People Pitted Against Each Other

I recently read a book called The Richest Man in Babylon. It was a myth about making profit, and the way to acquire financial and material treasure. It really got me thinking about how we define success in our socio-cultural system - as well as the consequences of that.

This is a rough draft of some related thoughts I was having yesterday...

this society, this economy, pits people against each other.

economic survival of the "fittest" is stupid. It's idiotic.

Sure there ought to be competition over reproduction, natural selection ought to occur in that field. But it doesn't make sense for people to compete and seek to dominate over avenues of basic economic sustenance. It's insane!

All people deserve to live dignified, meaningful, and prosperous lives. We would be much better off with a socio-economic-cultural structure that valued mutual prosperity, and cooperation - rather than domination and cutthroat competition. Economic competition taken to the extremes of conquest and domination is just plain harmful. It's one of the main reasons our society is so hurtful, and so violent. I think it's unacceptable.

People need to be taken care of. People need security. And we are not getting it from a system that breeds violence. Everything from domestic violence to toxic pollution to global warming and all sorts of environmental degradation (including the current mass extinction of species) can be traced back to an ethos that views the world as an object to be dominated. Instead of that, instead of viewing the world as a commodity, we can view the world as a community, of which all living beings are connected in a great web of life.

No one is free when another is oppressed. An injury to one is, truly, an injury to all.

Competition has its place. On the sports field. In the reproductive/biological field. And even in those areas - I think it makes sense to have a friendly sort of competition. I think that it does not make sense, nor is it good, for people to take themselves too seriously in these areas.

The theory of biological evolution has been transposed into the economic realm - where, I believe, it does not belong.

The economy is not a natural living system. It is a product of definite human, and at this point, industrial activities. To let the concept of survival of the fittest underpin the economic culture has resulted in the unleashing of a terrible violence upon the world, and upon humanity. Economics must be ruled essentially by humanistic concerns. Economic and political/societal ethics must be driven by values - by morals, that are common to us all.

For example: why not start with the Golden Rule.

Thank you and have a good day.