Don't You Seriously Want A Better Society? [A Light-Hearted, Bold, Constructive, Tongue-In-Cheek But Serious Scrutiny Of Society: Societal Problems And Solutions]

1  INTRODUCTION

Sometimes it is better to have dogs and cats as friends than human beings. They will not play a person out or harm him unlike his so-called friends of a human kind. We are all the time surrounded by a sea of bad news - violence, protests, boycotts, divorces, law suits, terrorism, genocide, wars, bombings, betrayals, abandonment of pets, cruelty to humans and animals alike, slanders, sabotages, bullying, oppression, poisoning, suicides, counterfeiting, torturing, thefts, robberies, kidnappings, cheatings, greed, the list goes on and on. It appears that it is not necessary to go to Hell to meet Satan. He can be seen all around us. Rather than wallow in depressing helplessness, the author has finally decided to do something about all this. The author has written this book to tackle this issue head-on instead of just complaining about it, which he knows is not going to help much.

This book not only points out the foibles and foolishness of human beings in general but offers constructive solutions as well. There are also Confucian teachings in the book to guide the guideless and lost human souls who seem hell-bent on making a nuisance and fool of themselves. The book may ridicule and belittle human beings but this is done tastefully, humorously and entertainingly so that we human beings can enjoy laughing at ourselves, feel silly about our antics and actions, change for the better so that even the animals who may have a sense of humor may stop laughing at or despising us. Society may be clamoring for more scientists, engineers, doctors and other skilled professionals to provide solutions to its everyday problems. But the social problems, the problems involving human inter-action, are still plentiful and appear to be getting more complex and intractable. Our political leaders also seem quite powerless in allaying or eliminating them. The author thinks that if this state of affairs is allowed to go on uncontrollably indefinitely life is going to be more and more difficult and not that worth living. He hopes that the world would be blessed with world peace, harmony and happiness. As a fellow human being, he feels compelled to persuade or coerce his fellow beings to be less self-centered, more considerate, more empathetic, more cooperative and more peace-loving. He feels that there should be more social reformers to write articles and books about our social problems, proposing solutions at the same time, to give talks about all this, and to lead a movement towards a really harmonious, peaceful, cooperative and humane society. As the author has jokingly decried in the third chapter of this book that men are becoming more and more like animals and animals are becoming more and more like men, man hopefully could become less and less like animals so that animals have no chance to be like him at all.

As is also stated in the book, some men are so cruel and wild that their associates might be better off living in the real jungle with wild animals. Even if a man were not cruel or wild, he could be self-centered, conceited, superstitious, avaricious, hot tempered, snobbish, duplicitous, in short, having some character defects. Who could imagine that such innocent babes born into this world could have developed into such monstrosities? All this reflects some shortcoming in our environment, such as the undesirable effect of films, mixing with the wrong company and even the imperfection of the education system.

In this book, the author daringly brings up the shortcomings of our society and suggests possible solutions for them. In doing so, he brings up the processes of the law, the education system, the political systems, human relations, the utilization of logical reasoning, competition, co-operation, team-work, harmony, et al., and, finally, an important proposal on how society should be organized, i.e., how the ideal society should be. The author also speaks from personal experiences, which could not be said to be that good, having been working on the ideas in the book since his younger days. Sixty carefully selected sayings of Confucius are also included in the first appendix of the book as a form of code of conduct for society as a whole. The book has been written with the author’s heart and mind.

This is a very important book written by the author, which has a noble, lofty objective. The author stresses that more such books should be written by like-minded people and read by people who are concerned about the development of our society. He hopes that the dear readers, after reading this important book, would carefully think about the ideas, which have taken him many years to develop, and implement them. The Confucian teachings in the book are simple and logical; they have made China the great nation it has always been. The author also hopes that the dear readers would imbibe, and also help to spread, these Confucian principles, so that our world would eventually become Utopia.

May all of us be blessed with world peace, harmony and happiness, and may all fellow beings work together as one towards Utopia.

