Saturday, November 13, 2010

A Matured Society

An immature society needs a Bible in order to believe in God
Preachers to interpret it
Saviors to idolize
A written Constitution in order to behave lawfully
representatives in order to state their case
leaders to follow and bow before
printed money in order to be motivated to work
and text book instruction on how to raise and educate their children

A mature society graduates beyond all of those childish learning modes
leaves behind all the arguments of interpretation and policing they engender
acknowledges the collective responsibilities and cooperation of a matured society
trusts in the personal honor and integrity of each of their fellow citizens
and relies on its natural evolutionary abilities to navigate successfully
through the adult stages of a Nation's life

not a single person on this planet has ever arrived at adulthood
let alone an entire society
we are all in various stages of evolving maturity
the most advanced societies are teenage protesters
playing Russian roulette with nuclear bombs
and gambling on the market with natural resources
still hellbent on selfish aggrandizement
and to hell with the consequences

all I am espousing is the criteria needed
for us to grow up and become responsible adults
I do believe it must happen eventually
and the sooner the better
we are running out of resources
we may be immature
but we are not stupid

Dissenters are teenagers striving for a necessary transitional state of independent self-awareness
this is best done via self-aggrandizing (aka greedy) competition among their peer group

Adulthood is a state of self-awareness related to a profound understanding
that existence itself is meaningless without compassionate and constructive inter-dependence
that without responsible cooperation and mutual respect among peers
endless competition is no longer creatively productive but also destructive
This state of adult mind is clearly realized as a parent seeking future security for its children
where the welfare of the next generation
is more important than the present one

In an adult state of mind
anarchy is moot
all parents desire precisely the same sharing and caring family values
which are founded on equality of resources and of opportunity

In a society of adult peers
the mind of the parent and that of the State
are one and the same

Freedom. Fraternity and Equality
then become the existential democratic realities of a matured society
not merely the precocious idealistic slogans
of a prior rebellious, self-determinant teenage consciousness

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