 So why are people so depressed? Why are people so afraid? Because you see everywhere fear. Fear that the climate is gonna kill us all. Fear that the air we breathe is getting worse, not better. Fear that somehow technology is gonna dominate us. I mean, just a couple of years ago, I remember every second story was about AI, artificial intelligence was going to take over our lives and kill us all, or replace us, or do something horrific to us. That the future was bleak. I mean, it's almost like human beings have this need to believe the world is gonna come to an end, right? We have in religion, what are called millennial cults. Cults that every few decades rise up and say, okay, it's the end of the world now. That, you know, this decade, the end is gonna, the world is gonna end, Jesus is coming back and we're all gonna have, you know, whatever happens when Jesus comes back. I'm not up to my scriptures. But this idea of end of world, this idea of disaster, this idea of we're killing ourselves, is somehow something that serves some psychological need that human beings have. But it is counter to the facts, counter to reality. Again, life has never been better on planet Earth than there's no reason to believe. If we do the right things, the life will not be better 100 years from now. Life won't be even better 1000 years from now, human life. Progress is movement towards greater values, movement towards greater life, movement towards better, greater when it comes to human life. Progress is the recognition that human life is the standard of value. To evaluate something as good or evil, when asked to have a standard, by what standard? We are human. Each one of us is, is on standard. My life is my standard. Rand, Ayn Rand teaches us, the morality is not about sacrificing, dying, helping the humanity. Morality is about living the best life you can live for yourself. It's about achieving your own happiness. It's about discovering the values that are necessary to live a good life, a successful life as a human being. It means using your mind to choose the values that are gonna lead you towards success as a human being. Spiritual, material values, the values necessary for you to thrive. So morality is about the individual. But if morality is about each individual pursuing his life, making his life the best that it can be, if morality is about each individual pursuing their happiness, then progress in a social context is individuals making their lives better. What is progress after all? If not making my life better? And when we think about ethics in society, then what is it? If all individuals are pursuing their life, pursuing their values, trying to make their life better, as a group, what are they doing? Well, they're enhancing human life. They're bettering human life. And from a societal perspective, what we need is to create a political system that enables people to pursue their happiness, that enables people as individuals to pursue the values necessary for them to live a good, successful life. So that which makes it possible for individuals to pursue a good life is the good. That which damages it, that which holds it back, that which suppresses the ability of individuals to pursue their values, to pursue their happiness is evil. Progress is the manifestation of individuals pursuing their values. It's a manifestation of people wanting their life to get better. It's not a decision we make, our responsibility as a group, if we will, is to facilitate individual freedom. It's to facilitate the ability of individuals to live. And the result of leaving individuals to live, we've seen this time and time again, all over the world, everywhere, is progress. Progress is the outcome, the outcome of leaving individuals free, the outcome of individuals trying to make their lives as individuals better. The outcome of not trying to dictate to individuals what values they should pursue and how they should live. Freedom will always result in progress because human beings cannot stand for stagnation. Stagnation, when do we stagnate? When is the time we're most stagnant? Well, when we're dead. Life requires an active process. Life requires constant engagement. Life requires the pursuit of values, the constant pursuit of values. So to be anti-progress is to be anti-human life. To be anti-progress is to be anti-human freedom. To be anti-progress is to be on the side of death and destruction, which aren't necessarily immoral. Life is the standard of morality. Human life is the standard of morality. Individual human life is the standard of morality. And to advocate against progress is to advocate against individual human life. It's to advocate against individual human progress. Now, many environmentalists would argue that human beings are destroying the planet. We're creating havoc in the environment. But what does that mean? Are we destroying the planet? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Everything that we have as human beings has come from us reshaping our environment, reshaping our planet. Human beings are not neutral when it comes to survival. We don't just accept the environment as it is and figure out how to live within it. What do we do? We chop down trees and build huts. We take away grasslands and forests and plant agriculture. We demolish hills to use the gravel, the rock, to make cement, to build skyscrapers. We pave roads from point A to point B when we need to get somewhere. Human beings change the environment. It's how we survive. It's how we progress. It's how we live. If we stop changing our environment, we die as a species. We cannot compete at the material level. There are 8 billion people in the world today. The only reason 8 billion people can stay alive is because they're constantly reshaping nature around them. They're constantly remaking the planet. And they're constantly, as we do this, improving human life. 30 years ago, about 30% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, 8% of the world lives in extreme poverty. Hopefully, within 20 years, 0% of the world will live in extreme poverty. The only way to do that is to change our environment. The only way to do that is to reshape the planet. Why do we care about the planet? Why do we care about the environment? Well, I care only in the sense that it affects human life. The standard is still the same. The standard is human life. If changing that environment is good for human life, then great. If changing the environment is bad for human life, we need to solve