What If It’s the People, Not the System?
Capitalism doesn’t work. Neither does communism. Neither does socialism. Neither does every single political system to ever exist in history.
But why?
Imagine this. Every single time Bob drives, he gets into an accident. Well, what do we blame? Bob or his car?
It’s true- we live in a broken society. But at some point, we’ve really got to acknowledge that there’s nothing to blame but ourselves.
Maybe we were never meant to have organized societies. Maybe we were just meant to have a simple nomadic lifestyle. Maybe our brains were never wired to worry about social media and beauty standards.
Human nature- greed, selfishness, hatefulness- have allowed humans to survive through generations and generations without getting wiped out. But now that we are finally ruling the world, these qualities may well be the demise of our species.
If I were at the top, I would change the system
You might think you’re a ‘good’ person now, but you’re not. ‘Good’ is just a social construct that allows other people to take advantage of you (and you to take advantage of others). The moment you get the infinite power that comes with money, all the societal expectations to be ‘good’ are removed from you. Your true, inner human nature unleashes- and you become ‘evil’.
So no, the reason why ethical billionaires don’t exist is not simply because you have to play dirty to amass that kind of wealth. It’s also because the moment you’ve amassed the power, you’re physically no longer able to be ‘good’- you don’t have to.
You- and I- cannot ‘change the world’. Not one human can. When- or if- one of us gets to the position of power that we can change the world, we just wouldn’t.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.
- Nietzsche
It is impossible not to ‘become a monster’. Once you’ve beat the monster, you will turn into the monster.
The takeaway? If you’re reading this, you’re not at the top, you’re never going to be at the top, but if you got to the top some way or another, you’d be just like them.
Back to politics
So, now we know. Whenever someone amasses a certain amount of power, they become evil. And every single political system requires someone- or a group of people- to be in power over everyone else. It may be the government, it may be employers, it may be a tribe leader. Essentially, where there is social hierarchy, there is power. Where there is power, there is corruption.
All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
- George Orwell
Here’s something interesting. Whenever humans try to organize themselves, they always somehow end up with some sort of a hierarchy system- the ‘strongest’ lead, the rest follow.
It’s a deeply troubling notion when you think about it. Aren’t we born equal? How can someone be better than another? Why are some people more equal than others?
And honestly, I don’t know. And I will probably never know. But there is a reason why human logic only gets us so far.
In a perfect world, we would have a ‘leaderless’ government. However, you would be able to imagine what sort of chaos would ensue. Without a decision-making authority, people would spend all their time arguing, and the civilisation would fall apart.
Well, why does this happen? Surely we would have the same needs if we’re the same species living in the same space?
The issue lies within the fact that we have the same needs. Limited resources and selfish people do not make a good combination. It’s pretty obvious from here.
Democracy is the closest we have to a ‘leaderless’ government, but unfortunately, it still relies on a governing body to settle disputes. Paired with capitalism, corruption runs wild- but in a scarier manner- under the guise that ‘power is vested in the people’. Democracy runs on the illusion of freedom.
Basically, every political system works in theory. But the equation neglects human nature. How are you supposed to prevent corruption when power, the very thing that leads to corruption, is concentrated in a group of people?
Christianity
Coincidentally- or maybe not- everything leads back to Christianity.
The main doctrine of the New Testament is that after Jesus died for humanity’s sins and gave humanity the chance to go to Heaven. Believing in God is accepting this gift.
See, most other religions state that ‘good’ people go to Heaven and ‘bad’ people go to Hell. On the other hand, Christianity states that everyone is inherently evil, and no amount of human good can make up for the one’s evils, so everyone deserves Hell. Essentially, the concept of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ doesn’t exist for humans because we are wholly ‘bad’.
Even if you’re not a Christian, you have to agree that the authors of the Bible were incredibly self-aware of their human nature.
But I digress. There’s obviously much more I could talk about, but I’ll leave it here as some food for thought. If you want to know more, there are countless experts on the internet that could explain this way better than I ever would.
Well, what is ‘good’ then?
I’ve been going on and on about how ‘good’ does not exist. But there is always a relative positive and negative. So what is the relative positive morality?
I believe that being ‘good’, in itself, is acknowledging and accepting that one is, in fact, not ‘good’. It is having the self-awareness that nobody can be truly ‘good’.
However, society today cannot function without people aiming for this unreachable sense of ‘good’. As I said, you cannot change the system, so it is really in everyone’s best interest to just go along with it. Avoid hurting other people, try your best to help those in need- obviously keep yourself first. Nobody will keep you first, and if you don’t, who will?
