OUGHT-TO-BE -- A WORLD I ENVISION!

OUGHT-TO-BE – A WORLD I ENVISION!

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© November 23, 2010

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Reference:

A reader here is responding to my missive, “losers Become Winners Because They Never Quit” (November 22, 2010).

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A READER WRITES:

Jim,

What does your ‘ought to be’ world look like?

Eric,

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DR. FISHER RESPONDS:


It is a good question of which I have written volumes.***

When I'm gone I hope someone will ferret out this idealized "ought-to-be" world I envision. It is worthy of a missive, which I just might do.

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The short answer is a world that treats others as good and not any more badly than it has treated me.

Where balance is the driving force to individualism, community and society.

Where love is the dominant virtue with compassion not pity.

Where life has consequences for everyone rich and poor, good and bad, liked and disliked. No one has a free pass or a free lunch.

Where everyone has an opportunity to fail so that they might find their way to success. And success is not defined by brilliance, personal stature, or acclaim, but by finding a suitable match between interests, ability and opportunity.

Where the idea of philanthropy is committed to history. It is one of the most bizarre and mendacious of enterprises in expiating guilt for riding herd over some and throwing others under the bridge on the way to affluence.

Where elitism dies a natural death.

Where religion dissolves into a common tolerance and understanding of personal choice, and where there is no proselytizing of any faith, and where atheists and agnostics are treated with as much respect as any other philosophy of existence.

Where science quits flexing its muscles and realizing the consequences of its hubris.

Where freedom is largely negative freedom and not the cage of positive freedom that we have come to call home.

Where ambition and pushing the envelope can be toxic if not contained within reason. Moderation in all things, which has been blatantly ignored, could restore the planet to its health, and us to a more sensible and less excessive lifestyle.

Where we look for direction within ourselves and therefore are more prone to please ourselves than to be obsessed with pleasing others.

Where we look inside the idea of self-sacrifice for who is asking it and why.

Where self-control is the barometer to all control at every level and circumstance. We are a physical system with autonomous controls that is incredibly resilient. Our environment is more fragile. This places the onus on us to recognize the distinction.

Where a moral compass, which has been badly damaged to being dysfunctional, is restored to our soul. In the last one hundred years, we have lost our way creating an insatiable appetite for want at the expense of need. This has driven the planet to being on life supports, and us with it.

Where we are judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin, or whether we are tall or short, fat or slim, handsome or plain, smart or dumb, well bred or not, successful or not.

Where we finally admit the power of fear and paranoia to control our lives and dispatch our wills into hiding. We are all insecure, all connected to this fabric of insecurity, and therefore have no choice but to appreciate the wisdom of insecurity.

Where entertainment is self-generated and there are no such fabricated institutions that promote the idea of celebrity.

Where every man woman and child in the world has clothes on their back, a roof over their head, food on the table, access to fresh drinking water and adequate sanitation, an opportunity to do meaningful work, love and affection of family, with the spiritual substance to keep body and soul in health in a climate of happiness without any fear of a police or military invasion in the night.

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***THE WORKER, ALONE! GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN (1995), THE TABOO AGAINST BEING YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND (1996), SIX SILENT KILLERS (1998), CORPORATE SIN: LEADERLESS LEADERS AND DISSONANT WORKERS (2000), IN THE SHADOW OF THE COURTHOUSE: MEMOIR OF THE 1940s WRITTEN AS A NOVEL (2003), and A LOOK BACK TO SEE AHEAD (2007) cover this same turf in some detail.

Be always well,

Jim