Sunday, September 12, 2010
What If?: World Peace
What if there was no discrimination in the world, no wars, no violence, no hunger, and no people dying from the lack of health care? I hear a lot of people wish and dream for that, but is it really what we want? What would we gain from that? Would our society be even more advanced as a whole? Would it be Utopic, bland, morbid? Or would it actually be as people imagined it, where every one is content and satisfied? It seems like world peace is the ultimate goal that will never be fulfilled, but people will always strive for. A lot of times it seems to me that when you work hard for something and finally accomplish it, you get a false sense of temporary happiness, but eventually you feel that there is nothing left to endeavor. For example, when you finish reading a book or beat a video game, you sometimes wish that you could go back to when you were enjoying the book/game and you were anxiously awaiting the ending. You could reread the book or replay the game, but it's not the same. Middle-aged people often wish to retire due to stress from work, but then when they retire their lives feel empty as there is nothing ahead for them to wish for. Will our society ever get to a point where we advance so far that the only way to go is backwards, and so we start to "de-evolve"? I've also wondered if we did have a harmonious world, would we overpopulate so much that our society demands population control. There is only so much of the Earth we can deforest and use to build homes for people. Will peace and creation now lead to discord and destruction later? Creating peace now doesn't guarantee a pleasant end result. You sometimes wonder that if you changed the present, would the future be how you conceive it.
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This post reminded me a lot of John Lennon's "Imagine." This song talks a lot about sacrificing all we have done as a society, and reverting to pre-civilized times in order to achieve peace. I am as close as possible to 100% sure that won't happen, but Rohan brings up a good question. If we were able to create a Utopian society, would we even be satisfied by it?
ReplyDeleteIf you look at life like you would a novel or movie, then the answer is no. No one would read a book where the character grows up in a wealthy family, loves life, is never sad, has a perfect family, and lives into his 90's. That would be incredibly boring. But even the most realistic books and films are so far from actual life, so I can't make my judgment solely on that basis. No one knows how a Utopian society would be, because it has never been accomplished, but everyone will have to make that decision on their own.
Rohan's question, "what if we could have world peace?" brings up a lot of other questions, as demonstrated in his post. First it has to be established that a Utopian society is probably impossible to achieve, due to the fact that free will creates diversity and diversity inevitably leads to conflict. But let's put that idea aside for a moment and answer Rohan's "what if" question. The way I see it, there are a variety of paths that society may travel down, and these are mainly dependent on how the utopia came into existence. Let us assume that this utopia can originate from violence or through politics.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that utopia can come from violence is a great example of a paradox. Unfortunately, it makes sense, and has been attempted in the past. A prime example is Hitler's attempt to "ethnically cleanse" Europe. Hitler declared that the aim of his genocide was to create a Utopian society in which the population had an almost identical set of ideals. If Hitler was to succeed, he was going to have to exterminate everyone who disagreed with him on a major issue. A Utopia of this fashion would be more like the world of "Fahrenheit 451," in which the people are numb and mindless. Life would be incredibly bleak, as everyone would be force-fed the same ideas and taught creativity is bad, because any kind of free thought entices questions, and this questioning can lead to rebellious thoughts. After this happens the Utopia falls apart through rebellions and war. So the people who are in charge would not allow free thought through any medium, be it writing, television, or society. This Utopia would not be worth living in.
My second scenario for a Utopian society is through political mandate. As this would be Communism minus the dictator, we would have to assume that the rich and powerful would be willing to give up their wealth for the good of the poor. With some form of international peace treaty or alliance that I fiat would actually work (unlike the UN), this would be a nation absent of poverty and war. In order for this Utopia to be maintained, ideas of self gain would have to be abandoned. Everything that is produced or created would have to be given to society for no profit. Assuming that this system wouldn't be disrupted, life would be pretty good. As we separated ourselves from monetary desires, education and philosophy would take larger roles in our lives. The lack of competition would create bonds between people, and communities would become very close-knit. All of this said, our lives would become uncomfortable because we would have to work harder and our houses would become smaller. Luxuries would be virtually non-existent, since all people would have to have a similar amount of food/possessions. Spiritually and educationally, our lives would improve, but anyone pleased by success, challenge, or competition would find this Utopian world rather dry. But this raises another question: is a peaceful, boring world better than an exciting world full of destruction?