1-8
9-16
1-8
9-16
We are Time-binders and the mark of human power is everywhere. When knowledge is
incorporated into matter-energy, it becomes a tool. As Galambos explained:
powerful tools. When tools are used to harm other humans they are called
weapons. Since human knowledge can grow without limit then tools themselves
can be made without limit. And limitless tools can will produce limitless
weapons.”1
leveraged adversity (warfare) must
by all definitions and understanding of science produce human extinction.
can evaluate the eternal contest of weapons as anything but the sheerest waste and
the sheerest folly. It has been simply our only means of final arbitration”2
neutrality to avoid losing. But, if our human neutrality fails to protect us from losing, then
we will fight. We will fight to surivive. We do not go quietly into that dark night. We will
kill to remain alive.
warfare evermore dangerous. Our species has the deepest of commitments to the
adversary way. We humans can choose to change our ways, but do so will require us to
Andrew J. Galambos, Volitional Science, Free Enterprise Institute,1962-80
2Robert Ardrey, African Genesis, 1961
________________________________________________________________________________________
evolved from the world of animals. Our mother was a space-binder and she embraced the
adversary way. Robert Ardrey explains:
that African highland reaching north form the cape to the Lakes of the Nile. Here
we came about slowly — slowly, ever so slowly — on a sky-swept Savannah
glowing with menace.
legitimate. Our ancestry is firmly rooted in the animal world, and to its subtle,
antique ways our hearts are yet pledged. Children of all animal kind, we
inherited many a social nicety as well as the predator’s way. But most significant
of all our gifts, as things turned out, was the legacy bequeathed us by those killer
apes, our immediate fore bearers. Even in the first long days of our beginnings we
held in our hands the weapon, an instrument somewhat older than ourselves.
portion of the natural world and that much of the human reality lies hidden in
times past. We are an iceberg floating like a gleaming jewel down the cold blue
waters of the Denmark Strait; most of our presence is submerged in sea. We are a
moonlit temple in a Guatemala jungle; our foundations are the secret of darkness
and old creepers. We are a thriving , scrambling, evolving city; but no one can
find his way through our labrynith streets without awareness of the streets that
have stood there before. And so for the moment let us excavate man.
streets we get lost in, the most recent construction on a very old site. After seventy
million years of most gradual primate enlargement, the brain nearly tripled in
size in a few hundred thousand years. Our city is spacious and not lacking in
magnificence, but it was the problems of any boom-town. Let us dig.
produced man as a genetic possibility. The tightly packed weapons of the
predator form the highest, final, and most immediate foundation on which we
stand. How deep does it extend? A few million, five million, ten million? We do
not know. But it is the material of our immediate foundation as it is the basic
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken
________________________________________________________________________________________
without it.
addition of the enlarged brain to the equipment of an armed already successful
predator animal created not only the human being but also the human
predicament. But the final foundation on which we stand has a strange cement.
We are badweather animals. The deposit was laid down in a time of stress. It is no
mere rubble of carnage and cunning. City and foundation alike are compacted by
a mortar of mysterious strength,” — *the mortar of time-binding— “this mortar
gives us the capacity to survive no matter what the storm. The quality of this
mortar may hold future significance far exceeding that of the material that it
binds. That choice is ours.
beneath the predatory foundation. As the addition of a suddenly enlarged brain
to the way of the hunting primate multiplied both the problems and the promise
of the sum total, man, so the addition of carnivorous demands to the non-
aggressive, vegetarian primate way multiplied the problems and the promise of
the sum total, our ancestorial primate.
attitude of perpetual hostility for the territorial neighbor; the formation of social
bands as the principle means of survival for a physically vulnerable creature; an
attitude of amity and loyalty for the social partner; and varying but universal
systems of dominance to insure the efficiency of his social instrument and to
promote the natural selection of the more fit from the less.
basic primate instincts, then all were intensified. Conflicts became lethal,
territorial arguments minor wars. The social band as a hunting and defense unit
became harsher in its codes whether of amity or enmity. The dominant became
more dominant, the subordinate more disciplined. Overshadowing all other
qualitative changes, however, was the coming of the aggressive imperative. The
creature who had once killed only through circumstance killed now for a living.
