Thursday, May 21, 2009

I'd be happy to tell you why you're wrong

My good friend and former "Sexiest Man in Independence" is battling withdrawal symptoms (caused by missing too many hippie drum circles) with yet another repetitive, irrational call for a single global government.
There is only one path to the survival of humans on his planet. At some point, we have to have a One World Government that can enforce laws and policies that benefit everyone, everywhere, while controlling and allocating worldwide resources equally for the benefit of all.
My initial reaction was, "Oof. This again?"

Then XO gave me a glimmer of hope by hinting that he doesn't really believe 100 percent in this Utopian claptrap when he begged for people to "Tell me why I'm wrong."

Okay. I'm happy to go over this with you again.

The essential flaw in your logic thought process is that somehow in your 80 years on this planet you've failed to grasp an understanding of the most rudimentary and basic aspects the human condition.

Anyone who thinks that the notions of natural selection and evolution have even the remotest whiff of validity can see the logical flaw when they follow those concepts through to their logical conclusions.

That flaw being, humans are animals.

Now, don't take this to mean that I'm down on humanity. I love humanity. Humanity has been very good to me. Humanity has been responsible for some of the greatest artistic and technological achievements the world has ever seen.

I love humanity, and I get kind of annoyed by people who place more importance in other -ities than humanity.

The failure in the thinking feelings of Utopians like XO is that they don't recognize this very basic fact. If you want to attempt to solve the problems of humanity, you must have an honest recognition of what humanity is and what that implies.

Because humans are animals, you can expect them to behave like animals in various situations. Highly refined animals, sure, but animals nonetheless.

For example, like cattle, people won't to anything if they don't have to. If there's someone there providing all the basic needs of food, shelter and digital TV converter boxes, there's no motivation to go out and be productive. That's not to say that we shouldn't help each other out. We absolutely should. But we should help out each other, for the betterment of our species, and not shove our duties to each other on to larger and larger governmental agencies.

Additionally, if a single person (or group of people) are given charge of distributing wealth and resources on a global scale, just like pigs they'll consume all of the resources they can as quickly as possible with no regard for the needs of anyone else.

The amount of power and corruption concentrated into this hypothetical one-world government would make the Goldman Sachs-Federal Reserve-Obama Administration cabal look like a playground bully.

Concentrating government power is the complete opposite of what we should be doing. Obviously we need some government to help provide basic services. But a decentralized government, where representatives are as close as possible to the represented, is the best way to combat humanity's animal tendencies when it comes to taking other people's stuff and not doing anything productive.

In fact, multiple sovereigns, governmental and social systems is analogous to evolution's natural selection. Political boundaries are the way they are because socio-political evolution has dictated it.

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15 comments:

  1. One world one government seems to be a futuristic idea. but if you just look around yourself you will see a thousand reasons why it is bound to fail. no i am not a pessimist, but i have a theory... sometime in the 1950s a mathematician called John von Neumann proved mathematically that it is possible to create a generation of machines which will be self sustaining, self learning and will be able to procreate. in other words it is possible for usd to create life, though our raw materials will be very different than those used by the One who created us.
    The current trends in Artificial Intellignece show us that we already have made self learning machines which will be able to use all five senses available to us. the next step is to make give tham the ability to procreate(not very difficult to imagine)and to pass on their knowledge to the next generation.Thus we give the machines something akin to our intelligence and also ensure that they add to this intelligence with every subsequent generation.Then we can actually play Gods to these machines!
    So now we have a problem at hand. A stage will come when these humanoids/ robots made by us will compete with be blessed by almost the same amount of intelligence as us,(and even feelings if scientists have their way)and we will be forced to compete with them for the shared resources of the planet which are already getting scarce.A scary thought!and to think that this is actually possible within the foreseeable future for our generation!

    So what do we do to avoid such a confrontation? we put a bug in their heads right at the beginning and program them to self destroy when thet reach intelligence levels comparable to our own. This simple step will ensure that our scientific progeny do not pose a threat to us in future.

    Is it possible that our creators have also thought on similar lines and programmed tha smartest race on this planet to self destroy by the dumbest actions so that we don't pose a threat to them??? Just a thought. waiting for you to tell me why i may be wrong?

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  2. all the utopian shit is based on the theory that people are not animals. the first thing that would happen when borders open is that everyone will rush to load up on YOUR stuff. that's one of the main reasons south korea doesn't want to reunite with north - and they are the same exact people.

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  3. I simply do not accept the premise that we can never overcome our animal origins and that everyone's natural instinct is centered around greed and hostility.

    Man discovered a long time ago that cooperation is a better survival strategy than competition. That's is why the first cities formed.

    They learned that working together in an agricultural society was a better survival strategy than hunting and gathering.

    We are still learning.

    Governments have been consolidating and joining forces since the beginning of time.

    We did it when the independent colonies joined together to form The United States. Europe did it when they formed the European Union.

    This consolidation and merging is inevitable. Because borders are not real things. Ever seen a border? No. You may see a sign saying where someone decided there was a border, but they aren't real. They do not impede the flow of anything.

    Thousands of years from now our absurdly wasteful nationalism will seem as quaint and primitive as a tribal society.

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  4. there is no love lost in the EU where constant bickering is the norm. even in this country the colonies and later states had to kill a bunch of people before they settled.it's strange that you are so staunchly anti-religious but so easily believe in the things that are just as impossible as Jesus's second coming.

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  5. "I simply do not accept the premise that we can never overcome our animal origins ..."

    Whether or not you can accept it is irrelevant. It is what it is. The fact that some Missouri based religious group can't accept natural selection doesn't change the fact that natural selection exists.

