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Originally Posted by 7gaugejames
I am in agreement on some points Tore, but what do you think about living off the grid, solar power, wind driven, deep wells, hydroponic nurseries, barter and trade skill for skill, building your neighbors house so he provides you with fresh meat for a couple years, farmers who can trade veggies for eggs, or fruit for blankets, that kinda stuff? I daydream about self sufficiency because it's hard to see a future that doesn't end up in chaos.
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Well, if you were totally self-sufficient, I think you would find it hard to reap the benefits of solar power, wind, deep wells, nurseries, everything that has to do with trade and neighbours etc. Basically, you'd be on your own. What you write about looks more like a crude form of society to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 7gaugejames
Corrosion of Conformity said, Free dope and fu@king in the streets; a possible utopia exists almost instantaniously, (best forest gump voice),now i don't know about all that Jen-ny. would your society have a code of ethics that must be followed, how will you deal with those that don't? If my life depended on you i'd help you as much as i could. Society, what it should be.......  benefiting, to whom? All. I think i'll lace up my vans and go for a skate in my little fantasy land, i'll say high to the unicorns for you,  and when i see the Yukon, I'll stop. |
There wouldn't be specific ethics. People would be expected to follow the law and in a democratic country, the law is ultimately an expression of the will of the people. To illustrate : If you wanna play, you're free to come and have a good time, but you gotta play by the rules. If you don't like the rules, you can try and change them, but you have to do so
by the rules. If you're unwilling to even accept that, then you should consider leaving the society. If you break the rules, you might get punished and depending on severity, you might get removed.
Again, this is really basic and generally how things work in the western world. It doesn't really say much about what the politics would be like, just a little bit about some core rules and the concepts they are based on.
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Originally Posted by BoopieJones
Unfortunately the existance of a perfect society will never be, for it is prone to human vices such as selfishness, greed, dishonesty, and hypocrisy.
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I agree that society can't get perfect because it should make it as good as possible for everyone rather than every individual. It will be best for the majority and not the minority, although in a good society, the minority should of course not have it bad since again it lifts everyone. About the human vices, a society should have an ability to deal with those. It won't be perfect, but at least it should be better than it would have been in an anarchy where consequences for your actions, good or bad, are much more uncertain.
There is a flawed way of thinking that if we can't make it perfect, there's no point. If you think about it, that doesn't make much a lot of sense, just like "if I can't live the best possible life ever, I might as well die" doesn't make much sense.
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Originally Posted by BoopieJones
Society does not exist for the whole but for the part, each part has some idea of what they desire (Which is most likely driven in them subconsiously or consiouly by society and furthered by selfishness and ignorance) and will follow that path, whether or not it strays them from what is good for the people as a whole. I'd like to believe communist, socialist, or other simular systems work because they are there to help all equally (as all humans are of equal worth and deserve equal treatment) however even the creators of these societies might have slant or ulterior motives, or the people within them are unable to live outside their self in order to preserve it (from the Tao Te Ching)
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I think that in a good society, people would be free to pursue their desires and happiness in many ways as long as it doesn't conflict with the laws. Actually, having a high diversity of interests, meanings, pursuits and so on would be healthy and I don't see why different desires have to conflict with society .. unless they are of the illegal sort, but giving up a little for a lot is kind of part of the idea.
I think the far left end where you find communism crushes people by being too controlling. I don't think that the communistic idea of "fair for all" is necessarily best. There's a point between right and left where, in a broad sense, everyone is contributing to everyone and everyone has the freedom to live the lives they want within reasonable limits (criminals aside).