Robinson Crusoe

[George H. Smith]

A novel that has fascinated me since my high school years is Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. A few years ago I decided to collect and read some secondary sources on Defoe and Robinson Crusoe. These include a useful biography (1938) by James Sutherland, and two interesting articles that stress the individualistic currents in Robinson Crusoe: "Defoe and Economic Individualism" (in Reason and Nature in 18th Century Thought, 1968), by R.W. Harris; and "Robinson Crusoe, Individualism, and the Novel" (in The Rise of the Novel, 1957), by Ian Watt.

Anyway, I don't have any profound things to say about Robinson Crusoe at this point (or probably ever), but I'm curious if any other OLers share my interest in this landmark novel.

Ghs

[9thdoctor]

I read it, but your post lacks a hook, I don't know what about it you want to talk about. In what way is it uniquely individualistic?

[Peter]

I remember the part where he returns to Europe was boring and everyone who reads the novel forgets about that part. I like the little touches, like drying grapes just to have something sweet to eat in winter/monsoon times. I remember that the conventional wisdom of the time said that the worst punishment on the high seas was not hanging but being marooned on a desert island. I have not read it in 35 years so that is the best I can come up with.

Peter

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

There's one thing Robinson Crusoe didn't need: money.

He didn't get the benefit of goods and services from others he could buy with it, but he also didn't have to deal with the dark side of human nature that concern with getting money often illuminates.

I think this is an important ethics consideration when looking at the individual metaphysically (like being stranded on a desert island tends to bring into focus).

Michael

[George H. Smith]

I read it, but your post lacks a hook, I don't know what about it you want to talk about. In what way is it uniquely individualistic?

I wouldn't call Robinson Crusoe uniquely individualistic, but there is a reason why economists (including Marx and Rothbard) refer to "Crusoe" economic analysis. The novel has often been understood as a depiction of a "state of nature," though whether this is the Hobbesian or the Lockean version is not clear.

I don't have the book in front of me, and it has been a few years since I last read it, but there is an interesting passage in which Crusoe discusses the difficulty of making even simple tools needed to make other things; hence the importance of the division of labor. He was able to salvage some important items from the ship, and he understood how much more difficult his life would have been without these products of civilization.

As I recall, Defoe was familiar with some true accounts of men who had been stranded alone, but those stories, unlike Robinson Crusoe, typically did not end well. (One fellow supposedly went insane after around 2 years.)Ian Watt maintains that Defoe's Puritan background caused him to stress introspection, and that this focus was instrumental in the development of the modern novel.

Defoe was definitely a Whig with strong libertarian sentiments, though he seemed willing to write for anyone who would pay him. I believe he served two prison sentences for some nonfiction pieces. Despite his enormous output, both fiction and nonfiction, Defoe died penniless.

I don't have much more to say at this point; I would want to read the novel again (which I plan to do soon) before sticking my neck out. At this point I have been reviewing secondary sources because I may eventually write a Cato Essay on Defoe.

Ghs

[Brant Gaede]

There's one thing Robinson Crusoe didn't need: money.

He didn't get the benefit of goods and services from others he could buy with it, but he also didn't have to deal with the dark side of human nature that concern with getting money often illuminates.

I think this is an important ethics consideration when looking at the individual metaphysically (like being stranded on a desert island tends to bring into focus).

Michael

You mean he didn't have to deal with stealing. However, he did have to deal--at least in the movie--with natives who would literally steal his life if they had been on to him. It's not money, really, but basic human social existence you are talking about.

--Brant

[BaalChatzaf]

Crusoe was patient though. If he waited he could everything done by Friday.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[George H. Smith]

Defoe's libertarian proclivities are expressed this passage from his epic poem Iure Divino, a polemic against the divine right of kings:

Nature has left this Tincture in the Blood,

That all Men would be Tyrants if they cou'd;

If they fobear their Neighbours to devour,

'Tis not for want of Will but want of Power.

