Blurts & Spasms

A morally mature adult owes society their commitment to maintaining that society in prosocial ways. After all, we owe everything we are — absolutely everything — to the civic institutions, rule of law, cultural expectations, economic stability and opportunity, political freedoms, human rights, educational opportunities, and other supportive structures that society provides. These are what form our identity and sense of belonging, and offer us existential security and pathways to aspiration.

It is utterly absurd, immature, and profoundly selfish for anyone to assert that they “owe society nothing.” Such sentiments are caustic and destructive to the promises of freedom, agency, and happiness that developed societies aim to accomplish for all individuals. In the context of modern society, individualistic materialism has unfortunately devolved into a sort of narcissistic solipsism, and if that devolution continues it will not end well for either society or its individuals.

Now, it is also true that society can do harm — it can use institutional, economic, and cultural hierarchy to oppress and deprive some people of the very freedoms, opportunities, and agency that it secures for other groups. And this inequality is a real challenge that we must address, so that there is a realistically “level playing field” for everyone to achieve their potential. This is why I personally advocate for arrangements of political economy that diffuse and distribute both power and wealth, rather than allow them to become concentrated. We are a long way from accomplishing this in much of the world, but there is a way to achieve it. My thoughts on that in the link below.

http://www.level-7.org/