Not Where I Wanna Be

Introductory Essay

I AM ANNOYED WITH US!

Blame it on whomever you want, but things ain't like it was back in the Garden of E.

We're a suspicious, fearful, helpless society who has put people in charge who care the least about us. We lie, cheat, steal, kill and seduce. We're selfish and greedy, lazy and anal, foolish and stupid... and WE CAN DO BETTER.

We HAVE to do better... our very survival depends on it. But how? Isn't our current society the ultimate? Haven't we cast away all other sociopolitical systems in favor of this, the current and best?
Apparently not.

I have thought for years about how to devise a better world to live in. To that end, I'm writing this blog to clarify my idea, called (for now) Perfect World Theory. More about that later. First let me explain why I think it's a necessary next step in our social evolution.

And before that, introductions.

Who Am I?

I am Bruce. I'm not a philosopher, a politician, a city planner, or a preacher... although at times I simulate ALL of those.

What I am, is an observer. I watch, and I calculate. I'm like a watchmaker for social reform. I analyze the machinery of society. I look at all the little gears... I find the ones which are gumming up the works... and I design smooth new replacements.

Most importantly, I'm a non-fictional, non-partisan, non-superstitious guy with a fantastic idea.

One of my friends heard about this blog I began. He started, "Wait a minute... you're a carpenter."

I responded, perhaps a little defensively, "What about it? A carpenter can't write?"

"And you're a longhair!"

"For now... and it doesn't get in the way of writing... or carpentry!" I protested.

"Not my point. And you're Jewish!"

"Lapsed-- I'd have to call myself a non-theist. What is your point?"

"Now you have a design for world peace?"

I smiled. "That is the plan, yes."

He stared at me and said, in a reverential whisper, "Dude... don't you realize you're JESUS?"

THAT surprised me. "What the heck are you talking about?"

"A longhaired Jewish carpenter preaching peace, love and joy? All you need is the toga and the twelve disciples, pal!"

I thought about that. Then I said, "Tunic."

"What?"

"Tunic. The Greeks wore togas. I'm pretty sure that Jesus and his disciples wore tunics. Besides, I get into my share of trouble, being a 'work to live' kind of a guy."

"Hey, Jesus was no saint." Then he laughed. "Okay, he was... but I mean he got into his share of trouble... look what the Romans did to him."

I shuddered. "Not for me, thanks! Besides' I'm different-- I do not preach. I'm just a writer... read it only if you want. That's my congregation... the congregation of 'whatever'."

My friend remained unconvinced. "I think you're the real deal. I saw you walk on water."

What? I thought. "WHAT?" I said.

"At the lake last winter."

I had to laugh. "It was frozen!"

He continued undeterred. "I saw you change water into wine."

I spoke slowly. "I poured water into a jerry can with grain alcohol and grape Kool-Aid! Get off it already... I ain't Jesus!"

"Well, I think you are. From now on, I'm your right hand man... your 'Pas De Deux'... your Judas Iscariot."

I laughed. "I doubt you want to betray me, or ballet dance."

He said, "Whatever."

I said, "Now THAT'S the kind of congregation I can lead!"

What Is This All About?

It's about designing a new society. Social organization has changed throughout time. Right now in the United States and elsewhere, we are grouped under the heading of Democracy. A noble idea, and one which at its core is optimistic and hopeful. Democracy is defined as a system of government run by the whole population, typically through elected representatives.

Coupled with democracy here in America, however, is another structure that, in its practice, actually destroys the democratic principle. That structure is called Capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.

Also an idea which is noble in principle, capitalism unfortunately tends to run at odds with the needs of people as biological entities. Capitalism favors those who excel at capitalism (usually only a small percentage of the whole) and puts the majority at risk.

When looking closely at the definitions of capitalism and democracy we can see the problem clearly. BOTH are in use. Running side by side, it's clear that they both have many conflicting parts. We as a nation need to run on only ONE system in order to eliminate the conflict.

Why Do We Need It?

Because our dual system is unsustainable. We know this to be true because we are watching the conflicts in both systems fight each other during our major economic meltdown, which is occurring right here and right now. So, moving on to the focus of this blog--

PERFECT WORLD THEORY

How did I come up with this plan? I just echoed everybody's desire for a world free of fear and pain. I don't think that we are all living an idyllic existence, even though we live in the 'best' conditions on Earth. There's pain and suffering, and hunger. People keep secrets from one another, and restrict each other's freedom of movement. People jail each other. They are willing to kill each other for absurdly unimportant reasons.

