How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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annihilated. Our purpose is simply to re-direct the channels of individualism from a sterile cult of “ unique¬ ness ” to the more valuable cult of uniqueness in service. If you are afraid you may lose your precious ego, look round at the objective problems of housing, transport, hygiene, international cooperation, the conquest of the sources of power, protection against the untamed forces of nature, not to speak of the conquest of the degenerative diseases and the necessity for providing better use for our increasing leisure, and you will find a world of activities open to your individuality. The growing tendency of society to take care of its weaker members gives rise to other social side-shows which depend on the existence of a social consciousness in civilized communities. In prehistoric days a fallen cave-man or a sick cave-man was as good as a dead cave-man. Every individual was so busy with the maintenance of his individual life that he had no time or opportunity to care for a non-contributing member. To-day we are kinder to our sick, our old, our crippled —our “lame ducks ”. The professional beggar and the professional martyr who prefer to humiliate themselves rather than take a chance in the open competition of life are exploiters of their neighbour’s social feeling. They are social prostitutes who live on the sympathy and kindness of their fellows who have enough to share. Beggars become virtuosos of misery, and social martyrs who go around complaining of the injustice they experience in a harsh society, trick society into taking care of them. Their success, financially and socially, is often great; their nappiness in these miserable side-shows very problematic. Almost everyone has a martyr in his family somewhere near the family skeleton. Almost every family has a 1 lame duck ” who lives on the industry and responsibility of other, more socially courageous individuals. These human leeches, these social barnacles have usually been prepared for their non-productive lives by the mistakes of childhood training in families so soft-hearted, so over- solicitous, so criminally “ good ” to their children that