Wrote this sometime back in my journal, thought you guys might find it interesting and worthwhile.
TL;DR : All human beings have different priorities and we’ll always have people who are driven purely by the desire to power. We cannot escape that, but we need to decide what all things we can allow people to play their power game on. Humans don’t have to compete for the basic resources in the modern world, we are way past that. But we cannot have absolute equality as well in this world, we can only ensure a decent quality of life for everyone.
I used to believe in the novelty of communism : equality for all human beings, as simple as that. But the more I think about it and the more books I read, I start to see the problems with the basics of communism. Whether we like it or not, all human beings are not equal. Mind you, this does not in any way mean that some human lives are worth more than others. What it means is, all of us have different priorities, different reasons for getting up in the morning or sleeping at night and hence creating a world wherein people’s choices are in a sense taken from them does not make sense. You look at all these billionaire CEOs and wonder why is it that they are still working? What drives them? Why do they keep on expanding their empires and their net worth? And if you look at some of them, their perception of life isn’t fueled with greed. It’s something else, I just can’t put words to what it is.
Answer me this, if you were to wake up as a millionaire tomorrow and did not have to work a single day more in your life, what would you do? Now you might say, I’ll travel, I’ll go trekking, perhaps to a beach as well but after that? If I remember my latest trek to Kuari pass, I loved it. I absolutely loved the hike and I was so filled with a feeling of void(?) when it came to an end but I also remember wanting to go home after it. I remember enjoying my days of work as well, I remember feeling sad when I was leaving Adobe and I remember feeling ecstatic when I started with Google. My point is, human beings have come a long way in the evolutionary process. Sure, we were all the same at one point and we are all perhaps born the same even today. But the part that sets us apart from most animals is also what sets human beings apart from one another. We are born a certain way, but what we grow into is moulded by thousands of factors in our surroundings, things so subtle that we might never fully understand how they work. And we are so far ahead in our journey as a species now that there is no way we can bridge this cognitive gap. And how do you even bridge something as abstract as this? There is no right or wrong lifestyle, there are choices. Choices that we make consciously or choices that are made for us, which makes all the difference. The vast division that we see in human beings today is a result of thousands of years of societal development and I’m tempted to believe that even if we were to start from 0 again, we will eventually end up exactly where we are today.
The world we live in today has issues, anyone will tell you that. You see swarms of people blaming the rich for these issues, which is also true to some extent. But what people fail to understand is the reason behind a problem. What can we change as a society so that there are no rich? Unless there is a fundamental change in the very fabric with which humans are weaved, it will only be a matter of time before a society without wealth collapses. Sure, not everyone is driven by wealth or power, but a lot of people are. And that’s the truth. Unless there is a paradigm shift from Maslow's hierarchy of needs, there is no way we get a society where no one is driven by the hunger for power. I remember reading a particularly good analogy about the dynamics of today’s world. A game of monopoly always starts with everyone being equal, but with a combination of luck and individual skill, (when played long enough) it will always end with one person owning everything else. With a few exceptions and of course the scale, this can be a good analogy for how our world works and there is nothing wrong with it. This is what things will eventually turn to.
What we need to change is what are we playing monopoly with? Are we playing with the very things necessary for human existence? Are we as a society allowing people to starve while others are hoarding resources that can provide life for millions? I’m going to be blunt here, I don’t have all the answers, nor have I done extensive research on topics I’m writing about. I’m just trying to articulate my thoughts in a structured manner. What do we consider essential human needs? Surely this is a debatable question but I think to a great extent we can agree that food and shelter are essential needs. Now, if I’m not mistaken, food hoarding is illegal and a really unethical thing to do. But what do we think of land hoarding? Is owning multiple homes, in a way, shelter hoarding? Aren’t we depriving others of their basic right by allowing some to have more of it. Now, I don’t know how exactly we are going to stop people from owning multiple houses or how do we even define it. What all exact parameters do we use? What I’m trying to say is, humans thrive for meaning in life and everyone finds it in different things. Some people find meaning in family, some in building empires, some in doing the god’s work through them and some people perhaps don’t look for it at all. And that's all, right. There is nothing wrong with any of the above meanings to life, but what we need to ensure is that one’s drive for supremacy does not endanger other’s survival. Surely, we had to compete for basic necessities perhaps before the agricultural revolution or maybe cognitive revolution but we are way past that point now. We don’t have to compete for those, our competition is spiritual or for materialistic things that are not vital to survival but things of luxury that we invented to make our lives debatably easier.
We need a change in the rules of our game of monopoly, just because some of our gene lines did not care about building wealth over thousands of years, does not mean that they should be wiped out. And just because some of us did, does not mean they were wrong. We just need to redefine what wealth is, what is up for hoarding and what is not. The game is never going to be equal and fair for all involved, all human beings are never going to be equal but what we need to do is ensure everyone’s survival. That is the only way we grow as a species instead of individuals.