Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
The difference between what happens when people embrace and reject our differences is astounding #Orlando pic.twitter.com/UUjLqAvAk7
— Royce Renfrew (@Tungsten_Flight) June 12, 2016
The difference between what happens when people embrace and reject our differences is astounding #Orlando pic.twitter.com/UUjLqAvAk7
— Royce Renfrew (@Tungsten_Flight) June 12, 2016
I agree with those sentiments, and think they should be included with sentiments for the earlier victims in Belgium, France and many other places.
To take this back to something related to space, I am reminded of a statement in a science fiction short story. A character wondered if this would be what the future would be like: The human race traveling unimaginable distances in order to fight themselves.
I wonder whether we need to develop space travel to give us a true “new world” to go to when this world becomes too small and diseased.
Man will bring (take) his evil disease where ever he goes. Its inherent.
Probably true, so we’ll always need another “new world” to go to. Fortunately for us, with our universe there is always another “new world” to go to.
I wonder.
The notion that we will bring the ‘evil disease’ with us implies a static society. But is that the case?
A recent book points out that not so long ago the divine right of kings was universally recognized; so-too serfdom, slavery, and a number of other systemic societal organizational structures now discarded. India struggles with a fair amount of success to throw off the plague of castes. There was a time not many centuries ago when asserting the universal rights of free speech, habeas corpus, and press, to name a few, would be judged ludicrous. Indeed reaching very deep into Meso-American history we find human sacrifice of all things.
And now in the 20th we find ourselves benefiting from a new age of mercantilism where corporations are seen to exist solely to create profit. Is capitalism any sort of universal truth, or is it on the path to a fair and equitable society? Or is it a false road?
Moreover, in America, at least, we are embroiled in a decades-long discussion about the proper role of government. To me, this signals a plastic society attempting to discern a fair future.
So, no. I don’t see our war-like tendencies hobbling us forever.
I just hope we learn in time. As Al pointed out:
The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.
– Albert Einstein
Some societies are slowly and fitfully become more attuned to what Lincoln (recalling Dickens) called “the better angels of our nature”.
As you correctly observe, the rate of technological change is outpacing societal introspection (if such a thing even exists!)
I have seen all forms of social and economic systems work from pure libertarian capitalism, to co-ops such as the Israeli settlement form called the moshav, to the pure communism of an Israeli kibbutz settlement (I lived in one and it works). The issue seems to be the integrity and character of the people more than the system. Unfortunately there are many zillions who do not follow their “better angels”.
I hope we can clean up our act before we create a dunghill.
I was lucky enough to spend a few days in a kibbutz some years ago, Yale, and have to say that the way of living was very appealing. There are always issues with those who work less, or more, but on balance the community was/is quite stable.
I wondered then as now if such an arrangement could work at a larger scale; I also wondered if it could work without the outside pressures that make the arrangement so suitable.
I lived for an extended period on a kibbutz and they have methods to deal with slackers. If all don’t learn to cooperate from social pressure, they are just asked to leave. Like you say, over time, stable. They use direct democracy and rotating temporary management.
That reflects the only way a communal system can work. VOLUNTARY and size limited. A few hundred is considered optimal (essentially a small village) and a settlement will fission and pioneer another kibbutz. The system is non-coercive and egalitarian, the opposite of state-based systems like the USSR.
I don’t have any personal knowledge on the subject, but I think the small size is important. A similar organizational system worked well in Spain, during the first year or so of the Spanish civil war. During the original coup and shortly thereafter, the anarchict-syndicate group (the CNT) did quite well using this organizational approach. Once the civil war settled into a large-scale war, rather than a collection of local fights, it stopped being effective because that approach doesn’t scale up well. It depends on everyone knowing everyone else.
NASA, despite stumbling all over itself wrt Manned Space Flight, is truly one of the best things about America
One of the contestants in the current election cycle has adopted as a theme “Make America Great Again”.
Certainly there are warts, but I guess I thought we already are a great country. NASA is one example for sure.
(Posted with apologies to our host and intended to be observational, not disparaging).
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
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