The earthquake in Haiti sadness all of us. The world is poised to help and will in time be able to help. But the history of a very unstable society and government is making the process very difficult. The history of this country, formed from a slave revolt, has been unstable due to many factors. Most of which I probably don't understand well. This post is not about Haiti - there are many who understand that society who will write about this disaster.
However this event with a lot of other factors at work, church, and home has given me pause to think about the individual vs the community. We in the US strive to protect the individual and individuals rights, yet we must also protect the community. The community protects and nurtures the individual or should I say "should" do this. In turn individuals have responsibility to support the community. And I should say the individual has a responsibility to take care of themselves. This is where I think we have lost our way. Most demand their rights but many ignore their responsibility. By virtue of being alive, many think they deserve the best in life regardless of how they get it.
I believe the solution to get people to contribute to society and to their own support is education. The difficult question is how best to make education available and regrettably I think I must say attractive to those who could benefit from it. Of course we'd then have to decide what we should teach. Even though we'll never completely know the answer we should move forward.
This is not a political post but tends to creep close to that area. For that I apologize - there is little I hate more than politics. My question now is when should the individual conform to societal norm. The easy answer would be when the "norm" is good for the society. Others would say when the norms are moral by God's laws. But then we'd have to agree what is "good" for society or what is moral. I don't have any answers but think it's important to ask the questions and try to solve them.
In my next post or two I'll try to explore the questions. Now I have to ponder the questions and watch Red Green. Hum I wonder if Duck Tape would help.
