The Great Social Experiment

I think life is interesting. I think people are interesting. I think history is interesting.

(This is going to be like some long-winded thinking out loud.)

I really like the idea of Tolerance. It's one of my hold-fast-to Ideals. But it's occurred to me that it's a new Ideal. It's one we've developed that we've never tried as a people, country, or world before (not saying it hasn't existed before, just saying that it hasn't existed EN MASS before). Let's think about history for a minute. Can you think of a society that had the Ideal of Tolerance? I'm not a historian (though maybe I should be, since history fascinates me), but I can't think of one. Historically, we kill people who are different than us. We imprison them. During a war we put them in work camps. We deport them. We silence them. We distrust them. We persecute them. Throughout history, we have done anything except tolerate them. Heaven FORBID we should actually ACCEPT them. That would be the next step in the social experiment, and it would be too much of a leap for now.

But we don't really know what the consequences of Tolerance will be. Cause we've never DONE it before. We've never had Tolerance as an Ideal. With all our social experiments, there are consequences we intend. But there are unintended consequences, too. And it's hard to know what will really be brought about by our experiments.

Other "new" social experiments:
Cleanliness
Modern Medicine
Overindulgence and Debt (those go hand in hand)
Dying in a Hospital

(Cleanliness is a good one, I think. I mean, it's brought about some really good things, right? Like less babies dying. Less sickness. Less disease-spreading. But now bacteria is too resistant because we've anti-bacterialized our clothes, bodies, kids, houses, pets, lawns, cars, and anything else we can think of. We didn't think about that consequence, now did we?)

I think it's interesting that we like to forget that all of this is a social experiment. We like to think that we've planned it all out, we know how it'll all work out, and that things we do are tried and true. DESTINED to work. They're SURE to work. They're SOOO much better than the old Ideal we used to follow but which is too old-fashioned for us now, and look how far we've come anyway. We're Advanced. We're Lucky To Be Alive Right Now. We're Privileged. We're So Much Better Off.

But we really don't know. I think it's easier to forget that it's all an experiment. And we don't know how it will all turn out.

Along the same lines: Superpowers. Do you know what happens to Superpowers of the World? They fall. Always. But as Americans, do we like to think about that? No. Cause then we'd have to think about our society not being a Superpower, and we don't want to go there. Come on, guys, this is an experiment that history has tried time and again, and we KNOW the results of this one: the Superpower falls. Always. Let's pay attention, guys.

Anyways. That's my thought for now.