A big part of the Cain and Abel story is God's blessing
on Abel's sacrifice ... and God's lack of blessing on Cain's sacrifice. In the
story, God tells Cain that:
"For whether you offer well, or whether you do not,
at the tent flap sin crouches and for you is its longing, but you will rule
over it."
Peterson takes this to mean that Cain's heart is not in
his sacrifice. He is sacrificing for gain only. He is sacrificing with
sin in his heart (ill intent, not good intent). He is trying to buy into the
next ponzi scheme and be in early enough to win, and he's pissed that his
brother who is doing the hard work is being rewarded.
God's blessing is only granted when the heart is in the
right place. Intent matters. It matters more than material actions
themselves. The world is made of meaning, not of stuff. This is Peterson's main takeaway from this part of the story.
Hoppe also highlights this truth, but in his own
value-free way. He notes that societies that are free of oppressive state
oversight will have a healthy culture of saving, capital accumulation, and
overall honesty in trade. However, if the society is one of parasitism and
authoritarianism (profit through exploitation and deception), time preference
becomes very high and civilization begins to crumble. The sacrifice isn't from
a pure heart and it will not receive God's blessing.
Again, it's the intent that determines the structure of
the society. It's not the amount of accumulated wealth, it's the way
in which people interact with each other. Is it through good will, or through
deception? The world is made of meaning.
Conclusion:
The value-free axioms of classical economics and the
meaning rich landscape of the Biblical stories reflect each other. Or, perhaps
more accurately, we could say that our observations of economic behavior
reflect the deeper realities of humanity as found archetypical Biblical
stories.
Remembering that economic activity is an outgrowth of
human nature, and not the other way around, keeps our thinking grounded and
provides humility. It keeps the rational thinker from saying how things
"should" be. It reminds us that for society to be better in the
future, for it to be lower time preference, we must in our lives as individuals:
- Act with good intention (God's blessing is only for the
pure in heart)
- Make honest bargains with our future selves (Make an
honest bargain with the future)
- Sacrifice our immediate desires in each moment (That
which you value most)
When we each live our lives in this way, the society
improves as a natural consequence of our actions. No political action is
necessary. All that's required to build a low time preference
society that becomes ever more peaceful and prosperous is to clean up our
rooms, a little bit more, every day.
-David Giessel
