Pondering over stuff as usual while on one of my frequent walks I thought about how it would be to live without any sort of distinction . Nothing literally . No race , no sex ( that however seems a bit far-fetched) , no nationality , no classification as liberal , conservative , neutral . Nothing . You are Mr.X. That's it . Further description of you will involve a long and a detailed resume .
What would it be like ? Is it good ? or rather would it help progress the society as a whole to a better state that what it was ?
By better I mean how close we are to the realization of our goals in creating what I consider a perfect civilization : sympathy for other beings , a co-operative society that allows misfits to live in peacefully and a society dedicated towards scientific progress and peaceful co-existence.
If there is one thing science teaches us , its that nothing is permanent . Events happen , things around us change . Explanations or solutions that once were presumed correct have proven time and again to be wrong . After the discovery of Electromagnetic forces in the early 20th century , one scientist famously said "Physics as you know , will end in 10 years ".
Almost a hundred years later , we are still to figure out the fundamental particle model . String theory says that there are more dimensions than what we perceive .
Aristotle and Ptolemy believed that the Earth was at the center of the Universe . The other planets revolved around it . This explanation was taken up by the Bible and the Catholic church as the model of the Universe. Scores were tortured and crucified when they spoke out against such ideas including Copernicus and the famous Galileo, an ardent catholic himself.
Around the same time , the findings made by Tycho Brahe , Johannes Kepler and Newton shattered the Geocentric model and established classical Physics which was presumed to descibe the universe as it exists . A little over 3 centuries later it was again shattered by Quantum mechanics which says that nothing is definite and only a probability can be established of the event ( note that I am really not a physicist and what I say is what I understand from reading stuff. Please feel free to correct me. )
Time and again , science tells that the marriage of truth and specific ideas is not a good one . One must not put all his weight behind in a belief system . I was really inspired by the ideas presented by Sir Karl Popper ,a British philosopher. Karl Popper's philosophy was termed by himself as critical rationalism ( I do really hate such "buzz words" but hey I didn't invent them) . Ignoring all the pompous and euphemistic words , it simply says that no amount of evidence claiming that logically, no number of positive outcomes at the level of experimental testing can confirm a scientific theory, but a single counterexample is logically decisive.
While this holds well for scientific theories I would like to change it a little to express my point with respect to politics : Just because one way of organizing the society so far doesn't mean that it is THE perfect model till eternity . In simple terms , if you choose to divide a society or the people on the basis of some classification say X , the classification is valid only if classifying the people on the basis of X doesn't cause grief to them . For eg , if you classify people on the basis of their race , the classification is valid only if the racial segregation doesn't create grief for the people . Unfortunately though , racism has been the basis of subjugation and oppression of an entire continent of people for more than 2000 years since the times of the Roman Empire .
Having established my premise of what is an ideal way to classify society I would like to establish my point of the best way to organize society .
Zero distinctions .
No nation states , no race or gender . An entire world as a whole . No mythical beings , the stuff of legend and fiction to divide us .No mere symbols made centuries ago ,to turn us into mortal enemies. No borders or nation-states that say that we are aliens if we move out a certain piece of land . No belief in ideas that differentiate between one man and another .
No sexual preference that makes us the target of attacks and harassment .
Lets make a list of organizational units of the society that made has prevailed so far with a few examples of each
Color and physique Black / White/Asian
Tribe Huns / Goths / Gauls
Language Tamils / Sinhalese /
Nations France / Germany / England
Monarchy The gazillion royal families in Europe
Ideas based on market Communism / Capitalism
Work ( this however was an idea misinterpreted over the years ) the Varna system of Vedic India
and many more
lets look at the problems created by such classification
Cold war - Capital vs Communist
Color and physical - The holocaust of WWII , the genocide against the Tamils in Sri Lanka
Monarchy - Frequent wars in Europe and Colonial Africa
Nations - The two world wars
I do not strive for extreme accuracy here . My intention is to prove the fact that distinctions time and again create problems so large that it takes society years to relieve itself of the consequences before it starts again on the path towards progress . An Indian lady died in Ireland just because some of the medicail staff was divided on the issue of abortion based on religious beliefs . The landmark Roe vs Wade case , responsible for the drastic reduction in crime rate in the US throughout the 90s ( refer to freakanomics for more details on this ) threatens to endanger the lives of millions of women just because some idiots in high places feel that it is not PRO-LIFE and against the teachings of God . In fact some societies go as far as prohibiting individuals from seeking pleasure from themselves ( masturbation ) based on some book written by a mythical person whose existence cannot be proved outside of it .
All these problems tells us one thing . That our marriage to beliefs is what ultimately kills us .A skeptical view is what promoted science to its standard now . Its still the same thing that will help us make progress . A belief system runs in the exact opposite direction. That an idea requires absolute faith . Without questions . Or proof . Even the presence of the proof doesn't mean that the idea is perfect. A single case of falsehood is enough to falsify it . Like we saw with Karl Popper's ideas . We can say the same thing about distinctions .
