I just listened to Michelle Obama addressing the Democratic nation Convention and she was so proud of the fact that she and her fellow Democrats have the vision to remake the world from the way it is now to the way “it should be.” When she said it, I was immediately struck by the fact that “the world as it should be” was responsible for much of what’s wrong with the world.
On the surface, revamping the world to make it “as it should be” sounds very high-minded and noble. But reshaping the world means reshaping mankind — the people that make up the world. The problems are manyfold. To begin with, we cannot agree on what the world “should be” like. There are as many different visions of the future as there are ideologies. Thus the struggle to transform the world, even if it succeeded, would distress large numbers of people.
Changing the world means changing mankind. That never works. (Remember the New Soviet Man?)
Changing the world cannot be done cheaply, and that means more taxes for us all. This means that making the world “as it should be” will require force of arms. At bottom, that’s what government is: people with guns, ready to enforce the laws and regulations that shape the world to our leaders’ liking, ready to collect the taxes, ready to force compliance of those who do not share the same vision of “the world as it should be.”
Hitler tried to reshape the world, as did Pol Pot, Fidel Castro, Mao Tse-tung, Saddam Hussein and countless others before them. Fundamentalist Muslims are right now trying to remake much of the world (and succeeding) and would enforce a theocracy if they could. Each and every world reshaper believe s/he is making the world a better place. Every time I hear of someone wanting to force their world view upon me, I cannot help but get nervous.
I think the world has had enough of us trying to reshape it. Maybe we should try accepting others as they are and not try to force them to accept our personal visions of how they should be.
In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson defined good government as: ”A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”
His opinion was informed by the study of history. We would do well to heed Jefferson’s words. Government should not be trying to re-make the world in some utopian vision. This never works out and has caused much grief. If anyone really wants to make the world a better place, I suggest leading by example, not utilizing the power of government to force everyone to behave as you desire.