On Equality and Freedom

The notion of equality is found through our country's Declaration of Independence, Constitution and it amendments. The question is do theses references to equality refer to equality of value or of position? It is the belief in the later that has been the spark of many grand initiatives throughout the ages, from the feminist movement to minimum wage laws with the most recent of course being the newly created healthcare bill.

How do we define equality? Every man on the face of the earth has equal intrinsic value. However, that is not to say that every man on the face of the earth should be equal in position. This is actually more of a lesson in economics rather that it is in philosophy. In the US every individual has the right to attempt whatever he or she desires. That is what is meant by the "pursuit of happiness". But when we begin to define equality in terms of each individual achieving their "happiness goals" we begin to walk down a dark road that intends to make all mankind equal in position: equally poor, equally devoid of virtue and morality, etc. It would seem almost unnatural to refer to equality having to do with position.

How do we define freedom? If our freedom is defined by the ability to make choices then infringement on the choices about healthcare, such as the choice not to have it, is an infringement on freedom. Once again the government knows better than we do. We are the simple, careless children and they are the wise beneficent parent. Of course the greater question is where does this stop? Our government has seen our need and repaired the deficit so what is next on the list? What choices (aka freedoms) do we lose next term?

When Knowledge makes us Stupid

We've seen it over the years: this warning and that caution and from credible sources which turn out to be false. It seems that each new piece of knowledge opens up our world to endless possibilities and (follow-on remediation) of self destruction.

At the micro level it happened when nutritionist and physicians of the 1970's and 1980's discover the link between cholesterol and heart disease therefore condemning all cholesterol intake as bad. The outcome of that proclamation was that the over cholesterol issue in the US became exacerbated as the masses fell in line the low/no-cholesterol diets touted by the experts as life saving. Thankfully there we other researchers and clinics that had been treating heart disease prone patients based on an outcome methodology which seemed to be counter to the new found knowledge and eventually led to the intelligencia to the idea there was more to the picture than originally suspected…imagine that. Cholesterol in general was no longer "bad" but, in fact, it was discovered that both "good" and "bad" cholesterols were necessary and it was the ratios of the two not so much the quantity that made all the difference.

At the macro level we see the same this knee jerk response with global warming. A few questionable bits of data here, some eye opening facts there and suddenly we have all the knowledge required to pass laws that completely revamp global economic pursuits.

The problem isn't with the new knowledge or information itself. It is with the way we try to interject unfounded resolutions into culture as some sort of would-be savior. Our new found knowledge leads us blindingly into a realm of new ignorance and quaintly reminds one of Beowulf's bane…hubris. Have we become so arrogant as to think that with each new crumb of knowledge, however tiny it may be that we can contrive the solution some great foe of human existence.

It takes years, sometimes decades for a new drug to make it to the market place and with valid reason. We don't want to hand out drugs that have not been adequately tested. Testing must be completed by independent organizations to insure the data prescribed by the inventor is actually valid. But let a few pieces of data seep through to legislators who stand to profit from hysteria based legislation and suddenly no other data produced can possibility be valid.

Pursuit of knowledge is not the downfall here. Knowledge and its pursuit have produced profitable gains on every front: health, business, humanitarian, etc. It is the arrogance of believing our knowledge put us into a position to make immediate and profound decisions with no consideration of eventual outcomes or the possibility that the knowledge itself may be faulty or incomplete.