The role of reason

Reader comment on: Secession Talk Builds
in response to reader comment: secede where?

Submitted by Michael (United States), Apr 7, 2010 18:04

Talk of secession suggests that reason has taken a backseat to short-term self-interest. Our current politcal climate is one where one side is correct and the otherside is wrong and being wrong is grounds to doubt the propriety of survival. The " I'm right you should die" approach is one that denies the humanity of each of us. I am aware of no civilization that has lasted any length of time that has that as a core belief or practice. The Abrahamic faiths at the core of Western civilization certainly hold that people of reasonable minds can disagree and still live peacefully.

That is not to ignore elements in all 3 Abrahamic faiths that cling to the evil notion that if you disagree with me then you should die, but those elements are not the ones that have lasted 100s or 1000s of years.

Secession becomes attractive when the change on the horizon is so radical that many do not want to endure it. For example, the end of slavery in southern US. But it is a delaying tactic to change, not a solution to change. The world is changing. The US is is not going to be the biggest economy in the world. Methods of transportation other than cars with gasoline burning engines are going to be invented and become widely used. In such a world how do I make a living, feed cloth and house my family and retire comfortably when I am too old to work but healthy enough to enjoy living?

The world is sophisticated now and economies of scale are necessary for the goods and services that each of us need to be efficiently provided. A scale this large requires individuals to trust bureaucracies. These faceless bureaucracies are hard to trust because decisions that are "economically efficient" do not appear humane in the little picture. Solution eliminate the authority of the bureaucracy. But that limits scale and prevents efficient levels of use and distribution to be achieved.

We want fair treatment. But fair treatment in the big picture, defeating Nazi Germany, required unfair treatment in the small picture, the scarifice of men, boys, fathers, uncles, brothers, sons and grandsons. a faceless bureaucracy has to make arbitrary decisions about individuals to sustain the group. How does an individual avoid getting the short end of the stick? Leave the group, seceed. Let me survive and forget the group.

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