How the World Should Work

Idealism.

Some call it wishful thinking, some say its a pipe dream, and some ride their ideals to the literal grave. I should preface this post by acknowledging my awareness that it is grounded in idealism: it posits how things are, and reflects on how things could, ideally, be. A dream, in other words.

Now, to the point. I imagine most people would agree that when we zoom out and look at the civilized world’s historical timeline, one of the most common characteristics we will see is that it is constantly in some form of turmoil. Tribes fought tribes, kingdoms fought kingdoms, nations fight nations, the East battles the West over the dominant philosophical school of thought, etc. Point is…we fight.

Its easy to analyze this type of thing when we view it in a historical lens. Its easy because we know the outcomes, and can then reverse engineer their determinants and what led to them. This process becomes much more difficult when applying it to the here and now, due to the uncertainty of future events. But if we look at the state of affairs and read the literature as it exists today, its clear that America is in a state of decline, China (as pop culture would say) is on the “come-up”, and nations like Russia are unpredictable wildcards that no one wants to test.

A question I find myself asking in the midst of it all, however, is why does this have to be the case? Why does the world have to exist in a perpetual state of distrust and geo-political tension?

Unfortunately, the sad fact is that its likely a part of the human condition, and that conflict is simply wired into our tribal minds. We naturally seek out community, and once those communities are defined, they become their own entities within our minds that are then pit against other, competing entities. I, Matt, consider myself an American, and China threatens America (according to everything our propagandized media tells us), therefore I must distrust China. This might be a grossly simplified explanation of group-think, but you get the point.

So if this is true, if conflict truly is just a component of the human condition, how then can we do anything about it? I think this is where we get lost. Most of us likely agree with what’s been said so far, and most of us would likely respond by saying “well there you go, there’s really nothing anyone can do about it since its in our nature”. Then we go on structuring our lives based on this knowledge and how to best leverage it to meet our own ends.

But what if there is something we can do about it?

I’ve always thought of problems in very simple terms, regardless of how big or small they are. Geo-politics is an enormously complex topic, but at the end of the day, its merely a function of human behavior. And human behavior, more than many realize, can be simplified. Its all a matter of problem solving, and all problem solving is, is a series of questions and answers. Equations and solutions, if you will.

The first step to solving any problem is the recognition that the problem exists in the first place. What’s our problem? Well, we’re constantly at war with one another. Okay. How do we fix it? Well, we stop fighting. Great. But how do we do that?

This is the point in the equation where we’re stuck. For some reason, even though we’ve had thousands of years to simmer it over, we haven’t been able to figure out how to stop fighting. Why? That is the most monumentally important question we will ever ask in our quest to achieve peace. Why can’t we stop fighting?

Again…behavior is simple.

We continue to fight because we desire superiority over our competitors. We want our selves, or tribes, or nations, to be better than the others. This is the solution to the equation. If we actually wanted the rest of the world to rise, succeed, and thrive, then we would have no need to fight. Just think about it. Is the rest of the world rising really all that horrible of a thought? Believe it or not, not everyone out there is trying to dominate the entire world with their own standards of living. There is a capacity on Earth to support multiple styles of culture and society. Not to mention that basic social logic will tell you that if you help others, their opinion of you will improve.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Sure, we all say we want everyone to thrive, but as things stand, that’s not how our actions reflect. We elect people who perpetuate this tendency of group-think, who then exacerbate the very problem we’re discussing. We think in the context of nations vs. nations, rather than humanity as a whole.

We need to start choosing more humanity-focused leaders, who want what is best for human beings. People who are capable of embodying compassion, empathy, and consideration for the world at large. At the moment, the world is dominated by people who think in the traditional game theory school of thought. Its the prisoner dilemma: I must conspire against that guy because in all likelihood he will conspire against me. They are utterly convinced that humans are incapable of making decisions that are purely altruistic. These people need to be proven wrong. That is the only way this world will ever move in the direction we want it to.

We have to start trusting each other, and sincerely believing that we all just want the world to be a better place. And that starts, of course, with having the actual desire for the world to be a better place. If we united in a way where we all came to the table and outlined these mutual desires, it would be much easier to start ironing out the ones who have secretive, nefarious agendas.

As I said in the beginning, this is all based in an ideal world. Why can’t we make it the real one?