2  THE HORRIFYING STATE OF SOCIETY

No news is indeed good news. Everyday we are practically bombarded by horrifying news about the evil, harmful acts of people - murders, robberies, violence, thefts, slanders, cheatings, molests, rapes, cyber-crimes, destruction of innocent lives and properties by suicide bombers, spying by secret cameras under women’s skirts, what you could imagine you could find. This place Earth is thus evidently no Heaven, more like Hell wherein victims of the evil acts suffer or die and third parties or witnesses live in fright and fear. Man prides himself on being civilized as compared to animals, comparing evil acts to the acts of animals. Is this justifiable? But animals do not spy with hidden cameras, kill the innocent with bombs, rob or cheat. It would not be a surprise that animals living in close proximity to us are aware of these hellish human conditions and inwardly, if not outwardly, laughing at or mocking us. It would also not be a surprise that animals think they are more civilized than the laughable human beings who tend to think too highly of themselves.

On top of their potentiality for evil acts, human beings tend to be ambitious, jealous, envious, duplicitous, avaricious, suspicious, freedom-loving and fond of comparing with others, which animals apparently are not. Human beings are of course much more intelligent than animals, which implies that their evil acts are also executed with a higher order of intelligence. Police officials today also need to be very intelligent in order to tackle criminals some of who might even have first-rate minds or minds of genius.

Human beings have apparently developed, evolved, into beings capable of acts of high intelligence, cunning, cruelty and evil. There is a scientific solution to this. Through the science of genetics involving genes sequencing, it would be possible to engineer the birth of a new breed of human beings who are more capable, intellectually and physically, and whose personality is good and free from evil motives. This is the manipulation of nature. Then there is nurture, i.e., creating a conducing environment for the proper emotional and intellectual development of the human being. With man’s evidently high intelligence, manipulating both nature and nurture for a desirable society should not be much of a problem.

The following chapters would show how such a desirable society could be attained.

3  A GLIMPSE AT HUMAN PROBLEMS

There is keen competition in everything in life: work, study, sports, games, et al.. The competition apparently gets keener all the time. Some people are apparently even prepared to murder or kill for money, power and revenge. Sometimes, things just turn topsy-turvy apparently because of men’s evil.

It looks as though men are becoming more and more like animals and animals, on the other hand, are becoming more and more like men; sometimes, a man’s dog would be more grateful to him than even his own son. This raises the question of whether it is man’s inborn ego and selfishness that are to be blamed for the world’s problems. Or are people becoming too clever and too complicated to live in simple terms instead of searching all the time for that ever illusive ideal condition of wealth, power and esteem? What is the point of striving so hard for power and the trappings of power? People could often be heard grumbling that if a person dies he cannot bring down with him to the after-life his power and wealth.

The argument might proceed that if there are no problems in the world man’s life would be boring and uninteresting. But yet problems had made life so interesting for some people that they had to commit suicide. The author prefers life to be a smooth path. He prefers to choose or create his own problems to solve rather than to have the problems forced upon him, e.g., he could set mathematical problems for himself to solve, he could do case studies, et al.. A person is a fool, merely deceiving himself or excusing himself, by saying that life is boring if there were no problems.

No two persons could feel and think alike in every aspect. No two persons’ characters are exactly alike. Hence, the personal differences or disagreements and problems. Cloning of human beings could create replicas of people with admirable qualities and if scientifically plausible could create a human race that is alike and similar in looks, character and intelligence. It would be ideal to have clones of a genius of excellent character. This seems the only plausible way of resolving human differences and the associated world problems. If only all the various races of humanity could be reduced to just one race of alike, similar human beings.

Another way to look at the problems is to ignore them. Problems are problems because we choose to see things as problems, because we have a negative attitude towards certain things. There is the saying that failure is the father of success; if we could view things in the positive light then problems are actually not problems but the lessons for success - though it might appear to be easier said than done we should feel confident about tackling our problems instead of feeling depressed and negative about them, which would aggravate them.

