#2
Posted on May 11, 2019 | By Ego
A period of peace incites complacency...
A period of peace incites complacency. I feel conflict and strife impels change in the same way increased competition amongst firms call for research and development. We have to remember the atomic bombs were crafted in an age where it was absolutely crucial, in an age wracked with war. So perhaps a period of peace is also a period of stagnancy, and hence an established utopia might not always be a good thing. Do we want to progress, or do we want to live?
Yet you could argue that there is still progress in the absence of instigation, where flight was discovered and even general relativity sure took its time. It wasn't rushed, and perhaps that was key. Be that as it may, the fact of the matter is we are a species who need purpose and drive. It is the way procrastinators tick, it is the reason why we refuse to do anything at all if we suddenly decide that life itself has no purpose. Other animals will simply do so for the sake of doing. They kill and reproduce simply because of a primal instinct to.
When civil conflicts arise, governments will take little to no further action that the bare minimum necessary to subdue such riots. They ignore that in the long run the seeds of uprising have already been sowed, and could lead to catastrophic consequences. When global warming shows signs of speeding up, we ignore it mostly and do little to stop it altogether. We will only take action when the perceived threat is largely imminent, and in most cases already knocking on our door- or already showing themselves inside.
Perhaps we simply require increased prognostication? Not so. We have the soothsayers and clairvoyants at our disposal- highly educated economists, environment scientists, meteorologists. The masses will let their words fall on deaf ears, for it's simply what makes us tick, what makes us move. We're inherently selfish, and that's the truth.
#1
Posted on April 14, 2019 | By Ego
In a virtuous setting, people will manifest excellence differently...
In a virtuous setting, people will manifest excellence differently. In an indifferent setting, people will manifest apathy differently. In a vicious setting, they will manifest vice differently. It might not be ethically desirable, but it is practically necessary.
There is no other profound instigator of emotions than war and conflict. Which is why I feel the lower echelons of society will always be more mature than the higher ones, because of what they are exposed to, usually at a very young age. They are forced to cope with death, pain and grief at too young a age, which is why no one will understand better than them what it's like to go through such strifes. A child in a wartorn country becomes more responsible faster than a kid in a more privileged upbringing. They've gone through more than you could ever understand. Your laws don't apply to them in the way that you mean to.
So outlaws will become out of necessity rather than spite, in a need to do what is right rather than what has been established. They will lie, steal and kill to survive, because survival's all they've ever known.
Who's to blame? The vicious, unjust system. And that's through no fault of our own. Augustine seperates and clearly denotes the City of Men, and the City of God stating that in this life, in this city- there shall be no justice. We can pursue it to the best of our abilities, but it is simply the obligation of the way things are to ensure justice will never truly be universal, because equality and equity was never ever ours to determine to begin with.
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't pursue justice, nor equality, nor equity. We can try our best to understand, however the need to follow the law remains. Whatever the reason, intentions can only mitigate punishment, never exonerate wrong-doing. That's simply how it has to be for us to be just- and for that very reason, ironically, injustice continues to ravage the world. Sweet, sweet irony.
