As a religious refugee from Iran who experienced decades of systematic prosecution and oppression under the name of religion, I believe if Haidt had the slightest idea of how the life of minority groups under "beehive" social systems look he would have been more careful in his assessment of such systems:
"The beehive ideal is not a world of maximum freedom, it is a world of order and tradition in which people are united by a shared moral code that is effectively enforced, which enables people to trust each other to play their interdependent roles. It is a world of very high social capital and low anomie."
In such societies it is not the "maximum freedom" that is at stake, rather the most fundamental human rights. What he means by "people are united" is in fact a euphemism used to describe the condition of individuals yielding to the will of the authority and under the yoke of group loyalty. This analysis can go on and on …. The article strokes me as naïve!
"The best test of a civilised society is the way in which it treats its most vulnerable and weakest members."
Mahatma Gandhi
3 comments:
Topic 1:
Decisions made by the Supreme Council on Cultural Revolution during 1980s caused tremendous amount of pain and suffering across the population. What was the true impact on the population; economical, cultural, displacement and emigration, families, individuals?
Topic 2:
We don’t like you thus we don’t let you get education, or something else is going on?
When they first met they were both employed with a decent income. Their families where around and life had a fairly predictable pace. They followed the tradition and made plans along the way. It was just due to their naive understanding of the history that they fell into the trap. Sometime you just lose control in the tumultuous river of unforseen life events.
It was life down to details! It was just life in it's most unjust forms ....
On the bright side, I never paid the freeman!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ7ukCJifew
I recently noticed my whole family is ill. I think what happened is that I was so preoccupied with my ideals and book that I totally ignored all evidences. Come to think about it how could it be any other way:
Living in the country side,
Under religious despotism,
Pressed from inside and outside,
Suppression of emotions and thoughts,
Revolution and prosecution,
War and economical pressure,
Family all scattered around,
Man is forlorn and you are alone,
Your mother died, children gone away,
Depression and materialism on the west,
Pestilent addiction to money and worldly affairs,
Lack of higher purpose and isolation,
This doesn’t offer me any consolation!
Post a Comment