Some Thoughts
Thomas Allen, editor
Presented below are the laws of life, Nock’s laws of decline, and Sumner’s “Forgotten Man.”
The Laws of Life
For those of you who are familiar with the laws of thermodynamics, especially the second law, the following may look familiar.
1. You can’t win.
2. You can’t even break even.
3. Things are going to get worse before they get better.
4. Who says things are going to get better?
Nock's Laws of Decline
Albert Jay Nock codified these laws to explain the corruption and decline of all that is fine, noble, and good in Western Civilization. (Source: Issacs, Mark D. “The Case for Superfluity.” The New American. April 24, 1989.)
Epstean’s Law: If self-preservation is the first law of human conduct, exploitation is the second: Man tends to satisfy his needs and desires with the least possible exertion, and the easiest way to satisfy one’s needs and desires is by exploitation; it is easier to seize wealth than it is to produce it — the chief instrument of exploitation in the modern age is the state, the ultimate huckster of privilege.
Gresham’s Law: The bad drives out the good: Hence, bad literature, art, culture, society, etc. drives out good literature, art, culture, society, etc.
Newton’s Law of Diminishing Returns: As things grow in size and strength, they tend to fall apart: Hence, the more students (or voters, etc.), the lower the standards and the lower the median level of intelligence — and an endless downward spiral of democratic mediocrity.
Cram’s Law: The reason that most people do not act like human beings is that they are not: Only a small minority of homo sapiens ever rise out of the sea of barbarians and philistines to achieve the status of true humanity; the masses are merely sub-human raw material out of which the occasional human being is produced.
Nock’s Law of Reform: If everyone would reform one (that is, oneself) and keep one steadfastly following the way of life which Jesus Christ recommended, the Kingdom of Heaven would be coexistive with human society.
The Forgotten Man
(William Graham Sumner, The Forgotten Man and Other Essays.)
The Forgotten Man . . . is the man who never is thought of. He is the victim of the reformer, social speculator, and philanthropist. . . . He is the simple honest laborer, ready to earn his living by productive work. We pass him by because he is independent, self-supporting, and asks no favors. He does not appeal to the emotions or excite sentiments. He only wants to make a contract and fulfill it, with respect on both sides and favor on neither side. He must get his living out of the capital of the country. The larger the capital is, the better living he can get. Every particle of capital which is wasted on the vicious, the idle, and the shiftless is so much taken from the capital available to reward the independent and productive laborer. But we stand with our backs to the independent and productive laborer all the time. We do not remember him because he makes no clamor. . . . He is the clean, quiet, virtuous, domestic citizen, who pays his debts and his taxes and is never heard of out of his little circle. . . . He works, he votes, generally he prays — but he always pays — yes, above all, he pays. He does not want an office; his name never gets into the newspaper except when he gets married or dies. He keeps production going on. He contributes to the strength of parties. He is flattered before election. He is strongly patriotic. He is wanted, whenever, in his little circle, there is work to be done or counsel to be given. He may grumble some occasionally to his wife and family, but he does not frequent the grocery or talk politics at the tavern. Consequently, he is forgotten. He is a commonplace man. He gives no trouble. He excites no admiration. He is not in any way a hero (like a popular orator); or a problem (like tramps and outcasts); nor notorious (like criminals); nor an object of sentiment (like the poor and weak); nor a burden (like paupers and loafers); nor an object out of which social capital may be made (like the beneficiaries of church and state charities); nor an object for charitable aid and protection (like animals treated with cruelty); nor the object of a job (like the ignorant and illiterate); nor one over whom sentimental economists and statesmen can parade their fine sentiments (like inefficient workmen and shiftless artisans). Therefore, he is forgotten. All the burdens fall on him, or her, for it is time to remember that the Forgotten Man is not seldom a woman. . . . the Forgotten Man and the Forgotten Woman are the very life and substance of society. They are the ones who ought to be first and always remembered. They are always forgotten by sentimentalists, philanthropists, reformers, enthusiasts, and every description of speculator in sociology, political economy, or political science. . . . He is our productive force which we are wasting. Let us stop wasting his force. Then we shall have a clean and simple gain for the whole society. The Forgotten Man is weighted down with the cost and burden of the schemes for making everybody happy, with the cost of public beneficence, with the support of all loafers, with the loss of all the economic quackery, with the cost of all the jobs. Let us remember him a little while. Let us take some of the burdens off him. Let us turn our pity on him instead of on the good-for-nothing. It will be only justice to him, and society will greatly gain by it. Why should we not also have the satisfaction of thinking and caring for a little about the clean, honest, industrious, independent, self-supporting men and women who have not inherited much to make life luxurious for them, but who are doing what they can to get on in the world without begging from anybody, especially since all they want is to be let alone with good friendship and honest respect.
