Quote:
Originally Posted by Apollia  I think in a society where everyone is provided the minimum of what they need to survive (food, shelter, health care, etc.), people would still want to work, because they'd have still have to earn money to buy extra things that aren't necessary to survival, like books, cars, computers, education, and so forth. |
This probably should be in a political thread, but it's interesting to see the conversation directed this way. This is what communism's (or socialism's) goals were, a noble endeavor, for sure. The problem is implementing this in the world we have now has never worked. Ever.
And the issue with this is, no one seems to agree on what "minimum of what they need to survive" entails. And also, what about the rest of the world who consciously
choose not to do this? Do we force them at the point of a gun (gov control, taxation, imprisonment)? If so, does that not make us what we did not want to become?
Anyway, this is quickly becoming what I am not wanting to discuss - which is implementation on the physical world. So I digress.
But on a philosophical level, back to the possibility of this utopia:
Is a wonderful happy utopia really what we want? Without strife, struggles, we would never be pushed to improve or progress. Would it be better that we progress on our own, without failure? We are all different and motivated differently.
People who are the best successes in life have become that way because they hit rock bottom, because they failed miserably and rose above it. And went on to do tremendous good in the world.
I'm not justifying murder, or war, or any of that. I'm just not too sure that this utopia is possible, or even the outcome we should desire. You know what the road to hell is paved with, right? There is a leg of truth in that.
To further illustrate my point: ever seen the Yin Yang symbol?
Yin and yang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
dark and light - good and evil, in balance.
Also, in the movie the Matrix, the line where Morpheus is saying something like, the first crop (of harvested people) the matrix was a utopia, and they lost all sorts of crops. Then the matrix became what it is (which is the world today) and it worked. No more massive crop losses. Do you believe that? That if everyone is in this utopia the point of life, our physical experience, would be over?
Also, in Star Wars (can you tell I'm a geek?), they always want to bring Balance to the Force. They never want to have everyone happy in some sort of utopia. There's always this emphasis on balance.
I believe the Golden Rule is just a guideline to help the light - since the current physical world seems tipped towards the dark. To bring balance.
If we contain evil, instead of destroy it, would we get more new evil created? What if the act of destroying the evil is really bringing the balance - since new evil will be created in its place and that's just the way of the universe? If we somehow manage to create a utopia, would that not do away with this balance and destroy us all in the end?
I dunno, just some musings. I'd love to know everyone else's opinion. I'm not here to agitate, I love these discussions!