I was thinking about the “what if” questions we often ask ourselves. Usually it relates to things that would probably never happen like winning the lottery, never growing old, being a celebrity, etc. I was actually thinking about how our world might be different if we followed through on some “what if” questions. Some of these questions might be:
- What if wealth was a measure of how much you give rather than how much you receive or have?
- What if corporations served the best interest of the people rather than the people serving the best interest of the corporation?
- What if our country chooses to return violence with love and compassion?
- What if we all choose to do what’s right instead of “being right?”
- What if we spend money on medical research instead of weapons research?
- What if we choose to “bailout” the poor instead of the rich?
- What if we all stopped using love like a commodity?
- What if we all treat others like we would want them to treat us?
- What if we all lived within our means?
- What if we all stopped shopping and started sharing?
- What if….
Obviously this list could go on and on, but just think how different our world would be if we actually followed through on these types of questions.
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I think about these what-if's all the time. I think all these what-ifs are related to a common underlying social pathology. I think it stems from a classically liberal, hyper-individualistic view of human nature that essentially suggests that it's healthy to be selfish and invites us to view all our interactions as transactional. When you design societies based on that philosophy, it's inevitable that this would be morally corrosive and unhealthy.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is interested, this is all part of a big philosophical and scientific debate between neoclassical economists and social psychologists. There are really interesting scientific literatures about the rift between what we think will make us happy and what actually does.