The problems in society are plenty - poverty, sickness and disease, failure in achieving personal goals, wide income gaps, racial and cultural differences, rivalry, envy, anger, et al.. Today’s world is indeed a dog-eat-dog world, a terribly competitive place, a battle-field of sorts. In the schools, kids slug it out with each other for top marks and honors. Later, in working life, they slug it out with each other for top jobs, and, if they are in business, big market shares and wealth. It is practically a situation where success is inevitably achieved at the expense of someone else who becomes the failure - obviously, a winner has to have a loser or losers following behind (win-lose situation). Competition, especially over-competition, is therefore not good for humanity.

It is high time to think co-operation, team-work and win-win, if we wish to be rid of our current problems. Instead of making each other unhappy by competing with each other we should make each other happy by co-operation and team-work, and, would it not be much, much better to be happy than unhappy?

4  THE MORALS OF SOCIETY

Man prides himself on being a moral person. Is this justifiable?

First, we examine the meaning of the words morality, immorality and amorality, which must be dealt with and must be associated with certain beings or things. Morality and immorality are two nouns. The first one is the respectable, adorable factor of society, the other is the scorned, criminal-like factor of society. These are associated with mankind, the thinking beings, while amorality, the state of something not capable of offence or wrong, is associated with unthinking, inhuman beings, e.g., animals, who might be more thoughtful and intelligent than we humans think.

We brand acts or behaviors according to whether they are moral or immoral. Moral behavior or acts must be something which pleases or does not offend our conscience, our sense of right or wrong. An immoral act has the opposite effect on the mind. Stealing, killing, mutiny, lying and many other things are wrong as dictated by our conscience because no man likes being robbed, killed or ravaged. Criminals are immoral because they kill or rob and commit other acts that we do not like done to us because they cause pain of one kind or other.

Crooks, thugs and thieves are immoral because they take away our properties and thus deprive us of a means towards an end. They are therefore branded by society as immoral. They are scorned and condemned by society.

As it is, only human beings can be immoral as human beings can think and make use of discretion: the ability to distinguish right from wrong. Animals can think, just like human beings, but we do not classify them into immoral or moral categories. Why? Because we do not understand the psychology of animals. We know human beings think very much alike through direct observation as well as through the intuition. We understand why our neighbors wear clothes, why they eat, why they talk and what the contents of their talks are. At the same time, we share many common features, e.g., our physiques, our desire to achieve success and a lot of other whims and fancies. In addition to that, we tend to judge each other. We tend to be impressed by and classify in our mind whether a person is stupid or clever, ugly or handsome, generous or self-centered, humble or pompous, et al.. In any case, we tend to admire a person, to hate a person or simply dislike him or to have a neutral feeling towards him. In other words, we are always attempting to read the thoughts of our neighbor and to judge him by his behavior and appearance. To us, all human beings are different in some ways; they have individuality, unlike animals.

We do not compare ourselves to animals, as we compare ourselves to our neighbors. We keep up with the Joneses; when we see a neighbor possessing a big house or having a successful career, we wish to have the same. Animals of the same species select mates of their own species and are therefore expected to understand each other. Human beings select friends and mates of their own kind. Why? Simply because they can understand each other and behave in a manner not repugnant to each other. We do not attempt to compare ourselves to animals and therefore do not condemn animals as being immoral or brand them as moral.

Now we come to the third object of discussion, amorality. This is a noun that pertains to objects that are affected by human effort or endeavors, objects like science, battle and so forth. Science is always blamed for creating destruction; yet we know that it cannot be blamed as it is unthinking and incapable of destroying. Science is the result of investigations, experimentation, observation and rationalization. It is the offspring of the human mind. Therefore, the blame is to be attributed to mankind for inventing science and using science to create the means of destruction such as the atomic bombs, the hydrogen bombs, the weapons of war and other contrivances. We therefore attribute the term amoral to science, war, et al., for whatever harm they contribute to society is but the fault of society itself.

The criteria for immorality and morality are not clear-cut but change from time to time. What was immoral to society in the past needs not be immoral today, e.g., polygamy was once regarded as immoral but now it is not regarded as so. The criteria change as fashion does and therefore the classifications of our behaviors or actions change.

