From: Billy Brown (bbrown@conemsco.com)
Date: Thu May 13 1999 - 12:44:55 MDT
jonwill wrote:
> Maybe Humanity's lack of a guiding philosophy has contributed to the fact
> that more than 800 million people are malnourished, large segments
> of the population continue to suffer from preventable diseases, and over
30
> million people will die each year from starvation or preventable diseases.
Actually, it is the attempt to impose a unified vision on everyone that
generally causes such ills.
People are different, and thus will naturally have different goals,
philosophies, and outlooks on life. You can attempt to persuade others to
accept your vision, but you can't reasonably expect to persuade *everyone* -
after all, other people are doing their own persuasion, and their goals will
often conflict with yours.
The only way to create a unified vision for an entire society is to resort
to force. You must seize the reigns of power, outlaw and suppress rival
viewpoints, and require adherence to your chosen philosophy at gunpoint.
The result is predictable - no matter how noble the original ideas were,
your revolution will end up being run by the smartest, most unscrupulous
thugs in the country. From there you take a quick road to whatever form of
authoritarianism they find most convenient.
IMO, we are much better off recognizing that no one has all the answers,
there is no "one, true way", and no one can be trusted to make all of our
decisions for us. Freedom does not cure all ills, but it cures more of them
than anything else that has ever been tried.
Billy Brown, MCSE+I
bbrown@conemsco.com
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