Defoe's theme is that reason eventually conquered the natural instinct that caused men to tyrannize over other men. Speaking of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 (which rid England of the Stuarts, once and for all), Defoe wrote:

But Heav'n has witness'd by his High Command,

And Doom'd down tyrants by the People's Hand;

Declar'd his equal Anger at their Crimes,

And own'd the Revolutions of the Times.

He has pull'd down the Tyrants of the Age.

And blest the just Effects of Pop'lar Rage;

Tumbl'd the Jus Devinum from the Throne,

And set the Foot of Freedom on the Crown;

The Laws of Nature bind the Truth so fast,

That 'twill as long as Laws and Nature last;

Heaven can no Fiction so absurd Decree,

That men shou'd date their Crimes from his Authority.

Ghs

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

You mean he didn't have to deal with stealing. However, he did have to deal--at least in the movie--with natives who would literally steal his life if they had been on to him. It's not money, really, but basic human social existence you are talking about.

Brant,

That's not what I'm talking about at all. The libertarian literature is full of that kind of analysis and they have argued it to death.

I'm talking about how money changes some people. Here's a story to illustrate what I mean--from my dark past.

As I was coming out of my drug addiction, I had a fundamental choice. Either change my entire environment and start working as a janitor someplace (or something like that) or find opportunities among the people I knew. I chose the latter. But guess who I knew by then? Ask yourself, who sells drugs and who associates with people who sell drugs?

Ta Daa!

That's how I got into the underworld. (But please remember, I also left that world.)

One of the projects I worked on was getting shipping containers of imports that had been confiscated released from customs by making, er... special arrangements... with customs officials. Mostly stuff from China, Korea, etc. I was, in parallel, working on a project to take advantage of certain government funding loopholes that involved large construction projects. I can't give too many details, but the projects were not totally shady. Well... let's say they were legitimate on the surface.

We had a guy, an engineer, on board who was helping us set up these government projects. Let's call him Carlos (not his real name). The problem was that this guy was not involved in our customs stuff.

One day, we pulled a pretty big one out of the customs hat. The payoff was going to be good, but Carlos was obviously going to be left out. We had basically the same core group working both projects. And when we were doing the government thing, Carlos would look at how happy we were and hear us talking in code. His face got really long at times. You know, the poor boy looking in the store window kind of thing.

Carlos was in São Paulo where we were, but he really lived in a small city about 1,000 km away (a little over 600 miles). He had left his family behind to pursue this opportunity in the big city. It was dragging on and on. His funds were tight and running out, so looking at our good spirits must have been doubly poignant to him.

I have never liked the idea of eating a banquet around a starving person who is prohibited to eat, so I called our group together and sold them on the idea of making our own little... er... syndicate. This meant that everyone, including Carlos, would get at cut of everything we did. Some of them didn't like it, but I was persuasive and they finally agreed.

Now, Carlos had a real problem. He was in debt for about $5,000 and his credit rating was in the toilet. I don't know how many times I heard him say if he could only get $5,000, his problems would be over. He would pay off his bills, straighten out his credit and buy a nice present for his wife. Get a new start.

This touched me.

Then the payday came from the customs thing. Cash of course. I convinced the group that we should give Carlos $10,000--double his debt--and I looked froward to the look on his face when he received it. We had kept him in the dark about our plans. I wanted to surprise him. I even got the rough-cut and jaded er... gentlemen... in our little group to look forward to this. A regular Sunday School class, it was.

Well... to make a long story short, Carlos sprung a surprise on me.

We called him to a meeting, then pulled out a stack of money and put it on the table. We told him about our little group and how we now thought. He looked around, sort of scared, to make sure this was not a joke. Then I saw one of the most incredible transformations of a human being I have ever witnessed in real life.

I had always heard about people looking down their noses at others, but I had never seen anyone actually do it.

Until Carlos.