The morals of our society are subjective - subject to how we would like to interpret the moral principles involved.

5  THE CHARACTER OF MAN

To understand society as a whole, we need to understand the development of the character or personality of the human being.

Are all men born equal? It is believed that the genes a person was born with are partly responsible for his character and personality. Good genes make a good person, bad genes, a not so good one. The other contributing factor that is responsible for the shaping of character and personality is the environment, an external influence.

There is little or nothing we could do about the genes a person was born with, the internal factor - it is beyond our control. But, we could control the external factor, the environment - we could create the suitable environment for developing and nurturing character and personality. However, of late, experiments have been carried out in the U.S. to breed a super race through the artificial insemination of ovaries with sperms from superior donors, donors who have high intelligence, good character and fine personality traits. It is a question of nature versus nurture. Here, a scientist tries to play God and attempts to control nature. There has been quite good success so far, with several talented children and geniuses having been produced. So, in effect, the genes a person was to be born with could be controlled.

We would all like to have the following personality traits and would like to associate with people who have them: high intelligence, high creativity, conscientiousness, great kindness and courtesy, great energy and great strength. It is believed that nature and nurture, genes and environment, are responsible for their development. However, nature only plays an initial role, while nurture would continue to influence the development of a person’s character and personality throughout his life.

Philosophers have likened the mind of a newly born person to a blank slate (tabula rusa). As the person grows, his blank slate is being filled up with writings - the quality of the writings being responsible for the quality of his character and personality. In other words, the environment, whether the environment provides challenges, whether it brings sufferings and pain, whether it brings comfort and pleasure, whether it gives the person a sense of security or insecurity, shapes the person’s character, personality and outlook. A person who has grown up in a poor environment, an environment lacking in educational opportunities and challenges, an environment lacking in love, an environment of poverty, would probably be a dull, hard-hearted and pessimistic or bitter individual. A person brought up in a good family would probably be a happy, contented and balanced individual.

Anti-social and criminal behaviors could be the result of wrong upbringing, poor environment. Anti-socialites and criminals have been known to reform when provided with the right environment. But how do we account for the inability to reform of the hard-core criminal or anti-socialite? Is his gross character or his criminality so written in his genes that he is beyond reform, beyond hope?

To modify human behavior, it is necessary to manipulate the individual’s genes (responsible for a person’s inborn characteristics) and his environment (responsible for influencing the development of a person’s inborn characteristics), from the gestation stage to the growing up/maturing stage. Advanced scientific technologies should be able to make all this possible.

6  MAN IN GENERAL

Man, a gregarious animal, is apparently more influenced by external factors than internal factors. What are these internal factors? These internal factors are a person’s basic needs. Man has the basic need for food, shelter and love - these practically constitute his personal security. Every man exhibits a behavior which involves the search for these conditions of living and one man’s behavior duly affects another’s behavior to a more or less degree. Other men’s behaviors, other men’s responses, influence our behaviors greatly, that is to say, our attitudes are the result of external factors. The author began by describing man as gregarious; this means man seeks and favors the company or companionship of other men.

No person could be completely independent. Every person has to depend on another in one way or another. One person alone cannot grow all his fruits and vegetables, make his own clothes and shoes, build his own house, or produce the tools and equipment and the necessary accessories to help him work and produce. A person has also to have the companionship of another person in order that his life is meaningful. This interdependence will always unite mankind.

For man, the future means more improvements, more discoveries, more luxuries, but not necessarily less problems. Man justifies his efforts for betterment by saying that there are problems which prevent him from reaping the full advantages of his efforts or enjoying life to its utmost. But a supposedly improvement or cure apparently always brings new problems; automation has brought about the risk of unemployment but has increased production and speed of production; a cure for an incurable disease would necessarily lessen the fear for the disease but would result in less deaths, and hence the danger of over-population. Problems do not affect all men, i.e., men have different problems. Some men might solve their problems at the expense of others, who might then suffer from more problems than before. Today, the world is more competitive, with people seeking for higher and higher academic degrees or qualifications, more wealth and more material comforts. Man has only himself to blame. Man’s problems are generally man-made. Man has created jealousy, envy, anger, hatred, or even love, fondness, or admiration in others.

