Can you describe your 'better world'?

[Ned]

Once basic healthy survival is assured (far from an achieved goal for most of humanity), we have wildly different interests in life.

Paul Erdos, the Hungarian mathematical genius, lived out of his suitcase. He never owned property, never married, wandered around the planet and stayed with fellow mathematicians, often uninvited, sometime for months. “Better” for him meant a better, cleaner, simpler proof of a theorem in number theory.

Mahatma Gandhi died with all his possession fitting into a shoebox. For him better meant purer, simpler, closer to the ground and to his people.

For me better means to be more and more independent of the corporate world we all depend on. I already have a solar power system and I finished building my year-around greenhouse last summer and am looking forward to fresh tomatoes in February. Being vegetarian it will be a big step in self sufficiency.

My brother calls himself the gadget-man – for him better means more and more electronic gizmo, automating every aspect of his life that he can possibly replace with some kind of machine. My 'better' is his nightmare – his 'better' is mine.

I have a friend who is the most intelligent person I have ever known. For her better means intellectual stimulation that comes near her IQ – a rare event. She does not care what she wears, what people think about her, as long as they leave her alone to think and read.

Another person I know would be petrified if she did not have the latest in fashion and her social status is the foundation of her existence.

Yet another lives for music, he is immersed in it with the exclusion of almost everything else.

Several of my friends are political activists and they are passionate about their stand and fight against social injustice.

Another one is a corporate CEO who would like to throw them all in jail and throw away the key.

Another of my friends fantasizes about living on Planet Pandora (of Avatar), as close to magnificent nature: plants, animals, innocent savages as possible.

So the question is: what kind of world would allow people to be who they want to be? Where does social conformity and responsibility end and where does individual liberty begin?

Framing the question in another way: what do we owe to society as opposed to what we owe ourselves? I have another thread somewhere about "Resolving conflicting loyalties" where I tried to address this issue in a logical and systematic way.

Here I just would like people to describe their "perfect world" that would allow themselves maximum freedom, while still being responsible parts of the community that sustains them.

[Systematic]

Whatever advances everyone is better than those who demote everyone.

[ncrbrts]

I have already decided that community is insignificant, ergo a better world for me would have no one in it. Easy peasy

[Skip]

Better than this could start with cleaning up a few garbage dumps and putting the children who now scavenge those dumps into schools.
Better can be achieved by refusing to buy the next fashion - cell-phone, coffee pod, sunglasses or body paint.
Better could be just paying attention and becoming a little more aware of what we're doing and how affecting others.
Adopt a kitten and the world improves. Pick up your litter. Hold open a door. Don't vote for the fatheads.

Mostly, of course - Just Don't Buy the Shit!

[Impenitent]

starve the leeches

-Imp

[Skip]

That be a good slogan - so long as everyone has forgotten that 'leech' used to be pejorative for doctor.

[Advocate]

Everyone can. Are we going to build a utopia in theory and then find ways to bring it into practice? I'm in. What's the agenda?

[commonsense]

Unlimited resources free to everyone as they wish
Humans are peaceful, altruistic and healthy
All humans understand the same language
All tasks are performed by machines
No pollution or global warming
Humans can eat anything they want without getting fat
Angelina Jolie is my sex slave

[Advocate]

[quote=commonsense post_id=473925 time=1601576615 user_id=14610]
Unlimited resources free to everyone as they wish
Humans are peaceful, altruistic and healthy
All humans understand the same language
All tasks are performed by machines
No pollution or global warming
Humans can eat anything they want without getting fat
Angelina Jolie is my sex slave
[/quote]

You can have Maleficent. I'll take Kate Libby.

[Advocate]

Can o' Worms

For one thing, necessity trumps. The proper framework for society is a steel cage of necessity within which freedom and diversity are encouraged to flourish. Necessity includes survival of the group including basic resource allocation, environmental protection, health care, government oversight, and equality of opportunity for each person to explore their personality and discover a place in society where they can use their talents and interests compatibly, without which society is a tyranny. To the extent the society flourishes, the government can take on the mantle of providing more and more services beyond the basics, as citizens indicate. Citizenship must never be granted, but earned, as it has inherent externalities. A government should protect all sentient creatures in line with their individual needs. Group solutions are not to be accepted if they are not sufficient to any individual within that group.

[Advocate]

[quote=ncrbrts post_id=207040 time=1433427841 user_id=10969]
I have already decided that community is insignificant, ergo a better world for me would have no one in it. Easy peasy :)
[/quote]

I'll take a virtual world and am admin station. I'll start with an exact copy of this one and change things as i go. No copyright! No poverty!

[Advocate]

[quote=Skip post_id=207044 time=1433429300 user_id=6255]
Better than this could start with cleaning up a few garbage dumps and putting the children who now scavenge those dumps into schools.
Better can be achieved by refusing to buy the next fashion - cell-phone, coffee pod, sunglasses or body paint.
Better could be just paying attention and becoming a little more aware of what we're doing and how affecting others.
Adopt a kitten and the world improves. Pick up your litter. Hold open a door. Don't vote for the fatheads.

Mostly, of course - Just Don't Buy the Shit!
[/quote]

What if you still need things and everything available in your price range/location is shit? Should you steal nice things by default? What if there are no nice things in stealing range or you don't think you can get away with it?