On Getting to Know Ourselves

     Are you a friend of yours?

     Probably the most neglected friend you have is you. And yet every man, before he can be a true friend to the world, must first become a friend to himself

     In this society, where aberration(1) flourishes in the crowded cities and marts(2) of business, few are the men who have not been subjected, on every hand, to a campaign to convince them that they are much less than they think they are.

     You would fight anyone who said of your friends what is implied about you. It is time you fought for the best friend you will ever have - yourself

     The first move in striking up this friendship is to make an acquaintance(3) with what you are and what you might become. "Know thyself!" said the ancient Greek. Until recently it was not possible to make a very wide acquaintance. Little was known about human behavior as a science. But atomic physics, in revealing new knowledge to man, has also revealed the general characteristics of the energy of life and by that a great deal can be known which was not before suspected. You do not need to know atomic physics to know yourself, but you need to know something of the apparent goal of life(5) in general and your own goals in particular.

     In a later chapter there are some questions you can answer which will give you a better insight into your capabilities as they are and what they can become - and do not be deceived, for they can become a great deal more than you ever before suspected.

     Just now let's talk about the general goal of all life. Knowing that, we can know something about the basic laws which motivate your own urges and behavior.

     All problems are basically simple - once you know the fundamental answer. And this is no exception in life. For thousands of years men strove to discover the underlying drives of existence.(6) And in an enlightened age, when exploration of the universes had already yielded enough secrets to give us A-bombs, it became possible to explore for and find the fundamental law of life. What would you do if you had this fundamental law? How easily then would you understand all the puzzles, riddles and complexities of personality and behavior. You could understand conjurer(7) and bank presidents, colonels and coolies,(8) kings, cats and coal heavers.(9) And more important, you could easily predict what they would do in any given circumstance and you would know what to expect from anyone without any guesswork - indeed with a security diabolical(10) in its accuracy.

     "In the beginning was the Word," but what was the word? What fundamental principle did it outline? What understanding would one have if he knew it?

     An ancient Persian(11) king once made a great effort to know this word. He tried to discover it by having his sages(12) boil down all the knowledge of the world.

     At his orders, every book written which could be obtained was collected together in an enormous library Books were brought to that ancient city by the caravan load. And the wise men of the time worked for years condensing every piece of knowledge which was known into a single volume.

     But the king wanted a better statement of the fundamental word. And he made his sages reduce that volume to a single page.

     And then he made them reduce it again to a sentence. And then, after many more years of study, his philosophers finally obtained that single word, the formula which would solve all riddles.

     And the city died in war and the word was lost.

     But what was it? Certainly its value, since it would make an understanding of man possible, exceeded the riches of Persia. Two thousand years later, out of the studies of atomic and molecular phenomena, we can again postulate(13) what that word was. And use it. Use it to know ourselves. And to predict the actions of other men.