He literally picked up the packet of money, put it in his jacket pocket, lifted his head up so he could only look down his nose at whoever he spoke to and started walking around on the balls of his feet. It took about an hour before I realized he was not clowning around.

I then watched in wonder as he immediately made plans to move to a much higher class hotel. The very first thing he did there was call a personal manicurist to come to his room and do his toenails. He also took off to the shopping mall to stock up on new clothes--for him, not his family. This was right before Christmas and he was planning to go home for the holidays.

This kind of stuff went on and on and Carlos became insufferable. Finally, after a few days, he went to the airport. I breathed a sigh of relief. But then I got a call. Carlos didn't like the kinds of airplanes they had. He refused to go on one with a propeller, but that's all they had going to his small city. For him, it had to be a jet or nothing.

He asked if I could help him rent a car because his credit was shot. So I called up a friend I knew who owned a car rental company (drug contact--don't even ask) and asked him to do me a favor. No problem. But the only car available was economy size.

I gave the information to Carlos and then left it at that. I thought it strange, though, that I didn't hear anything for a couple of days. I called my car agency friend up and he said Carlos had not been in contact. Hmmmm...

Later I found out that Carlos thought an economy car was demeaning for a man of his new station in life. He couldn't possibly travel that distance in an economy car. But he had to go, so he decided to go...

... by taxi.

Over 600 miles!

Dayaamm!

You read that right. By taxi.

Guess how long his money lasted?

And guess how long Carlos lasted in our little group? We had to get rid of him. He got the taste of money in his mouth, got real conceited, went through it like he was on fire, and now he needed more. So he stole all the documents to our government projects and tried run with them alone.

One of the other members of our group (who had one foot in the police and the other foot in the underworld) was a very dangerous man. He had some "friends" pay a friendly visit to Carlos's wife. All they did was ask for a cup of coffee. They said how disappointed they were in Carlos's attitude and only wanted to talk to him, but he was avoiding everybody. Then they left.

But Carlos got the message. He thought nobody knew his home address since he had taken special pains to conceal it. He suddenly showed up out of nowhere with the documents, joking lamely and saying he had been ill.

The bottom line is that this dude received a large lump of cash he wasn't expecting, but didn't buy anything for his family. He didn't pay his bills. He didn't fix his credit. And he lost his opportunity with us.

I won't even go into the ribbing I got from the group. I didn't have to eat crow. I had to eat the whole damn flock. Raw.

You can say this kind of behavior is not something that involves money, only the guy's character, but I think it does. I agree that how a person handles money is a great test of character, but I also believe handling money influences a person's character more than appears on the surface.

The trait Ayn Rand presented in her heroes of them never feeling tempted by anything like this is a great fictional device, but I have not met anyone in real life who has obliterated temptation from his soul.

In fact, I believe one of the reasons we need ethics is precisely to deal with temptation. We can't control the surge of temptation. It comes when it comes. But we can control what we do about it. Ethics gives us that control.

To tie this into the thread's theme, a man stranded alone on an island does not have this problem. And I can't think of anything even remotely close to it that he would have to deal with values-wise in that setting.

But in a social setting, we do have to deal with it. And we had better for our own integrity.

Michael

[Brant Gaede]

Well, he didn't "earn" the money. He simply got it.

--Brant

this happens to so many lottery winners: the inside becomes the outside, good drunk, bad drunk, give it away, spend it away

[Selene]

In fact, I believe one of the reasons we need ethics is precisely to deal with temptation. We can't control the surge of temptation. It comes when it comes. But we can control what we do about it. Ethics gives us that control.

To tie this into the thread's theme, a man stranded alone on an island does not have this problem. And I can't think of anything even remotely close to it that he would have to deal with values-wise in that setting.

But in a social setting, we do have to deal with it. And we had better for our own integrity.

Michael

Interesting theory Michael.

The obverse of Ayn's desert island theory.

I think it has merit.