_Human_ logic points to human ethics and human economics; it will lead to
a humanized industrial system in which competition will be competition in
science, in art, in justice: a competition and struggle for the attainment
of excellence in human life. The time-binding capacity, which manifests
itself in drawing from the PAST, through the PRESENT for the FUTURE gives
human beings the means of attaining a precious kind of immortality; it
enables them to fulfill the law of their own class of life and to survive
everlastingly in the fruits of their toil, a perpetual blessing to endless
generations of the children of men. This is the truth we instinctively
recognize when we call a great man “immortal.” We mean that he has done
deeds that _survive in time_ for the perpetual weal of mankind.
Human logic—mathematical logic, the logic _natural_ for man—will thus show
us that “good” and “just” and “right” are to have their significance
defined and understood entirely in terms of human _nature_. Human
nature—not animal nature—is to be the basis and guide of Human
Engineering. Thus based and guided, Human Engineering will eliminate
“wild-cat schemers,” gamblers and “politicians.” It will put an end to
industrial violence, strikes, insurrections, war and revolutions.
The present system of social life is largely built upon misconceptions or
misrepresentations. For all work we need the human brain, the human
time-binding power, yet we continue to call it “hand-labor” and treat it
as such. Even in mechanical science, in the use of the term “horse-power,”
we are incorrect in this expression. How does this “horse” look in
reality? Let us analyse this “horse.” All science, all mechanical
appliances have been produced by “man” and man alone. Everything we
possess is the production of either dead men’s or living men’s work. The
enslavement of the solar man-power is purely a human invention in theory
and practice. Everything we have is evidently therefore a time-binding
product. What perfect nonsense to call a purely human achievement the
equivalent of so much “horse-power”! Of course it does not matter
mathematically what name we give to a unit of power; we may call it a Zeus
or a Zebra; but there is a very vicious implication in using the name of
an animal to denote a purely human product. Everything in our civilization
was produced by MAN; it seems only reasonable that this unit of power
which is the direct product of Man’s work, should be correctly named after
him. The educational effect would be wholesome and tremendous. The human
value in work would be thus emphasized again and again, and respect for
human work would be taught, from the beginning in the schools. This
“horse-power” unit causes us to forget the human part in it and it
degrades human work to the level of a commodity. This is an example of the
degrading influence of wrong conceptions and wrong language. I said
“educational” because even our subconscious mind is affected by this. (See
App. II.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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