SΩ5 - Money-Worship or 200 Dreams?

Back again, after a long break! Both my time and brain have been some what occupied. My time is mostly spent on getting my freelance lifestyle to run smoothly. My mind on the other hand is like a chaotic web of ideas and thoughts. For the most part I've been thinking about my recent interactions with other people. One question keeps reverberating in my head: “How selfish am I?”

In my opinion selfishness comes from our instinct to fulfill our basic needs. Our selfless ways most likely originates from our emotional need to feel connected with others. To me this clarifies the 'give and take' nature of society. We usually take, until our needs are met and only then are we willing to give to others. 

Considering some of my recent experiences involving 'give and take’ makes me understand the usefulness of money. For example, if I cook dinner for you and give you my old TV, what is the 'value' to you? Now consider we were friends, coworkers, or just neighbors. What if you were sick? Depending on the situation, the 'value' is completely different. Also, depending on the situation, I might be satisfied with a "thank you" or expect something more in return.

Although, both selfishness and money bother me, I'm slowly learning to accept them as part of life. This brings me to the quote I mention above, which comes from a book I can relate to and recommend. Once a person has enough wealth to support both himself/herself, what is left to do? Society propels us to believe that more wealth means being more successful at life. Why?

How about, I suggest an alternative! Measure your life's success based on how many people you help push towards their dream. If you're reading this post, you're likely in a privileged country and earn enough money to support yourself. Thus, I urge you to spend an hour or more to help someone you know, who could use a push towards their dream.

This earth is our home and we all want humanity to thrive! One person has 20 million and the other pushed 200 people towards their dream, who was more successful at promoting humanity? Your choice!

Society Ω

How do you imagine the future?

For me, I envision a future in which society works in a united fashion to fuel progress. Although this dream might be naïve, I believe some areas can be improved, in order to move towards 'Society Ω'.

There is certainly controversy over how society can be improved; my opinion is that we must improve the way problems are approached, especially global ones, like increasing energy demands. We must learn that we all have to deal with the same problems and it’s in our best interest to work together to find solutions.

Throughout history we have improved our problem solving ways. However, I believe certain barriers exist that hinder progress. Here I mention a few and why I believe they hinder progress:

• Money is King: In many cultures, money trumps all other values.  We are taught by society that individual success is determined by wealth. This in turn causes people to be controlled by money. Two clear examples of how this has slowed progress are in medicine and technology. Profitability often determines which medicines should be developed and when technologies should be updated.
• Disconnect from Nature: Humans seem to have forgotten that we share this world with millions of other species. We use resources and other organisms with disregard to the consequences. How we use resources tends to be destructive to our surroundings and infrastructures dependent on finite resources (i.e. fossil fuels). Our ways also tend to kill off species that are key to our own survival (i.e. bees). In the long run, I believe this can damage our infrastructures and even lead to our demise.
• Split by Diversity: We all bleed red. So why do our differences still cause so much turmoil? It’s impossible to work together on solving problems if we can’t even respect each other. In the most extreme case, this ends up causing disputes, fights, and even wars. It can be argued that there are benefits to war, but are human causalities truly required to evoke progress? Imagine we were all clones and everyone had exactly the same thoughts. The chance of new ideas and inventions occurring in such a world are extremely slim. Our problems are diverse so it’s also beneficial that humans are diverse.

It’s important to remember that stating a problem is only a step in creating a solution. I plan to provide two services with this blog. First, I’ll share my life and travel experiences, to help enlighten others on various cultures, ethnicities and unique personal lifestyles. Secondly, I wish to voice my thoughts and ideas on solutions that can make this world a better place.

Let’s work together towards a 'Society Ω'!