We Are 7 Billion Here, We Need Rules... Do We?

“We are 7 billion here, we need rules in order to prevent total chaos.”

Sounds so right, right?
With all due respect, I again disagree ;) as I tend to do with -accepted- too many things in this world.

I asked a question in the title.
We Are 7 Billion Here, We Need Rules... Do We?

Now I'm going to put another question.: to the ones who answer “Yes, we do.”
Even if we do need rules, are these the rules that we need?

Think about it.
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My answer is: We don't need rules, we need a different strategy. Or in other words... We need totally, drastically different rules of the world game we play.

I'll tell you why we don't need rules, at least not the ones that are in currency right now:

First of all, there are many rules in place that are simply and outright wrong. Or they do not work. But they still stay in place because some authority at one point in time put them there and over time it has become accepted currency and people no longer question it. Just like the case of visas and responsibility illustrates.

We certainly don't need rules that are not clearly defined, that even the authorities involved do not know about. That only gives assholes the power to ruin y/our days and steal y/our time and money should they wish to do so. And unfortunately, even though there are a good many of kind and nice people, there are too many ignorant assholes out there too.

Second... No, I correct, I should say “another first” as this is just as important as the first... Rules are made by man, applied by man. Unfortunately, even the just rules are subject to be wrongly applied. Either by ignorant people or by the corrupt. The ignorant is hard to educate and to correct their mistakes is a pain in the ass in this bulky bureaucratic machinery with red-tape all over. As for the corrupt, they abuse power to exercise it over ordinary, well-meaning people.
    Third, connected to this second... There are too many such people who like to go on ego-power-trips. (I don't blame them too much. It's very difficult to accept that we are nothing, NOTHING in this huge universe and are so tiny, so insignificant in this crowded world. We all need recognition. If we cannot get it from our small circle, they resort to who they can overpower. (No, the change in the subject of that sentence from “we” to “they” is not a mistake. I included myself in the first part, because if I couldn't get it, I'd be doing the same. But excluded myself from the second group as I get recognition from my core family and the approval of those two people are the most important.))

Last but not least... Many of the rules today are based on old definitions. Take Citizenship for example. Citizenship definitely needs to be redefined. Because the way it is defined now, it is beyond ridiculous. In our more connected world, our identities are changing. http://www.gulin.world/identity.html
    Similarly with borders and visas. All these date back to a different time period in history. What is a letter of invitation? What is the meaning of booking hotels and flight tickets where they can so easily be faked or cancelled? All these bureaucratic systems need to come to their senses. I know, even the way it is, way too many people take them seriously. Whereas, they really should be ridiculed!

An Alternative Approach

Now you'll be saying “Ah, it's so easy to criticize. Come up with what to do then; what's the alternative?” or ask me “So you sayin' that there should be no rules?”

No, I'm not saying that at all. And I'll tell you what to do. Make the rules simpler; not more complex and detailed. Install a sense of logic and common-sense in people so that they can judge things fairly. I know I know... This is a very hard task. Still, it's achievable if you channel your energy to that instead of all the other useless stuff governments are trying to put into children's clean minds.

Make rules simple and clear. Like the 10 Commandments.

Inject a better sense of morals in children. Raising a child is a hard task. Support mothers. Now that I have seen the growing-up of a child first-hand, I know the stages they progress. Looking at the world in the meanwhile with the bit of wisdom of some age, I see that there are too many adults who have not managed to go past their anal stage.

It's very important how you raise a child. They are going to be the people who will make up the next generation. At the risk of sounding cliche, they're the future.
    Get rid of this competition system.: the system that pushes you to take over others, be it by tripping them up. My daughter goes to a Montessori school. As some of you may know, it has a different approach. It was funny to find out that... -as they are regulated by the government they are obliged to give out report cards, but as they do not want to measure children with grades but let them be themselves and evolve according to their nature and interests, what do they do? They give all the children 9 in every course for all the five years of school! It's not that they do not care about the development of the child. They do. But they know that each child is unique. So they invite the parents and discuss what the children's strong points are and what they lag behind other children.

I don't know... Get rid of this indoctrination with rules, give them some room for innovation, creativity and better judgement. I'd say children should not be let out of their homes into the world until they have passed a basic logic test.

Of course, this is only the human resources part. The other big part of the issue is how to manage economic resources.
    First... Get rid of this capitalistic system based on profit. Get rid of it quick.
    No no, get rid of the profit system quick but don't rush to conclusions too quick ;) I'm not going into an argument about communism/socialism etc. Just a simple fact: Change the rules of the economics game. So that it would create a better, juster and more egalitarian world.