Man’s future seems to promise greater social problems and perplexities, more rivalry, more hatred. Presently, the gap between the haves and the have-nots appears to have widened and has become a cause for concern, this being one of the causes of our great social problems. Some will benefit a great deal from the advancement of science and others will not. The latter may be left behind to form the crass of society, the social out-casts; their bitterness may further increase with greater progress. In the days of yore man’s greatest enemy had apparently been nature, the weather, the rivers and the streams, and the wild animals. But today man’s greatest enemy seems to be man. What with his weapons of mass destruction, e.g., the feared hydrogen-bombs which are capable of causing world catastrophe? The superpowers, who possess such weapons of mass destruction, are apparently wary of this.

Sad to say, despite our very great advances in science and technology, we are no nearer to achieving utopia. While many old problems are solved, many new problems have cropped up, e.g., widespread terrorism and new diseases such as SARS and bird flu.

7  THE COMPLEXITY OF HUMAN BEINGS

It is indeed difficult to understand the human being, who is apparently a much complex person.

A man wears a scarf round his head, sports beautiful, long hair, smokes a pipe and assumes an air of superiority, wears and proudly displays a Rolex watch, dresses unconventionally in torn jeans, or dyes his hair green. He does this to proclaim his individuality, to stand out in the crowd, to be different from others (for the sake of being different). He is proud of his individuality, of being different.

Assuming that he has a hare-lip, six fingers on one of his hands, a leg shorter than the other, or a dwarfish stature, would he then be able to proclaim to others that he is different, and, very individualistic, and that he thus deserves some due respect? In short, would he be able to feel pride in having such an abnormality? The contrary however appears to be the case. A so deformed person normally shuns the companionship of his fellow-men for fear of being rejected or ignored, or, he attempts to hide his deformity; instead of pride, he would normally feel shame or inferiority.

This is strange. A normal person goes out of his way to be out of the normal by dressing differently, even outrageously, while an abnormal person wishes he were normal. This is paradoxical. The human psyche is indeed strange and hard to comprehend.

It is as though good can be bad and bad can be good (depending on the situation).

This goes to show how complex the human mind is.

Complex solutions will probably be required for our societal problems.

8  THE CONTRADICTIONS OF SOCIETY

Society expects certain norms of behavior in its members.

In general, society abhors the lazy and incapable, pays little attention to the poor, the underprivileged and the disabled, and deifies the eloquent, smart and capable men of the world.

The age we are living in is one of speed, complexity and increased leisure and facilities. We have reached the Space Age - the age when we could overcome many of our problems and consider impending problems. To prepare for these impending problems, we are passing through the stage of research and inquisition, the age of probing into mysteries which once upon a time took us with utmost awe and wonder. Now we are capable of solving the most complex problems. We can make computers decide and think for us. In a sense, we have found somebody to do the essential work for us and do it faster - extremely fast in comparison to us; we have strained the computer-machine, and our higher faculties are left to idle in certain respects. We have been using up more energy; we have been using more and more advanced mechanical means of transport. Thus, physically and mentally, society has idled, has more free time to enjoy the good life.

Is not everybody born with latent laziness, just like latent intelligence? Does not everyone want a short cut to everything, to save time and energy so that he can relax and reap the fruits of other people’s labor? Do you not want to wake up late in the morning and sleep earlier in the night? Do you not like the newspaper boy to deliver your papers, the milkman your milk, the grocer your household requirements to your very doorsteps? What is wrong with being lazy then?

By comparison, primitive men apparently were hardworking, inarticulate and strong. They might not be as clever or capable. But they were stronger and could work hard with their hands. They presumably were not so corrupted. We live a more secure life compared to theirs, but can we call it a happier life with competition, anxieties, pressures and corruption?

We should have the right priorities and be clear about what we want.

