A Great Beginning

 

The classical Greeks laid the foundation for the magnificent edifice of 2600 years of Western Civilization. Fundamentally, they determined that: 1) man was great; 2) his powerful reason made him so; 3) therefore he should employ it as much as possible. The Greeks essentially concluded that it was man’s job to use his rational mind energetically, systematically, and deeply in order to understand the universe, and thus to live a noble and happy life.

The classical Greeks left the notion of man-as-animal far behind. Rather than a beast, they largely saw man as a type of god. Their thinking and lifestyle created men of lofty minds and noble souls.

The Greeks cast aside most of superstition, magic, and mythology. They generally sought naturalistic and scientific explanations for the nature of the universe, life, society, and individual. With this approach to learning and life, they vanquished age-old ignorance and rapidly acquired a great deal of knowledge and intellectual power.

The Greeks also cast aside much of short-term thinking, narrow self-interest, and immediate pleasure-seeking, in favor of long-term planning, wide self-interest, and deep, long-lasting pleasure. They became personally moral and socially just. Their minds and spirits became healthy and alive.

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It’s true, of course, that the classical Greeks also largely replaced their polytheism with monotheism, their mythology with religion. They invented the mystery cults of Eleusis and Thrace (based just west and north of Athens) putting the worship of Orpheus, Dionysus, and Demeter ahead of the former top gods of Athena, Apollo, and Zeus.

It’s also true that the early Greeks mistakenly combined reason and faith, philosophy and religion, in such loose and tricky belief-systems as that of Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Plato. And soon enough this led to full religions, such as Zarathustraism and then Judaism (based to the east and south of Greece).

But the only Greek thought which was wide-ranging, elaborate, complex, and profound was found in the realm of philosophy, such as Zeno the Stoic, Epicurus, and Aristotle. Full and rich thinking was also found in Plato’s work when he stayed away from the relative shallowness and immorality of theistic speculation.

It’s worth noting that early religious thinking, such as that found in the holy books of the Jewish and Christian bibles, was limited and poor. It was never much rational or philosophical. Religious thought only became decent after true philosophy was smashed, around 100-200 A.D., and all known subsequent ‘philosophers’ became highly religious.

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The pro-reason, pro-science, pro-philosophy Greeks made man great. But the pro-faith, pro-supernaturalism, pro-religion, anti-Greeks drove man low. And it was only a few centuries after this that Western Civilization began a millennium-long Dark Age.

Greco-Roman Liberty

 

Despite what is almost universally believed – including by practically all Objectivists and libertarians – the classical Greeks and Romans loved political freedom and individual liberty. You can see some of this in the confidence, dynamism, and individuality of their statuary. And you can hear it in their frequent contemptuous references to “Oriental despotism”.

And the Greeks and Romans largely understood what the concepts of political freedom and individual liberty meant. They mostly lived under these social ideals and were proud to do so. The classical Greeks and Romans virtually never stopped comparing their civilized, advanced, and free societies with those of the savage, backward, tyrannical Persians, Germans, Illyrians, Etruscans, and other barbarians all around them.

Why did the philosophy- and science-inventing Greeks ferociously resist the overwhelmingly powerful Persians of the early 5^th century B.C.? The poet Simonides (556-468 B.C.) says: “ We fought to crown Greece with freedom.”

The historian Thucydides (460-400 B.C.) once acknowledged “the secret of happiness to be freedom and the secret of freedom to be a brave heart”. So the Greeks courageously resisted tyranny on numerous occasions. The playwright Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.) contrasted “the freeman” with “him enslaved by another’s might”.

One immensely important aspect of political freedom is equal justice for all. And as the great Athenian leader Pericles (495-429 B.C.) noted: "When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law."

The philosopher Aristotle (284-322 B.C.) generally praised liberty, but then mocked those who argued “because men are equally free [politically], they claim to be absolutely equal [socially]”. Aristotle approvingly stated: “The basis of a democratic state is liberty.” And it should be remembered that the Greeks essentially invented democracy.

