Here’s a bit of a thought experiment for you: What if we could build a society where people were rewarded for making the world a better place rather than worse?
People tell me that I’m naive for thinking such things. And maybe I am, I know. Maybe even childishly optimistic. But follow my train of thought here.
Since basically the beginning of time, people have been rewarded for their pure greed. Which, unsurprisingly, makes the world worse. So what if we changed that? What if we rewarded people for making the world better instead?
The problem, of course, is obvious: how do we define “better”?
The greedy would immediately say that “better” means more money for them, even at the expense of everyone else’s health and happiness. Classic.
But I think we can use a reasonable set of criteria to define what “better” actually means. In fact, I think we could use one idea as the criterion for the measurement of better: is it reasonable? And we could define reasonable as: something that comes from sound judgment and is sensible.
Of course, the legalists would quibble over every word. They’d write libraries of opinions about how to parse each syllable of each word. But honestly? I think we can all agree, at least to a reasonable extent, on what is sensible and sound.
Strip mining the planet for short-term gain? Not reasonable.
Running an economy on the concept of perpetual growth? Not reasonable.
Running a society that is inequitable or not sensible? Not reasonable.
Lying, cheating, stealing? Not reasonable.
In fact, anything done for short-term gain at the expense of long-term stability and sustainability? Most certainly is not reasonable.
And frankly, we don’t need a cadre of Pharisees (lawyers, bureaucrats, whatever) to try and tell us what’s reasonable. We already know.
I once witnessed a woman in a psychiatric hospital say the most profound thing I’d ever heard; and in all the months I’d worked there, she only said this one thing:
“We all know the difference between right and wrong.”
From the mouths of babes, right?
Or in this case, from someone society had written off. Someone who saw through all our elaborate bullsh*t justifications and legal frameworks and philosophical debates to the simple truth underneath.
We know. Deep down, we all know.
We know when we’re being greedy at someone else’s expense. We know when we’re destroying something for a quick gain. We know when we’re lying to ourselves, or others, about what “growth” or “success” really means.
The question isn’t really whether we can define “better.” The question is whether we’re willing to act on what we already know.
What if we built a world that rewarded that knowing? That celebrated the people who chose long-term sustainability over short-term gain? Who chose equity over extraction? Who chose truth over convenient lies?
I’m sure it wouldn’t be perfect; nothing ever is. But it most definitely would be better.
And that’s a good place to start.
Join us in making the world a better place. You’ll be glad that you did.
Cheers, friends.