The concept of what is good and what is not is so very subjective and
subject to situational factors. Let me jump right into a very emotional
issue to illustrate the point.
When humanity was in a state that the infant mortality rae was about 50%
and those who lived past 30 years were the ancient elders of the tribe, a
ban on birth control made a lot of sense. Humanity needed all to "be
fruitful and multiply." Since a good idea rarely sells well, it only
makes sense that this ban should be condoned by "the Gods" and, therefore,
made a religious tenet.
The tenet had the desired effect. Enough survived the dangers and rigors
of life that humanity has ultimately thrived.
Now we have great political upheavals often caused by the desire to have
what others possess (land, food, popularity, power, oil, etc.). As the
population continues to grow, the strain on already-scarce resources
increases and there is less to go around. The pressures that created
these upheavals get stronger (sounds like a systems diagram, huh).
Famines sweep large areas of our globe. Hunger in American cities is on
the rise. Teenage pregnancies are on the rise. The moral decay of our
society is insidious and the fall of our way of life is imminent. Yet,
there are those who oppose the free distribution of condoms or even the
discussion of even the most basic forms of sexual information (such as
birth control) in our (the U.S.) schools.
The questions (to start) are these:
Is birth control (education, promotion, etc.) good or bad?
Does it actually undermine our moral fiber?
When humanity has disappeared from the face of the earth because of the
whole host of problems that naturally result (directly and indirectly)
from overpopulation, will we be remembered as having been "good" and
"moral" beings?
By whom will we be remembered?
Who will make the determination that what we did was "good?" Perhaps
beings from another world who will investigate our now-defunct culture(s)
and wonder why/how we could have ever gotten ourselves into such a mess in
the first place?
--Clyde Howell orgpsych@csra.net
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>