9  THE SO-CALLED RATIONALITY OF MAN

Human beings are distinguished from animals in that they have the ability to reason. If that is really so, if we really have the power to reason, it seems only to be the power to reason correctly on infrequent occasions, while the rest of the time we reason wrongly, are oblivious to reason or do not reason at all. If we reason frequently and reason correctly too, there should be no reason why the world would have to have so much problems, such as quarrels, disputes and wars.

To be intelligent is one thing, but, to be rational, is quite a different thing. To be rational involves a number of personality traits such as honesty, especially intellectual honesty, moral uprightness, emotional control, discipline, care and objectiveness. An intelligent man may not be rational, unless he possesses these qualities. Rationality could be regarded as an attribute of the character while intelligence is an attribute of the mind.

When we look around, we could probably see more irrational selfishness or self-centeredness in people than rationality. When a driver, e.g., horns madly at the driver in front, he is not rational; it is not that the driver in front wants to block his way but that he too is being blocked by the vehicle in front of him which has probably broken down or is involved in an accident, an event which is beyond his control and which he certainly abhors. When one person accuses another person without substantial proof or finds fault with others, he is also not rational, for we all know that no one is perfect, and for that reason we should expect others to make mistakes at times, and if others make mistakes we should be understanding towards them instead of faulting or blaming them - certainly nobody likes to be reprimanded for making mistakes, not even those who carry out the reprimand themselves.

When our country lost the 1978 Regional Soccer Cup, our national soccer coach was openly castigated as a terrible coach, but if our country had won the Cup, there is little doubt that our national coach would have had been given the acclaim not quite unlike that given to a national hero. Many of us who are proud citizens had of course liked to see our country retain the Regional Soccer Cup championship title, not to mention our national coach and our national soccer team. But soccer coaches are not gods and therefore could not be expected to guarantee success in any game - we could only expect them to increase the chances of success or make success more likely. How irrational, how unfair to our national coach had many of our soccer fans been? And his frustration, it could be imagined, was aggravated, when soccer fans went to the extent of making abusive phone calls to his home.

Sadly, there are apparently many intelligent people, even brilliant people, around, who jump to conclusions too fast or jump to wrong conclusions. They misinterpret other people’s actions, other people’s motives. They misunderstand. They sometimes even let their emotions control them. Many of them seem to think that they are good judges of character and many too seem to be inflexible in their opinions, believing that they are smarter than others, and are not prepared to let others tell them what to do or listen to others. However, even fools could sometimes be right and hence deserve a hearing. If a criminal is entitled to be heard and defended, why shouldn’t a fool be entitled to a hearing by others?

With the apparently higher standard of education now, people should be more rational. But this does not seem to be so. People appear to be better equipped with knowledge, with the advancement of knowledge - education appears to fill their minds with knowledge and intelligence - but it does not seem to improve their ability to think and act rationally. It is little wonder that the greatest philosopher of this century, Bertrand Russell, had lamented the irrationality of man, and he believed that it is this irrationality that would probably lead to world catastrophe one day.

The author believes that the first step now towards being more rational is for us to realize how irrational we have been and how we could all have been happier if we had adopted a more rational attitude, a more tolerant, a less self-centered, a more detached attitude. The author hopes that this article helps to fulfill this first step.

However, we human beings are also ruled by our emotions and desires, which can often be so strong that the intellect is overwhelmed by them.

10  THE COURSE OF LIFE

Is the course of our life pre-determined or fated? Can we change or modify it with our free will?

There are many things in life which we could control. But there are also many that are beyond our control. For example, if a person were born into a poor family and has to struggle all through life, surely that is something beyond his control. Is it not Fate or Providence at work then? To the Hindus, what one becomes in this life depends on one’s Karma (what one had done in one’s previous life) and what one becomes in the next life after one’s demise depends on how one has lived in the present life. What fate could be worse for a person who was born blind, deaf or mute, or who was born feeble-minded? Could a person then by dint of sheer determination overcome such overwhelming obstacles? This would require a miracle.

