What if...

[GalaxyMan]

Living in Thailand, I look at Thailand and the world today and have a hard time believing what I am seeing. So much division, hatred, strife, intolerance, and above all, a devolution of humanity in general. I understand that evolution isn't a perfect, upward-trajectory process, that there is progress, then correction, but it really sucks to be living in a time where the change from progress to whatever the lack of progress is takes place and that it's obvious. It's not something that you need to look back and say 'this is when it happened' like the Rise & Fall of the Roman Empire, for example; it's clearly happening right now.

 

I've never been more grateful for my lack of procreation. I'd hate to think that my children would have to be dealing with the world as it is today and seems projected to be for the foreseeable future. There's been an incredible dumbing down of people and society in general for at least the past 30-40 years.

 

This all leads me to contemplate not how it could be better, but what would the world be like if it were truly a just place, an oxymoronic anomaly in an inherently unjust, unfair Universe, the end stage of 'making it better'. My 'ideal' outlook is not only unrealistic, but if dreams could makes wishes come true...

 

I envision a world where no one individual is allowed to accumulate more than five times as much 'wealth' than the poorest individual (thank you, Aldous Huxley). Money is truly the root of all evil. No, I am not a Communist but I do believe in Socialist ideals. I am my brother's keeper to some degree, after all.

 

I envision a world where everyone is guaranteed the basic necessities in life; food, shelter, education, medical care. Without the need for military spending, these things are all easily affordable.

 

I envision a world where there is only one rule, the Golden Rule. Treat others as you'd like to be treated if the situation were reversed. At a certain age, say 18, voluntary, conscious violation of the Golden Rule would be penalized by death. Believe what you want, have any religion you want, but do not transgress the Golden Rule.

 

Yes, that's extreme, very extreme. I can imagine a single warning for violations of a certain nature -- it would probably be those things that don't directly inflict physical damage on other people -- but any further transgressions would be punishable by death. It wouldn't take very long for people to understand and believe that not being nice and socially conscious just isn't worth it. Without having to worry about and waste resources on crime, which would very likely drop to barely noticeable levels, people would be free to develop. Without having to worry about the basic necessities in life being there, people will be free to develop. By lifting yourself, you lift everyone.

 

Yes, if dreams could make wishes come true.

[tifino]

Wow!

 Did you watch 'I Am Legend' last night too? 

[StreetCowboy]

When I worked in the zoo we taught one of the chimpanzees to read.

 

We gave him the Bible, and Darwin's 'The Origin of Species', and he couldn't work out if he was his brother's keeper or his keeper's brother.

 

SC

[tifino]

1 minute ago, StreetCowboy said:

When I worked in the zoo we taught one of the chimpanzees to read.

 

We gave him the Bible, and Darwin's 'The Origin of Species', and he couldn't work out if he was his brother's keeper or his keeper's brother.

 

SC

Yeah!  

 - would not know whether to read between the lines, 

 - or swing on them! 

 

[Kwasaki]

2 hours ago, GalaxyMan said:

but any further transgressions would be punishable by death.

Many people forced into crime so there would be a lot people on the run.

 

There's to much poverty and is created by the rich to get richer.

 

Too many religions and factions of it;  creating hate of another's which is irreconcilable. 

[sipi]