Intelligence & Freedom |
Francisco Capella |
Intelligence and FreedomIntroductionIgnorance and violence are the fundamental causes of almost all problems and conflicts that prevent the progress of human beings; they are in the root of all evil and sufferings, causing them or aggravating them: poverty, famine, wars, illnesses, crime, terrorism, unemployment, environmental pollution. Ignorance and violence are narrowly related and mutually reinforced. Ignorance facilitates the acceptance of subtle and indirect forms of violence; violence destroys, causes poverty and impedes intellectual development. The ignorance and the violence of people are shown in the principles of functioning of the dominant coactive social systems, full of falsities, arbitrariness, contradictions and generally accepted errors. Those violent and unproductive enslave the peaceful and productive. Crafty and unscrupulous manipulators, expert in demagogic persuasiveness, take advantage of the ignorance of others to justify systematic depredation. The ignorant person does not have correct knowledge of reality, does not understand what happens nor why it happens, does not know what to do to achieve his goals and to solve his problems, acts unconsciously against his own interests, insists obstinately on error, makes mistakes and does not learn, is not capable of using his intelligence to reach the truth, accepts credulously what is said to him, does not think nor reflect, does not observe, does not experiment, does not reason, lacks the ability for critical analysis, and is easily deceived. Nobody is completely ignorant and all human knowledge is limited. The wise person knows what he knows and what he ignores and is able to explain it and justify it. The ignorant person confuses opinion and knowledge, he thinks he knows but he only believes. People often naively trust presumed experts, and forget that an individual can be very skilful in some issues and incapable in others. Deceit and lie are part of human nature; some persons are good at deceit, and many unwary and gullible cannot perceive when they are swindled. Many persons are not prepared to know and accept the truth, and they feel emotionally attacked when their errors are shown to them. Violence is all aggression against freedom, against ethically legitimate private property. It is not only the direct and intense physical attack against a person and his possessions, but also theft, fraud and coercion. Violence can be non systematic and small scale (individual criminals or small groups) or systematic and grand scale (dominant organized criminal groups), which takes many equivalent forms: socialism, communism, collectivism, statism, totalitarianism, fascism, authoritarianism. Socialism, the systematic coercion against human action and entrepreneurship, is a grave danger for mankind, a noxious and damaging intellectual error and an ethically unacceptable ideology contrary to human nature. The state is the institutionalization of violence, usually exercised in subtle and indirect ways by means of political activity: tax confiscation, social and economic interventionism, corruption of law and justice on behalf of majority democracy and the false common good. Religious superstition is a basic cause of the maintenance and propagation of ignorance. The cores of the main religions are dogmas or irrational doctrinal systems based upon the belief in imaginary, unreal, inexistent supernatural entities that are supposed to control nature and influence human beings. Religious bureaucracies have monopolistic tendencies: they often promote authoritarianism, paternalism and blind obedience, and oppose rationality, criticism, autonomy, independence, tolerance and freedom. Fundamentalist varieties are frequently violent. Religions may contain useful human knowledge for a happy and harmonious life, but its truth has nothing to do with the transcendent entities of their creeds. Public education is mainly compulsory state indoctrination and produces passive subjects, citizens unable to think by themselves and prone to accept the dominant political ideologies. Information and entertainment media, controlled or regulated by government, help spread commonly accepted fallacies. Wrong ideas are socially very extended and powerful: public opinion is mostly ignorant, does not understand real freedom and opposes it. Many well intended people make great efforts to defend wrong solutions that aggravate social problems. The solution to human problems is intelligence and freedom, strongly related concepts (opposite of ignorance and violence) that support and demand each other. Intelligence is the mental ability to acquire and use knowledge. Freedom is the respect for the ethical concept of private property. Intelligence and freedom contribute to the survival, development and prosperity of human beings. Intelligent people, whose cognitive abilities are well developed, can think critically, rigorously and creatively, and understand and value freedom. Able and honest thinkers defend freedom. Freedom promotes the development of intelligence, learning and the ability to think. Opposition to freedom may be due to ignorance, intellectual dishonesty or a violent and authoritarian personality. Intelligence and freedom, science and ethics, knowledge and justice, permit the peaceful, prosperous and harmonious coexistence of human beings. People need to be free, responsible and tolerant in order to build their lives and achieve a balanced development. The spontaneous, self governed, dynamic and creative social order that emerges from the decentralized coordination of voluntary individual efforts is very superior to the coerced centralized order of authoritarian and collectivist political direction. The free society has an open and competitive socioeconomic system based on the individual right of private property and contractual exchanges. Progress is the natural result of creative human action and coordinating entrepreneurship. The free society works for the benefit of all its members and is as perfect as possible, given the nature of human being and its environment. Scientific knowledge and technological advances can promote human development. Authentic science is logical, coherent, clear and conscious of his limitations. The honest scientist tries to know and to understand reality and to eliminate the errors transmitted by the unthinking acceptance of inherited traditions. Some totalitarian ideologies have called themselves scientific when in fact they were deeply antiscientific; this is not a criticism against science but against those who abuse it. The natural sciences have reached important successes, but many aspects of the human sciences are distorted by the interests of those who benefit from prevailing social orders. Great parts of the generally accepted contents of essential human sciences like economics and ethics need to be deeply revised. The main goal of this project is the promotion of intelligence and freedom in all fields and forms. The intellectual fight against ignorance and violence contributes to the construction of a prosperous and peaceful world.
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Intelligence & Freedom |
Francisco Capella |