"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority,
but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius
Everyone wants to make the world a better place. Or, put another way, to quote Tears For Fears, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." These of course are redundant statements. The truth is that even the most altruistic among us believe that the only way to make the world a better place is to make it more like our own visions of it. Ghandi was trying to make a better place according to his philosophies. Martin Luther King, Jr. was trying to make the world better according to his philosophies. Adolf Hitler was trying to make the world better according to his philosophies. To continue this exercise, simply plug in whatever impacting (for good or bad, according to your philosophies) names that you can remember. It soon becomes clear that making the world a better place is nigh impossible, because what is better for one person (or group) is not necessarily better for everyone else. Even evolution is stilted by the opinion of its observers. Do you realize how many times scientific advances have been held underground by religions, governments, and those who stand to lose profits because of it? Even Galileo was made by The Inquisition to recant his support (and evidence) for the Copernican theory of the double motion of the Earth, because it decidedly opposed the Biblical explanation of things. Sure, as time passed and technology grew, the truth of the matter became evident to even the most galvanized of people, but the delay set the species back many generations. Galileo was trying to make the world a better place. The Inquisition was trying to make the world a better place too.
My idea of the perfect world is when everyone can get what they need without being subservient to despots, slave masters, superstitions, and creeds. I would do away with anything that interfered with one's ability to think for oneself and act according to one's own conscience. You can only live one life (at least at a time) and it is imperative that each is engrossed in the action of living it for himself. Climbing the ranks of slavery to get to some semblance of creature comfort by making a wealthy man wealthier makes no sense to me. Traveling halfway around the world in order to murder and be murdered for the cause of making wealthy men wealthier makes no sense to me. Abstaining from the few real pleasures this life has to offer in order to belong to a larger group of fools who remain enslaved by ancient superstitions makes no sense to me. Hating a stranger because she was born under a different flag, representing a different group of slave masters, makes no sense to me. If these things give you comfort, then your baptism into slavery is complete. Knock yourself out, but don't force these things on those of us who prefer to live life for ourselves instead of for our master. That is my idea of a better place. What's yours?
but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
- Marcus Aurelius
Everyone wants to make the world a better place. Or, put another way, to quote Tears For Fears, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." These of course are redundant statements. The truth is that even the most altruistic among us believe that the only way to make the world a better place is to make it more like our own visions of it. Ghandi was trying to make a better place according to his philosophies. Martin Luther King, Jr. was trying to make the world better according to his philosophies. Adolf Hitler was trying to make the world better according to his philosophies. To continue this exercise, simply plug in whatever impacting (for good or bad, according to your philosophies) names that you can remember. It soon becomes clear that making the world a better place is nigh impossible, because what is better for one person (or group) is not necessarily better for everyone else. Even evolution is stilted by the opinion of its observers. Do you realize how many times scientific advances have been held underground by religions, governments, and those who stand to lose profits because of it? Even Galileo was made by The Inquisition to recant his support (and evidence) for the Copernican theory of the double motion of the Earth, because it decidedly opposed the Biblical explanation of things. Sure, as time passed and technology grew, the truth of the matter became evident to even the most galvanized of people, but the delay set the species back many generations. Galileo was trying to make the world a better place. The Inquisition was trying to make the world a better place too.
My idea of the perfect world is when everyone can get what they need without being subservient to despots, slave masters, superstitions, and creeds. I would do away with anything that interfered with one's ability to think for oneself and act according to one's own conscience. You can only live one life (at least at a time) and it is imperative that each is engrossed in the action of living it for himself. Climbing the ranks of slavery to get to some semblance of creature comfort by making a wealthy man wealthier makes no sense to me. Traveling halfway around the world in order to murder and be murdered for the cause of making wealthy men wealthier makes no sense to me. Abstaining from the few real pleasures this life has to offer in order to belong to a larger group of fools who remain enslaved by ancient superstitions makes no sense to me. Hating a stranger because she was born under a different flag, representing a different group of slave masters, makes no sense to me. If these things give you comfort, then your baptism into slavery is complete. Knock yourself out, but don't force these things on those of us who prefer to live life for ourselves instead of for our master. That is my idea of a better place. What's yours?
No comments:
Post a Comment