Perfect Society

Every week Lennie of Cross Blogging posts a question. It's a carnival similar to the Homespun Bloggers weekly question, but usually focused on something to do with real life instead of politics. He encourages everyone to join in answering the questions on their own blogs. So come on, if you've got that writer's block and need a little nudge, head on over, or just post on your blog your answer!

This week's question:

Read this article, then answer the following questions:
1. Why has our society become less loving, so selfish, so intolerant, so uncommitted to anything outside of individual gain?
2. Why are we so full of selfish ambition and vain conceit?
3. Is this “perfect” society a place where any of us would want to live?

My answer is in the extended entry:
Did you read the article? Go ahead and read it, I'll wait. The title of the article is "A More Perfect Society," but the subtitle continues the title with, "Why I wouldn't want to live there." Now will you go read it?

Ok, for those who STILL haven't gone and read it, be sure to realize that the article mentions some specific examples of a Utopian attempt gone wrong, and the questions do not refer to America society, but specifically to French society. When society is used in the questions and the answers, is it not referring to specifically American society, but society in general, all around the earth.

On to the questions:

1. Why has our society become less loving, so selfish, so intolerant, so uncommitted to anything outside of individual gain?

Wow. No easy questions any more, huh, Lennie? This is a truly difficult question. There are so many small things that one can point to. For example, in the years before air conditioning, people didn't stay inside their houses -- it was too hot! People spent most of their free time on the porch, where they could interact with other people.

How about technology? That's an easy one to blame -- technology keeps advancing and increasing, and most of the time the advantage is to make something easier for people, which gives them more time to be lazy and do other "enjoyable" things, usually non-productive, and by their very nature, selfish.

But that doesn't explain it -- when they developed the printing press, people didn't get more lazy, more selfish, or less loving. Just the fact that technology made something easier doesn't seem, by itself, to cause all these bad things.

I think it was more of a change in societal attitudes, and most of the drastic and quickest changes can surely be traced to the rise of hippies in the 60s -- but what caused that? You could say that people simply got lazy and selfish as a result of the "free love" era, but that's a circular reference -- what caused that era?

Lennie, for the first time, I can't provide an answer to your question. I do not know why society has become less loving, selfish, intolerant, and lazy. There is no question that we are, I just don't know how we got this way.

2. Why are we so full of selfish ambition and vain conceit?

This question is very closely related to question #1, but when you look at individuals instead of society overall, influence from the devil is certainly key here. Look, people know wrong from right. People know when they're doing wrong, they just don't care.

A couple weeks ago I was at a tow truck lot and there was a tow-truck driver that was very irate, rude, and just plain mean. There was a 5-year old girl that could overhear him. The girl looked over to her mom and said, "That man must be listening to the devil. He shouldn't listen to the devil, he should listen to God."

3. Is this “perfect” society a place where any of us would want to live?

I will fight to the death to oppose such a society. The French society described in the article mentions how killing unborn babies because they might be mentally or physically "imperfect" is not only common and accepted there, but encouraged. Apparently France is following the lead of such nations as Sweden and Nazi Germany.

No, I don't make that comparison lightly. For those who didn't read the article (even yet), here's the quote that should scare the heck out of you:

"Now that tests can tell so early in pregnancy that a baby has Down, fewer people are choosing to have them."

Now Down Syndrome isn't dangerous. It doesn't require large, continuous medical expenses to keep someone alive. It's apparently VERY common (estimated at 1 in 660 births). But apparently, at least in France, it's "undesirable."

I've known a number of people with Down Syndrome. I had a cousin who had Down Syndrome. He was the happiest and most loving person I have ever met in my entire life. He was always excited and always loads and loads of fun. He could find joy in anything and he always made everyone around him smile.

However, the French society thinks we'd be better off with him and anyone like him. How long before it becomes "undesirable" to simply have an IQ of lower than 100? If you can argue that someone shouldn't be permitted to live simply because they have an extra chromosome (Down Syndrome), how can you argue against murdering someone with too low an IQ?

Then where do you go? To get the "perfect society," you'd have to eliminate large numbers of people. And someone would have to say what's "perfect" -- like blond hair and blue eyes? It is absolutely horrifying to hear someone speak those words. If I ever heard someone say, "Now that tests can tell so early in pregnancy that a baby has Down, fewer people are choosing to have them," I think I'd slap them upside the head and try and bring them back to reality.

Look, I don't give a damn if you're "inconvenienced" by ANYTHING. Life is not supposed to be this little simple thing where everyone gives you everything you want and everything is supposed to be easy for YOU. These are PEOPLE we are talking about here, not just things to make your life easier.

You want a perfect society? Grow up. It's not reality. That's what Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot all wanted, too.

Posted by: Ogre at 05:01 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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