The Philosophy of Freedom

by Caleb Nelson

  Value is not intrinsic in things, not even in the most stable of value-retaining materials such as diamonds or gold. Nor is value found exclusively in each person’s subjective preferences since sometimes those preferences are not based on the facts of reality.

  No, what we must understand is that value is objective. The objective theory holds that “good” is “an aspect of reality in relation to man.”

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  How much is this book you’re reading worth? The correct answer is “nothing!” Things have no value! The question, to be valid, must include the implied modifiers, “To whom and for what?” Remember another word for “value” is “utility.”

  How much is this book of value (i.e. of use) to whom and for what purpose? A textbook may be worth (i.e. used as) nothing but kindling to a stranded hiker or a homeless person. A textbook may be worth much to a college student who doesn’t have one and wants to use it to study for an important exam the next day. It might be worth little to someone who has twenty of them on their shelf and sells them to people for a living.

  [264] As you can see, it is not just the opinion of the individuals that determines the value, but a consideration of the context of that person’s life and to what use they would put it.

  My (Caleb’s) brother-in-law once won a carousel horse on The Price is Right. It certainly had a retail price assigned to it. But it was worthless to him because he had no use for it.

  Value must always be ascertained objectively within a context of a man’s life, needs, goals, and knowledge. Under capitalism, wrote Leonard Peikoff, “Men are left free to judge the worth of various products, the worth to them; each judges in accordance with his own needs and goals as he himself understands these to apply in particular context. Market value thus entails valuer, purpose, beneficiary, choice, knowledge.”

  [265] The essential question is always, “Of value to whom and for what?” This is the meaning of valuing things objectively.

  HUMAN LIFE VALUE

  This next prosperity principle borrows an old term from the insurance industry. Life insurance companies hire full-time underwriters whose job, as strange as it may sound, is to determine the economic value of someone’s life. They look at a variety of factors including age, income, profession, etc. to determine the amount of insurance to issue to someone. They call this Human Life Value.

  For our purposes, Human Life Value is everything we are without our material possessions. It is our unique combination of talents, abilities, perspective, thoughts, character, virtues, relationships, and education.

  As a principle: Human Life Value is the source and creator of all property value.

  [266] This means that any material wealth in the world is created by, and/or is the effect of, someone’s human life value (e.g. skills, relationships, passions, abilities). “If we find ourselves in a situation where we have less currency than we want,” explained businessman Garrett Gunderson, “the way out of that situation is to share our Human Life Value with people. Do research for others, make phone calls, educate yourself on real estate acquisitions and help someone get out of a bad situation with a house, turn your hobby into a business, call one of the busiest people you know and offer your services to help get some things off their plate—the possibilities are endless. None of the things I mentioned require you to have currency in order to make currency. They require YOU. They require your creativity and your initiative. They require your ability to . . . see and fulfill the desires of other people . . . Human Life Value is the cause, currency is the effect. Focus on the cause and the effect naturally and inevitably follows.”

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  This idea is closely related to Dollars Follow Value. What we specifically identify with this principle is where the value originates. The good news is that no matter how much you use it, your Human Life Value will never decrease as long as you use it well. It is yours. You get to do with it what you want. You can increase it by living according to true principles; it will even change as you age or progress, giving you incentive to constantly reevaluate what personal resources you have. Economist Amartya Sen called this “Human Capital” which individuals can increase through education, learning, skill formation, and become more productive and capable over time.

  [268] You can also deplete your human life value by violating principles (e.g. dishonesty, theft, violence, addiction, etc.).

  “You were given a simple piece of wood,” wrote businessman Rick Koerber to illustrate this principle, “It’s just a log to everyone; no one wants it. However, if you know how to use a chisel and a hammer and use that knowledge to sculpt a beautiful image into the wood, that simple piece of wood then becomes a sculpture. You could sell the beautiful sculpture for $1 million, $1,000, or even a $100. You created value, and it’s not because the wood had value; rather, it’s because you had value and exercised your talent on a physical thing to create value for someone else. All property value is created by human life value.”

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  It doesn’t take money to make money. It takes you, and when you exchange the products or services of your Human Life Value with others, all become wealthier.

  PERSPECTIVE DETERMINES ACTION

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  This principle describes how our actions and reactions are based on what we know or think we know. Different information or assumptions may change our paradigms—or the pattern of our perspective that we impose on the world.

  A story related in Mind Over Mood illustrates this:

  “Sally was at home with the flu and asked her 7-year-old daughter, Barbara, to play quietly while she rested. An hour later, Sally walked into the kitchen to get a drink of water and was distressed to see crayons spread all over the floor, shredded colored paper and an open bottle of glue on the table, open scissors in the wastebasket, and a half-drunk glass of milk on the counter next to the refrigerator.

