The Will To Live Ethic
by Lorenz Kraus
There are two axioms to human nature: we are alive and we have free will. Everything about us comes down to these two facts.
To stay alive, we constantly have to meet various short- and long-term needs. If we don't we die. Our needs exist because we're alive. The dead have no need for food, air, clothing, or relaxation. The living do. Meeting our needs keeps us alive.
Free will means that human beings have the capacity to think about things beyond immediate perception.
Unlike a worm or spider, man can think of a past, present, and future, and with that, imagine alternatives open to his choice. When the early hunters came across animal tracks, they could understand that the tracks represented the presence of an animal in the past, and that if they followed the tracks, they could come upon the animal in the future. They could imagine the future, thereby opening the choice of whether to start a hunt. This power was used to understand the growth of plants and open the choice to plant agricultural crops. Every new discovery opened more choices to man.
Much can be said about free will, but a point must be made. Free will is just free will. Just because we have free will does not mean that we do what is in our best interest.
Despite free will, people still choose to drink and drive, have sex in ways that expose them to disease, and take drugs. Despite free will, people still support dicators to their detriment. The people of Venezuela are a perfect example.
So, here is a philosophic problem. How does man bridge the gap between two facts of his nature? How does he bridge the gap between free will and his life? How does he put free will in the service of his life? This is the operative ethical question. This is the question that must be addressed by any serious ethical system. The answer gives us the key to human survival.
So, how does man put free will in the service of his life?
By exerting his will to live.
The will to live sustains man's life because it integrates man's free will to his life. When taken as a moral compass, the will to live guides man to take the course of action which sustains his life. The will to live is not innate or born in us; it is an exertion of heart and intellect. It is cultivated and takes training and focus. To exert your will to live, you must gather your mind and senses and commit yourself to life-promoting thought and action.
*Health * Happiness * Freedom*
If a man wanted to know whether to smoke or not, he would observe smokers to determine whether smoking damages their health or not. Since smoking demonstrably undermines one's conditioning and endurance, a man with a will to live would limit or eliminate his smoking habit because, at the deepest level, a man with a will to live has a will to preserve his health.
If a man wanted to know whether to pursue his own happiness or not, he would observe those who did pursue happiness, the struggles they went through, and the satisfaction they had at achieving their dreams. He would observe the many Olympic champions who dedicated themselves to the quest for excellence and who stood at the pinnacle of their sport, achieving a rare glory that can never be taken away. Likewise he would observe those who failed to achieve their dreams, but still held a sense of pride in the struggle to make something of themselves—like the many Boston Red Sox who though great baseball players, never won a World Series. On the other hand, he would observe those who didn't bother to pursue happiness, who were too lazy to initiate a dream and build life into something. He would observe that the man in the cardboard box is going nowhere. He would observe the Muslim girl who surrenders to an arranged marriage. He would see a loveless experience of a breeding animal, raising a dozen children who will be doomed to repeat the greatest mistake of her life. If she had a will to live, she would escape the Muslim world and condemn its savage way of life, like Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
If a man wanted to know which political system he should adopt, he would observe history and look at the effects of communism on the Russians, the Cubans, and the North Koreans, of National Socialism on the Germans, of theocracy on the medievals, the Iranians, the Taliban, and the Saudis, and of capitalism on the Americans and the British.
He would see the difference between Miami versus Havana, South versus North Korea, East versus West Germany, and England before and after the Industrial Revolution. He would conclude that man thrives in freedom, but suffocates and dies in statism.
By observing that capitalism secured the right of each man to improve his life, while communism, socialism, and theocracy destroyed his every effort, a man with a will to live would eagerly embrace capitalism. Millions come to America to embrace it because they had a will to live to escape the slaughter of communism. Using his will to live, a man would say that capitalism has moral supremacy over its alternatives.
As a moral compass, the will to live regards capitalism as the moral social system. Any breach of it is immoral. Those who want to take capitalism away have no moral standing. Property rights, the heart of capitalism, are moral absolutes. Not only is capitalism good, but stealing, fraud, and taxation are wrong, morally wrong. Taxes and shackles should be suspended and abolished.
Thus, if you have a will to live, you would work to make life measure up to your health, your happiness, and your freedom.
These are three basic human values. The will to live is the only self-sustaining moral ethic. By using it regularly, you sustain yourself, your health, your happiness, and your freedom . The will to live is man's natural moral compass.
The will to live ethic is the antidote to hedonism. Take a Civil War soldier who was shot in the leg. On the one hand, he can go through agony, have his leg cut off, BUT have a shot at survival. On the other hand, he can avoid the agony, get drunk, and die of gangrene. A hedonist would avoid surgery to seek pleasure and avoid pain. A man guided by his will to live would look at the whole situation, and embrace the surgery as a means to the life and happiness to come, despite the terrible pain. In fact, he might even embrace the pain to conquer it in the name of his own life.* That's exactly the experience of Lance Armstrong who stared down his cancer and his treatments to find the reward of life.
The will to live is the foundation of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If your life didn't mean anything to you, why would you treasure your rights? If you believed in giving up your life to "something greater than the self," why would you care about happiness? If you believed in self-sacrifice, naturally, you would sacrifice your freedom and the freedom of others. Self-sacrifice is the principle behind collectivism, where the individual is sacrificed for the collective. That's the spirit of communism. The will to live protects you from Marx, Lenin, and Clinton.
Exerting your will to live is your most important and most noble virtue. The will to live give us that truth-seeking self-reliant character. How strong is your will to live and what can you do to make it stronger? Exert it, express it, inspire it, use it!
Your will to live establishes the moral sanctity of your life.
Your will to live establishes the moral supremacy of your life over those who would take it away. Your will to live provides the moral clarity between you and those who would blow you up.
If you had a will to live, you would loathe anything that would sacrifice you. That includes communism, nazism, racism, environmentalism, socialism, islamism, and even christianity.
Notice that history's most dramatic act of evil was born of a death wish; whereas the city which was its target was born of a will to live long and prosper.
How will the will to live ethic save America?
If Americans had a will to live, they'd drive the hedonism out of politics, saw off welfare from the state, and enjoy the temper tantrums and protestations of agony—because welfare is grangrene on our lives—and the lives of those who receive it. Observe any public school, any public housing, any prison. Welfare poisons human beings. It turn them into brazenly ignorant, brazenly violent, and brazenly lazy slugs and evil thugs. It destroys self-education and self-reliance, two values crucial to successful lives. Welfare destroys the will to live.
The will to live would mean a positive cultural and political renewal of our nation's ideals: respect for each others rights, self-reliance, and cooperation by voluntary choice. That's what builds good men, strong communities, healthy families, successful businesses, and an invincible America.
The will to live does not ask you to die. It asks you to hold the conviction that your life is a treasure, that you are above sacrifice, that your rights are above surrender.
If Americans had a robust will to live, they wouldn't be loosing their freedom.
For that reason, Americans need the Olympic Party to resurrect the American Spirit which is the will to live.
Lorenz Kraus ©2007
*Thus, the man with a will to live is heroic; while the hedonist is a coward before life.