This, however, can be maintained only by strenuous and persistent
efforts, for society tends naturally to sink into the chaos out of which
it has arisen.
It is only by overcoming nature that man can rise. The sole salvation
for the human race lies in the removal of the primal curse, the sentence
of hard labor for life that was imposed on man as he left Paradise. Some
folks are trying to elevate the laboring classes; some are trying to
keep them down. The scientist has a more radical remedy; he wants to
annihilate the laboring classes by abolishing labor. There is no longer
any need for human labor in the sense of personal toil, for the physical
energy necessary to accomplish all kinds of work may be obtained from
external sources and it can be directed and controlled without extreme
exertion. Man's first effort in this direction was to throw part of his
burden upon the horse and ox or upon other men. But within the last
century it has been discovered that neither human nor animal servitude
is necessary to give man leisure for the higher life, for by means of
the machine he can do the work of giants without exhaustion.
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