The importance of Diversity

Conformity is the Jailer of Freedom and the enemy of growth

John F Kennedy

            When we are all the same, everything is stale. Having diversity is the way we find the things that are better than the way they are. We use biological diversity to find new medicines and ways to advance society. We find new materials by looking at the strange differences between all the things in he world. We find glue, clothes, armor and food in animals, mushrooms and plants. Conformity of the natural world would cause a lack of this safety net of new possibilities. This is why we need to make sure we have new possibilities in our lives

            For the same reason why we need to have a setup, which promotes natural diversity, we need a setup in our culture that promotes a diversity in skill. There are many types of brilliant and not all of them are measured in tests. There are people who can come up with brilliant mistakes, or they can remember unseemly amounts of information. This is why we should increase the type of education we provide so that we can be provided with many new types of information. It also will allow for more of our people to have a source to find a way to help society. When we have a specific set of skills, which are the only ones, valued, than a significant set of the population will not be able to succeed. In conformity we find a lack of opportunity and thus growth. Conformity creates a lack of success in the individual and in the society.

            Conformity also is the source of the ability to bully. In conformity a group can find what is considered right. If a group finds that on in their midst is not doing the right thing this causes an empowered feeling that encourages other bullying. This is the way that bullying becomes virulent, is through a set of expected standards. It both allows for bullying by creating an expected standard, and it bullies the people who are unable to meet the expected standard.

            However the most dangerous weakness of conformity is that if everyone is the same, when a weakness becomes apparent and dangerous. This is important because for instance if all of the houses in a neighborhood have the same weakness, when one collapses all of them collapse.

            This is why we need to avoid conformity because it creates a lack of opportunity, ability for success and defense against disaster

The importance of Jokes

A joke is a very serious thing

Winston Churchill

Humor is the best way to develop and reinforce a point. Not because of accuracy or because it makes one more right. Even though using laughter is considered a fallacy, any other method does not actually get people to admit to another point. This is because even though we consider academic arguments as a way. A joke is a very serious thing. Do not dismiss a person because they try and express their opinion in joke format. That does not mean they are a bad arguer, it just means they are tired of arguing with people who dismiss opinion because the argument turns into a whose more right and thus better contest. Most arguments are just competitions for who is better and who is the more successful person The instinct to belligerently true comes from our life in a tribal culture. We then become more and more mean to the other person. Arguments instead of debates develop creating a stalemate and a lack of progress Whether this is between two people who are just trying to have a friendly chat, two academics debating a scientific achievement or a politician debating the budget for the next year. Any situation where two opposing sides are created will only create a larger rift as the opposing sides try to prove themselves more and more right. A great example of this is that the “Global statesman” Henry Kissinger was trying to create peace in Vietnam spent many years arguing about the shape of the table.

 This is why debates tend to not work and instead just frustrate everyone. This is why a joke is a serious thing. It is as important of a creator of change as a revolution is. It also can quell silly disputes better than almost any other tool without causing ill feelings afterward. Consequently this causes more acceptance and peace with the opposing side. Acceptance will allow for compromise. Compromise is a true way to advance society. When people fight instead of compromise it usually ends up far worse than they were originally. This causes problems and hatreds that cause societies and ideas to die out and get more and more unhelpful. This is why as we move towards the future we need to take jokes more seriously as both a negotiation tool and a way to get people to experience new ideas

Our changing technology

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.

Albert Einstein

As we progress further and further into new depths of technology this quote seems to stand out as far as how we view technology. Nuclear weapons are getting larger and larger, Weapons of mass destruction are something to be feared yet we accept them like a natural part of life, we are preparing for an all out war with unspeakable weapons and on the way we seem to have had our humanity stolen by a politician getting votes or an arms company trying to earn money or even our own irrational fear of others weapons (weapons that either don’t exist or we have made more powerful through our own efforts). I am not perfect I also fall into the trap that is the logic that we need to protect ourselves. However the problem with that thinking is that the reason we need weapons is for others who are thinking like us. We need to stop this unbridled growth of the explosions created by our weapons of mass destruction The development of the our weapons has also went far past, not only our humanity in using them but also our ability t6 clean up the mess. The nuclear fallout at Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been there since we blew hem up and we have no way to try and fix it. The People who have been born from the victims of that explosion have irreparable genetic damage which 6 decades later we still are unable to fix.

We also have come up with more and more ways to damage our environment. For instance our ability to drill for oil has increased exponentially while our ability to clean up oil spills is the same as it used to be. There is no humanity in destroying the earth only greed and laziness.  Our ability to fix Rain forests and plant trees is far below our ability to cut them down. Our technology has surpassed our ability to fix the world. We do not invest in renewable energy sources and we do not invest in ways to make sure that the world is going to be as good or better for our children as it was for us, Our technology has far surpassed our humanity and our ability to care about our future generations. As the future comes rushing toward us we will have to face the consequences.

We change things

Things do not change; we change.

Henry David Thoreau

When we say that everything has changed, it really hasn’t, our position in everything changes so we see a new viewpoint. It is not everything else that has changed only us, as humans and as individual. For instance even when we consider that technology changes, it is more that we just created new things. It’s not that things have changed its just that our ability to make, interact and use things has improved. It is our ability to affect the world not the world itself that has changed

Nature does change it is true but it changes so very slowly that it is not the thing that affect our life. While a change in weather may affect our lives for a day, we as humans change and change other things. So the quote is not entirely true but for humanity’s ideas and uses it is us that changes and needed to change, ourselves and our environment. A tsunami may change a town but humans can rebuild that town and than give it even more buildings and even more technology that wasn’t there before. Nature may wield the force of waves but we wield the force of change

            Another thing that is considered to change is life. We can say that our lives (as a thing) has changed since it appears that large differences between our past and our present have occurred, however it is for all intents and purposes you and who have changed, changing your position and your viewpoint. With the change for instance such as moving to a new town it involves not a change of ones environment, it is infact a change in oneself place in an environment, a change in self not a change in everything else.

            It is true that other things change by themselves, however the speed at which they change is slow, so slow that nothing that changes in an environment except for changes that have been caused by humans have not affected us in the way that human led changes have caused. While a change in weather causes a movement of people, our discovery of medicine has saved hundreds. That same force of change, saving people discovery new ideas and having a new, better life. If we want to have a better life, a better more fair and equal future we cannot wait around. Humans wield a force of change and in order to achieve the change we need we need to change things and ourselves.