Pursuit of Equality and Happiness

["John Gelles" <johng@xxxxxxxxxx>]

    Henry Liu writes, in connection with science and
    scarcity, his dream of a return to a virtuous way
    of life. His focus is China and a past we learn of
    in books. America's past puts at the top of its list
    of similar dreams the individual right to life, liberty
    and the pursuit of happiness -- "happiness", we
    are told in books, that meant "virtue" more than
    gaiety.

    Having lived through periods of capitalist and
    socialist examples of the non-dream reality of
    human struggle, work and play, where happiness
    is often scarce and equality rare, (except in death,
    breathing, and chance in unfixed lotteries,) Henry
    writes, in part, as follows:

"The fact that the historical record of socialist politics
is littered with betrayals of the humane ideals of
theoretical socialism should not diminish the valor of
those who have placed their hopes on its noble vision
...
"[In the just society I dream of : ] they would cherish
the Confucian notion of natural hierarchy, balanced
with the Buddhist view of all things being fundamentally
equal in essence, that have permitted the pursuit of
perfection to flourish at all social levels rather than
being concentrated at the top."

    It is unfair to challenge Henry's dream:  Individuals
    who make up society, (and societies as masses of
    individuals,) ought to accept the inequality nature
    fixes in the gifts it bestows at birth, yet it should
    use such inequality to bring equality and happiness
    to all people whereever possible. Thus doctors
    repair the injured and fireman save lives at the cost
    of their own.

    So fair comment on what Henry wrote at great
    length must be limited to his choice of "who are
    the bad guys".  He finds these to be men in trade
    and business more than those who won the wars
    and wrote the law.  I beg to disagree.

    In modern times we have given equality an
    enormous boost with "one man, one vote", the
    end of much apartheid, the end of colonialism
    and the triumph of science over superstition in
    medicine, mining, agriculture and manufacturing.
    Scarcity, the great natrural evil, has been beaten
    from time to time. And men in trade and business
    have, like the rest of us, been among the best
    and the worst in bringing all this about.

    What remains to cloud our happiness is a vast
    resevoir of ignorance in the minds of individuals,
    including our own.

    The greed that starts with sibling rivalry and
    ends with capitalist and socialist abuse of
    individual right and dignity, is tameable via
    training and indoctrination:

                The golden rule, that we must treat
    others as we would be treated, is not
    repealed or repealable.

                But we must repeal, in effect, the
    business cycle: Its correction of excess debt
    is fine; but the time it takes to reorganize for
    progress must be compressed to a long
    weekend -- with all reorganizing engines
    running. at full throttle.

        John Gelles