Having a distinction that helps us organize our society and our identity so far only leads to a certain amount of good before it causes harm . In order to make rapid progress we have to remain forever skeptical and truly without distinctions .
What would it be like ? Is it good ? or rather would it help progress the society as a whole to a better state that what it was ?
By better I mean how close we are to the realization of our goals in creating what I consider a perfect civilization : sympathy for other beings , a co-operative society that allows misfits to live in peacefully and a society dedicated towards scientific progress and peaceful co-existence.
If there is one thing science teaches us , its that nothing is permanent . Events happen , things around us change . Explanations or solutions that once were presumed correct have proven time and again to be wrong . After the discovery of Electromagnetic forces in the early 20th century , one scientist famously said "Physics as you know , will end in 10 years ".
Almost a hundred years later , we are still to figure out the fundamental particle model . String theory says that there are more dimensions than what we perceive .
Aristotle and Ptolemy believed that the Earth was at the center of the Universe . The other planets revolved around it . This explanation was taken up by the Bible and the Catholic church as the model of the Universe. Scores were tortured and crucified when they spoke out against such ideas including Copernicus and the famous Galileo, an ardent catholic himself.
Around the same time , the findings made by Tycho Brahe , Johannes Kepler and Newton shattered the Geocentric model and established classical Physics which was presumed to descibe the universe as it exists . A little over 3 centuries later it was again shattered by Quantum mechanics which says that nothing is definite and only a probability can be established of the event ( note that I am really not a physicist and what I say is what I understand from reading stuff. Please feel free to correct me. )
Time and again , science tells that the marriage of truth and specific ideas is not a good one . One must not put all his weight behind in a belief system . I was really inspired by the ideas presented by Sir Karl Popper ,a British philosopher. Karl Popper's philosophy was termed by himself as critical rationalism ( I do really hate such "buzz words" but hey I didn't invent them) . Ignoring all the pompous and euphemistic words , it simply says that no amount of evidence claiming that logically, no number of positive outcomes at the level of experimental testing can confirm a scientific theory, but a single counterexample is logically decisive.
While this holds well for scientific theories I would like to change it a little to express my point with respect to politics : Just because one way of organizing the society so far doesn't mean that it is THE perfect model till eternity . In simple terms , if you choose to divide a society or the people on the basis of some classification say X , the classification is valid only if classifying the people on the basis of X doesn't cause grief to them . For eg , if you classify people on the basis of their race , the classification is valid only if the racial segregation doesn't create grief for the people . Unfortunately though , racism has been the basis of subjugation and oppression of an entire continent of people for more than 2000 years since the times of the Roman Empire .
Having established my premise of what is an ideal way to classify society I would like to establish my point of the best way to organize society .
Zero distinctions .
No nation states , no race or gender . An entire world as a whole . No mythical beings , the stuff of legend and fiction to divide us .No mere symbols made centuries ago ,to turn us into mortal enemies. No borders or nation-states that say that we are aliens if we move out a certain piece of land . No belief in ideas that differentiate between one man and another .
No sexual preference that makes us the target of attacks and harassment .
Lets make a list of organizational units of the society that made has prevailed so far with a few examples of each
Color and physique Black / White/Asian
Tribe Huns / Goths / Gauls
Language Tamils / Sinhalese /
Nations France / Germany / England
Monarchy The gazillion royal families in Europe
Ideas based on market Communism / Capitalism
Work ( this however was an idea misinterpreted over the years ) the Varna system of Vedic India
and many more
lets look at the problems created by such classification
Cold war - Capital vs Communist
Color and physical - The holocaust of WWII , the genocide against the Tamils in Sri Lanka
Monarchy - Frequent wars in Europe and Colonial Africa
Nations - The two world wars
I do not strive for extreme accuracy here . My intention is to prove the fact that distinctions time and again create problems so large that it takes society years to relieve itself of the consequences before it starts again on the path towards progress . An Indian lady died in Ireland just because some of the medicail staff was divided on the issue of abortion based on religious beliefs . The landmark Roe vs Wade case , responsible for the drastic reduction in crime rate in the US throughout the 90s ( refer to freakanomics for more details on this ) threatens to endanger the lives of millions of women just because some idiots in high places feel that it is not PRO-LIFE and against the teachings of God . In fact some societies go as far as prohibiting individuals from seeking pleasure from themselves ( masturbation ) based on some book written by a mythical person whose existence cannot be proved outside of it .
All these problems tells us one thing . That our marriage to beliefs is what ultimately kills us .A skeptical view is what promoted science to its standard now . Its still the same thing that will help us make progress . A belief system runs in the exact opposite direction. That an idea requires absolute faith . Without questions . Or proof . Even the presence of the proof doesn't mean that the idea is perfect. A single case of falsehood is enough to falsify it . Like we saw with Karl Popper's ideas . We can say the same thing about distinctions .
Having a distinction that helps us organize our society and our identity so far only leads to a certain amount of good before it causes harm . In order to make rapid progress we have to remain forever skeptical and truly without distinctions .
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