Arrogance

I heard a different twist on what arrogance really is the other day and it was so appropriate that I had to pass it along.

• “Arrogance is the lack of being able to receive.”

It is totally insane to believe that you need nothing from anybody else in this world in order to survive.  Such thoughts lead you to becoming an isolationist and this past week in Colorado is a prime example of what can happen to individuals who espouse isolationistic tendencies.  But you don’t have to become a lunatic killer to express isolationist ideologies.  The person who believes that he or she doesn’t need the value which others create and provide in order to survive is conceited and will no doubt express such conceit in each of his or her societal interactions, finances not being the least of these interactions.

Consider the cost of producing a typical meal or item of clothing.  How many human hours are required?  The human hours to accomplish these simple but daily requirements of survival easily number in the hundreds by the time you consider planting, harvesting, sewing, cooking, transporting, and all the prep involved.  If some of this human time wasn’t provided by others then that would mean you, the individual, would have to provide all that time yourself.  This would severely limit the time you had for other pursuits outside of survival. 

Now I’ve never met anybody who wants to merely survive.  They all want something “extra” whether it’s just a peaceful moment of rest or an exotic vacation somewhere in the sun.  The main point is that “extra” is something more than just survival.  And that is why we need others… so that you and I can have those “extras” and still have time to enjoy them too.

Condescendingly, many people believe that others aren’t necessary for those little “extras” they enjoy in life.  They believe that they themselves have produced those “extras.” But without others there wouldn’t have been enough time to accomplish this. 

Here in lies a great lesson in economics:  Based on our own selfish desires, wants or cravings, we should all encourage the liberty for others to create and produce without regulating restrictions because all such restrictions lead to less “extras” for everybody.   The more freedom a society guarantees, in regard to the liberty to own private property and produce with that property, the more progressive a society can become.

So President Obama may have been correct in stating that “you didn’t make that.”  But he was absolutely wrong in assuming that the government did make it.  Because government can’t make anything!  Government by its very nature can only regulate.   

So if for no other reason besides being selfish, we all ought to be more freedom orientated... fortunately there are many more reasons besides being selfish which do exist that encourage liberty or loving relationships could never develop either.  But in your efforts to obtain more “extras” for yourself it is absolutely necessary for you to provide more so others can receive from you.  And this is the secret to learning to self-finance everything that you purchase in life.  The more you self-finance the more that you will have.  The more you have the more you will be able to receive from others.

You see, if you learn to self-finance what you need to accept from others then you will have the money that you have to spend return to you to use over again.  In this way you will never lose the value that you are creating in your own life but that value will continually grow.  Value added to value soon begins to grow exponentially.

Being your own banker and humbly learning to receive what others can provide for you is the way to wealth and prosperity.  The opposite philosophy of taking what others value and/or have produced creates an attitude of arrogance and superiority.  Such attitudes can be portrayed in individuals or in groups such as national pride.  The question remains what are you going to do?  You need other people and other nations in the world.  You can’t be an isolationist without suffering the consequences.  Learn how you can personally alter the course of events in your life and self-finance what you need in your life so that you can enjoy more of life’s “extras.”

Tomas McFie