  “Furious about the mess, Sally went hunting for Barbara and found her sleeping soundly in front of the television in the living room. On the cushion near Barbara’s head was a large, brightly colored card, covered in hearts, that read, ‘I love you, Mom! Please get well soon!’ Sally shook her head slowly and smiled. She tucked a blanket around Barbara’s shoulders and returned to the kitchen to get her water.”

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  The authors go on to demonstrate how thoughts determine one’s feelings and moods, and a change of evidence can sometimes change one’s perspective. That perspective shift can either be drastic, as in Sally’s case, or sometimes lead to a more “balanced perspective.”

  [272] This principle can help in both personal and political affairs.

  Personally, it can lead you to examine the perspective of others, rather than assuming you completely understand their situation, motives, and thoughts, which can lead to misunderstandings and unnecessary conflict. It can help you examine your own beliefs—with practice you can even examine them down to your very core beliefs. You can discover why you feel a certain way and learn to compile and use evidence to give you a more balanced grasp of any issue.

  Politically, this principle will help you understand others’ points of view, as well as your own. The perspective with which one views the world determines how one will act. Knowledge is power because knowledge expands viewpoints and allows a person to see what couldn’t be seen before.

  Why do some people strap dynamite to their chests and blow themselves and other people up? Because of the ideas in their head. If you want to change someone’s behavior, don’t outlaw dynamite; that will not change anything. If you want to change the behavior of drug-addicts, don’t outlaw drugs; that will not change anything but make them criminals. To influence someone’s behavior, assist in changing their perspective.

  When we view the world from a new perspective, our behavior changes. Steven Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, discusses this principle and calls it a paradigm shift. As we grow in knowledge and ability, our perspective changes in relation to how we act.


  FREEDOM vs. SECURITY

  Sociology professor Zygmunt Bauman lamented what he perceived as the human predicament of choosing between the responsibility of freedom and the freedom from responsibility. He said freedom was exhilarating, but, “Soon after freedom settles in . . . a new kind of horror, the horror of responsibility . . . makes the memories of past sufferings pale. Nights that follow days of obligatory routine are filled with dreams of freedom from constraints. Nights that follow days of obligatory choices are filled with dreams of freedom from responsibility.”

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  Dr. Bauman is describing the very understandable, yet childish wish to be free from the demands of existence, and to evade the requirements of reality; to get our cake for free, simultaneously have it on our plate and in our stomach, and not get fat in the process.

  Freedom and security are opposites in some ways and related in others. Personal freedom, when used wisely in conjunction with the other prosperity principles we’ve discussed, leads to the truest and most lasting security, since it is based on personal ability and stewardship.

  However, when security is sought from an outside source, such as a government, and exceeds the principle of protection of rights, security then begins to erode freedom. As government programs are established and bureaucracies engaged to provide us with more and more things and take care of our needs, our corresponding freedoms are restricted. Instead of the security of liberty, it becomes the security of a prison.

  Our proper place in this world is as a thinking adult who confronts the requirements of existence head-on, as ones who use our human life value to be productive, to obtain the necessities and comforts of life, and to find joy in existence. To desire some sort of security beyond a protection of rights is essentially a desire to abdicate our minds and our identity as rational humans. It is the desire to be shielded from real life—to live, as it were, rent-free in nature’s basement.

  VICTIM vs. STEWARD

  This comparison is sometimes useful to assist us in contrasting two opposing attitudes and perspectives we can choose to cultivate.

  Do we make our own choices or do we allow ourselves to be controlled by outside circumstances? This concept is referred to as an internal locus of control as opposed to an external one. Do we believe we are in control of our life, choices, and thoughts, or do we think we are at the mercy of what happens to us? Scientists have found that having an internal locus of control is the number one contributor to happiness!

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  We can choose to act and to shape our destiny, or we can relinquish responsibility for our lives, believing we cannot influence external events, viewing ourselves as pieces of driftwood in an ocean of chance, or as pawns in an arbitrary universe of random happenstance, prey at the mercy of every predator.

  The steward is marked by action, drive, achievement, and dreams.

  The victim is marked by stagnation, complaints, and seeing themselves as powerless.

  Stewards spend their time and energy concentrating on what they can do while victims spend their time and energy making excuses and wishing things were different.

  The victim says, “It’s not my fault.”

  The steward says, “It’s my responsibility.”

  The victim says, “It’s not my job.”

  The steward says, “How can I help?”

  The victim says, “I wish things would change.”

