This I Believe – III
While the issues I will write about here are more specific than those mentioned in the previous post, dealing only with certain aspects of life, that doesn’t make them less important.
I believe in freedom of religion, as long as you don’t attempt to force your beliefs upon others. That means everybody should be able to follow any religion or none at all and be free to put their beliefs into practice however they see fit, as long as their actions do not affect those who do not share their beliefs and as long as they do not actively try to gain more converts. Saying that, I think I should say a few things about what shouldn’t be done.
Considering children as members of a certain faith before they could make that choice for themselves should be illegal, as should raising them to believe in a certain way. The only right thing to do is to present multiple viewpoints to them, answer questions to the best of your abilities and let them make their own choices when they are ready. For that purpose, rituals that make a small child a member of a certain religion should be outlawed, and before anybody assumes I’m only talking about baptism, I’ll say I’m talking about wiccanings where patron deities are chosen or any other such events just as well. But it’s certainly not about children: Any attempt to convert another to your religion without them asking you to, as well as any open judging of another based on religious views that they don’t share, should be outlawed.
Wearing certain items that state your beliefs should be allowed in all circumstances unless they go against reasonable rules. However, when rules that apply to all forbid the use of such items, nobody should start saying they’re discriminated against when in fact they’re judged exactly like everyone else. For example, a hijab that covers your face is not ok to wear where your identity must be checked, nor is a ritual weapon ok to carry around in places where weapons of its kind are not allowed.
Perhaps most importantly, in order to ensure equality for all, no religion may have a role in state politics. Individual policymakers can, of course, practice their chosen religion like everyone else, but it must not directly interfere with the laws and regulations they pass. There should be no official state religion and no governmental decisions should be justified by the teachings of any one religion. There should also be no government support for strictly religious projects, but also no laws restricting the activities people can do in the name of religion as long as only those who share that belief are affected.
I believe people don’t all need to be social creatures, at least not in the way the term is currently understood. I’m seeing all sorts of advice everywhere at the start of every school year about how it’s normal for some children to be unwilling to be part of the community school forces them into but listing methods to make them adapt to it nevertheless. If it’s normal, why must they reject their own normality and substitute it with another?
If many people like being around others, interacting with others and so on, good for them, but what about those who don’t? Or what about the times when a person that usually desires social interaction would simply rather be left alone? Shouldn’t there be a way to have a life without the need for direct interaction?
We have the Internet to communicate with each other, and I see nothing wrong in using it. There is no problem with talking on-line, shopping on-line, playing on-line or any other such things! Besides, it allows you to interact with many more people than you could otherwise, eliminating distances. So, no, people shouldn’t be herded towards interacting with each other in person simply because somebody assumed at some point that it’s the most desirable means of interaction in all situations. That assumption was quite logical at that point, since these other means weren’t yet available, but things change. And it’s rare that they change for the better, so let’s not pass up such an opportunity!
I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather live in a world where people would only meet other people that they wish to meet and be able to get everything done from home. Tense situations and unpleasant moments can often be better managed in front of a computer screen, away from distractions and safe from potential violent outbursts. Not to mention that getting rid of the need to travel to and from school or work each day would save time, reduce stress, clear the traffic and improve the environment, as well as give people who work better alone the chance to make the most of their potential. And all of that translates into having more time to spend with your friends and loved ones in person and being in a better mood when you do so…
I believe school should allow each child to develop the abilities they choose to develop, not treat them all the same. I also think homeschooling should be far more widespread. In fact, I think there should be an option to have no formal education of any kind, just needing to take some tests to prove you have certain basic knowledge that everybody should have. Past that, each should choose the subjects they’re interested in and their preferred method of study.
There are a lot of things a person can be good at, and that should be reflected in their studies. I don’t agree with the idea I keep hearing from education officials, that the purpose of the educational system is to offer everyone an average level of understanding in all the fields that are considered to be important and some additional help in the direction of their choice, leaving further development to happen on the person’s own time. For one, there are plenty of fields that are presently considered to be important that really aren’t, and others that are but aren’t given enough attention, or even none at all. And then, I think each person should focus on what they’re interested in, not need to waste their time on things they’ll most likely never need!
