Evidently, however, there is something in man which rebels against these
"natural" laws. In our present society man has set aside six days in the
week in which to live under them, and one day in the week in which to
preach an entirely different and contradictory code--that of Christian
ethics, which bids you "love your neighbor," and "do unto others as you
would they should do unto you." Between these Sunday teachings and the
week-day teachings there is eternal conflict, and one who takes pleasure
in ridiculing his fellow men can find endless opportunity here. The
Sunday preachers are forbidden to interfere with the affairs of the
other six days; that is called "dragging politics into the pulpit." On
the other hand, incredible as it may seem, there are professors of the
week-day doctrine who call themselves Christians, and believe in the
Sunday doctrine, too. They manage this by putting the Sunday doctrine
off into a future world; that is, we are to pounce upon one another and
devour one another under the "iron laws" of economics so long as we live
on earth, but in the next world we shall play on golden harps and have
nothing to do but love one another. If anybody is so foolish as to apply
the Sermon on the Mount to present-day affairs, we regard him as a
harmless crank; if he persists, and sets out to teach others, we call
him a Communist or a Pacifist, and put him in jail for ten or twenty
years.
In the Book of the Mind, I have referred to Kropotkin's "Mutual Aid as a
Factor in Evolution," which I regard as one of the epoch-making books of
our time. Kropotkin clearly proves that competition is not the only law
of nature, it is everywhere modified by co-operation, and in the great
majority of cases co-operation plays a larger part in the relations of
living creatures than competition. There is no creature in existence
which is entirely selfish; in the nature of the case such a creature
could not exist--save in the imaginations of teachers of special
privilege. If a species is to survive, some portion of the energies of
the individual must go into reproduction; and steadily, as life
advances, we find the amount of this sacrifice increasing. The higher
the type of the creature, the longer is the period of infancy, and the
greater the sacrifice of the parent for the young. Likewise, most
creatures make the discovery that by staying together in herds or
groups, and learning to co-operate instead of competing among
themselves, they increase their chances of survival. You find birds that
live in flocks, and other birds, like hawks and owls and eagles, that
are solitary; and you find the co-operating birds a thousand times as
numerous--that is to say, a thousand times as successful in the struggle
for survival. You find that all man's brain power has been a social
product; the supremacy he has won over nature has depended upon one
thing and one alone--the fact that he has managed to become different
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