  The steward says, “What can I do to change things?”

  The victim says, “I wish I had more.”

  The steward says, “How can I better use what I have?”

  PRODUCTIVITY IS THE STANDARD

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  While profit works as our tool to validate that our actions have value in the marketplace and to provide us with the means to achieve our goals, it is not the standard by which we ought to gauge our activities. That standard is productivity.

  Productivity is the result of a continual self-evaluation seeking to answer and then apply the answer to the question: Is this the best use of my time, talents, and resources?

  Why is this principle important? So we don’t mistake profit as the standard of our lives. As we discussed, profit can be used as a tool to demonstrate that our actions are valuable to others. But only you, as sovereign of your own life, are able to evaluate how productive you are in your progress and journey in achieving your values and desires—in achieving happiness (although other people, such as a mentor, may be helpful in pointing out blind spots of which you are not aware).

  If you use profit as your standard you may fall victim to the mistake of not using your talents to produce the most value possible in the world. You might see your profit margins and net worth increase, but still feel restless and dissatisfied because you are not using your unique abilities to the fullest.

  For example, are you an entrepreneur who profitably takes a product, service, or idea to a few dozen or a few hundred people? What if a new focus and direction could expand your effectiveness to thousands or even millions of people? Could you be more productive if you delegated jobs and responsibilities? What if you even changed careers, freeing yourself up for the things for which only you are best suited or most passionate?

  Producing more than we consume is being profitable; producing the most and best possible is being productive. Thus productivity, not profit, is our most appropriate standard. This involves questioning our actions and choices in terms such as, “Is that the best use of that resource which I control?” This question applies on any level, “Is this the best use I have for the $10 in my pocket, or the $100, or the $1,000, or the $1 million?” “Is this the best use of my artistic talent?” “Is this the best use of this hour of my day?”

  Using productivity as our standard, rather than profit, is also useful in measuring the long-term value of our actions. It is possible to turn a profit month after month and suddenly fail in the next because a long-term violation of principles hadn’t caught up with us yet. The failure of the housing market bubble illustrates this perfectly. It was profitable to sell risky mortgages incentivized and backed by government agencies. Inflated housing prices created many jobs and lots of artificial wealth and net worth. Eventually, the violation of principle in these matters collapsed in destruction. When the government got involved it suspended productivity as the standard. It demanded instead that loan qualification requirements be lowered to provide the dream of a home for every American family. This diverted funds, both public and private, from other, more productive, uses to which they would have gone. The standard for the government was need and popularity and power, instead of productivity.

  The question, “Is this the best use of my time, talents, and resources?” also implies that the meaning of the word best will rely on a reference to a hierarchy of values. One must have criteria and a method to determine what is best.

  HIERARCHY OF VALUES

  “The cause of most of man’s unhappiness is sacrificing what he wants most for what he wants now.”

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  - Gordon B. Hinckley

  As long as we choose to continue living, and as long as we want life to be meaningful, we have to choose and pursue rational goals in all areas of our lives—romance, work, friendship, recreation, and family.

  First, it is important to choose goals that are compatible with each other. It does no good to hold family as a value and then choose a career that takes you away from it. It does no good to choose a hobby you can’t afford, or form relationships you don’t have time to pursue.

  Next, these goals should be organized around the central major purpose of your life. This is your primary long-range goal, for which any number of short-range goals are organized to achieve. Having such a purpose saves you from pointless inner conflicts of indecision. What you choose as a major purpose should necessarily involve productive work, since you cannot continue to live (unless as a parasite) without it.

  The values of your life are formed in a hierarchy, from least to greatest. You may also
wish to view these values in somewhat of a pyramid shape, with foundational values and goals being placed to build up to the primary long-range purpose as the capstone. Most people’s values are chosen unconsciously and valued sporadically. Consciously chosen values, numbered and arranged according to importance will give the best results. The purpose of utilizing such a hierarchy in decision-making is to do your utmost to never seek a lesser goal at the expense of a higher value. In fact, the key to a moral life is learning to never sacrifice one of your higher values for a lesser.

  (Altruism will teach you the opposite—that to be moral you must sacrifice all the values you hold dear to the needs of others. The collectivist ethic will try and disguise this, of course, and try to persuade you that the needs of others should be your highest value, with your own needs considered as lowest on the scale and as expendable in their service.)

  Let’s see how a proper hierarchy of values would function. For example, you may rationally hold the virtue of honesty as a value in life. You have seen the value of not faking reality in any way, and have committed to practicing honesty in your dealings with others and with yourself. Should honesty be practiced at all times and in all circumstances regardless of the results?