Sunday
Independent column for August 13
I'm
sorry to be back so soon, but the author of this column has gone
walk-about, and it provides a good moment to try to inject a little
sanity and sense around here.
You
may know me as the 'Wise One', a singularly relative description I
can assure you, for anyone visiting Earth from Outer Space can only
seem impressively wise compared to you.
You
see the regular columnist's face reproduced above - but it is I, Wise
One, who is here, exuding youth and wearing slim Italian-stitched
jeans, hand-made shoes and a black silk lounge-shirt, because I'm
aware how important dress and looks are to almost all of you.
Actually,
I'm just a piece of ectoplasm withdrawn into an intangible concept -
except when I visit Earth through this idiotic column of Tyson's.
(He's away in the bush somewhere, fortunately).
I'm
here on behalf of Galaxy #@573#8 to observe the quaint moral
processes which nearly all communities on this little planet pretend
to practice.
Value
systems, you call them.
In
our experience, value systems are like toddlers' harness - used to
keep a babies on course until they learn to walk. We gave up value
systems so long ago we've forgotten their purpose.
And
so have you Earthlings, it seems - although you haven't even learnt
to toddle yet.
You
sir. You disagree. You're thinking that your value system is so
important its worth dying for. You're thinking of reminding me that
your father gave his life in World War 11, and you spent a year in
jail in South Africa, in the cause of democracy and freedom. Are
you satisfied with the results?
Your
father would have approved of the grand concept of a United Nations,
with a Peace Keeping Force to prevent mass violence on this planet.
But I must ask you, has the concept of unity and peace taken hold?
Your UN seems incapable of keeping the peace among its own elected
peace-keepers, let alone capable of fielding an International Force
to resist tiny Serb attacks.
And
you, madam, wearing so consciously your ANC leadership hat - you're
thinking that equality of opportunity and justice are the values to
which you ought to dedicate your lives. But who is actually
practising this equality, this justice, and these other values you
all so glibly propagate?
Democracy,
Peace, Freedom. . . elements of half a dozen value systems which
almost every political party on Earth promises, and never delivers.
Equality
and Justice; Mercy and Forgiveness. . . elements of value systems
preached by almost every religion on Earth, but never carried out by
its adherents.
Then
there is the value system that pays homage to the Open Society -
first advocated half a century ago in the United States. But where is
an Open Society practised?
There
appeared in this medium recently (though not in this erratically
peripatetic column) an article by one, George Soros - a very rich
capitalist, though that is not relevant except that he is giving away
half of his after-tax earnings. He told you that the Americans no
longer have the desire or the will to protect such a value system.
He
feels that the world has adopted self interest as its general guiding
principle. Self-interest in business seems to make "good
business sense". Also in politics. Also in statesmanship, and in
every sphere of life.
The
untrammelled pursuit of self interest becomes the binding factor in
welfare organisations, in business firms, in political parties as
well as in broadly national and interational organisations.
Self
interest represents the common interest, it seems, even in donor
organisations, or culturally dominating "Band Aid" projects
which destroy the very communities they are intent on saving. Self
interest becomes the driving force wherever men and women gather
together to seek a mutual goal, no matter how lofty that goal.
And
when self-interested organisations begin whipping up public opinion
to their own ends; when reason turns to mob-psychology, then every
value system you have yet created suddenly gets thrown out of the
window.
Yes,
young man. You're thinking that I under-estimate the iyour and your
fellow students' idealism. Let me tell you, before I fade back into
ectoplasm, that we know you Earthlings have inner values really worth
preserving and fighting for. Individually you would probably exercise
some of those real values, or would want to. Yet the moment you are
organised - even, or perhaps especially - in student and other
unions, you adopt an aggressive 'Us vs Them' approach which nullifies
all you believe in.
So
next time, in whatever organisation you belong to, why not try to get
your colleagues to think of 'Them', instead of 'Us'. Put yourself in
the place of your competitors, or the victims of your charity, or in
the rival political party (Do I go too far?)
Anyway,
if you put yourself in the position of 'Them' and forget about your
own self-interest for just a moment, you will know exactly what to do
to preserve your value system. . .
Unfortunately,
the beings of most planets in Galaxy #@573#8 can read all thoughts. I
know what you're thinking. You'd rather I left this column to
some-one else, even Tyson.
If
I had a primitive value system like yours I would retort, 'You
deserve what you get.' |
