PART 2: CHAPTER 8

LIFE AND VALUE

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The Concept Value Derives From The Concept Life

The value of life is appreciated when it is realized that it has an end.

If a man exists, it is because, though he could have been dead, he is alive; though he could never have been born, he was born. Many fortunate synchronicities were necessary to produce the fact of his existence. In this sense, being alive is like winning the universe’s lottery, considering the scarcity of life in billions of galaxies and surviving 4.5 billion years of biological evolution on Earth. Life itself is a statistical miracle.

If being alive is winning this cosmic lottery, why leave the ticket in your pocket? Why not collect the cash? To collect it, a man must discover the value of his own death. This is captured in Achilles’ words to a woman in Homer’s Iliad:

“I will tell you a secret, something that is not taught in your temple: the gods envy us. They envy us because we are mortal, because each moment of ours could be the last, everything is more beautiful because there is an end. You will never be more beautiful than you are now, we will never be here again…”

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To appreciate life, a man must grasp the value of death — not to die, but to convert death, a liability, into an asset.

Imagine LIFE written in white letters on a white wall. Can you read it? No, there is no contrast. Now paint the wall black. Can you read it? Yes. The same applies to your mind: understanding death provides the contrast needed to perceive and value life.

A skydiver falling at 200 km per hour knows his death is imminent. When he opens his parachute and lands safely, he experiences the joy of life. What made this possible? Awareness of death gave him the contrast to perceive life.

By the way, Plato claimed man’s existence is eternal in another dimension, so he cannot die — a statement both false and cruel.

The following formula is proposed to calculate man’s self-esteem:

A = ts

“A” is self-esteem; “t” is how much a man has; and “s” is the “self.” This means his self-esteem derives from how much he has, multiplied by how much he appreciates that his life ends. If he evades the topic, “s” is zero, and the multiplication makes his self-esteem zero.

To discover real self-esteem, a man must value his own death — not to die, but to use it as contrast. Many people with wealth, beauty, and power are not deeply happy. Now, they have the formula to cash the winning ticket of the universe’s lottery.

The Oxford Dictionary defines self-esteem as “a feeling of being happy with your own character and abilities; synonym self-worth; to have high/low self-esteem. You need to build your self-esteem.”

To understand this, it is necessary to examine the meanings of “self,” “esteem,” and “worth.”

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72

Reason is the Greatest Value and Mean of Man’s Survival

The greatest value and mean of man’s survival is its reason.

Self-preservation is a natural, absolute animal value — it is automatic. Reason is a chosen, rational value. To be fully human, a man must choose reason. Only after that choice does he become a true human being, for, according to Aristotle, man is a rational animal.

Every person has two options: not choose reason and live a subhuman life, or choose reason and live fully as a human being. Being human is not automatic. It is the decision to integrate the wealth of the body with the wealth of the rational faculty.

A mind without a body is as absurd as a body without a mind. Ayn Rand described it: “A body without a soul is a corpse, a soul without a body is a ghost; both separated, they are symbols of death.”

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