I know this today, and I suspected this years ago when I was a boy and watching the original Star Trek series. I was in my tweens, the Vietnam war was on everybody's mind, protesters marched the streets of every major city and each episode of Star Trek had James T. Kirk as a sort of mobile Jesus, bringing 24th century civility to worlds with societies that resembled not-so-noble parts of human history.

I remember an episode where the Enterprise visited a Roman empire which never fell, and was now a modern 20th century society... but with criminals being fed to the lions as entertainment!

Another was a world structured like the Chicago mob era, where drive-by shootings were commonplace.

There was a planet with so much overpopulation there wasn't room to lie down.

Yet another was a world in which the Nazis had won and ruled with terror and intimidation.

All of these passionate stories tugged at our decency and nudged our desire to right unspeakable wrongs.

Even as a kid, I knew what Kirk and the Enterprise trying to achieve. I lived in a small apartment in a crowded neighborhood with my parents, and my father was always grumbling about lousy conditions, selfish neighbors, our drunk landlord. At school, social studies focussed on misery by detailing war, oppression and slavery. On television the news jarred us with every horrific event on the planet.

Okay, it wasn't all bad. Sure, there were ways to get happy, and we took advantage of every opportunity to become that way. We'd have parties and picnics, go to movies and shoot off fireworks, play at the beach and engage in deep long petting sessions. Still, lurking around every corner was the next terrible condition, or one more inconsolable loss, or another opportunity for man to disappoint his brethren.

It's the human condition... isn't it? Without bad, can there be any good?

I say forget bad and good... let's concentrate on HUMAN.

Have you noticed that there are way too many laws on the books? Antique laws, ignored laws, ill-conceived laws and politically motivated laws litter the courts and turn us into a nation of criminals. Already we have more people in jail, percentage wise, than any other nation. Well, look at that... we're finally number one at something again.

These laws, many of which badly conflict, are at their best, flawed. Many times they are written down to the lowest common denominator, which is why we have to stop at every stop sign every time, whether or not there is an oncoming vehicle nearby. Having to wait for no reason, like at a red light on a desolate road at 3 am, produces frustration and a desire to violate the law-- a law which seems, at the time, like a stupid one.

I'm going to introduce big-picture (or global) thinking right now; it's my number-one tool for designing Perfect World elements. It's a pretty simple concept: Start with a single question, and like a small child, keep asking 'why' until you arrive at an indisputable truth:

Why are there guns?

To keep us safe from bad people.

Why are there bad people?

Because they want money and stuff.

Why do they want money and stuff?

Because they don't have it themselves.

Why don't they have it?

Because they didn't have opportunities like some did.

Why didn't they have opportunities?

The might have grown up poor, or had no family, or never learned how to make money.

Why did that occur?

and here's the kicker...

Because society doesn't help all of its members equally and has little ability to extricate individuals from their backwards spiral.

Really deep thinking about the root cause of problems in the world today yields the same answer over and over... current society doesn't have all the answers and so applies fixes, or patches, on the problems. Patches like guns, or cops, or jails, or the electric chair.

Would a well-designed society need such patches? Of course not, and is yet another reason to apply Perfect World Theory worldwide.

Why do we need stop signs?

So we don't kill each other at an intersection.

Why are there intersections?

To increase the number of potential paths to any given destination.

Why do we need more paths?

To accommodate lots of different people going different places at different times.

Why are so many people moving about so much?

This is an important question and deserves a larger 'Perfect World' answer. We move about so much because in our capitalistic society everyone has to work, or starve. That means there needs to be a job (and an income) for each working head-of-household. Organizational abilities have not reached the point where everyone can live next to their jobs, nor would we want to center our lives around our work... and so people move around a lot.

Lots of people means lots of jobs, which have to come from somewhere. First the obvious jobs: The primary ones, like producing food, shelter and clothing to ensure survival. There are secondary jobs, as in transportation and communication, and third level jobs, like producing entertainment. Soon all of the jobs are taken up, but there are a lot of people left-- where do they work?

