Frail Grasp on the Big Picture
I was thinking of a topic to write about, and for some reason, the title of The Eagles' song came to mind. I figured if I use that as a title for an unknown-themed blog entry, I should read the lyrics of the song to fully grasp what the song is talking about to see if I can make any sense of it and apply it to my views or my current situation. As luck would have it, it gave me an idea. I'm not entirely sure it's covers what the song is mentioning, but it makes sense to me.
As far as I'm concerned, the big picture isn't just ourselves, but our species, as a whole. With that said, one would think that I support the liberal ideology of the "common good". However, that's not an accurate description of what I fully believe. I, also, believe that just because we're supposed to look out for our everyone, it doesn't mean that we can disregard individual needs and desires. If someone wants to be completely selfless and give everything of themselves for the greater good, then great. I just think that one should also respect everybody else's individuality and priorities, too. In other words, I feel that to truly be in it for the common good is to then be selfless enough to allow people, including yourself, to be selfish. Huh? Let me explain.
Communities are made up of individuals that communicate and co-exist to create the communities. Without the individual, there would be no community. Then, it makes sense that we should focus on individual liberty to encourage selflessness in the community. If you forcefully take things from someone, you almost force them to be selfish and hoard what's not being taken from them. If you allow people to live in abundance, people will be more apt to part ways with what they don't need and focus on the common good. If you respect the individual, the individual will respect others. With that respect will come a sense of duty owed to the community that gave the person the ability to live for himself.
The people who support the idea of legislating programs to support the "common good" are more selfish than the people that hoard their money. While both types of individual are selfish, it's the person who thinks that his goal of the "common good" is more important than the greedy individual's goal that is the truly selfish person. The reason why this is true is that the one person is so wrapped up in the overall goal of equal things for everyone that they look past the rights of the individual. If someone does that, then they stop respecting the individual, and once you lose respect for people, you can't truly care about others.
This subject doesn't just apply to money issues, either. This applies just as well to moral issues. Once you start looking past the individual's right to live the way they want, as long as it doesn't impede on the rights of others, you start to stop respecting the person. One's goal of the common good then becomes a person's crusade to mold society in way that only they see fit. That practice is just as immoral as the person they're trying to change. Instead, if respect is given, then respect will be returned. If you allow the community to mold the person out of love and respect instead of the government, you will see a much better result.
The bottom line is that mutual respect goes a long way.