Well, the mood is gloomy today, have done almost nothing useful, and in no mood to do. Writing this entry could be the most useful thing I do today, could you imagine?
Enter Banana world as my friend the Wyvern calls it....
I happened to pass by some extremely poor neighborhoods a couple of days ago. Let me first declare that I'm in no way a rich person, not yet at least, as I haven't been born one. But I was blessed to be born to a well doing family. An average one at that, being average in a 3rd world country could be thought of as poor by someone in a 1st world country, it's all relative, but anyway you get the picture.
So, passing by these poor neighborhoods, I think about the vast differences between the standards of living between human beings. I'd seen and known rich people, and I'd seen and known poor ones, the difference between the lives each lead is amazingly vast. The rich have and take things for granted that the poor may not even know exist. I'd seen people who look at a 20 year old car with admiration, people who sometimes sleep with no dinner because they can't afford it. And people who change their cars every year and throw wedding parties costing upwards of quarter a million pounds.
Why the difference? I do believe in God, and by definition God should be fair. So where is the fairness in such a situation.
Why are some people that rich, while others are that poor.
Granted, the poor can work their way up sometimes
And I do believe one should reap the rewards of one's hard work.
But some of these poor people, or many if I dare say, work more than you and me. They do all they can to secure their next meal. And yet they may never go up the ladder.
So what have they done wrong...
I'm not a communist, and I don't believe all people should be equally rich and I know that can't happen. But I don't think that some people should be so poor that they starve to death... I don't think people should die of disease when they can't afford the cure. Couldn't it have just been rich, and non-rich-but-still-well-doing-enough people?
How could this be fair, is there a rationale behind this, or is it like this just because it is. Just because the rich get children so they're born rich and the poor get children and those are born poor?
Can you put such a situation in a way so that it "looks" fair? I tried and I still can't.
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Well, I've kept the after-life argument out of this because it was meant to be an more of an intellectual exercise, the after-life is not a material provable fact. It belongs to the beliefs category so I meant to keep it out.
So it's about this material life. Is it fair or not... Regardless of all beliefs about how one will be "compensated" in the after-life.
And I did focus on wealth because it seems it's one major factor that determines the overall quality of living of an individual. I may have given the vibe that I was only talking money. But I was not. I meant the overall quality/standard of living. Which basically boils down to money, on the individual as well as the national level. A poor person may lead a relatively better life when compared to a slightly richer individual living in a richer country. But still on both levels it's money.
Health/disease is definitely a factor but for my purposes of this discussion they could be considered to happen randomly as it does not seem biased towards any particular category (rich vs poor). To make things worse the richer you are the more you'll afford treatment so if we consider disease to spread randomly it will turn out the rich have better probability of evading/getting over it. Poor children sometimes die of flu or diarrhea, needless to say this rarely happens with the richer among us.
The material world still doesn't look in perfect balance to me. All arguments I've received so far are trying to balance things by considering the after-life. Which is out of scope for my current purposes.
Now when I think about it. It might have actually been the inherent unfairness of this world that inspired people thousands of years ago with the idea of after-life. Where everything will be settled once and for all......
Yes, removing the non logically-provable facts would lead us to that situation I'm afraid.
But I was never concerned about where to place the blame or the question whose fault it is.
I was wondering if the world we're living in this life is fair to everybody and whether each and everyone gets their chance one way or another.
Declaring the world unfair is just a step... And I think now we're both there. The implications look huge to me though. I'll discuss that in a post soon I think.
Dear Chris.
It was great reading all what you wrote about the trip. And also your thoughts and questions about many things in life.
I just wanted to share one thought with you here.
It was you who said:
""I really don't know if "we" should be sad for "them", with their simplicity, good heartedness, almost no worries life they're leading. Or if "they" should be sad for "us", with our endless needs we have to fulfill, complicated lives, and hidden agendas......""
So, It is deeper and wider than only money as you see.
Indeed.... The post about my other experience where I wrote these words was actually enlightning for that very same reason, it related to my thoughts conveyed in this post.
I am a bit more comfortable now, although still got now definite answer...
You have to consider how the rich became rich and the poor became poor. If you look at North and South Korea and how differenet they are, you have to wonder if nations should take resposibilty for what their governments do. That of course does not explain the situation on an individual level. Who said that God has to be fair in distrbuting material wealth. Absolute poverty and evil in the world created by an all powerful and all loving God is probably a different matter.
Hmmm, late comment may be..
But I have little theory that I always use to answer such questions..
As I believe in god, so there is no acceptable answer that says the is God is not fair..
But, I never realize that the building in front of me has a third dimension except when I actually see it when I stand at the building corner..if I'm in front of this building..I'll never reallize the 3rd dimension..
the same here, as we believe that God knows more than us, and he is fair, I can assume that life, and after-life, has many more dimensions than what we see, and I can say it is not an assumtion it is a fact, also we may be "snobbish" or "vanity" to assume that we see all of the dimensions, so we able to judge..
Even if I'm one of the Poor people, I'm able to sleep believeing that God is fair..even if life is unfair..
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