In today’s climate I felt the need to address this prompt. When things go sideways, like they are currently, I think it is important to take stock of what you stand for and, in some cases, more importantly what you won’t stand for. What follows are the 4 principles that define how I live my life.
Honesty.
I’m not saying I don’t lie. I have an anxiety disorder so I can’t, by my default settings, lie to people to take advantage of them. More importantly, I don’t even want to pull one over on anyone, even if they are more fortunate than myself. When we were on vacation, I purchased something form a small vendor. After the purchase went through and we walked away, I accidentally responded “no” to the approval text. We missed part of the tour we were on because I was in a panic and had to call my credit card company in real time so that I didn’t shortchange the vendor I had just purchased from. The thought literally put me into a panic attack.
Sometimes with honesty the truth hurts, but I am not one to suffer fools. I value knowing where I stand and in order to make solid decisions I need to know the ugly truth. I don’t like to be lied to or taken advantage of and am a firm believer in treating others the way I want to be treated.
While we are on the topic of honesty, I believe my peers would be nicer to each other if we were really honest with ourselves. If we are being honest, I think a lot of people would agree that they wouldn’t want to be treated in the hatful ways that so many people are turning to. They would admit that their anger and hate is coming from a place of fear. There is nothing wrong with being afraid, it is part of the human experience. The remedy to that fear I believe I knowledge. The way people talk on the internet is embarrassing, most of us would never speak like that to another person’s face because we know it is wrong, but we aren’t being honest with ourselves.
Spreading the wealth.
I am not greedy; I don’t have to have the best and am not concerned with “keeping up with the Jones.” It would feel awkward to have a ton of wealth while the rest of society suffers. Paying my fair share through taxes, is the way to go, the more you have the more you can afford to contribute to the society that made it possible for you to have so much in the first place. I have long advocated for universal basic income and the response, more often than not is, “How can I be okay with just giving people money to do nothing?” Those outliers are not my concern. There have been plenty of economic studies on the matter and universal basic income works, families use it the way it is intended. (Stockton, CA had a well documented program if you want to research what happens when universal basic income is enacted.)
There will always be people looking to get one over, I could choose that life too, but it sounds exhausting, and I value working hard for what I want. I want to do things for others, and I want to travel with my family. A rising tide raises all boats and I believe that is true in society. I don’t see myself as unique in value for a job well done.
If you were to get one thousand dollars a day every day, just for being awesome, it would take you 29 years to become a millionaire. If you had the same setup only you got a million dollars a day it would take 190 years to become a billionaire. That is a staggering amount of money and would be better used making everyone more comfortable instead of 5 dudes having 20 mega yachts and 15 homes each. At some point it really doesn’t matter to the single individual, you can’t take it with you and you can only enjoy so much. I hope that at some point we collectively as a society realize billionaires shouldn’t exist and universal basic income is the tool to level the playing field for all.
Living things deserve to be treated with dignity.
I firmly believe that all people want the same things and that we could all afford to be more caring towards each other. There are bad people in the world, but I know that the majority of us just want to live the life, that I myself am actively trying to live. We are so cruel in the name of preserving what is seen as ours and scarce. It is heart breaking to me that people are walking for countries in the hope of finding something better. When they finally get to where they are going, they are treated as less than human. They put more effort into surviving than anyone in the US has to. If you walked here for any reason, I have the time and the funds to at least listen to you, treat you how I would want my own parents treated.
This extends to animals, the land and the agriculture industry too. Living animals should be treated with dignity. How is it that we are ok with causing the suffering in living things? Thinking about this makes me sad, and I’m not even face to face with the cruelty. Daily sick and injured animals are put through harrowing situations in the name of agriculture. I am more than willing to pay more to know that my food didn’t live a terrible torturous life. (And those who are farther down the social chain, will be able to afford the higher cost of better treated animals because we will be subsidizing with universal basic income.) When we take care of our surroundings, we get to enjoy the earth instead of ruining it and living in the ashes. People get chronic illnesses and whole landscapes are transformed for the worse when we don’t respect the order of nature.
The scientific method.
Research, facts and knowledge. I love to read.The facts aren’t debatable. There are not multiple answers to basic math problems. As part of the scientific method scientists share their results and chronicle the exact steps that were taken in their experiments, then others try to replicate. Knowledge is freely shared. It literally doesn’t count if only one person can get the results. At the same time science won’t hold on to outdated ideas, no matter how much they were liked or who came up with them. Science gets it wrong and can admit as much. Science is not elitist nor does it gatekeep. Good science is performed by people who don’t have vested interests in a certain outcome, they want to find the truth to what is going on, no matter the way it may appear to lean on the political landscape.
Every person on this planet has been living their lives on the concepts that have been proven centuries ago. It is wild to me that we have all of this information at our literal fingertips and people don’t know how to use it. The fact that we are going to come off the list of countries who have eradicated measles should be embarrassing to all of us. I would put money on polio making a resurgence too, before this dumpster fire is extinguished.
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