Look... I'm not so rich or anything, but I am definitely one of the more privileged compared to other people in the world. I'm not willing to give up any of my privilege as long as the game is based on “Who gets most wins the game.” As long as it is a zero-sum game, I want to be ahead of the game. But I don't like it that we are living in such an unfair world, I don't want to go around the world feeling I need to protect myself because I am threatened. Who am I threatened by? By the people who have less. The people who do not have enough. They need to survive too. If they cannot, they will naturally come after the haves. The solution that the haves have found to this threat is to hire and install security measures. Aaaarrrgghhh! Sorry but that is a hell of a crappy solution! You want to solve your problem while not caring about the other. You are only thinking of yourself, your egoistic self and excluding the other. No group who tries to survive by excluding the other can survive for long. Because the other is going to try to get to you, find a solution to overcome your barriers, your walls, your protection mechanisms. So this system simply keeps escalating the “protection vs attack” game. STOP IT! Stop it for God's sake. Stop this stupid game!
    It's a stupid game because there cannot be any winners. Yeah, there are. Temporarily. Then the upper hand passes to the opponent team. You feel weak, you build up your defenses and attack once more to start this endless cycle all over again. STOP IT!

I recently read a comment on Youtube, the best channel where you can witness the most awful, unhinged face of humanity. After so many profanities, this guy wrote: “you white people WILL NEVER CHANGE. ON YOUR OWN anyway. But Mother Nature will have the last word--you see, you do have the lowest birth rates in the world and falling fast. These same parasites you think are the bane of your world--will be the same ones your countries depend on for the very basic of services as you DIE OUT. Ironic, isn't it? All that you maggots have stolen will ultimately go RIGHT back to their rightful owners. Karmic I would say.”

He might have a point as there are many “whites” out there scared to death (forgive the pun) that “their” race is being wiped-out.

Another comment was “What amuses me most, is those elected in political offices in Africa, for example in my country tend to own the resources and collude with foreigners to plunder the resources they expected to protect. They facilitate the criminal activities and protect the foreigners whom they treat as their masters. They will help them to avoid and evade taxes. They put up investments in places like Dubai, London, New York. The persecute those who expose them.”

Yes, that's the way it is. When anyone tries to show anything wrong the authorities do, they are quietly “shut up”. Either their mouths, or themselves in between four-walls under a lock.

We definitely need a UBI in its true sense, Universal Basic Income for everyone living on the planet. We are not fighting over scarce resources; we are fighting because of greed and because of lack of respect. We fight about making it ours and accumulating to guarantee our future when others are starving today.

I know... Any change in the system, even a small one, is a long long process. The people in power who can abuse the system are never giving up their privileges on their own. That's why there are rebels and revolutionaries. So the fighting goes on and on.
    I also know there's never going to be heaven on earth, I know we humans will never live peacefully along one another. The bickering of neighbors is forever. Apart from some exceptional lucky few. Or just look at how many marriages break up, these are people who profess to love each other. That's the level of compatibility of one person with another.
    So perhaps the only thing important is to find that one person you can get along with and live peacefully next to. Then hope the child you bear fits within your values too. No, even though you raise them with some values I believe you can instill only so much, they get their own minds and their own characters at some point. (Like I did ;) I did only after 40 years but sometimes the apple simply falls far from the tree. (Andrew Solomon's book “Far From the Tree” is a wonderful book that everyone should be reading.)
On the other hand, it's also true that we all carry the traces of our upbringing. More importantly, the society in which we grow up shapes our world views. All I'm saying is that “Let's shape the worldview of the next generation in a different way than the current idiotic rules, let's install a better program in them to get a better future output.”
    Let's reset the world. It really is in need of a reset!

We Need a Nudge Towards Our Better Selves

“We need rules in order to prevent total chaos,” was the premise of the person that started all the above thought process for me.

Do you think this world is panning out nicely and it is because of the rules in place? If so, I'd say think again.

I believe a world without nations and borders would probably pan out better.

When I wish for no nations, I don't mean in a cultural sense. I mean in the sense of dividing people. There is a section in “I, Asimov” which explains it so well:
“The Earth should not be cut up into hundreds of different sections, each inhabited by a self-defined segment of humanity that considers its own welfare and its own "national security" to be paramount above all other consideration.

I am all for cultural diversity and would be willing to see each recognizable group value its cultural heritage. I am a New York patriot, for instance, and if I lived in Los Angeles, I would love to get together with other New York expatriates and sing "Give My Regards to Broadway."

This sort of thing, however, should remain cultural and benign. I'm against it if it means that each group despises others and lusts to wipe them out. I'm against arming each little self-defined group with weapons with which to enforce its own prides and prejudices.”

To me, the world is not total chaos because most people are fairly decent. At least until they get a chance to not be so ;)
    Do you think the world would (or could) turn into worse chaos if the rules or the police weren't there? If you do, I cannot agree with you. We can agree to disagree or try to find a common ground.

Yeah, most people can be fairly decent, still... There is room for improvement. The improvement can come by the external factors. Like the Nudge by Nobel Prize winner Richard H. Thaler and Harvard Law School professor Cass R. Sunstein. I have not enjoyed the book so much, but its main premise is important. We should set up the world politics and economics game in such a way that it nudges us towards being nice so that we live in a better world. Sure, nudging can be a way of manipulation. But I believe, if used for the good, it is a wonderful tool. The current rules of the game nudge us towards getting the worst of us and presenting that to the world. Make rules such that we, all of us, can get the better part of ourselves.

In short... With all due respect, I disagree. We don't need rules, especially not the current ones; we need a more just and sensible economic system, we need better morals, we need a nudge towards our better selves and a better world.