Partner Up/ANARCHY... but not really

We need certain rules to help us live in society. Humans live in society because it's convenient. In ancient times, society was a way to be protected from wild beast or other human groups and improve the use of resources.  Let’s say that hypothetically there is a nuclear holocaust and the remaining human population turns cannibalistic.  You and I decide to help each other survive and at night we will take turns keeping watch while the other sleeps.  This agreement has to include a clause where we both take responsibility for not killing and eating each other.  That is our law.  It applies to both of us.  Everyone one else may try to kill and eat us because they are not a part of our special arrangement.  The same applies to something more realistic.  Property.  I agree to respect my neighbor’s property only if he/she respects my own.  This becomes part of our law.  Without this law (golden rule) then we have no meaning of society.  We are not partners.  Society is all about partnership and contracts.  And we behold these partnerships.  Why? Because it is convenient for us.  When a neighbor is getting murdered, raped, or robbed we have no obligation to physically do anything about it.  We can conveniently call 911 and then go about our merry way.  We may have to give up certain freedoms such as killing, harming, and stealing from others, but we also receive the benefits of society; not being killed, harmed, or being robbed by others.  It is convenient therefore we love it.

Society also is beholden to mankind.  Who else is going to uphold all of the contracts and partnerships that society was given birth to?  Laws hold no water if is not capable of being enforced.  Therefore society depends on its own constituents to uphold its laws. Most of the time you can enforce any law if civil liberties and use of resources are not an issue (and you're willing to accept punishment of innocents once in a while).  A good example is seen in laws about drug use, consensual sex, dressing codes, and other forms of private behavior. The problem start when the laws go beyond the needs of the society and start satisfying the wants and needs of one or many members of the society, even if those many are the majority. Let's say that you think that some brand of video games is bad for people to play. Depraved sex, explicit language and images, violence, etc. It’s just a game for personal and private pleasure but you don't like it and think that people enjoying it are obviously depraved and dangerous. You lobby for it and get a law passed that prohibit such games. Now, let’s say that I have a room full of these ‘explicit games,’ I have collected them for years.  Now I am going to keep playing them over and over again and breaking the law for years to come.  How are you going to uphold your law?  I can keep my games private and continue breaking the law forever.  What good does the law do for you other than gratify your personal perception of righteousness? 

This is where a circumstance where I would totally reject the law.  A law my society requires I follow.  This is why society and laws don’t exactly see eye to eye.  Because there will always be new politicians and new lobbyists with new ideas and vastly differing perceptions of justice there will always be laws that in the eyes of another are not righteous.  Society would do much better to run on only the law of common sense and give up on laws.  The American Constitution has many flaws, but is mostly comprised of plain good ol’ fashioned common sense.  That alone is enough to run society (for the most part).  Another example of when it might be required to break the laws is entirely circumstantial.  One might need to break the driving speed limit if a woman in the car is going into labor and needs to get into a hospital.  If you are attacked and your life is threatened, fighting back and possibly killing your assailant would not be considered manslaughter but defense.  Clearly, laws were meant to be broken in certain circumstances.

We behold society, society beholds us, and laws really don’t uphold as much order as we think…   Society can benefit from enforcing only common law from common sense.  None to very little law is needed outside of our good ol’ Constitution.

Expand Your World

To know oneself one would have to have an understanding of how the people around them view one and how oneself views themselves.  This is a very simplified answer.  Personally I don’t want to truly understand myself.  One, because if I truly understood my own being then I would have a complete understanding of, at the very least, one human being, and that knowledge would be too much for me.  Two, if I completely knew myself then my life from that point of understanding, would be the most boring existence ever.  What is the point of living if I don’t get to discover anything new about myself.  Part of the beauty about life and existence is that we don’t truly know ourselves and we are always surprising ourselves with new likes and dislikes and new experiences.  One positive thing to come out of complete self understanding is that because your life would seem boring one would be inclined to search to learn more about other people.  Because quite literally “the world ends with you.”  If one wishes to expand their world once they have learned all there is to know about themselves the only way to continue with new experiences and to keep life interesting is to expand and learn about other people and forge connections with others.

            One of my personal weaknesses is that I take things way too personally.  I am not good at taking jokes that attack my personal traits and am quick to throw a joke at someone attacking them but expecting them to react in a positive way.  Due to my ‘seriousness’ I oftentimes create strife between a good friend over a meaningless and harmless joke or prank.  This is mostly due to some self-confidence issues and my self conscious manner.  I have tried tirelessly to combat this weakness by just always being aware of myself and using a little self control.  If a joke is thrown my way, I will still hurt inside but I will hide it.  Not the best system to combat it because even though the joke or prank has no bad intentions I still hurt on the inside.

            I think my greatest strength is my ability to entertain and teach those younger than me.  I love helping out with kids and babysitting and have a great talent for making babies and young children entertained.  I have always known that one of the two greatest things that I will do with my life is to be a father and raise children.  The other being to have my children carry on the Jewish faith.  I think I am good at teaching and entertaining kids not because they are especially easy to please but because I still feel like a little kid on the inside, perhaps due to my insecurities.  I am really able to connect to what children are feeling and what they need.  I eagerly look forward to fatherhood.

            It is extremely difficult to talk about myself.  Partly because I am very bad at finding and naming my strengths but can easily name my weaknesses.  This self reflection also forces me to think about what I am doing wrong and how I can go about bettering myself.  I will tell myself that I will make changes in my life but wishful thinking can only get me so far as I am only myself and in the end am only the same person as I was when I started.