Contrasting World Views
There are two extreme philosophies afloat regarding distribution of power, resources, opportunity. What is fair? What is just? What is right? Position #1 says that we share and share alike, analogous to administering equally all available food, water, medicine, shelter, chores, among all the diverse passengers in a drifting lifeboat, which is in essence what our lovely blue planet spinning through cold, dark space is. Construction #2 accepts that status/entitlement/privilege/opportunity is controlled by birthright as well as by individual merit/achievement/ability; that everyone fares in this life according to the management of their own self. Neither extreme is a realistic position to embrace exclusively, but we can balance things much better than we currently do.
Picture if you will a lifeboat floating in the lonely endless blue ocean. Aboard the vessel are forty fortunate souls: 24 are from Asia, 7 from Africa, 4 – Europe, 3 – Latin America, 2 from North America. Twenty-one are urban dwellers. Gender is split evenly. Thirty-four can read and write. Seven speak Chinese, three each English and Hindi, two each Spanish and Arabic, and the rest a smattering of other native tongues. Age wise; twenty-six of our cast-aways are between 15 and 64, ten are 14 and under; four are seniors over 65. Four begin this voyage mal-nourished. The six best-fed are accustomed to consuming 3500 cal/day, the others 2500 cal/day. Eleven profess to be Christian, eight adhere to Islam, six-Hindu, four- Taoism/Confusianism. No surprise, but by design these figures also represent the demographic distribution on our planet.
Being suddenly thrust into that lifeboat, few of us would commandeer all the water and chocolate bars for our own personal use. We would speak up for law, order, equality and advocate sharing in risks and benefits and the finite resources. All would be asked to contribute as they were able. Those engaged in useful work for the group: fishing, catching birds and rain water, paddling/sailing, a nursing mother perhaps, lookouts might merit a slightly higher ration in order to do their duty. Medicine would be used to assuage suffering and preserve life until it ran out.
The thought of one small subgroup – say the three North Americans – demanding the right to the shade tarp and protein bars because they happened to be stowed under their benches, is ludicrous. If a particular passenger had the forethought to grab a bag of oranges, sunscreen, or water or flares before jumping in the boat, those items would be appropriately divided out for the good of the group.
There will always exist a stepped or tiered pyramid, where each ascending step or level offers increasing abundance, for fewer recipients. Birthright: genes, geography, parents, century; dictates much of one’s starting placement on the pyramid. There is some small opportunity for upward mobility, but inequality is accepted as a natural order. And in the background, “this life’s hard, but it’s harder if you’re stupid“ (often attributed to the Duke, but first published in the 1970 novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle)is alive as ever.
In contrast to all being in the same boat, this world is often viewed as a collection of disparate nations, ethnicities, social and economic classes, parties all in competition for a slice of the pie: energy, food, territory, technology, power, etc. There are leaders and innovators creating more pie through ingenuity, vision, hard work, sacrifice. Others, despite their backbreaking labor, are struggling to survive the day. Some bask: fat, dumb, and happy; in their opulence, either blind or callous to the plight of the lower tiers. And there are slackers.
The world has become an intricately inter-connected community. Resources are traded in everything from AI technology to toothpaste to wheat. America first, or Argentina first, or Alles fürs Vaterland (All for the Fatherland) all have their place. But the days of “first”, meaning “only”, are long gone. We hold dear our obligations to family, to look after our own, but at what expense? Family is a pithy term: we belong to blood families, congregation families, work, community, school, state and national families and we are all members of the human family. When fire and flood ravage our national family, for example, we pitch in. Oft times, lifting the broader family is good for our intimate family too. That passengers in one country or class are obese and materially saturated, while at the other end of the lifeboat they starve, is obscene.
To achieve any kind of human balance, the “haves” will have to be more generous with their chocolate bars, and/or do much better at lifting all of us together. That obligation comes with the birthright.