Lies in Society we accept as True Part 3

This has been a popular series. So you give the people what they want. Part One. Part Two.

1. A nice appearance is more important than the process. So many women and men are hurt by the idea that all they need to be is attractive and things will just happen for them. For many people this is true. Being beautiful opens doors. However, as a society why do we give special treatment to these people? Many attractive people are very toxic to society and to ourselves. We need to look deeper at who someone is, and not allow someone who is attractive unearned positions of wealth, power, and prestige. Those should be reserved for those who deserve them. Accomplishments, and the ability to be useful, are far more important than the beauty that fades.

2. 

   Survival of the fittest. This is misunderstood in how it was originally conceived. Rather than go into a long explanation, let’s look at people who are not fit who we need. Steven Hawkins, Stevie Wonder, and so on, people would have been killed in the past for their physical weakness. As a society, we have benefited tremendously from these and other individuals like them. How can we say that physical strength matters when clearly emotional and intellectual strength is more important? And more importantly, why do we apply standards that are not applied in nature itself? Bonobos show kindness and elephants and other animals as well. Animals are not brutes like we may have been taught but have many qualities that we have thought before we are exclusively human. We don’t know how conscious animals are, but we do know how conscious we are. So rather than seeing people as animals, we should embrace the spectrum of consciousness and expand it rather than diminish it.

3. The past is a guide to the future. Yes and No. For some people, their past actions seem to determine their future ones. Some people however seem to forgive the pain that has harmed them, and they somehow contribute far more than anyone would expect. When someone has a difficult life, we should not write them off as “too damaged” but rather listen and give them support so that they can discover their own value and go forward ready to contribute.
4. The fear of prison causes people to act lawfully. Perhaps for some people who have been in prison, this is true. However, my intuition is that most people act lawfully because most people are good at heart. They don’t want to hurt others and when they do, it is because they feel they have been hurt. I am not apologizing for those who hurt others. We all have to face the consequences of our actions. However, if mankind was truly evil, I would expect prison to be full and it is not. Prison is more a punishment for the poor, than an instrument of order for society.
5. We never will have enough. The US culture teaches that to be happy we have to have the best. We will never have enough clothes, cars, and stuff and because of this, we are doomed to be unhappy. We seek and buy never content in the richness of what we have. Even the poorest of us have more than most people have in the world. I have been poor and I still have a roof over my head and some food to eat. Many people don’t even have that. We need to think of ourselves in the context of history. We have more than any king or rich person ever had in history. No, we don’t have what Warren Buffett has, but he doesn’t have what we have either. What is that you say? He doesn’t have the unique gifts and experiences that we have, and he will never have that no matter how much money he has. Our experiences and our soul is more than money can buy and that is what we have to value. Not trinkets that we lose interest in.