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Will the animalistic drives of our past-- predatory greed, aggression, and violence, automatic deference to the creed 'might makes right' (anarchy or 'natural law'), and instinctive fear of change-- all in the end overpower our dreams and hopes for a better world?
This site is about that choice. A choice we'll make as we traverse a gauntlet of challenges which may well have destroyed all those civilizations which preceded us on this path: all those who came before us in this galaxy.
Odds are we'll follow the same course to extinction they did. Unless we change. Change in ways many believe today to be impractical-- or even impossible. And maybe immoral, to boot.
For too stringent adherence to the status quo regarding tradition, nationalism, religion, et al, is what likely killed off those before us.
In this tug of war between our worst and best natures, our fears and our hopes, it'll often be tough to know who or what to believe, or what course of action will best serve our long term interests as a society.
And yet nothing could be more important to our survival.
Among other things, we may have to decide whom we love best: our families and friends? Some sort of deity and the various edicts attributed to it by mortals as fallible as anyone else among us? Or maybe a certain patch of dirt we walk on-- the country in which we were born, and its government, no matter what that government does in our name?
Many of our choices will come to this: family versus nationalism/patriotism versus religion. Love versus hate. Prosperity for all, versus unimaginable riches for a few.
Below are my own contributions to the many debates we'll hopefully have before deciding our course-- and our fate.
My own hope is that we reshape the world into a true meritocracy, where no one who's willing to positively contribute to society goes hungry or uneducated or without medical treatment. Where everyone enjoys at least some opportunity to pursue their dreams (so long as such dreams pose negligible risks to others). And where no one's potential-- especially that of little children-- is squandered on the battlefields of political extremism, military overreaching, or economic injustice.
Yes, that's some awfully idealistic goals. But it could be that our only real alternative is extinction, judging from the silence of the skies circa 2011.
And it may be we already possess sufficient levels of wealth and technology to achieve these things. But we can't do it by allowing just a few hundred families around the world to command roughly half or more of humanity's (and the Earth's) total assets. That's basically the same as us all ceding control of our personal fates to the population of some tiny rural town somewhere, that we've never even visited or heard of! And yet that's the state of world governance today. Does that make sense to anyone at all?
Copyright © 2005-2011 by J.R. Mooneyham. All rights reserved.
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