We are led to believe that our lives have some importance, that we will live on in the hearts and minds of those who loved us best, in the remembrances of our friends, our families and all those who touched or were touched by our existence.
We are led to believe that some things, perhaps not a great number, are absolutely true and that others are absolutely false.
We are taught by family and religion that some things are wrong, at all times and in all places, and that other things are right, at all times and all places.
Many of the world's greatest thinkers call all these assertions into question. Friedrich Nietzsche holds that nothing could be more insignificant than the herd animal that is man. David Hume reports that humans are no more important in the great scheme of the universe than a single oyster alone in the vast expanse of the ocean.
As I get older I too question the significance of human existence. I have been assessing my beliefs and attempting to come to grips with the burgeoning doubts that creep into my mind in those last waking moments before sleep, or in my dreams, or in those first musings upon waking. I ask myself, what are the things in which I truly and confidently believe? It is much easier to list those things in which I do not believe.
I do not believe that my local, state or national government can solve the problems of high unemployment, rising medical, fuel and food prices, and myriad other social problems that exist. I do not believe that they will adequately provide for the least privledged members of our society such as the young, the elderly or the ill.
I do not believe in the extremists on either end of the political spectrum. I, like many Americans, am weary of the harping, whining, complaining, back-biting, childish and self-serving behaviors that we see displayed in American politics everyday.
One thing that I still believe is that human beings should treat each other with respect. Human beings should help other human beings when they can. Most importantly, societies, and the governments that issue from them, should be FAIR.
I think all of us have a notion of what fairness means.
1. Not to take advantgage.
2. Not to be disrepectful.
3. To provide equal opportunity for all and equal protection under the law for all.
4. To disperse goods and services based on merit, but also to provide whatever is needed for those less fortunate than ourselves.
Most of us have an innate knowledge of these principles at our core. If we are not sociopaths we have a conscience. Most of us are not sociopaths.
If we all listened to our conscience we would not need government to become our conscience.
That's one of the last things I believe.
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