The Romans built upon what they learned from the libertarian Greeks and gained a sophisticated understanding of constitutions, rule of law, justice, and certainly political freedom. The historian Sallust (86-34 B.C) noted the irony that often “in the highest [political] position, there is the least freedom of action.” The philosopher Epictetus (55-135 B.C.) added: “Only the educated are [truly] free.”

The poet and intellectual Horace (65-8 B.C.) praised Roman “painters and poets” for their freedom of “bold invention”. He explained: “We claim the liberty for ourselves and in turn we give it to others.” The historian Tacitus (56-120 A.D.) once happily noted: “It is the rare fortune of these days that one may think what one likes and say what one thinks.”

But did the classical Greeks and Romans really understand the relatively difficult concept of freedom of speech? Well, the philosopher Socrates (469-399 B.C.) evidently spent a half-century openly questioning, criticizing, and mocking virtually every powerful person and idea in Athens (frequently during wartime).

The Greeks debated extensively the merits of oligarchy, monarchy, and democracy, while often practicing their marvelous political invention of democracy. But they didn’t praise it uncritically because as the philosopher Plato (428-348 B.C.) observed, often: “Democracy passes into despotism.” Plato condemned even successful dictators by noting: “When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other in order that the people may [continue to] require a [dictatorial] leader.”

Regarding political freedom and individual liberty, Aeschylus observed quite early in Greek history that: “Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny.”

Man

 

Man is god. He is goodness and greatness personified. Man is an end in himself. He lives for his own sake.

Man creates his own meaning and purpose. He earns everything he has and deserves everything he is. As Ayn Rand noted: “As man is a being of self-created wealth, so he is a being of self-created soul.” He continually attempts to uplift himself and make his spirit soar.

Man carves out his own existence in nature and reality. He is a dynamic, vivacious, and cutting creature who drives himself forever forward. Man is potentially a hero, saint, and noble soul who forever rises.

Man is as creator. He builds and produces. He invents and achieves. It’s man’s holy duty to always grow and ascend. He is forever traveling onward and upward.

Man is the most wondrous and magnificent thing in the known universe. He is greatness itself. Virtual omniscience and omnipotence are his destiny. Man is god himself.

"Capitalism"

 

When people today speak of “capitalism” they almost always mean: government of vast economic regulation. They mean: fascism or welfare statism.

A “capitalist” these days is a rich person or business owner who uses his wealth to regulate his industry to his advantage. He uses his money to manipulate the political system to enrich and empower himself. By “manipulate” is meant coerce; by “empower” is meant acquire the ability to coerce.

But since in the real world capitalism means individual liberty or economic freedom, this current version of capitalism is the opposite of the real deal. Actual capitalists don’t seek to regulate or coerce anyone, nor do they allow anyone else to regulate or coerce them.

“Capitalists” nowadays secretly bride the legislators, judges, executives, regulators, and other government authorities with cash under the table. Or they openly bribe them via campaign or charity contributions. Or the bribes take the form of extravagantly-paid, no-show “jobs” for the various government officials, their family, friends, and cronies. Or the pseudo-capitalists fool and bribe the people or voters directly.

The general way these “capitalists” – these robber-baron parasites and authoritarians – become enriched and empowered is they get the bribed government officials to alter the tax, regulation, subsidy, import, and export system to benefit themselves – usually thru some version of a monopoly in their industry. This impoverishes and disempowers their customers and victims – as well as the nation and the world.

These “capitalists” slow human progress and damage world society. Their “alterations” of the tax, regulation, subsidy, import, and export system always involves coercion. This warping of economic freedom can also be called criminality or tyranny. And since real capitalism always means liberty, these “acts of capitalism” always involve the contrary of capitalism.

Under true capitalism the good businessmen and companies thrive and grow rich, while the poor ones go broke and out of business. But under vastly regulated fascist or welfare statist “capitalism” it’s the coercive, thieving, bad businessmen and companies which thrive and grow rich, while everyone else suffers considerable elements of impoverishment and enslavement.

No wonder virtually everyone today hates modern capitalism! They should. Current capitalism is the polar opposite, and death, of real capitalism.