Economic development -- Social aspects; Social evolution; Social problems; Work
To create is an intense satisfaction; to combine elements and produce
new results, whether it be a bridge, a basket, or a loaf of bread—to
make is in itself a joy. But so is it a joy to give something to
somebody, whether at first-hand, or in a combination with many; to
spread, to disseminate, to feel the current of human good flow through
you; both functions are happy.
The universe is an everlasting production, force taking form, energy
embodied, disembodied, re-embodied—this is the game of living. Our
little mid-station of consciousness feels the pressure of natural forces
on both sides, pushing in through the sensory nerves; pushing out
through the motor nerves. Owing to our early mistake about the superior
pleasure of impression, and our perverse insistence that expression is
only a guarded outlay of limited force, by which to secure desired
impressions, we have never understood the nature of human production.
The pleasure of right impression is not to be denied. Every sensory
nerve should have its proper stimulus. And man, with his immense
collective sensorium, with his highly developed personal sensations, due
to social evolution, and his power of feeling with and for other people,
has enormous capacity for the reception of pleasure. But what is all
this pleasurable stimulus for? The brain is not merely a reservoir for
stored sensation. A sensation is a certain amount of energy going into
the human battery. Once in, it must be discharged in commensurate
activity.
Most interesting experiments in psychology are being made to-day,
proving this, even in some immediate result of a strong mental
impression in unconscious bodily motion; as shown in studies among
school children. As the brain develops it has increasing capacity to
receive impressions, to retain and to arrange impressions; but
nevertheless sometime that mass of impressions must come out in
commensurate action, else disease ensues. The human brain, socially
developed, and socially stimulated, has great power of expression; that
expression is in work, and work is in Production and Distribution. The
productivity of the human race, even with its past and present checks
and perversions, is the wonder of the ages. Guaranteed the swift and
easy satisfaction of those “wants” our economists build so much on, the
steady increase of impressed energy has resulted in as steady an
increase of expressed energy, necessarily.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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