strength of the bad weather animal, we may see in the coming of the carnivorous
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken
________________________________________________________________________________________
necessity. The hunting primate was free. He was free of the forested prison;
wherever game roamed the world was his. His hands were freed from the Earth or
the bough; erect carriage opened new and unguessed opportunities for manual
answers to ancient quadruped problems. His daily life was freed from the eternal
munching; the capacity to digest high-calorie food meant a life more diverse than
one endless meal-time. And his wits were freed. Behind him lay the forest
orthodoxies. Ahead of him lay freedom of choice and invention as new
imperative if the revolutionary creature were to meet the unpredictable
challenges of a revolutionary way of life.”— *Time-binding was born of space-
binding— “freedom” — as the human being means freedom — was the first gift
of the predatory way. We may excavate man deeply ever more deeply as we dig
down through pre-primate, pre-mammal and even pre-land live levels of
experience. We shall pass through the beginnings of sexual activity as a year-
around affair and a consequent beginnings of the primate family. but all the other
instincts will be there still deeper down; the instinct to dominate one’s fellows, to
defend what one deems one’s own, to form societies, to mate, to eat and avoid
being eaten. The record will grow dim and the outlines blurred. But even in the
earliest deposits of our nature where death and the individual have their start, we
shall find traces of animal nostalgia, of fear and dominance and order.
our nature with Homo sapiens boom town on top. But whatever tall towers reason
may fling against the storms and promises of the human future, their foundations
must rest on the beds of our past for there is nowhere else to build.
nuclear weapons as anything but the consummation of a species. Our history
reveals the development and contest of superior weapons as Homo sapiens single
universal, cultural pre-occupation. Peoples may perish, nation’s dwindle,
empires fall; one civilization may surrender its memories to another civilization’s
sands. But mankind as a whole, with an instinct as true as the meadowlark’s song,
has never in a single instance allowed local failure to impede the progress of the
weapon; its most significant cultural endowment.”3
Robert Ardrey, African Genesis, 1961
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken
________________________________________________________________________________________
He did not believe that humankind’s commitment to the adversary way had to be
permanent, nor necessarily mandate a death sentence for our species. He knew
humankind was morethan simply a predator. He also recognized human amity, loyalty,
and social cooperation He knew that humanity was bound by “a mortar of mysterious
strength — a mortar that gives us the capacity to survive no matter what the storm. The
quality of this mortar may hold future significance far exceeding that of the material that it
binds. That choice is ours.” I felt this mortar he was referring to was what Korzybski had
called Time-binding, although Ardrey was not familiar with the term.
of the both-andpoint of view. Coulter pointed out that we humans are omnivores, this
means that our bodies are not eithercarnivore orherbivore. But rather, our bodies are
bothcarnivore andherbivore.
human condition. I believe he would have been in agreement with Coulter that humans
behave bothadversarily andcooperatively. Recall Fuller’s words from “Legally Piggily”:
an enormous amount of the oceans’ water, lowering the waterfront and bringing
together the islands of Borneo, the Philippines, and others, all to become part of
the Malay Peninsula. I also spoke of the ice cap pushing the furry animals
southward until they were suddenly pushed into the land of the previous islands
now formed into the new peninsula — into land they could never before reach.
This is how animals like tigers got out to now reislanded places like Bali. Human
being suddenly confronted with these wild animals learned how to cope, hunting
some and taming others. In following the evolution of human power structures
we are now particularly interested in the humans who found themselves
confronted with a tidal wave of wild animals. Those who were overwhelmed
became aggressive hunters, and those who were not overwhelmed became
peaceful domesticators of the animals.Some of the most aggressive men
mounted horses, moved faster than all others, and went out to seek the beasts.
aggression is a secondary behavior of humans — that when they get what they
N. Arthur Coulter, Jr., Synergetics: An Adventure in Human Development, Prentice-Hall, 1972
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken
________________________________________________________________________________________
benevolent; it is only when they have relied on is no longer working.There are
two kinds of social behavior manifest today around the world — the benign
and the aggressive. It is probable that this dichotomy occurred in the human-
versus-animal confrontation in the ice age time.”5
Ardrey’s meant when he wrote:
can evaluate the eternal contest of weapons as anything but the sheerest waste and
the sheerest folly. It has been simply our only means of finalarbitration. Any man
can suggest reasonable alternatives to the judgment of arms. But we are not
creatures of reason except in our own eyes.”6
binder. When our survival is threatened, we will fight rather than die.
