Social Inertia
1. The "that's life" and "look how lucky you are" approach to injustices
Moaning uselessly about problems achieves little, so as a society we're taught to console ourselves with the above. But there is a third option- namely doing something about the injustices. True, some injustices can't be helped, but a large proportion of them can, and in those cases we should be addressing them to help make the world as good a place as realistically possible.
2. Logical Fallacies
Logical fallacies are commonly used in some circumstances to help maintain the status quo, which must be addressed also.
Freedom, Law and Order
The main barriers to a "free" world are the excessive curtailing of liberties, and on the other hand letting people get away with irresponsible behaviour. Thus, to make society as free as possible, we need to get the balance right between liberty and responsibility, and minimise the extent to which responsible behaviour is punished, and irresponsible behaviour unpunished.
1. Freedom, Law & Order
In short, people should be allowed to do and think as they like- provided that it isn't significantly likely to harm anyone (as a general rule, when I say "irresponsible" behaviour, I mean behaviour that is significantly likely to harm someone).
2. Quantifying "harm"
I realise that the definition of "harm" could be open to question- so here I attempt to define it.
3. Dealing with irresponsible behaviour
We need to focus enforcement against the minority who behave irresponsibly, rather than the traditional method of imposing blanket restrictions on the many because of the few.
4. Technology and surveillance methods
Surveillance is a good way of addressing the "you can't always tell if a crime is committed" problem- but we need to be very careful with its use, as it can be abused by authorities, and used to enforce the punishment of the many because of the few.
5. Compensation culture
By all means, people should be able to claim compensation if they've been wronged- but not if they've behaved irresponsibly and suffered as a consequence.
6. Social norms and the punishment of those who are "different"
A social norm is essentially a law that is socially enforced. In society, it is traditional to punish people for being different, but we need to move away from that, and towards punishing people for being irresponsible.
7. Discrimination
Discrimination is primarily a consequence of judging people on the basis of stereotypes, and punishing people for being different. Thus we need to focus on those factors, and not on so-called "political correctness".
8. Common Misconceptions about Social Pressure
Social pressure doesn't disappear past the teenage/school years, it just becomes more subtle. We are all influenced by social pressure to some extent- and it would actually be a bad thing if we were completely immune to it, as it does have benefits as well as downsides.
General Social Issues
Following on from the above general discussions about social norms,
this section discusses various negative social norms and suggests how
to challenge and tackle them.
1. Recreation and Socialising
Today's world is driven so much by money, recreation and socialising are often considered unimportant and unnecessary. On the contrary, they are of huge benefit to society and need to be taken into account more.
2. Priorities and Sacrifices
We need to move away from judging dedication to priorities by the amount of self-sacrifice we make for them- it encourages people to make more sacrifices than are necessary to address them fully, which is destructive- and doesn't necessarily encourage addressing the priority to the full. Instead, dedication should be judged based on how well we address the priorities.
3. Working Practice
We need to move towards judging people more on their performance rather than the number of hours they spend in an office, which will help reduce inefficiency, promoting shorter, more flexible hours at no cost to productivity. I also address other negative traditions concerning work that should be addressed.
4. Childcare Issues
Parents working long hours means limited time for their children. We need to get a happy balance between working hours and childcare, including more scope for parents to job/child share through flexible hours and part-time work.
5. Relationships
Long working hours and the obsession with material possessions means limited social interaction. We need more social interaction, and more care, trust and love. We also need to move away from discrimination on the basis of blood ties, as it causes the unnecessary destruction of friendships.
6. Cutting old things out of one's life
Traditionally this is often referred to as "moving on", but as I discuss here, in the long term, it is nothing of the sort. Most of the time, it is unnecessarily destructive.
6. Petty Crime
We should address petty crime by stepping up the enforcement, including CCTV and the like- but focus specifically on the minority of offenders.
7. Examination Systems
Exams should be geared towards testing people's ability and not riddled with arbitrary difficulty, there should not be a big difference between learning a given subject, and learning it to pass an exam.
8. Economic and Political Factors
I argue that relying purely on either capitalist or socialist ideologies is a bad thing for society. I propose that we should move towards 'social capitalism' combining positive elements of the two, and that capitalism is another of those things that is good in moderation.
9. Advantages and disadvantages of capitalism and socialism.
A list summarising the main advantages and disadvantages of the two extremes of the political spectrum.
Environmental Issues
This is a particularly serious problem nowadays- as if we take no action we may face catastrophic consequences, but if we take drastic, destructive action, that too may have catastrophic consequences. I give proposals on ways that we could help to reduce pollution, without requiring large scale human sacrifices.
1. Reducing Emissions
There are many good reasons for reducing emissions other than the often-quoted one of anthropogenic global warming, including sustainability, improving air quality etc. Also a vision of a sustainable future to work towards.
2. Carrot and Stick Policy
As a general rule, carrots should be brought in to encourage a move towards more sustainable living, while sticks should be secondary resorts, used to coerce the less conservation-minded who would otherwise abuse the system.
3. Energy Use and Renewable Energy
Technology alone will probably not be enough to solve the environmental problems, but it will certainly help. Here are some ideas on how to get schemes with cleaner, renewable and/or efficient energy use going.
4. Development
We need to develop sustainably and efficiently and take into account long term effects, rather than progressively eating into countryside and populating flood plains because it maximises short-term profit. Also, proposals on how to address the north-south divide.
Transport Issues
We have too much traffic on our roads, and for the most part, alternatives to using the car are inadequate, resulting in escalating car use. However, I don't agree with the traditional "solution" of marginalising motorists and making driving unattractive. Instead, we need to focus on making the alternatives more attractive and aim to achieve a balanced, integrated transport system, where the different forms of transport are competitive with each other.
1. Transport Issues
The main causes of the current escalating bias towards car use, plus a vision of an integrated, balanced transport system to work towards. Also discussion of why I propose making alternatives more attractive, rather than making driving unattractive.
2. Pollution and Congestion
Why I am not in favour of a national road charging system. Taxes on fuel consumption are a more effective way of penalising high consumption, while congestion can be tackled using national application of small scale schemes based on improving the alternatives.
3. Alternatives to the Private Car
Suggestions as to how to improve facilities for public transport,
pedestrians and cyclists, in ways that make use of those transport forms more attractive without inconveniencing motorists.
4. Traffic Speed Policy
We need to focus on the minority of reckless idiots, rather than the traditional policy of criminalising the general public and forcing everyone to slow down because a few idiots are driving too fast (and because it makes driving unattractive).
5. Road Safety Policy
Again, road safety should not punish/restrict the many because of the few, especially not in association with the agenda of making driving unattractive.
Copyright Issues
I am pro-intellectual property, but to get the best balance between the interests of consumers and copyright holders, copyright is best kept in moderation.
1. Piracy (Copyright Infringement)
Copying in moderation, especially the casual forms, may well create more revenue in the long run than it erodes, due to the greater exposure that the industries and products receive. However, mass copying, and particularly counterfeit sale of copyrighted material, almost certainly erodes sales.
2. A Radical Shake-up of Antipiracy Methods
We need to focus on the minority who engage in harmful mass copying practices, not the masses doing their harmless "casual copying". In the meantime we need to experiment with ways of rewarding people who buy products, rather than treating all consumers like thieves, and use casual copying to our advantage to help maximise sales.
3. Patents
As with copyrights, patents are good in moderation, but harmful to excess.