There are actually a lot of things I’d say about the educational system, but I’ll leave those for another time. What I need to mention here now is that nobody should judge another by their level of formal education. Having a piece of paper saying what you should know how to do shouldn’t offer you any advantage and not having it shouldn’t be a disadvantage. What should be taken into account is only what you really know and what you’re actually able to do in the given situation, and that’s something the current educational system doesn’t prepare people for anyway, seeing as it usually focuses on theory over practice.
And there’s one last thing I’ll say here. The educational system should try to encourage creativity in all areas, while right now its purpose seems to be to erase any trace of it. It should encourage people to look at things from new perspectives, imagine potential new developments, try new things! I read a quote a while ago: “An inventor is a person that didn’t take their teachers too seriously.” That should change! Teachers should do everything they can to create thinkers, inventors, idealists and reformists, encourage their students to take the world forward, solve problems, create new things, see things that others haven’t noticed before…
I believe people shouldn’t need to work all the time to support themselves, and that the world actually doesn’t need everybody to work, as the unemployment rates prove. But keep in mind that these unemployment rates exist despite efforts to always create new jobs, which actually reduce productivity and make everyone earn less. Not to mention that developments in robotics could drastically reduce the need for humans to work in many sectors.
I know we could come up with a job rotation system where people would earn enough to live the whole year, if they’re reasonably careful with their expenses, by working, say, four months. Perhaps it could be even better than that, but I was just giving an example. Imagine having eight months of vacation instead of one. Wouldn’t everybody be happier?
It can be done. We only need to first implement as many automatic systems as possible, keeping human supervisors for all, of course, and then reduce the number of jobs available for humans to only what’s absolutely necessary. That way we would have the best productivity with the lowest number of workers, thus the companies will be able to pay each of their workers way more than they currently do, therefore allowing said workers to have a reasonable standard of living without working all the time. Of course there are a lot of specifics, but I won’t talk at length about it here.
There should also be a limit on the time any person can spend doing work-related activities, not only on the actual working hours. That should include the time actually spent at work plus any breaks where you can’t do anything you please for various reasons, any time spent on the road while going to work and getting back, any time spent doing work-related activities at home and so on. I think this is absolutely necessary in order to reduce stress levels, and I’d set said limit at 50 hours per week split among at most five days.
I believe there shouldn’t be censorship and that nobody should be responsible for being a role model to others. Remember what I said about each being fully responsible for their own actions. If a person plays a violent game or watches a violent movie and then goes on a killing spree, the producers are not to blame. If a person learns that their favorite singer uses drugs and destroys themselves by doing the same, it’s not the singer’s fault. See where I’m going with this?
Considering that, I think there should be no restrictions on what kind of content can be shown, used or sold, though warning labels are a good idea. Warn people about the contents of the “package”, whether it is a music album, computer game, TV show or anything else, and let them make their own choice. I also think parents shouldn’t restrict their children’s right to watch, play or listen a certain thing, but instead be there to explain everything to them and ensure that they know what is reality and what is not.
To a reasonably sane person with a decent sense of morality, a violent game can be a good way to release anger in a safe manner, thus not ending up breaking items or actually attacking another. That same person may take a song with violent lyrics as proof that somebody else understands what they’re going through, grounding them and helping them focus on finding a solution. And that same person will see a star’s drug use as nothing other than that star’s personal choice, then make their own choice on the matter after analyzing the facts for themselves.
These are of course only a few examples, but I think I made my point clear enough. Entertainment is just that, entertainment. If somebody takes it as being something else, the entertainer is not responsible. And any person’s personal life is their own, so they are free to live it as they wish and they shouldn’t be told to think of those that might take them as role models.
I could talk about what I believe for a long time, but I think these 12 things are enough for now, so I’ll end this series of posts here. Remember that this was just a brief overview of each and that many details were left unsaid.