commitment that now threatens our human survival, we are not threatened by our equally
validability to act cooperatively.
overlooking the positive aspects of humanity. Coulter’s correspondence helped me
realize that these critics of Ardrey’s focus are making the mistake of either/or thinking. If
humankind is eithera predator ora cooperator, then being a predator mandates the death
sentence for our species. This possibility is so frightening and unacceptable, that many
social scientists have spent great effort to deny the human commitment to the adversary
way (see i.e. Ashley Montagu7).
humanity. Ardrey believed humankind could change, that we could transcend the
adversary way and thus give ourselves the option to build a safe world. But, this could
not happen unless we faced the truth. We could change only if we faced the truth of our
R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1981
6Robert Ardrey, African Genesis, 1961
7Ashley Montagu, Man and Aggression, 1973
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken
________________________________________________________________________________________
begin the repair our world.
The evolution of the weapon is linked to the evolution of Time-binding. Humans create
knowledge, when knowledge is imbedded in matter-energy is becomes a tool. When tools
are used to hurt others they become weapons.
our weapons have been equally as simple. With the explosion of Time-binding released by
Institutional Neutrality, our tools have become evermore powerful, and so have our
weapons.
produced by the Industrial Revolution — railroads, the telegraph, rifled
weapons, and armored ships-was used extensively. The doctrine of total war was
introduced by the Union general William T. Sherman, who laid waste to the
industrial and agricultural base that supported the armies of his Confederate
opponents. It began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate General P. G. T.
Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina,
and lasted until May 26, 1865, when the last Confederate army surrendered. The
war took more than 600,000 lives, destroyed property valued at $5 billion,
brought freedom to 4 million black slaves, and opened wounds that have not yet
completely healed more than 125 years later.”8
Hungary on Serbia, and hostilities between the Allied and Central Powers
continued until the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, a period of 4
years, 3 months, and 14 days. The aggregate direct war costs of all the belligerents
amounted to about $186 billion. Casualties in the land forces amounted to more
than 37 million; in addition, close to 10 million deaths among the civilian
Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation, 1963-96
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken
________________________________________________________________________________________
terms of money spent, it has been put at more than $1 trillion, which makes it
more expensive than all other wars combined. The human cost, not including
more than 5 million Jews killed in the Holocaust who were indirect victims of the
war, is estimated to have been 55 million dead — 25 million of those military and
30 million civilian.
was next, with $272 billion; followed by the Soviet Union, $192 billion; and then
Britain, $120 billion; Italy, $94 billion; and Japan, $56 billion. Except for the U.S.,
however, and some of the less militarily active Allies, the money spent does not
come close to being the war’s true cost. The Soviet government has calculated that
the USSR lost 30 percent of its national wealth, while Nazi exactions and looting
were of incalculable amounts in the occupied countries. The full cost to Japan has
been estimated at $562 billion. In Germany, bombing and shelling had produced 4
billion cu m (5 billion cu yd) of rubble.
military and civilian, is given as more than 20 million killed. The Allied military
and civilian losses were 44 million; those of the Axis, 11 million. The military
deaths on both sides in Europe numbered 19 million and in the war against Japan,
6 million. The U.S., which had no significant civilian losses, sustained 292,131
battle deaths and 115,187 deaths from other causes. The highest numbers of deaths,
military and civilian, were as follows: USSR more than 13,000,000 military and
7,000,000 civilian; China 3,500,000 and 10,000,000; Germany 3,500,000 and 3,800,000;
Poland 120,000 and 5,300,000; Japan 1,700,000 and 380,000; Yugoslavia 300,000 and
1,300,000; Romania 200,000 and 465,000; France 250,000 and 360,000; British Empire
and Commonwealth 452,000 and 60,000; Italy 330,000 and 80,000; Hungary 120,000
and 280,000; and Czechoslovakia 10,000 and 330,000.
power. Britain, France, Germany, and Japan ceased to be great powers in the
Encarta 97, ibid
TrustMark 2001 by Timothy Wilken