It is easy to blame someone for being wicked or evil. If he were genetically endowed with such a wicked or evil tendency, would blaming, chastising or correcting him change him into a goody-two-shoes? Perhaps not. But the person endowed with great intelligence and great character, if born into a poor family or unsuitable environment could rise to the occasion and become successful in life. But, if the intelligence were lacking and the character were unbecoming, there is practically no chance of success for him. Could one expect an imbecile to grow up into a successful teacher, engineer or lawyer? We have to face the fact that this is impossible.

To be born or endowed with intelligence, talent or genius, to be born into a well-to-do family (even with just average talents), would see a person off well in life. On the other hand, to be born with physical or mental deformities, or even with character flaws, to be born into a never-do-well family or an adverse environment, would set one off to a distinct disadvantage in life.

Then, there are those who were born, endowed with great intelligence or talent, who succumb to bad influence (influence of friends, colleagues, et al.) and become bad.

The question is whether nature or nurture is more important. The author prefers to argue for the point that nature is more important. No amount of nurture is more important. No amount of nurture is going to turn the table and change a person in the opposite direction if he were born physically or mentally deformed. In other words, the role of Providence in dictating a person’s inborn physical or mental well-being could not be undone, though these defects could be made to appear less severe by suitable nurture and training. On the other hand, an inherently intelligent person might end up a failure in life if his nurture were not good. You might argue here that poor nurture is also the role of Providence or Fate. It is difficult to dispute this point.

The author could only say that though nature and nurture are both important in life, nature appears to be the more important. We could control, change, nurture, but we could never change an inborn nature - we could never change an act of Providence. We could only hope and pray that Providence is kind to us. Some might like to equate Providence with God.

We should therefore plan and live our lives well while at the same time hope or pray hard for good fortune.

11  WE SHOULD LEARN FROM HISTORY AND NOT REPEAT PAST MISTAKES

Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat past mistakes. It is desirable for us to study our history well to avoid past mistakes.

Just a few hundred years ago, feudalism had been holding sway in an oppressed society. The royals, lords and barons, the official class and the gentry, as well as the warlords, had ridden rough-shod over the commoners. It had been a master-slave situation.

Now, the aristocratic classes have more or less gone the way of the dinosaur, and where they still exist, they do not hold much political clout, and are mostly ceremonial in their function. Feudalism, which had caused much ills in society and whose past had witnessed the abuse of power, political intrigues, the privileged life-styles of the ruling classes (which owed their due more to heredity than merit), their corrupted nature and the thorough exploitation of the common man, is now gone, so to speak. A man’s fate had then apparently depended more on his birth than his true ability - a man born a commoner would have had experienced all the oppression of his class.

Today, what has really filled up the vacuum left behind by feudalism? It is neo–feudalism! What man has really done now is that he has replaced feudalism with another form of feudalism that comes under the guise of capitalism. Today, the capitalists, the people who possess wealth, are the lords and barons of a society whose members are much dependent on them for their livelihood and survival - in fact, the latter are more or less at the mercy of the former, who enjoy the freedom to hire and fire, and to exploit. Just like in the feudal society, where the crown prince, the oldest son of the emperor, normally inherited the throne from the emperor, in a business enterprise, the oldest son of the patriarch of the business normally inherits the business from the latter. And, who says these lords and "barons’ have no political clout? A number of them, especially the large conglomerates and business empires, are as wealthy as or wealthier than nations, and they exercise much influence and control over the economies they are operating in. Many of them are vastly able to influence life-styles through their products or services and employment opportunities. As though we do not know, money is power. There is still a kind of class struggle between the haves and the have-nots (witness the strikes conducted by unions, the demonstrations and boycotts, and the riots).

When will man really ever learn from his past, instead of replacing one set of problems with another set of almost similar problems? Though there is supposed to be more meritocracy in a democratic society, we know that the scions of the haves will have better chances of success than the have-nots. The class differences or conflicts are still there! We now have neo-feudalism! Perhaps, this is inevitable. Man since time immemorial has always had a penchant for wealth and power and will apparently continue to be so. Which means