    “Man discovered a long time ago that cooperation is a better survival strategy than competition. That is why the first cities formed.”

    They learned that working together in an agricultural society was a better survival strategy than hunting and gathering.”

    This has nothing to do with a single global government. Hell, humans can’t even get everyone in any respective government to cooperate. You think cooperation is going to magically appear in a global bureaucracy?

    “We are still learning.”

    You’re going to have to show your work here. We are learning how to kill each other much more efficiently, I’ll grant you that.

    “Governments have been consolidating and joining forces since the beginning of time.”

    We did it when the independent colonies joined together to form The United States. Europe did it when they formed the European Union.”

    Holy crap! I can’t believe you actually went here. Governments have been consolidating since the beginning of time?!? Maybe, but they’ve also been fighting, fracturing and Balkanizing since the beginning of time.

    “This consolidation and merging is inevitable. Because borders are not real things. Ever seen a border? No. You may see a sign saying where someone decided there was a border, but they aren't real. They do not impede the flow of anything.”

    Oh boy. So you’re saying if you can’t see something it’s not real? I’ve never seen gravity but I’m pretty sure it’s real. I’ve never seen a literate graduate of the Kansas City Missouri school system, but I’m pretty sure there are some out there somewhere.

    Borders are merely an organizational device we’ve created as a means to more efficient administration of land.

    “Thousands of years from now our absurdly wasteful nationalism will seem as quaint and primitive as a tribal society.”

    Thousands of years from now the damn dirty apes who will be ruling this planet will wonder why in the hell we couldn’t recognize that we were turning ourselves into cattle, systematically eliminating the skills and abilities that we need for self-preservation.

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  6. Republicans. You all never really did get "the vision thing" down did you. But hey, tax cuts and a green, weedless lawn to mow are inspiring reasons to live. Enjoy Kansas!

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  7. "Republicans. You all never really did get "the vision thing" down did you."

    Hmm..."vision" vs. a mind based in reality, eh? Yeah, I'll stick with the latter, thanks.

    It is almost unbelievable that there is continuing dialogue regarding this topic. And yet it seems a bit like Emaw effectively shut XO down with his specified commentary regarding his response. I'm starting to find it all very interesting, I guess. ::shrugs:: I'm certainly learning a lot about people as the discussions continue!

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  8. Faith,

    "Reality?" What is reality? By Emawck's own admission, the human animal and our world as a whole is evolving. Always in flux. So what's real at one time may not be another. For 150 years in this country it was a reality that African-Americans were 3/5 human. Would you care to continue this assertion today? Did you know women weren't allowed to vote until 1919? That was a reality. It was just understood that they were idiot-morons. If we had simply accepted it, you'd still be carrying your husband's piss bucket w/out a say in the matter. Reality is what we make it. Of course everyone has to be on the same page, so I don't think its outrageous to want to see us get there. Soon as the Republicans of the world get selected out.

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  9. Lodo, you're missing the point here. It's not about Repubican vs. Democrat. Most people are coming to the realization that there's very little difference between the two anyway.

    And it has nothing to do with being visionary. Visionary ideas will succeed or fail based on pragmatism and practicality. We've been trying for over fifty years to implement a one-world government and the best we can do is a few impotent UN resolutions.

    At best, visions of global domination by a single government will be ignored. At worst, they'll cause additional world wars when they are attempted. History is littered with visionary despots.

    It's interesting that XO advocates a government that will provide for implicitly forced global redistribution of resources, presumably at the point of a gun, after he's spent years criticizing (rightly) a war to force redistribution of natural resources.

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  10. "Soon as the Republicans of the world get selected out."

    Oh, I'm sorry...I forgot that your reality-based concepts were so, so...realistic.

    Shall we "select out" any other groups while we're at it?

    ::sigh:: Maybe I should have made a point to say that I believe in what can really happen. You know, in real life, and NOT in movies or fairy tales. THAT is what I meant by saying my mind is based in reality. I have a vision, too. It's that people pull their heads out their asses and actually do their jobs, and contribute to society in a productive manner. Jesus H. Christ...

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  11. Good post and retorts, Emaw.

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  12. Emawck's "friend" who wants to see a one-world government seems very contrived to me. I don't believe anyone's hoping for one-world government until so many other pieces are in place. Its a goal--an ideal. Like a perfect 10 in gymnastics. Whether it can really be achieved is beside the point. Human history/evolution does not advance smoothly. It moves more like tectonic plates. But you've got to want to move and also have the guts to try (when the opportunity presents itself). The tone of this post was pathetic. Piss-poor. Self-righteous, hypocritical and smarmy. Which of course made me think of republicans!

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  13. Um, it was sarcastic. Which some people get, and some people don't. We'll just keep you over on that "don't" side for now, mkay?

    I think it's more just an all-over political kind of thing when it comes to the smarmy, self-righteous, and hypocritical. I don't think the right-wing can be nailed alone on that kind of sensibility. Sorry man...I've seen plenty of smarmy, self-righteous, and hypocritical shit from the left side too over the past 10 years. Nancy Pelosi, Bill Clinton, John Edwards...and those are just the ones who make it to the top! Don't get me started on the lower-level smarmyness.

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  14. For what it's worth, Lodo, I agree with you on a couple of things. First, my friend XO is very contrived. Like you, I suspect he really isn't hoping for a one world government, or at least he hasn't thought the prospect through to its logical conclusion. But then, I don't really expect liberals to employ logic, so I give him a pass on that one.

    As for the tone of this post, I'll cop to the pathetic, piss-poor, smarmy and self-rightous parts. But hypocritical? You wound me, sir.

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  15. Sounds like bigger things are afoot for you at this time. Stay excited Emawck!

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