the problem. But the burden needs to be to prove that changing stuff hurts human life. Because so far, we've been changing the planet for the last, I don't know, how long have human beings been around? But suddenly, since the agricultural revolution and even before that, for 10,000 years, light keeps getting better. Human life keeps getting better. We keep living longer, healthier, and cooler. I mean, look at this. I'm giving a lecture in France, but, well, unfortunately, I can't actually be in France. Using a technology that just 10 years ago didn't really exist, a company that most people around the world never heard of until recently called Zoom. In spite of authoritarian governments shutting us down at home, we are still communicating. We are still running conferences. We're still engaging in exchange. Why? Because we've changed nature, turned it into fiber optics, put cables under the ocean, put satellites into space so that we can communicate in spite of being thousands of miles away. So the standard for environmentalism, the standard for what is good or bad is human life, not the state of the planet, not some people's fears, but what is objectively good or bad for human life? It's clearly, if you're engaged in an activity that is hurting other people, that is literally destroying life, and people can prove that, then it is the role of government to stop you from engaging in those activities. But we don't need, big government, we don't need large institutions, whole agencies to tell us that. That's been around in common law for hundreds of years. So human beings survive by changing their environment. Environmental change is necessary for human survival and for human thriving. Progress is necessary for human survival and human thriving. When we stop progressing in history, we decline. In life generally, not just when you talk about economic or social progress, in life generally, you're either moving forward or you're moving backwards. Standing still is not an option. Living beings move. They act. It's either towards life or towards death. Progress is life. That's why it's moral. Progress is what individuals do when they live free. That's why it's moral. Progress is pro-success, pro-happiness, pro-human values. That's why it's moral. And anybody trying to stop us is advocating for death and destruction, advocating for poverty. We've seen this. We've seen civilizations where progress has stopped. When that happens, people don't just stay at where they are. Things get worse and things can get worse fast. So environmentalists who are claiming that progress is bad don't understand what it takes to keep human beings alive, to allow human beings to achieve happiness and success. Environmentalists who advocate for the environment, they think the environment has some value beyond its value to us as human beings. But when talking about value, I might always ask a very fundamental, important question. Value to whom? And for what? To be a value, it has to be a value for something. There is no values external to human beings. Unless you believe in aliens and God, then maybe there's a value to God and values to the aliens. But the only thing we know out there that exists is life on planet Earth. You have to have a living thing that values something. Otherwise, it's not a value. It's a value to somebody and for a particular purpose. And the end of that purpose, the purpose is your life, your successful life. So the environment is a value to me because I breathe the air, I drink the water, I live within it. But it's also a value to me because it has the resources I need to consume. It has the rare earth metals that make my iPhone possible. It provides me with the trees that I need to chop down to build my house. It provides me with all the resources I need to make my life better. So the environment is a value because I can exploit it. It's a value to me to the extent that I exploited. The idea of stopping the exploitation in the environment is the idea of giving up on human life. So to fight this, I think there are two important points. Morally, we have to understand that the standard of a morality is human life. And human life requires achievement. It requires challenges. It requires values. And therefore human life requires progress. The number of human beings on planet earth is probably gonna grow, at least for a while. That acquires growth, necessitates growth. If we care about poverty, that necessitates growth. If we care about any individual being able to make the most of their life, then we value growth and progress. So point one is human life acquires progress. And human life is the standard of value. Therefore, progress is small. And second, the consequence of progress are wonderful for human life. I mean, it's inspiring to see the technology. It's inspiring to see the architecture. It's inspiring to see the technology that the modern world is comprised of. It's inspiring to be able to be in my home in Puerto Rico and deliver these remarks to you wherever you may be. Some of you in France, they might even be some people on YouTube from all over the world. That's progress. Life is pretty amazing. Your life is pretty amazing if you take it seriously, if you choose to make the most of it. Don't let the fear mongers depress you into not wanting, not striving, not pushing yourself to live to the max. So live. Progress is about life. If we value life, we must value progress. Thank you. What we need today, what I called a new intellectual, would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims, or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of the stare, cynicism, and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist. Broads. All right, before we go on, reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now. 30 likes. That should be at least 100. I figure at least 100 of you actually like the show. Maybe they're like 60 of the Matthews out there who hate it. But at least the people who are liking it, you know, I want to see, I want to see a thumbs up. There you go. Start liking it. I want to see that go to 100. All it takes is a click of a thing, whether you're looking at this. And you know, the likes matter. It's not an issue of my ego. It's an issue of the algorithm. The more you like something, the more the algorithm likes it. So, you know, and if you don't like the show, give it a thumbs down. Let's see your actual views being reflected in the likes. 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