In the US we want to live as free people, that is to say we want freedom to go about our affairs and pursue happiness as long as we are not hurting others, and we agree to this as part of our social contract. But what happens when we try to extend that social program to something like human breeding, off-spring or how many kids you are allowed? "Hey, wait one minute!" you say. Yes, and you are not alone, and yet, we already have 7.7 Billion people on the planet, we hardly have a shortage right?
In the essay; "The Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin, 1968 published in Science, it discussed the challenges with cooperation vs. individual liberty and desire in free societies, as well as the use of social control, and a plea to conscience. After reading this essay, I'd like to continue my dialogue, so dear reader, go Google it and then come back and finish this article.
Okay, in this essay, I am reminded of several things. The "prisoner's dilemma" with regards to procreation, as we all do better if we have no more than two offspring per couple, even China is okay with that after abandoning their one-child-policy for two now. If some people have more children they win the gene pool race and take up more room for those who were responsible. In the US Mormon or Catholic Families seem to have more children, along with Hispanic folks, in other nations Arab folks are procreating 3-5 times as fast as other ethnic groups. Why would they want to stop, even if it is in the best interest of their offspring to have fewer people on said planet?
Another dilemma would be the military arms race, as if nations continue to buy weapons to protect themselves, they make other nations unsafe, thus, those other nations have no choice but to arm up to protect themselves. When it comes to national security and military Henry Kissinger stated; "The US can be completely safe at the expense of all other nations being unsafe," and to that point, if one nation dominates military superiority, no one will screw with them or be very careful not to get to a political impasse via let's call it Aircraft Carrier Diplomacy, but if all nations attempt this pecking order game, all we have is constant conflict, or two super powers dividing up the hood, like giant street gang thugs, not wanting to tangle with each other but turf wars will persist and client nations come and go.
What we see in this essay is exactly correct and it draws of many philosophical thoughts, from economics to military and social contracts to social control. It's almost as if this new push towards "equality" is another appeal to "responsibility" to "share the wealth" which is also a problematic situation because socialism never works for long, nor is it the most efficient scheme for running a civilization.
More efficiency means more to share, through taxation etc. - Read: "Bureaucracy" by Ludwig van Misses where he shows the need for governance and pooling resources for the commons. I suppose many folks will not grasp the depth of this writer's arguments or challenges to moral conundrums however, these things effect everything we do and how the human race with some 7.7 Billion people function lest they eat themselves out of house and home with their logarithmic population growth. I have some ideas to fix this, but they humankind isn't ready for them yet. Please consider all this.
Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. http://www.WorldThinkTank.net - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow. Lance also writes eBooks on all sorts of topics including this one, check out the selection.
Comments
Post a Comment