth of wealth, etc. Names such as Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Rockefeller, and Carnegie spring to mind as examples of people who were able to utilize the full capacity of their minds because they were free to act upon their own conclusions rather than be forced to blindly follow the conclusions of others.
Contrast this with the earlier periods of mankind’s history such as the Dark Ages, where there was very little or no freedom throughout the countries of the world, which resulted in a much smaller ability for humans to use their mind to their fullest capacity, which resulted in the brutal conditions of living that are characteristic of periods such as the Dark Ages.
Coming back to the original two questions, what does this all mean for the American dream and the state of America in the future? I have established that it was FREEDOM which was the essential precondition for all of the material progress that America has enjoyed in the past 200 years. Therefore it follows that the future success of our country is very much dependent on the level of freedom which Americans enjoy.
The idea of freedom as the ideal has been rejected by virtually every philosopher and politician in modern times. All of the philosophical principles which underly the concept of freedom, such as the primacy of existence, reason, logic, egoism, and capitalism, are under attack on all sides. The idea now being accepted by the vast majority of these politicians and philosophers is that a “middle-of-the-road” government is the best way to go. Under this middle-of-the-road system, referred to as a mixed economy, the government should initiate force against certain individuals in order to achieve some ends while recognizing partial freedom in the other areas of their lives. The only area of debate is not whether the government should force individuals at all but in what areas of their lives the government should force individuals. (For example, political conservatives in America typically want to directly force man’s mind by controlling things such as morality and religion and political liberals in America typically want to indirectly force man’s mind by controlling his body by deeply regulating his economic business with others.) This premise is UNCHALLENGED by any dominant political party or philosophical system.
To whatever extent a government forces its individuals to act against the conclusions of their own mind, those individuals will be unable to utilize their minds to their fullest extent, and therefore, will suffer. This remains true for every society, in this case America, as well. This is the cause of the drastic reduction in progress, technological innovation, industry, etc., that the American economy has seen in the past 70 years, in which time government actions intended to force individuals to act against their own mind have increased drastically. This is the cause for many people today to cry that the “American Dream is dead.”
As long as the premise that it is good for the government to force individuals to act against the conclusions of their own minds is unchallenged, America will continue to suffer greatly. Right now, that premise is not fully accepted but rather it represents a compromise between freedom and statism (statism is the form of government which believes it is right to fully force its individuals to do whatever the government dictates). This compromise can only last for so long. Either the American government will eventually move closer and closer to freedom (and thus progress as well) or it will eventually move closer and closer to statism (and thus death).
One of the purposes of my blog is to demonstrate how certain current events represent either the move closer to statism or the move closer to freedom. Unfortunately, as many of my posts have demonstrated, as well as the works of Ayn Rand and other Objectivists have demonstrated, we are moving closer and closer to statism.
What can be done to prevent our country’s eventual fall into dictatorship? The rebirth of the philosophy which is the precondition to the acceptance of the ideal of freedom. This philosophy was present during the Enlightenment, but it was not comprehensive enough and it had contradictions, which, the enemies of freedom and man were able to seize upon. The philosophy required to return to the ideal of freedom must demonstrate conclusively, without contradiction, the primacy of existence, the potency of reason and logic, the rightness of egoism, and the potential greatness of man. Only such a philosophy will allow our country to rediscover freedom and escape the death of dictatorship.
Such a philosophy exists. It’s name: Objectivism.
