The universe tends to disorder and so do we, our lives, and everything around us. This is an established law of Physics as explored in the previous two posts. It’s why you have to put gas in your car, paint your house, pull the weeds, brush your teeth, sleep, and eat.
It’s also why we get compensated for the value provided others a result of the energy we expend. That’s why our employers pay us for the work we’ve done on their behalf.
If we worked for free without compensation (assuming there isn’t an alternate source of income) it wouldn’t take long before we would have no food, no shelter and no life.
That’s also why we pay others for value received a result of their energy expenditure on our behalf! Look,
There are Only Three Ways to get Energy
1) Steal it
2) Earn it
3) Mooch it
Which of These is the Right Way?
You know the answer intuitively!
If someone steals from you they are stealing your energy! Your very life force! Do you like it? No. Do you know it’s wrong?! Of course! So do unto others as you would have them do unto you: compensate others fairly for their expenditure of energy on your behalf (maintenance plus entropy)! To do anything less is theft.
And do you respect the person begging for money in lieu of working for it who is otherwise capable of earning it on his own?
Not!
Truth is not Created, it’s Discovered
Capitalism was not created by economists any more than the Law of Gravitation was created by Isaac Newton –both are the most accurate descriptions to date of the way things are, not the thing itself. In other words Newton didn’t create gravitation –it existed before he was born (just as Capitalism existed before it was formulated by the economists) –Newton merely discovered it and clearly articulated the discovery.*
And you don’t have to take the word of Newton or the economists – because these discoveries are logically and observationally corroborable! That’s the beauty of Truth –everyone can logically and empirically verify it! You can throw human authority out the window where it belongs!
Character Must be Earned
Let’s sum it up. Character is respecting the energy expenditure of others as much as you do your own. You don’t like it when people steal energy from you, so don’t steal energy from others! Perseverance, work, effort and discipline are all necessary to offset the effects of the second law of thermodynamics. This is a function of character.
Just as failure to work to earn a living will make you financially destitute, failure to work at earning character will make you morally destitute.
You may have noticed that money doesn’t grow on trees.
Character doesn’t grow on trees either.
It has to be earned.
Entropy increases over time. 19th Century Physicist Arthur Eddington summed it up with the statement:
“Entropy is Time’s Arrow.”
Character can also increase over time, if we make the effort to offset the effects of entropy, in which case we can add the following corollary to Eddington’s statement:
“Character is Time’s Arrow”
* (now this isn’t a “mere” accomplishment, and Netwon must be adequately compensated for his discovery by giving him gratitude and the intellectual credit for his discovery).