tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post8648390045542128003..comments2024-03-28T18:32:05.933-04:00Comments on bensozia: Looking for SolutionsJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-76655987422882103412021-11-12T17:39:47.242-05:002021-11-12T17:39:47.242-05:00We don't need a revolution in either morals or...<i>We don't need a revolution in either morals or politics, just a consistent effort to be good and do our work as best we can.</i><br /><br />Managing to get the average person - or even just the average empowered policy maker - to make consistent effort to be good and do our work as best we can WOULD be a revolution in both morals AND politics.<br /><br />I am constantly complaining in my comments about how many (if not most) of our problems are based in a lack of will - overall we'd much rather be lazy, or greedy, or petty, or cruel, or proud, or afraid, or indifferent, or a thousand other things, than to sit down and just employ fixes we already know exist and work.<br /><br />Our healthcare system is awful and insanely expensive, but there are a huge number of comparably affluent countries that have affordable and effective healthcare which we could take notes from and pick and choose best practices and changes to enact.<br /><br />Yet we simply don't have the will to do so, because there's too much money involved (greed); and because certain people would decry other people not "earning" the right to the healthcare they themselves enjoy (pettiness and pride); and because other people who just reflexively resist change and cling to the status quo (fear); and because some people don't care if other people lack healthcare because they themselves do possess it (indifference); etc, etc.<br /><br />Why is our prison system so awful? Much the same reason - certain people are making a lot of money off it, other people <i>want</i> it to be awful as "punishment", other people are just averse to risking making changes, other people just don't care, etc.<br /><br />Why is our primary education system so laughable to the international community? Why is our infrastructure crumbling? Why are wages stagnant? Why is police brutality such a problem? Why are we so reliant on fossil fuels and so hesitant to employ renewables? It's not because workable solutions don't exist! It's because we lack the will to fix things, preferring the maintain the status quo for unjust reasons.<br /><br />You're 100% right - we <i>"just"</i> need a consistent effort to be good and do our work the best we can. But that's a <i>huge</i> "just"! Most people don't <i>want</i> to be good! Most people don't <i>want</i> to do the best they can! They want to be bad instead. They're amoral and selfish. It's not anything intrinsic to them as people - they are just the product of our dominant cultural values. We, as a society, value greed, pettiness, cruelty, pride, fear, indifference, and all the rest, far more than we value being good and doing our best.<br /><br />Getting people to change their ways and start wanting those things would be precisely the kind of revolution in morals and politics you oddly claim we don't need.G. Verlorennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-31705356783061827352021-11-12T07:51:42.753-05:002021-11-12T07:51:42.753-05:00I agree there are serious problems with capitalist...I agree there are serious problems with capitalist media, which is why I gave up watching the news more than 30 years ago. But government control of the press hasn't worked out very well, either.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01037215533094998996noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8304928500646903522.post-62168743551224342622021-11-12T01:09:13.808-05:002021-11-12T01:09:13.808-05:00Maybe... just maybe... our society's primary m...Maybe... just <i>maybe</i>... our society's primary means of informing the public about important events and topics <i>shouldn't</i> be built upon a for-profit system that ruthlessly prioritizes money over truth, morality, and societal good?<br /><br />Mmmm... nahhhh... gotta worry about that slippery slope, after all! If we make news prioritize educating the public over profiting off "engagement", what's next? Healthcare that prioritizes public health over profiting off sickness? A criminal justice system that prioritizes preventing crime over profiting off incarceration? Where does it stop, I ask you? Do we really want to live in that kind of society?<br /><br />/sG. Verlorennoreply@blogger.com