Ideologies- Part II

In a previous post, I have briefly discussed ideologies, from their structure to their formation, and ended up in a conclusion that no universal ideology can ever be achieved, as we will always be different even if we share a common purpose.
I argued that the teleological function of any ideology should be prioritized to survival, after all what would our lives mean if life itself has ended ? I added that this is all just natural, for life thrives to survive, and anything that stands in the way should be eliminated, or else our existence will. Strictly speaking, we live to survive, and our ideas/ideologies on how to live our lives should be based on this principle.

Survival as a lifestyle

Think of anything you do or have ever done, whether it was a simple act of picking up a flower or pursuing a life goal that takes a lifetime, whatever you might have done is probably connected somehow to your need to stay alive. As indirect as picking a flower seems to be linked to staying alive, in the beginning, this act – picking a flower- was, as every other, an act of curiosity, our need to discover what that colorful thing is. Is it edible? how can I make use of it ?
Today, we see flowers as a construct for beauty, which is an essential parameter in the human existence. Beauty is a need specially associated with humans, these aesthetic animals who linked beauty to life. The argument behind this link is a long one, but naively speaking, we used to offer what we saw beautiful along with the bodies of our deceased beloved, in hope that the Gods will have mercy on their souls, thankful for the beautiful gifts we offered. Flowers, gem stones, jewelry, anything worked, we wanted a guarantee that we will keep on going, that we will stay “alive” even after we die. We still do that by the way, the reasons might differ, but that’s how it started.
We can extend our argument to almost everything we do, from the food we eat to the sleep we get, the education we pursue and the people we fall in love with. But of course today we don’t think of the reasons behind many of our actions, we’ve been doing so many things along the millennium that some of these actions have become a habit, a lifestyle, without giving it a second thought as to why we even do this.
This has made man in a much more comfortable position towards life, as fear of death has become a secondary issue. We still and always will fear death surely, but we don’t think of it everyday, we don’t live our lives avoiding death, that’s one big difference between us and our ancestors, who lived life day by day. A simple meal to satisfy their hunger was a hectic process, staying warm and sheltered was considered a blessing.
What a wonderful time to be alive today, and indeed it is, we live in the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive in, and things are just starting… unless it ended sooner than we expect. [What I am implying here is that today we take life for granted, as I mentioned we live in the best time in the history of mankind, in terms of living standards, medical care… The human lifespan today is as longer as ever. However, we have forgotten where we came from, the sacrifices we had to endure to come to this time, the reason behind our progress, the mother earth behind our achievements. Today we are destroying the only thing that really matters, our home, without actually knowing or even taking our actions into considerations, because as I said, we have taken life for granted. #globalwarming]

Of course new challenges are now present, instead of having to hunt for food, we now hunt for the knowledge necessary to keep us in a career path and to make a living, and this is my point from the beginning, whatever we pursue today is because of our need to stay alive. Some of you might say that not everyone is blessed in a comfortable life, and indeed that is true, millions today still face hunger as an issue, they still have poor infrastructure and lack the necessities for a proper life, but I am sure most of my audience do not have these issues.

Survival as an Ideology

In this collective human undertaking we call civilization, each individual of us is driven, whether directly or indirectly, by the need to stay alive. But what happens now if one’s own needs to stay alive goes against another’s need to stay alive ? What if one had to suppress another person’s freedom in order for civilization to move on ? These questions have taken me into depth of ethics and morality.
No matter how hard we try to reconcile different opposing ideas and, we are always bound to be different, this is one of the basis of a civilization, being different and sharing thoughts. If it weren’t like that, we’d be just a herd blindly following a leader. More on this in the previous post.
Now that we agree that we will always be different, how do we deal with it ? Is tolerating each other and trying to accept one another enough ? To what extent do we accept others ? What if other’s ideas were hostile and destructive?
One thing I believe is right is that no matter what we do or what decisions we take, we should always prioritize humanity, and by humanity I mean US as species, all of us, regardless of our race, color, religion, ethnicity… No matter what we do or what we believe in, our fight should never backfire against us ( as species ). History shows us many examples of how one society’s dream of order, prosperity and power, led to its own destruction, mainly because that society denied the rights of those who were racially and ideologically different. Difference was seen as hostility, in need of eradication.

This hasn’t changed much today, yes we call for tolerance and acceptance, but at the end of the day, when things get serious, when something or someone can lead to a change in a specific society, those who control this society quickly go back to their cocoons of ideology, and segregate the ones who are different, for they see them as intruders, or trouble makers who will cause disruption in the community and to the youthful minds. Let’s quickly recall the story of Socrates, whom, despite his brilliance of mind and philosophical thoughts, was seen as different, introducing new ideas that none before him ever thought of. The men in power feared him, and prosecuted him as a criminal under the conviction of “disrupting the minds of the youth”. Socrates was executed by poison.
We are afraid of change, it’s not easy to let go of our own beliefs, because we can never be sure that the new belief we’ll adopt might guide us to a safe haven or to annihilation. So we stick to what we have, and we gradually change over centuries as we adopt and share ideas slowly and without notice.

Modern Day Survival – Backfired

Now we are in a position to discuss what is wrong with today’s ideologies. As discussed above, historically, we’ve been living our whole lives in groups, we shared the same thoughts, ideologies, race, color, religion… Today, this “grouping” is ceasing to exist, the world has opened up on itself, with the help of capitalism and globalization, there is not such thing today as a pure “whatever” country, and by “whatever” I mean race, religion, color etc… ( here I mean that we do no longer find countries for example of just white people or just Christians, there are always those who are different, in many cases they are minorities and face a lot of discrimination ). Only in rare cases do we still find tribes that segregate themselves from the rest of the world, but in the general prospect, every country is now open to the world, economically and socially. What was previously called a “pure breed” is slowly disappearing, as people have begun mixing into one another, genetically and thoughtfully. This makes the originally “Pure Breeds” in a state of fear of extinction, for reasons we discussed above, they believe they are the righteous, and the incoming wave of those who are different are a threat. So they way wage attacks and terrorize that incoming wave, in hope to keep them away and preserve the “Pure Breeds”.
Examples to this are many: White Supremacy, Nazism, ISIS … They all fought, and still fighting the world to preserve their race, religions, ideology, viewing themselves as God’s chosen ones, when in fact they are the cancer that should be eliminated, who are standing against the force of nature to evolve and mix and prosper. All these extremist groups’ attempts to abolish the different are futile.

We will always be different, no matter how close we get. In a single neighborhood today you’ll find people from all around the world, who came for one purpose, to make a living, to survive, and have a better chance at life. What does it matter what they believe in ? Because remember, at the end of the day you are both living for the same purpose, to survive !
I understand clearly that things get even more complicated when we start talking about laws and legislation. What rules to implement in a society whose individuals are so different ? How can we integrate different ideologies in one society ? As of now, the only answer I could find is Secularism. To build a country that is based on difference, and educate its citizens on how to be secular, which by the way doesn’t mean to overthrow any ideology/religion, but to “shift the focus from a specific ideology/religion to other ‘temporal’ and ‘this-worldly’ things with emphasis on nature, reason, science, and development. ” Because you see, when dealing with reason and science, it is only through the diversity of thoughts do we find the way to a scientific problem. Now imagine we amplify this method to not just scientific problem, but to any problem that humanity faces, our hatred towards the different will turn into love and unity of seeking a solution.

To be continued…