On the Laws of Survival and Abundance

     The dynamic(1) principle of existence is: Survival!

     At first glance that may seem too basic. It may seem too simple. But when we examine this word, we find some things about it which make it possible for us to do tricks with it. And to know things which were never known before.

     Knowledge could be represented by a pyramid. At the top we would have a simple fact but a fact so widely embracing the universe that many facts could be known from it. From this point we could conceive descending down into greater and greater numbers of facts, represented by the broadening of the pyramid.

     At any point we examine this pyramid we would find that as one descended he would find facts of wider and less related meanings. As one went up he would find greater and greater simplicities. Science is the process of starting low on the pyramid, much like the Persian king, and rising up in an effort to discover more basic facts which explain later facts. Philosophy could be said to be the operation of taking very basic facts and then leading them into explanations of greater and greater numbers of facts.

     At the point of our pyramid, we have Survival!

     It is as though, at some remarkably distant time, the Supreme Being gave forth a command to all life: "Survive!" It was not said how to survive nor yet how long. All that was said was "Survive!" The reverse of survive is "succumb."(2) And that is the penalty for not engaging in survival activities.

     But what of such things as morals,(3) ideals, love? Don't these things go above "mere survival"? Unfortunately or fortunately they do not.

     When one thinks of survival one is apt to make the error of thinking in terms of "barest necessity" That is not survival. For it has margin(4) for loss.

     The engineer when he constructs a bridge uses something called a "factor of safety" If a bridge is to hold ten tons, he builds it to hold fifty tons. He makes that bridge five times as strong. Then he has a margin for deterioration of materials, overloading, sudden and unforeseen stress of elements, and any accident which may occur.

     In life, the only real guarantee of survival is abundance. A farmer who calculates to need twelve bushels(5) of grain for his food for a year and plants twelve bushels has cut back his chances of survival very markedly The fact is, he will not survive, unless some neighbor has been more prudent.(6) For the grasshoppers will take part of the wheat. And the drought will take some. And the hail will take some. And the tax gatherer will take some. And what will he do for seed wheat if he intends to use all he plants for food?

     No, the farmer who knows he has to eat twelve bushels of wheat in the coming year had better plant a hundred. Then the grasshoppers and internal revenue people can chew away as they will. The farmer will still be able to harvest enough for his own food - except of course in a socialism(7) where nobody survives, at least for very long!

     An individual survives or succumbs in ratio to his ability to acquire and hold the wherewithal(8) of survival. The security(9) of a good job, for instance, means some guarantee of survival - other threats to existence not becoming too overpowering. The man who makes twenty thousand a year can afford better clothing against the weather, a sounder and better home, medical care for himself and his family good transportation and, what is important, the respect of his fellows. All these things are survival.

     Of course the man who makes twenty thousand a year can have such a worrisome job, can excite so much envy from his fellows and can be so harassed that he loses something of his survival potential. But even a subversive(10) will change his political coat if you offer him twenty thousand a year.

     Take the man who makes ten dollars a week. He wears clothes which protect him very poorly Thus he can easily become ill. He lives in a place which but ill defends him from the weather. He is haggard(11) with concern. For his level of survival is so low that he has no margin, no abundance. He cannot bank anything against the day he becomes ill. And he cannot pay a doctor. And he can take no vacations. Even in a collective State(12) his lot would be such, his regimentation(13) so thorough that he could do little to protect his own survival.

     Youth has a survival abundance over old age. For youth still has endurance. And the dreams of youth - good survival stuff, dreams-are not yet broken by failures. Youth has, in addition, a long expectancy and that is important, for survival includes length of time to live.

     As for ideals, as for honesty, as for one's love of one's fellow man, one cannot find good survival for one or for many where these things are absent. The criminal does not survive well. The average criminal spends the majority of his adult years caged like some wild beast and guarded from escape by the guns of good marksmen. A man who is known to be honest is awarded survival-good jobs, good friends. And the man who has his ideals, no matter how thoroughly the minions(14) of the devil may wheedle(15) him to desert them, survives well only so long as he is true to those ideals. Have you ever heard about a doctor who, for the sake of gain, begins to secretly attend(16) criminals or peddle dope? That doctor does not survive long after his ideals are laid aside.

     In short, the most esoteric(17) concepts fall within this understanding of survival. One survives so long as he is true to himself, his family, his friends, the laws of the universe. When he fails in any respect, his survival is cut down.

     The end of survival, however, is no sharp thing. Survival is not a matter of being alive this moment and dead the next. Survival is actually a graduated scale.