We get creative with jobs, that's how. We invent needs through advertising and create industries to service those needs. We definitely need clothing, but do we need dickies and tassles and penny loafers? No. Those come with the advent of style. Most people only need a few different pairs of shoes: Work, recreation, events. But STYLE causes some people to buy HUNDREDS of pairs of shoes, throwing away those which are still practically new, but are no longer in style! There are a lot of redundant jobs created that way; craftsman making shoes that basically go right into the landfills. That's where unnecessary or redundant jobs come from.

So why are so many people moving about so much?

Because they must work, or starve.

Why must they work, or starve?

Good question! And the answer is the same as in the previous volley:

Because society doesn't help all of its members equally and has little ability to extricate individuals from their backwards spiral.

And in answering that big-picture question, we begin to think of more:

Why are we creating so many redundant jobs?

Why are we throwing away new stuff?

Why don't we care about the huge trash pile we are creating?

Why do we think we need all this stuff in the first place anyway?

And those questions lead us right back to Capitalism-- everybody working, and producing, and using, and wasting-- all in the name of acquisition.

PERFECT WORLD THEORY

At its simplest, Perfect World Theory is a social system designed to best match the world's resources to natural human desires.

Though it seems simple, it's actually pretty complicated. While the world's resources are a static, unchanging thing, human desire varies widely between nations, between cultures, between individuals. The list of individual desires, cumulatively, is vast. But a much shorter list would be the desires that all humans share, so we start with that.

Global Human Desires

Health

Safety

Shelter

Freedom

Happiness

Fulfillment

Companionship

We've done a pretty fair job providing these needs to our people. So why am I proposing a new way of running society when the current way has provisions by which every desire can be met?

My answer: The system I have envisioned is like a mag-lev bullet train floating above the tracks and hurtling smoothly towards its destination at 300 mph, whereas the system we are currently slaving under more resembles an old wooden roller coaster, chunking its way slowly to the top, only to dash to the bottom in a wildly swaying, freefall ride.
More simply stated-- smooth versus bumpy.

Our current system (here in the United States) lays down a network of laws for us to follow, in order to keep the system smooth. Get caught breaking one of those laws, and you are in for a prescribed series of punishments. While many punishments involve the trading back of property (usually money), the more severe punishments take our freedom from us for a flexibly set amount of time.

As I've mentioned before, one of our global human desires is freedom-- the freedom to be where you want, when you want. Take it away as punishment and society dies a little. Anybody who has spent a significant amount of time imprisoned knows that it is a soul-killing experience.

Misery loves company-- at the very least, this one truism is a good enough reason to abandon Capitalism for Perfect World Theory. Let's spread the love for a change.

In Conclusion

Take a look at a very brief list of improvements that Perfect World Theory will make to our current lives:

Complete health care for everyone, without paperwork.

Clean, comfortable living accommodations for everyone.

Today's vast scripture of laws are scrapped, to be replaced with a concise list of expectations.

Everyone gets a complete education, tailored to their specific natural strengths and desires.

The employment rat race ends. Most people work 10-20 hours a week, close to home.

There will be no reasonable desire that will not be received.

Punishment will disappear, to be replaced with counseling and education.

There will be no cause for crime, so it will end.

Respect is gratefully shown between all people.

War becomes a distant memory.

People each love their jobs, and will be talented at it.

Puritanism will be deflowered. Censorship is forced to watch.

Politicians and power brokers pass into oblivion.

Pollution blows away.

Competition is replaced with cooperation in all aspects of life, including sports.

Esteem issues vanish.

Divorce ends, also marriage. Now common sense dictates relationships.

Weapons are turned into tools and instruments.

No more junk products, foolish products, dangerous products, wasteful products.

Billboards go away. Advertisements become single-line notices proclaiming existence.

Religion becomes dull and uninteresting to EVERYONE.

Travel will be fast, efficient and free.

Persecution of every kind will cease.

Advancement speeds up on all fronts once unencumbered by zealous doubt.

Trust spreads widely. So does love.

Seem impossible? It sure seemed so to me, at first. But by following the guidelines presented in the coming posts, you'll come to see that it is not only possible, but sensible. Logical.

The next step in human evolution.

Fingers crossed, people!

copyright 2009 Bruce Ian Friedman